by K C Hart
Chapter Seven
Katy searched the parking lot for Misty’s Maxima as she pulled into the of the Burger Barn. Hopefully, she would have time to jot down some notes before her friend arrived. The cool air hit her face as she walked through the door. She looked around as the usual crowd of customers poured in for lunch. Luckily, she spotted an empty booth in the back. She pulled out the yellow pad and started scribbling what Trudy Mae had told her, then moved on to her impression of how Evelyn Brown was reacting to Jessa’s death.
How was Jessa was related to the Browns? If she wasn’t related, why was she living with them? Did Joe Phobs know that Jessa was pregnant? Why were they fighting, and was he careless enough to leave the murder weapon in the back of his truck for everyone to see? Why were Marissa Holmes and Jessa arguing, and why did Jessa have electric blue hair tangled in the ring on her right hand? Did the hair belong to Marissa? She’s the only blue-haired woman that was on the stage that night.
Misty slid into the booth as Katy finished up this last question. “Are you making your grocery list? I need to start keeping a notebook in my purse. I never remember half of what I’m going to the store to get.”
“No.” Katy flipped the notebook close and tucked it back in her bag. “I was just writing down what I found out today about the murder and writing some questions that I’d like to know the answer to. I can think better if all the information is in front of me in an orderly fashion.”
“You and your never-ending lists,” Misty smiled. “Sounds like you’ve been busy. What have you found out? I thought you had to work this morning.”
“I did, but only for three hours.” Katy paused as they gave their orders to the waitress. “I had to go by Dr. Robert’s to drop off some lab results and Trudy Mae told me something very interesting. Jessa had been in their office Friday and found out she was pregnant.”
Misty’s mouth dropped open as she stared at Katy speechless for a full three seconds. “I guess that could be why she was fighting with the Phobs boy,” she finally said. “I heard on the news that he’s been arrested on suspicion of murder.” She paused again and rubbed her pointer finger across her bottom lip. “Pregnant, I never would have guessed that. Not that I thought the woman was a picture of virtue, I just figured she was sharp enough to take precautions against it.”
Their orders arrived and they took a few minutes to fix their plates. “Did you go by the Brown mansion like you planned? Have you seen their yard?” Misty stabbed her fork into a cherry tomato and looked across the table. “It’s done up cute with the bulldogs and the maroon and white daylilies. Of course, we’re Ole Miss fans at our house, but that really is a clever idea with the flowers in the school colors.”
“I went by the Brown’s after I left work and I agree. Their yard is fabulous. You should see the inside of their house,” Katy said. “It’s almost as pretty as yours.” Misty’s home was not as large or extravagant as the Brown mansion, but it could rival any home around Skeeterville with its style and décor. Misty just had a gift for putting things together and making them look beautiful. It not only showed up in her work as a florist but also in everything else she touched, including her home and personal attire.
“Do you think the boyfriend did it?” Misty popped the tomato in her mouth and starred across the table.
“I have my doubts about Joe Phobs being the killer,” Katy said, taking a sip of her tea. “Something else was going on that night that hasn’t been discovered yet.”
“Look who the cat drug in.” Both women looked up and smiled as Todd walked over to their booth. “Hello, ladies. Mind if I join you for a minute?”
“Not at all.” Katy scooted over to let her nephew sit down. “Have you already ordered? If not, we’ll flag down that fast-moving waitress.”
“I can’t stay but a second. I’m picking up a to-go order to take back to the station for the prisoner. I just saw you two and came over to say hello.” Todd looked down at Katy’s plate and grimaced. “I don’t know why you ruin a perfectly delicious meal by covering it with all that slimy green avocado.”
“Poor baby,” Katy smiled and stabbed the fork into her salad. “You just don’t know what’s good. I hope you ordered a burger or something for you to eat too. You know when your Uncle John’s not home, I have cold cereal for supper. You’ll starve to death at my house waiting for me to cook.”
“Don’t worry about feeding me,” Todd said, rubbing his stomach. “I’m like a snake, I can go for days without a meal if I have to.”
