by Tonya Kappes
“Then it means that we’re going to be stuck side by side for the next few days to get it solved.” He smiled, those perfect teeth appeared and sent my heart into fluttering overdrive.
Those were teeth you didn’t get around here from the dentist. It was one of Finn’s best qualities besides his perfect parted short brown hair.
“Not on my dime you won’t, buck-o!” Poppa yelled in Finn’s ear.
Finn blinked his eyes and pulled his finger up to his ear, the one Poppa yelled in, and gave it a vigorous shake.
“Dang.” He jerked. “There’s a loud ringing in my ear.”
“I’m sure it’ll go away soon.” I gave Poppa the stink eye. “Probably stress,” I said to Finn.
“Fine. But when you summon me, I might not come.” He ghosted away, but I knew better. There wasn’t anything Poppa loved more than a good case. This was the makings of a good one because there were some strange clues that needed to be answered, like where was her back-side panel?
“What are you thinking up there in that noggin?” Finn was catching on to the Southern slang.
“After we get done here, I’m going to have you go get Juanita Liberty and bring her down to the department.” I looked up and caught an unexpected look on his face. “Yeah. When I went by there this morning, she didn’t have anything nice to say about Leighann. Plus all the history between the two women. With Leighann gone, I think she’ll be happy.”
“Happy? That’s a morbid thing to say.” Finn’s brows furrowed.
“She wants more for Manuel than Cottonwood.” I looked at Scott when he walked up.
“Didn’t he have a big future in football?” Scott asked.
“He did and that’s what Juanita is upset about. He didn’t take the scholarship for college and she’s upset about it.” I looked up and noticed the clouds were taking on a gray color.
“Don’t step on a mama’s toes.” Finn shrugged.
“A Southern mama’s toes at that.” Scott nodded. “They will go through hell or high water to see to it that their baby gets their due.”
“Mmhmmmm,” I ho-hummed in agreement.
Finn’s gaze arched slowly back and forth between me and Scott like he was trying to decipher the conversation between us.
“It’s Southern talk,” I noted. “Finn’s from Chicago.”
“Oh.” Scott’s mouth formed an O, his chin lifted up. “We were sayin’ that his Mama would do anything to...”
“Yeah. I get it.” Finn glowered and turned away.
Scott and I stood there in silence as we watched Finn walk back down to where they’d pulled the SUV out of the water. He used the bottom of his boot to brush on top of the grass and his flashlight to focus on the ground as if he were looking for more clues or evidence.
“What’s up with him?” Scott asked.
“He’s a very good deputy. Very by the book.” I noted and tried not to get the vibe that Finn wasn’t too interested in Scott or his help. “If you don’t mind, why don’t you head back to the department and get the paperwork started for the case. Let’s treat it like a homicide until Max tells us otherwise.”
“No problem.” Scott glanced at Finn before he gave me the nod and headed out.
“What was that about?” I asked Finn when I walked down to talk to him.
“It’s weird seeing another person on the team. Not that we couldn’t use it right now, but I felt like an outsider.” Finn smiled. “Stupid really.”
“I’m sorry I made you feel that way. I never intended it.” Softly, I touched his arm. “I think it’s super cute that you still try to figure out what we’re saying.”
“I think it’s more of my jealousy that you communicate with him in a different language or something.” Finn smiled. “That’s all.”
“I’ll communicate with him in any way as long as we can get this murder solved before we leave for Chicago.” I turned it around to a positive, so any sort of negative feelings Finn was having wouldn’t hurt the momentum of the investigation.
“Where do we start?” Finn rubbed his hands together.
“We need to find that side panel, we need to figure out who Leighann and Manuel were fighting with last night and we need to know what they were fighting about.” Everything I was saying was just the basics that’d help put any sort of pieces together.
“You don’t think the panel is somewhere in the water?” He asked a really good question.
“I don’t because the back of the SUV isn’t wet. It appears the front end went in, stuck in the mud and sort of drifted a few feet from the put in. I don’t think the side panel fell off when it went into the water. What did it hit to make it fall off?” So many questions were stabbing me.
Solving a murder was like a giant puzzle. It was up to me and the deputies to put those pieces together. Unfortunately, the pieces didn’t always fit together in a nice little way and hopefully Leighann’s body and a few answered questions were going to get it completed.
“Juanita is your first thought?” Finn asked.
“She’d be the one with the highest priority of motive since Leighann is the one who had the most influence on Manuel and his life. The Graves told me this morning that they’d accepted the relationship,” I noted.
“You believe them even after the look on their faces from the dance last night?” Finn folded and crossed his arms across his chest.
“They’d given Leighann a job and Manuel still had his job, so I do believe they’ve accepted it. Not that it means they still didn’t want better for Leighann, but to kill their own daughter?” I questioned. I just couldn’t go there at this time. I inhaled deeply, “I don’t think they were so mad to kill their own flesh and blood.”
“I agree with you, but what happened to no stone unturned?” His features hardened as he threw my own mantra back at me.
