Chapter 10 - The House I Used to Call Home
Sheriff Talley called the county where Dad lived.
Deputies went to the house.
No one answered.
Denise’s car was in the garage.
Dad’s was gone.
Cole wanted to drive there.
Talley said no.
Cole said, “That’s my stepmother.”
Talley answered, “And rushing into a house we haven’t cleared helps her how?”
Cole punched the ranch wall.
Not hard enough to break it.
Hard enough to hurt his hand.
He swore and cradled his knuckles.
I stared at him.
He looked embarrassed.
“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were going to.”
“I was going to ask if you wanted ice.”
That surprised both of us.
An hour later deputies found Denise.
She was hiding in a neighbor’s laundry room.
The broken glass had been a picture frame Dad threw before leaving.
He had not hit her.
That mattered.
It did not make the rest okay.
Denise agreed to meet us at the sheriff’s office.
When she arrived, her hair was wet from melted snow and she had one glove.
She kept apologizing for the missing glove.
Nobody cared about the glove.
She placed a small brass key on the table.
“Bank box.”
Leah, still on video, asked, “You took that from Wade?”
Denise shook her head.
“He dropped it.”
“Where?”
“By the safe.”
“What was in the black case?”
“I don’t know.”
Cole leaned toward her.
“What was Dad looking for?”
Denise stared at the key.
“The rest of the letter.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What rest?”
She looked at me.
“Your mother’s letter had two pages. Wade only found one.”
Harlan had given me three pages.
I pulled them out.
Denise read the first line, then covered her mouth.
“That’s not the letter.”
Silence.
I looked at Harlan’s pages.
“Then what letter are you talking about?”
Denise whispered, “The one addressed to Wade.”
Cole sat back.
“Mom wrote him a separate letter?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say?”
Denise hesitated.
Then she said, “She told him she knew what he did to your college fund.”
I frowned.
“My college was paid through ROTC.”
Denise looked at me.
“I know.”
The room felt suddenly too warm.
She continued.
“Your mother had saved money for both of you. Wade used yours first because he thought the Army would cover you anyway.”
I laughed once.
A bad sound.
“Of course he did.”
Cole’s face changed.
“Used it for what?”
Denise looked at him.
“Your first business.”
Cole went completely still.
“My landscaping company?”
She nodded.
He stood.
“No.”
“Cole—”
“No. Dad said Grandpa invested.”
Denise started crying.
“He lied.”
Cole backed away from the table.
I watched him realize that the thing he had been proud of for twenty years had been built with money taken from me.
He looked at me.
I expected an apology.
He said, “I didn’t know.”
Not the same thing.
Maybe more honest.
Sheriff Talley picked up the brass key.
“Mountain State Trust?”
Denise nodded.
“They open in two hours.”
Leah said, “Do not go without a warrant or proper authority.”
Talley gave her a look through the screen.
“I’m aware.”
For the first time, Leah smiled.
“Sorry. Occupational disease.”
Then Talley’s deputy knocked and entered.
“Sheriff, we found Mr. Mercer’s SUV.”
“Where?”
“County road near Juniper Ridge.”
My stomach tightened.
“Empty?”
The deputy nodded.
“But there’s something in the back.”
“What?”
“A roll of survey stakes. Orange flags. Fresh receipt.”
Sheriff Talley looked at me.
“Bought this morning.”
“Why survey stakes?”
Nobody answered.
Then I remembered the parcel map.
Parcel A sat beside my ranch.
And suddenly Dad’s plan made a different kind of sense.
He wasn’t trying to take the ranch house.
He was trying to find something on the land next to it.
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