NINETEEN

“Who’s the new kid?” Henry had walked around the lake and lit the tiki torches the next day before it was time for the fundraiser to begin.

“That’s just another person I’m trying to help from the fall out of Paul’s bad decisions.” I pull my hand up to my brows to shield the sun as I looked across the lake at Jr. getting all his dodgeballs in the bourbon barrel for one of the games he’d gotten for the kids. “His dad was the one I found in the storage unit.”

“The guy that killed Paul?” Henry asked.

“Yeah. His wife and son lost everything. Like everyone else and the best I could think of was to give him a job to help pay back some of the college fund that Paul had talked his dad into giving him.” The magnitude of what Paul had done to these families were still just unimaginable to me. Every time I thought about it, I had to force it out of my head or the guilt would stop me from doing what I was trying to do. Help everyone.

“That’s a noble thing, but you’ve got to stop burdening yourself with it.” Henry patted my back and continued on his way.

I knew that his words were true and now that Paul’s killer had been brought to justice, it was time for me to continue on with my business plan of bringing business back to Normal and the National Park like old times when the town was thriving by hosting a good fundraiser.

“Whatcha’ thinkin’ ‘bout?” Dottie walked up with an unlit cigarette in her fingers.

“Looking at what we accomplished in just a few days.” I pointed to the lake. “Can you believe what a little fountain and irrigation can do?”

“I believe what can be done with a smart woman like yourself has found herself again. Even after a tragedy.” Dottie put the cigarette in her mouth and extended her arms to give me a hug. “Who’s that?”

I pulled away and looked over my shoulder at Jr. He had the dodgeball area all set up next to the recreation building.

“That’s Grady Cox’s son.” I looked back at her.

“Honey, you ain’t going to be able to save them all,” she said what everyone had been saying lately to me.

“He’s a good kid and he deserve to go to college and start over.” I watched as he put the hula hoops out on the ground, wondering what he was going to do with those.

He looked over at us, took off his hat and gave a good wave in the air. I waved back and noticed Dottie had given him a slight gesture with her hand.

“I’ve seen that kid somewhere.” She squinted, tilting her head to the left and the right.

“On TV.” I hated the news coverage of Happy Trails after it was announced that Grady was found in the storage shed. “His mom is the one who gave the interview on that Friday night national news show.”

“I bet your right. Poor kid.” She shook her head.

“I’ll introduce you to him because he is going to run the children’s activities when we get enough campers in here. I think it’s a great idea to offer the kids something while we have a parent activity.” I wasn’t sure what those activities could be, but I’d planned on making it just as much fun as the children’s program.

“You are exactly what Happy Trails needed. I didn’t have the energy or the getty-up that you’ve got to keep something like this crazy place up and running.” She cackled.

“Are you not going to light that cigarette?” I asked when I noticed she’d just been holding it between her fingers.

“Nah. I’m trying to quit. I went to that stupid Jazzercise class with Queenie. I couldn’t make it through the first grapevine,” she said. “I did like the strike class.” She did some sort of jabbing.

“Good for you.” I tried not to bust out laughing. I could only imagine what she and Queenie looked like. “I bet you feel better.”

“No. No I don’t,” she grumbled. “Hi, there,” she called to Jr. when we got closer. He dragged his hat off his head and smiled at her. “I swear I know you.”

“We do?” he asked. “Have you been to the BBQ Joint in Lexington? I work there a few days a week.”

“Nah.” Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head. “Somewhere else.”

“I told her it was the TV.” I shrugged and pointed to the hula hoops. “What are those for?”

“I thought of two games since we are a little tight on funds. The first is where they will do an obstacle course in them and around them while they are on the ground, then a hula hoop contest.” He looked back at us. “You look like you are a mean hula-hooper,” he charmed Dottie.

Her face reddened the color of her hair.

“I was good as a kid, but I’ve not done it in year.” She shrugged him off.

“Go on. Pick one up. You know you want to.” He teased. She smiled.

“Okay.” She walked a few feet and stepped into on, bringing it up around her waist. “Say. I remember you.”

“You came into the diner.” He gave it as second go at that idea.

“Nope. You came here a few weeks ago asking about a hook up.” The hula-hoop didn’t stay around Dottie’s waist for every long. Maybe she got one hip rotation out of it. “You even filled out a form.”

“No, ma’am, it wasn’t me.” He shook his head. “I got the Pac Man game up and running, Mae.”

“It was you.” She snapped her fingers. “I know it was.”

“Ma’am. I’m sorry but I’ve never been to Normal and certainly not at this campground.” Jr. walked towards the recreation center. “I wanted to show you how I moved some of the video games around so they weren’t on the same electrical outlets and it would trip the breaker.” He motioned for me to follow him.

We left Dottie standing outside as she tried to do the hula-hoop a few more times. The recreation room looked really good. The old metal signs had been hung, the ping pong table sat in the middle like it was ready to go and the bean bag chairs were scattered all over the place. It looked like a child’s paradise.

