Sequestered with the Murderers

by Dr. Sandra Tanner

  “There must have been a reason for that. Prostitution is illegal. Did the Feds ever get involved?” Gam asked.

  “Not that we know of,” Kay replied. “It seems like she was given some status in the community because she contributed to various charities and was known for her large contributions to the school system.”

  “Rumor is Ms. Lacecap didn’t have much of a formal education, so she wanted to make sure every child got the education she didn’t,” Mercy said.

  “Mrs. Holt Sr., we call her Mrs. Angeline, worked for the school board. She’s the one who let everybody know about Ms. Lacecap’s contributions,” Kay said.

  While Gam, Kay, and Mercy continued to converse on the subject of Ms. Lacecap, my mind was on the name Angeline. My inner voice had spoken. This name is important, it had said.

  I had read in the police report that Diantha’s middle name was Angeline. Other than that, the name meant nothing to me—another wild card piece of the puzzle like the name Whirley.

  “I think what I am hearing is that since Ms. Lacecap wasn’t hurting anyone, contributed money to the community, and I am assuming she paid her taxes, she was accepted as part of the community,” I said.

  “Vett, I wouldn’t say accepted. I would say left alone. There was always one group or another in an uproar over her business,” Mercy explained.

  “But she was never shut down. What’s up with that?” Gam said, then threw his hands in the air.

  “I believe Ms. Lacecap had something on Holt Sr. and that whole old regime. A secret they did not want to be revealed,” Kay said, with that look of discernment on her face.

  My inner spoke again. Pay attention, it said.

  “Yeah, they paid her money to have sex with her girls and don’t want anyone to know about it,” Gam said sarcastically.

  “No, I believe it is more than that. Every woman in Envyton County probably thinks her man has visited Ms. Lacecap at one time or another,” Kay said, then looked at Mercy with a sly smile on her face.

  “Don’t look at me. I’ve never visited that woman,” Mercy said.

  We all burst out laughing.

  When we finished laughing, Mercy said, “It’s true, I’ve never been there. There are a lot of men in Envyton County that have never been there. However, it may be something to my wife’s theory. She is a mystery zealot,” Mercy said, putting emphasis on the words mystery zealot by using his index finger on both hands to indicate quote marks.

  Mercy continued with, “I’m not condoning Ms. Lacecap’s business or opposed to it. It happened, and everyone chose to turn a blind eye to it.”

  “Do you think Duffy Radley was involved in both murders?” I asked.

  “Absolutely not. I think he was a victim of circumstance. He was married to Sybil, and they had a tumultuous relationship. The marriage only lasted five years, if that. The rumor is he paid too much attention to Sybil’s sister/cousin, Diantha. She was a very attractive girl, bi-racial, beautiful auburn curly hair, and was very shapely. It is also rumored that Sybil and Ms. Lacecap gave her everything she wanted, like the breast implants she wanted. So it could have been a little bit of jealousy there on Sybil’s part, and accusing Duffy was her way of getting back at him,” Kay explained.

  “I told you my wife is a mystery zealot. She has an answer for every detail of a mystery,” Mercy said, then smiled at his wife. “I don’t believe Duffy had anything to do with Ms. Lacecap’s murder either. The two men who were convicted were criminals and were seen at the house during the time-frame the murder was committed. The police could not find any evidence whatsoever that Duffy was involved. So I believe he wasn’t, even though the murderers were acquaintances of his, and he had been out drinking with them the night before the murder. As far as who is the murderer of Diantha, I’m not so sure.”

  “It’s time for dessert,” Haiden sang out as she approached our table, Boyd walking behind her with a tray of chocolate lava cakes. She quickly cleared the table, and Boyd set one single-size cake before each of us.

  “Would anyone like coffee?” Boyd asked.

  We all answered with, “No, thank you.”

  “Enjoy,” Boyd said as he walked to the table behind us.

