Magnolias, Moonlight, and Murder

by Sara Rosett

  Waraday walked back, speaking through the megaphone as he went. “It’s an old dirt road that winds around the lake and comes out on the other side at Elliott Road. The slight mound is the middle of the track between the two ruts made by the tires.”

  I swear that everyone in that line breathed a sigh of relief at that moment. Someone slapped a man on the back and said, “Congratulations, Henry, you found a road.” Nervous laughter followed and we resumed our trek through the woods, which was much slower going.

  I halted at the edge of the lake and studied the water as it lapped gently against the grass. “I’m surprised it’s so big. I had no idea this was back here.”

  “Me either,” Topaz said.

  The man beside me said, “Used to be the best place to swim. Old Cotner, he didn’t care if you came out here in the summer.”

  “Really? Is it deep?” I asked, surprised.

  “Probably about fifteen to twenty feet.” The man pointed to a high outcrop on the far side and said, “Deep enough to dive anyway.”

  The rest of the searchers had made their way around the lake, so we took up our position on the far side and continued to the road without anyone else calling the line to a halt.

  “Thanks for your help, everyone. You did an excellent job. We’ll check everything that was found today. Don’t be discouraged because there wasn’t a dramatic find. Sometimes it’s the smallest things that break a case.” Waraday handed the megaphone back to Nita, who still looked a bit pale.

  “Let me say again how much we appreciate your help today. Thank you.” She turned immediately to Waraday and began talking to him, occasionally glancing at the lake.

  Topaz and I made our way back to the Quick Mart. The boiled peanuts stand was open now and had several customers in line. “Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” Topaz said.

  “After that scare with the mound of dirt, I’m glad we didn’t find anything else. Nita looked awful,” I said.

  “We still haven’t had a chance to catch up. Do you want to go have a bagel? I haven’t had breakfast and I’m starving,” Topaz said.

  “Oh, I’d love to, but I have a birthday party for my son in a couple of hours.” I still had some cleaning to do and a couple of last-minute details. “Why don’t you come by and have a piece of cake? We’re in Magnolia Estates and we’ll be partying all afternoon, unless we have to close it down because of the media.” I glanced back and saw that Nita was surrounded by a huddle of reporters and photographers.

  “Oh, I heard about that. Can you believe you live in the house where Jodi lived? How strange is that?”

  “It was really strange yesterday. Hopefully today will be normal. Please come by if you have a chance.”

  “Well, I have to deliver a special order out that way this afternoon. I’ll try to drop in.”

  I was stopped at a light on the way home when my cell phone chimed. I opened it, expecting it to be a call from Mitch, but it was a text message. I clicked over and stared at it.

  Did you think the keying and gas leak were random incidents? They weren’t.

  “What?” I frowned and looked at the phone number the message was sent from, but I didn’t recognize it. A car horn sounded and I jumped. The light was green. I hit the gas and tried to concentrate on driving.

  The keying on my car and the gas leak were intentional? Someone was following me around and keying my car? And they’d been in my house? A frisson of cold fear crept through me and I pressed harder on the gas pedal. I wanted to get home, see that everyone was okay. Thank goodness I was close. I careened down Scranton Road and took the turn into the neighborhood too quickly. My heart was fluttery in my chest. I turned onto our street and my eyes widened. There was a car from the sheriff’s office parked in our driveway.

  From that moment until I got inside was a bit of a blur. I only remember tearing into the house and running directly into Mitch.

  “Whoa. Are you okay?” he asked as he held my upper arms.

  “What’s wrong? The sheriff’s car…why is it here? Is everyone okay?”

  “Yes, we’re all fine, but you don’t look so good.”

  I still held my phone clamped in my hand. I held it out and hobbled over to a bar stool. I felt like I had casters on my shoes. I collapsed onto the stool and said, “I got a text message saying that the keying and the gas leak were intentional. Then I saw the sheriff’s car and I—” I put my hand over my mouth because I didn’t want to go back to the horrible thoughts that had raced through my mind.

