by Tegan Maher
She put her hand over mine. "Noelle, I was just teasing you. Were you really the one that found him?”
I nodded. "It was awful. I came around a curve on the four-wheeler. Hunter and I were racing, and it was all we could do not to run right over him."
For the first time since it happened, I was feeling a little shaky. Maybe it was finally just setting in that a man had been dead right in front of me. Sure, I'd seen it several times, but that didn't mean that you ever got used to it. Or at least I never wanted to.
Sarah pulled me into another hug. A real one this time. "Aww, sweetie. I didn't mean to upset you. I was just teasing you. That had to’ve been awful. Does Hunter know who did it?"
I shook my head. "Not yet. We went out this morning and talked to their neighbors. They live over in those apartments Marybeth bought and is remodeling. The ones over on the East Side. We didn't learn much other than that the victim’s mother-in-law is a real monster." I lifted my shoulder. "Well, the one neighbor also said that Curtis tended to talk down to his wife, but nobody else's backed that up. By all other accounts they were a happy couple and crazy in love. Hunter and I did see them walking up the road on our way to our cabin, and they were holding hands and smiling. “I thought back to that moment, when both of them had looked so happy. "They even waved at us."
She pressed her lips together and then pushed them off to the side, thinking. "Did you say Curtis Boyd? That name rings a bell. What was his wife's name again?”
"Valerie," I replied. I picked up a bar towel and wiped the counter where a few drops of tea had splattered. Before I could say anything else the batwing doors that led to the kitchen swung open, and Bobbie Sue rushed toward us carrying four baskets of barbecue sandwiches. Her graying red hair was swept up into a low bun, and a red bandanna covered her head.
"Where you been, girl?" she asked, striding toward us and handing Sarah the sandwiches. She plucked two cups off the stack. "I haven't seen you in a few days. Everything okay? I thought you were supposed to be up at the cabin.”
So, she hadn't heard about the murder yet, either. I probably should've assumed that when Sarah didn't know and just went and got her before I even started the story. Now I was going to have to tell it twice.
While Sarah delivered the food, I caught Bobbie Sue up to speed as she filled herself a cup of iced tea and made a second one for Earl.
She rubbed her chin. “I don't know Curtis except for they been in here a couple times, but I do know Valerie. She used to come in here with her mama for lunch. That was back before she got married."
"Did they get along?" I asked. "I mean, did they seem like they were having fun?"
Bobbie Sue shrugged and took a drink of her tea. "Sometimes. Sometimes not. Her mom can be… difficult."
"Difficult?" I asked, raising a brow. Bobbie Sue used the word difficult for a number of different situations, and very few of them actually meant just difficult. Unless I was wrong, and I didn't think I was, in this case she was using it to mean a high maintenance, bossy pain in the butt.
She scoffed, confirming my suspicions. "That woman flaps her jaws more than a mule in a pasture full'a thistles, and she thinks the sun rises and sets on her extremely generous backside. They got along just fine as long as Valerie was doing exactly what Clara wanted her to do, but if the day had leaned more in Valerie's favor, then lunch was a bit less comfortable." She shook her head. "Sometimes I wished Valerie would just tell her to shut up, but somehow she ended up with either enough manners or a small enough spine that she never does."
I remembered what Charles had told us. “Oh, I almost forgot. The neighbor said some guy stopped by and punched Curtis right in the face hard enough that it knocked him down. Apparently, Val wasn’t scared of him because she told him off. We don’t have a name, though.”
A knowing look crossed Bobbie Sue’s face. “That would be Even Snodgrass. She broke up with him to be with Curtis. They used to come in here canoodling on Friday nights.”
I arched a brow. That sounded like something that might push a person to murder. Love, money, or power. Those were the three motivations that were usually behind murder. “Do you know him?”
“I do,” Sarah said. “A friend of mine went out with him a couple months ago. He’s from Eagle Gap.”
