A Tiny Collierville Murder

by Abby L. Vandiver

  “Is this where you build them?” I asked eyeing a pile of wood in a corner and a wood chipper. Other than the floor surrounding the area that was scattered with wood chips, the place looked like the inside of a car showroom.

  “No, this is where we store them. Inventory. Very important in this business.”

  “What is the exterior made of?” I said as I ran my hand over the outside of the house, but I knew what it was even before he said it. I could smell it.

  “Cedar,” he said and patted the wood.

  “Cedar,” I said at the same time he answered my questions.

  “Ain’t this baby a beaut?” he said. “Go ahead.” He pointed to the door of the one I stood in front of. Take a gander inside.”

  I walked up the one step of the recessed porch and pushed open the door and could have sworn I heard angelic music.

  It was so bright and shiny inside. White walls with lots of windows – narrow rectangular ones, small round ones, transoms, skylight – I stepped in the middle of the miniature living area and turned around. If I had spread my arms I think they would have stretched the entire width. There was a set of steps that my eyes followed up.

  “A loft?” I said to Big Willie who’d followed me in. I pointed up.

  “It’s the bedroom. Plenty big enough for two,” he said and winked.

  A few more feet and I saw a full-size aluminum refrigerator, sink, and a gas stove top in the teeniest kitchen I’d ever seen. Two steps more and I’d be out of it. I turned to Big Willie. “Can you cook a full meal in here?”

  “You betcha,” he said and grinned. “And it’s all RVIA Certified.”

  I shook my head. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s got all your standard RV hookups for water and electrical, drive into a RV park and you can hook right up to their facilities.”

  It would be great to travel around the country with my tiny house in tow, I thought. And then I wouldn’t have to leave Alfie in a hotel room or the back of my car, he could stay at “home.”

  “But I got a little orange one that I want to show you. That one’s gonna fit you to a tee. Real affordable too.”

  I figured I’d better come clean. Even if I still wasn’t going to get that Chanel bag, I knew I couldn’t afford a house whatever the price. “Big Willie. I can’t afford a house. I’m on my way back home now after trying to live in L.A.”

  “Nonsense.” He gave me a wink. “We’ll work something out, you’ll see. I never break my promise.”

  “What promise?” I asked.

  “Didn’t I promise you up by the house that I wasn’t going to let you leave here without it? Didn’t know at first why them boys had built an orange house, now I know, it was meant for you.”

  “So it really is orange?” I asked.

  “Yessiree bob,” he said. “Orange wood at the bottom and an orange awning. Then those boys put purple siding and a yellow roof. Cutest thing ever. You’ll see.”

  “It does sound cute,” I said trying to get excited about it. Then I shook my head. “I don’t think I can.”

  Heck, I couldn’t afford a pair of Louboutin shoes, why in the world did I think I could buy a house?

  “What?” Big Willie put a pout on his face. “You hurtin’ my feelings, Little Miss. Don’t you like my tiny houses?” he said with his Southern accent, his voice low and soft.

  “Yes. I do like them,” I said.

  “Aren’t they the best thing ever?” He swept his arm out. “All of them my pride and joys.”

  “They are the best things ever, but-”

  “Yessiree Bob, you can bet your bottom dollar they are. That’s why I started building them.”

  “You just started building them? What made you do that?” Maybe I could steer the conversation away from a purchase agreement.

  “Uh-huh,” he said with a nod. “Used to be a general contractor. Built ranch houses – the bigger the better. But not no more.”

  “Now you’re building them tiny,” I said and smiled.

  “You got it, Sugar. I know how to look into the future. I got a keen eye for business. I knew those little buggers would take me for a ride on the money train.”

  “Did you now?” I said.

  “Yep. I did.”

  “And I see you were right, they’re all over television.”

  “That’s me on that there TV.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “On HGTV. We’re on HGTV. Me and my boys. We gonna be the next Duck Dynasty.”

  I thought for a moment, then it hit me. “Are those your houses that people come to Tennessee to buy?”

