Candy-Coated Secrets (22 page)

Embezzlement sounds bigger, doesn’t it?
I sighed. “You’re right. Who else do you think is involved? Bob mentioned ‘us’ as in more than one.”

Ethan pulled me to his chest. “It’s time to step out of it, Summer. At least four people are dead, if Mrs. Hodge and Pete are lying inside. It’s not a game.”

“We don’t know that Lacey is dead.” I peered up at his face. “We’ve got to find out what happened to her. I need to find out.”

We were interrupted by the sight of two body bags being rolled on gurneys. Tears welled in my eyes. “Poor Mrs. Hodge. One blow after another in her life.” Another emergency technician followed with a blanket-covered Joe. I took a step toward him and grasped his hand. He smiled. “Ethan and I will follow you, Joe.”

I’d been too busy to visit Mrs. Hodge as often as I would’ve liked, believing the woman no longer needed my company since Pete courted her. I choked back a sob.

An officer approached us. “Your cousin is going to the hospital. Let me take your statements, and you can follow.”

“We came in Joe’s car,” I pointed out. “What about Lacey Love? Did you find her?”

The officer frowned. “I can’t divulge that information to you at the moment.”

He’d just told me all I needed to know. I’d failed her. Sobs erupted from deep within me, rising with the violence of a volcano. Besides Lacey’s killer, I was most likely the last one to see her alive. Just like my parents. Now, Mrs. Hodge and her boyfriend joined the list of victims.

The officer glanced at Ethan. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware you two knew the victim.”

“I—didn’t.” I buried my face in Ethan’s chest. “Well, not Lacey, but I knew Mrs. Hodge.”

“Why don’t you two come down to the station later, and we’ll take your statements there?” He waved over an officer who looked like he belonged in high school. “Officer Sweeney will drive you.” With an obvious sense of relief, he turned over the care of us to the younger officer.

We made the trip to the hospital in silence, broken only by my sniffles. I rode burdened beneath a mountain of guilt and ineptitude. Ethan’s arm around my shoulders did little to comfort me. My pain came from inside. From my inability to solve this mystery and save lives.

How many more people would die while I fumbled my way through the case?

Chapter Twenty-Six

I made my way to the chapel. In this country city, the hospital’s chapel wasn’t much larger than some people’s master bedrooms, but it was quiet. Aunt Eunice knelt before the wooden altar, not rising as I entered. God didn’t care what size the room was anyway.

The wooden pews were polished to a high sheen, and a simple oak cross hung above a podium. I chose a seat a few benches from the front and collapsed. My forehead rested against the pew in front of me.

Prayers for my uncle and Joe rose within me, not getting any further than my clamped lips. How could I pray when guilt threatened to choke me? Tears poured down my cheeks to land with splats on my folded hands. Empty-headed, ditzy, goofy were all adjectives used at one time or another to describe me. Guilty and empty—never. I swallowed against a sob. I was tired of hiding my guilt. I wanted release from my burden. My throat ached from the effort of restraining my grief.

Someone had left a Bible on the pew, and I reached for it. April once told me of a time when she’d desperately needed a word from God and asking, had let the Bible fall open. The pages fell on a verse that suited her needs to perfection. I shrugged and held the book by its binding, letting the pages ruffle open.

The words of 1 John 3:20 leaped at me from the onion skin pages.
Whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Yes, my heart condemned me. Yes, God is greater and knows all things, but how did I forgive myself?

Aunt Eunice straightened and glanced over her shoulder. “Summer? You all right, sweetie?”

I shook my head. My aunt pushed to her feet and bustled to my side, scooting in next to me. She pulled my head to her bosom where it had rested many times over the years, through millions of tears and hundreds of childhood heartaches.

“What is it? Maybe I can help.”

“Joe was shot today when we drove to Mrs. Hodge’s house. Mrs. Hodge and Pete are dead. Grizzly Bob killed them.”

Aunt Eunice stiffened. “Joe’s dead?”

“No. A shoulder wound, but it’s all my fault! Just like Mom and Dad and Terri Lee and Lacey Love and…”

Aunt Eunice stroked my head. “You’re quite a powerful person, aren’t you, dear?”

That stopped me in my tracks. Powerful? Hardly.

I pulled away from her and focused through my tears on her face. “What?”

Aunt Eunice took my face in her hands and brushed my cheeks dry with her thumbs. “To have done all that. You started young, too.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s obvious.” She pulled a tissue from inside her shirt and handed the soggy scrap of Kleenex to me. “Sit up, blow your nose, and listen to me. I don’t profess to completely understand God and all He does, but your moping around lately has got to stop. If I’d had any idea you felt responsible for your parents’ death, well. . .I don’t know.”

I stuffed the used tissue into my pocket. “I threw a temper tantrum that last day because they were going to a party without me. Mom waved and tried to smile, but I’d stressed her out so much, she couldn’t. I didn’t return the smile or the wave. Dad roared out of the driveway. If I hadn’t have put so much pressure on them and made them late, they’d still be here.”

“You don’t know that. Summer, you were five years old. Not responsible for your actions. A drunk driver killed your parents. Not you. And you’ve carried this around with you for twenty-five years?”

I nodded. “I didn’t realize it until lately, but that’s what’s driving me to solve these cases I get mixed up in. A chance for rectification. To undo a wrong I’ve done. I’ve failed so many people.”

“I knew you were spoiled, but I had no idea you had such a lofty opinion of yourself.” Aunt Eunice picked up the Bible from where I’d let it fall. Confusion clouded my brain. If this was my aunt’s way of making me feel better, I’d choose to stay a wreck.

