Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind (21 page)

“Very strange,” I said, making every effort to look straight back at him. “I hate to hear it anytime a child’s been kidnapped and I hope to goodness it wasn’t the little boy who visited me. But I understand there’re a lot of Pucketts.”

“They are that,” he said, closing his notebook and standing. “Well, Mrs. Springer, if you hear from the boy you know, call me so I can at least eliminate one of them.”

“I’ll surely do that, but as far as I knew on Sunday, he was going to Raleigh to be with his mother.” That was certainly what I believed to be true on Sunday. “You were going to find out if he made it, weren’t you?”

“Right. I’ll double-check that today. Well, I ’preciate your time, Mrs. Springer.”

“You’re quite welcome,” I said, walking him to the door. “I’d like to know how this turns out. I do hope you find the child. And whoever took him.”

“We’ll find ’em,” he said, that mouth set in a hard line. I looked away, determined not to notice mouths anymore. “One thing I can’t stand is somebody who’d hurt a child. I don’t know
how you feel, Mrs. Springer, but most of us in law enforcement are glad to have the death penalty in this state.”

“Ah,” I swallowed hard. “So am I.” I hoped my face didn’t look as bloodless as it felt. I closed and locked the door behind him, then ran to the kitchen.

C
OME ON OUT
,” I whispered to Lillian and Little Lloyd. “But stay away from the windows. I don’t want anybody to see you.”

“How’m I gonna cook supper and stay away from the windows?” Lillian said, holding on to Little Lloyd and peeking around the pantry door.

“I just want to make sure he’s gone and not coming back. I’ll tell you, Lillian, I never knew that it’s just as hard to keep quiet about the truth as it is to tell an outright lie.”

“I ain’t worrin’ ’bout lyin’, I’m worrin’ ’bout goin’ to jail,” she said.

Little Lloyd said, “I don’t want you to go to jail, Miss Lillian.”

“Don’t you worry,” I said. “Nobody’s going to jail, least of all Lillian. I mean, if anybody goes, we all will.”

“My mama, too?” Panic washed over Little Lloyd’s face as he clutched at Lillian.

“Miss Julia, you scarin’ this chile, an’ me too.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I was just thinking out loud. Now, let’s get ourselves together. Lillian, do you think Miss Puckett would be able to get along by herself?”

“She can’t hardly get outta bed by herself. You not aimin’ to put her out, are you?”

“No, no,” I said, waving my hand. “I thought, if she could manage it, I’d take her and Little Lloyd off somewhere till this all blows over.”

“This ain’t gonna blow over,” Lillian reminded me. “’Specially since they got the police in it. How you reckon they knowed to be lookin’ for him?”

I was afraid she’d ask that. “Well,” I said, “the fact of the matter is, somebody down there reported it. Claimed the boy’s been kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped!” I was surprised they didn’t hear her down on Main Street.

“Shhh, not so loud. Now, look, it’s not so bad—”

“Don’t tell me it’s not so bad. It can’t get no worse!”

“Actually, it can. They have a description of you as the one who kidnapped him.”

“Oh, Jesus!” She grabbed Little Lloyd and hugged him to her, almost suffocating him in the process. “What we gonna do, Miss Julia? You know I ain’t no kidnapper. I jus’ get this baby back to his mama where he belong. Oh, Jesus!”

“Lillian, Lillian. Listen to me now. This is certainly an unexpected turn, but we’re going to handle it. They don’t know it was you, just somebody like you, and they don’t know that Little Lloyd is here, or his mother, either. They’re not even thinking of looking here for either of them.”

“They gonna be lookin’ for me an’ this chile ever’where an’ they not gonna stop till they find us.” She wiped her eyes with her apron, then clasped Little Lloyd again. “But don’t you worry, honey, you worth all this worry an’ then some.”

He didn’t look convinced. And I certainly wasn’t.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said, with more assurance than I really felt. “Much as I hate to do it, I’ll have to get Sam over here, and Binkie.”

“How Miss Binkie gonna get us outta this mess?” Lillian
asked. “They say she smart, but I went in an’ got this chile an’ you drove the getaway car, an’ this the evidence right here in front of us.” She rubbed her hand across the head of the “evidence.”

“You forget, Lillian, that his mother is right upstairs. How can he be kidnapped if he’s with his mother?” I stopped, remembering Lieutenant Peavey’d said that Brother Vern had claimed to be Little Lloyd’s guardian. If that was true, and who knew what legalities Wesley Lloyd had entered into, then Hazel Marie could be a party to kidnapping, too.

