Overdue

by Elizabeth Spann Craig

  Burton nodded, saying lightly, “That must have been very early.”

  Tanya considered this. “Yes, it was. The sun was just starting to come up, so I’m going to say it was about 6:15. That way the pavement wasn’t too hot for Valentine.”

  Burton made note of this and then said, “What type of dog is Valentine?”

  “Big,” said Tanya with a short laugh. “She’s a rescue, but she must have Labrador, German Shepherd, and something else big in her.”

  I gave her a smile. I’d seen her out walking Valentine. While the dog’s name might imply she’s a sweetheart, her appearance suggested she could be a force to be reckoned with.

  Burton seemed to have the same question I did. “And where is Valentine now?”

  For once, some emotion crossed Tanya’s features and she blinked rapidly a few times before clearly becoming impatient with herself. She gave another deprecating laugh. “We tend to spoil our animals a bit. Valentine goes to the barn where I keep my horse, Fancy, stabled. They love her out there and she loves running around the property and hanging out with the horses. She even likes the barn cat there.”

  “And that’s where she is today?” asked Burton quietly.

  Tanya nodded and looked blankly out my windshield. “Howard suggested it after we walked her. Valentine seemed to want the walk to go on and on, but I was worried the pavement was already getting too hot for her paws. He told me I should drop her off at the barn for the day so she could get the rest of her energy out.” She stopped and then said roughly, “If Valentine had been home, this never would have happened.”

  Burton gave Tanya a moment and then said, “So after you walked, you took Valentine away? And then what?”

  She said, “Well, I took a shower and got ready for my day first. Then I did take her to the barn. After that, I ran a few errands.”

  “Grocery store?” asked Burton politely.

  I wondered the same. She hadn’t brought any groceries in, so it didn’t seem as though that was one of the errands.

  Tanya said, “We get those delivered. No, I ran by the drugstore to drop off a prescription, then I went by the dress shop. Howard had an event that was coming up and he thought I should pick up something new for it. But I didn’t have any luck.”

  “And Howard stayed at home during these errands?” asked Burton.

  Tanya shrugged. “He had work to do. Howard said he had a bunch of emails to answer and a couple of phone calls to make.”

  “Was that pretty much a typical morning for the mayor at home?” Burton continued making short notes in the little notebook.

  “Not at all. But he’d had a very quiet last couple of weeks. We were joking about that, actually. Whenever Howard has a quiet spell, it usually means he was inundated with requests for assistance of some sort soon afterward. Sure enough, the work came barreling in. But it was also right after one of his Muffins with the Mayor. Sometimes those generate work later on. I think the events remind people they have a problem they need worked out,” said Tanya.

  Burton said, “So you both had an early start. Then Howard is delving into work. The plan was for him to go into the office at lunch? After lunch?”

  “He’d go in after lunch every day.”

  Burton said, “Was this routine something people knew about?”

  Tanya shrugged again. “I suppose. He hadn’t been doing it for very long, but he did have a message on his voice mail at the office explaining when he’d be in every day.” She paused. “Howard was already supposed to be at the office by this point. Somebody just made sure he didn’t get there.” Her voice was bitter.

  Burton said, “I know this may be hard to think about. But was there anyone who was giving Howard a hard time? Someone who perhaps wasn’t happy with him?”

  Tanya cocked an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? This is all I’m going to be thinking about. Who could possibly have disliked Howard enough to do something like this to him?”

  Burton nodded. “I know he was a likeable guy, so it might be difficult to imagine.”

  Tanya said, “He was a politician. Yes, he was likeable, but people didn’t always think it was genuine. Besides, in his job, he couldn’t tell people yes all the time. Sometimes people asked for his help and he either couldn’t or wouldn’t help them. So it wasn’t as if everyone loved him all the time.”

  Burton waited as she thought.

  Finally, Tanya said, “One person in particular stands out in my mind. Her name is Mel Trumbull. She asked Howard to vote against some zoning changes in her neighborhood. Apparently, the council is going to zone for business directly behind her house and there isn’t going to be much of a tree buffer there.”

  Burton raised his eyebrows. “Was this woman very upset about this?”

  Tanya shrugged a shoulder. “She wasn’t happy about it. And she attended quite a few meetings about the proposed zoning changes, so she made herself practically inescapable. I was looking around me before the muffins event yesterday to make sure she wasn’t lurking somewhere. I was starting to get the feeling she was going to approach us at home.” She stopped short, frowning at what she’d just said.

  Burton was frowning too, as he jotted down a few notes on his notepad. “Do you think that’s something she might have done? Did she seem agitated?”

  Tanya put her hand up to her forehead as if it was throbbing. “I don’t know. I suppose she did. Her voice would get loud and squeaky when she was talking about the zoning. I have no idea what she was capable of.”

  Burton said, “Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Blake Thompson?”

  Tanya blinked at him and then drawled, “Chief, what exactly are you implying?”

  Burton colored a little. “Sorry, that was poorly worded. I meant your family’s involvement with Blake Thompson. My understanding is he’s done some work for you?”