That explained why the name didn’t ring any bells with me. Our high school was small, so if he was within a couple years of me in age, I would have at least known his name.
“What was he like?” I asked. If he was a hothead, he might have jumped to the front of the line of suspects, not that it was that long.
“She said he was okay, but a little too much into sports to her. She said he bragged about his high school glory days more than he did anything going on today, and he didn’t so much as ask what she did for a living.”
I rolled my eyes. “One of those guys, huh? No wonder Valerie ditched him.”
“For sure,” Bobbie Sue said. “She’s much more mature than he is, and it seemed a lot more like sappy puppy love than an adult relationship. The guy still wore his letterman’s jacket, for heaven’s sake. Strutted around like he was all that and a bag of chips when really, he was already gettin’ an early start on a beer gut.”
I took a big drink of tea, then turned to refill my cup. “So, it sounds like we need to talk to Evan Snodgrass, then.”
Bobbie nodded as she stuffed a straw into each of her cups. “I would, especially if he showed up at their apartment actin’ the fool.”
It had been way more than thirty minutes since Hunter had dropped me off, so I figured it was time to go talk to a new face.
13
The more I thought about it, the less I figured it would be a good idea for me to go. If Evan was the beer-swilling, belching sorta guy that I pictured him as, he’d respond a lot better to Hunter alone than if I tagged along. My decision played right into Fate’s hands because as soon as I’d tapped out the message to Hunter, my phone rang with a call from Marybeth.
“Hey,” I said when I answered.
“Hey, yourself,” she replied. “I heard you had to come back early, so I figured I’d snag you for an opinion on how you’d like things set up for the reception Saturday.”
That sounded like a great way to burn through the time while Hunter was talking to Evan, assuming she meant now. “I’d love to, but when?”
“I’m at the mansion now if you have the time.”
“I do,” I replied. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
I speed walked back to Raeann’s to get my truck, thankful I’d driven it instead of the bike since storm clouds were gathering on the horizon. The coffee shop looked busy, so I just jumped in my vehicle and went.
The trip to the mansion only took ten minutes, and when I got there, Marybeth was sitting on the porch with a Coke in her hand. She stood when I pulled up, and I smiled at her clothes. Her bib overalls were flecked with yellow paint and so was the green bandana she’d used to cover her graying dark hair.
“Hey, there!” she said, a wide smile spreading across her face. “I hear you’ve had quite the week so far.”
I shook my head. “You have no idea. I’ve never been so grateful to see your name on my caller ID in my life.”
“Uh, thanks, I think,” she replied, motioning for me to follow her inside.
“Noelle!” A musical voice called as I went inside. Izzy, the ghost of a young woman who’d been killed there, swept toward me, her translucent face alight. “I was just tellin’ Cheri Lynn the other day that I was excited to see you again. You should come out more often.”
I smiled at her. “You know you can come see me, too, right?”
Before we’d found her, she’d been stuck in the mansion for a year or so, unaware or too afraid to leave the place. Now that she knew she could and that she had other ghosts to hang out with, she popped around a little. She was still a homebody, though, and preferred to hang out with Marybeth and oversee the remodeling. She did show up at Fancy’s, one of Ma
rybeth’s bars, once in a while.
“Yeah, I know. We’ve just been super busy here, and I love to watch. I also want to make sure they’re not takin’ any shortcuts or findin’ any more money in the walls. That’d be some temptation that’d be hard to resist, so I don’t wanna risk it.”
I cast a surprised glance at Marybeth. “Is that a possibility?”
She shrugged. “Who knows. We found one hidey hole. Who’s to say he didn’t have another? I’m not as worried about it as Izzy is, though.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d been in the mansion since she’d started the remodel, but I hadn’t been out since the inside was finished. All she had left to do was a little bit of landscaping around the pool and back lawn, which was expansive.
