If Onions Could Spring Leeks (19 page)

I memorized the full name so I could tell Jake later. From inside the station, I couldn't see him on the outside. I had no idea if he could see me.

“Elvis,” I said with a smile. If only he knew the future
that
name would bring. “We don't have a lot of time, but I need to explain something to you. It will seem strange.”

Elvis blinked. “I feel a little strange, miss, so go on.”

There was no real
Reader's Digest
version of the ghosts' travels back to Broken Rope, but I'd explained it a few times by now and was getting a little better at hitting only the high points. Gram didn't much care how clear she was with the ghosts, but I did and at this moment even more than usual. Elvis was here for an important reason, I was sure. He had an answer or some important part of the puzzle, or why else would he have appeared? I needed him to trust me quickly and enough to offer his contribution willingly.

“I'll be,” he said when I'd finished. “How'd I die?”

“I don't know. I don't know much about any of the ghosts until I meet them the first time. I can research it and let you know just in case we meet again.”

“I'd like that,” he said. “Well, I think I'd like that.”

“You probably would,” I said.

“Alrighty, then. What can I do for you and Mr. Robert there?”

“I don't know. Let's start with this: Do you remember him?”

Elvis looked at Robert. Robert grimaced at us both. He wasn't having a good day. Elvis blinked and thought and recognition briefly skipped over his narrow face, but it disappeared again quickly.

“I can't be sure. He looks like so many of the passengers.
After a while and unless they ride the trains lots and lots, everyone begins to look alike.”

“His girlfriend was a black woman who was murdered,” I said. Again, no reason for sensitivity. We needed answers.

“Oh, well, gracious, that does change things a bit. I might have seen him come in here with her a time or two.”

“Not possible,” Robert said. “Remember, Grace and I never met up here at the station.”

“Grace? Your girl's name was Grace?” he said.

“Yes,” both Robert and I said hopefully.

“A negro woman named Grace?”

I cringed, though from his perspective Elvis hadn't said anything wrong.

“Yes,” Robert said. I nodded.

“Grace was a beauty. She was here, I remember her. She came back for two days, claiming to be here to meet someone. Was that you?”

“Yes.”

“Why weren't you here?” Elvis said. He didn't vocalize the words “you fool” but I heard them in my head. Robert probably did, too.

“I was ill.”

“She didn't know where you were. She didn't know what to do.”

“I'm sorry,” Robert said with a sigh, reaffirming that he was truly tired of reliving this whole mess.

“Well, another man came along and took her right on out of here. He was a well-known man, but I can't remember his name.”

“Justice Adams?” I said.

“That's it! Yes, he came and took her away.”

“Did she go willingly?” I asked.

Robert looked at me briefly before he turned his attention back to Elvis.

“Let me . . . I don't know. Gosh, she was the prettiest lady I'd ever seen, even if she was black and all,” Elvis said.

Again, I cringed and wanted a way to somehow reach into their long-gone and decayed brains, shake them up a little, and take these ghosts out of their racist and old-fashioned ways of thinking, but that wasn't possible.

“Okay. Can you remember any specifics of what she was doing when you saw her, or her with Justice?” I asked. “Think about it, Elvis, please. We really need to know.”

Elvis pondered a moment. He cocked his head and squinted at Robert. He looked at me and then back at Robert again.

And then he said, “Ha! I believe I do remember.”

“Okay,” I said again.

“Yes, it was an ugly scene. The man named Justice sat with Grace for a day. Sat beside her, right over there.” He nodded. Robert and I turned and the benches in the lobby appeared. And then so did Justice and Grace.

“Grace!” Robert said as he ran to her. He went to his knees and reached for her hands.

But she behaved as though she didn't see or hear him.

“Grace?” I said as I moved behind Robert.

No response. I reached for Grace's shoulder, but my hand went through it, as if we weren't surrounded by darkness.

“I think we're just supposed to watch,” I said to Robert. I put my hand on his shoulder, and it landed, didn't go through. “Right, Elvis?” I said as I turned. But he was gone.
The ticket booth was empty. “Come on, Robert. Step back a little with me and let's see what happens.”

