Candace McCauley, P.I Mysteries (5 Cozy Mystery Books Collection)

by Kira Reese

  I asked if nine in the morning would suit him. He agreed without giving mentioning why they wanted to meet with me. My heart picked up a beat when I thought they may have clues to all three of the murders. He had not asked me to take the case of his daughter’s death. I was sure he had his own resources for that. The next day would not arrive soon enough for me.

  “You sure look happy,” said Nick. He pulled in behind me and we both got out of our cars at the same time. “Do you realize you stopped in the middle of the driveway and I have no way of going around you to park in the garage?” His laughing eyes told me his day had not been so bad that I irritated him with my actions.

  A warm flush flooded my face. “Oh, sorry,” I said. “I was taking a call and not paying attention.”

  I got back in and parked around the back on the concrete pad. Our garage doors opened in back of the house. When weather was pleasant I often parked on the pad. Nick preferred inside the garage in all seasons. Once we went inside I told him of the call that distracted me.

  “That should be an interesting visit,” he said. “Maybe at last you can connect all three victims.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” I said. “I feel it in my bones that I am getting closer to solving these murders. Or at least I hope it will take me closer to solving Janet’s case.”

  “I don’t doubt you will be successful,” said Nick. His eyes held sincerity.

  ***

  I made sure I got to the office early the next morning. I wanted to go over everything I knew about Janet and Aniyah before the Perkinses arrived. When Evelyn arrived next she greeted me. I watched as she set a large pot of yellow mums on the polished square table near the entrance.

  “I brought some new magazines with me, too,” she said. “I have two travel ones and a gardening magazine. I couldn’t resist that.” Her soft laughter sounded melodious and set my mind on a good note as I thanked her.

  I then told her I had an appointment at nine. Upon hearing the name Perkins, curious eyes darted to me. I assured her they were the second victim’s parents. I went on to tell her I had no idea what they wanted to tell me but hoped it would lead to solving the crimes. She agreed they must have something that would connect the three. Natalie arrived soon after, and I updated her on the same news.

  “I still can’t imagine how the three women had anything in common,” she said.

  We all agreed and the conversation ended when phones started ringing. I recalled the early days when I waited all day for the phone to ring. Business moved happily forward for me now. I silently thanked my aunt Leticia for encouraging my interest in solving crimes. I heard Evelyn greeting someone who entered. She brought Leann and Thomas Perkins to my office and introduced us. I stood and gestured them to the more comfortable chairs in the corner of the office. I had the lamp on and it cast a soft glow on the glossy table. I offered beverages, which they declined.

  Leann Perkins stood a half inch or so taller than her husband and her face was pretty but not in an unusual way. She crossed slim legs and tried to relax by leaning back in the upholstered chair. Thomas folded his hands in his lap and appeared much more at ease than his wife.

  “We won’t take up a lot of your time, Miss McCauley,” he said. “I believe we may have some information that will somehow connect the deaths of our daughter to the other two victims. Detective Jones told us you are making progress on the Janet Dubois case. That is why we feel this may be important for all of us.”

  I asked him to continue.

  “I understand from the detective that they are questioning a man who may fit the description of someone I saw talking with my daughter a while back.”

  I leaned forward. “Can you describe him in detail?”

  “Without a doubt I can. I was very disturbed when I saw Nancy that day with him. I was on my way home from work and noticed her car parked in front of a trendy shop she liked to go to. A large burly man who definitely looked out of place talked directly to her. She was with her friend Tracy Linden and another girl, but the man was only talking to Nancy. When I asked her later who he was she told me he was someone their friend Kiki knew, and he had been asking her questions.” He stopped talking when his attention was drawn to his wife.

  “Thomas, Nancy was not using drugs.” Her voice was flat as if speaking by rote. This was a case of a mother in denial.

  “Let me go on, Leann. Don’t you want to know who killed our only daughter? She was found in a dingy alley, for God’s sake.” His voice arose in pitch. Leann sank back. He turned his attention back to me.

