The Liar

18

Shelby started out the morning singing in the shower. She felt the spring to her step and didn’t care who saw it or guessed the reason why.

She got dressed, helped Callie dress.

“You get to go to Granny’s today.”

“To Granny’s house?”

“That’s right. It’s her day off, and she asked especially if you’d come over and stay with her. Won’t that be fun?”

“Granny has cookies, and Bear.”

Bear was the big yellow dog who’d race and play with a little girl all day—and sleep in the sun when nobody was around to play with.

“I know. And Grandpa’s going to be there for a while, too. Your Gamma’s going to take you over on her way to work. I’ve got some paperwork of my own to get to this morning. Then I’ll come get you when I’m finished work today.”

With Callie babbling about everything she had to take to Granny’s, everything she had to do at Granny’s, they walked into the kitchen.

Shelby’s parents broke off their conversation immediately, and the quick look they exchanged set off Shelby’s radar.

“Is something wrong?”

“What could be wrong?” Ada Mae said brightly. “Callie Rose, it’s such a pretty morning, I decided we’re going to have our breakfast on the back porch, like a picnic.”

“I like picnics. I’m taking Griff on a picnic date.”

“I heard about that. This can be like practice. I’ve got these pretty strawberries all cut up, and some cheesy eggs already scrambled. Let’s take this on outside.”

“Mama wants a picnic, too.”

“She’ll be right along.”

Shelby stood where she was while Ada Mae scooted Callie out onto the porch.

“Something’s wrong. Oh God, Daddy, did someone else get shot?”

“No. It’s nothing like that. And I want to tell you right off, he’s all right.”

“He— Griff? It’s Griffin.” As her heart took a hard bump, she grabbed her father’s hands. He’d stay steady, she knew, no matter what. “If it was Clay or Forrest, Mama’d be a mess. What happened to Griff?”

“He got a little banged up, is all. It’s nothing serious, Shelby, you know I’d tell you if it were. Somebody ran his truck off the road, and into the big oak on Black Bear Road last night.”

“Banged up how? Who did it? Why?”

“Sit down, take a breath.” Turning, Clayton opened the refrigerator, took out a Coke. “He’s got some abrasions from the seat belt, the air bag. And got a pretty good knock on the head. Emma Kate took him into the clinic last night, gave him a going-over, and I’m going to do the same myself later this morning. But if Emma Kate said he didn’t need a doctor or the hospital, we can trust that.”

“All right, I will, but I want to see for myself, too.”

“You can do that,” he continued in his calm way, “after you take that breath.”

“It must’ve happened when he was driving home from here. He wouldn’t have been on the road if he hadn’t insisted on following me back here, making sure I got home all right. I want to go over and see for myself, if you could keep Callie.”

“Don’t worry about Callie. He’s not out at the house. He stayed the night at Emma Kate’s as she wouldn’t have him stay on his own.”

“Good.” She did manage that breath now. “That’s good.”

“But I expect he’s on his way to the police station by now. Forrest and Nobby—you remember my second cousin Nobby—they went down the holler last night, and brought Arlo Kattery in.”

“Arlo? He ran Griff off the road?” She pressed her fingers to her eyes. “Drunk, I expect, and driving crazy.”

“I don’t know as that’s the way it was. You go on down. It’s best you hear it straight-out, than the bits and pieces I have. And you tell Griffin he’s got an exam at ten o’clock or he’s not clear to drive or so much as touch a power tool.”

“I will. Callie—”

“She’s just fine. Go on.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

When she ran out, leaving the Coke unopened on the counter, Clayton knew his little girl was at least halfway in love. With a sigh, he picked up the can, opened it for himself. It was smarter than a shot of whiskey at seven-thirty in the morning.

• • •

GRIFF STRODE INTO the station house, eyes—including the left one, where angry bruising had come to the surface overnight—hot. He arrowed straight to Forrest.

“I want to talk to the son of a bitch.”

Forrest stopped tapping at his keyboard, pulled the phone from between his shoulder and ear. “I’ll get back to you,” he said, and clicked off.

“You’d best simmer down some first.”

