by Gen Griffin
It still remained to be seen whether or not he would be allowed to keep his badge.
“I didn't kill anyone,” Kerry said quietly. “Y'all know I didn't.”
“We'll see what the evidence says,” Frank replied. He turned to face Sully. “According to your last captain, you have a damn good record for closing difficult cases. I'm trusting you can handle this nasty business in a way that won't make Callahan County the laughing stock of the state for the third time in as many months?”
“As I told you when you hired me, I'm not some hick running around the swamp with a badge and a gun. I was on the fast-track to make sergeant when Tate got into a tight spot caring for his kids and begged me to move down here and help him out. I came to Possum Creek because I love my brother and my nieces more than I love my job. With that said, I don't like coming home from work every day smelling like a burned brisket. I'd really like to be hired on as a permanent full-time detective.”
“I know what you're after,” Frank said tiredly. “Do your job and I'll see what I can do about giving you a permanent detective's position.”
“A detective?” Kerry didn't even try to hide his annoyance. “I've been with the Callahan County Sheriff's Department longer than Sully has. He can't just leapfrog me for a promotion. He's not even a permanent hire.”
“Sullivan's got ten years of experience and excellent references, Kerry. You've got a decapitated head in the trunk of your car. Why don't you sit in here and think about the differences in your current situations while Sully and I go do some real police work and try to find a name to go with your corpse.” Frank turned on his boot heel and stomped his way out of the cell room. Sully pulled a notepad out of his back pocket.
“Before we leave, I actually have a few quick questions for you.” Sully pulled the cap off his ink pen.
“Forget it,” Kerry replied. “I'm not talking to you without my lawyer. And since I don't have one, that means I'm not talking to you ever.”
Chapter 6
“Why are we here?” Gracie Malone leaned over the delicate ivory and marble vanity and stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror of the Callahan County Country Club.
“Miss Loretta thought a bachelorette party would be fun.” Katie was standing in front of the sink immediately to Gracie's left. She was using a miniature brush and purse-size bottle of hairspray to try to tease the sexy back into her thin and generally uncooperative hair. She had her swimsuit tucked into a fat tote bag that was sitting by her feet.
“I wish Addison had been able to get the last two fish out of the swimming pool. I have no idea how to keep our guests entertained in the party room.”
“We'll figure something out. Just be glad Trish convinced the manager to let us have the party room free of charge. Sitting around on the pool deck, sweating out butts off in 90 degree heat while everyone watches a gar swim in circles under the diving board, would have been worse.”
“True. At least we have air conditioning.” Gracie raised one waxed eyebrow at her own image. Her bright turquoise eyes looked too bright in the dim mood lighting. The end of summer humidity was playing hell with her long blonde hair. It was flowing in wild waves around her shoulders, having defeated all efforts to tame it into manageable curls. Her dress was a vibrant shade of cherry red that clashed horribly with the hot pink bachelorette decorations. Her lipstick matched the dress. The color was called Kiss Me Passionately. Gracie figured Cal would like it, assuming he even noticed it. Cal hadn't exactly been the most attentive fiance lately. She was still pretty ticked off at him for ignoring her earlier when she'd stopped by the store to get his opinion on the napkins.
“Miss Loretta also thought that having a bachelorette party would help smooth things over with some of your extended family and friends.” Katie used the tip of her finger to blend her eye-shadow. She was wearing a simple mint green dress that looked like a throwback from the 1950's. Gracie wasn't sure if the dress was vintage inspired or actually vintage. Katie had a real talent for walking into a garage sale with $3 and walking out looking like a fashionista. “Apparently some folks still think that you intentionally didn't invite them to your bridal shower.”
“I didn't have a bridal shower.” Gracie put one hand on her hip and thrust her chest forward like a puffed up hen. “I hate bridal showers. They're such painfully boring gift grabs. I'd just as soon spend my own money buying the things I really want. It feels awkward as hell to ask someone else to fork over the money for a $130 coffee pot.”
Katie shrugged. “I know you didn't have a bridal shower. You know you didn't have a bridal shower. Your Aunt Maeve, however, is still not convinced. She called Cal's parents' house again before I left with the decorations. She wanted to double check the time for the wedding and make double, triple sure that Lacy and Michelle had been invited to the party tonight.”
“Ugh, yes. Unfortunately, I'm sure they'll be here. I don't understand why Aunt Maeve cares about my wedding,” Gracie said. “She's not even really my aunt. She's Granny Pearl's older brother's wife. He died a long time before I was born. I barely remember what Aunt Maeve looks like. I haven't seen her since I was twelve.”
“Don't look at me for answers.” Katie finished fiddling with her makeup and pulled her phone out of her tiny clutch purse. “I'm just here to help you wrangle this mess. Speaking of your party, we need to get back to the room. The official start time was seven and it's currently five after.”
Gracie sighed and cast one last glance around the ridiculously fancy ladies room. Her eyes fixed on the giant bay window that looked out over the golf course. “Any chance we can climb out the window and slip away?”
