Page 37 of The Aura Answer
Which neatly nailed Jax’s fear and shattered any sense of peace.
Fourteen
By the time Jax,Evie, and Nick returned to the house, Gracie had all the sketches laid out in the library. She’d even made prints of the photos from the gallery, although they lacked dates.
She was trying to keep busy and not fret at the news of Sammy’s death or the sheriff’s demand to see Nick and Evie. She was obsessing about so many things right now that she’d soon be considering moving to another town to avoid crime. Occupying her mind helped.
“What are we doing?” Evie asked, entering with a platter of Pris’s experimental air-fried chicken wings. Where Pris had acquired an air fryer was anyone’s conjecture, but the house was redolent of frying chicken.
“You said Bertie was following the Turlocks, so I wanted to see how Bertie spent his last days. I doubt these are all his recent sketches. We know we’re missing the mantel-size one at least. But the ones we have do seem to fit a pattern.” She hadn’t heard about the Turlock part until Evie texted her, but it might fit in with what she was seeing.
Gracie waited anxiously to tell if anyone else could see it too. Nick and Dante couldn’t, of course. They didn’t know the area.Jax wasn’t as familiar as Evie. If Evie saw it—then they could call Mavis to verify. Their mother knew everything and everyone.
“Where’s the starting date?” Evie set down the platter for the men following on her heels.
Gracie pointed at the image of Bertie’s mother looking sad. “Last spring, before the mayor went to jail.”
Jax pointed at the one of Rhodes and Layman exchanging cash at the other end of the table. “This?”
“Midsummer,afterBlock went to jail.” Gracie turned it over to show there was no date. “This is only a photo, so I’m guessing based on short sleeves and the geranium in the foreground. The flowers turn scraggly by September.”
Studying an image of a group of men in a booth with beer mugs on the table, Evie looked troubled. She flipped it over for the date. “I can’t tell for certain, but this appears to be Teddy Sr. and half the city council—before the mayor’s trial starts? Who is the guy in the cowboy boots?”
Jax glanced over. “That’s Layman, the big developer.” He sounded worried.
Nick looked over his shoulder. “He was at the courthouse when the mayor died and came out along with the judges on the fire engine.”
Gracie nodded and waited. Dante and Nick studied the rest of the images, but they were clueless, although Nick pointed out one of the last ones. “That’s Mayor Larraine, right? Is she talking with your mother?”
“Yes. That was before the special election, not long before the Halloween party where your cousin was killed.”
Nick frowned. “None of my family is in these. He didn’t draw the boutique that opened around that time?”
“If Bertie was following someone, that someone wasn’t involved in the boutique.” Or property on that street, but Gracie didn’t want to give that clue away.
“So, if this is the Turlocks he’s following...” Evie trailed off and went back to the beginning. “The Satterwhite Farm and Bertie’s family last spring. The courthouse. A meeting at the Shepherd’s farm with Toby and friends...”
“That one seems out of place,” Gracie admitted.
“So that may just be Verity’s posterior and not relevant, although Teddy Jr. was obviously there, and he’s not in the others.” Evie continued down the table while the men munched wings and watched. “Bertie got around. Jax’s office building. Half of Main Street in this image of Rhodes, Turlock Sr., and Layman walking together. Guns and Hoses, the barroom by the courthouse. Patel and his fruit stand—I wonder if he’d buy that sketch? A pumpkin patch—that’s in the empty lot past the fruit stand in the fall.”
“The students set that up. Mrs. Satterwhite owns the property and allows them to raise funds there.” Gracie started doubting her theory.
“This is down past the Walker farmhouse.” Evie tapped a sketch of horses with a couple of kids saddling up. “A bunch of moms want to start a riding school there, but the town’s new zoning doesn’t include agriculture, so they’re having a debate.”
“And that’s when we come to Larraine and your mother talking on the street—with a Turlock off screen watching maybe, if we stick to that theory? The zoning law was still being written. The council insisted on the no-agriculture rule, and Larraine gave in to fight for more important ones for established businesses.” Jax studied the back of the final sketches and frowned. “You’d better call Reuben.”
Gracie blinked. Her theory had nothing to do with the mayor’s new boyfriend.
She studied the sketch Jax saw—a man who might be Layman talking to Turlock Sr. and a couple of councilmen ina ... barbershop? They were all looking out the window at... Larraine?
According to the date on the sketch, a week later, the mob stormed the courthouse, and Block and Bertie were dead.
Evie walked around the table again. “If Bertie was following the Turds... then the ex-mayor’s lawyer and son visited a lot of useless property on the east side of town, including the area around the courthouse, and consulted with an out-of-town developer, a judge, and the town council outside of office hours. Reporting their findings maybe? Bertie said his mother was sad because she had to move.” She tapped one of the first prints. “Why does she have to move?”
Gracie knitted her fingers into fists, waiting. Her neighborhood wasn’t far from Jax’s office or the courthouse—or the bar and tavern, for all that mattered. Afterthought was a small town. The school was across the street from the Satterwhite farm, but Bertie hadn’t sketched it or her neighborhood—because he died?
Evie continued her narration of her path around the table while Jax texted Reuben. “Mrs. Walker is being told to move. Patel is burned out. A judge takes a bribe. Zoning laws go in place. And angry white men eye the new mayor who might stand in their way. Of what?”
