Blood Loss - A Magnolia Novel

by Ashley Fontainne

  “Not true, Pop! The only thing different about today was all the questions everyone kept asking about Betty. Stop worrying about Mom and Karina. They’ll perk up once we go visit tomorrow when Betty’s awake,” LiAnn interjected. “In the meantime, I agree we all need a good night’s sleep. It’s been a really long day.”

  “That is has. Time to shut the minds down for a while.” Junior slipped inside the apartment, careful to remain quiet and not disturb Ruth.

  The duo walked to the end of the hallway to Karina’s room. The minute the door was shut, LiAnn took a deep breath while pointing to the bed. “Sit before you fall. Like Grampa said, you look awful honey. Are you coming down with something? Do you have a fever? Chills?”

  Tired after running at full speed upon returning to The Magnolia, Karina plopped down next to Ranger’s curled up torso, patted his blocky head, and then gave him a good scratch behind the ears. “No. So, before we tackle the elephant, tell me. Did Cecil say anything of interest?”

  “Not a peep. He seemed upset and quite agitated though when I asked if there was something he wanted to get off his chest. In fact, he yelled at me and told me to leave him alone. He said he needed to run some errands. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, I saw his car pull out of the parking lot. I was so busy after that, I don’t know if he’s returned or not. He didn’t come down for dinner, so it’s possible he’s still out.”

  “Wow. He’s usually so sweet and thoughtful. I wonder where he went?”

  LiAnn shrugged her shoulders. “Enough about Cecil and back to your appearance. What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong with me has nothing to do with a physical ailment. Well, maybe a bit from unhealthy eating habits and too much of Gram’s comfort food, but the majority stems from what happened earlier.”

  “Oh no. Did Brice pass?”

  “No. He’s in a medically induced coma while the doctors fight to save his legs. It wasn’t a farming accident either. Bo finally told me what happened. Apparently, Brice has been manufacturing and selling meth. Something went wrong and the lab blew up, burning him and about six acres before the fire department arrived and got it under control. Brice will be lucky if he keeps his legs.”

  LiAnn’s eyes widened in shock at the disturbing news. “My, such a tragedy on numerous levels. How’s Bo’s family taking all this news?”

  “Not well. I heard a lot of arguing and bickering earlier when talking with him on the phone. After a visit from some reporters and Brice’s prognosis, his dad lost it. Bo asked me not to come up there because he didn’t like the idea of me hearing and watching his family tear into one another. I think there’s a hefty amount of shame mixed in too, considering you’re a retired cop and my former profession.”

  “That’s understandable. No one likes an audience when family skeletons pop out of the closet. If you didn’t go to the hospital, where have you been for the last six hours, and why do you look like you’re about to throw up?”

  Rolling off the edge of the bed, Karina grabbed her bag. “I’ve done that twice today for some odd reason.”

  “You threw up two times?”

  “Yep. Again, unhealthy eating habits. Anyway, I look the way I do because I went to Camden.”

  “Karina, you didn’t.”

  “Don’t use the ‘I’m disappointed in you’ tone. You wanted me to do some research, so I did.” Extracting the copies, Karina set them on the bed. Ranger gave a cursory sniff, snorted once, and then stretched out. “You aren’t going to believe what I found out or what happened after I left the library.”

  “Judging by the tone in your voice and look on your face, I believe you’re correct. Smart move going to the library rather than the newspaper.”

  Karina snorted. “Yeah, I thought so too, but I was wrong. I forgot how fast news travels in small towns. The pages are in order, so just start reading. Fair warning, it’s like an evil magnet pulling you in once you start. When you’re done with the main course, I’ll share dessert.”

  “Oh, that’s quite cryptic.”

  “I’m not saying another word until you finish reading. I want to hear your thoughts before I taint them with my own. I’ll take Ranger outside and see if Bo’s got a minute to talk or text. Be back in about ten.”

  “Uh-huh,” LiAnn mumbled, immersed in the first article.

  Once Karina and Ranger left, LiAnn’s reading pace increased, and she lost herself inside the eerie case. Several times, she shook her head or muttered, “Are you kidding me?” under her breath, nearly cursing out loud at the story published only three weeks after the disappearances.

