Death of a Cantankerous Old Coot (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries)

by Teresa Watson

  “May I point out one other thing that you seem to be either ignoring or haven’t realized yet?”

  “Sure.”

  “Technically, you’re related to Earline, correct?”

  “Technically, yes, by marriage.”

  “Would it be safe to say that, with regards to the lawsuit, Earline was on Amos’ side?”

  “That I am not sure about,” I said. “Earline has never said anything publicly about the lawsuit.”

  “For the sake of the discussion, let’s say she would be on his side. If Earline dies, are there any other relatives on her side of the family that would continue the lawsuit?”

  I thought about it a moment. “I don’t think so. You would have to ask her that question.”

  “So, if Earline dies, the one person who would benefit the most would be you. If there is no one to continue the lawsuit, it would be dropped.”

  I could feel my body tensing up as I glared at him. “Are you insinuating that I am trying to kill Earline to end the lawsuit? How dare you!”

  “Whoa, whoa!” T.J. said, holding his hands up. “Hang on a minute. That is not what I’m saying. Let me finish making my point.”

  “I suggest you hurry up and get to the point before I throw you out.”

  “If Earline dies, you benefit the most. But,” he continued quickly before I could say anything, “who benefits if you die?”

  Talk about throwing a bucket of cold water on a person. I hadn’t thought about that. “I don’t have a will, so I guess it would be my parents.”

  “But your parents wouldn’t kill anyone for the land, right?”

  “No, they wouldn’t.”

  “So, if no one from Earline’s family benefits, and no one from your family would kill to get the land…well, could there be someone from Amos’ extended family who would kill for it?”

  “Amos’ brother died years ago, and he never married.”

  T.J. cleared his throat. “Is it possible that Amos has other children that you don’t know about?”

  “I have no clue. Why ask me?”

  “Owen and I have heard the rumors about someone in town who looks just like you.”

  “You mean Debra Cosgrove?” He nodded. “I heard the same thing. So what? Mother would have told me if she had another sibling.”

  “It was just a thought. Have you ever seen her?”

  “No. I’m not sure Mother has, either. Should I be worried?”

  He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. But someone doesn’t want you to ask any more questions.”

  “I’m not asking any questions!”

  “Well, maybe they think you are!” T.J. said, clearly irritated. “Maybe they saw you coming out of the newspaper office. You’re a writer, they see you coming out of the building, put two and two together, and figured out you wrote a story about it. Heck, I don’t know! But someone you don’t know obviously knows something that you don’t know yet.”

  “Okay, there were too many ‘knows’ and ‘don’t knows’ in that sentence. I am totally confused now.” I finished my juice and tossed the bottle in the recycle bin.

  “Sorry about that,” he laughed.

  “There is something that’s bothering me. What about those papers that Amos had Debra sign? Were they about the lawsuit or something altogether different?”

  “I suggest we go talk to Ms. Cosgrove and find out.”

  “Oh, no. You go talk to her. I have work to do here.”

  T.J.’s cell phone rang. “Reynolds. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Right. Is she still alive? Okay, I can be there in about ten minutes. See you there.” He looked at me as he put his phone back in his pocket.

  “Do I even want to know?”

  “Probably not,” he said, “but…Owen released Earline from custody. He said he didn’t have enough to hold her. He offered to give her a ride home, but she told him to take his ride and shove it. She had started to cross the street when a car came out of nowhere and ran her over.”

  “Is she still alive?”

  “Owen said yes, but the paramedics didn’t give him much hope of her even surviving the trip to the hospital.” I grabbed my purse and followed him to the door. “Two near death experiences in the last eighteen hours. I’d say someone is trying to kill Earline, and you could be next. I’m not letting you out of my sight until we find out who is doing this.”

  Two thoughts went through my head: someone might want to kill me, and I was about to spend a lot of time with the hunky deputy.

  Chapter 19

  Ten minutes later, we walked into the emergency room of Brookdale General Hospital. Owen was talking to the admissions clerk at the check-in counter. “This is getting flat out ridiculous,” Owen remarked when we came in. “We aren’t used to these types of crimes in this town.”

  “Maybe we’re in some alternate universe,” I joked. Owen glared at me. “Or not. How is she?”

  “I don’t know. The old battleax behind the desk here won’t tell me anything because I’m not a relative,” he said.

  Adele Simmons looked at him over the top of her glasses. “The last time I checked, you weren’t related to poor Earline. Hospital policy states that we cannot release any information about a patient to anyone except family.”

  Owen placed his hands on the desk and got in her face. “I’m the sheriff of this town, and this is part of a criminal investigation! I have every right to know what is going on back there.”

  Adele stood up and leaned forward, forcing Owen to back up a little bit. Her steel blue eyes flashing, she pushed her glasses on top of her curly white hair. “I don’t care if you are the King of England. Unless you have a court order that tells me to release confidential information to you, I am not telling you a damn thing. Now get off my desk, go sit in a chair and be quiet!” She perched her glasses on the end of her nose and sat down.

