“I’ll answer whatever questions Big Bill wants to ask,” Tavis said. “I’ve got nothing to hide. This is all a mistake.” He looked and sounded so sincere that I almost doubted myself. “The fact is, I was doing the same thing y’all were doing: trying to protect Big Bill.”
“Is that right?” Junior said skeptically.
Tavis nodded vigorously. “Dorcas mentioned that he was coming out here alone tonight, and even though Chief Norton and Deputy Tucker did an outstanding job apprehending Crazy Sandie, I had a bad feeling about it, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to come around and make sure Big Bill was all right. I’ve been watching for a good while now, and was about ready to leave when I saw somebody climb onto the porch with a gun. I was afraid that if I called out, he’d shoot, so I was trying to take him unawares. I was nearly close enough to grab him when I heard Chief Norton yell, and all hell broke loose. Whoever it was ran, and I took off after him.”
Junior hefted the rifle they’d found with him. “Then why is it you were carrying this? It’s been fired recently, and I’m willing to bet that these bullets will match the one in the wall of the cabin.”
“It’s not mine,” Tavis said. “I almost had the shooter again, and I did manage to grab the rifle out of his hand, but he got away from me. The next thing I knew, somebody hit me in the back and knocked me over.”
“That was me,” Pudd’nhead said proudly, tossing his baseball into the air and catching it.
“Then you hit the wrong man,” Tavis snapped. “It was the other man who shot at Big Bill, and I thank the good Lord he missed.”
“There wasn’t anybody else around here,” Aunt Maggie said, but she didn’t sound completely sure. In fact, Junior and I were the only ones who didn’t shuffle around a bit. Had we messed up and caught the wrong man?
Tavis must have sensed the growing indecision. “Come on, people, what reason would I have for killing Big Bill? He said himself that he’s never done a thing to harm me.” He turned to Burt. “Burt, haven’t I been a loyal manager for you all these years? Why would I throw that away?”
Though I’d mentally convicted Tavis just from seeing his expression when he found out about Mike Cooper, I was fuzzy about the motive until that moment. I’d been thinking that it had something to do with Dorcas, and if Mike Cooper hadn’t been standing there next to Burt, I still might not have figured it out, but suddenly the rest of the pieces snapped into place. “Tavis didn’t want Big Bill dead for anything Big Bill did,” I said. “It was for something Burt did!”
Everybody turned to look at me, and Big Bill demanded, “What in the Sam Hill are you talking about?”
“Tavis has been a good manager for a long time, but nobody who knows him thinks he did it out of loyalty. He did it because he was aiming to take over the mill some day. Now, everybody in town knew that Big Bill’s will left everything to Burt, which meant that once Big Bill passed away, Burt would have all the Walters businesses to tend to, not just the mill. Since there was no way Burt could do everything, he would need somebody else to run the mill, and Tavis was the logical choice.”
“So why kill him?” Belva wanted to know. “Why not just wait for Big Bill to die naturally. At his age and all.” To Big Bill she added, “No offense.”
I explained, “He would have waited—he’d been waiting for a good while already. Then Mike Cooper came onto the scene, and Burt made it plain that he was grooming him to take over the mill.”
Burt looked flabbergasted. “You mean he was going to kill Daddy to get revenge for my hiring Mike?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “I think Tavis is too smart for revenge. He just wanted Big Bill out of the way sooner rather than later. Burt had said himself that Mike wasn’t ready to take over the mill yet, that it would be a year or two at the very soonest. But if Big Bill died now, somebody would have to run the mill in the meantime, and that person would be Tavis.”
“What about when Mike was ready to take his place?” Richard asked.
“I can’t say for sure,” I said, looking at Tavis, who was watching me with cold, flat eyes. “Maybe he figured he could stall Mike’s training, or make him so miserable that he’d quit. Maybe Tavis was planning to move up to another position himself by then.”
“Or maybe he intended to get rid of me, too,” Mike said.
“You feel like answering any of these questions?” Junior asked, nudging Tavis.
