In High Cotton: Neely Kate Mystery #2 Read online

  She looked even more concerned. “You’re sure everything is okay?”

  “Of course,” I lied. “I’ll meet you at home later.”

  I got back in my car and waved as I turned over the engine. Somehow I managed to fake a smile, but the look on Rose’s face told me she wasn’t buying it. As soon as I pulled out, I quickly called Jed.

  “What did you find out?”

  “The number belongs to a private detective agency in Dallas.”

  I forced myself to take a deep breath. “They got my name from Kate.”

  “Not necessarily,” he said calmly. “I think he’s just fishin’.”

  “Should I call him back?”

  “No. I want to go to Little Rock. Can you get away this afternoon?”

  I glanced at the clock on my dashboard, which surprisingly still worked. It was barely past twelve thirty. I had a two o’clock appointment, but the homeowner had been flexible. I was sure I could reschedule. With a four-hour round trip, it was possible. “I have to be back in Henryetta by seven for my class.”

  “We can be back by then. Where do you want me to pick you up?”

  “The farmhouse.”

  “See you there.”

  I hung up and then decided to call Rose. Maybe I could ease my way into the truth, acclimating myself to it like it was ice-cold water, rather than jumping in.

  “Miss me already?” she teased.

  “Yeah,” I said with a nervous laugh. “I just wanted you to know that Jed and I are makin’ a quick run to Little Rock.”

  “Right now?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be back in time for the etiquette class,” I said. “We won’t be up there more than an hour.”

  “You’re gonna see Kate, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah,” I said softly.

  “Does Joe know?”

  “No.”

  “Maybe you should tell him.”

  I dreaded that more than I dreaded telling Rose, but the way things seemed to be spiraling out of control, I suspected I would have to come clean sooner rather than later. I needed to tell him before I ended up arrested or dead. What would my sheriff deputy brother think about what I’d done? “I will, just not yet.”

  “I’m gonna trust you on this, Neely Kate.”

  “Thanks. I mean it, Rose. I’m close to tellin’ both y’all. Just not yet.”

  “I hope you get the answers you need,” Rose said. “Be safe.”

  Jed pulled into the hospital parking lot shortly before three. As he shifted the car into park, my stomach tightened into a painful ball. Jed had seemed distracted the whole drive and took a couple of phone calls that he tried hard to hide from me by using one-word answers—yes, no, uh-huh. Part of me wanted to tell him if he was planning to break up with me, to do it now instead of waiting for tomorrow night, but I was too chicken to do it. I’d fallen in love with Jed Carlisle and I didn’t want to face the idea of cutting him out of my life. I needed time to come to terms with the possibility.

  “I know these appointments keep getting harder and harder,” Jed said, leaving the car running.

  Appointments. That was a funny way of putting it, but he was right about them getting harder. Kate had lured me into our visits by saying she knew the secrets of my past and that she had information about my mother, who’d abandoned me at my granny’s house when I was twelve. At each appointment, she dangled vague information, but she spent most of the time messing with my head or trying to seduce Jed.

  Jed took my hand. “You can do this.”

  I gave a quick nod and snatched my hand from his warm grasp. Not looking at him, I opened the car door. We were wasting time.

  I was already halfway across the parking lot when he caught up to me, but he didn’t say a word as he opened the door to the hospital. Just watched me walk inside, then followed me to the elevator.

  The silence sat between us as we rode up to the psych inpatient floor, and it followed us to the back entrance to the ward. The reason we were able to visit like this, off the books, was because Skeeter Malcolm had been keeping an eye on Kate too. I wasn’t the only one who thought she might know something. My first visit here had been at Skeeter’s bidding. Kate had started sending me letters alluding to my secrets and, swallowing my pride, I’d asked him what he knew about her. He’d insisted I visit her and bring Jed with me. Something to do with his own interests. And so our “appointments” had begun. Skeeter had a nurse on his payroll who let us in the backdoor and kept us off the log books. I’d been grateful for that, thinking I could keep the visits from Joe, only he’d found out anyway a couple of weeks ago. I suspected Kate had told him just to mess with me.

