One Dog Too Many (A Mae December Mystery) (18 page)

B
en asked Dory to let him know as soon as Wayne Nichols arrived. He planned to check with Tech Johns about the results he had gotten from the lab studies. Hopefully, there would be something pertinent to gather from the tests on the clothing. Hadley Johns was waiting for him in the conference room.

“We struck out with both David Allison and James Connolly. There was no blood on either set of clothing. All the fluids we found belonged to them. The paternity test came back early, though, and we have our daddy. It’s Mr. Connolly. Emma ran the test last night.”

“Is she sure?”

“Yes, sir. I even re-ran the test. He’s the father. It’s a match.”

“Thanks for the rush on the results.” Dory buzzed Ben saying Detective Nichols was there. “Okay, Hadley, you can get back to work now. Detective Nichols and I need to have a meeting.”

As soon as the skinny tech left the room, Wayne Nichols walked in.

“Good morning, Wayne. Hadley just gave me the news. James Connolly is the father. That’s a big break for us. So, let’s review where we are.”

Wayne nodded.

“We’re concentrating on two major suspects, David Allison and James Connolly. Let’s go over what we have on the attorney first.”

“We already knew that Connolly was having an affair with Ruby, but we now know he was the father of her child. Mr. Connolly kept an apartment in downtown Nashville that he used for late-night meetings, or for early morning court appearances. The affair took place there. We found two interesting things in the bedside stands when we searched the apartment—a fake gun and a pair of restraints.”

“What do you mean by ‘restraints’?” Ben asked.

“Like handcuffs but not as heavy. They’re loose when a person puts them on but tighten up if the person struggles. They’re lightweight and look sort of like bracelets. They’re used sometimes for S and M sex.”

“This must be my week to learn things I don’t want to know. How do you know about S and M sex?”

“Hey, I’m a man of the world, Boss.” Wayne grinned. “Did I tell you that Ruby met with James Connolly when she got back from vacation and gave him an expensive cigar? My guess is she told him she was pregnant and that he was the father. That couldn’t have been good news. The man is married and has two kids. So, unless he was deeply in love with Ruby, he must have felt his back was to the wall.”

“What else?”

“There’s the business aspect of their relationship. He was trying to finalize a deal with Dymond Development that would have made Ruby and him very rich. They probably initiated the lawsuits about the road widening to delay the construction long enough to get the county to up their offer for the property. Lucy told me that Ruby wanted to buy the vacant lot next door to her and that she got angry when Lucy wouldn’t sell.”

“Sounds like Ruby and her attorney were trying to do a land grab. I wonder who Henriette Mead plans to give her property to after she dies?” Ben rubbed the spot between his eyebrows where a headache was starting.

“Yes, we can’t dismiss Silas yet. But I think James Connolly is our most likely perp. He had the means, motive, opportunity and Ruby’s power of attorney. Once she was dead, he’d be the one to deal with Silas on the property. Then Ruby turned up pregnant. That gave her power over him which could have ruined his marriage and his practice as a family attorney.
”

Ben nodded. “James also drives a pickup truck.
He could have gone to Ruby’s house and killed her after David left. His wife told you that he took the babysitter home. If we could get Lucy or Mrs. Ryan to identify the truck and its driver, we might be able to focus on James Connolly.”

“I also think Mrs. Connolly knows something.” Wayne narrowed his eyes. “Her behavior was a little strange when I was at her house.”

“I’m not completely ready to dismiss David Allison either,” Ben said. “He was with Ruby the night she died. She taunted him with the fact that he wasn’t the father of her child. It must have been devastating news. He also had the means, motive and opportunity. On the other hand, he didn’t stand to inherit her property—although I’m not sure he knew about the specifics of her will. He doesn’t strike me as the type that would resort to violence easily. He has no record, in fact quite the opposite. He’s mild mannered and has nothing more than a few parking tickets.”

“What did the lab find on his clothing from that night?”

“There was nothing there. Bottom line, who do you like best for this, Wayne, Ruby’s husband or her attorney?”

“Attorney. David Allison seems like a gentle guy who was deeply hurt about the way Ruby treated him. While anyone can be driven to murder, I doubt a guy like David could kill a
pregnant woman.”

“
I agree. Does having the murder weapon show up in Mae’s barn change anything? She has no motive as far as we can discover. It’s much more likely that someone else put the shovel there in order to frame her.”

“Well,” the detective gave the sheriff an appraising look, “I think the
pretty lady is pretty interested in you. Possibly, she’s trying to distract you from thinking she’s involved in the crime. You have to admit, finding both the body and the murder weapon is suspicious.”

Wayne sounded like he was kidding, but his face was dead serious.

“Knock it off,” Ben said. “You know she isn’t a suspect. She had no reason to want Ruby dead.” They locked eyes for a minute until Wayne dropped his gaze and cleared his throat.

“I investigated Lucy Ingram’s background, by the way,” Ben said.
“Did you know she changed her name right after she entered medical school?”

Wayne seemed surprised but stayed quiet.

“Yeah, her last name was Sherman. Do you remember the Sherman case in Memphis?”

“Of course I do.”

“Lucy is Dr. Marcus Sherman’s daughter. She found her mom dead in the bathtub. The case was never solved, but everyone in Memphis thought Sherman killed his wife. It’s easy for anesthesiologists to get away with murder, I guess.”

Wayne took a deep breath. “Poor kid. What’s your point? It certainly wasn’t Lucy’s fault her mother was killed.”

