When I am Dead, My Dearest: A Hunter Jones Mystery

by Charlotte Moore

  Robin and Colin took turns telling Hunter the whole story, from learning that their guest of honor was drunk, to Robin’s going out to see about Olivia Benedict and seeing her car in Hill Roland’s driveway, right down to the call to shut down their kitchen. Robin even brought up the two couples who had come for the night and promised to stop by again on their way back from Florida, and the magazine editor holding him responsible.

  “I just wish I had driven him home myself,” he said.

  Colin in the meantime, took time to get coffee and two ham biscuits for Hunter.

  “The sheriff said to close down the kitchen!” Robin said to him.

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Colin said. “I made these myself this morning.”

  Hunter had already picked one up and taken a bite of it.

  There was something familiar in the smell, or maybe in the texture.

  She took another bite.

  “These are like Rose Tyndale’s biscuits,” she said.

  “These are Colin Fletcher’s biscuits made from Rose Tyndale’s recipe,” Colin said triumphantly. “Did I, or did I not get it right?”

  “You got it right,” Hunter said. “I’m awed. Can I have the recipe?”

  “Well, finish that biscuit fast,” Robin interrupted, “There’s somebody from the sheriff’s office pulling up out front.”

  It was Deputy Skeet Borders.

  “The sheriff says y’all don’t have to throw anything out,” he said. “Just don’t serve anything until he gives you a heads up. Anyway, I need to get some information on the deceased and on what happened here last night.”

  “Do you need any information from me?” Hunter asked, hoping to stay.

  “He didn’t say so,” Skeet answered, and then grinned. “I imagine he’ll ask you himself if he does. He’s got your number, right?”

  “Want a ham biscuit?” Colin asked Skeet. “I made them myself this morning. No poison.”

  Even before the crime scene techs arrived, Taneesha had noticed the open tin of rum balls covered with powdered sugar and the manuscript by Olivia Benedict on Hill Roland’s desk. She left them where they were and went to get Sam.

  “I think I know what the white powder is on her dress,” she said.

  A few minutes later, Hill was explaining about getting the rum balls in the mail.

  “I saw that she’d opened the tin” he said, “I had it closed, and I hadn’t eaten any of them. It looked to me like she ate the whole top layer. It was full to the top when it came in the mail.”

  “In the mail?” Taneesha asked. “In the mail from whom?”

  He explained about the package that had arrived on Monday. Ten minutes later, the box, the note and the wrapping paper had been retrieved from the trash bin he fortunately had forgotten to roll down to the curb.

  Hill said he didn’t know any Janice Smith, and that he hadn’t eaten any of the rum balls.

  “I don’t like rum,” he said, “I offered them to the lady from the cleaning service, but she didn’t want them after she learned they had rum in them. I closed them up then. If you want a witness, she’s with Magic Maids. She was right there when I opened them.”

  He was beginning to sound ill-tempered.

  “Did you offer any of them to Olivia Benedict?” Sam asked.

  “No!” Hill said. “I didn’t offer that woman anything, and she didn’t have any business messing around on my desk. She messed with my computer, too, and left a manuscript there for me to read. I never said I was going to read anything she wrote.”

  He stopped and sighed.

  “I guess I shouldn’t sound so mad at her,” he said. “She wasn’t much more than a kid, and I’m sorry she’s dead, but I really didn’t want her in the house at all, and I guess I was too drunk to handle it right. Megan is just going to kill me. ”

  “Have you been unfaithful to her before?” Taneesha asked in an even tone.

  “Hell, no.” Hill said. “And I wasn’t this time. She’ll understand about the girl. I’m talking about my getting drunk.”

  Sam had an unwelcome vision of Hill and Megan Roland having a fight in his crime scene and decided it was a good time to get Hill out of the house.

  “If you don’t want to go to Buck’s house, how about Hilliard House?” he asked. “I’ll have somebody drive you down there and you can get a room.”

  Hill nodded glumly.

