A Field of Poppies (43 page)

Poppy grinned. “I suppose I could do that.”

“
Yes, you sure can. Oh, Mel wanted me to make sure you know to call him if anything goes wrong here in the house. He’s a pretty good handyman. No need paying a service call for something he might be able to fix. Has the pilot light been lit on your furnace?”

“
Yes. Johnny did it while he was here.”

“
All right then, I’ll just be on my way. I have a load of stuff to do before work tomorrow.” She gave Poppy a big hug and was out the door as fast as she’d entered.

Poppy was smiling as she headed back to the kitchen. Maybe this would all blow over sooner than she thought. She grabbed the grocery list then her coat and purse, and locked the door behind her as she left.

****

Justin was in his car, following the hearse bearing his mother’s body out to the cemetery. A quartet of city employees was waiting by the open grave, ready to assist in moving the casket. He stood to one side as they lowered it into the void. In funeral ceremony vernacular, Amelia Caulfield was being laid to rest beside her husband, but Justin doubted her soul was at peace. Nowhere in the bible was it written that murderers got a straight shot to heaven.

As soon as the casket touched bottom, the men walked away to give Justin some privacy. Once they were out of sight, Justin walked to the edge. Without saying a word, he took the box bearing Oral Newton’s ashes out of the sack he’d been carrying and tossed it into the grave. It hit the lid of the casket, bounced end over end, and tumbled into a corner of the pit where it slid out of sight.

Since they had colluded in life, they could spend eternity together as well. It would piss Amelia off to no end that she was being buried with the hired help, and he didn’t give a damn what Newton would have thought.

He waved at the men, who then returned and began to cover it up. The first clods of dirt hit the casket with a thud. The shock of what his mother and her driver had done was passing, leaving him with nothing but shame. He stayed until the last shovelful of dirt was turned, then got in his car and drove away.

****

Despite the fact that Poppy had driven home with the window part-way down, the car still smelled like the burger and fries she’d had for lunch. Once she was home, other than unloading the groceries and washing one more load of clothes, she was nearly caught up. It felt good to be moving in a positive direction, although tonight would be the real test, sleeping in the house alone.

It wasn’t like she’d never done that before, but she’d always known someone would be coming back, and this was no longer the case. She wasn’t exactly afraid, just uneasy. But as Johnny had reminded her, all she could do was take it one step, one day, at a time.

When she turned the corner, she automatically glanced toward her house. Within seconds, her heart skipped a beat. The closer she drove, the more horrified she became. By the time she pulled up in the driveway she was crying.

The words,
rich bitch,
had been written across the front of her house in red spray paint. She got out with her legs shaking and stared at it in disbelief, then looked up and down the street, but it was empty.

Tears turned to rage as she headed for the neighbor’s house. The old man who lived there was a widower with time on his hands and often sat by the window with his binoculars.

She saw a curtain fall back into place as she started up the sidewalk toward his house and realized that not only had he sat and watched them spray painting her house, but he’d done nothing to stop it.

She doubled up her fist and pounded on the door, but he didn’t answer. She pounded again, this time shouting his name.

“
Mr. Lewis, I need to talk to you. Please come to the door, I know you’re in there.”

Finally, she heard the sounds of shuffling feet and then the door opened just enough for him to peer out. It had been years since Poppy had seen him this close up. Not only had he aged drastically, he appeared to have shrunk a good foot in height.

“
I’m busy. Go away,” he muttered.

“
You saw who vandalized my house.”

“
I didn’t see nothin’,” he muttered.

She started to cry. “Why won’t you help me? Mama and Daddy were nothing but good to you. Is this the way you repay their kindness, by protecting the people who did this to my house?”

He frowned. “I don’t know names.”

“
Did you see their car?”

“
No, they was afoot.”

“
How many were there?” Poppy asked.

“
Two boys, probably late teens, early twenties.”

She swiped the tears off her cheeks with an angry swipe. “What did they look like? What were they wearing?”

“
You don’t tell no one I told you. I don’t want no trouble.”

“
I don’t want trouble either, yet I have it. What did they look like?”

“
Both of them real tall, and skinny. Clothes hangin’ on them like rags on a scarecrow. The clothes was all blue, like denim I guess. One of ‘em had long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Other one had blonde curly hair hanging down around his face. Now go away. I got things to do.”

Poppy stomped off the porch with single intent. The moment he’d said scarecrows, she knew exactly who’d done it and where to find them – two stoners named Freddie and JoJo who hung out at Millwood’s Gas and Grocery begging for handouts.

She got back in her car and took off down the street, laying rubber as she went. By the time she got to Millwood’s, she was furious. She wheeled into the station and stomped the brakes so hard the car slid sideways as it stopped.

Aaron Coulter was passing by in his Hummer and saw her pull in. He started to wave, then saw the look on her face and realized something was wrong. He hit the brakes and backed up, but by the time he got stopped, Poppy had already gone inside.

****

They were sitting in the corner near the heating stove with two empty long-necks at their feet and wrappers from candy bars wadded up beneath their chairs. Poppy headed toward them with her hands fisted.

“
It figures you worthless bastards would be hiding out behind a shelf of toilet paper since you’re both such assholes!”

Freddie fell backwards in his folding chair and JoJo tripped over him trying to run out the back.

Poppy kicked Freddie in the crotch and stomped on JoJo’s fingers with the heel of her shoe. Both men were yelling and cursing, begging Old Man Millwood to call the police.

“
Yes, call the police,” she shouted. “It’ll save me a trip downtown to file charges against the both of them for vandalizing my house.”

