Murder in the Milk Case

by Spyglass Lane Mysteries

  My fingernails dug holes in my palms. Lee Ann swore softly behind me. Then a woman rushed out of the library. I heard the low hum of her voice and the high squeak of Sammie’s.

  “Don’t make a sound,” Lee Ann hissed.

  Sammie hesitated, then trudged back to take the woman’s hand. They disappeared into the library. I breathed a prayer of thanks. Now, to get me and Karen out of this.

  “We’re leaving,” Lee Ann said. I turned around.

  Fury had twisted her face into an unrecognizable mask. “It won’t be long before they call the cops.”

  “Let Karen go,” I begged. “Take me.”

  “Shut up, Trish. You’re driving.” She glanced around to make sure no one was looking and pushed Karen from behind the tree to where I stood.

  I knew if we got in the car with her we were as good as dead. My mind raced. “Where are we going?”

  Lee Ann grinned. “Norm’s favorite place. Very lucrative.”

  It didn’t take much imagination to know she meant the landfill. What a horrible place to die.

  Lee Ann took the knife from Karen’s throat and held it to her back. She motioned for me to get in the passenger door. I stood where I was.

  “Get a move on, Trish.”

  I met Karen’s gaze. She nodded ever so slightly, and I tried to figure out what she meant. Next thing I knew, she fell to her hands and knees.

  “Get up,” Lee Ann kicked her.

  Kicking my daughter was Lee Ann’s last mistake. I roared and leaped at her.

  She shrieked and lifted the knife. It glinted as it arced toward me.

  “No!” Karen screamed and grabbed Lee Ann’s leg.

  The knife missed my arm by an inch. I tackled her, slamming her into a tree. The knife fell from her hand, landing on the dirt with a dull thud. Karen scrabbled for it, but Lee Ann kicked wildly, hitting Karen’s hip, knocking her off balance. I grabbed a handful of Lee Ann’s hair. She screamed and clawed at my face. Her nail caught my nose.

  Sirens blared in the distance, but I ignored them. I’d had enough. Perhaps Lee Ann didn’t remember my temper in school or the kids I’d beat up. What she really didn’t understand was my desperation to save Karen and my unborn baby.

  I twisted a hank of her hair in my hands and hooked my foot on her leg. She fell to her knees. I held her hair tight, wrapped around my fingers, but she kept fighting me, so I punched her in the gut. She groaned and slithered to the ground. I rolled her over onto her stomach. Then I kicked the knife away and knelt, with my knees in her back.

  “Karen, get a couple of those bungee hook things from the car.”

  She scrambled to the SUV. The sirens came closer, and I prayed they were coming for us. Lee Ann struggled under me, trying to knock me off balance, but I jerked her hair and stayed put.

  “I thought we were friends,” I said.

  She swore at me, calling me horrible things that I couldn’t hear clearly over the din in the parking lot.

  I glared down at her. “I have a feeling you’re guilty of a lot of things, but as far as I’m concerned, the very worst thing you did was threaten to kill my daughter.”

  Karen handed me two bungee cords. I took them from her and wrapped Lee Ann’s hands and feet together.

  Red and blue reflections of police-car lights glared on my SUV windows and those of the library.

  “Wow, Mom.” Karen stared at me like I was a superhero. I smiled at her, and for the first time in months, she smiled in return.

  I heard shouts and more sirens.

  “Go tell them where we are,” I ordered, standing guard over Lee Ann.

  The next person I saw was Corporal Nick Fletcher. He reached my side and looked down at Lee Ann.

  He took his hat off and scratched his head. “Well now, that’s got to be the finest example of hog-tying I’ve ever seen. Too bad we gotta undo it.”

  He nodded at two other deputies, who took off my bungee cords and hauled Lee Ann to her feet, efficiently handcuffing her. They walked her away with more gentleness than I thought necessary.

  I saw Karen in the parking lot talking with Detective Scott, while a deputy put a blanket around her and bundled her into the front seat of a squad car. She was safe. That’s when my knees gave way.

  Corporal Fletcher grabbed me under my arms. “Whoa there, Mrs. C. We gotta get you outta here.”

