by K C Hart
“What about some of your connections at Dr. Robert’s office?” Misty asked. “Couldn’t they tell you who Jessa was related to? Don’t you have to put that information on your medical record or something?”
“Girl, you’re a genius.” I never even thought about that. I’ll go by and talk to Trudy Mae. I bet she’ll know something. She might not tell me anything because of HIPPA laws and the patient’s right to privacy, but she might. Jessa’s dead and if it will help catch a killer, she might be willing to let me look at her records.”
“See you tomorrow night.” Misty slapped her arm as she slid into her car. “Unless these mosquitos eat me alive first.”
Katy climbed in her car. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow night, she’d have an idea of who Jessa Williams really was and why somebody wanted her dead.
“I hope you don’t mind me stopping by,” Todd said, as Katy walked into her kitchen. He held up a white paper bag with grease stains on the bottom. “I brought supper.”
“You know I don’t mind.” Katy took the bag and smiled. “It saved John from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and me from a bowl of cornflakes. What’s in the bag?”
“He got me and him hamburgers and fries.” John held up a half-eaten burger. “I don’t know what’s in there for you.”
“It’s one of those salads you always order. I told them to add extra avocado too, so it should be all green and slimy just like you like it.”
“Well aren’t you just the sweetest thing.” Katy peered in the bag. “To what do we owe this honor?”
“I want to go over the day we found the body with you again. I need to make sure I have all of the details about Laney Finch.”
“Okay.” Katy walked over to the sink and washed her hands then returned to the bar. “Did you find something in Jessa’s car that’s making you more interested in Laney?”
“Yes mam, I did. There was a note in Jessa’s glove compartment from Laney threatening her. Here, I took a picture of it.” Todd pulled out his phone and handed it to Katy to read.
Jessa,
I know who you are and what you are doing. I could care less, but I do care about my husband and my marriage. Leave him alone or I will make you sorry. I will do whatever it takes to keep my family together. DO NOT SEE HIM AGAIN.
“It’s not signed,” Katy said. “How do you know it’s from Laney?” She began picking off all the unwanted croutons and tomatoes from her salad.
“Well, the main reason is that her fingerprints are all over it. Then there’s the fact that you saw her snooping around the car the day we found Jessa’s body.” Todd’s lips curled down as he watched Katy take her salad apart. He shivered and looked away. “That’s why I want to make sure we’ve got all the details straight. I think the sheriff’s going to bring her in to talk to her, but he wants to make sure that he has all of his ducks in a row before we pick her up.”
“I wrote down everything about that night in my notebook. Hold on a minute.” Katy ran to her bedroom and grabbed her clue book and returned to the kitchen. “The part about Laney is a couple of pages over because I didn’t remember seeing her there until later when Misty told me that Coach Finch had sent flowers to the funeral without a card.”
“Look on the next page too.” Katy slid the notebook over to Todd. “I ran into Laney this morning at the grocery store and I recognized her perfume as the same one that I smelled on Jessa’s body that night.”
Todd flipped through the yellow note pad scanning the information. “My word Aunt Katy, you have more information on this case than the entire police department.”
“I told you she’s been very preoccupied with this,” John said looking over Todd’s shoulder at the pages of notes.
“I’m not preoccupied, I’m just trying to keep an innocent guy from going to jail and trying to stop a murderer from going free. Besides, a lot of that stuff is just things I think could have happened.”
She turned the notebook back towards herself and flipped to the page about Coach Finch. “See here? I jotted down that Coach Finch could have been having an affair with Jessa and that’s why he sent the flowers. I don’t know that for sure, but it looks like that’s probably what was going on.”
Todd picked up his phone and started taking pictures of each page. “I’m going to take all of this stuff to the office and upload it on the computer. Is there anything else you want to add to these notes? It looks like you’ve been pretty thorough with all of your details.”
“I’ve been wondering this whole time how Jessa is kin to the Browns.” Katy flipped the notebook to the last page where she had recorded her thoughts about Mrs. Tellman’s conversation and Jessa’s relationship to the Browns. “The Browns have been very vague about how they’re related to her and even a little secretive. I was planning on trying to talk to Trudy Mae at Dr. Robert’s office tomorrow and see if she knew who Jessa had listed as next of kin. It may not be important, but I think that may have something to do with the secret Laney is talking about.”
“Do you think she was some kind of con artist or criminal or something?” Todd studied the information written on the page. “That sounds kind of farfetched.”
“I don’t know, but I know the Browns don’t seem to be very proud of her branch of the family tree.”
“Leave talking to Trudy Mae to me. I don’t think she can tell you anything about Jessa’s private medical files anyway. I’ll get in touch with her in the morning, but for now, I have to go through all this and see how it connects to Laney and Coach Finch.”
“Do you think one of them might have killed her?”
“Who knows, but it will give Sheriff Reid another suspect to talk to besides Joe Phobs.”
“I stopped by to see him again on my way home from work,” John said, popping a fry in his mouth. “He seemed to be in pretty good spirits today,”
“I’m so glad you’re reaching out to him.” Katy reached over and picked up his last fry and dipped it in her salad dressing. “He needs friends.”
