Her eyebrows went up and her head started bobbing. “Oh, shi…ply’s baked beans, he jus’ called me Grandmomma.” She shook her head. “Mmmm, mmm, mmm, somethin’s goin’ on, now I know it.” She was getting riled up and I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Baked beans?
“Grandmomma, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before…”
Leo was clearly going into fight or flight mode, and the way his feet were dancing around, I was pretty sure which option he was going to choose. I was panicked that I was going to lose him again.
I held out my arms. “Okay, people, let’s just take it easy, here.”
“Take it easy? Take what easy?” Leo’s grandmother put her hands on her ample hips. “Boy, you better come clean, right this second, ‘fore I put my spatula on your backside and wear it out.”
Leo started crying. “I can’t tell you, Grandmomma, cuz you’ll go to jail and I’ll go to jail and the whole world will know!”
“Will know what?!” She looked at him and then me. “What’s this child hawin’ about?”
I took a deep breath and let it out before I answered. “I think what Leo is trying to say is that he knows something about the murder of Coach Fielding.”
“MURDER?!!” she screeched, looking first at me and then him. Her eyeballs were bugging out of her head and somehow her hair had come out from its bun and was flying around her head. “YOU MURDER SOMEONE?!!” She charged after Leo and he screamed and ran back to the room behind him.
I screamed and ran after them both.
We all ended up in the middle of the kitchen, everyone in a giant hug, wrestling for purchase on Leo’s body.
Chapter Fifty-One
WHEN THINGS FINALLY SHOOK OUT, I ended up the meat in a good, old-fashioned, Katy Guckenberger sandwich. Grandma was one slice of bread and Leo the other. It got hot really quick, especially with her yelling her steamy breath on everyone.
“Boy, when I get my hands on you…”
“No one’s getting hands on anyone until I get some answers,” I said, frustrated that time was ticking by and I was here wrestling in a kitchen that smelled like fried fish. “I just want to talk to you Leo for ten minutes, fifteen tops, and then I’ll go.”
Grandma didn’t appreciate my request. “I don’t know who you think you is, telling us what you gonna do in my house, but you better back up.”
I ducked down and moved to the side, leaving the two of them to hug it out. Grandma grabbed Leo by the back of the neck and squeezed.
Leo leaned over. “Ow, ow, owwww, okaaaay! Okaaaaay!”
“You’re hurting him,” I said, worried I was about to witness some serious child abuse.
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” She shoved him towards the hallway that I assumed led to the bedrooms. “Go get Grandpa’s belt.”
Tears were streaking down his face. “Yes, Grandmomma.” He left us alone in the kitchen.
She turned her ire on me, but her tone went down to whispering levels. I felt like I was hearing the Devil Himself.
“You gots ten seconds to tell me what the holy hell is going on with my grandson before I lose my mind. And trus’ me when I say, you do not want to see this woman lose her mind.”
With her hair flying out in gray tufts all over her head and her crazy bug-eyes, I was absolutely sure she was correct in that.
“You’re right,” I nodded like crazy, “I don’t want to see you lose your mind.”
“Now what’s this about murder?” She jutted her chin out, I think daring me to accuse her boy of killing someone.
“Jason Bradley, my friend, a guy I go to school with, killed the football coach about six months ago.”
“You mean that white boy? Good looking boy? Big ol’ football star?”
“Yes, that’s him.”
“What’s that got to do with my boy?”
“Jason and Leo were friends.”
“That ain’t possible. You mus’ be crazy.” She folded her arms across her boobs, somehow defying the laws of physics in doing so. There’s just no way those arms could have fit around that bosom, but she made it happen. It made her even scarier, like she had superpowers or something.
“Leo was part of, or a member of, the Boys’ Center. Jason was a big brother there. Leo was his little brother.”
She frowned. “Leo ain’t at no Boys’ Center. He go to school, he come home. That’s it.”
“Are you home all day?”
“No.” She said it with attitude but then she backed down. “No. I work, ten hours a day, four days a week. I clean rooms at the mo-tel down the street.”
“So he could have been at the Center and you wouldn’t have known.”
“You sayin’ my boy lied to me?”
I gave her a sly look, telling her we were in this together. Teammates not enemies. “I’m saying he might not have mentioned it.”
Leo came out dragging a long leather belt behind him. He held it up but kept his eyes on the ground. “Here you go, Grandmomma.”
“You go sit. I can’t even look at you right now.” She pointed towards the living room, and Leo disappeared.
She lowered her voice again. “Why he wanna do that? Lie to me and spend time with those white boys.”
“I don’t know … they’re not all white boys.” It seemed like a weak thing to say and those damn red shoes popped into my head again. “They give the boys stuff like new shoes for playing sports and they throw the ball around with them.”
She hissed out some breath and shook her head. “Charity. I don’t go for that charity. No foodstamps, no welfare, no free shoes. I pay my way and so do Leo.”
“I know. He didn’t take the shoes.”
She looked over her shoulder. “So what’s this all about, the murder an’ all?”
“I’m not sure, but I think Leo knows some things about it that no one else knows.”