  Jed sent a text, and less than thirty seconds later, the nurse, Candice, let us in.

  “You were just here on Sunday,” she said. “This is unusual.”

  Jed usually made small talk with her, presumably to keep on her good side, but today he remained silent. She quickly picked up that he wasn’t going to answer.

  “It was short notice today, so I can’t have you meet with her in the usual office. We’ll have to use an empty patient room.”

  “That’s fine,” Jed said, his voice tight. “Thank you.”

  Jed was nervous. My pulse picked up and I tried to control my breathing. I needed to get myself together before I saw Kate. She could smell fear from a mile away.

  Candice led us down a long hall to a room at the end. Inserting a key, she said, “The a/c in this room isn’t working right. Maintenance is scheduled to come work on it tomorrow, so you’ll be undisturbed. Text me when you’re done.”

  Then she pushed open the door and let us in.

  The room had a single cot for a bed with a desk and a chair overlooking the street. Sure enough, I broke into a sweat seconds after walking into the room. Of course, my nerves might have had something to do with it. It seemed silly given everything else we were dealing with, but I couldn’t figure out where to sit. Jed always started off by standing, but Kate often forced him to sit. If I took the chair, she might make him sit on the bed and insist on sitting beside him. I wasn’t sure I could deal with that.

  “Sit in the chair,” I said, plopping down on the mattress.

  He started to protest, but he must have put things together because he pulled out the desk chair and sat, turning to face me.

  “You can do this, NK,” he said in a fierce voice. “You’re one badass woman. Kate is nothing.”

  My gaze found his. “She could hold my entire future in her hands, Jed.”

  “Then we’re getting what we need from her this time.” The stone-cold look in his eyes told me he didn’t intend to play around.

  I started to ask him what he planned to do, but the door opened before I could get the words out. My sister’s dark hair had grown out past her shoulders, and the stripes in her hair were a vibrant blue. Did they have hair dressers here, or was she bribing someone else for favors? She wore a simple dress today, which was a departure from her usual yoga pants and T-shirt.

  “Change of scenery?” She hung on to the door knob and leaned against the doorframe. “I like it. More intimate.”

  “Don’t read anything into it, Kate,” I said in a deadpan voice. “It’s the only available space on short notice.”

  She walked the rest of the way in and shut the door, her eyes on Jed. “You’re lookin’ mighty fine, handsome.”

  He didn’t respond, but I almost wished he had because she would now go to great lengths to get him to talk to her.

  “I’m done playin’ games, Kate,” I said in a firm tone. “I’ve done everything you asked for. We’ve painted each other’s nails. I’ve brought you gossip magazines. I even brought you a burner phone. All of that, and you’ve told me next to nothing about my mother or what you claim to know about what I supposedly did in Ardmore. Unless you can give me some compelling reason to come back, this is my last visit.”

  She gave me an exaggerated pout, then sat down next to me, patting my leg. “Now, Neely
Kate,” she said in a placating tone. “No need to get into a snit.”

  “A snit?” I asked, telling myself I could not lose my cool. “Call it whatever you like, Kate, but I’m done playing games and I want some straight answers. I need to know everything my mother said when you met with her.”

  A broad grin spread across her face. “That’ll cost you, sister mine.”

  “I’ve paid my dues, Kate. Several times over. I’m done. Either answer my questions or I’m leaving, and this time I won’t be coming back.”

  Her eyes twinkled. “I’ll tell the police what I know. I’ll tell Joe.” Her eyebrows waggled.

  “Go ahead.”

  She looked taken back. “You don’t mean that.”

  I stood. “I do. If you knew anything important, you’d have told me more than the few tidbits you’ve parceled out over the past few weeks. You have ten seconds to tell me something substantial or I’m gone.”

