A Reunion to Die For (A Joshua Thornton Mystery)

by Lauren Carr

  He held up the picture of Tricia with the diamond necklace around her neck. “He brought this along to give to her as a good-bye present. When she saw that he intended to kill himself, she took the necklace to placate him while she tried to talk him out of doing it. The chain was too short to fit around the turtleneck of her cheerleading uniform, so she had to put it on under the sweater. Otherwise, her mother would have seen it and guessed what happened.”

  Phyllis’s exhausted sobs were the only noise in the room.

  Joshua resumed, “She must have still had her purse because her things spilled onto the floor, probably while trying to get the gun from him.”

  Unable to speak, Phyllis nodded.

  “After Tricia was killed, you cleaned up any evidence that Doug had been there and made her comfortable on the sofa. What you didn’t notice in your cleaning up was that Doug had found her class ring and taken it.”

  “I didn’t know he had her ring until days after he killed her.” Even with the tears in her eyes, Phyllis had found strength to go on. “One day I walked into his room, and there he was with the ring. It became his most prized possession. I asked him where he got it, and he said that Tricia gave it to him. He totally forgot that he killed her! He had this whole story of how she loved him and killed herself because they could not be together, and she was waiting for him on the other side!”

  She sucked in a shuddering breath. “I was so afraid that they would find out and he’d go to jail or some insane asylum. That nut has been wearing that ring all along under his shirt. So, I told him that he had to make sure no one ever saw it or they would take it from him, which is the truth.”

  The sheriff asked her, “What about those times he was committed? How is it that no one in the hospital discovered it?”

  “I’d keep it for him. When I went to visit, he would always ask to see it. So I’d have to bring it along with me to show him and let him hold it.”

  “Did your parents ever know?” Joshua inquired.

  She scoffed, “My father never even noticed the gun was missing. Sheriff Delaney never asked him if the gun was his. Delaney didn’t ask us anything. He said it was a suicide and left it at that.”

  “But Rex knew.”

  Phyllis was startled by his statement.

  The prosecutor speculated, “Rex was working on the farm that day. He knew Doug killed her and he knew you covered up for him. So, he threatened to turn Doug in unless you married him.”

  She sniffed. “Is that what he wrote in his book?”

  Ruth interrupted him, “Now that you got her off the hook for killing Tricia Wheeler, are you going to try to hang her husband’s murder on my client?”

  “No,” Joshua answered. “As a matter of fact, if you give me a chance, I can get her off the hook for Gail Reynolds’s murder, also.”

  The public defender was surprised.

  “Are you sure that you didn’t see anyone at Gail’s house that night?” Joshua warned her, “Think carefully before you answer.”

  The media had said that Karl Connor was arrested for killing Gail but had given no details to the murder.

  “I wasn’t there,” she confessed. “After I closed up the café I couldn’t find Doug. He’d never disappeared before. He was really upset about Gail and Mrs. Wheeler being there that night talking about Tricia. I went out looking for him.”

  “Was he afraid that they were going to find out about him killing her?” Curt asked.

  Phyllis shook her head. “He didn’t really care about that. He was afraid that Gail was going to make Tricia out to be a slut or a stuck-up bitch or something. You know how reporters are. Everyone is always looking for a skeleton in everyone’s closet.”

  Joshua had to agree. “When and where did you find him?”

  “I found him walking along Route 30 after two o’clock in the morning. I had no idea what he had done until Tuesday when the news said that Gail was killed. I asked him and he flat out said that he went to her place and waited in her closet and then smothered her with a pillow.” She looked from him to the sheriff. “If anyone had asked him, he would have said that he did it. He had no idea that he did anything wrong.”

  “What about Rex?” Joshua suspected the answer.

  “Neither of us killed Rex.”

  “My client is now off the hook for both murders,” Ruth stated with the first sense of confidence she’d had since she was called for the middle-of-the-night meeting. “As of now, you have nothing against her.”

  “Accessory after the fact,” Joshua responded.

  “She was protecting her brother.”

  “The law does not draw the line at family members when it comes to accessory.”

  “Tell that to a jury.”

  “Cool it, Ruth. I don’t think your client killed Rex.” He looked at Phyllis. “Rex blackmailed you. That’s why you dropped out of school to marry a man who didn’t have a steady job and beat you when he was drunk. You’re too strong a woman to stay married to an abusive husband. What you have accomplished against all odds proves that.”

  She sat up straight and regarded him with surprise. “What have I accomplished?”

  “You built a successful business while taking care of an ill brother, even though you were in an abusive relationship. You had the strength to stand up to Rex and throw him out. And then you sat here and faced a lifetime locked up in jail for two murders that you didn’t commit in order to protect your brother.” He touched her hand. “Phyllis, you’ve made sacrifices for others your whole life. Not everybody is that unselfish. You are awesome.”

  “So she’s free to go?” Ruth snapped and rubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray she carried in her purse. “I assume in your admiration that you are dropping the accessory charges.”

  “While I admit the evidence we have against your client as far as accessory is circumstantial, it is indeed damaging, and I think a jury, even without a confession, would know what she did.”

