One Grave Too Many dffi-1

by Beverly Connor

  Star gave Frank a half smile and turned to Diane. “Frank tells me you met Crystal and her husband. Aren’t they a kick? Crystal’s so proud of Gilroy the boy toy. He’s about fifty years younger than she is, you know.”

  “More like fifteen,” Frank said.

  “She parades him around like he’s some prize she won. If he was the big prize, I’d hate to have come in second in that contest.”

  Diane had to laugh at Star. So did Frank. She could be a charmer. Diane tried to visualize her in a killing frenzy, but couldn’t imagine her doing what it took to kill her parents.

  “I heard on the TV that Dean gave himself up. Did he really?”

  “He had help,” said Frank.

  “That figures. How was he?”

  “In need of a good meal and a place to sleep,” said Frank.

  “Serves him right. He ran out on me, you know. As soon as he heard about my parents, he got scared, even tried to steal my coin collection. We was supposed to go to California. He said he knows somebody that could get us on as movie extras. You know, people in a crowd. That would be fun.”

  “Star,” said Frank. “Can you tell us anything about Jay’s friends?”

  She turned her head away and stared out the window at the night sky.

  Diane took her hand. “Star, we need your help, if you can give it. We want very much to find the person who did this to your family.”

  Star shifted her gaze to Diane. “You don’t believe I did it?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Frank believes you, and I trust his judgment-and you aren’t tall enough.”

  Frank jerked his head around to Diane. Star’s eyes grew round. “Not tall enough? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “The person who shot your brother was taller than either you or Dean.”

  “How do you know?” asked Star.

  “The trajectory of the bullet. It was from a taller person, and you couldn’t have been standing uphill, because there isn’t a rise in the vicinity where Jay was shot.”

  “If you know that, why don’t the police?” asked Star.

  “Because right now, they don’t want to, and they will no doubt try to explain away the discrepancy. However, it’s there. Star, I can’t give you any words of comfort about the loss of your family. It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to you, but you can get though it and have a life. It’ll be slow progress and hard, but you have to keep your sights on the things you loved about them, not their deaths.”

  Star looked away again, but Diane took her chin and turned her face back.

  “Frank’s right-we’ll find out who did this. And even if you have to go to trial before we discover the real killer, you won’t be convicted. The detective made too many mistakes. She allowed the crime scene to be compromised and she’s overlooked important information. All they have is the fact that you took your mother’s gun a year ago and you had some coins in your possession, and that can be explained.”

  “They were mine. You know that, don’t you, Uncle Frank?”

  Frank nodded. “Your parents were holding them for your education. But yes, they were yours.”

  Star’s face brightened. “They don’t really have anything, do they? I mean, the coins are mine and I took them weeks ago. Crystal’s lying about me like she always does. The gun too. Mom and Dad took the gun back a year ago and they locked it up.”

  “No, they don’t have anything. But we need to ask you a few questions so we can help you. Will you answer them?”

  Star nodded.

  “Star,” said Frank. “We need to know why Jay was out that night. Do you know any friends he may have been meeting?”

  Star frowned. “I don’t understand him being out either. He didn’t do things like that. He was mad at me because, since I was always the one in trouble, the burden was on him to be good. None of his friends that I know of would have been out either. But. .”

  “But what?” asked Frank.

  “Jay liked to hang around older boys. He was really impressed by them. I mean, what kid isn’t? He may have friends that none of us knew about. I just don’t know. He was in the Scouts, he went to school, to church, and played soccer. His friends were in those places.”

  “Jay never confided in you about who he liked to hang around with?” prodded Frank.

  “I wasn’t around much lately to confide in. He liked to hunt and go camping. That kind of thing. Maybe his friends will talk to you.”

  “If you think of anything, let me know,” said Frank.

  A disembodied voice announced the end of visiting hours. Frank kissed Star on the cheek, and he and Diane left.

  “You didn’t mention before about the height of the perp,” said Frank.

  “It just dawned on me. I guess I’m slipping. I remember seeing the trajectory information on the autopsy report, and the lay of the land around the body suddenly dawned on me. Neither Star nor Dean is tall enough to have fired the shot that killed Jay.”

  They left the hospital and Frank drove Diane back to her car at the museum. As she moved to open the door to get out, Frank leaned over and kissed her. “Let me take you to dinner tomorrow evening. They’ll be taking Star back to the jail. And, well, both of us need a break.”

  “That sounds good. Let’s wait and see how things go at the pit tomorrow. Maybe we can order in a pizza and watch TV or something.”

  He kissed her again. “That sounds good too-maybe better.”

  Diane got in her car and drove to her apartment and pulled into a parking space in front of the entrance. She got out, feeling like she’d left something undone at the museum and wondering how she was going to explain to the board about this current museum project. Community relations, perhaps. The thought made her smile. As she approached the steps and took out her key, she was hit hard in the stomach.

