Best Served Cold

by Susan Rogers Cooper

  ‘Miz Vaught?’ he called up to the porch.

  ‘Yes, sir?’ she said, her demeanor friendly. She was a tall, rangy woman wearing old tight blue jeans and a Chambray work shirt, her gray hair cropped short. She wore no make-up but there were diamond studs in her ears that Emmett knew were over a karat each – he’d been looking at some just like them at a jewelry store, thinking of buying them for Jasmine for her birthday, but they were way too expensive.

  ‘Emmett Hopkins, deputy with the sheriff’s department.’

  ‘Well, hey. What can I do you for?’

  ‘Wondered if I could talk to you and your children?’

  ‘Troy’s out in the stables doing what needs to be done but Shelley’s at school. She goes to OU up in Norman. Only one in the family ever to go to college,’ she said proudly. ‘Lorie lives in Oklahoma City now. Married with my first grandchild on the way.’

  ‘Well, that’s real nice, ma’am. Can I come up to the porch?’

  ‘You afraid of the dogs?’ she asked, grinning.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Emmett said.

  ‘Ah, hell, come on up and let’s see what they do.’

  Emmett gingerly walked up the porch steps and took each step slowly, keeping his hands out in front of him and his eyes on the dogs. Three had already sat down next to Mrs Vaught and three were standing, two with their tongues lolling out. He wondered if that meant they were hungry and maybe he smelled like lunch.

  When he got to the top step one of the dogs moved forward and Emmett stood as still as possible. The dog smelled his outstretched hand, then licked it. One of the sitting dogs stood up and rubbed up against Emmett’s pant leg.

  Mrs Vaught laughed. ‘They’re not exactly watchdogs,’ she said, opening the door behind her. ‘Come on in.’ To the dogs, she said, ‘Y’all scat, now. Go on!’

  The pack obediently hopped down the porch stairs and headed around the corner of the house. Emmett let out a sigh of relief.

  ‘I was just messing with you. Have a seat,’ she said, having led him into the living room. It was a big open room, a huge rock fireplace with a fire inside burning bright and warm, surrounded by bookshelves, a dining table at one end with an open kitchen next to it. It was the kind of room Emmett would love to have in his own home.

  ‘You like something to drink? I always got coffee brewing and I got ice water but that’s about it. Haven’t made any iced tea yet.’

  ‘Coffee sounds real good, ma’am,’ Emmett said. ‘Just a little milk, no sugar.’

  ‘Be right back.’

  Since the room was open, he could see Mrs Vaught in the kitchen, so he stood there in the living room until she came back with two cups of coffee.

  ‘I grind my own beans,’ she told him, setting his cup down on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

  Emmett sat down on the fat, comfortable sofa while Mrs Vaught took an easy chair across from him. ‘Now what’s all this about, Deputy?’

  Emmett took a sip of the coffee and nodded. ‘Real good brew, ma’am.’ Setting down his coffee cup, he said, ‘We’ve been looking into some old cases, ma’am. There have been a few incidents involving our deputies that seem to have something to do with possible revenge.’

  Mrs Vaught cocked her head. ‘And you thought you’d come talk to me? Why would I want revenge against your deputies? I suppose this has something to do with my husband’s murder,’ she said. ‘But that nice young black man who came to the scene did everything he could. I have no problem with him. If I wanted revenge, I’d go after Lou Anne Evans and her boys. But Lou Anne and her boys didn’t kill my Tom – her husband did. And me and her might have gotten into it that day, pulling hair and what have you, but I hold no grudge against her. She might hold one against me since I testified against her husband at his trial, but I just told what happened. I mean, everybody there – including your deputy – saw Danny Evans shoot my Tom.’

  ‘You hear anything from the Evans family?’

  Mrs Vaught sighed. ‘At first, right after Danny went to prison. His boys called up here and harassed my boy, even tried messing with Shelley, my youngest, but my boy taught them a lesson about that.’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’ Emmett asked.

  She smiled. ‘He didn’t kill ’em, much as he might have liked to. Just beat on ’em a little, drove them across the Tejas County line and stripped ’em naked.’ Her smile turned into a grin. ‘I understand they spent some time in the Tejas County facilities.’