“He said his momma came by today and that Marissa Holmes had been back too.” The corners of John’s mouth turned down as he watched Katy put the fry in her mouth. He didn’t like salad dressing and hated to see a fry wasted that way. “Between you and me, I think she might be a little sweet on him.”
“I think so too Uncle John,” Todd answered. “I heard her talking to him and she offered her shoulder to cry on and basically everything else, if you know what I mean.”
Katy finished her salad while John walked Todd to his car. What have Laney and Coach Finch gotten in to? Laney’s about five foot two like me, but she probably doesn’t weight one hundred ten pounds. She’s not strong enough to lift the monkey wrench over her head and bring it down with enough force to kill Jessa, Katy thought. But even if she could, there’s no way she could have moved the body from that shed to under the flatbed trailer. Coach Finch, on the other hand, could have done both without any trouble. Did he and Laney do this together? Had Laney truly done whatever she needed to do to keep her family together? She hoped and prayed she was wrong about this.
Chapter Seventeen
Katy stared at the red numbers on the alarm clock next to the bed…finally five o’clock. Flipping and flopping all night, checking the time about every hour, made for a long restless night. She usually didn’t get up quite this early but staying in the bed flouncing like a beached whale certainly wasn’t restful. She eased out of bed and slipped on her fuzzy robe and slippers the girls had gotten her a few years ago for her birthday. She had to admit, they were some of her favorite pieces of clothing. The slippers would have to be replaced soon, but hopefully they would hold up through one more winter.
She added way more creamer than the one teaspoon suggestion on the back of the bottle to her morning coffee. The sugar and the caffeine made a terrible combination for starting the day, but oh well. She sipped from her green Yoda mug and walked to the recliner to wait for the two poisons to kick in.
&nbs
p; Hopefully, Todd would be able to make heads or tails from her notes. At least he was taking her seriously now. If she had to guess at a scenario based on what she knew, she would think that this murder was about some kind of love triangle between Jessa Williams, Coach Finch, Laney Finch and Joe Phobs.
Laney said in her note that she knew what Jessa was doing and didn’t care. That sounded like Jessa had something going on other than her love life that she didn’t want people to know about. She got up from her chair to retrieve her clue book from her nightstand before the caffeine rush kicked in. Reading over all her notes before turning out the light last night was probably why she didn’t get any sleep.
Katy listened as John’s baritone voice sang “Victory in Jesus” from the shower. Would I do whatever I had to do to keep my family together? Thank God I’ve never had to ask myself that question. John’s my best friend and honest as the day is long. He drives me crazy sometimes, but he would never betray my trust. She walked back up the hall studying her clue book. Laney Finch has been backed into a corner by her cheating husband and she came out fighting. I wonder if the sheriff decided to bring her in last night, or would that happen today? There’s no telling how that’s going to play out, but I hope Todd won’t keep me in the dark.
Katy texted Todd to find out if they had brought in Laney Finch, but he didn’t answer. He was either too busy to talk, did not want to let her know what was going on, or couldn’t talk because he was in a place where he could be overheard. Any of those three were possible. There were other ways to get information than Todd. She picked up her cell phone and called Misty.
“Deep South Florist, this is Misty. How can I help you today?”
“I was just checking to see if you needed me to do anything last minute for you before the make-up thing tonight.”
“Nope, not a thing. Just show up ready to get gorgeous and give ole Emma the once over. I think it’s gonna be fun.”
“I hope so. I need some fun. I didn’t sleep worth a toot last night. I bet I looked at that clock fifteen times before I finally got up at five.”
“I hate nights like that. Why don’t you go take a nap? Or do you have to see a patient today?”
“No, I’m free today since I saw Mrs. Tellman yesterday.”
“Well go close your blinds and get you a little snooze,” Misty said, sympathy ringing in her voice. “I know I would if I was home. I’m having to pull six days a week until Brittney returns, but she said she’d be back on Monday. I’ll be getting my life back soon.”
“That’s good. I’m glad her little one is doing better.” Katy looked down at her hardwood floors. “I can’t take a nap. I’m too worked up. Besides, I mop the kitchen on Fridays, and I haven’t done that yet.”
“You and that cleaning schedule. Mop the kitchen on Friday, scrub the toilets on Tuesday. I could stick to that for about half a day at my house. I feel accomplished if we have supper at the same time for two days in a row. Anyway, what are you so worked up about? You are my laid-back friend. You ain’t supposed to be getting worked up.”
“Well, I am,” Katy sighed. “Have you heard anything interesting or unusual about the Finches?”
“I don’t guess I would call it unusual, but when Brittney called to say she would be back at work on Monday she told me that the daycare was short-handed today because Laney hadn’t shown up for work. She said they were scrounging to get help since she was a no-show and were glad her kid would be out one more day.”
“That pretty much tells me what I want to know,” Katy said. “Maybe now I can focus on my own life and get a few things done.”
“Why are you worried about Laney Finch’s work habits? Have you found out something about her and Coach Finch and his affair?”
