“Gee, thanks. Of course she likes you, otherwise she wouldn’t have insisted we have the wedding at her house. I think it was her way of finally making peace with me, and with Bobby Ray’s death.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jack said, “but I do feel a little uneasy whenever I’m around her.”
“You’ll get used to her. It’s taken me a long time, but I finally realized that her bark really is a lot worse than her bite. She’s been lonely for a long time, and the good Lord knows Bobby Ray wasn’t much of a son to her. But now she’s getting attention all the time from T.J. and Tuck and the girls.”
“Not to mention Belle.”
Belle Meriwether was Mrs. Culpepper’s cousin, and she had recently come to live with the older woman as a companion. Belle had never married and had no brothers or sisters, and she seemed to enjoy living with her cousin and looking after her. Mrs. Culpepper often said Belle had never met a silence she couldn’t fill, and she snapped at Belle pretty often. Everyone figured she must enjoy it, though, because she had perked up quite a bit since Belle had moved in.
“Thank the Lord for Belle,” Wanda Nell said. “I don’t know what we’d do without her.”
By now they had reached the town square, and Jack drove around to the side near the Sheriff’s Department building and parked at the courthouse.
Wanda Nell waited until Jack opened the car door for her. She wasn’t used to such treatment and would have been more than happy to open the door for herself, but Jack got so much pleasure out of such courtesies, she didn’t have the heart to disappoint him. Besides, it was a nice change to have someone taking care of her.
As they crossed the street, Wanda Nell glanced at the building where Tuck’s law office was located. He and T.J. sometimes worked in the office on Saturdays, especially when Tuck had a case that needed overtime. The windows were dark this afternoon, and Wanda Nell hoped they were enjoying some time off. They were supposed to come to dinner with her and Jack and Juliet tomorrow night, and she looked forward to seeing them.
Jack held open the door to the Sheriff’s Department, and Wanda Nell stepped inside. The air here was very cold, and she shivered as she removed her sunglasses and stowed them in her purse.
“Brrr . . . it’s like an icebox in here,” Jack said. “I should have worn my jacket. Are you warm enough, honey?”
“I’ll be okay,” Wanda Nell said. “I’m sure it’ll be warm enough in Elmer Lee’s office before too long.”
Jack laughed as they moved forward to the desk. He informed the officer on duty they had an appointment with the sheriff, and the officer picked up his phone and punched a button.
After a brief conversation, the officer waved them toward a door. Wanda Nell knew the way all too well. She had been here more times than she cared to recall.
She and Jack walked down the hall to Elmer Lee’s office, and she was thankful to note it actually was warmer there, thanks to the sun streaming through one window.
“Afternoon,” Elmer Lee Johnson said, standing up from behind his desk. “Howdy, Wanda Nell. Or I guess I should say, Miz Pemberton. I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Didn’t I mention that?” Jack said. “Sorry.”
“No problem. Y’all have a seat, and tell me what I can do for you.”
“Thanks for talking to us, Elmer Lee,” Wanda Nell said. “I know you’re usually pretty busy around here.”
Elmer Lee shot her a sharp glance, but evidently decided that she wasn’t being sarcastic. “It’s a slow day for once. And I’m always happy to talk to the good people of Tullahoma County.” The corners of his mouth twitched.
“And we appreciate that,” Jack said, shifting in his chair.
Elmer Lee sat down again. “So what case did you want to talk about? You didn’t say much on the phone.”
“I guess I didn’t.” Jack’s tone was light. “Well, it’s about an old case from thirty-one years ago. Back when we were all still in junior high, I guess.”
Elmer Lee frowned. “Yeah, I would have been about thirteen then. But I don’t remember anything from back then. It’s something that happened here in Tullahoma? Or somewhere in the county?”
“Right here in Tullahoma,” Wanda Nell said. “I didn’t remember it either, but I guess we were too young to pay much attention to something like that.”
“Maybe so,” Elmer Lee replied, “but I used to watch all those detective shows. I thought I was pretty sharp, and I wanted to be Jim Rockford when I grew up.”
Wanda Nell was surprised. She had never heard Elmer Lee say anything that personal before.
