Lia Farrell - Mae December 02 - Two Dogs Lie Sleeping (24 page)

M
iranda called after breakfast and asked July to meet her at Tommy’s grave. She said they needed to say a final good-bye to the man who had been so important to them. Bethany would be joining them.

I do need to say my
good-byes, July thought, inhaling deeply.
Especially since I never made it to Tommy’s funeral.

“Are you still there, July?”

“Yes, sorry. First I have to line up a babysitter. What time are you and Bethany going to be there?”

“Noon, if that works for you.”

“I’ll be there.”

July got directions to the cemetery plot from Miranda before they ended their call
. Then she dialed Abby, her seventeen-year-old babysitter. Abby agreed to come at eleven o’clock and take the kids to the neighborhood pool; that would give July a little time to get ready.

After
Abby came for the kids, July showered, dried her hair, applied makeup, and dressed carefully in a navy linen dress and heels. She put her wedding ring on and got her diamond stud earrings out of her jewelry box. She hesitated, but then grabbed Tommy’s class ring from the bottom drawer and dropped it into her purse. Once her earrings were on, she stood in front of the full-length mirror.

“You can do this,” she told her reflection
before heading off to bid a final farewell to her first love.

Driving over to the cemetery, she heard her phone ring. Mae’s number was on the screen. She started to press the ignore button, then reconsidered.
Mae probably understands what I’m feeling better than anyone else could.
She answered, and asked her sister to meet her at the cemetery at one o’clock.

“Sure, I need to tell you something, but we can talk then,
good-bye.” Mae hung up.

Miranda and Bethany were standing on either side of Tommy’s headstone when July arrived. She got out of her car and walked over to join them. Both the women looked up, and the resemblance between them was clear.

“I don’t know why I never noticed before, but you
do
look like sisters,” July said.

“You probably missed the resemblance because I’ve got thirty pounds on her,” Miranda pointed out, a little rueful smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “My only excuse
for not accepting the truth was that I idolized my father. I should have believed you, Bethany. I’m so sorry.”

“I forgive you, Miranda. I wish Tommy was with us today.” Bethany smiled sadly. “He would have been happy to see us together.”

July reached into her purse and pulled Tommy’s ring out. She took a deep breath, and then handed it to Miranda. “I want you to have this. It was his class ring from college.”

“Thank you, July, but I think Bethany should have it. At least I got to have a little brother for part of my life. She missed out on a lot because of my
—I mean our—father.” Miranda’s eyes were reddening, and she sniffled. “Bethany just told me that Tommy planned to leave the house to me. I’m giving Bethany the money we found in the chair, and this ring, if you’re sure you can part with it.”

“I’m sure
.” July smiled at Bethany and Miranda through her own tears. “Thank you both for inviting me here today. I don’t need his ring anymore, but I did need to say good-bye to Tommy, and it’s good to know he has two sisters to remember him.”

The three women embraced and cried together. After promising to keep in touch, Bethany left first
; Miranda followed a few minutes later. July looked down at the fresh sod mounded over the grave and then up at the carved granite marker. The headstone read:

THOMAS JOHN FERRIS—1978-2013—FOREVER YOUNG.

“Are you all right, July?” Walking up beside her, Mae rested a hand on July’s shoulder.

July nodded. “I’m okay.” She turned to her sister and looked at her searchingly. “How did you do it, Mae? How did you get over Noah and say good
-bye to your future with him?”

“I’m not sure,” Mae responded after a pause. “I loved him so much, but it might have been easier for me than it’s been for you—wondering all these years. At least with Noah I knew what happened and that he really was gone. Then I met Ben and he made me think I had another chance.” She winced. “Well, anyway, that’s what I need to talk to you about, if you’re ready to go. We can sit in my car together and I’ll fill you in.”

July hugged her sister and then nodded. “Good-bye, Tommy.” She kissed her hand and pressed it against the cold stone, bidding farewell to their young love, to the baby they never had. She looked at Mae and reached out her hand. “C’mon, I think I’m ready to leave.”

As the two sisters walked toward the parking lot
, hand in hand, July couldn’t stop crying, but for the first time, the tears were a relief. She took a deep breath, thinking about Fred and her children, appreciating the life she had.
Everything turned out for the best for me after all, because of what he did for me.
She stopped and turned back to look at his grave.

“Thank you, Tommy, for protecting me long enough
so that I could fall in love again and have a family.”

Mae gave her hand a squeeze and
the two women walked away together.

