CHAPTER SIXTEEN
S
O KATE WANTED him to keep his distance from Big Bill Talley? David pulled Dub’s Cadillac into the parking lot outside Talley’s car dealership. “I don’t think so,” he said as he turned off the key. Kate might be willing to forgive and forget, but whether he’d intended to or not, Big Bill had scared her. He needed to know his behavior was unacceptable.
And David didn’t require anyone’s permission to look after the people he loved. And he did love her. Heaven knew what he could do about it. He wanted the world simply to disappear so that he could spend a lifetime relearning her body, her heart, the feel of her breath on his cheek...
He pulled open the door of Big Bill Talley’s showroom and walked in. At nearly noon on a blustery December Saturday, there were precious few people around except three salesmen lounging in their office cubicles drinking coffee and reading
Road and Track
. David walked down the hall past them, and was rewarded with the sound of chairs and boots hitting the floor behind him as they recognized him. He knocked on Big Bill’s door and opened it without waiting for an answer.
“Bill? Got a minute?” he said from the doorway.
Big Bill Talley sat behind an acre of walnut desk with his head propped in his hands and a giant mug of what was probably coffee beside him. When he raised his head, David’s eyes widened. The man looked deathly ill.
Behind him, David heard footsteps, and a deep voice said, “Bill, you okay?”
David had not thrown a punch in years, although he’d acquitted himself well in a few brawls when he was in high school and college. He would definitely get the worst of it if he wound up fighting off three loyal salesmen, middle-aged or no, not to mention Big Bill, who made two of him.
He stepped into the office and closed the door between him and the man at his back. “Need to talk to you, Bill,” he said quietly.
“Hey!” a voice said from the other side of the door.
“It’s all right,” David said. He wasn’t certain that Bill recognized him for a moment. “I’m not here to make trouble,” he said to Bill. “Call off your watchdogs.”
“Yeah, okay,” Bill whispered as though he couldn’t bear to hear his own voice reverberate in his ears. “Go ’way!” he said to the door.
David heard grumbles and receding footsteps. He knew they’d all be standing in the doorways of their cubicles listening for the sounds of warfare.
Bill seemed to gather strength and pulled himself to his feet. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Sit down, Bill,” David said. “We need-to talk.”
“We got nothing to say to each other. Get the hell out of my place of business before I throw you out.”
David felt the inevitable surge of adrenaline and resisted the childish urge to say “Yeah, you and what army?” He held up his hands. “Hear me out first. Then if you want to throw me out, have at it.”
Bill narrowed his eyes and stayed on his feet, but he made no move to come around the desk. “That lawyer woman gonna have me arrested?”
David took a deep breath. “No. She understands you’re under a hell of a lot of pressure. So do I, because I’m under it too.”
“You?”
“Me. Listen, Bill, you and I don’t know each other well, but we’ve known each other a long time. Our children have practically lived in each other’s houses all their lives...”
“I wish to God my baby had never met any of you!”
“We all loved her.”
“Love?” Bill started around the desk. David held up a hand to stop him.
“Love. I swear to you, Jason did not hurt her.”
“You swear? You swear? What the hell do you know about it?”
“The point is, unless we can find enough evidence to show he’s innocent, to get the district attorney to drop the charges, he’s going to stand trial. And meanwhile, the person who killed Waneath will get off scot free. At the moment Jason’s lawyer is trying to find the real culprit...”
“Do some fancy footwork to get Jason off is what you mean.”
“No. Kate doesn’t work that way. Can we sit down here? I promise I won’t take but a minute more.” Bill swayed uncertainly, then collapsed into his chair as though his legs wouldn’t hold him any longer. David took a deep breath and sat in the client’s chair across from him. He leaned forward with his forearms on his thighs, clasped his hands under his chin and held Bill’s eyes. “Jason is the one who wants to be down here, but I wouldn’t let him come. He feels guilty as hell for letting Waneath walk away from him Saturday night. That’s all he did, and he’s going to have to live with it for the rest of his life. Let the jury decide whether he’s guilty of anything else. Punishing him for something he didn’t do is not going to bring Waneath back, and it’s tearing this town apart—tearing your family apart and mine as well.”
“What the hell do you mean, tearing my family apart?” Bill started to rise once more.
“You have another daughter,” David said quietly, knowing that he was venturing into forbidden territory. “She thinks you and her mother wish she was the one who died.”
“What?” Talley said. He sounded stunned.
“You lost a child, and she lost a sister. She needs you badly, and she’s scared to death that between your parking-lot forays and Mrs. Talley’s slapping Kate across the face...”
“She did what?” Talley surged to his feet.
David stood as well. He didn’t intend to get socked sitting in his chair. Bill was near breaking. “At the jail after Jason’s bail hearing she slapped Kate across the face. I assumed you knew.”
“Oh, Lord!”
David took two steps back. “I came to tell you how sorry I am, we are, for your loss, and to tell you that my son is not responsible. You may not believe me now, but one day you will. When that day comes, I hope we can share your grief. And to ask you not to let your anger spill over onto Jason’s lawyers. They’re just doing their jobs.”
Bill’s chest heaved. David didn’t know whether with anger or unshed tears. He decided not to wait around to find out. From the doorway he said over his shoulder, “In the meantime, the daughter you have left is a very fine person who needs you badly. Thanks for seeing me, Bill.”
He walked back down the hall past the men who lounged in their cubicles in mock relaxation. With every step, David felt certain he’d hear Big Bill’s roar giving a command to attack, but nothing happened. He climbed into Dub’s car, cranked the engine and backed out of the parking space while a dozen pairs of eyes followed him. He didn’t begin breathing properly until he hit the highway. Had he made things worse? Had Kate been right?