  Her grin fell away, and she stared up at me. “Why, you’re finally acting like a Simmons instead of a Rivers. Set your ass down and I’ll answer five questions.”

  “No. All of my questions.”

  She stuck out her bottom lip in a fake pout. “I love our weekly chats. I can’t tell you everything.”

  I put a hand on my hip. “Have you ever considered that I might actually want to come visit if you were nice?”

  She laughed. “Not a chance. I killed Hilary, and consequently Joe’s child, although between you, me, and handsome over there”—she gestured to Jed—“he’s better off without her. Too bad I can’t save him from his own taste in women. Rumor has it he’s datin’ someone nearly as bad.”

  I found it difficult to keep from agreeing with her, and once again, I wondered who was feeding her information.

  “And then I tried to kill your bestie.” She waved her hand dismissively. “And a whole lot of other dastardly things the authorities know about and quite a few they don’t.” She winked at Jed. “Including the Murray portfolio and a few other things my father had his hands in.” She gave me a taunting look. “So no, I don’t think you’ll come visit me.”

  “You seem to think I’ve done something bad. Wouldn’t that make us alike?”

  She held up a finger and waved it at me. “I’m on to you, girl. Tryin’ to trick me into tellin’ you what I know.”

  “Just spill it, Kate,” I said with a sigh. “For once in this screwed-up relationship, tell me the unvarnished truth.”

  The expression on her face changed to shock. “You think we have a relationship?”

  I hadn’t meant it like that, and I wasn’t sure if she was pissed or happy. “We’re sisters, like it or not. Sure, you’re screwed up, but so am I, and I’ve always wanted a sister. So yeah,” I said, “call me stupid, but there’s something deep down inside me that still hopes that we’ll actually have a relationship, but I swear on our father’s grave, if you don’t answer my questions now, I’ll walk away and never come back.”

  After five seconds of silence, I turned to walk toward the door.

  “I met her,” she said so quietly I almost missed it.

  My heart pounded in my chest. My mother was alive. I slowly turned back to face her, maintaining my poker face. “Where did you see her?”

  “Like I told you, West Virginia.” Some of her sass returned. “She ain’t lookin’ so good, Sis. Good thing you take after the Simmonses.”

  She’d told me something similar before. “Did she know why you were lookin’ for her?”

  Her eyes lit up with mischief. “You mean did she ask about you?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Yeah, she knew why I was there. I told her who I was and that freaked her out. She was terrified of our daddy.” She chuckled. “She thought I was there to stir up trouble for her, but I assured her I was there to stir up trouble for you.” Her grin spread.

  “What did she say to that?” I asked, unable to stop myself.

  Kate cocked her head, turning serious. “Why do you want that piece of white trash to love you so badly?”

  I opened my mouth, then closed it. I wasn’t about to give my sister any more ammunition to use against me. “Did she want to know anything about me?”

  “She wanted to know if you knew the truth. I got the distinct impression she was under the delusion that if you knew and survived, you’d fall into our family’s financial fold. I assured her you were none the wiser, and she was quite disappointed. She didn’t ask anything more about you. You were barely a passing thought…quickly forgotten.”

  That struck deep, and while she could have been lying, I knew better.

  Jed gave me a look that suggested this was not the purpose for our visit. He was right.

  “How did you find out about Beasley?” I asked in a firm tone. Beasley had been my boyfriend’s brother, but boyfriend was too generous of a word for Branson. Sure, he’d started out that way, but he’d soon turned into my captor, my pimp. He’d locked me in my room for days on end, and threatened to hurt my surrogate grandmother, Miss Zelda, if I didn’t do exactly what—and who—he said.

  It was Branson’s doing that I’d become a killer.

  He’d found a loaded john from Dallas who was willing to pay a lot of money to use me for whatever he wanted. No limits. When I refused to sign a waiver, Branson said I’d do it anyway. He dragged me to an abandoned house and left me with the guy and a video camera. After the man’s first round of abuse and rape, I roused enough to grab his neck tie and strangle him. Beasley, who’d known this was happening, had felt guilty enough to come help me—only to find me standing over the dead guy’s body. I was confused and upset. Beasley was drunk and convinced me to bury the body. Afterward, he took the blame for me after I ran into a mailbox and he was arrested for a DUI. He went to prison and Branson took off.