B
y evening Mae was feeling a little better. Talking with July had been a big help. After Mae told her sister about the conflict with Ben and the questions surrounding Greg Townsend, her sister had apologized. “I’m so sorry I put you in that position, Mae. You need to tell Ben everything. If Greg told Henry to commit those murders, then it’s better for Sandi and her children to know the truth about him.”

July even urged her to text Ben about what they’d found at the Booth Mansion, saying she was sure Miranda wouldn’t mind, now that things were resolved with Bethany. Mae sent the text but Ben had yet to respond by the time she left her house to meet Dory at O’Brien’s for their late dinner.

The Irish pub was small, with stone walls that were white-washed. You had to walk downstairs to get into the pub, but the owners had removed the whole ceiling of the back half of the basement and made it into an enormous skylight. Patrons stepped off the bottom step of a dark staircase into a room filled with the colors of the sunset.

“Hi Dory
,” Mae said when she saw the always impeccably groomed woman sitting in a booth. They ordered burgers and glasses of the house red. After taking a little time to eat, Mae told Dory her idea.

“Ben thinks that Townsend paid Henry to do the murder, right? I figured out something at the bank today that Ben might be able to use to tie Greg to that money, and I think I know where the money is, but I need your help. Do you know who Henry’s
former girlfriend is?”

Dory gave her a slow smile. “I sure do, sugar. Her name is Randee and I know just where she lives. Can’t imagine why I didn’t think of this. Of course, Henry must’ve given the money to Randee. They have a kid together. He knew we were closing in and
so naturally would have dropped the cash off with her. Very smart, Miss December. If you want, I’ll take you to her apartment right now.”

After Dory
told the pub to charge their dinners to the sheriff’s office account, the two women walked out to the parking lot. Dory unlocked her car door and turned to Mae.

“Why don’t you follow me in your car? It’s not far from here.”

Mae drove behind Dory’s red Thunderbird for a few miles. Dory pulled into a rundown one-story apartment complex behind the Rosedale Market. The building looked like an old converted motel. She parked on the street, in front of unit 103. Mae pulled in behind her. Dory started up the walk; Mae locked her car and hurried to catch up.

“I’ll let you know when to start talking,” Dory murmured and pressed the doorbell. After a few minutes, a thin woman with fried blonde hair opened the door. She stared at Dory.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Randee, this is my friend Mae. Can we come in?”

Randee didn’t say anything, but stood back and gave a terse nod. They followed her inside the small unit that just confirmed Mae’s suspicion that the building used to be a motel. The room had the impersonal, shabby look of the kind of room you rented by the hour. The air reeked of mold and stale cigarettes. Randee waved her hand at the card table and folding chairs that sat under a light fixture with several burnt out bulbs. One bulb was still lit, and the three women sat under its dim glow.

“Go ahead, Mae,” Dory said.

“Miss Randee, we’ve come to ask for your help. We need to know what happened to a large amount of money Henry Covington received recently. We think he might’ve given it to you.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Randee said, taking a drag on her cigarette.

“We know you and Covington were together for many years,” Mae said, keeping her voice low and her smile gentle. “We know he’s the father of your son and it seemed to us that he would have given you the money.”

Randee shrugged her shoulders. “Henry and I were together
; now we’re not. Things change.”

“What Mae’s trying to say here,” Dory interjected, “is that we
know
Henry gave you the money from the hit on Tom Ferris to use for your kid if he got caught. He must’ve known the sheriff was closing in on him.”

“Like I said, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Randee said, tamping out her cigarette. She looked down at the overflowing ashtray. “I got nothing else to say.”

“Here’s the thing,” Dory said, “You can’t really brush this off, Randee. If you get caught with that much money, the law’s going to take it. Henry’s going away for a long time. I could help you keep that money because I’m about to be promoted to investigator. You have a kid to support on your own. You might as well do it in style.”

Mae cast
a horrified look at Dory. There was no way Dory could guarantee that Randee could keep that money.

Randee clenched her jaw and shook her head. “Your promotion doesn’t mean shit to me, Dory Clarkson. Anyway, my boyfriend Spike took off with all my money three days ago
, and I haven’t seen him since. I got no reason to help you out.”

Mae decided on another tack.

“Truth is, Randee, we really don’t care about recovering the money. What we want to know is whether Henry was paid to kill Tom Ferris. Henry’s probably going to get life for killing Ryan Gentry as it stands. It doesn’t make it any worse for him if you tell us. In fact, it could help shorten his sentence if he was pressured into killing them.”

There was a long silence. “It would help Henry if somebody paid him to do it?” Randee asked.

Both Mae and Dory nodded.

“Yes, he was paid to do it.” Randee’s voice was flat.