  “They gave up searching that fast? Pathetic!”

  The more she read about Maud’s life, the more she admired the woman. Maud was valedictorian of her high school class in 1911 and so intelligent, she sat for the bar exam in 1927—passing with flying colors—without a complete college education. The woman was quite active in the civic affairs of Camden, eventually being the first woman elected to Camden City Counsel in 1940. In 1942, she started a program called Arkansas Girls’ State, aimed at sending outstanding high school girls each year to Little Rock to learn more about public service and government operations.

  LiAnn’s initial instinct centered on the husband. At the time of Maud’s disappearance, they’d been married for nearly thirty years. His initial reactions after returning home to an empty house were quite suspicious and odd. Yet, when LiAnn got to the part about Mike Berg, goosebumps appeared. Because of the shady dealings with his aunt’s vast land holdings and wealth, he had a great motive to make Maud Crawford vanish, especially if the rumors of a new will were true. The grainy photographs of a man with dark eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses and a crooked smile that looked more like a devious smirk added to LiAnn considering him the prime suspect. A wealthy man in a small southern town, even now, wielded power and loyalty, sometimes through generosity yet sometimes through fear and intimidation.

  If LiAnn were a betting woman, she wouldn’t hesitate to plop down cash on Mike Berg using fear and intimidation. Even though the pictures were old, the man’s features screamed ruthless maniac.

  Since he’d served as a commissioner on the Arkansas State Police Commission until his death in 1975, it was no wonder he’d never really been treated as a suspect. The story died down and didn’t appear again in the paper until 1969, when the Ouachita County Probate Court officially ruled Maud Crawford as deceased, and had been since March 2, 1957, “…as a result of foul play perpetrated by person or persons unknown.”

  “Well no shit, geniuses!”

  Turning to another page, LiAnn’s heart skipped several beats after noting the name of the law firm Maud Crawford worked at when she disappeared. “Gaughan, McClellan, and Laney? Surely that isn’t the same person as Senator John McClellan?”

  LiAnn grabbed her cell phone and typed in the name in the search bar. A cold shiver ran up her back. “I’ll be damned! Oh, this can’t be good. Not another connection to the mob!”

  “Ha, you got to the part about Senator McClellan, didn’t you?”

  LiAnn jerked at the sound of Karina’s voice from the doorway. “Damnit girl, you shouldn’t sneak up on me like that! You know what I’m reading!”

  “Consider it payback for making me jump out of my skin earlier,” Karina teased. “I’ll keep quiet until you finish.”

  Dropping the pages back on the bed, LiAnn huffed. “I only had a few more to go, and they’re all just recent rehashing of the case. That last revelation is enough to make the hairs stand erect. Haven’t we had enough dealings with mobsters?”

  “I knew you’d flip when you read that part. Guess the Jimmy Hoffa joke isn’t as funny now, huh?”

  “Hardly.”

  “So what’re your thoughts on all this, oh great Detective Tuck?”

  “This is just off the top of my head using only the information from the pages mind you, so here goes. The articles mentioned Carolyn Singleton was an only child with no extended family and a ward
of the state after losing both parents until Maud Crawford became her guardian. Maud and Clyde Crawford never had children of their own, and it seems they might have been filling the void by taking in young girls in need. When the women vanished, both the husband and Carolyn’s former boyfriend were casually questioned yet cleared. I would have looked at both men harder, considering the statistics of domestic crime. Plus, the dog Maud owned was noted by several people to be mean and quite protective over Maud, especially around strangers. If those perceptions are correct then the person or persons behind this wasn’t a stranger—at least not to the dog.”

  “Or the dog was incapacitated in some way like Ranger was with me.”

  “Uh, I thought you were going to keep your opinions to yourself until I finished?”

  Karina smirked while changing into sleep shorts and a t-shirt. “Excuse me. Go on.”

