The Fame Equation (28 page)

Jon saw my astonishment and answered the questions my brain couldn’t get organized enough to ask. “She’s ten and lives with her mother in Oklahoma.”

I still couldn’t form any words, whether as a result of the carbon monoxide poisoning or Jon’s news, I didn’t know.

“Her mother was a girl I knew many years ago. I was . . . well let’s just say I was a troubled teen, and so was Inola.”

Annie and Tony Zinner had told me some of Jon’s troubled past––but not this. I wanted to ask if they knew, but thought I’d better hold the question. Now that Jon had started talking, he couldn’t seem to stop.

“She wasn’t even my girlfriend. It just happened one night and I learned several years later that she had gotten pregnant. Tsula was the result.” He pronounced his daughter’s name as Joolah.

“I didn’t learn about Tsula until she was three, when Inola hit me up for child support. It got messy, mostly because I was still a jerk back then, but after a paternity test the court made sure I paid my share. Thing is, Tsula has cerebral palsy.”

“Then why are you here, Jon? Why are you not in Oklahoma with Tsula––and Inola?”

“It’s complicated. Inola wasn’t someone I even liked. She was a party girl then, which is how I knew her. By the time I found out about Tsula, Inola was married and she and her husband had a son.”

Jon then said that Oklahoma held too many temptations for him, temptations he should not face. “I’m an alcoholic, Cat. I have trouble with liquor, and I don’t do well there. Here, I have a life that I love, and I am rarely tempted, even when we go on the road. When I am there, I’m a different person.”

“Is that where you go for the holidays?” I asked. Jon always disappeared the last two weeks of December. It was his vacation, after all, but he returned like clockwork about dinner time on New Year’s Eve.

“Yeah. I stay with various family members, a day or so with each. After the first few hours of catching up, people in my family start to drink. Even though they know I don’t want to be around it, it’s their way of life. I see Tsula every day I’m there and we spend Christmas week together in a hotel. I love it here, but that week with Tsula is the best week of my year.”

I saw in his eyes how that was true. “Not that it’s any of my business,” I said. “but is that who you’ve been talking to on the phone?”

Jon nodded. “And not talking to Inola. Inola is an unhappy person and not all that pleasant to talk to. I avoid her calls when I can. Tsula turned ten a few months ago and I got her a phone. Now we can keep in touch better. Inola was not pleased, but the court said she had to let Tsula keep the phone. We talk every day now.”

“The cerebral palsy, she’s verbal?” I had learned enough at the riding center to know that there were wide degrees of disability. Some with cerebral palsy, or CP, were nonverbal and wheelchair bound, while others might talk up a storm and walk with just a slight limp.

“Yes. She uses a walker, but I hope that one day she will walk with just a cane.”

On impulse I said, “Bring her here, Jon. We can figure something out and wouldn’t it be great if you could see her every day?”

He smiled. “It would be great, yes. I looked into it a few years ago, but the court won’t allow it. Inola is not a bad mother, and Tsula’s stepfather is good to her. Tsula loves her little brother, too. She is happy where she is.”

“Tony and Annie?” I finally asked. “Do they know?”

“I have not yet crossed that bridge,” said Jon. “Every day I think, today is the day. But it never is. Soon though. Soon I will tell them. But right now another little girl awaits, an impatient, four-legged redhead. It’s time for Gigi’s massage.”

Jon gave my hand a hard squeeze as he stood, and I let my head rest on the back of the chair. Why could life not be easier? I was glad Jon finally opened up. In light of his news, I wanted to regroup on some of my plans for the money Melody had left me. Jon needed a raise.

After Jon left to give Gigi her massage, with Hank tagging along happily behind, Sally wandered up toward the porch and stopped at the fence line, which was about fifty feet away. I went over to give her some love and she spent a long time smelling my face and hands. Horses determine a lot about a person by the odors he or she carries. Everything from current emotion to yesterday’s lunch could be picked up by a horse’s delicate sense of smell. I probably smelled like Jell-o and hospital disinfectant.

