Deep South Dead (A Hunter Jones Mystery Book 1)

by Charlotte Moore

  “Oh, come ON!” Sachet said. “I’m just doing my job. Why can’t we work together?”

  “Yeah,” the cameraman blurted out, “It’s not like we’re really in competition. We only reach like about a thousand times as many people as you two put together.”

  There was total silence.

  Sachet glared at the cameraman and turned back to Hunter.

  “I apologize for Jimmy,” she said. “That was just rude. I just have the most respect for local media. Look, I have a great idea. How about we just get you on camera for a few minutes, I mean you look fabulous even without makeup, and I could interview you and get, you know, something like an overview and we’ll say which paper you’re from, so people will want to read your paper when it comes out. Now is that a win-win offer or not? “

  “Sorry,” Hunter said with as straight a face as she could manage. “I’ve already sold my story to CNN.”

  “And she’s really got a story,” Will Roy said, grinning. “She found the body.”

  Sachet looked back and forth at them like a deer caught in the headlights.

  “For Chrissake, can’t you tell they’re putting you on?” the cameraman said. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter 7

  TAMLYN BORDERS, AS IT TURNED OUT, did live on Old River Road.

  “I don’t know as it has a number,” Tilda Watts had said, “But it’s got this fancy mailbox with morning glories painted on it.”

  Old River Road forked away from the wider, better-paved New River Road, which wasn’t all that new. It had been there since the 1960s – built as the main route to the then-new Magnolia County Medical Center and to the Azalea Heights area, where two generations had already gone into debt up to their ears to build Colonial/Williamsburg brick homes with double garages and swimming pools. It never got close to the river.

  Old River Road, which ran parallel to the river, ending at a boat landing called Sawyer’s Bend, was bumpy and pot-holed, with a few small homes on the river side and a grassy hill with red clay outcroppings and scattered pine trees on the other.

  Tamlyn and Skeet Borders lived in a tidy doublewide mobile home set at an angle in a stand of pines. It wasn’t hard to find.

  Taneesha pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the house, glancing at her watch. 5:05 p.m. No cars were in sight, but if the grim Aunt Tilda knew her niece’s habits as well as she claimed to, Tamlyn should be arriving soon.

  “She’s got a cell phone,” the older woman had said over the phone, “but half the time it’s right in her pocketbook turned off. She’s always out gallivanting, spending money. Got to spend her money as fast as she makes it, and Skeet’s too.”

  The disapproval in older woman’s voice was sharp and unpleasant. Taneesha wondered why Tamlyn would even be willing to take a job working under the critical eye of her husband’s aunt. Not that jobs were exactly growing on trees in Magnolia County, though. Maybe she didn’t have much choice.

  It was 5:20 when the white Taurus pulled into the driveway. Taneesha could see a small boy’s face pressed against the window, staring out at her as the car went around to the back of the house. She got out and followed on foot.

  Even seven years past high school graduation, Tamlyn Borders could have passed for 18. She had always been pretty and she had always paid a lot of attention to her appearance, to her makeup, her hair, and her clothes. Now she seemed to be spending a lot more, Taneesha thought, assessing the tailored linen slacks and the matching pale blue silk shell. Shoes to match, too. The fine blonde hair that was all fluffed out in high school was now cut to fall halfway across her face.

  Brushing her hair back, Tamlyn seemed surprised to see Taneesha, but more concerned for the moment with maneuvering the baby, a half dozen shopping bags, and the little boy into the house.

  “Am I in trouble?” she asked in a joking tone that fell a little flat.

  “No way,” Taneesha said. “We just need to know if you saw anything today over on Hilliard Court… It’ll just take a few minutes. Here, let me help,”

  The baby, a rosy-cheeked redhead in pink overalls, began to fret.

  “What do you mean, saw anything?” Tamlyn asked.

  “Are you a police?” the little boy interrupted. “Or are you a fire lady? We had a fireman come to our school and show us stop, drop and roll.”

  “Chipper, will you just hush for one minute?” Tamlyn said.

