“But you didn’t see the papers?”
“No,” she answered. “She wasn’t about to let me touch them. She was worried about messing up fingerprints.”
“The hell she was,” he snapped. “She was playing you,” he said. “She’s determined to keep me out of her investigation.”
“For twelve hours anyway,” she said.
She had shoved her clothes and shoes into a plastic bag and was now standing at the door. Theo was reaching for the phone. “I guess it’s time to get tough,” he muttered.
“Theo?”
He finally looked at her. “Yes?”
“I’m beat. I’ve got to get some sleep, and so do you. Can we please go home?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Give the woman twelve hours,” she said. “You did promise.” She yawned. “I know she doesn’t want to cooperate with you and that infuriates you, but I think you should give her a little slack. She has put in three years.”
“I don’t care if she’s put in fifteen,” he countered. “I’m not backing away.”
He was getting riled up. By the time they reached the car, he was threatening to take the detective’s badge. Michelle let him vent his frustration without interrupting. When he was finished, she asked, “Feel better now?”
“Yeah, I do.”
He handed her his phone. “Call your dad and tell him we’re coming over.”
“Could we stop by my house first so I can get a change of clothes?”
“Sure.”
While she dialed, he turned the corner and entered Bowen. Now that he knew his way around, it didn’t seem all that complicated, although he still believed the town could use a couple of signs.
No one answered at her father’s house. Since he wouldn’t use an answering machine, she couldn’t leave a message. Remembering that John Paul had her cell phone, she dialed the number and waited.
“Yeah?”
“Is that any way to answer a phone?” Michelle asked.
“Oh, it’s you,” her brother said. “You okay?”
“Yes, but Theo and I are coming over. Where’s Daddy?”
“Right beside me. We’re on our way over to your house. Dad heard what happened last night and wants to see you to make sure you’re okay.”
“Tell him I’m fine.”
“I already did, but he still wants to see for himself.”
He abruptly disconnected his phone before she had a chance to speak to her father. She pushed the end button and handed the phone back to Theo.
John Paul and Jake pulled into the drive behind them. After Michelle calmed her father down, she packed some clothes and toiletries and they headed out. John Paul suggested they leave the rental car in the driveway and ride with him and Michelle’s father so that if anyone came looking, they would see the car and assume Theo and Michelle were inside. Theo wasn’t in a mood to argue with him.
The pickup needed new shocks. Michelle sat on Theo’s lap by the window and had to duck down every time her brother sped over a bump. As they were crossing the junction, Daddy remarked, “You both have to be tuckered out, what with those terrible men shooting at you and chasing you half the night.”
Big Daddy Jake had a sprawling home. From the front it looked like a tract house on a cement slab. John Paul pulled the truck around to the back, and Theo could then see the windows on a second level facing the water. There was also another room, obviously built on as an afterthought, jutting out on the back. Like Michelle, her father also had a big screened porch overlooking the water.
There were three boats, all small, tied to the dock.
Daddy didn’t like air-conditioning. He had a couple of window units, but neither was turned on. The floors were old, worn hardwood, the boards warped in the living room. Braided oval rugs were strewn about the floor. It wasn’t stuffy inside, though. The overhead ceiling fan made a clicking sound with each turn and helped carry in a breeze from the water.
Sunlight spilled in through the windows, casting a bright light on the old furniture. Theo carried Michelle’s bag and followed her down a long hallway. He could see Jake’s big double bed through the open doorway at the end of the hall. Michelle opened the door on the left and went inside.
There were two single beds with a nightstand between them. The window faced the front yard. It was stuffy and hot, but thankfully there was another air conditioner in the window. Michelle turned it on high, kicked off her shoes, and sat on the side of the bed covered in a blue-and-white quilt. Daddy didn’t care about coordinating colors. The other bed had a red-and-yellow-striped quilt on it. Michelle took her socks off and fell back against the pillow. She was sound asleep in less than a minute.
Theo quietly shut the door behind him and went back into the living room.
