By then, Lily had herded Louella down the stairs, through the kitchen, had accepted a wrapped bag of something homemade and fragrant-but before Lily could leave, Louella had parked her ample body in front of the screen door.
Well, yes, she said slowly. The owner of the mill back then was Webster Renbarker. Your daddy was his second in charge. The mill didnt close because it wasnt thriving, you know. The place did real well, once your dad took on the management reins. Everybody said so. The problem with Webster was that he got a brain tumor. Started acting goofy. Hid his own money from himself. Sabotaged his own shipments. Nobody could figure out what was going on until it was too late.
He died, Lily assumed with a sinking heart.
Oh, hes alive. It was just nothing at that point could keep the mill from bankruptcy, between Websters shenanigans and his medical bills. Came a point, they took out the tumor. He lost the sight in one eye, as I recall. And hell never be what youd call normal. Lots of days hes fuzzy. Thats what I hear from the grapevine, anyhow-
I dont suppose you know where he lives?
Why, sure I do. Lives in North Carolina, some place for seniors. Has some supervision. You know. That kind of place.
Okay. For a few moments, Lily actually thought she had a real lead. She tried not to feel disappointed as she aimed firmly for the door. Well, thanks for sharing all that, Louella-
A course, hes here now.
Lily whirled back. Say what? You mean here? In Pecan Valley?
Well, yes, for a couple more days. Hes visiting his wifes cousin, Barbara Marr, its an annual thing they do in the summer, bring him here for a week, take him back. You know the Marr house, the red-tile roof at the far end of Magnolia Drive? He was here last week at least. Remember seeing him at Debbies Diner. Not like he cant do some things on his own. He just tends to be unpredictable, bless his heart. And when hes home here, people look after him, not like anything was his fault. Right after
A minute later, Lily was gunning the engine of her rental Ford. If this Webster Renbarker was shortly leaving town, she had to try to reach him before the chance was gone. Griff was going to wonder where she was. She wanted to be with him, not gallivanting all over town on what was probably going to be a wild-goose chase.
But if there was even a small chance the long-ago fire had a connection to the immediate fires, she had to try.
She knew where the house with the red-tile roof was. It couldnt take ten minutes to drive there-even less if she speeded, which she most certainly intended to do.
Chapter 6
Okay, Lily thought as she charged up the steps to the library, nothing was going to go smoothly today. Shed found Barbara Marrs house, but not Webster Renbarcker. Web was at the library, his cousin claimed. She often dropped him off to spend a couple hours there. If Lily wanted to find Mr. Renbarcker, she needed to go there.
So she had.
She swung open the heavy library door, fretting that this was going to be a whole wasted morning, when she could have been with Griff. What shed risked that morning-what she wanted to risk with him again-made her wonder if she was losing her mind.
So she had.
She swung open the heavy library door, fretting that this was going to be a whole wasted morning, when she could have been with Griff. What shed risked that morning-what she wanted to risk with him again-made her wonder if she was losing her mind.
Chasing an old man who might not even talk with her seemed another symptom of insanity-yet she only took a few steps into the old, cool library to feel bombarded by a flush of great memories. Her dad had often brought the girls here-likely to give their mom a break, Lily thought now-but as a child shed only known those mornings as a special treat. The smell of books, the tall windows letting in the long, yellow ribbons of light, the quiet, the big chairs that a little girl could curl up inshed loved it all when she was a child.
Still did. The old blue rug looked the same, so did the giant, oak library desk. It was impossible not to feel safe here. She ambled through aisles in the adult section, not certain what Webster Renbarcker looked like-but for sure, he had to be a senior.
There was no one over fifty in adult fiction, or in the reference room in back. Disappointed, she just glanced in the childrens room, even as she was aiming for the back doorand there he was. An older man with longish white hair and scratchy white whiskers was sitting on a cushioned stool, leafing through a childs picture book.
A couple kids huddled in the corner with an older sister; a mom and toddler had claimed the sunny spot under a window. Lily quietly approached the older man, said gently, Mr. Renbarcker?
He immediately looked up with faded blue eyes.
My name is Lily Campbell. I used to live here. My dad used to work at your mill.
He brightened up as if shed given him a present. Once he started talking, he couldnt seem to stop. He tended to fade out now and then, but the past seemed clearer to him than the present.
