Page 39 of You Can Leave Your Hat On

CHAPTER SIX

“Ihave to go in here and tell the sheriff what we’re doing. Carly wasn’t there to call him, and I feel like I owe him that, to be coming into his county in uniform in a cruiser.”

“I agree,” Maisey said with a nod.

“I’ll be right back.” She watched as he disappeared into the Bell County Sheriff’s Office’s building and thought about how she’d tell Hazel’s folks. What should she say? And how should she say it? She figured it would come to her when she got there.

But when Aaron came back to the car, he had a strange look on his face. “What? What happened?” Maisey asked. “Did he tell you no?”

He sat there for a few seconds, then turned to face Maisey. “You actually talked to them?”

“Yeah. Two old women. Her great-grandma and her great-great-grandma. That woman is older than dirt.”

“You’re sure that’s who they were?”

“Well, if not, who were they?”

Aaron stopped for a second, and Maisey wondered what he was about to say. When he finally spoke, she felt faint. “Maise,the deputy in there said nobody’s lived there in over thirty-five years. Nobody. Those women died long ago.”

“That’s not possible! I talked to them!” Maisey almost shouted. What the hell? Why would the deputy say that? “Take me out there! I’ll show you!”

Aaron snapped on his seat belt. “Well, okay then. Let’s go.”

They drove along, and Maisey enjoyed the scenery. It really was a beautiful part of the state, and the trees were full and majestic. They turned down the little lane just as Maisey had, but when they came out of the trees at the top of the hill with the drive there on the right, the mailbox that had been there when she’d visited was on the ground and crushed, plus it looked like it had been that way for a while. “What the hell?”

“What?”

“The mailbox. It was on the post, and it sure didn’t look like that.”

“That mailbox hasn’t been on a post in twenty years, babe. Down this way?” he asked and pointed.

“Yes.” The weeds between the tire tracks were much higher than they had been before, and Maisey waited, holding her breath.

There sat the house, but it didn’t look the same. There was no glass in any of the windows, and the curtains had rotted away. And the house… It was impossible that anyone lived there. The roof was partially caved in, and most of the things that had been hanging from the porch were either on the porch floor or gone. The dog she’d seen before greeted them, even skinnier than he’d been earlier. Maisey crept toward the house, Aaron right behind her, and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she turned the knob, and the door swung open.

Nothing. The things that had been in the house were mostly gone. Only the chair the old woman had sat in remained, and she couldn’t believe her eyes. There were a couple of broken disheson the floor, and what few cooking utensils remained were scattered about. The mattress on the old bed was rotted and the center had pretty much disintegrated. “Holy shit.”

“Did it look like this before?”

“No. I mean, it was filthy and pitiful, but it was lived in.”

“Babe, nobody’s lived here in years. That’s clear.”

“I don’t understand! I checked out what they said, and everything they told me was true. I just don’t get it.” She turned to find that Aaron had wandered outside, and she followed him as he walked toward the tree line.

There, in the shade of a large oak, was a small family cemetery. “What were their names?”

Maisey stood there in shock. Near the back was a small stone that read,BeulahPuckett, and her birth and death dates. Nearer to the front was another,ZoraPuckett, and the same, a birth and death date. And they’d both been dead well over twenty-five years. “Hazel was a little girl when they died.”

“I take it those two were them?” Maisey nodded. “How…”

“I have no idea. Let’s go. This is giving me the creeps.”

“Okay, but hang on. I’ve gotta go.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ll just step back here into the trees…” Maisey shook her head as she watched him go, then turned back toward the house.

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