Lights, Camera, Bones, page 14
That sounded more than reasonable to me. “Who would do that?”
He looked at me and shook his head. “Sounds like a Lamar Bilbo move. He’s another wannabe. The only thing they’ve got going for them is their pseudoheritage. It won’t work for them much longer, and they know that. Maybe they just want to keep any outsiders away for fear of losing their grip.”
What he said made perfect sense. “Can I have a list of the members?”
“If you promise you won’t go poking around without the sheriff.”
It was a promise I was reluctant to give, but I conceded, partially. “I’ll tell Sheriff Nelson about it, and I promise not to go without him.”
He went to the computer and printed the list. He handed it to me but held a corner. “You gave your word, remember that.”
“I will.” He’d put me in the hot seat, and I had to honor my promise. He let the corner go and I tucked it into my jeans’ pocket before he could change his mind. In four seconds flat I was out the door.
Instead of a drink, I picked up two hot coffees from a local diner and headed back to the empty movie set. Tinkie was still there, watching the water as if Godzilla might rise from the deep. Worry etched lines in her face and I knew the same was true for me. I handed her a coffee and pulled out the list of names.
Together we went over them. I didn’t know these locals, and they weren’t the kind of people Tinkie would know from bank business or society gatherings. We needed local input.
I texted Sheriff Nelson to see how much longer they were going to be on the water. When he responded with an hour or two, Tinkie and I decided to go to Bluebeard’s to ask the local barkeep about our list. He’d been helpful in the past.
We started toward the lot where we’d left the car when I noticed the door to Ana’s trailer open. As in wide open. Instinctively we ducked behind another trailer and watched. I could see movement inside, but I couldn’t determine what was happening. Ana was still at the courthouse. Nelson hadn’t released her yet. Who else would have business in her trailer, which served as the office for the movie?
“It’s Bilbo!” Tinkie whispered. “I recognize that hat he wears.”
She was right. Lamar Bilbo stepped out of the trailer, closing the door behind him. In his hand he carried a sheaf of papers.
“He’s robbing the place,” she said.
“He’s stealing something.” I was torn between tackling him or following him. He might lead us to Marlon. Hope was renewed that the handsome actor was alive.
“Let’s tail him.” Tinkie made the decision.
“You got it.” We pressed back against the trailer as he passed near us. He didn’t even bother to look around. He was either confident or dumb as a post. A minute later I understood his confidence. Senator Brandon walked from the parking lot to greet him. The men huddled together. I couldn’t tell if it was friendly or contentious. Bilbo shook the sheaf of papers in the air and Brandon made a grab for them and missed.
“Are they working together?” Tinkie asked.
“I can’t tell. Maybe Bilbo is blackmailing Brandon. If he has Marlon, maybe he’s making a devil’s bargain with the senator.”
It was all speculation. The two men could be discussing the movie or Mother’s Day plans.
When they started to walk away together, Tinkie grabbed my arm. “We have to follow them, but we can’t get caught. You really need a different vehicle, Sarah Booth. Something silver or gray and not flashy like that Roadster.”
She was right, but her signature Cadillac was just as flashy and easy to spot. One of us needed to give up style for obscurity. I knew it would be me. “We work with what we have.”
“We could call an Uber,” Tinkie suggested.
“If we knew where we were going, it would be an idea. As it is, we only need to follow and stay back. Maybe try to get a car or two between us.” Tailing someone on two-lane country roads that were straight and without any verge was difficult. Often there wasn’t a lot of other traffic.
“What if they take separate cars?” Tinkie asked.
“We’ll follow Bilbo.” We had to choose.
“Look!”
They headed to the senator’s big, black Escalade. They got in and the senator drove off.
“What the hell is going on?” Tinkie asked.
“We’re going to find out,” I said.
Faster than a speeding bullet, Tinkie headed for the car. I was right on her heels. Before I could stop her, she got behind the wheel, which was fine by me. I had some research to do. I handed her the keys and we were off.