  “I put my own people on the man. They picked up his trail a day or so later. It seemed he liked to hang around teenagers in the neighborhoods where they gathered. My men found he did not belong in the area, and, in fact, he works as a truck driver. He has the habit of inviting them to parties where drugs are abundant.”

  “Did they get his name?”

  “His name is Otis Jackson. He periodically takes loads from the railroad warehouse next to the alley where all three women were found dead. Ben Jones told me you have spoken to this man.”

  “I have spoken to him. I asked him questions on several occasions. He always appeared to want to cooperate with me, and I had no reason to think he was directly involved with my case. I did know the detective planned to question him further.” I looked at Thomas Perkins. “I also know that Janet Dubois was not into drugs, neither was the third victim, Aniyah Oalmann. I fail to see the connections.”

  “Heroin was found in Nancy’s system. I understand it was the same with the two women you mention. The detective told me the two you speak of definitely were not into drugs. That means whoever killed them purposely injected them with heroin.” His face drooped. Sadness overcame his demeanor. “Unfortunately, our daughter did do drugs before we were aware of it. I’m certain she, too, was purposely given an overdose of heroin.”

  I extended my condolences. Three women died horrible deaths. Now I felt Otis Jackson had something to do with all three of them. Was he a cold-blooded killer?

  When Leann and Thomas stood to leave, I thanked them for the information and promised I would spend the day tracking down more information. I had to make progress, and fast. There was one lost key to the whole affair. I had to find it.

  Chapter 19

  Loose Ends

  After the Perkins left, I told Evelyn I was going to the lower east end again. My cell would be in my pocket in case anything came up. I left my shoulder bag in my office drawer after retrieving my driver’s license, which I put in the opposite pocket of my slacks. When I arrived in the familiar area I glanced across at the warehouse. Two men were loading a truck similar to Otis Jackson’s truck. Otis was absent. I headed for Mitchell’s Grocery.

  “Hello, Mitch,” I said.

  By now we were old friends and he returned my greeting. I sauntered down an aisle while he checked out a couple of customers. I heard him call to Annalee to make up a sandwich for Norman. I glanced at the man in baggy trousers that looked as if they had not been washed in quite some time. He shuffled toward the back where Annalee handed him the sandwich. She grabbed a small bag of chips and gave it to him. After Norman left, the store was empty except for the three of us.

  “How do you make any money in here?” I asked Mitch.

  He laughed. “Lucky for us, the food bank comes twice a month and donates food for us to help those in the neighborhood. We use some of that, especially the bread and canned goods. The meat comes from a large grocery chain. Several years ago I got to know the manager and we made a deal. We can’t let these people starve to death down here. We charge them nominal amounts, so they don’t think it is all just a handout.” His face was serious when he looked at me. “We have city approval to run a grocery like this.” I congratulated him and Annalee for their compassion. “If we were in the same boat, we would hope someone would do that for us.”

  “On another note, do you know an Otis Jackson?” I asked.

  The faltering wa
s not lost on me. “I may know him. Why do you ask?”

  “I want to know if he does more than drive a truck.”

  “All right, it looks as if you are persistent. He is in with Sleek Johnson. Otis is someone Sleek uses for his own purposes and vice versa.”

  Annalee joined us. “Don’t get any more involved in all of this,” she cautioned me. “The cops are onto both of them. Let them handle dangerous people like that.”

  “I’m already in it all. I’ve talked with Otis more than once and never picked up anything sinister about him.”

  “That’s because you haven’t asked anything except surface questions.” Annalee’s eyes darkened. “Don’t get any closer to him.”

  In a low tone, her husband interrupted. “We do think he and/or Sleek had something to do with those murders down here. We believe that somehow Aniyah’s husband, Jerome, was involved with them, too. We think she knew this and possibly threatened to turn them all in or something like that. She was adamant about giving her kids a good life. Jerome was gone from home more than he was there.”

