Redemption (23 page)

30

Overton dreaded this part of the job more than any other. Though he had gotten used to giving it, no bad news, no matter how gently broken, was easy to give.

He knocked on the mud room door, and Sharese came to the door. She squinted through the window then opened the door. “You lookin’ for Michael? He’s in Pine getting gas.”

Already found him.
“No, Sharese. Uh, may we come in?”

“
Sure.”

Overton and Ramsey entered, removing their hats.

“
Don’t mind the mess. We’re gettin’ ready to go to Disney World.” She led the men into the kitchen. “One sec.” She walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Michael Junior, you make sure y’all’s rooms are clean now!” She smiled. “I hate comin’ back to a messy home.”

“
You better sit down, Sharese,” Overton said. He motioned Ramsey to a chair.

“
What for?” She gripped the back of the chair. “I heard the sirens. Don’t tell me no bad news, Sheriff.”

That’s all I have to tell these days.
“There’s been an accident involving Michael.” He sighed. “He’s dead, Sharese.”

Sharese sat in the chair, her lips moving, her eyes staring straight ahead. “How ... how did it happen?”

“
Seems his brakes failed coming down Mason’s Hill, and he hit the train.” He shot a look at Ramsey. “It was an accident, Sharese.”

Sharese’s bottom lip trembled. “Man was always in too much of a hurry,” Sharese whispered as the tears fell. She scratched the tears away and set her jaw. “If y’all will excuse me, I have to tell my sons that their father is dead.”

Callie reacted the exact same way. Sharese and Callie are cut from the same cloth: classy, stoic, and calm in the face of death.
“If there’s anything we can do, anything at all, just let us know,” Overton said.

Sharese stood. “Will I ... will I have to identify the body?”

“
No ma’am,” Overton said. “I’ve already taken care of that.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Sheriff.”

“
We’ll see ourselves out,” Overton said, and he and Ramsey left.

As soon as they were in the car, Ramsey said, “Why’d you tell her it was the brakes?”

He started the car. “Because the alternatives are far too disturbing to dump in her lap right now. Her husband’s dead, and it might have been the brakes.”

“
Might
have been.”

“
It’s a whole lot better than telling a new widow that her husband intentionally drove into a train the day they were gonna leave for a family vacation at Disney World.”

“
But when she finds out—”

“
One sorrow at a time,” Overton interrupted. “One sorrow at a time.”

31

Finally
, Sharese thought.
The lie is over.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the kitchen table while the boys ran around upstairs.
It doesn’t make the next part any easier, but I’ve got three strong boys, and mourning only lasts for a night. There’ll be joy come morning.

She smiled and took a sip.
The man who killed my golden boy, my J, the man who shared my bed all these years, the man I didn’t recognize at all from that diary—that man is now talkin’ to God about what he done.

She laughed and whispered, “God’s probably catchin’ you in a lie right now, Michael Lavender. You better check yourself. You talkin’ to almighty God now.”

She held the cup in her hands, her fingers tingling with the heat.

I wish I could rejoice, but I can’t. I can’t shout hallelujah, but at least my conscience is clear. How could I have been so ignorant? I’m guilty of ignorance—and making a phone call—but that’s all. How could I have fallen for that lame explanation back then? “The Klan done it.” The Klan didn’t have a thing to do with it. Oh, the
Sellers
clan did, and all along I knew deep down in my heart, but I got betrayed by my heart. But like they say, it’s so much easier to believe a big lie.

She let the steam from the coffee envelop her face.

And here I am actin’ like I’m in some coffee commercial, thinkin’ about how I blamed my entire life on the white man when my own people— Check that. When the man I married, the man who helped me get over J, the man who loved me, the man who treated me like a queen—when
that
man was a common criminal, a murderer of his best friend. Over what? Somethin’ so petty as jealousy. Michael and J were like brothers until I came between them, but I ain’t takin’ the weight, I ain’t the one bein’ held down no more. I’m free, and my sons will grow up to be like me, not like Michael.

She listened to the boys running the hall above, laughing and giggling.

Yes, Lord, I’m fearin’ You right now, been fearin’ You ever since I read that diary, been fearin’ what I might have to do. Lord Jesus, tonight I sent my husband out to get some gas, made a phone call, and waited for a knock on my door. It seems like I’ve spent my whole life waitin’ for it to begin. Well, Lord, it’s begun, and all it will take are three lonely words to three little men: “Your daddy’s dead.”

“
Your daddy’s dead,” she whispered, and she blinked away tears. “These tears ain’t for you, Michael. They’re for J, my golden, golden boy, who should have been the father to my children.”

32

A near-new Winnebago
, Overton thought as he drove Ramsey to Lester’s.
If the brakes failed, there should be some evidence, some fluid at the scene or in the barn.

