Deep South Dead (A Hunter Jones Mystery Book 1)

by Charlotte Moore

  “Did you know he’s gotten back together with his ex-wife?” Taneesha asked.

  “I told him to,” Hunter said. “You’re saying that it worked?”

  Sam’s cell phone made a light buzzing sound. He got up and moved toward the kitchen.

  “No, I can’t see him,” he said, looking out the window, “That’s good. I can’t see anybody out there. You sure they’re there?

  There was a silence and Sam laughed.

  “Well, make sure they stay awake. This could take all night. Am I bored yet? I’m sitting here listening to Taneesha and Hunter talk about your love life and cat allergies. “

  It was a long wait. Taneesha and Hunter talked a little from time to time, but Sam seemed intent on staring out the window, and every 15 or 20 minutes he was on the radio, either, either listening or talking.

  Then there were the false alarms.

  Somebody just ran, uh, sorry, it’s the McKinney’s big old dog.

  There’s a car that’s stopped. Nobody’s gotten out yet. Yeah, I’m watching. Oh, it’s a couple of teenagers. Looks like he’s walking her to the door now.

  When Miss Rose’s grandfather clock chimed 11 times, Sam said, “I think it’s light’s out time for Hunter’s apartment.”

  “I’ll get the lights, “Taneesha said. “I want to take a look at the kittens.”

  “No, Hunter had better do it, just in case anybody’s watching the windows. Here, Hunter, you take my flashlight, and be careful on those stairs.”

  “The outside stairs are a lot steeper, and I manage them two or three times a day,” Hunter said. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You’d better be, because if you fall and break your leg, we’re just going to have to splint it and put ice on it until morning.”

  Hunter reached out and took the flashlight.

  “Sam, that was cold.” Taneesha said when they could both hear her footsteps on the stairs.

  “Maybe so,” he said, “but you’ll have to admit, it wasn’t patronizing.”

  “Lord, I knew I should never have told you she said that.”

  Hunter, however, was perfectly cheerful when she came back down the stairs and found her way to the kitchen.

  “I don’t think there’s anybody out there at all,” she said. “I looked out my front window and my back window and it looks totally deserted. Not even a car in sight.”

  “Good,” Sam said.

  The clock struck twelve.

  Taneesha yawned audibly.

  “You got any coffee left in your thermos?” she asked Sam.

  “No.”

  “I can make some,” Hunter said.

  “In the dark?” Taneesha asked.

  Smiling to herself, Hunter got up and took three steps to the kitchen counter, fiddled around a bit with the coffee canister, turned on the water in the sink for a half minute, and then turned the coffee maker on.

  In a minute, there was a gurgling sound and the smell of fresh coffee.

  “I can’t believe you did that,” Taneesha said. “I would have wound up pouring the water all over the counter.”

  Sam laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Taneesha asked.

  “It was already set up,” Sam said. “All she had to do was flip the switch. You weren’t paying attention. She poured water into the sink but she never poured it into the coffee maker. Now, I’m not suggesting she’s not capable of making coffee in the dark. I’m just observing that on this particular occasion..”

  “Okay, Sherlock Holmes,” Taneesha said.

  Hunter laughed and they went back to their silent wait.

  It was a half hour later that things began to happen.

  “Sam, this is Bub. Looks like a good one. Subject just came out of Jack Harrison’s back yard, dressed dark, went across Grayson Street and through the Windsor’s yard, heading your way.”

  Then Sam was talking rapidly to T.J.

  “Target’s about three blocks north of here,” he said, “cutting through the blocks. Everybody on the south side can close in. Remind them that we don’t want anybody shot. We’re going outside now.”

  “Hunter,” he said. “I’m going to be watching this window, and I don’t want to see you in it. Stay down and stay out of sight.”

  She didn’t argue.

  Sam hid behind Miss Rose’s rhododendron and Taneesha hid behind Sam.

  Junior Aycock was sitting comfortably on a broad branch of the magnolia tree and the others were closing in. Not being able to see them or hear them made Sam a happy man. Now if Hunter would just keep her head down. He glanced toward the kitchen window to be sure.

  His radio vibrated. He put it to his ear.