  He sat back and directed his comments to Phyllis even though he was speaking to her lawyer. “I am in a position to not file any charges. I’ll be the first to admit that it would be a loser case. The jury will refuse to convict out of sympathy. This whole thing has been a horrible tragedy all the way around. I would like to put an end to it and let us all move on as best we can. I’m asking for her help. I’m not going to play hardball. We are all too tired for that. I’m asking her to help me out simply because she can.”

  “How can I possibly help you?” Phyllis asked suspiciously.

  “I think you have information and can offer testimony in catching your husband’s killer.”

  Ruth shook her head. “Why would she care to catch his killer?”

  “He cared enough for Doug to not turn him in to the police after she kicked him out.”

  “I don’t know who killed Rex,” Phyllis insisted.

  “You know more than you think you know. That information can help us to bring justice in more than one murder.” He ignored her lawyer’s scoffing. “I’m going to get this killer with or without your help. It will be easier with it.”

  “How are you doing?”

  Joshua stepped into Tad’s apartment without knocking when he saw him sitting at the kitchen table with his bandaged hand and wrist stretched out before him. Only his fingers were left exposed. The doctor had spent the night in the emergency room as a patient.

  “I’ve been better,” Tad said before rising from his chair and going to the counter to make a pot of coffee.

  “Hey, Tad, you would never believe what Ziggy just told me.” Clutching her cell phone, Jan rushed in from the bedroom. She stopped when she saw Joshua. It was eight o’clock in the morning, and she was dressed in the same clothes she had worn the day before.

  Despite the frigid cold, Tad was shirtless and dres
sed in a pair of blue jeans that had seen better days.

  “Hello, Jan,” Joshua said.

  “Hi, Josh.” Her eyes wide with embarrassment, she stammered out the reason for her outburst. “I was talking to Ziggy at The Review—dictating my story about last night—and he said that the AP has just released a report that Seth Cavanaugh was arrested in Los Angeles.”

  Tad stopped spooning coffee into the filter with his hand in midair. “Are you talking about our Seth Cavanaugh?”

  Joshua said to Jan, “You’re kidding.”

  She was shaking her head. “No, it’s true. Yesterday, the Quincy brothers were released from prison. Their lawyer’s private detective proved that they did not kill their parents. It was their uncle.”

  Tad said, “Sounds like Cavanaugh was a screw up even before he came to Chester.”

  “More than a screwup,” Jan announced. “He was arrested for accepting a bribe and tampering with evidence.”

  “Then I was right about him,” Joshua said. “He did take a bribe from Margo to steal the evidence placing Billy on the scene when Grace was killed.”

  “I guess it wasn’t his first time,” Jan continued. “The PI found evidence that Seth found out about the uncle committing the murders and accepted a payoff to keep quiet about it. Not only did he accept a bribe, but he tampered with evidence to ensure that the Quincy brothers were convicted, which made them ineligible to inherit their folks’ estate. Once they went to jail, the uncle got it all. But now Uncle Quincy is going to jail … and so is Seth Cavanaugh, as soon as they get him back to West Virginia.”

  Joshua surmised, “Seth didn’t give Curt two weeks’ notice before taking off for California. I wonder if one of his friends in Parkersburg gave him a heads up about what was going down.”

  “Since he’s in jail now awaiting extradition to West Virginia, I guess he didn’t get enough of a heads up,” Tad said with a wicked grin.

  “Jan, you just made my day,” Joshua said.

  She was equally happy. “Tad, do you have anything for us to drink in a toast to justice?”

  “The orange juice is in the fridge.” Having lost count of how many spoonfuls of coffee he had put into the coffeemaker, Tad emptied the filter and started over.

  “How’s your hand?” Joshua sat on top of the kitchen table.

  Tad completed his count before he answered, “It’s just a flesh wound.” He added, “I’m certainly in better shape than Doug Barlow.”

  Dog strolled into the kitchen. He yawned and stretched. When he completed his morning stretching exercises, he dropped onto the floor and gazed up at his master. After handing both Joshua and Tad glasses of orange juice, Jan reached up into the cabinet to get a treat for the dog.

  Joshua was not surprised by his cousin’s foul mood. “I should have known that Phyllis was covering up for him. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Tad hit the button to start the coffee brewing. He turned back to him. “I can’t stand losing a patient.”

  Joshua did not miss Jan placing her hand on Tad’s arm when she told him, “The deputies had to shoot back. Doug took a shot at them. There was nothing we could have done.”

  “If they had given me a chance I would have taken the gun from him,” Tad argued.

  Jan pleaded, “Tad, don’t do this to yourself.”

  “Doug let me get close enough to grab the gun.”

  Joshua jumped down from the table and grabbed him by the shoulders. “If you keep replaying it in your mind, you’re going to convince yourself that you could have saved Doug the same way he convinced himself that Tricia killed herself because they couldn’t be together. It’s a defense mechanism. The truth is that Doug killed Tricia, whether it was accidentally or on purpose, and you could not save him. He was not going to be satisfied until he was dead.”

  “I know.”

