Fingering The Family Jewels Read online

  Fingering The Family Jewels

  Greg Lilly

  Derek Mason arrives in Charlotte, North Carolina for the funeral of his Aunt Walterene. He encounters the family who sent him away because he revealed he was gay. His mother and Uncle Vernon want him out of town because of Vernon’s senate campaign. His sister and Aunt Ruby urge him to stay. His cousin Mark denies their past relationship. Derek uncovers mysteries in the death of a family gardener, possibly at the hands of a young Vernon. Secrets and lies unravel as Derek digs into the family history with the help of hunky reporter Daniel.

  Greg Lilly

  Fingering The Family Jewels

  The first book in the Derek Mason Mystery series, 2004

  Chapter One

  “AUNT WALT IS dead.” Mother’s voice, strong and steady, struck my ear.

  I switched the phone to the other ear. “What? She can’t be.” Walterene, a cousin of my mother’s, was one of the few family members I liked. “I talked to her last week.”

  “Nonetheless, she died from a sudden stroke.” Her simple statement stung from the lack of emotion, lack of sympathy.

  My stomach cramped as if my breath had been knocked out of me by her words. “But…” I struggledto speak. “When?”

  “Tuesday night.” Mother always was short and direct.

  “How’s Aunt Ruby?”

  “Ruby thought I should call you. Let you know about Walt.”

  “When is the-”

  The phone clicked, followed by silence, then a dial tone. The Bitch had hung up on me. “Damn you.” I slammed the phone down.

  My roommate, Emma, sat on our third-hand couch, smoking a Marlboro and painting her toenails a glossy vermilion. Vermilion. She always joked that I couldn’t name three professional football teams but could come up with fifteen names for red; this was a trait Aunt Walt had cultivated in me. Emma glanced over with sorrowful eyes. “Who?”

  “Aunt Walt died Tuesday, and that was the Ice Bitch letting me know.”

  “Derek,” she hobbled over to me on her heels to keep from smudging her nail polish and hugged me. “I’m so sorry to hear she’s gone. She’s in a much better place.”

  “Yeah, away from the family.” I couldn’t believe Walterene was gone, out of my life forever. Her strong will, her logic, her kindness, her openness, she had always loved me no matter what I did. It was an unconditional love that I didn’t find easily or really believe in except from her or Ruby. I checked the clock. “Too late to call Aunt Ruby tonight; she’s usually in bed by ten. Though I doubt she can sleep without Walt.

  Emma made her way back to the couch. Her skinny legs stuck out of her housecoat like two beanpoles. Trying to be a model, she threw up more than half of what she ate, living mainly on cigarettes, black coffee, and bananas. She had a beautiful face; of course that’s what is said of fat girls, but it can be said of skinny, titless ones too. I liked Emma’s black hair and blue eyes; she reminded me of an anorexic version of a young Liz Taylor. She dropped back to the couch and fanned her toenails. “Why do you hate your family?”

  “Because they’re fake.” That about summed it up.

  “For example?”

  “They go to church because they have money, and in Charlotte, North Carolina, if you are rich and don’t go to church, no one will do business with you. To them, it’s a way to make business deals.”

  Emma smiled, casting her eyes up to me from her continued fanning. “Not because they don’t like the idea that you are gay?”

  “Like it? They tell me I’ll burn in hell. Again, using religion when it’s convenient for their purpose.” I always became enraged talking about them; that’s why I usually avoided it. Walking to the window, I noticed a young straight couple pushing a stroller up Hill Street; a cool mist was descending on the city. I turned back to Emma. “Do you know my dear mother told me she hoped I got AIDS and died? That way I would die out here in San Francisco, and no one in Charlotte would know.”

  “No?” Emma’s eyes widened.

  “Oh, yeah. She always let you know what she believed was the gospel truth. She ruled the roost, behind closed doors.” I laughed to myself thinking about her in public. “But as soon as we would walk into that fucking Baptist church, she would fall two steps behind my father. Then, when we got home, she took over again, and Thomas shrank back into the background.”

