Katie sat beside Mattie between serving punch and cookies, proud of the compliments and appreciation voiced by people who wanted their books signed.
When they thought it had been long enough to be proper, giving Katie a small wave and smiles, Miss Minnie and Miss Mayme left feeling as glad about the signing as Katie looked.
It was almost two o'clock when they were shown to a table in the Colonial Hotel dining room.
They ordered and Miss Mayme was stirring her iced tea when she whispered, "Don't look now, but? "
"Don't look? Don't do that to me. What is it I shouldn't see?" Miss Minnie frowned, "Or is it a person?"
"Plural. Persons. It's your lawyer, dear." Miss Mayme hid her lips behind the tea glass she held.
"Laurence Fields? Hmm, his wife died of cancer years ago and he's over twenty-one," Miss Minnie reminded her.
"It's who he's with that surprised me. He's sitting there letting his coffee get cold while he hangs on every word Cathy Taylor is saying."
"Cathy Taylor?" Miss Minnie tried to see them out of the corner of her eye without turning. It didn't work. She eased a compact out of her purse and looked in the mirror at the two across the room behind her.
"See, I told you."
"I'll bet Connie doesn't know about this. And we're not going to tell her," Miss Minnie stated firmly giving her sister a pointed look.
"All right," Miss Mayme agreed and chuckled softly. "I guess she's got enough matchmaking on her hands with Tim and Hannah."
"Aside from that, use your common sense. If they wanted everybody knowing they see each other occasionally, they wouldn't be having dinner in the next town an hour after everyone else usually eats."
"All right. It may not lead to anything anyway. Could be they're just testing the waters. They're both bound to have had a few dinners with other people in the last few years. We won't tell."
A few minutes later, Mayme said softly, "They're leaving. I don't think they saw us."
* * *
Laurence Fields and Cathy Taylor sat in his car in front of her house as if reluctant to part. They made another date to see a play in Fort Craig, and Fields still sat as if preoccupied.
"What are you thinking about so hard," Cathy smiled. "Did one of your cases follow you home?"
"No, I lock the beasts in my desk when I leave," he dismissed them. "Actually, I was thinking about marriage."
Surprised, Cathy raised an eyebrow. "So, what about it, were you thinking anti or pro?" she teased him.
"Neither one. Good ones are made in heaven, bad ones are hell, and just as hard to get out of. What I was thinking is marriage is the ultimate calculated risk."
"I can't argue with that. I'm not qualified to argue with you, anyway, come to think of it." She let a giggle slip out, trying to brighten his mood, "But I'll bet my cookies are better than yours."
Fields laughed. "No contest on that."
"It's true you don't really know a person until you've lived with that person, I guess that's where the risk comes in?" She supplied the helpful thought philosophically.
"Right. There's no apprenticeship for it." He gazed at Cathy, his affection showing. "I know we haven't been seeing each other very long, but, had you given any thought to well? " He squirmed a little, not finishing, uncomfortably looking out the window.
Cathy nodded slightly, "Something similar had crossed my mind."
"Something similar? Don't hand me that friendship crap, but you did say it crossed your mind?"
"Um-hum. Since you are not fond of calculated risks and I certainly am not either, counselor. You don't have to have a degree to know enough to stay out of trouble." Her face was serious except for the small impish gleam in her eye. "If, hypothetically, the thought of marriage did cross our minds? "
"Yes?" She had his full attention.
"Perhaps we could find a place to get a No Fault marriage, like the policy you can get on your car."
Fields sat with his mouth open, his nebulous and unshaped hope of a relationship, which wouldn't work in a small town anyway, blowing away as her grin wrinkles deepened.
"No-Fault. That's where both parties could talk things over every year and if both were agreeable, they could just renew for another year. Wouldn't that be great?"
"Great, yeah!" He snorted. "But unfortunately, not legal."
He sighed as if giving up and pulling her into his arms, kissed her in broad daylight right in front of her house.
"Must it be legal?" A little breathless, her eyes searched his.
"Yes. Chiseled in stone. Anybody I cared for enough to want to get that close to, I wouldn't want to lose. Hell, Cathy, as you pointed out, cars have better contracts. There's something wrong with the damn system!"
Cathy kissed his cheek and got out, still laughing at his self described dilemma.
* * *
Cas was on the last leg of a routine patrol when Gladys called him. "Is the place on fire?" He demanded.
"No, this really isn't an emergency," Gladys admitted readily. "But I thought you'd want to know. The State of Georgia wants our prisoner, I think. I have a number for you to call when you get back."
"All right. If anyone else calls, just get a number. I'm on my way in now."
Gladys handed him the call when he came in, "This is the only one."
Cas squinted at the note and gave up on the name. "How does he pronounce this?"
"Not like it looks. 'Bush-wah' is how it sounded to me. He spelled it out so I could write it, B O U R G E O I S."
"Did he tell you anything except the number?"
"Nothing official. He didn't comment on anything they had but asked to be sure we did have Eugene Austin in custody. He wanted to make double sure of that. Gave me a brief description which I confirmed." A smile played around her lips.
"What?"