  “Target just ran across Ellis Street by Tom Barnes’ house.”

  Okay, almost here, he thought. He turned toward Taneesha and pointed in the direction of Barnes house.

  Then they both heard it at once.

  The sound of dried pineneedles under soft shoes.

  Then the jingling of the keys.

  Whoever it was, he was taking his time about it.

  No flashlight. Probably trying to find where the key went in.

  More jingling.

  Sam remembered that the old cars had two keys.

  The sound he was listening for – the creaky opening of the car trunk – finally came. Sam counted to five and yelled, “Hold it right there,” as he came out from behind the rhododendron.

  Suddenly a cruiser careened into the driveway, siren blaring, lights glaring. Junior Aycock was on the ground, and Bub was hurtling in from the yard next door.

  “He’s not armed,” Taneesha called out a moment later.

  The lights in the kitchen went on, along with the back yard light.

  “Hey, Hunter, come out here and make yourself useful,” Sam called.

  He wanted pictures of the tagging of the black plastic bag. And then he put on gloves and opened it on the spot.

  The smell of chocolate filled the air.

  “Well, there’s some kind of glass plate and a greeting card addressed to Claire, just the one name, and I can see the petitions,” Sam said. “Of course’s there’s chocolate cake all over everything.”

  “I told you she made a cake.” Hunter said.

  She felt triumphant, but her voice was a little shakey, and all at once she had tears in her eyes.

  A gentle hand was on her shoulder. It was Miss Rose in her bathrobe and fuzzy slippers.

  “Oh dear,” she said, “Poor Claire.”

  Hunter got busy taking a dozen or more pictures of the arrest and handcuffing of Dr. Keith Harrow.

  Chapter 26

  “I WAS JUST TRYING TO PROTECT Claire,” Keith Harrow told Sam, for the fourth time. He had begun saying that in the car on the ride over to the courthouse.

  “She was going crazy after she read that newspaper story today and she told me all about both the murders. I know I shouldn’t have tried to get that bag, but she was so terrified. She needs help, Sheriff. She’s just not mentally stable.”

  “We’ve got people going over there right now to talk with her,” Sam said. “In the meantime why don’t you just tell me what it was she told you.”

  Harrow sighed explosively, and then began.

  “Well in the first place, she didn’t spend the whole day in Perry that day. Which you already know. But she didn’t go shopping either. She went over there and signed in at the conference and then about halfway through the morning she came back over here and went to talk to Mae-Lula.”

  “About what?”

  “It was about the will” Harrow said, “It was all about the damned will. Mae-Lula kept holding the will over her head and telling her she was going to change it and not leave her anything, and then they had some kind of big argument about plate that was Claire’s mother’s.

  “I don’t even understand it all,” he continued. “She said Mae-Lula said she was going to leave her out entirely and that she,” he covered his face and shuddered, “she hit her on th
e head with a frying pan, and then she said she got the petitions so that people would think that it was about the conservatory, but then when she was leaving, she saw Tamlyn leaving, and she asked her to put it in the trash.”

  “Your wife asked your receptionist to put something in the trash for her?” Sam asked.

  “Oh, Claire always has acted like a grand lady with my office staff,” Harrow said.

  “Go ahead,” Sam said.

  “I may not get all this straight,” Harrow said, “because she was just about hysterical this afternoon when she told me, but she said Tamlyn called her later on and said she had taken the bag home and looked into it and that Claire was going to have to pay her like $10,000 or something for it, so she said she would and she went out there and when Tamlyn let her in she killed Tamlyn.”

  Sam shut his eyes and tried to imagine Claire Hilliard-Harrow in a violent life-and-death struggle with Tamlyn Borders. He couldn’t see it.

  Mainly, though, he was biding time.

  “I don’t understand half of this myself,” Harrow said. “She told me all this crazy stuff about the bag not being in Tamlyn’s trunk and how she knew where it was when she read the story, and then she came out with those keys, and I realized she must be telling the truth. I made her promise me she’d let me get her admitted to a good mental hospital if I got the bag out of the trunk. And, honest to god, Sam, that’s the truth. I know I should have called you but I was just trying to protect her the only way I could.”

