Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery

by Michelle Goff

  She hadn’t gotten around to calling Stella like she had told Earl David she would. She had texted Stella, requesting to meet her in person during her visit to Sassafras. Stella had replied to the text with the news that she was enjoying a shopping spree in Tennessee with her friends. It wasn’t the kind of news she wanted to deliver over the phone, but Maggie decided she would call her later that night.

  “No,” she finally answered Luke. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to sit here, watch you play with the dog, and discuss all the fun we’re going to have next week.”

  Stella responded to Maggie’s narrative of Earl David’s admission with silence. When Stella failed to speak for several seconds, Maggie said, “Are you there? Did you hear what I said?”

  “Are you telling me he left my sister in that water? And for what? To keep from inconveniencing himself?”

  “He was afraid the police would suspect him of killing her. But if he did nothing wrong then he has nothing to hide. Do you think we should contact the police?”

  “I don’t know, Maggie. I just don’t know what to think about this. I never dreamed Earl David would have been involved in any way.”

  “I’m sorry to have had to tell you, but I think you deserve to know.”

  “Thank you for that. I appreciate you, Maggie, and the effort you’re putting into this. I will never forget your kindness and support.”

  “I haven’t done much.”

  “You followed the clues and figured out why she was out there that night. As for that, if Hazel were still alive, I’d give her a good dressing down. Taking out her frustrations – real or imagined – on innocent fish. I don’t know what she could have been thinking. Our mother raised us better than that.”

  “Stella, there’s something else. I chatted a bit with Boone and he told me that Hazel went to the post office every day at three o’clock.”

  “That’s right. She did. She had gotten in the habit of doing so when she worked at the clinic.” Stella chuckled. “She waited until late afternoon to give all the regulars who hung out at the post office time to clear out.”

  “Did everyone know this about her?”

  “I can’t speak for everyone, but anybody who knew her well certainly did.”

  “Would Earnest have known?” Maggie asked.

  “Absolutely. Why?”

  “This may be nothing, but Earnest said he happened to run into her at the post office. Maybe he did, or maybe he had forgotten about her routine.”

  “That’s not likely. He went there intentionally to talk to her. I know that like I know my own name.”

  “Let’s slow down. I’m going to check her computer in a bit. Did she have a Facebook page or a Twitter profile?”

  “Are you kidding?” Stella laughed. “She thought that was silly, but it didn’t keep her from looking over my shoulder and checking out my page.” Stella sighed. “That was Hazel. She thought Facebook was a waste of time, but she watched Dancing With the Stars religiously and never failed to vote for her favorites several times a night. That was my sister. She was one of a kind.”

  Maggie was thankful Hazel Baker had made it convenient to log onto her computer. She had taped her password to the laptop’s lid and her email remained opened to the last message she had read. It had been from her niece and Maggie found a tender reply in the sent file. Although Maggie felt uneasy reading the private exchange, she was glad for the glimpse of Hazel’s other side. She thought that, for the most part, Hazel seemed like a spiteful person and that business of trying to kill catfish had soured Maggie on her. From Maggie’s viewpoint, catfish didn’t have much to look forward to as it was. Still, if Hazel had been murdered, Maggie thought somebody needed to pay for the crime.

  She scrolled through the messages, finding several recipes from a cooking website and offers from the official UK fan site as well as correspondences between Hazel and various cousins and friends.

  “Wow,” Maggie said to Barnaby, “it appears that some people actually liked her. Let’s see what she and prettyboy415 had to say to each other.” She had read only three words when she realized prettyboy415 was Earnest. She puckered her face and asked, “Goodness, who lied and told him he was pretty? And what does he mean by ‘there’s no reason to involve lawyers?’”