“That’s why you still have that schoolboy figure,” Misty grinned. “And by the way, we missed you at church yesterday. Everyone assumed you were working, but our Sunday school class just wasn’t the same without you.” Misty and Mike taught the young unmarried class which also included Vickie, Heather, and Sarah. All three women had voiced their disappointment at Todd’s absence. Misty strongly suspected it was because they wanted to get his take on who had killed Jessa.
“Yes mam,” Todd agreed, “that was it. I got home after midnight Saturday night and grabbed a couple of hours' sleep and then was back at it all day Sunday. Hopefully, I’ll be back with ya’ll this Sunday.” Todd’s answer was interrupted by the tune of the “Imperial Death March” coming from his trouser leg. “Excuse me, that’s the boss. I better answer that.” Todd stepped away from the table toward the restaurant’s large front window and turned his back on all the diners for privacy.
“I never would have guessed Todd would have classical music for his ring tone,” Misty said as she patted her lips with her napkin. “I imagined him to be more of a country or rock lover.”
“Girl, that’s Star Wars bad guy music.” Katy picked through her salad one more time to make sure she had eaten all the chicken and avocado. She looked over at Misty’s confused expression. “You know, Darth Vader, ‘Luke I am your father,’ stuff.” She pointed the fork as she spoke. “You are probably the only person in this place who didn’t recognize that ring tone. All the Cross family are sci-fi nerds. It’s in the blood.”
“You know the only place we go to is the football stadium. Mike gets us season passes every year to Ole Miss Football and that’s about the extent of our outings.” She paused as she dug around in her designer handbag for her lipstick. “I did go see Nutcracker on the Bayou with Mother last Christmas in Baton Rouge, but that’s pretty much all of the entertainment I get. Besides, that sci-fi stuff looks kind of weird to me.”
“Well, it is weird,” Katy said, “but that’s the whole point. I can see I’ve neglected your cultural growth. The next time John goes out of town I’m going to borrow all seventy-five Star Wars movies from the library and you and I are going to spend an evening in the stars. It’ll be entertaining for me to watch you watch Yoda.”
“If you say so, but I have never sat through seventy-five episodes of any television program. I don’t think I can sit still that long.”
“I’m exaggerating,” Katy said, rolling her eyes and grinning. “There are only five, or six or maybe seven movies. I’m not sure how many, really. I lost count when they started numbering them out of order, but I’ll break you in slowly with the first two then if you’re still weirded out by sci-fi, I’ll never bring up the subject again. How does that sound?”
“That sounds great, but you have to do something with me in return.” Misty tapped her silver lipstick tube against her chin. “Hey, I know. We could plan on seeing Swan Lake together this Christmas season. Have you ever seen it? It’s beautiful and Mike acts like the ballet gives him acid reflux or something.”
“I’ve never been to any ballet except the twins’ dance recitals when they were in elementary school. That sounds like a great plan. You set your date up and I’ll set up mine. This ought to be fun.”
“Joe will have to skip lunch today,” Todd said, as he walked back up to their table. “There’s been a wreck on the five-eighty-seven, and I have to get over there to direct traffic. Do either of yaw want a burger and fries? It
’ll spoil in my hot car before two o’clock. If not, would you mind canceling the order for me, Aunt Katy? I need to run.”
“Why don’t you let me take the food over to the station for you? Misty and I aren’t pressed for time and that way you won’t have to worry about coming back by later to get something for him.”
“If you don’t mind doing that for me,” Todd said, “it sure would help out. Just hand it to Ms. Lois at the dispatch desk. It shouldn’t take you three minutes to just run it in to her. It’s already paid for. I need to go before the rubber-neckers cause another wreck at the crash site.”
They waved goodbye to Todd’s back as he weaved between the café tables and left out the double glass doors. Katy had taken care of Lois Davis’s aunt a few years ago when the elderly lady had tripped over her wiener dog and fell, cutting her forearm. Katy remembered Lois as being overweight, very talkative and a rather slow mover. Hopefully, she would have no problem with letting Katy do her the favor of walking the prisoner’s lunch back to his cell.
