Dead Weight (21 page)

I nodded. ‘That’s a possibility,’ I said.

He kissed me again. ‘Gotta go,’ he said, and headed for his giant pick-up truck.

Back inside, I said to the girls, ‘Y’all need to pick a room and have a slumber party. I’m going to take one of y’alls rooms, so just let me know which.’

MEGAN

No way was she getting my room. I have privacy issues: like I like having some! Alicia – of course, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes – gave up hers and Bess, second in line for the title, said we could all sleep in her room. I’d rather stay in my bed, but Mom and Dad both were trying to be all ‘we’re a loving family,’ so I figured I better go with the flow. I’m a morning showerer, but Alicia and Bess both shower at night, so I stayed in my room while they took turns.

I called Azalea and D’Wanda on my cell phone to tell them about Keith – oh, and the new murder, of course.

‘He touched your arm?’ D’Wanda said.

‘Twice,’ I said.

‘Ooo, girl, he wants you!’ Azalea said.

I made a face they obviously couldn’t see. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘He’s kinda, well, not as strong as I want in a man.’

‘Oh, ’cause he snotted on you?’ D’Wanda said.

‘And because he cried like a little girl.’

‘Girl, that was his uncle!’ Azalea said. ‘You’d cry if you saw your uncle lying dead and bloody on a motel room floor! That’s disgusting!’

‘Ken vomited. I think that’s more manly.’

‘Hum,’ one of the twins said. I can’t tell them apart if they don’t actually talk.

‘You may be right,’ D’Wanda said. ‘It does seem a bit more manly. Disgusting, but manly.’

‘That’s all I’m saying,’ I said.

Then there was a knock on my door. ‘Hey, you coming to the slumber party?’ Bess called.

‘Be right there,’ I said. To D’Wanda and Azalea I said, ‘I gotta go.’

‘What’s this about a slumber party, and we weren’t invited?’ D’Wanda asked, her mad voice on.

‘It’s not a slumber party. Me, Bess and Alicia all have to sleep in the same room because we have company. My mom thinks calling it a slumber party will make it seem less torturous.’

‘Huh. Well, glad I wasn’t invited then,’ D’Wanda said.

‘Yeah, consider yourselves lucky,’ I said. ‘Bye.’ I hung up and sat there staring at the door. Then I thought, well, Bess and I can dissect the twins and what happened today. That would be cool. I jumped off the bed and headed to Bess’s room.

The next morning I tried getting to Luna before she headed to work. I caught her as she attempted to get in her car. We have side-by-side driveways, so it’s sort of hard for her to sneak out.

‘A moment, Lieutenant Luna,’ I said.

‘Jesus,’ she said, and sighed. ‘What?’ Her hand was on the driver’s-side door handle of the car. She didn’t move it as I spoke.

‘I would assume it’s a given that Mark Metcalf’s murder is somehow connected to Kerry’s. Have you found anything to connect them, other than the fact that they were siblings?’

‘And I would tell you this because . . .’

I smiled. ‘Because we’re best buds and you love me like a sister?’

‘I don’t think that’s it,’ she said.

‘Because I’ve helped you on numerous occasions with murders and you owe me?’

‘That
can’t
be it,’ she said.

‘Because I asked “pretty please?”’

She actually had the gall to laugh. ‘Pugh, if Mark Metcalf’s murderer was sneaking up behind you with a ball peen hammer, I’m afraid I might not tell you. So why would I tell you confidential police information?’

‘I just think there has to be a connection. And, in case you don’t know it, Mark hung around with Rosalee and the others that summer that the trailer caught on fire.’

‘Hum,’ she said. ‘Thanks for the information,’ and with that, she opened the door of her car, got in, and drove off. And I was left standing in our connecting driveways with absolutely no new information – with less than no new information – she’d actually gotten what little info I had.

I went back in the house, poured a cup of coffee and turned the air conditioning up. Five minutes outside at eight in the morning with the temperature at ninety degrees already had me sweating. I vaguely wondered if we had enough money – or credit – to put a pool in the backyard?

I sat down at the kitchen table and thought. Mark was one of the kids we’d seen in the pictures Kerry had kept. We had identified Kerry, Rosalee, and Mark. Hopefully, this afternoon, when we saw Vera’s friend, the school nurse at the now defunct Catholic school in Codderville, we’d find out who the other boys and the younger girl were. That could start us in a new direction, with any luck.