  Emmett couldn’t help but smile back. As far as he was concerned, Shelley’s brother did exactly what any brother should do. ‘So, no kickback from that?’

  ‘No. Never heard from them again until Danny got killed up in McAlester. Then one of ’em called here, drunk as a skunk. I answered. Told him I was sorry he lost his father but if he ever called here again – drunk or sober – I’d have the sheriff arrest his ass.’

  ‘And that was the end of that?’

  She nodded her head. ‘Been right quiet since then.’

  Emmett stood up. ‘Miz Vaught, thanks for your hospitality. Be OK if I went out to the stables to talk to your son?’

  ‘All right by me.’ She grinned at him. ‘Now, don’t you go minding them dogs, you hear?’ Then she laughed outright.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said, for want of anything more appropriate to say.

  She led him out of a side door and he could see the stable from there, about five hundred yards away. As she shut the door behind him, two of the dogs came up to him. One looked like it had a lot of Lab in him, the other possibly some kind of spaniel mix. Since he stood still looking at them, they both sat down on their haunches and looked up at him.

  ‘OK, guys,’ Emmett said to them, ‘I’m going to the stables. Y’all can come if you want but no horsing around, OK?’

  He decided to assume that they understood him perfectly and set off for the stable.

  There were four Quarter Horses in stalls: a gray, a Rhone and two white ones. The Vaughts’ only son was grooming the gray. He was tall and rangy, like his mother, with an unruly mop of bright red hair. When he turned, Emmett saw a heap of freckles on his face. An electric heater sat in the middle of the passageway between the stalls, giving out a poor excuse for warmth.

  ‘You Troy?’ Emmett asked.

  ‘I’m Troy Vaught. Who’re you?’

  He took a glove off his right hand and held it out. Emmett shook the proffered hand and introduced himself.

  ‘What can I do for you?’ Troy Vaught asked.

  ‘I was just talking to your mother. We’ve been having some problems at the sheriff’s department. People threatening our deputies.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear about that, Deputy, but I don’t see why you’re here.’

  ‘Your mother tells us you had a little trouble with the Evans boys.’

  ‘That was a long time ago.’ He took off his other glove and shut the gate to the gray’s stall. ‘You wanna go out in the sunshine, Deputy?’ Troy asked. ‘It gets kinda chilly in here and that damn heater doesn’t do diddly-squat.’

  Emmett nodded and he, Troy and now four dogs headed out of the stable. Troy went up to the fenced corral and leaned on the top post, one foot on the bottom rung. Emmett followed his lead.

  ‘The Evans brothers tried to get Shelley in their car when she was about thirteen. She was right here at the driveway and just ran up. I saw her running and heard her screaming, then the assholes tearing out. Me and JR were in the same grade, so I knew that Camaro of his. Stupid piece of crap. Spoiler, lightning bolts on the sides. Dumb-looking ride.’

  ‘So you dealt with ’em.’

  ‘Yeah, I did,’ he said, turning to look me in the eye. ‘I had my daddy’s unloaded forty-five since there were two of them and only one of me. They didn’t ask any questions. I tied ’em up and swung at ’em a couple of times. No permanent damage, just a reminder not to mess with the Vaughts anymore. I figured their daddy killing our daddy was bad enough. And I told ’em so. Told ’em if I caught them
even looking cross-eyed at Shelley again, I’d have to tear out their livers with a rusty spoon.’

  ‘And they believed you?’ Emmett asked.

  Troy grinned. ‘Well, I did have a rusty spoon in my hand at the time.’

  ‘You and your sisters have any hard feelings against the sheriff’s department?’ Emmett asked out right.

  Troy shook his head. ‘Why would we? That black guy got Mr Evans trussed up real good, then your other deputies got there and pulled the Evans boys off me.’ He grinned. ‘Although my sisters were kicking some serious ass that day.’ He sobered, shaking his head. ‘That awful, awful day.’ He looked Emmett in the eye. ‘You ever meet my daddy?’ he asked.

  ‘No, not that I recall.’

  ‘He was a good man,’ Troy said. ‘A good father. And I’m pretty sure a good husband. Mama seemed happy with him. This ranch has been in his family for four generations. The house is new – newish. Daddy built it for mama when she was pregnant with Lorie. The old house only had two bedrooms, and when Mama found out it was a girl, she said, “We gotta have a bigger house, Tom.”’ He sighed. ‘At least that’s the story he always told. The old house, the one my great-grandfather built, is on the other side of the property. I’m fixing it up to move into. Need my own space.’