  The conversation’s previous messages answered one of her questions. In the first one, Earnest had asked Hazel to agree to modify the part of the divorce agreement that provided her with half his pension. Hazel succinctly replied, “No.” That led Earnest to send another message in which he explained that Brandi and Paradice were bleeding him dry. His salary barely covered the mortgage and payment on Brandi’s new car and he was “up to his eyeballs” in credit card debt. He was borrowing against his pension “to stay above water,” a phrase that made Maggie wince. If he didn’t make some changes, there would be no pension left when he retired. He also reminded his ex-wife that he had given her the houses without a fight.

  This time, Hazel’s reply wasn’t so succinct. “You expect me to care about your self-inflicted problems? I hope they repossess the car, the house, and everything in it. But call me first so I can come over and gloat. Let’s see how long that money-grubbing hussy stays with you when you quit paying the bills. And don’t try to tell me that you weren’t prepared to fight me for the houses. If that tramp hadn’t convinced you she was pregnant, the divorce would have dragged on for years. You wanted to give your non-existent child your name. That’s the only reason you walked away without putting up too much of a fight. Well, that and you’re a coward. But if you have grown a spine and want to modify the divorce agreement, have your lawyer call mine. It won’t do you any good, though. I’ll die before I give up what I earned during the years I endured your laziness and fits of hypochondria, starched your clothes, cut your food into smaller pieces, and, well, I could go on but it’s time for me to go to bed where, thank the Lord, I will not be forced to listen to you snoring.”

  Earnest obviously didn’t get the message because he continued to send Hazel emails, all of which she answered with one sentence, “You’re wasting your time, but feel free to contact my lawyer.”

  According to the time stamp, the last email arrived one week before Hazel’s death. Maggie checked the sent folder, but saw no reply. “She didn’t answer him, so he tracked her down at the post office. And then what?”

  Maggie spent twenty minutes more looking through Hazel’s emails, but found nothing else pertaining to the case. She moved on to Hazel’s documents, which featured a folder for recipes, another for dress and shirt designs Hazel had found on the Internet and annotated with instructions for Sylvie Johnson, and one for a collection of correspondences.

  As Maggie read through the letters to friends, family, and acquaintances, she began to feel sad. “She still wrote letters. I haven’t written a letter since college.” One official-sounding letter nestled among those friendly notes caught Maggie’s eye. After reading it, she closed the laptop, rested her head on it, and said to Barnaby, “It’s looks like I’ll be making another trip to Sassafras.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  During her drive to Sassafras, Maggie held to a hope that Cullen would be at his dad’s when she arrived at Fallon’s. She needed to have a serious talk with Fallon and she feared the little boy would cause constant interruptions. She also had a feeling the nature of her visit would prove upsetting to Fallon and she didn’t want her to break down in front of the boy. But when Fallon answered the door holding Cullen on her hip, Maggie accepted her fate.

  “Hey, Fallon, sorry to stop by unannounced, but I was wondering if you might have some time to talk to me?”

  “About what?” Fallon remained in the doorway as Cullen nibbled on an ice cream sandwich.

  “Well, can I come in?”

  Fallon stepped back. “I guess you can for a minute, but I’ve got to clean Cullen up. We’re going to my mom’s.”

  “Hopefully, this won’t take long.” Fallon didn’t
make a move to sit, so neither did Maggie. As they stood in the living room, she asked, “Fallon, did Hazel ever mention evicting you?”

  “Like how?”

  Maggie’s brief tenure as a sleuth had taught her certain truths – everybody has something to hide, there’s no way to prepare people for the tough questions, and a suspect’s failure to understand the meaning of a simple question or comment usually indicates deception. “Did she ever tell you she was going to evict you?”

  Fallon pulled a baby wipe from a dispenser and washed Cullen’s face and hands, keeping her eyes on the child as she answered Maggie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Miss Martin and her daughter are the ones kicking me out. Miss Baker is dead.”

  Maggie produced a sheet of paper from her purse. “According to this letter dated the day before her body was found, Hazel planned to evict you.” Maggie tried to make eye contact with Fallon, who focused her attention on rubbing the drying cloth over Cullen’s hands. “Did Hazel show you this letter?”

