Killer On A Hot Tin Roof (21 page)

“You got a mouth on you,” Ramsey snapped.

“Must be the red hair,” I told him as my eyes narrowed angrily.

Nesbit said, “All right, let’s not start that again. Have you thought of anything else since last night that might help us?”

I shook my head. “No, I haven’t. But what more help do you need? You’ve already arrested Tamara Paige, haven’t you?”

“Dr. Paige is still in custody.” It was Nesbit’s turn to shrug. “She’ll be arraigned shortly on a charge of first-degree murder. Luring Burleson down to the garden shows premeditation, and so does burning those manuscript pages to destroy evidence.”

“So what was the deal with Dr. Keller?”

I didn’t really expect either of them to answer me, but Ramsey grinned and said, “Fun.”

That arrogance was too much for me. I blew up. “You’ve probably ruined the man’s life for no good reason! How in the world can you call that fun?”

“He had it comin',” Ramsey insisted.

I just shook my head.

“We don’t have to explain our actions to you, Ms. Dickinson,” Nesbit said tightly. “But given Dr. Keller’s record and his proximity to this crime, we would have been negligent in our duty if we didn’t question him.”

“Sure,” I said. “Tell yourself whatever you need to hear.”

“Go on to your panel,” Nesbit said. “Just don’t check out of the hotel or try to leave town.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving New Orleans as long as the tour’s still going on. I have a responsibility to my clients.”

Ramsey said, “I guess that doesn’t extend to keeping them from being murdered.”

I got out of there before I took a swing at the obnoxious son of a gun. I had dealt with the cops more than I liked to think about in the past couple of years, but Ramsey was by far the biggest jackass among them.

Will was waiting in the lobby with a slightly worried look on his face. When he saw me, he smiled and said, “I thought you’d changed your mind, or that something came up.”

“I checked with Ramsey and Nesbit to be sure it’s all right for me to leave the hotel,” I explained. “They said it was. Have you been waitin’ long?”

Will shook his head. “No, just a few minutes. We still have plenty of time.”

We left the hotel and started walking toward the museum. It was a beautiful morning in New Orleans. The air was cool, the sky a deep blue with white clouds floating in it. The French Quarter had a pleasantly drowsy feel to it, not surprising since a lot of the restaurants, clubs, and bars in the area were open until well after midnight. The Quarter’s inhabitants were sleeping in this morning.

The museum was housed in a beautiful old building. I saw Jake Madison standing in front of it. He might have been admiring the architecture or just the techniques that the builders had used. He took a professional interest in such things, Callie had said earlier.

Jake glanced over at us as we walked up, then looked again and said, “Oh, hi, Ms. Dickinson. Dr. Burke.”

“Hello, Mr. Madison,” I said. “What do you think of the building?”

He grinned. “Callie told you I’m in construction, I’ll bet. The guys who put this sucker up knew what they were doin'. They didn’t have our modern techniques or equipment, but the place has been standing for well over a hundred years. Heck, some of these buildings are probably close to two hundred years old. You gotta admire the guys who built them.”

“I talked to your wife this morning at the hotel,” I told him. “She said you enjoyed your meal last night.”

His smile widened into a grin. “Man, I ate so much I thought I was gonna pop!” He patted his stomach. “Luckily, I was able to sleep it off and have a big breakfast at the hotel this morning. The festival puts on a good feed. Only problem was that Callie was already gone by the time I got up, and I wanted to talk to her.” He frowned and pointed at the museum. “She’s on a panel here this morning, isn’t she?”

Will nodded. “She’s on the same one I’m on, as a matter of fact. She’s probably inside by now. We’ll see if we can find her.”

“Okay, thanks.” As the three of us started into the building, Jake added, “I was sure sorry to hear about that old guy gettin’ killed last night. He seemed like a hoot.”

“He was a nice man,” I said.

“The cops know who did it yet?”

“I think they’re supposed to announce something this morning,” I told him, without mentioning what I knew about Tamara’s impending arrest.

“Yeah, well, I hope they found the guy. Anybody who’d kill a nice old man deserves whatever they get.”