  There was a light knock on the door.

  Sam stepped out into the hall as Taneesha stepped in.

  T.J. said, “We brought Claire down here. Robin’s with her. She says she wants to talk to you.”

  “Okay,” Sam said, “You go in there with Taneesha and make friends with the doctor. He’s got a half-plausible story, and I’m still wondering what reason he’d have to kill Mae-Lula, but maybe he’ll hang himself if he gets enough rope.”

  Claire Hilliard-Harrow was sitting in Sam’s office looking haggard and puffy-eyed.

  “She takes too many sleeping pills,” Robin said. “It took me a long time just to get her waked up. What’s all this about Keith?”

  “We caught him removing evidence from Skeet Borders Thunderbird a couple of hours ago,” Sam said, “and he had a set of keys that went missing from the Borders home.”

  “You’re thinking Keith killed Tamlyn?” Robin asked. “Why would he do that?”

  “The evidence would tie him to your Aunt Mae-Lula’s murder,” Sam said, “His having the keys ties him to Tamlyn’s murder. He’s under arrest.”

  Claire seemed to be coming into focus.

  “Do you understand what Sam’s saying, Claire?” Robin asked. “Do you want me to get Keith a lawyer?”

  “You’re saying that Keith killed Aunt Mae-Lula?” she asked Sam calmly. “Why would he do that? Did he give you any reason?”

  “No,” Sam says, “He said he didn’t do. He said you did it and that you killed Tamlyn, too, and that he just went and got the bag out of the car because you were upset and frightened and told him all about it after you read the story in the Messenger.”

  “Keith’s under arrest for killing Aunt Mae-Lula but he said I killed her?”

  Sam nodded.

  “So just for record, if you’ve got any way of proving where you were between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, we need a way to clear this up.

  Claire seemed to be processing the information. It was a while before she spoke, but when she did, it was in a voice of relief.

  “Well, if he’s in jail I guess it doesn’t much matter now whether he knows or not,” Claire said. “So I’ll tell you exactly where I was. I was seeing an attorney in Perry. Here. I’ll give you his card.”

  Ten minutes later, having made a necessary phone call and gotten an affirmative answer from a very sleepy lawyer only after putting Claire herself on the phone, Sam suggested to Robin that he take his sister home.

  “But why would Keith kill Aunt Mae-Lula?” Claire asked, turning as they reached the door.

  “I don’t know,” Sam said. “but if I find out I’ll tell you. Were you and Keith having marital problems?”

  “I had marital problems with him. He lied to me about his background and why he left his last medical practice, and I think he was probably unfaithful on several occasions, but mainly I learned that he was not a very good doctor, and I was afraid he’d be sued for malpractice, so I got a good lawyer and he told me the best way to do it” Claire said. “I was expecting to leave for Paris on Sunday and for him to be served all the papers on Monday so that he’d be moved out by the time I came back.”

  “You were scared to tell him,” Sam said. “I wish you’d told me that, Claire.”

  “I didn’t want to have a scene with him,” she said. “And yes, I suppose I was a little scared of him. He shook me one time, and he hit me another time, but he stopped after I told him I’d get a divorce. I know everybody else thinks he so sweet and nice, but you just look into his eyes sometime, Sam. There’s nobody in there.”

  “And he didn’t know what your plans were?”

  “Well, he knew I was going to Paris, because I told him so the other day, but he certainly didn’t know why. Keith is oblivious,” Claire said.

  “Apparently I am, too,” Robin said.

  Chapter 27

  “NOW, DR. HARROW, WE’VE CONFIRMED THAT your wife had an appointment with an attorney in Perry at 10:30 on Tuesday morning,” Sam said. “She got there at 10:30. He was stuck in court and didn’t see her for 45 minutes. They then talked for approximately an hour. She was not in Merchantsville Tuesday morning. Do you want to start over.”

  “Why would Claire be seeing an attorney in Perry?” Keith Harrow said. “We have an attorney in Merchantsville. Will Durrance.”

  “That’s not my concern or my business,” Sam said. “It just happens to be the case that she could not have murdered Mae-Lula Hilliard, so what I don’t understand is why she told you she did.”