Robert stood and we moved back just a little.

Grace and Justice unfroze and began talking.

“Grace, dear, the man isn't coming. He's not at his home. He's abandoned you,” Justice said.

“No, I don't believe that. It's just not possible. Perhaps something happened to him. Perhaps he's ill. I should ask around town for him. Someone is bound to know him.”

Grace made a move to stand, but Justice grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the bench.

Justice had a focused concentration to his gaze. It was something I hadn't seen in the pictures of him, but I could tell that he never gave up; he always got what he wanted. He was intense, and depending upon who you were in his life, his intensity could have been a curse or a blessing.

It had probably served him well, but his glare at Grace, full of desire and determination, was disturbing.

I looked at Robert. He was watching the two on the bench closely, and I knew he saw it, too.

“Please release my arm,” Grace said.

Surprising me, he did release her. “I'm so sorry. I'm just scared for you, worried about you. Forgive me. I am not a violent man.”

His statement seemed like a pretty bad sign to me. He protesteth too loudly.

“I realize that, Justice,” Grace said, appeasing him with her own practiced tone. “And I'm ever so grateful. But I need to look for Robert. I need to make sure I have explored every possible corner before I leave Broken Rope. If he doesn't
want me, if I have been duped, then perhaps you and I shall meet again. The circumstances will be different, and we can discuss that at that time.”

“That's my girl,” Robert said quietly.

“Fine,” Justice said, but it clearly wasn't. Nevertheless, he continued, “Look for him. You won't find him, I'm sure. I have business to attend to in town myself. Let's meet back here tonight—if you don't find him. If you find him, I won't expect to see you.”

“All right.”

“Do you have any money, Grace?”

“Well . . .”

“I'll tell you what, I will pay for your ticket home if you don't find your Robert. Tonight, I will give you the money.”

“That's how he got her to come back to the train station,” I muttered to myself.

She'd had no choice. It was truly a different time. There were no credit cards that she could have used to buy an emergency train ticket. She'd probably saved for the ticket that got her to Broken Rope, and she'd probably thought she wouldn't need the safety net of enough money to buy a return ticket.

She was a woman alone. She was a black woman alone. At that time those hadn't been easy circumstances.

“Thank you, Justice,” she said, but I was sure Robert heard her determination as much as I did. She did not want to come back to that station. She didn't want to take money from Justice Adams. She probably didn't want to take money from anyone. She'd had no choice.

“Oh, Grace,” Robert said. “I'm so desperately sorry.”

“You are welcome,” Justice said. “Now go. I will see you tonight. Right here. At this bench.”

Grace stood and stepped surely out of the station. As she moved by Robert and me, I missed the movement of air that should come with a person walking by.

“Isabelle.”

Elvis had reappeared over my shoulder.

“Yes?” I said.

“You made it here, Isabelle. This is where you will find all the answers,” he said. And then he surprised me even more by reaching for my face. He held it and kissed me softly, quickly, as if it was just his normal way of greeting me. Even still, I recognized that though they weren't Jerome's lips, it was unmistakably Jerome's kiss.

“Are you okay?” I said.

“Yes. I'd like to see you as myself, but I'm not sure that will happen. I have to go again,” Elvis said with a smile that was as close to the crooked one that belonged to Jerome as it could be.

“You know Elvis?” Robert said when the ticket taker had disappeared.

“No.”

“That kiss sure looked like you knew him.”

“It's a really long story.”

“Oh, don't tell me. I've got my own long story going to deal with. What do we do now?”

“I wish I knew. Did we learn much of anything?” I said.

“Justice and Grace really did meet.”

“And she really hadn't found you,” I said.

“I am positive she
never
found me, Betts. Positive.”

“I'm going to go back with Jake to his archives and have him pull up the old newspapers from the days after they were to meet.”

“Why?”

“If there was a body, even an unidentified one, there might have been a story. Maybe that will give us more,” I said.

