If the Coffin Fits

by Lillian Bell

  The other two stories were much the same. Gifts to public officials followed by Canty Construction getting contracts.

  What if Dad had overheard something or seen something during Broderick Gunter’s funeral that would lead to Canty being charged with a criminal offense like bribery? Or for the mayor being charged for accepting bribes? It was one thing to pay fines. It was an entirely different thing to go to prison. I could see it being enough to make sure someone didn’t come back from surfing. Or possibly to threaten that and then Dad would feel he had no choice but to disappear. I pulled out the photo of the mayor accepting that envelope from Titus Canty again. It really could be anything. A thank you note. A party invitation. A valentine.

  But then why did Violet have the photo in a box that she kept in a safe hidden behind a cheesy Italian phrase sign in her laundry room? It had to mean something.

  I picked up my phone and called Rafe.

  “What?” he asked. “An actual phone call? Not just a text? This must be serious.”

  “I think it is. I think I’ve got a story. If I do, it’s a juicy one.”

  “Meet me at the office in fifteen.”

  *

  Rafe looked at the photos and print outs I’d spread across his desk. He had on a sweatshirt and jeans and his hair was damp as if he’d just gotten out of the shower. I could smell the citrus aroma of his shampoo.

  Vern was gone for the day and most of the lights in the office were out. We huddled in Rafe’s office, a pool of light shining onto the treasures I’d accumulated, Orion curled up on my feet.

  “Let’s walk through this again, okay?” he said, leaning back in his chair. The sweatshirt stretched against his chest in a way that was distracting although admittedly not as distracting as his jeans had been as he’d walked in front of me into the office.

  That, however, was beside the point. Way beside the point.

  I took a deep breath and thought about the most linear and logical way to present the information. “You know Canty Construction, right?”

  He nodded. “Absolutely. They do a lot of work around here.”

  That was true. Now that I thought about it, I’d seen their signs all over the place. “These are photos of Titus Canty, head of Canty Construction, handing an envelope to our mayor.”

  “But we can’t see what’s in the envelopes, right?” He tapped on one of the photos.

  “No. We can’t.” I admitted. “I think it’s worth asking a few questions, though, don’t you?”

  “What kind of questions?” he countered.

  “How much does the Mayor get paid?” I asked.

  Rafe squinted his eyes as he thought. “Hold on.” He turned to his computer. I watched as he tapped at the keyboard for a few moments. He cocked his head to one side. “Not much. About twenty thousand a year. There are some benefits, too, though.”

  Twenty thousand would not go far in California, even in a small town like Verbena. “Does he do anything else?”

  “He used to do some consulting of some kind, but I haven’t heard much about it lately.” He turned back toward me, the light glinting off his dark hair.

  “He has a very nice house.” I chewed on the edge of my thumb. “But I think it’s been in his family a long time. Maybe he’s really frugal.”

  Rafe nodded. “Maybe.”

  “Or maybe he’s found a way to supplement that income.” My heart thudded a little, the way it did when I was on to something good, something interesting, something the public needed to know. It had been a good long time since I’d felt that particular thud. I’d missed it. Orion whined and I reached down to scratch behind his ears.

  “But the bathroom contract didn’t go to Canty. It went to Winters,” Rafe said. “Shouldn’t it be a photo of Fumiko Winters handing the mayor an envelope if he was being bribed?”

  That part bothered me, too. “When was the decision made?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “So it’s pretty fresh.” Way fresher than Violet was at this point. The bids had come in and the contract had been awarded after she’d hit that embankment.

  “As fresh as a bunch of freaking daisies.” He leaned forward. “What do you want to do next?”

  Possibilities raced through my mind. Would the mayor have wanted to get rid of any evidence that he’d accepted bribes? Would he have wanted to do it badly enough to actually murder Violet? Or at least set up a situation where she’d be likely to have a car accident? Or maybe Titus Canty had done that dirty work. His family seemed to have a way of escaping charges being filed against them even as the public officials they’d bribed lost their jobs and were brought up on corruption charges. Did Violet’s death somehow free the mayor from making good on whatever it was Canty wanted from him? “I think I need to get a quote from Mayor Wilburn,” I said, standing up.

