Walk the Wire

Chapter 69

“Caroline, why did you go out to your dad’s house?” asked Jamison.

It was the following day, and she and Decker were in the woman’s hospital room where the woman was lying in the bed, groggy and pale.

Liz Southern sat silently in a chair across from her, gazing at her friend sympathetically.

Caroline gazed up at Jamison and Decker, who hovered over her.

“W-what?”

“Why were you at your dad’s house?”

Caroline closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Southern said, “Let’s step outside. She needs her rest. I think she was more concussed than they originally thought.”

Out in the hall Decker looked at Southern. “Hugh Dawson told us you and Caroline had become good friends, sort of like sisters?”

Southern smiled. “I would be quite the older sister, but yes, we have become friends.” Her features turned somber. “When I heard about what happened I couldn’t believe it. The nurse told me they gave her some meds to help her rest. She didn’t sleep all that much last night, apparently. They said she’s probably in shock after what happened to Hugh.”

“Did you talk to her?” asked Decker.

Southern nodded. “Just for a few minutes. Off and on.”

“Okay, then you know more than we do. What did she tell you?”

“From what I could understand, she went there to have it out with her father over some business issues. She didn’t tell me what they were.”

“That’s right, you don’t know,” said Jamison.

“Don’t know what?”

“Hugh Dawson sold out to Stuart McClellan.”

Southern gaped. “ ‘Sold out’? What does that mean?”

“He sold his business, all his properties, to McClellan.”

“Everything, including Maddie’s?” Southern looked even more stunned.

“Yes,” said Jamison. “Including Maddie’s.”

Southern shook her head. “So I guess that explains why she was going out there. That would have been devastating for her.” She paused. “So Stuart kills himself and then Hugh does, too?”

“McClellan may not have been a suicide,” said Jamison.

“You mean someone murdered him?”

Decker interjected, “What else did Caroline tell you?”

“She wasn’t making a whole lot of sense, but she did tell me that Hugh had betrayed her trust, only I didn’t know what she meant until now.”

“What else?” asked Jamison.

Southern’s features turned grim. “She told me she walked into his office ready to have it out with him and then she saw him... dead. She started to become hysterical at that point. I went and got a nurse, and she gave her the medication.”

At that moment Shane hurried up to them, looking wildly around.

“What the hell is going on? I just got back to town. Joe texted and said Caroline was in the hospital but didn’t say why.”

Jamison said, “She’s going to be fine, Shane. But she’s had a shock. Her father’s dead.”

Shane whirled around to look at Jamison. “Dead! What are you talking about?”

“He was found dead in his home last night. It looks like he killed himself.”

“Where’s Caroline? I need to see her.”

“She’s asleep.”

“I still need to see her.”

They went back into the room. Shane hurried over to the bed and looked down at Caroline. “You’re... you’re sure she’s going to be okay?”

“Yes,” said Southern. “She had a concussion and just needs to rest.”

He backed away from the bed as Caroline stirred in her sleep and said in a lower voice, “Why would my dad kill himself?”

Decker glanced at Jamison before asking Shane, “Did you know your father and Hugh Dawson were doing a deal together?”

Shane glanced at Southern before plopping down in a chair. “Yeah, I knew they were doing some deal, but no details. He probably didn’t trust me with the information. And I knew they had been meeting on the sly. But I didn’t know it was for the whole business.”

“Did it surprise you?” said Jamison. “That your dad was buying Dawson out?”

“Hugh Dawson has been sick of this place for a long time, and who can blame him? All you got are companies digging the land up to get the oil and gas. And you got all these people coming here who don’t give a crap about this place. They just want to make their pile and go back to where they came from when it’s all gone.”

Southern protested, “That’s not really true anymore, Shane. There are more families coming here and putting roots down.”

He waved this off. “It’ll always be a mining town. And when everything’s sucked out, what then? You really think people are going to stick around here?”

Decker said, “So Dawson wanted to get out? You know that for a fact?”

“When Maddie was alive they were fixing to go to France. All of them, Caroline too.”

“But then Maddie died,” said Jamison.

Shane nodded. “And Hugh built his big house. But I could tell the man’s heart wasn’t in it.”

“So he might have wanted to sell out?”

“Yeah, and my old man would be the only one with the money to buy him out. And it would help his business. Hell, he’d pay his workers to get the oil and gas out, and they’d pay him all that money back in rent and food and whatnot.”

