1 A Small Case of Murder

by Lauren Carr

  “You don’t know that. I need to know everything in order to invest—” Joshua screamed when the doctor snapped one of his vertebrae back into place. The pain subsided as abruptly as it erupted, and Joshua was overcome with relief from the ache to which he had awakened that morning.

  Tad continued to massage his back while prescribing treatment for his ailment. “You’re too tense, Josh. You need to learn how to walk away from this case at the end of the day.”

  “I can’t walk away from it. I may not have married Beth, but I did care about her. I need to find out who killed her and, in order to do that, I have to learn her secrets, which you seem to know.”

  “Are you sure you really want to know all of Beth’s secrets?” Tad took the chair across from him.

  “I’m a man. I can take it.”

  “Can you? Am I a suspect?”

  “I didn’t say you were a suspect.”

  “If I’m not, I should be. Vicki was making my life hell. Beth endangered one of my patient’s lives, and I know Jan heard her threaten Maggie. She had to have told you. Plus,” he added, “I have no clear alibi.”

  “I checked with the bars around the hospital. They confirm that you were making the rounds looking for Beth at the time of her murder, and the hospital confirms you were treating her when Vicki was killed.”

  “So I have an alibi. It could have been a murder for hire.”

  “Are you confessing to killing Beth?”

  “I’m only confessing that our relationship can bring your integrity into question.” Tad chuckled. “How can you be so sure that I have an alibi for the times of the murders?”

  “Because you have dozens of witnesses that can account for where you were,” Joshua said.

  “According to times of death supplied to you by me,” Tad told him with a wicked grin.

  Joshua looked his cousin in the eye. He couldn’t tell if Tad was joking or serious about giving him false information. It was hard for him not to trust his closest friend and confidante, which made it impossible for him to be objective about his possible guilt.

  He had no choice but to go with his gut. “How could Beth make Maggie hate you?”

  “A smart man like you—” Tad stopped chuckling to ask, “What do you think Beth was talking about?”

  “About that check mark you put on her autopsy report that says she gave birth.” Joshua paused. “Did you flip a coin to decide if you were going to neglect to mention the distended uterus?”

  “I never lie. You know that. As medical examiner, I’m obligated to put those things in the report.”

  “But you neglected to go out of your way to call it to my attention.”

  “Because it’s not relevant to your case.”

  “Until this case is solved, everything is relevant until I say it’s not.” Joshua held his gaze. “Tell me your little secret about Beth.”

  Tad broke the gaze. “If you’re so smart, you tell me. To show you that I’m a good guy, I’ll even fill in the blanks when you’re through.”

  Joshua accepted the challenge. “I thought that Beth was Maggie’s mother, but Jan swears that if Beth slept with you that she would have told her. If Jan is right, then you didn’t sleep with Beth. Therefore, she couldn’t be Maggie’s mother. However, according to your autopsy report, Beth did have a baby. Yet, for some reason, you don’t want anyone to know anything about it. Why?”

  “She wasn’t married. I wanted to protect her reputation.”

  “That’s not it.”

  “Why do you assume that I even knew about her pregnancy before the autopsy?” Tad asked. “I was gone for years while I was in medical school and doing my residency. Beth had gone away to school herself.”

  “If you’d been surprised by those findings during Beth’s autopsy, you would have told me that she had given birth. Plus,” Joshua grinned at his deduction, “if you don’t know the circumstances behind that birth, then how can you be so certain that her pregnancy is irrelevant to her murder?”

  “You’re good.” Tad drawled, “Now, don’t tell me that the thought hasn’t crossed your mind that maybe you might be the father of that baby. My exam didn’t reveal when she gave birth. For all you know, she was pregnant with your baby when you ended your relationship with her.”

  Joshua ordered him, “Fill in the blanks.”

  Tad’s only response was a wide grin.

  “What did Beth mean when she said she was going to tell Maggie the truth?” he asked in a low voice. “What did she threaten to reveal that made you so angry?”

  “Beth was out of her mind.”

  “I want to eliminate you as a suspect,” Joshua said.

  “I didn’t have the means to get to the murder scene. Beth’s car was in New Cumberland. My bike was here. You drove me to the courthouse for the hearing, and I rode to the hospital in the ambulance with Beth. The only way I got home was by hitching a ride with a nurse.” Tad gestured with both hands, not unlike the gesture of a magician who had performed a magnificent illusion. “That eliminates me as a suspect.”

  “Unless you lied about the times of death.” Joshua begged, “Help me, Tad. Please.”

  He eyed him before giving in to his plea. “Both you and Jan are right.”

  This only confused Joshua more. “How?”

  “Beth was Maggie’s mother, but I never slept with Beth. I couldn’t.” Tad cringed. “That would be like sleeping with my sister. I couldn’t think of her like that, no matter how drunk I got.”

  Joshua sorted the information in his mind. “Beth was Maggie’s mother. That’s why you took off like that to see her. She knew?”

  “I told her years ago. Beth never acknowledged her, though. She was furious with me for telling her. She thought Maggie had been adopted and sent far away from here.”

