I'll Be Watching You Read online

  She turned her thoughts back to Elva. She couldn’t go to the sheriff’s office with this information. They probably wouldn’t believe Ernest anyway, thinking Kim was cooking up another conspiracy plot.

  “Oh, Elva, why didn’t you call and tell me you knew who had murdered Rhonda? Or at least leave me a letter?” Maybe there had been a letter in the file cabinet telling her who the killer was.

  The killer. Her first thought was Winnerow, but he was wheelchair-bound now. He’d have a hard time sneaking into Elva’s home and hitting her on the head, much less taking her out in the skiff. Unless he wasn’t as helpless as he wanted people to think. Or he could have had someone else do it. Loyalties ran deep around there. It could be anyone: Zell, Owen, Buck, even JoGene or those two creepoids.

  Or she could let it go. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Someone had killed her grandma, the same person who had killed Rhonda and gotten away with it. Maybe even the same person who had killed her father and gotten away with it. No, she couldn’t let this go. Not now.

  Like the clever and persistent raccoon, Kim had scented on the truth and was now digging for it. Her truck passed the hiding spot in the thick forest of cypress and continued on. She had talked with Ernest. What did he know?

  Oh, she could have visited with him to see how he was doing, but folks rarely came out to Otter’s Tail to just visit. You either knew the resident well enough to feel at home here, or you met them in town. No, Kim was foraging, like she’d done looking through the file cabinet. Kim suspected that Elva had been murdered; she knew enough to be dangerous.

  Sometimes raccoons were eaten as they foraged. Like the coon near the shore at Kim’s house. The gator snapped it up, a drama of life and death played out in the darkness. Wonder if that raccoon knew what had eaten it. Well, Kim would know if she kept digging. She would damn well know who was going to kill her. Like Elva had known. Now, how to find out what Ernie told her. There were ways to find out about anything here in Cypress.

  Kim’s biggest fear was alligators. Everyone knew that. That was the big joke years ago, how she’d hated gators and ended up living with Macgregors who had a farm full of them. Maybe one of those beasts would see her as a morsel and tear her to bits.

  “Keep digging, Kim. You’ll dig yourself right into a grave.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Zell knew he’d be the reason Winnerow had summoned the family to dinner that evening. He didn’t know which was worse, looking after Winn like he was a child or being subjected to his new role as family patriarch. They ate a pleasant dinner and discussed the farm and Zell’s next egg collecting foray. He noticed all of them taking in the newest scrape across his cheek, but no one except Tullie asked if he was all right.

  As soon as Gisella had cleared the dinner dishes and brought in a slab of strawberry shortcake for dessert, Winn leaned forward and let him have it. “What the hell were you thinking, boy, taking up for her like that—again?”

  Shar was giving him a cat-that-ate-the-canary look, whatever that was about.

  He hated having to defend his actions, something he hadn’t had to do since his mother’s death. “I’m supposed to see those two guys attacking her and Smitty and just drive on by?”

  Owen asked, “What were you doing there, anyway? The bar was closed.”

  He narrowed his eyes at Owen, who was becoming a real mouth lately. When he glanced at Shar for her reaction, her mouth had gone slack and her eyes were heavy. She was looking at Owen like she wanted to eat him up.

  “Where I drive and why is my own damn business. We had a talk about that very subject, I believe.”

  Owen’s cheeks reddened and he looked to Winn to back him up.

  “Are you interested in her or not? That’s what I want to know,” Winn said.

  Zell took a forkful of shortcake and ate it slowly. She interested him, that was the truth. “I’m not going to stand by and watch someone beat up on her or any woman.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Winn said, narrowing his eyes. “Or maybe you did.”

  Shar had aimed that grin at him again. Tullie was silently taking it all in like she always did. She was no doubt thinking of her proclamation that he and Kim were a match.

  Zell started to pick up his plate. “If all you want to do is interrogate me, I’ll take my dessert and leave.”