“How?”

“I have no idea, Robert, but it's the only plan I can come up with at the moment.”

“All right. I'll come with you.”

But he didn't come with me. Suddenly, he and the rest of the station disappeared, poofed away. Since I had stepped up to get onto the station platform, my body braced itself as if I was going to fall to the ground. I didn't. I was already on the ground. I looked over to see Jake still standing there with the camera held up and pointing this direction.

“Hi!” I called and waved.

“Hi. Did something happen?”

“What did you see?” I said as I hurried toward him.

“You walking around a little, talking to the air.”

“Hope the camera got more.”

“Me too.”

“We need to go back to the archives. Right now if possible,” I said.

“Sure. Let's go.” Jake clicked off the camera and folded the screen in.

The barn doors, both front and back, had been locked when we'd taken the side path to the field behind the building. The back one still was, but as we came around the front corner of the building, I heard a voice coming from inside the barn.

“Hang on. Did you just hear something?” I asked Jake.

“I did.”

We tiptoed to the front doors. They were no longer locked. One was pushed in so that it created an opening of a few inches. Light from a flashlight beam danced around inside the barn.

And the people inside were definitely talking about
murder.

“This is where he was killed?” a familiar voice said.

“This is the spot. Right here, I was told,” another voice said. This one was even more familiar.

“Call Cliff,” I whispered to Jake. “At least a couple of Derek's ex-wives are in there. I'll stay here and listen, but get Cliff over here.”

I thought the two voices I heard belonged to Ridley and Wendy, but I couldn't be completely sure.

Jake stepped far enough away from the barn so they wouldn't hear him but made sure he could still see me and pulled out his phone.

“He was hit on the head?” Wendy, I think, said.

“With a wrench,” Ridley, I think, said.

I wondered whether the murder weapon was common knowledge, but I couldn't remember what had been shared with the public and what hadn't.

“That's awful,” Wendy said. “He was a boring idiot, but he didn't deserve to die so violently.”

“I know. I actually spent a moment feeling sad about it,” Ridley said.

And then they did something that both surprised and scared me. They laughed. Both of them, with a cackle that was almost evil.

When they stopped laughing, as if they had to work to gather themselves, Wendy continued, “Do you think she did it?”

“Gosh, I don't know. Anything's possible. He put her through hell. He put lots of people through hell. It was his way.”

“Who? Which she?” I whispered.

“Right, well, despite the benefits, the whole thing was hellish. Still is, if you ask me,” Wendy said.

“It is.”

Jake came up behind me and tugged on my sleeve. He pointed toward the police station. The door was still closing, but Cliff was jogging this direction. I didn't want to stop eavesdropping, but I didn't want Cliff's appearance to let the women know I was listening in on their conversation. I reluctantly stepped away from the barn and met Cliff in the street, just before he was about to step over the curb.

“You okay?” he asked me, but he looked at Jake, too.

“We're fine. At least two of Derek's ex-wives are in the barn. I don't think they're doing much of anything and I probably jumped the gun by having Jake call you, but it just seemed weird. I feel kind of dumb now. They might have been talking about the killer, using a ‘she' pronoun. I can't be sure.”

“You shouldn't feel dumb. They're trespassing. Roy and
Bunny are the only ones with keys. I'll see what I can get out of them and what they're up to.”

I did regret having Jake call Cliff so quickly. Maybe I could have learned more if I'd just given it a little longer.

Jake and I watched Cliff disappear through the slot.

“What were they doing?” Jake asked.

“Just talking, wondering about Derek, acting a little too gleeful about his death. Come on, let's have a seat over there and wait for Cliff. Maybe he'll tell us more.”

Jake and I took a seat on a bench at the end of the boardwalk. We probably wouldn't be noticed by the women as they exited the barn, but if they did happen to look our direction our attempt to be casual and blend in with the scenery had a fifty-fifty chance of being convincing.

“They were talking about Derek?” Jake asked as we sat. “As in, they or ‘she' killed him and they were reliving their evil deed?”

