Murder by Serpents (Five Star First Edition Mystery) (12 page)

“I heard that you got into an argument with the man at the grocery store. Do you remember him now? He's the very same man that you pretended not to know. Maybe you two argued again out at the old motel?” The sudden change in Stan's countenance told Tony that his guess hit the target.

The corners of Stan's mouth drooped and he collapsed onto the chair. “I told him that he ought not treat those snakes like that.” Stan began wringing his hands. “I didn't want to mention it because I know it sounds bad. I didn't do anything to him. I swear I didn't, but now that I think about it, I might have threatened him. I guess someone heard me.”

Tony neither confirmed nor denied his statement. “When was this?”

“Oh, I dunno. It happened maybe a couple of days after your mom and aunt told me that they were renting out the office.” His fingers dug into the chair arms like he needed to hang on for dear life. “I went out there, you know, just to see what was what and I saw them messing with the snakes.”

Tony drew a series of circles in his notebook. “Were they having their service?”

“Yessir.” Stan's head bobbed. “They didn't have curtains on the windows so I watched. Those poor snakes.” Tears welled in his eyes. “Afterwards, I confronted that preacher out in the parking lot.”

“And? What did he say?”

“Said it wasn't any of my damned business but that he doesn't use the same snakes all the time. On alternating nights, he lets them rest.”

Tony frowned. “Was that all?”

“Yes,” said Stan.

Tony didn't believe him but decided to let it go for the moment. He really wanted to find out the true identity of their victim before he went further into his investigation. After all, Stan wasn't going to leave town.

Moments after Stan left, his intercom buzzed. Quietly, Ruth Ann announced that Sheila had arrived with Quentin's girlfriend.

“Send them to the greenhouse.”

The only window in the greenhouse barely qualified as one. All formal interrogations took place in there. State of the art cameras and recording equipment monitored the room. Simple and stark, the floor to ceiling beige tile and gray vinyl flooring could be hosed down with bleach and hot water. A drain in the floor made it simple. A steel table, steel chairs and steel door set with a tiny Plexiglas window. In the greenhouse, the outside world ceased to exist.

Tony joined Sheila and Angelina Lopez. Thirty seconds later, Tony wanted Quentin's girlfriend out of the state. Sitting in front of him was a walking illustration of what illegal drug use could produce. Miss Lopez had, at least in Tony's opinion, done enough drugs in her twenty-five or so years that she could tolerate being in an enclosed space with Quentin. To be fair, she wouldn't win first prize either. Tony knew little about her other than her name and that she had come home with Quentin from a trip to Arizona. Her use of the English language seemed no worse than Quentin's.

She carried no form of identification at all.

Short and squat, she sat across from him, her legs splayed. The thin, black nylon pants clung to every crease and ripple like body paint. The crimson crop top revealed more than it covered. Cut low across her breasts and riding high above the roll of flesh that was the widest part of her body, the sleazy fabric looked as if it was about ready to come apart. A matted, filthy, fake leopard jacket covered her arms and hung down her back like a shawl.

“How long have you lived here, Miss Lopez?”

The best guess in the sheriff's office put Quentin's Arizona trip at about the time of the Super Bowl football game in January. Since then, Quentin had gone downhill fast.

Tony repeated his question.

“About a year.” She dug into the mess of hair and stabbed something with a broken fingernail. After glancing at it, she popped it into her mouth.

It wasn't even a good lie.

Tony fought the impulse to hide behind Sheila when the gross woman began touching herself in front of him. The prostitutes that Tony had arrested in Chicago looked like nuns in comparison. Keeping his eyes glued to hers, he hurried through the questions. The pupils and irises were the same shade of black. Acne covered her dirty, coarse skin and her black hair looked like it had been caught in something and then cut free with a dull knife.

Tony forced himself to focus on her eyes. “Do you remember where Quentin spent Wednesday night?”

“Wednesday?” Angelina returned to her digging and looked up. “With me.”

She said it with such certainty that Tony knew she lied again. He doubted that she remembered Wednesday. He tried a different approach. “What do you know about Quentin's cousin?”

“Nothing.”

“How long has he lived at your place?”

A shrug.