“Like the old company coal-mining towns,” observed Decker.

“Right.”

Decker said, “I want you to take a few deep breaths, Shane.”

“Why?”

“Because I have something to tell you that will be upsetting.”

“Hell, Decker, I’ve seen my buddies blown to pieces in Iraq and Afghanistan, okay?”

“Okay. So do you have any idea why Dawson would leave a suicide note saying that he killed your father?”

The blood slowly drained from Shane’s face. “Hugh said he killed my dad.”

“We found a note that said that. And there is some forensic evidence pointing to his having done so.”

“What kind of evidence?” asked Southern quickly.

“We can’t get into that,” replied Decker.

Shane rose on wobbly legs. “He killed my old man?”

“At least that’s what the note said,” said Jamison.

“You sure he wrote it?”

“Several people identified it as his handwriting.”

“Son of a bitch.” He turned and looked at Caroline. In a low voice he added, “Does... does she know about this?”

Decker shook his head. “No, she doesn’t.” He paused and sized Shane up. “Of course with your father dead, you’re a very wealthy man.” He glanced at Caroline. “And she’s a very rich woman.”

Shane glanced at him. “If my old man left me anything.”

“So you haven’t seen his will?”

“Never had a reason to.”

“Not into money?” said Decker. “With all that you could live in grand style.”

“Never been one much for style,” said Shane. And with that he went over to the bed, bent down, kissed Caroline on the forehead, and walked out.

Southern watched him go with a sad expression. “I’ve known him since he was a baby,” she said. “Him and Joe. Watched them grow up together with Caroline.”

“We understand they were pretty tight,” said Decker.

“Inseparable was more like it. This was before Hugh and Stuart were all supercompetitive with their businesses. The kids could just be kids. Caroline was like a sister with her two protective brothers, least she was back then.”

“What about her actual brother?” asked Jamison.

“Junior was always quiet and kept to himself. He was uncomfortable around his family, especially his father. Caroline, Joe, and Shane would roughhouse, but not Junior.”

“I guess later, when he came out?” prompted Jamison.

Southern’s lips pursed. “Caroline and his mom stood by him, that was for sure. But Hugh was especially brutal.”

“That’s what Kelly told us.”

“Hugh wanted sons like him — strong, aggressive, kick-ass, none of the things Junior was.”

“So did he see Kelly and Shane as sort of his sons?” asked Jamison.

“That’s very perceptive of you because, in a way, he did, yes. He went to all the football games. Junior was the drum major of the marching band at school. He could play pretty much any musical instrument. But did his daddy acknowledge any of that? No. He just cheered on Joe and Shane scoring touchdowns.”

“And when they got older?”

“Hugh and Stuart were at each other’s throats by then. Caroline got sent off to college to learn what she needed to learn to inherit the business. Joe became a cop, as you know. Shane joined the Army right out of high school. So like that, everything changed. The gang went their separate ways.”

“Kelly was the only one left here,” said Jamison.

“Yeah. I’d see him around town. He looked like a lost pup.” She smiled sadly. “I felt badly for him. His two best friends, gone like that. Then Caroline graduated and came back. After that Shane returned home. But it was never the same. Then Maddie died. That nearly destroyed Hugh. I didn’t much care for the man, but I have to give him credit where it’s due: He loved his wife.”

“You seem to have definite opinions of all of them,” noted Decker.

Southern gazed at him. “And that’s what they are, my opinions. You can accept them or not.”

Jamison glanced over at the sleeping Caroline. “And what about Caroline? Kelly and Hugh had a discussion about her. Kelly thought her father wanted Caroline to move to France with him, to find a man there to marry, and have a big family.”

“Hell, I thought she might stay right here and marry Joe, or Shane. But that never happened. If you want my two cents, I think her seeing how her father treated her brother just wrecked her. The names he would call his own son, right out in public. The ridicule. It was like watching a TV show from the sixties or something. So cruel, so mean.” She shook her head. “So to answer your question, I don’t know if she’ll ever find someone. I hope she does. She deserves to be happy.”

“Daddy’s perfect little girl,” said Decker.

“What?”

“I told Caroline before that that’s what I think her dad saw in her. She said there was no such thing.”

“Well,” said Southern. “I think she’s right about that.”