  Kate gave me a knowing grin and shook her head. “Only one trip down memory lane today.” Then, before I realized what she was doing, she snatched my purse and began to dig through it. “What did you bring me today?”

  “Nothing. Did you go to Ardmore?”

  “There’s not much in that town,” she said, pulling out a package of breath mints, then opening it. She popped one into her mouth. “I can see why you got out of there as quickly as you did…but what happened at the end probably had something to do with it.”

  More general clues that meant absolutely nothing. Which left me with the question I’d been asking myself for weeks. How much did Kate actually know?

  She was the one who’d told me about Beasley’s release, so she knew he’d gone to jail. I suspected she knew I’d danced on the pole, but she’d never acknowledged it. She might know I’d had an abortion a month or so before I left Ardmore. She might also have found out that Branson had videos of my encounters with all the men he’d forced on me, but she didn’t have the tape that the guy from Dallas had recorded. That was currently in a safe-deposit box in the Henryetta Bank.

  My life was on the line and she was playing with me like I was a Sims character. The anger that had built up inside me over the last months ignited.

  I was done. Maybe it was time to turn the tables.

  I gave her a haughty look, and said with a hint of defiance, “Our father had a thing for teenage girls.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “So?”

  “My mother. Hilary. They couldn’t have been the only ones he molested.” I kept my gazed pinned on her, hoping she got my message. I felt like a bitch sinking to her level, but if I had to jump back in the gutter, so be it. I probably belonged here anyway.

  Her nostrils flared, and she looked a little shaken. “So?”

  “That might explain a few things,” I said with a toss of my head. I couldn’t believe I’d sunk this low, a true sign of how desperate I was. But was I willing to sell my soul to get those answers? Was it too late to be asking that question?

  She stood and pointed her finger at me, her face turning red. “Stay out of my life, Neely Kate!”

  “Wha
t?” I asked, lifting my eyebrows and trying to sound innocent. “You mean like you’re staying out of mine?”

  Her chest heaved.

  “Daddy dearest had a thing for young girls.” I flicked the ends of her hair. “And he had a pretty little thing sleeping under the same roof. Why not?”

  Kate sucked in a breath, then slapped my cheek so hard my ears rung.

  Jed was instantly out of his seat, but I held up my hand.

  “You had a boyfriend in Little Rock,” I said, pretending she hadn’t just slapped me. “Nick, right?”

  The color left her face.

  “Too bad our father didn’t approve of him.”

  She recovered slightly and took a few steps away from me. “Don’t you talk about him!”

  “What?” I asked in a sweet tone as I pressed a hand to my chest. “You don’t like this trip down memory lane? I found out something about Nick that might interest you. Maybe if you’re a good girl, I’ll tell you next time.”

  She lost so much color I was worried she’d pass out.

  I was becoming the monster she was, but then maybe it had been there all along, lurking in my DNA. Maybe I was more of a Simmons than I thought.

  Had I really sunk this low?

  Don’t back down, Neely Kate. Your life depends on this. “Something about a jewelry store and a ring. I think it was with him when the police found his body outside that bar. A bullet in the head, right?”

  “There wasn’t a ring,” she said with tears streaming down her face. “His parents would have told me. All of his possessions were returned to them.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

  Kate fell onto the bed and broke into sobs.

  I shot a glance to Jed, who was standing next to the chair with a completely blank expression. He saw the horror in my eyes and gave me a nod.

  Go for the kill.

  “How does it feel?” I asked in a cold voice as I stood over her. “How does it feel to be manipulated and have your past used against you?”

  She looked up at me with a tear-streaked face. “Where is the ring? Did my father take it?”

  I was no better than she was.