  “If he’s so meek, why did she marry him?” Emma lit another cigarette and leaned back.

  “The Harris family is in the construction business. My great-grandfather, Ernest, believed that women should produce babies, not build houses. My mother grew up in the construction business and learned how to get what she wanted by yanking men around by their balls. She didn’t want a power struggle in her marriage, so she married the weakest, meekest wimp she could find.” My love for my father came from his affection for us kids, but I would have respected him more if he had stood up to my mother.

  “Construction? You never told me that. Guess that’s your attraction to men with tool belts.” She smiled and tucked loose strands of hair back behind her ears. “You really need to get over these negative feelings toward your family.” Emma nudged me on.

  “I didn’t feel like I deserved to be alive until I left that house.

  Aunt Walt and Aunt Ruby were the only ones in the family who gave me any encouragement. They were two old maids who lived away from the family, stayed outof the politics of running the business. Of course, as unmarried women, they didn’t get much of a chance to participate.”

  “Typical, male-dominated society,” she huffed.

  “This, coming from a woman who wants to strut down a runway in the name of fashion?” I teased her because I could.

  “I’m using men to get what I want. If I can be paid big bucks to walk in front of a crowd, I’ll take it. Your aunts should have stormed the office and taken over-or fucked the construction workers and led a coup.”

  I couldn’t imagine Ruby or Walterene fucking construction workers. Hell, they were in their sixties; maybe in their twenties, they could have had a hard-hat or two. “Oh, great, now I have a mental image of frumpy Walterene on top of a muscled, sweaty back-hoe driver, riding him like there’s no tomorrow.” I laughed. Emma could always make me smile.

  “Go, girl. Go, girl,” Emma chanted, waving her arm in the air like a broncobuster and thrusting her hips off the couch in a simulated fevered fucking frenzy.

  “Enough.” My thoughts went back to the fact that Walterene was gone. “I hate that she never got away from the family. There’s so much more in this world than Harris Construction, and I’m not sure she ever realized that.” The canary-colored walls of our apartment surrounded me, a happy shade to counter the gray fog pressed against the windows that framed the San Francisco hills. Walterene and Ruby had never ventured out to California to visit; in fact, none of the family had ever flown out to see me.

  Emma sat up straight on the couch. “Just how rich is this family of yours?”

  “Rich enough to not have to play by the rules.” In the dust of the coffee table, I drew the outline of a skyscraper. “They helped build Charlotte, literally. Harris is on the names of streets, buildings, and neighborhoods all over town.”

  “So you must have been quite a catch in the gay bars.”

  “Hell, I was never allowed out of the sight of some family member.” My thoughts went back to the first time I’d had sex with another guy.

  I was fourteen and on a camping trip with my cousin Mark. At nineteen, he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. Growing up, Mark and I had always been closest in age, but five years made a big difference. I had begged him to go to Grandfather Mountain on a camping trip.

  “Kid stuff,�
� Mark had huffed.

  I thought he made the sun rise and set. I spotted his bench presses in his bedroom while he worked out for the upcoming football season at Duke. Going into his second season, he intended to be a starting wide receiver. The muscles strained in his chest as he pushed the barbell up, sweat trickled down his shirtless torso; he reminded me of Superman-broad chest, thin hips, flat stomach. A trail of dark hair snaked from his navel down past the waistband of his gray gym shorts where sweat had soaked the material to the color of a storm cloud. I glanced at the outline of his cock lying to the left, creating a bulge I wanted to touch. “Please, just overnight. My parents won’t let me go unless you come.”

  He set the weights down and shook his head. “Not with a bunch of high school kids.”

  “No, just me and you,” I pleaded.

  “Okay, okay,” he agreed.

