Tony grinned. “I delivered the rescued fish. Finster said to tell you thanks for keeping it, although he did seem a bit put out by the situation and not particularly thrilled to have it back. I’m pretty sure he’s going to have trouble getting his wife to allow him to hang it in their house.”
Duke’s lower lip moved forward in a pout. “Women don’t seem to like a lot of things. It’s not just the fish, I have a poster my wife won’t let me hang either. Bought it at a motorcycle rally. Cute chick and hot bike.” His expression resembled that of an overgrown eight-year-old, except for the mustache and beard.
Tony couldn’t help but envy the man’s long, thick, chestnut-brown hair, combed straight back from his forehead and hanging down to his collar like a mane, but he managed to keep himself from whining about his baldness. He guessed Duke’s disgruntled expression might have more to do with being barely over thirty and having three boys, one almost twelve, than being married to a woman who didn’t want her home to resemble a men’s locker room. Whatever Duke thought he’d be doing at thirty, it was probably not running his family hardware store. Being sheriff gave Tony information about people he’d often rather not know. In this case, it was Duke’s spending more time drinking at The Spa, a local bar, than he did at home. Tony decided on a change of subject. Baseball. “The boys have their first tournament game tomorrow evening.”
“That’s right. Your oldest and my youngest are on the same team.” Duke studied Tony’s bald scalp as if he were trying to calculate the difference in their own ages.
Tony thought about telling Duke he was almost forty to the hardware man’s thirty but decided not to waste his breath. Duke had finally poured the color packet into the base paint and was starting the paint-mixing machine. It made such a racket, no one could talk about anything and be heard. Tony suspected the machine might need an overhaul. Above the chugga-chugga sound was the whine of metal grinding against metal. It made Tony’s teeth ache, so he moved to the far side of the hardware store and studied the garden tools. They reminded him to get some cash to pay young Alvin Tibbles. The teenager had recently become the Abernathy yard and garden assistant. The boy mowed and weeded and trimmed for cash, but he seemed to enjoy the work immensely.
Alvin was not alone in the yard when Theo got home. His mother, Candy, who did less to raise the boy than anyone else in town, had parked her car at an angle so it blocked the new driveway, leading to the new garage. Theo parked in the street rather than create a fuss. Theo didn’t know if she ought to interrupt the parent and teenager discussion or not. While she considered it, she managed to pull the infant seats out of the SUV without disturbing either sleeping baby. Her triumph did not prevent Theo from thinking that Candy on a good day was what Theo’s grandmother would have referred to as “trashy.” It wasn’t a nice term, and it was one Theo rarely even used in her thoughts, but Candy was not as sweet as her name.
Candy grew up in a nice home. If her parents were not rich or exciting people, they were at least normal people and caring parents. They clothed her, fed her, took her to church, went to parent/teacher conferences, and did all the usual family things. Candy had decent clothes and spending money. Somehow, though, she never quite grew up. She was unambitious, unremarkable, and lived only for herself. Toward the end of her time in high school, she developed an unfortunate tendency to party. There was talk that she would do anything for a beer. Before graduation, she produced Alvin, and to everyone’s surprise, he was a perfectly normal baby boy.
Theo assumed not even Candy could be sure why she picked the name Alvin. Like the identity of the father, everyone assumed her reason was lost in the murky reaches of her mind.
Alvin and his mom lived out of town a few miles, in the same house where Candy was raised. Candy had never lived anywhere except with her parents. Theo guessed she continued to live with them because doing so was easy and free. And, except that it meant they would lose Alvin, her folks might have thrown her out at some point. Candy’s mom worked at the school cafeteria, and her dad did odd jobs like shoveling snow and mending fences. They raised Alvin.
At least they had until one day when Alvin was about twelve and they were killed in a traffic accident. The bottom fell out of his world. He lost his real family. His mom was worse than useless. Theo thought Candy simply lacked certain qualities most people take for granted. Candy didn’t have what it took to take care of herself, much less her son. So Alvin was moved in and out of different temporary foster homes. None had worked out well.