“He was there, like a witness?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe not. But he has something to tell. I know he does.” I took her by the hand, desperate to get her cooperation. “I know he’s just a kid, but Jason is on trial for murder, right now, and his lawyer sucks and I’m worried he’s going to go to jail for the rest of his life.”
“He guilty?” she asked, patting my hands that were gripping onto her.
“Maybe. But not exactly. Can we talk to Leo?”
She thought about it for a few seconds and then stood up, letting my hand go and pulling away from me. “We can try. But that boy can be mighty stubborn when he wants. Jus’ like his momma, God rest her soul.”
We walked out into the living room and Leo was sitting on the couch, staring at the floor.
“I want to die,” he said, without preamble.
“Leo!” his grandmother shouted, sounding shocked. “Why you say such an awful thing?! You know better than that!”
He started crying again, loudly. “Cuz that’s what I want! That’s what I want!”
She trundled over and sat down on the couch next to him, taking him into her arms. She leaned back and pulled him against her chest. He got swallowed up into her boobs. I noticed he hung onto her like a drowning man.
I slowly walked over and took a seat in the armchair. When I had to peel my leg off it a second later due to instant sweating, I realized that every piece of furniture in the room had what looked like custom-made plastic covers on them. Were they planning on murdering someone or what? I’d never seen anything like it.
“Tell Grandmomma everything. I know you don’t want to die. Ain’t nobody gonna kill hisself in my house. Now you tell me what’s happenin’ and Grandmomma gonna fix it right up. Tell Grandmomma.” She sounded like she was about to cry.
“I can’t,” he said in weak, agony-filled voice. “I can’t. You won’t love me anymore.”
“Pssshhhh, child please. Grandmomma ain’t never gonna stop loving you, never, ever, ever. You hear me? Now stop talkin' foolish and tell me what you did. Be honest. You know we tell the trufe in
this house.”
The trufe, the whole trufe, and nothing but the trufe … come on, Leo. I gripped my hands together so hard it hurt, but I couldn’t make myself stop.
Leo wiped his eyes on his grandmother’s shirt a little before sitting up. He glanced at me and then kept his gaze fixed on the floor.
“I wasn’t there.”
“You wasn’t where?” she asked, sitting up and taking one of his hands in hers.
“I wasn’t there when Jason killed Coach Fielding.”
“Well that’s good news, right?” She looked first at him and then me.
I shrugged. To me, it sounded like bad news, at least for Jason. Maybe I’d been wrong about everything. Maybe Jason really was one hundred percent a cold-blooded killer like everyone said he was.
“But I’m glad he killed the coach. Glad!” He said it with such vehemence, with such fury, I knew then that something was very, very wrong with this situation.
Leo’s grandmother’s voice went very even and very low. She looked right at him and leaned in. “What that coach do that was so bad you be glad he’s dead, Leo? You tell Grandmomma.”
Leo started crying again. “He did a bad thing, Grandmomma. He did a really, really, really bad thing!”
Chapter Fifty-Two
MY FINGERS WERE SHAKING SO bad, I couldn’t press the numbers on my phone. It was my worst nightmare come to life.
“You want me to do that for you?” Grandma asked me. She had instructed me to call her that. Grandma. She was surprisingly strong, considering what she’d just heard from the love of her life.
“Please.” I sniffed, wiping the four millionth tear from my eyes. “Just click that arrow until you see the name Chuck and press the green button.”
“Here you go, baby,” she said after following my instructions. “I’m going to go check on my boy. I’ll be right back.”
I put my hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry,” I said, my face crumpling again.
She patted my cheek. “Not your fault, baby, not your fault. We’ll make this right. You and me and my baby Leo and our Lord God and his son Jesus Christ. We will make this right.” She nodded once before leaving me for the bedrooms.
I nodded too as the phone rang, leaving her to check on Leo while I called Jason’s dad.
“Katy?” he said, coming onto the line sounding tired. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” I tried to sound perfectly fine and not totally wrecked. It was after eleven, but I wasn’t completely out of my mind just because of the time.
“Your parents called here looking for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Great. Listen, forget them for a minute, I need to talk to you.”
“Okaaay, what’s up?”
“Can you call Jason’s lawyer, like right now?”
“Uhhhh, I guess. But I’m not sure why I’d do that.”
“I need for you to get that lawyer over to your house right now. Like right this very second.” My breaths were coming out as dog pants. Fluffy and I were like brothers right now.
“Katy have you been drinking?”
“Listen, Chuck, I’m not playing!” My voice came out a little too shrieky, so I took a moment to breath in and out and then tried again. “I’m sorry. I’m a little freaked out, but you will be too when you hear what Leo has to say.”
“Who’s Leo again?”
“You’ve never met him. He was in the courtroom today. He’s the one I was chasing after when I blew you off.”
“Sweetie, I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me. Do you need a ride home?”
“Mr. Bradley!” I screamed. “I’m not drunk or high or crazy, okay?!”
Leo’s grandmother came out of the kitchen and held out her hand. “Let me have a word with the man.”
I handed her the phone, my hand shaking so bad I almost dropped it.
Grandma took the phone from me with one hand and with the other pulled me against her hip. She held me there tightly as she talked to Jason’s dad.
