In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2 Read online

  Rose?

  “Seven o’clock and I hear you. They won’t be late. Thank you, Mary Ellen.” She hung up the phone and tucked it back into her pocket. “I think our lesson in the greenhouse is done for today. You and Rose need to be there promptly at seven, so I suggest you plan on getting to Mary Ellen’s house five minutes early. She gives a series of four classes and you’ve missed two, but tonight’s lesson is about tea and dinner etiquette, so the timing is serendipitous. She doesn’t usually let people in midcourse, so I need you two to be on your best behavior.”

  “Why Rose?”

  “This is a best friend kind of thing. You two’ll have fun.”

  I was pretty sure that Rose already had plans for tonight, and it didn’t involve how to use spoons.

  Chapter 3

  “You and Rose can come over tomorrow afternoon to look at dresses while Mikey’s takin’ a nap,” Violet said. “Ashley will love every minute of it.”

  “Okay.” I gave her a gentle hug. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this, Vi.”

  “It’s truly my pleasure, Neely Kate. I’m lookin’ forward to hearin’ all about the dinner.” She stood up straight. “Now you get back to doin’ whatever you were doin’ before I called.”

  I headed out to the car and pulled out my phone to see if I’d missed any messages. There was one from Jed and a voice mail from the number I hadn’t recognized.

  Jed’s text said: Are you free Friday night?

  He didn’t usually ask so formally. The whole thing felt off and made me even more anxious. Was he breaking up with me? I switched to my voice mail, and the blood rushed from my head as I listened to the message.

  “Ms. Rivers, I need to discuss an important matter with you. It’s in your best interest to call me back.”

  I stared at my phone in horror, my imagination instantly racing back to Ardmore and the man I’d killed. When I’d gone back to Oklahoma in July, Miss Zelda—the woman who’d taken me in and cared for me years ago—had told me and Jed that a man in a suit had shown up looking for me.

  I quickly looked up the 469 area code and swallowed hard when I saw it was from Dallas.

  The high-profile business man I’d killed was from Dallas.

  I started to hyperventilate, and my fingers fumbled with my phone as I called Jed.

  “Hey,” he said in a sexy voice when he answered, not even trying to sound that way on purpose.

  “Jed.” My voice broke and I gave myself a mental shake. It wouldn’t help either of us if I lost control.

  He immediately went into no-nonsense mode. “Neely Kate, what’s wrong? Where are you?”

  “At the nursery,” I said, sounding far too breathy. “I got a call.”

  “A call from who?”

  “I think they found me.”

  He was quiet for half a second. “Are you okay to drive or do you want me to come get you?”

  Part of me wanted him to come get me. I was scared witless, but the more helpless I acted around him, the more I’d worry Jed was only hanging around because he thought I couldn’t handle this situation on my own.

  I took a deep breath. “I can drive. The number—”

  “Tell me in person. Where’s Rose?”

  “Uh… she spent the night with Skeeter and is going straight to her two morning appointments.”

  “Meet me at the landscaping office,” he said. Then he hung up. I didn’t have to ask him how he’d get in. We’d given him a key to the back door months ago.

  Maeve was staring out the nursery windows at me, probably wondering why I was still there. I forced a smile and waved my phone at her.

  She grinned back, but her watchful gaze told me that she didn’t quite believe my story. I wasn’t surprised. Maeve was sharp as a tack.

  I took slow deep breaths as I drove back downtown, telling myself I was overreacting and this was nothing to worry about. I’d almost made myself believe it by the time I unlocked the office door and found Jed sitting at the client table in the back. A folding screen concealed it from passersby on the sidewalk.

  “Sorry to have called you in a panic,” I said as I dumped my large purse on my desk. “I shouldn’t have bothered you.”

  He gave me an incredulous look. “Why would you say that?”

  “We don’t know that it means anything. It might be a stupid telemarketer.”

  “Let me be the judge of that. Play the message.”

  I sat at the table next to him and played the message again, trying not to let him see my terror. Listening to it again had erased my hope that it might be meaningless. There was a bite to the man’s tone, something that would keep a person from getting hired at a phone bank.

  “Maybe I should call him back,” I said when the message finished.

  “No,” Jed said in a dark tone. “Let me do some digging first.”

  “This has to do with him,” I said. “The man I…”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “It’s a Dallas area code, Jed.” My hand started shaking on the table, but before I could pull it back, he covered it with his own.

  “Neely Kate.”

  I looked into his face, trying to get a grip. Jed was such a handsome man, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed sooner than last winter. He was tall with closely cropped brown hair, but long enough for me to run my fingers through.

  His dark eyes studied me in concern. “I need you to trust me to handle this.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “It depends on what I find. What do you have planned for the rest of the day?”

  “I have a landscaping appointment I’m about to be late to, lunch with Rose, and then I have a thing tonight.”

  He caught my eye. “A thing?”

  “An etiquette class. It’s important.”

  I’d expected him to ask questions, but he glossed over it like I’d announced I needed to pick up bread from the store. Then again, he was used to me saying and doing all kinds of zany things. He’d told me he liked that I wasn’t like everyone else. But the little self-doubting voice inside of me that never knew when to shut up whispered, Maybe he’s over it. Maybe he wishes you’d just be normal.

