Ever Present Danger (31 page)

“I’m just covering all bases. Flint pulled one over on us, and I’m ticked. It’s hard to say how much of what he’s doing is coming from the feds. I just want him to know Ivy’s got a big gun on her side.”

“She didn’t act as though she wanted an attorney.”

“Well, she’s going to get one anyway. She’ll thank me later.”

“Did she tell you Kelsey invited her over for coffee and cake in the morning?”

“No. But I sure like Kelsey. She’d be a good Christian influence. God knows, Ivy needs all the help she can get. It’s hard for me to accept that she’s turned her back on everything we taught her.”

“Well, maybe she just shoved it onto a back burner for a while.”

“Yeah,
way
back. I was glad to see the boy didn’t seem to mind going to church with us this morning.”

“Montana told me he enjoyed Sunday school. He’s asking all sorts of questions about Jesus. He wants to know the way to heaven so he can see Lu again.”

“You’d think Ivy would at least give us the green light to talk to him about it,” Elam said.

“Did you ask her?”

“No. Didn’t you?”

Carolyn shook her head. “I suppose we should. But right now I hate to do anything that might pull Ivy and Montana apart—or cause Ivy to pull away from us. It’s a difficult adjustment for both of them, living without Lu. If Montana takes to church the way Ivy did as a kid, it could get very uncomfortable for them.”

“Might do her good if the boy hounded her for answers. Never could understand why she grew cold in her beliefs.”

“I think she blamed God for Joe Hadley’s disappearance.”

Elam shook his head. “Seemed to happen before that—when she started dating Pete. I know the creep got her into bed and got
her hooked on pot. I think she turned her back on God out of guilt.”

Carolyn squeezed his arm. “Well, we need to pull her back gently. I have to believe she loves Montana too much to deny him the truth she knows in her heart of hearts is right, even if she won’t claim it for herself.”

“Well, let’s pray that Kelsey has some impact there. I’ll tell you one thing—nice as Bill is, it’s no good for Ivy to get involved with an unbeliever or we’ll never get her back into church.”

Flint Carter sat in his office with Nick Sanchez and Bobby Knolls, discussing everything they knew so far about the triple homicide.

“It’s late,” Flint said. “Why don’t we call it a night and pick it up in the morning?”

Nick captured a yawn with his hand. “All right. I want Ziwicki in here for questioning first thing in the morning. And I want the lieutenant to have first crack at him. I want you to ride him hard about how Pete treated him in high school. Rattle his chain. Get him to react. He had plenty of reasons to want to get back at Pete and might’ve jumped at the chance to take him out. Maybe Griffith and Ziwicki really were in this together. Push him to the edge and get him to talk.”

“My pleasure,” Bobby said. “I’ve never trusted the guy. I think he knows somethin’.”

Nick put his hand on the back of his neck and rubbed. “Unger ought to be back from vacation tonight. My agents are waiting at his apartment. Also, I’ve got a team dissecting Pete Barton’s life. If there was someone besides a classmate with a personal grudge against him, we’re going to find it. We’re doing the same thing with the other victims. But I have bad vibes about Barton. I think he’s the most likely of the three to have been the target of somebody’s wrath.”

IVY GRIFFITH WALKED up onto the front porch of the Jones’s log home and rang the doorbell. She heard footsteps and then Kelsey Jones opened the door and invited her in.

“Wow, this is cozy,” Ivy said. “My mom said you like to make drapes and pillows and quilts. This looks really nice.”

Kelsey smiled. “Thanks. I love to sew. Brandon says I’m going to be out of control when I get pregnant with our first child. I have all these fun ideas for the nursery. Would you like to see the rest of the house?”

“Yeah, thanks. I would.”

Ivy followed Kelsey from room to room, taken with the coordinating colors and fabrics she had used for drapes, quilts, pillows, curtains, and afghans.

“I’m so impressed,” Ivy said as they walked out to the kitchen. “I’m lucky to get a needle threaded and a button sewn on. You have an amazing talent.”

“It’s nice of you to say that. I’ve been making quilts and taking them to a gift shop in Silverton on consignment. I can hardly keep up with the demand.” Kelsey chuckled. “Brandon’s started calling me the Quilt Queen of Jacob’s Ear. Now that’s a title for you.”

