by Misty Simon
Pulling the Murphy bed from the wall, I climbed in. And was promptly joined by Peanut and Mr. Fleefers. I half-heartedly shoved at Peanut because she really shouldn’t be on the bed. And once Max was here, she definitely wouldn’t fit. But she wasn’t budging, and maybe I wanted her up there to hold on to. My heart hurt for Rhoda and especially Arthur. Not to mention Annie was going to have a fit that I was coming for her boss and the woman who was a mother figure to her.
I closed my eyes, hoping that I could just sleep and deal with it all tomorrow. I also hoped that someone else would pop into my mind as the true culprit. It had to be someone else. Had to be!
My mind floated in that fog of almost asleep when my phone rang. No more calls. I didn’t want any more information or tips or lies.
But then I sat up quickly, dislodging Mr. Fleefers from around my head and barely bothering Peanut, who was blissfully snoring away.
Scrambling out of bed, I made a dash for my phone. Maybe this was the real culprit. Someone who would confess all so I didn’t have to go see Rhoda tomorrow!
“Hello?”
“Tallie, I’m going to need you to come down to the station.” Burton sounded angry. At me? No, I hadn’t handed him a killer yet, but he did have Hammond and that was worth something as far as I was concerned.
“Right now?”
“Yes, right this instant. Do not dawdle.” And then he hung up on me.
I guessed I was going to the station. At nine thirty, for heaven’s sake, I realized when I glanced at the clock.
Putting on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, I called myself done. Burton could just take me as I was if he was going to demand I come as soon as he called.
As I turned out of my driveway, I glanced at Gina’s windows and found them dark. This was just the police station and nothing was going to happen to me there. I wasn’t going to bring her with me this time. I’d fill her in on all the details tomorrow.
The ride was short but filled with me talking out loud to myself.
“What on earth does he want?” I asked the side mirror as I pulled out onto Main Street.
“Am I going to be in trouble?” I said as I drove slowly past the funeral home front.
“Should I have worn something different if they’re going to throw me in jail?” I pondered as I made a right turn.
“Nah, at least I’ll be comfortable in these sweats.” Since I was now answering myself I thought it was a good thing that I pulled into a parking spot at the police station.
The place wasn’t quite a zoo when I entered through the double doors, but it was close. Suzy was giving out orders like she owned the place, Matt leaned against the far wall with a big smile, and Burton paced across the industrial carpeting, only stopping when he looked up and spotted me.
“Well, at least no one will be able to see you,” he said instead of a greeting.
“You didn’t exactly tell me what I was here for and you’re lucky I didn’t just come in my pajamas.” I stuck my hands into my hoodie pocket and crunched in on myself. Who would be here this late to see me anyway? And what was I doing here?
“Follow me.” Burton took off down the hall toward the dreaded interview room. Suzy scrambled behind him as fast as she could after she forwarded all standard calls to the answering service for the moment and made Gary sit at the desk.
Gary was not happy to be missing the fun, whatever that fun was, but Suzy pulled the seniority card and he did it even as he grumbled about her not even being sworn in. She yanked my arm to lead me away even as she lifted it to smack him in the back of the head. “We don’t have time for this. I don’t want to miss anything!”
I still had no idea why I was there as Suzy dropped my arm and nearly ran down the hallway. Matt sauntered along behind the crowd, that big smile still on display.
“Care to tell me what is going on, dear cousin?” I sauntered with him since it might be the last thing I did before I got in trouble. I wasn’t going to hustle toward a cell if Burton was going to try to force me into one.
“Oh, you’ll see, and you’re going to love this.” His stride was lazy, his arms swinging in time with his step. He held a folder I desperately wanted to get a peek at, but I knew better than to ask.
I highly doubted I’d love anything about this station.
However, I had been wrong before, and I was wrong now.
Matt stood casually at the interview room door while Burton led Suzy and I back to the little dark space to the left. I’d sat in that interview room a few days ago with Hammond, not knowing if I was going to get out unscathed as he demanded I only answer with one word to each question. Just thinking about that made me happy he was somewhere in this stupid place, hopefully locked up with no coffee or water and wearing an orange jumpsuit.
But this was different. This was the other side of the two-way mirror. I would be the one looking in. But at who?
Burton opened the door for us from the hallway then waved his hand for us to go through. “You have to stay in here,” he said. “And don’t interfere. We’re going to throw you under the bus in there, Tallie, I’m just warning you now.”
“What?” I demanded.
“We’re going to see if we can’t get him to crack by using you as a hammer.”
I gripped my hands tight in front of me. “Won’t he come after me, though?”
“No, when we’re done with him, he won’t come after anyone ever again.”
“You promise?” I couldn’t help shaking in my shoes. If Hammond got off and then tracked me down, he could do some serious damage. Witness what he’d done to Marianne just to get a file. This was his whole life and I’d be right in the middle of his sights.
“Promise.” After pointing to two chairs in the twilight-like darkness, he put his finger against his lips. “Be good, Tallie, or you won’t get to see it all.”