Where Ramsey was washing the car. He had plenty of time to cut a line..

Shit. Another piece to the puzzle? Who the hell is this man beside me?

“
We haven’t talked much, Ramsey, and I suppose that’s my fault.”

“
That’s all right, Sheriff,” Ramsey said. “The boss doesn’t much have to talk to the help.”

Overton smiled. “I don’t even know where you’re from. We’ve been working together for what, six months now, and I don’t know a thing about you.”
Other than you’re a fat, sloppy, poor excuse for a deputy.

“
I’m from lots of places you’ve never heard of.”

“
Try me.”

“
Okay. Scruggs Flats, Cypress, Checkerville, Tinsboro—”

“
Where’s Scruggs Flats?” Overton interrupted.

“
Other side of Oatboro near the Plains county line.”

A hundred miles west of here.
“That’s a far poke from here, boy. How’d you hear about the job?”

“
Saw an ad in the
Times
when I was living in Gopher Springs.”

Gopher Springs? This has to be a joke.
“And where’s that?”

“
South side of Broad Tooth Mountain about six miles from Jennings.”

A hundred miles
east
of here.
“And the folks in Gopher Springs get the
Times
?”

“
Nah. I found it in a rest stop men’s room on I-Sixty.”

This can’t be true.
“You ain’t pulling my leg?”

“
No sir.”

They pulled into Lester’s. “So you just sort of lucked into all this.”

“
You could say that.”

I don’t believe in luck anymore. Autumn can check this out for me.
“See you tomorrow.”

Ramsey got out. “Yep. You, uh, goin’ back to the scene?”

“
Might,” Overton said.

“
Oh. Okay.”

“
Take it easy,” Overton said, and he pulled away from Lester’s, heading toward the Lavenders’ house.

Just in case.

33

Ramsey Saunders’ finger shook as he took a long swig of his Miller Lite and pushed the first speed dial button on his phone.
He ain’t gonna like this.
He panicked as it rang and rang on the other end. “Come on, answer,” he said.

“
What?”

He never says hello.
“Michael’s dead.”

“
What?”

“
Jesus, Jimmy Lee, he wasn’t supposed to die!”

“
Christ almighty, Ramsey, what did you
do?
”

“
What you told me to do, and now he’s splattered all over the tracks near Pine!”

After a series of curses, Jimmy Lee yelled, “I told you to slow him down, keep him in town, let the air out of his tires—”

“
I didn’t think I’d have enough time,” Ramsey interrupted. “I mean, it was pure luck Overton took me out there today. When they went inside to talk, I was out washing the car.”

“
Washing the— What the hell did you do?”

“
I put a few little cuts in the brake line. Just a few little cuts. It shouldn’t have made ‘em fail like that, just make it so he’d have to get it fixed.”

“
How could you have been so stupid? That kinda shit can be found out!”

Ramsey took another drink, his hand still trembling. “I doubt it. The fire melted everything, and I mean everything. Sheriff Poole and even Overton called it an accident, so we’re in the clear.”

“
No evidence?”

“
None.” He finished his bottle and tore off the label. “But, um, Overton may be a problem.”

“
He ain’t. He don’t know shit.”

Ramsey twisted the cap off another bottle. “I don’t know about that. He started pesterin’ me with questions about where I’m from and all.”

“
And he’ll find out you were tellin’ him the truth.”

“
But what if he traces me all the way back to you and that business in Calhoun?”

“
He won’t.”

He took a long swig and pressed the bottle to his forehead. “But he could, Jimmy Lee. He ain’t so dumb as you think, and Autumn Harper is real good at findin’ stuff out.”

“
Don’t worry about that bitch. She’s dumber than Overton. You know she got nigger blood in her?”

“
She does?”

“
Yeah. It’s supposed to be a family secret, but you can tell. Check out her lips.”

They’re right pretty red lips, though.
“So what do I do now?”

“
What you’ve been doin’ all along, and don’t go runnin’ off on me. You still got one more thing to do, right?”

Ramsey sunk back into the couch. “I don’t know, Jimmy Lee. I don’t think I’m up to it anymore.”

“
Oh, you’ll be up to it, cuz. Maybe not now, but you’ll be ready come November.”

“
I don’t know.”

“
You better be. Accidents happen, you know.”

Yeah, accidents happen, people just happen to get shot, fires just happen to get set, and shit-heels somehow become state senators with the pull of a trigger.

Friday, July 9, 1999

34

Time to kick back and relax, lay low, and plan..

Two more. Just two more.

The next one’s gonna be tricky now. We’re not supposed to kill him—

Cuz he has to kill himself.

It has to be a
real
suicide.

But how do you trick a man into offin’ himself? I say it can’t be done, but they say it can. We’re readier for this one than any of the others, they tell me. Just wait and see.

And what do
I
do in the meantime?