  I forced a small grin. “We’ll talk about it later. Then I’ll tell you why I’m goin’.”

  “Okay, you go on about your day and let me know if you run into any trouble. If this call has to do with that…situation, I suspect they’re just taking tentative steps. We still have some time.”

  My stomach dropped to my toes. Jed thought it was them too. He was just trying to protect me.

  For the past few months, my half sister Kate had been dropping hints that she knew what I’d done in Ardmore. I would have blown it off, but some of the people involved had admitted to talking to her last fall. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that she knew I’d murdered a man. And it definitely wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that she’d hand me on a silver platter to the people looking for him. In fact, she’d threatened as much, but not in so many words.

  “Kate told them,” I said. “She does know.”

  His hand squeezed around mine. “We don’t know that, NK. I still think that Kate is mostly bluffing.”

  “Mostly means she’s got part of it right. Which part?”

  “I don’t know.”

  We sat in silence as I mulled over my last three trips to visit Kate in the psych ward. There was no doubt she was mentally ill, but she was also psychotic. She liked to toy with people, and I was her current prey.

  “Come here,” he said softly, tugging me from my chair and hauling me onto his lap. He cupped the side of my face and tilted it up to look into my eyes. “I’ll take care of it, NK. Try not to worry.”

  “But why should you have to?” And even more importantly, why was I letting him? I was usually a take-charge kind of gal. It stuck in my craw that I was letting him take point, but I was also rational enough to realize I wasn’t necessarily thinking clearly right now and Jed alw
ays seemed to think clearly. I couldn’t afford to screw up.

  He started to say something, then stopped himself. “Because I’m involved too.”

  Not because he cared about me. Because he was involved.

  He gave me a soft kiss and pulled my cheek to his chest, holding me close. I let myself savor his touch before I pulled away.

  “I have to go,” I said, sitting up. “I need to talk to you about this weekend. I might need your help with something.”

  “Anything.”

  “Good,” I said with a soft smile. “I’ll tell you all about it later. If I start explainin’ now, I’ll definitely be late for my meeting.”

  He searched my face with a worried look. “Are you okay, Neely Kate?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’d come with you or trail you, but I have something I need to do.”

  I started to ask him what it was, then stopped. What with all the mystery meetings he had, I was beginning to think he’d gone back to work for Skeeter Malcolm. What would I do if he had? Was it a deal-breaker?

  Secrets and more secrets. I was sick to death of them. Only one more reason to come clean with Rose. That stupid phone call might have been the tipping point.

  Rose and I had arranged to meet for lunch at a new sandwich shop on the west side of town.

  When I walked in, she was already sitting at a table, tapping on her phone. She glanced up at me and smiled. “Thanks for meeting with me. I know you sometimes eat lunch with Jed.”

  “I wanted to come. Besides, he’s busy today,” I said.

  She narrowed her eyes. “What’s goin’ on?”

  “Nothin’. Let’s go up to the counter and order.”

  She gave me an inquisitive look but followed. We ordered our sandwiches and drinks, then sat down.

  She grinned. “I hear we have plans tonight.”

  “Violet called you.”

  “She did,” she said with a laugh. “She also said we have a date with her closet tomorrow afternoon. Joe asked you to attend a fundraiser dinner?”

  “I was going to tell you at lunch,” I said defensively. “I wasn’t keepin’ it from you.”

  “I know you weren’t,” she said, her smile fading. “And I’m excited for you, but I’m also worried. The newspapers and press can be so cruel. I just want you to be careful.”

  “What’s there to be careful about?” I asked, conveniently overlooking the murder I’d committed and the fact that I’d been whored out for drugs and money two times in my life—first by my mother and then by my ex-boyfriend. All of those secrets were locked up as tight as a steel drum, but maybe I was foolish to think they’d stay that way. What would I do if the press found out about any of it? Or if Kate fed the information to them? Maybe this was a bad idea after all.

  An employee brought out our food, and as soon as he walked away, Rose picked up her sandwich. “We need to decide what to wear to this etiquette class. I’d call Violet and ask her, but she’d hold it over my head for years.” Her voice trailed off as she realized what she’d said.

  “I had a nice chat with her this morning,” I said, trying to make it easier for her. “She took me out to the greenhouse and started quizzing me about the plants.”

  Rose looked horrified. “She did what?”

  I waved my hand. “She actually taught me quite a few things.”

  “What on earth was she up to?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but it was fun. Plus, she set up the etiquette class, and she’s giving me a dress. It sure beats shopping with Dena.”

  “What? Why would you shop with Dena?”

  I told her about my coffee date with Joe and how Dena had crashed it.

  “The nerve of her,” Rose said, getting angry. “I never in a million years would have expected her to behave this way. I encouraged him to go to the carnival with her. Why is he puttin’ up with it?”

  “I don’t know, but I told him I’m not goin’ to the dinner if she goes. I’m not gonna spend all night competing with her.”