On the opposite end of the energy and respectability spectrum from his mother, Alvin worked from the day he was big enough to deliver a paper or carry trash or mow lawns. Frequently, or so Theo had heard, Candy stole the money from Alvin and stayed out all night, leaving him alone. He’d had a bad relationship with the former sheriff but liked Tony, maybe because Tony saw to it the boy had a bountiful supply of food. He could eat in the jail kitchen any time he was hungry, without his mom’s interference.
The schools had instituted a program to supply all children who ate two meals free at school, including teenagers, with bags of food to take home on Fridays so they would have something to eat on the weekends. Candy stole Alvin’s, more, Theo suspected, from laziness than money problems. It was easier to steal than cook.
Recently Alvin had achieved legal emancipation. He now had his own apartment. His own bank account his mother could not access. A locked door to protect his privacy and his food.
As Theo approached, she heard Alvin say to his mother, “I’m leaving tomorrow for botany camp, but I’ll be by to see you, or I’ll call Sunday morning as usual and we can talk about it then.”
“You’re going to miss the fireworks.” Looking almost panicky, Candy grasped his arm. “You love the fireworks.”
Alvin patted his mother’s back. “Botany camp is special. You know I’m excited about it, and while I’ll miss watching the fireworks with you, camp’s only for a couple of weeks. Will you remember to water my garden? I drew you a map of where to set the hoses. Did you get it?”
Theo watched Candy nod and had to force herself not to interfere. She could tell there was no way Candy was going to help him.
“Just in case, I’ll ask around and see if I can get someone to do it instead. You won’t have to worry about it.” Alvin glanced up and gave Theo a half smile. “I’ll be done here soon.”
Candy wailed, “I need my baby to come home.”
Theo saw Alvin wince, but he said nothing, just turned back to his yard work. Theo guessed he’d had long practice dealing with his mother’s melodramatic behavior, and she studied her appearance. Candy looked terrible, worse than usual. Dirty strings of mud-brown hair hung across her face. Bloodshot blue eyes peeked through the resulting curtain. A fair number of her teeth were missing, and her skin looked gray with blotchy red spots. Younger than Theo, she looked almost as old as Tony’s mother, a woman who mysteriously never aged, in spite of annual birthday celebrations.
Tony arrived, and after parking the official Park County sheriff’s vehicle behind Theo’s SUV, he climbed out, paint can in hand. He stopped and nodded to Candy.
Not surprisingly, Candy abandoned her car and scuttled away, walking diagonally across the park that their house faced. She didn’t even look back at Alvin, who had returned to his yard work.
Without looking at his wife, Tony said to Theo, “I presume you know where our boys are?”
“Yes. Nina said she’d drop them off at practice. Remember, Chris has a game this evening.” Theo watched Tony as he continued to watch Candy. “Did you stop at the bank for me?”
He didn’t change his focus but reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash and handed it to her. Still studying Candy, he shifted the paint can and reached for the handle on the nearest infant carrier and lifted it.
Relieved she wouldn’t need to get some money herself, Theo stuffed the cash into her pocket and, grabbing the remaining baby carrier, walked past her husband and into the house. S
he couldn’t help but wonder what he found so fascinating about Candy. The last time she looked, he still hadn’t moved.
When Candy was out of sight, Tony turned to Alvin. “Will she come back for her car?”
Alvin gave a slight shrug. “If she remembers where she left it. Luckily it’s only four miles out to the house, and she walks home unless she gets a ride when she drinks too much.”
Tony looked at the car blocking his driveway. The brown sedan was as disreputable in appearance as its owner. The keys were in the ignition. “Shall we take it out to her?”
Alvin hesitated. “Sure. Give me a head start. I’ll leave it in the garage for her. While I’m out there, I’ll check on the plants in my garden.”
CHAPTER TWO
* * *
Theo followed the smell of fresh paint and found Tony in the girls’ new room. She chattered away, talking to him about the upcoming town events and household schedule. “There’s going to be a picnic, games, and fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July. And of course there’s the parade. You won’t want to miss it. The girls are going to be peas in a pod. The boys came up with the idea.”
