I'll Be Watching You Read online

  She’d put off placing an ad for that. First, she had no idea what it was worth. Unfortunately, of the two real estate offices in town, one was owned by Macgregors and the other by a Wharton cousin.

  Okay, find out how much it was worth, and then what? The prospect of selling the bar was messing with her insides more than having to apologize to Zell, and that was saying something. Like Wharton had said, though, running it from afar wasn’t an option. There wasn’t anyone she trusted.

  Except herself.

  It wasn’t a new thought. It had been hovering at the edges of her mind since she’d gotten the call from Wharton.

  She glanced into the back seat where a raccoon, owl, fox, and alligator sat. They were going up for grabs at the bar, with Smitty getting first dibs. Not that she minded foxes, raccoons and owls, but having them in the house was kind of creepy.

  She tried to pass off her increased heart rate to too many Tums. “Nice try,” she said as she pulled through those fancy columns. It wasn’t the prospect of seeing Zell either; it was the apology itself, and possibly seeing any other Macgregors. “What am I doing here? This is crazy.” She glanced at Oscar. “Why is this so important to me? Even the idea of sending a note or calling didn’t ease this yucky feeling. Crap, I hate having a conscience. Why should it matter, especially with Zell?”

  Oscar had no comment. He continued to look odd and a little bit funny sitting in the passenger seat taking in the surroundings.

  “I guess if he can be nice, so can I. Personally, I think it’s easier to be a bitch.”

  At the crossroads, she remembered the road went straight to the farm and left to the house. A newer road had been cut into the right. She could see a structure in the distance, maybe another farm building. Other dirt roads splintered onto the pieces of land owned by Macgregors. She turned to the left.

  She’d spent as little time at the farm as possible during her stay with the Macgregors. Charlotte loved the farm, but she’d always been a little strange. Alligators were part of the wetlands, something to be hunted or saved depending on where you came from, or just gawked at if you were a tourist. But loved? Zell and his wild cousin Dougal had gone out at all hours whenever they managed to get assigned to trap a nuisance gator. Zell had been planning to get a degree in wildlife biology.

  The large, brick house loomed ahead of her, tripping her heartbeat again. The entrance featured three arches, with a balcony above it. Flanking the entrance were the dueling turrets, one housing the curving staircase and the other the formal dining room. Palms, gumbo limbos, and other native plants were part of the Xeriscape design. On the right side of the house, their estate caretaker, Dewey, toiled away beneath the hot sun.

  Looking back, she understood what living here had meant to her mother. Kitty had been born poor, gotten pregnant right out of high school, and married a man who couldn’t give her any more than she already had monetarily. Too bad she hadn’t appreciated the other joys of being married to Donnie Lyons, like getting crazy and enjoying life. Kitty wanted class and money, and Winnerow’s offer gave her both. Kim hadn’t cut her any slack on her decision, and that had torn apart their relationship. The loss still hurt, even though Kim had convinced herself that it didn’t.

  Obviously, Kitty hadn’t been as happy as she’d wanted to be. She’d traded in one drinking, partying man for another, and this one didn’t even love her. Even before Rhonda’s murder had changed everything, Kitty had started drinking, too. She’d wrecked her car driving drunk. At least her one last act of dignity had been being buried in the Macgregor family plot.

  Kim pulled beneath a sprawling gumbo limbo tree with its reddish-brown, peeling bark and opened the windows for Oscar. “Be right back. How long does it take to say, ‘I’m an idiot, sorry’?”

  As she approached the house, she realized it was Saturday and that meant they’d just had their breakfast get-together. Which meant that they’d all be there.

  “Well, pig poop.” Though strictly speaking, pig poop wasn’t all that bad of a thing. Just dry pellets. “Be strong, be strong.”

  She rang the bell and heard the chime sing throughout the house. Not much had changed since those tenuous days here. The trees were bigger and the driveway had been paved. The sculptured beds of mulch and plants had been added.

