“Why, young lady, I don’t think you know with whom you are dealing. I could have your badge and everything you hold dear by making a few phone calls.”
“You probably can do all of that, Mr. Cody. That’s fine. But in the meantime, I want your daughter and I want her now. But, hear me clearly. I will settle for you.”
“Mina Beth,” E.E. Cody called out. “Come here and talk with the acting sheriff.” His emphasis was on the word acting.
A door across the hall and down a short distance opened and out came Mina Beth Cody, to no one’s surprise. I made a mental note that the naked Mina Beth weighed less than the woman who now stood in front of us fully clothed. She had her blond hair back in a pony tail. She was wearing an orange and green plaid shirt over a pair of pre-torn and pre-washed blue jeans. The shirttail was out and she had her hands stuck halfway into her front jean pockets. The jeans were snug against her lower half.
“Talk to these people,” Mr. Cody said to her.
“What about?”
“They seem to have questions regarding Abel.”
“Actually, we have more immediate questions about your shooting at us today and then running away causing us to give chase. That’s a dangerous thing to do,” Starnes said.
“I don’t recall any of that,” she said.
“You don’t remember us coming to your front door and talking with you through that barrier?”
“Naw, nothing like that.”
“Were you home this morning when we stopped by to ask you some questions?”
“I don’t remember.”
“It seems my daughter has no recollection of this event.”
“Well, then she’ll have to go back with us to Madison and we can ask her the questions at the jailhouse. Perhaps a change of venue will facilitate her memory,” Starnes said.
“Okay, I remember someone coming to the house earlier today. I got scared. Mad Max was barking at someone outside my door, and I thought they were trying to break in.”
“Odd time of day for someone to break in to your home,” Starnes said.
“Crooks come night or day, Sheriff Carver,” Mr. Cody said.
“True, but we identified ourselves and she seemed to know who we were at the time.”
“I had been sleeping. I don’t recall talking with you.”
“You told us that you didn’t want to talk to us.”
“I was probably still half-asleep. I haven’t been feelin’ too well of late,” she said.
“Why did you shoot at us?” Starnes asked.
“I didn’t know it was you I was shooting at.”
“You can’t go around shooting at people, Mina Beth. Guns are dangerous, but you already know that, right?”
“What does that mean, Sheriff?” Mr. Cody said.
“Means what it means. Anyway, I think you’re gonna have to come with us back to Madison,” Starnes said. “Get your coat. You can ride with us.”
“Daddy, do I have to go with these people?”
“How about I bring her along in a few minutes?”
“It would be best if she rides with us. You can follow in your vehicle if you like.”
“I’m trying to work with you, Sheriff. You don’t seem to be very cooperative.”
“I am working on my social skills, but at present, they need more polish than I have time to give. So, Mina Beth, get your coat and come with me. Now.”
Starnes told me that she would ride in the backseat with Mina Beth while Sam rode up front with me. She said it would be safer since Mina Beth had already tried to kill us earlier in the day.
As we drove into Madison, Mina Beth decided to talk with us.
“You won’t keep me, you know. My daddy will have me out on bail tomorrow before noon.”
“Probably,” Starnes said.
“And you won’t ever find the gun.”
“What gun? You mean the gun that was used to kill Abel Gosnell? We have that gun. Found it already. Or did you mean the gun that you used today when you tried to kill us?”
Starnes was good and I was becoming more and more impressed with her acerbic style of interrogation. I enjoyed it, too. It reminded me of me. I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“I ain’t sayin’ anything else. You got nothing against me.”
“Well, actually we do,” I said. “We have this very incriminating photograph of you holding the 9mm Luger in your birthday suit. You posed so nicely for that shot.”
“I was drunk when he took that picture.”
“Made you take your clothes off and everything, right?” I said.
“No, but … well, I was really drunk.”
“Were you drunk when you shot him?”
“No, I was sober then.”
Chapter Forty-Four
Starnes had Deputy Sally Slater put Mina Beth Cody in a cell. Slater was involved in the high speed chase and showed measurable frustration at having lost Mina Beth somewhere along Highway 25. Starnes wanted to give Slater the satisfaction of throwing her in the slammer, to use an old phrase. Starnes had told me that Sally Slater was a McAdams County product who had worked with Buster Murdock for a couple of years. Starnes assessment was that she was a good deputy and followed the book. My own observation was that she had the makings for moving up in the law enforcement system of the county if she applied herself. For my money, she was diligent, intelligent, and carried herself well. Average height and weight, I noticed, and she worked well with the other deputies, all men. That said something.
Our conversation the rest of the night was actually a debate over Mina Beth Cody’s confession.
“You’re telling me that her confession to us won’t stand up in court?” I said.
“I’m telling you that in this county and with her father as her attorney of record, there is no way he will allow that confession to be entered into the record. Besides, she’ll just lie and say she didn’t say it.”
