Murder by Serpents (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

by Graham, Barbara

  The Okay hadn’t stocked bait for years.

  The pay phone dialed from Hub’s phone sat on a short pole, next to the road. From the first moment it was installed, it proved to be popular. Residents of the small houses and trailers nearby walked over and used it rather than pay for home service. Due to popular demand, a second phone had to be placed next to it.

  Caroline “Mom” Proffitt took over the Okay when her husband died in a freak accident as he was taking down a dead tree in their front yard. Not quite five feet tall, Caroline had made two necessary changes in the bar when she went to work there. She had her brothers build a platform on her side of the bar so she could see over it. When they finished, she installed a playpen in her new office.

  Mom raised her two boys and a fair number of her current customers with love and common sense. All customers had to give her their keys when they arrived and were given a claim check if they felt they needed one. Most of the men didn’t bother with them but a couple supplied their own markers, just for fun. No one complained about Mom’s policy, and anyone who didn’t get his keys back got a ride home.

  Her nickname provoked a fair number of jokes combining her with Pops Ogle. The probability that Pops would have a stroke if he ever walked into a tavern made the whole scenario priceless. A few beers contributed to the entertainment value.

  In contrast to the faded exterior, the interior received regular scrubbings, keeping it spotlessly clean. Powerful air filters removed any smoke as soon as it was exhaled. As Mom often explained, she wasn’t going to tell her customers not to smoke, but that didn’t mean that she had to breathe the stuff.

  “Hey, Mom.” Tony greeted Caroline. He wished every bar had the same key policy and had told her that many times. “Can I have my regular?”

  “Hey, to you too, Sheriff.” Caroline’s greeting sounded warm and genuine. “You want a drink, you give me those keys.” She laughed at her own joke as she handed him a tall glass of ice water.

  At this time of the day, there were only a couple of customers in the Okay, and they weren’t drinking. Perched on the edge of a pair of wooden captain’s chairs, the two watched a soap opera on the television. Clearly irritated by the two making distracting noises, they frowned and glared. One cleared his throat loudly and uncrossed and recrossed his arms.

  Mom and Tony moved to the side.

  The only other person in the bar was a young black man cleaning the wood paneled walls. Tony recognized Daniel, Ruth Ann’s baby brother. When Daniel spotted Tony, he ambled over to visit.

  Tony grinned and slapped the young man on the back. “I didn’t know you were working here, and I would swear your sister has told me every other move you’ve made in the past few years. How’d you enjoy Army chow?” When Daniel enlisted, he had been a little overweight and now he looked extremely fit.

  “Not bad.” Daniel laughed. “I’ll bet it was better than the stuff the Navy was eating.”

  Once a Navy cook, Tony shook his head in mock despair. “You out of the service now?”

  “Yeah, and I don’t start at the University until summer and Mom said she needed some help.” His voice lowered. “She didn’t tell me that I would have to scrub the walls or I might have re-upped. She might be tiny, but she’s ruthless.”

  They all laughed at that outrageous lie. Tony could remember seeing Daniel doing odd jobs for Mom from the time he grew strong enough to lift a bucket. She had been one of his most vocal fans when he played sports in high school, sitting side by side with his mother and sister. His picture hung on the “sports wall,” along with those of every other local athlete who ever played any game well.

  Tony drained the water from his glass. “Were you both here last Wednesday night?”

  “I came here after church.” Mom propped her elbows on the bar. It looked like it took all of her willpower not to ask why he wanted to know. “It was a quiet night and I went home about ten.”

  Daniel nodded. “I came in about two to clean and tend bar while Mom went to church. A few regulars came in and ate and watched the tube for a bit. They were mostly gone when Mom got here.”

  “Anybody come in that you didn’t recognize?”

  He rubbed his chin as he thought. “It doesn’t seem like there were any strangers. You know, all the guys sat together and talked. After they left, nobody else came in here so we closed early. Why?”

  “Can you see the pay phones from behind the bar?”

  “Real well in the daylight.” Mom waved him onto her platform. “Not as good later on. Even though there are lights on the poles, they usually cast funny shadows on everything. At night everyone looks as short as me and their faces get all distorted.”

  “Damn, you are short.” As tall as he was, Tony had to fold himself almost in half to see the view that Mom would see. In the lot outside, he saw Wade photographing the area. “I know your phones are always busy, but did you notice any unusual activity or someone you don’t know hanging around? Someone getting calls? Anything odd at all?”

  Daniel and Mom watched Wade for a few moments and then looked back to Tony.

  “I’ve been gone so long that I don’t recognize everyone who comes here any longer,” said Daniel. “There was a couple of guys I didn’t know out there but nothing that I’d call suspicious looking.”

  It took Mom longer to respond. “Seems like there was something odd that happened that night, but I’ll swear that I can’t put my finger on it.” She wiped an invisible smudge off the bar with the side of her hand. “You know how it is when something is just out of reach. It’ll probably come to me about three in the morning.”