  “Hi, Mom,” Livvy said from the table. She had a Pop-Tart clutched in one hand and a sippy cup of milk in the other. Nathan grinned happily at me through jelly smears on both cheeks. At least, they weren’t fazed by this.

  Mitch hugged me. “I was about to call you. The gas line had been cut.”

  A deputy walked through the dining room and smiled at the kids on his way over to us. Mitch said, “Deputy Walsh, this is my wife, Ellie.”

  “Ma’am.” He nodded at me, then said, “There’s no sign of forced entry on any of your doors. Most likely, someone slipped in through one of the open windows. Probably the one in the kitchen, since it faces the backyard.”

  Someone had been in our house while we were sleeping. I rubbed my hands over my face and leaned against Mitch. He put his arm around my shoulders and said, “I’m changing the locks today, just in case. I think we should bring Rex’s kennel in from the garage and we’re setting the security system from now on. No sleeping with the windows cracked either.”

  “Of course.”

  “You need to see a text message I received this morning,” I said to the deputy. Mitch handed him my phone and I described how my car had been keyed.

  “Do you know anyone who’d want to harm your family?” Deputy Walsh asked.

  “No,” I said, frustrated and scared that this was happening to us.

  “Any ideas why someone would send you a threatening message, possibly vandalize your car, and break into your house?”

  “No! I don’t think I’ve made anyone mad. Lately, the only thing I’ve done differently is take a few organizing jobs and get involved in the Find Jodi campaign.”

  Mitch said, “You found Jodi’s notebook.”

  “I know, but that hasn’t really helped the investigation and I haven’t found anything in her notes either.”

  The deputy looked from one of us to another, then glanced at the kids behind us. “Maybe someone thinks you’ve found something.”

  “Well, then I have to stop doing anything to help find Jodi. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I think it’s about time for the goodie bags,” I said to Mitch. I’d seen several moms checking their watches and murmuring about having to leave soon to make it to the next soccer game or karate class.

  “I’ll get them.” Mitch took my empty paper plate and stacked it on his.

  “Don’t forget the balloons,” I called as he headed for the house. Amazingly enough, our day had settled back into a fairly normal routine after the deputy took down the information from the text message and left. There’s nothing like kids to keep your life normal. The birthday party had gone off as planned.

  Dorthea stood beside me scraping the last of the icing off her paper plate with a plastic fork. “Delicious. And you made it yourself?”

  “Yes,” I said. Unlike the are-you-crazy looks I’d gotten from some moms today when I brought the simple cake out, Dorthea said, “It’s nice to have a homemade cake instead of one of those garish ones from the bakery.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I surveyed the backyard.

  “Turned out fine, didn’t it?” Dorthea asked.

  “Yes, it did,” I said, still half amazed that everything had gone so smoothly. Not only was the street clear of reporters, but the kids seemed to be having a great time. After spending some time in Dorthea’s arms—she was his new favorite person—Nathan parked himself in his sandbox and hadn’t moved from it. He was busy scooping sand into buckets, then t
ipping them over on his bare toes. I adjusted the umbrella so that it shaded all the kids in the sandbox. The sky was still clear and it had warmed up to a perfect seventy degrees. Nathan had smeared cake all over his face and opened his presents. He didn’t understand everything, but it didn’t take him long to realize that ripping the paper off packages was a lot of fun. Now the kids were running around the backyard, playing on the swings and in the sandbox. The only glitch was a seating shortage. The adult guests outnumbered my lawn chairs.

  A rumbling sound came from the trees behind the backyard. “What’s that?” I asked.

  “A dump truck,” Dorthea said. “They’ve begun clearing the lots behind you. Phase Two is open. I expect the developer will pave that gravel path in the next couple of weeks and then we’ll have dump trucks bouncing through the neighborhood constantly. And dust. The dust they kick up coats everything.”

  “The lots around the little cemetery?”