Tony's gaze dropped to her mouth and he shuddered. Her teeth were broken and brown and there was a vicious sore on her lip. She smiled and ran her tongue over it. Tony reached for the bottle of antacids. “Do you know his whole name?”

“John.” She shrugged. “Just John. He's okay. He gives me money.” She leaned forward and Tony could see all the way down her top to the roll of fat at her waist.

He focused on her eyes.

“You are a handsome
hombre
even with no hairs.” She patted her head. “You wouldn't have to pay me no thing.” Her eyes were glued to his crotch and her tongue traced the outline of her mouth.

Her assessment didn't flatter him, and her unspoken offer held no temptation. Tony looked at Sheila. “Take her home. Please.” If he looked at her one more second he might lose his professional cool and throw her into the parking lot.

Seconds after the women departed from the interrogation room, Ruth Ann arrived with a spray bottle of disinfectant and a wad of paper towels clutched in a glove-encased fist. If he didn't know better, he'd think she almost looked sympathetic.

“That didn't take long.” Ruth Ann sprayed the table, chair and surrounding floor.

“I don't think she knows anything, even when she is not high. I just couldn't stomach being in a closed space with her and had Sheila take her home.” He moved the chair that he occupied closer to the open door. “It's too bad there is no window in this room.” The room had been designed to keep prisoners from escaping, but it also kept fresh air outside.

Ruth Ann's nose twitched. “What
is
that stench, anyway? It is positively vile. It smells worse than old-fashioned dirt and sweat.”

“Chemicals.” Tony flipped through his notebook. “Quentin smelled like that yesterday, but at least we were outside then.” He watched the efficiency of her movements. “It's certainly not part of your job, but I really appreciate you coming in here and cleaning up but I'm afraid your efforts will be wasted. I sent Darren after Quentin. They should arrive any time.”

Clearly dismayed, Ruth Ann straightened. “Oh, well, it is a head start anyway.” Holding the dirty paper towels away from her face, she headed for the door and paused, looking at him over one shoulder. “Did your mother enjoy her date?” Her dark eyes sparkled with mischief.

For a second, Tony's thoughts were so consumed by comparing her lively black eyes with Angelina's empty ones that he didn't comprehend her question. When her words hit him, he reeled. “My mom had a date? With whom? Nobody tells me anything. Did Theo know?”

Ruth Ann nodded. “Jane and Red went to Knoxville to a play. I wouldn't have known, but I saw them coming home last night together and she filled me in this morning. Gave me all the details.” Her smile widened.

“Did she have a good time?” Tony had wondered if his mother would ever actually go out with another man. He'd have to ask Theo why she didn't tell him. “What did they do after the play?”

Pretending she had not heard his question, she said. “The play was excellent.” Ruth Ann extended her little finger as she began to count off the points. “She enjoyed the dessert after the play, but they both prefer the pies that Blossom bakes.” She added another finger. “Red behaved like a perfect gentleman.” She added her third finger and fourth fingers. “He kissed her goodnight but it was only a kiss on the cheek.”

The opening notes of the “William Tell Overture” shrilled in Tony's pocket. As he opened the little cellular phone, Ruth Ann left the room, closing the door behind her. Caller ID informed him that the Chief of Police in Maryville returned his call.

“Hey, Chief, I see you got my message.” Tony leaned back in his chair, tipping the front legs off the floor. “What can you tell me about the death of your John Mize?”

“Well, we know from his blood alcohol level that he had to have been blind drunk when he crashed his car into a new vehicle out at a dealership near the airport. It wasn't the first time he's over imbibed, either. My mama would call him shiftless.” He coughed. “What a way to go, though. He wasn't wearing a seat belt and went through two windshields, his own and the other vehicle's as well. Died at the scene in a brand new car.”

“I remember hearing about that. How fast was he going?”

The chief cleared his throat. “Well over a hundred.”

“Ouch. Is there much family left?” In Tony's experience, the Mize clan stuck together whenever possible. Quentin just happened to be the only member left from his branch.

