Her Sister's Shoes (30 page)

Thirty-Eight

Faith

“S
he’s been at
it all week,” Faith said under her breath, gesturing at Lovie who was trying to cram her key in the lock of an antique pine hutch in the breakfast room. “You have a lot of things with keyholes, and Mom’s tried every one of them. She’s gonna drive us all nuts if we don’t get to the bottom of this thing.”

Jackie took a sip of her wine and nibbled on a piece of cheese. “I’m pretty sure your key doesn’t fit my hutch, Mom.”

“I know it.” Lovie spun around to face them. “I just can’t shake the feeling that this key belongs to something on this property. I’ve tried everything in this house at least once.” She wandered over to the window and stared out. “Maybe it fits something outside.”

Sean came barrelin
g up the
stairs, followed by Sam and Mack. Sean slammed a tumbler down on the kitchen counter in front of his mother. “Dad needs a refill. He said to tell you we’re thirty minutes out on the meat.”

Jackie went to their liquor cabinet and poured two fingers of bourbon in the glass, filling it the rest of the way with water. “Why are you so out of breath, son?”

“Dad made me go tie everything down on the dock and bring in the cushions from the boat. He thinks we might get a storm later. I’m tired of having to do everything by myself. When is Cooper gonna get better?”

“Aww, poor baby,” Sam said, running her hand across her nephew’s crew cut. “Are you worn out from so much hard work?”

“Where is Cooper?” Jackie asked.

“In the game room, playing one-handed Xbox with Bitsy and Jamie,” Sean said before darting back downstairs with his father’s drink.

“I think Bitsy and Jamie are afraid to let Cooper out of their sight for fear he might get hurt again,” Mack said.

“They make for an interesting threesome, don’t they?” Sam said. “One in a wheelchair. One with his arm bandaged like a mummy. And one so traumatized she can’t stop sucking her thumb.”

“The walking wounded,” Faith blurted. “Oh … I’m so sorry, Sammie. I didn’t mean …”

Her sister dismissed Faith with a wave of her hand. “You can’t offend me. Jamie’s on the mend. I feel it in my heart. His mood has improved dramatically over the past week, even considering everything we’ve been through. Maybe it’s
because
of everything we’ve been through.”

Hearing the reassurance in her sister’s voice gave Faith hope that something good may actually come from the pain and suffering Curtis had brought on her family. She held up her wine glass. “Here’s to hoping he takes those first steps soon.” Three pairs of eyes stared at her. “Oh, dang. I did it again.”

This time Sam burst out laughing. She grabbed the sparkling water she’d been nursing and held it up for a toast. The four of them clinked glasses. “I don’t need alcohol to make a toast to that.”

“The meat will be ready soon. We should think about getting everything else on the table.” Jackie set her wine glass on the counter. “Sam, if you and Mack will fill the glasses with iced tea, I’ll get Faith to check on the potatoes while I toss the salad.”

Bill came up a little while later, carrying a steaming pan of tenderloin beef. “This should sit a minute before I slice it. In the meantime, I’ll go gather some flashlights. Looks like a storm’s coming our way.”

Faith was counting heads, to make sure she had enough potatoes on the platter, when she realized someone was missing. “Where’s Mama?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

“She was here a minute ago,” Sam said.

“Kids!” Jackie called down the stairs to the game room. “Is Lovie down there with y’all?”

The pitter-patter of little feet sounded below them, and then Bitsy shouted up the stairs, “She’s not down here.”

Despite the break-in at the market, Bitsy had relaxed considerably since they’d all been staying together at the farm. Much to Faith’s delight, her daughter seemed downright giddy to have Cooper home.

Sam ordered Faith and Mack to check upstairs while everyone else searched the main floor. They looked in bathrooms and closets and under beds. With no sign of Lovie anywhere, they reconvened in the breakfast room ten minutes later.

“Let’s approach this methodically. When’s the last time you saw your mom?” Bill asked Jackie.

She thought for a moment. “Right before Sean came up to refill your drink. We were right here, in the breakfast room. Mom was trying to make her key fit the lock in the pine hutch.”

Walking from the hutch to the window, Faith retraced her mother’s steps. “She came over here to the window, then said something about her key fitting a lock outside.”

All eyes darted to the windows. The sky had darkened and the wind was whipping around in the trees. They heard the dogs howling to come in, terrified of thunder and lightning.

“Do you really think she’d go outside alone?” Mack asked. “We’ve told her a thousand times in the past few days not to leave the house unchaperoned.”

“You know Lovie,” Sam said. “She has a mind of her own.”

Bill removed his iPhone from his back pocket and checked the radar. “Looks like the storm is still a ways away. Let’s divide up and search the yard.”

They flew down the stairs, one after another, to the game room.

“Cooper, you stay here with Bitsy. Jamie, Sean, let’s go,” Sam said. “We need to find Lovie before the storm comes.”

Once outside, Mack and Sam headed toward the guest house, Bill and Sean to the garage, Jamie to the side yard, and Jackie around behind the house to her gardening shed.

Seeing the terrified look on her daughter’s face, Faith had let the others go ahead of her. “Don’t you worry, honey,” she said, reassuring her child. “Lovie is here somewhere.”

Cooper pulled his cousin close to him. “We’ll be fine here, won’t we Bits?”

Her eyes wide, she sucked even harder on her thumb.

Cooper winked at his aunt, his signal for her to leave.