  We all spooned into the chocolate. It was so delicious. After three spoonfuls, I said, “Mercy, do you think Duffy may have been involved with Diantha’s murder?”

  “He never gave a strong alibi where he was the morning of the murder.”

  “Where was he?” Gam asked.

  “According to the news media, he was home sleeping off a drunken stupor.”

  “And no one can corroborate his story?” Gam asked.

  “You’re exactly right,” Mercy said.

  “Besides that, people had heard him making sexual advances to Diantha. She despised him. I would, too. The audacity of him to make sexual advances to his wife’s sister/cousin,” Kay said.

  “Alcohol makes you do strange things,” Gam said. By now, he had eaten half of his cake.

  “That’s no excuse,” I said, “Do either of you know Armie Bledsoe?”

  “Oh, yeah. He’s a friend of Duffy’s. One of his drinking buddies,” Mercy said.

  “He wasn’t any better than Duffy making passes at Diantha, and he was married,” Kay said.

  “What’s Armie got to do with this,” Gam asked.

  “He’s a driver that works for Brightness and a friend of Duffy. I met with him after Brightness’s board meeting. He gave me background information on Duffy.”

  “Rumor is they were two peas in a pod, and both had eyes for Diantha,” Mercy said.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “Yeah, everybody knew that. That’s why I can’t completely rule Duffy out for the murder of Diantha. I don’t know about Armie either. He could have done it, too. She was meeting someone in the park, but we don’t know who. Armie and Duffy both moved away after the murder, which in my book is suspicious. Why move away?” Mercy said.

  “They moved away to divert suspicion from themselves. I’m telling you the meeting in the park was a clandestine meeting,” Kay said.

  “There she goes with another one of her theories. But why hasn’t the person she was meeting come forth? If she was meeting someone legitimately, there isn’t a reason for the person not to come forward,” Mercy said.

  “Because she was meeting someone in secret,” Kay said.

  “With a bouquet of hydrangeas?” Mercy asked. “Do you really believe she would take a bouquet of hydrangeas to a clandestine meeting?”

  “What was the deal with Ms. Lacecap’s love for hydrangeas?” Gam asked.

  “If you get the chance to visit Envyton County in the summer and fall, you’re see why. Seems like every other household has at least one. I’ve got four of them in my yard. They are beautiful and come in many different colors. Ms. Lacecap had a kinship with the lacecap variety. Her yard was full of them, and the three of them enjoyed giving bouquets to people. The deal was she loved the lacecap hydrangeas, just like some other gardener may have a love for roses or azaleas,” Kay explained.

  “Could Diantha have brought the bouquet with her to put in a container in the park? It’s my understanding that she was known to walk in that park all the time. Someone could have accosted her before she had the chance to put the flowers in the container,” I said.

  “That’s a theory. It’s possible,” Kay said.

  “What color hydrangea did Diantha have with her when she was murdered?” Gam asked.

  “Who knows? The police have kept that information under wrap for ten years,” Mercy said. “There’s so much we don’t know about Diantha’s murder.”

  Listen to what he just said, my inner voice spoke.

  “Baby, it’s getting late. Do you have any more questions?” Gam asked.

  “It’s been nice meeting you both. Thank you bo
th for sharing your memory of the events surrounding the Lacecap Hydrangea Murders,” I said.

  “You are welcome. We’ve enjoyed it,” Mercy said.

  “Perhaps, we’ll see you again before we leave. We check out Monday morning,” Gam said.

  “We look forward to it. We check out on Sunday. Have a good night.”

  “You both do the same,” Gam said.

  “Goodnight,” I said.

  When we got back to the room, chocolates, a red rose, and a note were on a little stand beside the door. The message read: We enjoyed having you for dinner. Please let us know how well you enjoyed the food. Tomorrow’s dinner will be just as delicious as tonight’s meal and will consist of:

  Wine: Red Wine

  Appetizers: Beef Wellington Triangles, Almond Cheddar Squares, and Onion Rolls.