  “Sit down,” Winn said. “You might think you ran this family before, but you don’t anymore, not until I’m dead. If you got some point to prove to me, prove it with someone else I don’t like.”

  Shar said, “There are plenty of ’em, too. I can name six right off the top of my head who’d be more than glad to take up with you.”

  “I’ve been out with half of them, and there’s a reason I’m not dating them. Besides, I have no intention of settling down, so stop worrying about my love life.” He hoped no one got wind of the fact that she’d spent the night. No one would believe he’d set her up in the guest room.

  Owen looked way too pleased by this turn of events. “She’s up to something. JoGene saw her going out to Otter’s Tail today. Only one person she could be seeing out that way.”

  “Ernest Jones,” Shar said, a trace of dread in her voice. “She wouldn’t be stupid enough to dig up that mess again, would she? If she’s still got Daddy in her sights, he can’t be retried.”

  Zell said, “Maybe she went out there to see how he was doing.” He finished the last of the whipped cream on his plate and stood. “Well, it’s been nothing but lovely, but I’ve got a report to write up, so I’ll bid you all good night.”

  “Zell, did you sleep with that woman?” Shar asked, stopping his escape. “I saw her at your place this afternoon, wearing that shirt I gave you for Christmas that I’ve never seen you wear.” She made sure he knew how that made her feel.

  “I knew it!” Winn stood, threw his fork across the table, and spewed words unfit for Tullie’s delicate ears. “Have you forgotten what it means to be a Macgregor? Are you trying to disgrace this family, Zell?”

  He had to hold his tongue on that one as well as his temper. He shot his sister a cool look as he stood. “The shirt’s too girly for me. I told you that when I opened it.” He headed to the kitchen and set the plate on the counter.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” she called after him.

  “No, I didn’t.” He walked past the dining room on his way to the front door.

  “Well, what did he mean by that?” she asked the other members of the family. “That he didn’t sleep with her or didn’t answer us?”

  Winn’s voice sounded as hard and edgy as the gravel Zell had gotten so intimate with the night before. “I’m not going to let that girl destroy our lives again.”

  Owen said, “Neither am I,” in the same tone.

  Zell stepped outside into the muggy air. As usual, everything was wet from the afternoon storm. The mosquitoes were out full force, scenting his flesh immediately and swarming on him. He walked to his truck and got in. Before he could start it, Shar dashed out the door and ran to his truck. She was breathless when she jumped into the passenger seat.

  “I’m sorry, Zell, I didn’t mean to cause you trouble. It just came out ’cause I wanted to know so bad. I’ve been holding it in all day.” She sounded like a little girl pleading for forgiveness and explaining herself. She knew exactly what she’d been doing: causing trouble.

  “You could have asked me when we were alone. You know that kind of thing riles Dad.”

  Shar’s contriteness had passed. She scooted closer like she was sharing gossip about someone else. “I couldn’t believe it when I pulled up and there she was coming out like an easy girl on a Sunday morning. If it makes it better, she did say you hadn’t slept together. Said she slept in the living room on the couch.”

  “In the guest bedroom,” he said, knowing she was trying to trip him up. “The only company she had was the pig. Now scoot. I’ve had enough of my family.”

  She gave him a little po
ut, kissed his cheek, and got out. “Be good, brother of mine. You’ll give Daddy another stroke if you take up with that girl.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He started the truck, but his escape was thwarted again when Winn waved him down from the entrance. As much as Zell wanted to ignore the man, he couldn’t. For a moment, Zell even felt sorry for him as he made his way down the walkway with his cane. Sometimes he thought Winn was milking his health, but recently he seemed stronger. He walked to Zell’s window.

  “Whatever has passed between us, find some other way to punish me. I’m asking you, not as my son but as a Macgregor, encourage that girl to leave town. Please, Zell.”

  Those last words, laced with desperation, got his attention. “What are you afraid of her finding?”

  Shame colored Winn’s face. “I want her out of here so she doesn’t cause trouble again. Promise me you’ll stop fighting her fights and helping her fix up her place.”