Sally often rested her chin on my shoulder to stretch out the back of her neck and I expected her to do that today. But instead, after she finished sniffing me she laid her ears flat against her neck, gave me an ugly look, and walked away. What was it about me that Sally found distasteful today?

I didn’t have time to think too much about Sally because I needed to call Brent. It was almost lunchtime and I knew he’d take a break soon. Even though we didn’t see each other every day, and sometimes went a day or two without talking on the phone, it wasn’t like us to not touch base when major events happened in either of our lives. But, in the weeks since Melody’s death, nothing had been normal.

Back inside the house I locked the doors and plugged in my landline. When I got Brent on the phone he asked if he could call me back in five minutes. He said it in such a way that I expected him not to call at all, but he did.

“I’ve talked to Martin,” he said in lieu of greeting.

I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad, so I went with neutral.

“Then you know what happened,” I said carefully.

“I do. I’m sorry I didn’t get to the hospital to see you. My schedule has been crazy, but Cat, to be honest, I’m not sure I can do this anymore.”

“You’re not sure you can do what, exactly?”

“I can’t live in fear any longer that you are going to be kidnapped, or held at gunpoint, or drugged and tossed into the trash. Or that your brake lines are going to be cut, or that you’re smacked in the back with a heavy weapon.”

Brent had a point. Hard to believe, but those were things that had actually happened to me in the nine months I had known him.

“I can’t live in fear any longer that I am going to lose you,” he said. “I love you, Cat, but we aren’t working.”

“I know.” And I did. I also noted that the first time he told me he loved me was when he was breaking up with me. Oddly enough, that wasn’t the first time that had happened to me. Also, oddly enough, I felt relieved. Brent was a good man. He was funny and solid and warm and stable. And, as much as I hated to admit it, Mama Giles was right. I was not right for Brent, and he was not right for me.

“Friends?” I asked.

“Always,” he said. “I’m sorry we didn’t work out, and I’m sorry about the timing. It’s not great to break up the same day you get out of the hospital.”

“No,” I admitted. “But better when I am out of the hospital than when I am in.”

“True, and I meant it, Cat. About being friends.”

“Me, too.”

People say that all the time when they break up, but I had a feeling that Brent and I would be better apart than we ever were together. I really hoped that I was right.

“Take care, Brent.”

Suddenly, I had an urgent need to be the one to hang up first, and after a quick hesitation, I did.

B
Y EARLY
M
ONDAY AFTERNOON HILL
still had not shown up, so I asked Martin if the sheriff ’s office could call around to see if they could find him.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. I was sure he meant that because Brent and I had broken up, that our own friendship would have to end, too. That thought hurt.

“About you and Brent,” he continued. “Really sorry. But I’ll get someone on Hill. ’Bout time he came home and took care of that boy of his. I’ll call or stop by later to let you know what we find.”

So maybe the stocky detective and I were still friends after all. My conversations with Jon and Brent had emotionally drained me, so I took a nap and slept far deeper than I had in the hospital.

When I woke up, I could hear Darcy and Bubba rummaging around in the kitchen, their voices just murmurs. Then I looked at the digital clock near my bed. Four-fifteen. I yawned, stretched, and decided that I was done with recuperating. After declaring myself completely recovered, I splashed some water on my face and went down to join Bubba and Darcy. They were both doing homework at the kitchen table, so I pulled on a light jacket and headed out to the barn. On the way my new cell phone rang. It was a call from the sheriff ’s office.

“It’s Bobby Lee, Miz Enright. Detective Giles wanted me to let you know that we found Hill Henley,” he said.

This probably wasn’t going to be good, I thought, as I opened the barn door. Jon looked up from raking the aisle, and I wiggled my fingers at him.