  Chapter 27

  Diane fell to the ground, gasping for air. She tried to rise to her hands and knees and simultaneously catch her breath. A blur of motion carrying a heavy shoe with it kicked her hard in the side. Lightning pain shot through her body and the force knocked her backward off the sidewalk. She fell helplessly into a roll down the grassy slope into the dark. She couldn’t stop the momentum of her fall, tumbling until she crashed into bushes. Pushing herself to her feet, she tried to yell out. Her voice wouldn’t come out of her throat. Desperation and fear rushed over her as the sound of muffled footfalls ran toward her in the dark. She was consumed by the overwhelmingly urgent need to get away, to run-anywhere.

  Two steps, she stumbled and rolled farther down the hill. Footsteps coming faster toward her. She pulled herself to her feet again and started running, looking for a weapon, anything, but it was too dark to see. Running, trying to go faster; something caught her clothes from behind, jerked her backward. Her legs collapsed under her. A strong arm slipped around her throat. She pushed up, kicked the legs behind her and grabbed at the arm around her neck, pulling at thick gloved fingers, prying them loose. She heard a muffled cry of pain close to her ear as she pulled a finger back hard. She tried clawing at eyes, but got only a handful of wool. She held on to it, hoping to blind him. She kicked and stomped at the legs behind her, twisting and turning, trying to free herself. She hit her mark half a dozen times and heard suppressed yelps. She bit down hard on the arm and got punched in the back.

  A car door slammed-twice. Witnesses. Help. She tried to scream for help but was pushed to the ground, her face held hard in the grass for five seconds. . ten. . Then he was off her after one last knee in her ribs, and running away.

  She staggered to her feet, almost blinded by pain, but ran after him, watching him run past parked cars, down the street, and turn up another street before she could resist the pain no more.

  Help. She needed to find help. She stayed in the light and made her way, stumbling, holding her arms tightly folded across her stomach, back to her apartment building.

  She made it to the door. Climbing the stairs, trying
to get to her apartment, she realized her keys were in her purse and it was gone. Damn that son of a bitch. Her cell phone was gone with it. She stepped, half stumbling, back down the stairs to the first floor and banged on the landlady’s door.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming. Keep your pants on,” came a muffled voice inside. The door opened tentatively. “Oh, it’s you, Ms. Fallon. My, what happened?”

  “Someone mugged me outside the building. My purse is gone, and my keys. I have an extra set. Would you let me in my apartment, please?”

  “Why, sure.” She went away for a moment and came back with a master key. As she closed the door, Diane thought she saw the tail of a cat swishing. At least she solved one mystery.

  “Someone attacked you here?” said the landlady. “I don’t like that one bit. I’ve asked the police to drive by once in a while, but do they listen to me? No, they get on the television and talk about what a good police department the mayor is putting together. Well, I don’t see it.” Diane followed her upstairs. “I’ve been afraid something like this would happen. I was telling Dorothy-she’s a friend at the beauty shop-I was telling her that it’s just a matter of time, with all the growing Rosewood’s been doing the past few years and all the young people moving in from Atlanta, that we’ll start having crime. I supported the mayor in the beginning when he was talking about us having a professional police force, but I haven’t seen it. I see the talk, and they sure take out the taxes. Do you want me to call the police?”

  “I’ll call them from the hospital. I just need to get in my apartment and get my keys.”

  “The hospital? You are hurt, aren’t you? Well, this just won’t do.” She opened Diane’s door and followed her in. “Do you want me to drive you? I can do that, or I can call my nephew.”

  Diane found her keys and started back out the door. “No. But thank you. I can drive myself. I just need to make sure I don’t have any broken ribs.”

  As she closed the door she heard movement in the apartment across from hers. She hurried down the stairs as quickly as the pain would allow. The last thing she wanted was to get into a conversation with Mrs. Odell about Marvin and his allergies. The landlady followed, streams of conversation still flowing from her. Diane thanked her again when she was able to get a word in. She made it to her car, got inside, locked the door and sat in the driver’s seat, trying to breathe normally. After a moment she put the key in the ignition. She knew she was hurt more than she wanted to believe.

  As Diane drove the distance to the hospital, she wondered several times if she should have let the landlady drive her. But after what seemed like too long, the lights of the hospital finally came into sight. She left her car in the emergency room parking and made it to the intake desk. In gasps, she told the nurse what had happened. After giving her name, address and insurance carrier, Diane sat in the waiting room. She wanted to call Frank, but he had too much on him already. She didn’t want to bring him more worry.

  She watched the other people waiting. A man with a bloody rag around his hand, a child with a cough, a woman with an ice pack on her ankle, others she couldn’t tell what was wrong. Some watched her too, and she wondered what she looked like. If she looked like she felt, she looked awful. Her back was killing her. She had some serious throbbing pains in her stomach and ribs.

  Who attacked her? she wondered. A mugger? Or did it have to do with the bones she was excavating? She lay her head back against the wall.

  She jerked awake and noticed some of the people had switched out with newcomers. The child was gone, and so was the man with the bleeding hand. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

  “Diane Fallon? Come with me, please. Can you walk, or do you need a wheelchair?”

  “I can walk.” Barely, she thought.

  She followed a nurse into the examining room, where another nurse asked her to remove her shirt. There were broken blood vessels, welts and bruises in perhaps a dozen places she could see.