“Of course.” Like I needed the warning. Despite my worries, this was better than any movie or television show I’d ever seen. Or at least I hoped it would be. Like Gina with her thinking that we were just going to solve the mystery in a day and run around looking for a guy in a mask, I had high hopes that this would be dramatic. However, also like Gina and her mistaken idea of how things went, I, too, could be disappointed.
Were they bringing Marianne back in for more information? Had they found the killer and not told me? Maybe I wouldn’t have to confront Rhoda tomorrow.
And then I looked through the window and saw Hammond in all his angry glory. Oh my word! Where the heck was the popcorn?
I’d heard earlier that they had brought him in wearing his uniform, but someone must have busted him down to civilian clothes. No orange jumpsuit, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I’d go with it.
Either they’d gotten the clothes from his house or he was borrowing someone else’s. They didn’t look like they fit him, though. So maybe he’d been outfitted with borrowed clothes. I could live with that. For what he’d done, he should have everything stripped from him. Not that I wanted to see him naked, thank you very much.
He sat in a chair, his back rigid and his icy eyes narrowed, his fists clenched on the scarred wooden table before him. His blond hair was slightly tousled as if he’d been running those meaty fingers through it.
I recognized the back of Matt’s head and waited to see what would happen.
“I heard they found a file in his house,” Suzy whispered.
“Can they hear us on the other side?” I whispered back.
“No, but I want to make sure I don’t miss anything they say. This guy has been a jerk since he got here, and I cannot wait for them to take him down like a cheetah with a wounded warthog.”
“Warthog?” I snickered. “That is actually a very apt description of him.” If he’d had some tusks to go with the fierce scowl on his face, I didn’t doubt he’d snort.
“Now, shh, Matt just put the file down on the table. I want to see what they’re going to go after him for first.” The absolute glee in her
voice transferred to me and I gripped the edge of the window sill in anticipation.
Only Matt and Hammond sat in the room. I wondered if Burton was coming in later to be the bad cop or the worse cop.
“There’s quite a few things in here that you’re going to want to answer for.” Matt’s voice came over a speaker, sounding tinny in the small room. Those words, though, were like a volley off the starboard side of a pirate ship or a gauntlet thrown down on the ground.
“I’m not answering to you.” The icy eyes were still narrowed but now Hammond’s nostrils flared too. Seriously, Suzy was right on the mark with that warthog reference. His fists clenched until his knuckles turned white. I had a brief thought that I hoped he would reach over the table and clock Matt, but I had to trust that the police at least knew how to do this part of their job right.
“I strongly suggest you think about that, Hammond. Burton’s mad enough to let me do the interview because he’s not certain if he can contain himself. You don’t want me to bring him in here.”
Hammond snorted, for real, and it was almost beyond my ability to hold in my snicker. Suzy smacked me in the arm and shushed me again,
“You can throw whatever you want at me,” Hammond said. “I’m not going down like this. There are plenty of people who will vouch for me. You have no real evidence, just a bunch of crap from a dead guy who swindled people out of money, stupid people out of their stupid money. So, bring it on. Whatever you have. And we’ll go from there. Because I guarantee you I’ll get out of this, and then I’m coming for your job, and I’m taking Burton to the wall.”
Those were fighting words in my book. As further proof that I was right, Suzy tensed next to me.
“Oh, I really hope Burton was getting a cup of coffee when Hammond said that.” Suzy leaned forward in her chair. “I do not want him in there.”
Personally, I thought it might look a little like a cage match, and I was up for that.
“Hammond, you have no idea what you’re up against,” Matt replied in a scathing tone. “It’s not just me and Burton you need to be worried about. Our friend Tallie found a few things on you that are proof. Absolute proof. And they will absolutely put your rear end in jail for long enough that you’ll be hunched over and gray by the time you get out.”
Suzy and I looked at each other as silence filled both rooms.
“What did you find?” Suzy asked, just as Hammond roared almost the same phrase.
“Nothing that I know of,” I answered Suzy, watching Hammond throw back his chair and stalk around the room. Matt was careful to keep his eyes on the man who really did look like a warthog about to charge.
“That piece of interfering trash is going to pay. What did she find? What does she think she’s going to be able to do? Did Darryl talk? I’ll get him too. Did Teagan spill his liver? If they think for one minute that I’m going to go down for those things myself, then they are going to be hurting.” He paced from the window to the door like a caged animal.
“Both talked and a whole lot more. We know all about the games you’ve been playing in our borough and several others. Nothing’s secret anymore. They all sang to Tallie like she was the sweetheart they were trying to woo.”
Now I was the one snorting. That was taking it a little too far. I was not exactly woo-worthy. But Hammond didn’t seem to notice.
Hammond slammed his fist into the wall next to the door. The door Burton entered through with his tie completely straight and his angry face on.
“Uh-oh,” I whispered to Suzy.
“Shh, just watch.”
“You’re going to want to sit down, Hammond.” Burton chose the seat next to Matt. I wasn’t sure if he was going to be the bad cop or the worse cop yet, I’d have to wait and see.
“I will not sit down. Whatever she has on me is a lie. All of it. That’s all she does is lie and interfere and get mixed up with other people. It was supposed to be so simple, and then she came in and tripped over the freaking answer to everything that’s been holding me back.”
