Surest Poison, The (22 page)

“I’ll loan you the money until they come through,” Jaz said.

His face began to relax. “I’d sure appreciate it.”

“Bobby, do you know somebody named Rogers?” Sid asked.

The young man’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”

“Rogers. Or somebody named Van?”

Bobby looked puzzled.
“No, sir.
I’ve never heard
of either one of them. Who are they?”

“Just a couple of names we came across and thought you might know,” Jaz
said.

Marie walked in and looked at Sid and Jaz. “Do you all need something else
to eat?”

“I’m still full,” Jaz said.

Sid patted his stomach.
“Likewise.”

“How about something to drink?
I’ll bet Mr.
Sidney would like a cup of coffee.”

“Strong and black,” he said. “You’re spoiling me.”

“That’s what I’m here for. If you’re going to the office, I’ll bring it in
there.”

When they got back to Jaz’s desk, Sid gave her a stern look.

“I want you to call a security service and have
them
send over a couple of guys to patrol around your house tonight.”

She smiled. “You still think I can’t take care of myself?”

“I know you can take care of yourself, Wonder Woman. But if you’re going to
get any sleep, you can’t be out there watching your flanks.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the
Wallaces.”

When the phone rang, Jaz answered it,
then
turned
to Sid with a questioning look. “It’s for you.”

Sid took the phone. “Hello.”

“Mr. Chance, you’ve been expending a lot of effort searching for a man by
the name of Tony Decker.”

“That’s right, who is this?”

“Get your pen ready, I have an address for you.”

Sid found a pad on Jaz’s desk and wrote down what the man read off. It
wasn’t a street address, however. It was a web address, starting with
http://www.commercialappeal.com
.
When he finished, the man hung up.

“That looks like a news story from the Memphis
newspaper’s archives,” Jaz said.

She sat at the computer and typed the web address
into her Internet browser. When she hit Enter, a file appeared on the screen
beneath the newspaper’s logo and the heading Obituaries.

DECKER, TONY—Formerly of
Ashland City, TN. March 9, 1999 at a Memphis hospital.
Graveside services Friday at 2 p.m. at Memorial Cemetery.
KELLY & COPES FUNERAL HOME.

34

Later that afternoon
,
after Sid had left, Fire Investigator Cran Quincy called.

“Miss LeMieux, I thought I would let you know my
hunch was correct,” he said.

“About the detonator?”

“Yes. I showed the piece of circuit board to a
friend who flies radio-controlled planes. He confirmed that it came from a
model airplane.”

“Since nobody around my house knows anything
about those expensive toys,” Jaz said, “that makes it virtually certain
someone left it here to set off a gas explosion.”

“That’s what I’ve concluded. I’ll need to come
back out and look for evidence of an intruder.”

“Sid and I did that this afternoon, Mr. Quincy.”
She told him about the scrap of paper they found beside the tire tracks.

He sounded a bit miffed. “I’ll come out and pick
up that paper. I also need to ask you about those threats you mentioned, and
I want to know more about the young man whose car was destroyed.”

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll be here the rest of the
day.”

Jaz sat at her desk and debated the best way to
handle Bobby. Should she tell him the explosion might be linked to his
problem? Cran Quincy was already considering the likelihood that Bobby could
have been the target of the blast, not her. When the investigator learned
about the abduction and threat, he would demand some answers. Bobby could
save everyone a lot of trouble by coming clean now.

She found Marie and Connie in the kitchen
preparing dinner. Fresh vegetables bubbled in pots on the stove, while the
aroma of banana pudding drifted out of the oven. Connie stood at the counter
chopping cabbage for slaw.

“Where’s Bobby?” Jaz asked.

“John took him into town to buy a car,” Marie
said.

Connie looked around. “He appreciated your
letting him have the money. He needs to get back to work.”

“I think he’s going to have to answer some
questions before anything else,” Jaz said.

“About what?”

“About who’s after him.
The fire investigator is coming over. He says someone set off that
explosion, and he suspects they may have been after Bobby because his car
was parked outside the house.”

Both women gave her startled looks, their eyes
large black marbles.

“Do you think that’s what happened?” Marie asked
in a hushed voice.

“It’s a good possibility. And Bobby needs to
explain why. When he gets back, tell him I want to see him in my office.”

After Sid returned
to Madison, he called Trent Decker at Dixie Seals.

“We received a tip today to check an on-line
story from the Memphis
Commercial Appeal
,” he said. “It was an
obituary that showed your brother Tony died in a Memphis hospital on March
ninth, 1999
.”

“That’s news to me, Mr. Chance. As I told you
Sunday, I hadn’t heard anything of my brother in years. I guess now I know
why.”

“That leads to an interesting question,” Sid
said. “If Tony wasn’t around Dixie Seals last Friday night, why did Pete
Rackard call your phone number after Jaz LeMieux questioned him about Tony?”

“Who is Pete Rackard?”

“Your brother didn’t tell you about his cohort at
Auto Parts Rehabbers?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I assure you, Mr. Decker, telephone records
don’t
lie
. Rackard called Dixie Seals Friday
night.”

“What time was the call made?”

“It was around six o’clock.”

“We were closed, Mr. Chance. Rackard must have
dialed a wrong number.”

