Music City (31 page)

“Why are you changing jobs? It hasn’t been very long since you and Derek opened your own detective agency. Are you tired of it?”

“No, I’m not tired of it. I’ve enjoyed it, but now this new opportunity has come along. I got excited about it as soon as Skinner told me about it.”

“Why?”

Alex threw his hands up in the air, he was tense and a little exasperated. Mostly with himself. “Because it is what I was born to do.”

When she did not reply, he reached over and took one of Shelly’s hands in his, circling the top of her hand with his thumb to try to calm her, “You were born to be a singer, you have this amazing talent. I don’t expect you to understand, but my amazing talent is this. I believe that now and I have to go back to it.”

He released her hands and faced her. “I’ve felt like I’ve only been partially living since I left. I needed the break, I needed to come to terms with everything that happened.” He begged her with his eyes to understand, “I crashed when my wife and daughter were murdered, I mean crashed hard. I lived in a total haze of alcohol.”

Shelly tilted her chin in defiance, “A haze of alcohol in which you managed to coherently write multiple books and get them published.”

Alex gave a halfhearted shrug, “I can’t explain that, I got lucky I guess. It wasn’t until I met Derek that I got my feet back under me again. He saw through the rot that was me and literally pushed me to be a better person. He made me stop feeling sorry for myself.”

Shelly nodded, “I can see Derek doing that.”

Alex shook his head, “Our lives were so similar, our tragedies nearly identical, yet here he was functioning; not only functioning, but he still was doing his job every day, out there making a difference. But he wasn’t living. That’s where I think we helped each other. We made each other live again. The detective agency was a good start, but now we both need to see what our future holds.”

“Can’t you do that in Nashville?” Shelly asked, stretching a bobby pin beyond use in her hands. She twisted it and gave a soft sigh.

Alex took a deep breath, “I have to go where the opening is. This is the chance of a lifetime, I have to take it. If I passed it by, I would always wonder what would have been.”

Shelly shrugged, his words stung. “You aren’t going to wonder what might have been here...” she finally asked, “with me, if you had stayed?”

Alex raked his hands through his hair, he needed to choose his words carefully right now, he cared about Shelly and didn’t want to hurt her. He reached for her hand, took the massacred bobby pin from her with a small smile, and kissed her forehead lightly. Her eyes never left his gaze. “Shelly. I care about you. There is no denying that. I think you care about me, too.” Her head fell a bit, and she leaned into his shoulder, he could feel her nod after a few seconds.

He took a deep breath, her hair smelled like flowers and sunshine, and she felt so vulnerable in his arms, not at all like the Shelly Shepard she was most of the time. It was a heady sensation.

He took another deep breath and leaned back, tilting her chin up to look at him. “I wish that what we have was more than friendship, but you and I both know that is all that it is, or can be. It would not end well, or be good for either of us if we tried to force it into being something that we know…” He pointed to his chest, and then to hers, “in here, that it is not.”

He smiled at her, “We’re always going to be friends, Shelly, no matter what, and we can be friends whether I live in Cleveland or Nashville. You know that.”

Shelly nodded again, and kissed his cheek, a small smile on her face highlighted by the tears that had fallen silently all the way down to her chin.

She sat, at home now, and as Vani skipped upstairs with a huge grin on her face, Shelly turned her thoughts to Thanksgiving. It was only a few weeks away. The search for siblings had taken far too much of her time and energy. Now it was time to plan for the holidays. She had more relatives now and intended to make this year’s a really special family Thanksgiving celebration.

Ruth answered the phone on the second ring, always expecting Lori to be calling. “Hello.”

“Hi Ruth, how are you? It’s Shelly. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been there, and I must apologize for not calling sooner.
I’ve been so busy and I lost track of time. I want to invite you and Dennis to come to Nashville for Thanksgiving, if that is okay?”

Ruth
was so totally absorbed with worrying about the group home, and other things pressing around her home, that she had not given much thought to the upcoming holidays

“Oh, Shelly, it’s wonderful that you called. We’d love to come,
I have to confess that like you, I hadn’t given much thought to the holidays.  I’ll have to talk to Dennis about it, but I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.  As long as there’s turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and football he doesn’t care much where he is.”  Ruth laughed.

“
Great, that makes me so happy to hear!  I wanted to call you first, I’m going to call Lori, hopefully she and Mike can get away for more than just the day.  Noel and her children are coming, my sister, Dorothy will be here, her friend, William and of course Vani and Tracy.”

We have a big house with plenty of room for everyone. Please plan to come early in the week, I would love to spend as much time with
y’all as possible. Just let me know what day you want to leave, and I’ll make the travel arrangements. I’m so anxious for you to meet everyone, and I know everyone is very excited to meet you.”

“
Goodness gracious, Shelly, don’t go to any trouble, we can drive.”

“
Believe me, it isn’t a bit of trouble, and if you want to drive while you’re here, I have extra cars, or I’m sure you’ll have a willing chauffer anytime you want it in Vani and Tracy.  Remember, they’ve never had grandparents before, so it might be hard for you to get away from them.”

Ruth smiled, “Well, I’m not used to having Grandchildren, so it might be hard for them to get away from
me
.”

Shelly laughed, “I’m sure we’ll figure everything out.  Just let me know what
day you want to leave.”

Ruth just giggled.

“What is it?”  Shelly asked.

“I think I know where you got that stubborn streak.”

