The Wedding Gift (34 page)

We made it back to Mama and
Daddy’s house just fine but, when we crawled through the window of
my room, there was Daddy … just sitting on my bed looking at us,
one hand petting Muffin, the other holding a drink. His eyes looked
all glittery; he looked mean. Funny thing was, after where I had
been, my daddy didn’t scare me. Matter of fact, I didn’t think from
here on in much in this life was going to scare me.

I thought about Jess for a
second. Yes, maybe that’s what it took; you had to get your
stuffing knocked out of you real hard and, if you got put back
together again, you were just made of sterner stuff.

So before he could even
start in on us, I let loose, I said “
Daddy, you can holler and preach all you want, but first
you’re gonna hear us out
.”

He was so taken aback,
hearing his sweet little girl talk to him like that; all he did was
take a long drink, and nod and say “
Well
talk, then
.”

I did and so did Jessie …
he didn’t say nothin’. A few times his face wrinkled like his head
hurt though and, when we were done, he just looked at me straight
and said “
What is it she wants,
girl?
”

I told him, and I told
Jessie. Daddy, he just nodded. Daddy, well, he’s a man who knows
that some things just have to be done, and I guess now maybe he
could see too that if Bethany Willets hadn’t killed those babies,
well then there would be no poor crazed murderous ghost left. And
if there were no Robina, then his son, his Charlie, would still be
alive so, yeah, he understood.

Jessie was a little slower
getting onboard. She may be the toughest girl in Dalton, OK, but
she was no killer and, anyway you sliced this, it was murder and
pre-meditated murder at that. She looked at Daddy.
“
Charlie, you’re okay with
this?
”

He put his hand on hers.
“
Jessie Girl, I am. See, Girl, I have done
some things, well it don’t matter, but I ain’t never knowingly set
out to damage someone permanently. But this here, well, she killed
those babies; she brought about the death of my boy, and she wants
to see my girl in jail for something I think that she knows Leeann
could never have done. So, yes, I am okay with this, Girl, and even
if you can’t be, I need to know that what has been said here
tonight will go to the grave. This here has got to stay just
between us three - all right there, Jessie Girl?
”

Jess laid her head on
Daddy’s shoulder. “
Yeah Charlie, I
promise. How are you going to get her there,
though?
”

Daddy looked over at me. I
nodded. It was done, then. I told them my plan:

“
In about four hours, when
it’s late enough, I am going to call her and tell her my brother
got the injunction for me to get the diamonds and that, tomorrow
morning, he and my lawyer will be going inside the house to pick
them up. She won’t be able to bear the thought of me having them
so, Jess, what I think will happen is this: sometime today she’ll
be calling up that company she uses to guard the house and she will
make up some story about how the danger is past and all and that
they should leave off watching it anymore. Now she’ll do that
because, see, she can’t have a record of her going into the house
because, when the diamonds aren’t there anymore, suspicion would
fall on her. And she won’t tell Mr. Willets about it either because
he would discourage the plan, it being theft and
all
.” Jess and Daddy were nodding at my
every word. “
And then, well, I’m pretty
sure she will wait till it’s dark out and then she’ll go on in
after them. See, she doesn’t know that Robina never left … only we
know about that, and only we know what’s gonna happen when Miz
Willets walks inside
.”

Jess just stared at me long
and hard, like maybe I had changed beyond recognition, and maybe
she was right. But after all it wasn’t like I would be actually
doing anything to Miz Willets myself; no, it would be between her
and Robina. And me? Well, I don’t know, but I knew that I had my
own little baby in my stomach that I already loved, and loving my
baby as I did maybe helped me to understand Robina some. And, yes,
it was personal for me too. See, if Miz Willets hadn’t done these
awful things, then my own big brother would be alive today, and I
wouldn’t have been charged with a murder I didn’t commit. Hell, if
you looked at it that way, then Miz Willets herself had as good as
killed her own son. No, I found that I was going to be able to live
with this just fine.

Daddy stood up now. He
kissed Jess on the top of her head and then me. He said we needed
to get some sleep because, no matter what, Jessie needed to be at
work at Tully’s tonight where fifty people or so could see her.
And, as for me, even before I called up Miz Willets, he wanted me
to call old Billy Rose and remind him that he had forgot to set my
ankle monitor back and that I would be real grateful if he could
get to that first thing.

Daddy said that he figured
he would get some sleep too because he and my brother and Donny
would be having a long night at Downey’s that evening. He met my
eyes, winked, and told me to have sweet dreams if I had to have any
dreams at all, then he left the room.

I reminded Jessie to call
Mark, and she did. From what I could hear it was a real subdued
conversation. I didn’t much like it when she said she
“
would tell him everything
later
,” but when I brought it up to her,
she just said “
Let it go, Leeann. If you
don’t trust me by now, then there is nothing for me to say to
you
.”

I felt terrible and told
her that I trusted her more than anyone alive and that she knew
that and, if she wanted to tell Mark, that was fine too. I just
didn’t know if he could deal with it.

She said
“
It’s all right, we’re both on edge, I
know that, and I’ll decide what Mark can deal with myself, and now
could we please get some sleep? Don’t forget that I have to be able
to stay awake long enough tomorrow night to establish my
alibi
.”

That made us both laugh a
little, so I just said sure, and rolled over and turned off the
light. Jess must have left at dawn because, when I got up at seven,
she was gone.

Chapter
51

I went downstairs, kissed
Mama, poured some coffee, and then, avoiding her eyes, told her I
had to make some phone calls in private. I snagged the cordless and
took it out to the back porch to drink my coffee and do what I had
to do.