  It took a lot of will power not to laugh as Owen’s face turned bright red. I must have snorted or something, because he spun around and glared at me. Then he stood up straight, grabbed my arm and dragged me forward. “She’s related to Earline. You can tell her, and she can tell me. You can’t stop her from sharing information, can you, Adele?”

  “Of course not,” Adele snapped. “What she does with the information is up to her.”

  “Well, get on with it,” he demanded. “I’ve got a hit and run driver to find, and I don’t have all day to stand here.”

  “You don’t run this hospital, Owen Moore,” she replied. “I’ll tell her…after you go outside. I do not intend to tell anyone anything with you hovering like a ghoul. Out!” He started walking toward the sliding door, muttering under his breath. “I heard that! I’ll be talking to your mother later!”

  “Ma’am, do you realize you can go to jail for withholding information from a law officer?” T.J. said.

  “Of course I do, young man,” Adele said. “I’m not an idiot, but apparently he is. I wonder how long it will take him to remember that I actually can tell him whatever he wants to know. Besides, this is a small town. The news has probably already spread everywhere that Earline was hit by a car.”

  “Have they said anything about her condition yet?” I said.

  Adele shook her head. “They just brought her in, but from what I saw, she didn’t look too good. What in the world is going on around here, Lizzie?”

  “I have no clue, Ms. Simmons.”

  Owen came storming back in. “Ok, you’ve had enough time to tell her.”

  “You were only out there a minute,” I pointed out.

  “That’s long enough. So, tell me.”

  “They just brought her in. There hasn’t been enough time to examine her yet.”

  Owen looked at Adele. “And you couldn’t just say that?”

  “Nope, you’re not family,” she said as she walked off.

  “That woman has always been a pain in my behind.”

  “That’s only because you drove your truck into her front yard and did donuts after homecoming when you w
ere in high school.”

  “That was fifteen years ago! I already paid for that with a lot of sweat and hard work.”

  “That doesn’t mean she’s forgiven you. May I ask you a question?”

  “Shoot.”

  “Do you know who was in Earline’s car last night?”

  “I just got a call about that. They found a purse in the bushes near the end of the driveway. Her name was Barbara King from Shreveport.”

  “I recognize that name,” Adele said as she sat down at her desk. “She used to live here over thirty years ago. Of course, she was a young thing then, about twenty-two. She just disappeared one day; nobody knows where she went. The rumor at the time was her married boyfriend got her pregnant and she left town. I don’t know if it is true or not.”

  “Do you remember who the married man was?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you going to tell us, or is that confidential information, too?” Owen said.

  “It is not my secret to tell,” she replied. “Besides, there are people who could get hurt if I tell.”

  “I’ve got two dead bodies in the morgue, and a third person on death’s door behind those doors. If it will help my investigation and keep someone else from getting killed, then you need to tell me.”

  Adele looked at me before glancing down at her desk. “It was Amos Gardner.”

  “But wasn’t he dating Earline behind my grandmother’s back thirty years ago?”

  She squirmed in her chair. “Yes, he was. He was dating Barbara and Earline. Your poor grandmother didn’t know about it at first. Your parents had just gotten married a few months before, and your mother was pregnant with you. One day, she was getting into her car after her doctor’s appointment, your mother saw Amos and Barbara park across the street. He was mad, but she said Barbara looked very pleased with herself. They went into the doctor’s office together.”

  “Barbara probably thought she had hit the jackpot in the “who gets Amos” contest,” I surmised.

  “I imagine she did,” Adele agreed. “But two days after that, Barbara was gone, and Earline eventually married Amos. It’s a shame that a man came between them.”

  “You mean they were friends?”

  “Best friends, at least until they learned they were both dating Amos. Earline was fit to be tied, although I always thought she was mad at the wrong person. Frankly, they’re both lucky your grandmother didn’t shoot their behinds full of buckshot.”

  “I wonder why Barbara came back to town after all these years.”

  “Maybe she heard about Amos’ death and thought it was time to bury the hatchet with Earline.”

  “So the dead woman is a woman scorned in a love triangle from thirty years ago,” Owen said. “Maybe she came back to claim part of Amos’ estate for her child. Adele, do you know what happened to Barbara’s baby?”

  “No clue. I didn’t even know she was still alive until you said her name.”

  “I bet I know who Barbara’s child is,” I said.

  “There’s no way you could know, Lizzie,” Adele replied. “You weren’t even born then.”

  “But if the baby is Amos’, then that means they probably look a bit like him, right? Well, I got my red hair from my mother, who got it from her father. And I look a lot like my mother, don’t I?”

  “I get what you’re saying,” T.J. replied. “Do you really think it’s possible?”

  “I think it highly probable, which is why Amos was spending so much time at Trixie’s place.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Owen interrupted.

  “I’m talking about someone else in town who could pass for my identical twin. She’s probably the reason Earline thought it was me sneaking around her house last night before it blew up.”

  “Who? Spill it, Crenshaw!”