  Fallon shook her head but answered, “Yes,” and hugged Cullen to her chest. “I did it for you. Everything Mommy did was for you.”

  Cullen squirmed out of her embrace and ran down the hallway. Maggie heard Fallon sniffle and realized she had started crying. “Come on,” she held out her hand to Fallon. “Let’s sit down.” Fallon complied and once they settled onto the couch, Maggie asked, “What did you do for Cullen?”

  Through hiccups, Fallon said, “Miss Baker called it prostitution.”

  Not expecting to hear that word, Maggie asked, “Excuse me, but did you say prostitution?”

  “Yeah, she said I was no better than one of those women you see walking along the four-lane.” Fallon sniffed and turned her young face to Maggie. “You’ve seen them. They wear halter tops, even in cold weather, and they’re either really skinny or really fat. I’m not like them.”

  “Fallon, was she evicting you for performing prostitution in this house?”

  “That’s what she said, but it wasn’t like that.”

  “What was it like?”

  “It ain’t easy getting by. I don’t make much money and, well, I told you about Cullen’s daddy losing his job.” Fallon blew her nose with the dry baby wipe. “He wasn’t able to pay as much child support after that. It was hard and one day it got to me and I started crying. Dennis saw me –”

  “Dennis? Hazel and Stella’s brother?”

  “Yeah, him. I don’t know no other Dennis. Anyways, he saw me crying and offered to help. He’s real nice like that. He gave me money and I was so happy that I kissed him. One thing led to another, you know how it is. He kept giving me money and …”

  “One thing kept leading to another.” Maggie pounded her head in an unsuccessful effort to run unpleasant images out of her mind. “How did Hazel find out? Did she catch you?”

  Fallon wiped her nose with the backs of her fingers. “No. He was paying my rent every month for me and giving me money for other stuff –”

  “Like the new bedroom suites?”

  “Uh-huh. He couldn’t afford the whole set for my room, but I was happy with what I got. But he run out of money and I had spent everything on food and clothes and shampoo and detergent and all the other things you need for a house. That stuff don’t come cheap, you know. And there’s always something we need. It ain’t like I was buying expensive shoes or toys, but it didn’t matter how hard I tried to make it work. I didn’t have no money and I couldn’t pay my rent. I told Dennis and for a while he gave me the money, but then he quit. When the rent come due that month, he didn’t offer to help me. I asked him about it and he told me not to worry. I thought he was going to talk to Miss Baker and when she come to collect the rent, I told her what Dennis said about me not needing to worry. She left for a while, then come back yelling and screaming at me. She called me everything but a milk cow. She wasn’t nice at all.”

  “When was this?”

  “A couple days before she died. She come back the next day with that letter you showed me. I called Dennis and he said he’d take care of it this time.”

  “Hmm. Did he tell you what he planned to do?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t ask him.” Fallon had stopped crying, but her eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I didn’t ask. I just wanted to stay here. Me and Cullen have it good here.”

  I’d say you do, Maggie thought to herself. “Fallon, did Dennis tell you if he took care of things for you?”

  “No, but she died right after that and I felt like God was sending me a message.”

  “A message from God?” Despite her best efforts, Maggie could not prevent feelings of disbelief from dictating the inflection of her voice. “Really?”

  “He wants me to be happy and for Cullen to have a nice bed to sleep in. He don’t want me or him to have to sleep on sheets that an old lady died on.” Fallon sighed. “It was good for a few weeks. It was good until I got that letter saying we have to leave.”

  Maggie stared at the young woman and tried to determine if she were capable of killing Hazel in order to remain in the house. Or, for that matter, if Dennis could have killed his sister to guarantee Fallon’s happiness and to ensure her dependence on him.