  ‘I’m sorry you lost your daddy, son,’ Emmett said. ‘Stupid way for him to go. He should be in there with you now, grooming those horses.’

  Troy didn’t say anything, just nodded.

  ‘Well, then,’ Emmett said, embarrassed a little from saying what he’d said. ‘I’ll be off.’

  ‘Deputy, let us know if there’s anything we can do to help out.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Emmett said, and headed to his car.

  SEVEN

  ‘Mama, you ain’t gonna be gone that long. Two suitcases oughta do it,’ Dalton said, watching his mother load a third suitcase.

  ‘Hush. I need what I need and don’t you go telling me what that is. ’Sides, I still haven’t done the kitchen yet.’

  ‘Mama, Aunt Mildred has a kitchen.’

  ‘Well, you know she’s not that great a cook. I need my own knives, and that colander of hers is rusty and it taints the food, but will she replace it? No, not Mildred. She thinks it’s just fine.’ She slammed down the lid of the third suitcase and turned to face her son, hands on her hips. ‘Well, it’s not fine with me. And if I’m gonna have to be there for whatever length of time you and your sheriff deem necessary, then I don’t plan on getting myself poisoned.’ Then she burst into tears and sank down on the bed.

  Dalton looked from his mama to his wife, standing in the doorway of the bedroom. His eyes were pleading and Holly got the message. She motioned for him to leave, closed the door behind him and sat down next to her mother-in-law.

  ‘Mama, I’m real sorry about Miz Jameson and Miz Merkle. I know y’all were close.’

  Through her sobs, Mrs Pettigrew said, ‘Me and Enid, we were in grammar school together. First grade all the way through our senior year. Then she married James Merkle and followed him for twenty years while he was in the Navy.’ She grabbed a Kleenex from the box next to the bed and blew her nose. ‘Didn’t come back here until he died, about thirty-something years ago. It was good getting back in touch,’ Mrs Pettigrew said, sniffing. She took a deep breath. ‘Now, Doris, she didn’t move here until sometime in the sixties. So she was fairly new. Her husband was the pharmacist over at the Rexhall on Main Street, right across from the courthouse. But then he started messing up prescriptions and killed an old lady who went to my church. They were gonna arrest him, but then they found out he had Alzheimer’s and just sent him to a home. He’s still there. Don’t know if his children have told him about Doris. Not that he’d know who she was.’ She sobbed, then said, ‘But that Doris, she went to see him every day, even though he didn’t know who she was. She’d say, “Malcolm, I’m your wife.” And he’d say, “That’s nice.” And then the next day he still wouldn’t know who she was.’ Mrs Pettigrew grabbed another Kleenex and blew her nose, then shook her head. ‘So sad. What she went through. I’m just glad my Elmer didn’t make me go through any of that. No, sir. It was wham bam, thank you ma’am. Up on a ladder cleaning the gutters he has a heart attack, falls off and cracks his head open. But it didn’t bleed much ’cause he was dead before he hit the ground.’

  ‘Yes, ma’am, that’s what Dalton told me,’ Holly said.

  ‘Real neat way for him to go,’ Mrs Pettigrew said. ‘I mean, it was a shock and all but it was quick. Bless him.’

  ‘I think it’s going to be good for you to spend some time with your sister,’ Holly said.

  Her mother-in-law snorted. ‘Hardly. That woman gets on my last nerve.’

  ‘Well, maybe this visit will be different.’

  Mrs Pettigrew stood up. ‘Don’t see how. We haven’t gotten along in eighty-two years. I don’t expect this visit to be any different.’

  She reached for one of her suitcases but Holly grabbed it. Mrs Pettigrew grabbed it back.

  ‘Oh, no you don’t, little lady!’ she said. ‘Pregnant women shouldn’t be hauling heavy stuff around. Think that’s what caused my miscarriage after Dalton. Speaking of him … Dalton!’ she yelled. The door opened. ‘Take these bags, will ya? And don’t let your wife even think about carrying one.’

  ‘Yes, Mama,’ Dalton said.

