Wildly Inappropriate (32 page)

With a sinking heart, Dan slipped into his clothes. Retrieving his cell phone from his jeans, he hurriedly punched out a text message for Eric.

"You know where Dan De Marco might be?" the young officer asked when he yanked open the door. He and Dan recognized each other about the same time.

"Officer Cantrell," Dan said evenly.

"Need you to come with me, Mr. De Marco."

Chapter
Twenty-Four

The small room was painted gray. Dan wished it had a window, but he saw the bare trees outside in his mind. His clothing felt tight and uncomfortable although Cynda had bought the suit for him just days ago. He wished fiercely she was standing by his side, but he had to walk out there alone.

"Ready?" the strange man asked.

"Ready."

Dan walked numbly forward. Jonah's fresh-trimmed hair hung past his starched white collar. This was hard on the kid. His summer tan had faded, and he shifted uncomfortably, reminding Dan of Eric at that age.

The Methodist church Cammie had favored had no empty seats, save those at the front reserved for his family. Dan nodded to dismiss the funeral director escorting them, standing in the aisle while the rest of the De Marcos filed into the pew.

Peach-colored roses blanketed the top of the polished wood coffin holding Cammie's bones. As the organist took her seat and began to play, Dan looked around.

Faces, all known to him, filled the small church, but one well-liked member wouldn't be present. John Carpenter had shocked this small community to its core with his confession. People were talking about his membership in the Klan, too, and he prayed that the publicity surrounding John's act of hatred would wake a few people up.

He vividly remembered the ride back to the sheriff's department the night his life had changed. Expecting to be charged with Kingsley Dazza's murder, Dan had been stunned instead to be shown a tape of the spontaneous confession John had come in to offer. Lila had been right about Daniel's long-time friend and neighbor. He was not at all what he'd appeared. Dan wondered whether he'd only seen what he wanted to see in John all those years, same as he'd missed the many racist remarks and actions on the part of others that he was so attuned to now.

"I kept a close eye on the Masons. Tim weren't no good. I figured he stripped more parts off cars than he fixed, and so I pretended to like him, so I could watch 'em. Didn't care for how close Camille De Marco got to them niggers, neither. One day I was about to knock on their back door and I heard Cammie on the phone. She was makin' an appointment to have an abortion. I knew if that'd been Rafe's baby, she'd never have done that. Whole damn county knew he wanted six young 'uns and they only had four. Thought she mighta been fuckin' around with Tim or one of them migrants she was always too damn nice to and got herself knocked up. When she come back across my land, I was waitin' for her at the bridge over the ravine. We had some words, and I smacked her for her sassy tongue when she told me to go burn in hell. I just meant to remind her not to talk like that to a man, I swear it. But she stumbled and hit her head on one of them big rocks. She got up after she fell, but then the blood started runnin' from her nose and she fell down again. Just stopped breathin' after that."

Dan shied away from the rest of the memory, the part that answered the mystery of why there had been no grave to find when they searched. John had locked her body in one of his many his freezers and waited five years to bury Cammie out by the ravine.

It had been the Klansman's misfortune that Kingsley Dazza had a body to bury that same night and had chosen the same piece of land by the ravine. They'd dumped them into the same grave, knowing one man's evil deed couldn't be found out without incriminating the other.

There was a twisted kind of irony in there somewhere. John had been forced to not only trust King, but the loan shark had also pressured the old farmer into looking after Georgia once Tim died.

Dan felt someone touch his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw Georgia right behind him, seated beside Miss Coralinne. He felt the familiar stab of regret that it'd been her nephew he'd shot, even though she'd sworn she knew he'd had little choice when he'd found King about to rape Cynda. He returned the squeeze, honored that she'd come to see her best friend into the ground, in spite of the way some old friends had begun to snub her when one of the two bodies exhumed down by the ravine had been linked to her nephew, not to mention all the publicity about his attempted rape of Cynda and his loan sharking business. Many people had come forward when the story hit the news, to tell their experiences with King's "business." More murders than Cammie's had been cleared from the police files, and the man who had worked for King was back in jail awaiting trial on multiple charges, thanks to the families of some of those victims coming forward.

