The Mulberry Tree - Page 67

“I got weeds in my garden that are taller than the plants.”

Bailey tightened her lips. “Vegetables, but no hemp plants. I draw the line at illegal substances.”

Violet laughed as she heaved her bulk out of the chair. “Come on. You can make us some lemonade so we’ll be cool while we talk about whatever it is that you’re tryin’ to sell. And you can tell me how Matt is.”

Bailey’s head came up. “You and Matt didn’t— You haven’t—”

“Not him or his daddy,” Violet said as she walked past Bailey and into the house. “But I sure did want to!”

Seventeen

As Bailey drove up the gravel road toward Rodney’s house, she was still feeling guilty about Matt. She wasn’t a good liar, and she wasn’t a good actress. Last night she’d been jittery and nervous about what she was planning to do today, and she knew that she was keeping many secrets from Matt. It wasn’t that she had to tell him what she was doing, but he didn’t deserve all the lies and evasions she was giving him.

At dinner last night she’d tried to be carefree and happy, and to make light conversation. But the truth was, she was pumping Matt hard for information. She wanted him to tell her all he knew about Rodney Yates, and about the man’s situation now.

“Why ever didn’t you tell me that one of the Golden Six was still alive?” she asked as she dumped mashed potatoes on Matt’s plate. “It was such a shock when Janice mentioned her father. I was so embarrassed that I didn’t know he was still alive.”

“That’s enough,” Matt said softly.

“Oh, sorry,” she said when she glanced down at the eight-inch-high pile of potatoes on his plate. She turned back to the stove.

“Janice didn’t mention her father to you or anyone else,” Matt said with conviction.

Bailey had to close her eyes for a moment to recover. Caught in a lie! She dumped green beans and almonds into a bowl. Brazen it out, she thought. “Okay, so I stopped by Violet’s today, and she told me that Rodney was alive.”

“From what I was told, you drove through Calburn doing sixty, and you spent all afternoon at Violet’s.”

Bailey knew that if she answered that, it would be angrily, and if she got angry, she’d reveal more than she wanted to. She sat down at the table, picked up her fork and looked at him. “I now live in this town, so I’d like to know its history. I offended Janice once, and I don’t want to do it again. Could you please tell me about her father?”

Matt kept his head down for a few moments before he looked at her again. “You want to tell me the truth about why you’re asking so many questions of everyone in town?”

Bailey made no reply to that; there was nothing she could say.

“All right,” Matt said when he saw that she wasn’t going to answer. “You win. Janice despises her father, has nothing to do with him. He’s an old lech, an alcoholic. He’s had money, but he drank it all. Janice’s mother and Patsy’s were identical twins, daughters of the town’s doctor. Patsy’s mother married a dentist, and Patsy has had a nice house and nice clothes all her life. But Janice’s mother fell for the beautiful Rodney and married him. Rodney spent all the money her father left her, ran around on her, and made her short life miserable.”

Bailey could hear the anger in his voice. “And Scott?” she asked softly.

Matt leaned back in his chair and pushed his half-full plate away. “Sure you want to hear all the dirty little secrets about Calburn?”

Bailey did and she didn’t, but she couldn’t stop herself from nodding yes.

“Janice was determined not to do what her mother did, so the minute she graduated from high school, she moved to Chicago and got a job in an exclusive men’s clothing store, a place where she could meet rich men. During the two years she was there, she was engaged twice but she broke it off both times. They weren’t what Janice was looking for. But then one day Scott Nesbitt walked into the store. He was the youngest son of the richest man in a little town about twenty miles from here. He was young, handsome, charming, and, most important, malleable. Scott never had a chance. Janice went after him, married him within six months, then persuaded him that he never should have left Virginia. The truth was that Janice wanted to return to Calburn and throw her newfound wealth in people’s faces.”

Matt took a breath and looked around the room for a while. “Janice made Scott what he is today. She worked twenty hours a day, and she took a lazy, spoiled young man and made him into . . . well, made him into the person you know.” Matt glared across the table at her. “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

She was taken aback by his hostility. “Yes. I mean, no. I just thought that—”

Matt didn’t let her finish her sentence as he got up and left the table. “I’ve got some work to do,” he muttered as he climbed the attic stairs, but he paused halfway up. “Oh, by the way, my brother’s birthday was six months ago.”

Bailey put her head in her hands. She wasn’t doing very well at “no involvement.”

Now, in the car, she glanced down at the map that Violet had drawn for her and saw that, if she was following it correctly, she should reach Rodney’s house soon. But there were no street signs on the dirt roads that led up into the mountains, and twice she’d made wrong turns and had to turn back. She’d had to drive her four-wheel-drive across a shallow stream and around a fallen log. Her driving lessons hadn’t prepared her for this kind of terrain.

By the time she reached the cabin she felt as though she’d been on a safari. She parked under a tree and looked up the hill at it. “Don’t let it shock you,” Violet had said. “It’s dirt poor, and Rodney makes it that way.”

Bailey drank from her bottle of water as she stared at the cabin. It was difficult to believe t

hat the same planet could hold this place and those houses of Jimmie’s. The whole structure was about to fall down, with one side of the porch already collapsed. One corner of the roof had a hole in it.

Tags: Jude Deveraux Mystery
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