  “Yeah, we stayed there before when we came down for me to show her the house. If Megan has to stay somewhere else, that’s the place. Let me get some things.”

  “I’ll get somebody to drive you,” Sam said.

  Hill’s cell phone beeped as they were heading back down the stairs. He let it beep until it stopped.

  On the porch he stopped to listen to the message.

  “That was my wife,” he told Sam. “She’s just leaving the airport in Atlanta. I don’t know what to tell her.”

  “I can handle it,” Sam said. “Let’s let her get clear of the Atlanta traffic first. Give me her number and I’ll call her in a little while and tell her to meet you at the Inn.”

  Hill tried to remember the number and couldn’t.

  “She programs everything, “he said. “It’s on the phone under ‘Megan’.

  He handed Sam his phone. “Just keep it. I don’t want to talk to anybody, anyway.”

  “Then we’d better do something about Charmaine,” Sam said, looking off to the street where a slender blonde in jeans and a black sweater had just gotten out of a powder blue Lexus.

  “Oh, God,” Hill said.

  Charmaine Roland appeared to be paying no attention at all to Deputy Bub Williston who first tried to stop her from stepping over the yellow crime tape, and then followed her, telling her loudly, “This is a crime scene. You aren’t allowed past the crime tape. You need to get back in your car and leave.”

  “You can’t order me around, Bub Williston,” she said in a piercing, angry voice, “This is my husband’s family home, and everybody in town’s talking about all y’all being out here. I want to know what’s going on.”

  Sam walked toward her.

  “Sam, what is going on here?” she said, and then she looked past him and saw Hill standing on the porch and yelled to him, “Did you get robbed, Hill? Has something happened to Megan?”

  Sam took her elbow gently and turned her around facing the street.

  “Hill’s all right and Megan isn’t here yet. You need to leave now, just like Deputy Williston told you. You’re breaking the law right now by coming on this side of that yellow tape when he told you to stop. You don’t want me to have to call Buck and tell him to come get you out of jail, do you?”

  She glared at him. He kept on talking, moving her along with him.

  “Now do you want me to get Deputy Williston to put you in handcuffs and put you in the back of my car until I’m done here, or do you want to let him escort you there and save us a lot of bother by going back to your car on your own?”

  She looked up at him, frowned and squinted as if she were trying to think of a comeback. Then she had it.

  “You do remember that Buck is a State Senator now, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do,” Sam said. “And he probably remembers that I’m the Sheriff.”

  “I’m going to call Buck and he’ll be calling you,” she said.

  “Fine,” Sam said, as Bub arrived at his side. “Now go home.”

  She went.

  Sam saw a familiar vehicle arriving, and made another phone call, talking first to Robin Hilliard and then to Skeet Borders, who was still there.

  “I need for you to come out here and drive Hill Roland in to stay at Hilliard House,” he said. “I was about to do it myself, but Sanders Beal and T.J. Jackson have just arrived.”

  It was the District Attorney, who was seldom much help until something came to trial, and his chief investigator, T.J. Jackson, who was always a help, even when he came up with wrong answers.

  By noon, Olivia Ben
edict’s mortal remains were on the way to Macon to be examined by a pathologist, and Sgt. Taneesha Martin was following with an evidence bag that contained the metal tin half filled with the rum balls and the prescription pill bottles with Olivia Benedict’s name on them.

  Nobody at that point thought Janice Smith was the real name of the sender, and the return address on the package had already checked out as non-existent.

  Megan Brooks Roland’s cell phone buzzed. She didn’t like talking on the phone while she drove, so she let it ring until the message came on.

  “Mrs. Roland. This is Sheriff Sam Bailey calling from Merchantsville. I need to talk to… ”

  She grabbed the phone and made the connection before he could finish.

  “Yes, what is it?” she asked. “How did you get this number? Is Hill all right?”

  “Yes, he’s all right,” Sam answered. “I’m just calling to tell you that he’s at Hilliard House, and to ask that you go there when you arrive. Do you know how to get there?”

