Chapter 22
The next morning, Cheri sat in the brightly lit waiting room of the intensive care unit of Western Carolina Medical Center, patting Granddaddy on the shoulder.
Purnell had drifted into a coma overnight, and the doctors said he had only a twenty percent chance of coming out of it.
“I’m sorry, Granddaddy,” she said again.
“Well, shee-it,” he sighed. “Hardly worth getting up every day once everyone you came up with has kicked the bucket.” His vacant stare fell on the elevators out in the hall. “My brother was first, you know, dying in the war, and then your gramma, and your daddy and mama, then old Chester, now Purnell.”
She slipped her arm up and around his bony shoulder.
“At least I still got my girls,” he said, a hint of a smile at his lips.
“Yep. All three of us—Tanyalee, Viv, and me.”
He laughed.
“Granddaddy? What exactly did Tanyalee do that you had to file charges against her?”
“What’s past is past,” he said, tapping her knee with his big, spotted hand. “She’s human and she made a mistake. She paid for it. It’s over. She’s family, and family forgives.”
“All right.” Cheri sat for a moment, thinking about last night’s break-in and preparing for her next question. “What has Tanyalee been telling you and Viv about me over the years?”
He turned his head and searched her face. “Nothing I paid any attention to, Cheri. Now, Vivienne is another matter. She’s a flibbertigibbet, you know, into the girlie things like weddings and babies and such, things she got to experience with Tanyalee, at least for a bit. So that brought them closer.”
Cheri blinked.
“But she loves you something awful,” he said, one corner of his mouth twitching. “She ran around like a headless chicken when I told her you were coming home. Should’ve seen the old gal…”
Cheri chuckled. “Like she is right now getting ready for this party we’re having.”
“Lord-a-mighty! Half the town is coming! I told her we might as well host my wake while we’re at it since I won’t have two dimes to rub together after this blowout.”
“I thought you called them shindigs back in the day.”
One of Granddaddy’s bushy white eyebrows floated high on his brow.
“Gladys told me all about your legendary get-togethers at the lake.”
He laughed and shook his head, embarrassed. “There was no call for that.”
“It certainly sets the bar mighty high for any future parties I might host.”
Granddaddy pulled her tight to his side, and Cheri leaned her head on his chest.
“Your daddy would be so damn proud of you, Cheri,” he whispered. “I’ve heard nothing but good things about your instincts, and your energy, and your willingness to try new things. I told you this publisher thing was in your blood.”
She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe. She wanted to blurt it all out right there. I’m broke. I lost everything. I’m not the successful businesswoman you imagine me to be. I’m a phony. Don’t trust me. I’m a failure.
“And I have to admit, I’m damn glad you and J.J. are getting along so well.”
Cheri rolled her eyes. It was like Bigler had its own Homeland Security division, focused exclusively on her home, her land, and her private comings and goings.
“Now all we have to do is get Tanyalee to settle herself with you being back. Because we would sure like it if you stayed, sugar. We’d like you to come on home for good. I would like you to stay.”
Cheri steeled herself. She sat up straight and looked into her grandfather’s tired eyes. She owed him the truth.
“Mr. Newberry?”
Cheri and Granddaddy whipped their heads around to face the nurse who’d just spoken.
“Yes?”
Cheri helped Granddaddy to a stand.
“The doctors wanted me to tell you to go on home now. Mr. Lawson’s unable to see visitors and it’s not expected his status will change in the near future.”
“But I just—” Cheri felt Granddaddy’s body tremble. “I wanted to say good-bye to my friend.”
“I understand,” the nurse said kindly. “But that’s not possible.”
“Just let me say something to him before I go. No one has to know.”
The nurse looked around her and sighed. “All right, but y’all will have to be quick about it.”
Cheri walked with him to a room down the hall and waited while the nurse opened the door and gestured for them to go in. Granddaddy came to a stop by the bed and Cheri remained behind him. She couldn’t look at Purnell. Her grandfather was whispering good-bye to a loving friend, a friend he didn’t know had been stealing him blind for forty-plus years. She couldn’t watch.
She drove him home in the pimpmobile. He remained silent for most of the twenty-minute trip. Cheri knew that everything about this was wrong—the timing, the message, the way she was going about it. But she had no choice. It would be far worse if he found out indirectly that his granddaughter had handed his lifelong friend over for prosecution—while the man lay in a coma.