Surely not, I assured myself; Wesley Lloyd wouldn’t’ve had anything to do with somebody like Vernon Puckett. I groaned, because I’d never thought he’d have anything to do with somebody like Hazel Marie Puckett, either.

“Little Lloyd, were Brother Vern and your daddy friends with each other?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Well, I mean did they visit together? Talk about things together? Anything?”

“No’m, ’cept one time right before Brother Vern went off to California, he was talking to my daddy out in the backyard.” He untangled himself from Lillian’s arms and pushed his glasses up.

“Well,” I said, “what did they talk about?”

He squinted his eyes and gazed off above my head, thinking hard. “I heard Brother Vern say my daddy ought to take everything into account. And my daddy told him it wasn’t any of his business, and that he’d make arrangements when he got ready to. Or something like that.”

“Sounds like Wesley Lloyd,” I mused aloud. “So, as far as you know, they weren’t what you’d call friends?”

“No’m, Brother Vern didn’t come see us much ’cause he was always preaching somewhere. And my daddy worked real hard and couldn’t be home much, either.”

Lillian and I looked at each other over his head, and I shook mine at the way this child had been raised.

“Sooner or later,” I said to Lillian, “the lies have got to stop. But not till we know what we’re up against. If anybody finds out we have Little Lloyd, the police will send him right back to Brother Vern or to social services, one. And I’m not going to let that happen, even if it means lying my head off.”

“
HE SUSPECTS US
, I know he does.” Hazel Marie lay in bed, her hair a mess of brassy tangles on the pillow. The bruises on her face had faded to near the same yellow tint. Still swollen, though, around her eyes and mouth.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “Lieutenant Peavey might be wondering a little, since he picked up on the Puckett name. However,” I said as I tucked in the sheet at the foot of her bed, “if they’re treating this as a kidnapping, we could be in big trouble. I just wanted you to know what we’re up against now.”

“I don’t think I can stand anymore.” She turned her face away as the tears started again. “I don’t know how it could be kidnapping when he’s my own little boy. I’m about at the end of my rope.”

“Get hold of yourself,” I told her as I snatched a Kleenex from the box and handed it to her. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all this, it’s that you have to stand up for yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you, least of all the people you ought to be able to depend on.” That was as close as I wanted to get to discussing Wesley Lloyd.

“You are so strong, Miz Springer,” she said, dabbing at her sore face with the tissue. “I wish I could be like you.”

I snorted at that and told her to get some rest. As I walked downstairs, it came to me that I was strong, if that’s what I was,
only because I had the money to back it up. If I’d been like Hazel Marie, without a penny to my name, I’d be overwhelmed and ready to give up, too. A pitiful commentary, but there it was.

I stopped on the stairs as my knees began to tremble. Money wasn’t going to protect me from my sickness, or sin, or whatever it was as long as Pastor Ledbetter held it over my head. Regardless of Wesley Lloyd’s estate, I wasn’t any stronger or safer than that poor, pitiful woman in my guest bed. In fact, I might even’ve been worse off because of it.

IN SPITE OF
the fluorescent lights overhead, the kitchen had begun to take on a greenish glow by late afternoon. An ominous growl of thunder swelled overhead as a swirl of limbs from the nandina bushes scraped against the window behind the table. I looked out to see the light green undersides of leaves on the poplars as the wind swept through the branches.

“It’s coming up a cloud,” Lillian said worriedly. “No tellin’ what gonna happen next. Honey,” she said to Little Lloyd, “don’t you get close to the windows, lightnin’ be coming with that wind.” He moved a chair beside the pantry and sat very still, his hands clasped between his knees.

“It does look bad out there,” I said, and cringed as lightning clicked close by. Thunder boomed around the house barely a second later. “Close,” I said. “I better unplug the television.”

From the front window of the living room, I could see a sudden downpour of rain falling like a sheet, streaking the panes. Lightning continued to pop around the house, while thunder crashed and rolled. I shuddered and pulled the drapes. As the room darkened, I reached to turn on a lamp, then drew back as another flash of lightning warned me away.

As I started back to the kitchen, I heard running steps on
the front porch and the doorbell ringing. I peeked out the window before going to the door. Too many people had been showing up to hand us more problems.

“Binkie, what in the world!” I threw open the door and held the screen for her. Her hair and clothes were soaked, and she stood there trying to dry her face with a wet Kleenex. “Come in! What’re you doing out in this storm? Get in here and dry off.”