  “But you aren’t Maggie’s biological father?” Joshua gasped. “I never would have imagined. I must be losing my touch.”

  “I am her father. She was the first baby I’d delivered. I took care of her. I supported her in every way possible. The only thing I didn’t do was sleep with her mother.”

  “Then who—? Don’t tell me Wally—”

  “He never knew, as far as I know.”

  “How?” Joshua was taking it all in. “How did you end up with Maggie when Beth thought she had been adopted? Why did you tell everyone, including your own mother, that she was your daughter?”

  Tad started his confession by taking a deep breath. “After Wally married Cindy, I went back to Morgantown to finish my residency. Suddenly, one day, Beth shows up on my doorstep. She and Wally had ended it, but then she found out she was pregnant. She was afraid to tell her mother. Do you remember how her mother was?”

  After confirming that he recalled that Beth’s mother was intolerant of any behavior that was less than perfect from her children, Joshua gestured for him to continue.

  “Beth thought that because of our past, my being your cousin and all, which I would get rid of it,” Tad held up his fingers in quotation marks, “and no one would ever know.”

  “She wanted an abortion,” Joshua clarified.

  “I couldn’t do it. Beth went nuts. She was so afraid that someone would find out, Wally, in particular. She was terrified of him until the day she died.”

  Tad paused before going on with his story. “No one in Morgantown knew Beth. So, I made her an offer. She could stay with me, take a year off school, have the baby, and I’d arrange for it to be adopted. I’d even put my name on the birth certificate, so there would be no record of Wally being the father.”

  “You said Maggie was supposed to be adopted.”

  Tad said she was. “I got a lawyer friend of mine to arrange for a private adoption. He found a couple who were very anxious to take her.”

  “Ho
w did you end up with her?”

  “Beth was already on her way to being an alcoholic,” Tad said. “She agreed to the arrangement until she started showing, and then she couldn’t stand it. By then, it was too late. I couldn’t keep her sober. Hell, I couldn’t stay sober myself.”

  His laughter subsided. “Beth ended up having Maggie on my living room floor two months early. I delivered her. On top of weighing only a couple of pounds, Maggie had a hole in her heart. Her adopted parents got their lawyer to point out a clause in our agreement that the baby was to be healthy. So they got out of it. Beth never even looked at her. She was gone as soon as they released her from the hospital.” He said in a soft voice, “I was all Maggie had.”

  Joshua added, “And your name was on the birth certificate, so you were legally responsible for her.”

  “First responsible thing I ever did in my life.”

  “For a baby that wasn’t even yours.”

  Tad said, “I never once, for an instant, felt like she wasn’t mine. I fed her. I changed her. I got a doctor friend of mine in cardiology to fix her heart. By the time the lawyer found a couple willing to adopt a baby who was in need of a lot of medical care, I couldn’t give her up. I knew I was too sick to care for her, so I called Mom, told her she was a grandmother, and she took her. She was thrilled. She always wanted a daughter.”

  “Does Maggie know all this?”

  “I told her everything after I sobered up. I neglected her while I was drinking, and I’ve been trying to make it up to her ever since. She wanted to know about her mother, so I told her. She had the right to know.”

  “Did you tell her about Rawlings?”

  Tad nodded his head. “Hardest thing I ever did in my life, telling her that part of it.”

  “How did she take it?”

  “Wally Rawlings is just a man to her. Maggie tried to make a relationship with Beth, but she was too weak to be a parent. Maggie understood her problem because of being in Al-Anon because of me. But understanding didn’t take away her hope that one day they could have a relationship.”

  “If Maggie knew everything, then what did Beth mean when she said she was going to tell Maggie the whole truth and make her hate you?”

  “Beth was higher than a kite. She knew Maggie knew everything.”

  “If she didn’t know anything that could hurt Maggie, why were you angry?”

  “Because she was Maggie’s mother, and I wanted her to sober up and get well. Every time Maggie came to town she’d go on a binge. It hurt Maggie. That—” Tad held up a finger to make his point, “That frustrated me, because I was helpless in helping Beth.” He checked his watch. “I have a patient waiting. I’ve got to go.”

  Joshua blocked the doctor’s escape from the room when he headed for the door. “Did Wally and Cindy know the truth about Maggie?”

  “I told you already. Not that I know of.”

  “Did Cindy know about Wally and Beth’s affair?”

  Tad crossed his arms. “I told her, not because I was noble. I thought it would convince her not to marry Wally, but she did anyway.”

  Joshua’s jealousy about Beth and Wallace was replaced with sympathy for his cousin and friend. “So Cindy went ahead and married Wally. Wally continued seeing Beth on the side and got her pregnant. Then, you ended up raising his baby.”

  Sympathy turned to horror.

  Joshua pieced together what he originally observed as an irony with fresh information received from a report he had read that morning during his breakfast. The DNA report from the state lab was hand delivered to his home by courier. When his mind put the facts of the report together with Tad’s revelation the color drained from his face.

  “What?” Tad asked about the reason for Joshua’s glazed eyes. “What’s wrong?”

  The touch of Tad’s hands on his shoulders started him out of his sickening realization. “Maggie is Vicki’s half sister.”