I couldn’t argue with that. But even as Jake said it, I wondered about Callie. I might have to come right out and tell her that I knew about her affair with Dr. Jeffords. If she wanted me to keep quiet and not say anything to the cops about her being in the garden the night before, she was going to have to convince me that she hadn’t had anything to do with Burleson’s murder.

Quite a few people were already in the museum, which had several galleries in addition to its auditorium. I saw Michael Frasier sitting forlornly in a corner, underneath a painting of a long-haired gentleman in a fancy outfit, possibly one of thefounders of New Orleans. I thought about going over to him, but instead I just pointed him out to Will.

“Yeah, his presentation is scheduled right after the panel I’m on,” Will said. “I don’t know what he’s going to do. Without anything to back up his theory, he’d probably be better off just cancelling the whole thing.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, everybody here knows he was going to claim that Mr. Burleson and Tennessee Williams were lovers. That’s somewhat controversial, but it’s well known that Williams had many short-lived romances. There’s no way to prove or disprove that part of Burleson’s story, and it’s certainly not going to make or break Michael’s career. He kept the part about Burleson claiming to have written
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
under wraps, except for you, me, and Tamara knowing. When the story of her arrest gets out, so will the rest of it, and the circumstances certainly make it appear that Tamara believed Burleson was telling the truth. Most people in the academic world won’t be convinced one way or the other, but after a while, the whole controversy will die down. Some scholars will probably support the theory, and others won’t. But that’s common, and Michael can carry on with his career. If he gets up there now, though, and springs the idea on everybody without any sort of proof, he won’t have much support. That’s why I said he’d be better off to wait.”

I wasn’t sure I understood all that, but Will was a lot more aware of the nuances of the academic world than I was, of course. I was willing to take his word for it.

“What if it turns out that Dr. Paige didn’t kill the old man?” I asked.

Will frowned. “All the evidence points to her, doesn’t it?”

“Maybe. Sometimes evidence can be interpreted different ways, though.”

Will shook his head and said, “If Tamara is innocent, then it completely cuts the legs out from under Burleson’s claims.” He looked around. “Where’d Mr. Madison go?”

I hadn’t noticed that Jake wasn’t with us anymore. I’d gotten caught up in thinking about the murder again. I looked around the museum and didn’t see him anywhere.

“Maybe he found his wife and is talking to her,” I suggested.

Will nodded toward a pair of closed double doors. “Let’s go on into the auditorium. The festival volunteers may still be setting up for the panel, but they won’t run us out.”

We went over to the doors, and Will opened one of them wide enough for us to slip through. As we did, I saw that the room had already been prepared for the panel. A folding table draped with a white cloth was on the stage with chairs behind it. A couple of hand microphones on stands sat on the table, along with some pitchers of water and glasses. Folded cardboard name placards sat in front of each chair. I saw Will’s name on one of them and Callie’s on another. The names of the other three panelists were familiar to me because I had seen them on the list of tour group members, but I hadn’t really gotten to know any of them.

I took in all of that at a glance, but most of my attention was focused on Jake Madison, who was standing in front of a door that led to a backstage area. As I watched, he reached out, grasped the knob, twisted it, and flung the door open. I heard a woman gasp in surprise and thought,
Oh, no.

“Somebody out front told me they’d seen you coming back here, Callie,” Jake said in an angry, booming voice. “I figured I’d find the two of you together.”

Beside me, Will asked, “What’s going on here?”

“Nothin’ good,” I said.

Callie hurried out of the little hallway, followed by Dr. Andrew Jeffords. “Jake, what are you doing here?” she asked. “I … I thought you were going to look at old buildings, like you always do.”

“No, I came to look at my cheating wife,” Jake said. “Damn, Callie, I can’t believe it! Jeffords? Really? This guy’s old enough to be your dad!”

Jeffords stepped forward and said, “Mr. Madison, I swear this isn’t what it looks like–”

“Yeah, guys always say that when they get caught kissing some other guy’s wife, don’t they?” Jake shook his head. “You know what, Doc? What I just saw was exactly what it looked like … and I know exactly what to do about it.”

I knew from the menacing sound of Jake’s voice that all hell was about to break loose. I took a quick step forward and said, “Mr. Madison, wait–”

Jake didn’t wait, though. He swung a fist and sent it crashing right into Andrew Jeffords’s face.

