Whispers of the Falls: Book one (Twelve Oaks Farm Series 1) (4 page)

“How can I help?” Juan was confiding in him for some reason. If he didn’t want his mother to go to school to talk to the principal, then he must have some other plan.

“I want you to teach me to defend myself.” His words came out in a rush.

Grant gave him a sympathetic smile. “If I do, and you stand up to these boys then you might get suspended from school. Your mother will kill me. If she doesn’t, Nina will. I don’t think I want to get involved.”

“It’s my only option. Someone is always picking on me at school because I’m so small.” His eyes dropped to his hands. “Sometimes I’m bullied because I’m Hispanic. I’m the only Hispanic at my school which is mainly white. I want to be able to take care of myself.”

Grant placed his arm around Juan’s shoulder. “You’re not always going to be small. You’ll be a big man someday.” He raked his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. He had never been around children before. He didn’t know how to handle the situation. “School can be tough. I promise things will get better.”

Now angry, Juan’s eyes turned stormy. Grant had never seen him get mad. He had always been easy going. “Look, you can help me or I can get my ass beat. I’m not going to take their bullying any longer. I’m going to stand up for myself.”

He let out an oath under his breath. He hoped he wouldn’t regret his decision to help. “We’ll start tonight after your game. Tell your mama we are going to watch the football game on TV.”

Grant wasn’t ready for the show of gratitude. Juan wrapped his arms around his neck and squeezed. “Thanks.” He stood and ran for the door. Over his shoulder he shouted, “I’ll see you at the game.”

What in the hell had he gotten himself into? Four days at Twelve Oaks Farm and he felt a connection with Juan. The emotional tug-of-war he was waging caused his heart to constrict. How would the boy feel when he discovered the real reason he had come into his life?

****

Dressed in his uniform, Juan headed toward the barn. Grant shut the door behind him and waited for him on the porch. “Are you coming?”

“I’ll be along shortly. I have a few phone calls to make.” Immediately, he saw the disappointment in Juan’s face. “I promise I’m coming. I wouldn’t miss it.” He placed his hand on his shoulder. “Nice uniform.” White with red stripes and a red hat to match, the uniform looked great on his dark skin.

His cleats clicked on the cement porch as he turned and hurried for the truck where Nina and Maria waited for him. Over his shoulder he shouted, “Don’t be late!”

“I won’t. I’ll be leaving in a few minutes.” Since he played baseball when he was a kid, he knew how it worked. They would get to the game an hour early so they could warm up before the game began. That would give him enough time to search the house. Feeling a little uneasy, Grant raised his hand in the air and waved at Nina. He felt like a hypocrite smiling at a woman when he was about to go through her personal things.

She threw up her hand before they all piled into the front seat and started the engine. Shadow chased the truck barking and jumping several yards before Nina stopped and ordered, “Go back to the house, Shadow. Watch the animals.” Head close to the ground he slunk back to the yard and lay down.

Grant watched until they were out of sight before he jogged to the front door of the house. He lifted the pot of geraniums on the front porch and retrieved the key. He slipped it into the lock. Before he opened the door, Shadow whined from behind him. He turned and looked at the dog sitting there wagging his tail. He tipped his head sideways and looked at him as if to say, “What are you doing?”

“Thank goodness you can’t talk. Want to come in the house with me, Shadow?” He pushed open the door and held it while the dog went in first. The first place he went was to the white leather sofa and stretched out. Head on his paws, the dog watched his every move which didn’t help his nervousness any.

Where should he start? It was a big house so he assumed Nina had an office. The first place he wandered into was her bedroom. A full size bed with a colorful quilt sat in the middle of the large room. Curtains of the same cloth covered the top part of the window with a view of the pool. He rummaged through some of the drawers on the nightstand but found nothing. Various framed pictures of Nina and her sisters sat upon the nightstand. Three gorgeous women who looked very happy and content. He picked up the frame holding a picture of her father and mother. A very striking couple seemed to be looking back at him. It’s a shame their father left them in such awful financial troubles. Jason Reynolds should have had a life insurance policy big enough to take care of them. He placed the picture back on the nightstand. He didn’t have time to dally.

He opened the top drawer of her dresser revealing various colors of panties. He almost laughed because he expected her to wear white granny panties since she was such a prude. He clutched a pair of black, lacy panties and lifted them to his nose and sniffed. He saw his reflection in the mirror and froze. He wasn’t a detective. He shouldn’t be in her house going through her things, especially not her underwear drawer. At the moment he hated himself for invading her privacy. With jerky movements he placed the panties back into the drawer and closed it.

