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“Lynn’s life is like a puzzle, and I like to try to fit the pieces together.”
She snorted. “That’s a puzzle that will never be solved, Mason. You should know that by now.”
“I’m a glutton for punishment.” I shrugged and tried to look boyish. “What happened to Lynn’s father?”
“He got what was coming to him.”
“Which was what?”
“From what I hear, little pieces of him are scattered from here to his mother’s house in Georgia.”
“Why?”
“He stole Lynn’s necklace. Shelly didn’t like that.”
“What happened?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure. I wasn’t there. All I know is that Lynn went to see Shelly, and she hadn’t done that in a long time. When she did, she told Shelly how scared she was that he was out of prison. Shelly takes care of Lynn. She always has. So she did. She took care of her.”
“And he’s…dead?” I knew something had happened to him when his parole officer came looking for him. Her father hadn’t reported for his check-in. But no one ever found him.
“Probably.” She shrugged like she didn’t have a care in the world.
“You think he’s dead.”
“Pretty sure of it,” she chirped.
“Why?”
She rolled her eyes. “Shelly never does anything half-ass.”
“What did you mean about little pieces of him being scattered from here to Georgia?”
She leaned toward me like she wanted to impart a secret. “Rumor has it that Shelly killed him, then she chopped him up into little tiny bits. Then she dropped pieces of him up and down the highway between here and her grandmother’s house.”
My gut roiled. “How did she chop him up?”
She snorted again. “Knowing Shelly, probably with her teeth.” She raised a piece of licorice rope to her mouth, clasped it be
tween her teeth, and pretended to gnaw it like a dog with a bone. She shrugged. “Or maybe a chainsaw. Or a great big knife. No one knows but her.”
“Was Lynn involved in that whole thing?” I asked. My gut churned at the idea of it.
She waved a breezy hand in the air. “Not at all. Lynn doesn’t even know about it. She just thinks he disappeared, that he went to live his very normal post-parole life off the grid. If she knew, she’d never speak to Shelly again.”
My head reeled, trying to put together all the pieces.
“Anyway,” Ash said, “Shelly got what she wanted out of it.”
“What was that?”
“The necklace. Lynn gave her the necklace.”
I jerked to face her. “My necklace?” I laid a hand upon my chest.
“The blue one with the tiny diamonds all around? That one. Shelly wears it all the time. Lynn said she could have it. Shelly always wanted it.” She lowered her voice and looked around like someone was going to hear her. “To be honest, I think Shelly was desperate for a life like the one you had with Lynn. When she couldn’t get it, she pretended to have it. She wears that necklace every day. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”
I had no idea. Apparently, there was a lot that I didn’t know.
