After Dark (42 page)

    "Yes, we know," Lane said.
"I spoke with James this morning. He's the one who arranged for Mr.
Whitaker to defend Miss Edith."

    "She's sure the judge will
set bail this afternoon and she'll be home by tonight," Will said.
"She asked me if I could ever forgive her."

    Johnny Mack laid his hand on Will's
shoulder. "What did you say?"

    "I told her I didn't honestly
know."

    "Lane, why don't you and Will
go on home," Johnny Mack suggested. "I have a little unfinished
business here that I need to take care of before I leave."

    "Will it take long?" Lane
asked.

    "No, not long."

    She clutched his arm. "We could
just wait for you in the car."

    "No, don't wait. After I finish
up here, I plan to drop by the mayor's office. Then I want to take a walk
around Noble's Crossing. I have some decisions to make and I need some
time alone."

    "All right. We'll see you at
the house later." She kissed his cheek. He offered her a half-hearted
smile.

    Lane hurried Will out the door
and onto the sidewalk. He didn't question why she was rushing, but once
they were seated inside the car, he reached over and hugged her.

    "It's not about you, Mama,"
Will said. "Johnny Mack killed a man yesterday. That's what's wrong
with him. Even though he did what he had to do to save your life, he's the
kind of man who'd regret taking any human being's life."

    Lane ruffled her son's hair.
"When did you grow up and become so smart?"

    Johnny Mack took a good hard look
at Edith Ware. Not even dealing with her daughter's death and spending
the night behind bars made the woman appear any less regal. She had been
born Noble's Crossing royalty, and she would no doubt the die same.

    "Come to gloat?" she asked.

    "Nope. Came to make a deal
with you. It's a win-win situation."

    "What sort of deal?" In a
giveaway gesture of nervousness, she ran the tips of her red nails over
the legs of her black slacks.

    "Lane and I know the truth about
Kent. That he sexually abused Mary Martha for years and that he forced
her to abort his child."

    "Y’all know too much. If I'd been
thinking straight, I wouldn't have shared so much information with you
two. I should have just told you and Lane what I told the police, that my
daughter's mental problems reached a severe point and she didn't know
what she was doing when she killed her brother."

    "We wouldn't have bought
that explanation and you know it."

    Edith nodded, the weak smile on
her lips quivering ever so slightly. "I realize you don't owe me anything,
and I'm not asking for myself, but for-"

    "Lane and I don't intend to
mention anything about Kent and Mary Martha's incestuous relationship.
Not to the press. Not even to the police."

    "Thank you."

    "Don't thank me yet," he
said. "Our silence will cost you."

    "What do you mean it'll cost
me?" Edith's sharply defined eyebrows rose as her eyes widened with
curiosity.

    Well, it seems your husband has
been embezzling money from your accounts for the past few years
and-"

    "What!"

    "I'd say he's got at least a
hundred thousand stashed away, if not more."

    "Why, that weasel, that boot-licking,
cowardly little bastard!"

    "Here's the deal, Miss
Edith"-he couldn't help grinning when she ceased her tirade and glared
at him-"you give James an uncontested divorce, pay him a hundred-thousand-dollar
settlement and swear you won't have him prosecuted for embezzling. If
you do all that, then your family's dirty little secret is safe. Lane and
I will take it to our graves. Of course, I can't swear Mrs. Russell
won't-" "Nelda Russell is a loyal, trusted servant."
"All the same, I'd give her a really good Christmas bonus this year."

    "Why do you care about James?
The two of you were never friends." Edith's mouth twitched in an almost
smile. "You do realize that James knew exactly what Buddy and Kent did
to you fifteen years ago. He didn't do a tiling to try to save you."
"I'm well aware of James's past sins." "Then, why help
him?"

    "Let's just say that I know
what it's like to make some bad mistakes and then to finally get a second
chance with the only woman you've ever loved."

    "James has a woman on the side?"
Edith's expression hardened. "Is that what you're saying? I should
have known. He certainly wasn't warming my bed.

    "Do we or do we not have a deal?"
Johnny Mack asked.

    "We have a deal." Edith
smiled. A wicked, powerful' people-never-lose smile. "Tell James
that once the divorce is final, he'd better take his money and his whore
and leave Noble's Crossing for good. Because I'll soon be back home and
I never want to see his lying, cheating, thieving face again.

    "I don't intend to serve any
prison time. Steve Whitaker should be able to easily prove that Buddy
was the villain in all this, that I was afraid to cross him. You see, he loved
my daughter to the point of madness, and what I did, I did out of fear he
would harm her, which in the end, he did. I was so traumatized by seeing
Mary Martha kill Kent that I can't be held responsible for my actions."

    Edith laughed. A cold, vicious
sound that scraped up Johnny Mack's spine like a dull-bladed knife.

    Where was the sad, regretful, pitiful
mother who had held her dead daughter in her lap and had taken full responsibility
for her children's ruined lives? Eaten alive and swallowed by the real
Edith Noble Graham Ware, the self-centered, self-serving bitch who would
survive at any cost. He didn't doubt for a minute that she would come
out of this ordeal with little or no jail time. Using her wealth and the
power she wielded in this county and state, she knew the odds were in her
favor.

    And the strange thing was, he
didn't care. He didn't give a damn if Miss Edith got off scot-free. Actually,
he didn't give a damn what happened in Noble's Crossing once he was gone.
He could never stay here in the town that had scorned him, belittled him
and in the end disposed of him like yesterday's trash. The sooner he got
back to Texas, the better.

    "I'll let James know that you
want a divorce," Johnny Mack said. "You do that."

    When he turned to leave, she called
after him. ‘’You re not planning on staying in Noble's Crossing?’’

