by Tegan Maher
There weren’t many people in the courthouse, but I smiled when I saw that all of them, down to a T, were behaving the same way I was—like the place was a library. There was something about the high-ceilinged, cavernous entryway that made me feel like it deserved respect. I tried to muffle the slap of my flip-flops on the marble floor, and rather than speak to the people I passed, I gave them a polite nod and a smile. The place smelled like history, old paper, and justice, and it was one of my favorite buildings in Keyhole Lake.
“Hey, Peggy Sue!” I said once I’d made my way to the back of the building where the sheriff’s office was located. That part of the building felt more like an office and less like hallowed halls, so I didn’t feel the need to whisper.
The queen of the courthouse, Peggy Sue Dalton, sat behind her desk with one short stack of messy folders on one side and a tall stack of neat ones on the other. She pushed to her feet, and her smile traveled all the way to her cornflower-blue eyes.
“Hey, Noelle! You okay, honey?” she asked, frowning as she scanned me from head to toe. I was beginning to regret wearing my jean shorts and sorta wished I’d gone for capris that would have at least covered the scrapes and bruises on my legs.
I returned her smile. “Yeah, I’m good. It’s much better than it could have been. These are just bumps and bruises. I’ll be fine in a day or two.”
She nodded. “I saw the pictures of the four wheelers. Y’all are lucky.”
I felt bad deceiving her, but even though she knew about my family, I didn’t want just everybody to know I could mess with time. In fact, I didn’t want anybody outside my direct circle to know. That was information that could be dangerous even in the best hands, and I didn’t want to give anybody any ideas or false hope.
“We were, with the exception of finding a body,” I replied. “That part didn’t feel so lucky.”
She rushed around the desk, her flowing dress trailing behind her, and pulled me into a hug. “You poor thing. I just feel awful for you.”
“Thanks. I’ll be okay, though. At least I didn’t know him.” I blushed, and I realized how cold my words sounded. “I mean, not that it makes it less horrible.”
Her round face lit with understanding. “I know what you’re saying. You don’t have to explain. Hunter’s in the back.”
“Okay, but real quick, what’s the deal with those two? Curtis and Valerie, I mean. Had they been married long? Why were they here?”
She mashed her lips together. She guarded people’s privacy like it was her own, but I hadn’t asked anything that wasn’t part of public record if I’d been inclined to dig deep enough.
Apparently, she felt that way, too. “They’d only been married a year or so, and they were researching a deed. They were considering buying a house because they don’t like living in an apartment.”
That was interesting. Maybe somebody interested in the same house had offed him, though that didn’t seem like much of a reason to kill somebody. Unlike in many places in the country, there was no shortage of houses and properties for sale in Keyhole Lake because most folks didn’t want to move to a town that offered very little in the way of nightlife, entertainment, or culture, though that last depended on your definition of the word.
The bane of a small town was that you either loved it or hated it, and a lot of folks hightailed it out after high school and never looked back. Houses tended to stay in families, but if those kids had settled into another place, they rarely kept the property after their parents died. It was a little sad, but it also provided an opportunity for new blood to come to town.
Since I got claustrophobic just thinking about moving back into an apartment, I understood where Curtis and Valerie were coming from. I’d only stayed in one for my college years, but it hadn’t taken but a week for me to know it wasn’t for me. If they felt the same way I did, they were probably looking to buy soon.
“I can’t say as I blame them. Has anybody else researched the places they were looking at?” I mentally crossed my fingers, hoping she’d say yes so that we’d have somebody else to look at.
She shook her head, and the fluorescent light glinted off the bling on the glasses perched atop her head. “Nope. All they were lookin’ at was property. They wanted to build their own place.”
So much for that idea, though it didn’t completely preclude somebody else being interested in land. Even in Keyhole, that was an area of real estate that did a booming business. Not many years before, back when Hank was sheriff, a corporation had been interested in buying up all the land around my farm, breaking it into smaller lots, and building luxury homes on it. They’d even tried to steal my place out from under me, but I’d dodged that bullet when Hank had keeled over in his coleslaw right in front of me. It had been the best day I’d had in forever.
“Do you know anything else about them? I hear her mama was a real doozie.” Now it was time to pick her brain. I knew I only had a fifty-fifty chance, though, because even though she had the dirt on most everybody in town, she wasn’t a big gossip. She was the odd yet refreshing woman out because folks who didn’t like to shout juicy news—or any news, really—hither and yon was as rare as a hen’s tooth in these parts. Gossip was like air to some folks.
She made a face like she’d smelled something rotten. “Oh, the woman’s horrid. Poor Valerie was engaged twice before she found Curtis, but both of the poor boys baled when they met Clara.” Her eyes were round and serious.
“No way.” I’d heard of some real nasty folks, but never ones bad enough to stop a marriage just by breathing.
She nodded, her expression still matter of fact. “Yes way. The woman’s evil incarnate. She treated all her kids like crap. They went in rags and ate macaroni and cheese while she dressed in designer jeans and drank the best wine, and plenty of it, too, though I hate to gossip. Course, now that she’s older, she expects her youngens to forget all that.”