  “I can see where you are coming from. What I don’t understand is how Janet Dubois got involved with them.” I briefly explained the case I worked on. “She definitely was not into drugs. She didn’t live anywhere near here, either.”

  I told them how Janet was on the way to improving herself through classes at the college and her love of horses. The response from husband and wife was one of bewilderment. Before we spoke any more, the woman I first saw in the store came in with her child. Mellie smiled widely when Mitch greeted her. She followed her mother down the aisle. Her mother selected a few items and placed them in the worn wicker basket on her arm. I told the Mitchells good-bye and then I left.

  I could see how Nancy Perkins hooked up with Otis. She was a party girl; he lured teenagers to drugs. If Nancy got her highs from drugs, I doubted she threatened Otis or Sleek. Something must have happened between them to cause her death. That was supposing the two had anything to do with her murder. It made sense that Aniyah got caught up in more than she expected if she threatened to turn them all in. But when I thought about Janet Dubois, it did not make sense as to how she ended up in that alley.

  I called Jonathan Dubois and asked him to come in as soon as possible. He agreed and told me he would be right down. By this time I decided Janet’s death was separate from the others. Victim two and three must have been copycat murders. The only person left to suspect in Janet’s case was her uncle. When I considered his behavior toward his niece it was possible he knew where to get heroin. Maybe he found out where she worked if she decided to turn him in for sexual abuse, and he had to stop her. His past experience in jail would have been motive enough. He probably brought her to that alley after killing her and positioned her that way. I presumed Janet turned him in, but there was no proof of that.

  I looked up when Jon entered the office. Evelyn directed him back to me. He sat down with hope in his eyes.

  “I want to know more about your uncle. Is he capable of murder?” I asked.

  “In my estimation, he is capable of anything evil. He spent a couple of years in jail after Janet left that house. He was brought up on drug charges. They should have locked him up for the rest of his life, but I guess the charge wasn’t serious enough.”

  “Do you recall drugs in the house while you lived there?”

  “Not in particular, but both my aunt and uncle acted strange most of the time. People came and went in that house all the time. Now I suppose drug dealing was going on. Janet and I were both scared of most of the ones who were in and out. We laid low at those times.”

  “What is your uncle’s name and what does he look like?” I asked.

  “He is a large man with a big appetite when he is sober. He is dirty in mind and body and drives a truck. I have no idea how he managed to keep a job with a trucking company. As to his name, it is Otis Jackson.”

  I nearly fell off my chair while at the same time I attempted to kick myself for not asking long before now about the uncle. Jon must have noticed my reaction.

  “Are you all right, Miss McCauley?” He stood to get help from Evelyn until I stopped him in time.

  “I’m all right. It’s just that Otis Jackson’s name has come up more and more recently. In fact, I have questioned him. I first saw him at a warehouse near the alley where your sister was found, as were the other two victims. He was loading railroad ties. After that I made a point of talking with him. He appeared clueless of how the murders happened. I took it on good faith since he worked daytime and the murders happened at night.”

  The fire in Jon’s eyes would have set an entire forest on fire. “I knew it was him. I just knew it. He didn’t like it when Janet and I went on to make something of our lives. He just couldn’t let her have any happiness at all.”

  “The cops have him in for questioning now,” I said. “We also have another witness or two who can place him in a position where he may be the guilty person. Leave it alone or you may mess up the work already done on all three cases.”

  I watched as he settled down, but I knew he still seethed. I reminded him again how important it was for him to keep his distance from it all. “I’ll keep you updated as soon as more is known.”

  As soon as my client left, Detective Ben Jones was on the line for me. “Candy, we have the person responsible for the murders behind bars.”

  “Is it Otis Jackson?” I asked.