  “Debra Cosgrove is the daughter of Amos Gardner and Barbara King.”

  Chapter 20

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Owen said.

  “Randi Newman mentioned it to me this morning at the drugstore. Surely, you’ve noticed the resemblance, Owen. You must have seen her at Trixie’s place.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve never seen her, but I hear about her all the time from my sister.”

  “Haven’t you seen her, Lizzie?” T.J. said.

  “No, I don’t go out to the club.”

  “She’s been here two years and only the people who work there or go to the club have seen her?” Owen said. “Anyone besides me think that’s a little odd?”

  “I find it a lot odd,” T.J. replied. “Do you think Amos knew who she was?”

  “Perhaps this is the new information he was referring to regarding the lawsuit,” I said.

  “There are only three people who can answer our questions. One’s dead, one’s nearly dead, and the other one is a person none of us have ever seen,” Owen replied.

  “Do you think it was Debra who burned down Earline’s house last night?” I asked.

  “A better question would be: did she kill her mother before she set the fire?” Adele said.

  Owen glared at her. “Why don’t you go find out how Earline is doing and leave the police work to the professionals?”

  “When the doctor has something to report, he’ll come out here,” Adele retorted. “Right now, I’d say we have a more pressing issue, wouldn’t you?”

  “There is no ‘we’, Adele Simmons,” Owen said, shaking his finger in her face. “Stay out of my investigation.”

  “So, Lizzie,” Adele continued, ignoring Owen, “why don’t we go out to Trixie’s place and talk to this woman ourselves? I’ve always wanted to go out to there, and this sounds like it’s my chance.”

  Before I could reply, the double doors swung open and a man in blue scrubs came out. “Are you the family of Earline Gardner?”

  “You want to speak to the young lady, Dr. Webster,” Adele said, pointing at me. “She’s Earline’s granddaughter.”

  “Step granddaughter,” I corrected her. “I’m Lizzie Crenshaw. How is she?”

  “Lucky to be alive. She has a compound fracture in her left leg, two broken ribs and a concussion, not to mention all the bruises and scrapes. I’ll be admitting her to the hospital for a few days. I gave her something for the pain, so she’ll be out of it for a while. I would wait until tomorrow before coming back to see her.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Webster, that’s certainly better news than I had expected.”

  “You’re welcome, Ms. Crenshaw,” he replied, shaking my hand. “I’ll see you in the morning when I make my rounds.” He nodded at Owen as he left the room.

  “You heard the man. There’s nothing more that you can do here today, Sheriff, so get out of my waiting room,” Adele said. “Lizzie and I have places to go and people to see.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere,” Owen told her, “and the only place Lizzie is going is home. I’ll go out to Trixie’s place myself and talk to Ms. Cosgrove.” Adele started to protest, but Owen cut her off. “Not another word or I will arrest you for obstructing a police officer during an investigation.”

  “Come on, Lizzie, I’ll take you home,” T.J. said.

  “I need you to go back to the station and make sure that rookie of mine is handling the scene investigation right,” Owen said. “So drop her off and get over there as quick as you can.”

  T.J. didn’t look happy. I knew he wanted to make sure I stayed safe, but I felt it was more important to find out who had tried to kill Earline. I told him as much on the drive home.

  “Just promise me you won’t open the door to anyone, and you’ll make sure all the doors and windows are locked,” he said as he pulled into my driveway.

  “Why, Deputy Reynolds, I didn’t know you cared so much,” I teased him.

  He turned in his seat to look at me. “I’m starting to, so I would really appreciate it if you would not get yourself killed,” he replied before giving me a toe-curling, stomach-flipping kiss. “Deal?”

 
I nodded, too breathless to say anything. “I’m going to check the house before I leave,” he said. His cell phone rang before he could get out. “Reynolds. No, I’m still at Lizzie’s. I just want to check the house before I leave.” He listened for a minute. “Ok, ok, I’m on my way.” He turned it off. “Sorry, I’ve got to go.”

  “It’s ok. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, I promise.” He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

  I got out of the car and watched him drive off. Pulling my keys out of my purse, I started to unlock the door when I noticed it was slightly ajar. A flowerpot with a dead plant was the nearest weapon I had, so I picked it up before pushing the door open. There was no one in the living room, so I quietly moved toward the kitchen. Babe was sitting by the back door. “Where did you come from?” I said, kneeling down and giving her a hug.

  “I brought her back,” a female voice said from behind me. “You didn’t really think I was going to keep her, did you?” I stood up and turned around to see the redheaded woman I had collided with earlier that afternoon. “Hello, dear niece of mine. Happy to see me?”

  Chapter 21

  Debra Cosgrove pulled out a chair and sat down. “I just wanted to make sure I got your attention, that’s why I stole your keys from your purse when we ‘accidentally’ ran into each other.”

  “How nice of you to bring them back.”

  She threw them on the table. “Cute little place you have here. I’m not sure why Father wanted it back, though. His house was much nicer than this one.”