When the police searched the rundown TV repair shop and seized everything, Reese had handled the necessary paperwork to get Miss Coralinne's deed returned to her. That had taken nearly as long as getting Cammie's remains back from the state crime lab, eight weeks until Grams had possession of her deed again, and nine weeks until Dan had been able to arrange Cammie's funeral. He still didn't know why the case had gotten priority at the state crime lab. Perhaps it was because the local solicitor was eager to prosecute a hate crime in an election year.

He was surrounded by friends and family but felt disconnected. He'd spent nearly all his life missing Cammie and wondering where she was, yet knowing her remains were right in front of him didn't give him the closure he'd thought.

Unruly thoughts kept him from hearing much of what the minister said. How had Rafe let things go so wrong between them, if he'd loved Cammie so much? Dan didn't doubt his father had loved his mother. He'd poured through Cammie's diaries every night for the last nine weeks, reading every word. Cammie had loved Rafe. Had loved the forceful way he took her, loved giving Rafe control over most facets of her life in an age when a desire for independence had become the norm for women. Reading some parts had made Dan uncomfortable—your parents weren't supposed to have sex, dammit—but he'd persevered, needing to know how his mother could've decided to betray Rafe so deeply.

He hadn't known about all the miscarriages Cammie had suffered.

Glancing down the pew, he looked at Lila, seated on the other side of Jonah. Colton's hand rested on her tummy and the sight gave Dan a pang of bittersweet regret, mixed with concern. Lila should never have kept this baby, Dan feared. She was having a lot of health issues from her pregnancy and Dan worried about what Colton and Jonah might do if something happened to her.

At the end of the pew, Eric yanked at his tie. His jokes had become less frequent over the last weeks and it seemed to Dan that knowing Cammie hadn't deserted them allowed his middle brother stop playing the clown to hide his hurt. He hoped Lila was right. "When Eric finds a woman that believes in him in spite of the fact he doesn't believe in himself, he won't know what hit him but he'll be too smart to let that woman go," she'd said just last night.

The minister talked on, and Dan wondered whether the young preacher had had a hard time coming up with something to say about a woman he'd never met. Tuning in to the words, he figured out yet again the value of a woman. No doubt, one of the women who now buttressed his family had spent time with the man, because his short sermon did a good job of describing the loving mother Dan remembered.

Finally, the organist lifted her hands. The
tap-tap-tap
sound that preceded the swelling notes brought a smile to his face.

He glanced over again, steeling himself against the bite of envy he felt every time he looked at the small mound of Lila's tummy. Colton hadn't moved his hand from over his baby throughout the service. Dan wondered whether his eyes were as green as they felt. Colton, unaware Dan was watching, or perhaps uncaring, mouthed "I love you" to Lila, and she leaned over to kiss his cheek.

Then Cynda's rich alto rose above the music, smoothing out all the rough feelings warring inside him.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

was blind but now I see.

Dan wasn't ashamed of the tears running down his cheeks. He'd waited over twenty-eight years to cry at his mother's funeral and he cried like a nine-year-old. Cynda finished the song and descended the steps, sliding into the space he'd saved for her. Her arms went around him, and from the pew behind, he felt Miss Coralinne and Georgia patting his shoulders.

At long last, the growing De Marco family stood shivering in the late November chill at the cemetery, watching Cammie lowered into her rightful place by her husband's side. Cynda sang another hymn then moved back into the circle of his arm.

They lingered after they'd thanked all the mourners for coming, in spite of the cold. Dan watched while the cemetery crew replaced the double headstone Rafe had ordered before his death. The decades-old, yet freshly chiseled date on Cammie's side of the marker looked incongruous on the weathered stone, but Dan felt a sense of peace when the granite monument settled into the red dirt and his parents were reunited at last.

"Let's go back to our house," Lila suggested. "I bought steaks so we can grill out, because if I see another piece of fried chicken I think I might grow a feather."

"We'll take Grams home and meet you there," Dan agreed.