“We both heard her say it. And she said it after you Mirandized her.”
“He’s a really good lawyer,” Starnes said.
“Sam heard her as well.”
“That’ll be helpful,” Starnes said. Acerbic wit.
“But we can try to use it.”
“Oh, the D.A. will use it, no doubt. But it won’t be worth much in the final verdict. Everybody around here knows that Mina Beth Cody is a crazy woman with a wild past and she’ll get away with it.”
“I guess what bothers me the most is the innocent man on death row,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“You think she has any feelings for Cain Gosnell and the fact that he was found guilty of the murder she actually confessed to?”
“You mean feelings enough to want to confess and change places with him?”
“Yeah, that’s a bit much, I admit,” I said.
“I think you and I will have to rest easy with the sort of distasteful satisfaction that we found the murderess, know that we have evidence which points to her, and yet she will walk as soon as the trial is over. I have no doubt.”
“You have a way of making a body feel good all over,” I said.
“I try.”
“And there is no way we can trace the murder weapon directly to her?”
“Apparently Abel gave the guns to the three women. The recipients never bothered to register the guns. As far as the legal system is concerned, he still owns all the weapons, all five of them.”
“You think she killed Betty Jo Gentry?”
“Can’t say. Same gun killed both Abel and Betty Jo, but truthfully, that’s as far as we can go for the moment.
“The only thing that ties Mina Beth to one of the guns is that naked truth photograph. That’ll be fun when it is entered into evidence,” I said.
“Doubt if it makes it that far. Wait till you see Ezekiel Elijah Cody in action. For all old coot, he really is something.”
“And he’s a Democrat,” I added quickly.
“There’s that,” Starnes said.
Next morning Starnes woke me up while it was still dark. She was sitting on the edge of my bed. Sam was on a quilt on the floor by the door. He was still breathing heavy and rhythmically. Starnes clicked on the little lamp beside my bed. I sat up and leaned against the headboard. She handed me a cup of coffee.
“Here, you’ll need this. Take a swallow or two, then I’ll talk.”
I gulped down half the cup and tried to open my eyes wide enough to maintain some visible contact with her. She sipped her coffee and stared into the darkness through my bedroom window. She seemed bewildered.
“What’s going on?” I said after a few minutes.
“There’s not going to be a trial for Mina Beth Cody.”
“She escape?”
“No.”
“Oh, my.”
“Yeah. She’s dead. Deputy Slater called me a few minutes ago and told me that she was taking Mina Beth to the restroom this morning and on the way back to her cell she was shot and killed.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Who shot her?”
“Slater.”
“Why?”
“Slater said that Mina Beth went crazy and turned on her. Came after her even with those leg irons and cuffs restricting her movements. I can’t believe that Mina Beth would do such a stupid thing. She knew that she’d get off. Her daddy would have had her out sometime before lunch today. No reason to go ballistic against Slater.”
“You think Slater is telling us the real story?”
“Sally is a good deputy. I went to school with her. She’s straight as an arrow. Strong, too. I don’t doubt her word one bit. If she says that Mina Beth turned on her, then that’s what happened.”
“People change, you know. You haven’t worked with Slater that long.”
“Yeah, I thought about that before I woke you. But I have to trust my people. I can’t think of a reason why Sally Slater would kill that young woman, except in the way she told me.”
“There’ll be an investigation.”
“Bet your life. In fact, I have to go. You mind stayin’ here for now. I’ll call you if I need you. I better get over to the jail and handle this.”
“We’ll be fine. Call if you need something. Mind if I do a little background checking on Sally Slater, just to satisfy my curiosity?”
“Knock yourself out,” she said and left for Madison.
Chapter Forty-Five
I ate breakfast and then called Rogers regarding Sally Slater. Sam and I went for a long hike past the family graveyard behind the house. The weather was still mild for late March, so we were doing our best to take advantage of it. We found an old trail a good ways beyond the family plots and followed it for a few miles. The trail forked, I couldn’t make up my mind, so Sam and I turned around and hiked back to the house. I think that experience was a metaphor for this case.
As we were coming down the steep slope in back, Rogers called me. It was nearly noon.
“As far as I can tell, she’s clean. Married to Paul Slater, no children. Graduated from high school and went to AB Tech for two years. Made good grades, seems to be a fast study with new stuff. She’s a good athlete and … let’s see, played softball in high school and ran track. She’s taking some courses now on criminal justice. Excelled in her police training recently. I see nothing in her file that would suggest that she was anything but a diligent official. Are you looking for something in particular?”
“No, not really. Just looking, you know. Picking up a rock to see what’s underneath.”
“Is there a reason to pick up the rock?”
“Yeah. She was involved in shooting a prisoner earlier this morning. Prisoner came after her, she said, and she had to shoot her.”