Tony kept his eyes on the paint-laden roller as he moved it across the slightly pebbled surface of the nursery wall, turning it the color of sunshine. “Uhm-hm.” So far nothing Theo said was cause for alarm. Unfortunately he’d had enough experience in the years they’d been married that he was able to guess word of an impending calamity was coming. He could sense it building like a thunderstorm. Theo didn’t tiptoe around a subject unless she was trying to be diplomatic. Diplomacy was a feat she was not good at. It wasn’t that she didn’t try, but Theo’s childhood with the “old people” had required her to be silent or absolutely honest. Her current attempt at tact could only mean one thing. Disaster brewing. “What kind of celebration is my mom planning?”
Surprise lit Theo’s green-gold hazel eyes and she ran her fingers through her blond hair—now grown back after a shorter cut to the natural curls they both preferred. “I’m not sure of the details. When she told me to reserve the date, she mentioned a few things.”
“More flying vegetables?” Tony exhaled sharply, wondering if you ever really outgrew the parent-child relationship. His mom could push his buttons faster than a catapult could launch a squash. “The ramp festival was chaos.”
“Everyone enjoyed the vegetable weapons though.” Theo didn’t dispute the “chaos” part of the comment but mumbled, “I really don’t know what’s planned. When do you think we can move the girls in here?”
Tony wasn’t sure if this was his wife’s way of changing the subject or simple curiosity, but he followed her lead. “Once the paint is absolutely dry, like tomorrow morning, we can hang the curtains and put in the rugs. At least it’s warm enough to have the windows open, so the room can air out completely.” He wiped the sweat off his bare arms with a rag, spreading a glob of yellow paint up to his shoulder.
Theo began laughing. “It’s July. With the outside temperature today it’s warm enough to bake a potato in here. I’m more concerned about finding a way to cool it off.”
Since he was sweating like crazy in his cutoff jeans and a t-shirt with the neckband and sleeves removed, Tony admitted to the same concern. “Gus said the portable air conditioner he supplied would be able to handle cooling the girls’ room and my new office.”
“You didn’t want to use it while you paint?” Theo wandered around the room, the expression of joy on her face having nothing to do with his painting and everything to do with a room large enough for their infant twin girls to share through high school.
“Truth? It didn’t occur to me.” Still wondering how he and Theo would ever be able to repay Catherine and Gus for the amazing addition, Tony rolled more paint, hoping the mundane chore would ease some of the concern he felt, which had nothing to do with his mom’s celebration and everything to do with Alvin’s mother. Candy Tibbles had a long history with the Park County sheriff’s office, but something in her expression made him think they didn’t have as much information about her as needed. Or, more specifically, the people she hung out with. Candy couldn’t organize the items in an empty box without help.
Tony stood in the dugout watching the baseball game when his cell phone began vibrating. Chris’s team was playing hard and held the lead going into the bottom of the last inning, but they had lost games on the last play in the past. No lead was large enough for this team. Tony reached for the phone. Caller ID showed the dispatch desk. One person handled calls for the sheriff’s office, fire department, and search and rescue. This call was for him.
“Sheriff, I hate to bother you,” dispatcher Karen Claybough stated briskly. “We have a situation.” Wade’s sister sounded intrigued more than concerned.
Tony wondered if he’d still hear those words in his head after he retired. When he agreed to run for sheriff, he didn’t expect to have a nine-to-five job and weekends free, and he didn’t. He’d also learned “a situation” could be anything from a lost cat to a bank robbery or murder. “And?”
“Well, sir, Sheila’s found a dead body. In a tree.”
At least this call showed some originality. “Is it a possum or a raccoon?”
“Oh, no, sir, it’s a man. Human,” Karen said. “Near the old underpass.”
Tony heard a great cheer behind him and turned just in time to see Chris make a diving catch to end the game. The whoop he made into the phone probably rendered Karen deaf. “Sorry.”
“No problem, sir.” Karen’s voice sounded a bit strained.
Tony caught Chris’s attention and grinned and pumped his fist showing his excitement to his son. He paused as he walked past Theo. “Tell him great play!”