  “You wanna see me do stop, drop and roll?” Chipper asked Taneesha.

  “Not now,” Taneesha said with a smile, “Let’s just help your mom get everything into the house.”

  “He’s not mine. He’s Skeet’s nephew,” Tamlyn said, managing to unlock the back door while she juggled two shopping bags and a crying baby. “I pick him up from the after school program some days for my sister-in-law when she’s working late.”

  Inside the kitchen, she dropped the bags on the floor, pushed her fine blonde hair back from her eyes again, and asked. “Okay, what’s going on?”

  The baby was getting louder. She grabbed a fistful of Tamlyn’s hair.

  “We’re checking with everybody from the neighborhood to see if they saw anybody, or anything out of the usual,” Taneesha said.

  When Tamlyn gave her a blank look, she lowered her voice so that Chipper wouldn’t hear. “Did you know that Miss Mae-Lula Hilliard was found dead?”

  Tamlyn looked stunned. “Dead?”

  “Who’s dead?” the little boy asked.

  “Nobody you know,” Tamlyn said.

  The baby howled.

  “Look, let me just go change Madison’s diaper real quick and get her a bottle, and I’ll be right back,” Tamlyn said, starting down the narrow hallway to the bedrooms.

  “The reason we stop, drop and roll is if we catch on fire to put the fire out and not get burned or dead,” Chipper announced. “Is that a real gun? Can I hold it?

  “Chipper, come on back here and watch television.” Tamlyn called to him.

  Taneesha looked around the small house. Tamlyn Borders certainly liked to shop. The living room was crowded with furniture, mostly very new, and there was bric-a-brac everywhere – a collection of china dolls, a china cabinet full of figurines, walls crowded with elaborately framed prints and tinted photographs. The tiny kitchen had morning glory wallpaper, a morning glory clock, and ceramic roosters everywhere. Taneesha wondered how Tamlyn could find room to cook.

  The baby’s playpen was so filled with toys there hardly seemed to be room for a baby.

  “Look what Mommy got you!” Tamlyn was cooing to the baby girl as she came back down the hall. “Look what Mommy got Madison. It’s a kangaroo mommy with a kangaroo baby!”

  And it was, indeed, a plush, pink and white kangaroo with a smaller kangaroo in its pouch. The baby buckled and howled, paying no attention at all to the kangaroo.

  “And Mommy got her pretty Madison a pretty new dress, too,” Tamlyn said, opening the refrigerator to pull out a bottle of milk. The baby grabbed it. The crying was over. So much for dresses and kangaroos.

  “And now Mommy’s going to talk to Miss Taneesha, so you be a good girl.” Tamlyn said, putting the baby into the crowded playpen.

  She seemed to have regained her composure.

  “What happened to Miss Mae-Lula? Did she have a stroke or what?”

  “No,” Taneesha said. “The coroner says she died of a wound to the back of her head. We’re considering it homicide. We’re hoping you can tell us if you saw anybody around the neighborhood this morning, or anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Killed? She was killed?”

  “Yes, and I’m hoping you can tell me who might have been around the neighborhood late this morning. We can start with who came into the office.”

  Tamlyn frowned and said, “I’m not supposed to talk about what patients come into the office. I have rules to go by. It’s this confidentiality thing, especially since he’s helping them all lose weight.”

  “We’ll let th
e sheriff and the doctor work that one out,” Taneesha said amiably,” Let’s just talk about what else you might have seen. Did you see Miss Mae-Lula at all this morning?”

  “No,” Tamlyn said, looking toward the ceiling, and chewing on her bottom lip.

  Then she changed her mind.

  “Oh wait a minute, I take that back. I did see her. It when I was driving up to work, first thing this morning. It was around 8:30 and she was out front hammering one of those conservatory signs into the ground in her front yard. Well practically on the street. I can’t believe she’s dead. I mean that was just this morning.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “No, I just saw her when I was driving by.” Tamlyn said, relaxing a bit “The only other people I saw besides Dr. Harrow and those four patients that came in were two guys with the petitions,”

  “Okay, tell me about them,” Taneesha said, casually, as if this weren’t the best break yet.

