“Really, the one to blame in all of this is the wine. It’s all cool and yummy and then it forces you to make poor life choices, like keeping important things from the guy you’re-”
“Stop talking,” Leo cuts me off in a low, gruff voice, his eyes still up to the heavens.
He sounds a little scary right now, but I’m too busy being grateful he cut me off when he did, because I almost said something completely insane like “Keeping important things from the guy you’re falling in love with.”
And I couldn’t even blame the wine for that almost-slip.
Leo continues staring up at the ceiling in Emma Jo’s spare bedroom until I can’t stand the silence anymore and I have to say something.
“Are you having an aneurism? Your eye is doing a funny, twitching thing.”
He gives me the silent treatment for a few more minutes before doing something completely unexpected.
He laughs.
And not just one of his usual, low chuckles. This one is a head tossed back, full belly roar of amusement and it goes on a lot longer than the uncomfortable ceiling stare.
“It’s not that funny,” I complain, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Oh, believe me, it’s not funny at all. Nothing about this situation is funny but if I don’t laugh, I might be tempted to throw you over my knee and spank the hell out of you for keeping this shit from me,” he replies, the laughter finally dying out. “I’m the sheriff, Payton. I was elected to keep this town safe, and the people here have been counting on me to solve Jed’s murder, and while I was busy working my ass off to do that and working my ass off to get close to you, you were busy covering up a murder and lying to me about it.”
I bite my bottom lip nervously and have to swallow a few times to stop myself from crying.
“Well, when you put it that way, it does sound kind of bad,” I reply sheepishly. “Can we go back to the spanking thing? I’d like to know more about that.”
My attempt at lightening the situation doesn’t work. Leo pushes himself up from the bed and starts pacing in the middle of the room, running his hands through his hair while he curses and grumbles under his breath.
“Okay, now it’s your turn to talk. I don’t like all of this pacing and mumbling. It’s making me nervous,” I tell him.
He finally stops his manic movement, sighs deeply and comes back over to sit down next to me on the bed.
“Payton, Jed wasn’t poisoned.”
I laugh and roll my eyes at him.
“Yeah, I know that. Did you already forget about the dead raccoons and the missing pie?” I reply.
“No, I mean, I’ve always known he wasn’t poisoned. Like, as soon as Billy Ray rolled his body over,” Leo informs me. “Maybe if you would have trusted me and told me about what was going on a lot sooner, you could have avoided all the freaking out, wine drinking and poor decisions.”
I throw my hands up in the air with a huff and glare at him.
“How in the hell was I supposed to know? You haven’t said anything to me or Emma Jo about the autopsy or what’s been going on with the investigation. We’ve had to hear everything through gossip and rumors around town. And then you got all weird, giving us those knowing looks and winks and bringing up pie all the time, so we thought you knew and it turned us a little crazier than normal. And I’ll have you know,” I say, poking my finger into his chest. “It made me feel like absolute shit to keep it from you, especially after we slept together, and I’ve been trying to tell you since then but we kept getting interrupted, and then the mystery of the pie was solved.”
“And then wine happened,” he adds.
“And then wine happened,” I agree with a nod. “Fucking wine.”
We’re both quiet for a few minutes until Leo finally reaches over and takes my hands in his again.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on, but I’m not sorry you felt like shit for keeping this from me. You should feel like shit for that,” he sighs. “And I only brought up pie around you all the time because I knew it made you act weirder than usual, and I was just trying to get you two to tell me what was going on. I seriously had no idea it was because of something like this. You honestly thought this entire time that you were the one who murdered Jed?”
All I can do is shrug. The more I think about it, and actually saying it out loud to Leo, made me realize just how stupid the entire thing was and how dumb Emma Jo and I acted. Did we honestly think we could get away with murder if it turned out Jed really had died from eating the poisoned pie we made?
