“Was that a working lunch?” he asked.
“That’s none of your business. And where did you come from?”
Seth gestured to the back of the diner. “I’ve been here the whole time. I figured a crack investigator such as yourself would have seen me.”
He has me there, Maggie thought to herself.
“How’s the investigation coming along? You need some help?”
“No, I do not.”
A crooked smile, the feature that had first attracted Maggie to Seth, appeared on his face. “I know you can do this. If there’s something to find, you can find it. Heck, you’ve done it before. But you’ve already been accused of trespassing. If you don’t stop this now, what else is going to happen?”
Chapter Eleven
“What do you think?” Edie asked as Maggie tried a bite of the broccoli casserole she had prepared for dinner.
“It’s good,” Maggie said.
“I was worried.” Edie said. “The recipe called for frozen broccoli, but I thought fresh broccoli sounded, well, fresher.”
“Good call,” Ben said as he gave his wife a peck on the cheek.
“Count me as a fan, too,” Luke said.
When that course was consumed, Edie sprang from her chair and asked, “Who’s ready for lemon pie?”
“Lemon pie?” Maggie repeated.
“I thought you liked lemon pie,” Edie said.
“I do, but I know you’re all about theme meals and I can’t connect broccoli with lemon.”
“Can you connect zesty broccoli casserole to zesty lemon pie?”
“Ah,” Maggie said to her friend. “I should never doubt you.”
The two couples finished their dessert, cleared the table, and started playing Pictionary. When Maggie pulled the Great Lakes on one of her turns, she interpreted it as a message from the universe. After Luke successfully guessed her sketched clue, she put the card in the used pile and asked, “Do you all remember hearing about a woman who drowned in a pay lake over on Sassafras a few weeks ago?”
“Your dad told us about it that day you made dinner for us,” Luke reminded her.
“You cooked a dinner and we weren’t invited?”
“Hush.” Edie elbowed Ben in the ribs. “I heard about that drowning on the news. Such a tragic accident.”
“Well, her sister doesn’t think it was an accident and she’s asked me to look into it.”
Ben cleared his throat. Edie picked up the die and rolled it in her hands. Luke sighed. No one spoke.
The silence made Maggie feel uncomfortable. “It is suspicious. She behaved out of character that night and –”
Edie patted Maggie’s knee. “You don’t have to explain yourself to us, but please be careful. Remember what happened last time.”
“I’ll never forget that somebody kidnapped Barnaby. And, don’t worry, I will be careful.”
Although Maggie appreciated Edie’s encouragement, she was more interested in knowing if Luke’s silence indicated a lack of support. On the car ride home, she asked him, “Do you have anything to say about me looking into Hazel Baker’s death?”
“Yeah. I’d like to know long has this been going on.”
“When you put it that way, it sounds like you’re accusing me of sneaking around.”
“Well …”
“Hey, I hadn’t had the opportunity to tell you.” Although there wasn’t much light coming into the car, Maggie could sense the skepticism in a quick glance he sent her way. “I did talk to a few people connected to Hazel, but that was just to help me decide if I thought something might be there. And I do. Of course, I could be wrong. I’ll admit that I’m a bit baffled.”
“I’m sorry,” Luke said. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. It’s just that last time, everybody knew what you were doing before I did.”
“My parents didn’t know.”
“You know what I mean. Ben and Edie knew. Your ex knew.”
Maggie debated whether to tell him that Seth already knew about this investigation as well. On the one hand, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Seth had confronted her about Brandi Baker’s complaint. So what? On the other hand, she had told a few lies by omission to Luke during her previous sleuthing mission and had promised him she would not keep him in the dark again.
“About Seth …”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“There’s no reason to raise your voice. I didn’t contact him.”
“Then how does he know?”
“A woman called the police complaining that I’d trespassed onto her property. That rude trooper, you know, the one who hauled me to post in the back of his cruiser? Well, he tattled to Seth.”
“A woman contacted the police about you?” Luke pulled the car into a wide space off the road. “Were you arrested?”
“No, of course not. The officer talked her out of pressing charges. Not that there was a complaint to file. I mean, I didn’t even speak to her and I left her property as soon as she demanded I do so.”
The light from a street lamp allowed Maggie to see that Luke sat with his mouth open. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. No, wait, yes I can.” He pulled the car onto the road and did not speak again on the fifteen-minute drive to Maggie’s house. When he parked the car in her driveway, he said. “It sounds like your mind’s made up. If you’re going to do this, I’m not sure I want to know the specifics. But, please, let somebody know where you are or if you’re meeting one of your suspects. I really care about you and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to me, either, especially if it prevents me from spending time with you.” Maggie’s and Luke’s lips met directly above the car’s center console. “And I’ve been thinking about that vacation. How does the Grand Canyon sound?”
“A week with you, a pile of rocks, and a burro sounds like my idea of fun.”
Maggie didn’t check her cell phone during meals or gatherings and since she couldn’t get service up Caldonia Road, she rarely looked at it while home. But before turning in that night, she checked her phone and noticed a series of texts from Stella imploring her to call. The last message read, “I have proof that Earnest killed Hazel.”
