Diana Anderson - Entering Southern Country 01 - Famous in a Small Town by Diana Anderson Page B

time he’d taken an interest in her. He had been a sophomore in college at Mississippi State in Starkville, and she was a senior at Cypress high school. She and her friend worked at Janie’s Diner and waited tables after school and on weekends. Agnes didn’t have a car, so her friend picked her up and brought her to work with her. It was a weekend, and he had been home from college. He and a few of his friends had met at the diner. She had waited on his table. He playfully teased her, and it appeared that was something she wasn’t used to, but he also noticed she seemed to enjoy it. She had blushed and smiled. He had told her a lame joke, and she had been polite enough to laugh at it. There had been many things on their first encounter that had infatuated him, but what had captured him the most was her bashfulness, her beautiful smile, and her blue eyes. Inside of her was a heart of an angel.
    He’d dated other women over the years but had never experienced those feelings again. He’d even come close to marriage once but had broken it off before the arrangements had been made. It’d always come back to Agnes. Her sweet smile, those blue eyes, and the way she’d blushed the first time he’d kissed her. The look on her face when he’d told her that he was in love with her—like she’d never heard those words before.
    How could anyone not love her? Then thought after thought crossed his mind. Maybe someone does. Maybe she’s spoken for. Maybe she loves someone, and they’re waiting for her to come back. Not everyone wears a ring on their left hand.
    He shook his thoughts away. “Stay focused, Cal. Virgil and Wanda. Virgil and Wanda.”
     

17
     
     
    Raven had left a few minutes after Cal did and drove to Virgil’s house. He had lived off of a dirt road five miles off of the main highway. Callie had purchased fifty acres right before Raven was born. Where she’d gotten the money was anybody’s guess. Callie had said she had inherited the money from an uncle who’d passed away. Virgil had cleared off two of those acres for the trailer house, a few out buildings, and a garden plot neither one of them had ever tended. The rest of the property was wooded and a place where Virgil had hunted and fished most of his time—what time he wasn’t out drunk with his buddies.
    She drove the car into the driveway, put the gearshift into Park, and turned off the ignition. She sat motionless as she looked at the trailer. It had been bought brand new right after the purchase of the property and had replaced a rundown shack that had been bulldozed. Far from brand new now, the metal siding was separated in several seams along the front. The underpinning was warped and rusted. The wooden front porch looked on the verge of collapse. A broom and a mop were propped up against the porch rail. With the spring storms that blew through the area and the condition of the trailer, that it still stood was nothing short of a miracle.
    She opened the car door and stepped out. Other than the Cicadas that sang from up high in the trees and a warm breeze that rustled the leaves, the place was quiet. She scanned the area and took note of the changes. There weren’t any. Virgil had never owned a lawn mower. He had his neighbor, Carl Gentry, bush-hog it twice a year. Patches of grass and weeds had grown high in the rich soil that surrounded the trailer. The well-house beside the trailer was not quite visible through the tall weeds. The dirt driveway had several ruts left by vehicles when it had rained. A few hickory and sweetgum trees shaded the house. Rusty and brown patches of sap from the sweetgum tree were on Virgil’s beat-up white truck and Wanda’s light blue compact car. At least Raven assumed it was Wanda’s.
    Yellow crime scene tape had been placed in an X across the front door. Should she go inside? She walked to the porch steps and then stood in front of them. She shook her head and told herself, “No.” The dog, that’s why