Middle River Murders (14 page)

“Finish feeding my grandson while we have tea; then we will
talk.”

We sat there and endured ten minutes of silence while Ethan
nursed. Everyone, except me, drank tea. After Ethan finished, I took him back
to the nursery and put him in his crib. When I sat back down at the table,
Chief Sam told us the news.

“Two things happened in your absence. Geneva Cherry called
earlier today, and Daisy Clark called just a little while ago. Which phone call
do you want to discuss first?”

“I knew it!” I shouted. “I was wondering how long it would
take before someone came crawling out of the woodwork to take Maisy away from
us. What took her so long?” I was angry.

“She doesn’t want to take the child,” Sarah said. “But she
does want to see her. Maisy’s her only grandchild.”

“What about Eli?” Billy asked. “Did she say anything about
him?”

“She said they were back together and wanted to spend time
with their grandchild. I told her we would discuss it with both of you and then
call as soon as possible.”

Billy and I stared at each other.

“There’s no need to worry. My sister’s health isn’t good. She
can’t take care of a baby,” Sarah said. “If I know her, all she wants is to see
her grandchild. Please consider her request.”

I thought about it for a few seconds and then said, “We can’t
possibly keep Maisy from her grandparents, but if either one of them gives me a
hard time, I’ll just have to stick a gun up their butts.”

Everybody gasped, even Billy.

“It was a joke,” I said, looking around. “A joke—just like
yours, Chief Sam. Where’s your sense of humor?”

Everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief. After a day like
today, I guess nobody was in the mood for jokes.

“Let’s start over,” I said, trying to put everyone at ease.
“What do you think, Billy?”

“As long as they behave themselves around Maisy, I say we
allow them to see her.”

“Then it’s settled,” Sarah said. “I’ll call my sister and
tell her the good news, if that’s all right.”

“That’s fine, Sarah,” I said, and then mumbled under my
breath, “I meant what I said about the butt thing.”

“Look here, Missy…” Mom started to say.

I laughed out loud.

“I don’t like it when you talk ugly like that. How many times
have I told you?”

“Ah, jeez, Ma, I can’t remember.”

Just then, the headlights from a car coming up the driveway
bounced across the room.

“Oh, I forgot about Claire,” Sarah said. “I called her like
Billy asked me to do. I told her what happened, and she said she’d get here as
soon as she could. She’s leaving the kids with Abigail and Isabel, and Randy’s
driving her back. She’d been home long enough to get the kids unpacked, bathed,
fed and ready for bed. She was laying out their outfits for school tomorrow
when I called. That’s probably her now.”

“What about Daisy?” Mom asked. “You don’t think that could be
her, do you?”

“No,” Sarah replied. “It’s not Daisy.”

“You say that so emphatically, as if she’s dead,” I said. “Is
she dead?”

“No, she’s not dead,” Sarah replied. “She’s in the hospital.
She called a few hours ago to inquire as to how Minnie was doing after her
episode
,
but in the middle of our conversation, someone rang her doorbell. Next thing I
know I’m holding the phone waiting for her to come back, and when she finally
did, she was hysterical. She kept screaming that her brother had been killed.
She sounded like she was going to explode. Finally, her husband, Gabe got on
the phone and said he had to hang up. He said Daisy’s brother had been killed
and she was having a breakdown. He was going to take her to the hospital.
That’s the last we’ve heard from Daisy Clark. I don’t think she knows the
details of her brother’s death.”

Sarah barely finished telling us about her conversation with
Daisy, when there was a knock at the door.

Billy walked over to the door, opened it, and then let Claire
and Randy in. “You don’t have to knock,” he said to them. “You’re family.”

“My mother didn’t raise me that way,” Claire said as she
walked inside. “She told me to always knock; it was the polite thing to do.”
She looked around the room and when her eyes fixed on Mom, she started to cry.

Mom walked over and hugged her.

“Don’t cry, sweetie. I’m okay.”

