“You’ll be here tomorrow?” Vivian asked into the phone.
“Three-thirty, right?” Not seeming the least bit discouraged by Jesse’s rejection, SueAnn sounded as upbeat as ever. “You bet. I’ll be there sooner if you need me for something.”
“I’ll stay in touch,” Jesse said. “I may need your magic fingers to check out something else for me.”
Vivian leaned closer to the phone and pseudo-whispered, “We’ll talk.”
Jesse hit the “end call” button.
“So, the sister-in-law is alive and well, and the mother is nowhere to be found.” Vivian tapped her lower lip with a burgundy-lacquered fingertip. “I suppose there could still be some logical explanation.”
“She could be over the state line in Arkansas, and we just haven’t located her yet. But if we can’t get an answer out of Hansen, the sheriff’s department will. Sooner or later, we’ll know where she is.”
“And the body in the backyard could still be anyone,” Vivian said, lost in thought. “Wait.” She stiffened and turned sharply toward Jesse. “What do you mean ‘if we can’t get an answer out of Hansen’? You’re going to talk to the girlfriend tomorrow. You didn’t say anything about talking to the brother.”
“Sooner or later, we’re going to have to. We have absolutely no idea who might have had a motive to kill Roy Lee. Winnie hasn’t got a clue. Which leaves us Roy Lee’s girlfriend, and his family, which consists of two brothers.”
“But one of them could have killed him!” Vivian argued. “You can’t go out to a ranch in the middle of nowhere and question some man you’ve never met about his brother.”
Jesse laid her hand over Vivian’s. “Funeral arrangements, Viv. Somebody has to talk to him about funeral arrangements, and Winnie isn’t up to it right now. And I’ll have my mother with me. Nothing could be more innocent.”
“Forget about the detective agency. We’re chasing a murderer here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
The sudden worry in Vivian’s eyes tugged at Jesse’s heart. “It’s okay. I’m not going to do anything stupid, and I’m not going to involve my mother in anything dangerous. Besides, what could be worse that the tornado I went through this morning? Or those two weird guys who came up out of nowhere? Or having my truck stolen by grave robbers?”
“Oh, good heavens.” Vivian clapped a hand to each cheek. “Now I know how your mother felt the whole time we were trying to clear Bliss.”
“And I know how you felt. Winnie needs us, just like Bliss did. And we can’t stop. Not now. Not until it’s done.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The next morning, Jesse parked in the dirt driveway that formed a semi-circle in front of the nicely kept, doublewide mobile home belonging to LaDonna Jean Stroud.
“Tell me again why we never call ahead on one of these visits,” Sophia said while checking her hair and makeup in the visor mirror.
Theirs was the only car in sight, and the doublewide, with a broad deck added onto the front and a decent-sized porch inset at the front door, seemed exceedingly quiet. If anyone was home, they were keeping a low profile.
All along the base of the deck was a tidy flower bed, mulched in for the winter, and trimmed back. A few daffodils were blooming, and here and there little spikes of green that might be hosta had begun to emerge. In the first impression department, LaDonna Stroud was already scoring points with Jesse.
“Because if they know you’re coming, they might not agree to talk to you.” Before her mother could respond, Jesse held up a hand. “I know. They could also tell you they work during the day and agree to meet you at a time when they might actually be home.”
“I wonder if they have a dog,” Sophia answered without pressing her point any further. “Since we’re here, I guess we might as well knock. Maybe check around back if we don’t get an answer.”
“Wow. Am I corrupting you, or did I possibly inherit some of my nosiness?” Jesse swung open the driver’s door of her mother’s not-new Cutlass convertible and stood. Looking around as she closed the door, she noted that the blacktopped rural road cut through fenced pasture land on both sides as it continued on.
The Stroud house was one of the few newer homes in the area. Most of the others were built on hilltops at the end of long dirt drives. Tall, narrow farmhouses and low, flat ranch houses shared the countryside with a surprising number of mansions. Like small palaces on the horizon, they were surrounded by rolling, green hills dotted with grazing cattle, a constant reminder that the wealth of the area came from the land beneath their feet.