"After my description he said, 'looks like an undertaker?' so I'm sure our culprit is the one he's hunting. I confirmed we do have him in custody, the Eugene Austin that looks like an undertaker. I hope that was all right."
Cas nodded. "The inquiries we sent out asking about warrants and information must have been what alerted him. Is that all?" Gladys nodded.
Later that afternoon, Cas came out of his office, shutting his door behind him, his hat in his hand.
"Gladys, I've got a stop to make, so I'm leaving now. And you don't have to worry about our prisoner being extradited before we try him."
His eyes were hard as steel, his mouth a grim line. "I wish we'd caught the devil sooner."
Shocked by his expression, he was gone before Gladys could phrase a question about what Bourgeois told him.
* * *
Leaning over his desk, Laurence Fields beckoned to Cas as he entered. "Lock the door behind you, Joyce is gone."
"I'm glad I caught you, we need to talk."
"No problem, it's the clerical help that always leaves on time. Tell me about this Georgia thing."
"As I told you on the phone it was a Captain Bourgeois who called, Homicide in Columbia or was it Columbus, anyway, when I called him back he told me they've been looking for Eugene Austin. The inquiries we've been making on him were good news to them. Austin is a regular Bluebeard from what he told me." He stopped when Fields held up his hand.
"Just want to get this in case I want to fine comb it later." He got out a small recorder.
The recorder on the desk and working, Cas began again. "When I returned the call to Captain Bourgeois, Homicide in Georgia, I'll give you his contact info later. Little place. He told me the inquiries we've been making on Eugene Austin were good news to them. Austin is a regular Bluebeard as I said. They think he's killed two women and there may have been more. There is no proof on the first one they know about, the body was cremated before they suspected anything and could autopsy it. He collected a tidy sum from that. He got whatever property the woman had and an insurance policy. He claims she must have fallen and hit her head and drowned in the bathtub. The inquest called it acciden
tal. In the second case—the one they have the goods on him for—he married the woman and paid down on a house. Then..."
Fields interrupted. "Did Bourgeois get this from the second victim's relatives? And will they testify against him?"
"Right on both counts. And there are public records to back up most of it as well. They told him Eugene took out a policy on this second victim, or at least, the second one they know of, using the argument the mortgage insurance was on him. There was a double indemnity clause on the policy. What made them suspicious, was a near accident. A cousin who was close to his wife gave a statement about a hiking trip Eugene and his wife and the cousin and her husband took together. The wife nearly fell from an overlook plateau. The cousin heard a cry and looked up in time to see Eugene and his wife struggling at the edge of the precipice. She called out and ran up to where they were. By the time she and her husband got there, Eugene was holding his wife in his arms, supposedly trying to comfort her. Eugene insisted he was trying to keep her from falling, but the woman was too shaken up to say much, or more likely just scared, and the cousin didn't buy it."
"If he could make her fall seem like an accident he would have the cousin and her husband as witnesses, is that how it strikes you?"
"Yes, he would have had a member of her family to testify. It would be his word against hers whether he was trying to save her from falling or not."
"A certain other case came to mind. That one didn't get by with it either, by the way." Fields said, "Go on."
"After that near accident, she, the cousin, kept a close watch on them even after things had quieted down. Then Eugene changed jobs. He moved far enough away that the family couldn't visit very often. From the letters the cousin showed Bourgeois, Eugene must have been giving his wife small doses of arsenic. The symptoms described in the letter sounded like it, but the cousin didn't know that. It just sounded like she was sick. When his wife died, she had been able to dial the emergency number and died in the hospital, which wasn't his plan. Of course, Eugene didn't notify the family. The hospital called the cousin because of the next-of-kin name listed on the ID card in her purse. The purse had fallen behind the bedside table and they didn't find it until the body was moved and the room cleared. The one who called didn't know where the body was taken. Shocked, the cousin started calling funeral homes, looking for her cousin's body."
"He messed up there, I'm surprised he didn't check on the ID card. Probably didn't know she had one in her purse."
"All he checked on, and fast, was what the insurance company would pay. The policy was a pretty big one which is why he went to the trouble of moving away from any interference in his plans. He had the body sent to the only mortuary in town that had the facilities to cremate it. The cousin got to them just in time to put a stop to that."
"That was lucky. Did she ask for an autopsy?"
"Yes, she did. But Austin was already gone. The rat thought he was home free. He wrapped things up in a hurry. He sold the small equity in the house to a local mortgage company he'd already checked out, cleaned out the small bank account and left fast, bag and baggage, no forwarding address."
"How did they find out about the insurance policy?"
"The cousin remembered hearing it mentioned when they bought the house and got the mortgage insurance. He had given her the song and dance he was so good at about the mortgage insurance being on him, so he got insurance on her too."
"All neat plans and logic, our Eugene," Fields observed.
"Yeah, some con man. He's slick about covering his tracks. Anyway, the cousin called several insurance companies thinking she might be able to trace him that way, with no luck. Then, in the trash and things that were left in the house to be discarded, she found a bank statement among some of her cousin's personal things There was a check copy in it where she had written the monthly premium payment. That's how she got the name of the insurance company who wrote the policy."