“It’s all make-believe,” Tavis said. “You can’t prove any of it.”
“We’ve still got you for trying to shoot Big Bill, in front of witnesses,” I pointed out, “and I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t even be working at the mill after tonight, let alone running the place.” The expression on Tavis’s face made me wonder if he wasn’t willing to kill for revenge after all. But other than cursing under his breath, he wouldn’t say another word.
“Belva,” Junior said, “you and Trey load Montgomery into the van.”
“You got it, Chief,” Belva said. “And Belva?”
“Yes, Chief?”
“Stop calling me ‘Chief.’ ”
“You got it, Junior,” Belva said, grinning like a cat with a bellyful of canary.
“We’re going to go book Montgomery,” Junior told the rest of us. “I’ll send Trey back in the squad car to pick y’all up.” I’d forgotten that since Junior had been the one to ferry us to the cabin, we were about to lose our ride back to Byerly. Since nobody really wanted to ride with Tavis, we were happy to wait.
Once the police contingent had driven off, the rest of us went inside the cabin, and Richard and I handed out coffee and Cokes.
“I don’t imagine Tavis knew that I don’t drink,” Aunt Maggie said, “so I guess he was hoping to get me, too.”
I nodded. “Of course, he didn’t really care if he only got one of y’all. If he’d killed you, Aunt Maggie, he might have shocked Big Bill into a heart attack, or tried for him later. If he’d gotten Big Bill, Aunt Maggie would then have inherited all the Walters businesses, but since she wouldn’t have known what to do with them, she’d have needed somebody who did. Meaning that Tavis would still have been in a good position to get his dream job.”
“He didn’t care,” Big Bill said in disbelief. “He didn’t want me dead because of who I was or anything I’d done. I was just in his way, like a slow-moving pickup truck.” He sounded oddly forlorn. Big Bill had spent so much of his life being Big Bill Walters, it had never occurred to him that somebody wouldn’t care who he was.
“How do you think I feel?” Aunt Maggie said in a disgusted tone. “If you were a slow-moving pickup, I was nothing but a pothole. If I ever get murdered, I want it to be for a better reason than that.”
“Y’all stop that,” I said. “Whenever anybody used to call me names, Paw used to tell me to consider the source. Well, you two better consider the source this time. Tavis Montgomery is so blinded by ambition that he doesn’t see y’all for what y’all really are. The rest of us do!”
Everybody else nodded in agreement, and Pudd’nhead said, “It took me a while, but I sure know now what kind of a woman Maggie is.”
If I were still in junior high, I’d have described the look he gave her as making cow eyes.
Aunt Maggie snorted, but not as loudly as she usually does.
Big Bill cleared his throat and stood up. “Maggie, now that that’s settled, we need to get something else straight.”
“Is that right?” Aunt Maggie said.
“If you’ll have me, I want to marry you, Maggie. For real, this time.”
Pudd’nhead stood up, too. “Before you answer him, I want to say my piece. This isn’t the way I planned it, but… Maggie, will you marry me?”
Neither Pudd’nhead nor Big Bill looked their best, needless to say. Pudd’nhead had been lying in the dirt all night, and then he’d had a good tussle with Tavis. Big Bill had bags under his eyes, his shirttail was hanging out, and his pants were speckled with blood. But in my mind’s e
ye, all I could see were two knights errant vying for the affections of a fair lady.
Aunt Maggie didn’t say anything for a good while, and I held my breath, waiting for her answer.
Big Bill never was known for his patience, and after he’d stood it as long as he could, he said, “Well, Maggie? Is it me or Mr. Wilson here that you want? It’s time to choose.”
“He’s right,” Pudd’nhead said. “It’s not fair for you to keep us dangling.”
“Not fair?” Aunt Maggie said incredulously. “You want to talk about not being fair? How about my saving your life, nursing you back to health, and falling in love with you, only to have you run off to play baseball the first chance you got. Then you don’t even so much as send a Christmas card for umpteen years—I didn’t know if you were alive or dead until you showed up the other day. Do you call that fair?”