  “Well, I don’t know if it’s those specifically, but it’s that section.”

  We both turned to gaze at the wall of tall trees behind the house. Dorthea said, “Those trees will be gone in a few months.”

  “I hope they leave a few. For privacy. They make a nice buffer.”

  “I wouldn’t count on it. It seems most of the developers like to raze the trees. We were lucky on this street because Gerald Lockworth built most of these houses and he likes to keep some trees. Gives the landscaping some depth. We do have other streets that looked like Sherman just marched through.”

  Her face turned more serious. “Have you heard they’re going to search the lake?”

  “No. The one near the Quick Mart?”

  “Yes. Nita’s found a dive team in Florida and convinced Waraday to let them search the lake. I forgot the fancy term she used…wasn’t forest, but something like that.”

  “Forensic? A forensic dive team?”

  “Yes, that was it. I sure hope all they find is Cotner’s old pickup.”

  “What? There’s a pickup at the bottom of the lake?”

  She nodded, but the hint of a smile on her face made me say, “I think there’s a story behind that statement.”

  She broke into a grin and said, “That lake used to be the place to go when I was a teenager. Not much to do around North Dawkins back then.”

  “A man at the search mentioned that it was the local swimming hole.”

  “During the day it was the swimming hole. At night it was the most romantic spot on earth. Frank and I would go there and park on that dirt road and watch the moon sparkle on the water. Old man Cotner didn’t care. In fact, I don’t think he knew that it was such a popular spot. He didn’t come out that way very much since his house was over on the other side of his property. Today, it’s on the other side of the interstate.

  “Anyway, one night, Frank and I were out there late, the only ones, when we heard a terrible racket. It was Cotner driving his old pickup and towing their car. He drove it right up to the edge of that high ledge. I thought he was going to keep right on going, but he stopped with a few inches to spare. Then he got out and we could hear the clink of chains. He went around to the back of the pickup. The next thing you know, he gave it a couple of shoves and over it went.

  “It was like something out of a movie. It nose-dived down into the water and there was a tremendous splash. It was so quiet I swear you could hear those bubbles popping. He stood there for a minute. Then cool as you please, he cranked up the car and left. His wife was tooling around town in a new car a couple of weeks later. The story was that the pickup had been stolen.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You and Frank didn’t say anything?”

  “When you’re sixteen insurance fraud is not what you’re worried about. We weren’t supposed to be there in the first place.”

  “But you said he didn’t care if people were around the lake.”

  “Right, but my parents would have cared and I wasn’t about to say a word and lose my chance to see Frank. Besides, it all comes out in the end. Tomorrow everyone will know he pitched his old pickup into the lake.”

  “Why didn’t the swimmers notice it?”

  “It was in the fall and no one was swimming then, but it wouldn’t matter because that lake is so deep. By the time summer rolled around, it would be good and settled into the lake bed. Well, I should be getting back home. Thanks for inviting me over.”

  “Thanks for coming,” I said, marveling at the stories people have. You just never know what people have seen.

  Bridget, my neighbor down the street, finished reapplying sunscreen to her youngest daughter’s face, then stood up and joined Abby, who was walking in my direction. Bridget called, “Great party. Very…quaint.”

  “The kids seem to be enjoying it,” Abby said.

  “I’ve thought about getting a sandbox for Geneva and Gabriella. Were you able to find noncarcinogenic sand?”

  “Ah—no. I bought the play sand at the store.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, that stuff’s terrible. The dust can cause cancer.” She checked on her kids. They were both playing by the swings.

  Abby and I exchanged a glance. “I’m pretty sure it’s the same type of sand that we played in when we were kids. We turned out fine,” I said.

  “Well, you can’t be too careful.”

  Mitch came out of the house holding the balloons and goodie bags. Bridget said good-bye and was one of the first parents to round up her kids and leave.

  “She couldn’t get out of here fast enough, could she?” Abby said.

  “Earlier, she asked if I’d used any artificial sweeteners in the cake.”