  “Of course I do. Why is he there?”

  “We’re having an investigation at your home, and it may take a few more hours. Are you on the road now?”

  “Yes,” she said briskly. “I just passed Forsyth and I’m close to Macon. What do you mean, investigation at our house? What’s happened? Was there a break-in?”

  “Let’s not talk while you’re driving,” Sam said in the voice he usually used with little old ladies who ran red lights. “Just come to Hilliard House when you get here.”

  “I want to know what is going on in my home,” she said firmly. “I’m not going to get hysterical, and I’m pulling over and stopping, so just tell me.”

  “There was a death in your home last night.”

  “Who died in my home?”

  “A young woman named Olivia Benedict. She apparently drove your husband home from an event at Hilliard House and…”

  “He was drunk, wasn’t he?” she asked.

  “You can ask him about that,” Sam said, trying to take charge of the discussion.

  “He was drunk and some girl brought him home and died in our house?”

  “Yes, as I understand it, Miss Benedict drove him home and yes, she died in your home.”

  “How did she die?”

  “We don’t know,” Sam said honestly.

  “If she was shot, he didn’t do it.” she responded. “He doesn’t have a gun. Maybe somebody broke in.”

  “She wasn’t shot,” Sam said. “I said that she died. We don’t know that she was killed by anybody. There’s a chance it could have been natural causes.”

  He opted out of mentioning poison. One of the paramedics had told him that the prescription medicine was for heart disease.

  “Where did she die? I mean where in the house?”

  “In the downstairs bathroom,” Sam said.

  “Does my husband need a lawyer?”

  “He’s not under arrest,” Sam said, starting over. “My main reason for calling you was to tell you that he’s at Hilliard House and it may be a while before the two of you can get back into your home, so you should go there when you get to Merchantsville.”

  “If he’s not under arrest, why didn’t he call me himself?” she asked.

  “You’ll have to ask him that yourself” Sam said. “If you like, I can have one of my deputies meet you at the exit to Merchantsville.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” she said, “I know how to find that old mansion, and one more thing… ”

  “One more thing?” Sam asked.

  “I am Mr. Roland’s agent, and you will certainly hear from my agency’s attorneys if any of this information has been released to the media without my authorization.”

  Sam was glad that she ended the call abruptly on that note, because for the first time that day, he came close to laughing. He wished he could be there if and when Megan Brooks Roland locked horns with Hunter Jones over authorizing what went into the newspaper.

  His phone beeped.

  “This is all still unofficial but it looks like it was two things,” Taneesha said,” Her heart and the rum balls. The rum balls had strychnine in them. The toxicologist said the rum and sugar would have probably covered any bitter taste, but the pathologist said she also had a bad heart, and he’s not absolutely done yet, but he’s thinking the poison could have led to a heart attack. That’s what her medicines were for. Oh, and he’s pretty sure she was bulimic, too, because her tooth enamel is bad, and that might account for her eating so many of those rum balls. He called her heart doctor – the one who prescribed the meds — and he’ll have a full report later in the day. ”

  “Poor girl,” Sam said, “But I guess Hill Roland’s in the clear. We’ve got a witness to that package arriving in the mail, and she confirmed that he offered them to her. Now we’ve got to figure out who wanted to poison him if we’re going to find out who killed her.”

  “Yeah,” Taneesha said. “What else do you want me to do when I get back? Has Miss Benedict’s family been notified?”

  “Yes, Shellie called the police department in her hometown,” Sam said, “and they went and told her sister for us. That seems to be the only family they know of. I’ll need you for the press conference,” Sam said. “That will be at four, and after that…”

  “It’s Friday night,” Taneesha said, “Jeremy and I were going to… ”

  “And after the press conference, you’re free to go,” Sam interrupted, “I’ve got a call.”

  Five minutes later, Hunter’s phone rang at the newspaper office.

