CHAPTER 38
FURY
Before dinner, Ryder, Grace and I gathered on the front porch of Dottie’s, going over everything that had happened today.
“You sure it was her?” Ryder asked. “There’s a lot of hunched over old ladies in this town.”
“Take a look for yourself," I said, pulling up a picture I’d saved on my phone. They looked at it and nodded slowly.
“Okay,” Grace said. “I’m going to bring it up at dinner, see where the conversation goes.”
“There’s something else. Something big.”
“What?”
“Green asked me to get rid of Will today.”
“Get rid of?”
“Yep,” I nodded. “Told me to be on stand-by and ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
“Shit,” Grace said. “Did you agree?”
“He offered me a shit load of money. I said yes, but I’ll only do what you guys tell me to do.”
“Well, you’re not killing Benji’s father!” Grace said. “Keep us posted. Stall as much as you can.”
“Of course,” I agreed. Dottie called us into dinner, her voice cracking with age.
“Be right there,” Grace called back, before turning back to me. “Looks like things are moving. Let’s just stay the course and see where it leads us.”
“Fine with me,” I said.
“You’re doing great, by the way,” Ryder said, patting me on the back.
“Thanks, brother,” I said, as we made our way back into the house.
As usual, another one of Dottie’s feasts was splayed out on the long dining table, amongst perfectly constructed crimson colored place settings, with a centerpiece made of white roses.
Everything about Dottie and her house was one hundred percent old lady charm. From the antique wardrobes and handmade quilts in the bedrooms, to the lace tablecloth with matching curtains in the formal dining room, every detail screamed old-fashioned.
She was what everyone dreamed their grandmother would be like.
To think that this sweet old lady was breaking into people’s homes and businesses in the dead of night was absolutely mind-boggling. As she bustled around us, putting the final touches on her dinner table before insisting we sit down and dig in, I couldn’t help but look at her in a new light.
As I’d learned long ago, there was always more to someone than meets the eye. We’ve all got a story.
I couldn’t help but imagine what Dottie’s might be.
“Dottie, won’t you join us tonight?” Grace asked. “Please?”
“Oh, I don’t usually dine with the guests,” she said, shaking her head, her close-cropped, cotton white curls bobbing around her head.
“I’d love to ask you a few questions about the town,” she said. “For research?”
“Oh, why not?” She smiled. “Let me grab my coffee.”
She shuffled to the kitchen and came back with coffee and a piece of peach pie. She sat at the end of the table and smiled over at us.
“Eat! Eat!” she said. “I tend to sample when I cook. I’ve already had my dinner, you don’t have to wait for me.”
Ryder passed the mashed potatoes to me and when Grace handed me the main dish, the savory scent of roast and gravy washed over me.
“This looks so delicious,” I said, before diving in. I was starving. I’d not eaten much all day, busy with Green and my adrenaline had been through the roof a few times. My body needed replenishment and Dottie’s cooking hit the spot. I ate and listened, watching Grace gently draw Dottie out of her shell.
“So, Dottie, you’ve lived here all your life, right?”
“Yes, dear,” she said, nodding politely. “And my parents. And their parents.”
“Lots of people have deep roots in this town, don’t they?”
“Yes, many of the families go back many generations.”
“Not a lot of privacy, I’d imagine,” Ryder spoke up. “Everyone’s in everyone else’s business?”
“To a degree, maybe. We tend to give each other space. But you can bet if someone spots something newsworthy, it’ll travel fast.”
“I bet,” Grace said, smiling sweetly at her. Dottie placed a bite of pie in her mouth, moaning in ecstasy.
“It’s my Grandma Sampson’s recipe,” Dottie said. “To die for!”
“Dottie, you mentioned your dislike of Bodhi Green before. In fact, you were very vocal about it. As you heard, Fury got a job doing security for him.”
“Is that so?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.
“It is,” I said. “He’s had a string of break-ins recently.”
“That’s terrible!” she said, shaking her head. “Whatever happened to the days of folks being able to leave their doors unlocked?”
“Things have changed,” I said, nodding, looking over at Grace for guidance. If she’d wanted to accuse Dottie outright, she’d have done it already. It didn’t appear Dottie was going to be giving herself up anytime soon.
“Sure have,” she nodded, taking a dainty sip from her china coffee cup.
“The burglars haven’t taken anything of value, though, they seem to be just poking around. Do you have any idea who might want to break-in to Green’s place?” Ryder asked, after a few moments of silence.
Her eyes shot up and she frowned, as if deep in thought.
“No telling with him,” she said. “I tell you, if anyone in this town has secrets, it’s that guy. He’s been full of them since high school…since Bryce, really.”
“Bryce?” Ryder asked. My ears perked up at the mention of the guy who went missing that Jackie told me about.
“Bryce Sampson. He was my nephew. Just up and disappeared one day, right before graduation. He was Bodhi’s best friend, in fact. I’ve always thought there was more to the story than we could tell back then, but nobody seems too interested in finding out the truth anymore.”
“He was your nephew?” I asked, trying to close my mouth.
“Yep. Almost eighteen. Had a bright future ahead of him, too.”
“He was never found?” Grace asked.
“Not a trace,” she said, shaking her head. She stood up and walked to the buffet against the wall, opening a bottle of scotch and pouring some in her coffee before returning to the table with the bottle. She offered it to us and Ryder took it from her, pouring himself a glass. Dottie sat back down, a sad look on her face.
“Just about killed my sister, Touttle. She adored that boy, and he was her only kid. Broke her heart.”
“That’s terrible,” Grace said, gently.
“It was,” Dottie said. “Haunted her till the day she died.”
“What do you think happened?” Grace asked.
She looked at us long and hard and then shook her head before answering. Finally, her sad eyes turned away and she took a sip from her glass.
“Ain’t for me to say, I guess,” she said. “It was a long time ago.”
“But —.” Grace began.
“—Like I said, it was a long time ago. Old news.” She pursed her lips and shook her head, ‘case closed’ firmly written across her face.
“Of course,” Grace nodded, smiling at her politely.
We finished dinner in near silence, all of the answered questions hanging in the air over our heads until Dottie spoke up again.
“Has anyone told you guys about the ball yet?”
“The ball?” Grace asked.
“Yep. Our yearly winter ball. It’s this weekend, the town is all abuzz about it. Everyone gets all dressed up. It’s at the school, in the gym, of course. You’re all invited, of course.”
“That sounds fun,” Grace said.
“We’ll need to buy a couple of suits,” Ryder said.
“My cousin has a shop out by the market, suits, tuxes, dresses, whatever you need,” she replied.
“Oh, yes, I got Fury’s suit there the other day. Lovely lady,” Grace said, smiling at her.
Dottie nodded and smiled, sipping from her cup, her mouth firmly closed.
Whatever Dottie’s secrets were, she wasn’t about to spill them.