“I’m not in a simmer-down mood. I don’t even know Arlo Kattery, never spoke a word to him in my life. I want to know why he deliberately ran me off the road.”

“Forrest?” The sheriff spoke up from his office doorway. “Why don’t you go ahead, let Griff go back and have his say,” he said when Forrest hesitated. “In his place, I’d want mine.”

“All right, thanks. Nobby, you think you could call back that fella at the lab, finish that conversation?”

“I sure can. That eye doesn’t look too bad there, Griff.” Nobby, a twenty-year vet, gave Griff’s face a considering look. “Seen a lot worse. You get some raw red meat on it, won’t be so bad.”

“I’ll do that.”

As Griff turned toward the back, Shelby came flying in.

“Oh, Griff!”

“Now, Shelby honey, I was just telling him it wasn’t that bad.”

“It’s not.” Griff picked up Nobby’s theme and ran with it. “I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt.” Ached like a son of a bitch, but didn’t hurt.

“Daddy said it was Arlo Kattery. I don’t know why the man has a license if he’s still driving drunk like he did when we were teenagers.”

“We don’t know as he was drunk when he ran Griff off the road.”

“He must’ve been. Why else would he do something like this?”

Forrest exchanged a look with the sheriff, nodded slightly.

“Why don’t we go back and ask him? He was half drunk when Nobby and I went and got him, and tried to say he’d been home all night. The plow was still on his truck. Arlo gets paid to plow some of the private roads outside of town,” he explained to Griff. “Hardly much reason for a snowplow on his truck in May. White paint on it, too. And yellow paint, like the plow, on the back of Griff’s truck. Nobby and I informed him of those facts, so he claimed somebody stole his truck, put the plow on it.”

“Bullshit.”

“Knee deep in it,” Forrest said with a nod to Griff. “Not too much use arguing with a man half drunk, and chasing his tequila with a joint, so we just hauled him in. And we left him last night to sleep on the fact we’d be charging him with attempted murder this morning.”

“Oh my God.” Shelby shut her eyes.

“That’s the reaction we want from him. Attempted murder’s a stretch,” Forrest commented, hooking his thumbs in his belt. “But he’ll surely go down for hit-and-run, reckless endangerment and so on.”

“We can tie quite a few and-so-ons onto the package,” Hardigan said.

“Yeah, I expect so. He’s going to do a few years however it slices out. We’ve just been letting it sink in. The sheriff here, if I’m reading him correctly, thinks what’s sunk in may come rising up if he’s faced with the pair of you.”

“That’s a fine read, Deputy.”

“All right, then. Let’s see what we see. Y’all don’t mention lawyer, all right? He hasn’t gotten there yet in his pea brain.”

Forrest led the way back through a steel door and the three cells.

In the center one, Arlo Kattery sprawled on a bunk.

She’d gotten a look at him that night at Bootlegger’s—him and his pale-eyed stare. What she saw now didn’t look much different than the last time she’d seen him in full light years before. Straw-colored hair shorn short, face grizzly with the pale blond scruff. Those small snake eyes—closed now—long neck with a tattoo of barbed wire circling it.

On the short side, and stocky, with scarred knuckles from countless fights—most of which he’d instigated.

Forrest let out a shrill whistle that made her jump, and had Arlo’s eyes popping open.

“Wake up, darling. You’ve got company.”

Eyes so pale blue they seemed almost colorless, skimmed over Griff, landed on her, slanted away again.

“Didn’t ask for no company. You best let me out of here, Pomeroy, or your ass is in the fire.”

“Looks to me like it’s your ass smoking, Arlo. All Griff wants to know—and it’s a reasonable request—is why you rammed his truck and forced him into that old oak tree.”

“Wasn’t me. Told you that already.”

“Half-ton Chevy pickup, dark red, yellow plow on the front, bumper sticker on the bottom left of the tailgate.” Griff stared at him while he spoke, saw Arlo’s jaw twitch.

“Plenty fit that bill around here.”

