The Baron Blasko Mysteries (Book 1): Fangs

by Howe, A. E.

  Last to speak was Carrie, who gave Amanda a much quicker send-off than the others had. She talked about how, though not bonded by blood, they had been as close as real sisters. As she spoke, Carrie looked very uncomfortable, but Josephine wasn’t surprised. Carrie seldom attended church and she didn’t like talking to people.

  Throughout the speeches, Josephine kept glancing at the people around her. If Blasko was right that the sheriff had arrested the wrong man, then the odds were good the killer was in the church. Every time, her eyes kept coming back to the family members.

  Could one of them really be the murderer? Did any of them have motives? Of course, the fewer family members there were, the more the family fortune was consolidated, giving an obvious motive for each of them. And, certainly, Clarence as the cuckolded husband had a motive for killing Amanda. For Carrie, the motive could simply be money and her natural hatefulness. What about Lucy? The stepmother who wants all the money? Amanda might have remembered something that pointed to Lucy’s guilt in the murder of Mr. Erickson. Josephine could only shake her head in frustration. It was all speculation at this point.

  A few of Amanda’s friends spoke and the choir sang a couple of hymns. When they were finished, there was a moment of hesitation before everyone decided they could get up and escape the claustrophobic grief that filled the church.

  During the service, Josephine had noticed Sheriff Logan and Deputy Bobby Tucker standing at the back of the church with their hats in their hands. As she stood up, she looked again for Bobby. She wanted to corner him and find out about the sheriff’s plans regarding Floyd Hopkins. She needed to know if she and Blasko were going to have to find a way to directly intercede on the wrongfully accused man’s behalf.

  She found the deputy standing outside the church, scanning the parking lot. “Bobby!” He turned when he heard his name.

  “Hi, Josie. Is it proper for me to say you look nice today? I never know how to act at a funeral,” he admitted somberly.

  “Thanks. I think it’s always okay to say nice things.”

  “Where’s your friend?” Bobby said, looking around.

  In her current mood, she wanted to say that Blasko wasn’t her friend. Instead she explained, “He doesn’t come out in the sun.”

  “That’s right. Kind of odd.” The comment was made as much to himself as to her.

  “I think it’s safe to say that he has a few quirks.”

  “I…” Bobby hesitated. “Well, I wanted to ask him if he’d gotten anywhere with his investigation of Erickson’s murder.”

  “You really want his opinion?” Josephine asked, a bit surprised.

  Bobby looked down. “I hate to admit this. And please, this is just between you and me, but I don’t think Hopkins did it.” He shook his head. “Trouble is, the sheriff won’t look at any evidence that doesn’t point at Hopkins.”

  “You’ve gotten evidence Hopkins isn’t the murderer?”

  “Well, that’s just the problem. We got loads of proof that he killed Amanda, but nothing to show that he killed Mr. Erickson. In fact, the man has a pretty good alibi for that day.”

  “What kind of alibi?”

  “Okay, so, he got off work about half an hour before Erickson’s body was discovered. It’s ten minutes from his job at the feed store to their house. He could have taken five or ten minutes to kill Erickson and then it’s just five minutes home. His wife swears she heard his truck pull up to their garage and Hopkins come into the house no more than thirty minutes after he left work.”

  “So he had the time to kill Erickson?”

  “Maybe. But the timeline is tight. And where’s the blood? How did he clean up? How can someone kill like that and then be cool as ice when he gets home?”

  “I see what you mean. But Sheriff Logan thinks he could have done it?”

  “Yeah. He says that the time the body was discovered could have been off a little. And, of course, he says that Hopkins’s wife is probably lying for him.”

  “Sounds possible,” Josephine agreed.

  “I don’t buy it. What’s his motive? For Amanda, I might accept the drunken rage argument. But he wasn’t drunk when he left the feed store. Everyone agrees that Hopkins drinks too much and is a mean son of a bitch when he drinks. But, and here’s the big but, they say he never drinks on the job… ever. Drinks like hell at night and on the weekends, but he’s clean and sober during work. So how could he have gone into a drunken rage and killed Erickson in twenty minutes?”