Chapter Twelve
Maggie didn’t talk to Stella until the following afternoon. And when she did, Stella wouldn’t share any details over the phone.
“I have to come to Jasper this afternoon, so I’ll meet you and we’ll talk then.”
Maggie started to insist that Stella share this smoking gun with her at once, but reconsidered. “I have some things to discuss with you, too, so how about we meet in the park a few minutes after five o’clock?”
Stella agreed and after Maggie finished her workday at the paper, she filled her water bottle and strolled to the park where she found Stella waiting on a bench. As soon as Maggie sat down beside her, Stella asked, “Why didn’t you answer my texts yesterday?”
“It was late when I checked my phone.”
“I tried to reach you for hours. Wasn’t your phone with you?”
Maggie took a generous sip of water and answered, “Stella, I have a life. If you want someone at your beck and call, perhaps you should hire a private investigator.”
Stella touched Maggie’s arm, “I didn’t mean to be ugly. It’s just that I was so excited about what I found and I wanted to share it with you. Please tell me you’re not mad at me.”
“I’m not mad.” Maggie studied the gray sky. “It looks like we’re in for a storm, so we’d better make this quick.”
“I know. Those clouds look full of rain and I’m heading to North Carolina.” Stella beamed. “That’s another thing I wanted to tell you. I’m going to visit my daughter and will be gone for a few days. But I’ll check my cell phone regularly.” Stella winked and playfully slapped Maggie’s knee. “Now, don’t take it to heart. I’m just joking. I do that with my friends.”
Maggie wasn’t sure why Stella continued to
insist they were friends, but saw no reason to broach the subject. “What did you want to tell me? What’s this evidence that will prove Earnest’s guilt?”
Stella pulled papers from her bag and handed them to Maggie. “I don’t know if I told you, but I asked for the police’s file on the investigation into Hazel’s death. There wasn’t much in it, but they took photos of some items found at Catfish Corner that morning. Go on, look through them and tell me if you see what I see.”
Maggie examined the photos, which showed a box cutter, a black eyeliner pencil, a comb, a pearl necklace, and a yellow Bic lighter. She shrugged, “I see items you might find in this park or in a crowded parking lot or wherever people congregate. People lose things like this all the time.”
“That’s right. What was I thinking? You don’t know Earnest the way I do.” Stella returned to her bag, produced a small photo album, and flipped to a photo of Earnest and Hazel at what appeared to be a cookout. “Do you see it now?”
The white comb protruding from Earnest’s back pocket immediately caught Maggie’s attention. “Yeah, I see it.”
Stella punched the air with her right fist. “I told you it was him.”
“This proves nothing.”
“Yes, it does. That comb obviously fell out of his pocket when he was killing my sister.” Stella looked at the photo again. “I’m not going to lie. I always liked Earnest. I thought Hazel catered to him too much, but decided that maybe that’s how they got along. I wouldn’t have wanted anybody to judge my relationship with my husband. You don’t know what makes a couple work. But there were certain things Earnest did that made me question Hazel. Take the comb, for instance. Wearing one in your back pocket went out of style decades ago. But he continued to keep a comb in his back pocket until he and Brandi got together. You better believe she put an end to that. And I don’t blame her. He looked so, well, dorky.” She shook her head. “Sometimes, he’d find a mirror, whip that comb out, and run it through his hair. He did this in front of people. He even used the mirror on Hazel’s compact so he could fix his hair at my mother’s funeral. Such behavior scandalized my husband. Of course, he never cared for Earnest. I should have listened to him. He was always such a good judge of character.”
Maggie couldn’t disagree with Stella’s late husband’s opinion of Earnest. She wasn’t buying anything he was trying to sell, but that didn’t mean he was a murderer. She peered at the approaching storm clouds and wondered how much time they had before the clouds opened. After a brief internal debate, she said, “Stella, I had lunch with Earnest the other day.”
“You did?” Stella shrank away from her. “How did that come about?”
“He contacted me. He said he wanted to apologize for his and Brandi’s behavior the day we stopped by for that unannounced visit. I had a few questions for him, so I suggested we meet. He said that although he doesn’t think Hazel was killed, he wants to help you and the rest of the family find closure.”
Stella snatched the photo album out of Maggie’s hands. “Don’t tell me you fell for his load of lies? Earnest has a way of coming across like the most honest and kind-hearted man you’ll ever meet. Don’t fall for it. He’s a weasel. It may have taken decades, but my sister and I finally saw him for what he was. For what he is.”
Weasel? Maggie thought to herself. That’s it. That’s the rodent he reminds me of. “I didn’t say I believed everything or even anything he had to say. Although he thinks Hazel’s death was an accident, he also said in, well, an arrogant manner, that you had motive to kill her.”
“Me?” Stella clutched her chest. “My sister drove me up the wall and back down it. I’ve never denied that. But why on earth would he accuse me of taking the life of one of the three living people I love most?”
“He didn’t so much as accuse you as suggest that you had as good a motive as he did.”
“And what was that? For what reason would I kill my only sister? What was this so-called motive?”