Crossing to the door, he turned to make sure everything was just as he left it. Again his eyes shifted to the bed. He could almost imagine her laying there asleep, her blond hair draped over the pillow, a long leg peeking out from under the cover. He swore. He couldn’t let his desire for Nina get in the way of why he was there. He had a job to do.

Grant closed the door and went in search of her office. It took a while but he finally found it. Papers littered the huge oak desk and he riffled through them. He found her ledger and after a quick perusal he knew she was in some serious financial troubles. Under the ledger was her checking account information. If she was getting money from the drug operation taking place on her land, she wasn’t putting the money in her bank account. After thirty minutes of searching, he had found nothing that would implicate her. But then she would be stupid to leave any evidence where someone might stumble upon it.

He looked at his watch. If he was going to make it to Juan’s game on time, he had to hurry. He replaced everything as it was before he came in, turned off the light, and closed the door. By the time he returned to the living room, Shadow was sound asleep on the sofa. He slapped the side of his hip. “Come on, Shadow.” The dog jumped off the sofa and followed him outside. He locked the door and placed the key back under the pot of geraniums. He couldn’t shake the feeling he had done something terribly wrong.

Chapter Four

The next afternoon Grant and Juan were in the front yard playing catch. Since Grant helped with the chores, they finished their work early. The sound of a car caught their attention. Juan tugged off his glove and threw it to the ground with the ball. He ran out to meet the small, silver compact car. A beautiful red head stepped out of the car and engulfed him in her arms. She leaned back and caught his chin in her hand before planting a kiss on his cheek, then wiped the red lipstick off with her thumb. She whispered something in his ear, but Grant couldn’t hear what she said.

Her flamed tipped hair came alive in the evening sunlight. Grant recognized her at once as Nina’s sister, Beth from the folder Uncle Tate gave him. The pictures hanging on the living room wall, nor the one his uncle gave him, did her justice. Tall and slim like Nina, she sashayed right up to Grant and stuck out her right hand that sparkled with several rings. From her left wrist dangled a royal blue gift bag.

“You must be Grant. Nina can’t seem to stop singing your praises. I’m her sister Beth.”

He took the offered hand and smiled. Unlike Nina, her sister had soft hands proving she didn’t do any work on the farm. Her attire, her stance, everything about her screamed confidence.

Mischievous blue eyes started at his head and stopped at his tennis shoes. The complete opposite of Nina, she was bold and sure of herself. He wondered what Nina had said about him. She was still standoffish and he couldn’t seem to get close to her. But then she was always too busy to spend any time with him.

Loud barks filled the air as Shadow raced across the yard toward Beth with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. She squatted to her haunches and tried to hug the squirming dog but she couldn’t quite get a hold on him. He ran several circles around her before dropping onto his back to let her rub his stomach. “Aren’t you a good boy?” Her well manicured fingernails scratched his belly causing his tail to thump the ground with excitement.

Attention back on Grant, she stood to her full height. “Where is that sister of mine? I suppose she is knee deep in horse manure.”

Juan took Beth’s hand and tugged her toward the porch. “She’s in the house helping mama bake her birthday cake.”

Not once had Nina said anything about it being her birthday. Beth shouted over her shoulder as Juan led her inside, “It’s nice to meet you, Grant.”

“Likewise ma’am.” Since he hadn’t been invited inside, he headed to the barn. It would be a good time to call his Uncle Tate and let him know he had made no progress with his mission.

After three rings his uncle answered the phone. “Grant, how’s it going?”

“It’s not.” Grant walked to the front window and opened the blinds so he could peek out to make sure Juan wasn’t going to pop in unannounced. He and the boy had practiced defensive moves last night after the game and it was possible he would wish to do so again.

“I haven’t made any progress. The woman works all the time and I can’t get her talking.”

“I expected her to fall head over heels in love with you and confess all her sins.”

Grant laughed. “Maybe I’m not as charming as you thought. Could be I’m losing my finesse with the ladies. I have been out of practice for a while.”

“That’ll be a cold day in hell. Why do you think I asked you to spend some time with Miss Reynolds? You’re so handsome the women fall at your feet.”

“Not this one.”

“You’ll just have to find a way to get her talking.”

Grant crossed the room and plopped onto the bed. “Have you had any progress with finding out who might have had Officer Shaw murdered?”

