Never smile at strangers

Haley sighed, still not completely sure.

She and Erica stood in silence while four tall black guys lifted the casket from the hearse and walked toward Charles’s final resting place. Haley thought of her father laying just a few feet away. Thought of Charles lying too still inside his own box.

A dog barked somewhere in the distance.

Charles’s mother and little brother made their way to the gravesite, hand in hand. The crowd was small, but Haley wondered why most of the people who had shown were even there. Three black women and the four men, no doubt family members, stood next to Mrs. Johnson and Joshua. One, an elderly woman, was whispering to all of them. After she finished, she hugged each, one at a time.

Several feet behind them stood Father Joyce, an elderly man who had been ill ever since Haley could remember. Then there was Sheriff Hebert, Kim Theriot, and a handful of townspeople—some she recognized from Luke’s and a few she didn’t. They looked on curiously. Opportunists, she thought, glaring at them. Most of the townspeople were there because of their curiosity for what happened to Tiffany, not because of their feelings for Charles. They were there for the wrong reasons and she was sure that Mrs. Johnson knew it. Haley wanted to scream at them. To tell them to leave his family alone.

Someone appeared at the mouth of the woods. Detective Guitreaux. He wore a black suit and a pair of sunglasses with mirrored lenses. He made his way toward the small crowd, a stoic expression heavy on his features.

Haley walked closer to the family. She wanted to give her regards to Charles’s mother. She hadn’t been able to at the church. But when the little boy started talking, she stopped in her tracks.

“Where’s Charlie going, Mama?” the little boy ask in a high-pitched voice.

The woman lifted her head. “In the ground, Joshua.”

The little boy’s jaw dropped. “Why?”

“I explained it to you, baby.”

Joshua’s little face screwed up. “When’s he coming back to live with us?”

Mrs. Johnson took his small hand, and the two stepped closer the coffin. “He isn’t, honey.”

“But won’t he be scared?”

When she didn’t answer, he ground the heel of one of his palms into his eyes and softly sobbed.

Haley stepped back to allow them privacy and remembered the scene at her own father’s funeral, and how her mother had thrown herself against the casket.

“No, David!” she’d screamed. “No! Please, don’t leave us, David!” She turned to her horrified daughters. “This isn’t happening, girls,” she cried. “Your daddy’s okay. There’s been a mistake.” She had wept as they carried her away. “I should have told him to stay in the car,” she cried. “I should have warned him sooner!”

Haley blinked and fat teardrops coursed down her cheeks.

There was a familiar voice behind her. “Haley.”

She turned, puzzled to see Mac.

“There was a four-car accident on I-10 I got called in for. I’m sorry to have missed the service.”

Mac looked as though he felt awkward and very tired. His eyes were droopy and red-rimmed like they always got when he didn’t get enough sleep.

Mac nodded to Erica, who Haley had forgotten was even standing next to her.

“Hi,” Erica said. Then she wandered off toward the detective.

Haley’s instinct was to reach out to Mac and hug him. It was Mac for goodness sake. The man she’d slept with for over a year. But she couldn’t. And probably never would again. It was strange how much a relationship could change in the course of such a short time. How much two could grow apart.

“Hey Mac,” a soft voice behind them said. Becky.

Mac gave her a hug. “You doin’ okay, kid?”

Becky nodded. “Where’ve you been? I haven’t seen you lately.”

Mac looked at Haley.

Sensing the tension, Becky took a couple steps backward. “Well, it’s nice seeing you. See you later. . . I guess.” She turned and left.

Sweat had formed at the nape of Haley’s neck and in the crook at the backsides of her knees. “He came over just the other night,” she said. “He was so upset.”

Mac’s face darkened and he nodded. “It’s a damn shame,” he said. “For someone to cut their life so short. He must have been miserable.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, you okay these days?”

Haley nodded.

“Well then, I should go pay my condolences. See you ‘round. You take care of yourself. Say hello to your mama for me.”

***

THE NEXT MORNING, Haley drove to Trespass Gardens and dropped off a basket of orchids and homemade pecan pralines. She recognized the old woman who stood on the other side of the screen door from the funeral.

“Hi, I’m Haley. I was a friend of your grandson’s,” Haley said meekly, unsure of whether Charles had ever mentioned her to his family. “Just wanted to bring these over for his mother.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” the woman said, and unlatched the door. She held it open with her hip. “We’ve gotten more pretty flowers today than we have space, I’m afraid.”

Haley handed her the tray and bouquet, then reached into her back pocket. “I wrote my name and number down. Can you give this to Mrs. Johnson and tell her that if she needs anything, anything at all, that she can call me?”

“Sure baby, I’ll do that,” the woman said. “Want to step in for some coffee? Louise is taking a little cat nap right now, but you can come in and wait for her if you’d like.”

The late morning sun blared down on Haley’s shoulders and the top of her head. She wiped the sweat from her temple and shook her head. “No thank you.”

“Charlie wasn’t no killer,” the woman said softly. “He was a good boy. You know that, right?”

Before she could answer, the woman patted the air with her hand and smiled warmly. “Why of course you do. You and Charlie were friends.”

Chapter 55

A FEW MOMENTS after the girl climbed into the truck, the weather intensified from a light drizzle to billows of clean, cool rain. “You would have been stuck in that,” he said, as if nature had been his accomplice. He flashed the most trusting smile he could muster. He’d have to be very careful with this one.

She smiled at him and a dimple lit up her left cheek. Her teeth were the whitest he’d ever seen. She smelled like flowers. She disgusted him. It took all he had not to reach over and grab her by the neck. The Andersons. How could she? Did she know what she had done? Did she care?

She wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t because she was dressed in clothes that could have been painted on. She had other flaws. Her eyes were a brilliant blue, but her teeth were crooked and her bottom lip was thin and chapped. Even, her nail beds were ragged. Her appearance was unlike his mother’s and sister’s, even Tiffany’s and the other females he’d ever known. Where they had been meticulous—or at least neat—she seemed to be careless.

 “I’m Sarah,” she said, stretching out her legs, allowing the hems of her shorts to creep into the insides of her thighs.

Sarah. Sarah Greene. Oh yes, he knew. The teenager who was a threat to his Rachel. The Andersons’ former babysitter. And apparently her husband, Tom’s, lover.

It had taken four days for this opportunity to present itself and he hadn’t been certain she would be dumb enough to get into a truck with a stranger. He thought he’d be forced to take her on foot.

But now here she was. . . in his truck.

She raised her arms above her head in a stretch and he could see the generous profile of her chest. She was flirting, flaunting her body for a total stranger. Playing girlish games. . . If he hadn’t had plans for her, he’d be furious. But now he had to stay calm.

A streetlight flickered. He looked over and saw her staring at him.