Southern Fried

by Tonya Kappes

  There wasn’t much left to be said. Finn and I stood in silence until we couldn’t see the hearse anymore.

  “Why don’t you go to Rowdy’s house and see if there is a note or anything there since we didn’t find one here.” My eyes roamed over the cemetery. I couldn’t look Finn in the eyes, afraid I was going to lose control. “I’ll go see the Harts and be over shortly.”

  “Kenni.” Finn’s hand ran down my arm. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s fine.” I bit back the tears. “It’s all part of the job.” I nodded and walked to the Jeep and Finn got in his car. When he was a safe distance away, I laid my head on the steering wheel and let the sadness wash over me.

  The tears flowed and my heart ached. Before I could stop myself, I beat my palm on the wheel and anger took over. The fury almost choked me as I screamed out and cursed Owen, Rowdy, and Stanley. Mainly Stanley for being right about the crime rate and how it’d doubled over the past few weeks.

  “I’m going to show him.” My lips thinned with anger. I turned the key and started up the Jeep.

  There was no time to waste. I was sure people were getting wind that someone else was dead, and I couldn’t let it get to Katy Lee and her family before I told them.

  They lived in a ranch home on ten acres out on Short Shun Road. They’d had a little farm with the hogs and a garden. Katy Lee was temporarily living with her parents while the new condominiums were being built out on Poplar Holler Road next to the river. She’d already put a down payment on one, but her lease on the house she was renting in town had expired, so she moved in with her parents while her new home was being built.

  Rowdy had left the roost as soon as he’d graduated from high school and got his first paycheck from the city. He had a little place out in the country. His barn was bigger than the house. That was where I figured he’d been hog farming.

  Whitney Hart was squatted over her flowerbed in the front of the house when I drove up. Her hair was tucked up into a big floppy straw hat that helped keep the morning sun off her exposed shoulders from the tank top and shorts she was wearing. A pair of plain gold earrings hung from her earlobes.

  “Katy Lee,” I heard her holler when she saw me pulling up. “Kenni Lowry is here to see you!” She yelled loud enough to go through the brick walls of the house.

  I put the gearshift in park and got out.

  “Kenni, you alright?” Whitney pulled the gloves off her hands, her eyes searching my face. “What’s wrong?”

  I tried my best to stay strong. I really did. I sucked in my chest and cleared my throat. A single tear dripped down my cheek.

  “Is your husband home?” I barely got the words out of my mouth. My stomach churned. I felt nauseous.

  “Kenni.” Katy Lee flew out of the door. “Are you here to tell me in person about the outfit and how it made a certain someone swoon?”

  She stopped when our eyes met.

  “Oh God. This isn’t a personal call, is it?” Her face hardened. Waverly Hart walked out of the door and stood behind Katy Lee.

  “I’m sorry to inform you that I found Rowdy’s body this morning.” I said it hard and fast so I wouldn’t hear my own words. “He...” My voice broke. “He is dead.”

  Waverly rushed to Whitney’s side. She put her hands on her gold earrings and rubbed them before she collapsed in his arms.

  “Rowdy had asked to speak to me and when he didn’t show up at my office I went to the cemetery to see him. He had dug a hole.” I left out the part that it looked like he’d dug his own grave, laid down, and shot himself. “He was in the hole holding the gun.”

  The fewer graphic details the better. They didn’t need to hear all of that.

  I wasn’t sure if any of them heard me over their sobs. I stood there for what seemed to be an eternity, trying not to stare.

  “I don’t believe it.” Whitney broke free from her husband’s grip. She ran over to me, shaking her finger at me. “Kenni Lowry, you find out who did this, and I mean you make it your number-one priority.” Her entire body trembled.

  “Mrs. Hart, I’m going to do everything in my power to find out what happened to Rowdy. Max will be able to determine if it was really...” I paused.

  “Suicide, Mom. That’s what Kenni is trying to say.” Katy Lee picked up where I couldn’t. “Thank you, Kenni. What’s next?”

