The Body from the Past

by Judi Lynn

  Jerod grunted a response. “I don’t mind getting wet, but I don’t like to be half-drowned.”

  “Need any help with vent work?” Ansel asked.

  “I never turn down free help.” Thane pointed to a huge, metal arm that came off the old furnace. “If you guys can get rid of that, we’ll install a new, smaller one.”

  Jerod and Ansel got busy, and Jazzi wandered upstairs to wait for Gaff. She flipped through different products on her cell phone that she thought might work at the Kirkwood Park house. She’d made a list by the time he pulled in the drive. Then she tugged the hood up on her raincoat and braved the rain to run to his car.

  “Have you been looking forward to this as much as I have?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’ve already met Lila’s friends. They’re as nice as she was.”

  He snorted a laugh. “Do you think lots of people will show up?”

  “Not if they’re smart.” It was only a ten-minute drive to the funeral home. A respectable number of cars were parked in the lot. She and Gaff hung up their coats and entered the room for Lila’s service. A man stood near the back of the room, a few steps away from the casket, with a boy on one side of him and a younger girl on the other. The boy did his best to smile and greet people like his father, but the girl shifted impatiently from foot to foot. There were only a few floral arrangements, but their sweet, sickly scent hung in the air.

  Gaff studied them. “That must be Lila’s ex and their two kids. From what I’ve heard, Lila didn’t have much to do with them, rarely took them for weekends.”

  Jazzi studied them more closely. Neither kid looked heartbroken. They’d glance at the open casket once in a while when a visitor said something, but their expressions didn’t show anything more than polite curiosity. Their dad obviously had brought them to pay respects to their mother, but she must not have been a strong presence in their lives.

  A line of people waited to shake his hand and offer condolences. From their demeanors, he must be well-liked. An older couple stood slightly behind him. Lila’s husband resembled his father—a high forehead and a square jawline. The little girl left his side for a minute to go to her grandmother, leaning into her for comfort. Another older couple stood close by, and the woman had the same long red hair and eye color as Lila.

  Jazzi motioned her head to four people clustered together on the other side of the room, two men and two women, standing away from the others. She kept her voice low. “I’m surprised to see Alwin here.”

  Gaff stared. “Which one is he?”

  “The one in the navy-blue suit.” Jazzi pointed out Ruth Goggins, and Nadia Ashton, too. “I don’t know the older man.” He was taller than Alwin, with a solid, stocky build. His lips were turned down in a sneer as he scanned the room. His gaze stopped on them, then he turned to talk to Nadia.

  She and Gaff were making their way to seats near the back of the room when Nadia stalked toward them. “Uh-oh, get ready,” Jazzi warned.

  Stopping in front of her, Nadia barked, “What are you doing here?”

  Gaff extended his hand. “I asked her to accompany me. She’s met people in Merlot. I haven’t. I’m a detective assisting with the case.”

  Nadia ignored his hand but stared at him long and hard. “What case?”

  “The authorities have talked to Lila’s ex-husband. They believe Lila’s death was suspicious and are investigating it as a homicide, along with Darcie Winter’s murder.”

  Nadia blinked. “A homicide?”

  He nodded. “But this isn’t the appropriate place to discuss it, and I can’t go into details.”

  Nadia would have pressed him anyway, but music started, and everyone took their seats. She turned and rushed back to her friends. Soon, their four heads were bent together as they whispered furiously.

  Alwin, Ruth, Nadia, and the man sat together in one row. People kept their distance from them.

  “Do you think that’s Alwin’s father?” Jazzi asked Gaff.

  “I’d say that’s a good guess. I’ll find out after the service.”

  The service was long and dreary. The minister was doing his best to make Lila sound better than she was. Jazzi’s mind wandered. Midway through a hymn, the sun came out, filling the windows with light and making the room overly warm. Then there were scripture readings and more homilies. When the final chords of the organ eventually played, pallbearers appeared to carry the casket to the waiting hearse. Then anyone who was following the hearse to the graveside ceremony was directed out the same door.

