Killer On A Hot Tin Roof

by Livia J. Washburn

  “I talked to your wife this morning at the hotel,” I told him. “She said you enjoyed your meal last night.”

  His smile widened into a grin. “Man, I ate so much I thought I was gonna pop!” He patted his stomach. “Luckily, I was able to sleep it off and have a big breakfast at the hotel this morning. The festival puts on a good feed. Only problem was that Callie was already gone by the time I got up, and I wanted to talk to her.” He frowned and pointed at the museum. “She’s on a panel here this morning, isn’t she?”

  Will nodded. “She’s on the same one I’m on, as a matter of fact. She’s probably inside by now. We’ll see if we can find her.”

  “Okay, thanks.” As the three of us started into the building, Jake added, “I was sure sorry to hear about that old guy gettin’ killed last night. He seemed like a hoot.”

  “He was a nice man,” I said.

  “The cops know who did it yet?”

  “I think they’re supposed to announce something this morning,” I told him, without mentioning what I knew about Tamara’s impending arrest.

  “Yeah, well, I hope they found the guy. Anybody who’d kill a nice old man deserves whatever they get.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. But even as Jake said it, I wondered about Callie. I might have to come right out and tell her that I knew about her affair with Dr. Jeffords. If she wanted me to keep quiet and not say anything to the cops about her being in the garden the night before, she was going to have to convince me that she hadn’t had anything to do with Burleson’s murder.

  Quite a few people were already in the museum, which had several galleries in addition to its auditorium. I saw Michael Frasier sitting forlornly in a corner, underneath a painting of a long-haired gentleman in a fancy outfit, possibly one of thefounders of New Orleans. I thought about going over to him, but instead I just pointed him out to Will.

  “Yeah, his presentation is scheduled right after the panel I’m on,” Will said. “I don’t know what he’s going to do. Without anything to back up his theory, he’d probably be better off just cancelling the whole thing.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Well, everybody here knows he was going to claim that Mr. Burleson and Tennessee Williams were lovers. That’s somewhat controversial, but it’s well known that Williams had many short-lived romances. There’s no way to prove or disprove that part of Burleson’s story, and it’s certainly not going to make or break Michael’s career. He kept the part about Burleson claiming to have written Cat on a Hot Tin Roof under wraps, except for you, me, and Tamara knowing. When the story of her arrest gets out, so will the rest of it, and the circumstances certainly make it appear that Tamara believed Burleson was telling the truth. Most people in the academic world won’t be convinced one way or the other, but after a while, the whole controversy will die down. Some scholars will probably support the theory, and others won’t. But that’s common, and Michael can carry on with his career. If he gets up there now, though, and springs the idea on everybody without any sort of proof, he won’t have much support. That’s why I said he’d be better off to wait.”

  I wasn’t sure I understood all that, but Will was a lot more aware of the nuances of the academic world than I was, of course. I was willing to take his word for it.

  “What if it turns out that Dr. Paige didn’t kill the old man?” I asked.

  Will frowned. “All the evidence points to her, doesn’t it?”

  “Maybe. Sometimes evidence can be interpreted different ways, though.”

  Will shook his head and said, “If Tamara is innocent, then it completely cuts the legs out from under Burleson’s claims.” He looked around. “Where’d Mr. Madison go?”

  I hadn’t noticed that Jake wasn’t with us anymore. I’d gotten caught up in thinking about the murder again. I looked around the museum and didn’t see him anywhere.

  “Maybe he found his wife and is talking to her,” I suggested.

  Will nodded toward a pair of closed double doors. “Let’s go on into the auditorium. The festival volunteers may still be setting up for the panel, but they won’t run us out.”

  We went over to the doors, and Will opened one of them wide enough for us to slip through. As we did, I saw that the room had already been prepared for the panel. A folding table draped with a white cloth was on the stage with chairs behind it. A couple of hand microphones on stands sat on the table, along with some pitchers of water and glasses. Folded cardboard name placards sat in front of each chair. I saw Will’s name on one of them and Callie’s on another. The names of the other three panelists were familiar to me because I had seen them on the list of tour group members, but I hadn’t really gotten to know any of them.