  Waverly helped Whitney into the house.

  “Well, you can obviously go to Cottonwood Funeral Home to see him, but I’d give Max a few hours to prep him. I’m going to head on over to Rowdy’s to see if I find any sort of note or reason why he would do this, and I’ll treat it as a crime scene.” I grabbed Katy Lee and wrapped her in my arms.

  She was like steel. Stiff. Unemotional.

  “Those earrings my mama is wearing were from Rowdy.” Her voice was flat. “It was his first big purchase after he took the job with the county. He didn’t make much money and Viola White had given him a deal. He was so proud and Mama loves them.” She stepped away from me. “Thank you, Kenni. We will wait for your assessment.”

  “Oh.” I looked into her eyes. They were glossed over and blank. “I’ll call you soon. Tell your parents I’ll be in touch.”

  Like a good southern woman, Katy Lee stood on the front porch and watched me get in the Jeep and drive off. From the rearview mirror, I watched as she got smaller and smaller as the distance grew between us.

  “Kenni! Kenni!” Betty’s shrill, excited voice trilled over the walkie-talkie. My Jeep nearly jumped into the ditch on the side of the country road.

  I pushed in the button. “Go ahead, Betty.”

  “Is it true? Is Rowdy Hart dead?” she asked. “The dispatch is going nuts and there is a picket line outside of Cowboy’s about the crime rate in Cottonwood.”

  “Picket line?” I asked, putting my personal feelings aside for the Hart family. No matter how I felt, I had a job to do.

  “So it’s true? Rowdy Hart killed himself?” She gasped between words.

  “Yes,” I said softly. “It appears that way. I’m on my way to his house to meet Finn and go over every square inch to find out why he’d do this.”

  “What do you want me to do about the picket line?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  I clicked off and headed straight on over to Rowdy’s house, where Finn was waiting next to his car. He was on the phone. I was a little surprised he’d not gone in the house.

  “We will definitely reschedule. I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I’m pretty pumped to see you,” I heard him say off in the distance. I slammed the door so he’d look over at me. “Gotta go. Love you.”

  There was no time to worry about what Finn and his woman friend were talking about.

  “Why haven’t you gone in the house?” I asked.

  “I found this on the door and thought I’d wait for you.” He held up a baggie with a handwritten note inside and Rowdy’s signature at the end.

  The note was pretty much a confession for the murder of Owen Godbey.

  He wrote that he and Owen had been working together and smoking pot after work every night. When the flowers came up missing, Owen had confessed one night when they were high that he took the flowers since they were grown by Myrna. Owen had sent the flowers off to the lab to see if they could extract the growing recipe because he was in need of money for his medicine. Rowdy also said that he got so mad about Owen stealing that out of a fit of rage—the drinking and drugs only encouraged him more—he’d put antifreeze in Owen’s drink and bound him with the only thing he had, electric fencing. He’d even confessed to giving him the shock to make sure he was dead. After he sobered up, he was frantic. He knew that Myrna had fired Owen because he tried to steal her growing recipe. So he tromped through the woods, which was only about five acres away from Myrna’s property, and threw Owen in the greenhouse. It was a confession d
etailing exactly how we’d found Owen.

  “I wonder if he was going to confess to me yesterday. Stanley walked up and interrupted us.” I looked at the handwriting. “That’s when he told me he’d stop by, and when he didn’t show...” I didn’t have to recall the rest. Finn knew it.

  “When I went to see him yesterday about the stolen flowers, he didn’t say anything about it being Owen. In fact, he was angry that someone would do it.” There was something awfully fishy about this letter. “In his letter, he says that Owen confessed. Something doesn’t add up.”

  “Well, let’s go look inside. If this is true, then we should have no problem finding all of the evidence.” Finn pointed down to the metal pan just inside the door in the foyer.

  It was one of those shoe tins. Next to the tin was another basket with socks in it. There was a pair of shoes in the shoe tin.

  “No shoes allowed in this house and Owen was found without his shoes.” Finn took out a plastic evidence bag and bagged the shoes. “Owen’s?”

