Murder by Artifact (Five Star Mystery Series) (6 page)

Tony didn’t like seeing Theo so upset. If he hadn’t grabbed her in time, she would have passed out and fallen off her chair. As it was, he had to help her hold the glass of water because her hands were shaking so badly. Her skin tone was more green than pink.

“I feel so silly,” said Theo.

“Nonsense.” Tony realized his own hands were shaking, splashing water onto his wife. “Did you remember something specific?”

“Not really.” She pushed the glass away. “I’ve felt kind of off all day and suddenly I remembered a call from my grandparents when I was in Knoxville.”

“They used a telephone?” Tony eased himself onto the floor next to Theo. Her grandparents—he always thought of them as “the old people”—had not believed in modern conveniences, including the telephone. They must have been disturbed indeed to have used one.

“I know.” Theo gave him a watery smile. “It was probably the only time they used one. I think your dad helped them make the call.”

“What was it about? Do you remember any details?”

Theo gazed into space. “Mammaw heard that people were missing. Just vanished into thin air, you know, so she assumed the devil was loose.” Her smile showed her love for the old woman. “Of course, if the milk spoiled, she blamed the devil.”

Theo seemed better and Tony felt himself relaxing, too. “Did you ever hear more about it?”

She shook her head. “When I came home for a visit, they had forgotten all about it or weren’t worried anymore.” Pressing her forehead against his chest, she sighed. “They died not long after that.”

Tony held her close. He could feel her sorrow for the parents she didn’t remember and the grandparents who raised her. Hoping to distract her, he whispered in her ear, “Marmot-the Varmint is looking for a wife.”

“No way.” Theo’s expression of mingled horror and delight was gratifying. When she kissed him, he thought, very gratifying indeed.

The first thing the next morning, Tony called on retired Sheriff Harvey Winston. Refusing an offer of coffee, he jumped into the topic. “You remember those bones Theo found this spring?”

“Yep.”

Harvey had never been a chatterbox. Tony wondered if his answer seemed more terse than usual—or maybe Theo’s comments infused a fair amount of suspicion in his mind. Tony tried again. “It’s been a while since I talked to you about them. Do you remember any missing person cases, no matter how long ago?”

“Nope.”

“Well, I received an anonymous note yesterday claiming there are more bodies to be found and Theo said I should ask you about something when she was in college. It scared her grandmother and grandfather enough to make a phone call.”

“You don’t say?” Harvey sat a bit straighter. “A phone call? The Silers?”

Tony didn’t answer, letting the older man process the information.

“And now an anonymous letter?” The sleepy tone vanished. Harvey’s interest glowed in his eyes. “Where was it mailed? Do you believe it?”

“It was postmarked in Cincinnati. I don’t know what to think. Theo was pretty upset last night.” Tony leaned back in his chair trying to relax. The memory of Theo’s near collapse kept the muscles in the back of his neck tight. “It’s a pretty weird practical joke to make from Ohio. If it was mailed locally I’d come closer to believing some kid was having a little fun.”

“It’s been a while, now that you mention it, I don’t think a woman who went missing in the Gatlinburg area of the national park was ever found, and of course there were always rumors of wild pigs eating children in Cades Cove.” Harvey was suddenly garrulous, uncharacteristically so. “Of course, neither of those is in Park County. There’s no reason to believe anyone was killed. Even if they were, there’s no proof they came near here.”

“Neither of those scenarios would be likely to upset Theo’s grandmother. That woman wasn’t afraid of anything.” Tony hoped a little humor would loosen Harvey’s lips.

With a snort, Harvey dropped his guard. “You are right, of course. She was a lot tougher than me. Now that you mention it, we did have a strange case. Can’t imagine how I forgot about it since it scared the snot out of me at the time. I doubt it’s what you’re looking for.” He cleared his throat a couple of times. “There was some animal mutilation. It started with a couple of small animals. A possum, for sure, and maybe a coon. I’m not sure what else. Oh, yeah, someone’s goat disappeared around then. It was probably a simple theft. The whole thing ended as fast as it started, after a couple of cattle were slaughtered. A year or so later, I put the file away. It never happened again.”

“How long ago?”

“Years.” Harvey fell silent.

Tony remembered Theo’s timetable. “Maybe twenty years ago? That would be about the time I joined the Navy.”

