Distinguished Bumpkin

by Sam Cheever

  “Was that encounter when you were eighteen what Robb was talking to you about at the ice cream place?”

  She shrugged. “Partly. Not really. He just reminded me I had a lot to lose if I told anybody about that.”

  Some instinct told me that wasn’t all there was to it. “What else?”

  She turned to me, her gaze sharpening. Then she sighed. “He accused me of trying to blackmail him.”

  “Robb was being blackmailed?”

  “Apparently. He seemed to be casting around to figure out who it was.”

  My thoughts returned to Benson Dexter claiming he was being blackmailed. He’d assumed it was Wickham and Calliente. Could he have been right?

  After a moment’s hesitation, Karinne said, “You’re wrong about Josh.”

  I bit back a denial that I thought my…our…brother killed Pam Wickham. “Tell me why he’s been all over this thing. I promise I have an open mind.”

  She sighed. “He’s like a dog with a bone. He refuses to let go of this Robb thing.” Rather than anger, I saw pride in her eyes when she turned to me. “He’s determined to bring him down.”

  I chose my words carefully, knowing how they’d sound. “Setting Robb up on two murders and one attempted murder would definitely bring him down.”

  She blinked in surprise. “Two murders?”

  I nodded. “Mr. Calliente’s fiancé, Pam, was also killed. M…your brother was at the scene.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Josh was there when she was murdered?”

  “I’m not sure about that, but when we went back after the police were done, he was in the victim’s apartment.”

  She deflated a little, looking strangely relieved. “That actually makes perfect sense. Josh believed Calliente was blackmailing Robb for business. Calliente Catering recently acquired several powerful new clients, all friends of Mayor Robb’s. When I told Josh that Robb and Jonathan were like oil and water, he decided blackmail had to be involved.”

  “What would Calliente have had to blackmail Robb with?”

  She chewed her bottom lip. “People have speculated that Robb’s trademark…” she made air finger quotes, “charm, might have gotten him into trouble.”

  “Sexual misconduct?”

  She shrugged.

  “And you believe that’s why Robb and Calliente didn’t get along?”

  “Why else?”

  “I’ve heard speculation that Calliente overcharged the mayor for the catering services.”

  “Oh yeah, he definitely did that. But that’s the cart, not the horse.”

  I frowned, not understanding.

  “Jonathan only kicked up his prices after we got the slew of new clients.” She shook her head. “Love him or hate him, Jonathan Calliente was a good businessman. If what I suspect is true, he forced Robb to recommend him to a who’s-who of powerful acquaintances and then upped the ante by charging all of them too much for his services. Sounds like a win-win scenario for Jonathan’s business.”

  Funny, it sounded like motive to me. “Karinne, we need to talk to your brother. Do you know where he is?”

  She shook her head, a mulish glint in her eyes.

  “If he’s innocent, he’ll want to give his side of the story.”

  Karinne’s already hard gaze turned brittle. “Josh didn’t kill anybody.”

  “If that’s true, he shouldn’t mind coming forward.” When she didn’t respond, I said, “He’s been seen at two of the three crime scenes. He really needs to come in and clear his name.”

  Something in my tone must have gotten through to her. “I really don’t know where he is. He hasn’t been home for a few days. I assumed he was staying in Deer Hollow.”

  Thinking of my brief conversation with Lis about contacting Karinne’s husband, I asked, “Could he be staying with your ex?”

  Karinne looked shocked. “David?” She shook her head. “Josh hated David. He wouldn’t trust him to have his back on anything. Besides,” she said. “My ex took a job in Chicago. I haven’t seen or spoken to him in months.”

  Well, that certainly appeared to be a dead end.

  16

  I covered my nose and glanced toward the back seat, where a blissfully happy and disturbingly stinky Caphy lay panting. She wagged her tail when she saw me looking at her.

  “Bath for you when we get home, girlfriend.”

  Her wag sagged a bit at the “b” word.

  “Ugh!” I groaned. “What was in that lake?”

