“As you might expect, this room is crowded during visiting hours,” the detective explained.
Maggie nodded, walked by his side, and tried to avoid looking at the woman who waited for her. A few days earlier, Carla was the small widow who made scrumptious desserts. Today, she was a known killer, and that scared Maggie.
“If you need anything, just tell the guard,” the detective said to Maggie as she pulled out a chair and joined Carla at the table.
She could feel her heart racing faster than Barnaby’s after he’d chased a rabbit, but she refused to show her fear. “You wanted to talk to me,” she said to Carla.
“How did you figure it out?” Carla all but barked at Maggie. “How did you know it was me?”
Although Maggie knew it was unrealistic, she had wanted Carla to confess her crimes and unload her conscience in peaceful tones that suggested regret and introspection. “I’ll tell you that, if you tell me why you did it.”
Carla grunted. “I’m not telling you anything.”
“Fine,” Maggie stood up and started walking away.
“Wait,” Carla called as Maggie reached the door. “Come back and I’ll tell you why I killed Mac.”
Maggie returned to the chair and said, “Let’s hear it.”
Carla brought her cuffed hands up to her chest. “I was in a vulnerable state when I met Mac. My mother passed away when I was a teenager. After that, it was just my dad and me. We were very close and it was hard for me to see him lying helpless in that nursing home bed. And out of nowhere, Mac appeared. I’m not an emotional person. I do not connect easily with people. But he happened into my life when I was in great need. I was also approaching middle age and afraid I would never find anyone to spend my life with. I didn’t consciously realize that played a role in my decision to marry Mac until months later. Nevertheless, I will admit that I didn’t love him and that I married him for the wrong reasons. I was fond of him, though. At least I was for a while.”
“What happened to change your feelings?”
“Mac happened.”
“From all accounts, he doted on you. I’ve heard he was always sending you flowers and bragging on you.”
Carla laughed and scratched her nose with the back of her hands. “Yeah, he bragged on me and I’ll admit that he tried. At first, the flowers and compliments were genuine. After a while, they became routine. Mac was a liar and a thief who fooled everyone into thinking he was as honest as Lincoln. Oh, I can tell from the look on your face that you’ve heard this before.”
Maggie relaxed her facial muscles and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Play it your way. Pretend you don’t know what I came to realize a few months into my marriage. You see,” Carla smirked, “I wasn’t as dumb as everyone else. I lived with him. I knew how much he made for a living. I knew he couldn’t afford all those expensive electronic gadgets, that danged fishing gear, and prime season tickets to UK games. He thought he was pulling one over on me, but I figured it out. He and that slob Bug were running a scam on the nursing home. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t care. The more money he stole meant he’d dip his hands into our joint account less and less. So, when he quit his job to build that stupid store, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“I thought you appreciated, what did you tell me, his drive and ambition?”
“Hardly. We had a huge argument and I told him outright that he was not quitting his job and building a store. That night, we went to his aunt’s birthday party. That was back when we attended events together. Anyway, he announced his plans to a roomful of relatives. He also went a step further. He made a toast to his wonderfully caring wife for supporting his decision. What was I supposed to do? Start screaming at him in front of everybody? He won, and I learned to live with it because I figured he would start pulling some scam at the store. And he did.” Carla chuckled. “Did he really think nobody would question why he and Bug won the lottery so often? God, how arrogant.” Carla tilted her head and, with a faraway look in her eyes, pondered, “Who knows what he did before I met him?”
I know, Maggie thought, but I’m not telling. “How did you figure all this out?”
“One day when he opened his safe, he didn’t know I was watching him from the hallway. I memorized the combination and sneaked in there when he was gone. He had a ledger that contained dates and figures. I made copies and studied them. I’m no CPA, but it didn’t take long for me to put it together because Mac was no CPA, either, and he wasn’t nearly as smart as he thought he was. He also kept cash in the safe. I kept track of it and noticed he removed five hundred dollars every month. It was always around the twentieth of the month, too. One day I followed him straight to that housing project where his haggard-looking ex-wife lives.”
Maggie gasped. “Rhonda?”
Carla raised one eyebrow. “You know her?”
“I interviewed her when I talked to you and the others.”
“It wasn’t in the paper.”
“She asked me not to include her out of respect for you.”
“Well, wasn’t that nice of her?” Carla snorted.
“He was giving her money?” That explains her duplicity, Maggie thought. She was ashamed and afraid she would lose her benefits and apartment if her landlord learned she received extra money each month.
“At first, I thought they were having an affair. I really didn’t care. After all, we had slept in separate beds and in separate rooms for years. Still, the thought of him cheating with her was a blow to my vanity.” Carla pursed her lips. “Well, you’ve seen her. No wonder he cheated on her when they were married.”
“So, he did cheat on her?” Maggie recalled Sylvie’s pronouncement and couldn’t imagine why any woman would have an affair with Mac.
“How do you know about that?”
Maggie shrugged. “It’s Sugar Creek.”