“That’s why we are going to question everyone. Including the Graves again.” My eyebrows dipped in a frown. “While you go get Juanita, I think I’ll stop by the Graves’s. Check on them and maybe ask a few questions now that it’s turned from finding her to finding out what happened to her. I’m sure the entire Auxiliary Women’s club is there with food and people stopping by.”
When someone died in Cottonwood, the entire town rallied around each other. Immediately, the Auxiliary Women’s club would get to work in the kitchen, taking many dishes to the family.
“I’ll give you about an hour and continue to just comb the area while you do that. I’ll pick up Juanita on my way back.” His gaze softened.
After we said our goodbyes, I got into the Wagoneer and headed back to the Graves’s house.
Their driveway was already filled with cars from Cottonwood citizens there to give their condolences. This was when it was really great to be from a small town. There might’ve been a lot of gossip, but whenever there was a tragedy, we put our differences aside and pulled together to help the family and community get through it. Though Leighann was an adult, she was still just a child and there was something wrong about the death of a child before the parents.
Instead of knocking, I just let myself in. The family room was filled. Mayor Chance Ryland and his new bride, Polly, were sitting in chairs that were in front of the couch, talking to Jilly and Sean. No doubt they were telling them that the department, me, was going to do everything in our power to get to the bottom of what happened.
I headed back to the kitchen to find Viola White, Ruby Smith, and Mama logging all the food that was being delivered to the house. They would write down who brought what food and would label the dish they’d brought it in. This whole food repass thing was also sort of a competition between the women on who got the most compliments. I knew it was a messed-up theory, but that’s how the pride of these Southern women worked.
“The broccoli salad is from Bev Tisdale.” Mama lifted the lid and her nose turne
d up. “We can just throw that one away. I can smell the store-bought ingredients.”
“Sounds good to me.” Viola grabbed the tin and tossed it in the black garbage bag in her other hand. “What about what Polly brought?”
Mama lifted the foil off the plate that Polly must’ve brought as a good gesture.
“Ugh. I can’t even make it out.” Mama didn’t bother putting the tin foil back on it. “Pitch it. What’s wrong with people?”
I could spot Mama’s famous chicken pot pie from anywhere. And she sure did love to boast about it since it was now on the menu at Ben’s Diner and featured on the Culinary Channel. I was proud of her too. But the other women were green with envy.
“Kenni,” Mama’s voice rose when she saw me. She rushed over with her hands out in front of her. Viola and Ruby rushed over too, their ears on full alert. “Everyone wanted me to call you and ask you what happened, but I knew you’d be busy.”
“Tell us.” Viola held out a piece of her homemade potato candy that she knew I couldn’t resist. It was a Southern classic favorite and her homemade peanut butter was to die for. “Here.” She stuck the napkin in my hand.
“There’s not much to tell.” I took a bite of the candy and was thankful when Myrna Savage came into the kitchen with an armful of flowers.
“Help me,” she squealed when she noticed the women were standing there looking at me. “I’ve got a van full of flowers.”
Myrna Savage was the owner of Petal Pushers, the only florist in town.
I grabbed one of the vases out of her hand and stuck it on the window sill next to a prescription bottle of Ambien that belonged to Sean. Poor guy probably had a hard time sleeping, I waved my concern for him away.
“Come on, Viv.” Myrna grabbed Mama by the sleeve. “I need your help.”
Mama would normally protest but under the circumstances, she bit her lip and hurried out the door beside Viola and Ruby.
“Honey, how are you?” Myrna asked and pulled a piece of baby’s breath out of her black hair.
“I’m alright. It’s a shame to see a young person come to their demise before they should,” I said and glanced over her shoulder at the medication bottle on the kitchen window sill.
“Honey, I wholeheartedly believe that when it’s your time, it’s your time.” She nodded her head and in her own way, I knew she was trying to come to grips with it herself. “Jilly is a strong woman. I’m not so sure that Sean’s interior is as tough as his exterior, but he’s gonna need a lot of help. I done told Dr. Shively that she’s gonna have to give him something.” She continued to nod, “if you know what I mean.”
“My goodness,” Mama fanned her hand in front of her face when she walked into the kitchen with a couple flower arrangements. “I used to love flowers, but now the smell reminds me of a funeral home.”
I didn’t let the women continue to fuss and argue over where to put the flowers. I took it upon myself to take them from Mama and put them on the window sill right next to the prescription bottle. Upon further inspection of the label, it appeared Sean Graves’s prescription was written by Dr. Camille Shively.
I headed back into the family room. The room was filled with low murmurs and everyone seemed to be facing the Graves, who were sitting on the couch with Mayor Ryland and Polly next to them. In the chairs next to fireplace was Angela Durst, the secretary for Graves’s Towing. Her daughter, Beka, was in the chair next to her. Both of them looked up at me with turned down mouths. Angela blinked a couple of knowing blinks. There were a few Baptist nods from other people who were there to give their condolences.
“Mayor, Polly.” I greeted them and set any difference the three of us had aside. It wasn’t a secret that we butted heads a few times over the course of my terms. “Sean, Jilly, can I talk to you?”
