Murder by Kindness

by Barbara Graham

  Tony wondered if somewhere there would be a record they could check. The call had come in on a land line. Some phones kept records of recent calls and some didn’t. “Do you have caller ID of any kind?”

  “Oh, yeah, I do. It’s on my fax machine.” Jimmy’s eyes brightened at the question. “It’s not far over to my house from here. I could run over and print out the list.”

  “I think we have time to go with you and check it out.” Tony glanced at Wade. Wade nodded his understanding and rose to his feet.

  Minutes later, they parked in front of Jimmy’s house. It was an average, small, frame house. The soft yellow paint looked fairly fresh. After unlocking the front door, Jimmy led them to the answering machine, pressed a few buttons and printed a list of the twenty most recent incoming calls.

  Tony studied the list. Nothing useful. The only call received at the time they were interested in had a blocked number. “There really doesn’t seem to be anything we can do at this time. Call me immediately if you hear from this person again.”

  “You know, Sheriff.” Wade looked up from busily writing in his notebook. “The caller could’ve dialed a wrong number. Maybe we could check numbers around this one.”

  “That’s not a bad idea.” Tony wondered about the most efficient way to determine what the correct phone number might have been. “Let’s assume the prefix is correct. Why don’t you start changing numbers with the last digit and work your way forward.”

  “Sounds like a reasonable plan.” Wade smiled. “If nothing else, some of our citizens will know we are on the job.”

  Tony doubted it would prevent them from complaining about a nuisance call from his department. Some days you were wrong, no matter what you did.

  “Theo!”

  Hearing her name being shouted from the phone’s receiver before it was halfway to her ear startled Theo. Her best friend, Nina, sounded like she was about to have a stroke. “What’s wrong?”

  “Gray hair! I have gray hair!” Nina’s voice rose in a crescendo until it sounded like a shriek.

  “So, I have some, too. What’s the panic?” Theo wasn’t really proud of her gray hairs, but they still blended fairly well with the blond ones. “The last time I saw you, which hasn’t been that long ago, I didn’t notice that you were going gray.” Theo wasn’t sure if her best friend was freaking out because there was gray in her hair or if it was because Dr. Looks-So-Good might realize, assuming he did not have enough brains to do so already, he was dating an older woman, by maybe five whole years.

  Nina’s soft moan was the only response.

  “Aren’t you in Washington, D.C., with the school group?” Theo had to laugh. Nina was not normally a vain woman, although she certainly had the looks to give her cause to be. With her glossy auburn hair, unwrinkled complexion and brilliant green eyes, Nina was still a beautiful woman. Theo had no sympathy for her. “It can’t be a surprise to get a few gray hairs when you’re a field-trip chaperone. I have to hang up now.”

  “The kids are all in their workshop and I don’t have time to run off sightseeing without them. What’s more important than listening to your best friend have a nervous breakdown?” Nina made it sound like a soap opera announcer trying to convince viewers to tune in for the next installment.

  “It’s not as if I’m ignoring your obviously important, maybe even critical, mental medical issues.” Theo couldn’t believe she got the whole sentence out without Nina interrupting. “I’m supposed to teach a quick Valentine’s project.”

  “Oops,” Nina whispered. “I’ll get off the phone. I didn’t realize you are teaching a class today.”

  “It’s not a full-day class, and it really is just a quick project . . . well it’s quick to teach, longer to sew. We’re piecing simple flannel hearts to make a snuggle quilt big enough for two.”

  “Why don’t you make one for me and Doctor Looks-So-Good?”

  Nina’s comment startled a laugh out of Theo. Until now, Nina had been insisting her relationship with the Knoxville dentist was nothing serious. “Aren’t you afraid that such a gift would jinx your friendship?” Theo deliberately stressed the “friendship.”

  “I know, I know. Never mind. I didn’t say a word.” Nina disconnected.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tony stood on the sidewalk outside Theo’s shop enjoying the sunshine. This early in the year, the warm rays could vanish as quickly as they arrived. Lulled by the pleasant heat, it took Tony a moment before he realized he was openly staring at Mr. Anderson’s toupee.