  “What does Logan say about that?”

  “He dug up some old argument that Erickson and Hopkins had a couple of years ago. Erickson had bought a farm and had a bunch of cows that needed to be fed. Erickson didn’t have any intention of keeping them. He just wanted the cows fattened up so they could be sent to the slaughterhouse. He got the feed store to send Hopkins out to feed the cows every day for him. Anyway, at some point, Erickson claimed that Hopkins was skimming off feed and selling it to another farmer. There was a big fight. Erickson wanted the store to fire Hopkins.”

  “Was he stealing the feed?”

  “The store says they couldn’t prove anything. But at one point, Hopkins told Erickson that if he called him a thief one more time, he’d kill him.”

  “That does sound ominous.”

  “Hearing it now it does. But I talked to a couple of Hopkins’s co-workers. They said Erickson was over the line and most of them said they’d have punched the guy themselves. Besides, Hopkins isn’t the kind of guy that holds a grudge for two years. He might kill you on the spot in the heat of the moment if he was drunk, but he’s not going to wait two years and murder you in cold blood.”

  “Sheriff Logan doesn’t see it that way?”

  “No. Told me to quit asking so many questions ’cause I was going to give Hopkins’s defense ideas.”

  “Has he charged him? I didn’t see that in the paper.”

  “Not yet. He’s waiting on the district attorney to give the go-ahead.”

  “Logan doesn’t strike me as the type to take orders from anyone.”

  “I think deep down he knows there’s something hinky about this.”

  “I guess I can tell you that Blasko doesn’t think Hopkins is guilty either. In fact, he’s pretty sure of his innocence,” Josephine said, hoping Bobby wouldn’t ask her too many questions about why Blasko was so sure.

  “I wouldn’t mind talking to him. If Logan does charge Hopkins, it’ll be the devil to pay to get him to change his mind.”

  Josephine started looking for a way to extricate herself from the conversation. She didn’t want to talk about Blasko, and the thought of getting Bobby and Blasko together in the same room made her feel queasy. Most of the mourners were on their way to the graveside service, which gave Josephine her opportunity.

  “Are you coming to the cemetery? We’d better get going,” she said, and started to walk away.

  “Yeah, okay. Can I come by this evening?”

  Josephine gave up. She knew he wasn’t going to let it go. “Fine. Say eight o’clock?”

  Josephine spent most of the afternoon wishing she’d said no to Bobby. Now she was going to have to go down and talk to Blasko, which was the last thing on earth she wanted to do. She’d been avoiding him ever since their last argument. But as the sun settled behind the trees, she got up and stomped down the stairs. She rapped on the door as hard as she could, hoping that she was conveying the proper amount of anger through the door.

  “Good evening,” Blasko said reservedly as he opened the door.

  “I just came to tell you that Deputy Tucker wants to talk to you. He’ll be here at eight o’clock,” she said as stiffly as she could before turning to go.

  “So you’re making my appointments for me now?” he said, trying to put a sense of affront into his words. He’d decided that the best defense against Josephine was a strong offense, so he was going to act as offended as possible.

  “I guess if you could go out in the sunlight, then you could
make your own appointments. However, under the circumstances, that odious duty falls on me,” she answered without turning around.

  “What does he want to talk about?” Blasko asked, curious in spite of himself.

  “Guess you’ll find out at eight o’clock,” she threw back from down the hall.

  Blasko turned and closed the door. Infuriating woman, he said to himself. She really is becoming impossible. So I took a little blood from a horrible person. I should have finished him off and tossed him into the nearest river. That’s what I would have done a hundred years ago. I’m getting soft. Which has led me to this.

  He continued to fume as he dressed. Someone is killing these people and I need to figure out who so I can concentrate on finding a way out of this situation. I can’t live under Josephine’s thumb forever.

  For a moment, he stood in his parlor and stared at the door, wondering what to do next. He didn’t want to go upstairs too soon. If he did, he’d be forced to either talk to Josephine or ignore her. Neither seemed like an appealing option. Then it came to him—something that would really get under her skin.

