”From now on, Erlene, I’d suggest you just stick to the truth. In this case, it looks like the truth may set Angel free.”
He was so cute and noble. Erlene just wanted to pinch his cheeks.
June 6
5:45 a.m.
I liked to watch the sun rise on Sunday mornings.
The Sunday after they arraigned Angel Christian, I got up around five thirty, made a pot of coffee, and wandered up the driveway in the semidarkness in my bare feet and boxers to get the newspaper. As I got to the end of the driveway, I noticed a silver pickup truck, one of those macho Dodges with tinted windows, backed into the dirt road that led into the woods across the street from the mailbox. It was the same place where I’d counted Erlene’s money. The lights weren’t on and I couldn’t hear the engine running.
The property where the truck was sitting belonged to me. It wasn’t hunting season, and no one had asked me about camping, so I decided to check it out.
I got the paper out of the box and started walking towards the truck. Just as I got to within ten feet, the engine roared to life and the lights came on. I thought it was probably one of Jack’s friends, so I started to wave and say hello, but the thing started coming right for me. I jumped out of the way before it hit me, but it couldn’t have missed by more than a couple of feet. When I landed, my foot caught on a small bush and I ended up flat on my back. The truck came off of the dirt road and squealed off into the dawn. I didn’t get a look at the driver over the headlights, and my clumsy leap kept me from seeing the license plate.
I cursed and picked myself up off the ground and walked back down the driveway towards the house, wondering who in the hell could have been in the truck. I thought about the look Tester’s son had given me and made a mental note to call Diane Frye, a retired state trooper who was now a private investigator. I’d already talked to her about working the Angel Christian case for me, but now I needed to know whether Tester’s son had a silver Dodge truck registered in his name, and if he did, I needed to know anything and everything she could find out about him.
That’s when I noticed Lilly’s car was gone. We had room for only two cars in the garage, so Lilly’s was always parked just outside, off to the side of the driveway. I knew it had been there the night before, because Lilly had driven it to Knoxville and hadn’t gotten home until midnight. I’d waited up for her.
I went back into the house and upstairs to Lilly’s room. She wasn’t the kind of kid to sneak out, but I was hoping against hope that she had. I found her sleeping the dead-zone sleep of a teenager.
As I walked towards Sarah’s room, I was hoping the car had been stolen by some stranger, knowing it hadn’t. Sarah’s bed was unmade and empty.
She’d been doing relatively well under the circumstances. Caroline and Lilly had taken her to town to buy her some clothes a couple of days after she showed up, and I’d brought her a catalogue from Northeast State Community College. She’d talked about enrolling in the fall and studying computer graphics. She spent a lot of time wandering through the woods down by the lake and watching television, and she’d been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings four days a week.
But then I made a mistake. I took her up to see Ma on Saturday. Ma didn’t recognize either one of us and was unusually belligerent. She told us to get out of her room and never come back. She made such a fuss that one of the nurses suggested we leave and come back another time. The visit obviously upset Sarah, who was hoping to make some kind of peace before Ma died. Sarah hadn’t given any indication on Saturday night that she was about to do something stupid, but she was more quiet than usual and went to bed early.
I walked back through the house to our bedroom and touched Caroline on the shoulder. She came out of sleep slowly.
”Mmm … what? Is something wrong?”
”Sarah’s gone,” I said. ”In Lilly’s car.”
She didn’t seem to understand for a moment. Then she sat straight up. ”Oh, no,” she said. ”I dreamed last night that she ran away.”
”We better take a look around and make sure nothing’s missing.”
”What do you think she took besides the car?”
”I don’t know, but you better make sure she didn’t steal anything out of your purse, and you should check your jewelry. Lilly’s, too. I’ll check the electronics and the guns.”
It was hard to think of my sister as a thief, but that’s exactly what she’d been in the past. She’d stolen money from me, and Ma had been a favorite target. I wandered around the house for the next fifteen minutes, checking to make sure she hadn’t hauled off a computer or a television or a stereo system. When I was finished, I walked back into the kitchen. Caroline was sitting at the table drinking a bottle of water. She looked at me, and I knew the news was going to be bad.
”My diamond necklace is gone.” I’d given Caroline the necklace for Christmas five years ago. She’d never owned anything expensive, and seeing the look on her face when she opened the box had given me great pleasure. She kept it in a jewelry box in a drawer in the bedroom. If it was gone, Sarah must have snuck in there and stolen it during the night.
”Goddammit,” I said. ”God damm it! How could she do this?”
”I guess we were expecting too much,” Caroline said.
”I thought she might be ready to change. I thought I might be able to help her.”
”When she’s ready to change, if she’s ever ready to change, she’ll do it on her own. We can’t force it on her. What do you think we should do?”
”She’s taken a ten-thousand-dollar car and a five-thousand-dollar necklace. What do you think I should do?”
Caroline sighed. ”I don’t know, babe. Maybe you should go out and try to find her.”
”I’ve been down that road before. You know she’s high by now. I guarantee she’s already sold the necklace for peanuts or traded it for coke. If I found her at some dealer’s house I’d end up defending myself in court after I killed the sonofabitch. I guess I’ll just call Johnson City’s finest and see if they can pick her up before she sells the car to some chop-shopper.”
The phone rang. Maybe it was Sarah, ready to turn back before she crossed the line.
”Mr. Dillard?” a male voice said when I answered.
”Yes.”
”Hi, this is Matthew Miller with the Johnson City Police Department. Haven’t seen you in a while. You okay these days?”
I knew Matthew Miller. I knew most of the cops in Johnson City.
”I’m fine, Officer Miller. Tell me you found my daughter’s car.”
”A 2001 Chrysler Sebring, maroon in color, Washington County plate number QRS-433?”
”It was stolen last night.”
”Well, sir, I’m afraid I have some more bad news.
We found it wrecked this morning off of Knob Creek Road. Went down an embankment and rolled across a creek. Ended up against a tree. I’d say it’s totaled, and-”
”What about the driver?”
”No driver,” Miller said. ”No trace. Any idea who was behind the wheel?”
”It was probably my sister. She disappeared sometime last night.”
”I thought she was locked up.” Sarah was infamous. Everybody knew her.
”She got out a couple of weeks ago. She was staying here.”
”I guess no good deed goes unpunished,” Miller said. ”We’re pretty much finished up here. I’m going to have the car towed down to Brown’s Mill Chevron. You can take it from there. The air bags inflated and there’s no blood, so if it was your sister, she probably made it out okay.”
”Thanks. Can you send somebody out here to take a report? She took some jewelry, too.”
”Probably be best if you just call 911,” he said.
”They’ll send the right people.”
I thanked Miller and hung up.
”She wrecked it,” I said to Caroline. ”She wrecked Lilly’s car. I’m calling the cops. I’m through with her.”
”I’ve heard that before.”