“Well, you should be proud of your work. It’s really good.”

“Enough about me. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable
there at the table and let me get us a piece of this Bundt cake and some coffee. So what do
you
enjoy doing?”

Ivy sat at the table, which had been set with china cups and saucers and dessert plates. “Truthfully, I’ve never really thought about developing anything that was just mine—I mean, like a talent or something.”

“What about when you were younger? What’d you enjoy doing?”

“Riding horses. I loved it. My brother Rusty and I used to ride out on the open range. I pretended my horse was a purple unicorn and could fly.” Ivy smiled without meaning to. “I’d love to go back to that time and feel the freedom of being a kid without a care in the world.”

Kelsey poured Ivy a cup of coffee and one for herself and set the Bundt cake on the table. “Sounds like you had a happy childhood.”

“Very. Of course, our house was the only thing out here in those days. We lived in our own little world and everything was safe. I don’t remember being afraid of anything.”

“The innocence of childhood is so wonderful and so fleeting. It seems like today’s kids have to grow up a lot faster than we did.”

Ivy blew on her coffee. “Well, I kind of did when my baby sister died. Actually she was stillborn. Her name was Amy. I was only ten, but I still remember how sad my parents were. I guess it was my first taste of how hard life can be.”

“It’s surprising how traumas like that stay with us. My cousin drowned at the lake when we were both eight. To this day, I can still hear the sound of my aunt screaming while my grandfather tried to revive him.”

“Well, some traumas are accidents. Some we bring on ourselves. Like I’m sure you know I got into drugs after I left home. I know the staff at the camp had been praying for me.”

“I’m aware you’ve been in and out of rehab. Must’ve been hard.”

“The worst part is how it hurt my parents and my son. I started out smoking killer joints—that’s marijuana mixed with
angel dust. But when that didn’t do enough, I started shooting up with cocaine. When that got too expensive, I switched to meth. It was never hard to find, especially near the campus.”

“You started this in college?”

“Stupid, huh? If only I’d gotten my degree instead of wasting my life getting high, I’d be able to provide for Montana and give him the things he deserves.”

“Is his father able to help out?”

Ivy felt the blood rush to her cheeks. “I don’t know where he is.” She looked up at Kelsey and saw only compassion. “The truth is, I don’t even know
who
he is. I dread the day when Montana starts asking me about him. How pathetic is that?”

“Well, you can’t go back. Today’s a new day, and things are starting to look up. And Montana’s a great kid who seems to be doing really well despite the hurdles you’ve both had to face.”

Ivy was surprised that Kelsey’s tone didn’t sound judgmental and wondered if someone like her could really understand how high the hurdles had been. “I’ll bet you never experimented with drugs.”

“I’m not sure why, but I stayed away from drugs.” Kelsey slowly stirred her coffee. “The kids I hung around with were from families that shared the same values I was taught. We pretty much avoided the pushers and the kids who were using. Our parents wanted to know where we were every minute, and I resented it. But I thank them now. I could’ve easily experimented with drugs. I certainly had plenty of spending money, and I knew where to go to get them. I just never did.”

“You were smart. I got pressured into smoking killer joints when I was a senior in high school. My parents trusted me and never had any idea what I was doing. They would’ve died.”

Kelsey picked up the knife and cut two pieces of Bundt cake and put them on the dessert plates. “I have a real sweet tooth. But I can’t eat this stuff like I used to without blimping out.”

“Give the pounds to me,” Ivy said. “I lost a ton of weight when I was doing meth. Seems like I went days at a time without eating. I loved the way it made me feel, but it didn’t last long
enough. I was always looking for another fix.” Ivy took a bite of the Bundt cake. “Yum. This is great.”

“I got this recipe from my mother-in-law.” Kelsey took a bite and seemed to be pondering something. Finally she said, “Montana told me he loved going to Sunday school yesterday. He made two new friends.”

Ivy nodded. “He told me.”

“Think you’ll ever get Sundays off so you can come to church with him?”

“I doubt it. I think my willingness to work weekends is what made Jewel hire me so quickly. Most people don’t want to work every weekend.” Ivy wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Truthfully, I don’t have any real desire to go back to church.”

