Murder by Artifact (Five Star Mystery Series) (13 page)

“Was the man arrested?”

Theo shrugged. “I don’t think anyone knows what happened to him. If you’ve got the nerve, you could always ask Bathsheba. She was Abigail’s sister.”

Everyone suddenly seemed fascinated by their projects.

As if summoned by a witch’s spell, Bathsheba descended on Theo. She wished it was winter, the season Bathsheba spent in Florida. The tiny old woman’s blue-veined hands clutched her cane with the strength of hickory. In her cataract-clouded eyes burned the hatred of the generations.

“You tell your lazy husband I know it was her husband who killed her. If he wants to keep his job, I suggest he make an arrest. Today.”

Theo blinked and returned to the present. Bathsheba was talking about Doreen and Calvin, not Abigail and the unwanted fiancé.

Tony stopped by Ruby’s Café for lunch. When Ruby brought him the menu, a flash of light on her left hand caught his attention. The diamond ring was new. He grinned. “You’re finally going to put Mike out of his misery?”

Tony—and everyone else in town—knew Deputy Mike Ott had been asking Ruby to marry him for months. It was almost a running gag. Several informal bets had been made on the date she would finally accept his proposal. A tinge of rose crept onto her cheeks, brightening her flawless olive complexion. Her deep brown eyes glowed. Happiness transformed the most beautiful woman in the county into the most beautiful woman in the state. Tony grinned.

Ruby gave him a mock salute. “Yes. I thought I’d wait until he presented me with a petition signed by the majority of the county residents.”

Tony laughed. “I’ll bet almost every signature was female.”

“It was your vote that pushed it onto the yes side.” Ruby leaned closer and dropped her voice. “Actually, it’s because Mike and Dammit are inseparable and I’ve decided I can’t live any longer without dog drool on my furniture.”

“I’m happy for both of you.” Tony opened the menu with studied casualness. “Does Theo know you’ve decided to officially adopt a bloodhound and his owner?”

“Not yet.” Ruby’s blush deepened. “You’re the first person I’ve seen since I said yes.”

Tony’s grin widened. “You mean if I hurry over to her shop, I can deliver the latest news?”

Ruby laughed. “I’ll even give you a head start.”

The door into the kitchen swung open and then closed, sending the aroma of warm apples wafting from the kitchen. Tony’s stomach rumbled and his mouth watered. “First, I need a slice of pie and a glass of milk for lunch.”

When he had a chunk of the pie on his fork, he hesitated, half afraid the pie would not live up to his expectations. As usual, the flavors took his breath away. Whatever Blossom used for a secret ingredient was fantastic. Try as he might, he had never figured it out. Not that it really mattered. He wasn’t going to fix one and Theo would probably just call and order a pie rather than cook it herself. His wife was brilliant and creative and not much of a cook.

On his way out, he went into the kitchen to talk to Blossom. She must have fallen into the flour bin. Covered with a large, spotless white apron and the cloud of flour, she looked like a snow figure. One with improbably orange hair.

Blossom cast him an adoring glance.

Tony stayed close to the door. “The pie was as delicious as ever.”

“Thank you.” Her eyelids fluttered.

He cleared his throat. “You and Doreen have never gotten along very well, have you?”

“Nope.” The welcoming glow disappeared from her bulbous eyes. Her little lips stuck out in a pout.

“Are you satisfied she didn’t steal your lawn ornament?” Tony had lost count of the number of purloined gnomes and the like. The epidemic raged on. He had neither clues nor the manpower to track them down.

“Yep.” Blossom traced a pattern in fallen flour with the tip of her big toe. Finally she looked up at him. It looked like she had tears in her eyes. “I didn’t kill her.”

“I know you didn’t.” Even if she had wanted to do it, Tony couldn’t imagine how a woman of Blossom’s considerable bulk would have been able to squeeze into the space where the killing occurred, much less be able to wield the flax hackle with those child-sized hands. He thought, not for the first time, Calvin’s large, long-fingered hands would have been able to wield it with ease.

Blossom smiled and waggled her fingers at him.

As he paid for his pie, he wondered if he needed to drive to Theo’s shop with lights and siren on in order to be the first with news about the engagement.