Never thought Id see any of you Campbells again. Your daddy never set that fire, honey. He loved the mill. He loved me. Hed been watching out for me from before I got sick, watched out for my wife the same way.
It was as if the old mans heart hurt. Words just poured out of him.
He knew I was sick, your daddy, because he found me on the floor one day. Id had some kind of seizure. He was just a boy then, almost fresh out of college. Had a young wife-your mama, prettiest thing Ive ever seen, she was. I didnt have a son. Didnt have any children. Couldnt. Maybe my body knew I was going to get sick, you think?
I dont know, sir.
The thing wasyour daddy, he covered for me, every which way from Sunday. I made mistakes. He tried to catch them. Id be fine one day, selling the farm the next, sending shipments to Canada instead of Louisiana, I could get that goofy. I couldnt face it. Couldnt believe it. Hid it from my wife as long as I could. I thought I was crazy.
It sounds so frightening, Mr. Renbarcker.
It was. It was. That was just the thing. I didnt know it was an illness in the beginning, or for a long while. I just thought I was losing my mind. Your dad was better than a son to me. I loved him. I loved your mama, too.
Lily felt tears well. Good tears. Loved tears.
When it got real badwell, Im sure you know. I lost the mill. It had to be closed. Id mucked up far more than your father could fix. But when they said he was despondent over losing his job-honey, it wasnt like that at all. He knew I was sick. He knew what was coming. There was no shock to him, no sudden surprise. He knew we were going down.
Lily suddenly couldnt breathe. For the first time, she was talking to someone who knew her dad back then. Who was describing her dad as a good man-a hero, not a coward. A man whod never had a depressed reason to set that fire-or any other fire.
Wed talked about it many times, Lily. I urged him to quit and leave me with my own problems. He had you three girls by then-and nothing he adored more than his daughters. He had to be worried about finances, yet when I told him to leave me, find another job, he said that you girls loved mac and cheese, and none of you needed a fancy car. Hed saved. Enough to knuckle down and find himself another job when that had to be, but he was sticking by me to the end. You know what bothered me most, young lady?
Tell me, Lily urged him.
But the old man suddenly leaned forward with a wheezing cough, and when he finally straightened again, there seemed a hazy fog over his eyes. Danielle, did you make me some of your famous huckleberry pie for dinner tonight? He winked. You look so pretty today, my dear. I love that color of blue on you.
Ithank you. Shed learned so much. She wanted to get to her cell phone, call her sisters. Wanted to figure out what all this information meant-if her dad had never set that long-ago fire, then who had? And did that have anything to do with the two fires since shed come back to town?
And then there was Griff. She wanted to get back with him, to see what was happening to his store, to dig into whatever she could help him with. And yeah, to dig into whatever crazy place they were going personally together, too.
But she couldnt just up and leave the older man. Mr. Renbarcker wasnt thinking straight. She didnt know if or when his cousin would come looking for him. The mom and her toddler had wandered off; the clutch of other kids had been picked up by their father. Another group of kids popped in. Mr. Renbarcker kept talking to Danielle as if Lily were the one and only love of his life.
A boisterous group of tweeners piled in the doors, girls, giggling loud enough to raise the dead, finally arousing the librarian to stand in the doorway with a frown. It was the first thing that had distracted Mr. Renbarcker, who finally looked at her and said, I know you, dont I?
Putting a solution in motion seemed to take forever. The librarian, Sarah-Leigh Jenkins, was enlisted to track down Barbara Marrs phone number, but Sarah seemed to think it was suspicious for Lily to take an interest in the old man. Lily managed to reach Barbara Marr; but really, it was easiest just to drive the older man back home, since he was willing to get in the car with her-even if the librarian was scandalized all over again. Driving him was just faster than waiting for his cousin to get there, and Lily couldnt fathom why anyone would think anything was hokey about a young woman being kind to someone elderly.
Only, by then, outside, it was hot enough to fry bacon on the pavement. Her rental cars air conditioner coughed and sputtered like a pneumonia case.
She got Mr. Renbarcker back to his relatives, then finally was free to drive back to Griffs. By then she was frustrated and itchy-hot, and verging on cranky. Her cell phone registered five calls-all from her sisters. Admitting to Cate why shed come back to Pecan Valley this summer had clearly alerted her sisters alarm bells. Now thered be no end to their advice. And shed call them both back.