Right or wrong, he had to try. Chances were she’d never find out what he’d done. Here he was already keeping secrets from her. Damn.
AFTER LUNCH, Kate left Arnold to catch up on the sleep he had missed the night before. The Christmas carols playing in the square reminded her that she had not yet bought a single present for anyone—not that she had many people to buy for. The office took care of the client presents, and for years the partners had eschewed giving one another meaningless gifts. She still sent her college roommate a book for each of her three children, and there was her mother...
Now there was David. And Jason. And Dub. And Arnold. As good friends as she and Arnold had been previously, these last few days in Athena had brought them closer.
The best present she could give the crew from Long Pond was to get the charges against Jason dropped before Christmas. Monday morning she planned to go at that little chore full bore. Allenby had very little evidence connecting Jason to the crime. With luck, the autopsy report from Memphis would arrive today with some hard facts that would help Jason’s case. With luck...and a good deal of prayer on her part.
Wandering down the sidewalks of Athena past the small antique shops, the hardware store advertising ax handles and red wagons, smelling the fresh southern pine and holly, even feeling the soft December breeze ruffling her hair, tossed her back into childhood Christmases when there were packages galore.
She did not want to wake up on Christmas morning alone in Barbados or Aspen. She wanted to wake up in David’s big bed and know that there were scads of packages downstairs under a fresh Christmas tree—none of this artificial stuff—heavy with decorations and lights and reaching tc the peak of his great-room ceiling.
She stared in shop windows. What on earth could she buy any of these people? She didn’t know them, their tastes, their sizes, even what or whether they read. And suddenly it became very important to spend some money on Christmas now, today, this afternoon, before she lost her nerve or her spirit. She longed to buy David something beautiful and frivolous and expensive.
She hopped into the Navigator and drove out of town toward Long Pond. Neva Hardin would know what to get.
She walked up to the front door of Long Pond shortly after two in the afternoon. According to David, Dub had begun to take naps in the afternoon. With luck she wouldn’t see him. He wouldn’t even have to know she’d come to the house.
No such luck. The door was opened, not by Neva, but by Dub himself. He did not look overjoyed to see her.
“What do
you
want? Jason’s not here.”
“I know that. Actually, I came to see Neva.”
“Neva? What the hell for?”
For a moment, she thought he would bar her way, then he stepped aside. “Hell, come on in. Neva’s in the kitchen.”
“Thanks. Before I go hunt her up, I wanted to apologize to you.”
“You lied to me,” Dub said. “Made me look like a damn fool.”
“I didn’t lie. I simply didn’t volunteer the whole truth.”
“Huh. That’s lawyer guff.” He blocked her way to the kitchen by simply not moving out of the hall. She could either slip past him or stand and talk.
Okay, that’s what he wanted. “Frankly, I didn’t stop you because I couldn’t figure out how to do it without making things worse. And I never thought Brenda Starr on the local paper would find out who I used to be and publish the facts for the world to see.”
“She sure found out easy. You sure you didn’t tell her? You or that Arnold?”
“I never made a secret of my name or my first marriage even though I went back to my maiden name after the divorce. If she checked me out in anything that had all my names, she’d have seen Canfield listed as one of them. It’s not that usual a name. Enough to set off any decent reporter’s radar, I suppose. I’ve never found they needed more than a hint to go haring off over what they hope is scandal.”
“Yeah. Scandal.”
“Not that this was a scandal. Admit it, Dub, you’re mad at me because I didn’t tell you who I was before you mouthed off, not because it matters in any substantive way.”
“Well, shoot, never did matter before, when David’s ex didn’t have a face or a name.” He dropped his head.
“Isn’t that what generals say? Never put a face on your enemy. It’s very hard to massacre someone real. Some faceless nitwitted girl in New York who tossed David out on his ear was a figure of fun—just somebody Melba pulled a good trick on.”
“Same’s true for you,” Dub said. He walked into his study. Intrigued, Kate followed him to find him staring up at the portrait over the fireplace. “You didn’t know Melba face-to-face.”
“No, I didn’t, and yes, it is hard to hate someone you put a face on. I could hate Melba like poison before. Now that I’ve met you and Jason, now that I know what she went through, I’m casting around for someone to hang all my anger on. Unfortunately, the only person handy any longer is myself.”
“Yeah. My daddy used to say folks spend their lives doing dumb things and trying to make out like they’re smart.”
“Your daddy was absolutely right.”
“About that. Not about much else.” He sounded desperately tired, and Kate noticed a twitch at the corner of his right eye. Beneath his farmer’s tan his skin had taken on a yellow sheen.
He sank into his big chair without waiting for her to sit, and stared at the fire without speaking. Kate walked over and sat on the leather love seat across from him.
“Funny,” he said, still with his eyes on the fire, “I spent my whole life trying to keep Long Pond and my family out of the way of scandal. Don’t know why. We been scandal-prone long as I can remember, from my uncle Willy who got caught up in Peacock Alley wearing a dress, to Momma’s burning the house down ’cause she was drunker’n Cooter Brown, to Melba’s coming home from New York knocked up by a married man. And now this—this mess—with Waneath.”
“I grew up with secrets, too,” Kate said softly.
“You are gonna get the boy off, aren’t you?” Dub said, raising his eyes to hers.
Kate was surprised to see that they were red-rimmed, as though he’d been crying. “I hope so.”
“Lord, so do
I.”
“So, am I forgiven for keeping my status from you?”