Theo nodded.
“Where’s the tree?” Tony listened to the address and talked to Theo at the same time. “I have to go. Are you getting ice cream?”
Theo gave him the “Are you kidding? Of course we’re getting ice cream” look and sent him away with a nod and the wave of a hand.
By the time he arrived at the address, the ball game excitement had diminished somewhat, and his curiosity had heightened. How did a body get into a tree? How did Sheila find it? A small group of people had gathered on one side of the road, watching his only female deputy stringing yellow tape. It was early evening and still almost as hot as it had been in the afternoon. Sheila’s face was scarlet, and sweat dripped off it like rain. Her neatly braided blond hair appeared much darker than its usual color, when it was dry. The audience was sweating too, but most of them were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, while Sheila wore her brown uniform shirt over a protective vest, khakis, and a heavy utility belt. Tony had seen her look happier.
He parked the Blazer between Sheila and the audience, and flipped on every light he had that could flash. He waved a couple of volunteers toward him and sent them off with “road closed” signs before approaching his cranky-looking deputy.
Sheila didn’t say a word, just pointed above her head.
She needn’t have bothered with the hand signal. Tony could smell it. Rank, rancid, and rotting were the first three words to enter his head. He accepted the flashlight she offered and looked up. There was no doubt about what was lodged in the branch. A human, male, deceased for some time. The legs dangled on one side of the sturdy branch and the head and arms on the other. The sound of the flies buzzing about the body was almost deafening. He said to Sheila, “Have Karen call out the doctor and tell her to bring her husband.”
“Doc Nash is still on vacation?” Sheila reached for her radio.
“Yep, so our Grace is the physician on call.” Tony hoped this wasn’t going to cause her to rethink marrying Wade and moving to Silersville. If she decided against life here, Wade would follow her anywhere, even to the moon. A good doctor and a good deputy had options. In fact, Tony knew Wade had turned down offers from some federal agencies, but he could still change his mind. “Oh, and tell Karen to send some trucks with tall ladders.”
With the barrier tape in place and the doctor on the way, Tony suggested Sheila take a break. “How did someone find this?” He nodded toward the tree.
Sheila wiped her face with a handkerchief. “There were some kids riding their bikes around here.” She pointed to a section of the road with a fairly steep drop and a yellow speed hump. “They love to pedal downhill super-fast and use that smooth edge on the hump to launch their bikes into the air.”
Tony studied the hump. Sure enough there was a spot on one side, smoother than the rest of it. He guessed it would allow the bikes to take flight rather than be stopped when the wheels rolled into it.
The fire truck arrived first. Tony had it park well back from the branch and extend the ladder to just below the body. Wade and Grace got there in time to watch it settle in place. A second ladder lined up next to it.
Dr. Grace Claybough was not quite as attractive as her absurdly handsome husband but lovely nonetheless. She glanced at the tree branch and exhaled sharply. Grace, a recent bride and their new doctor, turned and smiled at Tony as she walked toward him. “Doc Nash did warn me.”
Tony relaxed. So far, Grace didn’t look like a woman about to throw in the towel. She also didn’t look at her husband, who was quietly throwing up into a shrub. “Shall we climb?” Tony asked and gestured toward the ladders.
With a nod, Grace accepted a helping hand from the fireman nearest her and headed up the ladder with her medical bag slung over her shoulder. Tony moved up the other ladder while holding a flashlight and carried a larger light on his back. There was still daylight left, but he guessed this would not be a quick examination, and it was much darker under the canopy of leaves. “Take all the time you need, Doc.”
Grace gave him a saucy smile. “He’s definitely dead. Let’s see what else we can learn.” Disturbing the buzzing insects, she stood on the ladder and studied the body by the light she took from Tony. For what seemed like a long time, she was silent and intent but didn’t touch anything with her gloved hands. When she was apparently satisfied by what she observed, she reached out and, gently but firmly, checked the body and measured the liver temperature. “Sheriff, can you lift him, just a bit, right here?”
Barbara Graham - Quilted 05 - Murder by Sunlight Page 2