Barbara Graham - Quilted 05 - Murder by Sunlight (27 page)

Tony opened his door and climbed out of the Blazer, shocked by the heat after the cool provided by the air-conditioning. He kept his eyes on Alvin’s house. After a couple of minutes, he heard Alvin open the door and join him.

Alvin’s voice sounded a bit froggy. “I’d like to accept your offer of help with the house and Mom’s stuff.”

“I’ll let the ladies know.” Tony wasn’t sure why he was so relieved Alvin wouldn’t have to be the one to go through all the trash in the house.

Moments later, Wade arrived in his own vehicle and parked behind Tony’s Blazer. “Hot enough for you yet?” He laughed as he approached. “Lead on, Alvin.”

Tony noticed Alvin, after a couple of glances, was careful not to look at the house, still draped with crime scene tape and with seals on the doors. “We’ll clear those off before the ladies arrive.” Tony wished there was a way to make this easier for Alvin, but he was the only one who could tell them if something looked different in the garden or the surrounding area. The path to the garden took them through the backyard.

Alvin walked steadily, but his complexion paled considerably and there appeared to be a tremor, barely more than a vibration, surging through his body as he led them up the gravel driveway and past the detached garage. He slowed more as he followed the path between a pair of trees and stepped into the garden clearing. To his left was the garden, to his right the hidden tool shed, and straight before them was the greenhouse. Alvin leaned forward, forcing his head low, his eyes watching his feet.

He stopped and made a half turn to the left, facing the garden. Only then did he straighten, focusing on the plants.

Tony heard a strangled sound. “Alvin?”

“What happened to it?” Alvin’s voice rose higher with each word.

To Tony, the garden looked just as it had when he first saw it. They could check the photographs made at the beginning of the investigation, of course, but he remembered thinking how careful his department and the TBI had been not to trample the young man’s beautifully tended garden. “I’m sorry if it’s damaged.”

Alvin turned to look directly at him. “The plant at the far end of the row has been dug up.” He walked closer, bent over and studied the dirt. Wade and Tony walked around the outside of the garden and stood quietly watching.

“It was one of the test plants.” Alvin’s face blanched, then went scarlet. “I’ve been robbed.”

Tony studied the soil at Alvin’s feet. “Don’t take this the wrong way Alvin, but, would someone have killed to steal it?”

“You mean . . .” He gulped. “You think that’s why my mom was killed? You think she was protecting the garden?”

“I have no idea.” Tony felt honesty was the only way to find more information. “What was it worth?”

Alvin shook his head. “Maybe nothing. Maybe a lot. It’s an experiment I’ve been working on to develop plants resistant to beetles.”

Wade whispered, “The peeper.”

Tony nodded. “But he’s been seen frequently in the area, even since Candy died.”

“So, he was watching and waiting.” Wade looked up toward the ridge where the man had been spotted before. “If he didn’t kill her, maybe he’s our witness.”

“Let’s talk about your tool shed.” Tony, Wade, and Alvin had abandoned the garden for the moment and sat in some sturdy lawn chairs in the shade. Wade had bought them all cold drinks at Kwik Kirk’s and they were all pretending things were almost normal.

Alvin bobbed his head as he slurped another big gulp of soda pop. “It was originally a privy; you know, an outhouse, probably a hundred years ago. Someone moved it after the house got plumbing. There’s no foundation and there’s no hole.”

“You keep a padlock on the door.” Tony said.

“Yeah, but the key hangs on a hook by the back door into the house. Anyone could unlock it and get to the tools. None of them are valuable.”

“Why bother to lock it?” Wade shook the ice in his empty cup and poured some into his mouth.

“Mostly it’s to keep the critters out.” Alvin gestured widely. “The latch won’t stay shut without the lock, and the last thing I want is some skunk or other beastie moving in.”

Believing Alvin was calm enough to handle more questions, Tony turned the subject back to the missing plant. “What is different about the missing plant?”

Alvin said, “I’ve been working to create a strain of beans that’s resistant to beetles. Something they don’t like to eat.”

“Not another kudzu experiment?” Tony could see a couple of patches of the pernicious vine from where he sat. It was working its way up the trunk of a tree. No kudzu grew on the Tibbles’s land. He guessed Alvin was relentless in his quest to rid the area of it.

