Deadly Secrets

by Jude Pittman

  “Nice speech.” Gus chewed on a rib and swallowed. “What I’m wondering is, where the hell is all this leading?”

  Kelly grinned. Gus knew him too well. “I’d like to work with you on this one. I know you’re under a lot of pressure and I think I can help. I’d be sort of an unofficial snoop. That way I could help you get your nose into what’s going on down there.”

  Gus shook his head but Kelly kept talking. “I won’t interfere with your investigation. You know me better than that. But I do have some advantages you don’t. I know those Creek people. I’ve been living with them for five years now and they treat me like one of their own.

  “You know how it is, Gus. Country folks always have a few things to hide—somebody’s got a still out in the bushes or a fella’s doing a bit of night fishing—stuff like that. They’re conditioned not to talk to the police. Even if they do know anything, nine times out of ten they’ll keep their mouths shut rather than tell it to a cop.”

  Gus had stopped shaking his head but he was still frowning. “You’ve got a point about those Creek folks. It’s like pulling hen’s teeth to get information out of them. If I go along with you on this, we’ll need a clear understanding.”

  Gus paused and waited until Kelly nodded. “You aren’t a cop anymore.” Gus kept his eyes on Kelly’s face. “My ass’ll be on the line here. One screw-up on your part and I can kiss my job goodbye.”

  “I know that and it’s not going to happen.” Kelly met the detective’s steady gaze. “Sure, Cam’s a friend of mine and I want to help him if I can. But he’s not the same kind of friend you are. He hasn’t been around me my whole life. You ought to know I’d cut off both my arms before I’d stir up anything that’d land you in a pile of shit.”

  “It’s against my better judgment.” Gus shook his head again. “But I’ll go along with you for now. I’ll tell you as much as I think you need to know and I want your word you’ll check with me before you so much as piss in the Creek. If you can live with that, then we’ve got a deal.”

  “Thanks.” Kelly nodded, then stood up and grinned. “I gotta take a leak. You wanna come along?”

  “Asshole!” Gus drained his beer. “Get your business done and let’s get over to Camp Bowie and see what that gal’s got to say.

  Chapter Eight

  When Krystal walked in, Penny raced across the room and grabbed her arms. “Policeman call,” she squeaked and tightened her cold fingers. “He want to know when you come home. I say eight o’clock. He come soon.”

  “That’s okay.” Krystal smiled at her panicky roommate. “Uncle Andrew spoke to Mr. Masters, his lawyer and he called the police to explain what I was doing at the flea market.”

  “They no come?”

  “Oh, they’ll still come but it’s nothing to worry about. They’ll just ask us where we were and what we did on Saturday.”

  “They question me too?”

  Krystal flinched from the bite of Penny’s fingers. “All they’ll do is ask you to confirm that I was here all night. I’m sure they’ll be very nice to you.”

  Penny shook her head back and forth. “Have police come very bad thing. Lose much face.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that. In America, it’s not a disgrace for the police to call at your home. The neighbors might be a bit curious but we certainly won’t lose face over it.”

  “I no talk to policeman.”

  “You have to. Just tell them I went to bed early and you stayed home and watched television.”

  Penny shook her head again. “I don’t stay home, Krissie. Adelle, from upstairs, asked do I want to watch movies. I go there.”

  “You did?” Krystal’s eyes widened. “I thought you were here all night. When did you leave?”

  “You long time sleeping. Maybe eleven.”

  “What time did you get home?”

  “Movie end very late, two o’clock. Lying to policeman not good. I go shopping.”

  “No. You can’t do that. They’ll just come back, or they might pick you up and take you to the police station.” Krystal pried Penny’s fingers loose and sat down at the table. “This is awful,” she said. “I told Uncle Andrew I had an alibi. It’s not your fault but I wish you hadn’t gone anywhere.”

  Penny slid into the other chair and sat watching Krystal then she spoke. “Policeman not know Adelle. I say nothing. Not lie. Only not to say.”