“Nope, not with the details. Funny bumper sticker, too. It’s got a target on it full of bullet holes, and it says: ‘If you can read this, you’re in range.’” Forrest shook his head. “That’s sure a knee-slapper, Arlo. Add that paint transfer, and it’s all wrapped up. Nobby’s out there right now talking to those forensic people over in the lab. Might take a little time, but they can match that yellow paint to your plow, that white paint to Griff’s truck.”

“That lab stuff is bullshit. More bullshit like all the rest of this.”

“Juries set store by it, especially in capital cases, like attempted murder.”

“I didn’t kill nobody.” Arlo surged up now. “He’s standing right there, isn’t he?”

“That’s where ‘attempted’ comes in, Arlo. Tried and failed.”

“I wasn’t trying to kill nobody.”

“Huh.” Forrest nodded as if considering that, then shook his head. “Nope. Don’t see a jury buying that one. See, we do what we call ‘accident reconstructions.’ And it’s going to show that you deliberately and repeatedly rammed Griff’s truck. Took some skill, so you won’t be able to try for diminished capacity, saying you were drunk. That wouldn’t buy you much time off anyway. I figure you’re going down for about twenty here.”

“No fucking way.”

“Every fucking way,” Griff disagreed. “Forrest, hum a tune and close your ears while I tell this asshole I’ll swear on a mountain of Bibles in front of God and country that I saw him behind the wheel. I’ll swear I counted the bullet holes in that idiotic bumper sticker and got his license plate.”

“That’s a fucking lie. I had the plates covered with burlap.”

“You truly are a moron, Arlo,” Forrest murmured.

“He’s a fucking liar.” Incensed, Arlo jabbed a finger between the bars. “He’s fucking lying.”

“You tried to kill me,” Griff reminded him.

“I didn’t try to kill nobody. It wasn’t even supposed to be you. Was supposed to be her.”

“You want to say that again, son?” Forrest’s voice was quiet as the hiss of a snake, but Griff had already shoved forward, reached through the bars to grab Arlo’s shirt, yanked him so his head smacked the bars.

“Now, Griff, I can’t let you do that.”

But Forrest made no move to stop him as Griff repeated the action.

“All right, that’ll do. For now.” Forrest gripped Griff’s shoulder. “We don’t want him getting off on some technicality, do we? Step back now.”

“Why?” Shelby hadn’t moved, not at the words, not at the vicious look Arlo had given her when he said them, not at the sudden violence. “Why would you want to hurt me? I’ve never done anything to you.”

“Always thought you were too good for me, looking down your nose and turning your back to me. Ran off with the first rich guy you could rope in, didn’t you? Heard that didn’t work out so well.”

“You’d’ve hurt me because I wouldn’t go out with you back in high school? I’ve got a child. I’ve got a little girl, and I’m her only parent now. You’d have risked making my baby an orphan because I wouldn’t go out with you?”

“Wasn’t going to make nobody no orphan. Just going to scare you, is all. I was only going to teach you a lesson, put a scare into you. Wasn’t my idea, anyway.”

“Whose idea was it, Arlo?”

For the first time a hint of canniness came into Arlo’s eyes. He shifted them from Forrest, back to Shelby, back to Forrest. “I got things I could say, but I want that immunization thing. I don’t do no twenty years for what wasn’t my idea.”

“You give me a name, I’ll consider that. You don’t, I’m going to push for twenty-five. That’s my sister, you idiot fuck. One thing you should know about right enough, is family. You tell me who started this ball rolling, or I’ll make sure you go down for all of it, and hard.”

“I gotta have some guarantee—”

“You get nothing.”

“He’ll get more than nothing,” Griff said. “I’ll find a way to get to you. I’ll find a way. And when I do, you’ll wish you’d had a chance to do twenty years.”

“I never touched her, did I? Never laid a goddamn hand on her. Just going to scare her some anyway. She gave me a thousand dollars, said she’d give me a thousand more after I gave you a good scare, taught you a good lesson. Just going to give you a nudge off the road, is all, but you passed me going the other way. By the time I got turned around and going, I seen you head down to the old Tripplehorn place.”

“You followed me.”

“I had to wait, figured, fine, I’d teach you that lesson you had coming when you drove out again. Better when it was dark, right? But then he drives out behind you and I couldn’t get to you. Didn’t see why I should’ve wasted my whole night for nothing. Figured pushing him off would give you a scare.