He found his wife in the community workroom instead of in her office. When he announced the news about Ruby and Mike to the quilters, a cheer of delight was followed closely by the beginning of a discussion about making the couple a wedding quilt.

After all, Ruby was one of them.

NIGHT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Construction A.

On the reverse side of each of 12, Light #2—4 1/4″ squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. Place it right side facing down on the right side of 4 1/4” square of Medium #2. Using the drawn line as a guide, sew a line of stitching 1/4″ on both sides of the line. Cut on the line. Open and press to the darker fabric. Trim the resulting squares to measure 3 3/4″. You should have 24 half-square triangle squares. Set aside.

Contruction B.

On the reverse side of each of 24 squares of Light #1—2 1/8″ squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. Place one right side facing down the right side of 3 3/4″ square of Medium #2. Line up edges even with one corner of medium—the drawn line should travel across the corner of Medium #2. Sew
on
the drawn line.

Press to corner.

You should have 24 squares with a light triangle on one corner.

In a good mood, Tony returned to the law enforcement center.

Ruth Ann must have been watching for him, because he didn’t have his outside door closed before she arrived at his inside door. As she handed him a sheaf of phone messages, he couldn’t avoid noticing her latest nail polish. He hadn’t seen this shade before. Her fingernails glinted with a hint of pink glitter embedded in bright blue polish. “New color?”

Ruth Ann nodded as she continued to force him to accept the stack of notes.

He frowned even as his fingers closed around them. “I don’t want these.”

“They are all for you.” Ruth Ann held a pink palm up to stop him from handing them back. “I really think you’ll be intrigued by the one from the Park Service. You’ve got a believer who would like to call in the FBI.”

He felt a flash of relief. The cold case involving Vicky Parker and the soon-to-be-deceased Harrison Duff would require incredible man-hours. Even if they wanted to follow up, his small staff was stretched to the limits.

“Are the Feds claiming jurisdiction?” If he could get this albatross off his neck, he’d be happy.

“Not exactly,” said Ruth Ann. “They are making sounds like they might be willing to look into it. That is, if you can find some evidence to support your guy’s story. The bones Theo found are not enough because they could have come from anywhere.”

Tony’s surge of excitement vanished. He couldn’t imagine any judge issuing a search warrant on the uncle’s private land just because a terminally ill man claimed there were bodies in a freezer.

Having heard from Harrison what they’d put in the freezer made him consider a long trip. The lazy part of Tony hoped the freezer was gone. If Harrison’s story proved out and there were bodies in it, the investigation would be a nightmare. Even if the Feds did take over, he would still have to keep track of what they were doing in his county.

The greater part of him was driven to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. It won. He recognized the same fire in Ruth Ann’s eyes.

“I’ll drive out there and see if Mr. Parker will let me look around his place.” The idea of tramping around in the exceptional heat and stifling humidity held little appeal. He fanned himself with the papers. “First, though, I’ll go through these and reread the confession.”

Even he recognized this as a stalling technique. He continued, “Tell Wade to give me fifteen minutes to digest my lunch and he’s going with me.”

Ruth Ann nodded and turned away.

“Oh, by the way, Ruby agreed to marry Mike and she’s wearing a new diamond ring.”

Ruth Ann turned back, a wide grin lighting her face. “Well, it’s about time.”

For a quarter of an hour, he lounged in his desk chair, leaning back with his legs comfortably crossed on the open lower drawer of his desk. He tried concentrating on the warm pie. That didn’t work. Maybe thinking about the book he was writing would get his mind off his job. Unfortunately, writing about an imaginary lawman of the eighteen hundreds only circled his brain back to the problems at hand.

Unless someone confessed to the murder of Doreen Cashdollar, he might be in professional trouble. There were only vague suspects. Calvin was way too obvious. He was smart enough to have hauled out the sackcloth and ashes if he’d killed her. Right now it looked like he would hire a defense attorney for anyone suspected of killing his wife.

Tony didn’t like coincidence. He considered Vicky Parker being in town to be stronger than coincidence. What had brought her back after all these years?

“Sheriff?” Wade stood in the doorway.