  “Yep,” he grinned a wide smile. “Every time you see folks on that show, Tiny House, come to Tennessee, they’re coming to Collierville to my farm.”

  “I’ve seen that show plenty of times,” I said.

  It hadn’t hit me before that this was the place because on the show there’s always only the one house the buyers are looking at out in a field. You never get the feeling there is another one close by, let alone a stock-pile of them.

  I smiled at the thought, then frowned. “I don’t remember seeing you on any of those episodes, though.” Although I was nearly positive I couldn’t identify any of the people they showed, I did remember that the people who were building the houses all had beards. I glanced over at the seasoned, well-shaved Big Willie. “Aren’t you on the show?”

  “I ain’t one that likes to stand in front of the camera,” Big Willie said. “I let Dale and Jacob do that.”

  “Not Liam?”

  “You got an eye for my boy?” he asked me out of the blue.

  “No,” I said and chuckled. “I was just noticing that you didn’t mention him.”

  “It’s alright if’n you do like him,” he said and gave me a nudge. “He’s single.”

  “It was just a question.”

  “Okay.” He chuckled. “He’s a good catch. That boy is all about business. He’s going somewhere. You wouldn’t be doing bad for yourself if you latched on to that one. And he’s smart as a whip, don’t you know.”

  “No. I didn’t know. ”

  “Well, he is,” he said, then, “C’mon.”

  He led me over to toward the warehouse’s gigantic double doors. We stood just inside of them.

  “Look at this,” he said and gestured out the door to his vast back acres. “We’ve got enough land here that we could start our own little city filled with tiny houses. “Liam’s the one that’s gonna do that. He’s gonna make us rich.” Big Willie smiled at me. “He handles all the negotiations with the network, prices all our houses, keeps the inventory. If I left it up to anybody else we’d be broke. I’ve done pried my sweet wife’s hands off the books, and he’ll soon be in charge of that, too.”

  “He didn’t strike me as the . . . uhm . . . Bookish type,” I said and tried not to sound condescending. I didn’t want to say anything bad about Liam to his dad, but from what I could see, Liam didn’t seem all that bright. He was always grinning, holding on to that big hat of his like it was a security blanket, and he had a hard a time staying focused, just like me. And it was because of that I figured I’d never run a business or make anyone, including myself, rich. My move to LA proved that. Heck, I couldn’t even come up with a way to make enough money to pay rent and still buy a purse.

  “Will,” I heard a deep gravelly voice. “I’ve been looking for you.” A man came walking up. He was as tall as Big Willie, but not as fit. He had a big belly and a lot of scruffy sandy colored hair all over his face. He was out of breath from walking across the yard, yet he was still puffing on a great big cigar.

  His belly hung over his baggy jeans that were being held up by a belt with a buckle as big and shiny as Big Willies. His freshly starched ivory shirt was bulging at the buttons, and his boots were shiny.

  “Hey! Didn’t I tell you not to come back on my land?” Mr. Carter’s attention was diverted from our conversation to a man that had just ducked out from the tree
s at the back of the property.

  “Excuse me, little darlin,’” Big Willie said. “I’ve got to see to this trespasser.” He took a couple of steps toward the guy. “What’cha been looking for me for?”

  “It sure wasn’t to look at that old, ugly mug of yours.” He walked past Big Willie and toward me. I took a step back.

  “Who’s this pretty lady?” The man asked.

  “That’s none of your business, she’s got too much class to even give a second glance to a goon like you.”

  “Goon?” Scruffy Guy said with a growl on his face. “I only see one goon around here and it ain’t me.”

  “Yeah?” Big Willie said. “Bet you can’t take this goon, you old coon.”

  What was wrong with the men in Tennessee? Were they all looking for a fight?

  “You’ve gone from goon to coon. Can’t you make up your mind, old man?” Scruffy Guy said to Big Willie then looked at me. “Pretty lady, I think you’d be better off coming with me.” He stepped forward into the warehouse and stuck out his hand like he wanted to lead me away.