  I took in all of that at a glance, but most of my attention was focused on Jake Madison, who was standing in front of a door that led to a backstage area. As I watched, he reached out, grasped the knob, twisted it, and flung the door open. I heard a woman gasp in surprise and thought, Oh, no.

  “Somebody out front told me they’d seen you coming back here, Callie,” Jake said in an angry, booming voice. “I figured I’d find the two of you together.”

  Beside me, Will asked, “What’s going on here?”

  “Nothin’ good,” I said.

  Callie hurried out of the little hallway, followed by Dr. Andrew Jeffords. “Jake, what are you doing here?” she asked. “I … I thought you were going to look at old buildings, like you always do.”

  “No, I came to look at my cheating wife,” Jake said. “Damn, Callie, I can’t believe it! Jeffords? Really? This guy’s old enough to be your dad!”

  Jeffords stepped forward and said, “Mr. Madison, I swear this isn’t what it looks like–”

  “Yeah, guys always say that when they get caught kissing some other guy’s wife, don’t they?” Jake shook his head. “You know what, Doc? What I just saw was exactly what it looked like … and I know exactly what to do about it.”

  I knew from the menacing sound of Jake’s voice that all hell was about to break loose. I took a quick step forward and said, “Mr. Madison, wait–”

  Jake didn’t wait, though. He swung a fist and sent it crashing right into Andrew Jeffords’s face.

  CHAPTER 17

  Jeffords went flying backward and tripped over the steps leading up to the stage. Jake went after him, but Will leaped forward and grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around him. “Mr. Madison, stop it!” Will said. “Stop it!” “Oh, my God!” Callie screamed. “Andrew!” That expression of concern for Jeffords just made Jake even more furious. With an angry roar, he broke out of Will’s grasp and went after Jeffords again. By now, though, Callie had gotten between them. “Leave him alone!” she said as she pushed at Jake’s chest. “Leave him alone, damn it!”

  Jake brought his left arm around. He didn’t actually hit Callie, he just shoved her hard enough to make her stumble backward and then sit down hard on the floor. She let out a cry of pain as she landed.

  Will caught hold of Jake’s shoulder and hauled him around. Jake threw another punch, directed this time at Will for interfering. Will ducked under it and hooked a blow of his own into Jake’s midsection. That was the first time I had ever seen Will hit anybody. I was surprised when Jake turned pale and doubled over. Will gave him a push that sent him sprawling on the floor in front of the stage.

  Some of the people outside must have heard the commotion. The doors opened and curious faces peered in. Seeing three people down, several of the professors hurried in. I recognized the two who’d been arguing ever since we left Atlanta, but they weren’t squabbling at the moment. They looked worried, instead.

  “What’s going on here?” one of them asked. “Is anyone hurt? Dr. Jeffords, what happened to you?”

  Jeffords’s glasses were askew and blood leaked from his nose. Callie scrambled up and hurried over to him. As she dropped to her knees beside him on the steps, she said, “Andrew, are you all right? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I had n
o idea that he knew …”

  Gasping for breath, Jake sat up and said, “I know … all about it … you … you … I wasn’t asleep last night, like you thought I was. I knew … when you snuck out … followed you … saw you go to that old bastard’s room … I didn’t want to believe it … but you didn’t give me any choice.”

  If Jake had followed his wife the night before, that meant he could have been in the garden around the time of Howard Burleson’s murder, too. That thought shot through my mind. And once Jake had confirmed his suspicions, he would have returned to their room ahead of Callie, so he could go back to pretending to be asleep.

  I had no idea what had caused Callie to cheat on him. Obviously, he had a pretty violent temper, and from the first time I’d met them, the two of them hadn’t seemed like a very good match to me. But I’d seen a lot of happy couples who don’t have much in common, so I hadn’t really thought about it until I’d spotted Callie on Dr. Jeffords’s balcony last night.