    Without giving her even a backward
glance, he replied. "No, ma'am. I'll be leaving soon, and this time
it's for good. I won't be back."

    Lane removed her navy blue straw
hat and laid it on top of the dresser, then kicked off her navy heels and
stretched her toes. Without removing her suit, she lay down on the bed,
flat on her back, and stared up at the ten-foot ceiling.

    Mary Martha's funeral had been
bittersweet, much like the woman herself. Sunshine had flooded through
the stained-glass windows. The choir had sung several hymns that brought
tears to everyone's eyes. Flowers had filled the sanctuary to overflowing.
And a black-clad Edith Ware had sat beside James on the front bench, her head
held regally high as she had cried silently.

    A rap on her bedroom door ended
Lane's musings. She sat up, ran her fingers through her hair and scooted
to the edge of the bed.

    "May I speak to you?"
Johnny Mack asked through the closed door.

    "Yes, of course. Please come
in."

    He entered just as she stood to
meet him. The sadness that had prevailed at the chapel seemed to have
followed them home. Standing there in his gray, pinstriped suit,
Johnny Mack looked at her, a somber expression on his face.

    "I've been putting off talking
to you about this." He bowed his head a fraction and gazed down at
the floor.

    Lane's heart stopped momentarily.
She held her breath. "You're leaving," she said.

    He nodded. "Yeah. I've done
what I came here to do. I've met my son and gotten to know him. And we found
Kent's real murderer. Mary Martha's been laid to rest, and Miss Edith's
trial is slated to begin in a couple of months." He lifted his gaze
to Lane's face. "I can't stay in Noble's Crossing. I don't belong here.
My life is in Texas."

    "Your life is in Texas and my
life is here. Is that what you're saying?"

    "Not exactly. I'm just trying
to explain that I can't live here in Noble's Crossing."

    "So, you're going to leave
me… leave us. Again." Don't cry. Don't you dare cry. If he can leave
you so easily, then he doesn't love you. He never has.

    "That's just it," he said.
"I don't want to leave you and Will. I love you, Lane. I think I always
have. And I love my son."

    "Then, how can you talk about
leaving?" She took a tentative step toward him, her heart filling
with hope.

    "I can't stay here, but you
and Will could come with me. And Lillie Mae, too."

    "You want us to come with
you?" Fifteen years ago she had begged him to take her with him. Fifteen
years ago, she would have gone without a second thought. But how could
she just pack a bag and go? She had responsibilities. She still owned
forty-nine percent of the Herald. She had her family's home entrusted
to her. And Will. What would Will think about moving to Texas? She wasn't
sure he would want to live with his father.

    ''You're taking way too long to answer
me. I remember a time when you wouldn't have thought about it; you'd have
just said yes."

    "Things were more simple
then. My life is complicated now. Back then I was a teenage girl, not a
woman with commitments and responsibilities and-" The decision
isn't complicated, Lane. It's very simple. Either you love me enough
to go with me to Texas and become my wife or you don't."

    Johnny Mack's wife. The dream of a
lifetime. To be the one woman on earth he truly loved.

    "I love you," she said,
holding out her hands beseechingly. "I've never loved anyone else.
But you're asking me to make an instant decision, to uproot Will, to
change my entire life, to leave the home that's been in my family for
generations. You could stay here with us. We could build a good life
together. You and Will and I."

    "You don't know me as well as I
thought you did if you think I can stay in Noble's Crossing. I love you and
I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but it can't be here. I'll live
with you anywhere else on earth, but not here."

    "I love you, too, but-"

    "I'm leaving tonight,"
he said. "I've neglected my business in Houston long enough. If
you change your mind…"

    He left her standing there in the
middle of her bedroom. Stunned. Hurt. Angry. He expected her to give up
her life to go with him, but he wasn't willing to do the same for her.

    You're a fool if you don't go with
him, an inner voice told her. If you give up this chance for happiness,
you'll never get another.

    "Mama?"

    Lane glanced up and saw Will standing
in the doorway. "Will, sweetie, what is it?"

    "I'm afraid I was eavesdropping,"
he admitted. "1 heard Johnny Mack ask you to marry him and go to Texas
to live."

    "How would you feel about leaving
Noble's Crossing? About my marrying Johnny Mack?" she asked-"Could
you live in Texas with your father?"

    "I could live in Texas,"
he said. "I could live anywhere as long as I'm with you, Mama.
Don't you know that? And if you love Johnny Mack and want to marry him, it's
okay with me. I'd say it's high time you two got together permanently, wouldn't
you?"

    "Do you mean it? You really
could live in Texas with Johnny Mack?"

    "Sure. Why not? What kid doesn't
want to live with both of his parents?"

    "Oh, Will." She grabbed
him and hugged him fiercely.

    "Don't you think you'd better
go tell Johnny Mack the good news and put the man out of his misery?"

    Lane laughed. "You're right.
You're so right."

    She found him in his bedroom, placing
clothes in his suitcase, which lay open on the bed.

    "May I come in?" she asked.

    "Sure." He didn't look up
from the task at hand, just continued fitting socks and underwear alongside
his shirts and jeans.

    "I'm not going to sell tins house,"
she said. "And I'm keeping my forty-nine percent of the Herald. I'd like
to give both to Will one day or to Will and whatever other children we
might have. Is that all right with you?"

    He looked up, and the corners of
his mouth lifted gradually into a smile.

    "I want a small, intimate
wedding, performed by a minister. I want Will and Lillie Mae to be our
witnesses. And I want a honeymoon. Nothing fancy. Just a few days alone
with you."

    "How does a week at my ranch
in the Texas Hill Country sound?"