“Five hun’erd thousand dollars? Are you shittin’ me?”
“No, Mr. Parker, I’m not. All you have to do is meet me at the title office this afternoon and sign the contract.”
“I dunno,” he said, shaking his head.
“I can assure you that no one else will offer this much on the property, Mr. Parker. It’s far above the appraisal.”
He regarded her suspiciously for a moment, then shook his head. “Well, I ain’t going to do nothing rash. Like I told you, I ain’t even decided on selling.”
Turning his back on her, he climbed onto the tractor again and started the motor. After clapping a straw hat on his head, he steered the tractor out of the yard. Jade laid the contract on the porch and anchored it down with a rock. As she turned to leave, she heard the screen door open and looked up to see Mrs. Parker.
“Good morning.”
“I’ve heard folks say that you’ve got a boy.” Mrs. Parker said the words in a rush, as though it was very difficult for her to say them.
“That’s right. His name is Graham.”
“I’s just wondering if, you know, he might be my Gary’s child?”
Sorrow settled over Jade like a shroud. The desperate hope she saw in the tired, homely face was heartbreaking. She was tempted to lie and claim that Gary had been Graham’s father, but ultimately that would only be doing a disservice to the Parkers and to Graham.
“No, he isn’t, Mrs. Parker,” she said sadly. “But I’ve wished from the day I learned I was pregnant that he was.”
Without another word the gaunt woman slipped back into the house. The screen door slapped closed.
In a matter of minutes Jade reached the intersection with the highway. Just as she did, a candy-apple-red El Dorado sped passed.
Headed toward the construction site, she was so lost in thought about the Parkers that she didn’t notice the El Dorado again until it was almost even with her. Apparently it had made a U-turn and was following her. Neal Patchett was at the wheel.
Smiling, he signaled for her to pull over.
&nb
sp; “Go to hell.”
Still smiling, he speeded up enough to give his car the advantage of a few yards before cutting his wheels sharply, almost swerving into Jade’s Cherokee. Reflexively she stomped on the brake pedal. Neal parked sideways in front of her, so that the two cars formed a T on the narrow highway.
Jade flung open her door and got out. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I asked you nice to pull over.” His tone, his swagger, his ingratiating grin were all too familiar as he moved toward her.
Ironically, they were almost at the same spot where he had kidnapped her from Donna Dee’s car fifteen years earlier. “And as usual, if you don’t get your way, you impose it.”
He made a courtly bow from his waist. “Guilty.”
“If you wanted to see me, you should have made an appointment.”
“Well now, I’ve tried, haven’t I? Didn’t you get any of those messages I left on your answering machine?”
“I got them. I ignored them.”
“And haven’t you hung up on me every time I’ve called? I never even got a thank-you note for the flowers I sent, welcoming you back to town.”
“I threw them away the moment they were delivered.”
He tsked her. “Jade, Jade, you went up North and got rude. You must’ve picked up a bunch of bad habits from all those Yankees up there. What happened to the sweet girl we all used to know and love?”
“She got gang-raped.”