Just like Daddy had told
me, I called up Billy Rose first. I could tell I had woke him up,
and so then he had to act all irate, like it was my fault that he
hadn’t set the damn monitor in the first place. I played along and
said I was awful sorry, I had just forgotten after that horrible
funeral. He acted mollified then and said as how he could
understand that, and he asked me if my mama had the coffee on. I
said she sure did, to come on over. He said he’d see me in about
half an hour. Then I dialed Miz Willets. I knew the number from
those days before George and I had got married. She answered on the
first ring. Maybe she wasn’t sleeping much these days
either.

“
Hello?
”

“
Miz Willets, it’s me,
Leeann. Don’t hang up
.”

“
You? What do you
want?
”

“
Well, I guess you could
say this is a courtesy call, Miz Willets. See my brother got the
injunction to get into the house and retrieve those diamonds George
bought me. Tomorrow morning, well, he and my lawyer are going to be
going over there first thing with a court order and I just thought
you would want to tell your guards so as there is no
confusion
.”

She was silent, and then
she laughed nastily in my ear. “
You piece
of trash, you piece of shit. You think you’re going to use the
jewelry that my son bought you to buy your way out of killing him?
Well I wouldn’t count on that, Leeann. No, you’d best count instead
on a nice room up at Maybeetle instead. I talked to the warden
there and they’re keeping your bed warm for you. Goodbye, Leeann,
we won’t be speaking again
.”

She hung up on me. I hate
to admit it but I grinned a little; she sure was right about us not
talking again. I had a moment’s bad worry there though. If she
called up Judge Sayers, she would find out there was no injunction
yet. Then I might be in trouble. I didn’t think she would do that
because then, when the jewelry disappeared, everyone would know it
was her for sure, but it did worry me some.

Right then Billy Rose drove
on up and Mama came out and gave me the evil eye, asking if I was
all done with my private phone calls. I stood up and kissed her on
the cheek. I was filled with affection for her. Mama was so good
and I knew that what me and Daddy had put in motion must never
touch her.

She scowled at me.
“
Now what are you up to, young lady? Oh,
shoot, is that Billy Rose?
”

I nodded, told her, yeah,
it was and that I had to call him up about the ankle monitor,
that’s why I had wanted my privacy. She shook her head and said I
hadn’t needed any privacy for that and she knew what was going on.
God almighty, I thought I might faint when she said that, but it
was okay, ‘cause then she said she knew it had been Donny I called.
I just looked down, like I was embarrassed to be caught. She shook
her head again, and went on down the steps to greet Billy Rose and
tell him that since he was here he might as well stay to breakfast
which, to my disgust, he agreed to.

Damn, that was one long ass
day. Mama drove me crazy, coming up with projects all morning and
into the afternoon as well, and it wasn’t till she finally left for
the Piggly at three before I could call Donny for real.

Oh he sounded so good.
“
How’s my girl doing?
”

I told him just fine, but
lonely as hell for him.

He said
“
It won’t be too long now. Carlene is
heading out first thing in the morning in a big ass van carting off
all my furniture behind her
.”

I laughed and told him that
was all right. All we needed was a bed.

He said
“
That’s a damn shame then, ‘cause she is
taking that too. But I think if we put some thought into this, we
could figure out how to make do. You know, Baby, your daddy called
me earlier; told me that him and Randy want me to come on down to
Downey’s tonight and sink a few, but I think I might just sneak
over to your house instead and come on up to your bedroom window. I
figure it’ll be safe with your daddy down to Downey’s and not at
home to shoot me
.”

I acted real regretful,
which wasn’t hard, and told him he better go on ahead and get
drunk, ‘cause Mama had been snarky about him all day and she would
be eyeing me all night. He said that, oh hell, he didn’t know how
much more he could take of not being with me, and I told him I
loved him and that over the next fifty years or so he’d be wanting
to get away from me, so he might as well enjoy himself while he
could.

He laughed, but then real
serious he said “
I don’t much guess I’ll
be wanting to get too far. If God gives me fifty years with you,
then I guess I’ll be about the luckiest S.O.B. to ever be
born
.”

I started to cry, and told
him “
Donny Readle, I don’t know if you are
the luckiest but I know I am the luckiest damn girl and if …oh
shoot, here’s Mama back from the store
.”

He told me to be a good
girl for my Mama and hung up, laughing. Mama wasn’t actually back.
I had just not been able to keep talking to the man I loved, him
being so perfect and good and all, on this day with this secret
inside me. I went on upstairs, hoping to just go to sleep and wake
up tomorrow with it all over. But then Mama did come back for real
and I had to go down and unload groceries and help her with
dinner.

Dinner was not much fun
either. Mama was all heated up about Daddy taking Randy out
drinking on a work night, and they had some sharp words between
them, which was strange but finally … finally Daddy left, and Mama
went upstairs to have a bath. She asked me if I wanted to watch TV
with her later, but I said I guessed I would just go to bed early.
She let it be, so at last I was in my bed holding Muffin to me and
watching out the window …wondering.

I must have fallen asleep,
because I know I was woken up by the phone ringing downstairs. I
looked at my clock and it was after eleven. I ran down real fast to
get it before Mama woke up. It was Jessie. I could hear noise in
the background.

I asked her where she was.
She said she was still at work and would be for another couple
hours because Tully had asked her to close, and she had agreed,
even though she thought she might die, she was so tired. But that
wasn’t what she was calling for. She was calling to tell me that
Mark had just shown up at Tully’s and he said he had driven by
Willets House on the way and Miz Bethany’s Lexus was in the
driveway there.