“I know you think of Purnell as family and you believe in forgiving family, but what he’s done to the paper is really bad.”
He turned his face toward her. She could see he’d been crying. “Your daddy tried to tell me the same thing, just before he died. I thought he was being too hard on Purnell. I thought he was overreacting.”
Cheri’s spine stiffened. Follow the money. “What did he tell you, exactly?” Her mind immediately went to all her father’s personal documents in a box at the lake house. Had she missed something?
Granddaddy shook his head as he tried to recall. “Only that there was money missing. He didn’t know how much or where it went to, but he implied Purnell was up to no good.”
Cheri’s hands gripped the wheel. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why didn’t you get the paper audited right then? Why didn’t you confront Purnell? He was stealing from the Bugle!”
Granddaddy shrugged. “Things happened so fast, Cheri. Your daddy and mama died. There was the funeral. Raising you girls. And Purnell was right next to me the whole time. Then his wife died of cancer. His health started to fail. I know you don’t understand, but I just figured if he was skimming a few thousand off the top here and there it wouldn’t kill us. So I just let it go.”
Un-f*ckin’-believable. The time had come for a little rendezvous with reality.
“It was closer to three quarters of a million dollars over the course of forty-seven years.”
Granddaddy said nothing. She glanced over at him and his face had blanched. Even his lips had drained of color. For a second, Granddaddy looked as sickly as Aunt Viv’s Caucasian lawn jockey. Cheri checked the road and looked to Graddaddy again. “Breathe,” she told him.
He sucked in a lungful of air.
“You okay?”
He nodded. The color slowly returned to his face.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
He nodded.
“I’m obligated to take my findings to the police.”
“Sweet baby Jesus,” he said.
Cheri’s BlackBerry rang. She reached in her purse and answered the call.
“Hi, J.J.—I’m driving back from the hospital with Granddaddy and I have you on speaker.”
There was an instant of silence. Obviously, J.J. was revising his greeting for general audiences.
“They’ve ID’d Barbara Jean’s body,” J.J. said. “We now have an official homicide investigation.”
“Bad news always comes in clumps of three,” Granddaddy said to no one in particular. “I wonder what’s next?”
* * *
“Wim!”
“Find something else?”
“Oh, hell’s bells, yes,” Tanyalee said. She waited for Wim to poke his head out from the back office door. “I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried,” she said, pointing to the computer screen, so excited her hand shook.
“Cheri and Candy are b-r-o-k-e, baby,” she said, her voice a reverent whisper. “They’re being sued by six different companies for nonpayment. Cheri’s house is in foreclosure and Candy unloaded hers in a short sale. Both their cars were repossessed. They’re in arrears out their asses.”
“Damn,” Wim said. Tanyalee felt him move closer to the back of her chair. “You sure know your way around cyberspace, baby.”
“I also found their joint eBay account. In the last year they’ve sold everything from jewelry to gym memberships under their real names. They’re living in some six-hundred-dollar-a-month furnished studio in a big-box building in a not-so-great section of Tampa. I’m telling you, Wim…” Tanyalee spun around in her chair to find him right up against her, breathing heavily. “She’s not rich. She’s got nothing—less than nothing.”
It was then that Tanyalee realized she’d started to unbutton her own blouse.
“She’s not smart,” she added.
Tanyalee pulled at Wim’s belt and unzipped him.
“She’s not classy.”
She spread her legs wide and hiked up her skirt.
“She’s just a total failure, baby. A damn loser.”
Wim scooped her up with one hand while he unhooked her bra and mauled her breast with the other. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Tanyalee realized it was the smoothest move she’d ever seen him execute.
“I’m gonna f*ck your brains out,” Wim growled into her ear.
Tanyalee nearly swooned, then remembered it was not even ten A.M. on a Monday and the front door to the real estate office was unlocked. “We should—” Wim slammed his mouth down on hers, cutting her off.
“Get back there in my office, you f*ckin’ brilliant little tart,” he said. “Bend over the desk. Pull your panties to the side. Do it.” Wim glared at her. “Now.”
“Oh, God, yes.” Tanyalee ran into the back office and assumed the position. When she heard the click of the lock, she nearly came all over herself.