  Wade joined them inside, still carrying his camera. “Do you remember anyone out of the ordinary who stopped out there that night?”

  “Oddly enough, I do,” said Mom. “When I pulled into the parking lot after church, I saw Queen Doreen’s car parked near the phones. Now that I think about it though, I guess I didn’t see her.”

  Tony added that to his notes. “Anyone else?”

  “Well, Quentin Mize and Claude Marmot. Those two are quite a pair.” Mom’s eyes widened and her mouth rounded as it dropped open. “Now I remember! I saw that pretty little Sligar girl. It seemed awful late for her to be out, but she was definitely making a call.”

  “Prudence’s daughter? Karissa?” said Tony.

  Mom nodded.

  The boys’ favorite babysitter, Karissa was maybe twelve years old. It had to be two miles from her house to the Okay. “What time was that? Was she alone?”

  “Late, maybe midnight.” Mom leaned forward.

  “She couldn’t have been alone or I’d have gone out there. A car waited for her, but I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t parked right next to the phones, but it was running and the headlights were shining on her. That’s how I could recognize her.”

  A frown creased Tony’s forehead. He flipped back in his notebook. “Didn’t you just tell me that you left about ten?”

  Mom nodded.

  “Then how did you see her at midnight?”

  Mom’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she made a sound. “Don’t make much sense, do I?” Her face flushed and she looked miserable. Fanning herself with her hand, she studied the surface of the bar. “I’m sure it was Wednesday. I went to church and then I came back here.” She wasn’t really talking to the men, but seemed to be trying to make sense of it herself.

  “We closed early. I went home about ten. I saw Quentin and Claude about half an hour before that. I fell asleep in front of the TV during the news at eleven.” She straightened and grinned. “Now I remember. I woke up a little while later sweating like a pig and took a cold shower. This menopause stuff is pretty wild, you know.”There was no response from the men, so she barely paused. “Anyway, after the shower, I was wide awake again. I wanted to read and remembered that I left my book here, so, I jumped into the car in my bathrobe, zipped down here, used the back door and was home again in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
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  “What’s the book?” said Tony.

  “It’s the new one by Jeffrey Deaver. I don’t remember the title right off, but that man sure can tell a story. I couldn’t go to sleep until I finished it.”

  A couple of rough looking men wearing dirty jeans and tshirts with the sleeves ripped out strolled through the doorway and handed Mom their keys. She set a couple of bottles of beer on the bar and expertly flipped the caps into a small trashcan. “Guess that’s why I forgot my little trip back down here. I kept trying to figure out who the bad guy really was and what was going to happen next.”

  “Makes sense to me.”Tony might have said more, but Wade’s radio crackled, drawing everyone’s attention and sending the deputy outside. He watched Wade’s expression change from curious to mildly concerned. When the young man looked at him and beckoned with his head, Tony joined him.

  “Darren just found Possum Calhoun face down in a shallow ditch.” Wade led the way to the cars. “Word is that the body looks like he’s been dead for a while. He called Doc Nash. One of us has to drive by the clinic and lead Doc up there.”

  “Can we at least hope that Possum died of natural causes?” Tony couldn’t believe that someone else had died. Ziggy’s story about Sally asking about insurance money jumped into his mind. He didn’t want to think about it. In the few years since he’d taken office, the body count had jumped. Not that many people died in Harvey’s last ten years as sheriff.

  Tony could already picture Winifred’s next editorial on the high incidence of death by unnatural causes in Park County during his first term as sheriff. By the time election rolled around in August, she would be flying low on her broom, offering free advertising to anyone who would run against him. If the workload continued to increase, he might encourage her efforts.

  The moment he saw Doc Nash climbing out of his car, Tony knew the doctor was not a happy man. He didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.

  “Maybe I ought to quit my practice and just follow you boys around all day, or maybe I should just set up housekeeping in the jail.” Furious brown eyes glared at them over the top of Doc’s glasses. “I can’t believe you dragged me out here. I really don’t care how or why Possum is dead. Good riddance. The man was an abusive bully.” Doc sucked air into his lungs and exhaled sharply, his expression unchanged. “Not only that, but he was stupid. I’m surprised he lived this long.”

  Tony couldn’t tell which of Possum’s myriad sins irritated the good doctor more, but he agreed wholeheartedly with Doc’s assessment. If it wasn’t his job to investigate, he would probably be inclined to shrug and mumble, “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” but he couldn’t.

  Possum’s body lay, face up, on a patch of red mud. Drag marks surrounded it, showing how it had been pulled from a drainage ditch.

