Off You Go (2 page)

“
My daughter jumped off
the Cooper River Bridge four days ago.” She stopped there, almost
like that was all she had to say.

Dewey reached back into
his memory. “Callahan…I remember seeing your name in the
Post and Courier
.” That
was it; Dewey had a knack for remembering everything he had read.
“Was it Gina?”

Faye nodded.

“
I’m sorry,” he said,
looking into her eyes and really meaning it. He pinched his
beard.

“
Now, assuming you agree
to help,” said Faye, “I don’t want you telling a soul what you’re
working on. My husband doesn’t know I’ve come to see you, and I
don’t want him to. Some things are done better
silently.”

Dewey nodded. He’d also read about her
husband, Hammond Callahan, who owned Brightside Development.
Hammond had gotten some media attention over the past couple months
for his controversial efforts to develop Bird’s Bay, a
two-hundred-acre waterfront property right over the bridge from
Charleston in Mt. Pleasant. Not too far from the farmer’s market.
At the moment, it was home to a World War II battleship, a high-end
resort, a nature area with some of the best bird-watching in the
state, and a very much loved public golf course where fifty bucks
could get you way more than your money’s worth. It was the nature
lovers and the golfers that didn’t like what he was up to.

Dewey stayed on topic. “Didn’t Gina leave a
note in her car that she’d abandoned up on the top of the
bridge?”

“
She did, and people saw
her jump. They ruled it a suicide.” Faye’s Southern accent kept
getting stronger. “Even though they haven’t found her body yet, I
know they will. It took them two weeks to find the body of the boy
that jumped last summer.”

Dewey pushed away a vision of what the boy’s
body must have looked like after two weeks of getting picked apart
by crabs. He’d read about that, too.

“
I’m not here because I
believe she was murdered. I’m here because I want you to find out
why she killed herself. Hammond doesn’t want to know, but I do. I
have to know.”

“
Why do you think she
jumped?”

“
I don’t rightly know. She
was in a good place.”

Dewey took a long drag. Faye was a good
woman, and it made his eyes wet to think about how awful her world
was at the moment. No one deserved to outlive their child. Dewey
couldn’t imagine losing his Elizabeth or Sonya. Yes, he needed the
money, but he also felt compelled to help. Especially since he
couldn’t help himself. Discreetly wiping a forming tear, Dewey
said, “I’d be happy to look into it.”

CHAPTER 2

Hammond Callahan gritted
his teeth and pointed his finger at the man sitting across from
him—the man the
Post and Courier
called his protégé, a moniker he had agreed with
at one point
.
The
offices of Brightside Development were off Broad Street in downtown
Charleston, and the two men were in Hammond’s high-ceilinged office
on the second floor.

“
Your incompetence,”
Hammond started, “is starting to outshine your abilities, to the
point that I’m not sure what I saw in you in the first place. How
the
hell
is it
possible that your wife heard you talking to him on the phone?
Didn’t I say to keep the discussions off-line? Wasn’t that the
first thing I said? You got shit in your ears?”

“
You did, but—”

“
You are a worthless
little bottom dweller and if there was anything I could do to cut
you loose right now, you can bet your ass I would. But we’ve gone
too far now. So I’m going to let you ride my coattails all the way
through the deal, but if you screw this up, I’ll be on you
heavy
. You and I both
know I have every reason to be. My patience is wearing thin. You
get your wife under control and make sure she keeps her mouth shut.
And get the fuck out of my office!”

It looked like Rowe Tinsley wanted to say
more, but he wisely held back, avoiding a punch in the face.
Hammond stood with his palms planted on the desk. He watched Rowe
walk out of his office and close the door.

Hammond took a deep breath and let his head
fall. He couldn’t lose the Bird’s Bay deal. It was the culmination
of everything he’d been working on, everything he’d learned his
entire life. He and Faye would be set forever. A pile of money was
right around the corner; he just had to keep everything together.
What was left of it.

Of course, he could hardly ignore Gina’s
suicide; it would sculpt the rest of his life. Working these
countless hours trying to push this development through was
distracting him from the horrors of her death, but as soon as he
let his mind slip into thinking about her—like he was right now—it
all came crashing down.

His breath left him and he
collapsed back into his chair, his head in his hands. The tears
fell and he had to fight to keep from making too much noise as the
crying came. He couldn’t let anyone in the office see him in a
state of weakness.
Never let them see you
sweat
.

They were tears of anger
and sadness. He hadn’t been the best father. He hadn’t treated her
like he wished he had now. He regretted every time he’d raised his
voice at his beautiful, innocent little girl. He regretted not
being more patient with her as she struggled with her demons. He
hated that the last time he’d seen her, he’d told her that she
needed to settle down and get married, that Faye was ready for a
granddaughter. He’d told her that so many times! He’d tried
to
guilt
Gina
into starting a family, when she hadn’t even had someone to
love.

Someone knocked on the door. “Hammond?” It
was his secretary.

Hammond sat up and wiped the tears from his
cheeks. “I’m on my cell. Give me five minutes.”

CHAPTER 3

Though it was Dewey’s least favorite part,
he discussed the monetary details with Faye. Since he’d been kicked
out, he’d given nearly every dime he made to Erica, intent on
making sure his family was taken care of. It was never enough.

As a dental assistant, Erica had always made
better money than Dewey, but he still wanted to contribute. He had
always spoiled his girls and wanted to continue doing so—which
seemed absurd, considering he’d drunk his way into doing the
opposite. Before he’d lost control, he’d been working at a plant
nursery and singing in a local bluegrass band called The Carolina
Lonely. Both had fired him the same month Erica had booted him. Now
he was making a living off his vegetables and this little
problem-solving business, which was finally starting to bear
fruit.

