I scour their faces. Each woman looks scandalized. “I take it you never saw her around?”
Julie shakes her head. “If she had shown up, even at one of the barbecues Coby and her husband like to throw, which are usually pretty open—” She pauses to nod at the brown-skinned woman sitting nearest me around the table, whose face is sharp-boned and delicate. “She would’ve been shooed away. You don’t mess with the boss’s kid.”
“I never even talked to Beth,” Coby says in a surprisingly husky voice. “I only knew her from church.”
“So you never…” I take a breath. This is probably immoral, what I’m doing, but I badly need to know the truth. “Heard about Beth getting pregnant?”
The women reel back. Pregnant Laney’s mouth actually drops open.
“Never,” Julie says, forceful like she’s swearing on a Bible. “I wouldn’t even believe you, except you’re the reverend’s daughter.”
Coby shifts in her seat, making the wooden back of her chair squeak. “Is that why Beth and Mrs. Fortenot took off right after Fred went missing? We always wondered why they didn’t come to his memorial. It was like he went missing, then they did. We thought it seemed so disrespectful. But maybe they were ashamed.”
“No, it happened years before Fred went missing.” I’d been eighteen when I heard Beth was pregnant, and twenty when Fred disappeared. Two years for the mysterious father to stew in hatred, maybe. But something Coby said stood out.It was like he went missing, then they did.
It was also two years for Beth to stew. I used to think I knew why she and her mother had fled as soon as they were free of Fred. But maybe there was more to it…
“It wouldn’t have been one of the Company boys who got her pregnant,” says the pale woman. Her tone is absolute. “Messing with the boss’s daughter would’ve meant an automatic firing. No one would risk their job like that. Hard to find good work these days.”
I tap the end of my fork uneasily. “Did any of you…know anything about the Fortenot family? Like, behind closed doors, how they were?”
The women shake their heads.
“Fred was the big boss,” Julie explains. “And he acted like it. Kept his family life private. Didn’t invite us over to his house or treat us like peers or nothing. Beth and his wife didn’t even acknowledge us at church.”
“Like we were beneath them,” the pale woman says.
“Betty Lee’s son Gentry is around Beth’s age.” Laney glances at the other women. “He said Beth didn’t even talk to any of the Company kids at school.”
That matched what I remembered. Beth always had her sights set higher.
So these women never saw Beth hanging around any of the fishermen, and they didn’t even know anything was amiss with the Fortenot family. I hold in a sigh. This has been a dead end.
Julie must sense my disappointment, because she says, “Sorry we aren’t much help.”
“It’s okay.” I rise from the table. “I should get going, though. I’m expected at my parents’ for Bible study.”
Julie leaps out of her chair. “Let me cut some cake to take with you.”
“Oh, please don’t go to any trouble. My mother will have—”
“I insist.” Julie is already cutting. “It would be an honor to feed the reverend.”
I look down at Laney, Coby, and the pale woman, who are still watching me with interest. On a bold whim, I ask: “Have things gotten better at Fortenot Fishing since Fred’s death?”
The question takes them aback. “Better?” Laney frowns.
“I remember a few years back, hearing complaints about extra shifts and not enough pay to make up for it.”
Laney still looks confused, but Coby nods. “I know what you’re talking about. That was mostly Gerald Theriot and his crew complaining.” She cuts a look at the other women. “Remember how they were going on and on about having to do all this side work and not getting paid for it?”
“Oh, right,” Laney says. “How could I forget? Gerald made a big stink.”
“I think it resolved itself when Fred disappeared,” the pale woman adds.
Julie slides a Tupperware full of cake onto the kitchen table, wiping her hands on her skirt. “Gerald basically runs things now, so I guess that means no more side work.”
“Side work?”