Big Bill had managed to hide his grin but couldn’t resist bobbing his head in agreement until Aunt Maggie turned on him.
“And you!” she said. “We lived within spitting distance of each other and worked in the same building for years, and you didn’t even notice I was alive, let alone a woman, until we were both ready for Social Security. All that time I was nothing but a mill hand and a union troublemaker, but now you’ve decided I’m good enough after all, so I’m supposed to run into your arms. That doesn’t sound fair, either!”
Now it was Pudd’nhead’s turn to be smug.
Aunt Maggie looked from one man to the other. “You two listen up, and listen up good. I’m an old woman now, but I’d have made one hell of a wife if somebody had had enough sense to ask me when I was younger—and I’d have been a good mother, too. But since neither one of you asked then, don’t bother asking me now! I’m not going to marry either one of you!”
Pudd’nhead and Big Bill don’t look much alike, but at that moment, they had the exact same expression on their faces, as if they’d been struck by the same bolt of lightening.
It was Pudd’nhead who sadly said, “Then you don’t want to see me anymore?”
“Or me?” Big Bill said, utterly flabbergasted.
“Did I say that?” Aunt Maggie said.
The two confused men shook their heads.
“I said I don’t want to get married. I don’t have any objection to letting one of you buy me dinner, or take me out dancing some time. Y’all both know my phone number and my address.” Then she turned her back on both of them and went out to the porch. “As soon as Trey gets back, I’m going home to get some sleep,” was all she had to say.
Under his breath, Richard whispered, “ ‘Was ever woman in this humor woo’d? Was ever woman in this humor won?’ Richard III, Act I, Scene 2.”
Big Bill turned and looked at Pudd’nhead, and darned if the two men didn’t grin at each other.
“It’s like I’ve said before,” Pudd’nhead said, “that Maggie Burnette has a way of catching a man by surprise.”
Big Bill said, “Mr. Wilson, you’ve said a mouthful.”
“Call me Pudd’nhead, Big Bill. I think we’re going to be running into each other quite a bit from now on.”
Chapter 31
Richard and I stayed in town a few more days, partially to make sure everybody got a chance to spend time with Alice, and partially to see things start to settle down.
Tavis Montgomery was in jail and likely to stay there until trial. Big Bill knew most of the judges around, and none of them was willing to grant bail. Tavis was still claiming innocence, but nobody was swallowing it, not with the array of witnesses against him. There’re people who don’t trust the police, and those who don’t trust wealthy folks like the Walterses, and those who don’t trust regular people like Aunt Maggie and Pudd’nhead. But when they’re all agreeing on the same thing, they’re likely to be believed.
It was Dorcas who helped us figure out exactly how Tavis had carried out his plans. It was by spending time with her that he’d been able to find out Big Bill’s schedule, so he could go after him the first three times. As for the isopropanol, she’d worked with Tavis on a poison information brochure to hand out along with fire-prevention tips at the schools. Dorcas was also the one who’d told him about Richard’s and my going through that file of threatening letters, and it hadn’t been hard for him to sneak into Big Bill’s office and pick through them himself. He’d quickly realized that he could use Sandie Herron to get to Big Bill, especially after looking at Sandie’s web site.
Dorcas felt terribly guilty about inadvertently helping Tavis, and Richard and I felt bad about giving him the idea of looking at Big Bill’s files, but Aunt Maggie wasn’t having any of it. As she put it, only the north end of a south-going horse would take the blame for anything Tavis Montgomery did. The man was a menace, but he was in jail where he belonged, and we should get on with our lives.
