He happily obliged. But he was so tall he had to bend down almost halfway to hug her. “Mornin’, Grandmother.”
“Mornin.’ Now you two, go catch a killer,” Miss Vivee said patting his arm. “And you, Missy,” she wagged a finger at me. “Call me as soon as Bay talks to that low-life killer. I want to know everything that happens.”
“We’ll call you, Grandmother,” Bay said. “Don’t worry.”
“Thank you, Grandson,” Miss Vivee said and pulled him back down, planting a kiss on his cheek.
“Okay,” Bay said looking at me. “You ready?”
“Yep.”
“Good,” he said and smiled. “You look nice.”
I looked down at my khaki cargo shorts, white tank top and tennis shoes. “Thanks,” I said, tugging down on my baseball cap with “I ♥ to Dig” inscribed across the top. I winked at Miss Vivee.
We walked out to get in Bay’s car and I noticed it was the same car my father had. A Cadillac SRX. Same make. Same model. Same color.
“Is this the car you’ve had since you’ve been down here?” I asked.
“Yep.”
Why hadn’t I noticed before?
“Is it your car?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Why?”
Man, my daddy would love this. Me hanging out with a guy who has his same taste.
“No reason,” I said and hopped in.
As soon as we hit the highway, I reached over and turned down the music. “So. I’ve been wondering,” I said. “Why did you follow me down to Yasamee?”
“That’s my job. I track down criminals.”
I sucked my tongue against the roof of my mouth.
He tapped my arm. “I was just kidding.”
I didn’t say anything.
“I was already on my way to Yasamee.” He glanced over at me and then back at the road, seemingly wanting to explain. “When I got the call to check out Track Rock Gap, I was already on my way to Yasamee for a visit.”
“Really?” I laughed. “Nobody in the entire world would believe that. It’s just too coincidental. You stopped in Gainesville where I just happened to be . . .” I looked at him. “Minding my own business and then you just happened to come to Yasamee after I told you I was coming to Stallings Island?”
“Yep. I guess that’s the way it happened. Although what you were doing at Track Rock Gap is technically my business.”
I exhaled noisily. “That’s too much of a coincidence.”
“Maybe it wasn’t coincidence.” He glanced at me and smiled. “Maybe it was fate,” he said.
“I’m in love with Colin Pritchard.”
“The deputy?”
“Like your grandmother asked me once: ‘Do you know another Colin Pritchard?’”
“No,” he said. “I sure don’t.” He bit down on his lip. “But you’re kidding, right?”
“Well that’s the plan,” I said. “Me be in love with him. He be in love with me. He doesn’t know about my plan yet, though.”
“Why do you have this plan?”
“Because I think he’s cute,” I said.
“In a dumb sort of way, right?”
I chuckled.
“What about me?” he asked. “You think I’m cute?”
“No.”
“Yeah,” he said nodding his head. “I’m definitely going to have to give a visit to Grandmother’s greenhouse. Whip up a love potion.”
“You’d never get me to drink that.”
“I’d put it in one of my mother’s fruit cups. She told me how you ‘gobbled’ those down. Or did she use the word ‘demolished?’ I can’t remember the word, but I do remember envisioning a lion tearing into its prey, teeth ripping into flesh, ravaging on its remains.”
“Oh my.” I rubbed my hand across my forehead. “How embarrassing.” I scrunched up my nose. “You know one of you are always telling me what the other one said. Do you guys sit and talk about me when I’m not around?”
“Yep. We do. My grandmother actually gave me the idea of cooking up a love potion the last time we talked about you,” he said and started grinning.
“Speaking of potions, do you mind if I ask you a question.”
“No. I don’t mind.” He glanced at me. “For you, I’m an open book.”
“I was wondering about your father,” I said ignoring his “open book” comment.
Miss Vivee had told me that she helped Louis Colquett “pass over,” as she put it, when we got back from Atlanta just as she promised. But it was at his request she’d said. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her, it was just that people thought Miss Vivee capable of such things, and I wanted to know what Bay thought, especially since he was being so “open” with me.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said. “But what do you remember about your father’s death?”