Sophia exited on the passenger side and stood looking around, toward the house rather than away from it. “You suppose it could have been Roy Lee who did the gardening?”
“That hadn’t occurred to me.” Jesse turned back to face the house. “Should we go knock?”
“You go ahead. I’ll be right behind you. You given any thought to what you’re going to say if somebody actually answers the door?”
Jesse gave her head a quick, negative shake. “I just hope she’s friendly.”
“From what Winnie said, she’d be a lot friendlier if one of us was a man,” Sophia answered in a voice too quiet to carry far.
“Oh, well, since there’s probably no one home, I’ll worry about that later.”
Jesse was glad for the rubber soles on her shoes as she crossed the deck. A short way behind her, the two-inch heels on her mother’s sandals made a hollow tap-tap with each step, but at least there was only one of them making a clatter.
A long window bracketed each end of the recessed porch and a wide door with full-length glass panels on either side formed an impressive entrance for a modest, prefab home. Sophia arrived next to her, and just as Jesse raised her hand to knock, the wide, white door opened and a tiny, blond woman with no makeup and a tear-blotched face opened the door.
“Yes?” she asked in a thin, almost squeaky voice.
“Hello.” Jesse extended her hand and took the one that was wavering in the air just in front of her. “My name is Jesse Camden.” She turned slightly to indicate Sophia, who nodded and stepped closer. “This is my mother, Sophia Camden. We own the Gilded Lily Tea Room over in Myrtle Grove. Maybe you’ve heard of it.”
She paused mentally to kick herself for not bringing a loaf of tea bread with her. The perfect entrée, her personal calling card, and here she stood…
“We brought you a loaf of apricot walnut bread,” Sophia said, extending the foil wrapped tea bread toward the middle-aged waif in the doorway. “At least… we were looking for LaDonna Stroud. Are you LaDonna?”
The sad woman nodded as she reached out to take the loaf of sweet bread, clutching it in one hand and the top of her terrycloth bathrobe in the other. She automatically stepped back and Jesse crossed the threshold into the cool, dim interior of a house that smelled like… Jesse sniffed, pulling in the aroma of… lilies. The sweet scent of Easter lilies, too early in the year to be freshly cut, filled the air, meaning someone had already sent a floral arrangement, or possibly a potted plant.
“We’re so sorry for your loss,” Sophia said, advancing into the room behind Jesse, continuing to say and do exactly the right thing, with a grace and sincerity that Jesse herself never seemed to manage.
She was tall and clunky beside her mother, without the softly rounded edges and inviting warmth. If Sophia was freshly baked apple pie, with the comfort of cinnamon and spice, then Jesse was lemon meringue—cool, refreshingly tart and better if you don’t have too much at once.
“Th-thank you,” LaDonna stuttered. “Did you know Roy Lee?”
“Not that well,” Jesse said. “We have mutual friends. And, well, I’m so sorry, but I need to talk to you about a few things.”
“Ya’ll might as well come on into the kitchen,” the other woman said, turning toward a large doorway that angled off from the wide central hall. Her bare feet made a soft padding sound as she led the way across the tiled entryway and into what was a breakfas
t room and kitchen area. Ladder-backed chairs with floral seat cushions flanked a round table tucked into an alcove with a bay window overlooking a backyard just turning the fresh green of spring.
“Ya’ll want some coffee?” She put the loaf of tea bread on the counter, carefully unwrapped the foil and leaned in to sniff the warm, sweet aroma. “I can cut some of this.”
“I would take some coffee, if you have it,” Sophia said. “But the walnut bread is for you. Go ahead and cut a piece if you’d like some.”
“A small cup of coffee would be good for me.” Jesse had pulled out a chair to sit, then stopped and started around the bar at the end of the kitchen. “Could I help you? I really didn’t come here to have you wait on me.” She opened a cabinet door and found the coffee cups. “Why don’t you go sit down, and I’ll do this. You look like you’re ready to drop anyway. Did you get any sleep last night?”