  Chills ran down my spine. Was Rowdy really the killer?

  “So Owen came over here after they worked, took his shoes off, smoked pot, got drunk, and confessed to stealing.” I walked through the small house and out to the screened-in porch, where there was a small bong and a trash can with empty beer cans in it. “That simple?”

  “Anything is possible,” Finn stated.

  “I know Rowdy. He might’ve been named after the wrestler Rowdy Piper, but he was a big teddy bear.” I just couldn’t believe that someone I’d known, or thought I’d known, all my life could do this.

  “Kenni,” Finn said.

  I turned my head. He had a knife.

  I gulped.

  “How did he know I was at the tow company?” I got an evidence baggie and had Finn drop the knife inside. “There is something fishy going on.”

  “This looks like the exact same knife you found in your Jeep.” He looked between me and the knife. “Explain that.” Finn took a step back. “Listen, I know that you are best friends with his sister and probably consider them family, but you have to look at the hard evidence.”

  “The hard evidence is that he smoked pot.” I looked up and Finn was shaking the evidence bag with the knife.

  “And he just so happens to have a knife matching the one that someone stuck in your Jeep with a threatening note?” He asked a good question.

  “I’m going to grab all the cans and the bong so we can test for saliva from two people. Owen and Rowdy.” I took some evidence bags out of my bag and put down markers, making the appropriate notes as I went along. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying this looks all too convenient for me.”

  Finn proceeded through the rest of the house and put down markers in the spots where we thought there might be evidence of importance to the case. Rowdy Hart’s house had officially become the scene of a probable killer’s life.

  After we scanned the house, we walked outside to get a look in the barn. The hog pens were still outside with a slop trough as well as some leftover dried-up pig feces.

  “Owen did have feces on him,” I noted. Finn put down a marker and took some samples as I walked inside the barn. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, Rowdy Hart was beginning to look more and more guilty.

  Just inside the door was a tractor along with some gardening tools and a couple cans of antifreeze, next to some rolled-up electric fence exactly like the one that was wrapped around Owen’s ankles.

  I snapped pictures, took samples, and made notes of everything. It all seemed to tie in.

  “I guess we have the killer,” Finn said after he saw the main evidence. The murder weapons used on Owen Godbey.

  Finn was right. The proof was there right for anyone to see.

  “Hmmm.” Poppa appeared. “What are you thinking?”

  “I think this is a little too obvious,” I said. “And a little too convenient.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  I sent Finn back to the office to start processing the evidence while I took the opportunity to go and let Stanley know what exactly happened to his brother. I could’ve called, but I wanted to see his face and maybe ask him exactly why he had it out for me.

  He and Inez were sitting on the porch in their rockers. He stood up when he saw me pull up and took a couple steps toward my Jeep before I even brought it to a stop.

  “Sheriff.” He acknowledged me with a cold stare.

  “Stanley.” My eyes slid over his shoulder. “Inez.”

  “Hi, Kenni.” Inez waved.

  “Where’s that mangy mutt? He better stay in your Jeep and off my property.” He jerked his head, trying to look into the Wagoneer. “I don’t like dogs.”

  I ignored him.

  “Stanley, I won’t take up too much of your time, but Rowdy Hart was found dead from an apparent suicide. We found a written confession where he claimed to have killed Owen at his home. There was also evidence at Rowdy’s home that coincided with the way Owen was killed.” I took a step back. “I’m sorry your brother was killed, even though the two of you weren’t close.”

  “Why would you say that?” he snapped back. “He was my only brother. Only living family member. We were plenty close. Hell,” he threw his hand in the air, “he lived next door to me.”

  I couldn’t decipher if he was telling me a big lie or the truth. I clearly remembered Inez telling me that they didn’t get along. And so did Sandy. Both of them told me how Rae Lynn had hoped the cookbook would bring them together instead of apart. None of that mattered now. I had the case solved and it wasn’t any of my business about their family issues.

