Dirty South Drug Wars (25 page)

A group of murmuring townsfolk walked into the cake shop, forcing Josie to lean forward and whisper her response. “We have to get through Nana to get through the safe.”

Josie and I walked away from the front of the store, leaving Lucy at the cash register. The timer on a cake I’d placed in the oven went off, jarring me from my thoughts of cracking the safe. After removing it from the oven and placing it on the cooling rack, I joined Josie once again.

“What if we look inside the desk in her office?” I asked. “Maybe she has something here or at her house with the combination on it.”

“Or,” Josie said, blinking innocently, “we tell her we murdered Levi Bridges, cut off his finger for revenge, fed him to the alligators, and will do the same to her if she doesn’t give us that combination. Do you think she’ll take us seriously?”

“That’s not funny, Josie.” I poked her in her ribs and sent her into a fit of giggles. “I swear, I barely sleep at night. You act like what happened doesn’t even bother you!”

She shrugged, screwing a tip on an icing bag and plopping on a stool in front of a frosted cake. “What happened to Levi
doesn’t
bother me. I quit caring about that bastard the moment he pointed that gun at my face. You shouldn’t care either.”

“I can’t help it, Josie. I can’t help feeling a little guilty. I have nightmares about that night, what we did to him, the things he did to me, the things he
would have done
if Tanner hadn’t shown.”

“That should be solace enough to help you sleep at night.” Josie sighed, turning the cake on the turntable as she swirled the icing around the base. “You’d be a rape victim and dead yourself if not for Tanner. Screw Levi Bridges.”

“Did someone say ‘Levi Bridges’?” an eerily kind voice asked.

Josie and I froze then slowly turned our heads to the doorway. Uncle Amos leaned against the doorframe with Lucy standing behind him, wringing her hands. He was eating an orange and was the perfect picture of relaxation. Juice flowed from the fruit and rolled down his chin. Amos wiped the juice away with the back of his hand and shoved himself off the doorframe.

Josie’s rigid shoulders relaxed and she yawned, returning to work on the cake. “Hey, Uncle Amos. You have another orange with you? I’m freaking starving. Someone should call the labor board and report Nana. I haven’t had a lunch break yet.”

The turntable made an odd, screeching sound as Josie rotated it and ignored the way Amos approached us. The air was stiff and thick with discomfort. I grabbed a bag of icing and joined Josie near the cake, placing it beside her. Amos’ stare was on me, penetrating the side of my face.

“Poor girls,” he said. “You need a break too, I’m sure. It’s been a very stressful few days.”

Josie finished off the row of shells on the bottom of the cake and dusted her hands off on her apron. “How so?”

“Oh, you know, all the excitement of Levi Bridges’ disappearance,” Amos said. “It’s enough to set everyone on edge.”

I gave Amos a steady, firm stare and reached behind my back, tugging the strings of my apron loose. “We didn’t know Levi very well. I’m sorry that everyone is worried about him, but I barely knew him.”

“Really? I remember Jeb and Buck taking y’all fishing a couple times when you were younger. Seems like you tossed him into the lake a time or two for teasing you about your red hair. You had a recent reunion as well. Am I right? On the side of a highway? On your way to the swimming hole, hmm?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, he did pull us over a few days ago,” I said, willing my hands to not tremble. “He really didn’t give a good explanation as to why he pulled us over. I think he just wanted an excuse to pat me down.”

“That sounds like old Levi.” Amos cackled and shoved the last of the orange in his mouth. He sucked the juice from his fingers. “He’s mentioned, more than once, his desire to court you. Buck’s worried about him, but I’m sure he’s just off somewhere sowing his wild oats. Levi’s always had a wild hair up his ass. Maybe when he shows back up you’ll give that boy a chance.”

I gave my uncle a sugary sweet smile. “Sure. I’ll be more than happy to go out with him.”

“‘Atta girl.” Amos ruffled my hair with his sticky fingers, and I cringed. “Where’s Ma at? In her office? We need to talk.”

“Yes, sir,” Josie replied. She yawned again with a dull expression. “She’s in her office gossiping to the other crypt keepers about the illustrious Levi Bridges’ disappearance.”