He shot a glance at me, then didn’t say anything for a little while. “My father was in a lot of pain. He had cancer that just ravaged his body. Every breath he took hurt.” He seemed to drift off in thought, his eyes maybe even misty.
“I know why you’re asking,” he said. “Some people say my grandmother killed him. But she loved him like he was her son. And I know that my grandmother, if she had it in her power, would never let him keep suffering like that. My mother, deep down somewhere knows that too. But when people accuse my grandmother of, well, uhm, you know, my mother defends her to the end.” He looked at me. “One thing Miss Vivee taught me, especially since I was the only black kid around, was never to be ashamed of who you are. And she was certainly never ashamed to be the Voodoo Herbalist Priestess of Yasamee. And I’m glad she is because she used her powers to help my dad.”
I nodded my head, but didn’t say anything.
“So does that answer your question?”
“Yep,” I said and smiled.
“Good,” he said. “Now let’s talk about us.”
Us?
Thank goodness I was saved by the bell. Bay’s phone rang just at that awkward moment. Looking at the screen he said, “It’s the Sheriff.” He swiped his finger across it to accept the call. “I have to take this.”
While he spoke to the Sheriff I wondered what had gotten into him, all the flirting he was doing. And then I remembered how he always flashed that smirk of his when he’d talk to me. It’d had been kind of flirtatious. I adjusted myself in my seat and stared at him. His eyes on the road, concentrating on his phone call. Hmmm . . .
I let my eyes roam taking him in. I realized I never noticed how handsome he was. He had smooth, honey-colored skin, piercing hazel eyes, and long thick eyelashes. His close cut, coal black hair was wavy. I wonder how it feels. I lifted up my hand toward his head. He glanced at me. I put my hand back down. I watched him speaking into the phone, his full lips moving as he talked, suddenly it made me want to bite – no – nibble on them and . . . His voice was so sultry. He stuck his tongue out and ran it slowly across his bottom lip . . .
Oh. My.
And he smells so good.
I leaned over, closed my eyes and sniffed. Mmmmm.
What is that?
When I opened my eyes he was looking at me, phone to ear, his scrunched up face asking “what’s wrong with you?” I coughed pretending something was in my throat.
I shook my head. There definitely was no “us” and there never would be. I bit down on my own lip and wondered how in the world I was going to get away from him.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Melborne, South Carolina
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. He sat at the end of the table in the interrogation room dressed in a gray T-shirt and blue jeans. He was leaning back, one leg pushed out straight, his arms crossed over his chest. His hair was scraggly, as was the stubble on his face. His skin was reddish from too much sun and he looked like he hadn’t slept in a week.
Now he looked like a murderer to me.
We (as in me, too) were talking to Darius Hamilton, alleged killer of one Mis
s Gemma Burke. Only he was denying it with all the fervor of a man unjustly accused. The Sheriff’s call to Bay had been to inform him that Former Mayor Daddy was bringing Naughty Killer Son over to the police station for questioning. We’d have the protection of the entire Melborne police department and Darius Hamilton’s father.
Sheriff Haynes didn’t go into the interrogation room with Bay. That would probably work out fine because if Darius was the killer, and he had fled over state lines, Bay as a federal officer had legal jurisdiction.
The Melborne sheriff really meant it when he told Sheriff Haynes that they would cooperate fully. That also meant I got to hear what Darius Hamilton had to say. Bay and I agreed that it was too bad that Miss Vivee hadn’t come. She’d have been overjoyed to watch Gemma’s murderer captured all thanks to her investigative work.
“We know you were in Yasamee last Friday.” Bay locked eyes with him. “We also know that you tried to blackmail Gemma Burke,” he spoke accusatorily.
