Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite Read Free Book Online Page B

laughing and talking seemed so natural. I poured us another cup of coffee and brought the apple cobbler to the table. I used apples I canned right after I came to the mountain.
    “Lord, Nellie, you’re a good cook.” Jack sat back and patted his stomach.
    “Thank you.”
    “There are some things about Hobbs’s business that can’t be denied.” He sniffed the coffee. “Folks up here can’t buy coffee. They can’t buy nothing.”
    My cheeks burned, thinking about Hobbs and his ways.
    “I got to get back home.” The dusky gray had settled in the yard. It was this time each evening when I took my coffee to the porch and watched the valley get blanketed by mist.
    “Oh, come sit on the porch with me. Talk.”
    He laughed. “It’s too cold to sit on the porch, but you do have a fine view. What is it you want to talk about?”
    “Do you have a girl down in Asheville?”
    His look became playful. “Ten of them. Why is it that every woman on this mountain wants to fix me up with a girl? Do I look that helpless?”
    “Maybe it’s because you’re such good husband material.”
    He hooted with laughter. “I don’t think you’re right about that.” A wind rattled a tree branch against the kitchen window. “I’m happy just like I am.”
    “That’s probably good, being happy like you are.” Warm feelings were settling in my chest, making it easier to ask my next question. “Did Hobbs kill Clyde Parker?”
    A shadow crossed his face. “You change subjects fast.” He half smiled. “Did Shelly talk about him?”
    “I asked her why she didn’t like Hobbs.”
    He nodded. “There’s some things I can’t talk about, Nellie. Clyde Parker is one of them. That answer will have to come from Hobbs.” He sipped his coffee. “But I wouldn’t bring it up.”
    So I had to think Hobbs killed Shelly’s daddy. “Tell me about Hobbs’s sister.”
    A lighthearted smile settled on his face. “What do you want to know?”
    “Does she look like him?” I moved around my real question with careful steps.
    “She looked just like pictures of her mama. She has her mama’s name, AzLeigh.”
    “Why’d she leave?”
    He shrugged and looked out the window. “It was time. She had nothing left up here.”
    “Aunt Ida said her and Hobbs fell out about her liking your mama. She said he had every right to hate his stepmama since she came into the family too fast.”
    “Aunt Ida’s been making excuses for Hobbs since I came to this mountain and probably way before. She’s always had a soft spot for him. Seems he does this to a lot of women. Can’t figure it.”
    I looked away.
    “My mama loved AzLeigh like her own. What wasn’t there to love? She was everything Hobbs had missing.” Jack grew quiet. “When my mama died, AzLeigh hurt just like I did. She loved her that much.”
    “Did Hobbs have anything to do with your mama dying?” This question had been burning inside since my visit to the Connor farm.
    He studied me. “Who you been talking to?”
    “Mrs. Connor.”
    He frowned and shook his head. “That must have been a hard visit for you.”
    I shrugged off his words. “Did he kill her?”
    “She died one night while everyone was asleep. AzLeigh found her the next morning. The doctor said it was her heart.” He frowned. “I would have killed Hobbs myself if I thought he put a hand on my mama.” He said this so quiet a chill went over my scalp. “Folks give him way too much credit. It adds to his legend as the bad man on Black Mountain.”
    “So you don’t think he’s killed anybody?” The relief I felt was in my words.
    “I didn’t say that. I’m sure he’s killed someone. Folks say he killed his first man the day before his mama died.”
    “Who was that?”
    “Merlin Hocket.”
    The name sent cold through my chest.
    “Merlin was a government man sent up here to measure the mountain for taxes. But his problem was meeting Hobbs. They bumped heads because Merlin found Hobbs’s still andthreatened