  When the door opened, she saw no one at first. Just straight through the formal foyer and living room to the sparkling bay. She shifted her gaze down and caught her breath. Winnerow sat in a wheelchair. Whatever had happened to him hadn’t affected the hardness in his blue-green eyes. Half of his mouth was held in a firm line while the other half was slack. She was surprised and a little relieved to see him helpless. Only a little relieved, though. Winnerow had too many allies in town to be considered genuinely helpless.

  “What are you doing here?” he barked.

  She could see that there was no use making pleasantries, so she got to the point. “I’m looking for Zell. Is he here?”

  Charlotte appeared around the doorway, looking as beautiful and crafty as ever. Her blond hair was now auburn and cut short, and her eyes matched her father’s in color and animosity. “What do you want with my brother?”

  Winnerow turned to Charlotte. “Told you he was panting.” For a half-slack mouth, there was nothing wrong with his booming voice.

  Panting? “I need a quick word with Zell if he’s here. If he’s not, I’ll catch him later.”

  Winnerow growled, “You don’t belong here and you don’t belong in Cypress. I wouldn’t plan on staying around town much longer.”

  She heard the movie line in her head, Is that a threat? If only something smart and sassy would come out of her mouth, but his words about not belonging tore at the edges of her heart and tangled up any sly comebacks. She glanced beyond Charlotte and Winnerow but didn’t see Zell anywhere. Owen Kendall stood several feet behind the door. She remembered Charlotte dating him in high school, and she’d been married and had a baby when Kim’s mom had died.

  As Kim turned and walked back to the car, she caught sight of a young girl peering around the corner of the house. She ducked back. Kim kept her head high as the huge front door slammed shut. That was as much of a welcome as she’d ever got there, really. Winnerow had made token efforts, but his two teenagers hadn’t. She supposed she hadn’t been the easiest to welcome. They’d finally reached a tenuous peace when all hell had come loose.

  “Kim?”

  The shy, tentative voice broke her out of those thoughts, and she looked down to see the girl. She was pretty in a solemn kind of way with long, straight hair the Macgregor shade of blond. Though she hadn’t gotten the teal eyes, her eyes were startling all the same, so light blue, they rivaled a moonflower.

  “Yeah. Who are you?”

  “Tullie Macgregor.” She glanced at the house.

  “Charlotte’s daughter. Hi.” Even something as minor as a child’s lack of hostility touched Kim in a soft, mushy way.

  “I know where Zell is. Want me to take you there?”

  “Sure. If…” She looked at the house, too. “If you’re sure it’s okay.”

  “Mama don’t care where I am. I’ll ride with you.”

  “Uh, you’ll have to share the front seat with Oscar.”

  Tullie tugged open the door and squealed in delight at seeing the pig. “Oscar!” She gave him an unabashed hug that made Kim almost ask if she’d like the pig. When Tullie started to climb in, she paused at the sight of the animals in the back seat.

  “Uh, those were Elva’s,” Kim said. “I’m trying to find a home for them.”

  “Smitty won’t want ’em,” she said, squirming right onto the seat with Oscar, though she only took a corner. “He doesn’t have room.”

  “How’d you know I was giving him first dibs?”

  Tullie pointed down the road. “Go back the other way.”

  Kim followed, wondering why this girl was helping. Maybe it was in retaliation to a mother who didn’t pay enough attention to her. Whatever
, Kim was taking the help.

  “How old are you?” she asked conversationally.

  “Nine.” Tullie hadn’t taken her gaze off Kim once she’d settled on the seat. “You’re the Kim who used to live here. The one who bit our finger.”

  “Pardon? I didn’t bite anyone’s finger, but I did live here…for a time anyway.” She wondered how much the girl knew. Probably everything, if she knew the Macgregors. They’d probably added her to the trove of family stories, making her into an ogre along the way.

  “Go straight,” she said when they reached the intersection. “Zell’s house is up ahead.”

  Kim only nodded, not sure what else to say. Tullie kept staring at her, as though she were evaluating her—or looking right through her. “Is something wrong?” Kim asked finally.