  “Oh, Penny.” Relief flooded Krystal’s face. “I don’t want to get you into any trouble but I hate to think what they’ll do if they find out I was home alone.”

  Penny bobbed her head. “I speak little English. They no understand. Now, we forget about policeman. Tell me about uncle. Was he very angry?”

  “Oh, he was okay. In fact, he was quite nice about it. He didn’t like it that I’d gone to a detective but he was so relieved that I had an alibi that he forgot to lecture me.”

  “He tell why mother run away?”

  “No but he said we’d talk about it later. I think he was sorry. I don’t know, Penny. I’m so confused. All I have of my mother is childish memories and they’re all mixed up. I’ve always believed she was forced to leave but now I don’t know what to believe. Seeing her was such an awful experience. I don’t even know how I feel anymore.”

  “She give you much pain. Talk with uncle good thing. Make you feel better.”

  The doorbell rang and Krystal got up to answer it, pausing halfway to look back at Penny. “That must be the police. Will you be okay?”

  Penny nodded. “I go wait,” she said and headed for the living room.

  Krystal opened the door as much as the length the chain allowed and peered through the crack at the two men outside.

  “Miss Krystal Davis?” Gus held out his identification card.

  “Yes.” Krystal released the chain and swung open the door. “Would you like to come in?”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Gus stepped past her. “I’m Detective Graham and this is Kelly McWinter. Perhaps you recognize him?”

  “Yes.” She closed the door. “From the flea market.”

  “That’s right. I brought him along in case there’s anything we need to clarify about what happened on Saturday.”

  “I see.” She turned and led the way along the hall into the living room. “This is Penny, my roommate.”

  “Ma’am,” Gus acknowledged the introduction.

  Penny nodded and quickly averted her eyes.

  “Will you have a seat?” Krystal offered.

  Kelly selected a straight back chair.

  “There’s no need to be nervous about this, Miss Davis.” Gus sank into a large armchair. “We’ll just have a little chat about what happened out at the flea market.”

  Kelly had always admired the way Gus handled an investigation. He had that Y’all-just-set-yourself-down-a-spell-and-chat kind of atmosphere down pat. It worked every time. If someone had guilty knowledge, Gus’ approach put them at ease and made them careless. If they were innocent, it kept them happy and made for good police relations.

  “Do you want to know why I was out there?” Krystal asked.

  “I’ve heard what the lawyer said but I’d rather hear it from you. Just take your time and tell us what you remember.”

  “I suppose you’ve already found out she was my mother?”

  “I understand you were estranged.” Gus smiled to soften the remark.

  Krystal glanced over at Penny then turned to speak to Kelly. “You must think I’m a fool after what I did out there.”

  Kelly shook his head. “You looked like you were having a rough time of it.”

  “We both understand your feelings,” Gus said, pulling her attention back to his question. “Don’t worry about what we think. Just tell us in your own words what happened after you decided to try and find your mother.”

  “It’s a long story and hard to explain but I’ll try.”

  Speaking softly, dragging the memories out of her past, Krystal told them about her father
’s suicide and her mother’s disappearance. Then she told about her attempt to trace her mother, her uncle’s refusal to discuss the past and her own decision to hire a detective. Finally, she talked about her trip to the flea market and her abortive attempt to speak with her mother.

  “It was horrible,” she said, clenching her hands into fists. “There was this nasty, little man who came into the shop while I was watching. He bumped into me and nearly knocked me off my feet. Then he went up to my mother and gave her this brown paper bag.

  “At first I couldn’t imagine what was in it but when my mother opened the bag and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, I was horrified.” Krystal had started to shiver and Kelly could feel himself warming toward her.

  God, she reminds me of Lynda. He gave himself a mental shake and focused his attention on Gus.

  “I’m sorry,” Krystal continued. “Every time I think about my mother guzzling out of that whiskey bottle, it makes me sick to my stomach.”

  “I understand,” Gus said. “You don’t have to go into any more detail. I take it seeing your mother drinking out of the bottle was what prompted you to rush at her the way you did?”