“I know what you mean,” Jack said. “I loved that show, too. But to get back to the case I’m talking about. Thirty-one years ago, or so I’m told, they found the body of a dead girl one morning on the football field at the high school. As far as we know, the case was never solved.”
Elmer Lee frowned at them, his eyes narrowing for a moment. “I do remember that, sorta,” he said after a moment. “I remember my mama telling me she didn’t want me out after dark for a week or two, and when I cut up about it, she told me she didn’t want some maniac killing me like he did that poor girl on the football field.”
Wanda Nell shifted in her chair. Hearing what Elmer Lee had said stirred a memory in her. “I didn’t remember anything until you said that just now, but I remember Mama telling me and Rusty we had to come straight home from school for a couple of weeks and to be sure we didn’t miss the bus for anything.”
“And then what?” Jack looked at Elmer Lee.
“Nothing. After a couple of weeks or so, my mama didn’t seem as uptight about it as she had been, and I guess we all just forgot about it.” He frowned. “I wonder what did happen about that case. Something must have happened, or else everybody would have still been all worked up over it.”
“The person who told me about it,” Jack said, “well, he told me he thought it got hushed up for some reason. According to him, it was never solved, just got swept under the carpet, so to speak.”
Elmer Lee evidently didn’t like the sound of that, Wanda Nell decided, judging by the scowl on his face. He was pretty touchy about the reputation of the Sheriff’s Department.
“I don’t know about that,” Elmer Lee said. “I can’t remember who was sheriff back then, but I suppose it’s possible.”
“Is there any way you could check your files to find out what happened?” Jack tensed slightly as he waited for an answer. Wanda Nell didn’t move or say anything. She didn’t want to aggravate Elmer Lee in any way.
“You got me curious, too,” Elmer Lee said. “Y’all sit here for a few minutes, and I’m gonna go have a look at our old files. Most of them are here, so I should be able to find it pretty quick. Can you narrow it down any more than thirty-one years ago?”
Jack frowned for a moment. “I think the person who told me said it was late in the spring, not long before school was out. He seemed pretty certain it was thirty-one years, though.”
“That means April or May, then,” Elmer Lee said. “I’ll start there first.” He got up from his desk and walked to the door of the office. “Y’all wait, and I’ll be back.”
When he had gone, Wanda Nell and Jack looked at each other. “He’s taking this better than I thought he would,” Wanda Nell said.
“He’s a fair man,” Jack responded, “and he doesn’t like the thought of an unsolved murder any more than we do. I was pretty sure he’d come through.”
“Let’s just hope he finds something,” Wanda Nell said.
They fell silent, waiting. Wanda Nell glanced at the clock on the wall nearby, and she watched as three minutes, then five, then ten ticked by. She was getting restless, and she knew Jack was, too.
“What’s taking him so long?” Wanda Nell asked.
“There may be a lot of files to go through, especially since we don’t know exactly when.”
“We know close enough,” Wanda Nell said. “Unless Elmer Lee can’t subtract too well.�
��
“I heard that, Wanda Nell.” Elmer Lee went to his desk and sat down. In his hands was a file folder, but to Wanda Nell it looked very, very thin.
“Is that it?” Jack asked, sounding disappointed.
Elmer Lee glanced down at the folder in his hands. “What’s left of it, yeah.”
Four
“What do you mean, what’s left of it?” Wanda Nell asked, her voice sharper than she meant it to be.
“What do you think I mean, Wanda Nell?” Elmer Lee’s face darkened.
“Sorry,” Wanda Nell muttered.
Elmer Lee glared at her for a moment before he spoke again. He tapped the folder lying on his desk. “There’s only two sheets of paper in this file, and that ain’t right.”
“So somebody took the rest of the file,” Jack said, the disappointment obvious in his voice.
“Yeah.” Elmer Lee almost bit off the word. It was obvious to Wanda Nell that he was very angry, and she was glad that, for once, she was not the cause of his anger.
“So what’s left in the file?” Jack asked, his tone mild.
Elmer Lee opened it and scanned the two pages before saying anything. “Not much. Just some brief details about the victim. Young woman, about eighteen to twenty, blunt trauma to the back of the head. She was completely naked, no kind of I.D. on the body, and no clothes anywhere nearby. No mention whether they ever identified her.”