She led me through to what would have been considered the ball room back when the house was first built in the early nineteen-hundreds. I suppose it still was, but since Jim had owned the place, I shuddered at the idea of how he’d probably perverted the term.
The place had been completely transformed. The long windows that ran the length of the room were decorated with billowing white lace curtains, and she’d replaced the heavy masculine furniture with lighter floral pieces and separated it out into three different entertainment areas.
A full bar ran along one wall with a mirror behind it that highlighted several rows of liquor. The other side of the room was split in half with a giant fireplace. She’d created a TV area with a big screen on one side of it. On the other, she’d arranged a socializing area with overstuffed furniture situated so that it was in a circle to encourage conversation.
“Wow! You knocked this out of the park,” I said, taking in the details. “I love the bar. Is that pine?” The bar itself was long and curved, with brass foot rails and ladder-back wooden stools.
“It is. And I’m glad you like the space, because I think this is the best room in the house for the reception. The bar’s already here, and I can just pull the furniture to the outside walls to make room for the tables. Then those double doors lead to the lawn, so if people want to go outside to smoke or play horseshoes or whatever, the exit’s right there and everybody stays in one area. What do you think?”
I raised my brows and spun slowly around. “I think it’s perfect.”
There was plenty of room even though Anna Mae had invited a hundred people. “Do you need me to take care of renting the tables?”
She shook her head. “Nope. They’re already here. I’ll make sure they’re set up before I leave for the wedding. I have a crew coming to do the decorations Friday night, which Izzy and Lacey are gonna oversee. The caterers are taking care of the bartenders, too, so I’m leaving the back service doors open so they can do their thing without me here during the wedding.”
That was impressive, and even further proof that the woman was a force of nature. “Then it sounds like you’ve got it all handled. If there’s anything else you need from me, just let me know.”
“Are you gonna do yours here or at the farm?” she asked. “Or somewhere else for that matter. I’d love to host it, but I’d totally understand if you wanted to do it at the farm.”
“Oh, you have to do it here, Noelle!” Izzy said, swooping toward me. Like Cheri Lynn, she liked cute clothes and had the shape to wear them. Today, she was wearing red denim shorts with a white blouse tied at her waist. She’d finished the look with a sweet pair of strappy red sandals and big hoop earrings. She stared at me, anticipation practically rolling off her.
I grinned at her. “I’m not sure yet, but if I don’t do it at the farm, I’ll do it here. Those are the only two places I’d consider.”
She clapped her hands and did a swoop. “Yay! That’s all I can ask for.” She froze, and it was almost comical how obvious it was that she’d just thought of it. “Wait, am I still invited if it’s at the farm?”
“Of course, you are, silly. You’re always welcome at my place, especially for the wedding!”
Her face lit up again, and she floated near me, almost giving me a hug before she forgot. I love all my post-living peeps, but hugs were a no-go. Whenever they slipped through me, it was like somebody passed an ice cube right through whatever body part they came into contact with. No bueno.
My phone chimed with a text using Hunter’s sound, and I pulled it out of my pocket.
It had been a bust with Evan. He had a solid alibi. Incarcerated for a bar fight in Eagle Gap. We were back to square one.
14
I took my time getting back to town since we still had a few hours before we could talk to Clara. I visited with Izzy and Marybeth for a while, then made my way back. I figured I’d stop to talk to Anna Mae and let her know that everything was ready to go. She’d been stressing, but more because she felt bad that I was handling everything.
Since it was business hours, I went to her shop, Things Remembered. She’d redone her window display and had replaced the summer scene with things more reminiscent of fall. It was hard to imagine that in just another month or so, it was going to start cooling down.
I called out when I pushed through the door, but she rushed forward, slamming her pointer finger against her lips in the universal sign for hush.
“I just got her down,” she whispered. “She’s teethin’ and has been a little monster for the last forty-eight hours.”