  I was having fits with my stomach. It was gurgling, making popping sounds, and my insides were doing a rumba. Twenty minutes in the men’s room helped some but I figured I needed to pay a little more attention to this diet of mine. Cheating hadn’t been all that much fun. And then finding my house part burned down didn’t help with my digestion. Or my mood. Or my blood pressure. The thought that Jean and Johnny Mac had been alone in the house with someone creeping around, looking in the windows wearing a monster mask then setting fire to the back of my house was making me a mite crazy. I kept thinking of things I was gonna do to this guy when I found him. The Longbranch Inn is a nice enough place and all, but the bed’s not as good as ours at home and, truth be told, I’d almost rather have my sister’s cooking than stay away from home when it wasn’t even my idea. I felt like I’d been kicked out of my house, which I had been, when you think about it. Which made me wonder if I should have someone guarding my house? Just in case this crazy asshole was going to go back, for whatever nefarious reason. But I didn’t have the manpower to send someone out just to babysit my house.

  I sighed and went out to the bullpen area. Only Anna Alvarez was there. ‘So you’re good with the computer?’ I asked, trying to make up a little for my rudeness earlier. I suppose I could have apologized, but what would that have done to my position of authority? My old boss, Sheriff Blankenship, never apologized to anybody for anything. Of course, he died alone after his wife of forty years left him. Still and all, Anna was new – maybe not exactly an apology.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ she said.

  ‘Holly’s gonna be gone all day today so I might need your help with some research. You up for that?’

  ‘Yes, sir!’ she said, and actually looked happy about it. The only time I look happy around a computer is when I’m handing it over to someone else.

  ‘OK, then. When Emmett comes in, send him to my office. Then we might have some stuff for you.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ she said.

  I nodded, then nodded again, thought better of doing it a third time and turned around and headed to my office. That’s when a thought struck me and I turned around again and headed back to the bullpen.

  ‘Anna, maybe you could look something up for me?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, sir!’ she said, seeming like she was anxious to get on the computer. Takes all kinds, I guess.

  ‘Check out a guy named Wharton Jacobs. He’s dead, but see about his kin and his ex-wives,’ I said.

  She looked at me with a questioning expression.

  ‘He’s the husband Maudeen Sanders shot. He’d been married a few times before her. Just wondering if any kin
or an ex-wife or two might be pissed off.’

  Anna nodded her head and grinned. ‘Sounds like a good idea,’ she said.

  I couldn’t say I agreed with her sentiments but at least it was an idea, good or not.

  Twenty minutes later, Emmett walked in the side door. He stuck his head in my office doorway. ‘Back,’ he said.

  ‘Go tell Anna then come in here,’ I told him.

  ‘Why do I have to tell Anna?’

  ‘She’s playing Holly today.’

  ‘Gotcha.’

  About a minute and a half later, he was sitting in a chair in front of my desk. ‘So, the Vaughts?’ I said.

  He shook his head. ‘Clean as a whistle. We knew going in they were a long shot. I mean, what would they have against the department? We helped ’em that day and at the trial. Miz Vaught’s a real nice lady, makes a good cup of coffee. Kinda funny—’

  ‘Funny ha-ha or funny weird?’ I asked.

  ‘Oh, definitely funny ha-ha. Met her son. Seems like a good sort. When Holly gets back—’

  ‘Don’t wait for Holly if it’s computer work. Give it to Anna.’

  ‘Right, forgot. OK, I’ll have Anna run him through the system, see if there’s anything outstanding on him but I doubt there will be. More likely, if somebody from that incident is doing this, it’s one of Danny Evans’ boys.’

  ‘The one who’s a born-again living in another state or the one that you interviewed? I thought you didn’t like him for this?’ I said.

  Again, he was shaking his head. ‘I didn’t. And I still don’t, but …’ He shrugged, leaving the sentence open-ended.

  ‘But we don’t have anybody else,’ I finished for him.

  Just then my phone rang and I picked it up. ‘Sheriff Ko—’

  ‘Milt, it’s Charlie. You know that second sweep you wanted us to do on Miz Pettigrew’s house?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘No prints, but … that broom Dalton found in the kitchen?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘There was a tiny splinter on one side.’

  ‘OK,’ I said.