  Hal slid me a grin. “She spent a lot of time in the muck at the edge. You probably don’t want to know what was in that.”

  He wasn’t wrong. “So, what do you think about what Karinne told us?”

  His smile disappeared. “I wish she’d told us where Joshua was.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Me too. But if it makes you feel any better, I believe her. I don’t think she knows where he is.”

  “It doesn’t,” he said, glancing my way. “Make me feel any better. I’ll admit, I’m not comfortable with the familial connection to you. I can’t shake the feeling that you’re going to be pulled into this mess somehow.”

  I stared out the window, my emotions in a whirl. I was torn over whether I wanted to find my brother. On the one hand, I was dying to get to know him. On the other, if we located Joshua Magness, he might end up in jail.

  Still, one thing kept popping up in my brain. “Can we go over what we know?” I asked Hal. “I’m having trouble putting any of the pieces together.”

  He nodded. “That’s a good idea. This investigation basically has two tracks. The first track would be that someone had a grudge against Calliente and/or his company. That actually makes the most sense because our three victims were all tied to Calliente Catering. But we don’t have any strong suspects who have means as well as motive. I’ve talked to all of Calliente’s recent clients by phone, and they all either had strong alibies or weak motives. I’m keeping an eye on a couple of them, but I really don’t think there’s anything there.”

  “What about employees?”

  “Nothing I’ve been able to uncover so far. Pam Wickham did send me the employee list before she was killed, and I’ve done backgrounds on all of them. Some of them were on other jobs in other cities. One was having a baby. A couple were on vacation. The crew at Robb’s party consisted of six people. Prince and Karinne are on our radar. The other four were in the yard the entire time until after their boss was killed. They have alibies for the other two attacks.”

  “Robb might have had motive if what Cecily and Benson told us was true.”

  “Unfortunately, we didn’t recover any blackmailable information with Calliente’s body or anywhere else Robb allowed us to search.” He frowned. “The reality is that we can’t do a thorough search of Robb’s office because he’s using his connection with Sheriff Mulhern to keep us away. I won’t deny that’s frustrating.”

  I nodded. “As far as we know, my brother didn’t have means or motive for Calliente’s death.”

  “Right,” Hal agreed. “Which brings us to the second investigative track. Robb. We have several people who might have reason to want the mayor dead, including Karinne and Joshua.”

  “Or Karinne’s dad,” I offered.

  “Right. But since Robb wasn’t the victim, I’m having trouble making that case.”

  “You mentioned that all the victims were connected to Calliente’s company, but the same could be said about Robb too. They were all involved in some way with his party.”

  Hal accelerated onto the highway. The first sign we passed listed Deer Hollow and a few other small towns along the way. We were twenty miles from home. The thought made me happy. I was tired. And worried. And a little sad.

  “The strongest possibility for a case against Robb is blackmail. If someone tried to blackmail him, I could see him committing murder,” Hal said.

  “I could too. But it seems unlikely that three people were in on a blackmail scheme. Wickham and Calliente, definitely. That
fits with both Karinne’s and Cecily’s stories. But how would Prince be involved? Unless he was blackmailing the blackmailers, which takes us to a whole new level of implausible.”

  “He might have found evidence himself,” Hal offered. “Or been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Talking about Prince reminded me. “How’s he doing? Have you heard from Arno about his condition?”

  “Arno texted me about it this morning. He’s in an induced coma, The swelling in his brain is still worrisome, but his vitals are apparently strong.”

  “If he wakes up, he can tell us who beat him.”

  Hal didn’t respond. I knew from the look on his face that the idea didn’t make him happy.

  “What?”

  “He could be in that coma for a few days. I need answers sooner rather than later.”

  We drove in morose silence for a few minutes. I finally broke it, mostly because I didn’t like seeing him so worried. Maybe continuing to shape the case in front of us would drag him out of his funk. “Okay, let’s talk fringe players.”

  He straightened in his seat, his chin coming up a fraction of an inch. “Okay.”

