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We stand there for a bit, like we’re having a moment of silence for our youth. Finally, he glances around the property. “Say, is Davis around?”
“No, he went into town.”
Roy looks at me funny. “Hmmm.”
He shields his eyes from the sun and then motions with his thumb toward the driveway. “Isn’t that
his truck?”
“He took one of the others.”
A sly grin edges across his features, and then he cocks his head. I know this look well. He’s about to test his authority. “You wouldn’t be lying to a police officer, would you, Ruth?”
I shrug. “I’m not under oath. And I’m not lying.”
“I heard that Holt boy was in pretty bad shape the other night.”
“Yeah, well, so was Gabby Jenkins.”
He juts out his bottom lip to indicate a fair point has been made. “You wouldn’t have thought he’d get up and go fishing this morning, but he did.”
“So obviously he wasn’t in that bad a shape. And what’s that got to do with Davis?”
“Nothing, I hope.”
“Well, then why are you here?”
“Bobby Holt was found dead this afternoon, Ruth. And his family doesn’t think it was an accident.”
Chapter Twenty
Ruth
Cole comes straight over when I call. I’m sitting on the porch where Julia has brought out tea and her famous pimento cheese dip. She’s beside herself over what happened with the Vera family, and she tries to remedy her anxiety by making sure everyone is taken care of and then some. It’s the sweetest kind of overkill the way she hovers. It reminds me of my mother. I don’t fault her for it. Julia is the best thing that’s ever happened to this family. She loves us like we are blood, through thick and thin. She takes it personally when something goes wrong with a guest; she lives to make them happy, so the death of one is weighing heavily on her heart.
Cole stops as he always does and dusts his boots on a mat at the bottom step. When he looks up, he says, “I take it you heard about Bobby Holt.”
“At this point, everyone has.”
As he climbs the steps, I take the opportunity to admire him. The broad shoulders, the thickness of his arms, his easy smile. He walks over and stands next to me, resting his back against the pillar. “Is that why you called?”
The truth is, I don’t know why I called Cole, and now that he’s here, I’m even less sure. I only know I have the distinct inclination to drag him upstairs to what has always been one of our favorite rooms. “I guess so.”
He looks me in the eye for a little too long not to have any feelings for me, and then he says, “Is there something else?”
Yes. Yes, there is. “Ruth?”
I can’t seem to spit the words out. But then I realize I’d better get it over with. “Roy practically came straight here. He seems to think my brother had something to do with Bobby’s death…”
Cole looks at me sideways. “Johnny?”
“No, Davis.”
“Is that what you think?”
What do I think? I think my biological clock is ticking and making babies with you looks pretty damn good right now. I think that would be the sweetest disaster, and though I could easily make it happen, I won’t, because I’m too scared to face the fallout. “I don’t think it was either of them. The Holts have no shortage of enemies.”
“No,” he says. “They don’t. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. My guess is, and this is just based on what I’ve heard, it’ll probably be ruled an accident.”