“Yep, but they are all accounted for. Most of them live in town and are generally pretty law-abiding. A few of them live a little ways out of town, and I sent a couple of officers out there to check up on them. A couple of the cousins did mention that some relative from out of state had been visiting a while back. The best description that we got put him in the medium height and weight category and he looked a lot like someone named Uncle Jesse. But—” he paused to clear his throat. “I can tell you that he preached around here for a short time. Although the relatives said that he did have snakes with him, it looks like he didn't use any of them in his services though. Still, it sounds a lot like your man, doesn't it?”

“It sure does.” Tony sat forward, slamming the chair legs onto the floor. He grabbed a pen. “That's got to be him. Any idea what name he used there? They would know that he wasn't John.”

“Cousin Hub.” There was more rustling of papers. “No one seems too sure what that stands for and no one had any idea he was using John's license. They think he took it from a box of John's belongings and, for what it's worth, I believe them. They may not be a bunch of Harvard grads, but they are an honest lot. They took him in because he was kin and didn't miss him when he left.”

“Hub? Maybe that's short for Hubbard. I wonder if that's his first or last name.” Tony was thinking out loud. “Now why do you suppose a God-fearing preacher turned up here using a dead man's identification?” He didn't mention the stolen license plate.

“You got me, Tony.” Amusement threaded the Chief's voice. “I only met one snake handler and he was so law abiding that he probably used turn signals when walking down the sidewalk. His world only held good and evil, black and white with no shades of gray.”

“He probably didn't consider that using his snakes in a service here is against the law,” said Tony.

“Most likely he didn't feel that the laws created by men matched those of his religion. Still, I never would peg one for carrying false identification.”

“Yeah, I agree. Thanks for all your help and let me know if you learn anything else about this man. He's sure got me puzzled.” Tony stared unseeing at his notes, mentally shuffling the information he had. John Mize—or whatever his name might be—was not a familiar sight around Silersville. In an area where many of the residents worked a couple of jobs to make ends meet, how had he supported himself?

A vision of the thick wallet rose in his mind's eye. He doubted that more than a quarter of the county population had ever seen a hundred-dollar bill much less owned twenty of them.

He wondered if the man had a bank account.

The questions were piling up faster than the answers.

THE SECOND BODY OF CLUES

On the wrong side of the fabric, mark one diagonal line from corner to corner of each 2 1/2 inch square of fabrics (B) and (D) and 48 of the squares of fabric (C).

U
NIT
1—

Stack the 48 rectangles of fabric (E) right side up. Next to it stack the 48 squares of fabric (B) right side down. The marked diagonal should run upper left to lower right. Place a square (B) on the right end of the rectangle and stitch on the drawn line. Repeat until all 48 are sewn. Fold the corner of the square up to make a triangle. Press. Trim back layers leaving 1/4"? seam allowance. You now have 48 rectangles EB which are unit 1's. Set aside.

U
NIT
2—

Repeat the process with 2 1/2"? by 4 1/2"? rectangles of fabric (A) and squares of fabric (D). After trimming, stack these rectangles right side up with corner of D in upper right.

Set squares of (C) with right side down and diagonal line running from lower left to upper right onto left corner of the rectangle. Sew on drawn line. Continue until all 48 are sewn. Fold the corner of the square up to make a triangle. When sewn there should be a large arrow point of (A) facing corners of (C) and (D). (Flying geese) Trim back layers, leaving 1/4" seam allowance. Continue until you have 48 geese ACD. These are unit 2's. Set aside.

Excited that her van worked again, Theo headed for Nina's house. It had been a rotten winter for her best friend. After fifteen years of marriage, her scum-bucket husband decided to “pursue his destiny” in a city, living with a much younger woman. Without warning, and only three days before Christmas, he had moved to Charlotte to live with an Internet sweetie. There hadn't been much money in the bank when he had been home, and he had taken most of that with him. Too spineless to tell Nina what he planned to do, he left a note on the kitchen counter.

Two days later, while Nina visited her attorney in Knoxville, a hit and run driver sideswiped her car and it needed extensive bodywork. Merry Christmas! The insurance company wanted to total it because it would cost more to repair than it was worth, but she had no money to replace it. By NewYear's Day, the two kids had chicken pox. The final straw hit last week when she slipped on a toy car that belonged to her eight-year-old son Tommy. She and the toy fell down the back steps at her own house. Nina broke her left ankle.