Measured Mayhem

by Jessica Beck

  “Hello, Suzanne. Phillip’s fine. Thanks for calling.”

  “I’m glad,” I said. “Listen, a man named Henry Charleston might call you to find out if you’re giving me a great deal of money very soon.”

  She didn’t even hesitate. “Suzanne, are you in some kind of trouble?”

  “Relax, Momma. You don’t have to actually give me any cash, but if he calls, tell him that you’re about to.”

  “What is this about?”

  “I don’t have a lot of time for questions,” I said.

  “Then I won’t ask any more. Go on. I’m listening.”

  I knew I had no choice but to admit what was really going on. “Somebody killed Autumn’s mother-in-law, and the police suspect her. We’re trying to clear her name, and Charleston was the victim’s financial planner. In order to secure an appointment with him, I have to prove that I’m going to be getting enough from you to make it worth his while.”

  Say what you wanted to about my mother, but she was extremely quick on the uptake. “How does three million dollars sound to you?”

  The number caught me by surprise. “Momma, just how rich are you?”

  She chuckled before responding, “Rich enough.”

  In the background, I heard Phillip call out, “Dot, I need you.”

  “I’ve got to go,” Momma said. “Be safe, child.”

  “Thanks, Momma.”

  “Of course.”

  Now it was a matter of waiting until it was time to meet with Mr. Charleston to see what we could uncover about his relationship with the late Mrs. Marbury.

  We were down to the last two names on our list, the brothers Marbury: Jeff and Adam.

  I knew these would be the hardest interviews for us to conduct, but it was no longer possible to avoid them.

  We had to face two men who might both believe that Autumn could have killed their mother, and my dear friend and I both knew that it wasn’t going to be easy.

  Chapter 17

  AUTUMN PUT HER CELL phone on speaker so I could hear the conversation, but before she did, she said, “Suzanne, no matter what he says, you have to promise me that you won’t say a word.”

  “What if he attacks you?” I asked her.

  “Not even then. I mean it. If you can’t make me that promise, then I can’t let you listen in.”

  “Okay. I give you my word.” It was going to be hard for me to keep quiet, but a promise was a promise.

  I wasn’t at all sure he was even going to pick up the phone, but after the seventh ring, just when I was certain that it was about to go to his voicemail, Jeff Marbury answered. “What.” It amazed me how little emotion was conveyed in that one word. It was so cold, so completely sterile, that Autumn physically flinched from her estranged husband’s response.

  “We need to talk,” she said tentatively.

  “What is there to talk about?” he asked her. “My mother is dead.”

  “I know that, but as I told you before, I didn’t kill her,” she protested. “Jeff, I need to see you.”

  “Autumn, I’m sort of busy right now making funeral arrangements. I’m picking out her coffin.”

  “I’m sorry, but I have to see you. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”

  “Are you saying this isn’t important?” he asked her icily.

  “No, of course not. I just need five minutes of your time. I’ll come to you, wherever you are.” She glanced at me, and I did my best to smile reassuringly at her. It was brutal making her do this, but we really had no other choice.

  “Meet me at the bench by the lake. You know the one. I’ll be there in an hour.”

  “I’ll be there,” she said. “Jeff, I’m so sorry for your—”

  He never heard the end of her statement, because he’d already hung up.

  “There’s no doubt about it, is there? He hates me,” she said softly.

  “Autumn, he’s in shock right now. I’m sure that’s not true.”

  “It’s true, all right. I’ve lost him.”

  “I wasn’t sure that you even still wanted him,” I reminded her softly.

  “We’ve been having some issues lately, but I’ve never stopped loving him. I realize that now. Suzanne, I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

  “Is it possible that you’re in shock yourself?” I asked her gently. “After all, I know firsthand how tough it is to find a body like that.”

  “It’s part of it, but it’s not all of it. I suddenly can’t bear the thought that my marriage is over.”

  She said it with such finality that my heart broke a little for her. “Don’t write it off just yet. When we go see him at the lake, we’ll get him to understand that you weren’t involved.”

  “You don’t get it. That bench was where I told him I was leaving him. He said that he never wanted to go back there again, that it made him feel dead inside. I’m guessing that he chose that spot to tell me that we are finished. I’m sorry, but you can’t go with me.”

  “What? I have to,” I protested.

  “No. I need to do this alone,” she said.

  “Autumn, I can’t even begin to understand what you must be going through, but it’s not safe for you to meet him alone.”

  As soon as she realized what I was saying, she turned on me. “Do you think he’s going to kill me? Jeff isn’t some psychotic murderer, Suzanne. He loved me once, and I can’t believe that there’s not a part of him that still does.”

  I decided not to remind her that he had loved his mother, and there was a real possibility that he could have killed her. “We don’t know that it’s safe, though. I can’t let you go there by yourself.”

  “There’s nothing you can do to stop me. My mind is made up,” she said.

  “Can I at least be nearby watching, just in case?” I asked. “I should tell you that no matter what you say, I’m going to do that anyway. He won’t see me, but I’ll be able to witness anything that might happen. I’m sorry, I know you’re not all that happy with me right now, but I have to do this.”