  Soup: Tomato Basil Soup

  Entrée: Peppercorn Tender Roast Beef and Gravy, Roasted New Potatoes, Almond String Beans, and Hot Rolls.

  Dessert: Single-Serve Pineapple Upside Down Rum Cake.

  Breakfast will be served from 7:00 am-11:00 am and consist of a buffet of your favorite breakfast foods. If you prefer to eat breakfast in your room, please call the front desk, and we will take your order.

  Again thank you for choosing Serenity Bed, Breakfast and Dinner.

  The staff.

  “This place really knows how to treat guests,” I said to Gam as he used his room key to unlock the door.

  “You pay enough for it,” Gam said as we walked into the room.

  “Just like a man. You can’t appreciate the finer things in life,” I said, teasing him.

  “My happiness comes from watching you enjoy the place.”

  “I am happy. I love it here. Are you too tired to tell me about the cases you worked on where people have taken their own life?”

  “Not at all, little lady. Have a seat.” I sat on the bed. Gam pulled the chair away from the desk and sat in it.

  “It seems that suicide among teenagers is a growing concern. You know that, right?”

  I nodded my head.

  I just can’t seem to understand the adult suicides. We’ve been taught in the Sheriff’s Office that more than half of the adult suicides stem from some type of psychological disorder, you know, depression and other mood disorders, but also from things like substance abuse, bipolar disease, and only God only knows what else.”

  “Gwen didn’t appear to have any of those things.”

  “Baby, you can’t always discern that from being around a person for a few days. People are good at hiding symptoms and things they don’t want you to see.”

  “I do understand that.”

  “It’s difficult to understand why a family member, a friend, or someone you liked, Gwen, in your case, committed suicide. You didn’t see any warning signs in her, but you had not known her long enough to really know a warning sign. Yet, you still wonder what clues you may have missed. You have got to stop that. There could have been many factors that lead Gwen to take her life that she has been hiding for years.”

  “I know. I hear you.”

  “There was a case I worked on where a forty-five-year-old woman committed suicide. Come to find out, she had been raped and sexually abused as a child. This was labeled a traumatic experience. We now know women who have gone through traumatic experiences like this are at a greater risk for suicide many years later after the traumatic experience. After the suicide, her family members said that she was always depressed, couldn’t keep a boyfriend, talked about weird things like helplessness and hopelessness, and seems to always be in a dark place. But no one sought help for her.”

  “Gam, the family just didn’t know the signs of suicide.”

  “They didn’t. It was the same for a buddy of mine whose brother committed suicide. The brother was an alcoholic and abused drugs. Alcohol and drugs can sometimes make a person who is feeling suicidal act on the urge. The brother had lost his job because of his substance abuse problem. His family and friends did not want to be around him because of his problem. So, I’m assuming the loneliness, the shame, and the humiliation set in and was too much for him. My buddy said to me, ‘We didn’t think he would shoot himself. He didn’t show any signs that he was suicidal.’ I wanted to say so badly to him, yes he did. You just did not recognize them.”

  “Was this your buddy Lindell’s brother?”

  “Yeah. Sad, sad story. I went to school with both of them. One of Daddy’s friends committed suicide, too. I think it was the year before I met you. Mr. Willie was in his early seventies. He had farmed all his life, and from what I understand, he was not ready to give it up. He had a big farm in Blairs. His wife was dead. His children were grown and wanted nothing to do with farming and were pressuring Mr. Willie to sell the farm, which he did not want to do. On top of that, he had financial problems. Daddy said that Mr. Willie was depressed about losing the farm he loved so much and over the fact he couldn’t get funding to keep the farm. One morning Mr. Willie’s son found him hanging from a rafter in the barn.”

  “This is so sad.”

