A Valentine Wish (Gates-Cameron 1)

Mark laughed.

Cooley chuckled. “Yeah. Sorry. Automatic response whenever I meet a new prospect. Got five kids to support and the youngest wants to be an Olympic gymnast. You know how much those lessons cost? Not to mention leotards and tights and competition fees and all that. You...”

Mark cleared his throat. “Er, R.J.,” he broke in gently. “Why don’t you tell Dean about your connection to the local ghosts?”

Apparently unperturbed by the interruption, R.J. promptly changed the subject. “My maternal grandfather, Jeffrey Parker, was engaged to Mary Anna Cameron when she died.”

Dean felt something heavy settle in the pit of his stomach. The coffee, most likely. “Engaged?” he repeated.

R.J. nodded. “They announced it the night of the shoot-out, at the twins’ twenty-fifth birthday party. Granddad married Gramma Wanda a couple years later and their marriage lasted nearly fifty years, but to tell ya the truth, I don’t think he ever really got over his Mary Anna. He didn’t talk about her much, but when he did, there was something in his eyes... He called her Anna,” R.J added inconsequentially.

The heaviness in Dean’s stomach intensified. “Did your grandfather ever tell you about that night?” he asked, trying to sound only casually interested.

“Just once. He and I went fishing up on Lake Ouachita one afternoon, a couple of months before he died. I was about fifteen, and had just been dumped by the head cheerleader. Like to broke my heart. Granddad tried to cheer me up, told me other girls would come along, like Gramma did for him . But he said you never forget that first love.”

R.J. lowered his voice. “I got the impression that Granddad and his Anna had had a couple of rowdy nights together...anticipatin’ the wedding night, you know. Granddad always seemed fond enough of my grandmother, but I don’t think she ever quite measured up in that department. Tell ya the truth, I think Mary Anna was the only really excitin’ thing that ever happened in poor old Granddad’s long, dull life.”

Dean found himself scowling. He forced himself to smile, instead. “It must have been difficult for your grandmother to compete with the memory of a ghost.”

“No kidding. Gramma never allowed Mary Anna Cameron’s name to be spoken in her presence. They were girlhood chums, I think. Only thing I ever heard her say about it was that she had been greatly deceived about her friend’s character.”

“So your grandmother believed all the stories about the Cameron twins being bootleggers and murderers.”

“Well, sure, most everyone believed it. Stan Tagert caught ‘em red-handed, ya know, and he was a respected lawman ‘round here’til he died in a hunting accident about a year after the twins died. Dropped his gun and it discharged, shooting him right in the face. Gaylon and Charles Peavy were hunting with him. They didn’t see the accident, but they found the body. Granddad said ol’ Gaylon never got over all the trag edies.”

“Didn’t you once tell me that your grandfather never really believed Mary Anna was involved in anything illegal?” Mark prodded R.j.

“He believed his Mary Anna was an innocent bystander. That she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘Course, he said she’d have done about anything for her brother. She idolized him. Granddad admitted that he was always a little wary of Ian Cameron. Said he had a dangerous look in his eyes.”

“So he believed Ian Cameron was a criminal,” Dean said thoughtfully.

R.J. shrugged. “Said it wouldn’t have surprised him. But not his Anna. He thought she was near-perfect.”

Dean was getting tired of hearing R.J. refer to Anna as the property of someone else. “His Anna.” Dean had gotten the impression that Mary Anna Cameron had never belonged to anyone but herself.

“I don’t suppose your grandmother is still living,” he said, knowing it was probably a futile suggestion.

R.j. shook his head. “Died a few years back, not long after Granddad passed on.”

“Is there anyone still living who actually knew the Cameron twins?”

“Not that I know of.” R.J. was distracted when someone across the room motioned for him. He made an excuse and left with a final reminder to Dean to bring his insurance policies by for comparison shopping.

Bobbie Vandover, the mayor cheery wife, approached then, Sharyn Burton in tow. “What are you two boys doing huddled up over here looking so serious when there’s a party going o

n?” she demanded of Dean and Mark. “You both know Sharyn, don’t you?”

“Of course,” Dean said, nodding politely at the real-estate agent. “How are you, Sharyn?”

Smiling broadly, Sharyn inched close to Dean’s side and began to answer his courteous question in more detail than he would have liked. With a grin, Mark left Dean to his fate, making a show of escorting the mayor’s wife to the punch bowl for a refill.

Dean tried to put the Cameron twins—one, in particular—out of his mind for the rest of the afternoon, since there was a good chance he’d gotten all the information he was going to get for now.

More than he’d wanted to know, if he were honest with himself.

DEAN TOOK his aunt out for dinner and a movie after the library dedication, still determined to repay her for her hard work. She seemed to enjoy the evening immensely.

By the time Dean kissed her good-night and closed himself into his own bedroom, it was after midnight. He half expected company that evening; he wasn’t particularly surprised when Anna arrived.