My first reaction was relief, then guilt at feeling even momentarily glad that it was Miz Duffield. I hadn’t much liked the woman, but she’d done nothing to deserve this.
“Where’s Bill?” Aunt Maggie demanded.
“I don’t know,” Junior said. “We haven’t found him yet. He’s not in his bedroom, or the office. Are you sure he was here at the house?”
“Of course I’m sure. I left him in his bed.” She started for the stairs.
“Miz Burnette—Miz Walters—whoever you are, you might better let me go first.”
Aunt Maggie ignored her, and I knew that short of tackling her, there was no way Junior could stop her. Junior sighed and followed, and I went along behind them.
Aunt Maggie was calling out the whole way. “Bill? Bill? BILL! Where are you?”
There was no answer, and Aunt Maggie burst into Big Bill’s bedroom. The place was a mess—the mattress had been pulled from the bed frame, and the sheets left tangled on the floor. The pulse oximeter Big Bill had been so proud of was lying in pieces on the floor.
“Herron must have come in here looking for Big Bill,” Junior said, “but he didn’t find him.”
“Where can he be?” Aunt Maggie said, as much to herself as to us. “Bill!”
She pushed past Junior and me to get to the hall, then threw open the door to Big Bill’s office. There was more chaos there: drawers dumped out, the desk chair turned over, slices in the leather upholstery with stuffing spilling out onto the floor. Herron must have gone crazy looking for Big Bill, and I could only imagine what he would have done to the man himself. But had he found him? Could he have hid the body? If not, where was Big Bill?
Aunt Maggie went back into the hallway, looking around wildly. “Bill! It’s Maggie! Where are you?”
Finally, there was an answer, though the voice calling for Aunt Maggie was so muted, I’d have thought I was hearing things if it hadn’t been plain from their reactions that Aunt Maggie and Junior had heard it, too.
“Bill?” Aunt Maggie said, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.
“In the office,” Junior said, and the three of us went back in.
At first I didn’t see anything different. Then I realized a piece of the wall was jutting out behind Big Bill’s desk. The chunk of paneling moved further forward, hitting on the overturned desk chair. A secret panel? I realized that it was the bolt-hole that people had been talking about for all those years.
“I’m in here,” Big Bill’s voice said.
Aunt Maggie was there in a second, shoving the heavy chair out of the way as if it were made of cardboard. The panel came out farther, and Big Bill squirmed out from a gap about the size of a closet. Aunt Maggie grabbed hold of him and hugged him so hard, I was afraid she’d crack his ribs.
“I’m all right, Maggie,” he said softly. “He didn’t find me. I’m all right.”
Aunt Maggie pulled back and looked at him, almost as if she didn’t believe him. “I thought you were—”
“I’m all right,” he said again. Then he asked Junior, “Did you get him? It was Herron, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“Is he dead?”
“No, but he might be by this time tomorrow. Live or die, he won’t be coming after you again.”
“Good work, Junior.”
“It was good work, but it wasn’t mine,” she said. “Belva got him.” I found out later that Junior, Belva, and some of the reinforcements had been making their way through the house when Sandie panicked and ran for the kitchen door. A Rocky Shoals cop had been between him and that door, but Sandie didn’t stop until Belva fired on him, saving the other cop and bringing Herron down. Junior gave Big Bill a pointed look. “We might want to put an end to that probation period about now.”
“I guess we should,” Big Bill said.
“What happened?” Aunt Maggie said. “Why didn’t you come when I called?”
“I didn’t know it was you at first,” he said, which was reasonable enough. “I was in bed when I heard shooting from downstairs. I grabbed the phone to call Junior and Laurie Anne, but then the line went dead. I could tell from the shots that whoever it was had more firepower than I did, so I ducked into my hidey hole here. I figured out it was Herron when he came in and started yelling and throwing things.” He looked around the room. “Looks like I’m going to need some new furniture.”
“Furniture? Is that all you can think of?” Aunt Maggie said.
