Murder by Artifact (Five Star Mystery Series) (14 page)

He cast about in his brain for an excuse for their visit. “I haven’t seen you in town lately. We just wanted to make sure you hadn’t died of the heat up here.”

Parker gave one more shake of his head before turning and walking back into his house.

Giving up the freezer project for the moment, Tony and Wade climbed back into the car.

Tony slammed the car door. “We need a warrant.”

Wade cranked the air conditioner up to full blast. He turned to face his boss. “I could come up here tonight and just look around. No one would ever know I was here.”

For a moment, Tony considered it. The Marines had trained Wade well. He could turn into a shadow. “No. Let’s do it right.”

Theo needed some chocolate. Now. She opened the bottom drawer in her desk. Nothing. There had to be some in this office. She could almost taste it. Almost feel the slide of warm chocolate on her tongue.

“Dammit, who stole my chocolate?” The emergency stash in the bathroom cupboard, behind the extra toilet paper, was gone. Unthinkable. Heads would roll for this.

She opened the miniscule freezer on the pint-sized refrigerator and pulled out the ice cube tray. Wedged into the space between the tray and the back wall was a tiny candy bar. Life was good. Theo tore the wrapper off with her teeth as she scribbled herself a note. It was a simple code. A capital C with three lines underneath signaled it was the first thing she needed to put in her grocery cart at the Food City.

Tony opened the autopsy report. The official photograph made him wince. It showed Doreen’s throat once the hackle had been removed. He guessed if she had been savaged by a wild animal, it wouldn’t look much different. Torn to shreds.

According to the pathologist, Doreen had not died instantly. The cause of death was a combination of loss of oxygen and loss of blood. It was deemed doubtful that even with immediate medical attention she could have survived such horrific wounds. Time of death was narrowed to a four-hour window between six and ten.

The manner of death was absolutely murder. The other choices were natural, accidental, suicide, and undetermined.

Tony worked on his list of people who were known to spend time at the museum site. First and most frequent were his mother and her sister, followed by his brother, his brother’s wife, Catherine, and Theo. Gus employed three men on a fulltime basis: Quentin, Mac and Kenny. Other subcontractors came and went.

Doreen herself. According to all sources, Queen Doreen spent part of each day out there, issuing royal directives with no authority and generally making herself a royal pain.

Who kills someone for being a pain?

Tony eliminated his wife, his mother and his aunt on emotional grounds. Just because he couldn’t imagine it, didn’t mean it couldn’t happen. He crossed Gus and his wife off the list for the same unscientific reason.

After asking Wade to meet him there, Tony headed over to the museum site to have a little chat with Gus and his regular workers.

As Tony approached the museum site, he wondered why he and all of his siblings tried so hard to please Jane. Their mother wasn’t demanding. She didn’t whine or ask for any special favors but received them just the same. Tony didn’t think he and his siblings were still competing for the position of favorite child. Maybe they were. Certainly they took turns with the major efforts.

A year ago, his sister Callie reluctantly accompanied Jane on a cruise, in spite of a lifelong tendency toward motion sickness. Calpurnia, as his mother insisted on calling her, suffered ten days of horrendous seasickness while Jane blithely sailed along and had a wonderful time. The last time he’d talked to Callie about the trip, she claimed she still got sick looking at water in the bathtub.

This summer it was Gus’s turn to bang his head against a wall. Being Jane’s virtual slave at the museum site kept him from several lucrative jobs. Jane paid him less than he was worth.

So far, brother Tiberias let his contribution consist of free dental work. If Tony knew Berry, bigger and more expensive plans were in the works.

Ruefully acknowledging his own efforts to replace the appellation of baby with the title of favorite, Tony stopped near the driveway and watched the construction crew at work.

Quentin and Kenny marched across the ruts carrying a long beam. Because of the difference in their heights, they looked like a greyhound and a bulldog.

Kenny’s compact body possessed most of the energy and strength of the pair. Although he was only five foot five, Gus said he could outwork two bigger men.

