Dark Waters (12 page)

He had never met the principal but knew where the office was, so headed there. Reba Sinclair was at her desk, head down, writing with a ballpoint. Emmett knocked on the door jamb of the open door.

Sinclair looked up. ‘Yes?' she said.

She looked to be around fifty or so, with frizzy salt-and-pepper hair, so thin she looked like maybe she had an eating disorder, a really large nose – probably looking so big because of the weight loss, Emmett thought. He hoped so. Her eyes were covered with tinted glasses. She was not an attractive woman, which may have been one of the reasons she dated through the prison system and bought her boyfriend expensive gifts.

‘Ma'am, I'm Deputy Emmett Hopkins from the Prophesy County sheriff's department. I'd like to talk to you, if I may—'

She stood up at her desk, glaring at him. ‘You have no right coming here and harassing me!' she fairly hissed at him. ‘My personal life is none of your business, Mr Hopkins, and just because you're a deputy gives you no right to tell me who I can see in my private life!'

‘Ma'am—'

‘The children are in no way affected by my relationship with Mr Hunt! He will not be coming near the school, I can assure you of that! Now if you will please leave my office—'

Emmett reached behind him and shut the door to her office. ‘Ms Sinclair, I'm not here about Petal. I'm here on official business. Ma'am, I need you to sit down a moment,' Emmett said.

Reba Sinclair remained standing for a long moment, then slowly sat down. ‘What is it?' she asked.

‘I'm sorry to inform you, ma'am, that Darby Hunt was killed last night.'

She covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide. ‘Oh, my God!' Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘What happened?'

‘Drive-by shooting, ma'am,' Emmett told her.

‘He was a wonderful man, Mr Hopkins,' she said. ‘He was terribly sorry about Cheryl. He had a bad temper back then. He found Jesus with the help of the prison chaplin and,' she blushed, ‘me, I guess. We were going to be married.'

‘I'm so sorry for your loss, ma'am.'

‘How is his mother?' she asked.

‘Distraught, I'm sure,' Emmett said.

Reba Sinclair stood up and wiped her eyes. ‘I must go to her.' She stopped in her tracks and said, ‘Unless you have questions?'

‘Can you tell me where you were last night?' Emmett asked.

She nodded. ‘At home going over administrative paperwork. Although I should have been with him. I was supposed to be, but . . . this problem . . . with the paperwork . . .'

Her voice trailed off and she sat back down. ‘I can't believe he's really dead,' she said.

‘Again, ma'am, I'm really sorry for your loss. Would you like a ride over to Mrs Hunt's house?'

‘No. No, thank you, Mr Hopkins. I'll be heading over there in a minute,' she said, and turned in her swivel chair to stare out the window.

Emmett left, again leaving behind the walking wounded.

While Emmett was interviewing Reba Sinclair, something wonderful was happening at the offices of the sheriff's department.

Dalton was sitting at his desk in the bullpen, not even looking at Holly. He didn't dare look at her, knowing what a mess he'd made of things. No way would she want to be with him now. He'd heard it all his life, but he never believed it until now. Dalton, he told himself, you
are
a screw-up.

But, as usual, there was an angel watching over Dalton, the same angel that got him out of that mess in Tulsa and led him to meet Holly in the first place. And that angel opened the front door of the shop and in walked a lady named Inez Walker, dragging in two boys by their shirt collars.

‘Anybody missing something around here?' the lady said at a very high volume.

Dalton jumped up from his desk and ran to the counter, praying like it was Sunday. ‘Ma'am?' he said.

‘My name is Inez Walker and these two terrors are my grandsons – my boy's son Michael Walker and my daughter's boy Taylor Dunham. Boys?' She let go of their shirt collars and stared down at them.

‘We're sorry, Deputy,' the one called Michael said. ‘Yeah,' echoed his cousin.

‘And why are you sorry?' demanded their grandmother, handing Michael a bag out of her purse.

‘We stole your gun,' Michael said.

His cousin echoed, ‘Yeah.'

Michael handed Dalton the bag and, sure enough, his service revolver was inside, the bullets tossed in separate.

‘I emptied it to be on the safe side,' Inez Walker said.

‘Thank you, ma'am,' Dalton said.

