“Because Buck Roland knows it and he told this other state senator. I forget the name. Who was State Senator before Buck?”
“Arlie Freeman.”
“That’s the one.”
“And Professor Tolliver wrote a long letter to the Pine County News-Recorder about Secession and talked about states’ rights at the dedication of the historic marker for Col. Jimmy’s birthplace. He’s doing portrayals of Col Jimmy, and Patsy McFall says that Col. Jimmy was a leader in the Klan.
Sam looked interested but puzzled, as if the pieces weren’t coming together for him.
“And when I got there to see the papers I was telling you about, it turned out that Professor Tolliver has been keeping them, and when the librarian, who is an old college friend of mine by the way, called him, he made up a story about being in Atlanta for his daughter’s birthday. He said I could e-mail him the questions, and then apparently he called the Mayor and had some sort of fit over the phone about it.”
“How do you know he lied about being in Atlanta?”
“Because Patsy McFall said she had seen him at the grocery store in Chaneyville about an hour and a half before he claimed to be in Atlanta.”
“You sure he said Atlanta, not Macon?” Sam asked.
“That’s what Amanda said. I didn’t talk to him, but I don’t think she’d mix up Atlanta and Macon. I’ve got her cell phone if you want to talk with her.”
“No, but I’d like for you to talk to her,” Sam said. “And I’d like to know if she told him your name.”
Amanda Tungate turned out to be still at work.
Hunter handled it the simplest way. She told the truth. To start with, anyway.
“You know, after I left the library I went to see Patsy McFall,” she said, “And I was asking her if she knew what kind of papers were in that Sheffield collection, and I wound up telling her I had driven down there to see the papers, and that he was in Atlanta… and she said that he couldn’t be, that she had seen him an hour earlier at the grocery store.”
“Wow!” Amanda said, and then she said, “Maybe that’s why Mayor Sheffield looked so mixed up when I said he was in Atlanta for his daughter’s birthday. Did you notice how she started sort of backing down?”
“Now that you mention it,” Hunter said, “I did. Listen, you didn’t give that man my name, did you? I’m pretty sure I don’t need to interview him, and I sure don’t want him calling my boss and making a scene.”
“No, I didn’t give him your name, Hunter, but I did tell him you were a reporter from the newspaper in Merchantsville because I wanted to make the point that you had driven a long way to see the papers, and it was kind of weird, because he didn’t say he was in Atlanta until I had said all that. In fact, I thought at one point that we might have been disconnected and then I said something like “Are you there?” and he said, “No, I’m in Atlanta. This is my cell phone.”
“I’m sorry to bother you about all this,” Hunter said. “It was just all pretty weird.”
“Weird, for sure,” Amanda said. “I decided after the Mayor was gone that he must have put on a real act when he called her, because he sounded normal with me – not mad or anything, and then she comes in like he had a panic attack or something. I feel pretty sure now that the library’s never going to get that collection back.”
“I wonder why he picked Atlanta,” Hunter said. “That’s a long way from Chaneyville.”
“Well maybe one of his daughters does live there,” Amanda said. “I know he’s got two daughters because somebody told me their names were Scarlett and Melanie. That’s the sort of thing you don’t forget.”
Hunter laughed. “No, I wouldn’t forget that either. I’ll let you get back to work. I just thought you ought to know what Patsy McFall told me, and I was a little worried that he’s some kind of nutcase and was going to call my boss like he called yours.”
They chatted a moment longer, and Hunter got off the phone.
“It was definitely Atlanta,” she said. “He has two daughters named Scarlett and Melanie. Amanda didn’t tell him my name, but she did tell him that I was from the newspaper in Merchantsville. She said he was very calm and reasonable when she talked to him, but he didn’t say he was in Atlanta until after she told him about my being there to see the papers, and she thinks he put on that big act with the mayor because he doesn’t want to ever give those papers back to the library.”
“Is this the whole thing?” Sam asked.
