by Tonya Kappes
“I didn’t.” My words were going to be straight forward because Wally had a knack for switching things around on me. “I’ve got two things to discuss with you.”
The sun was beating down and the temperatures were getting into those hot late summer afternoons where you just didn’t feel like doing anything but sippin’ on some cold, fresh, and sugary iced tea.
“I’m probably going to be discussing the same with you.” He walked down the sidewalk next to me.
“Avon Meyers,” I said.
He said at the exact same time, “Woody Moss’s cuff links.”
I stopped, and he stopped. We looked at each other.
“How did you know about Avon and me?” His eyes narrowed.
“You don’t know that she was killed this morning? Someone found her in the park.” How had this type of gossip not gotten ahead of the police announcement? A rarity in Cottonwood.
“Where?” He asked with a stiff upper lip.
“Rock Fence Park. Was there something going on between the two of you?” I asked.
“Nothing personal.” He looked at his watch. “I have, had, a meeting with her around five tonight to discuss something she said she’d uncovered and needed help with.”
“What was it?” Did Wally have a clue as to why someone had killed Avon Meyers?
“I don’t know. She called me and we had lunch at Kim’s Buffet. She asked all sorts of questions about what if she knew there was a crime about to be committed. If they got caught and she was named that she knew about it, would she get in trouble.” He followed me around the corner of the building of Cowboy’s Catfish.
Bartleby Fry probably wouldn’t’ve been happy if he’d seen me walk in with a Ben’s Diner bag.
“I told her that it could be considered aiding and abetting, depending on the severity of the crime.” He walked into me when we rounded the corner to walk down the alley.
“She didn’t tell you anything about it? Or anyone involved?” I questioned and opened the door to the department.
“She said that she’d get back to me after she thought about it.” He reached over my head and grabbed the door, holding it for me.
It took a second for my eyes to adjust from the bright sun to the dim lights inside. Betty Murphy was sitting at her desk and Finn was standing next to one of two white boards with a dry-erase marker in his hand. Deputy Lee wasn’t there.
“What’s going on?” Finn was taken surprise after he noticed the bag I was holding.
“Wally Lamb wanted to talk to me.” I sat the bag on the top of my desk and opened it.
Duke was fast asleep in his dog bed next to my desk. His snoring made me smile. I was tired too and a bit jealous he was getting in some much needed rest.
Ben had scribbled a note that he’d put three bowls of beans for the group at the department, meaning me, Betty, and Finn, and taped it to a bowl along with plenty of cornbread. “I’m thinking we were going to talk about the cuff links and Avon Meyers.”
“I don’t know a thing about her.” His eyes were fixed on the containers I was taking out of the bag. “Like I said, we were going to meet tonight because she saw me at the funeral home and told me that she wanted to meet with me today at five when she got off work.”
I handed out the food and gave Wally my bowl of beans since I’d lost my appetite. I traded Finn the dry-erase marker for his bowl of beans. He’d already put the header on the boards. One was labeled Moss Burglary and the other white board was labeled Avon Meyers Murder.
“Hasn’t he got it all together?” Poppa had ghosted himself between the boards, looking at them. Duke jumped up out of his deep slumber to rush over to the ghost.
Poppa had actually given Duke to me as a present one year. Duke and Poppa had a special bond.
“What’s wrong with him?” Wally asked when he noticed Duke jumping up, wagging his tail and settle down a few times when Poppa pat him, only to go right back to jumping on his hind legs to get Poppa to continue to rub.
“He does this every few months.” Finn shrugged a shoulder and reached over to the edge of his desk to grab one of Duke’s treats from the jar. “Here, buddy!” Finn gave a little whistle.
“My big Duke, boy.” Poppa made sure he kept Duke’s attention with kisses and rubs so Duke wouldn’t fall for Finn’s tactics. “Who’s Poppa’s big furry boy?”
I gave a hard eye roll.
“He’s a dog. Who knows what they think,” I said to Wally and focused my attention to the white board with Avon’s name. “She knew something?”
“She said she needed legal advice about if she knew something was happening illegally and if she’d get in trouble if she didn’t report it.” He put his hands in the air. “When I heard she was killed, a red flag went up.”
Wally grabbed one of the chairs in front of my desk and dragged it over to the edge of Finn’s desk where they opened the takeout food.
“It certainly should. If she knew something illegal was going on, the person obviously wanted her silenced.” I wrote down on the board how Avon got in contact with Wally Lamb.
Finn had started eating his food and flipped through his notepad.
“No better way to silence someone than kill them,” Poppa said. “Kenni Bug, I think a great place to start is the rehab center where she worked since she was there all the time.”
“We need to go to the Cottonwood Acres Rehabilitation Center since she was there all the time.” Finn looked up from his notebook. He took out some envelopes from her file. “Here are some paystubs. She worked a lot of overtime and PRN. Maybe she knew something going on there.”
Finn’s words were almost identical to what Poppa had said. Mine and Poppa’s jaw dropped at the same time.
“Can you see me, boy?” Poppa ghosted next Finn, wildly clapping his hands in Finn’s face. “Don’t you be ignoring me, boy.”