  Joshua said, “Eventually, he was going to succeed. Last night, he did, and we can thank God he didn’t take you two with him.” His voice fell when he added, “I’m sorry you had to be there.”

  The coffee was made and Tad turned around to fill their cups. To prevent them from seeing the sadness in his face, he stared out the window over his sink while he sipped the hot coffee with his back to them.

  Jan whispered to Joshua, “He’s really blaming himself.” She glanced at the time. “I have to go to work. I’d hate to be late for my new job, especially when I’m scooping the competition with a first-hand account of the day’s biggest story.”

  Joshua suppressed a gasp when he saw her kiss Tad full on the mouth before rushing back to the bedroom. With her jacket in hand, she returned and kissed Joshua on the cheek before kissing Tad once again on the lips and running out the door and down the steps.

  “I guess your relationship with Jan has taken a turn.”

  “We’re not sleeping together.” Tad sighed. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I’ll just say that the feelings Jan and I have had for each other have changed. I’m not going to hurt her.” He turned back to the window to watch his neighbors as emerging to start their day.

  “What if—”

  “I’m second fiddle to you? She’s moved on.” Tad looked at him. “There comes a time when we all have to either move on, or stagnate until our lives turn into a parasitic swamp.”

  Preoccupied with their own thoughts, Joshua and Tad stood side-by-side at the counter and stared out at the dead leaves in the yard next door.

  It was early in the morning. The neighbors letting their dogs out while retrieving their newspapers from the front stoops evidenced the first stirrings of the day. Some were climbing into their cars to get on Route 30 to head out to the Pittsburgh Airport Corridor, a stretch of land between the airport and the city where high rises provided jobs for many of Chester’s residents.

  The populace had changed since the days when Joshua and Tad were children. Then, most of the residents had worked in the steel mill during the week and were farmers on the weekend.

  “Are you angry about Jan and me?” Tad asked about the source of Joshua’s silence.

  “No,” Joshua lied.

  Greg Boyd and his mother, Eve, were waiting for Joshua in his living room when he stomped home after seeing his cousin with Jan, the woman who had confessed weeks before that she loved him. He didn’t want her, but he was certain that he didn’t want Tad to have her. In spite of his anger, he found it hard to be mad at Tad. For Joshua, that feeling directed at Tad was impossible. He wished it wasn’t.

  In his night of sorting out Gail’s and Tricia’s murders and playing mental poker with Ruth Majors, he had forgotten that he had tracked down Dan Boyd’s son to Lawrenceville, where he had come home for a visit. Overjoyed that the case was renewed, Greg and Eve Boyd said they would be at his house the first thing in the morning to be interviewed.

  In contrast to his glasses, strawberry-colored hair, and freckles, Greg Boyd was tall and muscular. According to the photographs taken of the scene of the murder, the only difference between the father and son was that Dan was rail thin. Greg was a devoted son. He comforted his mother by placing his hand on hers while they rehashed the past in an effort to find the killer of the only man she had ever loved.

  Eve Boyd was at least ten years older than the woman who had seduced her husband away from her family. She was a petite woman, wore little makeup, and didn’t take any pains to style her short salt-and-pepper hair. She never remarried. Joshua’s instinct told him that she didn’t even date.

  Greg was introducing his mother while pumping Joshua’s hand in the front foyer when Sarah and Donny, dressed for football in the front yard, came down the stairs.

  “Hey, Dad.” Sarah tossed the ball into the air and caught it. “We’re getting together a game outside. Care to join us?” Joshua could still see the sleep in her eyes. The visitor
s had awakened her.

  “I’m working.”

  “You’re always working.” She led her brother out the door.

  Through the open doorway, Joshua saw a group of kids gathered in the yard. He pushed aside his desire to join them and ushered Dan Boyd’s son and ex-wife into his office where they could talk in quiet. The scent of Tracy’s coffee and fresh cinnamon rolls drifted in from the kitchen.

  When they went into the office, Joshua found Admiral sprawled out across the full length of the sofa he intended to offer as a seat to his visitors. The dog rested his head on a throw pillow.

  “Admiral!” the dog’s master shouted with his hands on his hips. “Get off!” He ordered him out of the room.

  Admiral snorted and lifted his head to take in the people who had the nerve to interrupt his morning nap. He hesitated to size up each one of the humans standing over him. After concluding that he had better do what he was told, the mongrel inched down from the sofa until he was off and, with a sigh, slunk out of the study.

  Joshua sat in the recliner with a notepad in his lap. Poised to ask and answer all the questions they needed in hopes of catching Boyd’s killer, Greg and Eve sat on the sofa across from him.

  “Margo did it, didn’t she?” Eve peered at him with dark, round eyes in her equally round face.

  “She has an alibi for the time of the murder,” Joshua said. “We do suspect that she arranged for his murder, but we would have to prove it. That’s one of the reasons I asked you to come.”

  “He was going to leave Margo,” she said. “We were talking about it the month before she killed him. Dan was having a mid-life crisis. Greg was little. We had been married for quite a while, and he was feeling old and she made him feel young again. But then, after they got married, he came to his senses. He asked me if he could come back. He just hadn’t gotten around to telling her yet.”