  Ben told me yes, along with Jerome Oalmann. “Jerome paid Otis to take care of injecting Aniyah with heroin and killing her. The stabbing was Otis’s idea, something he held back from Jerome until the news came out. Jerome and Otis grew accustomed to their lifestyle and nothing was going to destroy that.”

  “So I presume Otis killed his niece, as well?”

  The detective was at a loss. I explained the first victim was the niece of Otis Jackson. After I told him all I knew, he let out a long whistle. “I have something here about Otis being brought up on rape charges of the past but haven’t taken a good look.” I could tell he was shuffling papers and found what he was looking for. “It was Janet Dubois who filed the charges,” he said.

  As it turned out, Otis tracked his niece down at her place of work when the charges were filed. Once Otis was grilled by the cops, he confessed to more than I hoped for. He followed her home and told Jerome where she lived. Jerome visited Janet, who let her brother’s friend inside. He then forced her back to her car. Otis waited in Jerome’s car and followed them to the back of the run-down storage sheds. Jerome left them once Otis took over. He injected her with a large dose of heroin and took her to the darkened alley, where he stabbed her repeatedly to make sure she was dead. I had to wonder where Lillian was during all of this; perhaps she huddled against the dark wall at the other end, hidden from sight.

  As for Nancy Perkins, the detective told me she demanded higher quality heroin and threatened to turn him in as a drug dealer if he didn’t produce it. She taunted him by telling him her father was in high places and could have him put him away for life if he wanted to. There was no choice according to Otis except to take care of her, as well.

  Jonathan Dubois did not miss one day of his uncle’s trial for the murder of Janet. When the case of Aniyah Oalmann’s murder came up, Jon sat with her family. Much later, he attended the trial concerning Nancy Perkins’s death. After the convictions, Jon made a point of visiting his uncle behind the glass window. He said nothing to the killer and opted to display the word murderer for him to read until the prisoner called the guard to take him back to his cell. After the second such visit, Otis Jackson refused to see his nephew.

  As for his former friend Jerome Oalmann, Jon made it to his trial for Janet’s case. He didn’t show up for him opposite a prison glass window. Instead, he finally decided to give himself the privilege of mourning the loss of his sister.

  ~ END ~

  SECRETS IN THE TREE GROVE

  Chapter 1

  Under the Weat
her

  It all began the day I stayed home suffering through the flu. As much as I wanted to be at the office, my bed lured me more. I knew Natalie could handle any cases that needed immediate attention, but at the same time, I was possessive.

  “Candy, you need to quit worrying about the office and just get well,” said Nick.

  Nick hovered over me like a hen over baby chicks. He set a cup of hot lemon verbena tea on the nightstand and then proceeded to fluff the large pillow behind my head. He handed me the cup and I sipped as instructed. The last I remember, he took the empty cup from me and I sank again into a deep sleep. When I awoke I found the note he left for me.

  Candy, call me if you need anything at all. I love you. Nick.

  The day passed by and not until the next morning did I rev up enough energy to call the office. Just as I started to hit speed dial, my cell rang.

  “Candy, I hate to bother you when you are so sick, but a man who came into the office just dropped dead in the foyer.” Natalie spoke quickly. She paused just long enough to catch her breath. “Is there any way you can come down just for a few minutes?”

  In a raspy voice I told her I would be right down. I quickly swallowed an antibiotic my doctor prescribed several days before and got into the shower. There was no time to style my hair, so I left the house with it wet. When I approached my office I noted Detective Ben Johnson’s car there and two more cop cars. I came in through the back door just as the ambulance swerved in. The man was still on the floor where he had taken his last breath. He wore dark blue pants and a matching short-sleeved shirt. At first glance I was sure it was a uniform of some sort. His frame was stocky and grey hair was ruffled. The left side of his face was visible and arms flailed on either side. A trickle of blood could be seen on the shiny floor. At this point it was unclear to me whether it was from his fall or from another source.

  “You don’t look so good, Candy,” said the detective.