“I can’t believe what happened,” Claire said. “I hate to
think what could’ve happened if you’d been alone.” She continued to cry. “You’d
be dead. My mother would be dead.” She stepped back and looked around the room
at all of us. She looked back at Mom. “I want you to come live with me. You
need to get away from here. This place is dangerous. People get killed here…
around them.” She pointed to Billy and me. She looked directly at me and said,
“I’m sorry, but it’s true, Jesse. Ever since you and Billy got together, people
around you die. I don’t want my mother to die. She can sell her house in
Dogwood
Valley
and move in with me and the kids.” She turned back to Mom and said, “Please
come home with me. We can take a few things now and then come back later for
the rest of your stuff.”

I realized Claire was out of control. Her emotions were
getting the best of her, and I was afraid that at any minute she was going to
erupt like a volcano.

“Claire, I have a pill for you,” I said as I grabbed her by
the arm. “Come with me.”

“What?”

“Listen to her, Claire,” Mom said. “Go with Jesse.”

Claire was reluctant, like Mom had been, to accept a pill
that hadn’t been prescribed for her, but it didn’t take me long to convince her
that if she didn’t, her head would explode. As we stood in my bathroom, I told
her I needed her help with Mom and going over the edge wouldn’t do anybody any
good. I filled a glass with water from the sink and handed it to her along with
the pill.

“Mom has to stay here and face what happened, or she won’t be
herself anymore, Claire. If she goes home with you now, she’ll turn into a
shell of a recluse. Is that what you want? Look how far she’s come since Dad
died. I remember a time when she’d never fight back. She had Dad to do it for her.
Now she doesn’t have him anymore, so she has to be her own woman and protect
herself. I can’t let you take that from her.”

“Don’t you see how dangerous it is for her to be here?”

“It isn’t any more dangerous for her to be here as it would
for her to be anywhere else. The man who broke into Mom’s house was Kansas
Moon, Daisy Clark’s brother. The threat is even more real now. We think Daisy
discovered that Jonathan Blackhawk is related to Mom, and she obviously felt
betrayed. I’m sure she was concerned that if others were involved, it was only
a matter of time before she was exposed as the killer for which she is. So she
sent her brother after Mom. Little did she know that I was there, and between
the two of us, we stopped him.”

“I bet Mom must be in a tizzy,” Claire said as she threw back
the pill and then guzzled the water. “I’m so scared for her, Jesse, especially
now that I know all this. That crazy woman’s coming after Mom and you. Y’all
killed her brother.”

“Yeah, but if Mom stays here, you know Billy won’t let
anything happen to her, and I won’t either.” The more I talked, the more Claire
seemed to calm down. “Trust me; we’ll take care of her.”

“Okay, but if anything happens to her…”

“It won’t, I promise.”

“We better get back to the kitchen,” she said. “Everybody’ll
think we got lost.”

We walked back to the kitchen and sat down at the table.
Everyone stared at us, waiting for one of us to speak.

“Claire has calmed down and decided not to drag Mom, kicking
and screaming, back to D.C. with her. Although, you’re welcome to go with her
Mom, we think you should stay here.”

“I have every intention of staying here,” Mom announced. “I
hope you two don’t think you’re going to make that decision for me.”

“No… but,” Claire started to say.

“Good,” Mom interrupted. “I make my own decisions, and
Claire, you need to calm down and stop jumping to conclusions. I’m a grown
woman and nobody tells me what to do.”

“I can see that.”

Mom looked around the table and then back to Billy. “Where do
we go from here? What do we do next?”

“We should all go to bed and get some rest,” he said.
“Tomorrow we’ll start fresh.”

“But what happens if Daisy…”

“Daisy’s in the hospital,” I said. “She won’t be coming after
anybody for a while.”

“How can you be so sure?” Claire asked.

“She’s probably heavily sedated,” Sarah jumped in. “If her
husband thought the situation was bad enough for him to take her to the
hospital, he obviously will have them dope her up.”

“I agree,” the chief added. “In such a tragedy, a person
loses the ability to get his or her emotions under control and has to be
sedated.”

Claire and I looked at each other. A smile came to her face.
The pill had kicked in.

We tabled our discussions for now. Sarah and the chief left
to go home and the rest of us went to bed. After about an hour, I went upstairs
to check on Mom. She was fast asleep with Athena and Thor at the foot of her
bed. I figured they thought she needed them.