  The girl seemed to weigh what she would say, which was a strange thing for a young girl to do. Most kids spoke their minds. “Are you going to be here long?”

  Great, even the kid wanted her gone by sundown. “I’m not sure. I’ve got some things to figure out.”

  She pondered that. “Like the truth.”

  Now that wasn’t what she’d expected. “The truth?”

  Tullie nodded. “You’re looking for the truth.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m looking for a life maybe. Direction, definitely direction.” A home, her inner voice chimed in. “I’m looking for Zell—to apologize for my bad manners,” she felt compelled to add. “But not truth.”

  Charlotte watched her traitorous daughter get into Kim’s car. She knew exactly what the little freak was doing—taking her to Zell. All because of that stupid vision or whatever it was that she’d had. She supposed she could run down there and yell at Tullie to get out of the car, but that’d make her look like a hag.

  “What’s she doing, coming around here sniffing for Zell? I don’t like it.” her daddy said as he wheeled toward the large front window.

  “It’s not like Zell’s going to give her anything. She’s not his type.” Shar pushed her father’s wheelchair toward the study. “I’ll call him after we do your physical therapy and see what she wanted.”

  He swatted her away, stinging her with his thick, gold ring and his rejection. “I can steer myself. I’m not a cripple.”

  She pulled her hand back and swallowed words about how she didn’t like this new daddy. She’d been taking care of him for a long time, after Mama died and through his heavy drinking and withdrawal with each successive tragedy that had hit the Macgregors. She’d stepped aside when Kitty had come in, but reasserted her position when Kitty began to drown her disappointment in booze.

  Shar had been afraid that the stroke would trample what was left of his spirit, but it had done the opposite. It had made him into something he’d never been before: a father. She didn’t like it. “Well, what do you want me to do about her?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take care of her if she causes any trouble.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Tullie fiddled with the hem of her ruffled shirt that, not surprisingly, had grinning alligators on it. Green alligators, which always made Kim wonder where artists got the idea that alligators were green. They weren’t nearly as cute as the ones on her shirt either.

  The structure she’d seen in the distance now came into focus. The light wood exterior of the octagon home made it blend into the prairie beyond. It wasn’t a large house and was nothing like the big house. It was raised up from the ground like most homes in the area. Tall grasses surrounded the house and a stone walkway led to a covered porch on the left side. His truck was parked out front.

  “This is Zell’s place?” She couldn’t take her eyes from it. Something about it made her feel at home, yet she’d never lived on a prairie or in an octagon house. “It’s beautiful.”

  “He built it himself over the last couple years.” She hopped out of the car and had to push Oscar back to keep him from getting out.

  Even though it was cloudy, Kim rolled down the windows all the way. “I’ll be right back, Oscar.”

  She glanced in the back seat and decided to bring Zell a peace offering. She grabbed up the two-and-a-half-foot alligator. Tullie had skipped on ahead, gone inside, and then come out again before Kim made it up the walkway.

  “He must be out back,” Tullie said, waving for Kim to follow. “He’s going up in the ’copter later. I’m hoping he’s going to take me with him.”

  The wet prairie here was adorned with palmetto palms that always reminded her of the extinct Truffula trees in Dr. Seuss’s book. Of course, these weren’t nearly as colorful, but they were in abundance as groups of them made up palmetto heads that dotted the prairie.

  A trail led from the house through a mixture of grasses as tall as her waist in places, and in the case of sawgrass, as sharp as a blade. Tree frogs leaped away, but toothpick grasshoppers merely moved to the backside of the blade of grass to escape detection. Pink, purple, and yellow flowers dotted the sea of brown grass. It was quiet out here, with only the occasional call of a bird, a breeze rustling the grasses, and their footsteps on the gravel pathway.

  Until the roar of an airboat filled the air. The blast of sound cut through the silence and made Kim fumble with the alligator. Not that she was jumpy, she told herself, giving Tullie a sheepish smile. The sound died down as they came upon a dock. The flattish boat with a large fan in the back that propelled it over waters as shallow as two inches sat at the end of the dock. Two seats perched in front of the fan accommodated the driver and a passenger. The sides of the airboat were painted to look like the skin of a diamondback rattler.