With Alex’s
impending departure, the need for a second detective was obvious and Tracy was doing all he could to fast track himself and learn as much as he could while Alex was still there with them. The more he learned, the more he realized that a lot of it was common sense, but much of it was very similar to researching for a book.  You needed to find all the facts you could, and learn everything possible about the subject, and always take meticulous notes. 

All of those things were second nature to Tracy,
but he still turned to Alex a lot for advice and just general knowledge.  Alex was a fountain of information.  After a few days Tracy realized that even though he took copious notes, he still wasn’t capturing everything Alex was telling him, so he bought a digital recorder.

Just about any time Alex opened his mouth to speak, Tracy pulled out the recorder.  Alex was a good sport about it, and reminded Tracy that he, too, always carried a recorder in his pocket and he knew that
Tracy was absorbing all he could while he was still there.

Ale
x was understanding and helpful and included him in all of his cases that had loose ends—giving him some of the follow up work and he was always available to answer questions. Tracy also read every book he could get his hands on about detective work.  They teased him relentlessly about it, but both Alex and Derek were confident that Tracy was going to be an outstanding detective.

Tracy also had
a plan in mind for the future, and he hoped that future included Brandy.   Brandy had two more semesters of college to finish, and more and more she had talked about going to law school so she could become an entertainment manager.  She had so much experience with Mila, and she enjoyed doing it, so it seemed logical that she should make her living doing something that she loved.  Tracy hoped that whatever she decided to do with her life, it would include him.

Derek was having similar thoughts. He and Vani were spending a lot of time together, and while the subject of marriage hadn’t come up, they had danced all around it. Both of them felt that it was only a matter of time until they decided it was going to be in their future plans. Vani appreciated the fact that Derek was fairly well established in his career and was not the type to cultivate a relationship for the social benefits or connections that could result from it. Vani had not been interested in marrying into a well-heeled family with entertainment connections. She had declined to date several very eligible young entertainers who may have primarily been interested in her for her business connections. Derek was a refreshing change, he didn’t aspire to be famous or wealthy, just happy and comfortable
and she liked that.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Shelly and Dorothy stood quietly holding hands. The weather was sunny, but a chill remained in the air. A gentle breeze tickled the few brown leaves that remained on the old hickory tree growing beside the white fence in the corner of the small cemetery. It had taken only a few days of planning, Shelly had confided only in Alex, and he’d understood her wishes to have Maye’s ashes buried beside the graves of BJ and Billy Joe. Alex and his connections took care of the details.

It wasn’t out of kindness or a broken heart, but Shelly thought a decent burial would give closure to that part of her life that she was unlikely to ever forget. And if those children who Maye claimed as her own, or those children to whom she gave birth ever cared enough to know, Shelly could direct them to Maye’s final resting place. No one else had claimed Maye’s body.

The urn
was placed in its container and buried. A small headstone marked the spot. Shelly and Dorothy had chosen this Sunday before Thanksgiving to come to the site alone, each had her own reason.

“I called you Momma,” said Dorothy. “I reckon that’s about the best I could give you. I hope you rest in peace after all you done to all of us. That’s all, Shelly. I ain’t got no more to say to her. I just wanted to tell her to rest in peace. That’s all.”

“Calling her Momma is more than she deserved, Dorothy. But I can’t go through my whole life hating. She did, but I can’t. So Maye, you can’t hurt any of us anymore. You see, Dorothy and I, we know the difference between loving and hating. I don’t know if you did. But, at least you drove us away from you and leaving you helped us learn the difference.

Leaving you was the best thing we ever did. We turned out Okay, Maye, not because of you, but because we left you and for that I do thank you. It was a bitter lesson, but we learned it. So rest in peace, Maye. Just rest in peace.”

That same Sunday before Thanksgiving, Derek made the drive to Lexington. He’d told no one where he was going, it was something he felt he had to do alone. He drove past the house where he and Beth had lived slowly. Memories played through his mind, gentle reminders of a happy carefree time. He’d loved Beth for a long time, she’d made him the man he’d become. She would want him to move on in his life, she would want him to love again.

Derek stood looking down at Beth’s grave. He thought briefly of the tiny life that
grew inside her, the one that was now buried with her. His baby, the child he would never know. But this time, he shed no tears. He smiled as he looked at her headstone. Time had not dimmed his memories or his love, but time had dulled the pain.

“Beth, you taught me to love, you taught me to live. I’ll forever be grateful for the years we shared, you will always be in my heart.” He arranged the roses in the vase that was imbedded in the headstone, sat for a while and remembered. Then he smiled once more and walked away.

Derek stopped briefly to grab a bite to eat, topped off the tank in his car, then he drove up the ramp to I-65 and headed south toward Nashville. Along about Bowling Green he set his dial on a Nashville station and listened with a smile as Shelly Shepard crooned to the masses. He was going home.

Derek and Alex had wrapped up most of their cases, those that were currently open were not pressing, so they decided to close the office early on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It would not reopen until the following Monday. They needed a break. Their work schedule was as full as they had hoped it would be. It helped tremendously that Shelly seemed to recommend them to others in her business, but they also had an excellent success rate. Word got around.

The unexpected factor that
had led to an exponential increase in their workload was Tracy. He was an excellent judge of human nature, as well as a perfect office manager. It didn’t hurt that he had excellent contacts. He was handling some cases mostly on his own now, with guidance from both Derek and Alex.

They were enjoying coffee and some great cinnamon buns that Tracy had brought from home, courtesy of
Martha, Shelly and Vani. They were chatting about nothing in particular, when Alex happened to look seriously at Tracy.