“Oh, no, it’s just to keep the beetles from eating it. It’s not poisonous to them or to people or anything.”

“But if you’re successful, it could potentially save farmers scads of money they’re currently losing to the bugs.”

“Yes.”

Alvin seemed pleased Tony understood. Not only would farmers benefit, Alvin would probably earn a fair amount of money.

“If you want to tend your very valuable garden for a while, go ahead.” Tony was relieved when Alvin wasted no time heading for it, bucket and weeding tool in hand. “At least you can check the remaining plants.”

When Alvin was out of earshot, Wade said, “If it’s the floppy-hat guy—what’s his name?”

“Erikson,” Tony said.

“If he’s the thief, why would he wait so many days before actually digging it up?”

“Maybe he was in the middle of digging it up and Candy chased him away.”

“Or she tried to chase him away and he killed her.” Wade leaned forward. The excitement lighting his dark blue eyes faded almost immediately. “It was daylight.”

“Yes, and it wouldn’t make sense if, after he killed her, he returned to the scene of the crime in the moonlight.” Tony shook his head. “We’re missing something. I believe Candy was too frightened to come out here in the dark, and I don’t think it was a gardener she feared.”

Theo made the calls to line up the cleaning crew for Alvin’s house. She started with Nina. Her best friend sounded as if she’d run to answer the house telephone after she hadn’t answered her cell phone.

“Oh, it’s you, Theo.”

“You sound disappointed.” Theo guessed her friend had been expecting a different call. “Sorry I’m not Dr. Looks-so-good. How goes the romance?” The dentist shared a practice with Tony’s brother Tiberius in Knoxville. Nina and the dentist had recently started dating, a situation Nina’s children had mixed reactions to. The kids thought he was nice, but they still held out some hope their parents would reunite. Nina assured them a reconciliation was not a possibility. Theo asked, “Does he kiss as good as he looks?”

Nina ignored her question. “What’s up?”

“Cleaning the Tibbles house. We get to do our good deed for the year.” Theo coughed. “It’s going to be all kinds of fun.”

“Oh, goodie. There’s just nothing I’d rather do.” Nina laughed. “I’m thinking we might need hazmat suits, or maybe the fire department can come out and hose us off when we’re done.”

Theo couldn’t disagree with Nina’s assumption they’d get dirty. If Candy kept house the way she dressed, they were in for a long, filthy, sweaty day. “Bring your favorite cleaning tools.”

“Tony? Sheriff? This is Olivia Hudson.” The woman hesitated.

“What did you see this time?” Tony knew the woman had a grand view of the entire valley. Her mountaintop home was both beautiful and private. She also had a telescope.

Merry laughter was his answer. “You must think I have my telescope up here so I can spy on my neighbors.”

“I’m sure you have a few other things to do with your days.” Olivia was an artist. Her landscape paintings of the area were breathtaking. “So, not just spying. Maybe painting and spying?”

“I think someone else is.” She sighed. “More precisely, not painting, but another person is spying.”

“What did you see?”

“Binoculars. A man with binoculars has been hanging out near Kwik Kirk’s. I might not have noticed, but he drives a car identical to my mother’s. It caught my eye.”

Tony heard a thread of irritation in Olivia’s voice and felt amused. “Afraid your mom was arriving for an unannounced visit?”

“Yes.”

Always happy to hear it wasn’t just
his
mom who had such an effect on her children, Tony pulled out a notebook. “Tell me about the car.”

“It’s an off-white Cadillac SUV. The iridescent pearl paint.” Olivia talked more slowly. “The driver climbed out and had binoculars and was looking across the road toward Candy’s house.”

“Can you describe him?”

“Honestly, I can’t even swear if it was a him or a her. Wearing the wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses, it could be anyone. Well, anyone of average size. I know it wasn’t you, your brother Gus, Wade, or my husband. All four of you are too tall and too muscular.”

“Anything else?”

“Yes. Later in the day, I went into town and was on my way home, and I saw the same car in front of me. It turned onto the dirt road on the ridge above the Tibbles house.”

Tony found it annoying that everyone had seen the car or the man except the members of his department. “Thank you. Will you call if you see it again?”

“Certainly.”

Tony didn’t have enough information to satisfy his curiosity. He wanted to have the Cadillac pulled over and the identity of the driver ascertained. He’d ask his deputies to keep an eye out for it. He was sure it was Erikson, but he wanted proof. There were more questions he wanted to ask the botanist as well. Stealing plants was no less illegal than stealing anything else.

