Digging Up The Dirt

CHAPTER 12

An’gel nearly choked on her tea. She set the glass down on the table. “He left you Ashton Hall. Surely that meant he was no longer angry with you.”

Hadley shrugged. “I’m the last male in the direct line. Hamish probably hated the thought of anyone other than a Partridge laying claim to Ashton Hall more than he hated me. The irony is that I have no son to inherit it after me. Hamish had no idea, of course, but the end result is that the direct line will go kaput after all when I’m gone.”

“What will you do about the property?” Dickce asked, then blushed when she caught the irritated glance An’gel shot her. “Sorry, that isn’t any of our business.”

“I don’t mind,” Hadley said. “It’s a good question, and although I’ve thought about it, I haven’t come to any decision yet. I’m open to suggestions.”

An’gel didn’t want to discuss this particular subject at the moment, interesting as it was. She and Dickce faced a similar situation, but with Benjy now in their lives, they did have more options. Right now she wanted to steer the conversation back to Hadley’s long absence and the reason for it.

“I’m going to be blunt, Hadley.” An’gel regarded him with a determined expression. “You can refuse to answer, but frankly, I think you owe us all an explanation for why you disappeared from Athena. We were all your friends—good friends, we thought—and you walked away from all of us. That was painful. We are glad you’re back, but we can’t help but wonder why you left.”

“Ah, yes.” Hadley picked up his tea glass and stared into it. He drained the contents and set the glass down again. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“Well, aren’t you going to tell us?” Dickce said, her tone sharp, after Hadley failed to continue right away.

Hadley took a deep breath and looked at each of them in turn. “I loved Callie. She was my very dear friend, and I loved her. I wasn’t in love with her, however. She was more like a sister to me. She was in an unhappy marriage. Hamish became more and more jealous of any attention she paid me, and he took it out on her. He threatened me, as I’ve already said, and I was afraid that if I didn’t go, he would kill me, and possibly Callie, too. I tried arguing with him, but he had lost his reasonableness, if you understand what I mean. So I left.” He shrugged. “I thought that if I were out of the picture, Hamish would no longer have a reason to be jealous. That he might treat Callie better, and she could find some kind of happiness with him.”

An’gel felt a sudden rage toward Hamish Partridge. She had little doubt now that he had killed his wife, even though Hadley left in order to protect her.

“That’s horrible.” Dickce pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.

“And you had no contact with Callie after you left?” Benjy asked. He also, An’gel noticed, appeared moved by Hadley’s story.

“I never saw her again,” Hadley said.

That struck An’gel as an evasion after she thought about it a moment. She challenged him. “You never saw her again, but did you speak to her after you left? Or perhaps exchange letters?”

“You should have been a lawyer, An’gel,” Hadley said with a wry smile. “Yes, I did talk to her. When I left I went to Memphis. I had a good friend there, and I knew he’d put me up for a few nights. Callie knew him, too, and she figured that’s where I’d go. So she called me there. She had to go into town to do it.”

“How long had you been gone when she called you?” An’gel asked.

“Let me think.” Hadley got up from the table and went to the sideboard to refill his tea. That accomplished, he returned to his seat. “I left the first Saturday in June, three days before my birthday. Callie called me on Monday, sometime around noon, I think it was.”

“How was she?” Dickce asked.

“Upset that I had left, although she understood why, naturally.” Hadley sipped from his glass. “She said Hamish was calm, almost pleasant, once he knew I was gone. She told me he had invited guests to dinner that evening, something he hadn’t done in months. I remember thinking, ‘Well, she’ll be okay now.’ But evidently she wasn’t. She disappeared, too, and I had no idea until I came back here.”

“Weren’t you surprised when you never heard from her again?” An’gel asked.

“Not really, no,” Hamish said. “I told her it was best if we had no contact. She didn’t like it, but I finally persuaded her it was the only way to keep her safe. I left Memphis a few days later for New York, and then on to London about a week after that.”

“You could have called one of us,” An’gel said, now suddenly angry at him. “You should have. We could have done something to help her.”

“I know that now.” Hamish gazed at her, and she could see the anguish he felt. “At the time, though, I thought the best thing was to disappear. Make a complete break with the past. Obviously I was wrong.”

An’gel wanted to say, And Callie paid the price for it, but his obvious distress prevented her. She couldn’t be that cruel. “When you had that last conversation with Callie, did she give you any indication that she was afraid of Hamish?”

“No.” Hadley frowned. “That’s why I find it so strange that she apparently disappeared so soon after I left. When was the last time either of you saw or spoke to her?”

“We’ve been racking our brains trying to remember,” Dickce said. “I think the last time we saw her was a few days before you left.”

“There was a party that Friday, June seventh,” An’gel said. “Wedding reception at the country club. Hamish and Callie were invited, but they didn’t show. None of us thought much about it at the time, because Hamish had done that before. The following week they didn’t turn up for another function—a Chamber of Commerce dinner—and I called to check on them at that point. The housekeeper merely said that Mr. and Mrs. Partridge had suddenly left on an extended vacation and weren’t expected back for at least six weeks.”

“We didn’t realize until later that Callie had actually disappeared not long after you left,” Dickce said. “That story about an extended vacation was a lie, of course, but by then people thought they knew what happened and left Hamish alone.”

“What about the housekeeper? The one you called Mrs. Danvers.” Benjy looked at Dickce. “She has a weird name that I can’t remember. If she’s still around, couldn’t you talk to her?”