“Did you get hurt?”

“Not really. It’s complicated.”

Kelsey seemed to be deep in thought, almost as if she were arguing with herself about something. Finally she said, “Would it surprise you to know that God has laid you on my heart and asked me to pray for you?”

Ivy stopped chewing. “Actually, yes. God and I haven’t been on speaking terms in a long, long time. I doubt if He ever thinks much about me. I’m pretty much a lost cause.”

“No child of His is a lost cause.”

Ivy pressed her fork into the moist cake crumbs. “And what makes you think I’m His child?”

“You gave Him your heart, didn’t you?”

“A long time ago. I took it back.”

Kelsey set down her fork and lifted her eyes. “But did you ever consider that maybe He never let go of it?”

Carolyn Griffith picked up the sack containing her purchase and walked out of the drugstore just as Evelyn Barton was walking in.

“Oops, sorry.” Carolyn said. “I should’ve been watching where I was going.”

“Actually, I’m glad I ran into you.” Evelyn reached into her
purse and took out what appeared to be an envelope of photographs. “I went by Jewel’s to give these reunion pictures to Ivy, but apparently she’s off today. One of Pete’s classmates sent them to me, but I thought Ivy might like to keep them. I’ve got plenty of pictures of Pete. I don’t want anything to remind me of that night.”

Carolyn took the pictures and quickly looked through them. “Ivy might feel the same way you do, but I’ll give them to her. Though I understand the authorities want copies of every picture taken.”

“They have them. These are duplicates. There’s a nice one in there of Ivy dancing with that young man she came to the memorial service with. I’m sorry, I can’t recall his name.”

“Bill Ziwicki.”

“If Ivy doesn’t want the pictures, tell her to give them to someone else or just pitch them. I didn’t have the heart to do it.”

Carolyn gently took Evelyn’s hand. “I understand. I thought the memorial service was very nice. And it was quite generous of you, the Morrisons, and the Richardses to include the Hadleys. I know it meant a great deal to them…and to all of us.”

Evelyn eyes brimmed with tears. “Well, they’re suffering, too. I can’t imagine their pain is any less intense than ours, having gone ten years hoping their son might be alive, and then finding out he was murdered.”

“I’m sure you’re right.”

“I’m going to put the deli on the market as soon as I can think straight enough to deal with the details. I’m thinking seriously of moving to Idaho to live near my sister’s family. I don’t think I can handle being in Jacob’s Ear after this.”

“Well, I can certainly understand that. Promise you’ll call Elam if he can help you with any of the business aspects. I know he’d be glad to. He might even know someone who’d be interested in buying the deli.”

Ivy listened for several minutes to Kelsey’s attempt to reassure her that God still cared about her. Would still forgive her. Wanted a
relationship with her. But how would Kelsey feel if she knew that the woman sitting across the table from her was partly responsible for four murders? Had withheld invaluable information from the authorities? Had been a liar? A thief? A prostitute? Could someone as wholesome as Kelsey really handle the truth about her?

“What are you thinking?” Kelsey said.

Ivy shrugged. “I don’t know. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“
Sin
is complicated. And since we all sin, I guess that makes us all complicated.”

“Not you. You’re every parent’s dream: talented, smart, pretty, happily married, the perfect homemaker. And someday you’ll be the perfect mother. Montana adores you.”

Kelsey pushed her plate aside and folded her arms on the table. “It’s nice of you to mention my better traits, but I assure you my sin is very complicated. God and I are working on it all the time.”

“Well, you’ve never been a drug addict.”

“No. But I have a terrible problem with money and possessions.”

“You don’t come across as stuck-up.”

Kelsey smiled. “Thanks. But I used to be. When Brandon and I were first engaged, he was a vice president of Mavis and Stein, this upscale women’s clothing chain in Raleigh. I was
so
full of myself—more concerned with my social status than how Brandon was struggling with his job. I knew he hated it, but I kept encouraging him to stay there because I wanted to marry a vice president. I wanted the prestige. The fat salary. The classy clothes. The stately house. The Jaguar. The country club. The whole ball of wax.”