Her grandmother glanced up. “What do you mean, ‘what’?”
“You started to say something else. What was it?”
“Oh.” Annabelle stopped working again, too. “I started to say that if it had been your uncle Bobby who said that, I’d have put it down to the crush he had on her-”
“Uncle Bobby had a crush on my mom?”
“He did. I found a photo of her in one of his jeans pockets shortly before she-disappeared-but it took me a while to put the clues together. I suspect grief over her was one of the reasons he took off for the Army. I think he had a huge crush on her. I don’t believe your uncle Chase did, so I’m more inclined to take his opinion on this matter.”
“I would have thought it would be the other way around.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because Uncle Chase is so handsome and women fall for him.”
“Well, maybe that’s why, since he had lots of other girls.”
“Poor Uncle Bobby.”
“Well, he shouldn’t have had a crush on his own sister-in-law!” Annabelle eased off a little on her indignant tone. “Not that he could help it. Your mom was just as pretty as you’ve always heard she was.”
“What? You did it again, Grandma. You started to say something and you stopped yourself. What is it?”
“Nothing. Really, it was nothing.”
“Please, Grandma. Please tell me whatever you were going to say.”
Annabelle started to push her hair off her face, but remembered she wore now-filthy gloves. She brought her hands back down to her sides. “I was just going to say-” She hesitated, and Jody could see that her grandmother really didn’t want to say whatever it was she was forcing her to say. “I was going to say that your mother was as pretty as she was dishonest.”
“What?”
“I know that’s a mean way to put it, and I’m sorry, but the truth is, she stole from us, honey. Little bits of cash from one of the ranch accounts. We found the evidence after she was gone. I’m pretty sure your father knew about it and he was worried about it. And about her. And I was worried about them, without knowing that was the cause of it. I hate the fact that she gave him any trouble or grief at all. I don’t think I’ve ever quite forgiven her for that. So I don’t know if your uncle Chase is right or not. Maybe she would have changed, maybe she would have grown up to be a nicer person. I want to think it’s true. I want you to think it’s both possible and true.”
They finished their dirty job in an uncomfortable silence.
At one point Annabelle said in a voice full of regret and a bit of accusation, “You wanted me to tell you.”
“I’m glad you did. Well, maybe not glad. You know.”
“You want the truth.”
Jody nodded, and then pretended it was straw dust that was making her take off one glove and raise her fingers to her eyes to wipe the tears away. Her grandmother, sniffing as if she, too, was affected by the dust, didn’t try to comfort her, but left her alone to absorb this new information that her beautiful mother-her spoiled and snobbish mother-had also been a petty thief.
Nothing more was said between them about Collin Crosby.
Jody spent the rest of the afternoon working near her grandmother, but thinking about him. Where was he now? What was he doing? How was he doing? Was there anything she could do to help him-
She shook her head, feeling heartsick for him, and lonely.
It was impossible. The violently intertwined lives of their families stood between them. Her own family, alone, was an obstacle bigger than the Testament Rocks, as hard and unyielding as stone when it came to the subject of Billy Crosby.
I should stop thinking about Collin and stay away from him, because that is the best and only way I can help him.
FOUR HOURS LATER Jody found out she wasn’t the only one who would determine when and how she could help Collin Crosby. When the ranch phone rang after supper and she went to answer it, she saw his name in the caller ID window. Quickly, she picked up the portable receiver, said, “Hold on,” and hurried out to the porch and then kept walking into the front yard, away from ears that might overhear her.
“Collin,” she said. “How-”
He didn’t give her a chance to ask anything.
“Jody, I need to tell you something that nobody else wants to hear.” There was no “Hello,” no “How are you?” and no news. He just launched right in as if he didn’t have much time, or thought that maybe she wouldn’t. She clung to the receiver, but she was really clinging to the sound of his voice, not knowing if and when she’d hear it again. “If you can’t talk, just listen. I don’t think Billy killed Mom. It took me about half an hour to get over the first shock and then I realized-where’d he get the gun? There was no gun in the house. He sure didn’t come out of prison with one. There wasn’t one in my car, there isn’t one in my mom’s car, and I swear to you there wasn’t one in the house.”
“Could he have hidden one away, years ago?”
“He could have, yes, but it’s not a big place and I’ve been over every inch of it doing things for Mom. Painting, fixing the roof, replacing insulation, taking down old cabinets and putting up new ones. I’ve looked in every nook and cranny of the basement and the attic, I swear, and there was no gun. Jody, the only way Billy could have gotten hold of a gun is if somebody came into the backyard and dropped one on his chest while he was in the hammock.”
“And that didn’t happen.”
“Right. That’s fantasy.”
“I don’t know what to say. Why would anybody want to kill your-Oh.”
It hit her, of course, that somebody would do exactly that if they wanted to frame Billy.
“Oh, God, Collin. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s enough that you didn’t say bullshit.”
“I wouldn’t. I won’t. Where are you?”
“In the motel in Henderson, waiting to find out what happens next.”
“Do you know where your father is?”
“No. If I did, I’d tell them.”
“Even though you think he didn’t do it?”
“I’m afraid of what he will do if he’s as desperate and angry right now as I suspect he is. He doesn’t have any money. He doesn’t have anything except Mom’s car, and he can’t even refill the gas tank when it runs out, which it probably already has. He’s not a smart guy, Jody. He’s just a physically tough man who runs headlong into trouble, and he’ll probably keep doing that until it kills him. I don’t want it to kill anybody else first.”
“What can I do?”
He said nothing for a moment. “I probably shouldn’t even have called you. I must sound like I’m possessed and I suppose I have been, in a way, for years.”
“That’s okay,” she said gently. “We’re both a little crazy.”
“I called you because I just… needed to.” There was another pause, and then Collin said, “I meant what I said to you last night, Jody.” And then he said, “I’ve got another call coming in. I’d better take it in case it’s about Billy.” A quick goodbye and he was gone. Jody punched a button to see his phone number again and memorized it. Maybe she would never call him, but it made her feel better to think she could reach him.
Jody turned to find her grandfather striding toward her across the grass.
She held the phone against her chest, hoping he wouldn’t ask about the call.
But all he said was, “Would you run down to Red’s house for me, Jody? I’ve called a dozen times, I swear, and all I get is voice mail on his cell and his phone at the house. I’m getting pretty fed up that he hasn’t let us know where he is and what he’s up to. I called Chase and Bobby, and neither of them sent him out of town, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Sure, Grandpa.”
“I’ve got half a mind to go with you and give him what-for.”
“No, no, you stay here. I’ll do it.”
If anything could have struck Jody as funny right then, after her call from Collin, this situation would have. Yesterday she’d been trying to keep her family from walking in on her and Red; tonight she was trying to keep them from walking in on Red and some other woman. As she faced the embarrassing prospect of knocking on his door, she thought: Red? Whoever she is, buddy, she’d better be worth this.