J
effords went flying backward and tripped over the steps leading up to the stage. Jake went after him, but Will leaped forward and grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around him. “Mr. Madison, stop it!” Will said. “Stop it!” “Oh, my God!” Callie screamed. “Andrew!” That expression of concern for Jeffords just made Jake even more furious. With an angry roar, he broke out of Will’s grasp and went after Jeffords again. By now, though, Callie had gotten between them. “Leave him alone!” she said as she pushed at Jake’s chest. “Leave him alone, damn it!”

Jake brought his left arm around. He didn’t actually hit Callie, he just shoved her hard enough to make her stumble backward and then sit down hard on the floor. She let out a cry of pain as she landed.

Will caught hold of Jake’s shoulder and hauled him around. Jake threw another punch, directed this time at Will for interfering. Will ducked under it and hooked a blow of his own into Jake’s midsection. That was the first time I had ever seen Will hit anybody. I was surprised when Jake turned pale and doubled over. Will gave him a push that sent him sprawling on the floor in front of the stage.

Some of the people outside must have heard the commotion. The doors opened and curious faces peered in. Seeing three people down, several of the professors hurried in. I recognized the two who’d been arguing ever since we left Atlanta, but they weren’t squabbling at the moment. They looked worried, instead.

“What’s going on here?” one of them asked. “Is anyone hurt? Dr. Jeffords, what happened to you?”

Jeffords’s glasses were askew and blood leaked from his nose. Callie scrambled up and hurried over to him. As she dropped to her knees beside him on the steps, she said, “Andrew, are you all right? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I had no idea that he knew …”

Gasping for breath, Jake sat up and said, “I know … all about it … you … you … I wasn’t asleep last night, like you thought I was. I knew … when you snuck out … followed you … saw you go to that old bastard’s room … I didn’t want to believe it … but you didn’t give me any choice.”

If Jake had followed his wife the night before, that meant he could have been in the garden around the time of Howard Burleson’s murder, too. That thought shot through my mind. And once Jake had confirmed his suspicions, he would have returned to their room ahead of Callie, so he could go back to pretending to be asleep.

I had no idea what had caused Callie to cheat on him. Obviously, he had a pretty violent temper, and from the first time I’d met them, the two of them hadn’t seemed like a very good match to me. But I’d seen a lot of happy couples who don’t have much in common, so I hadn’t really thought about it until I’d spotted Callie on Dr. Jeffords’s balcony last night.

Their personal life was none of my business. The fact that Jake had probably been in the garden around the time of the murder was. Well, not according to the cops, of course, but I considered it my business.

Right now, though, there was a commotion to smooth over. More people had crowded into the room, including some of the festival volunteers, and they wanted to know if anyone needed medical attention.

“I’m all right,” Jeffords said. “Callie, help me up.”

“Clearly you’re not all right, Andrew. You’re bleeding.”

“I’ll be fine,” he insisted.

She helped him to his feet while Will extended a hand to Jake Madison. Jake hesitated, then took it and let Will help him up. Grudgingly, he said, “That was a heck of a punch for a professor.”

“Just instinct and luck,” Will said. “You tried to hit me and I struck back.”

Jake turned to glare at Callie and Jeffords. “Now, you two–” he began.

“Not in here,” I said. “Find someplace else to hash it out. There’s a panel about to start in here.”

“Thank you,” one of the volunteers said to me. “Do we need to call the police to make sure there aren’t any more disturbances?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Jake said. “I gotta make some calls. I want to line up the best divorce lawyer in Atlanta before she gets her hooks into him.”

“Jake!” Callie cried. “I … I don’t want a divorce.”

That made both Jake and Jeffords stare at her. After a moment, Jake said, “You got a funny way of showin’ it, then.”

“Outside,” I said. “Talk about it outside.”

Callie looked at me. “But … but I’m on this panel.”

“We’ll make do with four panelists,” Will told her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to try to continue.”

“Dr. Burke is right, Callie,” Jeffords said. “You have your own drama to play out, rather than discussing the ones written by Tennessee Williams.”