Hunched over, Faith joined the search, fighting against the wind as she raced down the hill toward the water. From the dock, she had a clear view of the creek in both directions. She spotted Jamie and Lovie on the dock next door. Jamie’s wheelchair had gotten stuck in the sand at the foot of the dock where the earth ended and the boardwalk began. Faith watched in amazement as he gradually stood, using the railings for support. He placed one step in front of the other, then another and another, making a slow and apparently painful approach toward his grandmother who stood on the edge of the dock, facing the water, as if contemplating a jump.

Faith sprinted back up the hill, then along the sidewalk to the neighbor’s yard.

“Jamie!” Faith called, but the wind blew her words back in her face. She made her way toward them. So as not to startle her mother, she crept up behind Jamie and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I think she’s in some kind of trance,” Jamie shouted above the roar of the wind.

Faith cupped her hand over her mouth and yelled in his ear, “See if you can get her attention. If she tries to jump, I’ll grab her.” She ducked under his arm and positioned herself close behind her mother.

“Lovie,” he called. “It’s me. Jamie. Dinner’s almost ready. Are you hungry?”

Lovie swayed a little before slowly turning around. She saw Jamie and smiled. “Look at you! You’re walking.”

Jamie glanced down at his feet. He grinned up at her, with his eyes opened wide. “I guess Mom was right. These legs still work after all.”

Faith reached for her mother, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from the edge of the dock. “The storm’s getting closer, Mama. Let’s go back up to the house.” She wrapped one arm around Jamie’s waist and the other around her mother’s, and together, they limped up the boardwalk.

“Are you okay to walk?” she yelled to Jamie when they reached his wheelchair.

His eyes traveled the path of the sidewalk from the wheelchair to the terrace.

“I don’t know,” he shouted. “All of a sudden, it seems like a long way.”

The others greeted them on the terrace. With tears streaming down her face, Sam pulled Jamie out of the chair to his feet. “I knew you could do it.” She gave him a gentle push toward the house. “Go on, let me see you walk.”

With arms held perpendicular to his body, Jamie walked in a straight line over to the french doors and back. He kissed his mother’s forehead. “I missed being able to look down on you like this.”

Sam swatted his chest. “Hush. You’re not that much taller than me.”

The rest of the group huddled around them, backslapping Jamie and scolding Lovie for going outside alone. When a streak of lightning crossed the sky followed by a loud clap of thunder, Bill began shepherding everyone toward the french doors.

“Come on, Mama. We need to get inside.” Faith placed a hand on the small of her mother’s back, prodding her along, but Lovie grabbed hold of the heron statue’s neck
, refusing to budge.

“Not until I solve this mystery.” Lovie uncurled her fingers, revealing the rusty key nestled in her hand. “I’m close. I can feel it in my bones.”

“Mom, you’re being ridiculous,” Jackie snapped. “I’m going inside.”

Jackie started toward the house, but Lovie yelled, “No, wait! Come back.” She pointed at the base of the statue. “What’s in there?”

Jackie stopped and turned around. “What’s in where, Mom?”

“In here.” Lovie got down on her knees and rubbed the shell motif on the concrete base of the statue. “Is it hollow?”

“I guess. What difference does it make?”

“It’s in there,” Lovie insisted. “The box or whatever this key fits is in the base of this statue.” She stood up and, placing her hands around the heron’s neck, tried to slide the bird off its pedestal.

“Come on, boys,” Bill said to Jamie and Sean. “Help me lift this statue.”

It took all three to pick the heavy bird up and set it on the ground. Eight pairs of eyes peered down into the black hole of the statue’s base. Lovie stuck her hand in and felt around. “There’s something in there. I feel it.”

Sean reached in with both hands and retrieved a black plastic bag. “It’s a trash bag.”

Lovie tore at the plastic bag like a little kid ripping open a package of Oreos. Everyone watched in amazement as she lifted out a black metal box, the size of a shoe box. She handed the box to Sean, who held it for her while she inserted her key. She turned the key and lifted the lid. The box was packed with banded stacks of cash, in fifty- and hundred-dollar denominations.

“Wow.” Sean’s eyes were as wide as silver dollars. “Where did all that money come from?”

Lovie took the box and carried it to the nearest chair. She sat in stunned silence, her puzzled expression gradually giving way to a smile. “How could I have forgotten? Oscar and I earned this money. Years ago, during the height of our success, we decided to build a nest egg for the future. For our retirement, or for the girls if they should ever need it.”

Mack grinned. “Lord knows, Oscar Sweeney never believed in putting his money in the bank.”

“So you decided to put some away for a rainy day.” Jackie held her hand out as the first drops of rain began to fall. “Literally.”

“Exactly,” Lovie said. “After you and Bill moved in here, when we were still living next door … well, the heron statue seemed like a great spot to stash the money, close enough to home but difficult to get to if we ever got tempted to spend it on something frivolous.”

“The irony is, you hid if from yourself,” Sam said. “Out of sight, out of mind.”

“The mind is a tricky thing, Samantha.” Lovie wagged her finger at her daughter. “You youngsters are a long way off from understanding this, but one day you will.” She held the box out to Sam. “This money’s for you, to cover the cost of the damages to your home, and for Faith to start a new life.”

“And for Sweeney’s,” Faith added, “to get us back on solid ground.”

“And for me.” Curtis stepped out from behind a hydrangea bush and pointed a handgun at the group. “To get me out of this town and away from you blubbering fools.”

An open wound ran across Curtis’s forehead, presumably from his motorcycle accident. He reeked of alcohol and his eyes were puffy roadmaps. He was drunk and high, too messed up to notice the three policemen taking cover, bush by bush, as they progressed toward the scene.