“No,” Hunter said. “I saved the best for last. Patsy McFall’s husband said the last time he saw the Professor was at a gun show and he had this young man – well Jerry McFall said “kid.” – with him.”
“Tell me exactly what he said,” Sam said.
Hunter related it as carefully as she could, and when she was finished, Sam sat for a while, silently thinking. Then he took out his cell phone.
T.J. who was still in Merchantsville, answered his on the first ring.
“Have you ever reached Melanie Tolliver’s father?” Sam asked.
“Uh, no. She was supposed to call me back with the number and, I should have followed up already, I guess, but…” T.J. sounded embarrassed.
“Good. Do not call him,” Sam said emphatically. “And please stay there. I’m coming over in a few minutes with Hunter. She was in Chaneyville today and she found out some stuff we need to follow up on. Who else is still in the office?”
“Skeet and Taneesha,” T.J. said.
“Ask them to stay there, too, would you.”
He made a call to Molly Bloomfield and when he got off the phone, he found Hunter at her computer.
“Look at this,” she said, “I found Scarlett Tolliver on Facebook. She does live in Atlanta, and her birthday is today.”
Sam nodded.
“So it was the first lie that came to his mind,” he said, “Or maybe he was going up there later in the day. Now do you want to call Buck Roland back or should I?”
“What do you want to know?” Hunter said.
“I want to know how many people he might have told about his brother’s next book,” Sam said.
“Ouch!” Hunter said, “I’d hate for him to think that his talking about it might have…”
“I know,” Sam said.
“Let me do it,” Hunter said, “I’ll just tell him that I went to Chaneyville and the Mayor acted kind of crazy secretive about the Sheffield papers, and I didn’t get to see them, and I’m wondering if maybe she knew about the book Hill was planning and figured out why I wanted to see them. He already knows that I wanted to avoid dealing with her.”
“You’re good at half-lies,” Sam said. “It scares me a little.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” Hunter said. “And anyway, it isn’t really lying. It’s more in the way you present something.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to look stern.
“I heard you tell that friend of yours that you were worried that Professor Tolliver might call and pitch a fit at your boss, and you know you’re not a bit afraid of Tyler.”
Hunter gave him a look of wide-eyed innocence.
“I meant,” she said, “that I was afraid for Professor Tolliver if he threw a fit at Tyler.”
“I may never get over seeing this side of my wife,” Sam said, shaking his head. “Go call Buck. I want to hear it.”
As it turned out, Senator Buck Roland was in his Atlanta office. His very protective secretary took Hunter’s cell number and said she would see that he got the message.
“He probably won’t call back until Monday.”
“Maybe if some other things click together, we won’t need to ask him about who he told,” Sam said, “Let’s try Megan.”
Sam talked to Megan, first letting her know that they thought they might have a break in the case, and then asking her, “Do you think many people knew about Hill’s plan to write about which of his ancestors wrote Gone Are the Days?”
“Is it something that has to do
with that?” Megan asked.
“There may be a connection,” Sam said.
“I honestly don’t know,” she said. “Buck knew, of course, but there was…” she hesitated. “There was this blog I set up for Hill, for his fans, and I kept meaning to take it down because he never kept it up to date, but then one time – it was when he got this invitation from the Chaneyville people to come to their historic marker dedication…”
“The one Buck went to?” Sam asked.
“Yes, Buck went, but Hill wrote this big rant on his blog. I think he was drunk. I didn’t see it for about a week, and anybody who looked up Hill Roland could have seen it. He wrote all about how his great-great-grandmother had really written it, and how he was going to write a book that would make them have to take down that historical marker, because it was all a fraud, and on and on… ”
“Do you will have a copy?”
“No, I took down the whole blog. There were a few commends on it like, “Will it have vampires in it?” but plenty of people could have read it and not commented.”
She sighed.
“Don’t tell me, please, don’t tell me he died because of a drunken blog.”
CHAPTER 20
“What’s she doing here?” T.J. Jackson whispered to Deputy Skeet Borders.