  “You were attacked?” The nurse listened to her heart and took her blood pressure.

  “Yes. Hit in the stomach and kicked in the ribs and the back. That’s all I remember right now.”

  “Um-hmm. Somebody worked you over good. What kind of pain are you in?”

  “I hurt pretty bad.”

  “We need to get some X rays for the doctor, and the police will want to talk to you. You can put your shirt back on right now.”

  “Okay.” Diane started to put her shirt back on. Her locket was missing. “My locket, it’s gone. I’ve got to go look for it.”

  “The police will take care of that.”

  “No, you don’t understand. My daughter gave it to me. It was a surprise. She worked sweeping out the schoolroom when I was away and got the nuns to order it for her. She picked it out from a catalog.” Diane started crying.

  “She was only six years old. I have to find it. You don’t understand, she. . she died, and she gave it to me.” Out of context, she knew her story didn’t make much sense, but she couldn’t find the words to explain it any better. The woman probably thought she was crazy.

  “I’m sure the police will find it.” The nurse’s voice was calm and soothing.

  She must deal with hysterical people in the emergency room all the time, Diane thought.

  After almost an hour and a half, she was taken to be x-rayed; she waited another half hour to see the doctor. The doctor on call told her nothing was broken but he was concerned about her right kidney. He thought it was only bruised, but would like to keep her overnight.

  “Fine,” Diane told him, and after another hour she was taken to a private room. Coincidentally, on the same floor as Star. All during that time, no policeman showed up.

  The floor nurse gave her one of the nightgowns with no back, and as she removed her bra, the locket fell to the floor. She snatched it up and cried. The fastener was broken, but it could be fixed. When she got in bed she put it under her pillow in the small case that held her driver’s license.

  In about an hour, another nurse came in to take her blood pressure. It was Loraine Washington, the nurse who had helped Star.

  “Didn’t I just see you in here visiting a while ago?”

  Diane explained what had happened.

  “Right after you left here? That’s terrible. Right at your own front door?”

  “Thanks for taking good care of Star. A lot of people are pretty down on her right now.”

  “I always say a person is innocent until proven guilty, and if they do turn out to be proven guilty, then how you treated them is about the kind of person you are, not the kind of person they are.”

  “Those are nice sentiments. Can I quote you?”

  “Certainly.” She handed Diane a couple of pills and a glass of water. “These will help with the pain and help you sleep.”

  Diane swallowed the pills and lay back on the pillows. “I could use a good night’s sleep.”

  She expected nightmares, but as far as she remembered, she didn’t even dream. She woke up in the morning almost too sore to move, but she managed to make it to the bathroom. She took a quick shower but had to put back on yesterday’s underwear. If she’d been thinking, she’d have grabbed a change of clothes while she was at her apartment. But they’d probably release her today.

  Breakfast arrived while she was showering. Cereal, eggs, toast, orange juice and coffee. She ate the cereal and drank the juice. As she finished, a policeman, Izzy Wallace, arrived with his partner. He walked in the door looking sheepish.

  “I wanted to apologize, Dr. Fallon, for the misunderstanding. Frank told me. . well, about your experience. We’re sorry too, we didn’t get here last evening. A lot of things going on in town last night.”

  Diane felt too sore to argue with anyone at the moment. She merely nodded.

  “Can you tell us what happened?”

  Diane explained about the attack, and no, she didn’t see a face, but he was male. Why? Because she saw him running and it was a male and
he was strong. “He was around six feet tall,” she said.

  “How do you know that?” asked Izzy’s partner.

  “He was taller than me. He ran past the cars. I could tell where the top of the cars came to on him.”

  “Did you hear his voice?”

  “No, he didn’t say a word. He did make sounds when I kicked him, pulled his finger back and bit him, but nothing I’d recognize.”

  “How about smells? Did you notice anything distinctive?”

  Diane thought for a moment. “No. No, I didn’t.”

  “You say he took your purse?”

  “I assume so. It was gone.”

  “What was in it?”

  “My checkbook, keys, about twenty-five dollars, lipstick, a notepad.”

  “Credit card, driver’s license?” prompted Izzy.

  “I carry them separately in a pocket. A habit I picked up from traveling.”

  “A wise thing to do. We’ll probably find your purse dumped somewhere and empty. I doubt we’ll find the guy. Just nothing to go on.”

  “What if it wasn’t a mugging? What if it was connected to the bones?”

  “Bones? Oh, the bones. You think it might be?”

  “I don’t know. It’s a possibility.”

  “Has anyone threatened you?”

  “You mean, besides the mayor? No.”

  Both Izzy and his partner looked sheepish again.

  “Or it could be related to the break-in at the museum. Have you found any leads there?”

  “No. That’s a dead end right now. Since nothing was taken. .” He let the sentence trail off. Diane knew they weren’t following up, but she couldn’t resist making him feel uncomfortable.

  “We’ll do what we can,” he said. “I’m supposed to be going off duty, but I’ll go over to your apartment house and look around. Maybe he dropped something or somebody saw something.”

  “I appreciate it.”

  “Be a good idea if you have your locks changed,” he said.