“That popcorn smells so good,” I said and looked over at the popcorn machine. The top of the container was still popping up and down as the fully cooked kernels were falling out over the side.

“Wait until you taste it.” The pride on Jr.’s face went from the sparkle in his eyes to the big grin on his face. “Add a little butter and you can’t get this good of popcorn at the movies.”

He pushed a bag of tools out of the way.

“I’ll get those up before anyone gets here. I just wanted to make sure everything was working before I put them back in the shed.” He picked up a flathead screwdriver and shoved it in his back pocket.

“The video games look great.” I loved seeing the images playing on the screen. “Truly, you’ve done a great job.”

I moseyed over to the area where we had some jump ropes and chalk in bins the kids could take outside and play.

“This is a perfect area by the door.” I was so happy that I let Jr. come in here and make it his own. I could see how proud he was and excited.

“I do know you.” Dottie just wasn’t giving it up. “You did come here a few weeks ago. I was giving you a tour when the Fedex man came to drop off Mae’s boxes from that fancy lawyer of hers.”

“Dottie,” My brows formed a V. “He’s never been here. It’s all the news media.”

“Yes, he has. I took him into my camper to fill out the paperwork, so I could open your storage unit for the FedEx man.” She planted her palm on her head. “I forgot about you being in my camper because I might’ve peeked a little bit in the boxes after they were place in the storage unit.” She smacked her hands together. “When I remembered I left you there, I came back and you were gone.”

I looked over at Jr. and was about to tell him to ignore her, but his body language had shifted. He’d tensed. His jaw was clamped shut. His eyes were fixed on Dottie.

“Jr.?” I asked in a hushed whisper. “Are you okay?”

There was second that I thought he was going to say something, but his nostrils flared in and out a few times.

“You’ve got somethin’ up your sleeve and me and Mae want to know what it is.” Dottie was relentless. She wasn’t going to let it go.

“Listen here, you old bat.” Jr. jerked the tool from his back pocket. “You don’t know what it’s like to spend all your life with a goal to go to a specific college. When someone takes that from you, like your father and his best friend, you tend to get a little on edge.”

“What are you saying?” I asked Jr. and focused my eyes on the screwdriver he appeared to be gripping.

“Did you steal my gun?” Dottie spat back at him.

“I stole your gun because her husband stole my life.” He jerked the screwdriver up and jutted it my way.

“What’s going on here?” I questioned.

“Mae West, get a grip. This here feller came here and stole my gun. Don’t you see, he’s Paul’s killer.” She shook her finger at him. “You killed your own daddy didn’t you. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”

“For trailer trash, you’re pretty smart.” He glared at Dottie.

“Now, that’s not necessary. We are doing good getting the park up and running.” I wasn’t sure why I was trying to have a conversation with him. Maybe it was my nerves because at the moment, I felt like I was going to throw up. “So, lets just get on with what we need to do before everyone gets here for the fundraiser.”

“No wonder you had no idea what your loser husband was doing. You’re clueless,” there was a sarcastic tone in his voice. “If you think that I’m going to let either of you leave this building alive, you’re crazy.”

“You don’t have to do this. You have a great future in front of you.” There had to be some sort of good in the kid.

“Future? Paul West stole my future and my family. When I went to see him in prison, he wasn’t one bit remorseful.” His chest heaved up and down. “He wasn’t done making deals. He told me that if I used my computer skills and make it look like he was released early, then he’d make sure he’d get my college fund back.”

“Did you really steal Dottie’s gun?” I asked.

Thank goodness I didn’t replace the gravel, because I could hear cars pulling in and I was buying time in hopes someone would walk in.

“Yep. I wasn’t planning on stealing it until I snooped around and saw it. It wasn’t until the FedEx guy said your name and I knew that you were coming here. I wanted to kill Paul and put him in the storage unit, but as you know it didn’t work out that way.” There was a pleasure on his face that only evil could have.

“How did you free Paul?” I asked with an evil tone.

“Easy. I hacked into the system on the day of inmate releases and had his paperwork all ready to go. When they finished processing him and the rest of the men getting out that day, I went back into the system and erased everything I did.” His arrogant, shallow features made me want to smack them off his face. “The FBI can’t even figure it out. Idiots,” he boasted. “We had it worked out where he’d meet my dad here. When I told my dad to meet us, he wasn’t as happy as I thought he would be.”

“Why your own father?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “He loved you.”

“He loved me so much that he gambled my life way. He could’ve used different money.” His voice cracked. Ahem, he cleared his throat and it seemed to get him refocused. “I gave him the chance to apologize to me for what he’d done. I wanted Paul to see what he did to us. When my dad laughed and said that it was his money. He didn’t owe me anything, I shot him.” An evil explosion of deep laughter came out of him. “You should’ve seen Paul’s face. He was so scared and I told him that’s how me and my mom felt. He begged until I put a bullet in his head.”

“You don’t have to do hurt me and Dottie, right Dottie?” I looked at her with big eyes so she’d go along with me, but that didn’t work out as planned.