  After a day of hiking, we pitched the tent and fixed a dinner of beans and cornbread. We settled down by the fire and talked about college and football; I absorbed every word he said. Mark stood and stretched, then pulled off his shirt. I watched. He unbuttoned his cutoff jeans and they fell to the ground. His white briefs seemed to glow in the firelight. I looked for the familiar bulge that mesmerized me, then he pulled down his underwear. My heart about stopped; his dick looked twice as big as mine, thick and long. While he neatly folded his clothes, I followed his lead, believing older, college men always slept in the nude. When I pulled off my underwear, the warm July breeze hit my cock; that and the sight of Mark produced an erection. I tried to cover it, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  “Damn, Derek. What’s up with the woody? A woody in the woods,” Mark teased, standing on the other side of the fire buck-naked with his own cock twitching.

  Embarrassed, I didn’t know what to do except punch him like I always did when he teased me. He caught my fist in his hand and wrestled me to the ground. Wrestling turned into more, and for four years we were lovers.

  After college, Mark decided he needed to find a woman to settle down with. I was devastated, and in my depression, I told my father I was in love with a man. I didn’t say who; I knew the family edict on privacy. He and my mother decided it was best that I go away for college. They sent me to Jerry Falwell’s prison in Lynchburg. I stayed a month. My sister, Valerie, came to get me. She gave me $10,000 and told me to go wherever I wanted.

  I lived in Richmond for a few months, then DC; finally some friends I knew moved to San Francisco, and I followed. The past six years had swept by so fast, I’d almost forgotten why I’d moved west.

  “NO. EMMA, I was never much of a bar person. I always felt I was better than bar trash. Funny, how being treated like trash makes you want to rise above it all.”

  Emma’s large blue eyes pried into me. “You haven’t been back in years.”

  “A couple of times, but the family doesn’t want me around. That’s clear. My parents never invited me to stay with them. I stayed with Valerie or Aunt Ruby and Walterene.” The thought of Aunt Walt swirled around my brain, her smiles and laughter, her encouragement and interest in my life. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes, but I sniffed them back. If only she had been my mother, instead of the bitch named Gladys.

  “Do any of them know about your new job?” Emma asked.

  “Internet development means nothing to them. If it doesn’t have anything to do with bricks and mortar, it’s a hobby.” I knew Walterene and Ruby would be proud of the business I had started with friends. Walt. She’s dead.

  The phone rang again. I let it ring. Emma answered, then handed it to me and left the room.

  “Have you heard?” My sister Valerie, another old maid in the Harris family, asked.

  “About Walterene?”

  She sighed. “Yes, I wanted to tell you, but Mother just said she had notified everyone.”

  “Thank God, at least I’m part of everyone in her eyes.”

  “Derek, she loves you, like I do-”

  “Oh, right.” Mother never showed love to anyone.

  “Listen to me.” Valerie’s voice grabbed me. “Mother is old, doesn’t understand anything that isn’t part of her world. Come home. If not for me, for Aunt Ruby; she needs us. She needs us all.”

  “Val, I can’t. I just can’t face them. I’ll call Ruby tomorrow.”

  “If you need money-”

  “I’m doing fine, thanks. When is the funeral?”

  “I don’t think…” she hesitated, “on Saturday.”

  “I’ll send flowers.”

  “Derek, your family is here. Mother and Father, Tim, Laura and the kids, and I-”

  “Yeah, I’ll be in touch. Thanks for calling.” I hung up before Valerie could start her routine on families working out differences before it was too late. But, it was too late. Walterene was dead. Ruby was alone. Valerie, an old maid at forty-one. Me, the shunned faggot son in San Francisco. All misfits in the kingdom of the Harris clan.

  Emma came back into the room from the kitchen, munching on a banana. “Should I help you pack?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Won’t you regret this later? Things you should have said? Things you should have done?”

  “Last time I talked to Aunt Walterene, I told her I loved her, and she said she loved me. That is all that needed to be said.” I settled back into the chair and turned up the stereo to put an end to the conversation.

  “What about…” she yelled over the music, then grabbed the remote from me and shut off the receiver. “What about your Aunt Ruby? Doesn’t she need you?” The penetrating look she gave me made me glance away.

