A Shred of Evidence (27 page)

“The guy’s driver’s license had been revoked. He wasn’t supposed to be behind the wheel.”

“Come on, Bryce. We turn these guys loose, knowing full well they’re addicts and will likely do the same thing again. It’s the same with sex offenders. I’m sick and tired of it.”

Bryce’s eyes locked on to his. “Is that why you’ve been asking me so many questions about RISK—you’re sympathetic to the cause?”

Will felt the heat color his face. “I uphold every law whether I agree with it or not. I don’t make exceptions.”

“But you would if you could?”

“Look, I totally agree that vigilante groups like RISK cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands. But I also understand why they
do
. The system needs fixing, Bryce. You know it, and I know it.”

Ellen Jones drove slowly down Flamboyant Street and let the traffic go around her so she had a clear view of the next intersection. She spotted Julie standing on the sidewalk waving her arms and pulled over to the curb. Julie got in on the passenger side and fumbled with her seatbelt.

“Is Publix okay?” Ellen said.

“Yes, that’s fine. I really appreciate your doing this.”

Ellen pulled away from the curb, her mind racing with platitudes that she couldn’t make herself say Finally, she could stand the silence no longer and turned the car down a side street and shut off the motor.

“Julie, I cannot tell you how sorry I am about Sarah Beth. I can only imagine the suffering you’ve endured …” Ellen’s voice cracked. “Don’t feel as though you have to talk about it. But I’m here if you need to.”

Julie reached up under her dark glasses and dabbed her eyes. “Thank you. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a long time.”

“Would you like me to drive around a while before we go to the store, maybe give your emotions time to settle down?”

Julie nodded. “If you don’t mind. I’m a little nervous. I haven’t gone anywhere public since this nightmare started.”

“I’m here to do whatever you need.” Ellen meant what she said, but wondered if she were merely trying to salve her guilty conscience. “You know what always helps me get my mind focused? A walk on the beach.”

“I loved going to the beach when we lived in Biloxi,” Julie said. “But I haven’t been since we moved here.”

“I’ll be glad to show you my favorite place.”

“Thanks. I’d like that.”

Ellen started the car and made a U-turn, and headed toward Beach Shore Drive.

Gordy Jameson sat out on the deck, enjoying the shade of the umbrella, the last of a limeade, and the laughter of his lunch buddies. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this lighthearted.

“Hey, Gordo,” Eddie Drummond said. “You ever gonna get that boat of yours back in the water?”

“Thinkin’ about it. What I’d really like to do is trailer it
down to Miami Beach and take it offshore for sailfish.”

Captain Jack lifted his eyebrows. “Better not wait too long. Season’ll be over before you know it.”

“I didn’t know you had a boat,” Adam Spalding said. “How long has it been since you’ve had it out?”

Gordy shrugged. “I don’t know. Three, maybe four years.”

“He’s been threatening to get that thing out of mothballs forever and a day,” Eddie said.

“Well, it’s finally gonna happen.” Gordy lowered his voice. “I’ll have some time off now that I’ve hired an assistant manager.”

“An assistant manager?” Eddie said. “Where’ve I been?”

“Shhh!” Gordy put his finger to his lips. “Keep your voice down. I’m about to let you in on a little secret.”

Everyone leaned forward, elbows on the table.

“Now, I’m not announcin’ this officially till tomorrow, you understand, but just between the four of us and those grackles over there, Weezie’s agreed to accept the position.”

“Hear, hear,” Adam said, holding up his limeade.

Eddie gave Gordy a high five. “Wow, that’s great news.”

“Couldn’t be happier for her,” Captain said. “And you.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty fired up about it.” Gordy glanced up and saw Weezie come out the back door and walk toward the table. “Shhh. Here she comes.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Weezie said, turning her attention to Gordy. “I’ve got Pete talked into cuttin’ us a deal. If we double our order of fresh grouper, he’ll knock off another thirty percent. Can’t beat that with a stick. I say we do it. Micah’s been workin’ on a dynamite recipe that’ll make a wonderful weekend special.”

Gordy winked. “You go, girl.”

Weezie put her hand on her hip, her eyes moving slowly around the table. “Somebody wanna tell me why you’re all lookin’ at me like the cat that ate the canary?”

Eddie put his hand over his smile. “Meow.”

“Oh, what the heck.” Gordy stood up and put his arm
around Weezie’s shoulder. “I just told them our good news.”

“You stinker. You’re the one who wanted to wait till tomorrow.”

“I know. But I wanted my friends to hear it first.”

Ellen pulled her Thunderbird into a parking space and turned off the motor. “I love this end of the beach because it’s not crowded.”

She got out of the car and took off her sandals and put them on the floor in the backseat. Julie did the same.

“Come on,” Ellen said. “Let’s go get our feet wet.”

Ellen walked with Julie about a hundred yards along the wet sand, her hands in her pockets and her thoughts unspoken, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the silence. “You mind if we sit a while?”

“No, that’s fine,” Julie said.

The two women sat side-by-side, facing the water.

Ellen closed her eyes and tilted her face toward the sun. Minutes passed without a word between them. She wondered if it had been a mistake coming here.

“Sarah Beth would’ve loved it out here.” Julie drew a happy face in the sand with her finger. “But I never brought her.”

“You had your hands full with unpacking and getting settled.”

“I was still trying to deal with Nathaniel’s death.”

Ellen started to comment and then felt impressed not to.