  Unsure of where Joshua was going, Tad wanted to deny it, but, in light of what he had confessed, he had to admit to the relationship between Maggie and the girl who had been terrorizing him.

  Joshua’s tongue felt heavy when he told Tad, “I got the results for the DNA tests this morning.”

  “What about them?”

  “The red hair that was found in the collar of the trench coat and the gun chamber of the murder weapon,” Joshua swallowed. “When the lab compared the DNA tests, they found a relationship between whoever the hair came from and Vicki. There were enough common markers between them for them to share a parent. They’re half siblings.”

  Sickened by the news, Tad dropped down into the chair at the table.

  “Wally is Maggie’s birth father,” Joshua said. “If you aren’t Vicki’s father, and Cindy never had an affair with anyone else, then Wally has to be Vicki’s father. That makes them half sisters.”

  “Don’t even go there, Josh.”

  “She’s Vicki’s half-sister and she has red hair.”

  “She has blond hair,” Tad argued.

  “Strawberry blond. It’s got red in it.”

  “That hair was color treated. Maggie’s hair is natural.” Tad blurted out. “Plus, Penn State is four hours away. Maggie doesn’t even know where Vicki lives.”

  “Beth rejected her. Vicki was terrorizing you.”

  “Maggie was looking for a job when they were killed.”

  Joshua wished he wasn’t having this conversation. “I’m going to have to have Sawyer get her statement.”

  “You can’t put my daughter through that.”

  Joshua cursed himself for his curiosity. He wished he had never asked Tad to tell him about Beth and Wally Rawlings. “You yourself said that because of our relationship that the integrity of this investigation will be called into question. If I found out about Maggie’s relationship to the victims, a defense attorney can find that out and when we find the real killers they’ll go free because that attorney will make Maggie look like the killer. Hell! It turns out she is connected to both victims in this case.”

  Tad gasped.

  Joshua was almost frightened by the smile on his cousin’s face and the finger he pointed at him. “What?”

  “You said that Maggie is connected to both victims.”

  “That’s what you just told me,” he reminded Tad. “Wally has to be Vicki’s father and you also told me that Beth and Wally are Maggie’s birth—”.

  The finger Tad was pointing at Joshua started wagging. “That’s right. Beth is Maggie’s birth mother.” He rose from his chair with the wagging finger aimed at Joshua’s face. “The lab compared the DNA from that hair to both Vicki’s and Beth’s DNA.”

  Joshua exhaled. “There was no indication in the DNA test to show any familial relationship between Beth and that hair.”

  “Which means that whoever that red hair came from is in no way related to Beth.” Overcome with relief, Tad’s shoulders sagged. He slumped against the lab’s counter.

  “I’m sorry I put you through that.” Joshua laid a hand on his cousin’s shoulder and squeezed it.

  Tad signaled his acceptance of the apology by patting the hand on his shoulder. “You’re just doing your job.”

  “I still have to have Sawyer get a statement from Maggie,” Joshua told him, “if only to maintain the integrity of this investigation.” He was relieved to hear Tad agree.

  “Do you mind if I call her first so she doesn’t get upset when he calls?”

  Before Joshua could consent, Stella, Tad’s nurse, came into the lab. She carried a package the size of a shoebox. Her no-nonsense attitude made her resemble the stereotype of a prison guard in a women’s prison.

  The nurse thrust the package with postal markings that read “priority” into Tad’s hands and announced in a terse tone, “This came for you, and Mrs
. Anderson has been waiting in examination room two for ten minutes.” Before he could comment or thank her for the package, Stella left the lab to return to her duties.

  “This is weird,” Tad muttered while reading the package’s mailing label. He removed a pair of scissors from a drawer next to him at the counter.

  “What?” Joshua studied the package to see what caught Tad’s attention. It was wrapped in plain brown paper.

  “It’s from New Cumberland. My pharmaceutical company is in Pittsburgh.”

  “You’re not expecting anything?”

  “No.” With the scissors, Tad snipped the taped seal at the bottom of the package.

  “Don’t open it.” Overcome with dread, Joshua snatched the package from his hands. “It doesn’t have a return address.”

  “Aren’t we getting a little paranoid?”

  Joshua said, “If Beth had been a little more paranoid she might still be alive.”

  They both stared at the package Joshua held in his hands.

  “I’ll take it to the post office and have them examine it.”

  Tad objected, “I can take it.”

  “You go take care of your patient. We’ve made her wait way too long.”

  “It’s meant for me. If it blows up on your way—”

  “It’s only three blocks. If it made it here in our government’s postal service with all the tossing and bumping that goes on, then it’ll survive a three block walk.” Joshua went out the back door. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I’ll call you.”

  Wishing he could go with him, Tad watched through the screen door while Joshua made his way down Church Alley in the direction of Fifth Street.

  The package rested on the counter. While Joshua was aware of it, the postal clerk with “Eric” embroidered in red on his breast pocket was more concerned with his customer.

  “You don’t recognize me, do you?” The clerk’s uniform was faded and wrinkled. His hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks. His sour expression added to his unattractive appearance. “Never thought I’d see you come back to this burg.”