Others certainly were, especially Big Bill. In fact, he’d turned over a new leaf. First he gracefully accepted Aunt Maggie’s announcement about dating him and Pudd’nhead, and then he set about welcoming Mike Cooper into the family. Next he gave the VFW a much larger donation than expected, and set up a charitable foundation in Miz Duffield’s name to promote the arts, particularly string quartet music. Most impressive of all, he finally took the time to go through all those threatening letters and started trying to make up for some of his past mistakes. He investigated Marlyn Roberts’s contaminated land more thoroughly, and when he found proof that it was Marlyn’s ex-husband who’d caused the problems after all, he spoke to the judge who’d handled the divorce. Shortly after that, their settlement was changed so that Marlyn got a lump sum instead of the useless land. Next he visited Molly Weston’s doctor. When he verified that it had been a fifty-fifty chance that her smoking, not working at the mill, had caused her lung problems, Big Bill paid Wynette Weston half the amount of her aunt’s medical and funeral bills. She shared it with her siblings but still had enough left for baby furniture and diapers. The bonus Belva got for being made a permanent member of the Byerly police force helped, too.
There was nothing Big Bill could do for Sandie Herron or his mother, of course, but I helped him find a Webmaster to maintain Sandie’s web site. The rumor was that he’d made sure that Sandie was buried next to his mother, too.
My skeptical side said that he was only doing all that to win over Aunt Maggie, and that a better man would never have made so many enemies in the first place, but there’s something heartwarming about redemption. I’d always been taught that anybody can make a mistake; it’s how the mistakes are corrected that shows a person’s worth. Big Bill was proving himself to be a worthier man than I’d expected.
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Aunt Maggie’s other ardent admirer, never did go back to where he’d been living. Instead, he had his stuff shipped to Byerly and bought himself a house not too far from Aunt Maggie’s. To make sure he got plenty of time with her, he’d gotten into the baseball card and memorabilia business and started setting up at the flea market. Aunt Maggie said he was just being a pudd’nhead again, because everybody knew the bottom had dropped out of the sports collectibles market, but that didn’t bother Pudd’nhead one bit.
Both men had proposed to Aunt Maggie several more times, so she finally put her foot down and told them that when and if she decided to get married, she’d do the asking. In the meantime, she was being wined, dined, and so thoroughly courted that she complained about not being able to turn around without tripping over one of her suitors. In other words, she was having a wonderful time.
Richard and I went to visit Mike Cooper at the mill one day—he hadn’t decided if he was going to keep using the name Cooper or switch to Walters. I wanted to apologize for not telling him what I knew about his father, but he said he understood why I hadn’t. Besides, he didn’t think he could have handled it if I’d dropped that bombshell on him right after his father’s death. What would have been a traumatic shock then was a blessing now, as he got to know his new family. The only problem was that Dorcas had been parading an
endless line of eligible young women past him, hoping he’d find one he wanted to marry. She was going to get babies into that house one way or the other.
As for me, I’d decided that motherhood hadn’t changed me as much as I’d been afraid of. Richard and I had managed to get rid of Tavis Montgomery and start weaning Alice, all at the same time. I still didn’t know whether I was going to go back to work once my maternity leave was over, but I was convinced I could keep nosing around in other people’s business as long as I could round up babysitters. Maybe I wasn’t the world’s greatest detective, but I’d challenge Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson any day to solve one of their cases in between diaper changes.
All in all, I was feeling pretty darned full of myself until the day before Richard, Alice, and I were due to fly back to Boston. That’s when I was reminded that one of my aunts’ old wives’ tales about babies wasn’t true. In other words, you can get pregnant while you’re nursing a baby. The next time Richard and I got involved in a killing was going to be even trickier.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Toni L.P. Kelner is the author of the Laura Fleming mysteries and the “Where are they now?” series. She has also co-edited, with Charlaine Harris, a series of New York Times bestselling fantasy-mystery anthologies, including Many Bloody Returns; Wolfsbane & Mistletoe; Death’s Excellent Vacation; and the forthcoming Games Creatures Play. Her short stories have been nominated for the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Derringer, and she has won the Agatha Award. Under her pseudonym Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries.
ALSO BY TONI L. P. KELNER
SKELETON FAMILY MYSTERIES
(writing as Leigh Perry)
A Skeleton in the Family
LAURA FLEMING MYSTERIES
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 08 - Wed and Buried Page 24