Carla apparently accepted Maggie’s explanation and continued, “So I guess you know that when he decided it was over, he sent his dad to give her the news. She went back to the trailer one night with her tail between her legs and waited on the front steps for him to come home. He came home all right and, when he saw her, he backed out of the driveway and left her sitting there like the fool she was and is.”
“Yeah,” Maggie said. “I know all about that.”
“Well, when I confronted him about seeing her, he said he felt sorry for her because she’s disabled and can’t work. Give me a break. She has headaches. She can take an aspirin and go to work like the rest of us.” Carla rolled her eyes. “Helping poor old disabled Rhonda was just another way for him to appear kind and generous. He didn’t care about her. He didn’t care about anybody but himself.” Carla shook her head. “Where was I? Oh, we had another big dustup and I told him it must be easy to shower money that isn’t even yours on your pathetic ex-wife and I demanded that he shower some of that money on his current wife. He pretended he didn’t know what I was talking about. When I told him I had copies of his ledgers, he laughed and said that didn’t prove anything. Then, he told me he’d die before he’d share one penny with me. I considered my options and knew what I had to do.”
“Kill him?”
“Absolutely. Instead of going to the gym or running around town, I started running on Sugar Creek so it wouldn’t seem out of the ordinary if somebody saw me that morning.” Carla directed her hands toward Maggie. “You were right about that. I got the gun from his safe and put it in the backpack that I had started using for the purpose of building an alibi, for lack of a better word. I also tucked my hair under a baseball cap.”
“Mac didn’t seem like a good person, but I don’t understand why you had to kill him. Haven’t you ever heard of divorce? You could have taken half of his assets.”
“Sure,” Carla huffed. “His legal assets. Don’t think I didn’t consider divorce if, for no other reason, than to make him sell that stupid store, but my business wasn’t performing as well as I had hoped and a divorce c
ould have proven expensive. I needed money to stay afloat and there was only one way to obtain it. With him gone, I would receive a hefty life insurance check and own the store and house outright. But I needed to do it before he changed beneficiaries or made a new will. I lived in fear that he would leave everything to his disgusting cousin or loser ex-wife.”
“He was still a person and he wasn’t entirely bad.”
“Why? Because he took a grieving Bug to a football game and gave stolen money to struggling Rhonda? Please.” Carla smiled. “At least I ended up with some of that stolen money. After I told him I knew about the cash in the safe, he moved it to the store. He thought he was pulling one over on me, and at the time I could have kicked my own rear end for showing my hand. But after his untimely death, that money was mine.”
“Little good it will do you now,” Maggie said. “You shouldn’t have killed Mac, but he certainly earned your ill will. But what about Kevin?”
“What about him?”
“You were prepared to send an innocent man to prison.”
“He’s not innocent. No one’s innocent.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I didn’t frame him. I lucked into a thief riding a bicycle by the store on his way to give his drug dealer two hundred bucks, but I wasn’t about to help him wiggle off that hook. If it’s between me and him, I choose me.”
Maggie sat back and crossed her arms. “I’m happy that didn’t work out for you, but I do have another question for you. How did you manage to turn off the security cameras?”
Carla smiled. “I also found the password to the security system in that safe and I had long since realized he had a feed running to the laptop he kept at home. I logged on and turned it off.
“Didn’t that worry you? Weren’t you afraid it would be traced to his laptop and then to you?”
“No,” Carla said. “Mac had been telling people for years that the cameras didn’t work. I guess you could say his lies finally caught up with him.” She leaned back in the chair and said, “Now, it’s your turn. How did you catch me?”
“I didn’t know it was you until I saw you running. From behind you looked like a boy.” When Carla scrunched up her face, Maggie clarified, “You know, with your hair under your cap. And you’re so small.” Maggie chose not to share her assessment of Carla’s shoulders and hips.
With her face contorted, Carla asked, “You had no other suspicions?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that.” Maggie made sure not to reveal the confidential banking information shared by Ben. “You’re the wife, and spouses are always the first suspects. It was always in the back of my mind that you could have done it, but I didn’t put the pieces together until Saturday when I saw you running on Little Elm Fork. I didn’t see you on the road and you told me you hike through the hills.”
“So?”
“That’s how you gained access to my dog. You watched me from the hill behind my home, entered my house through an unlocked door, lured Barnaby to the barn, and let him go after giving me a scare.” Maggie remained sitting straight, with her back against the chair, “Why did you involve my dog?”
“Let me make one thing clear,” Carla held up her right index finger. “I never would have hurt him. I love animals. I couldn’t have a pet, though, because of Mac’s alleged allergies. But you’re right, I was trying to scare you.”
“Why? How did you even know I was looking into the murder?”
“I overheard you talking to Kevin Mullins’ dad at the store.”
Maggie shuddered. “I wondered.”
“You know,” Carla tried to move her hands, but the cuffs restricted her, “I thought I was home free when they arrested Kevin. I couldn’t believe my luck. And everything went well until you had to mess it up. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.”