While she talked, Jesse pulled down cups, found a small plate, cut a piece of the tea bread and put it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm. Then she cupped her hands around LaDonna’s shoulders, gently turned her toward the breakfast table and gave her the slightest of gentle shoves. “Go on,” she urged. “This is what I do for a living. I can handle it.”
Then Jesse filled the coffee cups, found a small carton of creamer in the refrigerator, removed the saucer from the microwave, added a fork, and had it all arranged on the table in two efficient trips. “Eat,” she ordered. “Then we’ll talk.”
As she rounded the table to join the other two, who were already sitting, Jesse gave her mother’s shoulder a quick squeeze of gratitude for setting the tone and remembering the tea bread. Once again, Sophia had been quietly indispensible.
LaDonna took a bite, chewed a few times and groaned. “Did you all make this?” She downed a long drink of coffee and put another forkful in her mouth, repeating the groan as she chewed.
“Jesse made it,” Sophia bragged. “All the baking talent went straight from my mother to my daughter. I’m a poor second to them both.”
“Don’t be silly. You make the best pie crusts I’ve ever seen. And orange rolls.” Jesse leaned in toward LaDonna. “They just make you want to cry.”
Bolstered by coffee and apricot walnut bread, the wilted flower who had answered the door was a little less droopy. She managed a smile and a small chuckle. Then she pulled a tissue from her robe’s pocket and dabbed at her watery eyes. “You wanted to talk about Roy Lee? What did you need to know?”
“Everything,” Jesse said with a shrug. “I’m guessing someone has talked to you, but I don’t know how much they told you. Do you know how he died?”
LaDonna drew in a shuddering breath and nodded. “In a tornado. He was fishing, and it took him and his boat. I-I-I…” Her voice dissolved into hiccups before she forced the rest of the words out. “I just can’t bear to think of him dying like that.”
Jesse exchanged a glance with her mother. They were going to have to tell her the truth, but exactly when and how was open to question.
“Who told you?” Jesse asked. “Have you talked to anyone from the sheriff’s department?”
“There’s a woman deputy who’s coming by to talk to me today. It was one of Roy’s brothers who called me, not sure which one. I have trouble telling them apart, and over the phone it’s impossible. Anyway, one of them called and told me he…”
Her next words were garbled by tears. She pulled out a new tissue to dab at her eyes and blow her nose.
“About what time did he call?” Jesse asked, hoping she could understand the answer.
“About…” LaDonna paused to take a deep breath and gather herself. “About three o’clock. In the afternoon.”
“And that’s all he said?”
“I started crying, and he just hung up. Then the sheriff called later. Said they’d be by today, if that was all right. I said sure. I thought maybe they could tell me more. Maybe you can tell me more?” Her sad, pink-and-blue eyes looked hungry.
Jesse realized that LaDonna had loved Roy Lee, at least a little, which wasn’t going to make the rest of this any easier. She took a deep breath for strength and plunged ahead.
“Gosh, well, Roy Lee was caught in a tornado, LaDonna, but… Gee, I really hate to tell you this, but… Well, it wasn’t the tornado that killed him. He was already dead. Someone had shot him.
LaDonna screamed and shoved her chair away from the table. It went a few inches, then the back legs caught on the floor. The front legs had nowhere to go but up, and the chair started tilting backward toward the window while LaDonna’s arms flailed and her eyes grew round with fright.
Jesse lunged toward the chair on her side, catching the top corner. Slower to move, Sophia managed to grasp LaDonna’s waving hand and pull her toward her, which gave Jesse enough time to return the chair to its upright, four-legged position.
Roy Lee forgotten for the moment, LaDonna crossed her arms on the table and laid her head on her forearms, gasping for breath. “Oh, my God, I thought I was dead,” she mumbled into the tabletop.
“Probably a concussion at the most,” Jesse said, never particularly good at consoling.
“There, there, dear.” Sophia patted the elbow nearest her and cooed in a voice made to soothe. “You’re safe now. Everything’s over.”
Eager to get the questioning behind her, Jesse bit her lower lip and forced herself to be patient until the woman was at least sitting upright again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
LaDonna’s head slowly lifted, and the eyes that had been sad and vague now appeared haunted.
