Her gaze jerked up, her eyes wide with surprise.
“She wants me to help her find something, a black metal toolbox. Do you know what’s in it?”
“You’re helpin’ my momma?” she asked in horror.
“No,” I said emphatically, shaking my head. “But I am trying to find out what she’s up to.”
“Why would she ask you to help her? Because you and me are friends?”
“Maybe,” I admitted, “but she claims it’s because I’m good at sleuthing. She implied she has information to prove Bart was behind Jerry’s car accident.”
She hugged the stuffed animal to her chest as tears filled her eyes.
Then it hit me. “But you already knew that he was.”
A tear fell down her cheek. “Todd thinks so anyway.”
Bingham thought Bart was behind the crash. Did he know who had sent that man to threaten me at Marco’s place?
“Does he plan to do anything about it?” I asked.
She shook her head, her gaze dropping to the arm of her chair. “No. He says he’s working on his own plan.”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. “A plan for Bart?”
She nodded.
“Can you tell me what it is?” When she didn’t answer, I said, “Lula, I’m trying to bring him down too.”
“Why?” she asked, jerking her head up to meet my gaze.
“I still think he was behind Seth’s death, and even if he wasn’t, he had Jerry killed to get me to back off. Then there’s what he did to you. Who knows what he would have done to you if Max and Wyatt hadn’t stepped in. He’s a poison to this town.”
“Todd’s takin’ care of him for me,” she said. Another tear spilled down her cheek, and she reached up to brush it away. “So I never have to worry about him again.”
But Bingham didn’t give two figs about Jerry or Seth. I supposed it didn’t matter why Bart went down, just so long as he went. So why didn’t it sit right?
“I needed to talk to him about something he knows,” I said. “He agreed to talk to me the night of Jerry’s accident. But then I got scared that Bart might have done something to Marco, so I drove out to find him. Which meant I left a very pissed Bingham in the parking lot.”
“He likes to be the top priority,” she said. Then her gaze landed on the baby in my arms and a softness filled her eyes. “Well, except for when it comes to Beatrice. She always takes the prize.” She pushed out a sigh. “I’ll talk to him and convince him to listen to you.”
“You don’t have to do that, Lula. That’s not why I’m here.”
“I know you’re not. You came to warn me about my mother.”
“Do you know anything about the toolbox?”
She slumped forward, hurt etched into her eyes. “I thought you weren’t helpin’ my momma.”
“I’m not. But there’s something in that toolbox that’s related to Hank.”
Her eyes widened in evident fear. “Hank Chalmers?”
“Yeah.” I tilted my head. “Why are you scared of him, Lula?” I’d known she was for a while. She’d practically run off the first time I’d mentioned him to her, back when she was in trouble.
“He was there that day. I’m sure of it.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“What day?” But I already knew the answer.
“The day I was nearly drowned.”
“What do you remember?” I asked softly. “Your mother told me that she planted false memories of your father trying to drown you in your head. She said Bart was the one trying to drown you and your father tried to stop him.”
Her hands shook as she nodded. “I remember Bart shouting at Momma and then grabbin’ my arms and holding me underwater. I woke up on the bank, my daddy lyin’ next to me with a bullet hole in his chest. The rest of it is a mixed-up jumble. I was sure that Bart was the one who tried to drown me, but now I realize that Hank was there after I woke up. He was standing somewhere in the background, soaking wet.”
I tried not to panic. I’d been so certain there was no way he would hurt her, but I’d also been warned that he was a different man back then. He’d called himself a monster just this morning. If Louise had stolen his fortune, would he have used her daughter to get it back? Had he overestimated her motherly instincts?
No. The more likely answer was that Hank had tried to stop Bart, and for the time being, I refused to believe anything else.
“Lula,” I said, “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t have nothin’ to do with it,” she said with a sigh. “Besides, it’s all in the past.”
“Just because it happened in the past doesn’t mean you left it there. Trust me. I know from personal experience.” The alarm on my phone went off, a low tone since I’d turned it down before I came in, and I pulled it from my pocket and turned it off. “I’m so sorry, but I really have to go.”
“That’s okay,” she said.
I took in the content baby in my arms. I couldn’t help but think of Lula as a baby—innocent and sweet and totally reliant on Louise to take care of her. Louise had never deserved such a treasure. Then my mind jumped to my mother holding me in her arms. Maybe I needed to stop trying to fix Drum and focus on my own issues.
“Thanks for letting me get my Beatrice fix,” I said as I got to my feet. “She has a way of making the world seem less crazy.”
“You should try gettin’ up with her at her three a.m. feedin’,” she said with a laugh.
“I’ll take your word for it.” I handed the baby over, feeling the loss of her sweet warmth.
“Are you helpin’ my mother?” Lula asked in a quiet voice.
“I think she has answers to some of my questions.”
“So that’s a yes,” she said, disappointment heavy in her voice.
I reached out and took her hand. “Lula, do you trust me?”
She looked deeply into my eyes. “I think you’re gonna have to make a choice about Hank.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Did you ever stop to think that she might be usin’ you to bring him down for her own reasons? Or because he did try to drown me?” I gasped, and she continued, “It’s the kind of thing she’d do, Carly. When she found out I was sleepin’ with Todd, she told me he was my real daddy. She did that to her own daughter. There’s no lie she wouldn’t tell you to get you to do what she wanted.”
“I could never condone Hank drownin’ you,” I said, my eyes burning. “No matter how good he is to me now.”
“I know,” she said, crying again. “That’s why I’m worried about you.”
I gave her a tight hug, careful not to crush Beatrice, then hurried out the front door, beginning to question everything.
“Carly?”
I’d reached the bottom of the porch steps and turned around to face her.
She stood in the doorway, leaning her shoulder into the doorjamb. “There’s always been a black toolbox in the loft at the cabin. I always wondered what was in it, but it was padlocked shut and I didn’t have the key.”