“I should have kept you guys up-to-date with the investigation and the autopsy and I’m sorry about that and for whatever part I played in the two of you losing more of your minds,” he apologizes, his voice going quieter. “I’m out of my element here, Payton. The first murder that happened in this town, happened under my watch, and I don’t know what the hell to do.”
I quickly scoot closer to him, letting go of his hands to wrap my arms around him and rest my chin on his shoulder so I can be near him and still look at his face.
“Don’t apologize to me for anything. I know this has been hard on you, and I know you’re probably not allowed to tell anyone certain things about the case and it was wrong of me to expect that from you,” I admit softly. “I was just freaked out and things got a little out of hand trying to cover it up.”
Leo pulls his face back a few inches from mine and stares down at me.
“Cover it up?” he repeats.
“Ummmm, did I forget to mention I also bagged up the pie baking mess from the kitchen while you were busy outside that night with Jed’s body, hid it in the hall closet, and then snuck out of the laundry room window later that night and burned it in the back yard?” I ask.
He leans forward, pulling out of my arms to rest his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands.
“I swear on Baby Cecil, that’s the last thing I haven’t told you,” I promise, patting his back and making soothing circles with my palm.
More cursing and grumbling under his breath comes from Leo until I grab his arm and haul him back upright.
“Oh, stop being so melodramatic and tell me how Jed died,” I demand.
“You’re lucky you’re cute and I really like you,” he replies, shaking his head before continuing. “Like I said, as soon as Billy Ray rolled Jed’s body over, I knew the preliminary cause of death, and that it wasn’t poison.”
He gives me a pointed glare and I give him one right back, waving my hand at him to speed it up and tell me the rest, without all the glaring and annoying sighs.
“Up close, I could see the blood all over the back of his head and it was pooled right under it in the grass. Someone jammed something into the back of Jed’s skull that night,” he finishes.
A sudden flash of a memory hits me from the other night, when I answered the door for Buddy the night he Tased me. I reached for something to use as a weapon just in case, grabbing for that damn award of Jed’s that was always on the small table by the front door, but it wasn’t there. And now that I think about it, it hasn’t been there since then either.
“What’s wrong? You’ve got that pie look in your eyes again,” Leo states, dipping his head down to catch my eyes that were in a daze, staring at the buttons on the front of his shirt.
“It’s nothing,” I reassure him with a smile. “I was just wondering who could have done something like that. And you know, what kind of weapon they would have used.”
Shit. I just promised him I didn’t have anything else to hide, and here I am keeping things to myself again. See? This is why it’s not safe for me to ever fall in love again. I suck at it.
“Not sure yet,” Leo replies with a shrug. “The medical examiner in Louisville is still running tests. Right now all we know is that it was something sharp and pointy, but we’ll know for sure after he makes a mold of the wound and analyzes it. Hopefully any day now.”
Sharp and pointy…just like the tip of th
at award.
“Alright, as fun as this morning has been, I need to get to the station and see if he called.” Leo kisses me on the cheek before he gets up from the bed. “Just to let you know, I’ll be expecting you to distract me a whole hell of a lot with sex when I get off work tonight to make up for keeping this shit from me. And for torturing me through all of that by wearing a tiny scrap of lace over your tits that I want to rip off with my teeth.”
I laugh nervously even as my body heats with the imagery his words bring, giving him a smile as he walks backward to the door.
“Oh, and I left you a present downstairs on the kitchen table. Don’t bake any more poison pies when you get in there,” he adds with a wink, and then he’s out the bedroom door and I can hear his boots thumping down the stairs.
Hopefully, by some miracle, he left the award and possible murder weapon on the table for me as a present. That way, I won’t have to worry about what he’ll do when I have to come clean with him. Again.
CHAPTER 32
Recorded Interview
June 5, 2016
Bald Knob, KY Police Department
Justine Pickerson: This is horrible. Just horrible. I’m such a horrible person.
Deputy Lloyd: Ma’am, are you okay?
Justine Pickerson: I’ll never be okay again! When I think about the things I said… I had to come into the station as soon as I heard so I could change my previous statement.