I heard my bedroom door open and Berta came out, hair mussed, wearing the clothes she’d had on the night before, all wrinkled from sleep.

‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Good morning. You should have told me and I could have loaned you something to sleep in.’

‘That’s OK. I’m used to sleeping like this. When I was at Kerry’s flip house, I never took off street clothes except to shower. You know, always ready to run, if necessary.’

‘Well, let me loan you something to wear today. You can’t stay in those wrinkled clothes.’

‘Oh, E.J., I could never get into any clothes of yours! You’re too small!’

OK, so she wasn’t so bad after all. ‘I think I can find something,’ I said, knowing I’d stashed some of my ‘fat’ clothes, just in case.

I got her some fresh towels, and while she took a shower I found a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that I thought would fit, then went into the kitchen to see about breakfast.

By the time breakfast was ready to serve, Berta was out and wearing the clothes I set out. The jeans were too long, but they fit her well everywhere else. She’d rolled the legs up so they weren’t dragging the ground. The kids came down in their classic stampede.

Graham ran for the back door. ‘Wait!’ I said. ‘Eat!’

‘Mom, I don’t have time. I’m supposed to meet that guy in Austin today who’s gonna be my roommate, remember?’

Bad Mother, I told myself. I’d totally forgotten. Graham was off to the University of Texas (the alma mater of both Willis and myself) in the fall, and he and his assigned dorm roommate were supposed to meet for lunch and then tour the campus together. He’d signed up for Dobie Hall, the same dorm I’d lived in for two of my four years at UT.

‘I forgot, honey, with all that’s going on.’ I grabbed a granola bar out of the pantry and a small bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. ‘Here,’ I said. ‘Your breakfast.’

He kissed me on the cheek. ‘Bye,’ he said as he headed once again for the back door.

‘Drive carefully and have fun!’ I called to his retreating back. ‘And call me when you get there!’ I’m not sure if he heard that, but I’d be calling him fairly often anyway. I do that. I’m a mother.

‘Where’s he going?’ Bess asked, yawning.

‘He has that meeting with his college roommate,’ I reminded her.

‘Oh, right,’ she said. ‘Cool.’

‘Who does what?’ Megan asked, sitting down and grabbing some bacon.

‘Graham’s on his way to Austin to meet his roommate,’ Bess told her.

Alicia was totally silent on the subject.

When Berta came in I introduced her to the girls, who she’d never formally met, and we all sat down to breakfast.

After, Bess’s co-worker from the dress shop in the mall picked her up and Alicia insisted on walking to the bus stop two blocks away to catch the bus into Codderville for her intern job with the D.A.’s office. Megan retreated to her room for whatever it is she does. I was cleaning the kitchen when the phone rang. I picked it up on the second ring.

‘Hello?’ I said.

‘E.J., it’s Vera,’ my mother-in-law said, as if I wouldn’t recognize her voice after twenty-three years.

‘Hi,’ I said. ‘Are we still on for this afternoon?’

‘That’s why I’m calling. Just wanted to make sure you remembered.’

‘I’ll pick you up at two forty-five,’ I suggested.

‘That should work,’ she said. ‘See you then,’ and she hung up.

The phone rang a second time before I’d put it back. I clicked on. ‘Hello?’

‘Hey, E.J. Can you send Megan over here so I can come over there? I’m up to my ears in motherhood,’ Trisha said.

‘No problem. Berta’s over here too. So we can discuss some stuff, see what we can come up with. Did you hear about Kerry’s brother?’

‘No. He’s the younger one in that picture?’

‘Right. He came back from Belize for the funeral. And he got shot in his motel room.’

‘Oh my God, are you serious? That’s awful! Send Megan over right now!’ And she hung up.

I called upstairs. ‘Megan!’ It took two screams, each progressively louder, before she budged from her room. The alternative, of course, was climbing the stairs to get her. I prefer my stair climbing to be in the gym, thank you very much.

‘What?’ she said, standing at the top of the stairs, hands on hips.

‘Mrs McClure wants you to babysit. Right now.’

‘Jeez, will this never end?’ she whined.

‘Money, remember?’

‘Oh. Right. Be right there,’ my daughter said, ran to her room, and came back with flip-flops on her feet and pounded down the stairs. ‘I think I’ll charge her more for these impromptu baby sittings. I mean, I need a little warning!’

‘What else do you have to do? Just go!’

‘I’m going to the pool this afternoon, so y’all don’t stay out all day!’