21
We’d been following the senator for twenty minutes when Tinkie said, “He’s not headed home. Where are they going?”
“It appears they might be going to the woods. Maybe Senator Brandon is planning to shoot Bilbo. If so, we shouldn’t interfere.”
Tinkie laughed. “I agree. But why would Bilbo get in the car with someone he knew wanted to kill him?”
“Because he’s Lamar Bilbo and he thinks his name will protect him from everything.”
“If I were a Bilbo, I’d change my name,” Tinkie said.
Now it was my turn to laugh. “Theodore Bilbo was governor of Mississippi twice, non-consecutive terms, and elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934.” Thank goodness for Google and the cell phone.
“I remember that nugget of sordid history. He was supposed to have a campaign fundraiser at The Club,” Tinkie said. “Our great-grandfathers put a stop to it.”
“My great-grandfather belonged to The Club?” This was news to me. My parents, who didn’t believe in exclusivity or elitism, had never been members of Sunflower County’s fancy country club and golf course.
“He did. Your father and mother refused the invitation to join. It was quite the scandal in Zinnia when they gave their reasons. They were labeled socialists.”
“Yeah, I heard that story.” I continued pulling up information on the notorious Theodore Bilbo while Tinkie drove. Bilbo, the former governor and U.S. senator, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and a rabid racist who was no stranger to corruption. New Cadillacs, swimming pools, construction—he acquired wealth and possessions through illegal dealing.
“Bilbo wasn’t seated in 1947 after the election,” I told Tinkie as I read. “Other senators stood up against him. He became very sick with mouth cancer. He died that summer, without ever taking his seat in the Senate. But he was paid the entire time.”
“At least he was shut out of power.” Tinkie was more pragmatic than I was. The pay-and-pension scheme of elected officials was a source of aggravation for me.
“Reading this, it’s no wonder Lamar is worried that the movie is going to depict some families as villains.” U.S. Senator Bilbo had been a one-man crime wave and a lot of other elected officials had helped and protected him from the consequences of his actions.
“Hold on,” Tinkie said, turning off the main road onto a gravel side road that led into the thick woods. She took the turn at a high speed, but the Roadster was so balanced it held the road. “Sorry, I saw them turn but I was so far back I almost drove past it.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m not even a little worried.” Tinkie was a skilled and safe driver. She’d had a sports car in high school and had developed a reputation as a future candidate for the Indy 500.
She slowed on the gravel road. It was a fairly smooth ride, but there were places where the washboard felt like it was going to rattle the wheels off the car. A certain speed, which she quickly found, minimized the battering. The road led us deeper and deeper into the dense wood. The gravel gave out and the road turned into a two-track path. The weeds and foliage crept closer and closer to both sides of the road until Tinkie stopped. “I’m going to pull into this little turnoff,” she said. “The river is only half a mile or so from here, if my geography calculations are right. We should walk the rest of the way.”
“Good idea. We don’t know what those men are up to, and it would be smart to slip up on them and spy.” The fact the two men were hanging out together left me on edge about their motives. Maybe Brandon was trying to bribe Bilbo to back off from the movie business. It wouldn’t be the first time a Bilbo went for cash.
Tinkie pulled the car into the side trail deep enough that it wasn’t visible from the main track. If someone found and tampered with the car, it would be a long walk back to the road.
“Call Coleman and tell him where we are,” Tinkie suggested.
“Why don’t you call Oscar?” I teased her gently.
“Coleman is a lawman. Just call him.” She got out of the car. Tinkie was on a roll. She wasn’t going to wait for me.
I caught up with her on the path—after I got my gun out of the trunk of the car. We might not need it, but I sure didn’t want to leave it lying around for Bilbo to snatch. He had a bad temper and not a lot of restraint, from what I could tell.