  Gaff and Jazzi rose and walked in the opposite direction, to the lobby. They started to the exit when a greeter called, “Sir, did you leave your coat? And ma’am, is this one yours?”

  Grateful for the reminder, Jazzi returned to slip into her red raincoat. The rain had stopped, and the day had warmed up enough, she would have forgotten it. Gaff grabbed his car coat but stepped back inside the viewing room to look at the register. He pointed. “Lamar Hodgkill.”

  “I never expected to see him here.” Jazzi frowned at his sharp, angular signature. The letters looked like stabs.

  When they left the room, the greeter had been called away, and she glanced at the man’s coat that had been hanging next to hers. Cashmere. She lifted the collar to look at the name brand. Expensive. Ansel would look wonderful in a coat like that. It started to slip off the hanger, and she grabbed it to hang it more securely and noticed an inner pocket.

  Gran’s words returned to her. “Look in his pocket.”

  She couldn’t help it. She reached inside and felt a slip of paper. Gaff watched her, his brows raised, but he didn’t comment. When she pulled out the paper, she looked at it and smiled. She went to show it to Gaff. A receipt for a gas station in Merlot for the same night that Darcie died. Signed by Alwin Hodgkill. “Alwin swore he wasn’t in Merlot that night.”

  Gaff pinched his lips together. “I can’t use that. We didn’t have a warrant, wouldn’t have been able to get one. It’s inadmissible evidence.”

  “Except…” She raised her eyebrows.

  Gaff grinned. “If the gas station has security cameras, my detective friend can ask for the footage.” He pulled out his cell phone and made the call.

  By the time Alwin returned with his father for the coat, the receipt was back in his pocket, and Gaff and Jazzi were leaving the funeral home. The detective Gaff knew was waiting for him. “Alwin Hodgkill?” he asked. “I’d like a word with you.”

  Chapter 43

  Gaff drove Jazzi back to the fixer-upper. When she entered the house, she told Ansel and Jerod her news. It was late enough, Thane and his crew were gone, and the two of them had finished repairing the walls upstairs. It was too wet to lay field tile, so they decided to lock up and leave early.

  They usually went out for supper on Friday nights, so on the drive home, Jazzi called Leesa to ask if she and Brett would like to meet them somewhere, because she had news.

  “Damian and Kelsey are on their way to stay the weekend with us. Can they come, too?”

  “Even better.” Damian’s relief would triple hers.

  By the time they finally walked into their own kitchen, Jazzi felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She’d never known Jessica, didn’t really know Damian, but they’d finally found justice. She didn’t know all the details, but the case was closed.

  She didn’t need a shower, so she fed and played with the pets while Ansel got ready to go out. When he walked down the stairs, she stopped to admire him. Her Norseman wore black slacks, like she did, and a charcoal gray, button-down shirt. He looked good in dark colors. They complemented his white-blond hair and blue eyes.

  Before she could savor him properly, Gaff called to tell her that Alwin had confessed to the murders of Jessica and Wendy Roeback, the cheerleader he’d met randomly, Darcie, and Lila. Gaff stayed on the line lo
ng enough to answer all her questions before he had to return to his paperwork. “And the detective I worked with wants me to thank you from him.”

  Jazzi sighed with relief as she finished the call. “It’s wrapped up,” she told Ansel.

  “Finally. You can fill me in when you tell Leesa and the others.” He threaded his arm through hers and led her to the pickup. The Lucky Turtle Grill was only a short drive from their house at a busy intersection. They had to circle to find a parking spot in the strip mall’s lot.

  They were the first to arrive. The place was getting crowded, so they claimed a table for six and ordered drinks. Jazzi already knew what she was getting—the plump, juicy red shrimp, shell on, with drawn butter. It was an appropriate splurge for solving Jessica’s murder.

  Once everyone had arrived and ordered, Damian said, “Did you find out who pushed Jessica? Can I finally prove I didn’t do it?”