“No. Well, I guess it could be. I was thinking maybe a couple of years later.” He gazed out the window and nodded. “My youngest was away at Xavier, playing on a basketball scholarship. I remember being glad that she wasn’t around with some freak running loose.”

“Isn’t she the same age as Theo?”

“Yep. They graduated at the same time. So it’s maybe been fifteen or sixteen years.”

Maybe this was what had upset Theo’s grandmother. It was odd. No one in his family had bothered to tell him about the most exciting thing that had probably happened in Park County since they had moved there.

Harvey laughed. “About that same time there were some reports of space ship landings, aliens loose, some real woo-woo stuff. The closest thing to space aliens I ever saw is that robot statue and life-sized saucer old man Ferguson built out of tractor parts and stuck in his front yard.”

“Okay, thanks, Harvey. Call me if you think of anything else.”

“Keep your powder dry, kid.”

Tony laughed and saluted before leaving the old sheriff.

Harvey had been the sheriff in Park County since forever. He had been the sheriff when the Abernathy family had moved to Silersville when Tony was eight. He was still the sheriff until three years ago when Tony and Theo moved back from Chicago, at his suggestion. With his support, Tony was elected as Park County’s new sheriff.

As he returned to his office, he decided being sheriff felt like a game of “Tag” and he was “It.”

His musings were interrupted by a knock on the door frame. He looked up to see Deputy Mike Ott. Mike wasn’t scheduled to work for two more days. In case he dropped by, Tony had taped a note to his locker. “You wanted to see me?”

“Come in, Mike. Don’t worry, I know you’re still on vacation.” Tony leaned back in his chair. “How’d your trip go?” Mike and his girlfriend Ruby had been out of town, searching for Ruby’s little girl. Her ne’er-do-well ex-husband had given her to relatives and they in turn had given, or, more likely, sold her to another family. “Any news?”

“Well, we have another lead to follow. You know how it goes. One thing leads to another.” He exhaled heavily and sank onto one of the extra chairs. “Ruby is pretty discouraged, and I have to confess, I am, too.” He squeezed his hands together. “If her SOB of an ex-husband wasn’t already dead, I swear, I’d enjoy killing him myself.”

The flash of pure malice startled Tony. Mike looked as nondescript as paste and usually managed his emotions with an iron control. It made him the perfect undercover cop. Tony wasn’t sure how much control he would have himself if something threatened Theo or one of the boys. He doubted he would do half as well as Mike.

Tony shook his head to clear it. “On the subject of leads, I want you to look at this.” Tony handed him the bag containing the newspaper clipping.

Mike studied the letters in silence. Finally, he looked up, his clear blue eyes meeting Tony’s. “Do you think we missed something out there in the woods? We searched the best we could. Dammit’s not trained as a cadaver dog, you know.”

“I know, and no, I don’t think we missed anything.” The search had lasted for days. Mike and his bloodhound Dammit had combed every inch of the park and located just about enough bones to make one body. A couple of the smaller bones of the wrist and ankle had not been found. Those were probably carried off by some kind of critter. “If you had turned up three thigh bones or something, I’d say well, maybe there was something wrong.”

A fleeting grin lit Mike’s face. “Do you want us to go back out there?”

“No,” said Tony. “You’ve covered it all. Plus, we have nothing for a scent.”

“True.” Mike looked thoughtful. “How about cold cases? Have you learned anything there?”

Tony shrugged. “I’m not sure. I asked Harvey, and he said there was nothing like that, at least not that he could remember. He talked a while about old cases inside the national park and even mentioned a case of animal mutilation.”

“Really?” Mike’s eyebrow flew skyward. “But?”

“I didn’t believe him.” Tony stood and began pacing. “I can’t shake the feeling that he was still keeping something from me.”

“Who is keeping something from you?” Wade trotted in carrying the mail. On the top of the stack was an envelope in an evidence bag. “Looks like another one.”

Tony automatically reached for the antacids and then the bag. The envelope, including the Cincinnati postmark, looked exactly like the one from the day before.

“Okay, Wade, check the outside for prints. I can hardly wait to see what’s inside.”

Mike and Tony sat staring at the first clipping. It occupied the center of his desk.

Deputy Sheila Teffeteller came to the open doorway.