“Who paid him? Was it Greg Townsend?” Dory asked. “When we talked at the bar, you said Henry took care of things for Greg.”

Randee
shook her head. “Greg was just the errand boy. The last time I saw Henry—the day we met in the bar—he told me Greg takes his orders from the firm’s senior partner, Senator Osbourne.”

The silence thickened and no one spoke. The women looked at each other in dread, registering the powerful name.

“Did you say
Senator
Osbourne?” Dory’s voice was sharp. Randee looked around nervously and nodded. Dory’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

“Randee, are you saying that Greg Townsend wasn’t involved?” Mae asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think he only does what his uncle tells him to do. He’s the go-between.”

“Senator Osbourne is Greg’s uncle?” Dory asked. “Oh, now I remember. The Senator is Greg’s uncle on his mother’s side. We may need to call the Feds in on this.”

“I’m not saying another thing. I haven’t got any damn money and I won’t testify against Henry, Greg, or the senator. If I do, I’ll be dead too, and my boy will be in foster care.”

“The sheriff can protect you now,” Mae told her.

“Nobody can protect me.” Randee’s eyes were bleak. “In or out of jail, they’ll get to me. I don’t even know why you’re here, little Miss White Chick, but you’re messing with things way above your station.” She stopped talking abruptly. To Mae she looked like a cowering, injured animal. A sheen of sweat glistened on her cheeks and forehead.

The women heard a powerful car engine pull up outside Randee’s apartment and the sound of car doors opening. Her eyes opened wide and
she staggered to her feet, bumping against the table and sending the ashtray to the floor. “I’ve got to get out of here,” she murmured, in a desperate voice. Mae reached out to touch Randee’s shoulder and she flinched. She whimpered and ran her hands through her hair. Then she bolted toward the apartment door, almost running.

“Stop, Randee. Stop.” She turned back. “We all know Senator Osbourne’s a powerful man. We’re going to need to get you
to a safe place. Where’s your son now?”

They heard a furious pounding on the door and a man’s voice saying, “Open the door.” Randee was white, swallowing convulsively.

“My son’s with my parents in West Virginia,” Randee said. She was sweating, holding herself tight, her arms clenched around her belly. “They’ve been keeping him for the last month.”

The man continued pounding hard on the flimsy door. “Randee, open this damn door or I’ll knock it down. You better not be talking to the cops.”

“Do you think my boy’s safe?” The terrified woman whimpered.

Mae glanced at Dory, who gave an almost imperceptible
shake of her head. “I don’t know, Randee, but the sheriff’s my boyfriend; you can trust him to help you. Dory can take you to him now and he’ll contact law enforcement in West Virginia. What’s your son’s name?”

“David Henry Covington
,” She replied. Saying his name seemed to calm her a little. “My parents live on Blue Ridge Street in Chester.”

“I’m going to call
911,” Dory whispered to Mae. She took her cellphone out and Mae heard her say, “This is Dory Clarkson. We need help. Get somebody to 103 Chestnut. Somebody’s about to break down this door. There are three women here. The intruders are armed.”

The three women looked at each other and Dory held out her hand for Mae’s. The intruder went to the window and they could hear him trying to open it.

“Damn it, Randee, open up or I’m going to smash this window.”

“Go away!” Randee screamed.

Two very long minutes later they heard the sounds of swearing, car doors slamming and a screech of tires just before they heard sirens and the voice of a patrolman saying, “Open up. It’s the police.”

Dory answered the door and introduced herself. The patrolman asked if they were all okay
, and when they nodded, said he needed some information. When the police officer started asking Randee questions, Mae pulled Dory aside and told her what she’d learned at the bank.

“
Tell Ben that before this mess goes to trial, he needs to get a Controlled Transaction Report from the firm’s bank. Henry will be listed as the payee and the senator’s signature will be on the form as payer. Please tell him that the evidence is my apology for what I failed to do the last time we were together—support him as Sheriff of Rose County. Please also say that I choose him and always will. He’ll know what I mean.” Mae paused before adding, “I’m going to head over to Tammy and Patrick’s and ask them to follow me home.”

Dory pursed her lips. “Are you kidding? Not yet you aren’t, Mae December. If something happened to you, your mother would have my hide. Not to mention what Sheriff Bradley would do to me. You need an escort. I’m going to call the office, see who’s on duty and have them come over. George or Rob will take you home. I’ll tell the sheriff about your part in this when the time is right.” She flicked her hand at Mae. “As soon as the back-up arrives
, you can go. I got this mess covered.” She grinned and added, “Little White Chick.”