  “Not until you tell me why you want her out of town so bad.”

  Winn seemed to consider telling him, but let out a sigh instead. “Do it, Zell. For us.”

  Zell backed away. Taking up with Kim wouldn’t amount to all of his old man’s sins. Or the sins he’d made his children commit, the secrets they’d had to keep. What secret was Winn keeping from them now?

  Winn’s desperate plea bothered him more than if he had gone off on him. What bothered him most was the realization that he didn’t know his father at all.

  Kim took a few of the magazine pages she’d earmarked to the hardware store the next morning. When she returned an hour later, she discovered a blue Ford truck at the house. Owen was kneeling at the steps leading to the porch. She hadn’t really gotten a bead on him yet, other than Charlotte seemed to run the show as far as their marriage went, and he wasn’t happy about it.

  He came to his feet when she approached him, hammer at his side.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, very aware of that blunt instrument in his hand.

  “Replacing the steps. I told Elva I’d take care of it for her a couple of months ago.” He nodded toward the new steps. “Had these built before she passed on, but haven’t had a chance to bring them over.”

  Kim walked closer and tried not to sound skeptical. “You did this out of the kindness of your heart?”

  He lifted a shoulder in answer. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face and neck and dampened the collar of his T-shirt. “Well, she paid me for it. I helped her out from time to time. I’ll be done in a minute.”

  Helped her out, or had Elva coerced him into doing household things in addition to the payoff? All right, she was getting paranoid. Owen was a big guy, but he didn’t look like he had the guts to tell someone off, much less off someone. So why had he come to finish the job? Most likely he’d been snooping around.

  He put the final nails into the wood and took a step back to look at it. “I think that’ll do. You’ll have to put a coat of paint on them, of course.”

  “Was Elva close to the Macgregors?”

  “We liked her well enough.” He ran the sleeve across his sweaty forehead. She noticed he kept his gaze on the steps and didn’t look her way much. “Zell was probably closer to her than anyone.”

  She felt a pinch of guilt that her enemies had been closer to her grandmother than she had been. Had one of them murdered her? “Did you help her out a lot?”

  He slapped the head of the hammer against his palm. Those moonflower-blue eyes narrowed. “What are you doing, Kim? Questioning me?”

  “Just making conversation.”

  He sneered at her. “Just making trouble. I know what you’re doing and I’m not going to let you hurt my family again.”

  She eyed that hammer. “What am I doing?”

  “Digging up the past. The Macgregors are good people. The thing with Winn and your dad, well, that was a shame. But it was an accident.” He grabbed up his tool belt and started walking toward his truck. “Let it go, or you’re going to find yourself in a world of trouble.”

  “Why—” Kim held back her words. Owen had closed the door and started the engine. Was the wimpy Owen threatening her? Or had someone else sent him? This was probably why he’d come over, so he could warn her off. She turned back to the house and whispered a prayer. “Please don’t let the Macgregors be involved in this.” She did not want to make war with them again.

  Smitty had been avoiding Kim; she was sure of it. As soon as the lunch group had dispersed, he’d headed right out. She’d asked him to come in early that evening. When he arrived, Kim met him outside and asked him to come around back to look at something.

  Reluctance etched his face as deeply as his wrinkles. “What about the customers?”

  Two vehicles were parked in the lot. “Amy can handle them. I need to talk to you.” When they reached the area behind the building, she said, “She was blackmailing Rhonda Jones’s murderer and giving Ernie half of the monthly payment.”

  “Amy was blackmailing someone?”

  “Not Amy. Elva.”

  Disbelief colored his expression. “Blackmail? Why would she blackmail someone?”

  “She must have had some evidence tying someone in town to the murder. In her own warped way, she was doing good—helping out Ernie. And taking her cut, too, probably figured it was only right considering she was risking her life to do this. Whoever killed her probably took the evidence. That’s why the filing cabinet was so messy.” She slapped her hand to her chest. “What was she thinking? Why didn’t she turn it over to the police? Unless she knew Kinsey was either in on it or might cover it up. Did you know?”