Chapter Eight
Misty’s pewter-colored Maxima pulled in front of the sheriff’s office ten minutes later. The red brick building had a flat roof with one large heavily tented picture window and one glass door in front. An American flag waved from the pole at the corner. This was Katy’s first trip to the sheriff’s office, but when she walked through the front door, she immediately noticed two things. The temperature was cold enough to hang meat and the fluorescent lights gave everything a strange pale-yellow tint. What a depressing place to have to sit all day.
Lois’s desk sat immediately to the left of the entrance. She sat twirling the phone cord between her fingers as she listened to whoever was talking on the other end of the conversation. Katy stood directly in front of the large gray desk and fought the urge to tap the bell in the corner.
Two offices were on the other side of the front door across from Lois’s desk, both with their doors closed. A couple of metal folding chairs sat on the back wall facing the front door. Other than that, the room was empty. The walls were plain white sheetrock and a coke machine was stuck in the far corner of the room, off to the left from of Lois’s desk. A hall extended down that left-hand wall past the coke machine. Katy assumed it went to the jail cells.
Lois glanced up from the phone. “I’m gonna put you on hold a minute George. Somebody just walked in the office.” She pressed the hold button and smiled. “Can I help you with something?”
“Hi, I’m Katy Cross, Todd’s niece,” Katy said. “He got called away to a wreck and asked if I would give this food to Joe Phobs. Do you mind if I run it back to him?” Katy held her breath waiting for Lois to respond.
“Yeah, if Todd sent you, it’ll be fine. Just take this dollar and grab him a Coke out of the machine on your way back.” Lois reached in the desk drawer and pulled out a grungy one-dollar bill and passed it across to Katy. “I imagine Todd’s going to be tied up all afternoon on that wreck. A big rig flipped over and has the five-eighty-seven completely blocked. All our people are out there, as well as an ambulance and the first responders from the fire station. If you don’t take Joe something, he probably won’t get a meal until tonight.”
“Thanks,” Katy said as she quickly got the coke and headed down the hall to the cell. She could hear Lois reconnect with George as she walked away. That had been simple enough. She walked down the dimly lit hall and ran directly into an alcove that contained two jail cells, each about eight feet square.
Katy stood back and took a second to study Joe before making her presence known. He sat with his broad shoulders slumped over on the edge of the cot, his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands. His grey tee-shirt stretched across his back and met his faded blue jeans. She looked down at his work boots with dried mud splattered all over them. She saw men dressed like this every day and had probably seen this fellow around town before too.
“Excuse me,” she said, stepping forward. Joe lifted his head and a pair of silvery-blue eyes stared up at her from a face tanned to a golden brown like the crust on a pawn of cornbread. His high cheekbones and strong square chin were enhanced with a slight five o’clock shadow. “Hi Joe, I’m Katy Cross,” she said as she reached through the cell bars and offered him the bag of food and the coke. “Todd asked me to bring you your lunch.”
“Thank you, mam.” He took the bag and began scavenging through its contents.
She silently waited, hoping he would start some sort of conversation, but he seemed content to just eat his burger and fries. He was not going to be chatty like Lois. Todd said he had refused to write out his statement and was only giving short yes or no answers to their questions. She turned to leave with a sigh. Maybe she would have better luck at the nail salon. This had suddenly turned into a dead end.
“I didn’t do it.”
Katy turned back around. He was still looking at his food, but maybe he did want to talk. She propped her shoulder against the cell wall hoping she looked relaxed and waited for him to continue. He didn’t. “I was with Todd when he found the body. I didn’t know Jessa that well, but,” Katy left the sentence open not knowing what else to say.
“People saw us arguing that night, but people saw us arguing every night we were together,” Joe said, looking up. “That was nothing new. You know, I’ve lived here my whole life. I don’t go to church much and I get a speeding ticket every now and then, but I can’t believe that folks think I could just up and kill somebody, especially my girlfriend.”