Tall, thin and twitchy, Quentin’s bout with meth had been short-lived but intense. He certainly suffered some emotional problems that could be attributed to his detoxification. Surly, cranky and bad-tempered were some of the kinder descriptions. Gus mentioned once the normally kind Quentin had developed a volatile temper. When aroused, he threw hammers, pliers, boards or anything else he could pick up. So far, he hadn’t been known to throw them toward anyone.

Had he gotten into an argument with Doreen and popped his cork? He swore not. He claimed he and Mac were at the Okay Bar and Bait Shop after work. When he left the Okay, he had gone home and Mac had gone to see his girlfriend.

It didn’t surprise Tony to learn Mac had been in town for only a short time and already had a steady girlfriend. Single men over thirty with jobs and halfway decent social skills were scarce in Park County.

Kenny was a single father. Tony believed his alibi. After all, Theo provided it. She sat next to him when his daughter Kimberly hit the home run bunt while he was in Cincinnati. When the team went on to win, he took everyone for celebratory pizza.

Kenny’s extra vigilance as a father had a lot to do with his untrustworthy ex-wife. The last thing he was likely to do was risk her gaining custody of their two little girls.

Tony called and talked to Mom Proffitt, owner of the Okay Bar and Bait Shop. She remembered Mac and Quentin came in and had a couple of beers. They ate some potato skins and shot a little pool. Nothing unusual. Just two guys who worked together, cooling down after a sweltering day at an outdoor job.

When asked, Quentin’s neighbor, Nellie Pearl, said she saw Quentin’s flashy black truck headed up the hill to his place. To get there when she said, he had to have driven directly there after he left the Okay. To pay for the information, Sheila carried yet more stacks of boxes up and down the stairs for almost an hour.

Mac’s girlfriend, Allison Babb, invited Tony and Wade into her living room. She smiled pleasantly at Tony then turned her full-wattage smile on his handsome deputy. It was lovely, although it exposed the myriad fine lines on her face. Allison was fighting for youth and losing.

“I understand you are seeing Mac socially.” Tony folded his long legs and sat down on the teal leather sofa. He sank into the soft cushions.

Allison nodded. “Is there a problem?”

“No.” Tony opened his notebook. “We just have to verify where everyone was when Mrs. Cashdollar was killed.”

“He was here, Sheriff. All night.” A tinge of pink crept up her neck and brightened her face. Her eyes drifted to Wade and her shoulders lifted just a bit. “We’ve been dating for a couple of months.”

“How did you two meet?”

“I ran into his cart at Food City.” She smiled. “It was almost an accident.”

Tony let the statement pass. “Does he mention his work?”

Allison’s head moved up and down. “He likes your brother a lot. I think he is interested in the new museum, too.” She gave a soft laugh. “I’m not ready to pick out china or anything, but I think he might stay here. Permanently.”

Tony was sure he had seen a flash of anger in her eyes. “No problems?”

“Nothing serious.” Her fingers tapped the arm of the pink wingback chair.

Tony tried to imagine Mac living in this pink and teal room with the white carpet and flowery curtains. It didn’t work. Mac belonged in a big leather recliner with a beer cooler in one armrest and a universal remote in the other.

He smiled. “There is a problem?”

The anger in her eyes vanished and was replaced by something harder to define. Maybe fear. “He knows I hate it when he comes here still stinky and dirty.”

The tenseness of her throat told Tony she was more than a little miffed that Mac had shown up without stopping for a shower. Theo nagged whenever Tony or the boys tracked mud and dirt into the house. Never did she look this angry about it. It seemed unlikely a construction worker would arrive home smelling like the perfumed air in this room.

Tony wasn’t always clean, yet Theo hadn’t thrown him out. Gus sweated like crazy and his wife loved him anyway. “So he arrived dirty?”

“Yes.” She met his eyes. “He took a shower and changed into some clothes he leaves here, and we drove into Maryville for dinner.”

“And?” Tony could see there was more.

“I forgave him. His manners aren’t great but I think he can be trained.” She began rearranging the magazines on the coffee table. When neither Tony nor Wade said anything, she sat back. “Let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger and there aren’t many single men in the area. Still, I’m not quite ready to give him a key. You know what I mean?”

