“I will pay for anything Lucy needs. You know that, Mother.”
“You talk as if you’re Ross Perot.”
“What else did Dorothy say?”
“All I know, in summary, is Lucy was in one of her moods and upset with you because you couldn’t be bothered to take her to Edgehill. Especially since you picked it out and are a doctor and all. ”
I groaned, and it was like arguing with the wind.
“Dorothy didn’t want me to go.”
“As usual, it’s your word against hers. When are you coming home for Thanksgiving?” Needless to say, when our conversation was ended, which simply meant I could take no more and got off the phone, my bath had been undone. I started to pour more Scotch, but stopped, because there was not enough alcohol in the world when my family made me angry. And I thought of Lucy. I put away the bottle and not many minutes later there was a knock on my door.
“It’s Benton,” his voice said. We hugged for a long time, and he could feel my desperation in the way I clung to him. He led me over to the bed and sat beside me.
“Start from the beginning,” he said, holding both my hands.
I did. When I was finished, his face held that impervious look I knew from work, and I was unnerved by it. I did not want that look in this room when we were alone.
“Kay, I want you to slow down. Do you realize the magnitude of our going forward with an accusation like that? We can’t just close our minds off to the possibility that Denesa Steiner is innocent. We just don’t know.
“And what happened on the plane should tell you that you’re not being a hundred percent analytical. I mean, this really disturbs me. Some bozo on the ground crew’s just being a hero, and you immediately think the Steiner woman’s behind that, too; that she’s screwing with your mind again.”
“It isn’t just my mind she’s screwing with,” I said, removing one of my hands from his.
“She tried to kill me.”
“Again, that’s speculative.”
“Not according to what I was told after making several phone calls.”
“You can’t prove it. I doubt you’ll ever be able to prove it.”
“We’ve got to find her car.”
“Do you want to drive by her house tonight?”
“Yes. But I don’t have a car yet,” I said.
“I have one.”
“Did you get the printout of the image enhancement?”
“It’s in my briefcase. I looked at it.” He got up and shrugged.
“It meant nothing to me. Just a hazy blob that’s been washed with a zillion shades of gray until it’s now a denser, more detailed blob.”
“Benton, we’ve got to do something.” He looked a long time at me and pressed his lips together the way he did when he was determined but skeptical.
“That’s why we’re here, Kay. We’re here to do something. ” He had rented a dark red Maxima, and when we went outside, I realized that winter was not far off, especially here in the mountains. I was shivering by the time I got into the car, and I knew this was partially due to stress.
“How are your hand and leg, by the way?” I asked.
“Pretty much good as new.”
“Well, that’s rather miraculous, since they weren’t new when you cut them.” He laughed, more out of surprise than anything else. At the moment, Wesley wasn’t expecting humor.
“I’ve got one piece of information about the duct tape,” he then said.
“We’ve been looking into who from this area might have worked at Shuford Mills during the time the tape was manufactured.”
“A very good idea,” I said.
“There was a guy named Rob Kelsey who was a foreman there. He lived in the Hickory area during the time the tape was made, but he retired to Black Mountain five years ago.”
“Does he live here now?”
“He is deceased, I’m afraid.” Damn, I thought.
“What do you know about him?”
“White male, died at age sixty-eight of a stroke. Had a son in Black Mountain, which was why Kelsey wanted to retire here, I guess. The son’s still here.”