Roy Pickerson: Me too. I just can’t believe what we heard and I feel awful about it.
Deputy Lloyd: Mr. and Mrs. Pickerson, what did you hear? I’ve already told you, we can’t use rumors and gossip to arrest anyone.
Justine Pickerson: Where in the hell have you been all day, Buddy Lloyd?
Deputy Lloyd: Um, I’ve been here at the station. Trying to solve a murder.
Justine Pickerson: Well, I’ve been down at the square with the rest of the town and I have seen the light of my wrongdoings. There’s no need for you to continue this investigation. I’d like to confess to the murder of Jed Jackson.
Deputy Lloyd: Wait, WHAT?
Roy Pickerson: Yep, me too. I helped her kill Jed Jackson.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Starla Godfrey: Oh no you don’t, Justine. I’M confessing to the murder of Jed Jackson.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Mo Wesley: Excuse me, is there where I confess murder?
*Door opens and slams shut*
Andrea Maynard: Sorry to interrupt, Deputy Lloyd. I just wanted to tell you that I killed Jed Jackson.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Teresa Jefferson: Oh, hello everyone! Is now a bad time to confess to killing Mayor Jackson? My husband Frank would like to confess too, but he had to go to work, so I’ll just do it for him.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Andrea Maynard: Wow, it’s a tight squeeze in here. Move over a little, Starla, I need room to write down my confession of murdering the mayor. I brought some meatloaf from The Hungry Bear and left it out at the front desk if anyone is hungry.
Mo Wesley: Mmmmm, meatloaf. I could go for some meatloaf. Confessing to murder makes me hungry.
Deputy Lloyd: What in the hell is happening right now?
*Door opens and slams shut*
Franny Mendleson: Hi, I just-
Deputy Lloyd: Let me guess, you want to confess to murdering Jed Jackson?
Franny Mendleson: No, I was just coming in here to tell you there’s meatloaf out at my desk if anyone wants a piece. But now that you mention it, yes, I’m the one who killed Jed.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Sally Plunkett: Oh, good, you’re all here. My poor baby girl.
*Crying, sniffling, nose blowing*
I did it, Deputy Lloyd. I killed Jed Jackson, that lowlife piece of dirt.
Andrea Maynard: Scum of the earth!
Teresa Jefferson: I can’t believe that rotten man was our mayor!
Justine Pickerson: I always knew there was something wrong with him.
*Door opens and slams shut*
Caden Jefferson: Oh, hey Mom, hey Dad. Please don’t ground me, but I killed Mayor Jackson.
Deputy Lloyd: Jesus Christ… I should have been a doctor, like my mother always wanted.
Starla Godfrey: You should always listen to your mother, Buddy. I know you need to arrest us, but that’s going to have to wait. We’ve got food to make and deliver, isn’t that right, everyone?
*Cheering, clapping, laughing, loud undistinguishable voices*
Andrea Maynard: You should come with us, Deputy. I know Emma Jo wouldn’t mind you stopping by. I’ve seen the way she looks at you.
*Cheering, clapping, laughing, agreements from loud undistinguishable voices*
Deputy Lloyd: Well, what’s everyone standing around here for? Someone grab the meatloaf and let’s go!
CHAPTER 33
A good friend knows how you take your coffee. A great friend adds booze.
—Coffee Mug
“You were always such a sweet girl. That lasagna just needs to be popped back in the oven at 350 degrees for thirty minutes.”
Justine Pickerson hands me the plate in her hands, gives me a pat on the cheek, and a smile and then walks out of Emma Jo’s kitchen.
“I’m so glad you came back to town, Payton. It’s a much better place with you in it, isn’t that right, Bo Jangles?” Starla says, handing me a plate of chocolate chip cookies while at the same time, holding her rat dog out for me to pet.
I nervously reach my hand over to him and my mouth drops open in shock when he licks my hand and then nudges it with his nose, requesting a pat on the head.