“No, whoever is in charge is staying in the shadows. We have a chance to turn the tragedy of Shaw’s death into something good by getting the man at the top. We need some viable evidence.”

Grant pulled the map out of the folder of the Reynolds’ land. He studied it for a few seconds before he replied, “I think I’ll go out to the site and have a look. I see it is secluded but I think I can get there in a few hours with a four-wheeler from this end. Nina has one and I’ll see if she’ll let me borrow it tomorrow. I’ll tell her I’m going to go on a camping trip.”

“Be careful, Grant. They have already killed one undercover officer. I’d hate for them to discover you snooping around. If something happened to you, your mother would never forgive me.”

Grant thought of his mother and brother. When he was fifteen, his father was killed in a secret mission to free five Americans held captive in Egypt. If not for the strength of his mother, they would have all fallen apart. She kept things together and they remained a strong family. Still she never got over his father’s death. Only a few years from retirement, he had promised her they would travel and see the world. For all the years of loneliness spent while he was deployed, she ended up with more years of loneliness. But that is the life of a woman married to a Marine.

In fact, his mother pleaded for him not to join the Marine Corp, but it was in his blood. The trouble was after nine long years of seeing men die, he wondered if he had made the right decision. His last mission might have broken him. Time was what he needed. Time to heal and decide what he was going to do with the rest of his life.

“I’ll be careful. Catch you later.” Grant hung up the phone and moved back to the window. He wanted to believe Nina was not involved with the marijuana being grown on her property. Deep in his heart he felt she wasn’t the type of woman to allow such evil to touch her or her two sisters. But then when faced with losing her home and land she may have had a moment of weakness. She said herself selling the farm wasn’t an option. Once drug dealers had someone in their clutches they didn’t let them go.

****

Nina licked the spatula covered in cream cheese frosting before dropping it in the sink. She couldn’t wait to have a piece of the homemade chocolate cake Maria baked. Five eggs, two cups of sugar, buttermilk, and three cubes of chocolate, it was the most decadent dessert she ever tasted. Maria placed the scrumptious cake on the counter so she could prepare dinner.

Nina heard voices and turned to find Beth and Juan standing in the kitchen. Surprised to see her sister, she raced forward and gave her a hug. “I wasn’t expecting you. I thought you couldn’t make it because you have an exam tomorrow.”

Beth pushed Nina’s hair away from her face and cupped her cheeks. “My professor allowed me to take it this morning. I couldn’t miss my big sister’s birthday.” She kissed Nina’s cheek. “I hope you know how much I appreciate all you have done for me, Sis. I know how difficult it must be to keep this place going by yourself.”

Nina reached out and ruffled Juan’s dark hair. “I have help.”

“Yes, I saw your other helper in the front yard when I arrived. He is one fine piece of…”

Nina placed her hand over her sister’s mouth. “Don’t talk like that in front of Juan.”

Beth removed her hand and ordered, “Go get ready. I’m taking you out for your birthday.”

“I haven’t fed the animals. The horses need rubdowns. Midnight has a cut on his left hock and I need to dress it before it gets dark.”

Beth sat on one of the barstools and braced her elbows against the counter. Nina wished she had her sister’s elegance. Even though money was tight, she managed to look like she spent a fortune on her clothes. The white blouse and black skirt looked magnificent on her slim figure. But then Nina knew better. Both had cut back to only the bare necessities. The clothes she now wore were over two years old.

“Let the hunk do the chores. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

In a serious voice, Nina snapped, “No, he does enough around here as it is. I can’t ask him to take care of the animals while I go and dance the night away.”

Maria pushed Nina toward the door. “Go, have fun. Juan and I can handle everything. We will fix sandwiches for dinner and have plenty of time to do all that needs to be done.”

Feeling guilty leaving them with the work, she asked, “Are you sure?”

“Of course. Forget the farm for one night and have some fun. You’re entitled to let your hair down once in a while. You work too hard.”

Beth grabbed the gift bag off the table where she had placed it when she came in the room and handed it to her. Nina rustled through all the bright colored tissue paper and pulled out a wide royal blue bracelet with gold trim. Eyes sparkling brightly, she placed it on her arm and exclaimed, “It’s exquisite. You spent too much money.”

“Don’t worry sister, I didn’t break our budget. I found it at Goodwill.”

Nina laughed until tears ran down her cheeks. Never in a million years could she imagine Beth shopping at Goodwill. She had always loved shopping at the high end stores until their parents died leaving them destitute. “I love it.”

