CHAPTER 6 — LISA GANT DID NOT WANT TO BE FOUND
Lisa Gant was not dead.
She was not missing in the mysterious way people like to whisper about over coffee.
She was living outside Somerset under her middle name, working at a motel desk, avoiding anyone who smelled like Bellweather.
Eli found her through an old vehicle registration.
I drove with him because Lisa refused to speak unless “the orchard girl” came too.
The motel sat beside a highway exit, all beige doors and vending machines humming like tired insects. Lisa opened Room 12 wearing pajama pants, a sweatshirt, and the expression of a woman who had already decided we were not worth trusting.
“You look like your grandfather,” she said.
“I’m sorry for both of us.”
Her mouth twitched.
She let us in.
Lisa had been pretty once in a fragile, restless way. Now she looked like someone life had folded and put away wet. She smoked by the open window while Eli explained the investigation.
“I didn’t forge anything,” she said.
Eli nodded.
“Then what happened?”
She looked at me.
“Byron said Silas wanted Clara protected from herself. Said she stole payroll. Said she’d lose the orchard to debt collectors if the family didn’t move fast.”
I said nothing.
Lisa looked ashamed.
“I believed enough of it.”
“Enough to notarize a transfer?”
“No.” She crushed the cigarette in a paper cup. “Enough to meet him at the orchard with my seal. Then Silas looked me dead in the face and said, ‘Girl, don’t let a hungry man feed you lies.’”
That sounded like him.
“I refused,” Lisa said. “Byron lost his mind. Grabbed the paper. Stormed out.”
“Then why is your seal on the deed?” Eli asked.
She looked at the carpet.
“He stole it.”
“Your seal?”
“And my logbook. I reported it to the bank manager.”
“What happened?”
She laughed once.
“Byron got there first.”
Of course he did.
“He told them I’d been drinking on shift. I had been drinking off shift, which is apparently close enough when people want you gone. I lost the job. Then he told my landlord I forged farm papers. Then my tires got slashed twice. I left.”
I finally spoke.
“You knew he used your seal.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Lisa looked at me with tired eyes.
“Because by then everyone said you stole from the orchard, and I was scared you’d think I helped.”
“You did help.”
The room went still.
Eli shifted.
I held Lisa’s gaze.
“You helped because you were scared, because he trapped you, because he lied. But you still left me alone with it.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
That was all.
No excuses.
I respected her more for that than I wanted to.
Lisa crossed to the dresser and opened the bottom drawer.
She pulled out a motel Bible, then from inside its cover removed a folded carbon copy of a notary theft report.
“I kept this,” she said.
Eli took it with gloves.
Lisa looked at me.
“There’s more. Byron had someone at the county clerk’s office.”
My stomach tightened.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. But he bragged that even if Silas recorded something, recordings don’t beat stamps.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Men love stamps. Makes them feel official.”
As we left, Lisa stopped me at the door.
“I’m sorry about your grandfather.”
“Me too.”
“He knew.”
I turned.
“Knew what?”
“That you didn’t leave him. Byron told him you had, near the end. Silas couldn’t say much. But he shook his head so hard the nurse got scared.”
May you like
My eyes burned.
Lisa said softly, “He knew.”