They had both just seen the Public Defender arrive at the door to the conference room and stop to carry on a hushed conversation with Sam.
“I don’t know,” Skeet said, “But I know the Sheriff invited her. And he invited Hunter, too.”
“Hunter found something out in Chaneyville today,” T.J. murmured. “I think it’s something about…”
“I think you all probably know Molly Bloomfield,” Sam said in a voice that ended all other conversation. “She’s our Public Defender, and she’s representing Nathan Wood. I asked her here because I think it’s in the interest of her client that he identify any other person who might be involved in the murder of Hill Roland.
He stopped to be sure they were all paying close attention, and then said, “We have a possible person of interest, someone who had a possible motive, and did have some contact with Nathan Wood. As you all know, Nathan Wood, has refused to talk to any of us, but she has gotten a few comments from him, and, well, I’ll let her speak for herself.”
Molly Bloomfield had come from home in her jeans and a black turtleneck sweater. She looked around the table without smiling.
“My interest is in giving my client the best representation I can,” she said. “And I’m not going to discuss anything he has said to me. As you all know, he entered a guilty plea. Also, I know about the evidence that ties him to the shooting of Hill Roland. I think there’s good reason to believe he is mentally unstable, but it seems to be along the lines of believing conspiracy theories. I think that someone took advantage of that and persuaded him that he was carrying out some kind of military assignment when he shot Hill Roland, that it was an act of patriotism.”
“So you want to get him a deal with less time?” T.J. said abruptly.
She gave him a steady look and said, “That’s about it, Mr. Jackson, but if I get the feeling that I’m wasting my time or that it’s not in my client’s interest for me to be here, I will leave.”
“We don’t need any friction here,” Sam said, looking at T.J., “We still haven’t made any progress on Olivia Benedict’s death in Hill Roland’s house, and it certainly seems possible that the same person who sent the rum balls could have talked Nathan Wood into coming down here or paid him to do it. We might have a person out there who is responsible for ending two lives.”
“Three,” Skeet Borders muttered.
“What was that?” Sam asked him.
“If this guy talked Nathan Wood into shooting Hill Roland,” Skeet said as the others looked surprised at his speaking up. “Then its three lives. Not just Olivia Benedict and Hill Roland. That kid’s life is over. His freedom is gone. He got tricked into ruining his life.”
“Point well taken,” Sam said, mildly. Molly Bloomfield looked at Skeet with interest.
“I’ll shut up now,” Skeet said.
“Well, let’s get down to business,” Sam said, and for the next half hour, with occasional elaborations from Hunter, he made a case for further investigation into the possibility that a history professor from a now defunct private college in South Georgia could have something to do with the two murders at the Roland home.
“It’s all circumstantial,” T.J. said when Sam was done. “We can’t pick somebody up because they knew the shooter and planned to write a book on the same subject as the murder victim.”
“True,” Sam said, “but we can pick him up for questioning and get a warrant to search his house in Chaneyville IF Ms. Bloomfield’s client names him.”
“That’s a big if,” Molly said, “I’m going to need to talk directly to the District Attorney and make sure my client can get a better deal if he provides information about a second person being involved.”
“And if that information leads to an arrest and conviction,” T.J. said, folding his arms over this chest.
“What’s your problem?” Molly asked T.J. directly. “You’ve got this kid on the evidence, and no matter how it comes down, he’s going to do a whole lot of time, either in prison or in a mental hospital, but you haven’t got anybody on Olivia Benedict’s death, and it’s been two weeks since Hill Roland’s death. This may not pan out, but it’s at least a lead, and if my guy says Tolliver didn’t have anything to do with it, what have you lost?”
“I’ll set up a conference call with the District Attorney,” Sam said to Molly as T.J. sat back in his chair scowling. “I’m thinking we could question Nathan Wood with you present, or you could advise him first and tell him what we know and see if he can be persuaded that Tolliver sent him to kill somebody over a book.”