“Do you believe what this book says?”

“Of course.”

“All of it? Or just parts? What verse did you read just now?”

“First John 3:20.”

“Uh-huh.” Aunt Eunice thumbed through the book until she found the verse. Her lips moved silently as she read. She closed the Bible, keeping her finger inside as a marker. “I guess that verse must be a lie, considering you’re still sitting here feeling sorry for yourself.”

I scratched my head, frowning. “I don’t understand what you’re getting at. Nothing in the Bible is a lie. God doesn’t lie.”

“Really? So you just don’t believe it.” She lifted her chin. “Tell me what the verse means.”

“That God knows everything. That He is greater than our hearts.”

“But what does it
mean
? Did you read the verse before that one? What about the ones after?” She reopened the book and began to read. “ ‘This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask.’ ” She lifted her gaze back to mine. “What have you asked for, Summer?”

I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut. Nothing. Out of my sense of shame, I hadn’t felt worthy to ask for anything.

Aunt Eunice set the book down and gathered my hands in hers. “God knows our hearts, our motives, our every piece. God will not condemn us.” Her lips spread in a slow smile. “And he isn’t going to hand over control of the universe into these soft hands of yours. You aren’t responsible for the death of these people. Your parents or anyone else. Your desire has been to help, not hurt.”

“How did you get so wise?” For the first time in a long while peace began to fill me, tiny crevice by crevice, and the burden of guilt I carried lifted an inch.

“Do you know who I was praying for before I fell asleep on that very uncomfortable pew?”

“Uncle Roy?”

“No, he’s going to be fine. I was praying for you. I knew the moment you walked through those doors you carried a whole mountain of hurt.” She cupped my cheek. “Now let’s go check on that cousin of yours.”

“I’ll be there in a minute, okay?”

“Okay.” Her hand rested on my shoulder for a second before she rose and left.

Alone, I sat. No tears, no shudders, just the ever-present lump in my throat as I absorbed the healing words my aunt had spoken. I’d accepted God’s salvation at the age of thirteen, but never had He seemed as real, as loving, as He did this very minute. Thirty years old and I’d finally grown up.

Ethan waited for me outside the door. I stepped from the peace of the chapel to the warmth of his embrace.

“Are you all right?”

I nodded. “Wonderful. It took me a while to take myself off the pedestal I stood on and let God take over. How do you put up with me?”

“Blinded by love, I guess.” Laughter rumbled in his chest.

“Ha, ha. How’s Joe?”

“Not bad. Doctor said the bullet went straight through.” Ethan slid an arm across my shoulders. “Ready to go home?”

“Very.” My mind returned to Grizzly Bob and the missing carnival funds. Did he kill the people and take the money or was none of it related at all? Was the case solved? If so, where was Mr. Foreman? Was he involved or an innocent victim? I gnawed my lip. With Joe laid up, there was no one at the station I could go to for answers. My nosy personality left me unsatisfied. I knew there were still parts of the story left untold. Despite my resolve to stay out of the investigation, I had too many unanswered questions.

I yawned. Tomorrow, after I gave my statement to the police, I’d go back to the carnival grounds and speak with Big Sally. She seemed to be the hub of the carnival and a close friend of Grizzly Bob’s.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Folks huddled in small clusters of three or four when I arrived at the fairgrounds the next morning. An autumn chill hung in the air, and people’s breath puffed like dragon smoke. What could be dismantled had been. The other buildings and rides were unplugged and boarded up. Because my family owned the land these people rented, my first stop of the day should be Eddy Foreman’s. I shuddered and pushed open the car door.

Even my footsteps sounded muffled as I made my way across the dirt-packed ground. Last year, once they’d finished the breakdown, the carnies threw a party. The air had been full of gaiety. Lack of money definitely put a damper on things.

I rapped on the door of Eddy’s trailer. As usual, he seemed happy to see me and still wore his signature polyester. “Summer!”

“Eddy.” I peered past him. He appeared alone although several empty beer cans littered the battered coffee table. Eddy could learn some tips on cleanliness and interior decorating from Washington.

“Come in, please.” With a swipe of his arm, he cleared a section of the green sofa of old newspapers and offered me a seat.

“Thank you.” I shoved aside the curtains, allowing any passersby a clear view of the inside of Eddy’s trailer. “Want to keep everything above board and proper, don’t we?”

He guffawed. “You do beat all, and to think I offered you Millie’s job.”

Candy-Coated Secrets 201

“Just think.” I still hadn’t gotten over the mortification of that experience. “How do you get by with it? The prostitution, I mean?”

“Prostitution? Only suspected, not proven.” Eddy winked. “What my employees do on their free time has nothing to do with me. Besides, your cousin was about to put a halt to everything anyway. We don’t get invited to many towns for a second run.”

Imagine that.

“So extracurricular activities are easy to slide past the authorities.” He plopped on the other end of the sofa. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Business or pleasure?”

“Definitely business.” The thought of visiting him held absolutely no pleasure for me. I felt dirty just sitting in close proximity with the man. “Have you located your father?”

“Unfortunately not. He seems to have disappeared into thin air. He’s gone, the money’s gone, but his car is right where he parked it.” Eddy ran a hand through his heavily pomaded hair. “With Lacey turning up dead and Grizzly Bob in jail, I fear the worst for my old man.”

I gnawed my lower lip. Things didn’t look good for the kind owner of the carnival. Eddy looked genuinely upset over his father’s disappearance, but I wasn’t going to cross him off my suspect list yet. I decided on the direct approach. “Eddy, has anyone been embezzling funds from the carnival?”