  Jazzi nodded. “It was Alwin. He didn’t mean to kill her. He pushed her in a fit of temper.”

  “His own sister?” Leesa pinched her lips, unhappy with the thought.

  “He’d obsessed over her since they were little. Even drilled a peephole so he could spy on her in her room.”

  “Her bedroom?” Brett asked to clarify.

  Jazzi nodded and went on. “He tried to find someone like her but couldn’t. Every girl as pretty as she was, and as smart, rejected him.”

  Damian lowered his face into his hands, fighting to compose himself. When he looked up again, he said, “Sorry. It’s been so long, such a strain. It’s almost overwhelming to know it’s over. Do you think Alwin was all there? You know, mentally all right? I always felt sort of sorry for him.”

  Jazzi shrugged. “He was as sane as he could be with his father constantly berating Jessica and browbeating him.”

  Kelsey grimaced. “I never knew. Jessica never complained, never felt sorry for herself. I should have been nicer to her. I feel bad, the way I treated her. I was just so jealous of her.”

  “A lot of people were,” Jazzi said. “It didn’t do her any favors. She was actually a really neat person.”

  Brett frowned, trying to piece everything together. “But why kill Darcie? Could she really have found anything after all these years? Did she threaten Alwin that much?”

  “Alwin thought she could. After all, Lila had seen him push Jessica.”

  “Wait! Really?” Anger flashed in Damian’s eyes. “And she spent years telling everyone it was me?”

  “That worked in her favor,” Jazzi explained. She stopped, and they grew silent while the waitress delivered their drinks. Once she left, Jazzi said, “Lila was blackmailing Alwin. He was paying her a lot of money to keep quiet. By blaming you, she diverted the blame from him.”

  “And that’s why he killed her?” Leesa asked.

  Brett still wasn’t satisfied. “But why lose his temper with Jessica at her party? What made him snap?”

  “A good question.” Jazzi took a sip of her wine. “He couldn’t stand the idea that Jessica was going to move away as soon as she got her diploma. She wasn’t waiting until classes started in the fall. She was escaping her father as soon as she could. Alwin had tried to convince her to stay home, to study at Tri-States with him, but she wanted to be as far away from Merlot as she could get.”

  Damian shook his head. “I feel sorry for both of them, Alwin and Jessica. Hodgkill ruined both of their lives.”

  “Pretty much.” She had to admire Damian. He’d suffered a long time because of Alwin’s sins, and he could sympathize with him. “Their mother tried to run interference, but it wasn’t enough.”

  Kelsey laced her fingers through her husband’s and gave them a gentle squeeze. “Are you going to be all right?”

  “Better than all right.” He forced a smile. “But it wasn’t Alwin who tried to pin the murder on me. It was Lila and Ruth Goggins.”

  Ruth’s name left a sour taste in Jazzi’s mouth. What would the woman gossip about now?

  Damian sighed. “What did Alwin and Jessica argue about that made him push her?”

  “He told the detective he’d begged her not to go. He said she looked so beautiful that day, so happy and proud of herself, that he lost control and grabbed her and kissed her.”

  “On the mouth?” Leesa stared.

  “She pushed him away in disgust, and he lost it and shoved her. He said it almost killed him to hear her scream, to watch her fall, and then he looked up, and Lila was smirking at him.”

  “Lila.” Damian spat out her name. “I can’t feel sorry for her at all.”

  Neither could Jazzi.

  Ansel looked around the table, at the misery on every face, and shook his head. He raised his glass of beer in a toast. “To Damian! He’s finally free. You can return home to no whispers.”

  Kelsey squared her shoulders, her eyes glinting. “What about Ruth Goggins? Does she get out of this unscathed?”

  It didn’t seem fair, but Jazzi thought that might happen. “I doubt anyone will press charges, but you can sure shut her up.”

  “How?” Damian asked.

  “Threaten to sue her for defamation of character, for spreading false rumors and lies when she obviously didn’t see you climb the stairs to Jessica’s balcony.”