Amos ruffled my hair once more and then disappeared around the corner. The office door opened and he called out a greeting to our grandmother before the door shut behind him. The indifferent expression melted from my cousin’s face. Lucy entered the room as quiet as a mouse with eyes wider than Nana’s hips.

“How did he know about Levi pulling—” Josie started, but I pressed my forefinger to my lips, gesturing to the office door.

Josie and Lucy nodded their understanding. The three of us crept to the door, gently pressing our ears against the white-painted wood.

“I need that package I gave you a while back. The one I told you not to open,” our uncle’s muffled voice sounded out through the thick wood.

“Package? What package?” Nana responded.

“The one I told you not to open.” Annoyance tinged Amos’ voice. “The large manila envelope. It’s been a few years, but surely you remember it.”

“I don’t remember, my dear. You know how forgetful I am. I’m old as dirt and dumb as a box of rocks.”

“Think hard. You need to remember, Ma. That envelope wasn’t secure at my house, or anywhere else. You said you’d lock it up somewhere safe.”

“Somewhere
safe
,” my grandmother said in a slightly louder voice. “Somewhere
safe
… Give me a couple days. I’m sure I’ll remember where I stashed it.”

“You better.” Amos’ voice was menacing above the sound of metal scraping the floor.

The three of us scurried away from the door. Lucy tripped on a chair in the adjoining room, hitting the floor with a loud thud. Josie hoisted her up and Lucy sprang from the room, depositing herself behind the register with a picture of boredom on her face.

I busied myself by removing the cooled cake from the cake pan, cringing as the bottom of the strawberry concoction stuck to the pan and tore slightly. Amos slid from the back office as I frowned at the partially destroyed cake.

He strolled over to the sink and turned on the faucet, washing his hands. “That’s a nasty little bruise peeking out beneath your hairline.”

My already racing heart picked up speed, thumping rapidly against my chest. My hand reached up, pressing against my tender skull. I’d applied thick makeup over the area, and the swelling was completely gone. The bruise was barely noticeable.

“You girls be careful.” Amos raised his voice, washing the sticky orange juice from his hands. “Levi Bridges’ gone missing now. If a cop can disappear into thin air, I suppose just about anyone can.”

He shot me a lopsided smile before drying his hands and strolling from the back of the shop. There was a whistle on his lips as he left. The bell hanging above the front door jangled, and he disappeared outside.

I slumped in relief, leaning on the table in front of me. Josie and Lucy joined me.

“He knows,” Josie whispered. “He knows Levi pulled us over, and something tells me he knows we’re involved in his disappearance. Plus, he brought up Rue’s bruise.”

“He doesn’t know,” Lucy said. “He was testing us, seeing if we’d crack under pressure. What do you think, Rue? Do you think he knows?”

I didn’t have a chance to respond. Nana’s office door swung open and her squat body appeared in the doorway. Her worried, watery-blue eyes darted across our faces as we stood huddled near the crumbling cake, staring at her. Her skin was pale and mottled in anxiety.

“Matthew ten, verses twenty-six through twenty-eight.” She grabbed her purse from under a shelf and shuffled to the back door.

“What are you talking about, Nana?” I shook my head in confusion.

She pursed her pallid lips and shook her head. “I’m feeling a bit woozy. A little off-kilter. I’m going home to lie down for a bit. Don’t call me unless the building’s on fire.”

The door flung open, and she was gone, leaving nothing but a trail of old lady perfume in her wake. Her old Buick fired up in the side alley before peeling out onto the street.

Josie sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “She’s lost it.”

I would have agreed, if not for the contemplative expression on my sister’s face. She chewed on her bottom lip with a faraway look in her dim eyes. They suddenly brightened.

“The safe!” she whispered, bouncing on her heels. “The safe!”

“What about the safe?” I asked.

Lucy removed her phone from her back pocket and opened the internet app. “What if the Bible verse has something to do with the safe combination? You heard her in the office. She kept saying ‘safe’ so loudly, almost as though she knew we were listening. What if she dropped the Bible verse as a hint to us? I’m looking up the verse.”

But before she had a second to find the verse, Josie spoke. “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

We stared at her in shocked wonder.