She shook her head. “Sometimes I think she’s rewritten all that in her mind to make herself come off as a great mama who treated her kids like gold. Maybe that’s how she stands herself—she’s delusional.”
“So, she’s mellowed with age?” It sounded like the woman had grown a conscience and chosen to forget how awful she’d been to her kids.
“Oh, no.” Peggy Sue hustled back around her desk and plopped down in her ergonomic chair., sighing. “If anything, she’s worse now that she can’t control them. Or at least she can’t control the boys. Valerie’s a different story, though. She went away to college but came back here, unlike her siblings, so she gets the full brunt of her mother’s baloney. Her older sister moved away, too, though I hear Clara’s still got her hooks somewhat in her even though she lives a couple thousand miles away in California. Her advantage over Val is that she can just hang up the phone when her mama gets to be too much.”
That must've been a nightmare for Valerie. I thought about my soon-to-be in-laws and was grateful. I’d only met them a couple of times because they still lived in Indianapolis, but they were awesome people. Hunter’s mother, who was a yoga instructor, seemed to really like me, and his dad, who was a cop just like Hunter, was laid back and easy to get along with. I don't know what I would've done if they would've been miserable like Clara. Well, yeah, I do know. I would have sat on my hands to resist the urge to curse them because I love their son. Still, I was glad that wasn’t a concern. My impulse control wasn’t the best, especially long-term.
I puckered my lips in confusion. It didn't make any sense to me that Val and Curtis had stayed around when apparently moving away was all it took to get out from under her mother’s thumb.
Rather than speculate, I asked. Maybe Peggy Sue had some insight. “Why didn't they just move away? It seems like there have to be better places than here." It wasn't like Keyhole Lake was the only place where it was sunny and warm, if that was the reason they stayed.
She flapped a dimpled hand at me. "You know how it is. Curtis started his business here, and it's doing rea
lly well. He installs pool cages, screens, and sunshades on RVs, and there's not a whole lot of business for that all over the United States. I mean, screens, yeah. The others, not so much.”
I shifted the coffee cups in my hands. The ice was freezing me. Or I was melting the ice, one of the two. “Yeah, but still. Draw a horizontal line though the country, and they could have picked anywhere underneath it and still done a booming business.”
"That's true, but his folks live here and so do his brothers and sisters. Curtis and Val have only been married for a few months, so I guess they were trying to make it work."
Curtis must've had a lot more patience than I did. I realize coming between a significant other and their mother was an issue, but I would've found some way around it. Also, I would hope that Hunter wouldn’t let it become an issue to begin with.
That made me curious. "How did Clara get along with Curtis? Did he stand up to her, or did he just sorta float along to keep the peace and deal with the misery she seems happy to rain down?”
Peggy arched a wispy blonde brow and huffed. "Girl, Clara and Curtis didn't get along at all. Those two were oil and water. Curtis didn't like the way she treated Val, but he did understand that he had to strike the balance between getting Clara to respect Val and not hurting Val and causing damage to their own relationship. The boy was a saint if you ask me. By now, I’d have run her underwear up a flagpole with her still in ‘em."
I smiled at the visual. Since I'd seen that in a lot of marriages, it didn't really surprise me. Again, my mind drifted back to Anna Mae's first marriage. She'd had it terrible with Hank, and her family had just told her she needed to be a good wife and do what he wanted her to do. Unfortunately, Anna Mae had lacked the means or the self-confidence to do anything about it. It took Hank dying for her to come into her own, and it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
That made me wonder about the dynamic between Valerie and her mother. "How well do you know Val? Did she want to get out from under Clara's thumb, or was she just so used to it that she took it in stride and figured that was the way things were?"
Peggy Sue moved around me to pull a file from the row of shelves behind me. "Val’s an absolute sweetheart. I've known her since she was just a baby, and she’s always been a happy person. I don't think she necessarily thought she had to do what Clara told her, but it was the path of least resistance. Clara is a force of nature."
I sighed. "I guess I'm just lucky. Hunter's folks are great. Do you have any idea how Val and Curtis really got along aside from that? Kenny saw them out on the road day before yesterday and said it looked like they were getting along great, but other people said they were fighting on the courthouse steps."
Peggy gave an indelicate snort. "They were just having a standard couple’s argument. She met him here to look at the deed, but she was runnin’ a little behind. While he waited, he went ahead and paid the water bill. She felt it was her responsibility to pay it this month, but he said his money was their money and that it all came from the same pot. I think maybe she was struggling with not wanting him to think that she wasn’t going to pull her own weight, or maybe she was afraid she was moving out from under one thumb and squirming her way underneath a new one.”
That sounded like an odd thing to fight over to me. I said as much.
Peggy Sue shrugged as she shuffled back around her desk and plopped into her chair. "Again, that's all a result of her past. Her sister was married to a man who convinced her to quit her job and just keep house, and then she was stuck where she was. Val may have been quiet and laid back, but she has a strength of character that skipped everybody else in her family."
Before we could continue the topic, she spotted the grease-soaked bag in my hands. Her eyes lit with delight. "Please tell me those are mixed berry turnovers," she exclaimed. "You haven't brought me those in forever!"