Tony did. She was definitely afraid. She feared Mac might be the man she would settle for and was also afraid she couldn’t mold him into her idea of a well-trained husband.

Wade leaned forward. “Have you been to his place?”

“You’re kidding. Right?” Allison jumped as if a cockroach had run up her leg. “He rents a room in Roscoe Morris’s trailer. I would never go there.”

Feeling like he had wasted his time, Tony returned to his office.

A full-size sheet of stationery lay on his desk along with an official report. With all the deputies overworked, he’d sent Ruth Ann to check on the most recent yard-art thefts. He studied the theft reports and drawings. Ruth Ann’s dearth of artistic skills could not be worse than the actual appearance of the two latest victims of the garden art thief. Each crude drawing sported arrows and descriptive highlights.

A three-foot-tall elf wearing a purple and red jacket was stolen in town. According to the owner, it did not wear pants. Ruth Ann’s comments on a sticky note suggested it be arrested for indecent exposure.

The second report claimed a bright blue toadstool supporting a pink and green toad vanished from a yard about five miles away. The sticky note on the report claimed overuse of the word “toad.”

Tony wondered how much more, if anything, Ruth Ann knew about the ornament thefts than he did.

Theo’s office pipeline to the details of Queen Doreen’s upcoming funeral was Gretchen. Her employee, a member of the church choir, continued to cut fabric and put away the bolts as she updated Theo. The event was set for later in the day. No customers were in the shop yet, so it was a good time for her to finish filling the day’s Internet orders.

“You know it’s set for two o’clock at the First Baptist Church. I suggest you get there early.” Gretchen studied the order form she held and began pulling the bolts she’d need to fill it. “If the choir didn’t have special seating, I’d be getting there about noon.”

That surprised Theo. Queen Doreen was not at all popular, and the Baptist Church was large enough that it routinely had several empty pews. “Really?”

“Oh yes. It promises to be a gala affair.” Gretchen flashed a smile. “Our choir has been practicing for three days. We’ll sing a series of upbeat gospel hymns.” Her smile dimmed only slightly. “We’ll have to make do without our best bass voice.”

Theo felt her eyebrows rise.

“Calvin came to choir practice last night. He told us he took Doreen’s favorite dress up to the funeral home in Knoxville and they did a real nice job fixing her up.” Gretchen swallowed hard. “From what I heard, it couldn’t have been easy to do.”

“Is he singing with you?”

“No. We’ll miss Calvin’s voice. He has to sit on the front pew with the rest of the family.”

“That makes sense.” Theo reached for a sheet of paper and a marker. “I guess I’ll put a sign on the door saying we’ll be closed today starting at noon.”

She dialed Tony and got his voice mail. “I’m going to the funeral at noon and I’ll save you a seat.”

Even with Gretchen’s warning, Theo was surprised by the size of the crowd. She sat directly behind the family, next to her mother-in-law and Martha. Her efforts to save Tony a seat almost failed. The reserved space was smaller than hoped for when Tony squeezed in next to her just before the service began.

Sardines had more space in a can than she did on the pew. Crammed up against Tony’s side the way she was, his holstered sidearm dug into her waist. The portly, unfamiliar man on the other side of her seemed to be expanding. And sweating.

Theo felt trapped.

When she glanced down and saw mud on the knees of Tony’s khaki pants, her eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t like him to arrive in a church in uniform, much less a dirty one.

“I didn’t have a chance to change.” Tony’s softly spoken words reached her ears. Theo nodded. She just hoped he wouldn’t have to leave during the service. She couldn’t see how he would be able to stand up without making everyone else on the pew rise.

Her lips twitched as she considered what would happen if her husband created such a scene. Queen Doreen might throw back the lid of the coffin, sit up and read them all the riot act if her service was interrupted.

A blanket of pink carnations covered every inch of the casket. Baskets of flowers flanked it. Theo thought the effect was simple and tasteful.

Calvin sat with Doreen’s parents and her paternal grandmother, Bathsheba. The four mourners looked tired but dry-eyed. Theo guessed they had cried out all of their grief.