  As they conversed, the man’s forehead rose and wrinkled and moved in all the usual manners and directions, but his hairpiece remained immobile. His bushy eyebrows were as busy as the forehead: lifting, lowering and evidently growing, because they needed to be trimmed. A few wild eyebrow hairs met over the bridge of the man’s nose and another one seemed to be stabbing the man’s right eye. It was mesmerizing to watch his face.

  Years earlier, when it became obvious to Tony at a very young age he was quickly going bald, he had made a study of hair replacements. Unlike his middle brother, Tiberius, whose hair was thick and dark, Tony’s oldest sibling, Caesar Augustus, and he had the same hair-loss pattern, although Tony’s had progressed faster than his brother’s. One day, Gus and he had been all but escorted from a hairpiece and wig shop. They had both started trying on some extravagant Pompadour wigs and hairpieces, and when Gus tried to pull a ball cap over it they had both gotten the giggles as badly as any teenage girl. Maybe worse.

  Not only had the pair been disruptive, but a middle-aged man with more hair strands on top of his head than Tony had on his entire head now had surreptitiously watched the brothers. After he strode out of the shop, apparently more confident in his worth without a hairpiece, Tony and Gus had been gently, but firmly, asked to leave.

  Unfortunately now, Tony realized he had spent more time watching the motionless toupee than he had listening to the man wanting to discuss something with the sheriff. Thankfully it didn’t seem to be an emergency. “I’m sorry. Would you mind starting over?”

  “You weren’t listening?” Mr. Anderson frowned.

  “I’ll admit that I was a bit distracted by the sunshine.” Tony smiled. “Please forgive me.”

  “You have to do something.” Mr. Anderson fiddled with his sideburns, which were as shaggy as the eyebrows and only made Tony stare at the toupee again. “One of my neighbors has been extremely loud and has lights shining from his house all night long. I want it stopped.”

  “I can ask your neighbor to be quieter, especially, shall we say, after nine in the evening? I don’t think I can ask him to turn his lights off though.” Tony was surprised to see the smaller man puff up like a sponge absorbing water.

  “Why not?” Mr. Anderson narrowed his eyes again. “Isn’t that why we pay you?”

  “Not to force people to sit in the dark.” Tony forced himself not to respond to the question about his salary. It was made easier by the approach of a tall, muscular man neatly dressed in a black suit. He was completely unfamiliar to Tony, but Tony recognized the type. A bodyguard. The bulge under the jacket was probably a handgun. He stopped near Tony and Mr. Anderson but did not interrupt. He stood quietly with both hands visible and crossed near the center of his body. Waiting. Sunglasses covered his eyes.

  Mr. Anderson stomped away in a huff and ran directly into the stranger. He bounced off the larger man like he’d run into a wall. He was fussing loudly about it as he made his way down the sidewalk.

  “Sheriff?” The large man pushed his sunglasses up onto his hair and spoke softly. “They call me Bear.”

  “Yes?” Tony was curious. The nickname looked appropriate for a man that size. “Can I help you?”

  “No, sir.” Bear extended a huge hand and looked into Tony’s eyes. His own were a dark brown. “I always like to introduce myself to law enforcement, just so there are no questions about my job and intentions. I’m one of the private bodyguards for Karl’s Bad. He’s renting a larg
e cabin just out of town for a few weeks.”

  Tony shook the bodyguard’s hand. He had heard rumors about Karl’s Bad. Most of them were unpleasant. The young movie star with the hokey name had a knack for being in the news detailing his almost endless bad behavior. “Are you expecting trouble?”

  “Yes, sir. He’s almost always surrounded by it.” Apparent disgust clouded the bodyguard’s face.

  “You don’t like your job.” Tony couldn’t see why the man would risk his own life to protect someone he so clearly disapproved of. “Why do you do it?”

  Something like pain flickered across the bodyguard’s face. “I have two children who live with their mother. One has special needs.” Bear glanced around as if checking for someone listening to their conversation. “I can’t make this kind of money any other honest way. The little prick pays very well.”