“I don’t want Mr. Jackson there,” Molly said “, and frankly, Sheriff Bailey, I don’t want you in the room either. Neither one of you, as far as I know, has gotten anything from him but silence. How about Deputy Borders doing the questioning this time?”
“Me?” Skeet asked. “Hey, I haven’t got all this stuff pinned down like the Sheriff has. I mean about the book and this professor.”
“We can get you up to speed,” Sam said to Skeet. “And Ms. Bloomfield has a good point. T.J. and I talked to him just after he’d been arrested and hauled down here, and we weren’t prepared for his just closing down the way he did. You’d be a new face to him, and maybe… ” Sam paused as if searching for the right words.
“And maybe more his kind of folks?” Skeet filled in, and laughed.
“Well, my bottom line is that you know that whoever did this was using my client badly,” Molly said to Skeet. “And he doesn’t think much of having a woman attorney either, so maybe you’ll get somewhere. Just as long as you all understand that I can advise my client not to answer, or call off the whole thing at any time that I think it’s not in his interest.”
“Of course,” T.J. said with an edge of sarcasm.
“So, can we do this first thing tomorrow morning?” Sam asked, “Like 8 a.m.?”
Molly nodded.
“Then we’re done,” Sam said. “Skeet I need for you to hang around and let’s go over things.”
First Sam talked to the District Attorney, who said he didn’t care who Nathan Wood implicated as long as he talked, and that he would call Molly Bloomfield personally and a deal.
Then Sam called Hunter in, and they both made sure that Skeet Borders was well briefed for the meeting with Nathan Wood and had written notes
“What was going on with T.J.?” Hunter asked Sam later.
“He’s got it set in his mind that it’s Randy Slattery,” Sam said, “And who knows? Maybe it is. Maybe this will be a wild goose chase.”
“I thought he was mad because you had Molly Bloomfield there.”
“That, too,” Sam said.
“What if Nathan just clams up?” Hunter asked.
>
“Then we’ll still investigate the Tolliver angle,” Sam said, “but it will be a lot more bother.”
Taneesha Martin and Jeremy Hayes were eating by candlelight at her new apartment.
She had made Beef Burgundy with pearl onions and mushroom caps, to serve with tiny potatoes swimming in butter and parsley. There was a green salad with marinated artichokes and French bread. The dessert, topped with meringue and baked at the very last minute before he arrived was Mama Rene’s famous banana pudding.
Jeremy appeared to be in a state of awe.
His cell phone rang and he reached into his pocket to turn it off. Then he saw who the caller was and said, “It’s the D.A.”
“Well if he’s calling you at this time of night, it might be important” Taneesha said, putting their dessert carefully on the table.
Jeremy took the call and after a series of “Yes, sirs,” hung up.
“He wants me to be at the Magnolia County jail at eight tomorrow morning to observe an interview with Nathan Wood,” he said.
Taneesha smiled and said “So isn’t it convenient that you’re spending the night?”
They were back in the candlelight mood, having second helpings of banana pudding, when Taneesha’s cell phone chimed noisily.
“Bet it’s the sheriff,” Jeremy said.
When Taneesha came back to the table she said, “I’ve got to leave for Chaneyville first thing in the morning. They’ve got a person of interest who might or might not need to be arrested. He wanted to go ahead and brief me now, but I told him I had a dinner guest, so he said to be in his office at 6:30 a.m.”
CHAPTER 21
Nathan Wood hadn’t gotten much sleep, and what he had gotten was shallow sleep with bad dreams that seemed real even after they woke him up.
Most of them were about the dog. It was like the dog was haunting him, running at him barking, and then crawling away making those crying noises. Sometimes he dreamed about falling on that road and scrambling to the gulley getting out of sight.
That fall, he thought, was had given that guy a good look at him. It had helped them catch him, and sometimes he lay awake imagining what life would be like if just hadn’t fallen on the road.
When I am Dead, My Dearest: A Hunter Jones Mystery Page 18