  “I guess they were college students,” Tamlyn said, “At first I thought they were some sort of motorcycle gang or something. I mean one of them had these weird tattoos and the other one had his hair shaved off, and this and about six earrings in one ear, but they turned to be real nice. They said they were going down to Daytona for spring break. One of them was wearing a Georgia Tech tee shirt. They had petitions to build that new shopping plaza and I signed it.”

  “It was just guys? No girls?”

  “Just two guys.”

  “Did they tell you their names?”

  “No. Or if they did, I sure don’t remember.”

  “When was this?”

  Tamlyn thought about it, frowned a little, thought some more.

  “I guess around 11, maybe a little after.”

  “So, what did they say and what did you say?” Taneesha asked.

  “Well, there was nobody in the waiting room right then and Doctor Harrow was with a patient. To tell you the truth, we were cutting up a little bit, you know, laughing and joking because I was only about the 15th one who had signed one of their petitions. I told them I didn’t care about that old conservatory, that I wanted the shopping center.”

  “So they seemed pretty friendly?”

  “They were nice. After I signed it, they asked me why people wouldn’t want a new shopping center in a little town like Merchantsville, and I told them that it was just the old ladies that felt that way and wanted to save the old conservatory building, and some of the downtown businesses just didn’t want any competition, and then they started to tell me about that big argument they got into over at SaveMart – and I’d already heard about that, so I knew it was Miss Mae-Lula and those Historical Society ladies,” she stopped and winced. “I cannot believe she’s dead. You say somebody hit her with something?”

  “It looks like it,” Taneesha kept her voice casual. “About these guys, did you get the idea that they knew where Miss Mae-Lula lived; I mean that they knew her house was right next door?”

  Tamlyn said, “Well, I know they did when they left, because I told them there wasn’t any point in their stopping there because that’s where the lady lived that they had the big argument with…”

  “You said that you were talking with them about the argument at the Save-Mart,” Taneesha interrupted. “Did you get the impression that they were really mad about it?

  “Now, wait a minute,” Tamlyn said, “You’re not thinking they went over there and killed her, are you? I sure didn’t mean anything by telling them that except that it would waste their time.”

  “I understand that,” Taneesha said,” Did you see them again in the neighborhood after that.”

  Tamlyn closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa.

  “God, I hope I’m not getting a migraine.”

  “Did you see them again after they left, Tamlyn?”

  “I got to take some of my headache medicine. I’ll be right back.”

  Taneesha repeated her question when Tamlyn came back.

  “Yeah, yeah I did. But not to talk to them. They were going back toward downtown, just when I was getting ready to leave.”

  “What about Dr. Harrow? Did you tell him about their coming by?”

  “No, I didn’t. Jesus, how long is this going to take? I don’t want anything to do with all this awful stuff.”

  She suddenly hurled a sofa pillow across the room.

  “Is Skeet coming home pretty soon?” Taneesha asked, wondering if Tamlyn was headed for hysterics.

  “Skeet? Skeet won’t be home until this weekend. He’s on the road up north somewhere. You know he’s a truck driver…What’s Skeet got to do with any of this?”

  Her voice was rising and Taneesha kept her own response level and patient.

  “I was just asking because I was thinking you might not want to be alone. You seem pretty upset. Do you want me to call somebody for you?”

  “Well, wouldn’t you be upset? This is all just making me feel sick to my stomach, and I’m getting a migraine and I don’t even want to think about it anymore. Everybody’s going to think it’s my fault or something for talking to them about Miss Mae-Lula.”

  “Nobody’s going to think that,” Taneesha said. “Besides, we don’t even know if they had anything to do with it. We’re just asking questions and trying to get an idea of who was around the neighborhood.”

  Whapp! An empty bottle tumbled across the carpet. The baby was standing up in the play pen laughing, stretching out her arms. She struck Taneesha suddenly as looking a lot like Skeet had when she knew him in high school.

  Tamlyn, brushed her tears away and went to pick Madison up.