‘Now tell the man the rest,' she said to the boys.

‘And we'll pay to have the window and the inside thing fixed.'

‘It may not be cash, Deputy,' Inez Walker said, ‘but these are two strong, strapping young men, and they sure can wash cars and clean toilets until it's paid off.'

‘Nana!' said the younger one.

She glared at him and he shut up.

Dalton was nodding his head. ‘Well, ma'am, I'll take that up with our acting sheriff when he gets back, and if you leave your number, we'll get back to you,' Dalton said. ‘But, ma'am, may I ask the boys a question?'

‘Certainly, Deputy. You can even lock them up for a few hours if you want.'

Both boys stared up at their grandmother with wide, wounded eyes.

‘No, ma'am,' Dalton said. ‘That won't be necessary.' Turning to the boys, he said, ‘How come you broke the window in the first place? What made you think there'd be something to take?'

Michael, the older one, said, ‘Well, sir, we saw you take your gun out of its holster and put it in your glove box. We were standing there right across the street.'

‘Oh,' Dalton said. He should have been paying more attention, he thought. As usual.

Inez Walker dug in her purse and came up with a card. ‘It's got my home number, cell number, email address and website address right there,' she said, pointing it out. ‘I had these made up to hand out to the men at the senior center. Gotten a few dates out of it,' she said, grinning.

‘Nana!' Michael said.

‘Don't be embarrassed, child. Everybody needs a little lovin'.'

With that, she grabbed her grandsons by the backs of their shirts and headed out the door.

My smart wife asked the Weavers and the Tulias which dinner they were going to; when they said the late one, we went to the early one. I was fixing to take Johnny Mac and Early down to the buffet when my son said, ‘I'd rather eat with you and Mom. Early can do whatever he wants.'

Kinda quick, Early said, ‘Me, too. I want to eat with y'all.'

Thinking maybe the boys had had a tiff of some sort, Jean and I welcomed them to what had become our table, up one step and down three tables to the left. That night I had mushroom caps stuffed with lobster and crab for an appetizer, an endive salad with a cucumber dressing that was weird but good, and a crispy-skinned duck served with candied sweet potato spears and a smidgen of cooked cabbage – I know, sounds homey, but it wasn't. It was goddam wonderful. And for dessert I had cherries jubilee that they set on fire at the table. The boys were impressed enough to order their own each. They still weren't in a sharing mood.

The boat pulled out of the Grand Caymans while we were eating dinner. By the time we'd finished, the ship had hit a squall and we could see lightning through the windows of the dining room. Because Jean and I both like a good storm, we made our way to the pool area where we could hear the thunder and watch the rain and lightning while safely under its half-roof. All the swimmers and sunbathers had deserted the area and we had the place to ourselves. The boys went with us, although I could tell Early wasn't a storm aficionado like the Kovak family. He flinched every time he saw the lightning and covered his ears when the thunder boomed.

‘Is the ship going to sink?' Early asked me at one point.

‘No, it's not. They go through storms like this all the time, son—'

‘He's not your son!' Johnny Mac said, standing up and moving closer to me. ‘I am!' He stared hard at Early, who moved away from us and sat down at the end of the covered area. I could see he was getting wet.

At that point I suggested we take the boys back to our suite. Letting them walk ahead of us, Jean said, ‘Let's leave them alone in the cabin, OK? They need some time to work out whatever's going on with them.'

I nodded my agreement. Looking at the menu of activities earlier, we saw this country singer we'd heard the first night was going to be on around ten in one of the smaller auditoriums, and I'd talked Jean into going. She's not much into country music, but she's a good sport, I'll give her that. We got the boys ready for bed, kissed ‘em both goodnight and headed to see Miss Lily Sullivan White.

‘I'm sorry,' Early said from the bottom bunk.

Johnny Mac didn't reply.

‘I said I'm sorry!' Early said with a bit more bite.

‘Yeah, you're a sorry asswipe!' Johnny Mac countered.

Early stood up from his bunk and looked up at his friend. ‘I was scared, OK? I'll admit that! Josh scares the crap out of me!'

Johnny Mac sat up and looked down at his friend. ‘And that's supposed to make what you did OK?'