“I know you’re upset, Maggie,” Big Bill said, patting her arm, “but everything is all right. I’m not hurt.”
“Irene Duffield is dead,” Aunt Maggie said flatly.
“What?”
“I guess she didn’t have herself a hiding place like you did.”
“I didn’t know,” Big Bill stammered.
“You didn’t ask, either!” she snapped.
“He’s still in shock, Aunt Maggie,” I said. “So are you. Neither of y’all are thinking straight right now.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Aunt Maggie said, looking at Big Bill as if she’d never really seen him before.
“Why would Herron kill Irene?” Big Bill asked. “She never did anything to him.”
Junior said, “It appears that he shot Miz Duffield as soon as he came in the door. There’s nothing you could have done to save her. If you hadn’t hidden the way you did, you’d be dead, too.”
Big Bill looked at Aunt Maggie beseechingly, and I think she relented, at least a little. But when she spoke, it was to say, “I want to go home now.”
“But Maggie…” Big Bill said.
“It’s over, Bill. Nobody’s trying to kill you anymore, and it’s time for me to go home. Give me the car keys, Laurie Anne.”
“Y’all are breaking up?” I said as I automatically obeyed. Even though they’d told us they only got married to keep Big Bill safe, I hadn’t expected them to divorce afterward. Aunt Maggie’s next words explained that.
“We’re not married, Laurie Anne—never have been. It was just a trick.”
“You’re not married,” I said stupidly.
“That’s right; we lied. Bill wanted to go through with the ceremony, but I wouldn’t do it, so we just told everybody we were married. We’re not, and I want to go back to my house now. I’ll get my things later.”
Big Bill tried to talk her out of it, but she just kept saying that she didn’t want to spend another night in his house. Eventually, he stopped arguing, and she left the room. Not knowing what else to do, I followed her.
Burt and Dorcas were downstairs by then, but Aunt Maggie didn’t stop long enough to answer any of their questions. She just said, “Bill’s upstairs,” and walked out the door. All she said to me was, “I’ll see y’all at the house.” Then she went to her car, ignoring everybody and everything around her, and drove away.
Richard was waiting for me in the driveway, cradling Alice in his arms, and I went to put my arms around them.
“Are you all right?” Richard asked.
“It was bad, Richard.” I told him about Miz Duffield’s death, and how Belva had shot Sandie Herron, and Big Bill’s hiding place, and finally, how Aunt Maggie and Big Bill had deceived everybody. As I spoke, Richard handed Alice to me, and by the time I got to the end, my face was buried in her shoulder, where I could inhale that baby smell. Funny, I’d always thought that a mother’s job was to comfort her children, and here Alice was already comforting me when she was still a baby.
Once I’d gotten it all out, Richard said, “We should go.”
I nodded, and though I was tempted to keep Alice in my arms so I could cuddle her, I put her in her car seat and let Richard drive us back to Aunt Maggie’s.
“It’s not your fault,” Richard said when we were in the car. “None of it.”
“I know it’s not.”
“It’s not your fault,” he said again.
I nodded, but that wasn’t how I felt, and Richard knew it. Here I’d insist
ed on taking over from Aunt Maggie and Big Bill, sure that I could find the one who was trying to kill him, and I’d never even come close. Heck, our talking to Sandie could well have been the thing that tipped him over the edge, from stealth to all-out assault. Not only had I been unable to protect Big Bill, but I’d gotten Miz Duffield caught in the crossfire. I realized then that I was still wearing my Halloween costume, and I pulled the deerstalker cap from my head. The world’s greatest detective? Only knowing that it would hurt Richard’s feelings kept me from tossing the silly thing right out the window.
Aunt Maggie’s car was in the carport at the house, but when we went inside, we found that she’d shut herself up in her bedroom. Her light was already out, but I didn’t have any idea that she was asleep. I tapped lightly on the door. “Aunt Maggie? We’re back. Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you,” she replied without opening the door. “I’ll see y’all in the morning.”