  Tullie skipped down the new boards toward the airboat on which Zell was working. Shirtless, his tan skin glistened in the sun. He was long and lean and looked way too good in a pair of disintegrating jeans. Between being immersed in whatever he was doing and the earbuds he wore, he hadn’t seen them. Which was all right, since it gave her some observation time.

  Her fingers tightened on the smooth belly skin of the gator. Well, there was nothing wrong with gawking at a beautiful specimen of man, was there? Even if he was someone she didn’t particularly like? When she managed to pull her gaze away, she saw Tullie watching her.

  Tullie didn’t giggle like a typical girl, though, at catching Kim gawking at her uncle. She gave Kim that eerie, contemplative look that no little girl should own. Then she looked at Zell. Kim wanted to say, don’t worry, kid, ain’t nothing gonna happen between me and him. Just in case that’s not what the strange look was for, she decided against it. Then she realized the slang voice that had invaded her thoughts. Where had that come from? Well, from here. You can take the girl out of the swamp, but…

  Tullie climbed onto the airboat and tapped Zell’s arm. He gave her a warm smile before spotting Kim. His smile cooled somewhat but wasn’t unwelcoming. Curious, of course, but not the reception his father and sister had given her. He tucked the buds into his pocket and stepped onto the dock. He smelled like clean sweat and the black grease that was smeared on his right forearm. For some reason his intriguing advice to Angus popped to mind about throwing his wife on the bed and telling her he was going to make love to her all night long. So did his dialog about all the important parts. Was Zell that kind of guy—Nah, let’s not go there.

  Tullie walked closer to Zell and whispered, “That’s her, the one I saw. ’Cept her hair is longer.” Zell nodded in response to the strange comment. She turned to Kim. “I’ll go check on Oscar, make sure he’s not too hot.”

  Once Tullie was out of earshot, Kim asked, “What did she mean?”

  “She has feelings. Guess you’d call them psychic. She had one about you and me.”

  “What were we doing?”

  “She just saw us, and it worried her. She’s afraid something bad is going to happen.” He glanced down at her midsection. “Is that for me?”

  Her eyebrows shot up, along with her blood pressure. “Excuse me?”

  “Thought you didn’t like them.”

&nb
sp; “I, uh…” Oh, he meant the alligator! Her flush turned into one of embarrassment at where her thoughts had taken her. She shoved it at him. “I don’t. It’s for you, if you’d like it. Apparently, Elva had a fondness for using dead animals as decorations. I thought maybe you’d like this one.”

  He took her in for a moment as she held out the alligator before finally taking the damn thing. “I suppose I could find a place for it. Thanks.” He took it and set it on the cleaning station ledge. “She bought a collection a couple of years back. Sold most of them, but kept her favorites. You know Elva, always wheeling and dealing.”

  She wished she could leave it at that and hope he got the peace offering innuendo. But that would be cheating, and he was clearly waiting for some further explanation of why she dared tread on Macgregor property.

  “About last night…I didn’t know what was going on with those two guys. I mean, I didn’t know you were…I thought…”

  His amusement halted her words, such as they were. “You trying to apologize for kicking me out?”

  “Yes.” She laughed at the relief in that word. “Not very well, I know. Smitty said those two guys were talking about…well, doing something to me.”

  Zell grabbed a rag and wiped the grease off his arm. “At first I thought they were pretending to plan something to get on my nerves. Then I wasn’t sure. I wanted to make sure they didn’t get any ideas.”

  Her throat tightened at the gesture. This time she could enjoy his chivalry instead of feeling so guilty about it. “Thanks. I appreciate what you did…especially…considering…”

  “You always have this much trouble talking?”

  Never. She laughed it off, not wanting to admit it was he who was tripping up her tongue. “Say, how much are Elva’s payments to you each month for the orchids?”

  “Two-fifty, due on the first of the month.”

  Two-fifty, not five hundred. “I’ll make sure you’re paid on time.”