“So what does Lamar Bilbo do for a living?” I asked Tinkie. I might be the one to google the history of the Bilbo name, but Tinkie and Oscar’s financial power in the Delta put them in the know.
“He sells heavy equipment.”
“Like tractors and combines?”
“Like bulldozers and stuff like that.”
“Then he likely sells to the county or state, supplying their roadwork equipment.”
“Probably,” she said. “Call Coleman and tell him where we are, and I’ll call Harold and ask him to find out who Bilbo’s best customers are.”
I dialed Coleman’s number and when he answered, he sounded far away. “Where are you?” I asked.
“On the river. We’re still searching for Marlon, Mary Dayle, and the rest of Jules, but with the storm brewing up, we’ll be heading in soon. Where are you?”
“Somewhere in the woods a little northeast of Greenville. We’re tracking the senator and Lamar Bilbo. They left the movie set together.”
“That’s not suspicious at all,” Coleman said sarcastically. “What’s up?”
“We don’t know yet. Tinkie and I are slipping up on them to spy.”
“That may not be smart,” Coleman said. “Bilbo is a hothead, and the senator is used to exercising his privilege. Don’t get hurt.”
“My exact plan,” I said. “See you soon. I just wanted you to know where we are in case we don’t come home.”
“That’s not funny, Sarah Booth.”
“It wasn’t meant to be. I have a bad feeling about what we might find out here in the woods.” Would we find Marlon’s remains, buried out here where no one would reasonably look?
“I’m going in the water one more time before we quit. I’ll see you soon.”
The line went dead and Tinkie and I pushed our way through the undergrowth.
“I have a really bad feeling.” I couldn’t stop myself. I whispered my confession to Tinkie. I tried not to give voice to doubts and anxieties—call me superstitious but I thought it might make them come true. Today, though, Brandon and Bilbo had truly gotten under my skin.
“I know, but we can’t stop now. All we’re going to do is take a peek, find out where they’re going, and ascertain if they’re hiding Marlon out here in the boonies. I have to believe he’s still alive.”
“Why would Brandon be working with Bilbo?” I asked.
“It could be a million reasons. We’ll investigate and get more information.”
She was right, and my constant yammering wasn’t helping us. I dropped behind her as she led the way, taking care to follow where she stepped and not to make a lot of noise. In a few minutes we came up on a cabin almost completely hidden in the woods. It was a hunting camp so camouflaged that I was willing to bet the hunters sat on the front porch and shot the deer over a baited field. Some hunters disliked actual hunting. They were all about trophy bragging.
“So this is the legendary Brandon hunting lodge,” Tinkie said. “Forty years ago this place had a reputation for hard drinking and hot women. The men did a lot more than hunt when they came here.”
“Drinking and whoring are a lot better than killing helpless animals,” I said.
She nudged me in the ribs with her elbow. “You would say that. And I agree.” She gripped my shoulder. Brandon and Bilbo walked out of the woods on the other side of the lodge and climbed the stairs. Brandon opened the door, and they went inside.
“Do you think Marlon is in there?” Tinkie sounded hopeful.
“We won’t know unless we look.”
“Do you think they’ll shoot us if they see us?” she asked.
“I honestly don’t know. Depends on what they’re up to or hiding.”
She touched my shoulder and took off running in a crouch. She made it to the side of the cabin and pressed against it, signaling me to follow. I obliged. Though we listened, we couldn’t hear anything happening inside the lodge. I peeked in the window and saw an empty bedroom with several beds in it. We moved around the building, checking every window without any success. At last we came to a large kitchen and found Brandon and Bilbo sitting at a long table sipping bourbon. They didn’t seem at odds, but they were both wary, watching each other. Waiting. But for what?
“This is weird,” Tinkie said. “Do you think they’re expecting someone else?”
That was about the only explanation I could come up with. My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and almost made me jump out of my skin. I checked it to discover Coleman had sent a text. The water search was over for the day. Nothing of importance had been found. No one had seen the shark since Mary Dayle disappeared. He asked if he should come find us.