“We don’t have all the info yet, but Mr. Henley was arrested early Sunday morning in Birmingham, Alabama. Turns out he’d been transporting pirated CDs, DVDs, and other stolen goods around the Southeast.”

That explained the trips with the horse trailer. You could pack a lot of CDs into the space a horse occupied.

“Just a minute, Bobby Lee. I’m going to try to put you on speaker. Jon Gardner is with me and I want him to hear this.” I mouthed “sheriff ’s office, Bobby Lee,” to Jon, as I handed the phone to him and he did something that allowed Bobby Lee’s voice to be broadcast out through the phone.

“Okay, Bobby Lee. We can both hear you,” I said.

For Jon’s benefit, Bobby Lee repeated what he had just told me, then added, “Trouble is, when Mr. Henley was stopped for a tail light that was out, he panicked and shot the toe off of an Alabama state trooper. He’s got a bond of $250,000. You wouldn’t want to pay that by any chance, would you?”

Jon and I exchanged amazed glances. Hill shot the toe off of an Alabama state trooper? For Bubba’s sake, I wished I could pay Hill’s bond. Then I realized that even if I had the money, which I currently did not, I wouldn’t. If Hill was ever going to be the father Bubba needed, someone or something had to rein him in and get his attention. This might just be it.

“Ah, no, Bobby Lee. I think I’ll pass.” Jon nodded in agreement.

“You and everybody else. That man’s about as useful as a pogo stick in quicksand,” he said. “I think Mr. Henley is going to be sitting there in jail for a while. Plus, there’s video from the patrol car that shows Henley shooting the trooper, so he’s probably going to do some time.

“That’s really why Detective Giles wanted me to call you. It’s about Bubba. If the boy’s only parent is in jail, the state will take custody unless someone files papers to request emergency temporary custody. He thought that person might be you.”

Temporary custody? Of Bubba?

“Do it,” Jon whispered. “I’ll help.”

“What do I have to do?” My voice sounded tentative. What was I getting myself into? What if Hill sat in jail for six months. Or a year? Three years? I would effectively become Bubba’s parent and I was pretty sure I wasn’t ready for that. And what about school and our show schedule? Maybe Keith and Carole would help, too. If I had custody, though, it would solve the problem of asking Hill if Bubba could volunteer at the riding center. I still thought that would be a good activity for him, and he seemed to want to get involved. This was certainly turning out to be a barn burner of a day.

Bobby Lee told us that I needed to apply to the court, and that Bubba’s social worker could help me do that. “I’ll make sure no action is taken regarding Bubba until you get a court hearing,” Bobby Lee said. “Today’s Monday. If you get emergency papers filed tomorrow, you could have a hearing on Wednesday.”

My head was spinning so fast I hoped it wouldn’t pop off my neck. Maybe I wasn’t completely recovered. Or, maybe I’d had so much news in the past few hours that I was getting ready to self-combust.

“Thanks, Bobby Lee,” Jon said as he took the phone from my hand and clicked the “end call” button. To me he said, “Let’s go into the tack room. You look like you need to sit down.”

Things continued to move fast. First I called Carole, and after conferencing Keith in, they said of course they’d help with Bubba, Keith’s tour schedule depending, which I took to mean that they’d help when needed, just not every day. Worked for me, and Bubba adored Keith. Then I ordered pizza for dinner.

After Frog delivered it and I again over tipped him, I told Bubba about his dad. Jon and Darcy were also at the kitchen table when I broke the news, and when Bubba broke into tears, Darcy put her arm around him and said that he’d be fine staying with us. She’d even take him to visit his dad, wherever he ended up. There was hope for Darcy, yet.

The next morning I was up early to feed and to get Darcy and Bubba up. Darcy drove herself, but I borrowed Jon’s car to drive Bubba to school. After dropping him off, I parked and went in to talk to the principal. I said a prayer on the way in to ward off any arts and crafts ladies who might try to rope me into their cult. The prayer must have worked, as not one person approached me to head up a project for the school. Whew.