“Heck no. What is he going to do, jab us with a screw driver? The police already have my gun,” she snarled.

Jr. reached down and picked up one of the jump ropes.

“Smarty pants.” He threw the rope at Dottie. Out of reflexes, she caught it. “I want you to tie Mae up, then I’ll show you what I’m going to do with this screwdriver.” He twisted the tool in the air like he was using it.

“What are you doing?” I whispered when she started to tie my hands behind my back. “This is not how I planned to go out of this world.”

“Mmmhhh,” she hoo-hummed and tugged my wrists together when she tied the rope. “Now what?”

“Sit down,” he instructed me. I slid down the wall and landed in a crisscross position.

There were some murmurs outside of the building. Dottie and I looked at each other. Jr. looked out the door window. He put his finger up to his lips.

“Shhhh,” he warned.

“Mae?” Detective Hank yelled my name. “Do you know where she went?”

“She was with Dottie a while ago,” Henry said from the other side of the door. “She was getting the new kid set up.”

“What new kid?” Hank asked.

“That guy that she found dead in her storage unit,” the words started to run together after Jr. grabbed me up and took Dottie by the arm, jerking us into the storage closet.

“I swear if either of you say a word, I will kill you right here,” Jr. warned us in a whisper.

“Listen, I know that the fundraiser probably won’t bring in much money, but if you let us go, I swear I will give you every single penny of it.”

Hank and Henry entered the recreation building.

“You mean Jr as in Grady Cox Jr?” I heard Hank ask Henry.

“Yep. She called him Jr.,” Hank confirmed.

“If that’s the case, Mae could be in trouble. I’ve been looking for him because the detailed DNA report came back and it appears that the DNA we took for his father’s on the gun found in the lake, is what we call DNA familial,” Hank said.

If I was the only person in here with Jr, and not Dottie, I’d yelled or fought him, but I couldn’t risk Dottie.

“DNA Familial?” Henry asked.

Dottie and I looked at each other, then we looked at Jr. He dragged his finger along his throat like he was going to hurt us worse if we even moved an inch.

“It’s where we can use DNA database and break it down so much, that it can pinpoint the actually family member. Very fascinating, which brings me back to Jr.” As I listened to Hank, I imagined him reading my mind and knowing we were in there.

“Hiyah!” Dottie’s leg swung up and tagged Jr. right in the side of his ribs, knocking him out the storage room door and on the ground. “That’s what you get for calling me trailer trash.”

Before I could even get myself out of the storage unit, Hank had already wrestled Jr. on his stomach and tied his arms behind his back. Dottie had quickly untied my hands.

“That was awesome.” My jaw was on the floor.

“I’m glad to see that strike Jazzercise class is working.” Dottie winked and patted me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded and rubbed my wrists.

“That’s one of the best hog ties I’ve ever seen.” Henry took notice.

“Are you okay?” Hank asked me with a deep-set concern in his eyes.

“Yeah,” I choked out nervously. “I’m fine. He. . .” I gulped.

“I know. He killed Paul and his father.” Hank didn’t make me finish the sentence. “Henry, you packing?”

“Got my conceal and carry right here.” Henry patted his back pocket with his wallet in it before he tugged up his pant leg and his gun was strapped to his ankle.

“Good. I want you to keep a close eye on our friend here while I go call for back up.” He nodded. “Dottie, you take Mae get back to your camper. I’ll be there shortly.”

“What about the fundraiser?” I asked. “I can’t let Paul ruin it and if there’s cops all over, no one will want to come. They’ll continue to think this is a campground for criminals.”

“I’ll take Jr. in my car to the station.” Hank pointed a finger at Henry. “Keep a close eye on him while I go get my car.”

The three of us walked out. To my surprise, there were cars lined up as far as I could see. The band was tuning up, the smell of campfire food drifted in the air and the Bible Thumpers were busy setting up their dessert table. Things were in full swing and no one knew what had just taken place in the recreation building.

“I thought you stopped smoking,” I asked Dottie Swaggert on our way over to the office.

“It’s not everyday that you some lunatic says he’s going to kill you with a screwdriver,” she said through a pillow of smoke. “Just a puff.” She snuffed out the cigarette.

“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” Ty ran up behind us.

Dottie went ahead and walked into the office, leaving me with Ty.

“I wanted to thank you for all you’re doing around here. I didn’t give you a fair chance. Around here we like to see action more than words. You’ve proven that you care about Normal and making things right.” His southern draw put chills along my arm.

“Thank you,” was all I could muster up. I put my hand out. “Truce?”

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

“Don’t you know we hug around here?” He asked, his heartbeat thumped against mine.

I glanced over his shoulder. Hank had stuck Jr. in the back of his big black car and when he turned around, his eyes fixed on me and Ty. There was a few second pause before he jerked the door of his car open and got in.

“Truce.” Ty pulled away just as Hank’s car passed. “Now, let’s get this fundraiser going.”

“Yeah,” my heart dropped. All of these feelings were uncharted territory to me and now was not the time to explore them. “Let’s go raise some money.”