“Umm.” I tried to shake Poppa off Finn, but he was like a hound dog on a coon.
“Can you hear me?” Poppa started to whistle, Duke started to howl and I couldn’t hold in my laughter.
“What is going on around here?” Wally Lamb’s face contorted. “You’ve lost your mind, Kendrick Lowry.”
“I did that a long time ago.” I joked and got my composure together. “Like Finn said, maybe Avon knew something about the rehab center.”
“I said that.” Poppa pointed to himself. “I did.” He ghosted away.
“Like insurance fraud. Or even elderly abuse,” Betty chimed up.
“Elderly abuse?” I questioned her, happy to have Poppa gone so I could concentrate.
“Yes. I’ve heard so many terrible stories about how those places treat their elderly clients. Especially the Alzheimer’s patients because they don’t remember how they got a bruise when someone beats them.” Her words formed images in my head that made me so sad.
“I wonder if that’s why Lita wanted someone to take care of her at her house and wanted her son to move in.” I wrote down Lita’s name under Avon’s name.
“Lita Brumfield?” Wally asked.
“She and Avon had a very volatile neighborly relationship.” I put dots under Lita’s name so I could go back and fill in what she’d told me earlier. I wasn’t finished with interviewing her.
Betty was sitting in her desk. She was watching everyone speak and taking it all in.
“Betty, are you dictating all of this for Avon’s file?” It was part of her job to take the notes and update the computer files so we could easily access those.
Since Finn had become a deputy, he’d tried so hard to bring us up to modern technology. The new computer system had made it so we could tap into the larger, universal databases, which was nice. But when it came to cell phones and computers in the cars, Betty and I put our foots down. We liked our walkie-talkies. They were easy to use and easy to charge. If we needed
something quick, it was on the walkie-talkie so everyone in the department was informed. If I needed to talk to one of them about a certain subject that didn’t need to involve everyone, then I used the cell phone to call.
“Got it.” Betty twirled around in her chair. She put her hand on the computer mouse and shook it back and forth a few times before her computer buzzed to life.
“Tell me when you’re caught up,” I said to her and took the time to let the boys eat and for me to finish writing on Avon’s board. “According to the paperwork we found at her house, she had been written up a few times and we need to talk to the nurse manager about that while we are there.
Under Lita’s name, I made bullet points about how she’d complained about Avon and made a note to get the transcripts from the Clay’s Ferry sheriff’s department dispatch services. I also put that in my notebook so I wouldn’t forget. I had to drop off Avon’s purse to Tom Geary’s crime scene lab that I used, which was located just on the outskirts of Clay’s Ferry. It’d be easy to just drop that off for fingerprints and head straight into Clay’s Ferry while I’d be in the area.
Unfortunately, daylight and time was running out today. These were some things that would have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.
“You can’t do it all in one day.” Poppa had come back. “I can read you like a book, Kenni bug. His eyes shifted to Finn. He shook his head with a disappointed frown.
Finn was gobbling up the beans and cornbread talking to Wally about the upcoming high school football season. It was a big deal around here. Cottonwood lived for their high school sports. The football team had done really well the last few years and won state, making the games the biggest Friday night activity during the fall and winter months.
I turned back to the white board and continued to write under Lita Brumfield’s name. I even began to write questions, so Poppa could see since we couldn’t play our
“back and forth what if” game right now because everyone was here.
Does Lita know anything about elderly abuse at the rehab center? I wrote, following up with more questions. Did Avon know about elderly abuse or other illegal activities? Is this why the nurse manager was trying so hard to write her up? Avon appeared to have been written up for silly things like being a minute late, eating lunch at her work station, wearing non-slip shoes while doing PT with the clients. Though I did understand it was probably crossing the line when she took a patient out to lunch, but who was the patient? Was it Woody Moss?
That made me write Rich Moss on the white board.
“Rich Moss?” Wally took the napkin and wiped off his mouth. “What’s that guy got to do with anything?”
“When I was at Woody’s funeral, I overheard him threatening Avon. It was odd. I have a plan to go over there tonight on my way to Euchre since their house is right there.” I tapped the marker on his name.
“You know, Woody came to me and asked me to defend the kid.” Wally looked up to ceiling and rolled his eyes. “He was on the video camera smashing in the glass cases of the jewelry store. He even looked at the camera and smiled.” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands on his full stomach. “I told Woody there was no way I was touching that case.”
“If Woody was so good to him, why would Rich want to burglarize the house?” Finn asked a good question and looked at the other white board.
“These are two separate crimes, right?” Wally looked between me and Finn, the lines on his forehead deepened.
“Yes, but it seems like Rich has ties to both.” I wrote Rich’s name down under Moss Burglary. “Were you Woody’s lawyer? Is that why he came to you about Rich?”
There was a loyalty with Southerners that ran as deep as blood. Once they found a doctor, they stuck with that doctor. Same went for hairdresser, church, clubs and friendships. They might have disputes among themselves, but when it came to a time of crisis, loyalty ran deep.
“I was. In fact, after that boy was tried and sent to jail, Woody had me change his will.” Wally nodded. “Had me take him completely out. Now with the state law, I even had to put the clause in there that said Mr. Moss had specifically taken Rich out of the will with sound mind.”