I grinned at her. "Yep. I thought of you when I was grabbing Hunter and me a muffin. I figured you'd be working just as hard as he is trying to dig through records and find out what was what. A girl can't work on an empty stomach."
I handed the bag to her, and she popped it open and peered inside. "You have perfect timing. I just made myself a fresh latte, and these will go great with it." She gave me a wry smile. "I've been trying to cut back a little, but I’ve been living on rabbit food for the last week. Sweets this one time won't kill me, and they’ll make me much happier than a tiny little bag of carrots will."
She pulled one of the turnovers out of the bag and took a big bite out of the corner of the flakey pastry, then closed her eyes and moaned. "Noelle, you're gonna kill me with these one day, but I'll die a happy woman."
I grinned at her. "Is Hunter back in his office? I learned some stuff from Levana that might be useful."
It occurred to me that I probably should've stopped in at Coralee’s, too, but I really didn't want to go there until the whole Dixie Carter thing had time to blow over. Belle had surely blown a gasket, and the last thing I needed was to take a curling iron to the head or a bobby pin to the eye when I got caught in the crossfire. Most of the time, our ghosts weren’t able to interact in the world of the living, but when emotion ran high, it could happen. And I guarantee you emotions ran high when she found out Cheri Lynn had asked Aunt Addy instead of her.
Peggy Sue waved a hand toward Hunter's office and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Hunter just got back in, sugar. Go on back. If those are pastries and coffee, he'll be even happier to see you than usual. The man's like a dog with a bone. Once he gets his teeth into something, he don't let go until it's over. Sometimes I worry about him."
She wasn't wrong. Once Hunter dove into a case, he often lost track of time and forgot to do even the simplest things like eat. If I hadn't brought him lunch, he would have skipped it altogether or else grabbed stale crackers from the vending machine. I rounded the corner of her desk and headed back down the hallway toward his office.
"Enjoy your pastries, and thanks for the information. Hopefully, this will all be over soon,” I tossed over my shoulder.
I hurried down the hallway and knocked on the door frame of Hunter's office. He always kept the door open, but he had his head buried over a pile of manila folders, flipping through some photographs. I was sure they were of the crime scene, so I didn't go out of my way to be nosy and look at them. I'd seen it live and didn't particularly care to see it preserved into time immemorial.
He looked up at me and smiled. "Hey beautiful. Boy are you a sight for sore eyes." He eyed the cups in my hand and the brown paper bag and smacked his lips. "Please tell me that's either a Loca Mocha or a Lively Latte and some sort of greasy pastry. My tank’s running on empty, and I sure could use something good."
I smiled back at him as a plopped the bag on his desk, careful not to set it on any of his paperwork. “Yep. I figured if I didn't bring you something, you’d go without. I put an extra shot of espresso in your latte, and those are orange-cranberry muffins.”
He reached across and pulled one of the coffees from the cardboard container, popped a straw in it, and took a giant swig, then closed his eyes and sighed. "That's amazing. If you hadn't brought it to me, I was considering calling and begging you." He pulled his muffin from the bag along with the napkins and took a big bite off the top without even peeling the paper off.
"Have you learned anything new?" I'd see what he discovered first, then share the information I’d gained from Levana.
"Sort of,” he said, licking his fingers, “though I'm not sure how it pertains to the murder. Kenny canvassed all the cabins in the area, and somebody saw a man who fit Curtis's description climbing into a brown SUV."
I raise my brows as I pulled my own muffin from the bag and peeled the paper down one side. "At least that's something. Did he happen to get a tag number?" I doubted we’d get that lucky, but you never knew. People around these parts paid attention to stuff like that.
"Nah,” he replied after he chased down a bite of muffin with coffee
. “It wasn't really noteworthy until Kenny took the picture around. That sort of thing happens all the time because people like to hike, and then somebody picks them up at the end of one of the trails. Still, it's curious because the witnesses said he was alone, plus, his car’s gone. That means that since his wife is gone too, she probably took it.”
I lifted a shoulder as I pulled my leg underneath me on the chair and got comfortable. “Not necessarily. What if something happened to her?”
He sighed and closed the folder in front of him, then pushed it to the side. “That could be, but I’d be shocked. I’d think if somebody was going to hurt her, they’d have probably done it there.”
“Yeah, but it’s not something we can rule out yet, right?” I pressed my fingers on some crumbs that had landed on his desk, then wiped them on my napkin.
“No, but it’s not my first avenue of investigation.” He sighed. “I’m not sure what is, though. Everybody I've talked to says they were crazy in love and that they didn’t have any enemies. Neither of them have had any problems with people they work with, either. The only problem they were having was hashing out the money issues. She wanted to go to school to get her culinary degree. He was all for it and was encouraging her to quit her job and go to school full-time. She wanted to keep working and go to school part-time because for some reason she was hard-core about not being willing to live off of his money." He put that last part in air quotes.
Hunter rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "Money seems to be the biggest problem in most marriages. I don't understand why it's a problem if one spouse takes the time to go to school and the other spouse works to cover them. After all it's an investment in their future."