The Dead Won't Tell by S. K. Waters

Author:S. K. Waters [Waters, S. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CamCat Publishing

Alone on the sunporch with Jethro, Abbie was unsure what to say to the man who’d hung up on her a little while ago.

Jethro, with his elbows on his knees, rubbed his hands together and peered at her. “If I squint a little, you look exactly like your momma. You even stick a pen in your hair, just like Elsa.”

Abbie started to speak, but he cut her off. “No, darlin’, let me say my piece. This house,” he looked around, “it brings it all back. Your momma and daddy, you no taller than a strawberry runnin’ around in pigtails. Elsa’s pork butt and Matt’s cold beer. There was a time when I ate at your momma’s table regularly, when LuAnn and I were goin’ through a spell.”

“You’d go fishing with Daddy,” Abbie recalled, the memory sharp. “And Momma’d fry up the catch.”

Jethro nodded, his lips pursed. “They both of them were good friends with a willingness to listen and the wisdom not to say too much. And how do I repay their friendship? By ignorin’ you? Widowed girl, raisin’ two kids by herself, no family left to help. Makes me sick to my stomach. Abbie, I’m sorry, honey. I’m sorry I hung up on you.”

Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t an apology, and her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers.”

“Ruffle?”

“I think I didn’t realize how sensitive folks in Hunts Landing are to suggestions of racism.”

“Sensitive, hmm. That’s puttin’ it mildly.”

Abbie leaned across the table and grasped his hand. “Jethro, I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m used to the written word, things people put down on paper that came to me long after those people died. Pieces of paper, they’re one-dimensional. Living, breathing, remembering, talking people, they’re so different. I’ve been careless.”

“Girl, I came here to apologize to you.”

“I know. But this is new territory for me. I don’t think I realized how sheltered I was. I mean, Momma and Daddy, our social lives revolved around the college. Academia. I didn’t go to the public schools. My kids have more Black friends than I ever did. And I never gave that much thought. So I pushed, without really thinking about the words that came out of my mouth, and how they would affect you.”

“Trust me, sir, she’s more comfortable with people who’ve been dead for two hundred years,” Joss announced, a dishtowel draped over his shoulder. He extended his hand. “Joss Freeman.”

Abbie made the introductions. “Joss is staying in the room over the garage.”

“Maybe you can teach her a thing or two about dealing with the living.” Joss winked at her. “I’ll leave you two . . .”

Jethro raised his hand. “No need to leave. Abbie asked me some questions earlier today. Questions I didn’t wanna answer before. But I’m ready now, and there’s nothin’ I’m going to say you can’t hear.” Elbows back on knees, Jethro leaned forward. “You asked me if I thought Chief Farrow didn’t take the case back from the ABI because the victim was Black.

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