Diana Anderson - Entering Southern Country 01 - Famous in a Small Town (25 page)

He didn’t answer. A few seconds later a cell door clanged shut. Cal walked back to her cell and looked inside.

“Did you arrest Suzanne?”

“Angus filed assault charges against her.”

“Do what?”

He nodded.

Raven studied him a long moment and then chuckled. “Did she hit him?”

He nodded and tried to control a smile that worked at the corners of his mouth. After a moment, he thinned his lips. “Is everything in your book true?”

She lost her amusement.

“I need to know,” he said as he watched her eyes.

She lowered hers and was quiet.

“Raven?”

“So you read it?” She clasped her hands behind her back.

“Yes.”

“What do you think?” She looked back up at him.

“Why didn’t you just come tell me that we shared the same father? All this time, I thought that you’d left because of thinking that Callie and I were having an affair. I had a right to know.”

“I was too ashamed to tell anyone. How could I tell you?”

“Well, you told the world in your book.”

She looked down at the floor. “No one was supposed to find out that it was a true story, and if I hadn’t come back here, they wouldn’t have known. I thought since I had changed my name, no one would connect the dots. I never had a photo of me on the back jacket of the book for that reason. I never did book signings or made public appearances. When Virgil died, I felt coming back here was the right thing to do. I wish I hadn’t. I didn’t have the time to think it through. If I’d have known that he had been murdered and an autopsy was going to be performed, I would have had more time to think it over. But my mother didn’t share that with me. So I made a quick decision.”

He nodded. “When your mother found out that you were pregnant, she told you that Angus was your real father and then kicked you out of the house.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Tears welled up in her eyes. She swallowed hard. “How could I?”

“I had a right to know.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. She looked at him. “I was in shock. I had just found out that I was pregnant and within hours my mother knew too. Nothing went on in that house that she didn’t know about. She’d searched through the garbage and found the pregnancy test that’d I’d used. And then she told me that Angus was my real father. I didn’t know how to process the fact that you and I were related.” She looked down. “She kicked me out. She told me to get an abortion. That the child would be retarded or have some form of birth defects. She said even if the child came from normal parents, she wouldn’t be a grandmother, and the child would only be a blight in her eyes. I took what little money I had saved and left.”

“You ended up in Oxford?”

“Yes. The girl that used to drive me to work at the diner drove me down there. She knew some really nice people living there, and they offered me a place to stay.”

“You wrote in your book that these people let you live there while you went through college and was your emotional support when you lost the baby.”

“Yes.”

“Raven, look at me.”

She looked at him and waited.

“Did you get an abortion, or did you lose the baby?”

“I didn’t get an abortion. I couldn’t do that. I felt I should give the baby a chance. No one has a right to end my life, and I felt that I didn’t have the right to end my baby’s life.”

“So everything in the book is the truth?”

She looked down at the concrete floor. “Not everything. I’m not dead.”

“Why did you decide to kill off your character and have the murderer hide your body?”

She looked up and gave him a half smile. “Changing my name was my way of starting a new chapter in my life. Killing my character was the author’s way of burning her bridges.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when the door to the corridor opened.

“Sheriff, they found something at the Wallaces’ place,” Deputy Miller said.

Cal headed down the corridor.

“Cal, I need my cell phone.” She leaned in and tried to see him. She heard his rapid footsteps. “Cal, I need to make a call, please give me my phone.”

The door closed at the end of the corridor.

She leaned her forehead against the cold bars for a moment, and then turned, stepped back over to her bed, and sat down on the edge. She put her elbows on her knees, buried her face in her hands, and wept.

After a few minutes, she quieted.

“Are you all right over there?” Imogene called out.

Raven sniffed. “Yes. I was trying to be quiet.”

“In this place? Just breathing echoes off these walls.”

“Is something wrong?” Suzanne called out. “Raven? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I was just having a crying jag. I think I’ll try to sleep for awhile.”

“Oh, honey, it’s going to be okay,” Suzanne said.

Somehow, Raven didn’t think so. She lay down on her side and curled up. Gabriel laid his head down on his paws and sighed.

She had no intentions of going to sleep. She didn’t think she could if she wanted to sleep. She tried to think of a way to get out of there—out of jail, and out of town, and back home where she belonged. She wanted to be home. Her heart ached to be home. She had stayed in Cypress too long.

68

Deputy Hendrix had placed the call to headquarters about their find. He met Cal in the Wallaces’ driveway. His long legs matched step for step with Cal’s stride as they walked toward the back of the house to the gardener’s building. They walked in the door. Porter was inside the structure and hard at work as she searched through the cabinets.

“It’s over here,” Hendrix said and pointed toward a garbage can in the back corner of the room.

Cal walked over and peered inside.

“We opened the bag.” He handed Cal a pair of surgical gloves.

Cal slipped them on and eyed the contents of the garbage bag. He reached down and lifted up a pair of women’s designer denim jeans. What looked like blood splatter stained the material. He dropped it inside an evidence bag that Hendrix held open. He looked back inside the garbage bag. A gray T-shirt was inside. He took it out. The front of the shirt had the same carmine colored stains.

“Boss?” Hendrix said and pointed toward the bottom of the bag.

Cal looked inside. A butcher knife was in the bottom alongside a meat tenderizer hammer.

Hendrix frowned. “Is that a hammer?”

“It’s a meat tenderizer.”

 Hendrix grimaced. “Looks like the same imprints that were on Miss Peterson’s head. Do you think the gardener left it here?”

“I have no idea,” Cal said and then stepped away. He called Justin.

“Yeah, boss.”