  “It is. So yes, I have come across victims of suicide several times. In Mr. Willie’s case, I guess he had lost all hope and didn’t see how he could make things better, so he committed suicide. When I was a boy about eight or nine, my favorite TV action hero committed suicide, though I didn’t really understand what that meant back then. I loved watching the Adventures of Armorman. Do you remember that show?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t.”

  “You don’t? That was the best action show in the early sixties. Armorman was the strongest man on the planet. He was a real man’s man. I wanted to be just like him. I can’t think of the name of the actor who played him. I was told he shot himself in the head because he was depressed over not finding other acting roles. He became an alcoholic and some of the articles I read on him in later years said he had mental problems. He was married twice, and both wives claimed domestic abuse, eventually divorcing him. What is so sad to me about this suicide is that back then, it took a tragedy for his agent, family, and friends to finally admit there was a problem. They all said something like he has a starring role in a long-running TV show. What problems could he possibly have? None of them saw that he needed help. It was written in the media that he had demons and risk factors for suicide. How the media knew these things when those closest to him didn’t is beyond me.”

  “I can see how people turn a blind eye to something that is right in front of them.”

  “Donahue Adams. That was his name. I remember now. There are support groups available for people with suicidal thoughts nowadays. Not sure such groups were available back in the early-to-mid- sixties. The families of these people must help get assistance to their loved ones. I realize that there are people who refuse to accept all offers of help. We just have to keep trying to help the people we love.”

  “That is so true. I wonder if Carolyn knew her friend had suicidal thoughts.”

  “You can ask her when you get back. For now, why don’t we get some sleep? Enough talk about suicides.”

  It didn’t take me long to perform my nightly bathroom rituals. By 11:00 pm, I was in bed on my way to sleep. Gam stayed up watching TV. When I turned over, the bedside clock illuminated 12:15 am. Gam’s steady snoring let me know that he was fast asleep.

  CHAPTER 21

  I awoke at 6:00 pm, ready to ride the treadmill in the small exercise room downstairs. It was Saturday and my birthday.

  “Happy birthday, Baby,” Gam said as I turned over to get out of bed. I thought he was still asleep.

  “Thank you. It’s going to be a glorious day, and I want to exercise some of last night’s delicious food off me before we start our day,” I sang out.

  “Don’t get up yet,” Gam said, pulling me into his arms. “You had a revelation last night, didn’t you? I could t
ell you did. Tell me what happened.”

  I wasn’t ready to discuss with him what my inner voice told me. I wanted to walk the treadmill to get some time alone—to be totally open to what was coming to me. And I wanted to be unencumbered to clearly understand what my inner voice was making me aware of, and I wanted privacy to formulate my next steps. However, that could wait. My being here in Gam’s arms, enjoying each other, was far more important to me.

  “I did, but I haven’t had time to analyze the meaning. Let me tell you about it later after I’ve had time to probe the meaning.”

  “That’s fine. What was your reading on Kay and Mercy?”

  “Mercy is funny and amusing. I do believe at some point in his younger years, he visited Ms. Lacecap’s brothel. Don’t you?”

  “I do. And he probably knows the names of prominent people who visited it as well. What do you think of Kay?”

  “She is sweet. She definitely has the bug—the mystery-solving bug. Did you notice how strongly she believes there was a secret plan going on by powerful people or by a couple of people to let Ms. Lacecap stay in business?”

  “You know, she could be right. There could be some type of behind the scene deal that was brokered that allowed Ms. Lacecap to stay in business.”

  “Like what?”

  “That’s the million-dollar question.”

  “Yeah, I guess Kay could be right. Forty-five years is a long time for a house of prostitution to stay in business.”

  “Uh-huh, darn tootin’ it is,” Gam exclaimed.

  “I must say, Kay and Mercy, are a delightful couple and exactly who I needed to talk to.”

  “They sure knew a lot about the Lacecap Hydrangea Murders for people who didn’t know either of the murdered people.”

  “I know, but Envyton County is not a big county. From what I’ve learned, it was big news back then and stayed in the media for a while.”