  “Kenni-bug.” Poppa appeared on the porch. He pointed to the video camera strategically placed on the front porch near the door.

  “I’m going to have to ask you for that video footage for evidence to close the case.” I didn’t know why it seemed important, but I wanted to make sure what he’d said about Owen trespassing was true. Not that Owen trespassing would have anything to do with Rowdy’s rampage, but it was just something I wanted to see.

  “Fine.” He didn’t hesitate.

  I waited next to the Jeep. Poppa came over.

  “It all seems like a pretty little package.” Poppa chewed over the case. “It’s too neat and tidy for me.”

  I swallowed and tried not to appear as though I was paying attention to the empty space next to me so Inez wouldn’t question me.

  “I mean, I never knew Owen to do anything other than drink a little too much sometimes. But drugs?” Poppa paced between the Jeep and the porch, his hands tucked in his brown uniform pants pockets.

  “Here you go.” Stanley walked out the front door of the house holding a small SIM chip in his hand. “It’s the same footage I showed at the meeting. Clearly you see my brother look into the camera. I have no idea why he felt like he needed to sneak over. When I confronted him, he lied, of course. I accused him of wanting to make good on the deal with the big organic stores without working with us like my mom wanted.”

  “Greed does do strange things to people.” I took the microchip. “I’ll get this back to you soon.” I turned to get in the Jeep and suddenly remembered I had a bone to pick with Stanley. “Stanley, can I ask you a question?”

  He nodded and slid his hands in his jean pockets.

  “Why are you so hell bent on getting me out of office?” It was a reasonable question to ask the man that had single-handedly put someone else on the ballot box. “And Lonnie Lemar?”

  “I think it’s safe to say that Lonnie did a mighty fine job under Sheriff Sims as his deputy. He did a mighty fine job as deputy under you. Then when he retired the crime rate shot up under your regime.” He said it as though I was some communist leader. I certainly didn’t like the tone in his voice. It was demeaning and off-putting, like Inez claimed he was with her.

  “I
think it’s safe to say that I had nothing to do with those crimes, and in fact, I’ve solved them all.” I wasn’t going to stand there and let him put me down, even though I was taught to respect my elders.

  “It doesn’t matter if you solved them. What matters are the statistics that got us there and that you did nothing to prevent the crime sprees from happening.” He glared.

  “Oh, like I’m a damn genie or something? I’m not a psychic. I can’t predict when people are going to break into jewelry stores or kill other people. Or maybe I slept through that class at the academy.” The anger in my voice was crisp and direct.

  “I think it’s time for you to get off my property, Sheriff. Besides, I’m heading out of town on a fishing trip up to Michigan, so it’s best you don’t come back until I return. And I better be able to take my brother’s ashes by then.” Stanley turned around and walked back up to his porch. He eased down next to Inez, who was looking down into her jar of tea. His eyes were like a wave in the ocean coming toward me with each deliberate and calculated rock of his chair.

  I got back into the Jeep.

  “I’m going home to see Duke.” I sighed.

  The evidence wasn’t going to change. Rowdy had confessed to the murder and the evidence was there to corroborate his suicide note.

  “Good idea.” Poppa sat in the passenger seat. “Sometimes it’s good to take a few hours off and distance ourselves from our work. Our brains work in weird ways.”

  “Yeah,” I muttered, getting lost into the drive back to Free Row. I had a few minutes to get home, play with Duke, get cleaned up, and head out for Euchre night. Still, I couldn’t stop all the chatter in my head. Especially when it came to the Godbeys.

  “Nothing will stop him from getting what he wants.” Inez’s words about Stanley put a chill in my bones. The kind of chill where you had to take a long hot shower to even begin to thaw.

  Chapter Twenty

  Finn seemed to be satisfied that we had the killer and had decided he’d go ahead and go to Chicago for a couple of days now. There was really no reason to stop him from taking a few days off. He deserved it. The quicker I could get back to the normal daily routines of being sheriff and focusing on snuffing out Stanley’s campaign against me the better.