  “That’s correct. But it’s much more than that. Howard and I have sort of adopted him. He’s practically family. He’ll drop by for dinner sometimes and sometimes we’ll entertain and invite him to be part of it.”

  “Have you always been this close to him?” asked Burton.

  “No, we started out on a purely business basis. Howard was always concerned and fussing about the old wiring in the house. He seemed to think we lived in some sort of firetrap.” She gave a chuckle that trembled a little bit and she stopped speaking until she regained control again.

  Burton said, “So Blake has worked on some electrical issues for you, then?”

  Tanya waved an impatient hand. “Electrical, plumbing, pest control, weeds in the yard. He was Howard’s first line of defense with whatever problem we encountered. He even patched our roof one time.”

  “And they got on well, did they?” asked Burton.

  Tanya snorted. “Hardly. They seemed to fight like cats and dogs. Blake would say something needed to be done that hadn’t been on the agenda . . . remove mold or something. And Howard would get all red in the face and say there’d been no mention of mold or dry-rot or whatever the problem would be. Then Blake would get defensive and say sometimes you don’t find out about a problem until you really get in there.”

  Burton nodded. “It sounds like they spent a good deal of time together.”

  “It’s an old house. It always needs work. At least, Howard always thought it did. It’s my family home. I’ve always lived in the house and knew things would come up from time to time that needed repairing. With Howard, it was more like he was at war with the house and determined to fix every little thing. Fortunately, we had Blake to help us out. Sometimes, he’d even try to persuade Howard that he didn’t need to get something fixed.” She gave a faint, reminiscing smile. “Howard didn’t like that. He was always one for the projects. But it wasn’t all work for us with Blake. He did spend so much time at the house that we started to think of him as a favorite nephew or something. We gave him extra tickets to events we attended sometimes, had him over for dinner. That sort of thing. He’s a n
ice boy.”

  I didn’t think he was much of a boy. And I wondered if Howard had known of Blake’s relationship with Carmen. If Howard had also been involved with Carmen, that discovery could have made him very angry at Blake. What if Howard had picked a fight with Blake over it and then Blake had gotten mad enough to hit him with whatever was close to hand? In this case, a fire extinguisher.

  Burton’s mind was apparently running on a similar track. He said, “Since it sounds as if their relationship was somewhat volatile, do you think it’s at all possible Blake could have done this? Maybe lost his temper for a moment?”

  Tanya started slowly shaking her head. “Nooo. No, surely not. Like I said, Blake was practically family even if those two did squabble a little.” But she looked less certain than she sounded.

  Burton nodded and closed his notebook. “Thanks so much for being so helpful.” He paused. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to go into the house for a while. We have a forensics team on the way. Is there somewhere Ann, perhaps, can drive you? Someone you could visit with? Or could she bring you to the library for a while?”

  Tanya gave a shaky laugh. “Well, I suppose we won’t be able to collect those books for the Friends sale today after all, Ann.” She considered her options. “I could go see my mother. I would just need to keep all of this from her until I can think of a way to tell her about it.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder how isolated Tanya’s mother could possibly be. After all, news traveled like wildfire in Whitby. And what about the newspaper? This was sure to be splashed all over the front page of The Whitby Times.

  Tanya appeared to be drawing a similar conclusion. She slumped in the passenger seat. “Actually, there’s no way to really keep her from hearing about Howard, is there? Not even at the retirement home. Maybe especially not at the retirement home with all the residents gossiping. No, I’ll head over there and try to break the news gently to her. Mother was very fond of Howard.”

  I said quickly, “I’d be happy to drive you over there, if you’d like.”

  But Tanya was already decisively shaking her head. “I appreciate that, but no. I’ll be all right. Plus, I think I need a few quiet moments to process this in the car before I see Mother.”

  After another minute, Tanya drove slowly away. Burton said to me, “Could you just take me through what you were doing here? I’m guessing it had to do with library business.”

  I said, “That’s right—Tanya needed help transporting some of their books to the Friends of the Library book sale.” I told him exactly what had happened, what I’d been doing at the library beforehand, when Tanya and I met up, and how we found Howard.

  Burton nodded and rubbed his face with his hands. He groaned. “This case is going to end up biting me, I just know it. You heard Ms. James—she’s already pushing for someone to be apprehended. This is one of those high-profile cases that can make you or break you.”

  I said, “I’m sure it’s going to go just fine. Maybe if you try to treat it like an ordinary case?”

  Burton sighed as two cars pulled up to join us. One of them was clearly marked as an official vehicle with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The other was a tin can of a car that made a lot of racket as it pulled up. Burton didn’t seem pleased to see either one of them.

  “We’ve got the SBI here to take care of the forensics. And we’ve got somebody from the local newspaper. Perfect,” he said.

  I looked again at the old car. Sure enough, Grayson was inside it.

  “I hate to ask you this,” Burton said, shifting uncomfortably on his feet, “but I’ve gotta, since you’ve now been first on the scene for two murders.”

  “Of course you do,” I said firmly, even though my heart jumped in my mouth a little at the thought I might be considered a suspect. “Go right ahead. It’s a pretty big coincidence, I know.”

  “How well did you know the mayor? Did you have any kind of background with him?” asked Burton, pulling out his small notebook again.