I looked at Richard, who shrugged. Aunt Maggie never had been one to pour her heart out, and if she didn’t want to talk, no amount of persuasion was going to convince her. So we changed out of our costumes and fed Alice, and went to bed ourselves. Surprisingly, I slept like a rock, and Alice picked the perfect occasion to sleep through the night for the first time.
The next day was just plain awful. Richard and I didn’t know quite what to do with ourselves. It was Halloween for real that night, but we just weren’t in the mood for it—we’d had enough real horror to last us a while. We halfheartedly discussed taking Alice trick-or-treating, but finally decided that we’d rather stay at the house and hand out candy. She fell asleep before the first trick-or-treater arrived, anyway.
As for Aunt Maggie, she got up and went to the flea market, saying it was Saturday and she had regular customers expecting her. She didn’t even come home for dinner. She called instead and said she was going to an auction. I honestly wasn’t sure if she was trying to act as if everything were back to normal, or if she was avoiding us. Richard and I weren’t scheduled to fly back to Boston for a few more days, but we checked earlier flights, just in case Aunt Maggie wanted us to leave.
When I went to bed that night, I still felt as if I’d completely failed Big Bill and Aunt Maggie, but my subconscious must have put in some serious overtime while I slept. Because when I woke up the next morning, I realized that I was absolutely sure about something. Sandie Herron had not been the one trying to kill Big Bill.
Chapter 25
I announced that fact to Richard over breakfast, knowing that he was going to find it a lot harder to swallow than his Cheerios. We were alone with Alice, having woken to find that Aunt Maggie had gone to the flea market again.
He said, “You think somebody else killed Miz Duffield, planted Herron at the Walters place to make folks think Belva shot him, and then got out of there without being seen?”
“No, Sandie killed Miz Duffield, and Belva shot him; I can accept all that. What I can’t accept is that a man like Sandie Herron could run around Byerly setting traps. You met him, Richard—do you think he has the temperament for playing a waiting game?”
“Which temperament do you mean? The polite mama’s boy, or the avenging son? And who knows how many other personae?”
“That’s what I mean—how could somebody as mixed up as he is come up with those clever attempts on Big Bill’s life?”
“Shooting at him? Trying to hit him with a truck?”
“Okay, the methods were simple, but the timing was perfect. For the shooting, whoever it was picked a time when Big Bill was alone, and when he didn’t get him with that one shot, he held off from trying again. He could have kept shooting until he got him, but he wanted to be sure it looked like an accident, not murder. Same thing with trying to run him over. He didn’t just barrel down a busy street. He waited until it was late at night in a relatively deserted spot, and again, when he missed, he resisted the temptation to try again. The trap at the apartment complex must have been set ahead of time, and it could have been an accident, too. What Sandie did sure as heck didn’t look like an accident.”
“What about the poisoning?” Richard asked. “That couldn’t be explained as an accident, either.”
“No, but it was done in such a way that there were an impossible number of suspects. The killer planned the first ones to look like accidents, so nobody would look for him, and he planned the poisoning so nobody could find him if they did look. This guy wants Big Bill dead, but just as important, he doesn’t want to get caught.”
“Most murderers don’t want to get caught.”
“I don’t think Sandie cared. He wasn’t exactly trying to hide his tracks, was he? I bet that if he had gotten Big Bill, he’d have gone right back to his cabin and waited for Junior to come get him.”
“Maybe,” Richard said, thinking about it. “You know, I think you’ve got a point. It is hard to reconcile Sandie’s attack with the earlier attempts.”
“Then you don’t think I’m just a sore loser?”
“Never, not after the way you changed an extra day of diapers when you lost that bet about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
“Thank you, love.” Then, “Wait! I changed an extra day of diapers? And you didn’t tell me?”
The next step was to talk to Junior. I called her and she said she’d meet us at the police station. Aunt Ruby Lee was next on the babysitting rotation, so we left Alice happily ensconced in her lap while Uncle Roger played and sang his way through an impressive selection of Disney songs.
