Lawman

Her neighbor had surprised her by showing up at the hospital. He was a loner, as she was. She hadn’t liked him at first, but he did seem to have a few saving graces.

She put on her long white gown and brushed out her hair so that it swirled around her shoulders like a sheet of gold. She didn’t look into the mirror while she did it. She didn’t like looking at herself.

It was almost dawn when she heard someone knocking like crazy at the front door. She was sleeping in a downstairs room, rather than the old bedroom she’d had on the second floor of the house. It wasn’t far down the hall. She threw on a thick robe and paused to look out the small square windowpanes after she turned on the porch light.

She frowned. It was her neighbor, dressed and solemn. Her heart ran away with her. She could only think of one reason he might be here.

She opened the door with a little sob in her voice. “No,” she said huskily. “Please, no…!”

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“She’s…gone?”

He nodded.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She didn’t make a sound. She just looked up at him with her tragic face, crying helplessly.

He moved forward to take her by the shoulders. It was an invasion of her personal space that shocked, frightened her. She jerked nervously, but when his hands loosened and were barely resting on her, she relaxed suddenly and moved into his arms. She couldn’t remember a time in her young life when anyone had held her while she cried.

He smoothed her long, tousled hair with a big, gentle hand. “People die, Grace,” he said gently, using her name for the first time. “It’s something we all have to go through.”

“You lost your mother,” she recalled, sobbing.

“Yes.” He didn’t add that she wasn’t the only person close to him that he’d lost. He didn’t know her well enough to confide in her.

“Was it quick?” she wanted to know.

“Coltrain said she just took a little breath and relaxed,” he replied. “It was quick and painless. She never regained consciousness.”

She bit her lower lip. “Heavens,” she choked, “I don’t know anything about her burial policy. She went to the funeral home herself and filled out all the papers. She had a little policy…I don’t know where it is.” She wept again, liking the feeling it gave her to lean on him. She hadn’t ever been the sort to lean. He was warm and strong and right now, he wasn’t threatening.

“I’ll help you with that,” he said. “But you’re coming home with me now. Go upstairs and change, Grace. We’ll worry about the arrangements tomorrow. Which funeral home?”

“Jackson and Williams,” she recalled.

“I’ll phone them while you’re getting dressed. I’ll phone the hospital, too,” he added before she could ask.

“I don’t know how to thank you…” she began, lifting a face torn with grief to his eyes.

“I don’t want thanks,” he returned. “Go on.”

“Okay.”

She turned and went to her room.

Garon watched her go with narrowed eyes. Coltrain had been emphatic about keeping an eye on Grace. He said that she was going to take it hard, and she’d need someone to watch her. The redheaded doctor had known her for many years. Maybe he just cared more than most other people did.

Garon pulled out his cell phone and dialed information.

4

GRACE SAT WITH GARON in the office of the funeral home, while Henry Jackson went over the arrangements for Mrs. Collier’s funeral with her. Garon had taken a vacation day so that he could help. He didn’t tell her that he hardly ever took time off, but she guessed it.

There weren’t a lot of arrangements to make. Mrs. Collier had laid out her desires, and even paid for her casket, a simple pine one. She was to be buried in a local Baptist church cemetery, next to her late husband. Her insurance would cover the costs of the service, so that Grace had nothing to worry about.

The next stop was Blake Kemp’s office, where Grace learned that she’d been left the house and land. It was a little surprising, because she’d expected her grandmother wouldn’t leave her anything at all.

Garon was sitting in the waiting room while Grace spoke to her grandmother’s attorney.

“I didn’t think she’d leave me anything,” she began.

Blake leaned forward. “She had a guilty conscience, Grace,” he said gently. “She failed you the one time she shouldn’t have. I know she wasn’t kind to you. Maybe that was just an involuntary response to her own behavior.”

“She blamed me for Mama,” she replied.

“She shouldn’t have,” he said with the ease of someone who’d known the family for many years. “Nothing that happened was your fault.”

“That’s what Dr. Coltrain said.”

“And he’s right. We’ll go ahead and file the papers, making you executrix of her estate.” He held up a big hand when she started to speak. “You don’t have to do a thing. I’ll handle it. Now, about the funeral,” he began.

“Mr. Grier is helping with that,” she said.

“Cash?” he exclaimed.

“No, his brother Garon. He lives next door to our place,” she said.

His eyebrows arched. He wasn’t expecting that. From what he’d heard of Cash’s brother, he didn’t go out of his way to help people.

“He’s very nice,” she continued. “He had his men fix my car. And I baked him an apple cake.”

He smiled gently. “It’s about time you started noticing bachelors, Grace.”

She closed up at once. “It’s not like that,” she assured him. “He’s only being kind. Miss Turner probably had something to do with it.”

“She might have,” he conceded. “Well, if you need anything, you know where I am.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

He smiled. “It’s no trouble. When we get the papers drawn up, you can swing by and sign them. I’ll do the rest.”

She started back out of the office, smiling at the receptionist, a new girl who’d replaced Violet Hardy, who was now Kemp’s wife. Garon got up from the comfortable sofa and went with her. The receptionist’s eyebrows arched and she grinned at Garon. He scowled.

“It’s the thing about small towns,” Grace said uneasily when they were out on the sidewalk. “If you’re seen with anybody, people gossip. It’s not malicious.”

He didn’t reply, but he didn’t like it, and made it obvious.

“Thank you for taking time off to help me do these things,” she said when they were on the way back to her house. “I really appreciate it.”