A Lie for a Lie (15 page)

Tammy’s eyes lit with pleasure. “We’re so happy she moved in and opened this shop.”

“Our family’s happiest of all.”

“Speaking of which, I’m sorry Deena’s not coming to Madison’s party tonight.”

I was glad she knew and I wouldn’t have to give Tammy the news myself. I didn’t know what excuse Deena had used, but I wasn’t going to spoil it now with my own explanation.

“I’m sorry, too. I know everybody’s going to have a great time,” I said.

“We’re going to do this one up right. A couple of friends from the church are going to help me set up. I really hope Grady will come. That would make it perfect.”

My luck was holding. “That would really be a special favor, wouldn’t it?”

“He’s been so good to Madison, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

“He works her pretty hard onstage.”

“That’s nothing compared to their private sessions. She comes home so tired she doesn’t even want to talk to me.”

My heart sank. “That doesn’t sound like Madison. I’ve never met anybody easier to talk to.”

“This has been tough on her. It means so much, the Fourteen Carat audition, all the attention, the possibility of a real career. The stress is difficult, I know, but she can do it. She’s such a trooper.”

“She is.” I paused and asked myself if I should go on, but in the end, I knew that even if I alienated Tammy, I had to try.

“Tammy, is it possible there’s something more going on than just the Idyll auditions?”

She frowned, and I could see she was completely clueless. Tammy was blinded by the glamour of having her daughter do so well in front of our entire town. I wasn’t sure how much winning the Idyll meant to Madison, but it definitely meant a lot to her mother.

“I don’t know how to say this . . .” I chewed my bottom lip hard enough that I winced. “It’s just that . . . I’ve heard rumors about Grady and other contestants in other places, and they worry me. Nothing concrete. But if Madison seems more stressed out—”

“Of course she’s stressed out! She’s been onstage for every round. She’s learning new songs, new ways of presenting herself. She’s working with her voice teacher, Lisa Lee, the stage crew. I’m surprised at you.”

Maybe I should have stopped there, but I just couldn’t. “I saw Grady talking to her that first night, in the shadows of the auditorium. He was standing so close it gave me pause. I was worried then, and I’m more worried now that I know they’re spending time alone together. And those rumors I heard? I’m afraid they’re from somebody who knows him well.”

Tammy lifted her chin. “Madison can take care of herself. Grady’s been nothing but kind to her.”

That worried me most of all. Because despite his good behavior for the past two days, despite the bracelet, I was afraid Grady Barber didn’t have a kind bone in his body.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” I said. “I really am. I’ve debated talking to you because I don’t have any strong evidence things are out of whack between them. But Tammy, please watch out, okay? If you see anything that fits with my suspicions, if you see any sign Madison’s not just stressed but scared—”

“I can deal with my daughter, thanks.” She turned back to the rack, dismissing me.

I hoped she
could
deal with her daughter, but I was afraid she wasn’t going to. In many ways Tammy was a good mother, but her ambitions for Madison were like blinders. Now I hoped that she wouldn’t set out to prove me wrong and ignore every signal that things were not as perfect as she desperately wanted them to be.

 

 

As Grady’s new volunteer assistant, I was expected to be on call for emergencies. As if he understood my frustration threshold was a lot lower than Fred’s, there hadn’t been many, and I’d been able to handle them all quickly. Tonight I was even marginally optimistic I could have an entire evening with Ed. In preparation for the three-night final round, which was to begin on Friday, there were no Idyll performances. Grady was having dinner with the Hayworths and some of our town leaders at the country club, so I didn’t have to worry about Madison. I even knew what he would be eating since I’d gone over the menu with the country club chef.

Our children had cooperated without being asked. Deena was spending the night with Posh Price, aka Shannon Forester, and Teddy was spending the night with Junie. Ed and I needed some time alone, and I’d bought an assortment of mushrooms from my favorite grocery store to make a luscious new lasagna recipe. We hadn’t had a really good home-cooked meal since Grady came to town. We hadn’t done anything even more fun for a while, either, and we were both looking forward to that, as well.