Former Mayor Daddy was sitting in the small room behind the glass with me, the sheriffs and two other deputies. He let out a gasp as soon as the accusation came out of Bay’s mouth about his son’s criminal activity.
“Well, I didn’t blackmail her. So tell her that it’s not a crime to come to see a person.”
“I can’t tell her anything,” Bay said.
“Well bring her in here,” Darius said waving his arms around, “and I’ll have my father tell her. He’s a lawyer and he knows the law even if you people over in Yasamee don’t.”
Bay looked at the one-way mirror. He couldn’t see through it, but it was obvious he was looking at us. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “Darius, you know why we’re here. Let’s not play games. Gemma is dead.”
“Dead?” Darius’s chair screeched across the floor as he pushed it back. He stood up and walked to a corner of the room. “No,” he said and turned around looking at Bay pleadingly. “No. Not Gemma.”
“She died last Friday.”
“How?”
“I think you know how, Darius. And it would go a lot better for you if you just cooperated and tell me about it. I don’t have time to play your little games.”
Darius’ eyes got wide. He walked back to his seat as if he were in a shock. “You think I killed her?” he said slowly. “I killed Gemma?”
“Yes you did. And I’m glad you’re willing to admit it.”
“No.” His whole face frowned up. “I’m not admitting to anything. I didn’t kill her.”
“C’mon, Darius,” Bay said and opened up the folder he had laid on the table. “Joy riding. Disorderly Conduct. Assault. Oh wait, those last charges never made it into court.” Bay looked over at the mirror and it made Former Mayor Daddy fidget. “You’ve got a criminal record. Small things but then you stepped it up, didn’t you? Looks like you having help getting out of trouble just led you to believe you could get away with whatever you wanted to do. Say for instance, murder?”
Darius’ father huffed and puffed at Bay’s line of questioning. The Sheriff of Melborne had to calm him down.
“None of those things say murderer,” Darius protested and jabbed his finger on the folder. “And I am not a murderer.” He hung his head, it seemed as if he was going to cry. “I loved Gemma. I would never hurt her.”
“Tell me what happened when you spoke to Gemma in Yasamee,” Bay said.
“I didn’t talk to her.”
“Come now, Darius. I have witnesses that say you came to Yasamee to talk to Gemma.”
“Yeah. I did. But I didn’t talk to her.”
“What did you come to talk to her about?”
This time it was Darius who looked at the mirror. He knew his father was there listening and the look in his face said it pained him to have to disappoint him.
“You were right. I did try to blackmail her.”
“How?”
“Gemma worked at a strip club up in Atlanta. That’s how we met. And yeah, we had our fights, but what couple doesn’t, you know?”
“I understand that,” Bay said. “I know exactly how women are. Hard to get along with.”
Was he talking about me?
Darius snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, so you understand. Like I said, we argued, but I never laid a hand on her. I did mean things to her, but I never hit her. Anyway,” he sniffed, “she was just about finished with school when she met this guy. Jeffrey Beck. He was some big time financial analyst or something like that.”
I took in a breath. Jeffrey Beck was the one person that Miss Vivee couldn’t locate or find any information on.
“After she met him, she wanted to dump me. Said that she wanted a different life and he was the one to give it to her.”
“Is that why you killed her.”
“No!” His eyes wide, he said, “I didn’t kill her. I’m telling you. But that’s how I blackmailed her. She didn’t know that this Mr. Fancy Pants charmer was married and had a kid. But I knew. I had followed her after she quit working at Kitty City. She moved to Powder Springs. And I used to watch her. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no pervert. I just wanted to see her. Talk to her. Try to get her back. That’s when I saw him.”
He stopped talking and Bay prompted him to finish telling his story.
“So, how were you going to use that to blackmail her?”
“I was going to tell her principal.”
I had a confused look on my face, as did everyone else standing in the room with me, but not Bay. He kept talking and asking questions just like he was on the same page as Darius.
“Go ahead,” Bay said.
“His kid was going to the same school where Gemma worked. I saw him once picking him up when I was there watching for Gemma.”