  Big Willie pulled me behind him. “Don’t start no mess in front of her. She’s got delicate eyes and ears. She ain’t used to wild stuff, that’s why she wants to stay here with me.”

  I didn’t know what to think. My eyes got big and I’m sure I looked like a deer caught in headlights.

  Big Willie looked at me and back at Mr. Burly Guy and they both let out a hearty laugh.

  “What you been looking for me for anyway?” Big Willie asked. The growl on his face all but disappeared.

  “I needed to talk to you. Got a bone to pick.”

  “Well I’ve been here all day,” Big Willie said and walked over to the guy. “You must’ve not been looking too good.” He smiled at him. “What you need to talk to me about?”

  Burly Guy glanced at me then looked at the ground and kicked his foot through the sawdust on the concrete floor.

  “Okay. I got you,” Big Willie said to the guy, then he walked over to me. “Little Lady, do me a favor. You go ahead and take a look around at the other houses we’ve finished up. They over yonder in that barn.” He pointed out the doors to the other structure. “Then I’ll show you that little house I’ve got special for you.”

  Chapter Six

  I heard the gunshots.

  Two of them.

  I’d know that sound anywhere.

  I was checking out one of the tiny houses inside the warehouse waiting for Big Willie to come back and get me, or at least for Liam to come to let me know about my car when I heard the shots ring out. I bolted from the house and jerked my head around. It was hard to know where they had come from, the land was so vast and the reverberations had died out.

  But I did know they hadn’t been too far away. They were too loud.

  Big Willie had told me to let him and the burly guy talk. Check out the houses by myself for a minute, he’d told me. They had given me such mixed messages that I wasn’t sure if the two of them talking was a good thing or a bad. But what did I care? I was just there waiting for my car, and if they had animosity between the two of them, it wasn’t any of my concern.

  But those gunshots . . . Oh yeah, they concerned me.

  I hadn’t wandered too far off. I was close to where I’d left Big Willie and I was expecting him to be the first to emerge, running out to see what was going on.

  But I didn’t see him anywhere.

  Were gunshots a common occurrence around here?

  Then I saw Liam running toward me, and not too far behind him the Hispanic woman who had been working to set up the tables. She had large breasts and short legs, but they didn’t slow her down. She had on a buttoned down yellow shift dress with a matching cloth belt around her waist. Her hair pulled back in a bun, her face was red and seemed fraught with worry.

  I suddenly started feeling the same way she looked.

  “What happened,” Liam asked when he got to me. “I thought I heard a gunshot?”

  “I heard it too,” I said. “But I can’t tell where it came from.”

  The Hispanic woman had arrived and stood listening trying to catch her breath. “I have already called 911,” she said in Spanish to Liam. She opened her hand to reveal an old-style flip phone then closed it quickly as she shot a glance my way, seemingly not wanting me to be able to guess what she was saying through context clues. But I spoke Spanish, so I already knew. “The police are on their way,” she finished up still in her “secret” language.

  Why was she speaking in Spanish? I thought. Did she not want me to know she called the police?

  And why would she call the police without first investigating what happened? What was she up to? I narrowed my eyes and gave her a look.

  She seemed unfazed.

  “What happened?” Another man joined our group. He was tall and blond like Cynthia, and even had her same big brown eyes and thick eyelashes.

  “We heard a gunshot,” Liam said.

  “Yeah. I know,” Blond Guy said. “I heard them too, but what happened? Whose gun was that?”

  “I don’t know,” Liam said. “I was coming down here to meet Big Willie and Nixie when I heard that shot.”

  “It was two shots,” I said.

  “It was?” he asked.

  “Si. Dos,” Sneaky Lady said. She closed her eyes as if remembering and nodded. Opening them back up, she held up two fingers.

  “Well, I heard the one and it seemed to be coming from over there.” Liam pointed toward the direction where I’d left Big Willie and his friend.

  Blond Guy nodded toward me. “Who is she? We’ve closed down the shop for the day. We’re not showing any houses.”