  Their personal life was none of my business. The fact that Jake had probably been in the garden around the time of the murder was. Well, not according to the cops, of course, but I considered it my business.

  Right now, though, there was a commotion to smooth over. More people had crowded into the room, including some of the festival volunteers, and they wanted to know if anyone needed medical attention.

  “I’m all right,” Jeffords said. “Callie, help me up.”

  “Clearly you’re not all right, Andrew. You’re bleeding.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he insisted.

  She helped him to his feet while Will extended a hand to Jake Madison. Jake hesitated, then took it and let Will help him up. Grudgingly, he said, “That was a heck of a punch for a professor.”

  “Just instinct and luck,” Will said. “You tried to hit me and I struck back.”

  Jake turned to glare at Callie and Jeffords. “Now, you two–” he began.

  “Not in here,” I said. “Find someplace else to hash it out. There’s a panel about to start in here.”

  “Thank you,” one of the volunteers said to me. “Do we need to call the police to make sure there aren’t any more disturbances?”

  “Nah, I’m good,” Jake said. “I gotta make some calls. I want to line up the best divorce lawyer in Atlanta before she gets her hooks into him.”

  “Jake!” Callie cried. “I … I don’t want a divorce.”

  That made both Jake and Jeffords stare at her. After a moment, Jake said, “You got a funny way of showin’ it, then.”

  “Outside,” I said. “Talk about it outside.”

  Callie looked at me. “But … but I’m on this panel.”

  “We’ll make do with four panelists,” Will told her. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to try to continue.”

  “Dr. Burke is right, Callie,” Jeffords said. “You have your own drama to play out, rather than discussing the ones written by Tennessee Williams.”

  Only a professor would say something like that, I thought … but Jeffords was right, no matter how he put it.

  I managed to herd the three of them out of the auditorium. Will went as far as the doorway with us, where I paused and told him, “I was lookin’ forward to hearin’ what you had to say.”

  “I can give you the highlights later,” he said with a smile. “Although I doubt if they’ll be as exciting as the preliminaries.”

  “Huh,” I said. “That kind of excitement I can do without.”

  It was sort of appropriate, though, I thought as I left the auditorium with Callie, Jake, and Jeffords, having so much drama at a Tennessee Williams Festival. We’d had lust, greed, fistfights, murder, and plenty of emotional turmoil. Maybe a little madness, too, depending on whether or not Howard Burleson’s claims turned out to be true. If Williams had been writing all this, the language would have been fancier, but I was willing to bet he could have gotten enough material from this crazy bunch for a play or two.

  I got the Madisons and Dr. Jeffords off in a corner and told them, “I’m not a marriage counselor or a referee, but I think you folks need to talk about this.”

  Jake grunted. “What is there to talk about? She cheated on me … and with a guy who looks like Orville Redenbacher, for Christ’s sake!”

  I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who thought Dr. Jeffords bore an uncanny resemblance to the popcorn man. That didn’t help the situation, though.

  “Jake, I’m sorry,” Callie said. “I know that doesn’t mean anything to you right now, but I really am. I … I never meant for it to turn out this way. Andrew and I were working together and … and things just happened. You and I have grown so far apart–”

  “Oh, hell,” Jake broke in. “People always say that. It doesn’t mean anything. You either honor your vows or you don’t. Simple as that.”

  She looked down at the floor. “I know. You’re right.” Her eyes came back up and locked with his. “But I don’t want a divorce. I know that, too.”

  Jake looked confused. “Well … what do you want?”

  “To put all this behind us?”

  “Callie?” Jeffords exclaimed. “Does this mean–”

  She turned toward him. “I’m afraid it does, Andrew. We … we have to end it. I’m sorry.” She swung back to Jake and reached out to put her hand on his arm. “Let’s go back to the hotel and talk about it.”