“Shot?” she asked with an edge of what might have been anger. “Someone shot him? Like a hunting accident? Where did they shoot him? Is that what killed him? Do they have the person who did it?”
Jesse waited until the stream of questions had definitely ended. “Yes, that’s what killed him. Probably not a hunter. They have no idea who did it, or if it was an accident or on purpose. But it was awfully close range to have been an accident.”
“So it was on purpose? On purpose?!” LaDonna’s voice rose half an octave, and she started to push away from the table again, but caught herself. “On purpose would be…” Her voice had dropped to a near whisper, then died away completely to leave the thought dangling.
“Yes.” Jesse confirmed what the other woman had been unable to say. “But that’s why I’m here. I haven’t talked to his brothers yet, but his ex-wife swears he had no enemies and no one who would want to kill him. If you know of anyone who might be upset with him about anything, it would be very helpful. Because at the moment, none of this is making any sense.”
“Ah, Roy.” LaDonna let her breath out with a sigh and shook her head. “He was a piece of work sometimes, but I don’t know anything he had gotten into that could have gotten him killed. Is it true he was down by the water? Fishing?”
“Well, he was found with his fishing boat nearby and they both had bullet holes in them. And his truck was parked next to a favorite fishing spot, I was told. So, it looks like he was, at least, getting ready to fish.”
“He was alone?”
“There was no sign that anyone else was with him, but after a tornado, hail and rain, I’m not sure how much anyone could tell.” Jesse paused for a heartbeat while the other woman sat frowning into her coffee cup. When the silence stretched, she decided to take the conversation in another direction. “Uh, this is kind of a sensitive subject, but what do you know about his relationship with his ex-wife?”
LaDonna’s head whipped up and she glared across the table. “Why? What about her?”
“A man recently divorced is killed. He’s seeing another woman but is still friendly with his wife. Nobody seems to know why anyone would want to do him harm, but someone shot him between the eyes and left him dead in his boat. Someone who had to follow him out to a secluded spot by the lake. That’s not accidental, and it’s not spur of the moment. Unless we’re missing something vital, that requires motive and premedit
ation.”
Jesse could almost hear Joe Tyler in her head, saying much of the same things to Winnie the night before. Cold chills chased down her backbone as the full meaning sank in. Someone had followed Roy Lee Rogers to the lake, bringing a gun with them. Whatever their reason, they had come prepared to kill him.
“You think she’s the one who did it?” LaDonna asked. “I know they fought over that land, but she’s the one who got it. What would she have to be mad about? She certainly didn’t want him back.”
“How do you know that?”
“’Cause he kept trying to get her to come back to him. He even asked her to marry him again, and she wouldn’t. So she obviously didn’t want him.”
“You don’t seem very upset about Roy Lee pursuing another woman.”
LaDonna flicked her eyebrows and puckered her mouth in a dismissive facial shrug. “It bothered me, sure. But Roy promised me he didn’t love her. He said he needed that land back and that was the only way he could get it.”
“Why did he need the land back?”
“He didn’t say, but he was real worried about it. The last few months somebody’d been calling him about it a lot, but he wouldn’t say who. He’d get real secretive and go off in the other room when they called. It was eating at him more and more, it seemed like. But it was just a piece of land with a bitty, little house. I don’t know why somebody would kill him over that.”
“You said he seemed worried. How about scared? Did he seem scared?”
“Sometimes, yeah. That wasn’t like him. He’d always been real happy-go-lucky, even when he didn’t have a reason to be. That’s what I liked about him. He was fun.”
Remembering that no one knew what he did for a living, Jesse changed the subject once again. “Where did he work? Did he have any friends there?”
“He hadn’t been working too much lately. He called himself a farmer before his wife got the house and land in the divorce. But I never noticed him doing much farming. He worked construction some, but there’s not much of that going on right now. He had a little money coming in on the side. Don’t know what from, and it wasn’t much, but it gave him some spending money.”
Murder Most Thorny (Myrtle Grove Garden Club Mystery Book 2) Page 19