“What was the name of the school,” Bay asked.
“Euclid Park. Gemma taught second grade, and Jeffrey’s son, I found out, was in kindergarten. There’s no way she could’ve kept her job if I told the school board that not only had she been a stripper back in Atlanta, but she was dating the married father of one of the students at the school. So I told her that if she came back to me, I wouldn’t tell on her.”
“That was clever, Darius.”
“Yeah,” he said. He closed his eyes and pulled his lips into a tight line. “But it backfired on me.”
“How?”
“Gemma up and quit the school and left Powder Springs. She broke it off with Jeffrey and went back to Yasamee.”
“So if you didn’t have anything on her to blackmail her with, why did you go to Yasamee?”
“I told you. I loved her.”
“Tell me what happened when you went to see her,” Bay said.
“I went by her house but she wasn’t there. I waited out front for five or ten minutes when I remembered that she jogged during the day. I didn’t know where so I drove around until I found her.”
“What time was that?”
“Oh. I don’t know for sure. Around 11:45 or noon. Yeah, probably closer to twelve o’clock.”
“Is that when you killed her.”
“No!” Darius slammed his hand on the table so hard it made me jump. “Stop saying that. I didn’t kill her.”
“Okay,” Bay said, not showing any emotion at all. “Tell me what happened.”
“I found her at the park. She was talking to a guy. Tall. Dark hair. And they were having an argument. I watched from a distant, but I never got close to them.”
“Was it Jeffrey Beck?” Bay asked.
“I’m not sure. But I think so. Anyway. They were having an argument. He seemed pretty mad, he hit his hand against a tree. I thought he was going to hit her.”
“What did you do?”
“I left. I wasn’t going to get in the middle of that.”
“You hit women, but when you see them getting hit, you run?” Bay asked Darius.
“I told you!” Darius started yelling. “I never hit, Gemma.”
“No,” Bay said calmly. “You just killed her.”
Ch
apter Thirty-Seven
Friday Evening, AGD
We all drove back to Yasamee the same way we went. Me and Bay in one car, and the Sheriff alone in his squad car. Darius Hamilton got to go home with his daddy.
The two sheriffs, Bay and Darius’ lawyer/father talked long and hard about the evidence – or lack thereof – against Darius. No one could see that there was enough to bring him up on charges. And maybe it wasn’t him that killed Gemma, Bay had to admit. Maybe it was the guy at the park.
“Jeffrey Beck,” I said.
“Jeffrey Beck,” Bay said and looked at me. “He is definitely a person of interest.”
“I’mma call Miss Vivee,” I said pulling out my iPhone. “And let her know what happened.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Bay said. “I just hope she won’t be too disappointed about it.” He glanced at me. “You know, that we didn’t have enough to arrest Darius Hamilton.”
“I just hope that she won’t want to go out and get the evidence you need to arrest him.” I raised an eyebrow. “Because I know she’ll try and drag me along with her,” I said as I punched in the Maypop number on my phone.
Miss Vivee picked up the phone on the first ring. I put my phone on speaker.
“Hi, Miss Vivee.”
“Hi, Grandmother,” Bay said.
“Hey you two. I could hardly sit still waiting for your call,” she said. “Did you get that son-of-a-gun?”
I looked at Bay. “We didn’t arrest him,” I said.
“Why?” she shouted into the phone.
“You tell her,” I whispered to Bay.
“We didn’t have enough evidence against him, Grandmother.”
“What in tarnation? How could you not? He was in town the day she died.”
“Yeah, but according to his account.” Bay said “He wasn’t the only one in Yasamee that day.”
“Who else was here?”
“Should I tell her?” Bay mouthed to me. I shook my head no.
“What? What you say,” Miss Vivee said yelling.
“Jeffrey Beck might have been there,” I said.
Bay’s eyes got big. “I thought you didn’t want to tell her?” he said in a voice just above a whisper. I hunched my shoulders.
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