“Excellent point.” Dickce smiled fondly at Benjy.

“She retired when my brother died,” Hadley said. “She was local, so I suppose she might still be in the area. I will see if I can locate her.”

“Perhaps you had better leave that to us,” An’gel said. “If she didn’t like you, as you told us this morning, I think Dickce and I would have better luck getting her to talk.”

“You’re right.” Hadley grimaced. “She would probably slam the door in my face if she saw me standing there. Even after all these years.”

“We’ll start asking around tomorrow,” Dickce said. “I’m sure we can track her down pretty quickly.”

“And if we can’t,” An’gel said, “I’m sure Kanesha can.”

Hadley frowned. “That’s the deputy, right?”

“Yes,” An’gel said.

“How well do you know her?” Hadley asked. “She seemed competent, but I found her intimidating.”

“We’ve known her all her life,” Dickce said. “She is competent, and she can be intimidating. She has to be, in her position. I don’t know if there’s another woman in the whole state who is a chief deputy, let alone an African American woman.”

“I see what you mean,” Hadley said. “I didn’t think about that. After living abroad for so long, I’m having to readjust to some of the attitudes here.”

“Backward attitudes, you mean,” An’gel said. “Unfortunately there are still many people here whose minds are stuck in the 1950s when it comes to race and gender.”

“If you think Kanesha is intimidating, wait until you meet her mother.” Dickce chuckled. “Azalea Berry is the most formidable woman I’ve ever known.”

“She’s housekeeper for a friend of ours,” An’gel said. “Charlie Harris. We’ll have to introduce you to both of them, and to Charlie’s cat, Diesel.” She smiled fondly. “He is the dearest thing on four legs.”

“He’s a Maine Coon,” Dickce said. “And he’s the biggest house cat you’ll ever see. But he’s sweet and really smart.”

“I really have to meet this paragon.” Hadley smiled. “But what about your two four-legged friends? Where are they tonight?”

“They’re in my apartment,” Benjy said. “Over what used to be the stables.”

“I’d love to see them again,” Hadley said. “I owe the cat—Endora, isn’t that her name?—a treat of some kind for finding Callie’s ring.”

“Yes, Endora,” Benjy said. “And Peanut is the dog. He’s a Labradoodle.”

“How about coffee?” An’gel asked. “We have one of Clementine’s carrot cakes for dessert, if anyone’s interested.”

Benjy’s face lit up. “I am. I love carrot cake.”

Hadley groaned. “After all I’ve eaten already, I shouldn’t. But I could never pass up carrot cake.”

An’gel smiled as she stood. “Then Dickce and I will clear the plates away, and we’ll be back in a few minutes with the coffee and carrot cake.”

Both Benjy and Hadley offered to assist with the clearing away, but the sisters declined. They quickly gathered the plates and took them to the kitchen. Clementine had set the timer on the coffeemaker, and the coffee was ready. Dickce prepared the beverage while An’gel sliced the cake and placed the servings on a tray. They were soon back in the dining room, where they found the men discussing the adoption of shelter animals.

“Mr. Partridge is thinking about adopting a dog,” Benjy told them.

“I really wish you would call me Hadley,” Hadley said. “I don’t feel like Mr. Partridge.”

Benjy laughed. “All right then. Hadley.”

“That’s better,” Hadley said as he accepted his coffee and cake. “This looks wonderful.”

They chatted about what kind of dog Hadley wanted, but after a few minutes, An’gel steered the conversation back to the topic uppermost in her mind. “I think that we are all making the assumption that if the remains we found are truly Callie’s, then it must have been Hamish who put her there. Correct?”

Hadley appeared startled at the abrupt shift in subject. He laid down his fork and gazed at An’gel. “Though I hate to think of my brother as a murderer,” he said, “I think you’re right. I am hoping against hope that those remains aren’t Callie, though.”

“I think we have to work under the assumption that they are,” An’gel said. “I would love to believe that Callie is alive somewhere, happy and flourishing, but it simply isn’t realistic.”

Hadley sighed. “I know you’re right. Finding the ring is evidence enough, I suppose.”

“Did you have to turn it over to Kanesha?” Dickce asked.

“Yes,” Hadley said. “I will get it back eventually, but I hated to let go of it.” Suddenly he pushed back his chair and stood. “This was a wonderful meal, but it’s been rather a long day.”

An’gel rose. “Yes, it has, and the conversation hasn’t been particularly cheerful. We’ve enjoyed having you here. Let me show you out.” Dickce and Benjy stood also.

“Thank you for being so understanding.” Hadley came to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he went around her to do the same for Dickce. He extended his hand to Benjy, and they shook.

An’gel escorted Hadley to the front door. Hadley turned to her and said, “Thank you again,” before he walked through the door and into the night.

An’gel closed the door behind him and stood there for a moment, thinking about the evening. She looked up to see Dickce and Benjy walking toward her.

“I’m sorry if we upset him,” Dickce said.

“Yes, but it couldn’t be helped,” An’gel replied. “We have to talk about these things. We can’t simply ignore Callie’s death.”

“No, of course not,” Dickce said. “Poor Hadley. I feel so bad for him.”

“He seems like a nice guy,” Benjy said. “There’s one thing I’ve been thinking about, though.” He paused.

“Go ahead,” An’gel said. “Say what’s on your mind.”

“Okay.” Benjy frowned. “I was thinking about that phone call. The one he told us about. What if he was making that up?”