“Northern boys, they’re good enough for you, looks like. You jumped right in the sack with this one, but you never would give me so much as a long look. I seen him take your clothes off.”

“You were watching.” Too angry to be sickened, Shelby stepped closer. She knew, she knew just who’d paid him. “Did Melody Bunker tell you to spy on me, too?”

“She gave me a thousand dollars, said I’d get another. Didn’t tell me how to go about it, just to get it done. Miss High-and-Mighty’s real peeved at you, real peeved. She come right to my trailer in the holler, give me cash money. That’s how peeved she is you got her kicked out of the beauty salon.”

“I hope you got a good look, Arlo, and you take that with you to Bledsoe County and the cell you’ll be occupying there. And when you do, you think about this, Arlo. I never thought along the lines of being too good for you. I just didn’t like you.”

She turned, started out. Forrest signaled for Griff to go with her.

“Hold on, Red.”

“I can’t hold on. I can barely breathe. I swear, if you hadn’t rapped his head I’d have done it myself. He went after you because he couldn’t get to me quick enough. He could’ve killed you.”

“He didn’t.”

“If you hadn’t followed me home—”

“I did.” He took her by the shoulders. He didn’t want the what-ifs playing in her mind, or his, not then and there. “He’s locked up, Shelby. He’ll stay that way.”

“All this because Melody got her pride handed to her, and got it handed to her because she earned it. She knows full well what he might’ve done. She gave him money and an excuse to do it.”

“I’d lay odds before the morning’s up, she’s in a cell right along with him.”

“Those are good odds,” Forrest said as he came out. “Just hold on a minute. Nobby, you think you could sit with that moron Arlo for a bit? I got him writing it all out.”

“Sure can. He confess?”

“And then some. Sheriff, I need to run this by you, and then we’re going to need a warrant. That’s going to be pretty sticky as we’re going to need it for Melody Bunker, for soliciting a crime, conspiracy to do bodily harm.”

“Well, hell, Forrest.” On a long, windy sigh, Hardigan rubbed the back of his neck. “Are you damn sure on it?”

“I’ll tell you how Arlo says it went.”

“He wasn’t lying,” Griff put in. “He didn’t pull her name out of his ass. She gave him money for it, and he probably didn’t have a chance to spend it yet.”

“We’ll be going out to his trailer,” Forrest began, then glanced around. “Where’s Shelby?”

“She . . . she was right here. Oh hell. Oh hell no.”

“Melody. My sister’s got a hell of a temper if you flip the right switch. Sheriff?” Forrest said as Griff was already bolting out the door.

“Yeah, go on with him. Just what we need to tie a ribbon on this day. Your sister tossing Florence Piedmont’s granddaughter out some window.”

• • •

SHE DIDN’T PLAN on tossing Melody out a window, primarily because she hadn’t thought of it. She didn’t have a clear idea what she intended to do, but the one thing she was clear on, she didn’t intend to do nothing.

Ignoring the bitch hadn’t worked, sarcasm hadn’t worked, straight talk hadn’t worked.

So she’d find something that did, and finish this off once and for all.

The Piedmont house sat on a long, sloping rise of lush green with terraced walls of white brick showing off a bounty of graceful trees, perfectly trimmed shrubs.

From its vantage it could look down at the Ridge, out at the hills, down into folds of valleys. It stood elegantly, as it had since before the War Between the States, laced with verandas flowing out from the snow-white facade. Gardens swept along its feet in rivers of color.

It was a house she’d always admired. Now she shot toward it like an arrow from a bow.

She knew Melody lived in the carriage house, aimed for it once she’d crested the rise. Ears buzzing with temper, she slammed out of the van, strode past Melody’s car, and would have marched straight to the door if someone hadn’t hailed her.

“Why, it’s Shelby Anne Pomeroy!”

She recognized the housekeeper, a longtime member of the big house—and Maybeline’s sister—and struggled to rein in her fury enough to smile in return.

“It’s wonderful to see you, Miz Pattie. How is everything for you?”