  I stared out the window; the fog had rolled in thicker and I could barely see two blocks down the hill to the BART station. I could be on the BART, and on my way to the airport in thirty minutes. “No.” I shook the thought loose with a jerk of my head. “They banished me. I won’t subject myself to them again. No family is worth their torment. Besides, I have my family here: you, Lindsay, Jeff, Kayleen, Jason, Bill-my family of choice. I don’t need the hassle of my birth family.” I looked back out the window, watching a seagull pick its dinner out of the neighbor cat’s dish. “Fuck them.”

  She smiled at me. “What time will you be leaving?”

  Chapter Two

  MY FLIGHT WAS scheduled to arrive in Charlotte at 3:05 Friday afternoon. I didn’t really expect anyone to meet me at the airport. After a sleepless night, I had called Ruby, and then caught the next flight out of San Francisco. The flight seemed to take no time as I stared at the window reliving moments I had spent with Walterene, trying to convince myself that she was really gone. I felt numb, out of my body. The loss of her left me cold and vacant; my childhood home lost all warmth without her presence. The plane circled downtown to line up for its landing. Pressing my face against the cold plastic window, I strained to see the Charlotte skyline as a glimmer of sunlight blazed off the Bank of America tower. The town had expanded; which of those skyscrapers had Harris Construction done? It’s bizarre to fly over something you know your family created, like they wield the power of God to change the landscape to suit their needs.

  We arrived on time, and emerging from the corridor, I scanned the crowd to see if Ruby or Valerie had come to meet me. Ruby always had her hair dyed a deep red, her trademark. I think she was a natural brunette like the rest of us, but she wanted “Ruby Red” hair. Not a redhead in sight. Valerie, tall and thin like me, should have stood a little above the other women, but the crowd seemed squat and dull.

  “Guess I’ll rent a car,” I muttered, squeezing through the happy reunions in the terminal.

  My bags in the trunk of a white Camry, I drove away from the airport and onto Billy Graham Parkway. “Damn, things have built up around here,” I muttered. Office parks lined the road where woods once stood. I rolled down the car window and the warm, heavy air stirred dust off the dashboard; deep breaths filled my lungs with the thick humid air of springtime. Traffic started and stopped until I turned onto South Boulevard; soon I pulled
onto Sedgefield Road, lined with old elms and maples. Ruby and Walt’s house sat on the corner. The emerald-green yard spread out cool and inviting.

  “Derek.” The door opened, and Ruby wrapped her arms around me in a bear hug. Her body felt spongier than I remembered, but her hair still held the ruby sheen she loved. She let go and pulled me into the den where the smell of years of fried chicken and Ruby’s recently applied hand lotion mingled into the distinct scent of my aunts. “I’m so glad you came in. It’s been too long. If only Walt could see you…” The dark circles around her eyes were new but expected.

  “I’m so sorry I didn’t visit sooner…” the words trailed into the sorrow I felt at Walterene’s absence.

  “No, no, you kept up with us more than nephews and nieces who live a mile away.” She sat down in one of the two wingback chairs facing the television. A talk show was on, and she turned the sound down.

  I hesitated before sitting in the other wingback, Walterene’s regular seat. Her warm, calm essence settled around me as if she still occupied the chair. “How are you doing?” I asked.

  “Okay,” Ruby said automatically, then sat quiet for a moment. “I miss her. Hard to realize she’s gone. We’ve been together all our lives. Now, an old woman like me has to start a new life alone.” Tears streamed down her powdered cheek. “I don’t think I ever cried as much as I have in the past couple of days. I’m sorry.”

  I knelt down in front of her and held her cold hand. “Don’t apologize.”

  “You’re such a good boy.” She smiled and rubbed my head. “The baby of the family.”

  “Twenty-five isn’t much of a baby.”

  “Derek, you will always be mine and Walt’s baby. We never had babies of our own, but when you came into the world, we knew you were special. Gladys was so busy with Valerie and Tim…” She drifted off into her thoughts with a faint smile.

  “I’ll get my bags out of the car.” I stood to leave.

  “Oh, honey, someone should have met you at the airport. I didn’t think to call Valerie or Tim.”