Dogs have such a sense about them, I’ve discovered. If you’re
sad, they’ll be right there for you… and if you’re mad, they stay out of your
way.

I walked down the hallway and looked into the room where
Claire was supposed to be sleeping; however, the bed was empty. I snuck down
the hallway further and looked in the other guest bedroom. The door was ajar,
so it wasn’t as if I was peeking. Claire and Randy were curled up, sleeping
comfortably. I closed the door and smiled at the thought of what Mom would say
if she knew.

Mom has a rule: If you’re not married, you don’t share the
same bed. That was the rule for her house, but she expected it to apply to
wherever she stayed. Since she lives here pretty much of the time, she would
expect that rule to apply here as well. Ha… ha. I hope Claire gets up in the
morning before Mom does, I thought to myself as I headed back down the stairs.

“Sinners!” I could hear her say now. I chuckled as I looked
in on the kids. They were fine, so I turned and went to my bedroom.

Billy appeared to be asleep, but as soon as I crawled in bed,
he whispered, “What were you laughing about, `ge ya?”

“You heard me laugh?”

“Yes,” he said. “The sound of it was so sweet. I was worried
about you, but I’m not anymore. I guess being married to me has brought out the
testosterone in you.”

“Silly, guys have that. We have estrogen power!”

“I’ve noticed. I’ve also noticed how well you’re taking this.
When we first met, you were such a wimp. You sure have changed.”

“Having children brings out the beast in me. Not only do I
have to take care of my mother, I have kids to watch out for.”

“What about me?” he crooned.

“You’re the one who watches out for all of us, O Great
Warrior!”

“I am father to Little Wolf and Smiling Princess, but you
have no name. We must find you one.”

“Where do you suggest we look, under the bed? Besides, I’ve
already been baptized. Isn’t it a sin to be baptized again? I’ll be condemned
to eternal damnation… as Mom used to say.”

“She still does.”

I kissed him on the cheek and said, “Go to sleep Grand
Master, for tomorrow you will be called upon to perform miracles again.”

We cuddled and soon fell asleep.

It seemed as if I’d just fallen asleep when Athena jumped on
the bed, followed by Thor. Both of them let out a howl. I noticed this had
become a ritual with them. Just before it was time for Ethan to wake up, they’d
come in and wake me.

“Shh,” I whispered as I put my finger to my mouth. “I’m
getting up, see?”

They jumped down off the bed and ran out to the hallway. They
ran around in circles and finally settled down. Both of them sat in the doorway
waiting for me.

“Who needs an alarm clock?” I said to no one in particular.
“I have you two.”

“It’s in their nature, `ge ya,” Billy whispered as he rolled
over in bed. “They want to make sure you don’t oversleep.”

“How could I?”

The telephone rang.

I looked over at the clock by the bed. “It’s only
six o’clock
. Who in their right mind would call this early?”

“I’ll answer it while you go see about the children.” He got
out of bed and then walked out of the room.

“I’m sure they’ll both be up soon with this racket going on.”
I looked at the dogs and sneered.

They politely got up and dispersed.

I heard Billy say Cole’s name as I walked into the hallway. I
looked in on the kids and they weren’t even awake. I walked to the end of the
hall and looked over at the dogs by the kitchen table.

“Falling down on the job, huh? The kids are still asleep.
What do you say about that Athena? Thor?”

Athena let out a weak howl and Thor whimpered.

“Both of you are goofballs. Oh, I know what you were trying
to tell me… the phone was going to ring.” I was making fun of them. I looked
around. “Where’s that fur ball cat?”

I walked over to the wall phone where Billy was standing and
tried to listen in on his conversation. It dawned on me that I no longer
considered this phone to be an eyesore. It was now a tool for protection. Not
only could you call for help on it, but if necessary, it could be used as a
weapon of defense. My opinion that it was antiquated and outdated was no longer
true. Now it was a thing of beauty. It had helped save Mom’s life… and mine,
too.