She took Nina’s other arm. “Let’s party. All work and no play makes Nina a dull girl. It’s not every day you turn twenty-five.”

Nina rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me.” It had been months since Nina had gone out. Maybe a little dancing and drinking was exactly what she needed. It would be nice to forget the load placed on her shoulders for one night. But then it wouldn’t be easy to forget the tomatoes, okra, green beans...

Beth propelled her toward the bathroom. “Hurry, Lacy is meeting us. We wanted it to be a surprise, but at the rate you’re moving she’ll think we’re not coming. She had a late class so she couldn’t come with me to pick you up.”

Excitement danced over Nina. It had been weeks since she had seen her youngest sister Lacy. Just the thought of spending time with her had her hastily heading for the shower. The death of their parents had been the most difficult for her. The time together would help her as much as it would Nina and Beth. Between school, responsibilities, and lack of money they rarely saw each other.

By the time she got out of the shower and donned her robe, Beth was going though her closet. “When did you last go shopping?”

“I don’t have much need for pretty clothes while working the fields or shoveling manure.” In reality she couldn’t afford indulgences, only necessities.

“God, even your church clothes are hideous.” She closed the closet door with a flourish. “Come, we’ll go look in mom’s closet. There’s nothing in your closet that will suffice for turning men’s heads.”

“It will be depressing to wear something of mother’s.” Nina followed Beth into her parents’ bedroom. Everything was just as it had been the day they died. Her mother’s bath robe lay on the bed where she left it after getting dressed to go out to dinner. Her father’s bedroom slippers lay on the carpet as if he were going to come back any minute and step into them. It was just too depressing to come into their room knowing they were never coming back. Maria kept the furniture dusted, but never touched anything else.

“Nonsense, mother would be pleased for you to make use of her clothes.” Beth opened the closet and started moving racks around. “Here this will look perfect on you.” She handed Nina a slinky black dress with gold trim.

A tear slipped over Nina’s cheek as she remembered the last time her mother wore the dress. Her parents had gone to the country club for some big gala. The memory was still vivid in her mind of how spectacular she looked. Her mother had loved to socialize and she was all giddy before she left the house. Grief crept into her heart.

In a firm voice, her sister ordered, “Wear it because it is what our mother would want.” She waved her well manicured hand around the room. “It is time to clean out this room and give everything to charity. It’s twice as big as your room. Move your things in here and live a little.”

It was a spacious, airy room. Her mother had had a flair for decorating. Striped wallpaper with bold colors perfectly matched the chairs and carpet. Floor length windows banked the wall overlooking the pool in the backyard. It was the kind of bedroom in magazines. The view was spectacular. “I’ll think about it.”

Beth let out a deep breath of frustration as she moved toward her mother’s dressing table and picked up a tube of lipstick. She leaned over so she could see her reflection in the mirror and smeared the tip of it across her lips. Nina almost cried when she thought about her mother doing the same thing before she applied her makeup the night she died. Her father and mother were on their way to dinner when they were hit by the drunk driver. Running her fingers through her hair, Beth took one more look at her reflection before plopping onto the bed.

Always outgoing and cheerful, people loved Beth and she had hundreds of friends. Most of the time Nina liked being by herself and felt uncomfortable at parties and bars. But she knew her sister would not allow her to spend her birthday without a lot of hoopla.

****

It was dark by the time Grant saw Nina and Beth climb in the small compact and drive away. Juan told him they were going out to celebrate Nina’s birthday. He waited until they disappeared from sight and hurried to his car. He kept his lights off so they would not see him following as they drove along the mile long drive. He must have lost his mind to be following them. Deep down he hoped Nina knew nothing about the marijuana operation on their land, but until he proved her innocence she and her sisters were suspects.

When Grant arrived at the end of the drive, he waited ten seconds before switching his head lights on and turning left, the direction the ladies had taken. The crooked country road wound its way through the forest. Land that Nina, Beth, and the youngest sister, Lacy owned. He wondered what they would do to hold onto that land their father and mother had owned before them. The taxes alone on one thousand acres and the four thousand foot home would be extremely high. It would be in their best interest to have the timber cut and pay the debt left by their parents. Mostly hardwood, the timber would bring them a small fortune. It was none of his business, but he might talk over her options with her. Of course he would probably never get the chance. Nina was cold and prickly most of the time and didn’t want to hear anything he had to say.