  “I knew him strictly on a ‘Muffins with the Mayor’ basis,” I said.

  Burton grunted. “I need to have more ‘Coffee with a Cop’ events. I bet I brought in more people than the mayor did.”

  “Cops are always interesting,” I agreed with a grin. Anyway, I wish I could be more help than that. Lately, I’ve pretty much spent most of my life at the library and I view everything through that lens. All I really know about him is that he was friendly, outgoing, seemed concerned about his constituents, and was usually on time showing up for the events. Although the events frequently ran over because he was chatting with folks.”

  Burton smiled. “Okay. I guess getting annoyed because events ran over isn’t much of a motive for murder.” He hesitated. “And Carmen? I understand you weren’t crazy about her.”

  I smiled. “I wasn’t crazy about her, for sure. But my annoyance at her attitude didn’t extend so far as to make me push her down a staircase.”

  Burton looked relieved. “Okay, good. Good. All right, I’d better run catchup with the state police. Take care. And please don’t discover any more bodies, Ann.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Grayson stepped out of the car, his face lined with concern. Seeing Burton looking for a way to escape, he hurried up to him. “Is it true, then?” he asked.

  That sounded like a leading question to me. Grayson likely had absolutely no idea what was going on in the James house. After all, the only people besides the state police who knew about the murder were Tanya (who might not even end up telling her own mother), and Burton and I.

  “Is what true?” asked Burton, shuttering his eyes with a blank expression.

  Grayson hesitated and then said, “That there’s an incident here at the mayor’s house. A neighbor called the paper.”

  Burton sighed and said, “Journalists will be the end of me. Just understand the department doesn’t have an official statement to make at this time. Off-the-record, I can confirm the mayor is deceased.”

  Grayson’s eyes were wide. “Deceased?”

  “Apparently the neighbor didn’t have that bit of information,” said Burton dryly.

  Burton started walking away and Grayson called after him, “Was it foul play?”

  “No official statements at this time,” said Burton as he continued toward the state police who were now walking inside the house wearing forensic suits.

  Grayson watched him as he left. Then he slowly turned to me. I told myself to get a grip as my traitorous heart started beating just a little faster.

  He said, “What’s going on?”

  I said, “I really shouldn’t say anything either. I was here on library business and probably shouldn’t make any statements, especially if Burton doesn’t want to release information yet.”

  Grayson shook his head. “No, we’re off the record here. I’m just trying to wrap my head around what’s going on. Am I to understand the mayor’s death was unnatural?”

  I nodded. “I’m afraid so. If we’re speaking off the record.”

  Grayson quietly processed this for a moment. Then he said, “First Carmen, now the mayor. Whitby isn’t the sort of town that has a lot of homicides. Shouldn’t these deaths be connected in some way?”

  I hesitated. I didn’t think it was up to me to disillusion Grayson if indeed he’d had any illusions about his sister.

  But Grayson saw my hesitation and said wryly, “And I do know about my sister’s involvement with the mayor. She wasn’t any saint.”

  “Do you think their relationship is the reason they’re both dead?” I asked slowly.

  Grayson sighed. “That’s what I don’t know. There’s also the possibility the mayor knew something about what happened to Carmen. Maybe he had a clue as to who was responsible for her death. Then the murderer came after him to make sure he didn’t tell the authorities.”

  My phone rang and I mumbled an apology as I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at it. I made a face. It was Zelda.

/>   Grayson had glimpsed the name that came up and a crooked smile crossed his face. “Oh, boy. Is she still after you to join the homeowner association board?”

  “Among other things,” I said, shoving the phone back into my pocket. A moment later it buzzed angrily at me as Zelda apparently left a voicemail message.

  Grayson watched the chief as he walked into the mayor’s house again. “I know the chief is busy, but I’d really like to talk to him to find out if he has any leads on Carmen’s death. I’ve been planning her funeral but all I can think about is someone robbed her of all the years she had ahead of her.”

  I said quietly, “I can’t even imagine how tough that must be. Of course you’d like more information.”

  He gave a harsh laugh. “The thing that really bothers me is I know whoever did this is probably going to be at her funeral.”

  “What makes you think that?” I asked.

  He said, “Well, apparently it’s someone she knew. Probably someone she knew pretty well . . . someone who wouldn’t want to draw attention to themselves by not being at the funeral. They’d go and look sad, and all along they’d be the ones who were responsible for her being in a coffin to begin with.”

  His voice broke a little and he shook his head.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I know the two of you must have been close.”

  “That’s the funny thing . . . we really weren’t. We had very little in common. I know some of her behavior likely led to her death. I’m not saying she was complicit in her own death, but that some of her behavior was bound to make people upset.”

  I didn’t say anything, just nodded. I hoped he’d keep talking.

  Fortunately, he seemed to be in the mood to get things off his chest.

  “Of course Carmen was dating Elliot, but she was involved with more than a couple of men,” he said, shaking his head. “I knew about Blake, but I recently found out she was involved with Howard James. I’d already argued with Carmen about her lifestyle and I didn’t even realize at the time what the full picture was.”