‘Go!’

‘I’m going!’

Five minutes later there was a knock on the door and it opened, with Trisha sticking her head in. ‘It’s me!’

‘In the family room!’ I called back.

She came in, looking adorable in a pink terry playsuit with spaghetti straps and short shorts. I could learn to hate this woman easily.

‘So dish! Is he dead? The brother?’

‘Very,’ I said.

‘Y’all shouldn’t treat this so lightly!’ Berta said, a new wad of tissue in her hand.

Trisha patted Berta’s hand. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know him and I’m being callous. How are you holding up?’

‘Well, I didn’t know him either – well, not in this life, anyway – maybe when I was Rosalee I knew him, but Kerry’s family is really torn up about this. The twins found him.’

‘Oh, how awful!’ Trisha said.

It was a consensus: this whole thing was awful.

‘They were both very shaken. And E.J.’s kids were there too,’ she said, shooting me a look that I easily interpreted as,
How can you be so callous when your own children witnessed this?
OK, when she’s right, she’s right.

The phone rang yet again. I went to the kitchen to pick it up. ‘Hello?’

‘Hey, E.J., it’s Ken,’ he said.

‘Hi! How’s it going over there?’ I asked.

He sighed. ‘Kerry’s family left. Not without, however, threatening to sue me for custody of the boys!’

‘Oh, for God’s sake! They can’t be serious!’

‘Probably not. The boys assured them that Berta spent her nights in the guest room upstairs, and I think they’ll believe that eventually, but right now, with losing two of their children at once, they’re just not being terribly reasonable.’ He sighed again. ‘And who can blame them? I know it probably looks bad, me letting Berta stay here. I thought I was doing it for Kerry, but I have to admit, the boys and I liked having a woman around. It . . . helped, I guess.’

‘I can see that,’ I told him.

‘I’m sorry, but can Berta stay with you for a while? I’m going to get some real furniture to go in the flip house. Let Berta stay there until all this mess about her mother’s death is cleared up. But it could take a couple of days to get it ready. Is that OK?’

Then I heard myself saying, ‘Ken, take all the time you need. Berta’s fine here.’

Shit, I told myself. Willis wants to move back in! Shit!

‘You’re going to see that woman from the Catholic school today?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘Did you get those pictures of the kids?’

‘Oh, no! I think I left them on the coffee table—’

‘Berta cleaned that up. She’ll know where they are. Come on over and get them, OK? And bring Berta. I need to talk to her.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘we’ll be there in a little while.’

I was becoming so immersed in this family’s business I was beginning to know more about them than my own siblings. It was one of the drawbacks of my penchant for finding dead bodies – although I didn’t find any dead bodies in this case! However, I did wonder, late at night, if my obsession with finding out what Berta Harris was doing in all those twelve-step groups had led in any way to Kerry’s death. Was I seen by the killer when I went to Kerry’s office? Did that set this whole thing in motion?

I moved back into the family room. ‘That was Ken. We need to go by there and pick up those pictures before I go see the nurse. Berta, do you remember where you put those yearbooks and snapshots when you cleaned off the coffee table?’

‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Right back where Ken got them. I’m an excellent housekeeper,’ she said, in a way that reminded me too much of Dustin Hoffman in the movie
Rain Man
. Again, the woman was giving me the wigglies.

‘I want to come!’ Trisha said.

‘Well, duh,’ I said. ‘Of course.’

I was wearing jean shorts and a T-shirt. The shorts were snug, the T-shirt loose. I thought about changing into a cute shorts outfit to match Trisha, but unfortunately I don’t own any cute shorts outfits.

I called Megan to tell her where we were going, then called Graham quickly to see how his trip was going.

‘I’m fine, Mom,’ he said, using that tone they use.

‘Just checking,’ I said. ‘Where are you?’

‘Almost to Bastrop. Maybe another forty-five minutes,’ he said.

‘Make that an hour. Don’t speed,’ I said.

‘The only law I’m breaking at the moment is talking on the cell phone,’ he said.

‘Well, use the speaker button!’

‘Bye, Mom,’ he said and actually hung up on me.

I gathered my Scooby gang and we got in the minivan and headed for Ken’s.

The pictures were right where Berta said they would be, and we quickly found the one with the clearest shots of the three unidentified kids.

‘We’ll take this one,’ I said.

‘Here,’ Ken said, pushing the whole stack toward me. ‘Take them all, just to be on the safe side.’