  “Want me to go with you?” he asked. “Just in case?”

  I’d known Mayor Wilburn since I was a kid. He’d been friends with my dad. Did their friendship end when Dad found out that Wilburn was accepting bribes from Canty Construction? Had something happened at Broderick Gunter’s funeral that clued Dad in? Had he confronted Wilburn and ended up being disappeared while he was surfing? Maybe it would be better to have a little back up with me.

  At the very least, Wilburn deserved an opportunity to comment on what we’d found. I didn’t think showing up at his office was a great idea, though. I wanted our conversation to be private and I wanted the element of surprise, too. I went to his house. I loved his neighborhood, probably because it was a lot like the one Turner Family Funeral Home was in. It was one of the old areas rebuilt right after the fire of 1913. Everything had that Craftsman look to it with built-in bookcases and fireplaces and lots of wood and stone and brick. It was definitely more upscale than Violet’s neighborhood. Maybe she thought he had deep pockets and pressed him for money he didn’t have. Maybe he decided to get rid of her, too.

  Cars came in and out of the neighborhood as people returned home from work or left for evening activities. Orion and Rafe and I passed the time sharing a bag of pretzels. We added a very cute peekaboo game to Orion’s list of tricks. I’d say “peekaboo,” he’d cover his eyes with both paws, then he’d get a pretzel. He really was the smartest and cutest dog ever. It was nearly seven o’clock when Mayor Wilburn pulled his Buick into the driveway of his house. “It’s show time, boy,” I told Orion as I snapped on his leash. Rafe and I agreed that I should talk to Wilburn on my own first. He’d be more likely to open up to me. I started to open the car door when I saw someone getting out of a car parked up the street, walking with a lot of purpose and determination toward the Mayor. “Was that car here when we got here?” I asked Rafe. It seemed like we weren’t the only ones waiting for the mayor to get home so we could have a private chat.

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

  Orion whined in my ear, anxious to get out of the car. “Just a minute. Let’s see what this is.” I rolled my window down to listen.

  “Hey, Wilburn!” the man said. He stepped into the light of the street lamp. It was Titus Canty, owner of Canty Construction, hander out of mysterious envelopes.

  Mayor Wilburn looked up from his mailbox. He took a step backward toward his house when he saw who it was. “Titus,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

  Canty balled his fist into his hand. “You can explain to me what the hell happened last night. That bathroom project was supposed to go to Canty Construction.”

  I started to open the car door wider, but Rafe put his hand on my arm. “Hold on a second. This is good stuff.”

  Wilburn shook his head. “I couldn’t do it, Titus. I told you it wasn’t going to happen. It’s … it’s not right. I’m sorry.”

  Canty took several more steps toward Wilburn. He was taller than the mayor by quite a few inches. Broader and younger, too. “Yeah. You’re right. You’re going to be sorry. Very, very sorry.”

  Wilburn took a few more steps back. “Let’s talk about t
his, Titus. We can work this out. After all, I gave you back the money. All of it. Every cent.”

  “I didn’t want the money. I wanted the project.” Canty continued to advance. “And we’re gonna work it out all right, Wilburn. Right here. Right now.”

  The mayor tried to back up more, but stumbled and fell backward. Canty reached down and grabbed him by the front of his shirt with his left hand, his right hand pulled back in a fist. I unsnapped Orion’s leash and threw open the car door. “Go, boy,” I said.

  As far as I knew, Orion had never bitten anyone, but he did like to run once that leash was off. I figured sixty pounds of unknown dog charging at you out of the dark would make anyone pause. If all the dog did was try to shake your hand and play peekaboo with you once he got there, well, you wouldn’t know that was the case as he raced toward you. Sure enough, Canty dropped the mayor and backed up against the Buick. “Shoo!” he yelled at Orion. “Go home.”