  “Because she’s crazy!” Keith said.

  “But if she didn’t kill Mae-Lula, how would she have known the petitions were in that bag?” Sam asked. “And why would she have said that she killed Tamlyn Borders?”

  “Oh, shut UP!” Harrow suddenly yelled, “Just shut up and leave me the hell alone. How am I supposed to know why Claire did anything she did? Like I’m supposed to read her mind or what?”

  Taneesha pushed it one step further.

  “There was a chocolate cake in the bag, too,” she said. “Did Claire tell you anything about that?”

  “How about the cat?” Sam asked. “Have you and Claire got a cat, or was that Mae-Lula’s cat that Tamlyn threw out of the office door?”

  Sam’s phone buzzed and he answered it, listening and then saying, “Thanks.”

  “We’ve got your fingerprints on that glass cake stand,” he said to Harrow. “Of course they were all over the murder scene in Miss Mae-Lula’s house, but you found a way to touch practically everything in the kitchen when you came back in after Hunter Jones found her, so we just didn’t think anything about them.

  Keith Harrow looked explosive with rage, and then seemed to deflate.

  Sam waited for him to ask for an attorney. He didn’t.

  He put his head down on his folded arms, and shook a little.

  T.J. patted him on the back.

  “Now here’s what I don’t get,” he said as Harrow looked up at him, “Good looking guy like you, takes care of himself, makes a good marriage, gets a medical practice going, and then goes and murders an old lady with a griddle and strangles his receptionist all for no apparent reason. If it’s going to turn out that you’ve a history of mental illness, I wish you’d go ahead and tell us so we can ship you out of here to a hospital and go home for the night.”

  “I am not mentally ill,” the doctor said, looking sullen. “And I resent your trying to manipulate me this way. I didn’t have any choice at all.”

/>   “How come?” T.J. asked, as if they were having a conversation at a bar.

  “Well in the first place, Mae-Lula violated my privacy. That’s the way this whole damned town is. She just walked right into my house by the back door and right into the den, hollering for that cat of hers. I still don’t know how she got in, but there she was right there and, well, all the patients were gone, and Claire was gone, and Tamlyn wanted to see the house, and we were, you know, on the sofa and all at once there’s this kitty kitty kitty voice and she’s right in the den with us and she looks like she’s shocked out of her mind.”

  “Did she say anything?” Sam asked mildly.

  “No, she just turned around and took off, so I got Tamlyn to catch that fool cat, and I went to talk to Mae-Lula. And that’s all I was going to do. I just wanted to talk her out of telling Claire.”

  “How’d you plan to do that?” T.J. asked.

  “I was going to plead with her,” Harrow said. “Because we never had trouble getting along, and she knew as well as anybody what Claire could be like. I was just going to beg her not to tell Claire and destroy our marriage, and tell her that it didn’t mean anything.”

  “So, what did you wind up telling her?” Sam asked.

  “Nothing. She didn’t give me time. By the time I got over to her house, she was already on the phone, yelling at somebody that she wanted to talk to Robin and saying it was an emergency, like it was any of Robin’s business.

  “You think she even knew you were in the kitchen?” Sam asked.

  “No, but do you understand what I’m saying. She didn’t leave me any choice at all. If I could have talked to her for five minutes, she’d be alive today, but the way it was, I could see my marriage and my whole practice going down the drain.

  “Same way with Tamlyn?” Sam asked.

  “There was a side of that girl I didn’t know,” Harrow said.

  “She was going to blackmail you?”

  “Would you believe she thought I would divorce Claire and marry her? And then when I said that wasn’t going to happen, she started smarting off about how she knew I had killed Mae-Lula and how your deputy had already been out asking her questions and I was trying to find out what the questions were, and she kept getting cute with me and saying things like “Wouldn’t you like to know?” and “How much is it worth to you?” so I finally realized that there wasn’t going to be anyway to trust her to keep her mouth shut. All she had to do was do what I told her to do, and just leave the bag there for me to pick up. She didn’t even know about Mae-Lula when she left. She thought I had gotten that all settled, and that I was just getting rid of the cake and the cake plate so Claire wouldn’t go over there to say thank you and make up with her.”