  Krystal nodded. “I was trying to get the bottle away from her,” she said and sobbed brokenly.

  Gus, scribbling rapidly in his notebook, nodded. “Okay, I don’t think we need to go into that any further. What about after you left the flea market? Did you come straight back to the apartment?” Gus spoke in a low, reassuring voice but it was obvious he intended to get a tight fix on the time she spent out at Indian Creek.

  Krystal nodded. “I didn’t want anyone to see me. As soon as I had composed myself, I drove home. I talked to Penny for a few minutes, then I took a couple of sleeping pills and went to bed.”

  “You were home when she got here?” Gus turned to Penny.

  She nodded, keeping her eyes on the floor. “Krissie come home, cry long time. She take pills. Sleep all night.”

  “I see.” Gus turned back to Krystal. “I wonder if you can help me fix the times. Kelly here thought it was about five when you had your encounter with Anna. Does that seem right?”

  “I guess so. I didn’t really notice. It was after four when I got to the flea market but it took me awhile to get the courage to approach my mother. Why? Is it important?”

  Gus ignored the question. “Do you remember what time you got home?”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t drive at first. I sat in the car and cried.”

  Gus looked at Penny.

  Keeping her eyes on the floor she said. “I look at clock very much. Seven o’clock, Krissie come home.”

  Gus sat forward in the chair and spoke to both of them. “Then you spent the evening at home, is that right?”

  “I think it was about eight-thirty when I went to bed.” Krystal’s voice was strained but she answered without hesitation. “I got up once to go to the bathroom. Penny was watching television.”

  “Is that right?” Gus turned to Penny. “You spent the entire evening watching television?”

  Penny bobbed her head up and down. “I am quiet. Watch television very late. Maybe three in morning.”

  “Then you confirm Miss Davis’ statement that she was home all night.”

  “Krissie sleep long time. No get up.”

  “Well, you’ve both been very helpful. Now, there’s just one more thing. I wonder if you could identify this.” He pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and removed the bright red scarf.

  “That’s my scarf.” Krystal stretched out her hand. “I lost it at the flea market. How did you get it?”

  Gus pulled his hand back. “It’s difficult to tell you this,” he said, keeping his voice low. “But it can’t be helped. I’m afraid I’ll have to keep the scarf for a while because the murderer used it to strangle Mrs. Davis.”

  Krystal gasped and dropped her head. Blond hair spilled forward and covered her face. She didn’t make a sound but her shoulders started shaking.

  Penny jumped up and ran to her side. “No, Krissie. Not your fault. You lose scarf.”

  Krystal lifted her head and stared at Gus. Her eyes were watery and her voice trembled. “That filthy little man who was talking to my mother—the one who gave her the whiskey. Maybe he took it.”

  “What man? Can you describe him?”

  “I didn’t really look at him. He smelled like fish. He was short and his legs were bowed. I don’t remember his face. I just didn’t notice. I was looking at my mother.”

  Gus shifted himself out of the armchair. “You’ve been very helpful. I’m sorry we had to stir up unhappy memories but I appreciate your frankness. I’ll leave my card and if you think of anything else, I’d appreciate a call.”

  Kelly got up and faced Krystal. “I’m sorry.” His voice was warm and Krystal raised her eyes. “Maybe I can give you a ring later. I knew Anna pretty well. If you’d like to talk about her, I’d be happy to share what I know.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I’d like that.”

  “Did you recognize the guy she was talking about?” Gus asked as they walked back to the car.

  “Bubba. But if you think he had anything to do with strangling Anna, you can forget it. Bubba’s one of those guys who wears guilt plastered all over his face. I’ve talked to him and if he was hiding something about Anna’s murder, I’d damn sure have got a sense of that.”

  “Greed does strange things to people,” Gus said. “We’re already checking him out anyway. One of your Creek people told us Bubba had a falling out with Anna over some fish camp he wanted to buy.”