  I walked up from behind Orion and offered Mayor Wilburn my hand to help him get up. “Everything okay here, Mayor?” I asked, keeping my eye on Canty. Once the mayor was up, I snapped Orion’s leash back on.

  “F-f-fine, Desiree,” Wilburn stuttered out.

  “Yeah. We’re fine. Just having a chat,” Canty said. He smiled at me with a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. A shark’s smile.

  “Oh, really? I was hoping to chat with Mayor Wilburn, too. I’ll just wait right here until the two of you are done.” I leaned against the mailbox and patted Orion on the head.

  Canty looked at me with narrowed eyes. I smiled back. I was pretty sure my smile was all teeth, too. Whatever it looked like, it was clear Canty didn’t much care for it. He turned back to the mayor. “We’ll talk later, Wilburn.” He marched past us, giving Orion a wide berth.

  Mayor Wilburn stumbled over to his car and leaned against the trunk.

  “Are you really okay?” I asked, wondering if I should call 911.

  “I’m fine. Fine.” He held up his hand as if to stop me. “How much of that did you hear, Desiree?”

  “Enough. I have this, too.” I handed him Violet’s photo.

  “Ohhhhh,” he said, sounding like air going out of a bounce house. He sagged a bit more. “I can explain.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m listening.”

  He turned toward the house and gestured for me to follow. “Come inside. We’ll sit down.”

  I shook my head. “No thank you. I’d prefer to stay out here.” It wasn’t as if there would be witnesses, which had been what Canty was counting on, but I felt better knowing I could run if Mayor Wilburn started brandishing syringes at me. Plus, this way Rafe could hear everything from inside my car.

  “How much do you know?” he asked, turning back around to face me, his face spotlighted in the glow of the streetlamp. He looked old. Tired.

  I shrugged. “I know that you’ve been taking bribes to throw projects Canty Construction’s way. That Violet Daugherty had a photo of you accepting one of those bribes. That she’s dead now and that seems to have freed you from giving those contracts to Canty. Or is it just that Fumiko Winters offered you more money?”

  “It sounds pretty bad when you put it like that.” He rubbed his hand across his face.

  “I’m pretty sure it is bad,” I said. “Imagine what that would look like splashed on the front page of the Verbena Free Press.”

  “Trust me. I’ve been imagining nothing but since Violet approached me with that photo.” He hung his head, the streetlight making his bald head shine.

  “What did she want from you?” That was another piece of this whole puzzle that I didn’t understand. What did the mayor have that Violet wanted? I wanted him to spell it out for me.

  “She wanted help with a dispute with her neighbor.” He leaned against his car, sounding weary.

  Not a typical shakedown, then. “That’s all?”

  “She hinted that she might need my help again in the future, but yeah. For now that was it.” He actually laughed. “Ridiculous, right?”

  It didn’t sound like a reason to kill someone. At least, not yet. “So what did you do?”

  “The neighbor had complained about Violet’s dog.” He paused and looked at Orion. “That’s him, isn’t it? How did you end up with her dog?”

  “It’s a long story. Explain about the neighbor.” I pressed.

  “The dog had gotten loose and dug up the neighbor’s yard. The neighbor was furious. It was right before the garden tour and, well, the dog pretty much ruined the neighbor’s chances of being named Best Verbena Garden.”

  Ah. I knew which neighbor he was talking about now. The sour faced one who’d given us such a dirty look. “What did Violet want you to do?”

  “Well, obviously to not fine her or anything like that for the dog getting out, but also to find a few code violations at the neighbor’s house. You know, to make her think twice before complaining to the authorities about Violet.” He rubbed at his jaw.

  “And did you?” I asked.

  He dropped his head again, refusing to look me in the eye. “I did. I’m not proud of it, but I did.”

  Some of this was not computing for me. “So if you’d already done what she asked, why did you return the money to Canty?”