"By that time, I guess they had the autopsy results and knew it was a homicide?"
"That's it. The arsenic he'd been giving her in small doses showed up, and the cousin had the letters about her not feeling well and describing her symptoms, to back up the toxicology report. My guess is, in our case, Austin not only planned to kill Mattie, marry Katie so he would have her estate and money for her books, but it wouldn't be long till Katie would have some natural looking accident and he would have not only Mattie's money, but Katie's insurance as well."
Fields reached for the recorder and turned it off.
"Typical wolf in sheep's clothing. So well camouflaged you can't convince the other sheep that's what they are," he sighed. "Their Achilles heel seems to be they only fool the victim," Fields gazed out the window thoughtfully.
"That seems to be the case in the ones who were caught. The cousin for instance, is the one who caught up with him and kept him from getting away with the second murder. And you'll recall, Mattie never liked Eugene, even when he was trying so hard to make points with her. It must have been pure instinct at first. But she knew it would take undeniable proof to convince Katie."
"We've got him. Rest assured, we've got him now. He's not going to get a chance to do this again." Reaching over to place the recorder in his desk, Fields grinned suddenly.
"What's that about? You can see something funny in this?"
"It would have been entertaining to watch the fit junior would throw if he had to let Georgia have this prisoner before he could try him." Fields laughed, picturing Tidwell's reaction.
"Yeah, that would be tough on him. He can't lose this one. By the way, the cousin and her husband are coming to the trial. They want to see this cold-blooded crud get everything that's coming to him."
"I can understand that. Then Georgia can take their crack at him."
Cas nodded, "Thanks to you and Archie Wright, he's out of business. Everything needed in the other case will be wrapped up by the time the jury here gets through with him."
Chapter 14
The day of the trial, Mattie and Katie met Miss Minnie and Miss Mayme at the flower shop. They left their car in the flower shop's small parking section and walked over to the courthouse together.
"I'm sure every space across the street will be full," Miss Mayme said as she put the closed sign on the door.
Connie parked in the sheriff's parking lot beside Cas's truck, arriving early to go in with him.
Inside the courtroom, seats were filling up fast. Cas stood talking with Laurence Fields and Tim Carpenter.
Connie sat near the front, watching as the room filled with people and low, excited conversations.
She saw Mattie Carrington come in and sit down on the other side of the room with Katie, Miss Minnie, and Miss Mayme.
Turning toward the doors at the back, she saw Cathy come in and pause, looking around at the crowd. Connie stood up and waved to her.
"I saved you a seat," she smiled as she moved over.
"Thanks," Cathy looked around again before taking the seat. "Looks like they will be turning people away soon, doesn't it?"
She turned toward the front in time to see Laurence Fields take a seat at the table with the young prosecuting attorney and smiled at him.
Connie saw the look, "It was Laurence Fields and the private investigator he hired who got the really damning evidence on Eugene Austin. They are the ones who are really going to be putting Eugene Austin away. With all they have against him, Tidwell has it made."
Cathy nodded, looking again at the people coming in.
"Cas figured there was going to be a big crowd, we don't often have anything like this to try in Maryvale."
"Thank goodness for that." She grasped Connie's arm, "Look!" She lowered her voice to a whisper, "They're bringing in the prisoner."
There was a hush in the courtroom as they, and everyone else, watched as Eugene Austin was brought in. He was preceded and followed by guards, his wrists shackled. He cast a furtive glance around the room, spotting Katie. For a fraction of a second,
their eyes clashed like drawn sabers. Then a guard tapped Eugene's shoulder and motioned him to a seat.
By the time the judge rapped for order, the place was full, and people were being turned away outside as predicted.
The hush was expectant as people tried to hear.
Eugene Austin pled not guilty and was represented by the public defender sent from Fort Craig. His name was Charles Doolin.
The young lawyer had been briefed on the case. He had already met and talked with Eugene Austin, sized up Tidwell, and knew he had about the same chance as the proverbial snowball. He regarded the whole thing as a learning experience.
The defense had tried to find character witnesses, but had found only two who were willing to say Austin was a good worker, and they didn't actually know anything about him. He felt it was too negative to be useful, especially since Austin's employer was a witness for the prosecution.
Austin had implied to him Katie might testify, but Doolin was doubtful and did not even approach her. Even if she had been as infatuated with Austin as he seemed to think she was, she was still the sister of the alleged victim. Doolin resolved to do the best he could with whatever opportunity presented itself.
Eugene tried to shake the gloomy mood settling on him as he watched Laurence Fields at the table across the room.
Doolin was watching him, too.
"There's my real opponent," he frowned to himself.
"Is there someone where you work, anyone that is a particular friend," Doolin remembered asking Eugene.
"No, no. I didn't know too many people there. Not socially. But there's no proof against me, I don't know why they arrested me." Eugene never stopped professing innocence of any wrong doing whatsoever.
"They do have quite a bit. I've told you about the two kinds of poison, in the cola and in the cream." Doolin tried to convince him how serious his danger was, trying to jar loose anything that could be the slightest help to them.
"But that cousin of hers visited her just before this happened. She was the last one to see her. That Anderson woman, not me," Eugene had insisted.
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