I smiled and made an effort to walk quietly to the crib behind the counter. My heart melted just like it always did when I looked at her. Faye’s blonde ringlets stuck to her head, and her little mouth worked in her sleep. It took everything I had not to reach out and touch her, but the expression on Anna Mae’s face promised death by a thousand cuts if I did.
She motioned to me to move to the back corner where she’d made a little sitting area from antiques that we’d picked up in our travels.
“Phew,” she said, running her fingers through her platinum pixie cut. “I just wanna curl up on this sofa and sleep for a week. That baby’s wearing me thin.”
There was no heat or regret in her tone, though. Just like everybody else, she was totally enthralled. More so, because she was Mommy, and also because she’d given up on ever having her own kids. The dark circles under eyes were testament to what she was going through, but she still looked at the baby with nothing but joy.
“So, any progress on the murder?” she asked, pulling two bottles of water from a mini fridge at the end of the couch.
“Not yet,” I replied, taking one of them from her. “Valerie’s still missin’, and the couple of leads we thought we had didn’t pan out. All we know is he got in an SUV ith somebody.”
She scooted back and leaned her head against the couch. “What about her mama? I’ve been hearing things. She and Curtis weren’t exactly best buds.”
I nodded. “That’s what I keep hearing. I’m not sure what to think, though. Lots of folks don’t get along with their in-laws but they don’t end up dead.”
“Lordy, ain’t that the truth?” she said, rolling her eyes. “If ever I was gonna commit murder, it woulda been on Mama Doolittle. Unless, of course, it would have been her son. I can’t say I didn’t think about wrappin’ my hands around her neck and chokin’ the life right outta her, but I never did. I don’t think I could blame somebody else for doin’ it, though.”
“Yeah, but you were the recipient of her bull. Clara’s the one doling it out.”
She waggled a finger at me. “Oh, don’t you think for a minute that makes a difference. The reason she was so mean to me was half that she didn’t think I was good enough for her boy, and half that she was jealous he was livin’ with me. Little did she know I was serious when I told her she could have him back. You put jealousy in the heart of a woman like that, and she can do evil things.”
I took a big drink from my water and fiddled with the fringe on the couch’s arm covering. “I guess we’re gonna find out. I’ve decided to take my bracelet off for that interview. I want to know every little thought that flits through her head, and I won’t feel
a bit guilty for doin’ it. Something’s gotta give here.”
I hung out with her for a while, helping her clear a to-do list that had been piling up on her since the baby’s teething bout had started. By the time we were done, it was nearly five.
“Time to go have a chat with Clara,” I said, glancing at my phone. I wiped my forehead on my arm and came away with a dusty, sweaty smear.
Anna Mae laughed. “You might wanna wash up before you go. And grab a fresh shirt from that rack over there. You’re covered in dirt from cleanin’ my back room, and I love you for it.”
I did as she suggested and texted Hunter as I was leaving to let him know I was on my way.
15
Rather than meet him at the courthouse, I told him I’d just meet him at Clara’s since Peggy Sue assured me she always went straight home after the meetings. No need to have to go back for my truck after we talked to her when her place was halfway to the farm already.
Sure enough, when I pulled off the main road onto a dirt one, I saw a puff of red dust ahead that told me somebody was driving half a mile or so ahead of me. I got to the address first, but rather than pull in, I stopped and waited for him at a copse of trees that hid me from Clara’s house. I was gonna do most of the talking, but he still needed to be there and appear to be the one in charge.
Just a few minutes later, Hunter drove around me, and I pulled back onto the road to follow him.
Clara’s house was a mid-sized Victorian with a perfect yard complete with flawless landscaping that included an abundance of flowers arranged in a way that bordered on gaudy. I was a more organized sort and wanted my colors to match, but she seemed to be the opposite. Or rather, her gardeners were. I was almost positive she hadn’t done all this work herself, though it wouldn’t be the first time I’d been shocked to find a mean person with a benign hobby.
The curtains fluttered as we pulled up, and the door swung open before we were even out of the trucks.