  “I can’t live like that, always looking over my shoulder, always wondering if I’m about to be exposed.” He shook his head. “I dug myself into a hole. Financially.” He gestured back toward his house. “I’d already mortgaged this place to the hilt. I didn’t see another way out. So I accepted a few gifts for nudging contracts in Canty Construction’s direction. What harm was there in it, really? They did a good job. Their bids were competitive. I wasn’t hurting the city. At least, not much. And I could do so much more good for Verbena as mayor. It seemed like the good outweighed the bad.”

  Sure it did. It was a pretty high class justification, but that’s all it was. A justification.

  “Then Violet approached me with that photo. All I could think about was what would happen if she went public with it. Everything I’d ever done for this town would be meaningless. All anyone would remember was that I’d been a crooked politician. Everything I’d worked for would be ruined. I realized that what I thought was a way out was getting me deeper in the hole. I was desperate, but I didn’t see a way out. I was getting pressure from two different directions, Canty and Violet. Then … then Violet died. I thought it was over. I could return Titus’ money and get back to living the way I was supposed to.” His head came up and he glared at me. “It didn’t occur to me that anyone would try to pick up where she left off.”

  My cheeks flushed with indignation. “I’m not doing that. I’m not interested in blackmailing anyone. I do want to know who killed Violet, though.”

  “Killed Violet?” Wilburn made a face. “She died in a car accident.”

  “Brought on by an overdose of insulin,” I said, watching his face.

  It went a little white. “Does Luke Butler know about this?” he asked.

  “Luke doesn’t think there’s any reason for anyone to kill Violet so he’s not really interested in investigating.” Now I made a face. I’d found him a darn good reason that someone would want to kill Violet. Would he listen to Nate and me now?

  Wilburn rubbed at his face, looking weary. “You’re not planning on blackmailing me for anything?”

  I shook my head. “No. Not my style. I’m much more likely to write an article about you than blackmail you.” He was trying to turn it around, to go straight. I had some admiration for that. The taking bribes in the first place thing wasn’t so admirable. Realizing you’d made a mistake and trying to make up for it had some merit. “What are you going to do now?”

  “I’m not sure. Probably sell this place.” He turned to look at the house behind him.

  I had a moment of imagining selling Turner and how much that would hurt. “I’m sorry, Mayor Wilburn.”

  “Me, too, Desiree. Me, too.” He hung his head again. “What a
re you going to do?”

  “About?”

  “About me. About the bribes. You were right when you said it would be quite the splash on the front page of the Verbena Free Press.” He settled his shoulders as if he was steeling himself.

  He was right. It would be a big splash. It also would be a service to the community. An elected official taking bribes? It really didn’t get much more on the side of right than that.

  “Desiree.” His voice shook. “Can we come to some kind of compromise? Being mayor is all I have. It’s all I’ve ever been and all I’ve ever wanted to be.”

  “Any compromise we come to has to somehow include you telling the truth about what’s been going on. The town deserves the truth.” I knew that was true. I also knew that Wilburn had been a damn good mayor for Verbena and that it wasn’t an easy job.

  Wilburn staggered against the car and I made sure my phone was available to call 911, just in case. Orion looked over his shoulder at me and then tugged on his leash to get closer to Wilburn. I let him. He sat down next to the mayor and leaned against his legs. Mayor Wilburn took a couple ragged breaths. “It’ll be the end of me.”

  I thought for a moment. “Maybe. Maybe not. I used to overhear the PR people talking when there was a scandal brewing. They always talked about getting ahead of the scandal, controlling the narrative. You could do that.” I paused. “I could help.”

  “Why? Why would you do that?”

  “I’d do it because people deserve second chances. And because I’d like to see an official investigation into Canty Construction started. I think it’s possible they may have had something to do with father’s disappearance.” I heard Rafe getting out of the car behind me.

  “Why would your father know about any of this?” Rafe asked.