We were just sitting down to eat when the telephone rang.

“Don’t answer it,” Ed said. “Don’t even listen to it ring.”

“It could be one of the girls.”

“It sure won’t be Deena.”

That was probably true. It was temporarily beyond Deena to even mutter “hello” if she didn’t have to.

The phone rang for the third time. I tapped my fingers on the table. “It could be Teddy.”

“Your mother knows where we live if there’s an emergency.”

But the moment he’d said the “e” word, we both knew the game was over. If you live in a parsonage, answering the telephone comes with the territory. I got up and caught it on the fifth ring.

I closed my eyes when I recognized the voice on the other end. I listened carefully, asked a few questions, which were answered with snarls, asked a few more anyway, then I hung up.

I made another call before I turned to tell Ed what was happening, although I was sure he’d guessed most of the details by now.

“Grady decided to drive himself out to Lake Parsons before his dinner at the club. One of the committee members loaned him her BMW. On his way back somebody plowed into him at a stop sign.”

“Is he okay?”

I couldn’t tell from the way Ed asked the question what answer he was hoping for. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. “He’s fine, the car is not. I just called our towing service. Now somebody has to go out and get him. He’s not a ‘ride along in the passenger seat of the tow truck’ kind of guy.”

“Surely not you.”

“He called Veronica first. She’s already at the club, and for some reason her cell phone is off. I kind of get the feeling he’s not used to punching in numbers on his own, so he didn’t know how to dial directory assistance. Maybe that was Fred’s job.”

“Can’t you call somebody else to pick him up? Call the club yourself?”

“He’s about fifteen minutes away. If I go right now, I can drop him off at the club and be home in half an hour. If I start calling people, it’ll take at least that long to find somebody else who’s willing to go.” I didn’t add that I was hoping to get to the scene lickety-split, since the police were on their way, and I really didn’t want Grady talking to them the way he had just talked to me. Okay, I’m human. Grady in jail is worth a grin, but Grady not judging the Idyll when we’re counting on that revenue? Not funny at all.

“We were about to eat. Remember?”

I smiled, but my eyes were less friendly. “How many meals have I warmed up because you’ve been called to the hospital, Ed?”

I waited for him to tell me that this was different. This was Grady Barber, spoiled and apparently incapable of taking care of himself. Ed’s emergencies were important. Mine had to do with some deep-seated emotional need to prove I was an intelligent, capable addition to our community.

Wait . . . Ed didn’t have to say that. I’d done a pretty good job thinking it all by myself.

“Go,” he said, instead. “I’ll just be glad when he’s not in our lives anymore.”

“Hey, nobody will be gladder than me.” I kissed the top of his head as I walked past to grab the minivan keys out of our key basket.

I knew exactly where the accident had occurred. Grady was waiting at the four-way stop sign on a back road into town. A four-way stop means that everybody traveling that way has to be polite and take turns. Most of the time our locals are able to contain the urge to be first, and they patiently wait in line. I was afraid our star had simply assumed everybody knew he was the most important person ever to drive through the intersection, so he hadn’t even slowed to a crawl.

I tried not to imagine how the authorities would view that attitude.

I didn’t exactly speed, but I did get to the scene in record time. On the way I kept my foot on the gas pedal by fantasizing the best scenario. The cops would have arrived and taken all the information. Grady would be apologetic if he needed to be, or understanding if somebody else had been in the wrong. He would be chastened as I drove him to the country club and sorry that he had snapped at me. He would write a big check to Diana Feldspar, whose car he had borrowed, and promise to pay anything that his own auto insurance—if he had insurance—wouldn’t cover. Then we would all join hands and sing “Sailing toward a Rainbow” together.

Things didn’t go exactly that way.

First, the troopers had arrived just before I did. There was a cluster of people on one side of the road where a pickup loaded with bales of straw and a Toyota of some model no longer produced had pulled onto the shoulder. Diana’s BMW was on the other side, and the right front looked like a larger version of a Catahoula Hound’s accordion. Grady was shouting and gesturing toward the people on the other side, and two older women were holding a young man—I was guessing the pickup driver from his straw-covered jeans and feedstore cap—who was trying to get to Grady. When I parked and got out I could see that the front end of the pickup had been totaled.