“Does it say anything about who found the body?” Wanda Nell asked.
Elmer Lee shook his head. “Not even that. Hell, it doesn’t even say who the investigating officer was. There’s a note on the second page that just says the case was basically closed because of lack of evidence.”
“It does look like somebody hushed it up,” Wanda Nell said.
“Yeah,” Elmer Lee agreed, “and I wonder who the hell it was. This reeks to high heaven, and I don’t like it. I don’t like it one damn bit.”
“Then is it okay with you if we dig into it, try to find some leads?” Jack leaned forward, his eyes fixed on Elmer Lee.
The sheriff stared off into space for a moment. Then he faced Jack. “I’m kinda of two minds about it. I hate like hell that something like this got covered up, because it ain’t right. Nobody should get away with killing a girl like that.” He paused. “But if somebody went to this much trouble to cover it up and put a halt to the investigation, that means somebody with some power around this town was involved. And if you go digging it up now, well, the you-know-what could really hit the fan.”
“We’re prepared for that,” Jack said, after glancing at Wanda Nell for her approval. She nodded. “That girl deserves to have a name, and to have justice done for her sake.”
Elmer Lee grinned. “Damn right she does.”
Wanda Nell thought that grin of Elmer Lee’s didn’t bode too well for someone. He was like an old hound dog. Once he got the scent, he’d follow it as far as he could, and then some.
“You’ll back us up if we need it?” Wanda Nell asked. She wanted to be absolutely clear with Elmer Lee.
“I will,” Elmer Lee responded, his voice firm. “I’m going to be doing some digging into this myself. And I’m gonna trust you to share anything you find out with me. This case ain’t closed, as far as I’m concerned, and if we can find out who did it, that person’s going to pay for it.”
“We’ll be glad to cooperate,” Jack said, “but you’re going to have to do the same with us. Share information, I mean.” His tone was as firm as Elmer Lee’s.
“Sure,” Elmer Lee said. “I understand that.”
“Then is it okay if I have a copy of what’s in that file?”
“Yeah.” Elmer Lee stood, the folder in his hands. “Y’all hang on a minute.”
As soon as he was out of the room, Wanda Nell turned to her husband. “Well, that went a lot better than I thought it would.”
Jack smiled. “It did. But I’m not really surprised. I knew Elmer Lee would want to get to the bottom of this as much as we do.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Wanda Nell admitted. “I sure do wish there had been more to go on in that file, though.”
“I do, too,” Jack said, “but I guess I’m not all that surprised it’s been tampered with. Seems like Gus was right about the whole thing being covered up.”
“Since there’s not much to go on in that file, what are we going to do next?” Wanda Nell asked.
“First, I guess we’ll go and talk to Miz Culpepper,” Jack said. “We might as well find out what she remembers about it. She might have some kind of lead for us.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
Jack grinned. “Then we go to the library, of course. I want to look at back issues of the local paper. There’s bound to be something from back then.”
“You don’t think somebody got at the newspaper, too, do you? Maybe anything that was in the paper got taken out, too.”
“It’s possible, I guess,” Jack said, “but I’m betting there’ll be a little information, at least a couple days’ worth, before the investigation got shut down.”
Elmer Lee came back in the room, and Jack and Wanda Nell stood. Jack accepted the two sheets of paper Elmer Lee held out. “Thanks again, Sheriff. We both really appreciate this.”
“Just be careful, Pemberton.” Elmer Lee’s face was stern. He nodded toward Wanda Nell. “And keep an eye on that wife of yours. Don’t let her go off chasing some wild hare and get us all in trouble before we make any progress.”
Jack coughed, and Wanda Nell cast her husband a suspicious glance. He’d better not be laughing. She looked hard at Elmer Lee. He wasn’t smiling, but she was pretty sure she could detect a glint of humor in his eyes.
“I’ll be sure and let you know if I find any wild hares that need chasing, Elmer Lee,” Wanda Nell said sweetly. “Or maybe I should just start calling you Elmer Fudd.” She walked out of the office without waiting to see how the sheriff responded to that.
Jack was close on her heels. He was trying hard not to laugh as he put an arm around her. “Honey, what am I going to do with you? I swear, you and the sheriff sound like siblings who are always squabbling.”