Early shrugged. ‘No, I guess not. It's just that –' Early shrugged again. ‘OK,' he said, crawling back in the lower bunk. ‘I'm an asswipe.'

Johnny Mac jumped down from the upper bunk and leaned into the lower one. ‘Yeah, you are,' he said, ‘and I can't believe you stole that boat!'

Early sat up and grinned. ‘But I didn't,' he said. ‘I bought it with the money your dad gave us! I just threw away the sack before Josh could see it!'

Johnny Mac laughed. ‘Cool! And Josh thinks he's so smart! What an asswipe!'

‘Yeah,' Early echoed, ‘what an asswipe!'

There was a knock on the door. The two boys looked at each other, then went together to open it. Janna and Lyssa stood there. ‘I saw your parents with mine,' Janna said. ‘So let's go party!' She grinned big time at Johnny Mac.

‘We have to get dressed,' Johnny Mac said.

‘Is Josh gonna be there?' Early asked.

‘God, I hope not!' Janna said.

The boys got dressed, then the girls showed them how to stick something between the door latch and the door jamb to keep it from locking. ‘This way,' Janna said, ‘you won't risk getting caught.'

We ran into Mike and Lucy as we headed to the small auditorium where the country singer was going to perform.

‘Hey!' Mike had shouted and we couldn't do anything but stop and say ‘hey.'

‘Where y'all headed?' Lucy asked.

So we told her. ‘Oh, I love country music!' Lucy said.

‘Me not so much,' Mike said. ‘But I like to humor her.'

‘As does my wife me,' I said. ‘Y'all can make fun of me and Lucy while we listen, OK?'

So we headed to the music.

That night the four, Johnny Mac, Early, Janna and Lyssa stayed away from spots they thought might contain Josh Weaver. ‘He's just a big bully,' Janna told them. ‘I never have liked him. Ryan's not much better.'

‘It's too bad you have to spend so much time with them,' Johnny Mac said.

‘Tell me about it. We go over to their house almost every Sunday for bar-be-que – well, at least we did, before Mr and Mrs Weaver got a divorce. The first Mrs Weaver, I mean. I call her Aunt Lois. She's really nice and down to earth, my mom says. Not at all like Crystal. But Dad says we have to hang out with Mr Weaver and Crystal now because Dad and Mr Weaver are partners.'

They sat on deck chairs pulled up close to the rails of the top deck of the ship. They would occasionally lean down and spit in the ocean. ‘That sucks,' Johnny Mac said.

‘Yeah. But, and don't tell anybody this,' Janna said, looking around, but Early and Lyssa had made their way to the bow of the ship and were leaning over, staring at something. ‘My mom talks to Aunt Lois all the time – at least once a day. And she's even called her from here! Last night I heard her telling Aunt Lois all about the stuff Crystal bought when we were in Georgetown.'

‘What did she buy?' Johnny Mac asked.

‘Mom said she bought a solitaire diamond that was like four carrots.'

‘What does that mean? Like big as a carrot?' Johnny Mac asked.

Janna shrugged. ‘I dunno. But the way she talked it must have been pretty big. And she said she bought a lot of other stuff – mostly diamonds – and maxed out the credit card she had!'

Johnny Mac just shook his head. He knew ladies liked diamonds a lot, although his mother wasn't like that. She had a small diamond in her engagement ring, and that was all. But his Aunt Jewel, his dad's sister, she had loads of them! Rings and necklaces and bracelets and earrings! His dad told his mom one time that Aunt Jewel had so many diamonds he hoped he never saw her when the sun shone directly on her – it could put out his eyes. Johnny Mac was pretty sure he was joking, but was still careful not to look directly at his aunt when they were outside.

‘Did you really steal something today?' Johnny Mac asked Janna.

She shrugged. ‘Sorta,' she said. Not looking into Johnny Mac's eyes, she continued, ‘Some kid knocked this toy to the floor in the store I was in and it was close to the door. I just kinda kicked it out.'

Johnny Mac didn't say anything.

‘I never stole anything before,' Janna said in a weak voice.

‘I don't think I like these games Josh wants to play. Did he take that toy back to the store?' Johnny Mac asked.

Janna shrugged again. ‘I dunno.'