Then Hez got an email from Bruno that took his mind completely off Martine and her client. Hez gave a soft whistle. “Is this what you used to get Marie back, Pierre?”
Hez had been digging into Michael’s background ever since Pierre’s comments about a dossier of dirt—and he’d finally caught a gleam of gold. Or rather meth.
The trail began back in the 1980s, when Michael Willard had just started his trucking company, Southern Transport, with a single used truck. By 1989 he’d been arrested twice for receiving stolen property, but each time the charges were dropped because he claimed he didn’t know his load was stolen and the police couldn’t prove otherwise. Even taking questionable cargo hadn’t been enough to keep Michael afloat financially. His original truck got repossessed and Southern Transport filed for bankruptcy.
And then something happened. By the early 1990s Southern Transport was out of bankruptcy and had seven new trucks. Around the same time the outlaw biker gang that had controlled the local meth trade suddenly started avoiding the area. That might have had something to do with what happened to two low-level gang members: Their bodies were found in Gum Swamp, tied to stakes pounded deep into the soft earth. The gators had been working on both, hopefully after they were dead.
Police records and news accounts showed that the meth kept flowing despite the bikers’ departure. Did Pierre find evidence that the drugs traveled on Southern Transport trucks? That might have been enough to shock Marie into leaving Michael. It also would have given Pierre leverage to—
“Hi, Uncle Hez.”
Hez immediately closed the browser window and turned to face Simon, who stood in the doorway. “Hi, Simon. I didn’t hear you come in. I thought you were in the library doing your homework.”
“I finished, but Aunt Savannah was in a meeting, so I came over here.” He stared at Hez’s monitor. “What are you working on?”
“Just researching an old case.”
Simon’s eyes locked on Hez. “Is it about James Hornbrook?”
“No, it’s completely unrelated.”
“Oh.” Simon deflated. “I hoped maybe we were going to catch him soon.”
“We’re working hard on it.”
“If we catch him, can we make him tell us if he killed my mom?”
“He has a legal right not to say anything if he doesn’t want to, but I’m sure Hope will do everything she can to get him to talk.”
“Good.” Simon was silent for a moment. “I wish I knew who to be mad at. Now I just feel so... so mad at everything.”
Hez nodded. “I know. That’s kind of how I felt after Ella died—except I knew who to be mad at: me. But I was also mad at everything, just like you. I was mad that Ella was dead and there was nothing I could do to bring her back and—” Histhroat constricted and he fought to hold back tears. The sudden surge of emotion surprised and embarrassed him. Would he ever be able to talk about Ella’s death without risking a scene?
Simon walked around the desk and put his hand on Hez’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Uncle Hez.”
Hez steadied himself. “Thanks. I’m really sorry about your mom too. You can tell me the things you miss about her and any memories you want to share. Or even just how it makes you feel. I know it hurts to talk about it, but it helps too. I wish I’d figured that out sooner after Ella died. So I want you to tell me when you’re feeling angry or you’re having other bad feelings, okay? I can take it. I understand.”
Simon buried his face in Hez’s shoulder and hugged his neck with surprising strength. “Thanks, Uncle Hez.”
Chapter 13
Marley behaved so much better when Cody wasn’t around. Dressed in black leggings and a green tee, Savannah walked at a fast clip down Tupelo Street in Nova Cambridge. Lacy moss draped on oak trees swayed in the light breeze, sweet with the scent of roses blooming along the sidewalk. The fragrance brought a stab of pain, reminding her of the overwhelming odor from the floral arrangements at Jess’s funeral. Would she ever be able to enjoy their smell again?
She hurried past the flowers and sighed with relief when the aroma of freshly mown grass replaced their scent. Theclick-clackof a train’s wheels on the rails four blocks south reached them, and Marley paused to stare that way.
“It’s a train,” she reassured him as she stopped to catch her breath.
She glanced around and realized she was nearly to the intersection with Pecan Street. Erik’s house was a block away, and she obeyed an impulse to walk past it. There it was. The single-story home looked bereft even with mossy oak trees shading it. Weeds poked through the mulch in the flower bed under the picture window, and the grass could use a trim. This place was the site where Simon confronted his father forthe first time. Had he been back since he discovered Erik was suing for custody?
She’d tried to keep Simon too busy to wander, but the boy had a mind of his own. She approached the house cautiously, but Erik’s car wasn’t in the driveway, and he didn’t seem to be home. She stared at the house from the sidewalk. A glint of red caught her eye, and she stepped into the grass to see what it was. A small red double-decker bus key ring lay in the vegetation, and she scooped it up. Simon had one like it, and she clutched it in her fist.
Her intuition had been correct. She should have thought of it sooner. When he first came to town, Simon had constantly been jetting off in pursuit of his father. Of course he would be spying on him.
She sighed and tucked the key ring in her fanny pack beside her phone. She would need to have a conversation with her nephew. There could be serious trouble if Erik caught him. Taking stock of her surroundings, she decided to walk to University Grounds to grab an iced peppermint mocha and maybe an acai bowl.
Marley willingly fell into step beside her, and Savannah’s sneakers slapped the pavement as she got into the rhythm of a jog. The exercise allowed her to push away her worry for now. She had to talk to Michael and see if they could come up with a solution that worked for both of them. Surely he would see reason. A fight wasn’t in anyone’s best interests—least of all Simon’s.
She slowed when she reached the coffee shop and spotted Nora’s car in the lot. A smile curved her lips at the thought of seeing Nora. She would have advice on how to approachMichael. Though he and Nora weren’t close, she might have heard what he hoped to gain by taking custody of Simon.