“It’s just fine.” The woman, tall, thin, her salt-and-pepper hair in a tidy and tight cap of curls, walked over. She carried a basket half full of early roses. “Such a pretty spring we’re having this year, even if the heat’s already starting to rise. I’m so glad you’re back home to enjoy it. I am sorry about your husband.”

“Thank you. Miz Pattie, I really need to speak to Melody.”

“Why, she’s having breakfast on the back veranda with Mrs. Piedmont and Miz Jolene. I expect this has something to do with the trouble at Miz Vi’s. I got an earful on it from Maybeline, and Lorilee, too.”

“Yes, it’s something like that.”

“Then you go right around. I hope you girls can settle this.”

“Settling it’s why I’m here. Thank you.”

She let the fury come back, bubble up as she took the walkway, crossed the velvety green lawn, as she heard female voices and smelled those early roses.

And there was Melody, sitting at a table draped with white, decked with pretty china and juices sparkling in glass pitchers.

“I am not going to apologize, Grandmama, so there’s no point hounding me on it. I didn’t say a thing that wasn’t true, and I won’t lower myself to crawling to those people just so Jolene can have her trashy hairdresser back.”

“Crystal isn’t trashy, Melody, and we shouldn’t have—”

“You just stop it, Jolene, and stop that whining, too. I’m sick to death of it. If anything, that little slut and her interfering grandmother should—”

She spotted Shelby, pushed to her feet as Shelby came up the slope like a highballing train. Melody’s eyes widened as she saw Forrest and Griff running full out behind her.

“You get out of here. You’re not welcome here!”

“I say who’s welcome here,” Florence said in a snap.

“If she is, I’m not.”

Melody started to turn away, but Shelby grabbed her arm, spun her around. “You paid him. You paid Arlo Kattery to try to hurt me.”

“Get your hand off me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a liar on top of it.” Before she knew it was her clear intention, Shelby bunched a hand into a fist, and used it.

She heard shouting through the buzzing in her ears, saw through the red mist that blurred her vision Melody’s eyes go glassy.

The next thing she knew someone clamped her arms down from the back, lifted her off her feet. She kicked out, because she wasn’t done. She wasn’t nearly done, but the arms only tightened.

“Stop it. Come on, Red, pull it in now. You gave her a good shot.”

“It’s not enough. It’s not enough for what she did.”

Melody sat on her ass, where she’d gone down on the graceful veranda. “She hit me! Y’all saw how she attacked me.” Sobbing, she held a hand to her jaw. “I want to press charges.”

“Fine,” Forrest told her. “I think the ones against you are going to be a lot weightier.”

“I didn’t do anything. I don’t know what she’s talking about. Grandmama, it hurts.”

“Jolene, stop waving your hands around like you’re going to take flight and go get an ice pack.” Florence, who’d gotten to her feet, sat again, heavily. “I need an explanation. I need to know why this girl would come here, with these wild accusations, and strike my granddaughter.”

“I’ll say it,” Shelby said before Forrest could. “Let me go, Griffin. I won’t do anything. I apologize to you, Mrs. Piedmont. Not to her, but to you, I apologize. This is your home, and I should never have come here this way. I was too mad to think straight.”

“Grandmama, make her go away. She belongs in jail.”

“Be quiet now, Melody. It’ll only hurt to talk. Why did you come here like this?”

“Because she went a lot further than saying ugly things, or slashing tires or making up lies. This time, she paid Arlo Kattery a thousand dollars, and promised a thousand more, if he put a scare into me, if he taught me a lesson.”

“I never did any such thing. Why, I wouldn’t lower myself to speak to Arlo Kattery or any of his kin. He’s a liar and so are you.”

“I said be quiet, Melody Louisa! Why would you say Melody did this?”

“Because Arlo ran Griffin off the road last night, wrecked his truck. Look at him, Mrs. Piedmont. He’s hurt because he made sure I got home safe, and because he did, Arlo couldn’t get to me and do what she’d paid him to do. He got to Griff instead. She went down to the holler, down to Arlo’s trailer, and paid him to do it.”

“She’s crazy. A liar.”