“I’m sure you read everything in the newspaper. Nathaniel’s accident was devastating. Ross and I used to be close, but losing Nathaniel nearly destroyed that—and left us too drained to be there for Sarah Beth. We tried. But we were so empty …” Julie’s voice cracked. She took off her sunglasses and wiped her eyes. “The day you caught Sarah Beth in the parking lot, I was so preoccupied that I forgot to fasten her in her car seat. What kind of mother forgets to protect her child? Now that she’s gone, she’s all I can think about. I just want the chance to make
it up to her.” Julie let the tears fall and didn’t wipe them away.

Ellen swallowed the emotion that seemed caught in her throat.

“In case you were wondering, that reporter at the
Biloxi Telegraph
twisted everything about Ross’s life. She never even talked to us. After that article appeared in the newspaper, we were devastated. The phone never stopped ringing and we got all kinds of hate mail. All we wanted was privacy so we could work through Nathaniel’s death. That’s why we moved. But the lies and the gossip just followed us.”

“Did the Seaport police explain to you how the allegations got started here?”

“Yes, some lady overheard one of Ross’s coworkers tell some friends that he heard his boss say Ross was a child molester.” Julie wiped her eyes. “That’s so ridiculous. Ross’s boss is his Uncle Hank. He’d never say that because it’s not true.”

“But the lady couldn’t know that,” Ellen said.

“Obviously, she believed it because she went to the body shop and asked Uncle Hank if Ross was registered as a sex offender. He threw her out and told her all the gossip she heard wasn’t worth anything.” Julie sighed. “Try telling that to the guy who spray painted our garage, or the protesters carrying their hateful signs, or the police, or the FBI, or just about anyone else in town. Why don’t people find out the truth before they go ruining someone’s life?”

“Maybe the woman was worried about Sarah Beth—since she didn’t know whether or not what Eddie told his friends was true.”

Julie finally made eye contact and held Ellen’s gaze. “I never told you it was Eddie.”

Will Seevers sat on a wrought-iron bench near the center of Bougainvillea Park, glad to be away from the office and alone with his thoughts. Nestled here amongst the longleaf pines,
lush green flora, and deep purple and magenta bougainvilleas, he felt as though he had his hand on Mother Nature’s pulse—a welcome contrast to the heartless concrete jungle he would return to in less than an hour.

He took his sub sandwich out of the sack and took a bite, savoring the distinctive taste of each of his chosen ingredients.

Until this morning’s conversation with Bryce, Will hadn’t realized how sympathetic he was to the RISK movement—if not its methodology, certainly its ideology. Was that a character flaw? He didn’t think so. He’d never stand by and let them break the law, but he was nonetheless comforted that somebody cared enough about kids who were being abused to make sure they would never have to endure it again.

He felt his cell phone vibrate and was tempted not to answer it. He took the phone out of his pocket and hit the talk button.

“Chief Seevers.”

“It’s Gordy. You eatin’ lunch?”

“Yeah, what’s up? Sorry I had to leave last night.”

“Glad you got your hit-and-run,” Gordy said. “That oughta make you feel good.”

“It might if it weren’t for the dead kid. You didn’t call me to talk about that, though.”

“No, I just got through talkin’ to Margaret. I just wanted to say thanks for nudgin’ me to meet Pam. She’s real nice.”

“And …?”

“Hey, you said you weren’t gonna push.”

Will chuckled. “So I did. Is that the only reason you called?”

“No, I thought you might like to know I promoted Weezie to assistant manager. She’s gonna be great at it. And it’ll give me some free time.”

“That’s something you haven’t had in a long time.”

“Yeah, and who knows? Maybe I’ll get up the nerve to call Pam and see if she wants to head out to the blue water with me.”

“Do you even remember where it is?”

“You’re a real wiseacre, you know that? I thought maybe this weekend I’d get the boat out of storage, clean it up, and do some fishin’.”

“And maybe some
catching?”

“Man, you’re worse than Margaret.”

Will laughed. “I doubt that. Seriously, whether or not this thing with Pam goes anywhere, I’m just happy you’re moving forward.”

“Yeah, thanks, Will. That means a lot. Talk to you later.” Will put his phone back in his pocket and took another bite of his sandwich. The phone vibrated again.

“Chief Seevers.”

“Hi, it’s me,” Margaret said. “Where are you?”

“Hiding in the park, having a sub sandwich. What about you?”

“I just picked up the dry cleaning. I thought I’d grab something to eat and then head for the grocery store. I wanted to tell you what a good job you did in front of the cameras. I know how much you hate it.”

“It came off okay, huh?”

“You looked and sounded like the professional you are. Let’s hope Terrance Adams is behind bars for a long, long time.”

Will sighed. “I keep asking myself why an innocent child had to die before we could get this guy locked up.”

“You did what you could. At least he won’t hurt anyone else.”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t have a brother with the same bad gene.”

“Did Gordy call you?” Margaret said.

“Yeah, right before you did. Something’s going on. He promoted Weezie to assistant manager to free up his time and is thinking about taking Pam out in the boat. Didn’t have a lot to say about her. But actions speak louder than words.”

“My thoughts exactly. Pam didn’t say much more than he did. Okay, Chief, I’ve gotta run. Have a good afternoon. I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Will put the phone in his pocket and took another bite of his sandwich. He looked beyond the live oaks and caught a glimmer of the gulf in the distance. His phone vibrated again, and he pulled it out of his pocket.

“Chief Seevers. This better be important.”

“I’m on my way to the Hamiltons’,” Bryce said. “A protester called 911 and reported hearing a gun go off inside the house.”