An hour later, Daddy’s booming laughter woke Michelle. She got up and was walking to the bathroom when Theo came around the corner.
“Did we wake you?” he asked.
She shook her head and backed up so he could get by, but he followed her until he had her pressed against the wall. Then he kissed her.
“That’s the way to start a new day. Kissing a beautiful woman,” he said, and went back into the living room.
She looked at herself in the mirror and was appalled. Time to bring out the makeup, she decided, and start acting like a woman. He’d called her beautiful? She thought then that Theo needed to wear his glasses all the time.
In a half hour, she was as good as she was going to get. She wished she’d packed a skirt, but she hadn’t, and her only choices were a pair of navy shorts or jeans. Since it was hot, she opted for the shorts. There wasn’t any choice for tops. She’d packed a pale yellow blouse with a little too much spandex.
Barefoot, she padded down the hallway with her makeup bag and put it on the dresser in the bedroom. Theo came in to get his glasses. He was talking on the phone as he walked. He gave her a quick once-over, his gaze lingering on her legs, and she heard him ask the person on the other end to repeat what he had just said.
“I got it. Yeah, her dad got the certified letter about an hour ago. No, Michelle doesn’t know. I’ll let Jake tell her.”
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Ben. He’s still waiting for the crime scene report.”
“What is it you want Daddy to tell me?”
“Good news,” he promised.
“Were there people here earlier? I thought I heard the door opening and closing and lots of strange voices.”
“A couple of your dad’s friends brought over the food from your house. There are four pies on the kitchen table,” he added with a grin.
“But no cards, right?”
“Mike, I want to talk to you,” her father called.
“I’m coming, Daddy.”
She and Theo walked into the living room together. She saw the photo album on the table and whispered, “Uh-oh. Daddy’s melancholy.”
“He looks happy to me.”
“He’s melancholy. He only gets the family album out when he’s feeling blue.”
John Paul was sprawled out on the sofa. His hands were stacked on his chest and his eyes were closed.
Jake was sitting at a big round oak table in the country kitchen, which opened to the living room.
“Now aren’t you sorry you didn’t go to the funeral?” he asked his son.
John Paul didn’t open his eyes when he answered. “No.”
“You should be,” Jake said. “Your cousin wasn’t the sourpuss you thought she was.”
“I never said she was a sourpuss. I said —”
His father quickly stopped him. “I remember what you said, but I don’t want you repeating it in front of company. Besides, I know you’ve got to be feeling contrite now.”
John Paul didn’t have anything to say about that, unless a grunt qualified as a response.
“Your cousin was mindful of family after all. Mike, come and sit at the table. I’ve got something important to tell you. Theo, you sit down too. I want you to see some pictures.”
Theo pulled out a chair for Michelle, then sat beside her. Jake took hold of Michelle’s hand and looked her in the eyes. “Brace yourself, sugar. This is gonna be a shock.”
“Who died?”
Her father blinked. “No one died. It’s your cousin Catherine Bodine.”
“The dead one,” John Paul called out.
“Of course she’s dead. We’ve only got one cousin in the family on your mama’s side.” Jake shook his head.
“What about her?” Michelle asked.
“She left us money. A heap of money,” he stressed, raising his eyebrows.
Michelle didn’t believe him. “Oh, Daddy, that’s got to be a mistake. You’re telling me Catherine left us money? No, she wouldn’t.”
“I just told you she did,” her father countered. “I know it’s hard to believe, and it’s a shock, just like I warned you it would be, but it’s true. She left us money.”
“Why would she leave us anything? She hated us.”
“Don’t talk like that,” he chided. Pulling his handkerchief from his pocket, he wiped his eyes. “Your cousin was a wonderful woman.”
“That’s called rewriting history,” John Paul muttered.
Still the doubting Thomas, Michelle shook her head. “There has to be a mistake.”
“No, sugar, there isn’t any mistake. Aren’t you curious to know how much money she gave us?”
“Sure,” she said, wondering what kind of joke Catherine had played. From what she’d heard about her cousin from her brothers, the woman had a cruel streak.