  “She’ll deny it,” Kelsey snapped. “She’ll say it must have been a mistake, that she could have sworn it was Damian.”

  Brett’s smile was scary. “But everyone in town will know. They won’t believe her, and I’ll make sure to spread the word she’s a liar. That woman deserves to be put in her place.”

  “How did old man Hodgkill take it when his son was charged?” Damian asked.

  “He swore to fight it. He’s hiring a top-notch lawyer.”

  “A waste of time and money,” Leesa said. “But that man would never give up without a fight.”

  “Who’ll take over his company when he retires?” Brett asked.

  “He doesn’t have anybody,” Jazzi said, “unless he remarries and starts over. Even then, he’ll be lucky if his business isn’t worth a lot less than it is now. Lorraine’s asking for half of it in the divorce settlement.”

  Ansel grinned at that and raised his glass again. “To justice!”

  This time, they all joined him, and the mood at the table changed. They were finally ready to celebrate.

  Chapter 44

  The day after Jazzi, Ansel, and Jerod finished work on the house, Jazzi drove back to Merlot alone. She was meeting Molly, Jillian, and Felicity, along with Lydia and Lorraine, at Jessica’s grave. They all brought roses.

  They met at Jessica’s grave and bent to place the flowers on it together.

  “Are you going to be all right?” Jillian asked Lorraine.

  Her face was strained, and she had to blink back tears, but she nodded and reached for her sister’s hand. “Jessica’s been at peace since the moment she died. It’s taken the rest of us longer, but I believe we’ll find ours now.”

  Lydia’s brow crinkled with sympathy. “She’s moving back to this area, settling a few towns over. She’ll be close by. There are a lot of people who love her here.”

  Lorraine hunched her shoulders. Voice tight, she said, “There’s no point in returning to Carolina. I don’t want to see Lamar, and Alwin will be in prison somewhere in this state. I know he pushed Jessica, but he didn’t mean to kill her. He’ll need someone to visit him.”

  Jazzi’s heart hurt for Lorraine, but she thought of the three other women Alwin had killed besides his sister. Still, Alwin was Lorraine’s son. A mother probably loved her child, no matter what.

  They stayed for a short time, paying their respects, and then they all headed to their individual cars and left. On the return home, Jazzi thought about families and their bonds. Her family was so close; could she ever give up on one of them? How big would the crime have to be
before it scarred their love?

  Even when Bain was a suspect in Donovan’s death, Ansel had never lost faith that his brother was innocent. How could he? Who knew a person better than family?

  If every shred of evidence pointed to Olivia committing a crime, would she believe it? Hopefully, she’d never find out.

  Please turn the page for some yummy recipes from Jazzi’s kitchen!

  Recipes for The Body in the Past

  Sauerbraten

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

  Combine for marinade or sauce:

  2 c. beef stock (I prefer Kitchen Basics)

  1 c. burgundy

  1 c. red wine vinegar

  3 t. minced garlic from jar

  1 t. dried thyme

  2 bay leaves

  1 t. coarse black pepper

  1/2 t. cloves

  In a Dutch oven:

  Sear a 3–4 lb. chuck roast in olive oil.

  Season with salt.

  Remove from pan and add:

  2 sliced onions

  Half a small bag of baby carrots

  2 slices of celery, cut in chunks

  6 small potatoes, cut in half

  Cook until tender. Then add 2 T. flour and stir to coat vegetables.

  Add the roast and sauce.

  Cover and roast in oven until tender, about 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

  When finished, plate the roast and vegetables on large platter, simmer the sauce in Dutch oven.

  Add 1 more cup of beef stock. Remove bay leaves.

  Add: 2 T. crushed gingersnap cookies and stir ’til thickens.

  Pour over roast and add more salt, if needed, then serve.

  Pork Goulash

  Cut 2 lbs. of pork loin into cubes.

  In a Dutch oven, cover bottom with olive oil and heat.

  Add the pork in single layers and sear.

  Add:

  2 c. sliced onion

  1 t. minced garlic from jar