  “I don’t blame you one bit.” She paused, looking worried. “I guess I need to ask someone else to watch Muffy. I’d ask Maeve, but with Mason back in town…”

  Mason was Rose’s ex-boyfriend. He worked for the attorney general’s office and had been sent to Fenton County to wipe it clean of corruption. Meaning Rose’s new boyfriend was his main target. Worse, Mason had vowed to destroy anything, and anyone, that got in his way.

  Rose and Skeeter had bad timing, but at least they were discreet. If I hadn’t already known about them, and Rose and I hadn’t been living together, I never would have guessed. She was careful not to talk or text him during the day, and she usually waited until later at night to go to his place. He’d asked her to go to Shreveport this weekend, but she wasn’t telling people she was leaving town and neither was he. It wouldn’t be hard to hide—Rose was a homebody when she wasn’t working—but she was still paranoid Mason would put things together.

  “No, don’t ask Maeve,” I said. “I think Jed will watch her.”

  “Jed?”

  “He already knew we were supposed to take care of her and he likes her. I’m sure he’ll watch her.” So long as his secret activities weren’t keeping him busy…

  I hesitated, then shot off the question I’d been longing to ask her for days. “Do you know if Jed is working for Skeeter?”

  “What?”

  “It’s just that Jed’s been kind of secretive the last week or two, and he knows I don’t want him going back to work for Skeeter. And with you two goin’ out of town…”

  She shook her head. “No. He’s got Reacher takin’ over things while he’s gone. He’s worried he can’t handle it, but James has some backups built in if need be.”

  “Is Jed one of them?” I pressed.

  She gave me a sympathetic glance. “No. He would have told me.”

  My tension in my chest released and I felt like I could breathe again. “Violet seemed a lot stronger than she was two weeks ago.”

  Rose smiled. “Yes, she does, thank goodness. That’s the only reason I’m going out of town.”

  “Are things still weird between you and Mike?” Violet’s husband had turned against Rose, which had hurt her something fierce, especially since they’d been close for years.

  “Yeah. But he’s never around when I’m there, so I can’t help thinking he’s purposely avoiding me.”

  “What if he’s not upset with you?” I said. “What if he’s hidin’ something from you?”

  “What in the world would he be hidin’?” she asked in surprise.

  “I don’t know, but it just seems odd that he’d suddenly hate you. What if he has ties to the criminal world?”

  “Mike?” she asked in disbelief, then vigorously shook her head. “No way. He’s as straight as they come.”

  Only there was a thread of doubt in her voice, and I knew why. “Not so straight a few years ago when he bribed an inspector.”

  “What are you sayin’?”

  “What if it wasn’t a one-time thing? What if someone else besides J.R. Simmons knows?”

  She stared at me with wide eyes, but my phone rang before she could talk, and a surge of adrenaline blocked out her words. I checked the screen, not sure whether to be relieved when I saw Jed’s name.

  “I have to get this,” I murmured, trying to catch my breath.

  Rose had noticed my reaction and was watching me with concern. “Of course.”

  “Hey, Jed,” I said as I answered. “I’m at lunch with Rose.”

  “Call me when you get free.”

  I lowered my gaze to my plate, worried Rose had already picked up on my fear. “That bad, huh?”

  “It’s gonna be okay, NK.”

  I wished I could believe that.

  Chapter 4

  “Is everything all right?” Rose asked when I hung up.

  “Yeah.” My heart ached, but I wasn’t ready. Not yet. “I’ll tell you everything soon,” I sa
id. “I promise.”

  She held my gaze, her eyes full of love and understanding. “You tell me when you’re ready. I just hate not bein’ able to help. I know that was Jed. He’s still there for you?”

  “Yeah.” But for how much longer?

  “As long as you have someone there supportin’ you, I’m good, but just know I won’t judge you, Neely Kate. I’ll love you no matter what you’re hidin’.”

  “I know. And that’s why I’m closer to tellin’ you.”

  She nodded.

  We finished our lunch and then walked outside, stopping in front of her truck.

  “Is your car still doin’ okay?” she asked.

  “So far. Knock on wood,” I said, rapping on the siding of the building.

  Before I knew what she was doing, she pulled me into a tight hug. “I don’t know if I tell you enough how much I love and appreciate you.”

  I squeezed her back. “I could say the same.”

  She leaned back, staring into my eyes. “I miss you.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “You’re here, but there’s still something between us. Hurry up and fix what you need to fix so you can come back to me.”

  I bit my lower lip to keep myself from blurting out everything. This wasn’t the time. And it certainly wasn’t the place.

  “Do you want to ride to the etiquette class together?” I asked.

  Her face flushed. “Since we don’t know how long it’s gonna last, would you mind if we go in separate cars?” Then she quickly added, “Are you sure your car’s doin’ okay?”

  “My car is fine, and I don’t mind.”

  “But I’ll need to leave Muffy with you again,” she said, sounding guilty. “I left her with you last night.”

  “I was alone last night, so I loved havin’ her with me. And I’ll be alone tonight too, so no worries.”

  Her brow wrinkled. “Jed hasn’t been stayin’ with you?”

  “Like I said, he’s been keepin’ busy.”