I saw Polly shift in her chair and straighten up as though she were getting herself ready to hear something.
“In private?” I asked.
“Of course.” Jilly jumped up and tugged on Sean’s shirt. “We can go into the office.”
The office was in the other side of the old house and I’d been in there a few times. Including the time I’d caught Leighann and Manuel in there being a little more intimate than her parents probably wanted her to be. Actually, not probably, I knew for certain they didn’t want Leighann near Manuel.
From the photos of Leighann and Manuel that were framed in the office that weren’t there before, it sure looked like those times had changed.
After they shut the office door to give us some privacy, Sean started in with the questions.
“What happened? There had to be foul play.” He insisted. Jilly did her best to calm him down, but he kept saying that she’d never take her own life.
“She did say she was going to a few times,” Jilly’s voice cracked.
Was it possible that Poppa was here during a situation where they did take their own lives? It’s something we’d never come across and he certainly wasn’t around right now to hear this.
“That’s enough, Jilly.” Sean’s jaw tensed, and he glared at his wife. “Our daughter didn’t do this to herself.”
“There’s not much I can tell you about any preliminary reports from Max,” I referred to the coroner, “But I can tell you that her car keys were in her pocket, the shift was in park and there were no visible signs of a homicide.”
“You.” Jilly jumped up and shook a finger at Sean. Her face was lit on fire. “You did this to our daughter. She told you that you were the one who’d make her take her life and now she has.”
“Jilly, Sean.” I had to calm them down. “A death is very hard. I’m sure the death of a child is something that is unfathomable. But right now, I need you two to help me figure out exactly what happened. And being at each other’s throats isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
Jilly sat back down and planted her hands between her knees.
“Kenni is right.” Sean did the right thing by going over to his wife, bending down and taking her into his arms.
“We don’t know if there’s foul play or not. But we do know that it’s awfully strange for her to drive off the boat ramp, put her car in park and put her keys in her pocket.” I wanted to try and give them some information that would trigger anything. “When we did a little more investigation on the car after it was pulled out, we noticed the right back panel was missing.”
By the look on Sean’s face, I could tell he didn’t know.
“Did Leighann have an accident that day?” I asked.
“No.” Sean shook his head. “In fact, she was washing her car because she’d said that she saw on the weather channel a snow storm coming. She put a sealer on it to keep off the snow and the salt that would get on her car while it was bad out.”
“Did she act funny? Or talk to anybody that day? Anybody?” I asked.
“Rachel Palmer came by, but she always comes over.” Jilly shrugged and wiped her eyes with her hands.
“She did before she went off to college. It’s not like they’ve been great friends since they graduated.” Sean corrected his wife.
“Did you hear anything they were saying?” I asked and wrote down Rachel’s name. I knew her parents from church. Nice people.
“I watched from the office window out there, but then we got a call about a tow and I went ahead and dispatched it out to Manuel because I really think it’s important,” Jilly swallowed hard, “was important that Leighann kept in touch with her friends outside of Manuel.”
“I see that y’all seem to have accepted Manuel and Leighann’s relationship.” I picked up one of the frames off the credenza.
“This was where Leighann worked on paperwork and we let her make it her own.” Jilly’s lips turned into a little smile. “She was excited to have her own space. I even took her to the Dollar Shop in Clay’s Ferry to get her frames for cheap. The first thi
ng she did was go down to Dixon’s Foodtown and use their photo machine where you can hook up your cell phone and get the pictures right off of it.”
“It wasn’t that we didn’t want her to date him. But like Jilly said, we felt like she was losing her friends. She spent so much time with him and she had a scholarship to go to the community college, but she didn’t want to do that.” There was disappointment on his face. “Maybe if we made her go, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“Some kids don’t go to college now, Sean.” Jilly sucked in a deep breath. The frustration was visible. Her lips tightened. “We told her she didn’t have to. Maybe next year. We thought that once she saw how hard it was to have a full-time job, she’d rethink the whole college thing.”
“What do you know about Manuel’s college?” I asked.
“You know he was such a good football player. It’s true. They met here. He’s a good worker. But when I saw him and Leighann kissing a couple years ago, I lost it. I made sure he was busy when Leighann was here. I gave her extra money, so she didn’t have to come to work. I tried so hard to keep them apart,” Sean said.
“They were just kids.” Jilly tried to soften Sean’s words for him. This was something she’d often do in public. “We thought it would end.”
“We thought wrong. After a few months of that is when Leighann started acting up and sneaking off. She was saying how much she loved him, and no one was going to keep them apart. I didn’t know who he was coming in here and messing up our lives that we had planned out.” Sean appeared to be as mad today as he was the first time I’d gotten a call from him about putting the boy in jail.
“I’ve reminded Sean how many times that we were no different.” There Jilly went again making him look better.
“Times were different then, Jillian.” That’s the first time I’d ever heard him call her by her full name. “Prices were cheaper. We got this from my family. Leighann was throwing her life away on a boy.”