“Calm down,” Maggie advised. She didn’t know what concerned her more – Stella’s reddening face or the darkening sky. “Earnest said you never got over Hazel inheriting the house.”
“I didn’t. I’m still not over it. Hazel,” Stella pointed her forefinger at Maggie, “and Earnest talked my mother into leaving Hazel the house. Mother wanted to leave it to Brother. I know this because we discussed the matter. As far as I knew, she had left the house to him. I didn’t learn differently until after her death. That’s when I found out the house went to Hazel. According to Hazel, Mother knew I didn’t need it and that I didn’t want the headache of dealing with it. That was true and, at first, I wasn’t too upset. After all, Hazel said Mother left it to her so Brother would be taken care of. She said Mother knew Brother was ‘limited,’ that’s the word she used to describe her own brother. Limited. Can you believe that?”
“It doesn’t sound very nice. Then again, aren’t we all limited in one way or another?”
Stella chuckled. “Yes, we are. But that’s not the point. I trusted that Hazel would do the right thing, that she would honor our mother’s wishes and take care of Brother. Hazel was a hard woman, but I didn’t think that would extend to her family. Boy, was I wrong. Before we knew what was happening, Hazel and Earnest were asking Brother to pay rent. Rent. To live in the house he had called home for fifty years. I wouldn’t have it. I wouldn’t let him pay to live in his own home, so I found a trailer for him. Then, Hazel turned around and asked him to take care of the house for her. I told him not to do it, but I knew he would. He never could stand up to her and it gave him the chance to stay connected to the house. I told Hazel what I thought about her maneuverings. I didn’t watch myself, either. It got so bad that I couldn’t stand to be in the same room as her and weeks went by and we didn’t speak a word to each other.” Stella blinked a few times. “But I missed her. My anger wasn’t doing anybody any good. I called her one day and we talked it out. She knew how I felt, but we moved passed it. And Earnest thinks I nursed that anger for years and then snapped and killed her?” Stella added with a huff, “At Catfish Corner, of all places.”
“He seemed to think that made about as much sense as him snapping and killing her for the pension.”
“Ha,” Hazel laughed. “With her gone, he no longer has to share his pension. With her gone, I lost my best friend. You tell me what makes sense.”
Maggie didn’t know what made sense. “He said he didn’t fight her during the divorce. What’s your perspective on that?”
“My perspective is the truth. He tried to fight her. That little floozy thought she was going to get Hazel and Earnest’s house. That’s why she set her claws into him. You see, Maggie, Brandi saw Hazel’s house and didn’t take into account all the work that went into building and maintaining it. People like Brandi don’t realize you have to work for what you get in life. She thought she’d marry Earnest and everything would be hers. She bucked up against the wrong woman. Hazel would not budge, and Earnest was in a hurry to marry that girl, so he gave in. I would give anything to have seen her face when Earnest told her he signed over everything to Hazel. And I would give anything to have seen his face when he found out she wasn’t pregnant.”
Maggie gasped.
Stella smiled and slowly nodded. “That’s right. Hazel had wanted a child for years, but never had one because Earnest made it plain that he didn’t want to be a father. If you ask me, that’s because Earnest is a child himself and he didn’t want to share the attention. By the time he found out there was no baby with Brandi, it was too late. He had already signed away the houses and married her.”
“In this day and age, how does that pregnancy scheme still work?”
“It works when you’re trying to hook a man like Earnest. He lives in his own world. I was with Hazel when he told us Brandi was pregnant. I asked, ‘Are you sure?’ He said he was because she had shown him a pregnancy test and pictures from an ultrasound.” Stella tilted her head. “You know where she got them?”
“Online?”
“No, but that’s a good guess. It was from a friend of hers. Earnest got what he deserved. He lost Hazel and he was married to that hussy and had gotten a kid in the package. Once he realized what he had gotten into, he came crawling back to Hazel and tried to get her back.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. After everything I’ve heard about Hazel, why would he try something that foolhardy?”
“Because Earnest lives in his own world. Here’s something else, Maggie. Hazel was the bread winner of that family. Earnest missed the money she brought in. He wanted that and he wanted a woman who would wait on him hand and foot. Hazel was a real pill to most of the world, but she treated certain friends, my daughter, me, and Earnest much differently. She ironed that man’s socks for heaven’s sake. What is the point in ironing socks?”
Try as she might, Maggie couldn’t come up with an answer to Stella’s question. She thought back to her encounters with Earnest and asked, “Does he have some sort of condition that would make his hands shake?”
“I guess that depends on if you classify cowardice as a condition.”
Maggie shook her head. “If Earnest is such a lazy coward, then why do you think he’s capable of murder?”
“It doesn’t take much effort or courage to hit a woman on the head and push her into a lake. Besides, I’m still surprised he found the energy and gumption to have an affair. And I still can’t believe that Hazel took the house from Brother. You can never really know somebody and you can never really know what they’re capable of doing.”
The wind had picked up and a warm breeze blew through the air. “It’s starting to sprinkle, Stella. You have a long drive. You should be getting on your way.”
Stella glanced at the sky. “It is getting darker. You keep the photos. Those are your copies.”
Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery Page 7