Chapter Five
Every time I walked into the main office of Jonah’s church, I always stopped and blinked when I saw the secretary who looked nothing like Miss Rhonda, aka Wanda Pruitt. His new secretary was much younger than the older women who loved to flock to him. Jonah definitely had a way with the grandmothers of our town, but the scandalous rumors had no truth to them. The older women were lonely and Jonah spent time with them, actually listening, which came as no surprise to me. He’d listened to me for weeks before we officially called it therapy.
“Hi, Jessica. Is Jonah in his office?”
The young woman looked up at me with a fake smile. Her bleached blonde hair was big and curly and her shirt was tighter than necessary and slightly inappropriate for a church office. She’d arranged little knick-knacks around the office, and a candle burned on her desk, filling the room with the scent of snickerdoodle cookies. “I’ll let him know you’re here.” But she didn’t look happy about it.
She pressed her intercom button and Jonah’s office door opened within seconds.
A toothy, too-white smile spread across his face as he leaned against the door jamb. “What’s the wonderful smell?”
Turning in her seat, Jessica beamed. “That’s my candle, Jonah. But I brought you some cookies. Would you like some?”
He rubbed his stomach. “I’m gonna gain ten pounds if you keep bringing in those delicious baked goods.” He turned his attention to me. “Rose, what’s the pleasure of this visit? I thought we were seeing each other at my house tomorrow afternoon.”
The young blonde woman shot me an ugly glare. She obviously liked Jonah and thought I was trying to steal him from her, especially since we spent so much time together.
Were all secretaries destined to hate me?
“Something important came up and I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to talk. Do you have time now?”
He held his door wider in invitation. “Of course. Come on in.” He leaned out the door after I brushed past him. “Jessica, hold my calls, please.”
I sat in one of the wingback chairs in front of his desk. Rather than sitting behind the desk, he sat next to me, crossing his legs, looking very much like the televangelist I’d first met. He’d updated his hairstyle from its former eighties pompadour, but though it was shorter and more stylish, he hadn’t been able to resist adding highlights. “What’s going on?”
I gripped the chair arm. “Bruce Wayne is missing.”
He paused. “What do you mean, missing?”
“You know how he’s been calling in sick? Well, it turns out he’s not. David says he was leaving in the mornings and coming back late at night, but when David asked where he was going and what he was doing, Bruce Wayne told him it would be better if he didn’t know.”
He sank back in his chair, his shoulders slumping. “Oh dear.”
“Then yesterday morning, David called me before seven a.m. to tell me that Bruce Wayne wouldn’t be in, that he was still sick, but it made me suspicious. I doubt David Moore even knew seven a.m. existed before yesterday morning. So after I ate lunch with Neely Kate at Merilee’s, I stopped by their house and brought him some chicken noodle soup. Only Bruce Wayne wasn’t home and half his clothes were missing. When I asked David, he told me Bruce Wayne never came home the night before.”
Jonah squeezed his eyes shut. “This isn’t good.”
“It gets worse.”
His eyes flew open and his back stiffened.
“Mason told me this morning that Daniel Crocker escaped from the county jail last night.”
Jonah jumped out of his chair and started pacing. “What? How?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t give me details. But I got to thinking that Bruce Wayne worked for Crocker before he got arrested for murder. And he still has a connection to Crocker’s guys. It seems too coincidental for Bruce Wayne to disappear twenty-four hours before Crocker’s prison break.”
“Agreed. This is bad.” He stopped pacing. “What does Mason think?”
“I haven’t told him.”
“Why not? He can help you.”
I twisted my hands in my lap, questioning whether I’d made the right decision. “Jonah, if I tell Mason, he’ll be obligated to report it. And what if Bruce Wayne took off for something stupid? He’s on parole! They’ll toss him in prison. I just need a day or two to see if I can figure out where he went and why he’s gone. I’d go out to Weston’s Garage—”
Jonah released a heavy sigh. “You and I both know that’s a terrible idea. Especially in light of Crocker’s prison break.”
“Well…if it makes you feel any better, the sheriff’s office and the state police think Crocker has left for Louisiana.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s safe for you to go out there.”
“I know…” My voice trailed off as I looked up at him.
He rolled his eyes and groaned. “Rose.”
I sat on the edge of my seat. “Jonah, Bruce Wayne is in trouble. I know it and those guys out there like you.”
He shook his head with a grimace. “I’m not sure I’d call it like. They come to my group for the community service hours. They only do it to stay on the right side of the law and their parole officers. Honestly, some days I question how effective it is. I’ve probably only turned around one boy since starting the group a few months ago.”
I stood and put a hand on his arm. “Maybe it’s only happening one boy at a time, but at least you made a difference to that one boy. I suspect you’re making more of an impact than you realize. And those guys from Weston’s Garage don’t have to come here. They could do something else.”
He released a wry laugh. “You were the one who suggested—quite rightly, I might add—that those guys from Weston’s Garage were probably using my group to recruit boys like your neighbor Thomas.”