Josie scowled and tossed her hair over one shoulder. “What? Stop gaping at me with your judgmental eyes. Just because I’m …
me
… doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the Bible.”

I threw my hands up in mock surrender. “No judgment. Just a little surprised is all. So, you think that chapter and those verses have something to do with the safe?”

Lucy closed her internet app and opened her texting one. “Maybe it’s not just the
verse
. What if it’s the chapter and verse
numbers
?”

“Ten, twenty-six, twenty-seven and twenty-eight,” Josie said with a grin. “I think you may be right. Who are you texting?”

“I’m texting Chance,” Lucy replied. “I think Nana just gave us the combination to her safe, girls.”

As Lucy tapped away at the screen of her phone, it occurred to me how much she’d changed since meeting Chance. For one, she seemed much more lucid, more sober than usual. I hadn’t seen her pupils dilated or witnessed any erratic behavior in several days.

Also, Lucy seemed to fully trust the Montgomerys now, evidenced by the fact that she was currently texting Chance about the possible safe combination.

I touched her hand. “Don’t give him the combination. We should be there when it’s opened.”

Lucy huffed. “I’m not a moron. I’m not even telling him about Nana’s clue. I’m asking what their plans are for tonight. They’re not about to open that safe without me standing there.”

“Good. I like the Montgomerys, but Tanner is the only one I fully trust.”

Josie raised a critical eyebrow. “Yeah, but you’re the genius who gave them the safe. Now you’re the one doubting our alliance?”

“I’m not necessarily doubting it.” I grabbed a damp washcloth, wiping down the sticky counters. “I’m just saying we should be there when it’s opened. Who knows what kind of family secrets Nana has in the safe? It might contain things that don’t even pertain to the Montgomerys. And what was I supposed to do? We had no clue how to open that stupid safe and Tanner didn’t give me much of an option. Besides, Daddy always said the best way to think like a crook is to be a crook. Who’s a better crook than the Montgomerys?”

Josie cackled, a loud, throaty laugh. “The Monroes.”

I tossed the washcloth in the sink. “We should take precautions. First, we need to find some way over there without drawing suspicion to ourselves. We shouldn’t go in my Jeep or your truck, Josie, and I’m certainly not asking Tanner to drive out here and pick us up. Not with Buck and Amos sniffing around town.”

Josie and Lucy both murmured their agreement. We finished cleaning shop and slipped outside onto the sidewalk. It was an unusually chilly night for July. The moon overhead was neither full nor crescent. It hung in the heavens as a broken orb, peeking through the rolling, smoky clouds like a curious child peering out from behind its mother’s skirt. The heat from the hot street and sidewalks combined with the odd coolness of the air created a vaporous fog. Mist seemed to seep from the ground, creeping around our ankles like sorrowful ghosts wandering the earth.

The strange tenor of the night continued as we crossed the desolate street. Lucy began acting particularly strange, fidgeting with the frayed edge of her shorts and muttering to herself. Josie and I exchanged a look of concern. I tried to ignore Lucy’s unintelligible words as we arrived at our vehicles. All thoughts of Lucy’s improved eccentricity evaporated with her change in mood. Her strange behavior had once again returned, and a sense of melancholy washed over me.

Josie abandoned us near her truck with the promise of returning to our house with a discrete vehicle. When we arrived home, Lucy hopped out of the Jeep, insisting on showering and changing clothes. I was too anxious, too consumed with the knowledge that the contents of Nana’s safe would soon be revealed, to concern myself with gussying up for Tanner.

The lake water lapping against the shore and the hoot of an owl added to the eeriness surrounding us. We entered our house. A shiver crept down my spine, but I shook it off, mentally berating myself and blaming my nervousness.

“Someone walk over your grave?” Lucy asked.

I nodded, tucking a loose strand of hair from my sloppy bun behind my ear and ignoring the chill bumps running along my skin. Lucy sighed and disappeared upstairs to shower.

Josie shot me three impatient texts explaining she was waiting for us at the end of the driveway. I’d just finished returning her third text when Lucy appeared from upstairs. Gone was the mandatory Monroe’s Sweet Confections pink shirt and her shorts. A white, thin dress graced her tiny stature, ending just at her knees. There was a smugness to her face that she quickly hid as I stared at her suspiciously.