“I wish.” Katie frowned at her phone and then put it away. “We're easily 20 feet above the ground and we're wearing heels. I'm pretty sure we'd be going down the aisle in wheelchairs on Saturday if we tried to go out that window. Besides, we only have to survive for the next five hours. We've got a private room in the country club, endless appetizers, an open bar where the bartender has been paid handsomely not to check your I.D. and a half-decent live band that the manager threw in to make up for the alligator gar in the pool. We're not exactly suffering under third world conditions.”
“You clearly haven't seen our guest list.”
“Actually, I was kind of wondering about that. Who exactly did you invite to this shindig?” Katie walked over to the window and peered out to the side. The parking lot was just barely visible.
“My original guest list consisted of three people, including myself.” Gracie fussed with her hair, trying to rearrange her part so that it fell to the side instead of the middle. “Miss Loretta insisted that I bring it up to fifteen. Do you have any idea how hard it was to come up with twelve more women our age who I wanted to spend the night hanging out with? I would have done better to invite Miss Loretta and Granny Pearl, but both of them said that bachelorette parties are for young people.”
“We should have just dressed Addy in drag. He offered to come if I could find a pair of high heels that would fit him.” Katie giggled and then sobered. “Ah crud, did you invite April Lynne?”
“No. Miss Loretta suggested inviting her, but I remembered how nasty she was to you when we were in high school. I don't care if she is Cal's cousin. You don't like her and that means I don't like her either.”
“Well, she just pulled up.” Katie pursed her lips as she studied the parking lot. “And she's got her posse in tow.”
“Her posse?” Gracie joined Katie at the window. “You mean Cissy and Laurie?”
“Yes.” Katie's irritation showed in her eyes. She straightened her narrow shoulders and drew herself up to her full height. The three inch heels she was wearing made her all of five foot four.
“How lovely. I definitely didn't invite any of them.” Gracie gritted her molars together in annoyance. “I guess they're trying to crash my bachelorette party?”
“They're carrying presents.”
“Presents?”
�
��Two wrapped boxes and a gift bag.” Katie made no effort to hide her unhappiness. “Guess I won't be leaving my drinks unattended tonight. God only knows what April Lynne will try to poison me with now that we're all adults. I'm sure she has access to much higher quality toxins these days.”
“She used to put eye drops in your water bottles, didn't she?” Gracie vaguely remembered the details of Katie's feud with Cal's psychotic bitch of a first cousin.
“Yup. I don't hate very many people, but April Lynne is the exception to my ability to be a good Christian.” Katie grabbed Gracie by the arm and began physically towing her towards the door. “Come on. If you didn't invite her then I vote we kick them out before they can get their first round of free drinks.”
Gracie nearly laughed as she allowed herself to be drug towards the bachelorette party she had no desire to attend.
Chapter 7
“Did I do what?” Addison Malone gestured for Meg, Possum Creek's evening and late night dispatcher, to repeat her question.
“The Sheriff wants to know if you put the decapitated head in the trunk of Kerry's car?” Meg adjusted the wide floral print headband that she was using to hold her shaggy brown hair out of her eyes and popped the giant pink gum bubble that she had just blown. “Did you do it or not? I need an answer.”
“I don't know anything about any decapitated heads and I haven't been in Kerry's squad car since the paperwork went through on my new Dodge.” Addison rubbed his hand against the back of his neck and glanced up at the clock on the wall. So much for getting an early start on Cal's bachelor party. The gar in the country club swimming pool had proven incredibly tough to recapture. Maintenance was going to have to drain the pool and then remove the last two remaining fish. He didn't envy them their task.
“Not his cruiser. The Audi.” Meg's voice was just nasally enough to grate on Addison's nerves.
“The girly blue thing?” Addison couldn't quite remember what an Audi was right now. He'd had a damn long day out on the water writing up half the county for fishing without a fishing license.
Meg nodded. “Did you put a head in the trunk, or not?”
“Like, a real head?” Addison asked.
“A real head,” Meg confirmed.
“A person's head?”
“Are you going deaf, Addy?” Meg curled her lip at him. “Just answer the question.”
“I'm trying to, but I can't even figure out what the hell you're talking about. Kerry found a person's head in his car?”
“No. Sully found a person's head in Kerry's car. We got an anonymous tip that someone was using a baby blue Audi convertible to transport drugs across Callahan County. Sully staked out the highway so that he could pull the car over when it came through.”
“Kerry's running drugs?” Addison didn't even try to hide his shock.
“Sully didn't say anything about finding drugs,” Meg said. “He did find the head though. He says its a real head.”
“Did he arrest Kerry?”
“Uh huh, sure did. Sheriff Chasson told me that, if you didn't admit to putting the head in the trunk, then I needed to ask you if you would mind going and getting the wrecker from David's shop? He can't get hold of David. Something about it being Cal's bachelor party tonight. Even if it weren't, David says he ain't messing with anything that has to do with Kerry Longwood.”
“Why do we need the wrecker?”
“Because Kerry's personal car is now evidence, duh.” Meg looked at Addison as if he'd gone stupid. Maybe he had. It had been a long week. He had a splitting headache that was getting progressively worse every time Meg opened her mouth.
“And I need to use David's wrecker to tow the car to Baker County?” Addison guessed where this was going.