“Not yet.” I shot the text back. I’d have more time to type later.
“Duck! They’re leaving.” Tinkie hunkered down, as did I.
We were on the west side of the cabin, and we heard the front door close. The two men walked across the wide veranda, boots clomping on the cypress wood. They weren’t talking, and they disappeared into the woods, heading back to their car, or so I presumed.
We waited five minutes. When they didn’t return, we set to work.
“I think I can jimmy that window up,” I said. “We have to make sure Marlon isn’t in here.”
“But we have to be quick. We hid the Roadster pretty good, but I don’t want them to see it.”
She was right about that. “Yes, hurry. We must do this now, though, unless we want to come back with a warrant.”
I shook my head. “We’ll never get a warrant. We don’t have any evidence. The only wrongdoing would be us trespassing and spying.”
Tinkie sighed as I went to a garden shed for a tool to lever the window up. It wasn’t locked but the wood was swollen from the moisture in the air. It took some elbow grease, but we got it open. I boosted Tinkie in. She was smaller and lighter. In turn, she went to the front door and let me in.
Together we checked the interior of the cabin. The kitchen, except for the two glasses left on the big table, was squared away. The beds were neatly made. There was no trace of anyone having been there except for a stout armchair in the middle of a bedroom. Used duct tape and some rope were on the floor beside the chair.
“Do you think Marlon was here, tied up and detained?” Tinkie asked.
“I do.” I went to the kitchen and got a plastic trash bag to put the rope and tape in. Sheriff Nelson could have it checked for DNA. At last we had a lead and possible evidence that Marlon had been abducted. We’d taken a baby step. Now we had to follow through.
22
As we made our escape, we hadn’t seen the black Escalade. I could only think there was another road in and out of the lodge. I was just glad they hadn’t seen us or the Roadster.
Tinkie drove slowly, watching ahead and behind us for any signs of the two men. “Do you really think Brandon is involved in the kidnapping of his grandson?” she asked. “Why would Senator Brandon do that?”
“It’s impossible to say. Why would he want to wreck his grandson’s career? Especially since the movie paints the Brandon family as noble and heroic for saving so many lives during the flood.”
“Maybe Brandon was meeting with Bilbo to discuss paying a ransom to get Marlon back.”
“That’s a possibility.” We didn’t have enough evidence to make an informed guess, much less a legal charge.
“Where is Marlon now?” Tinkie asked. “If he was the person tied and taped to that chair, where did he go?”
“Do I look like the Wizard of Oz?” I parried, but with a chuckle. “I feel certain that except for the kidnappers, Marlon is the only person who can tell us what really happened.”
“The good news is that I feel pretty sure he’s alive.”
Tinkie was always the optimist, but I shared her feeling. I believed Marlon had been abducted and detained at the lodge. Now he had been moved. If they went to the trouble to move him alive, then he would likely remain alive. “Maybe they just want to kill the movie. If Marlon is out of action for another few days, the cast and crew will disband and go home. The grant for the raft documentary will be withdrawn by the film commission. The movie will be dead and there won’t be any bringing it back to life.”
“Which may be the case. What would the senator have to gain by this?” Tinkie asked just before we hit a bump that knocked the breath out of both of us.
“Control of the family history. Punishment to Marlon because he left Greenville and the family. A payback to the son and daughter-in-law he detested.”
“Old men do carry a lot of grudges,” Tinkie said. “Old women, too.”
I knew she was thinking of her mother, who still hadn’t shown up to see her only grandchild. I was at the point of tracking Mrs. Bellcase down and giving her an earful.
At last we made it to the highway and started back to Greenville. “We need to figure out where Bilbo and Brandon are,” she said. “They may lead us to Marlon.”
“Let’s make sure Ana is out of jail. I’m sure they won’t hold her. But we can get her to follow one of them and I’ll take the other. You need to go home to see Maylin.”