Like hell he did, Sid thought. That would be one
coincidence that definitely defied belief, but he had no basis to question
it. After that fruitless exchange, he called Jaz and gave her a replay of
Trent Decker’s comments.

“If so, that was the busiest wrong number I’ve
ever come across,
”  she
said. “According to
the log, it lasted seven minutes.”

“I wish I’d known that. I agree with your
assessment on Sunday. Trent Decker knows a whole lot more about this than
he’s admitting. I’m going to call him back.”

“Before you do, let me tell you about the
conversation I had with Cran Quincy,” Jaz said.

She recounted the investigator’s findings
regarding the use of radio-controlled model airplane parts to trigger the
explosion.

“That guy impressed me,” Sid said. “Do you think
he can get anything out of Bobby?”

“I don’t know. That’s the most stubborn young man
I’ve ever encountered.” She gave a soft laugh. “I guess I could threaten to
call in his loan.”

“Might be worth a try.
After Quincy comes by, let me know what he makes of that note we found.”

“Okay. Have you heard anything on that P.O.
box
from your post office contact?”

“No. I have a call in for him. He should be
getting back to me soon.”

When he got off the phone to Jaz, he called Trent
Decker again. The woman who answered said he had left for the day.

Fire Investigator
Cran Quincy arrived shortly after Jaz talked to Sid. She met him at the door
and escorted him to her office. After inviting him to have a seat, she
handed him the evidence bag containing the slip of paper.

“This is what it looks like.” She held out a
blow-up of a photograph made while the paper was spread out on her desk.

He studied the picture for a moment,
then
looked up, his eyes wide. “Rogers. That’s
where my friend bought his model airplane, Rogers Toy Mart.”

35

Sid shut down
his computer and started
tidying up his office.
It was well
past the normal time to close shop, though he had never worked by the clock.
When the phone rang, he checked the caller ID. It showed his post office
contact.

“What did you find?” Sid asked.

“This has been one more day,” the man said,
sounding exhausted. “Sorry I’m so late. The record shows the box changed
hands a few times in recent years, but I tracked it back to First Patriots.
It was rented in 1990 by a lawyer named Percy Pickslay, who listed an
address in the J. C. Bradford Building on
Fourth Avenue
.”

“That was back in the days when there was a J. C.
Bradford Building.” It was now a hotel.

“Right.
I couldn’t find him in the current phone book.”

“I’ll find him. Thanks for checking it out.”

Sid knew the simplest way to learn something
about a Nashville lawyer was to call Judge Gabriel Thackston.

“Hi, Judge,
it’s
Sid,”
he said when he got Thackston on the line. “I need a little information.”

“Sure, I’m full of it.
How
about the intricacies of four-card monte.
It was popular with the
troops during the Civil War, you know.”

“Thanks, but I’ll leave the cards for the Five
Felons.”

“Very well, what else can I help you with?”

“I’m trying to track down information on a
corporation named First Patriots, Limited. It was chartered in Anguilla, but
I’ve learned a lawyer named Pickslay provided the company’s Nashville post
office box.
Had an office in the
J. C. Bradford Building some
years back.”

“Percy Pickslay. As I recall, he was disbarred
some ten years ago. I believe he defrauded investors in a stock deal.”

“Is he still around town?”

“I haven’t heard anything of him in a good while.
I can ask around, if you’d like.”

“Please do,” Sid said. “And while you’re at it,
see if anyone knows anything about First Patriots, Limited, or who Pickslay
might have been involved with in setting up the company.”

“Be happy to. What can you tell me about this
business at Jazmine LeMieux’s house last night?”

Considering how much the Judge liked to talk, Sid
was afraid to get specific in case it should complicate the investigation.
“Looks like a gas leak from a water heater caused an explosion.
Demolished the small house behind Jaz’s place.
I’ve been over there. It left a monstrous mess.”

“The news people indicated nobody was hurt.”

“That’s correct. The couple who used to occupy
the house now
live
with Jaz.”

“The next time you talk to her, tell her I said
to be careful.”

Sid chuckled to himself. And she’d say mind your
own business, I can take care of myself. But the question of whether the gas
explosion had been aimed at Bobby or Jaz provided a lingering concern. He
decided to call and see what she had learned from the fire investigator, if
he had managed to crack Bobby’s resolve to remain silent.

“Quincy was here,” she said. “He wanted to know
about our problems in Lewisville. He didn’t get to talk with Bobby, but I
told him what had happened. Bobby was off with his grandfather, looking for
another car.”

“Did Quincy pick up the note?”

“He took it. He also solved one of its riddles.”

“What riddle?”

“The Rogers you thought was somebody’s name?
Looks like it could be Rogers Toy Mart. Quincy said that’s where his friend
bought a radio-controlled model airplane.”

“That’s out Nolensville Pike, isn’t it?” Sid
asked.

“Right.
I’m sure he’ll check it out.”

“I’m not waiting for him. If they’re open
tonight, I’ll head over there and see if anyone remembers a recent
purchase.”

“What if there were several?”

“I’d say our man isn’t a real model plane
enthusiast. He’d be asking questions to make sure he got the right thing.”

He told her about the call from his post office
contact and Judge Thackston’s offer to look into Percy Pickslay.

“I’ll back up the judge and search the Internet
for him,” Jaz said.

“Did Quincy mention any plan to question Bobby?”

“He wants Bobby to call him. I plan to stay after
Bobby until he does.”