  “Hey, Mommy’s girl,” she said in a soft voice. “Wait ‘till I show you all the other pretty things I bought you and me.”

  Chipper came down the crowded hallway.

  “Aunt Tam, I’m hungry.”

  Tamlyn didn’t answer him until he asked a second time. She was preoccupied. Paying attention one minute, spacing out the next.

  “Aunt Tam, I’m hungry.”

  The kid was persistent.

  “What? Oh, sure, honey. Let’s see what we have. How about half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk? Your mama’s going to want you to have some room for supper.”

  It was as if she had turned on her mommy switch and decided to ignore Taneesha’s presence, but she was, at least, calming down.

  “I won’t bother you any more for now,” Taneesha said. “I’ll call you tomorrow. We need to get a statement from you on tape, and then we’ll make a written copy of it and you can read it over before you sign it.”

  “I’m not signing anything,” Tamlyn said flatly. “And I’ll tell you that right now, I am not going to go to court and say anything. None of this has got anything to do with me, and I don’t want anything to do with it. You can just forget the whole thing.”

  “Tamlyn, is there anything you ought to be telling me that you haven’t told me?”

  “No. I told you what happened. I just wasn’t thinking about where this was heading, and I don’t want anything to do with this mess. I hardly knew that old lady and I only saw those guys for five minutes one time.”

  “We don’t know that they did anything,” Taneesha said, deciding quickly that Sam Bailey or the District Attorney would have to take the next steps with Tamlyn, and there wasn’t any need to argue.

  But there was still one more thing that needed to be covered. Tamlyn’s safety.

  “You said you signed their petition,” she said to Tamlyn. “That means they know your name. Did you put your address on it? I’m asking because if there’s the least chance that those two men did kill Miss Mae-Lula and that they know where you live, you shouldn’t be here alone. Sheriff Bailey may want to have somebody watching your house tonight.”

  “I just put my P.O. box and Merchantsville on it,” Tamlyn said wearily. “Because it was for Merchantsville people and this house is outside the city limits, and I wanted to sign it anyway. And frankly, I’m not worried abo
ut those guys. Why would they have anything against me? I was nice to them. And y’all don’t have to have somebody hanging around this house, because after I take Chipper home, I’m going to go over to Cathay to Mama’s house to stay tonight. That’s what I’m going to do, because this is all just freaking me out, and I wish you would just leave now.”

  Taneesha left.

  Chapter 8

  IT IS A RARE AND WONDERFUL thing for a weekly paper to get a major news story into print before the nearest metro daily gets it, and Hunter was happy to see the next morning that the Macon paper only had two paragraphs about Mae-Lula Hilliard’s murder. She had written her story at home, and e-mailed it to work, but she still had a busy morning ahead.

  She parked her Escort in front of the newspaper office, and then headed for R&J’s for breakfast to take out.

  Taneesha was there.

  “I’ve got the incident reports for you,” she said, coming up to Hunter in buffet line, holding a clipboard stuffed with papers about routine law breaking that formed the Messenger’s Police Blotter once a week. “Sam said he’s not going to have time to talk to you about any of this, so I will. He’s got the D.A. coming, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I was going to come over to the paper, but we can do it here, I guess.”

  Hunter got bacon, eggs and a biscuit. Annelle brought coffee when they were both seated.

  “Y’all caught those college kids yet?” she asked.

  “No,” Taneesha said. “And even when we do, it’s just for questioning.”

  “I heard you found the body,” Annelle said to Hunter. “I bet you ‘bout fainted, huh?”

  Taneesha’s Aunt Ramona was suddenly there.

  “Would you give the young ladies some privacy, Annelle? Taneesha can’t be talkin’ about her work, and I don’t imagine Hunter wants to talk about it over breakfast either.”

  “Well, excuuuuuse me,” Annelle said, but she left.

  “How does she know so much?” Hunter asked Taneesha.

  “Well, she knows you found the body because Will Roy has said it over the radio about 20 times already. Apparently he’s decided that you’re not an outsider any longer.”