  “Frank Perkins,” Kelly snarled. “If there’s any shit to start you can always count on Frank. Sure, Bubba and Anna were talking about buying a fish camp and apparently they had words about it but that was just booze talk. Anna was temperamental when she got to drinking and Bubba knew it.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Gus pulled his car up beside Old Blue and turned to face Kelly. “I’m running a check on everybody out there, especially the ones who were hanging around the Hideaway that night. If I come up with anything, I’ll give you a call. In the meantime, keep your ears open and let me know what you hear.”

  “Will do,” Kelly said. “And thanks for the ribs. Next time, they’ll be on me.”

  It was after ten when Kelly reached Indian Creek but he knew Cam would be waiting for news, so he stopped at the Hideaway. The bar was empty, except for Leroy and Marty at their usual table playing cribbage. Kelly sat on a bar stool and Cam reached in the cooler for a Budweiser.

  “Anything new?”

  “Gus found the mystery woman.” Kelly propped his arms on the counter. “She wasn’t much help though.”

  “I see.” Cam’s face dropped.

  “It’s not hopeless. She gave us a couple of leads I’m going to follow up. That’s more than I had before I went there. Krystal—that’s her name—is Anna’s daughter and from what she had to say, I’ve an idea that Anna’s past could stand some looking into.”

  “I’ll be damned.” Cam’s eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelief. “I never figgered Anna for having a kid. How come she never came around before?”

  “Seems Anna took off when Krystal was seven and left her with her grandmother. Krystal hired a detective a couple weeks ago and he tracked Anna down.”

  Cam frowned. “There was a fella named Boscon nosing around out here. He claimed to be writing a story for some fishing magazine. I wondered about him at the time. He asked a lot of questions and most of them had nothing to do with fishing.”

  “That’s the guy. He told Krystal about Anna’s stall at the flea market and she came out to look. She was waiting for a chance to talk to Anna when Bubba showed up with a bottle of whiskey.”

  Cam grinned. “Sounds like Bubba.”

  “Yep! You know how Anna was. She tipped the bottle right there in her stall and started guzzling. Seems Krystal snapped when she saw that. She tried to grab the bottle and fel
l into Anna’s chair.”

  “Do you believe her?” Doubt registered in Cam’s dark eyes and his unsmiling face showed the strain he was under.

  Kelly nodded. “Yeah. Her story pretty much jives with what I saw. It’s her family situation that’s got me curious. Apparently, Krystal has always wondered what happened to her mother but nobody in the family would talk about it. All she knows is that her father committed suicide and her mother disappeared the same night.”

  “Sounds like a can of worms.”

  “It’s got a nasty smell all right,” Kelly agreed.

  “I’m planning to dig around a bit into Anna’s past and I think I’ll start with her husband’s suicide.”

  “Maybe Anna killed him.”

  Kelly shook his head. “I doubt it. The police are damn good and thorough when one of the rich crowd commits suicide. What I can’t figure is why Anna walked out on his estate the way she did.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Anna.”

  “That’s what I mean. She was tight about money. I’d have expected her to fight like a tiger to hold onto what was hers.”

  “I always had a feeling there was something strange about Anna moving here.”

  “What do you mean strange?” Kelly frowned, waiting for Cam to explain himself.

  “You weren’t around when she first came to the Creek.” Cam shook his head, his eyes thoughtful, digging back into memory. “She was a real looker then. Lots of class. Most of us thought she was running away from a bad marriage. Funny! I knew her damn near eighteen years and she never talked about her past.”

  “Anna knew how to keep her mouth shut.” Kelly set his beer can back on the counter. “I’m going to call it a night now but don’t give up hope. I’ve offered to meet with Krystal and tell her what I know about Anna. She seemed to like the idea, so hopefully we can get together.”

  Chapter Nine

  First thing Wednesday morning, Kelly called Krystal’s number. She readily accepted his invitation to dinner and after hanging up the phone, he turned to Jake and grinned. “Looks like I’ve got me a date,” he said, reaching down to rub the dog’s ears. “I wonder where I ought to take her. Maybe Martini’s out on the lake. They’ve got a great view and the tables are set up nice. The food’s good too.”