“Of course not. I wasn’t implying that it was. She obviously lived through some horrible times. There were some other entries about the Shermans in the police files over the years, neighbors calling in with child abuse allegations. Both those girls were in the E.R. a lot.”

“Lucy has a sister? She never told me.”

“Yeah. She has an older sister, a junkie. Her name is Colleen. She’s been in and out of rehabs most of her life. You brought up Mae as a suspect; so I want you to think carefully about Lucy. With a background like that, being sued by Ruby and pressured to sell her property, do you think she might have felt threatened enough to try to stop her?”

Wayne shook his head vehemently. “It wasn’t Lucy. There’s no way in hell. I’ve watched her in the E.R. She wouldn’t hurt someone deliberately.”

Ben shrugged. “You’re the one who says everyone is capable of murder.”

“I didn’t say she wasn’t capable of murder. If there was ever a mercy killing, I might suspect her, but braining her neighbor with a shovel? Not Lucy.”

Ben tapped his pencil on the desk. He glanced down at the handwritten list of suspects on his desk. “What about Terry Lerner? He admitted to Criminal Trespass. He was inside Mae’s barn and he leads us straight back to Silas. However, having seen and heard Silas at the funeral—his grief appeared real. He seems to be a good-natured person who loved his sister. I think we can eliminate Silas as well as Lucy and Mae.” Ben looked at Wayne, who took a sip of his cold coffee, nodded and then dumped it into the wastebasket.

“I think we can
only dismiss Silas,” Wayne said, “if you’re sure the Mead property isn’t a factor.” He put the tips of his fingers together.

“Good point. Given the enormous value of
Ruby’s land, I want to talk to Silas one more time before we let him go. The only thing Terry did was tie red ribbons on Mae’s kennels and door. I don’t like the creep, but I doubt he’s the perp.” Ben rubbed his nose.

“I agree. I don’t think he’s violent enough to do this, although he doesn’t seem to have
any respect for private property. If Terry was at Ruby’s and found the shovel, he might have taken it to Mae’s place to increase interest in Mae as a suspect. I’ll get him in here and you can try to rattle him.”

Ben was confident in his ability to narrow down the suspects, but he had serious doubts about being able to rattle them the way his Chief Detective did. He’d seen him in action. When questioning suspects, he appeared to be barely keeping his violent nature under control. The suspects felt it. Often that was all it took.
He would stand up and walk around behind someone he was questioning. Then he would lean down and crack his hands down on the table loudly and tell them exactly how the crime was committed. Now that was rattling a suspect.

“I think rattling suspects is more your thing, Wayne. How about I call David Allison and get the scoop on the Mead property from him. Unless I learn something new, I’ll probably go ahead and tell David he’s not being considered a suspect anymore. Let’s bring in James Connolly, Silas, and Terry Lerner.” Ben stood up, downed the last of his cold coffee and called Dory. When she came into the conference room, Ben told her they were bringing in three suspects.

“Where’re you puttin’ all those men?”

“I don’t know, but I need this room cleaned up. I may need an empty cell in the jail, too. Don’t just stand there, young lady.”

Dory and Wayne exchanged a meaningful look, but they both got busy. Satisfied that he’d made some impact, Ben went back to his office to make some calls.

He got Ruby’s ex-husband, David, on the phone first. “I have a problem, Mr. Allison. I hope you can help me out. I have several suspects in this case, but you seem to be one of the few who’s actually depressed about Ruby’s death. The rest of them aren’t acting that way.”

“I am depressed about her death and the death of her unborn baby. I wanted the child to be mine. Ruby felt she needed a baby to carry on the family line. Her dad messed her up, you know. He made her feel like she’d be worthless if she didn’t give him a grandchild. She thought if she had a child, she’d get her hands on the entire estate.”

“What do you mean? I thought she got the whole thing.”

David Allison gave a humorless chuckle. “No. She didn’t get the acreage at the back of her property that adjoins Henriette’s.”

“Isn’t that over on Mead Road?”

“Yes. It’s a five hundred acre tract altogether. As the crow flies, it’s actually not that far. You go down to River Road, turn right and then right again when you get to Mead. You know why it’s called Mead Road, don’t you, Sheriff? It used to be their driveway.”

“Why didn’t Ruby get the adjoining parcel?”

“It wasn’t her dad’s property to leave. Henriette owns that piece. She always planned on leaving
her property to Silas. The entire parcel would be worth millions.”

“Thank you for telling me all this. You’ve been a big help. I’d like you to know that we have no plans to arrest you. Please contact us if you think of anything else we should know.”

“I will. Thanks, Sheriff. Ruby and I had our problems, but I’d do anything to help you find her killer. I don’t want her murder to be an unsolved case.”

“Don’t worry. It won’t be.”

Ben place
d a call to Terry and Silas. Terry Lerner answered the phone at the carriage house.

“Mr. Lerner, this is Sheriff Bradley. We’ve uncovered some new evidence about Ruby Mead-Allison’s death we’d like to discuss with you and Mr. Mead. I need you to come to the office.”

“Both of us? Why?”

“The evidence links you to the murder.” It was an empty threat, but he wanted to unsettle the sneak. Since Nichols thought he could, he’d try. The bluff had worked with the trespassing incident.

“That’s impossible!” Terry exclaimed. “I didn’t kill Ruby, and neither did Silas.”

“Be that as it may, Mr. Lerner, I need you both to come in. If you do so voluntarily, within the hour, we can be civil about this. Otherwise, I’m signing a warrant for your arrest.” With a sense of satisfaction, Ben hung up the phone. He set the timer on his wristwatch for fifty-nine minutes.