“Are we ready to go?” she asked.

I appraised her girly get-up, brushing off her question. “Why are you wearing that? That’s why you were anxious to stop by the house? So you could dress up for Chance?”

Lucy shoved her feet into a pair of ballet slippers and gave a careless shrug.

“I don’t understand you sometimes. We could already be cracking into that safe, but you had to make a pit-stop to pretty yourself up? Come on, Josie’s waiting at the end of the driveway.”

Lucy grinned, looking so full of unspoken knowledge and truth it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. She turned and skipped across the living room, exuberantly slipping through the front door and disappearing into the mist.

I lagged behind quite a distance away. The low rumble of an idling engine hummed from the road. A Buick LeSabre, probably a nineteen seventies model, sat on the side of the road. Dingy and beige with thick, putrid exhaust pouring from the tailpipe, the car was one I had never seen before.

Lucy slid in the passenger side with that knowing expression on her face. I wrenched the back door open and flopped down against the ripped leather interior. The jagged material scratched the back of my legs and the air smelled of body odor. Sticky junk food wrappers were scattered along the floor, which was stained with red mud.

“Now this is an
8 Mile
car if I’ve ever seen one,” I joked, trying to dissipate the odd feelings. “Where did you steal this from? And where’s Eminem? I know you secretly love him. I’m highly disappointed he’s not here.”

“I do not love Eminem.” Josie pulled from the shoulder of the road and punched the gas. The engine whined and protested. “I’m a straight-up country girl. You’ll never hear Eminem blasting from my speakers.”

I placed my hands on my lap to avoid the disgusting interior. “You’re a total closet Eminem fan and we all know it. Seriously, where did you get the car?”

“Someone owed me a favor.” She shrugged, pulling onto the main highway and heading over the bridge. “And I collected on it.”

The thick fog formed a white veil over the bridge as steam rose from the underlying water. Josie crept across the bridge at a cautious speed. We sat with bated breaths, squinting at the whiteness swirling around the car. When the back tires left the bridge and the fog let up immensely, we all let out audible sighs of relief.

Josie followed my directions down the dusty dirt roads. The car rolled through the thick woods and mist, growling as Josie brought it to a stop in Tanner’s driveway. Chance and Bryce’s vehicles sat near the garage along with the expensive vehicles I recognized from my first visit to the house.

A nervous ball of anticipation formed in the pit of my stomach at the very thought of opening the safe with Graham or Melissa present. What if there was information against Graham in that safe? Would he take it? Destroy it?

Tanner, Chance, and Bryce sat on the front porch chatting and laughing. Josie, Lucy, and I climbed out of the car and walked to meet them. Josie glanced around at our surroundings, taking in her first view of the Montgomery house.

Tanner stood from his wicker chair with a lopsided grin. He reached out and pulled me into his arms. I relished the firmness of his body, his disheveled hair, and the smell of manly soap that lingered on his skin.

“Nice ride,” he whispered, burying his nose in my hair. “I don’t think anyone would suspect you’d be in a car like that.”

Josie turned up her nose, swatting Bryce’s roaming hands from her body. “Hey, I like that car. It has character.”

“It smells like someone died in it,” I said.

“You’d know,” Josie grumbled. Ignoring my shocked expression, she gave in to Bryce’s relentless groping and sat on his lap.

Chance leaned back in his chair, his arms snug around my sister’s waist. “Not that I’m complaining, but what brings you ladies to the Montgomery compound?”

“Well, we think we might know the combination to Nana’s safe,” I replied.

Tanner cocked his head to one side. “Really? How did you figure it out?”

My grandmother’s trembling voice as she spoke the Bible verse flashed through my mind. It felt wrong to speak my grandmother’s hint, remembering the fright and weakness in her eyes caused by our menacing uncle. I shrugged, and Tanner gave me a stern stare, assessing my downcast face.

Tanner dropped the subject, releasing me from his arms. He placed his hands on my waist and guided me to the front door. The others followed behind. Nervousness clouded Josie’s face. She disguised her anxiety with a look of indifference. Lucy continued to have a tiny bit of smugness in her smile I couldn’t understand.