Still checking on Candy’s blackmail victims, the ones they could identify without the list of her secret codes, Tony and Wade tracked down another name they’d picked up in their interviews. Stan-the-Snakeman. Stan was in his lean, clean-shaven, midsummer state. Still as jolly as he’d be in a few months when he’d grow out his beard, gain weight, and morph into Santa Stan, he welcomed his visitors. The gap where two of his lower front teeth had been was filled with a wad of chewing gum. Parked in his driveway was his intensely yellow pickup with the snake logo on the side. It was as identifiable from a distance as Theo’s SUV.

“Rumor says you drove by Candy’s house on the first of every month and stopped by the mailbox.” Tony couldn’t talk to Stan without remembering his adventure over a year prior. It made his skin crawl a bit just to look at him. He hated snakes. “Blackmail?”

Stan’s grin disappeared. He nodded.

“What was your code name?”

“T.S. You know, The Snakeman.”

“Other than the reason you were paying blackmail, what was your relationship with Candy? Did you visit?” Tony couldn’t picture Stan and Candy as a couple.

Stan shook his head. “No. I paid like I was supposed to, more for the boy’s sake than Candy’s. I don’t believe the boy is mine. I, um, was dumb, but not stupid in my younger years, if you catch my meaning.”

Tony did. “Improbable but not impossible for you to have fathered the boy.”

“Yep.” Stan studied the sky for a moment. “If the boy needs anything . . .”

“I’ll let you know.”

Of the possible men paying blackmail, Tony knew only a few by name. Calvin, Stan, and Claude Marmot. The list of blackmail payers was much longer. He really would like to find Candy’s little pink code book.

He knew Theo and the rest of the clean-up ladies were already at Alvin’s house. They wanted to get as much done before the day’s expected high temperatures as they could. He dialed Theo’s number and she answered her cell phone, but she sounded exasperated when she did so.

“What?”

Tony needed her help so he apologized. “I hate to bother you when you’re having so much fun, but would you do me a favor?”

“That depends.” Theo lowered her voice. “If it involves more rotting food, the answer is no, no, and absolutely not. Never. Not ever.” She emphasized the “ever.”

“You’re lucky the hamburger meat is gone.” Tony went on to describe the aroma and the maggots in one of his glorious moments when descriptive words tripped off his tongue.

“Gag,” Theo said. “All right, you win. What do you need?”

“A pink notebook about the size of a deck of cards. It has a white kitten on it and I’d be extremely grateful if you should find it.”

“Hmm, how grateful are we talking here?”

Thinking Theo sounded a bit reluctant to help, Tony hesitated. What could he offer? “I’d paint your toenails again.”

Theo laughed. “I only needed you to paint them once, and that was because I was too pregnant to even see my feet. How do I know you actually put polish on them?”

“I did. Well, whatever you want then.” It wasn’t until he disconnected the call that the concept of carte blanche kicked in, semi-terrorizing him. He couldn’t begin to guess what Theo would make him do, but he wanted the code book badly enough to jump through any size hoop. He just hoped she’d find it.

Theo and the other five members of the clean-up crew had dressed in their grubbiest, and coolest, work clothes. The house stank so bad, the first thing they did was open every window. The stench was much worse than being too hot. Pulling on double industrial-strength gloves, they began. Each team had a box of extra-strong trash bags and a sponge and bucket of bleach mixed with heavy-duty detergent. They covered their noses and mouths with masks. Theo and Nina were a team, Martha and Emily Austin were a team, and two Flowers sisters, cousins of Blossom, Willow and Aspen were the third team. This was not a job for the older members of their group. Jane and her employee, Celeste, were babysitting the twins. The older ladies would step in later and arrange the yard sale.

Anything obviously trash, they tossed. That included every open food item. They carried a special hazardous waste container to collect Candy’s drugs and medications. The idea was to scrub everything they didn’t throw away. The dishwasher ran constantly, and so did the washing machine, at least after they removed the accumulated garbage from the appliances. Theo couldn’t imagine using the dishwasher as a trash can, but maybe Candy should be congratulated for throwing something away, even if improperly. The house was filled with empty boxes, empty bags, and piles of mouse poop.