  “You don’t need to pick Bethie up after school,” Sam said. “Mom just called and said she’s going shopping anyway, and she’ll pick her up and bring her back by bedtime. I think she really wants to keep doing it that way. She and Bethie like watching ‘Mayberry’ together.”

  Hunter stifled a gasp as she looked at her watch and realized how nearly she had missed forgetting that it was her turn to pick Bethie up.

  “Your mother is so sweet,” Hunter said, meaning it, but changing the subject quickly to her own comfort zone.

  “Are you going to make a statement about the body at Hill Roland’s house?”

  “That’s the other thing I called to tell you. Four in my office.”

  “Is Hill Roland under arrest?”

  “No.” Sam said “But, off the record, his wife will be if she kills him.”

  At Hilliard House, Megan Brooks Roland swung the kitchen door open.

  She looked exhausted, and considerably less fierce than she had on her arrival. She had changed into expensive jeans and an expensive-looking blue silk shirt.

  “We need some food,” she said. “My husband hasn’t eaten all day and I haven’t had anything since breakfast. There’s a little restaurant a few blocks from here. He likes the food there. Do they deliver?”

  “No,” Colin said. “But I’ll just go get it. Did he tell you what he wants?”

  “Fried chicken and whatever comes with it.”

  “And what would you like?” Colin asked. “It’s all southern but they have a good pot roast.”

  “I like southern food fine,” she said with the slightest hint of a smile. “And I’m starving. Just get me fried chicken too and put it on our bill.”

  “Would you like some Earl Gray tea?” Robin asked her after Colin left.

  She smiled a real smile for the first time, nodded and sat down.

  “You guys do a great job,” she said.

  “I remember you had it when you two stayed here before,” he said, starting the kettle on the stove. “I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad homecoming,”

  “Thank you,” Megan said. “Now what can you tell me about this girl who died in our house? I understand that she was here to write about Hilliard House.”

  He hesitated.

  “It’s okay,” she said, “I already know he got drunk here and she offered to drive him home, and I know she wanted Hill to read her manuscript. I’m used to his having grou
pies who’ve read his book and looked at his picture and gotten a crush on him. I know that if they’re writers, they’re going to hope he’ll help them get published. I mean tell me what she was like. Was she pretty?”

  Robin relaxed and sat down. This he could handle, even if it meant speaking ill of the dead.

  “No. She wasn’t pretty. Well she might have been, if she hadn’t looked so unhealthy and pale, and I don’t think I saw her really smile once. I think she was going for some kind of dramatic look with a lot of eye makeup and black clothes. “

  “Vampire chic,” Megan said.

  “That would be about it.”

  The teakettle whistled and he got up and reached for the teapot on the shelf over the stove.

  “Oh, you don’t have to do the teapot thing. Just let me have a tea bag in a cup,” Megan said. “It will be faster.”

  Robin followed her directions and sat back down at the table with her.

  “I wish she hadn’t offered to drive him home,” he said. “I was going to do it, but some guests showed up, and when I got back downstairs the lady from the book club told me she had taken him home in her car. I just keep thinking that if I had taken him home myself, none of this… ”

  “It’s not your fault,” Megan said. “He’s the one who got drunk, and apparently she was determined to get her manuscript read. I just hope he didn’t make a spectacle of himself while people were getting their books signed.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Neither Colin nor I knew he was drunk at all until it was all over,” Robin said. “And he was being very charming with everybody.”

  “Are you telling me the truth?” she asked.

  “I swear,” he said solemnly.

  Megan sipped her tea and seemed to relax a little more.

  Just before four, Hunter got to the magistrate court room where Sam was giving one of his rare press conferences. Will Roy Johnson, the all-purpose announcer for Magnolia County’s one radio station, was already there with his equipment set up to record whatever Sam had to say.

  Hunter had learned to accept the fact that when there was a major crime or calamity, Will Roy would get the news story to the public sooner than she would, but she took comfort in the fact that he never went to the trouble to chase down more information than was handed to him.