Starla moves out of the way to make room for Frank and Teresa Jefferson, both of their arms piled with plates of food while they lavish me with similar words of praise as everyone else.
It’s already been a strange enough morning, and I was already on the verge of tears when I came downstairs to the kitchen and found the gift Leo said he’d left for me. Having the entire town traipsing in and out of Emma Jo’s house all afternoon, piling me with food and compliments has thrown me for such a loop that I haven’t been able to do anything but smile, take the food from their hands, and put it with everything else currently covering all the available surfaces in the kitchen.
After the train of people finally comes to an end with Buddy as the caboose, handing over a pan of meatloaf from The Hungry Bear and then leaving dejectedly when I tell him Emma Jo isn’t home, I flop down in one of the kitchen chairs, staring in a daze at the pans of cheesy potatoes, spaghetti, chocolate cake and fresh sweet corn that Andrea Maynard said Leo’s parents asked her to drop off.
Thirty minutes later, Bettie and Emma Jo finally come home to find me still sitting in the exact same spot, still staring in shock at all the food in front of me.
“Jesus, what’s with all the food? Who died this time?” Bettie asks.
Emma Jo laughs and smacks her in the arm as the two of them pull out chairs and sit down next to me.
“I don’t…I have…I…”
They both look at me in confusion as I stutter and I try one more time to make the words form and come out of my mouth.
“They…I…people…I…meatballs,” I mutter, pointing at the pan of homemade meatballs that I have no idea who dropped off.
“Yes, you do have meatballs. You’re using your words, very good, Payton!” Bettie exclaims with a pat on my head, which finally breaks me out of my stupor.
I smack her hand away and attempt to glare at her, but as soon as I scrunch up my face, my eyes fill with tears and I drop my head down on top of my arms resting on the table.
“Oh, shit. We’ve got a crier. Emma Jo, this is all you. I don’t do crying,” Bettie announces, and I hear her chair scrape against the floor as she gets up from the table.
I feel Emma Jo rub her hands up and down my back and she squats down next to me and asks me what’s wrong.
“People brought food. And th
ey were nice. And they told me I was pretty!” I wail, crying even harder now.
“Those animals! I’ll kill them!” Bettie jokes as she fires up Baby Cecil and starts making coffee.
Getting up from my chair, I move over to the box on the counter, picking it up and shoving it into Bettie’s arms.
“And those. THOSE!” I shout, pointing at the box Leo left for me on the table that I had to move to the counter when the food started piling up.
Emma Jo moves over to Bettie’s side as she lifts the flaps on the box.
“Leo gave them to me. I’m keeping secrets from him and he’s so sweet, and I’m the worst person in the world and I can’t believe he did that,” I cry, my tears falling harder and faster when they both gasp and Bettie pulls out one of the items inside.
“University of Kentucky,” Emma Jo says, reading the white lettering on the royal blue mug Bettie holds in her hands. “That’s where Leo went to college.”
Bettie puts the mug back in the box and pulls out another, this one black with the famous Las Vegas sign on one side.
“Ooooh, Vegas! I remember he went there a few years ago for a bachelor party for a guy he went to college with,” Emma Jo announces as I swipe the tears from my cheeks and move to stand in front of the box Bettie continues to look through.
With every mug she pulls out, Emma Jo gives us the meaning behind it until we get to the twelfth and final one. A purple mug with the words Bald Knob in white, surrounded by a big, red heart.
“He gave you coffee mugs of all the places he’s been since you left,” Emma Jo whispers, the emotion so strong in her voice that it quivers.
“That guy really did pine away for you all these years. He literally thought about you every time he went somewhere over the last twelve years, bought you a mug, and held onto them until you came back. Holy shit,” Bettie mutters, moving the box back to the counter and ripping a paper towel from the roll, dabbing it under her eyes. “God dammit. Now I’M crying. I hate all of you people.”
Emma Jo sniffles as well, grabbing her own paper towel to blow her nose and wipe her eyes, all of us standing around the kitchen like a bunch of cry-babies.