Dewey gave a number, and Faye didn’t even
bother haggling. Dewey could only imagine how much the Callahans
were worth.

“
Let’s back up now,” Dewey
said. “Tell me about your daughter.” He’d found it best not to get
too specific at first. Let her tell the story.

Her words came out in sadness, the length of
some of the syllables pushing the story toward melodrama, though it
most certainly was not. “Gina was twenty-eight, God rest her soul.
She graduated from the College of Charleston five years ago, which
was the extended program, as Hammond calls it. She took her sweet
time graduating. I’m terrified that our spoiling her finally got
the best of her. I have to blame myself. We never taught her how to
fight. She didn’t bother looking for a job after school, and the
way Hammond continued to throw money at her, I don’t think she had
any intentions of ever worrying about it.” Faye raised her hands
and made a push motion. “But I don’t mean to take anything away
from her. She was a good girl, deep down. And she did have some
drive. She loved working out…running, going to the gym and the
rock-climbing wall. She took really good care of herself. But we
just made it too easy for her. Her skin wasn’t thick enough.”

Faye reached into her purse and handed Dewey
a photo. He studied it. Gina was sitting at a picnic table waving
back at the camera with a smile that couldn’t have been brighter.
She had long red hair pulled into a ponytail, and tiny freckles
dotted her cheeks. She was a stunning young woman—not exactly the
“girl” that Faye kept referring to. Dewey figured a
twenty-eight-year-old was as woman as you could get.

“
I took this last week.
Two days before. The red hair is her father’s. Now, does this look
like a girl who would jump off a bridge two days later?”

Dewey shook his head, but
he was thinking how wrong she could be. People who kill themselves
aren’t always holding up signs that say
Suicidal.

A woodpecker started going at one of the
pine trees. Faye seemed not to notice.

Faye continued. “Now, she had seen her fair
share of psychiatrists, and she’d been on and off every medicine
behind the counter. I think that’s one of the main reasons the
police ruled it a suicide so quickly. But she was doing
better.”

“
Hold on…now you’re
starting to sound like you don’t think she committed suicide. With
all due respect, you don’t think I’m going to find your daughter
alive, do you?”

“
Of course
not.”

“
And you don’t think I’m
going to find that she was murdered, do you?”

“
I’m not sure. I don’t
think so.”

“
Fair enough. Long as you
aren’t thinking I’m a miracle worker. I am definitely
not.”

“
No, I’m not expecting
miracles. I’m simply saying that they ruled it a suicide within
twenty-four hours, and it’s because she had tendencies.”

“
Depression?”

“
Sure. When she felt good,
she was on top of the world. When she was down, though, she could
be the devil. These mood swings could last months. Not bi-polar.
She just had waves of good and bad. Needless to say, she wasn’t the
easiest child to raise. Like my daddy used to say, ‘the fattest cow
was hardest to corral.’ I know we’ve always spoiled her, and we
probably trained her to be who she was, but if she didn’t get what
she wanted, she would do her best to make us absolutely miserable.”
Faye sighed, exhausted by even thinking about it. “She’d been
pretty stable for the past six months or so. It was one of those
good streaks. I think she’d finally found a good combination of
medicine, and our relationship was getting better and
better.”

“
What medicine was she
taking?”

“
Zoloft.”

Dewey was not a pharmacist but was familiar
with Zoloft. He’d thought about taking it in the past year.

“
Can you tell me about the
night it happened? I know it’s probably tough to think
about.”

She waved him off. “It’s all I think about.
A policeman woke us about 3 a.m. with the news. The person who
first called 911 was passing over the bridge and saw Gina park her
Land Rover at the top in the far right-hand lane heading downtown.
They saw her get out and climb over the rail to the walking lane.
Several witnesses have corroborated. The second call to 911 was a
resident of the Renaissance, those condos on the Mt. Pleasant side
of the bridge. They’d seen a person jump. This was all around 2
a.m. The police found the keys in the ignition and a suicide note
on the dashboard.”

“
What did the note
say?”

“
I’m sorry.
That’s all it said.
I’m
sorry. Love, Gina.”
The woodpecker was
still pecking away.

“
It was her
handwriting?”

“
One hundred
percent.”

“
How did the police
respond? Was there an investigation?”

“
Of course. They did their
due diligence. They talked to people. They figured out she had a
history of mental illness. They put all the facts together and
decided there was no foul play. Simple as that.”

“
I don’t see how there
could have been. Unless someone pushed her over, which sounds
highly improbable.”

“
I know. I know.” She put
her hands on her lap. “Tell me
why
, then. There was a reason she
was smiling in that picture. I told the detective in charge, but he
dismissed it pretty quickly. Of course, he doesn’t care why she
killed herself, as long as no one else was involved.”

“
What reason?”

“
She was in love. A week
before, while we were trying on clothes at Hampden on King Street,
I noticed a little sparkle. It was in her eyes and the way she
walked and the way she talked, and I convinced her to admit it. You
know how we all are when we find love. We can’t help but bubble
with life. I don’t remember her looking that giddy since she was
seven years old. Lord knows, before that, she was a serial dater
and a heartbreaker. So she admitted it to me, but wouldn’t tell me
who it was, though.”

“
Why not?”

“
Oh, I don’t know. She was
always one to keep things to herself. It was the first time in her
life she’d felt that way. She probably didn’t want to jinx it. She
said she’d spill the beans soon. Anyway, I’m telling you this
because I know she wasn’t in one of her bad stages.” Faye’s smile
faded. “So why would she do it? Why would my baby do
it?”

Dewey stated the most obvious. “Maybe this
person she had fallen in love with didn’t feel the same way. Or
maybe he or she broke up with her.”