  Autumn wanted to protest, I could see it in her expression, but after a moment, she finally slumped a bit. “Fine, but he can’t know that you are there.”

  “He won’t,” I said. “I’ve picked up a few things over the years. He won’t see me.”

  “You’d better be right, or you and I are going to have a problem.”

  I didn’t doubt it. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “If only saying it made it so,” she answered.

  We were a full ten minutes early, but Jeff was already there ahead of us. “Give me two minutes before you join him,” I said as she stopped the car.

  “You’d better be right about being able to make yourself invisible,” she said as I got out.

  “I am,” I said. I looped around out of his line of vision and moved to a spot near some trees where I could see him sitting on the bench in question, but he couldn’t see me.

  After a few moments, I watched as Autumn joined him. I was close enough to hear anything but a whisper from where I was, so it should be fine. I knew she hated the idea of me watching them, but I wasn’t about to let my friend take a chance with her life.

  “Jeff, I didn’t kill her,” Autumn started off saying.

  He didn’t even look in her direction as she sat on the bench beside him. Instead, he kept staring out at the calm water, as though he were a statue and not a man.

  “So you say,” he said coolly.

  “How can you even think that I would hurt her?” she asked, the pain obvious in her voice.

  He appeared to be unmoved by her question, or her anguish. “Autumn, you have to admit that you two have been fighting for months,” he said. “Ever since Adam came back.”

  “What does that tell you?” she asked. “Your brother was the cause of that friction, and you know it. He’s resented me from the day we met.”

  Jeff turned to look at her. I only wished that I could see his eyes, but from the body language alone, there w
as nothing warm or welcoming in his pose. “He said you’d say that.”

  “Say what?”

  “That everything that’s been happening lately has been his fault.”

  “Well, isn’t it at least possible that it’s true?” she asked him, nearly pleading with him now.

  “Are you blaming him for killing Mother?” he asked. “He couldn’t have. We’ve been together all day.”

  “Every minute of it?” she asked.

  Jeff shifted a bit on the bench, and I could finally see his face. A troubled look crossed it for a moment. “I had to make a few phone calls, but I wasn’t gone for more than half an hour,” he said.

  “So he could have done it,” she said.

  Jeff clearly couldn’t believe her bold statement. “What possible reason could he have to want to see our mother dead?”

  “Jeff, I heard them arguing about money myself,” she admitted. “Your mother cut him off financially. Did you know that? Why do you think he came back home? He was broke. He had nowhere else to go.”

  “That’s all a lie,” Jeff said.

  Suddenly they weren’t alone anymore.

  I saw someone from the parking lot start toward the bench.

  It was Adam, and he looked as though he was going to kill Autumn the moment he reached her.

  I had no choice.

  I had to defend my friend, no matter what I’d promised her.

  I cut Adam off before he could get to Autumn. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Get out of my way, donut girl,” he said as he tried to push past me.

  I might not have looked like it, but I had strong hands from kneading dough for all those years. I latched onto his biceps and stopped him in his tracks. “You need to leave them alone.”

  “Let go of me,” he said as he jerked his arm away, though not without a great deal of effort. “She’s not going to get away with spreading lies about me.”

  “The thing is that we both know that she’s not lying,” I said.

  “How could you possibly know anything about that?” he asked angrily as he got closer to me than I liked. “Did you put her up to this?” Then Adam grabbed both my arms and pulled my face toward his. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was stronger than they looked.

  “Let go of her,” Autumn said suddenly from behind me.

  “She shouldn’t be here,” Adam said, not easing his grip at all.

  “Neither should you,” she countered as she tried to help me break his grip.

  “Adam, stop it,” Jeff commanded. “Let her go this instant!”

  Only then did his brother ease his grip on me. I had a hunch that I was going to bruise, there was no doubt about that, but I couldn’t tell Jake about the confrontation, because I was afraid of what he might do to Adam.

  “She’s butting into our lives when she doesn’t have any justification to,” the older brother said sullenly.

  Jeff got up into his brother’s face, and I saw the fury he was experiencing at that moment toward his brother, something that surprised me. “She could have you arrested for assault, you idiot! Do we really need to deal with that too, on top of someone murdering our mother?”

  “No, of course not,” Adam said as he took a few steps backward. Whether he was genuinely sorry or not, I could not tell. “I’m sorry,” he said without really looking into my eyes.

  “Adam,” Jeff scolded him, “you need to do better than that.”

  Where had this man suddenly come from, leaping to my defense against his own brother? Was he genuinely concerned for my feelings, or was he just trying to keep his brother out of trouble?

  “I lost my mind for a second,” Adam said as he finally made eye contact with me. “I’m under a great deal of stress right now. Please forgive me.”

  I was about to dismiss his apology and call the police anyway as I reached for my cell phone when I glanced over at Autumn. She was pleading with me with her gaze not to do anything, mouthing the words “Please don’t,” over and over again.

  After that, I couldn’t see how I could follow through. I put my cell phone away as I said, “I won’t call the police.” Adam looked a little too smug when I said it, so I added, “But if you ever lay one finger on me again, I’ll call my husband.”