Tony waved him in and moved his feet to the floor. The expression on Wade’s face told him the deputy didn’t have news that would help.

“I checked the Volvo. If anyone besides Doreen has been in the car, it was long enough ago that even her mechanic’s prints are gone.” Wade frowned and pretended to read his notes. “The ones on the door handle and trunk lid were not smudged and they were definitely hers. And the parking ticket was stamped four hours before she could have possibly died.”

“That tells us something we didn’t know before.”

“Sir?” Wade didn’t seem so certain.

Tony reached for his antacids. “It tells us Doreen did not deliver herself to the museum, doesn’t it? To me, it looks like she arrived with the killer.”

Wade sat down on a chair facing him. “So she knew and trusted him.”

“Him?”

Wade nodded. “I’d say her killer was most likely male.”

Tony agreed. “Why do you think it’s a man?”

“It seems simple.” Wade shifted forward on the chair. “To start with, the hackle whatsit is big enough that not too many women I’ve met could hold it and lash out with any kind of force.” He flexed one of his own hands. “Prudence Sligar might be able to. She arm wrestles and her hands are big enough. Doreen is her cash cow.”

Tony nodded. He considered Prudence. “She just had her latest baby and hasn’t lost the weight. I’d be surprised if she could fit into the trailer.”

“True,” said Wade. “It also seems unlikely Doreen would go out there with any woman she’s not related to—you know, like her mother.” He paused. A hint of mischief sparkled in his eyes. “She never seemed to care much for other women.”

Tony thought that was a masterful piece of understatement.

Tony rode up to Parker’s farm with Wade because Wade’s vehicle had better air-conditioning.

The ozone and particulate haze over the Smokies hung thick and gray in the air. It made the dark mountains mysterious and foreboding, like giant creatures growing in the heat. These ancient mountains looked strikingly different from the mountains of the western states. Tony remembered his first view of the Beartooth Mountains, rising abruptly from the land. There was no vegetation to soften the tallest peaks, and snow still clung to them in early May.

A pair of pollen-laden insects splattered on the windshield like little water balloons. Studying them distracted his thoughts. In his personal rating systems of color, size and juice, he scored the bugs a nine out of a perfect ten.

“Damn.” Wade slunk lower in his seat. “I’m almost driving blind.” He squirted the insect blobs with windshield washer fluid. The windshield wipers came on automatically, smearing the mess.

“Maybe old-man Parker will loan you a bucket of water and a rag.”

Wade’s eyebrows raised and he shook his head. “As far as I can tell, we’ll be lucky if he doesn’t give us a double barrel load of buckshot. He’s not exactly warm and fuzzy.”

Tony silently agreed. He considered this a fool’s errand. Still, they had to try. The Parker property was just around the curve in the narrow road, and Wade slowed the vehicle, stopping in front of the driveway.

A gate constructed of bits of wire and tree branches closed twin ruts to visitors. The ruts curved past a pitiful garden of weeds, tobacco and corn. Beyond the garden sat the house. Weathered to silver, the small building looked as it had always looked. Twin windows flanked the open front door. The house had no eaves. The way tree branches came over the roof from the back, the leaves looked like hair on a large gray face.

A double-barreled shotgun came through the doorway, and then Nelson Parker emerged. He held the butt of the gun pressed to his shoulder. In spite of the heat, he wore a long-sleeved plaid shirt under worn overalls. A battered straw hat shaded most of his face. Toothless gums parted. “Hold!”

Tony froze. “I’m not on your property, Mr. Parker.”

“Lucky for you.”

Tackling the subject of searching for dead bodies with a shotgun aimed at him strained Tony’s power of persuasion. He tried a smile. “How are you today, Mr. Parker?”

A sharp nod was the answer.

“Do you suppose you could lower the shotgun?”

A single shake of the head answered the question.

Tony didn’t move. His chocolate-brown uniform shirt collected sunlight and turned the vest under it into a sauna. Sweat slid down his face and neck. The barest movement of air carried the smell of something sweet and rotten.

Parker stood in the shade and waited.

Nelson Parker had never been an easy man to deal with. Tony decided against asking about the freezer. If it was there, any interest on his part would have Parker destroying the evidence.