  He knew she was interested in the case and fascinated with the idea of playing detective. He’d go out and meet Deputy Tucker in front of the house and suggest that they sit on the porch to talk. Josephine would then have to decide if she wanted to come out on the porch, listen at the window or ignore them. Blasko was certain all three options would irritate her.

  At seven-thirty, he headed upstairs and walked past the parlor. He could hear Josephine moving around in the room, but ignored her and walked out the front door. Waiting on the porch, he could hear movement inside the house. He smiled to himself, imagining Josephine’s dilemma.

  At seven-fifty, Bobby pulled into the driveway and got out of his car. That’s when Blasko heard someone around the side of the house call out to Bobby, who turned and headed up the driveway toward the back of the house.

  “Damn it!” Blasko muttered. He went back into the house, where he found Josephine and Deputy Tucker speaking with each other in the hallway.

  “There you are,” Josephine said, smiling sweetly at Blasko. “I was taking some trash outside when I saw Deputy Tucker drive up.”

  “Great timing on your part,” Blasko said, trying to keep his voice light.

  “I wanted to speak with you about the murders,” Bobby said. “What do you know? Josephine says you don’t think Hopkins did it.”

  “Why don’t we go into the parlor?” Josephine suggested.

  Once they were all seated and a suspicious-looking Grace had brought them coffee, Bobby started over. “With his alibi, Hopkins should be walking free, but Logan just doesn’t want to let him go.”

  “Hopkins didn’t kill either of the Ericksons,” Blasko said flatly.

  “How can you be so sure?” Josephine asked, an innocent expression on her face.

  Blasko narrowed his eyes and gave her a look that he meant to convey: You’re playing a dangerous game.

  “I have information from a source that would rather not come forward. Besides, most people would not consider him reliable,” Blasko answered.

  “Who’s that?” Josephine asked, suspecting that Blasko was just making this person up.

  “Matthew Hodge,” Blasko said, staring levelly at Josephine.

  “The town drunk!” she sputtered.

  “That’s exactly why he would rather not come forward at this time. And, for your information, he’s been sober for several days.”

  “Oh, well, if he’s managed to stay sober for a couple of days, that’s all right, then,” Josephine said sarcastically. She suspected Blasko was just making things up as he went along.

  Bobby had been sitting back, watching this odd exchange between Blasko and Josephine. When they finally stopped bickering long enough to stare daggers at each other, he spoke up. “I think there’s enough evidence of Hopkins’s innocence without Matthew coming forward. The question is, if he didn’t do it, then who did? I need to give the sheriff another suspect to get him to let go of Hopkins.”

  “An external enemy or one of the family. Those are the only real choices. The lone madmen idea seems to have been tossed out with the second victim. Someone is preying on this family,” Blasko said.

  “I agree. I’ve identified half a dozen people who had a good reason to hate Mr. Erickson. The problem is, once you kill Erickson, then why kill Amanda?”

  “I see your point,” Josephine said, forgetting her feud with Blasko for a minute and getting drawn back into the mystery. “If someone hated Mr. Erickson, they might threaten his family or even harm them. But the killer would want Erickson to be alive to see his family hurt.”

  “Exactly,” Bobby agreed.

  “So we’d be looking at someone who hated the whole family,” Blasko said. “Or, again, someone within the family.”

  “I thought about that too. But that doesn’t make much sense either. If it was Lucy and money was her motive, there still isn’t any point in killing Amanda.”

  “Maybe Amanda knew that Lucy had killed Mr. Erickson,” Josephine suggested.

  “Then wouldn’t Amanda have told Clarence about her suspicions?”

  “Okay, then, what about Clarence?”

  “He has an alibi,” Bobby said. “He was at the garage until right before the body was discovered. Besides, what would be the motive for killing his father? Lucy inherits.”

  “But he certainly has a motive for killing Amanda,” Blasko said.

  “The baron’s right.”

  “I assume you’re talking about the rumors concerning Amanda and Thomas Kelly,” Bobby said dryly. “We know about those.”