“Tallie has a way of doing that.” This from Burton. Maybe he was going to be the nice cop? Not to me, if he was going to keep giving me backhanded compliments, but at this point I didn’t care.
“She shouldn’t have been there. I was supposed to go talk to that lady at the inn. I was the one who found out about the kid. But then St. James got greedy and it all went to hell.”
“It usually does when she’s around,” Matt said. Apparently, it was bash Tallie hour in the interview room.
“Did you drop Eli’s car at the lot?” Burton asked.
“No, it was already gone that afternoon. I didn’t care at that point. All I saw was that my trouble was over. I could finally get back to doing what I was supposed to be doing.” The paneled wall at the back of the interview room must have been fascinating, because Hammond’s eyes didn’t move from it, and he kept tracing the grooves with his index finger.
“And you don’t know who moved it?” Matt asked.
“It could have all been so simple. Eli was dead, just like I wanted him to be, but I couldn’t do it myself. It could’ve been a heart attack. I had the coroner sign off on it and everything. But she just couldn’t leave it alone.” He picked another groove and ran his finger along it.
“I’ll tell you one thing, she’s tenacious. That’s why we also know you killed Eli’s brother.”
They did?
“How do they know that?” I whispered to Suzy. “And how did I have time to do all this?”
“Just watch.”
Burton opened the folder, tapped his finger on the top page a few times, then closed it when Hammond came to look.
“I didn’t—”
Burton just shook his head, lifted the folder, and opened it again to where Hammond couldn’t see it. “Pictures, Hammond. Lots of pictures. You set this whole thing up to be your own downfall. You should have been nice to Tallie when she first said it was a murder. You should have at least pretended to look into it, and then put her off. She might have bought it and let you fake doing your job. Maybe she would have gotten involved in something else and forgotten about it. But when you pissed her off on that first day you unleashed a ferocious terrier.”
I did not particularly like being compared to a small dog. I would have preferred the magnificence of Peanut.
Burton was still talking, though. So, I tuned back in.
“And when you unleashed that terrier, you led her around by your scent. She might not have known exactly what she was looking for, but then you gave her a dog who didn’t like you after you hit her mistress. A dog she was walking in the woods when you drove away on your four-wheeler after choking Eli’s brother to death and leaving him in the creek. The same four-wheeler that’s sitting in your garage with its muddy tires.”
Dang, I wish I had been that smart.
My respect for Burton rose exponentially as he talked calmly with Hammond, who finally broke and admitted to killing the brother but not Eli. He hadn’t cared who’d killed Eli as long as he was dead.
Several times he came back to the fact that he’d been looking for the mother of the sick kid. And he’d been at the inn to find her. So, I guess I wasn’t getting out of talking to Rhoda tomorrow.
Had this all to do with one man who only wanted medical information? I’d taken a picture of the chicken scratch and sent it to Max, who had deciphered a little for me. The guy didn’t want to reunite with his birth parents. He didn’t want a relationship. He’d just wanted a medical history so that the doctors could look into how to cure him.
The child that Eli had tried to ask Mrs. Koser about. The one in the file with only initials. Had the mother killed Eli? Was the mother Rhoda?
I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep tonight, but once Burton came out of the room and asked if I’d seen enough I told him I had.
“So, if I’m smart enough to do all that stuff, according to you, then next time will you just let me help from the beginning instead of r
oadblocking me?” I asked cheekily.
I got a stern face for my efforts.
“There won’t be a next time, Tallie. Now go home and go to bed.”
* * *
The next morning, the inn stood in all its stone glory back from the road. I must say I was proud that the windows still gleamed.
It was the inside I was concerned about. What would I find? How was I going to talk to Rhoda about a possible baby she gave away during her marriage to Arthur? It wasn’t Arthur’s from the grapevine’s info, and that would only make this more uncomfortable.
My only hope was that something good would come to me and I wouldn’t just blurt it out.
I left Gina in the car, demanding that she stay like a dog. She grumped about it, but she had offered to come here, and this was close enough. I did not want to embarrass Rhoda even though I could essentially be asking her if she was a killer and an adulterer. Her comment on that first day about always keeping things in order rang in my head. Had the murder been to keep things in order? Her life intact? Had Eli tried to blackmail her and she’d gone ballistic to keep the life she’d worked so hard to perfect all these years?
I could not promise her that she would get off for the murder so I’d skate around that and give it to the police to work out once I had confirmation that it was her. Though at least she hadn’t killed the brother. Hammond had done that.
I’d never gone in before without a clue as to what I was doing, and I did not like it this time. But I had a handy trick in my pocket. Literally! Burton was on speakerphone in my shirt pocket. I’d thought about my back pocket but didn’t want to sit on him.
“Going in,” I said under my breath. Hopefully he heard me. I had made it so I couldn’t hear him but he could hear me. Actually, I’d made Gina’s nephew tell me how to do that since he was far more tech savvy than yours truly was inclined to be.
Knocking on the door, I heard Rhoda yell out for me to come in. She had no idea who it could be and a serial killer might be on the loose. Was she so confident that it would be no one who would hurt her since she was the killer?