“Sorry to drip on your rug, Miss Julia. I’ll just slip my shoes off, they’re wet through.” She was laughing and gasping for breath. In spite of looking like a drowned cat, Binkie had some color in her cheeks, and her eyes were sparkling. “I haven’t been caught in the rain in I don’t know how long! And I haven’t run like that in a long time, either! Wow, I’m wet to the skin! Just look at me!”

Her skirt and blouse were plastered to her form, making her look even smaller than she was. In fact, she looked more like the young girl who used to ride her bicycle past my house on her way to the picture show. She’d always call out and wave if she saw me in the yard or on the porch. Big personality, that girl, even back then. Since coming back to Abbotsville to practice law, Binkie’d had to work hard to be taken seriously. Everybody wanted to pat her on the head. Patronizing, you know. Some of the locals actually tried it, and ended up with a nub instead of a hand. She called herself Elizabeth T. Enloe now, but she’d always be Binkie to me.

“Let’s get you dried off,” I said. “Why in the world are you out in this storm?”

“I was on my way back to the office from the courthouse.” She smiled and pushed her hair out of her face. “And just decided to walk on over here. Thought I could make it before the rain started, but I missed it by a mile, didn’t I?”

She looked up and past me, smiled again, and I turned to see Deputy Bates come into the living room from the hall.

“Sorry, Miss Julia,” he said, turning toward the kitchen. “Didn’t know you had company.”

“No,” I said, holding out my hand and backing away. I didn’t want him in the kitchen because I hadn’t had time to prepare him for Little Lloyd’s return. Well, to be honest, I hadn’t had time to prepare whatever story I was going to tell as to how we’d gotten the child back. And of course I didn’t want him too close to me, either, since I didn’t know at what age a man might stir up my condition. If I had one to stir, that is. “I want you to meet Binkie Enloe, one of the best women lawyers in town. Binkie, Deputy Bates.”

Binkie gave me a quick glance, chilling me for a minute, and I didn’t know why.

Deputy Bates walked over and shook her hand. “One of the best lawyers, period,” he said, and then I did know why. “She’s raked me over the coals in court a few times.” But he smiled when he said it. And so did she.

“Let me get some towels,” I said. “Keep her company for a minute, Deputy Bates, if you will.”

“Coleman,” he said, his eyes still on Binkie.

“What?”

“Coleman. Call me Coleman.” He was still looking at her, but he was speaking to me. I think.

“Coleman,” Binkie repeated.

I hurried into the kitchen and told Lillian to send Little Lloyd upstairs to his mother.

“I thought you not tellin’ no more lies,” she said.

“I’m not. It’s just too soon and I don’t know what Binkie’s doing here. I’ve got to feel her out before we spring Little Lloyd and Miss Puckett on everybody. Now just get the boy upstairs, and stay quiet about everything.”

She grumbled about it, but she sent the boy up the back stairs, promising him chocolate cake for dessert.

Binkie was standing by the door, water dripping on the floor from the hem of her skirt. The room was dark, that sort of dusky dark of a late afternoon storm. Rain fell steadily outside, but not as hard as before. Deputy Bates had his hands in his pockets, looking down at Binkie, a smile on his face.

“Come on back to the kitchen,” I said, not wanting to offer one of my velvet upholstered chairs to a sodden guest. “Binkie, we need to get you out of those wet clothes.”

Deputy Coleman Bates watched as he followed Binkie to the kitchen, and she was a sight to see from the back, what with her wet skirt molded to her hips and thighs. Deputy Bates, I mean Coleman, almost ran into the kitchen door.

Lillian walked back into the kitchen and started to make a fuss over Binkie, declaring she had to get out of her wet clothes before she caught her death.

“I’ll run get one of Miss Julia’s robes for you,” she said, “then we’ll put your clothes in the dryer.”

I took Binkie to the downstairs bathroom, where she disrobed and rerobed in my blue satin robe that Lillian had cleaned since its trip to Spartanburg. I don’t know where Lillian’s mind was, the heavy chenille one would’ve been more appropriate and considerably less form-fitting. By this time, I felt like I was clothing half the women in town.

I declare, I never knew what that blue satin was capable of, but when she walked back into the kitchen, Deputy Bates, I mean Coleman, couldn’t take his eyes off of it. It’d had the same effect on the truck driver when Hazel Marie was wearing it. Binkie was embarrassed and hurriedly sat down, wrapping it close around her. She clasped the neckline to keep it from gaping, which it was inclined to do.