“Keep a close eye on Salvador.” He told him what they’d found in the gardener’s building, and then disconnected, and made another call to the D.A. for an arrest warrant for Salvador as well as a search warrant for his premises. After he’d disconnected, he looked at Hendrix and said, “Y’all bag it and tag it. I’ll be at headquarters.” He went back around the house, got into his squad car, and headed back to headquarters.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, he stood in front of Raven’s cell door. Gabriel raised his head.

“Do you know how I can get a hold of Dr. Wallace or where I can find him?” he asked.

She stood up from the bed and walked over to the bars. “Is something wrong?”

“I just need to talk with him.”

“He told me that he was staying at the Cedar Grove Bed and Breakfast for the time being.”

“Thanks.” He turned to leave.

“Wait!”

He looked back.

“What’s going on? And don’t tell me that you just need to talk with him. I know something else is going on. I heard what the deputy said about finding something at the Wallaces’ place. What?”

He looked down at the floor for a moment and then back at her. He lowered his voice when he spoke, “Your mother stole the duffle bag out of the department’s safe.”

Raven gave him a blank stare. She gave her head a quick shake. “She stole the duffle bag?”

“Shhh!” He glanced down the corridor at the other cells.

“When?” she whispered. “How?”

“Last night. I’ve got to go.” He turned and walked away.

“Cal, I need to make an important phone call.”

He kept going.

“Cal?” she called out.

* * *

The bed and breakfast was located on the outskirts of town. Most patrons were from out of town, and the rest were locals, enjoying a weekend away from home or a quick honeymoon. The large estate had once been a southern plantation. The three story house sat on a hill that overlooked a large lake. It had a small wedding chapel, a large banquet room, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a putting green.

He steered the car down the long, winding driveway and parked near the front doors. He stepped out of his car and walked up the steps and on through the doors. A large woman sat behind the desk in the lobby.

“May I help you …” she eyed his uniform, “Sheriff?”

Cal removed his hat. “Do you have a Dr. Wallace staying here?”

“Why, yes. He’s in the living room.” She stood up and walked around the desk toward two double doors. She glanced around the door. “Dr. Wallace?”

A few seconds later he was at the door. Ted thanked the woman. She excused herself and went into the living room.

“Sheriff, is something wrong?”

“Do you know where Callie is?”

“I assume that she’s home.”

Cal shook his head.

“What’s going on, Sheriff?” He stepped closer.

“Your wife is in big trouble. I need to find her.”

“What did she do?” A look of concern covered his face.

Cal ran a hand over the back of his head. “I’m not at liberty to say, but if you know where she is, you need to tell me.”

“I have no idea.” He opened his hands at his sides. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since the funeral.”

“Well, if you do, you need to call me ASAP.”

He nodded.

Cal’s cell phone chirped. He nodded at Ted, answered his phone, and headed out of the room.

“Boss, we found a shovel, and another garbage bag with clothing inside, and some gardening gloves in the trunk of Mrs. Wallace’s Mercedes. What looks like blood splatter is on the clothing.”

Cal stopped and heaved a sigh.
Where in the hell is this going?

“Sir, are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He disconnected and headed on outside to his car.

He called Justin and told him what was discovered.

“Do you think she and the gardener are in on these murders?” Justin asked.

“It’s looking like it. Are you still staked out at his place?”

“Yeah. He left a few hours ago. I followed him to Walmart. He was in there about twenty minutes and then drove back to his duplex. I haven’t seen anybody else show up at his place.”

69

Callie stood in Salvador’s small bathroom and examined her reflection in the mirror over the sink. Her hair was red and her curls untamed. Salvador didn’t own a hairdryer. She leaned in closer and examined the visible lines at the corners of her eyes.

Well, that’s disappointing. I didn’t think I’d need a face lift this soon, if ever. I wonder how much a face lift costs anyway?
She poked out her bottom lip.
I wonder if it hurts?

She slipped on a pair of jeans and then pulled a T-shirt over her head. She sat down on the toilet and put on a pair of running shoes. When she stood up, she tried to see herself in the small mirror. The jeans and the T-shirt were not as snug as she liked them to be. She lifted herself up on her tiptoes and still couldn’t see how she looked in the jeans. Frustrated, she left the bathroom and found Salvador on the sofa in the living area. He had a beer can in his hand.

“Well?” She posed with her hands on her hips.

He eyed her for a moment, stood up, and said, “I would not know you.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“It is good. Now, you need to leave.” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He thumbed off several, folded them, and held them out to her.

“Right now?” She eyed the money.

He nodded.

She took the cash and clenched it in her hand. “I can’t drive my car. I could be seen. It’s not like there are a lot of BMW’s in this town. Especially red ones.”

“Drive the back streets.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I thought you loved me. I thought …” She stomped over to the sofa, reached down, and snatched up her keys off of coffee table. “Never mind what I thought.”

Salvador grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “If we are seen together here, at my house, it could ruin our plans.”

“I know that, but I thought we could figure out another car for me to drive. We could trade.”

He shook his head. “Your husband would want to know why I am driving your car. He could call the police.”

“Oh.”

“Just drive the back streets, and you will be fine.”

She nodded.

He leaned down and kissed her. When he released her, he said, “Now you must go.”

He followed her back into the kitchen. She opened the door and went outside.

“Be safe,” he said as she disappeared into the darkness.

She stopped about ten feet away from his patio and waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before she continued. She entered an adjacent backyard and went around that duplex to the front. Her car was parked along the curb at the next house over. She climbed inside and started the engine. She unfolded the bills, reached over the console, and put it inside the envelope of money in her purse.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Poor thing!
Our plan? What an idiot!
“Goodbye, Salvador.” She sped away.

70

At fifteen minutes before midnight, Cal was seated at his desk in his office. They had finished with their search of the Wallaces’ home. The nightshift deputies had signed on, but the day crew had stayed to go over the evidence that had been found.