  “I understand,” he said, trying to brush off what he thought was an idle threat.

  “I don’t think you do,” I said. “So let me paint you a picture. He’s a state police investigator who would punish you for touching me in anger in more ways than the legal system ever could.” It wasn’t an idle threat, either. Jake had a side to him that he presented to the world that was calm and law abiding, but when it came to someone hurting me, even a little, I’d hate to see what he was capable of. Frankly, it was another reason I didn’t want to report the physical assault.

  I was afraid of what he might do.

  But I didn’t want Adam to think that I was hiding behind my husband, either. I stepped in close and whispered just so he could hear me. “I’m not someone you want to mess with, either. Trust me, you don’t want to find out what I’m capable of.”

  I took a step back and smiled at him. I think that was what threw him off the most. He clearly thought I was crazy, and I couldn’t say for sure that he might not be right at that very moment.

  Either way, I didn’t think I’d have any more trouble with Adam Marbury.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Jeff said as he roughly grabbed his brother’s arm.

  “We’re not finished talking,” Autumn told her estranged husband.

  “There’s really nothing more to say,” Jeff answered.

  “Ever?” she asked as tears began to creep down her cheeks.

  Jeff clearly couldn’t even bring himself to look at her. Maybe he was indeed finished with her once and for all.

  Either way, the two men got into his car and drove away.

  I turned to Autumn, who was still watching as they vanished. “I’m sorry I intervened. Adam looked as though he wanted to kill you, and I couldn’t stand by and let that happen.”

  “And you ended up getting hurt instead,” she said as she turned back to me. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I said. My arms were still a bit sore, but if I was lucky, maybe I wouldn’t bruise after all. I hated the thought of explaining those marks to Jake and where that conversation might lead.

  “You were pretty cool under fire back there,” Autumn said.

  “How about you? You were the one who jumped to my defense. Thanks for doing that, by the way.”

  “Jeff argued that they didn’t kill their mother,” Autumn said in a broken voice. “I thought I could challenge him on it, but I couldn’t bring myself to push him after he looked at me with those dead eyes.”

  “From what he said though, there was at least half an hour when they were apart,” I said, recalling the conversation I’d overheard. “That would leave plenty of time for Adam to sneak back over to your old house and kill his mother without Jeff knowing about it.”

  “What you’re not saying is that same scenario works for Jeff, too,” Autumn said with a sigh. “How did things go so wrong so quickly?” she asked me.

  I didn’t have an answer for her. “We’re doing the best we can,” I said as I glanced at my watch. “Listen, we’ve got an hour before we have to meet Mr. Charleston. What do you think about going back to your place and grabbing a bite to eat?”

  “I’d rather not have to face making anything right now,” she admitted. “Do you have any interest in going back to the Blue Ridge Café for dinner?”

  “I’m all for it, if you can stand being around people after what just happened,” I said. “If Cheswick is anything like home, half the town has already convicted you of homicide. I hate to be so blunt, but you need to face that fact right now.”

  “Let them talk,” Autumn said wearily. “It won’t be the first time I was the subject of gossip around here.”

  “For moving out, sure, but not for m
urder,” I corrected her. “Believe me, it can get pretty ugly. I’ve been accused of the same thing a few times in the past myself, and it can really get you down.”

  “You believe me, though, and that’s all I need,” she said as she tried to smile, despite what had just happened. “Come on. It’s my treat.”

  “How could I possibly pass that up?” I asked her as we headed back for her car. I knew life was about to get even harder for my friend, but she was right about one thing. She had me in her corner, and I wasn’t about to desert her in her time of need. Anybody can be a friend when everything is sunshine and daisies. A true friend is one who stands right beside you when everyone else is doing their very best to bring you down. It was almost, and I meant not at all really, worth being attacked just to see who you could actually count on in times of trouble.

  No matter what, I was going to stand by my friend, even if it meant putting my own name, and my life, in the path of peril.

  Otherwise, what good did friendship really do anyone?

  Chapter 18

  “YOU’RE BACK,” DAVIS said with glee as we walked into the restaurant again. His was the only smile we got. People at the nearby tables averted their gazes as soon as they realized that Autumn was among them. Small towns in the South were the same everywhere; gossip happened at lightning speed, whether it was rooted in the truth or not. “Welcome, ladies.”

  “Thanks,” Autumn said as we took a seat near the back. A family was sitting at the table beside us, and as soon as we sat down, the father threw a twenty-dollar bill on the table and ushered his wife and two kids out of the café. Another couple sitting nearby left before ordering, but only after they took a moment to glare at us as though we’d ruined their days.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Autumn said as she started to stand. “We’re not doing your business much good by eating here.”

  “Sit back down,” Davis said firmly. In a voice much louder than it needed to be, he said, “Autumn, we’ve been friends for the past several months, and I’m not going to let a little idle gossip change that. Anyone who doesn’t like it is free to eat somewhere else.”

  “Really, I don’t mind,” Autumn continued, still clearly unsure about how she felt about being under such scrutiny.