Grave Sight Page 0,18

on the edge of a cushion.

"Congratulations, I'm glad to hear it," I said.

"If you've been in this town for more than ten minutes, someone will have told you something bad about me. I drank and fornicated for many years. But I'm sober now, by the grace of God and some damn hard work."

Tolliver nodded, to show we were registering her words.

"Both my girls are dead," Helen Hopkins continued. Her voice was absolutely steady and harsh, but the muscles in her jaw were taut with agony. "I ain't had a husband in years. No one here to help me but me, myself, and I. I want to know who brought you here, and what you are, and what you done out in the woods to find my girl. I didn't know anything about this till yesterday, when Hollis called me."

You couldn't get more straightforward than that. Tolliver and I looked at each other, asking a silent question. This woman was a lot like our mother - well, my mother, Tolliver's stepmother - except my mother had gone to law school, and she'd never gotten sober. Tolliver gave a shrug that couldn't have been seen by anyone but me, and I returned an infinitesimal nod.

"I find bodies, Mrs. Hopkins. I got hit by lightning when I was a girl, and that's what happened to me afterward. I found out I just knew when I came close to a dead person. And I knew what had killed that person - though not who, if the person was murdered." I wanted to be real clear about that. "What I know is how the person died."

"Sybil Teague hired you?"

"Yes."

"How'd she know about you?"

"I believe through Terry Vale."

"Are you always right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You think the Lord likes what you're doing?"

"I wonder about it all the time," I said.

"So, Sybil asked you to come here and find Monteen. She say why?"

"The sheriff told me that everyone was thinking her son had killed Teenie, and she wanted to find Teenie's body to disprove that."

"And you found Teenie."

"Yes, that's what Sheriff Branscom told me. I'm sorry for your loss."

"I knew she was dead," Helen said, eyes dry. "I been knowing since she vanished, that Teenie had passed over."

"How?" If she could be blunt, I could, too.

"She would've come home, otherwise."

According to Hollis, Teenie had been as out of control as her mother at one time. I doubted Helen Hopkins was speaking realistically. Her next words echoed my doubts so closely that I wondered if the woman was psychic.

"She'd been a wild girl," Helen Hopkins said slowly, "acting out because she could get away with it, because I was a drunk. But when I sobered up, she began to come around, too."

She gave me a wisp of a smile, and I tried to smile back. This dried-out husk of a woman had once had a jaunty charm not too many years ago. You could see the traces of it in her face and posture.

"I liked Dell Teague just fine," Helen said. Her voice was slow, as if she was thinking out what she was saying very carefully. "I didn't ever think that he'd killed my girl. I liked him, and I think Sybil's okay. But the kids wanted to get married, and I didn't want Teenie to marry early, the way Sally did. Not that Sally made a bad marriage. Hollis is a fine man, and I don't blame him for not caring for me none. He had enough reasons. But Teenie... she didn't need to be getting so tight with Dell Teague, so young. I just wanted Teenie to have some choices. It was good of Sybil to pay you to look for my girl, though... ."

"Hollis tell you we went out to the cemetery?" I was trying to make sense of this flow of thoughts.

"Yes. He come by yesterday, the first time I've talked to him in a long time. He told me that you said Sally had been killed, that it wasn't no accident." I saw Tolliver stiffen. He shot me a look. He didn't like me going off with someone, he didn't like me doing freebies, and he didn't like me not telling him everything.

"How do you do it?" she asked. "How can you tell? How can I trust you?"

These were all good questions, questions I'd been asked before.

"You don't have to believe a thing I say," I told Helen Hopkins. "I see what I see."

"You think God gave you this gift? Or the devil?"

I wasn't about