Billy appeared to be doing more listening than he was
talking. Finally, he said good-bye and hung up the phone. He turned to me and
said, “We won’t be taking a trip to Kansas Moon’s house today. The Greene
County Sheriff’s Office has that place surrounded with deputies. Cole said
Sheriff Hudson told him to call and tell us so we wouldn’t waste our time,
because he knew we wouldn’t be able to stay away. He sure has us pegged.”

“He knows both of you all too well,” Claire said as she
descended the stairs with Randy behind her.

“Did you sleep well?” I asked. I winked at Claire.

She smiled and said, “As a matter-of-fact, I sure did.” She
looked back at Randy and the two smiled at us as they headed to the kitchen.

Billy and I looked at each other and grinned.

“Who wants coffee?” Claire asked. “I’m making a pot.”

All of us raised our hands as if we were in school. I guess
you never get too old to act silly.

“Hey, why isn’t Mom up?” I asked. “She’s usually the first
one out of bed. This isn’t like her.”

“I’m up,” Mom said as she started down the stairs. “I was in
bed awake for an hour and then figured I’d better get up because I read
somewhere that if a person goes through a terrible ordeal and then won’t get
out of bed, they’re depressed. The longer they stay in bed, the worse the depression
is. I didn’t want y’all to call a psychiatrist in on me, so I crawled out of
bed, and here I am.” She walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
“I’ll have some coffee, please.”

“I guess I better call the men in the white coats back and
tell them not to come,” I said in jest.

“You’re not fooling me, Missy. I saw that deputy give you her
card. I’m sure the other card had a name of some head doctor on it. You can
just forget it. I’m not going to see a shrink, not just yet anyway. Maybe later
on we’ll discuss the possibility.”

“Good enough for me,” I said as I walked over and sat down at
the table beside her. “But if you start acting funny, I’m making that call.
I’ll tell them to bring a straightjacket.” I leaned over and hugged her.

“Jesse, you’re such a bad girl.”

“I know, I am. That’s why you love me so much.”

A noise from the nursery echoed down the hall.

“My audience awaits,” I said as I got up from the table and
waved at everyone on my way to the nursery.

Ethan was squirming in his crib as Maisy stood in hers.

“Oh, Daddy,” I called out to Billy. “We need you in here.”

I went to Maisy, picked her up and gave her a big hug.

I read in one of the many child-rearing books given to me by
various family members (as if I needed them) that a parent should not always
put the newborn first. It only takes a second to give a good hug and kiss to an
older sibling.

Billy walked into the room and gave Maisy a big smile. She
leaned toward him and held out her arms.

“Now I know why they say,
Daddy’s girl
and
Mama’s
boy
.”

We changed the children’s diapers and spent time holding and
cuddling them. After feeding Ethan, we took them to the kitchen so they could
see everyone, and be held. This was quickly becoming another family ritual.

Billy held Maisy as he sat with Mom and chatted, while I
poured milk into one of those spill proof cups for Maisy. Claire and Randy
prepared breakfast. I handed the cup of milk to Billy and sat down next to him.

“You can put her in the high chair, Billy. We’ll be eating
soon,” Claire said. “I fixed a plate of scrambled eggs and a piece of toast for
her.”

“There’s a jar of baby applesauce up in the cabinet. Would
you get it?” I asked.

Ethan couldn’t hold on any longer and fell asleep in Mom’s
arms.

“Ethan eats and sleeps,” I said. “I guess I’d better take
advantage of that while I can, huh?”

“That’s true,” Mom said. “It won’t be long before he stays up
most of the day like Maisy does. I need to put this little fellow in his crib.”
Mom got out of the chair and took Ethan around so everyone could give him a
kiss, and then took him off to la-la land. She returned within minutes.

“I heard the phone ring, Billy,” Mom said. “I also heard
Cole’s name.”

“Cole called to tell us to forget about going to Kansas
Moon’s house. The sheriff’s onto us. He said to stay away,” Billy said as he
put Maisy in the high chair. He took the jar from Claire and started
spoon-feeding Maisy the applesauce. “He even said the sheriff told him to call
us. It seems we can’t hide anything from Sheriff Hudson anymore. He’s come to
know our way.”

“Does that mean we’re not going?” Mom asked.