  “None of the news stories mention the dog was injured, only that when Clyde arrived home and found the house empty, the dog was curled up asleep by Maud’s chair. Of course, he could have lied about that part. Then again, if the dog didn’t react because he recognized the perp, that points the finger back to the husband, which would be a stupid mistake on Mr. Crawford’s part. If this was premeditated, wouldn’t he make sure to cover his tracks by letting the dog run off or even injuring it in some way, giving credence to the story? It seems everyone knew the dog was vicious, so even if it wasn’t the husband or boyfriend, if it was a local, surely they would have dealt with the dog?”

  “Interesting take. What else?”

  “It doesn’t appear robbery was the motive since nothing was out of place and over a hundred dollars cash remained untouched inside Maud’s purse which was in plain sight on a chair. It doesn’t seem like much now, but back in 1957, it was quite a bit. The bowl of peas Maud had been shelling when Clyde left for the movie was undisturbed. No signs of a struggle of any sort. A short conversation with a cousin around eight p.m. was the last contact Maud had with anyone, and in the cousin’s statement to the press, she said Maud seemed fine—no signs of edginess or worry. All the female boarders were gone for the weekend, which wasn’t out of the norm, and Clyde went to the movies just as he did each week.”

  “Yeah, it seems he was a creature of habit. Oops, I interrupted again.” Karina rubbed the sore section of her back while watching with slight amusement as her mother paced around like a crazed jungle cat.

  Waving her hand with a dismissive flick, LiAnn continued. “Exactly—and everyone in town knew it, which leads back to anyone could have waited until he left and snuck inside. I’ll admit, at first I liked Clyde for it. I hate to say that because it sounds like I’m jaded, but I find it sort of odd they took in only women boarders. Perhaps Clyde got a little too friendly with Carolyn, got caught in the act by his wife, panicked, and then decided to kill them both to keep his reputation untarnished.”

  “Your mind tends to go to the dark side, doesn’t it, Mom?”

  “I’m afraid so. It’s a side effect from years on the job. Yet, the more I read, the less likely he seemed to be a suspect.”

  “Why?”

  “In the heat of the moment during crimes of passion people make mistakes. Some are more adept at cleaning them up, but from what I gathered while reading, Clyde Crawford wasn’t exactly the intellectual sort. There was no blood, no trace evidence, and no sign of forced entry. Someone who knew what they were doing and had practice sneaking in and right back out without leaving any signs they’d been there did this. It’s too professional.”

  “Someone…such as?”

  “When I got to the part about Mike Berg’s wealthy aunt, how Maud was also her guardian and lived across the street from her and the possibility of forged deeds and money transfers from her account to his, my internal alarm bells rang. They grew louder when I got to the part where Mike Berg’s attorney was Thomas Gaughan, the other law partner. I mean, come on! Can you say conflict of interest?”

  Karina let out a bitter chuckle. “Nineteen fifty-seven, Mom, remember?”

  “I don’t care if it was 1857. It’s wrong! Anyway, other than infidelity, money—or the fear of losing it—runs a close second for motive. Besides, the articles also pointed out that Clyde Crawford didn’t really do much other than odd jobs for neighbors, and the money-maker was Maud. Just a hunch, yet I can’t envision him getting rid of his bread and butter, even if he was screwing one of the boarders. He remained in that big house all alone until he died in 1969, living hand-to-mouth.”

  “So, your money is on Mike Berg?” Karina asked while filling Ranger’s bowl with kibble. The smell of the nuggets made her stomach roil.

  LiAnn paced around the living room, mind in overdrive as she mentally mapped out the mish-mash of evidence. “Yes and no. There’s also the tie-in to the senator and the hearings he conducted in D.C. I mean, if it had just been Maud who’d vanished, I’d put Mike Berg or some hired hitman in the suspect hot seat. Senator McClellan was from Camden, which is a tiny town, so you know the McClellan and Berg families were more than well acquainted. A ‘scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ kind of relationship.”

  “Also known as the good ol’ boy system.”

  “No doubt! But that theory is sort of far-fetched, so perhaps it is as simple as Mike offed Maud to keep his secret land grabs safe and the line open to his aunt’s vast wealth. Rose Berg was worth nearly twenty million dollars! But why Carolyn? She was only eighteen! What could she possibly have known about Berg’s actions, making her a target of the hitman as well? She was seen leaving town on a bus the day before by several residents. Did she return for some reason and perhaps walked in on the kidnapping and was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or, was she a part of the plan?”