Her voice was a smooth as silk. “Mr. Bradley? Yes, hello. My name is Dolores Williams, and I have a grandson named Leo who I have recently learned was a friend of your son Jason.” She paused as she waited for Jason’s dad to speak before continuing again. “Nice to meet you too, but I have to say I wish it was under better circumstances. From what I understand, time is running out, and I think Katy is right. We need to have a talk tonight. And you need to bring that lawyer o’ yours with you. You come to my house because my grandson needs to stay in bed as much as he can. He sick. My address is fifty-three Shady Oak Lane.” She paused. “Yes, that’s right. Shady Oak … Lane. You got it. You can park on the street right in front of the house.”
Sick. Sick was not the word I’d have used to describe Leo right then. Destroyed would have been closer. Devastated not as good. Really, no words could describe what Leo was now or what he would be for the rest of his life. Changed, maybe, but that didn’t seem to do it justice either. It was too … innocent.
Grandma nodded a few times and then said her last bit before hanging up. “Bring your boy too. This involves everyone. It’s time for justice to be done.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
I COULD NOT SIT STILL. Jason and his dad were coming over. Jason. The boy who was my second best friend, the hero of elementary school, defender of innocents … and he’d told me he never wanted to see me again. He told me to let things drop. He told me to leave it all alone.
But I had to get to the bottom of things. It’s a personality flaw of mine, to not be able to let things that weren’t right go. I prayed he wouldn’t hate me for the rest of his life. But if he did, I would have to live with it, because down to my soul and with every fiber of my being, I knew I had done the right thing. I just hoped no one else would end up dying over this.
Two cars pulled up outside at the same time. They both turned their engines off and their headlights went out in synch.
“What’s that other car?” I asked.
Then a third car pulled up behind those two.
“What in the hell?” I said absently.
Grandma went to the door and opened it up wide, stepping to the side to let all the visitors in.
The first one in the door was Mr. Bradley. He shook her hand and introduced himself. He nodded at me as he came in and moved over to stand by me.
“I’m glad to know you aren’t drunk,” he said, I think trying for a joke.
All I could do was shake my head. I was panicked about seeing Jason.
Jason’s lawyer came in next. He looked different, not wearing a suit. “This is very irregular,” he said, “but if it’ll help my client, I’m willing to listen.”
“You just have a seat over there,” Grandma said, gesturing to the plastic-covered couch.
“You must be Jason,” Grandma said as he passed over the threshold.
“Yes, that’s me,” he said, his voice making my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.
Grandma wasted no time, pulling Jason into a bear hug. Then she started crying, and it was loud. “You my angel, Jason Bradley. You my angel sent straight from heaven. God forgives you and Jesus Christ forgives you, you can believe that.”
Jason stood there, stiff as a board. I could see the expression on his face. He was made of stone and he said nothing.
She pulled away and wiped at her face. “Come in, come in, sit, sit.” She waved over at the couch.
Jason took a few steps and then stopped, staring at me.
I stared back, tears filling my eyes. He hated me. He wished I wasn’t here. I could see it all over his face.
Then he walked over and sat near me on a chair that really wasn’t big enough for two people. He reached up and took my hand, pulling me down to sit with him. My butt landed half on his leg and half in the seat.
“Move over, would ya?” he said quietly.
I wiggled into the tiny spot next to his tree-trunk legs. “Jason, I’m …” I wanted to apologize, but I wasn’t sorr
y. I didn’t want to lie. There had been enough lies in Jason’s world for one lifetime.
“Shhhh … we’ll talk later.” He took my hand in his and held it tight. I wasn’t sure who needed the reassurance that his strength gave us, him or me, but it didn’t matter. I gave as good as I got. I held onto him like he was the only thing keeping me from floating away.
My parents came in last. “You have some explaining to do, Missy,” my father said. He barely acknowledged the other people in the room, so focused as he was on making me scared shitless to go home. But nothing he said could burst my bubble. Jason was my friend again and this lawyer was going to fix things.
My mother thanked Grandma for allowing us into her home and took a seat next to my father in chairs brought in from the kitchen.
Grandma stood and clasped her hands together. “So, you all want to know why we asked you to come here in the middle of the night.” She pointed both hands at me. “You can thank Katy here for that, and I’m gonna let her tell her story and then I’ll get my Leo up to talk to this here lawyer.” She nodded at the attorney and then sat down in a chair I was sure would collapse under her weight.
But it didn’t and all the attention shifted over to me. My face flamed up as I started my story.
Chapter Fifty-Four
“ALL THIS TIME THAT I’VE spent with Jason, I knew he wasn’t telling me all of the story.”
I glanced at him before I continued, to see if he was angry. He stared at the floor, but held onto my hand. I took that as a good sign.
“He told me over and over again that I had the story, the whole story, but I didn’t believe him.”
“She’s very stubborn,” he said in a subdued voice.
“That’s my girl,” said my mom with a sigh.
My father grumbled but then she cut him off with, “She takes after you, Mike, so watch it.”
I rolled my eyes and continued. “Anyway, one day Jason told me part of the story that he hadn’t told anyone else.”