“Really?” I bit the inside of my jaw. “He didn’t so happen to be giving Rich those cuff links, did he?” That gave Rich full motive to take those cuff links.
“You know about those, huh?” Wally sat up, taking interest.
“Those were the only things missing from the burglary that Mrs. Moss could tell.” I finished writing down how Woody had his will changed. “Can I get the dates of the will change?”
Wally let out a long sigh like he was thinking about it.
“It’s easier if you sign off on the paperwork than making me go through a judge for a warrant.” I reminded him that no matter what, I’d get the judge to make him turn those over.
“I don’t see why not but let me make sure with Mrs. Moss first.” He wasn’t about to give up a client. The Moss family was loyal to him. Like I said, blood or not, loyalty ran deep around here and he was just as loyal to them.
“Sheriff’s department,” Betty grabbed up the phone. Her round eyes caught mine. “Yes, Mr. Mayor, she’s right here. Hold on.” She held up two fingers to let me know he was on line two.
“Hello, Chance,” I answered the phone and put the lid back on the dry-erase marker. I sat on the edge of my desk with the phone cradled between my shoulder and ear and continued to look over the white boards. “We are just having a little pow-wow to go over both investigations,” I answered his question on how far along we were into both crimes. “I’ll have an update for both of them and some leads before I come to the town council meeting.”
“He’s always on you,” Finn said after I’d hung up the phone with the mayor.
“Yeah, but even with his flaws, he still asked Polly Parker’s dad for her hand in marriage,” I let out a long sigh like that really meant something to me, since I was fishing for an answer to my earlier questions of Finn’s actions when comes to marriage.
“That was a random thing to say,” Wally scoffed with a laugh, elbowing Finn’s upper arm as he got up to throw away his empty food containers.
“Chivalry isn’t dead on everyone.” I didn’t bother trying to go into more detail because being subtle wasn’t a strong suit of mine and if Finn didn’t catch on to what I was saying now then he wasn’t going to.
“It’s five o’clock,” Betty reminded me it was time for her to go home. She didn’t work a minute after. “Is this all?”
“You can go on. We won’t be able to solve this in a day.” I looked over at Poppa. He was sitting in my chair with his legs propped up on the desk, a glow exuded from the smile on his face. He loved when I quoted him. “In the morning, I’ll be running around to look into various leads, so if you need me, just call my cell. Or if it’s important, you know how to use the walkie-talkies.”
“What are you going to have me do?” Finn asked, cleaning up his empty food containers. Since I’d voiced my opinion to him earlier about the roles in our jobs, he seemed to be more accommodating to asking me what I needed of him.
“Since you and Wally are so chummy,” I gestured between them, “I’d like you to go to his office and get a copy of the dates of the will change and even look into Rich’s jail time. If he got off on good behavior, how? What did he do?”
I knew it was menial work that needed to be done, but it kept him out of the way of my investigation since I still wasn’t so sure about his loyalty to me as the sheriff. I could definitely say he was loyal as a boyfriend, but not so much in the area of our job.
Finn wasn’t born and bred Southern or Baptist. There was some doubt in the back of my head that made me want to discover the truth before we did take our relationship further than it’d already gone.
“I’ll be in my office tomorrow around 9 a.m.” Wally’s voice carried
from across the room where he walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.
Betty put her pocketbook back on her desk and took off her coat. She sat down at her desk. I looked at her and put the lid back on the dry-erase marker.
“I forgot, I’ve got something I can finish real quick.” She busied herself by shuffling a few papers and sticking some loose pencils in her pencil cup.
“We have to get to our Euchre game.” I referred to me and Betty, putting the dry-erase marker down and walked over to my desk to gather all my things, putting them in my bag.
Even though I left the office, the crimes were going to be in the fore front of my head. There were many times I’d sit at my kitchen table and have everything spread out like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes my brain worked best when the evidence was in front of me and I could see if any of it fit together.
“Don’t forget the purse,” Finn reminded and walked over to the small safe where he checked to make sure it was locked.
“I’ll come here in the morning and grab it before I head out of town.” There was no way I was going to take it home with me and risk the accusations of any sort of contamination.
“Sheriff?” A male voice cut through the air after the door opened. We turned to see who it was.
“Yes?” I instantly recognized the man. It was the man Avon was talking to at the Moss’s house after Woody’ funeral. He had the same light brown hair that was a little longer in the back, making it curl up around the edges of his neck line. He had thick brows and tan skin. He wore a blue shirt with an EMT logo I’d recognized from the fire department’s ambulance service that the town council had approved to work side jobs. His biceps told me he worked out often.
“Sebastian Hughes, is it?” I asked, dropping the bag back on the floor next to my desk.
Duke sensed we weren’t leaving because he let out a groan and went to lay back down on his bed. Poppa wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“How do you know my name?” He asked with a curious look on his face.
“You were at Woody Moss’s house after the funeral.” I watched his eyes scan over my shoulder and look at Avon’s white board before he slammed his eye lids shut like he didn’t want to see it.