“Just what I need,” Wanda Nell said. “Elmer Fudd for a brother.” She laughed. “I bet he’d love that.”
Jack grinned at her. They didn’t speak again until they were outside the Sheriff’s Department. They made their way to the car. Jack had parked in one of the few patches of shade, and the car wasn’t as hot inside as it could have been.
They sat for a moment, letting the car cool down. The ride to Mrs. Culpepper’s house would take about three minutes. She lived on Main Street, just about three blocks from the town square. Since the library was farther down Main Street, it made sense for them to stop at Mrs. Culpepper’s first.
“If we’re lucky, Belle will have some cold lemonade or iced tea,” Wanda Nell said as Jack backed the car out of the parking space.
“I could go for that. This heat is something.” Jack pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to mop sweat from his forehead.
A couple of minutes later Jack pulled the car into the driveway at the Culpepper house. Every time she saw it, Wanda Nell still felt a bit overwhelmed. She had grown up with two hardworking parents, living in either a trailer or a very modest house, and the Culpepper house was a stark reminder of the difference between her and Bobby Ray’s growing up. A beautiful antebellum mansion, the Culpepper house had been in the family for generations, and the antiques it contained were worth a fortune. All the time she was married to Bobby Ray, Mrs. Culpepper had never let her forget all that.
The old woman had mellowed in the last couple of years, and Wanda Nell was grateful for that, mostly for the sake of her children. Mrs. Culpepper was their grandmother, after all, and they should be part of her life, especially since Wanda Nell’s parents were gone. Wanda Nell had finally realized, too, just how lonely Mrs. Culpepper had been, and the attention from her grandchildren had worked wonders on her personality.
&n
bsp; Belle answered the door, and her plump face split into a wide grin the moment she saw them. “Howdy, you two. My, aren’t you both a sight for sore eyes.” She stepped aside to let them enter. “I tell you, Wanda Nell, I think you’re looking younger and even more beautiful since the wedding. Lucretia and I were looking at the pictures just the other day, and Lucretia was saying to me, ‘Look at that girl and how pretty she is. I don’t know when I’ve seen a more beautiful bride.’ ”
Neither Wanda Nell nor Jack attempted to stem the flow. They had both known Belle long enough to realize that nothing short of the Last Trump—or her cousin Lucretia—could stop Belle from talking once she got going.
Wanda Nell was still blushing and Belle still talking when they entered what Mrs. Culpepper had always called the drawing room. The old lady was sitting in her favorite chair, and she smiled at them as they entered. The smile dimmed slightly as she glanced at her companion.
“Good Lord, Belle,” Mrs. Culpepper said, her tone milder than usual, “Wanda Nell and Jack will be deaf soon if you don’t stop all that yammering in their ears. Take some pity on their poor eardrums, and hush.” She motioned toward the sofa on her right. “Y’all come on in and sit down, and try to ignore the Tower of Babble, if you can.”
Belle laughed. “Now, Lucretia, I swear I don’t talk half as much as you say I do. I was just telling Jack and Wanda Nell about you and me looking at their wedding photos the other day, and how you were saying what a beautiful bride Wanda Nell was.”
“And so what if I was?” Mrs. Culpepper demanded. “I’ve got a right to my opinion, though the good Lord knows I have to take a shovel to the side of your head to get a word in most of the time.”
Wanda Nell and Jack exchanged amused, but slightly exasperated, glances. This was what any visitor experienced, the constant verbal battle between the two women. Wanda Nell noted, however, the sparkle in Mrs. Culpepper’s eyes and the bloom of health in her cheeks. Having Belle around actually made her appear younger than her seventy-odd years.
“I bet you two could use something nice and cool to drink,” Belle said, standing in front of Jack and Wanda Nell. “I do declare, I think this July is about as hot a one as I can ever remember. You probably could fry an egg out there on that sidewalk. Would you believe I tried that once when I was little bitty girl? I heard my mama talking to somebody about how hot it was and that she could fry an egg on the sidewalk, so I sneaked one and took it outside. I cracked it, and you know what? It actually did cook. I just about blistered the skin off my feet, it was so hot.”
Leftover Dead Page 3