  “And just what do you do for him?” Visions of some of the lurid activities so prevalent on the news ran through Tony’s brain. He doubted he was going to like the situation.

  Bear frowned. “My job is to keep what he calls ‘the trash’ away from him. That’s all. I protect the shell. What’s inside of him is not in my line of work. Frankly, I’d enjoy tossing him off the mountain and moving into your county. Maybe work for you.” Bear looked a bit surprised he’d said all of that out loud. He stopped talking but didn’t look away.

  Tony smiled. He understood this man. “Thanks for checking in with me. I always like to have a heads-up before any trouble begins. It’s easier to control than it is to stop.”

  Bear nodded. “I’ll give you a call if I think he’s going to cross the line.”

  “Anonymously?” Tony thought he’d better warn dispatch about their new informant.

  “No, sir, you’ll know it’s me.” Bear grinned. “Here’s my card.”

  “Sheriff? There’s some sort of incident at the Okay Bar. Are you available?”

  Tony heard Flavio Weems’s voice come through his radio. The dispatcher sounded concerned. Tony knew it wasn’t always an easy job balancing the few deputies on duty at any given time and the number of calls. Park County, Tennessee, might be the state’s smallest county by population, but its proximity to Great Smoky Mountain National Park often kept his small staff busy with accidents, burglary, even murder. Or there might be a week when a missing pet was their most urgent call. The department didn’t have the money to keep extra deputies. Tony had been out on another call and had missed the shift change.

  “Yes. I’m available, but I don’t like it when you say incident, Flavio,” Tony rubbed the back of his neck. “You know that can mean any number of things—serious to comical. What’s happening?”

  Flavio cleared his throat. “According to the call from Mom Proffitt, at least two guys got into a fight, and one of them bit the other one’s ear off. I have an ambulance on the way and Mike and Sheila are both heading for the Okay. I just thought you would want to know.”

  “Thank you. Tell Mike and Sheila I’m on my way.” Tony headed for the Blazer. He was surprised by the location of the brawl. There usually wasn’t much trouble at the Okay, not like at the Spa, the other town bar. There was often enough bad behavior, and gnawed ears, at the Spa to make him consider having a full-time time deputy on duty there. At the Okay, Mom Proffitt ran the bar with an iron hand and she didn’t sell bait. She kept everyone’s keys, even if they were drinking iced tea. She definitely did not allow fighting. Over the years, a few patrons hadn’t agreed with her rules and had been banished for life.

  As Tony reached the top of one of the higher hills in town and looked down toward the bar, he could see the flashing lights on two patrol cars and the arriving ambulance. They lit up the landscape for a mile. It might not have been so impressive if the interested observers passing by would simply keep driving. But, as always seemed to be the case in Park County, a crowd was already gathering to watch the show. Tony was careful to park the Blazer where it wouldn’t be in anyone’s way and made his way to the bar’s front door. The owner, known to everyone as “Mom,” stood waiting for him under the sign that still read “Okay Bar and Bait Shop,” in spite of the lack of fishing supplies.

  “Sheriff.” Mom’s voice held a mixture of anger and worry.

  Tony thought Mom’s face looked strained. And no wonder. If the man on the stretcher, whose head was tightly bandaged, and the expressions on the paramedics’ faces meant anything, this was a serious matter. Deputy Mike Ott stood between the stretcher and Deputy Sheila Teffeteller, who was involved in an earnest conversation with two men sitting at a nearby table. Another man stood near Sheila, his hands cuffed behind his back. He was yelling for his attorney at the top of his lungs. Tony wanted silence but knew it was out of the question. He bent over to ask the tiny bar owner, “What happened here?”

  “I don’t know.” Mom’s head moved from side to side to side, almost vibrating. “I swear I’ve never seen anything like it. One minute four men were sitting together at that round table.” She indicated the empty table behind Mike. “And all of them seemed to be having a good time, and the next minute one of them lunges across the table and bites the other one’s ear off.”

  “There was no arguing?” Tony had seen few fights that didn’t start with some buildup and had been gradually brewing until someone finally exploded. “Had they been here together before?”