“Uh huh. If Kerry murdered somebody then his car is the scene of the crime. There could be hairs and fibers and all that microscopic stuff. DNA.”
“You watch too much CSI,” Addison told her. “I highly doubt that Kerry killed anyone. The head is probably just someone's idea of a prank. Kind of like putting his cruiser in the fountain at the park earlier this summer.”
“Could be, but Sully don't want to take no chances.” Meg drummed her long, bright orange fingernails on the top of the chipped oak desk that she shared with Katie. He found himself wishing that Katie were on duty right now instead of Meg. Katie never talked to him like he was stupid.
“If Sully doesn't want to take any chances then you need to call the Baker County lab and have them send their official truck down to get Kerry's car.”
“Why would we do that?”
“Because I didn't put the head in Kerry's car and I don't want to be accused of tampering with the evidence. If Kerry really is being arrested and possibly charged with murder, we can't risk him claiming that I messed with the evidence.”
“You're a cop.”
“Kerry has filed 27 official complaints against me. He's accused me of everything from corruption to sleeping with a 64 year old city councilwoman. I'm not the right person to be handling evidence in a case where Kerry is a suspect.”
“Oh.” Meg pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose. “Let me call the Sheriff and see what he wants me to do. You really swear you didn't put that head in Kerry's car?”
Addison held up his right hand and crossed his heart with it. “I solemnly swear that I did not put a decapitated head, or any other body parts, in Deputy Kerry Longwood's personal vehicle.”
“Did Breedlove do it?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Do you think Breedlove might have done it?”
Addison thought about the suggestion for a minute and then shook his head. “If David put a head in the trunk of Kerry's vehicle, it would probably be Kerry's head.”
“Nice.” Meg rolled her eyes as she picked up the heavy phone on her desk. “I'm fixing to call the Sheriff. If you don't mind waiting here while I tell him what you said, I'd appreciate it.”
“Aw, you know, I would if I could but I can't. I went off duty over an hour ago. I'll see you later, Meg.” Addison spun on his heel and headed for the front door as quickly as his long legs would carry him.
Chapter 8
“Gracie! Oh my gosh! I'm so excited for you!”
Gracie was still twenty feet away from the door that separated the private party room from the main area of the country club when a vaguely familiar brunette came hurrying up and abruptly threw her arms tightly around Gracie's neck. The one-sided, awkward hug went on for several seconds longer than Gracie would have liked it to.
“Hi,” Gracie said. She cast a sideways glance at Katie and made a face as the hug finally came to an end and the brunette released her.
The girl was still grinning madly. “You and Cal. Gosh. Getting married. I always knew y'all would make it! Y'all have always been one of those perfect couples. I wish I'd found my soulmate in elementary school. Life would be so much easier. Not that I'm not happy. Bobby Rogers and I have been talking for the last few weeks. You remember Bobby Rodgers?”
Gracie managed to nod. She knew Bobby, but who the heck was this chick? “It's good seeing you,” she said. “I really need to get back to the party. We left Trish all by herself and-.”
“Of course.” The brunette cut Gracie off before she could finish making an excuse to walk away. “I'll walk with y'all. I was so excited to get the invite from you. It's been such a long time since we hung out. Who knows, maybe Bobby and I will work out and you can come to my bachelorette party next!” The girl fell into step beside Gracie as she and Katie continued walking towards the party room.
They had just gone through the french doors when someone else called Gracie's name.
“Gracie! Yay! There you are!”
“Hi Lacy, Michelle. It's great to see you guys. I was afraid y'all wouldn't make it.” It was all Gracie could do to keep her fake smile pasted on as she saw her identical third cousins coming towards her with humongous gift bags draped over their arms.
“We wouldn't hav
e missed it,” Lacy said. Or maybe the speaker was Michelle. It was really pretty impossible to tell the twins apart. Despite being 25 years old, Lacy and Michelle still made it a point to dress identically all the time. Addison called them “twinsies til deathsies”. He couldn't stand either one of them. Neither could Gracie.
“Never would have missed it,” Michelle echoed. “I was so sad when we realized we'd missed your bridal shower. The invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.” She thrust one of the giant pink gift bags at Gracie. It had tissue paper and ribbons practically bubbling out the top.
“You didn't miss my bridal shower.” Gracie let out an oomph as the full weight of the bag hit her. It had to weigh close to forty pounds. What the heck was in this bag? A microwave oven? “I didn't have a bridal shower.”
“What?” Lacy or Michelle looked horrified.
“I told you so,” Michelle or Lacy said to her other half.
“Why didn't you have a bridal shower? We would have thrown you one if you had asked.” Lacy fanned herself with one chubby hand. She had rings on every finger except her left ring finger.
“I didn't want-.”
“You should have told us,” the other twin cut in. “We would have loved to host a shower for you.”
“I'm not into-.” Gracie grimaced as the twin she thought was Michelle handed her the second massively heavy gift bag. A burst of pain ran through her back and she nearly dropped it. This one weighed even more than the first. “Wow, these are heavy.”
“Here, let me.” Katie grabbed one of the bags from Gracie and immediately swore. “Jeez. What did y'all buy? His and hers bowling balls?”