Goodbye Earl(104)

OC: I do love apple pie, Miss Mimi. Thank you.

MH: I know this is a murder investigation now, but that’s nonsense. Y’all don’t really think somebody killed Trey, do y’all, Silas?

OC: Miss Mimi, I—

MH: Trey died because God don’t like ugly. Nobody killed him.

OC: That just might be true.

MH: Everything Caro said about what Trey Foxberry did to her is true too. I grew up with a daddy like Trey. Did you know that?

OC: No, ma’am.

MH: One night my mama poured a pot of boiling water on him. Can you understand why a woman would snap and do something like that?

OC: I sure can.

MH: Right. Because she came down here to this police station when Trey’s great-uncle was chief, and she told him everything my daddy was doing to us, terrorizing us in our own home, and do you know what Trey’s great-uncle did?

OC: No, ma’am.

MH: Trey’s great-uncle went right over to the mill where my daddy was working, and he told my daddy exactly what my mama had told him, and my daddy went home and beat my mama up so bad she lost the baby she was pregnant with.

My little brother. That’s why I’m an only child, Silas…because the police didn’t help us. The men on the police force knew exactly what was happening, but they didn’t do a thing about it, and I protected Caroline from all that. She doesn’t know that happened. Maybe I should’ve told her. Maybe it would’ve helped her out. I wanted to trust her when she told me Trey was a good man. I wanted to trust that there was something underneath that I couldn’t see…I wanted to believe her so bad I guess I fooled myself. But Lord have mercy, I wish somebody would’ve killed my daddy instead of my mama having to try to do it on her own. She wasn’t the same after all that. My daddy obviously wasn’t either. He never put his hands on her or me again. He drank himself to death the year before she died, and he never told nobody what my mama did to him. He lied and said he’d had an accident himself because he knew he deserved it for everything he’d done.

OC: This is all so terrible, Miss Mimi. I’m sorry.

MH: Maybe in his heart, Trey wanted to die for what he’d done.

OC: Maybe you’re right.

MH: We all tried to help Angie and Kasey back then too, but…we couldn’t.

OC: That’s a shame, I know.

MH: Just make sure you also put down there that Rosemarie, Ada, and Kasey were at my place for a long time.

OC: Mm-hmm. When was that?

MH: Whatever night Trey went missing.

OC: Oh, okay. They were?

MH: Of course they were, Silas. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true, would I?



*





Nancy Simmons


Officer Castelow: Hi, Miss Nancy.

Nancy Simmons: Hi, Silas. Don’t forget I remember when you were in diapers…I even changed a few of them when I’d stop at the B and B to drop off lavender from my garden when you were little and your mama and I would get to talking.

OC: Ha! I do love your stories, Miss Nancy. Thank you for sharing them with me. You know just about everything that happens in this town, don’t you?

NS: Sure do.

OC: You said you had something important to tell us about the night Trey went missing?

NS: Very important. This is a murder investigation now, is that right?

OC: Yes, ma’am.

NS: Okay then. Since you like my stories so much, I got another one for you. I saw Trey Foxberry skulking around behind the Fritz farmhouse that night. No one came to ask me about it, which I thought was odd since obviously I know everyone in this town calls me Nosy Nancy, and I’m okay with that because I don’t mind keeping an eye on Goldie. You know it was my great-grandfather who was so nosy he found out that those caves in Adora Springs made the water taste so good? But we got good water too, don’t we? I know everyone loves Adora Springs because they got that big shopping center and they’re talking about building the baseball stadium there, but that’s what makes Goldie the magic that it is…it’s smaller and off the beaten path and unexpected. Those are the best things in life sometimes…the good, unexpected ones. That’s Goldie, one hundred percent.

OC: I agree with you on that. Did you want to tell me more about what you saw Trey Foxberry doing on…what night was it, Miss Nancy?

NS: Friday night. The day after the tornado in Adora Springs. I remember it because I’d stepped out front to see if that big tree in our yard still had that long branch hanging down like it was fixin’ to fall off, and I hollered for Donnie to come look at it too. He asked about you, by the way, since he hadn’t seen you in what—a week? Y’all never go too long without bumping into each other. He said to tell you hi.

OC: Tell him I said hi back. We’ve been friends for a long time.

NS: You sure have…since y’all were both toddling around. That’s how I remember how old you are, Silas, because you were born the same year as my grandson—1986. Although his birthday is right there at the end; he barely made it in time. Anyway, Friday night I saw Trey’s car in the driveway, but I didn’t see him until it was dark…he’s tall and long and I recognized him by how he was walking. I remember when Trey was born too, same year as y’all. He was a pretty little baby, but he never acted right. Anyway, I’d know him anywhere, even in the dark. He was out back of the house wandering around, but I never saw Kasey or anybody else out there in case y’all were thinking she had something to do with this; she definitely didn’t. Kasey Fritz was raised in that hell of a household with that man Roy, and I used to see him acting a fool over there. I called the police several times, but Angie would never press charges; she just sent them away. I talked to her about it time and time again, begged her to let somebody help her, but she seemed determined to love that man no matter what. And Kasey’s not violent. I would see Roy snatch her in the backyard, and that little girl didn’t even fight back. I wish she would’ve! I called Child Protective Services once, but I hung up because I didn’t want Angie to get in any trouble for what Roy did. It made me feel better that I saw Kasey sneaking out of that house so much. I knew she had safe spaces to get to. She went to the Plums’ or the Kingstons’, or Mimi kept an eye on her. I know you know I have my sons and grandsons, but I had a granddaughter die a day after she was born that same year in 1986. My other son’s child. The one who lives way up in Ann Arbor. Anyway, I always kept an eye on Kasey and thought about my granddaughter…how she’d be that same age too.