  The movement of Mom’s head switched from shaking to nodding. “They’ve been part of a larger group for several months. But they weren’t interactive with me, so I don’t know much more about them than their names. They always handed over their keys, they just didn’t talk, you know, chat with me. I don’t force my customers to talk.” Mom still hadn’t blinked. “I just don’t understand.”

  “I presume the man in Sheila’s handcuffs did the biting. Where are the men who were sitting with them?”

  Looking confused, Mom studied the faces surrounding them.

  For a moment, Tony thought maybe their closest witnesses had vanished.

  “Oh, thank goodness, there they are.” Mom whispered. “Do you see the two men standing near the back door? The stubby redhead and the taller guy with graying hair.”

  Just as Tony murmured that he did see the men, Wade arrived and Tony nodded for his deputy to join him. For a second, Tony thought the two men he wanted to talk to were going to try and slip out the back door, but whether it was because they decided to cooperate or knew they wouldn’t get their keys back from Mom until they did, they waited. Tony made his way toward them and smiled as he said, “I understand you were sitting with the biter and the bitten.”

  The men nodded. They didn’t have to say they preferred not to be involved; it was written all over their faces. Tony guessed that neither man had mentioned to his wife the reason he wasn’t home yet for dinner. They weren’t intoxicated. “Why don’t you call home and tell your wives that I need to talk to you about a crime you might have witnessed. I’m the one delaying you.”

  Almost identical expressions of relief ran across their faces. They wasted no time pulling out their cell phones as they immediately complied.

  Once the calls were done, Tony gestured for the pair to join himself and Wade outside.

  This February evening was neither bitterly cold nor pleasantly balmy, but in the fresh air was a better place to talk. Quiet and private. “We would like to talk to each of you separately.”

  “Why?” asked the older of the two.

  “Sometimes, without meaning to, one person’s story will affect the other person’s story. After we’re through, we can all compare notes.”

  Tony tossed a coin into the air and slapped it onto the back of his hand and looked at the older man. “Heads or tails?” The man called heads. It was tails. “Okay, you wait right there.”

  The man nodded and wandered over to his designated spot.

  “Your name is?” Looking at the remaining witness, Tony opened his notebook and Wade did the same with his.

  “Smith.” He pulled hi
s wallet from his pocket. “Do you need my driver’s license?”

  “No, but thank you for offering.” Tony smiled. “Do you know the man who is now missing part of his ear?”

  “Not well. The four of us have had a few beers together in the past. We all work at the fertilizer plant.” Smith shook his head. “I never saw anything like that before. Just all of a sudden Cliff jumped across the table and took a big bite of Paul’s ear.”

  Tony noticed that by the time Smith finished his recitation he was sucking big gulps of air in between each word and he looked a bit shocky. Tony pointed to a nearby picnic table. “I want you to go sit on that bench for a few minutes and try to relax. Take some slow breaths.”

  They signaled the other man to join them. His version of the events did not sound rehearsed. It simply sounded like both men had witnessed the exact same event. George Ramsey—Tony dubbed him witness number two—had worked at the plant for about a year longer than any of the others. He said that he knew of no problems among any of his coworkers, except the usual differences created by liking different sports teams and so forth, but especially not a problem likely to culminate in such an attack.

  Thanking them, and after getting all of their contact information, Tony sent them home. He watched the pair reclaim their car keys before he looked at Wade. “What do you suppose it would take to make you lunge across a bar table and bite off Mike’s ear?”

  Wade’s dark-blue eyes went wide. “I can’t imagine. If it was something like him asking my wife out on a date, I doubt I’d be sharing a table in the first place.” Wade considered the situation for a minute. “I thought they were all friends together, but maybe the biter wasn’t expecting to be sitting with the extra guys. But still, if you were that angry at someone, how would you be able to put up with it as long as he did?”

  “The biter was yelling for his attorney when I arrived.” Tony wasn’t surprised. If it was himself, he’d be asking for his attorney as well. “So we won’t be able to learn much from him for a while.”