  “Big Willie doesn’t need for the shop to be open to try and make a sale,” Liam said. “I brought her home with me. She needed help.”

  Well that made me sound like a stray dog.

  “He latched onto her before I could say anything,” Liam explained. “He was determined to sell her a house.”

  That made me sound a little better . . .

  “Don’t you think we should find out what happened?” Miss Sneaky Lady was now speaking in English, her accent not as thick as I would have thought. “The shots sounded like they came from over there to me, too,” she said. “We should go over and see, no?”

  She sure was anxious to see what someone was firing at. What if they were still around with their finger on the trigger? I didn’t want anyone shooting at me. With all my self-defense skills, I still couldn’t stop a bullet.

  “Okay,” Liam said. “C’mon, Nixie.”

  I shrugged back. “I’ll wait here,” I said.

  “You sure?” he asked. Sneaky Lady and Blond guy had already headed over toward where they thought the shots came from. She trotting behind him trying to keep up with his wide strides from his long legs. “Are you okay?” He leaned down to look into my eyes. “You’re not scared are you? People round these parts carry guns. No big deal.”

  “Then why are you guys concerned?”

  “It’s just that it’s unusual for anyone around here to shoot off a gun. We run a house ranch. Nobody’s gonna try and steal a house or try to shoot one.”

  But before I could open my mouth to answer I heard a scream even louder than the gunshots had been. I was sure it would bring people running from miles around and I knew exactly where it had come from.

  “C’mon,” Liam said and grabbed my arm. “You’re coming with me. I gotta see what’s going on with Agnes.”

  “What is it?” Liam asked as we approached Blond Guy and Sneaky Lady nka Agnes.

  Then he saw it. He slowly walked toward the lump on the ground, his shoulders dropped. “Oh my Lord,” he said and looked at Agnes. “No!” Liam screamed.

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes.”

  Tears start pouring from Liam’s eyes and he dropped down to his knees and draped himself over it.

  Another man with a full brown beard came running down from the house. A scrawny man in a plai
d shirt and young woman with dark brown hair and the wrong color lipstick on followed not too far behind him.

  Now that woman should have known that her medium skin would have gone better with red lipstick.

  I shook my head.

  How could my mind wander at a time like this . . .

  “Dale,” New Guy called out and Blond guy, his face now flushed and his eyes glassy, looked his way. “What’s going on? Who was that screaming?” he said and then his eyes fell toward the ground where Liam was kneeling and a look of horror crossed his face.

  “It’s Mr. Carter,” Agnes said through sobs, hardly no accent at all, her head bobbing. She grabbed the man in the plaid shirt, crying, “Oh, Jimmy,” as he walked toward the body seemingly to get a better look, and clung to him, burying her head in his chest. “He’s been shot! Big Willie is dead!”

  Chapter Seven

  I heard the sirens in the distance as they approached, and from my periphery could see the glare from the flashing red lights.

  But what was unfolding in front me was too unreal and gruesome to take my eyes off of. Jimmy wiggled free of Agnes’s grasp and he and New Guy pulled Liam off of Big Willie. And there he laid, the two holes from the bullets clearly visible, his legs tangled underneath his limp body, that fat cigar next to him still smoldering. His splattered blood that had been mixed with wood chips was smeared across Liam’s shirt and face, but that didn’t stop Agnes from grabbing him once he stood.

  “It’s our Big Willie,” Agnes cried.

  “I know. I know,” Liam said and gently tried to pull away from Agnes. Tears running down his face, he turned to look again at his father.

  But Agnes didn’t seem to want to let him go.

  “La policía está en camino,” Agnes said. “Deberíamos ir y conocerlos.”

  “I’ll go,” Liam answered her question in English and pulled completely away. “I’ll go meet the police.”

  “What about Mrs. Carter?” Agnes asked switching languages. “Someone will have to tell her.”

  “I’ll do that,” Blond Guy said. I was almost sure I’d heard them call him Dale. “It’ll be best to tell her before she hears it from the police. She’ll probably panic when the cruisers pull up.”