  “Cecily and Benson,” I said. “Cecily dislikes Robb, but I don’t see that she has much of a motive for murder. Agree?”

  “He did have something to do with Katherine Leonard’s death. Not directly, maybe, but his underhanded dealings led to her being murdered. That’s a pretty good motive.”

  He was right. Cecily and Katherine had been lifelong friends. “Okay, right. I’d forgotten about that. So Cecily has motive. Means?”

  “She was in Robb’s house about the time Calliente was killed. And she was seen fighting with him earlier in the day.”

  “She could have used a knife to kill him. We have only her word that she didn’t.” The idea didn’t make me happy. I liked Cecily.

  “Benson hates Robb. It sounds like he was also being blackmailed by Calliente. He might have thought leaving a body in Robb’s kitchen was a good way to take care of both problems.”

  “But nobody saw him there, right? He wasn’t at the party,” I said.

  “Right. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. The front door of the house was left unlocked to allow guests to enter. And everyone was in the back yard. So, if someone had come into the house through the front, it’s plausible he or she wouldn’t have been seen.”

  “That means the killer could have been anybody.”

  He frowned. “I’m afraid so.”

  I let that simmer in my brain for a bit. “Okay, as if this isn’t confusing enough…” I grinned at him, and I was happy to see some of the unease lift away as he smiled back. “We have the beautiful new donor who Robb knew a long time ago and wants to know again. On the surface, she seems much too nice to either date Robb or kill two people. She definitely doesn’t seem likely to have shot Prince.”

  “She might have a grudge against Robb for something he did to her in the past,” Hal said. “But that wouldn’t give her a reason to kill Calliente or his fiancée.”

  “We just keep coming back to the same problem, don’t we?”

  “We do.”

  Hal reached over and clasped my hand, squeezing it before settling our joined hands onto his thigh. “We’re forgetting something,” I murmured. “I just know there’s a detail that makes this all make sense. But I can’t quite get a grip on it.”

  “In my world, that’s called a Monday,” Hal said, sighing.

  My cell rang as I was climbing out of the car at home. Caphy ran toward the pond barking, and I looked at Hal. “It’s my mom. Can you get the beast into the laundry room for me? After she eats, I’ll hose her off.”

  “Sure,” he said, already heading across the yard.

  I hit answer as I glanced toward the pond. Our new family of ducks was trying to enjoy a swim without being harangued by eighty pounds of barking canine. Hal was going to have his hands full pulling the pibl away from such wonderful entertainment.

  “Hey, mom.”

  “Joey, honey. Are you okay?”

  I knew what she was asking. Had I come to terms with having a sibling and finding out that my mother had lied to me all my life. She’d actually lied to me about a lot of stuff. I was kind of used to it. But I guessed that wasn’t a good thing. “I’m fine.”

  There was a beat of silence while she probably tried to figure out if I was mad based on my two-word response. “Good. I…um…” She expelled air. “I’m really sorry we didn’t tell you, Joey. We thought it would be easier if you didn’t know he was out there.”

  I wasn’t in the brain space to talk about how wrong that reasoning was. I almost said as much, but then I decided I didn’t want to back away from it. “So, you thought it would be easier to find out that the brother I’d always wished I’d had growing up was living with a different sister?”

  “Joey…”

  “You thought it would be better for me not to know that he was a good, loyal person who’d go to extraordinary lengths to protect those he loved?”

  “Honey, I…”

  “You believed that it was a good idea to punish both him and me because you and dad couldn’t face the responsibility of raising a child?”

  “That’s going too far, Joey!”

  Yeah, I knew that. But once begun, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. My world felt upside down. Everything I’d lived through seemed to have been tainted somehow. “I thought your lies were behind us. I didn’t think you could upend my life again. Jeez, I was stupid.”

  Silence pulsed between us as I gulped air into lungs that suddenly seemed too depleted. I pictured her sitting primly on her side of the call, her pretty face set in that stern expression that had always turned my blood to ice when I was a kid.