  Maggie’s bad luck continued. It started raining on her drive from Fallon’s to Dennis’ trailer, which ruined her plan to suggest to Dennis they converse on his uncovered porch. She debated waiting out the rain, but she wanted to take care of this task so she could go home. She sent Luke a two-word text, “with Dennis,” and dashed from her car to the trailer. Dennis opened the door as soon as she knocked.

  “You’re as wet as a duck.” He stepped away from the door and said, “Come in.”

  “Thanks.” She instinctively shook water from her head and rolled her eyes. “All days to forget my umbrella.”

  “Stella’s not here.” Dennis stood a few feet from her with his hands folded over his chest.

  “I didn’t come to see Stella. I came to see you.”

  “Me?” Dennis stepped back. “Why do you want to see me?”

  On the ride over, Maggie had attempted to develop a strategy, but she couldn’t think of an easy way to broach this sensitive topic. Instead, she said a silent prayer in which she asked that Dennis not share too much information. “So, Dennis, I was at Fallon’s and she told me that you had been paying her rent.”

  He nodded and swayed, keeping his eyes on the fraying carpet.

  “She said you had quit paying it, though. Do you mind telling me about that?”

  “I had my own rent to pay and I had to buy a used car last winter when mine broke down.”

  Maggie remembered the new sedan in Fallon’s driveway. “What about Fallon? Did you buy her a car?”

  “I did. Her old car wasn’t reliable. She needed something safe for Cullen.”

  “So, you were paying rent on two places and two car payments. Did you buy anything else for Fallon?”

  “I wasn’t paying two car payments. I used my savings to buy Fallon’s car. I bought furniture for her and Cullen, too, and, sometimes, she didn’t have money for food so I helped her out. She has it pretty rough.”

  Doesn’t sound like it to me, Maggie thought to herself. Sounds like you have it rougher than she does. “After you spent all this money on her and Cullen, you probably didn’t have much for yourself.”

  “I didn’t care about that.” Dennis looked at her for a moment before lowering his eyes. “I wanted to help her and Cullen. We’re a family.”

  “Oh.”

  “I wanted to move in with them, but Fallon said that wouldn’t look right. I guess she was right and I didn’t mind helping, but it got tight. Stella noticed some of my savings was gone –”

  “How did Stella know you dipped into your savings?”

  “She’s on all my accounts.”

  Of course, she is, Maggie thought. “Did you tell her what you had done with the money?”

  “No.” Dennis quit moving. “I let her think I had used it
to buy games and action figures.”

  Maggie’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Games and action figures?”

  “I collect board games. I have an entire closet full. When my niece comes in, she plays games with me and, sometimes, she talks Hazel, well, she talked Hazel and Stella into playing with us. Fallon’s going to play with me someday, too. So is Cullen. The figures are from Star Wars. I love those movies. Do you like them?”

  “I like the earlier ones.”

  “My sisters didn’t like any of them and they called the action figures dolls. When Stella noticed the money missing, she asked me if I had been using my money to buy dolls. I didn’t get a chance to answer her.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t,” Maggie said. “But surely action figures are not as expensive as a car.”

  Dennis resumed his swaying. “They’re not, but she didn’t know better. She told me to sell them, so I could get my money back. I did sell some of them and a few games I’d had for a while, and I put the money back into my savings, so she’d see I was trying. I thought about telling her the truth, but I couldn’t think of what to say.”

  “It is difficult to comprehend,” Maggie admitted. “So, let me see if I understand it. You had used your savings on Fallon’s car and were paying your own car payment, so you didn’t have the money to keep helping Fallon on a regular basis. Is that right?”

  Dennis nodded. “I couldn’t use the rest of my savings without Stella noticing. I don’t make enough to keep up two houses and Fallon wouldn’t let me move in. I felt bad about not paying her rent for her, but I couldn’t come up with a solution to this problem.” He suddenly looked at Maggie. “I wish I had known you then. You listen to people when they talk. You would have helped me figure out what to do.”

  Maggie massaged her temples. “Dennis, did Hazel come over here and talk to you about Fallon not paying her rent?”