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“Good for her,” I said, bringing the coffee over and taking the stool across from him. “I always thought things came too easily for Dickie. He’ll appreciate her more if he has to win her back.”
“Well, you know Dickie,” Vaughn said. “He’ll make a mess of it first.”
“So did Jack invite you over for S’mores? We’re going to camp out on the third floor and pretend it’s a good place for me to live temporarily.”
“No, actually.” He seemed to have to collect himself for a minute and stared down into his empty mug. “I needed to come by and see you. There’s something important I wanted to talk to you about. I’d kill for another cup of coffee,” he said. “Maybe with some of that Irish whiskey you keep under the counter. This is harder than I thought it’d be.”
I nodded and grabbed the bottle from under the counter, giving each of our cups a shot.
“Are you in trouble, Vaughn?”
“No, not me, but maybe someone else.” He went pale and I noticed his skin was a little clammy.
I took a deep breath and felt the sweat break out on my own skin as I reached out to take his hand. A rolling sickness washed through me at the contact, but I pushed it away and gave his hand a little squeeze of comfort.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick? Did something happen?”
“That’s what I need to find out. I’ve heard gossip about the body you found this morning. Hell, you can’t help but hear the gossip, even in the next town. I didn’t pay much attention to the details as the store was crowded and I had two employees out sick. Everyone was mostly talking about you being back anyway. Your hair’s longer,” he said with a sad smile.
“We found a body,” I confirmed. “You know I can’t tell you much about it.”
“I just need to know—” He took a quick drink and then met my eyes. “They’re saying the victim is Daniel Oglesby. Is it true? Just tell me that much.”
My hand tightened on his and I shook my head. “Yeah, it’s him. We just confirmed for sure a few hours ago. I didn’t know you knew him.”
Vaughn pulled his hand away and wrapped it back around his cup, bringing it to his lips as if to hide. “We were close for a few months. Things didn’t work out between us.”
“Oh,” I said, the light beginning to dawn. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“God, Vaughn. I’m so sorry.”
Friendship warred with my personal needs, but I forced myself to get up and go to him. To put my arms around him and hold him close, even as my skin turned clammy and blackness hovered just on the edges of my consciousness. He dropped his head on my shoulder, and I felt the shudder run through him. And it was his pain that drove my own back. As many times as I’d had to deal with the grieving over the years, it was so much harder when the person hurting was someone you cared about.
“I had to make sure it was him,” he said.
“Of course you did.”
He lifted his head and his eyes were wet with unshed tears. There was despair there—grief and love—but there was also an anger that took me by surprise. Vaughn wasn’t one to lose control of his temper. Not ever. I let him go and went back to my stool, and I watched as he got up and began to prowl around the kitchen like some sort of caged animal.
“I think I knew it was him,” he finally said. “From the moment I got the news. Daniel was the one who wanted to break things off, you know.”
I stayed silent and just listened. He needed to get it all out.
“We cared about each other deeply, but he was afraid of what would happen if anyone found out. He wasn’t ashamed of what he was, but he was always aware of his position and the possible fallout. The church has come a long way in recent years, but he was still worried he’d lose his position. That those who needed him wouldn’t come to him because of what he was. It broke my heart to see him torn in two directions like that, but I didn’t blame him for making the decision he did. I loved him.”
Vaughn finally met my eyes. “I never told him that. It would have made it harder on both of us. I loved him, so when he said he was choosing the church over me I tried to understand. Tried to let it go.” He laughed to himself a little. “Ended up getting roaring drunk for the first time since we graduated high school. You remember that night?”
I smiled and said, “I remember you threw up in my car after two rum and cokes.”
“I never did get the hang of drinking.”
“It takes practice, I’m told.”
We stood there in silence for a few minutes. Him reflecting on a time of his life I hadn’t been a part of, while I tried to come to grips with what this news meant. It was suddenly crystal clear why Reverend Oglesby had been the victim of a hate crime. Things had improved in this part of the world over the last few years. Tolerance was slow but evolving. But like Jack said, we were still south of the Mason Dixon lines, and change was a little harder to swallow here and a lot slower to take place. I had a tendency to agree with the deceased. No matter how accepting the church was, a homosexual priest wouldn’t have fared well in this part of the country if he’d been made public. But it was obvious at leastsomeoneknew his secret.
“You’re going to have to talk to Jack,” I said. “He needs to know everything you can tell him.”