  Detective Scott ran toward us shouting, but I couldn’t hear him clearly, given that I had those annoying little spots in my vision.

  “Fletcher. . . Trish. . . Oh, man.” He turned around and yelled for a paramedic.

  “Just let me sit,” I muttered.

  Corporal Fletcher lowered me gently to the ground. I leaned against my SUV.

  Then he stood and put his hands on his hips, a wide smile on his lips. “Sarge, I never seen anything like this. She’s a little firecracker.”

  Funny, but I kinda liked the guy despite his profession. The detective knelt next to me and examined my face.

  “Are you hurt? You’re shaking. Your nose is bleeding.”

  “I’m fine. Just shook up.” I met his gaze, trying to hold my hands still. “Her nail got my nose. I’ll probably get cooties.”

  He took a deep breath. “I’m glad that’s all.”

  I felt the concern in his gaze. “You know what?”

  “What?” he asked.

  “That car that tailgated me was hers, but I didn’t recognize it. well, probably her husband’s. I’d never seen it before. Max was right as usual. I should have told you about it the first time.”

  He patted my arm.

  “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” I grumbled. “They’re going to start charging me rent.”

  He shrugged. “They won’t take you if you don’t need to go, but I do want you and Karen checked out.”

  “Well, I have to call Max. He’s going to kill me anyway, so maybe we should wait until then.”

  Detective Scott smiled. “We can’t wait. I just talked to him. He’s stuck in Baltimore rush hour traffic. There was an accident.”

  I swallowed. “I guess he’s not very happy.”

  He shook his head. “That’s putting it mildly, but he does know you’re both alive.”

  The paramedics arrived. The detective stood. He and Corporal Fletcher moved out of their way.

  “Detective Scott,” I called as they arranged me on the stretcher.

  “Yes?”

  “This wasn’t something I did on purpose. I didn’t break my promise.”

  “I know.”

  Max stopped in the doorway of the family room, tie undone, hair mussed, staring at me and Karen as if seeing a vision. His chest moved with short, uneven breaths. Then he crossed the room, holding out his arms. “Both of you come here.”

  We did. He grabbed our shoulders and kissed the tops of our heads. “When I couldn’t reach either of you, I almost lost my mind,” he whispered. “I was so worried. All I could do was pray. I don’t know what I’d do if. . .”

  I stood on my toes and put my lips on his cheek. It felt wet and tasted salty. Maxwell Cunningham the Third, my husband, the love of my life, was crying.

  I looked over his shoulder where my mother and father stood, watching. They had come to pick up Charlie and Sammie. For the second time this week, my mother didn’t say a word.

  Detective Scott arrived shortly after, and Max brought him into the family room.

  Karen and I were huddled under blankets on the couch. I’d tried to tell Max that I was hot and didn’t need to be covered, but he ignored me.

  “I’m sorry,” the detective said. “I wish I could have acted faster. I had a feeling Lee Ann was getting ready to leave town, especially when she sent Julie away to meet Norm. I was working with the DA to put together an arrest warrant.”

  Max sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. As much as I loved being near him, I was sweating from the combination of the blanket and his body heat.

  “I need a statement from yo
u tonight,” Detective Scott said.

  Karen spoke first. Lee Ann had called and begged Karen for a meeting. Julie had supposedly run away, and Lee Ann wanted Karen’s opinion about where Julie had gone.

  I managed to wriggle the blanket off while Karen talked, but I couldn’t escape Max’s arm—not that I wanted to.

  “We talked in her car in the parking lot,” Karen said.

  “I didn’t know that station wagon was Lee Ann’s,” I said.

  “It was Norm’s,” Detective Scott said and motioned for Karen to continue.

  “Well, then she told me I should call Mom to come and get me. She’d wait with me and explain.” Karen swallowed. “After I called, I went to the bathroom and came back outside to wait with her. That’s when I started to realize something was wrong.”

  Max’s arm had tightened on my shoulders as Karen spoke.

