Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(36)
“I appreciate that. I’m glad you got to meet him at Grant’s, even if briefly. Yes, he was a wonderful man—temperamental at times. But aren’t great artists that way, maybe all men, truth be told? Kate, this is an old friend of mine who’s in town for a while, Lacey—Lacey Fencer—ah, she took her maiden name back. I guess you know who she is—was.”
Kate and Lacey assessed each other. No handshake. Two wimpy nods and fake smiles, Kate thought. “I saw Lacey and her friends at the mill the other day.”
“Well, yes,” Lacey said. “I’m very dedicated to my cause.”
“Aren’t we all? Would you two like to come in? As you can see by the sign out front, Tess’s house is still for sale. I was just getting ready to leave, but you’re both welcome.”
“If I can sell our place for a hunting lodge, and if the price is right, I would like to look at the house, but too much to do now,” Nadine said. “We were just driving past, and I saw your car. I was wondering if you would still like to buy one of Paul’s carvings before I give a few to relatives or put them up for sale. Grant said he’d be sure that your sister’s wedding gift gets to their new place. Also, Lacey and her group are going to buy one with elves peeking out from behind all kinds of carved leaves for their Green Tree office in Cleveland.”
“Honoring the carved trunk as a beautiful work of art, I’m sure,” Kate said, “and not using it as an example of tree destruction.”
Lacey looked furious. “Well—if we buy it, it’s ours!” she insisted.
Nadine turned to Lacey. “You wouldn’t do that, would you? I couldn’t bear to have his work used in a negative way.”
Lacey rounded on Kate, sending a waft of what must be clove cologne at her. “I suppose you think you’re clever with comments like that! I hear you and Grant are a real item, and you’ve moved in with him!”
Kate knew better than to try to explain. “Word always did travel fast around here,” she said. “Let me guess. You’ve been talking to Brad.”
“So, do you read minds?” Lacey demanded. “Brad and I are still friends, even if I divorced Grant. You’re welcome to him.”
Kate turned a shoulder to the woman, wishing she could turn her back. “Nadine, I’m grateful you would still welcome my original offer to buy one of Paul’s works. I think they are amazing. And since he won’t be able to do a special order for me now, I would very much like to buy the trunk with the Adena figure on it.”
“Oh. The one that—that fell on him. Deputy Miller has it now, but yes—I don’t want to see it again, and I can understand why you’d want that one.”
“I would like to offer you a good price for it, even though I realize he didn’t finish it. After the funeral, perhaps we can talk, and I’ll see if Deputy Miller is going to hold it for long.”
“Well, fine,” Nadine agreed with tears in her eyes. “So, will you be studying Mason Mound?”
“I hope so.”
Lacey, who had been stewing, piped up. “But you’d rather be studying Grant close-up and personal, I bet. He’s moody—just fair warning. And he’s real touchy about that mound, like that old hill is some family relic.”
“I can certainly understand why he sees it that way. The Mason family legacy means a lot to him. He’s probably even more protective of it since someone sneaked in to butcher his beautiful tree. It must have been someone who knew the woods, knew the tree and how much it meant to him, and that makes it even harder.”
“Green Tree—and I—detest people who cut down trees for profit, which is why we protest at lumber mills. You—you don’t mean I would ever harm that tree just because I know the area or divorced him?” Lacey propped her hands on her hips. The woman was well built and had a pretty face she was hiding under makeup and a bushel of blond hair, but her voice and attitude curled Kate’s toes. Grant had said Lacey had changed since their dating days, and that must have been the understatement of the decade.
Kate put her arm around Nadine’s shoulders, because the woman had started to cry and was dabbing at her nose with a tissue. “I’m sure no one from Green Tree would harm a tree,” Kate said, her voice quiet compared to Lacey’s strident tones. “There would be no motive for anyone in your group to want to hurt Grant that much. That is, unless someone held a personal grudge or wanted to get back at him for owning a lumber mill, even though he’s very pro-environment. I guess it could be someone who wanted revenge for him wanting to stay in this lovely town instead of taking off for another life, maybe in a great metropolis, like Cleveland.”
Lacey gasped. “I get it. You’re good with words, like some lady lawyer. But maybe this lovely town will do you in like it did me, if you hang around here long enough!” She sashayed away—in stilettos, no less—back to Nadine’s van, got in and slammed the door.
“Sorry about that,” Nadine said. “She may come off like a bimbo at times, but she’s not—really.”
“No, it’s my fault. I’ve got a sharp tongue.”
“And a sharp brain. I admire that. Look, Kate, I didn’t mean to cry over this. I thought I’d gotten hold of myself. I hope Lacey won’t blame you if I don’t sell her that tree trunk now. I should have thought of that—Green Tree’s misusing it as an example of what she sometimes calls ‘slash and cut.’ I think Grant and Todd have always been good about that, harvesting carefully, replanting and all. I think organizations like Green Tree are good, but they go over the line sometimes, deface property, threaten and scare people. Paul called them ‘greeniacs.’”