“Your dear cousin left each one of us one hundred thousand dollars.”
Michelle’s mouth dropped open. “One hundred . . .”
“Thousand dollars,” her father finished for her. “I just got off the phone with Remy. I called your brother to tell him about his cousin’s generosity, and his reaction was just like yours and John Paul’s. I raised three cynical children.”
Michelle was having a difficult time processing the shocking news. “Catherine Bodine . . . gave . . . one hundred . . .”
John Paul laughed. “You’re sputtering, little sister.”
“You hush now, John Paul,” his father ordered. In a softer voice, he said to Michelle, “You see, sugar? Catherine didn’t hate us. She just didn’t have much use for us is all. She was . . . different, and we were a reminder of hard times.”
Michelle suddenly realized Theo wouldn’t have any idea who they were talking about. “My cousin was around seven or eight when her mother married a very wealthy man named Bodine. They moved to New Orleans and pretty much severed ties with us. I never met Catherine,” she admitted, “or spoke to her on the phone. I can’t believe she would leave us anything.”
“Catherine’s mother was my wife’s sister,” Jake explained. “Her name was June, but we all called her Junie. She wasn’t married when she found herself in the family way. Back then, having a child out of wedlock caused quite a stir, but folks forgot about it as time passed. Her father never forgot or forgave her, though. He tossed her out on her ear is what he did. Now, Ellie and I were newly married, so Junie moved in with us. When the baby came, the two of them stayed on. It was crowded, but we all made do,” he added. “Then Junie met that rich fella, got married, and moved away. Junie passed on when Catherine was eleven. I wasn’t going to let that child forget she had family in Bowen who loved her, so I made it a point to call her up at least once a month and visit with her. She never had much to say, though, and I did a lot of bragging about my three so she’d know her cousins. Catherine was real impressed when she found out Mike was going to be a doctor. She was proud of you, sugar. She just never said so.”
“Catherine didn’t even invite you to her wedding,” Michelle reminded her father. “And I know that must have hurt your feelings.”
“No, it didn’t. Besides, it was a tiny affair in the courthouse. She told me so herself.”
Michelle had her elbow propped on the table and was twirling a lock of hair around her finger in an absentminded fashion while she thought about the windfall. The money was a godsend. There was more than enough to fix up the clinic and hire a nurse.
Her father was smiling as he watched her. “There you go again, twisting your hair.” Turning to Theo, he said, “When she was a little tiny thing, she’d wrap her hair around her fingers and suck her thumb until she fell asleep. I can’t remember the number of times Remy or I had to untangle the knots she made.”
Michelle let go of her hair and folded her hands. “I’m feeling guilty,” she said, “because I can’t think of one nice thing to say about Catherine, and I’ve already figured out how I’m going to spend some of her money.”
Her father pushed the thick family album with a black-and-red-checked cover toward Theo. Theo opened it and began to look at the photos while Jake pointed out who was who. Michelle excused herself to get a Diet Coke and carried one back to the table for Theo. He’d put his glasses on and looked quite scholarly.
Putting her hand on his shoulder, she asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, sure,” he answered as he turned another page.
“Daddy, Theo doesn’t want to look at our family photos.”
“Yes, I do.”
She reached over Theo’s shoulder, put her can of Diet Coke on a coaster next to Theo’s, then straightened and turned to her brother. “John Paul, fix Theo and me something to eat.”
“Like that’s gonna happen,” he chuckled.
She walked over to the sofa and sat down on his stomach. He knew what she was going to do and braced himself.
“I’m sleeping,” he snapped. “Leave me the hell alone.”
She ignored his grumbling and pulled on his hair as she leaned back against the cushions. “Can you believe Catherine left us so much money?”
“No.”
“It’s mind-boggling.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Open your eyes,” she demanded.
He sighed loudly, then did as she asked. “What?”
“Can you think of anything nice to say about her?”
“Sure I can. She was a selfish, obsessive, compulsive, greedy —”
Michelle pinched him. “Say something nice about her.”