Maggie wasn’t sure if Carla had intended to compare her to a character on Scooby-Doo, but didn’t press the issue.
Carla stared off into space. “I thought that putting my hair under the cap would save me, but that’s what ruined me. You’re a writer, is that what you call irony?”
“I’m not sure,” Maggie said. “Irony has always confused me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When Maggie pulled into her driveway, she noticed an unfamiliar-looking pickup truck parked at her parents’ house. She made a note to inquire about the identity of the truck’s owner later that night when she called her mom. When she reached her porch, she could hear the phone ringing.
“Why do they do this to me every time?” she asked an excited Barnaby when she opened the door. “Mommaw and Poppaw should know it takes more than five seconds for me to walk from my car to my house.” Knowing who would be on the other end of the line, Maggie simply said, “Yes,” when she answered the phone.
“Come over here,” her dad said. “There’s somebody here who wants to see you.”
“I’ll be there as soon as Barnaby does his business,” she said.
Once Barnaby – and Maggie – had conducted their business, Maggie went to her parents and found Kevin and his dad discussing hunting with Robert.
“I’ve never been deer hunting. I don’t care for the meat. I’d rather eat squirrel any day.” When Robert saw his daughter, he said, “There she is.”
“Hey,” Kevin stood. “Me and dad came by to thank you.”
“Yeah,” Randy Mullins said, “they would have kept after Kevin if it hadn’t been for you.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Maggie said. “They would have eventually figured out the truth.”
“Don’t count on that,” Lena said as she carried two bowls of banana pudding from the kitchen and to the Mullinses. “Maggie, bring them some coffee.”
“Sure.” Maggie walked into the kitchen and was promptly joined by Kevin.
“Thank you ain’t enough, especially after the way I treated you in the parking lot of the paper and when you came to the house. In a way, I owe you my life,” he said.
Maggie handed him a cup of coffee. “It’s fine, Kevin.”
“No, it ain’t. I wanted to show you my appreciation, so I brought you a basket of eggs. They’re in your mom’s fridge. I’m going to bring her some, too. They offered to pay, but I can’t take their money.”
“Well, Kevin, I can’t take the eggs without paying for them.”
“Yes, you can. I wish I could do more. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“Just stay out of trouble and stop by and see Mark next week. He’s coming in for Thanksgiving.” She handed the second cup of coffee to him. “Take this to your dad, please. I can’t pass up this banana pudding.” “
Maggie brought Ben and Edie up to speed the next day when she joined them for lunch at the Dinner Bucket, “… and when blackmail didn’t work, she killed him.”
“And inherited all those ill-gotten gains,” Edie said.
“Not for long,” Ben said.
“Wonder if his cousin or ex-wife will get into trouble?” Edie asked.
“The fleecing of the nursing home happened a long time ago, so they’ll probably let Bug slide. At this point, there can’t be any evidence and I doubt the nursing home wants to revisit a past they didn’t know existed. Who knows if anything will come of the lottery deal? As for Rhonda taking money from him, there’s no evidence that happened, either. Just Carla’s accusations. Still, I hope this doesn’t cause trouble for her.” Maggie didn’t tell her friends she had called Rhonda as well as Jenny and Dottie to warn them Carla had confessed to everything she knew with a guard present and a detective listening in. She also didn’t tell them she had asked Rhonda if she was seeing anyone. As they had enjoyed her mom’s banana pudding the evening before, Maggie had pumped Randy Mullins for personal details and decided he and Rhonda would make a good couple.
“Oh, in case you guys are wondering, I haven’t told the police or anyone else about the banking information you gave me,” Maggie reassured her friends.
The diner door opened and Seth and another Jasper police detective walked in.
“Save me a seat,” Maggie heard Seth say to his buddy as he walked to her table. “What’s good today?”
“The mashed potatoes and gravy are good every day,” Ben answered as he and Seth exchanged handshakes.
“Solved any crimes lately?” Seth asked Maggie.
“Not today.”
“Isn’t she great?” Edie asked. “I wonder how you and your fellow boys in blue feel about being outsmarted by a civilian.”
Seth smiled. “As long as the right person gets locked up, I’d say it’s a win for everyone. But I hope she’ll use better judgment next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Maggie said.
“Good. That’s just what I want to hear. Is Mark definitely coming in for Thanksgiving?”
“Yes. Mark and his wife and the boys are coming in Wednesday evening and staying until Sunday morning. Luke is going home for the actual holiday, but he’ll be back in time to meet them.”
“Good. I hope you have a great holiday.” Seth looked toward Ben and Edie. “The same goes for you two.”
“Are you and Jamie staying here or going to her folks?”
Maggie’s question seemed to startle Seth. “Jamie?”
“Yeah. Aren’t you spending the holiday together?”
“Maggie,” Seth said, “Jamie and I have been divorced for six months.”
Table of Contents
Copyright © 2014 Michelle Goff
For my parents, Burton and MarlenePrologue
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
1 Murder on Sugar Creek Page 16