  Smitty looked pained. “I knew she was up to something no good, but you know how she was; she’d get her mind wrapped around an idea and wouldn’t let it go and wouldn’t tell me nothing either. Not that I pressed her. I knew I couldn’t talk her out of whatever it was she was up to, so I figured it was better not to know. She wouldn’t have wanted to drag me into her trouble, and she’d feel the same way about you. If she was fool enough to blackmail someone, and I’m not saying I believe she was, and you got no evidence, why keep going after it?”

  “I can’t walk away from this, Smitty. Somebody killed her, the same person who killed Rhonda. How am I supposed to walk away from that?”

  He was shaking his head, giving her a look that said, it was nice knowing you. “The bottom line is, someone was willing to kill her to keep their secret. What makes you think they won’t kill you too if you get too close?”

  She got a chill from his words. It seemed everyone was warning her to back off. Who had the most to lose if she didn’t? “Smitty, has Owen ever done handiwork for Elva?”

  “Not that I know of, but as I said, I didn’t know all of Elva’s business. Why?”

  “He was out at the house earlier, said he helped her once in a while. He was fixing the front steps.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, boy, you’re really opening a big can of worms again, aren’t you? A big, Macgregor can of worms.”

  “I’ve got to look at everyone.”

  “I suppose you do.” Smitty started to walk to the rear door, but paused. “Tullie wanted me to give you a message. I wasn’t sure about giving it to you, but now….”

  “What was it?”

  “She said to be careful who you trust. And she looked really worried.”

  CHAPTER 17

  The crowd wasn’t bad for a Thursday night. Laughter filled in the lulls between the songs on the jukebox. Charlotte, Owen, and JoGene came in together and sat at the bar. Charlotte had purple polish today with a starburst design airbrushed on the surface.

  “Groovy nails,” Kim said, remembering how Charlotte had complained that no one commented on her nails

  Charlotte spread her fingers to show them off better. “Why, thank you for noticing.” She shot the two men a See look. “I heard you did fancy drinks. I want something different, something from the city.”

  “How about a rum runner?”

&n
bsp; “Sounds good. I’ll try it.”

  Kim made the multi-liquored drink with a flourish, enjoying the attention of most of the patrons. Charlotte looked impressed as she watched Kim pass the bottle of banana liqueur from one hand to the other behind her, flip it, and catch it at a perfect angle to pour a splash into the glass. She even clapped when Kim finally set the frozen drink in front of her.

  Kim got the guys their beers and took an order from Amy before returning. “Owen, I never got a chance to thank you for fixing the front steps.” She watched the others’ reactions.

  That got Charlotte’s attention. “What steps?”

  Owen waved it off. “Elva paid me to fix her front steps. I went out today and finished it.”

  Charlotte clearly didn’t like not knowing what her husband was up to. She forced a smile. “That was nice of you, honey.”

  Had he been lying about helping Elva out from time to time? Had he used the steps as an excuse to threaten her, as she suspected?

  It was Charlotte’s turn to surprise Kim next. “So, how’s Ernest Jones these days? Heard you went out that way, figured it must have been him you were seeing.”

  Kim said, “How’d you know I was out there?”

  “JoGene told me, isn’t that right?”

  He looked uncomfortable at being pointed out. “Someone at the camp saw you driving by and mentioned it to my dad. Not many people go out that way who don’t live there. It caught their attention.”

  Great, everyone knew she’d been out to see Ernest. “How are things at the hunting camp?” she asked JoGene, trying to divert the conversation away from her visit.

  “We’ve added another six cabins since you were out there last. We got a big corporate party coming in this weekend looking to hunt wild boars.”

  Charlotte lit up a cigarette, and Owen instinctively shifted away from her. Kim soon saw why when Charlotte’s hand flew out as she spoke. “What’s Ernie doing these days? For a living, I mean.”