  “Is she for or against them?”

  “I have no idea. I told her it was all organic ingredients.”

  Abby gave me a look. “You’ve never been into organic stuff before.”

  “Sugar and chocolate are organic.”

  Nadia joined us and her girls chorused, “Thank you for inviting us.”

  “Glad you could come.”

  “I really loved this. A retro party! What a great idea, an old-fashioned birthday. Can you believe the kids had never played Pin the Tail on the Donkey? Amazing!” She swung toward Abby. “We’re still on for tonight?”

  Abby said yes.

  “Great. I so need a break. We’re going to have so much fun.” Nadia glanced at me and said, “Ellie, you should come, too. It’s a girls’ night out. We’re going to the Peach Blossom for dinner and then getting a manicure.”

  Abby added, “We’re going to gorge ourselves and not have to get up from the table once during the whole meal.”

  “Sounds fun. I’ll talk with Mitch and let you know.”

  Mitch was making his way around the lawn, handing out balloons. Nadia called out to him, “Mitch, you don’t mind if Ellie comes with us for our girls’ night out, do you?”

  “Nah. Jeff will have Charlie?” Abby nodded and Mitch said, “He can come over here and watch the game with me.”

  “Terrific!” Nadia said. “Our reservations are for six-thirty. You know where it is, right? Out on Sanders?”

  “Yes, I know. I’ll meet you there. Oh, there’s Topaz.”

  I walked over to her and she said, “Looks like I’m late.”

  “No, come on in. Have a piece of cake.” I guided her over to the table with the cake and cut her a generous chunk. “We’ve got juice bags and water bottles,” I said, opening the ice chest.

  “Water, thanks,” Topaz said.

  “We’re a little short on chairs, but I see one over there by the patio.”

  “Oh, this is fine.” Topaz sat down cross-legged in the grass and propped her water bottle against her knee.

  I grabbed a water bottle for me and sat down beside her. The party was in its last stages and I didn’t see anything I had to do, except clean up later.

  “I’m going to have to find some more chairs before next weekend,” I murmured more to myself than to Topaz. I figured we were going to have around fifty adults
at the promotion party.

  “This is killer,” she said, pointing to the cake with her fork. “I saw some chairs at Crooner’s place on the way over here. They were wooden folding ones.”

  “That would be good. How many?”

  “Well, it’s hard to tell with all that crap he has out there, but I think about eight, maybe more.”

  “I’ll have to take a look. I’ll figure out something. I might have to rent some.”

  “The closest rental place is up in Macon. What’s coming up next weekend?” Topaz asked.

  “Another party. Mitch got promoted.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You don’t sound very excited.”

  “I’m happy for Mitch about the promotion, but”—I wrinkled my nose—“I hate hosting parties. I’m terrified I’m going to forget something essential or that I’ll give everyone food poisoning. Then there’s the flow of the party, making sure everyone is having a good time.”

  “Oh, I love parties. I think if I didn’t have Found Objects I would have been a party planner. I love the energy and all the interaction. Let me know if you want some help.”

  “Why don’t you come?” I asked impulsively. “You can help me make sure the party’s fun.” Topaz had the perfect personality, outgoing and energetic, to be the life of the party.

  “Sure. I’m always up for a party.”

  “Wonderful. We’ll see you next weekend. The party starts at six. It’s a come-and-go, so feel free to drop in when you can. Enough about parties. We’ve got some serious catching up to do. Do you ever go back to Texas?”

  Topaz smiled briefly and said, “It’s better if I don’t go back there.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know a lot about Topaz’s family, but I did remember that her parents were divorced and she didn’t get along with either one.

  “Well, have you kept up with anyone from high school? Like who was it you used to eat lunch with every day? Samantha? Or was it Savannah? I can’t believe I can’t remember.”

  Topaz gazed across the yard and shook her head. “Samantha. It was Sam, for short. Nope. I haven’t seen anyone.”