“Oh my God.” Jolene stood just outside the French doors, a blue ice pack in her hand. “Oh my God, Melody, I didn’t think you meant it. I never thought you meant it.”

“You shut up, you hear! Don’t you dare say another word, Jolene, not one more word.”

“I won’t shut up. I won’t. My God, Melody, this isn’t just playing, just gossip or poking some fun. I didn’t think she meant it, I swear to God, I never thought she meant it.”

“You hold your tongue, Melody. Meant what, Jolene?” Florence demanded. “Stop blubbering now and say it straight-out.”

“She said, after Miz Vi banned us, she said she knew how to get back at Shelby. She knew how to teach her a lesson she wouldn’t forget, and how Arlo would likely do it for free, but she’d sweeten that pot.”

“Liar!” Scrambling up, Melody launched herself at Jolene, fingers curled to scratch.

She might’ve done considerable damage if Jolene, in shocked defense, hadn’t thrown the ice bag at her.

The lucky shot knocked Melody back a step, and gave Forrest time to pull her back.

“You’d best listen to your grandmama, and hold your tongue. Jolene, let’s hear the rest.”

“What is wrong with you? What is the matter with you, Melody? I just don’t know.”

“You’d better shut your mouth, Jolene, or you’ll be sorry.”

“Jolene!” Florence’s voice cut through Jolene’s fresh weeping. “You tell Deputy Pomeroy the rest of what you know, and right now. If you don’t be quiet, Melody, I swear to God Almighty, I’ll slap you myself.”

“Oh, Miz Florence. I told what she said, and I promise, I swear, I didn’t believe she meant to do anything. I was so upset, and crying, and I just said to stop it, stop it, Melody, and went on about who was going to do my hair for the wedding because Crystal, she knows just how I want it done, and it’s my wedding day, Miz Florence. I just was so upset, and Melody didn’t say any more. But she’d said what I told you. I didn’t think she could—”

“You traitorous bitch. She was part of it.” Melody threw out a hand, pointed. “She was part of it.”

“I wasn’t, but maybe you can’t believe that, Shelby, since I’ve been part of things. But never to really hurt somebody. I’m tired of it. I’m so tired of all of it.”

She sat, began to weep into her hands.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Piedmont, but I’m going to have to take these ladies into the station house and sort this out.”

Her back straight as a poker, Florence nodded. “Yes, I can see that. Jolene, you stop that crying now and go on with Deputy Pomeroy. Melody, go with the deputy.”

“I don’t want to go with him. It’s all just some story that lowlife made up, and Jolene’s lying. She’s just lying.”

“I’m not lying!”

And that started the two of them shouting at each other until Forrest broke in. “I’d advise the two of you to be quiet. Melody, you can come along on your own, or I’m going to haul you.”

“You take your hands off me this minute!” The threat had her struggling against his hold. “I don’t go anywhere I don’t want to go.”

And her grandmother surged to her feet.

“Melody Louisa Bunker, if you don’t go along with Deputy Pomeroy and stop resisting, you have my oath I’ll do nothing to help you. I’ll make certain your mama doesn’t do a thing to help you.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“By God, I do. You go with Forrest, and you go now, or I wash my hands of it, and you.”

“I’ll go. But now I know you’re just as hateful as the rest.”

“I’ll take Melody,” Forrest said to Griff. “Best if you take Shelby and Jolene. You’re still deputized.”

“Hell. All right. Jolene?”

“I’m coming. I won’t give you any trouble. Shelby, I’m so sorry about all this. I’m just—”

“It’s probably best, too, if everybody stays quiet on the ride in,” Griff suggested, and got an easy smile from Forrest.

“Like I said, you ever want a career change. Melody, you walk to my cruiser under your own power, or I’ll cuff you.”

“Oh, I’m coming. You’ll be out of a job before this day’s over. I’m going to make sure of it.”

Before he led Melody away, Forrest glanced at Florence. “I’m sorry about this, Mrs. Piedmont. I’m sorry for this trouble for you and your family.”

“I know it.” When she looked at Griff there might have been a gleam of tears in her eyes, but her back remained poker straight. “I’m more sorry about this than I can say.”