  “Mrs. Snyder had already said something about Mom smashing Peter’s head in, but I thought she was sort of joking.” Karen glanced at me. “She did say that Mom had been a violent maniac in school and had everyone fooled that she’d changed.”

  Sounded to me like Lee Ann took advantage of an already angry child. I still couldn’t comprehend that she could pretend to be my friend and hate me that much.

  I wiggled in Max’s too-tight grasp as he looked at Karen. He loosened his hold. “What do you think now?”

  Karen wouldn’t look at us. “I. . .don’t believe it. Mom told Mrs. Snyder to take her and leave me. She was going to die for me.” Her voice broke.

  I put my arms around her. We had a lot to work out, but this was a start.

  Detective Scott asked me to explain what happened at the library, which I did. Then I asked Karen to go upstairs and take a hot bath. I had a couple of things to ask the detective that I didn’t want her to hear.

  After she was gone, I met his gaze. “I know Jim Bob wasn’t killed with the knife. I think he was already dead when he was stabbed, probably by Frank, since he was so terribly concerned about the knife and acted like he wanted to point the finger at a meat cutter. Big fat tattletale. I think Lee Ann killed Jim Bob. Maybe with that hammer I told you about. Remember what Lee Ann told Karen about me smashing in Peter-Carey’s head?”

  Detective Scott said nothing. Neither did Max.

  “Well?” I asked.

  The detective stood. “I’m not at liberty to discuss any of that.”

  The statement was so like him that I laughed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  That evening would be forever etched in my mind, as I’m sure it would be in Karen’s. God had used a bad situation for good. Since that night, Karen and I had reached an understanding of sorts. She finally understood how much I loved her, but the emotions that had been driving her hadn’t totally disappeared. During our first emergency counseling session with the pastor, I realized the anger she directed at me was misplaced. She was really angry that God had allowed her real mother to die, and for some reason, it had taken this long to surface.

  Max’s PI hadn’t discovered anything about Russ, Lindsey, or the stop sign. I had to admit a certain feeling of satisfaction that he hadn’t made progress and he was a professional, although I really wanted to know.

  I picked out my cruise. Almost a month later, when the time drew near, I began to make lists, which I promptly lost. I had to buy clothes. That wasn’t one of my favorite things to do. Especially dressy ones. I’m a jeans and sweatshirt kind of girl. But when I saw the red evening gown at the mall, I knew it was perfect. Given the cut and how it fell just right, I was pretty sure Max would get that gleam in his eyes when he saw it, so I’d keep it a secret until I wore it on the ship.

  I had two errands to do on my way home. The first was a visit to the sheriff’s office to see Detective Scott. He’d called and requested that I come by.

  When I entered the building, I felt guilty, even though I’d done nothing. I told the guy behind a glass window in the waiting area that I was there to see Detective Scott. He told me to be seated, but it wasn’t long before the detective himself came to get me. After he greeted me, he led me back into the inner sanctum and up the stairs and surprised me when he didn’t lead me to the interview room. Instead, he took me to his office.

  “Have a seat, please,” he said.

  I settled into a chair and put my purse on the floor. On the credenza behind him was a picture of a girl who looked to be high school age.

  I turned my gaze on him and saw a smile on his face.

  He tapped a folder on his desk. “I have some good news for you.”

  Was it possible? I leaned forward. “Russ?”

  Detective Scott nodded. “Yes. I don’t think he did it.”

  I began to cry, something I’d been more prone to since I’d gotten pregnant. Detective Scott handed me a tissue.

  “Who did it?” I sniveled.

  “We suspect Tim, Daryl’s brother. But my first lead came from an interesting source.”

  “Who?” I asked as I wiped my nose. “You. Then your parents.”

  That dried up my tears. “What?”

  He grinned. “You’d mentioned that box of doughnuts your mother delivered to Jim Bob. I had to follow up on that, although I didn’t suspect her, so I went to your parent’s house to chat. Your father was there. When she broke down and confessed that Jim Bob was blackmailing her, he got upset and asked her why she never told him. She said, like you, she’d seen the stop sign and thought Russ had stolen it. Your father informed both of us that Tim Boyd had given the sign to Russ. He didn’t think a lot of it at the time; he figured it was Tim’s to give. Anyway, after several meetings with Daryl, where I tried to, er, convince him to tell me the truth, he finally admitted that he suspected his brother, too.”