“Not really their evil deed. Someone else's. Maybe.”

“So, listening for another minute would have been better than calling Cliff right away?” Jake said.

“Probably, but I got spooked.”

“I see. That spooked you? Not the ghosts or anything?” Jake said.

“So what did your camera capture?” I smiled.

“Oh.” He opened the side screen and hit the power button. A second later and after hitting some more buttons, he said, “Not one thing.”

“Really?”

“I don't think so.” He continued to push and scroll through things.

“That's disappointing.”

“Very.”

When he'd had enough, he closed the screen and set the camera on the bench.

“I think I'm done with it. It's a good thing it captured you and Jerome at the bakery. At least I know all this stuff is real, not a figment of your imagination.”

“You saw Sally briefly.”

“I did, but if that was all I had to go on, I'd wonder if we were both loopy.”

“I told Teddy,” I said.

“You did? How did that go?”

“Fine. He's not doubtful, but that's only because he wants to be supportive. I told him after our incident outside Frankland. If something had happened to us and someone had come upon our bodies, it would have been unexplainable and beyond bizarre. I wanted Teddy to understand that there are forces at work that might make things hard to understand but that neither you nor I, nor Gram for that matter, are interested in hurting ourselves on purpose.”

“Huh. I guess I never thought about that much. Telling Teddy was the right thing to do. Want to tell me what happened behind the barn?”

“Sure.”

I told Jake about Robert and Elvis, and Justice and Grace. I told him that Robert was sure that he killed Justice, but he still wasn't sure what happened to Grace. Jake concurred that Justice must have somehow hurt Grace, or worse, which was the reason Robert killed him. It wasn't a difficult conclusion to make, but the small pieces that were missing still left too many questions.

“And Elvis kissed me,” I said.

“He was possessed by Jerome at the time?”

“Yes.”

“Gracious, Betts, if we're ever sexist enough to have a kissing booth attraction on the boardwalk, I know who should do the work.”

“I'm more popular than I could have ever predicted.”

Jake laughed. “You've always been popular. You just mostly ignored it.”

Turning our attention back to the barn, Cliff, Ridley, and Wendy exited one at a time through the slot. From our vantage point, we couldn't hear their conversation but the women's demeanor was uncomfortable and apologetic. Cliff extended his hand, and Wendy placed a key in it. He locked the padlock and then put the key in his pocket. Wendy and Ridley exchanged a look and then Wendy said something to Cliff. He listened patiently but then shook his head. The women seemed disappointed, but they took their leave together, crossing the street and moving toward Ridley's Explorer, which was parked right around the corner. They didn't even look our direction.

Cliff walked over and joined us on the bench, sitting at the end, keeping Jake in between the two of us.

“How'd it go?” I asked.

“They claim they don't know who the killer is and weren't speculating, but I could tell they were lying about that. They stole the key from Bunny,” Cliff said. “It was sitting on the counter by the cash register. It has a tag on it.” Cliff took out the key and showed it to us. It did have a tag with one handwritten word on it.
Barn
.

“They just took it?” Jake asked.

“Yep. They didn't have plans to steal it, but they saw it
sitting there and took it. They planned to return it after they had a look around.”

“Let me guess. You're going to return it and tell Bunny what happened,” Jake said.

“That's probably what I'll do. The women didn't mean any harm, I don't think. They were trespassing, but they weren't causing any damage to anything that I could see. I might just go put it back on the counter and tell Bunny I found it. We'll see.”

“You don't think one of them killed Derek?” I said. I knew this because if he did he would have arrested them for something or taken them to the station for more questioning.

“No, not at all, but, honestly, that's just instinct at this moment.”

I replayed the brief few moments I'd overheard, and then I leaned forward and inspected Cliff around Jake. He was looking at the barn, but his forehead was creased in concentration.

“What's up, Cliff?” I said when he fell silent.

He blinked and looked at me. “I think we've gone the wrong direction when it comes to Derek's murder. We've missed something big that might be coming clearer.”