Junior was waiting for us at her desk, and I sat down in the chair opposite her. I’d planned exactly what I wanted to say, so I was able to go through my reasoning and conclusions without any side trips. Once I was done, I asked, “Does this make any sense to you, Junior?” Her face hadn’t changed expression once while I was talking, and I didn’t know if that was a good sign or not. “Or does it sound like I just won’t admit losing?”
“Nobody likes losing, Laurie Anne. I’d guess that one of the hardest lessons you’ll have to teach little Alice is that everybody has to give up some time.” She paused. “But not this time.”
“Then you think I’m right?” I said, relieved. “Have you spoken to Sandie? Did he tell you something?”
“I never got a chance to talk to Herron. He died on the way to the hospital.”
“Oh.” I’d liked Sandie, even if he had made me nervous, but there was no doubt that he’d killed Miz Duffield and would have killed Big Bill if he’d gotten the chance. Not to mention the injury he’d have done to others if Belva hadn’t stopped him. I’d never been in favor of the death penalty, but this time, maybe it was the best thing that could have happened. Sandie was finally back with his mother. “But you do think I’m right?”
“I think you might be, but not only because of what you just told me, as convincing as it was. Something else happened.”
“What’s that?” Richard asked.
“It was when I went out to Herron’s cabin the night before last.”
“After the shootings?” I said.
She nodded. “I knew I wasn’t going to sleep anyway. I’m always wired after dealing with something like that. Since I was going to have to check out Herron’s cabin anyway once things were settled at the Walters mansion, I decided I might as well get it over with. I was looking for something that would link Herron to the other attempts on Big Bill’s life, hoping I could tie up those loose ends.”
“Did you?” Richard wanted to know.
“Nope. I didn’t really expect anything, given the nature of those other incidents, but it was worth a shot. I searched through everything he had, which wasn’t much. A couple of changes of clothing. About a month’s worth of canned goods if you’re not too picky about what you eat. His computer stuff. And all those pictures of his mama. Tell me that wasn’t creepy.”
“We should have warned you about those,” I said.
“Laurie Anne, nothing could have prepared me for that. Anyway, I didn’t
find anything like what I was looking for. I was planning to lock up the place and stick on some crime-scene tape when I heard something. I can’t be sure, but I think somebody was in the woods outside the cabin. When I opened the door…”
I started to say something, but before I could, she assured me, “Don’t worry; I know how to keep from being a target. I didn’t see anybody, but I called out, telling whoever it was to come out where I could get a look at him. I didn’t hear anything else for a while, and had just about convinced myself it was just my nerves, when I heard sounds like somebody was moving away at a fast clip. I yelled again, but he or she kept on going.”
“Who do you think it was?” Richard asked.
“And what was he after?” I added.
“Those are the ten-million-dollar questions. As fast as news travels around Byerly, somebody could have heard that Herron was dead, and thought he’d come scavenge whatever he could out of the cabin before anybody claimed it. Whenever you’ve got somebody living on their own like that, there’s always tales about mattresses stuffed with money.”
“Or?” I prompted.
“Or maybe there was something out there I’d missed, something that meant somebody else was involved. So I rolled up my sleeves and I went through everything in that cabin again—I tapped floorboards and looked in the septic tank and even made sure every one of those cans of soup was a real can of soup. Nothing. Except that computer.”
“It looked like an expensive setup,” Richard pointed out. “Maybe the person in the woods was planning to steal it.”
“It’s possible,” Junior said. “Lord knows the computer was the only thing there worth stealing. So I loaded up every piece of it into my squad car and brought it over here to lock in a cell.”
I asked, “Have you looked at the hard drive?”
“I was too busy yesterday, what with the mess at the Walters place to clean up and Halloween besides, but I tried to this morning. Unfortunately, I don’t have the password to access it. I don’t suppose you know anybody who’d be able to get around that, do you?”
I grinned. “Oh, I might be able to round somebody up. Though it would help if I had my laptop.”
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 08 - Wed and Buried Page 20