Page 62 of The Aura Answer
Jax tapped the legal papers from their envelope.
Mr. Patel finally stepped inside, scarcely hiding his eagerness. “There is much space! We could have farmer’s market. Crafts, maybe. Rent booths!”
Worrying about financing a project like that was someone else’s problem. Larraine leapt in while Jax kept a wary eye on Evie, who appeared to be following the path of a distressed ghost and not doing much talking.
Mrs. Walker watched everyone anxiously. “I need to get back to the grandkids. They’re all excited about the parade. Could I just leave them papers with y’all? I don’ know much about business.”
“We can probably draw up a sublease. But we’ll need to find someone to buy your son’s inventory,” Jax tried to explain. “Do you want us to talk to the judge and let him decide what’s fair?”
She nodded. “He’s a good man. He’ll do what’s right.” She hobbled out as if sensing the supernatural activity. She probably wouldn’t appreciate knowing her son lingered.
“Block and his buddies want to put Mrs. Walker and others in a trailer park on the swamp land back there,” Jax told the mayor once she let Patel wander off to measure space. “How much of this do you already know?”
Larraine dropped her usually upbeat expression and allowed herself to look momentarily weary. “I told you I need more alcohol than you’re providing to go into this. We’d have to go all the way back to high school. Have you looked at those yearbooks?”
Jax dragged his memory back to the twenty-five-year-old pages he’d studied. “You and the Walker brothers and Rhodes all went to school together. Turlock Sr.’s law firm and Block’s real estate agency sponsored sports teams for your class, but their kids were too young to play those years. You said your class was mean, but I saw no evidence in the books.”
“No, you won’t. Unless you read the fine print, you won’t notice Judge Rhodes and I were top of our class in eleventh grade but aren’t listed graduating in senior year. We were kicked out in our final semester. And Bertie, of course, dropped out early. Sammy graduated only because he was our star football player.”
Jax raised his eyebrows. “Neither of you graduated?”
“We took the GED. Money was tight for all of us back then. Turlock and Block were already on their way in the world, or pretending they were Big Important Men by running up debt. Kids didn’t know that sort of thing. We just knew they were offering a scholarship for the best all-around student. There were only twenty-five of us in the graduating class.”
Jax grimaced. “And so you all started eliminating each other instead of standing out on your own.”
Larraine shrugged. “What chance did a gay n...” She pulled up short on the epithet and continued, “Even if I busted my gut being best at everything? Besides, I was into fashion, not sports. I never had a chance. I just did my level best to see that everyone else played fairly. And they didn’t.”
“And your notion of fairness?” Jax appreciated Larraine’s world view, but she’d had to be tough to survive.
“I reported Rhodes for cheating. He’d been doing it for years, but it didn’t matter until then. I showed them where he’d copied my answers, right down to the mistakes. He claimed I was the one who copied. Since I’d taken at least one of those tests early, that was bogus, but they expelled both of us.”
She refrained from adding what Jax understood—that school officialdom would have been happy to be rid of a poor, gay, Black troublemaker. She was just fortunate—or extremely determined—that they’d also been forced to kick out the upwardly mobile white guy. Evie’s family may have been involved. Mavis had been Larraine’s mentor by then.
“Out of curiosity, who won the scholarship?” Jax tried to wrap his mind around a cheating judge, how someone might use that scandal, and how it applied here, but the result had multiple outcomes.
“Nobody. I forget the excuse. Poor school spirit or some such, but my bet is that Block and Turlock weren’t raking in the profits they’d expected from that promotion. Now tell me why I’m really here.” She waited expectantly.
Jax produced his notebook computer to show her the LLC file. “With Block’s demise, Franklin Layman inherits mortgages on half the town. He can recall them anytime. And we’ve uncovered plans to demolish Main Street for one of his malls. How much do you know about that?”
Larraine rolled her eyes. “Turlock has been on my case about the zoning ever since I forced it down the council’sthroat. Apparently they didn’t realize they were ceding control of development to the voters.”
Jax snorted. “Because, until recently, the voters didn’t care and let them do whatever they wanted. You woke up the town. So Turlock is in on the scheme?”
“He’s been standing in Block’s shoes for months. I don’t know what he has invested in this project now that his pal is dead. Maybe we should ask him.” She glanced at her mobile and uttered an expletive. “I know I charged this thing before I left the office.”
Jax handed her his battery recharger. “It’s Evie. You might want to go to your car to make calls, or she’ll drain this the moment you connect.”
“Tell Reuben I’ll be right back.” She took the charger and sailed outside.
Jax would have liked to hear the conversation with Teddy Turlock Sr., but Evie would be wiped soon. He turned to watch her. He might not be able to call spirit energy, but he could be there after they drained her.
“Drug dealing is not the same as cheating in high school, Samuel!” Evie whisper-shouted. “And blackmail isn’t any better. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Blackmail.That introduced an interesting new perspective. Jax would be happier if he thought she was talking about Layman being blackmailed, but Sammy wouldn’t have known the wealthy businessman. It had to be a local.
Jax watched Gracie shyly float a book toward the always-curious Dr. Reuben. He wanted to wrap up this case so everyone could go back to enjoying the holiday. And so he could have Evie’s full attention and pin her down to a wedding date. At this rate, he was contemplating Las Vegas. Her family would kill him.
“I’ll give your Mom your love, Sammy. And your kids. They’re going to be fine. We’ll look after them. You need to move on. Bertie will need your help.”