“
We didn’t do no such thing!” JoJo yelled, cradling his fingers against his chest.

“
Yes you did, you dumb ass, and the red paint is still on your fingers,” Poppy shouted, and pulled his hair back so hard it popped his neck.

Freddie was doubled up on his side, moaning and holding his crotch. When she kicked him again, he screamed like a girl.

“
Stop her! Somebody stop her! She’s busted my nuts.”

But Poppy wasn’t through. She got down on her knees until she was only inches away from their faces.

“
Both of you! Pay attention to what I’m saying! If this happens again, even if you didn’t do it, I’ll blame you. I won’t go looking for anyone else, I’ll go after you. It won’t matter where you hide, I’ll find you, and when I do, I’ll be the one laughing when they bury the both of you without your dicks.”

“
Jesus Christ!” Freddie cried.

JoJo’s eyes bugged out of his face. “You’re crazy! Get away from me! Get the fuck away from me!”

“
This isn’t crazy. This is what fed up looks like!” Poppy screamed, and started punching them.

All of a sudden someone was pulling her back and she began kicking and fighting all over again.

“
Whoa, whoa, little sister! It’s me, Aaron. Aaron Coulter. I’m not trying to hurt you, honey. Slow down, slow down.”

Poppy threw one last punch that luckily missed him before she finally realized who it was.

“
Let me go, Aaron! Let me go.”

He stepped back and held up his hands, then eyed the pair of men on the floor.

“
What did they do?”

“
They spray painted my house. Wrote ‘rich bitch’ all across the front in red paint. There were witnesses and JoJo still has red paint on his fingers.”

The smile on Aaron’s face shifted. His eyes narrowed as a red flush spread across his cheeks.

“
Is that true?”

Freddie was still cupping his privates and JoJo was bawling.

“
We didn’t mean nothin’ by it,” Freddie said. “It was just somethin’ to do.”

Aaron squatted down until he was on eye level with them.

“
It never occurred to you that Poppy here has just had the week from hell? That she’d had to bury her mama and her daddy and have everything she knew turned upside down? Is that how we treat our own?”

“
She ain’t one of us. She’s got rich blood. She needs to get out of Coal Town,” JoJo muttered.

Poppy gasped, pushed Aaron aside and lit into him again, punching him in the nose before Aaron could stop her.

Blood spurted from JoJo’s nose and he started screaming all over again.

At this point, Millwood yelled at all of them. “One more punch gets thrown and I’m callin’ the cops!”

“
Damn woman, I never knew you had this in you,” Aaron muttered, as he pushed her back against the window. “Just hold it, okay? Let me finish this. I can make sure it won’t happen again.”

Poppy was so mad she was shaking, but the threat of police had finally gotten through her anger. The last thing she wanted was for Mike to find out she’d been brawling like the Coal Town trash she was.

“
Get up!” Aaron said.

Freddie moaned. “I can’t. My balls hurt.”

He lowered his voice. “Get the fuck up. Both of you.”

JoJo rolled over then staggered to his feet while holding the tail of his shirt against his nose.

Freddie finally got up, but was in so much pain he couldn’t stand straight.

“
Here’s the deal,” Aaron said. “None of us had a goddamned bit of choice as to who fucked who to get us here. Poppy Sadler was born and raised right here in Coal Town. She’s no better off today than she was a week ago before her daddy was murdered. She’s still driving the same piece of shit car, working at the same job, and living in the same house. What happened to her today better not ever happen again, and it’s to your benefit if you spread the word. You tell them that anyone who messes with her answers to me.” His voice got softer as he leaned in until there were mere inches separating them. “You do know what I’m saying, don’t you?”

“
Yes, hell yes, Aaron. We didn’t mean nothin’. We won’t do it again.”

“
Better not
anybody
so much as look at her wrong. John Sadler is my friend. She’s John’s little sister, therefore she’s my friend, too. You know what happens to people who mess with
my
friends.”

“
Yes, yes, we know. We’ll make sure no one messes with her.”

“
No. I’ll make sure no one messes with her. Your job is to get on the other side of the street if you see her coming. Your job is to go out of your way to never look at her again. Do we understand each other?”

“
Yes, hell yes.”

“
Then get the fuck out of my sight,” Aaron whispered.

When they started to walk past him, he stopped them with a look.

“
Go out the back you motherfuckers, so she doesn’t have to look at you again.”

They disappeared, leaving a trail of snot and blood behind them.

Aaron turned around, but Poppy was nowhere in sight. He looked out the window. She was already backing out of the parking lot. As she took off in a flurry of flying gravel and dust, a slow smile spread across his face. That was one pissed off woman – one fine, pissed off woman. If he ever found one like that, he might actually settle down.

By the time Poppy got home she was in shock at what she’d done. She had never lost control like that, and was reeling from what Aaron had told them. She wasn’t exactly afraid of him, but she would never want to be his enemy, either.

This time when she pulled up into the driveway she unloaded her groceries and carried them inside. After she’d put them away and changed into old clothes, she got a bucket of soapy water and began scrubbing at the paint. No way in hell was she going to bed until it, and the words, were gone.

****

Anger was a good cure for insomnia. When Poppy finally went to bed, she was exhausted. It had taken a little over four hours in the cold with her hands in water, scrubbing at the wood to get rid of the paint. Unfortunately, the white paint beneath it was also gone, too. Now the house needed a paint job, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. She fell asleep without dreaming and didn’t wake up until the alarm went off the next morning at 5:00 a.m.