  “Are you asking my opinion or just fleshing this out loud? If you’re asking my opinion, I told you I’d wait until you finished. Remember?”

  LiAnn scowled. “Funny girl. No, I’m fleshing out. So, back to Carolyn and a plausible motive pertaining to why she up and vanished the same day. It’s not like she was an intern at the law firm Maud worked at and had access to Maud’s case files. That makes me question if it was Mike Berg or not. As a matter of fact, it almost makes me wonder if Carolyn was the killer and, like I mentioned before, had an improper relationship with Clyde. Maybe Maud figured it out and threatened her in some way and Carolyn retaliated? That doesn’t seem plausible either because, again, no signs of a struggle. Maybe Carolyn was involved in an affair with Mike Berg, and he was dangling a bit of money in her face for some insider information, and he decided she knew too much and killed two birds at once before they started singing.”

  Karina chuckled softly while walking back over to the bed. She paused instead of sitting as the knot in her stomach thumped. “Great minds think alike. I went through damn near the same thought patterns earlier. Each scenario has merit, but I believe the last one is what we should focus on, though God knows I don’t want to.”

  “The one where Carolyn isn’t an innocent victim?”

  Karina nodded once.

  “Why? What little dessert tidbit are you hiding from me?”

  “After what happened when I left the library today, I think we’re looking at something far more sinister and possibly an angle no one’s really investigated.”

  LiAnn stopped pacing and looked at Karina, noting the tension in her face which wasn’t normal. “Elaborate please.”

  “I left in a rush after throwing a twenty at the librarian for the copies. At first, I thought that pissed her off and was the reason she called the local cops on me. Turns out, I was way off base.”

  “Karina! Stop dancing around the subject and just tell me what’s going on! Why did you leave in a rush?”

  “Okay, but you aren’t going to like it. Not one bit. Oh, that’s creepy. This sounds like a reverse of the conversation I had with Bo earlier.”

  Annoyed, LiAnn grumbled, “Quit stalling! I don’t like it already, so continue.”

 
“A cop pulled me over supposedly for speeding, which I swear I wasn’t. In fact, I was going ten miles under the limit. The second he came to the window, I knew something was wrong, especially after he insisted I get out of the car or eat pavement. Then he called me by my name.”

  LiAnn’s eyes widened in shock. “He did what?”

  “The librarian had to have called him after realizing what I’d been looking at. I assume he ran my plates because he never even looked at my license. He made me put my hands on the hood and then proceeded to inform me he knew who I was and why I came and I wasn’t welcome in Camden or Ouachita County. In no uncertain terms, he told me if I ever returned, he’d make sure it was the last place I’d ever visit. He followed it by grabbing a handful of my hair to bring the threat home with a good yank.”

  “That bastard!” LiAnn groused as anger slammed into her chest. “I’m going to make sure he loses his badge and can’t find a job except guarding toilets at Walmart!”

  “Mom, we were on an empty road—not a soul around.”

  “But the body cam—”

  “He wasn’t wearing one, and he must have left the mic in his unit. When I commented on that fact, he laughed and said it would be my word against his, and mine wouldn’t carry any weight in Camden.”

  LiAnn was furious. It took several seconds to form a cohesive thought. “I’m surprised you didn’t fight back and get arrested.”

  “Oh, don’t think I didn’t want to, believe me. I tried to be compliant at first, assuming his gruff reaction was because he saw the Glock on the console. After he called me by name, my instincts told me to tread lightly. I did until he yanked my hair. I gave him a reverse head-butt then slammed into him and we both fell to the ground. Then I puked all over his shiny boots.”

  “You did what?” LiAnn gasped and then burst out laughing. The mental images swirling inside her mind were hysterical despite the subject matter.

  “Yep. I tossed my green tea smoothie all over him. Turns out, hot vomit is a great way to diffuse a dangerous situation. He left after that, and so did I.”