Graham and Melissa sat on the tremendous leather couch, smiling and talking to one another. Melissa wore a royal blue dress and sipped heavily scented coffee from an antique china cup. Graham had the local newspaper spread across his lap. A black and white photo of Levi’s smiling face was plastered against the open page.

Graham closed the newspaper and tossed it onto the coffee table. “Hello, ladies, Rue. This is Lucy and Josie, I presume?”

“Yes, sir,” the two chanted. One spoke in a respectful, yet wary tone and one with a tremendously unimpressed candor.

Graham and Melissa stood and took turns shaking their hands. My sister was stiff and uncomfortable touching either one of them. Josie struggled to maintain a neutral façade, but the end result was a sour grimace that raked her entire body.

“We’re going down to the basement,” Tanner said, “to take another shot at opening the safe.”

“Basement?” Graham furrowed his brow. “What basement?”

“Graham,” Tanner began, speaking in a quiet, controlled voice. “I told Rue the safe was in the basement. She knows we have a basement.”

Graham dropped his hand from Josie’s, turned, and stared at Tanner in disbelief. A moment of tension coursed through the air. Tanner’s face tightened, and that sexy jaw line held firm as the two stood at war with one another. A mute debate passed between them. Josie, Lucy, and I looked at one another in awkward confusion. I could only imagine what was in that dreaded basement.

“Oh, get over yourself, Graham.” Melissa huffed and returned to the couch. “If you don’t want them in the damn basement, go get the safe and return it to them. It’s theirs to begin with.”

Melissa blew the wavering steam over the edge of her coffee cup, meeting Graham’s glare. Graham sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. After a moment of tacit hesitation, he dropped his hands from his head and stared at the three of us.

“The boys will bring your safe upstairs to my office.” Graham spoke in a firm, no-nonsense tone, joining his wife on the couch. “You girls can visit with us until they return.”

Josie, Lucy, and I exchanged a wary frown and sat down. The boys disappeared around the corner while we waited in nervous anticipation. Graham returned to his reading and Melissa chatted with us in a friendly tone, asking light, mundane questions. My gaze constantly darted to the various photographs of Levi splashed across the newspaper clutched in Graham’s hands. I half expected Melissa or Graham to mention his death, but they never did.

The boys returned with Bryce and Chance toting the heavy safe. Tanner nodded for us to follow, and we did, excusing ourselves from the room. Graham never moved from his place on the couch, engrossed in his newspaper.

We entered a large, elegant office, full of bookshelves and rows and rows of books. A grand, mahogany desk sat in one corner of the room. Chance and Bryce placed the safe on its slick surface, careful not to mar the wood.

Chance plopped down in the leather chair near the desk and wheeled himself over to the safe. “So what’s the number combination y’all came up with?”

“Ten, twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight,” Lucy said.

Chance spun the dial several times, getting a disappointing clicking sound each time he pulled at the handle. “This type of safe requires six numbers to open.” He spun the dial again, to no avail.

Josie shrugged Bryce’s hands away as she slammed her fist in the side of the safe in frustration. “You stupid piece of crap,” she said, red-faced.

“Damn, baby.” Bryce’s smile was crooked, lazy. “I love it when you’re irrationally angry. You’re so hot. Let’s do drugs and have sex.”

Josie smacked him in his chest with her fist. “Ugh, you’re disgusting.”

“Six numbers,” I said. “If it holds six numbers, maybe it’s non-repetitive numbers. Ten, twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight. That’s a one, zero, two, six, seven, and an eight. That’s six numbers in all.”

Everyone peered at me for a moment before hurriedly turning back to the safe. Chance spun the dial again, applying the combination of numbers I’d suggested. We all let out one combined audible gasp when the safe made a loud, resounding click. Chance pulled the door open. The rest of us leaned forward and stared inside the safe in rapt curiosity.

Chance eased out of the leather chair and offered it to me with a polite nod. “Here you go, Rue.”

I gave him a thankful smile and slid onto the chair. With a slow, careful hand, I removed each item from the safe. The unmistakable musty smell of old books and papers assaulted my senses. I stacked a group of well-worn diaries on the table. Some were tattered with frayed bindings, wrapped with stained ribbons, and some were newer with shiny, brown leather covers.