“Would this prisoner be the one you and Starnes arrested and were going to charge with the murder?”
“The same, and Starnes had already charged her with murder. She confessed as well.”
“What’s the name of this prisoner who was shot?”
“Mina Beth Cody, daughter of some famous lawyer here in McAdams County.”
“So you have nothing now, and that man on death row will simply remain on death row.”
“Until his time comes up,” I said.
“And there is nothing anyone can do,” Rogers said.
“Not a thing. Say, did you see any family ties in her file that struck you as odd or interesting?”
“Let’s see, family connections… She was a Sally Ramsey before she married Paul Slater. Her parents are Bo and Eden Ramsey. You want me to do a more thorough genealogical search to see what might be there?”
“Yeah, go ahead. See what you can find. There’s probably nothing there, but I just want to be certain for Starnes’ sake. This is a bad turn for Starnes, the acting sheriff.”
“Probably a bad thing to have happen to an old sheriff,” Rogers said and clicked off.
In the middle of the afternoon, Starnes came by the house to see if we were okay. This was the first day we had not worked together on the murders.
“How are things at the office?”
“Well, tensions are high in the town. Mina Beth’s father came by to give me an ear full. I couldn’t tell whether he was grieving over her death or just pissed that I had let a deputy shoot his daughter.”
“He didn’t buy the story about her going after Slater, I take it.”
“Not even close. He threatened every lawsuit imaginable.”
“How’s Slater?”
“Well, I had to suspend her for the time being, with pay of course. SOP. I took her firearm and … well, I think she was okay. A bit shaken, but … hey, she killed a person. I’ve never killed anyone. Don’t want to. I can only imagine that it rattles you, to say the least.”
“Does more than that. Unless a person is pathological, it does a sight more than rattle you,” I said.
“I forgot, you’ve had all kinds of experiences,” Starnes said.
“None of them pleasant,” I said.
“Yet, here you are, still at it.”
“It’s what I do.”
“Yeah.”
“How many shots were fired?” I said.
“What?”
“Slater’s story…what did she tell you happened?”
“Said that when Mina Beth was coming out of the bathroom that she lunged at her and Slater shook her off after the first attack. Said she was able to throw Mina Beth to the floor, then Mina Beth got up and came after her again. Said she drew her weapon and fired trying to defend herself against the blows of her manacled hands.”
“How many shots were fired?”
“I assume one.”
“She didn’t tell you how many?”
“I think she said one shot. A head shot.”
“Head shot? I thought law enforcement teaches trainees to aim for the heart.”
“Well, they do, in fact. Maybe she shot in haste. A quick self-defense.”
“You examine the body?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’d the bullet enter?”
“Just above the eyes.”
“Lucky or good?”
“Maybe both. She tested well on firing a pistol by the way. You seem suspicious,” Starnes said.
“Well, someone needs to be suspicious if you want to clear her. You have to ask hard questions and make sure it was a righteous shoot.”
“Yeah. I’m not finished with my investigation into the shooting.”
“Slater go home?”
“I sent her home. Told her rest some and then go to Asheville for a psych exam. Mandatory for all of us,” Starnes said.
“You going back to Madison?”
“I have some papers to fill out and file. You wanna come along?”
“Yeah. I think Sam can stay here alone. I’ll drive and you can ride shotgun,” I said.
“You learn anything on your background check of Slater?” Starnes asked.
“Nothing that helps this.”
Chapter Forty-Six
“Hey, can I interrupt you? Come and answer some questions.”
“No.”
“I could always pull the plug on your typewriter. Stop the presses and come talk with me.”
“You’re a thorn, you know that,” it wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
Starnes reluctantly stood and followed me to the area of the jail where the shooting took place. I assumed a position in front of the women’s restroom facing the door through which Mina Beth would have emerged once she was finished with whatever it was that she was doing in the restroom.
“Is this more or less the spot where Slater told you she was standing when Mina Beth attacked her?” I said.
Starnes moved to a position next to me, stared at the door to the restroom, took two steps to her right and looked around the small area that was the hallway between the door to the actual jail cells and the office area from which we had just come.
“I think she told me she was standing just off center of the restroom door,” she said.
“Okay,” I said as I moved to the exact spot where Starnes was standing gently moving her out of the way. “She is standing here waiting on Mina Beth, the restroom door opens and Mina Beth emerges. This means that if she intended to escort the prisoner back to her cell, the prisoner would have to cross in front of her. Why would she stand to the right of the door as she faced it, knowing that Mina Beth would have to cross so closely in front of her due to the narrowness of the hallway? Why not stand to the left of the door so as not to put herself in a position with the wall directly behind her? I would think that there would be more leverage for Slater if she stood to the left of center of the restroom door?”
When Blood Cries: A Clancy Evans Mystery (Clancy Evans PI Book 6) Page 23