I turned and leaned my butt against the desk. “I’m desperate, Jonah. I really care about Bruce Wayne and I know in my gut that something’s wrong. I can’t just sit around and do nothing. I’m open to suggestions.”
He was silent for several seconds. “One of Crocker’s former guys really seems to be trying to turn his life around—Scooter Malcolm.”
My eyebrows lifted. “The brother of Skeeter Malcolm, the bookie at the pool hall ? Their momma must have trouble coming up with names.”
“Yep, that’s him. And we both know that no one wants to get on Skeeter’s bad side.”
I knew that from personal experience with Skeeter when I was looking for evidence to clear Bruce Wayne’s name. I shivered. I hated to think what might have happened if Mason hadn’t shown up. “I didn’t know the Malcolms had ties to Crocker.”
“Rose, everyone in this town had ties to Crocker one way or the other.”
“Oh.” But it wasn’t surprising I didn’t know. Before Momma’s murder, I had lived a completely sheltered life. I went to work at the DMV each morning, went home and took care of Momma, then got up the next day to do it all over again. With Violet’s backing, I’d convinced myself that I was the town outcast, but I’d recently begun to question how much of that was caused by my own isolation, which had perpetuated the idea that I really was strange and different.
“Scooter’s been trying to turn his life around, just like Bruce Wayne, but he has a harder road ahead of him because his brother keeps trying to pull him back in.” He shifted his weight. “In any case, I’ll find Scooter and ask him if he’s heard anything. But don’t get your hopes up. If Bruce Wayne’s disappearance really does have something to do with Daniel Crocker, I’m not sure Scooter will help us.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. Jonah was trying to help, which was more than I should have been asking. “We’ll just hope that he knows something.”
“But if I don’t find anything, you need to tell Mason.”
I sucked in my lower lip.
“Rose.”
I stood and moved to the window, looking down at the church grounds. I had hired Bruce Wayne and David out of desperation when Jonah commissioned us to landscape the entire church grounds in less than five days. But it turned out that Bruce Wayne loved it. He’d been working for me for a little over a month and I couldn’t imagine the Gardner Sisters Nursery without him.
“Rose.”
“I’ve been leaving Bruce Wayne messages on his cell phone. Maybe he’ll call me back and tell me that this has all been a big misunderstanding.”
Jonah’s mouth pursed as his eyebrows rose.
“When do you think you can talk to Scooter?”
“I’ll track him down as soon as we’re done here.”
“Okay,” I groaned. “If Scooter can’t help us, and if I haven’t heard anything by the end of the press conference, I’ll tell Mason.”
“What press conference?”
I spun around and offered him an awkward smile. “The Gardner Sisters Nursery is being awarded a huge grant this afternoon from the Arkansas Small Business Administration.” I told him everything I’d told Mason earlier.
He frowned while he listened, then asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“How can I turn it down?”
“You do realize that his father is counting on that very reaction. He offered you something that you think you can’t live without. Just more of his manipulation.”
“You don’t think I know that?” I asked, my irritation increasing. “But how can I turn this down? Violet’s counting on it.”
“Forget Violet. What do you want?”
“If we don’t do this, Violet will—”
Jonah moved closer to me and bent his knees so we were eye to eye. “I don’t give a Fig Newton about Violet right now. I’m asking about you. What does Rose want to do? Do you want to see Joe?”
I walked back toward the desk and sank into the chair. “Would it make me a terrible person if I did?”
“It would make you perfectly normal.”
“I know he’s with Hilary now.”
“And we both know that’s staged.”
“But still.”
“What do you hope to get out of seeing him? Ask yourself that before you go.”
“I think I just want to know that he’s okay. That he’s making the best of it.”
“Do you want him to tell you it’s all a terrible mistake? That he wants to come back to you?”
“No. I don’t know.” I ran a hand over my hair, smoothing back several loose strands. “I used to think I wanted that, but Mason…” I took a deep breath. “I think what I really need is closure. I need to say goodbye while I’m not sobbing my eyes out. Does that make sense?”
“Perfect sense. And it’s a very good reason to go through with it. I just wanted to make sure you’re doing it for you.”
“I guess I am.”
“When is it scheduled? I’ll try to come. I was a big part of the first press conference at the grand opening of your business. I should make a habit of attending all of them.”
I grinned, trying to settle my nerves. Not too long ago, I’d been alone in the world, but now I had supportive friends who were there for me when I needed them. Facing Joe at the press conference would be hard, but I felt stronger knowing Mason, Jonah, and Neely Kate would be there to support me. “You’re the one who got our landscaping business rolling, but I think you’ve run out of land for us to work with.”
“There’s still my backyard.” He winked.
I laughed. “When we were working on the front yard, Bruce Wayne checked out the back and actually came up with a few ideas. He’s a natural.” My voice broke.
Jonah placed his hand on my shoulder. “He’ll turn up, Rose. We’ll find him.”
I sure hoped Jonah was right.