Thanks mostly to the women that had come into his life this year, the intimate family dinner was marked by the things that had seen him through his recent hard times: excellent food, teasing banter, and laughter. After a simple meal of grilled steaks, fresh green salad, and potatoes, the women cleaned up while Eric and Jonah lounged on Colton's comfortable couch. Dan sat beside Colton on one of the barstools, enjoying watching Cynda while the women moved around in the kitchen. Lila's cheeks flushed a deep red and she bolted for the door to the patio. While she was gone, Cynda told the group a funny story about Daisy's pup and his encounter with a roll of paper towels that had fallen off the counter.

"So, Dan, I've been meaning to ask, what did you finally name that pup?" Lila looked all wide-eyed and innocent, catching the end of the story when she stepped back into the family room from the patio. Dan had never known hot flashes accompanied pregnancy, but now her cheeks were less ruddy than they had been before she'd dashed outside, in spite of the fact she wore no coat and the temperature had plummeted since morning

"N-o-t plus however the fuck you spell Jacques," Dan explained helpfully. "As in, no chance in hell I'm calling a bird dog Jacques because Cynda seems to think he's a weird breed of poodle." He glared teasingly at Cynda, who stuck her little nose in the air and showed him the palm of her hand.

Lila sagged against the large bookcase beside the door onto the patio, giggling helplessly.

"What?" Dan demanded, when she was still laughing about a full minute later. "What's so fucking funny, Lila?"

"Not-Jacques," Lila managed to howl, clutching her tummy. "That's priceless." She wiped at her eyes, sobering momentarily before starting to laugh again. "Not-Jacques, that'll show Cynda who's boss, Daniel."

"Colton," Dan growled with a meaningful look and a wink.

"Lila, you can't laugh at the name of a man's bird dog," Colton informed her.

"Oops," Lila cried, her laughter unabated. "Any not-aliens in that video game, Jonah?"

Eric threw down his controller. "I'm not winning, if that helps you any," he said disgustedly, ruffling Jonah's hair. "I think I'll go soak in my hot tub and try and figure out how I got beat by a kid at a game I dominate." He stood.

Lila now had tears running down her cheeks. Colton slid off his barstool and crossed the large room. "Delilah, seriously, you can't laugh at the name of man's bird dog." He returned Dan's wink before lowering his shoulder. When he straightened, Lila hung over his back. She pounded his back with balled-up fists.

"Colton! Put me down. I'm pregnant!" she squealed.

"Oooh, you weren't worried about being pregnant when you coached Jonah's team in spite of me, were you?" Dan glanced at the shiny new trophy on Colton's mantle, won only a few nights before, laughing loudly when Colton imitated Lila's voice. "Your baby's the size of a spark plug and is as safe as can be." His hand came down on her butt. Dan nearly choked on his laughter at the way her eyes rounded.

"Put me down!" Lila demanded, beginning to kick.

"Lock the front door behind you on your way out," Colton said to his brothers.

Dan went around the bar into the kitchen, where Cynda leaned against the bar. Her laughter was every bit as raucous as Lila's. "That no laughing rule goes double for you." He kissed her tenderly on the nose before lowering his shoulder. Cynda shrieked, but didn't struggle.

"You better come down to my place, squirt," Eric stated, pulling Jonah to his feet. Colton turned and headed for the hall that led to his bedroom.

"That's Not-Squirt to you." Jonah huffed.

"Lila, I owe you for this," Cynda yelled. Dan strode across Colton's empty dining room toward the front door.

"Did Cynda just wink at me?" he heard Jonah ask.

"Don't you know a not-wink when you see one?" Eric was laughing as hard as the rest.

They all heard Lila's yell. "Colton, this is wildly inappropriate!"

"Hey, that's
our
theme," Cynda yelled back, her laughter vibrating through him as he opened the front door. "Damn white girls, thinkin' they can take everything."

"You could always get me arrested!" Lila called back.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Dan waited until his brothers were gathered in the office the following Friday afternoon, jockeying for a cup of coffee. They'd gotten their weekly paychecks that morning, as usual. He handed each of them another check. "Sarah's share goes to Jonah. I put it in an account for his education. I know Lila has her heart set on him going to college."