  “Are they just a rumor? Because he—” Before Josephine could go on, Bobby raised his hand and stopped her.

  “In my personal opinion, yes, the rumors are true. The two were having an affair. In fact, I think that’s where she was headed that morning. From what I’ve learned, she would leave the house early some mornings, supposedly to go get bread and donuts from the bakery. Interestingly, Thomas Kelly would choose those mornings to leave for work early. He almost admitted as much to us.”

  “Could one of the Kellys be the murderer?”

  “Neither have a motive for killing Mr. Erickson. As for Amanda… I’m no expert, but…” Bobby Tucker paused and looked meaningfully at Josephine. “I believe Thomas was in love with Amanda. Very much in love.”

  “Which then certainly gives Sarah a reason to kill Amanda,” Josephine said, ignoring the look.

  “Again, she has no motive for killing Erickson,” Blasko said thoughtfully. “But could his murder have given her the idea to get rid of Amanda?”

  “Possibly. But when Amanda didn’t meet him and he found out she’d been murdered, Thomas went home. He said he was too upset to work. I asked him about Sarah and he said she was absolutely shocked when he told her,” Bobby said.

  “What about Carrie?” Blasko suggested.

  “That’s interesting. She doesn’t have an alibi for either of the murders… at least not one that would stand up in court. What’s missing with Carrie is a motive. If it’s the money, then why wouldn’t she kill Lucy?”

  “Maybe Lucy’s in danger,” Josephine said.

  “Could be. But, so far, Carrie hasn’t gotten a dime out of the killings.”

  “Maybe she’s trying to make it look like someone is stalking the family, killing the members randomly. Eventually she’ll knock off Lucy and inherit. Of course, she’d still have to kill Clarence.”

  “Maybe she just likes killing.” Bobby looked thoughtful. “Right now, without an alibi, she is one of the better suspects.”

  “What about the illegal booze being sold out of Clarence’s garage?” Blasko asked suddenly.

  “Is that more information from Matthew?” Bobby asked.

  “Not just from Matthew,” Blasko said, irritated at their dismissive attitude toward the man. “Which brings up the question of why the sheriff hasn’t shut it down.”


  “We’ve never seen anything or gotten an eyewitness to come forward. Nor have we gotten any complaints.”

  “But you know it’s going on?”

  “We don’t know that anything is going on. We know that there are rumors, but rumors aren’t evidence,” Bobby said unconvincingly.

  “Okay, now I’m curious. Why haven’t you all staked it out or run a honey trap or whatever it is you call it to catch them?” Josephine asked.

  “Josie, you know and I know that people are going to drink. They’re going to buy alcohol somewhere. What might or might not be being sold out of that garage is from reliable producers and it’s not going to make anyone go blind. It’s also right here in town, so folks aren’t driving all over the countryside getting into trouble just to have a little fun on the weekend. If we see alcohol being sold, we’ll stop it. But if we don’t see anything illegal, and no one is getting harmed, then we’d be all kinds of stupid to go pushing them out so something worse could come in.” Bobby’s frustration with the situation was clear.

  “Sounds fishy to me. The sheriff getting a kickback?” Josephine asked.

  “Don’t you dare say that. No, ma’am, he is not. Damn it, Josephine.” His face flushed red.

  “Just asking,” she said innocently.

  “To my point, though, could there be someone else who doesn’t like the fact that Clarence is running alcohol out of his garage? Maybe a competitor? Or maybe Mr. Erickson found out and threatened to turn Clarence in?” Blasko suggested.

  “Two problems with the last one. First, anything going through that garage, Mr. Erickson would have known about. I’d bet you he was getting a cut too. He didn’t mind running close to the edge when it came to profitable illegal activity. He got into trouble a couple times trying to cheat folks. Hell, he might have even suggested the idea. And, like I said, Clarence has an alibi.”

  “Okay, then, what about Blasko’s gangster theory,” Josephine said. “Clarence is infringing on someone’s territory, so they threaten him. He doesn’t respond properly and they killed the old man. Still Clarence holds out, so they… What’s the term…? Whack his wife.”