“I’m afraid so.” Katy walked through her kitchen and looked out the backdoor at their hound dog flopped out across the grass. “Todd found a note in Jessa’s car from Laney threatening Jessa because she was fooling around with her husband. It didn’t say that exactly, but I’m pretty sure that’s what it meant. Todd said they might bring her in for questioning and I was just trying to find out if he had followed through on that. I guess since she didn’t show up for work, she must be at the sheriff’s office.”
“Aww. That’s so sad. Those three little boys of theirs will have to deal with all the gossip that this is going to cause.”
“I know. Jessa’s death seems to be affecting a lot of people who are just innocent bystanders. I’ll be glad when all of this mess is over with.”
“Me too, girl, me too.”
Katy hung up the phone and walked to the laundry room to gather up the mopping supplies. She looked in the cabinet for the floor cleaner, but the Pine Sol bottle was empty. She didn’t feel like running to the dollar store, so she just mixed up some vinegar and dishwashing liquid in the hot water. Now her kitchen would smell like Easter eggs for the rest of the day. She pulled up some mopping music on her phone and got to work. The phone started buzzing as she poured the dirty mob water down the drain.
“Hey Todd.”
“Hey Aunt Katy. I’m sorry I didn’t answer your text, but it’s been crazy around here.”
“I heard Laney didn’t show up for work this morning. I guess yaw decided to bring her in to question her huh?”
“No, we didn’t. We planned on it, but when we got out to their house nobody was there. We checked with her mother. Laney never picked up her sick kid from her house yesterday. She said Coach Finch had dropped the other two off with her after school and was going to see if he could find Laney.”
“My word.” Katy tiptoed across the wet ceramic tile kitchen floor and pulled a barstool from the counter to sit on. “Did he find her?”
“Not yet. We talked to him at the school a while ago. He said that they had a big fight yesterday morning and he thought she’d just gone off somewhere to blow off steam and would be back.”
“Has she ever done anything like that before? I mean leaving her kids and all?”
“No, not according to Coach Finch, but he said they went at it yesterday morning. He didn’t call the cops to report her missing because he feels like she’ll be back sometimes today.”
“Well ain’t that something?”
“Yes mam. I figure everybody in town will know since we went to the school to talk to the coach and everybody saw us. I just wanted to tell you so you can add it to your book.”
“I sure will.” Katy smiled. “I appreciate you letting me know.”
“Well, you seem to have a better handle on what’s going on than any of these guys around here. As long as you keep it on the down-low, the sheriff says I can let you know what we find out. Just keep us in your loop about anything you learn.”
“You know I will Todd. I just want to figure this thing out and get back to our boring little town.”
“Same here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Katy attended church with Laney’s mother Amanda Carson and felt that she needed to do something for the woman to let her know she was thinking about her. She left the mop bucket in the middle of the kitchen floor, grabbed her purse and hopped in her car. She would do what every other good southern Christian woman did for her neighbor in need. She would take her food. At the Pig, she and grabbed some ham and cheese from the deli, and then rushed around the store picking up the rest of the things for sandwiches along with snacks for the three boys. She threw in a box of ice cream sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, and juice boxes. The kids were probably allowed to have sugar since Laney was stocking up on pop tarts yesterday. Laney sure hadn’t seemed like a woman who was planning on abandoning her family.
The Carson’s home was a couple of miles outside of town. Two little boys and a big yellow lab came bounding around the corner of the single-wide trailer at breakneck speed as Katy pulled into their drive. She waved to the young group as she headed to the front door. They quickly disappeared around the back and Katy could hear them calling to their grandmother that compan
y was here. Their footsteps sounded a lot like a heard of wild buffalo coming up from the back of the trailer. A Few seconds later the same two boys opened the front door before she even had a chance to knock.
“Well hello there boys. Is your grandmother home?”
The older of the two, who appeared to be around eight or nine, was the spokesperson for the group. “She’s changing Gunner’s diaper, but she’ll be right here.”
The younger brother who was probably six interrupted. “Do you want to come in? Granny won’t care. What you got in those bags?”
“You don’t invite strangers into the house Tyler,” the older brother said, slapping his sibling on the back of the head. “Just be quiet.”
The younger boy turned and gave his older brother a look that promised retaliation at a later date, then ran out of sight.
“My name’s Katy Cross and I go to church with your granny,” Katy said, sticking her hand out to the boy. “It looks like you’re doing an excellent job of watching out for your younger brothers.”
The boy puffed out his chest and shook Katy’s hand. “Daddy said I’m supposed to help keep them out of trouble. That’s why I can’t invite you in.”
“Oh, I understand,” Katy said, smiling at the child’s inner struggle between minding his father and being polite. “I have the same rules at home with my grandkids. No strangers are allowed in my house either.”
The corners of the little boy’s mouth turned up in relief. Before the conversation could progress any further, a heavy-set woman with bleached blond hair stepped up to the door with a fat little fellow that Katy assumed was Gunner perched on her right hip. The pale blue sweatpants, splattered with bath water and a t-shirt with skinny Elvis on the front spoke volumes of how the woman had spent her day The shirt had seen better days.