“From what I just told you?”

“Care to share what that is?” Jake said.

“No,” Cliff said with a smile.

“Didn't think so. Betts and I have some research to do. Come along when you can,” he said to me as he stood and headed down the boardwalk, allowing Cliff and I to scoot a little closer together. “I'll get the archive room warmed up.”

“I'll be right there,” I said.

Jake wasn't leaving us alone so we could have a romantic
moment. We'd had plenty of romantic moments with Jake in the vicinity. I knew he was hoping that Cliff would share something with me that he wouldn't with Jake. I didn't think it would work, but I understood and appreciated the effort.

“Jake wants me to tell you a secret that he thinks you'll tell him when you join him in the archives,” Cliff said.

“He tried to be subtle,” I said.

Cliff laughed. “We've known each other a long time. It would have been difficult not to catch that one.”

“So, what'd'ya say? Got something you want to tell me?”

“Yeah. I love you,” he said, catching me so totally off guard that I about fell off the bench.

We'd expressed those sentiments when we were teenagers, and many times during our relationship revival, even though we were both more about actions than words. But neither of us had said it much lately, and it suddenly felt kind of new. I liked it.

“I love you, too,” I said. Honestly, I was surprised at how there was not one tiny note of hesitation in my voice. And then I was somewhat horrified that I'd been surprised.

“Good. I knew you did, but it was nice to hear it again,” Cliff said. “Now, as for Derek's ex-wives, more specifically the two who were in the barn, they know something they aren't telling. I have no doubt, but I also don't know how to get more information out of them.”

“I know they're scared of Lynn,” I said.

“Yes, they're all scared of Lynn, so she knows something that could make their lives miserable. Neither Jim nor I have any idea what that could be, or, frankly, why they're so genuinely scared. Lynn can be an annoying person, but I don't think
she's truly capable of causing harm. She's cried wolf too often.”

“There must something she's holding over them, like something emotional or financial,” I said.

“Yes, but . . .” Cliff sat up straighter on the bench.

“What?”

He looked at me.

“Just talking to you has made me think of everything differently, from another angle. That one missing piece, maybe,” he said.

“I have no idea what I did to get you this excited, but I like it.” I smiled.

Cliff lifted an eyebrow. “Why can't it be something
both
emotional and financial?”

“I bet it can be.”

“Maybe it is. I need to go talk to Jim.”

Cliff leaned toward me. I thought it would be a quick kiss, but after a few seconds I thought about asking if we should maybe just call it an evening and get a room somewhere.

Unfortunately, he pulled back. “Gotta go, but I will see you soon. Be at your house later?”

“I will. I hope you will, too.”

Cliff jogged back to the police station. I watched and enjoyed the view of his retreat.

“Jake was right, these lips are popular lately,” I said to myself.

I did my own quick jog to Jake's place, let myself inside the open front doors, and then through the doors that led to the back.

“Did he tell you anything?” Jake said. “I left so he'd tell you a secret.”

“No, but thanks for leaving. He kissed me like I haven't been kissed in a long time.”

“That's really not something I need to hear about, but considering you're locking lips with every man you're meeting these days, kisses are old news.”

“Okay, Jake, we need to look at some editions of the
Noose
in 1888. Let's go August fifteenth through August twentieth just to get a good span. I want to see if there was any news about Justice Adams or Grace. Maybe their murders made the news, or their bodies, I mean. If they'd been identified, I think you'd know the stories.”

“That's one of our easier searches.” Jake rolled his chair to his computer and started typing.

The
Noose
was never a big enough paper to microfiche all its old copies, but Jake had tediously taken the time to archive as many as possible by taking pictures of the original copies that were currently held together by giant hard bindings and some string in the
Noose's
back office. He'd gotten as far back as 1858. It was impressive, and I'd heard that a software company had contacted him for help in creating a program that would aid other papers in similar situations. He wouldn't talk about the details.

“Here we go. Let me just print out the first few pages and we'll see where that takes us.”