“Move along, miss,” one of the state troopers said, as I tried to get to Grady. Dressed in gray, with the traditional campaign-style hat, which sat just inches above a thunderous scowl, he didn’t look like anyone to fool around with.

“The man in the BMW called me,” I told him. “I’m supposed to give him a ride back into town.”

“Grady Barber?”

I was sorry the trooper had recognized him. “Yep. That would be the one. I guess he told you who he is.”

The trooper sneered. He’d obviously had a lot of practice. “No, ma’am. I went to school with Mr. Barber.”

The two men were about the same age, so this seemed plausible. The trooper looked like he’d lived a harder life, but it sat well on him.

“Do you know whose fault it was?” I asked softly. “I’m on the committee that brought him here for the Emerald Springs Idyll. We’d sure like to avoid any trouble.”

“You might ought to have gotten somebody else as your judge, then. Considering the way Barber was raised, it’s no surprise his people skills are so lousy.”

There was no time to follow up on that. Grady’s voice was rising exponentially.

“Any chance you can calm him down?” the trooper asked. “Because my fellow officer isn’t too big on patience. And I have even less.”

“I can try.”

“Be my guest.”

He let me pass. I stayed on Grady’s side of the road, and the trooper went over to calm the young man on the other side, who clearly wanted to wrap his hands around Grady’s throat.

I really didn’t know what to say. But desperate measures were called for. I did the only thing I could think of. I shouted. “Grady!”

That got his attention. He turned and pointed a finger at me. “What took you so long?”

“I’ve yet to perfect teleporting.” I pointed my finger right back at him. “I am here now, and I want you to be quiet. Right now. No arguments.”

His eyes widened, and his chin dropped, but only to let out another shout, aimed this time at me. I glanced at the trooper and smiled. “May I speak to him alone a moment?”

“Miss, I’m not sure he’s safe.”

“My self-defense skills are beyond reproach.”

I blocked out the outraged bellows coming from Grady’s lips until the trooper had moved away a little. Then I grabbed his wrist, snapped it back, and shook it. “Shut up right now! You’re about to get thrown into jail. And if that happens, I swear I’ll call every major newspaper I can find a number for and report what happened here. And I’ll make sure you look like a total jerk.”

I didn’t really expect that to work. But it was as close to a plan as I could come up with in the seconds given me. I should have worked on it on the trip, instead of imagining the best scenario. Call me an optimist.

I’m not sure what got to him. The way I was holding his wrist? Jail? Bad PR? Whatever it was, he abruptly fell silent.

I dropped the wrist, but I stepped closer and lowered my voice. “So here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to cooperate with the troopers and give them your statement. If they don’t throw you in jail, you can get in my van and I’ll take you to the country club. A tow truck’s on the way for Diana’s car. And while we’re together in my van, you will remember I am a volunteer. I have no real reason not to dump you by the side of the road if you get abusive. And buddy, let me tell you, I can do it, too. If you want a demonstration, I’ll give you one right here and now.”

He looked like he was considering my offer. Or maybe he was just considering whether he could afford a hit man.

I spread my hands, palms up. “I can leave. You never have to see my face again. You can find another way back. I really don’t care.”

He took me up on my first offer, although silently. When the trooper saw we were finished, he moved back and took Grady’s statement, which went something like: The pickup had come out of nowhere. He had come to a complete stop, no matter what the loser in the feedstore cap was saying. This was not Grady’s fault. The trooper glanced at me with a raised brow. I was careful not to shake my head, although my neck tried every which way to thwart me.

Sunset had come and gone by the time I was allowed to whisk Grady back to town. Although my cell phone and I don’t always see eye to eye, I’d been able to reach the club and leave a message for Veronica, who had called back in a panic while we were waiting for the go-ahead. She promised that she and the others would wait as long as it took to get Grady out of this mess. She stopped short of saying she would always be there for him. She did say she would be eternally grateful to
me
.