  The moment they arrived, Darren began apologizing. He blathered continuously about his moving the body. “I knew he had to be dead, but I swear my first instinct was to try and save him. I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s okay, Darren, I understand.” The anger that the deputy sensed did not stem from his good intentions. Tony’s anger went deeper. It made him mad that men like Possum ever walked the earth and madder still that now he had to deal with his death. Even dead, Tony thought the man looked mean and stupid. His narrow features and protruding teeth were more reminiscent of the rodent family than that of humans. Flaps of skin hung from his knuckles. The lack of scabs indicated that he might have injured them shortly before his death, but they could have been older and the scabs had dissolved. Someone else would have to determine that. Knowing Possum, Tony guessed he slugged someone to cause that kind damage to his hands.

  Tony wondered if they could find out who or what suffered those punches. Although Possum didn’t limit his violence to her, Sally usually received the lion’s share.

  Possum hadn’t smelled pleasant when he was alive. Now, coated with mud and insects, his decomposing body was not an improvement. It was obvious that he had been dead for some time. He could have died before the rain.

  Wade started taking pictures as soon as he climbed out of the car. He began with the overview and worked his way toward the corpse. It didn’t take long before he had to make his customary pilgrimage to the far side of the road.

  The doctor squatted near the body, making the most cursory observations into his pocket tape recorder. When he stood up, he glowered at Tony as if blaming him personally for his troubles. “I’d say he has been dead for at least three days, probably longer. I’d also say that he didn’t drown.”

  “How can you tell that?” Wade paused between heaves and looked over at the physician.

  “Damn, boy, but you have got the weakest constitution I ever saw. You a vegetarian?” Doc’s lips lifted in a wide grin as he looked at Tony. “Bet he can’t even deal with a dead goldfish without puking.”

  “Do you know what killed him?” Tony breathed through his mouth.

  “Looks like a knife wound, here,” said Doc, pointing to the side of the corpse’s neck, just beneath the jawbone. “Someone inserted a great big knife here. Something with a wide blade, not one of those little paring jobs. I’d say he probably bled to death, but until the autopsy, we won’t know much more than that.”

  “He didn’t die right away?” With his stomach empty, Wade moved to look more closely at the body.

  “Naw.” The doctor backed away. “I’m just guessing for now, you understand, but it might not have even killed him if he had received immediate medical help. I should be able to tell that during the autopsy.”

  Tony squinted, looking around to see if he could tell where the body might have washed down from. There were many small trees and dense vegetation right down to the edge of the ditch where the body had stopped. The ditch itself ran parallel to the road, and this stretch of road was pretty level.

  Tony stared uphill. “If he was stabbed near his house, I don’t think he would have washed down here. His place is almost a mile from here and there just wasn’t enough rain to move him that far.”

  “Maybe he walked,” said Doc Nash. “It’s pretty easy to stumble downhill.”

  “Let’s check around and see if we can find a trail. Maybe if we just go back toward his place we’ll be able to find out something,” said Wade.

  Doc Nash planned to stay until the ambulance left with the body and then he would follow it to town.

  Darren, Wade and Tony fanned out and began walking in the direction they guessed Possum traveled. It was the most direct route between his home and the road. About a half mile from the body, Darren spotted a knife in a patch of trampled weeds.

  Not a kitchen knife, it didn’t look like the average hunting knife either. It was a dagger. The eight-inch long blade was thick and heavy and tapered to a sharp point like a miniature claymore. At some point, the hilt had been wrapped with silver duct tape. Since that time, wear had exposed the threads inside the tape. The guard was missing and the blade worn from countless sharpenings. Something that resembled dried blood encrusted both the blade and most of the handle.

  Wade photographed it before anyone touched it. Then he carefully bagged and tagged it.

  No one found anything suspicious between the knife and the Calhoun shack. They saw no signs of broken plants, no blood, and no signs of a struggle.

  Sally’s face appeared in the window that faced them. Expressionless, she stared through the filthy, cracked glass, but made no move to join them.

  Tony approached the cabin. The narrow porch was covered with worn carpeting that looked like fake grass. Afraid that knocking on the rickety door would knock it off its hinges, Tony rapped on the wooden frame.

  Sally came to the door and opened it just a crack. “You can’t come in, Sheriff. Possum won’t like it if he sees you inside.”

  “If you don’t want me to come in, I need you to come outside, Sally.” Tony spoke softly. Even in the diffused light, he could see that greenish-yellow bruising darkened the left side of her f
ace. “It’s important.”

  After a moment, Sally pulled the door open just wide enough to slip outside. Wearing baggy jeans and a dirty T-shirt, she paused to tie a frayed apron with a large center pocket around her waist. With her fingers, she combed her stringy brown hair forward in an obvious attempt to cover the bruises. When Wade and Darren came around the corner, joining Tony, her eyes widened and she took a step backward. “Possum won’t like fin-din’ y’all here.”

  Tony couldn’t decide the best way to approach her. Telling friends and relatives bad news was the absolute worst part of his job. “How long has Possum been away?”