Tony looked up. Sheila’s face looked drawn and tired. The normally immaculate deputy looked like she’d been fighting a wildcat in a dustbin. Beyond her, Ruth Ann sat at her desk watching them carefully. It slowed her application of a fresh coat of polish to her long fingernails. Even from here, Tony could see the green glow. It wasn’t a nice green.
Bilious
came to mind.

Mike laughed. “Geez, kid, you fall down a chimney?”

Tony waved her to a chair. “What’s wrong, Sheila?”

“It sounds so ordinary. I was driving my route, minding my own business.” Sheila settled onto the unoccupied chair and released a weary sigh. “Nellie Pearl Prigmore flagged me down.”

“How is the old bat?” Mike asked.

“As mean as new.” Sheila fanned her face with her hand. Moisture dappled her fair skin, and her sweat-soaked shirt clung to the body armor beneath it. “She started out by making a complaint about someone stealing some of her yard art.”

“I don’t suppose it was replaced with a donkey and cart?” Tony still guessed a prankster was simply rotating the pieces.

“Nope. Nothing took its place.” She consulted her notebook. “The missing item is a blue and yellow elf sitting on a two-foot-tall pink toadstool and holding a bouquet of flowers. Mostly daisies. According to Nellie Pearl, it was there when she went to bed last night because she remembered seeing it from her bedroom window.”

“Did she have any idea who might be responsible?” Tony asked.

“Only everyone in the county.” Sheila glared at him. “Then she pulled out the ‘poor old woman’ routine, and the next thing I knew, she had me carrying boxes of books or lead pipes or something heavy like that, up and down the stairs. I know I carried a plastic crate filled with jars of something containing lots of camphor. Brand-new jars.”

Mike pinched his nose with his fingers as he asked, “Is that why she smells like that?”

Tony was preparing his own politically incorrect comment when Wade returned, waving the evidence bag containing the latest mysterious envelope. “It’s clean, just like the last one.”

Every trace of levity vanished.

Tony took the bag. Using a souvenir letter opener, he slit open the top of the envelope and turned it upside down over a clean sheet of paper on his desk. An index card, seemingly identical to the first one, fell onto his desk along with a larger newspaper clipping. This clipping had yellowed until it was almost chocolate brown. The worn seam and edges made it look like it had been folded and carried in a wallet for a while, but not continuously, for twenty years. Ignoring the clipping for the moment, he read the message on the card out loud. “ ‘I know where she is. Do you?’ ”

Tony glanced up and saw all eyes focused on the bit of newspaper. “Those seven words are all that’s written on the card.” He used the point of the opener to push the card into a plastic bag.

Armed with a paperclip and letter opener, Tony unfolded the newspaper clipping and maneuvered it into a separate bag. At the top of the article was a photograph of an attractive young woman. It was a Knoxville newspaper and the headline read, “Local woman missing in national park.” It was dated some twenty years previous.

Tony cleared his throat, preparing to read the clipping to the three deputies and to Ruth Ann, who stood in the doorway not even blowing on her fingernails. The silence almost unnerved him. He began. “ ‘Mrs. Annabelle Garrison was last seen at the Sugarlands Visitor Center in Gatlinburg. On an outing to the national park with her husband and two children, Mrs. Garrison reportedly had gone to the restroom and failed to return. The family and authorities request anyone with information contact either the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office or the national park authorities.’ ”

“Aw, man, twenty years ago. In the national park?” Tony waved the clipping. “I do remember this now. Harvey talked about it earlier, and it didn’t ring a bell. I was in high school and it was just before graduation. It was big news at the time. What have we got to do with it?”

“We must be the gravesite.” Mike frowned. “Why here? We must be thirty miles from the visitor center.”

“Why and when?” Sheila leaned forward to study the newspaper photograph. “Those bones were not out there for twenty years.”

“That’s true.” Tony massaged the back of his neck. “Don’t forget, Theo found a male skeleton. If this woman’s here, we haven’t found her yet.”

“Why the sudden onslaught of clippings?” asked Wade. He moved to look at Tony’s big wall calendar. On it were notations about shifts, phases of the moon and vacation time. He turned back to the others. “The moon’s not full, so it isn’t crazy time. It sounds like someone got away with murder. After all these years, why bring it up?”