Secrets Read online

  “You two stayin’ long?” the man at the desk asked. “Here on business? Plannin’ to see the sights? Plannin’ on lookin’ at land for sale? I gotta cousin that sells real estate and he’s got two farms for sale right now. Fairmont’s a great place to raise kids. We got a bus that takes the kids to school. Only takes ’em an hour to get there. Fine school too.”

  “Thanks,” Jeff said as he took the key from the man but didn’t answer any of his questions.

  In the room, Jeff put his bag on the end of one bed and looked around. There was dark, cheap paneling on the walls and three pictures of scenery. Both of the beds sagged in the middle and the spreads were faded and thin from being washed hundreds of times.

  “I can’t imagine why Hinton wanted to get out of this place,” Jeff said sarcastically.

  “The story has certainly become distorted over the years,” Cassie said, looking at him. “Why do you think Hinton is so reviled here? They even have the dates wrong. The trial wasn’t in the 1920s but the 1940s.” She sat down on the end of the bed and looked at the stained carpet.

  Jeff sat down beside her. “Are you sure you want to look into this?” he asked quietly. “All this is connected to Althea, and you say that you don’t want to hear about the things that she’s been involved with in her life, but I can tell you that she’s a woman who loves excitement. She’s run from bullets and hidden from known killers. Her movies have taken her all over the world and she put herself in danger everywhere she went. I’m afraid you’ll hear things about her that you won’t like.”

  “Did all the excitement in her life accomplish anything?”

  “During World War Two, she brought back knowledge from Germany that some of our people think won the war for us.”

  “Then it was all worth it, wasn’t it? No matter what trivia we find out here, Althea’s life has been important.” He was sitting close to her and she could feel the warmth of him.

  “Cassie,” Jeff said softly, “I want to apologize for all the things I did to you when you lived with me.”

  “You never did anything,” she said, then gave a bit of a grin. “That was the problem.”

  “Yeah?” he said with a serious look. “If that was the problem, I could remedy that now.” He moved as though he was going to kiss her again, but Cassie stood up.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Do you think this town has a restaurant?”

  “If they do, I’m sure it’s either barbecue or Tex-Mex.”

  “Darn! And I was so in the mood for sushi.”

  Jeff laughed. “You want the bathroom first?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said as she grabbed her bag.

  The Tex-Mex restaurant was in the middle of downtown Fairmont. There were five stores, two of them empty, and the bank was across the street from the restaurant. They checked the opening hours painted on the door and planned to be there at nine the next morning. When they entered the restaurant, everyone stopped talking and looked at them, and Cassie felt certain that all of them knew they’d landed in a plane and had been asking questions about the town’s history. She stayed close behind Jeff as he went to a table, nodding at the other customers as he walked. The waitress gave them stained menus, and soon they had heaping plates full of enchiladas, tacos, and chalupas in front of them.

  Just as they finished eating, a tall, gangly kid with an enormous cowboy hat straddled one of the chrome and aluminum chairs at their table. “I hear you two are lookin’ for information about this town.”

  “Yes, we are,” Jeff said. “You know anything?”

  “Naw, but my granny does. She used to know the murderer.”

  “Hinton Landau?” Cassie asked.

  “I don’t know what his name was, but I heard he killed a lot of people. I think they should have left the town named after him. Maybe with some publicity we could get some tourists in this place. You two wanta buy a truck?”

  “No, thank you,” Jeff said. “We’re just passing through. You think we could talk to your grandmother tomorrow?”

  “Sure,” the boy said. “Anytime. She don’t do nothin’ all day.”

  “We’d like to take her a gift,” Cassie said. “What would she like?”

  “A new game for her PlayStation.”

  “She would like that or you would?” Cassie asked.

  “Both of us,” the boy said as he got up from the table.

  “How do we find you?” Jeff asked as the boy walked away.

  “Ask anybody for Eric,” he said over his shoulder as he left the little restaurant.

  “Why do I feel like we’ve just been set up for something?” Cassie asked quietly. There were people at two of the other five tables and they were listening to every word that she and Jeff said.

  “Me too,” Jeff answered. “Are you finished?”

  “Yeah,” she said, watching him. He didn’t seem to want her to say anything else that could be overheard.

  He paid the bill, and they headed outside. It was growing dark and their motel was within walking distance.

  “Do you think all these stories are wrong out of ignorance or because we’re being lied to?” Cassie asked.

  “I don’t know, but I suspect lies. But then, that’s my business.” Reaching out, he took her hand and pulled her into a dark passage between a couple of buildings.

  “Jeff! I don’t think this is the time to—Oh,” she said as he pulled his BlackBerry out of his pocket.

  “I got the kid’s license number off his truck and I want to send it to Dad to check out,” he said as he quickly typed in the numbers and a brief message. When he finished, he smiled at her. “Let’s go back to our palace. It’s been a long day for both of us.”

  Cassie agreed. They’d had beer with their food and all the events of the day were at last hitting her. All she wanted to do was go to bed and sleep for about twelve hours.

  As soon as they got back to the motel, Jeff climbed onto one of the beds and began punching at the keyboard on his little machine.

  “I’m going to take a shower now,” she said, and when Jeff didn’t respond, she said, “And I’m going to put on my nightgown.” No response. “The one Althea sent. It’s transparent.”

  “Mmmm,” was all Jeff said, his eyes and fingers on the machine.

  With a sigh, Cassie went into the bathroom. When she emerged thirty minutes later, Jeff didn’t seem to have moved. She was tempted to ask him what he was doing, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She climbed into the other bed and was asleep instantly.

  When she awoke the next morning, she turned over to see Jeff still sitting on the bed, fully dressed, and still typing on his little keyboard. If he weren’t wearing clean clothes and had wet hair, she would have thought he’d been at it all night.

  “Find out anything?” she asked, her voice husky from sleep.

  “You don’t snore,” he said, not looking up. “Which I am very glad to know.”

  “Me too, and my boyfriend will be glad to hear it.”

  “If he doesn’t already know it, he isn’t much of a boyfriend, is he?”

  Cassie laughed. “Would you please tell me what you’re doing?”

  “Just getting some information,” he said as he turned off the BlackBerry and tossed it on the bed. “It’s already eight, so you have one hour to get ready for the bank. We can eat breakfast at the same place we had dinner.”

  “Then what?” Cassie asked as she rummaged in her bag for clean clothes. When Jeff didn’t answer her, she looked up at him. His face was white.

  “I thought you were kidding about transparent.”

  “I never kid about transparent,” she said as she turned her back on him and went to the bathroom. She smiled while she dressed.

  “My goodness,” said the lady at the bank, “this is an old one.”

  “Is there any problem with it?” Jeff asked.

  “None. The rent’s been paid on it since”—she looked at the paper—“1926.” She looked back up at Jeff