  When she finally spoke again, I was shocked by her words. “Joshua was a decent student in school. He was capable of more than he achieved, but studies bored him. With one exception. He excelled at math and loved it, even tutoring kids who weren’t good at math.”

  Unbelievably, I heard a smile in her voice. I sat down on the porch stairs, intrigued.

  “He’s good at every sport he’s ever tried but prefers soccer to football. He’s quick to temper when he thinks someone has been wronged. And slow to forgive if he’s gotten his feelings hurt. He loves to climb. He goes to a climbing wall several times a week and plans to do a real climb in the Rockies one day. He’s been saving money for that adventure for two years.”

  She sniffed, and I realized that somewhere along the line, her smile had turned to tears.

  “He’s quick and agile and has a big heart.” She took a long, shaky breath. “And I’ve regretted not joining him in his life’s adventures every moment of every day since we let him go.”

  Tears slid down my cheeks as my heart quietly broke into pieces. But it was her muffled sob that really did me in. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean what I said. I was just being a brat.”

  “No, you have a right to be mad. I understand. Believe me, there have been lots of times that I’ve been mad at myself. I’ve missed having him in my life, Joey. That doesn’t mean your dad and I have loved you any less. It just means I realize now, as an adult, what I gave up when I was too young to make a decision that big.”

  “You made the right decision for you and dad. And probably for Josh too,” I admitted. “I know that. But,” I wasn’t sure how to explain to her that I was so jealous of Karinne Magness for getting to grow up with the brother I’d always wanted. “I’m just wishing I could have known him.”

  She sniffed loudly. “It’s not too late,” she told me. “I spoke to the Magness’s a few minutes ago, honey. I told them we were going to tell Joshua who we are. I want him in our lives. I know it won’t be easy. And I feel so bad your dad won’t be here to meet the wonderful man our son turned out to be. But it’s the right thing to do. I feel that in my heart.”

  “And Garland?” I fought hope, tempering it with the fact that Joshua was currently
a person of interest in a murder investigation.

  “He and I have talked about it. He’s fully on board. He’ll support us in whatever we want.”

  He would. If I knew anything at all about Garland Medford, it was that he loved my mom more than anything in his life. He’d lasso the moon and give it to her if she wanted him to.

  “Good.” I took the tissue Hal handed me, smiling my thanks. “When are you coming home?”

  “Two days. Garland has a few things to wrap up. We’ll leave as soon as we can.”

  “I might see him before you get here,” I warned. “We need to talk to him about the stuff that’s been going on.” It was weak, but I didn’t want her to know how deeply he was immersed in at least one murder. Maybe two.

  “I understand. Just…” She hesitated. She wanted to ask me not to turn Josh against her but was afraid the request might hurt my feelings.

  “I won’t tell him anything about you or your decision. That’s between the two of you. I just want to meet him.” The thought made my stomach twist with excitement. I squelched it immediately. That way lay potential heartbreak.

  “Thanks, honey.”

  “I’ll see you in a couple of days, mom.”

  “See you soon.”

  I disconnected and sat staring into space, feeling overwhelmed and suddenly exhausted.

  “Everything okay?” Hal asked, sitting down beside me.

  “Everything is…” I hesitated to say the word for fear it would turn to ash. “Okay,” I finally said. “Everything is okay. Mom wants to tell Josh about us.” I turned to my PI, a sense of wonder finding its way into my mind before I could stop it. “I’m going to meet my brother.”

  He pulled me into a hug. “That’s great news, honey.”

  I nodded, scrubbing at a fresh fall of tears. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking the exact same thing. But my head couldn’t seem to overrule my heart. And I was happy about meeting Josh.

  I only hoped he’d be happy to find out about me.

  17

  Hal’s phone rang as we were fixing bowls for Ethel Squeaks and Caphy that evening. “It’s Arno,” he said, hitting speaker. “Hey, Arno. You’re on with Joey and me.”