  Poor Daryl probably confessed because he had been tortured by the tapping of Detective Scott’s pen, just like I had been. And I found it just a little disturbing that my mother and I had both been threatened by the same person and both of us had kept it a secret from our husbands. I did not want to be like my mother.

  I looked at Detective Scott. “So what happens now?”

  He sighed. “Case closed. Tim is dead. I told Max this morning and asked him to let me tell you. He’s going to tell Lindsey’s parents. He doesn’t think they’ll want any publicity.”

  I was sure, too. Lindsey’s parents were friends of the Cunninghams and, like them, despised bad publicity. My heart ached for them. And for Max.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  I shifted in my chair. “Can you answer some questions for me while I’m here?”

  He briefly tapped his pen on the desk then put it down. “I still can’t answer everything, but I’ll tell you what I can.”

  “That’ll do,” I said. “What’s going on with Frank?”

  “He’s been charged with embezzlement. Since he stabbed a dead guy, we can’t charge him with murder. And since he thought Jim Bob was alive, he can’t be charged with messing with a corpse or a crime scene.”

  “I’ll bet lawyers said that. It’s full of loopholes.” I thought about Calvin Schiller.

  Detective Scott laughed. “Yep.”

  “What about Lee Ann?” I bit my lip. I’d begun to feel guilty that I hadn’t seen the whole thing coming and somehow prevented it. Despite what she’d done, I couldn’t forget all the time we’d spent together.

  The detective shook his head. “We have enough evidence to prove that she killed two men. She’s been arrested, as has Norm, for the landfill fiasco.”

  “Where is Julie?” I asked.

  “She’s gone to be with some relatives. A grandmother, I think.”

  “Poor thing,” I said.

  “I hate it when kids are affected by crime,” Detective Scott said softly, glancing at the picture on his credenza.

  “Is that your daughter?” I asked.

  He nodded, then inhaled, and turned back to me. “So are you done with your questions?”
>
  “No,” I said. “Jim Bob was blackmailing Lee Ann about the landfill, wasn’t he? I’ll bet he found out somehow from April’s boyfriend. Lee Ann smashed Jim Bob with that hammer, didn’t she?”

  Detective Scott shook his head. “I’m listening.”

  “And she and Norm were running away, weren’t they? I think he made money in paybacks at the landfill for accepting out-of-state trash.” I laid my arms on his desk. “Then Peter-Carey started threatening her like he did me, so she killed him, right?” I paused.

  “I’m still listening,” the detective said.

  Would he answer any of my questions? I’d try something else. “How did Jim Bob’s body get behind the milk?”

  “Well, it’s still a matter of some speculation on my part.” He eyed me. “And please don’t talk about this with anyone, okay?”

  At least he was going to trust me with something.

  “We think Lee Ann lost her temper with Jim Bob and whacked him with the hammer that she was taking to Daryl. She didn’t think she’d killed him at first.” He squinted at me. “She must have left Jim Bob somewhere in a back room. When she checked on him again, he was dead. That’s where Frank comes in.

  “Frank was on a rampage about knives. He was adamant about keeping things in their proper place, so perhaps he was taking one back to where it belonged in the meat department. He saw Jim Bob, thought he was unconscious, and stabbed him. Then he put him on that cart and wheeled him somewhere to keep him hidden.”

  “Didn’t either one of them think they’d be caught?” I asked. “Sounds stupid.”

  Detective Scott grinned. “That’s what makes my job easier. If crooks were smart, we wouldn’t be able to catch them. Besides, much of the staff was absent that morning with the flu. That made hiding Jim Bob a lot easier.”

  “Well, how did Jim Bob end up behind the milk?”

  “We think Lee Ann looked for him and finally found the cart. When she saw that he’d been stabbed, she shoved the cart into the cold room where he could be found easily. She hoped the police would think he’d been stabbed to death and that his head had been bashed as he fell.”