“What were yaw arguing about,” Katy asked softly.
“The same thing we’ve been arguing about for months. Tubby Robinson told me back in the spring that Jessa was stepping out on me while I was off on the rig,” Joe said, setting down the bag of food. “At first, I just blew him off. Tubby gossips worse than any woman. But then Jessa started acting differently. She’s always had a smart mouth on her, but she used to direct it at other people, not me. Here lately though, I couldn’t do anything right. ‘You’re driving too fast, you’re driving too slow,’” Joe’s voice rose as he mimicked his girlfriend’s badgering tone. ‘“Why you wearing that shirt? You never talk to me.’ It was just one thing after another, and I knew something was up. Anyway, I was getting my oil changed last week at the dealership and her cousin Tripp mentioned something about how I sure was a good man to not mind Jessa seeing other guys while I was gone. After that…. I figured Tubby had been telling the truth.”
“So, you were breaking up with her,” Katy asked.
“That’s how it started. We were behind the shed having our usual yelling match. Man was I tired of those. I told her that it was time for us to part ways.” He paused, rubbing his hand across the stubble on his chin. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I guess it’s finally sinking in that if I don’t get some help, I may be sitting in one of these places for the rest of my life.” He shook his head again in disbelief. “That sheriff treated me like I was some kind of thug, and you know I have voted for that man every single time he’s run?”
“I heard,” Katy said, trying to sound casual, “that they found a bloody monkey wrench in the back of your truck.”
“That’s what they are saying, but if you can tell me how it got there then we’ll both know.” Joe stood up from the cot, the half-eaten burger forgotten. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I didn’t do this.”
Katy shook her head feeling his frustration. “After the conversation behind the shed did you and Jessa part ways?”
“No, she wouldn’t let it go that easily. I told her it was over then she proceeded to tell me that she was pregnant, and I was going to pay for her abortion because she had her career to think about and a baby wasn’t part of her plan and a bunch of garbage like that.” He paused and swallowed hard. “That’s when she went stomping off toward the stage where her band and some other folks were hanging around. I followed her like an idiot and told her we needed to go somewhere and talk about this. She said that there was nothing to talk
about, just give her a thousand dollars and she would take care of things and be out of my hair. I told her I would see her dead before I would give her a penny.”
“And everybody heard that I guess.”
“Oh yeah,” Joe shook his head, “we were pretty loud by then.”
“What happened next?” Katy asked. She watched as Joe’s eyes lit up with emotion.
“She slapped me across the face. I decided it was time for me to leave before I did something I would regret, like slap her back, not kill her.” Joe grabbed the cell bars and looked at Katy’s face. “I got in the truck, went to Jiffy Mart and bought a case of beer. I spent the rest of the night with Hank Williams Jr. in my trailer. I didn’t get up ‘til Saturday around noon. I mowed a little grass at Momma’s, got drunk again and didn’t wake up ‘til the cops came beating on my trailer Sunday morning.”
He went back to the cot and flopped his heavy body back down on the mattress then looked up at Katy. “Even if I did have it in me to kill somebody, which I don’t, there is no way I would kill a pregnant woman. That poor baby is dead now too and if word gets out about her being pregnant, I guess I’ll be tried for murdering two people.”
“Look Joe,” Katy said, leaning toward the cell bars, “I’m not trying to get in your business or anything, but I think it would be better for you if you tell the sheriff, or maybe your lawyer everything you just told me. At least then they’ll have a place to start looking for the real killer.”
“I know, and I plan on doing that,” Joe said, staring at the ceiling. “I have just been too mad to put everything into words, and I can’t write it down for them. I tried to tell them that, but when they wouldn’t listen to me, I just clamped up.” His voice grew quiet. “Do you think they will find out she’s pregnant?”
“Yeah, I am pretty sure they will. Those things have a way of coming out.” She paused and stared through the cell bars. “Why can’t you write your story down? It doesn’t have to be perfect English, just write down what you’ve told me.”