  He looked steadily at her for a long moment, then heaved a sigh. “Yeah, I guess we ought to do that before we throw away fifteen years of marriage.”

  They started toward the door. I wanted to call out for them to wait. I hadn’t asked them any questions about Burleson’s murder. My mouth even opened.

  But I didn’t say anything. I supposed my investigation could wait. They were just going back to the hotel, not leaving town. Anyway, I couldn’t really bring myself to believe that either of them had killed Howard Burleson. They just didn’t have any reason to do that.

  But they might have seen something that could lead to the killer, I reminded myself. That was the real reason I needed to talk to them.

  “I … I don’t believe it,” Jeffords said as he stood beside me, watching Callie and Jake leave the museum. “She’s abandoning me and going back to that … that savage.”

  My opinion of all of them wasn’t very high at the moment, and that included Jeffords. Before I stalked off, I glared over at him for a second and said, “Oh, go pop some popcorn.”

  Since it hadn’t taken long to get things settled down between Callie and Jake, I slipped back into the auditorium and caught most of the panel. As I expected, it was sort of interesting at times, at least when Will was talking. The other professors droned a little and I had to stifle a yawn or two.

  When the panel was over, Will spent a few minutes talking to some of his colleagues who came up to him, then he noticed me waiting for him and excused himself. He came over to me and asked, “What happened with the Madisons and Dr. Jeffords?”

  “Callie and Jake went back to the hotel to talk. She was still claiming that she didn’t want a divorce, and I think there’s at least a chance she can talk him into goin’ along with that. I don’t know where Dr. Jeffords went, and I don’t care. What a dirty old man.”

  “Don’t be too rough on him,” Will said. “His wife died fairly young, while they were still in their forties. He’s been a widower for almost twenty years. If some young, attractive woman started paying attention to him–”

  “Don’t make excuses for him,” I said. “No matter how lonely he was, he knew she was married.”

  “Well, yeah, it’s hard to get around that, isn’t it?” Will admitted.

  We were standing not far from the auditorium doors, which were open now between panels. One of the festival volunteers, an attractive, middle-aged, obviously well-to-do lady, came into the room, looked around, and spotted us. She came toward us with a worried look on her face, which prompted me to mutter, “Uh-oh.”

  “Dr. Burke,” the woman
said. “I need your help.”

  “Of course,” Will said. “What can I do for you?”

  “Talk to Dr. Frasier, please, and try to convince him to put on his presentation.”

  “He wants to cancel it?” Will asked. I remembered our earlier conversation.

  “He says there’s no point in it now,” the volunteer said. “But that will leave us with a hole in the programming.”

  Will looked like he wished she hadn’t tried to rope him into this. But I wasn’t surprised when he nodded and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” It just wasn’t in Will’s nature to refuse when someone asked him for help. “No promises, though.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Burke.”

  We left the auditorium and saw Frasier standing in the museum lobby talking to three more volunteers–two men and another woman. As we walked over to join them, Frasier saw us coming and started to shake his head.

  “Forget it, Burke,” he said. “I’m not going through with it. There’s no reason to get up there and humiliate myself.”

  I knew that Will sort of agreed with him, but for the good of the festival, he was willing to go against his instincts, or at least try to.

  “Michael, no one blames you for what happened,” he began. “You can at least get up there and talk about the time Mr. Burleson spent with Tennessee Williams in Italy. I know that as talkative as Mr. Burleson was, he must have related a number of stories about those days to you. And he said they spent some time here in the French Quarter as well. None of that is really controversial.”

  Stubbornly, Frasier shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You know what the centerpiece of my presentation was … the old man himself. Without him, no one is going to believe anything I say. Better to let it go so that everyone can just forget about it. All I want to do now is move on.”

  A part of me wanted to feel sorry for him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He had rubbed me the wrong way too many times.

  Will said, “If you cancel your talk, Michael, people will remember you as a quitter.”