Susannah's Garden (Blossom Street #3)(70)

Sharon’s laugh was hoarse from years of smoking. “The only time you come around is when you want something. Your brother did the same thing. Any other day of the week I’m not good enough for either of you.”

That wasn’t true. Susannah had never gone out of her way to avoid Sharon.

Crossing her arms and looking bored, Sharon muttered, “So, what’ll it be? A beer or the door?”

“What can you tell us about Jake Presley?” Carolyn demanded before Susannah had a chance.

“Nothing,” she returned flippantly. “You’ll have to ask him yourself. If he wants to talk to Susannah, he’ll find her. I’ll let him know you were inquiring after his health,” she said sarcastically. “Actually, I’m surprised you’re not asking me about Doug Leary.”

“What’s he got to do with anything?” Susannah asked, incensed that Sharon would even bring up her brother’s name.

“I always found it amusing that your daddy was the law-and-order man and his own son was dealing. Some family you’ve got there.”

“My brother?” Susannah cried. “I don’t believe that!”

“Believe what you want. I know what’s true, and your brother was in big trouble.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Carolyn said again, tugging at Susannah’s arm.

She stumbled back a step. “Don’t you dare say anything against my brother.” Susannah was so upset she was trembling. Why Sharon would invent such fabrications, why she’d hurt her this way—it made no sense.

Sharon’s gaze shifted to Carolyn. “I’m not lying.”

Susannah shook her head furiously. The woman had to be lying.

“He was dealing,” Sharon insisted. “Did you know that the night he was killed, he was running from the law?”

Too shocked to respond, Susannah stopped breathing. Sharon’s story was more and more unbelievable. The only thing her father had told her about the accident was that Doug had taken the curve too fast and slammed into a tree.

“Sheriff Dalton was chasing my brother?” she asked, just so she’d be able to prove her wrong. She’d simply get in touch with the former sheriff and see what he had to say.

“Nope. Feds were the ones after him.”

Sharon certainly had plenty of details, but whether or not they were true remained to be seen. They couldn’t be! “The federal government?” This should be easy enough to disprove and once she did, she’d sue Sharon Nance for slander.

“Big mistake to mess with the feds.” Sharon spoke in a somber voice.

“I don’t want to hear any more of these lies,” Susannah said. “We’re leaving.”

“Good,” Sharon snarled.

Susannah glared at her. “I don’t know what I ever did to you that was so awful, but whatever it is, I suggest you get over it.”

“Let’s go,” Carolyn hissed.

“Doug wasn’t the only one, either,” Sharon said loudly as Susannah stepped away from the bar.

“What does that mean?” she yelled back.

Sharon gave another of her guttural smoker’s laughs. “You’ll find out.”

CHAPTER 29

“I don’t believe a word of it,” Carolyn said emphatically as she and Susannah walked out of the Roadside Inn.

“Sharon never even knew Doug.”

“Did he ever say anything about this in his letters?” Susannah asked.

Carolyn hesitated.

“Carolyn?” she asked again.

“He didn’t say anything directly,” she told her. “But I could tell something was up, something he didn’t want to discuss. I saved all his letters and on the anniversary of his death, I sometimes reread them.”

“And?” Susannah pressed. The structure of her entire family was crumbling. Her father might’ve been having an affair and now she’d learned that her brother, whom she’d idolized, might have been dealing drugs.

“There were obscure hints in some of his letters,” Carolyn continued as they neared the car. “Things I didn’t understand. At the time I figured it had to do with Patricia. He was definitely uneasy—I assumed he felt guilty about breaking up with her. But then…”

“What?”

“There was some kind of…incident. I think maybe it involved Jake.”

“No.” Susannah shook her head. She would’ve known if Jake was doing drugs—or selling them. He couldn’t have been.

“When Jake asked you to run away with him, did he mention finances?”

In an effort to remember, Susannah stood there in the gravel parking lot, trying not to be distracted by the din from the bar. She closed her eyes and the scene in the moonlit garden played back in her mind as if it had happened only hours ago instead of years. Jake had cupped her face with both hands and stared intently into her eyes. He’d asked her to run away with him and promised he’d marry her as soon as they found a justice of the peace in Idaho. Every time she asked a question about where they’d go after that, what they’d do, he’d cut her off with deep, probing kisses, kisses that comforted her and allayed her fears. She’d asked about money. She didn’t have much; her father had made sure of that. Jake had told her not to worry, though. He’d take care of everything.