The Baron Blasko Mysteries (Book 3): Claws

by Howe, A. E.

  “A dozen, at least. François calls me his ambassador to Semmes County.”

  Josephine was now sure where the suggestion that Paige should become sheriff was coming from and she could guess why. Few men would be easier to manipulate than Paige. He was a nice enough guy and, when watched closely, he was a competent deputy. However, if he was put in the big chair he’d be flailing around until someone propped him up. Josephine wasn’t sure if this was an effort by one of the powerbrokers to gain more control or if François himself was trying to make a power play. The latter would be very worrisome and point toward Blasko being right about the man.

  “I’m really looking forward to tonight’s séance,” Josephine told Alice and began to walk toward the door, hoping Alice would take the hint. Alice was gregarious, but not one to overstay her welcome. She allowed Josephine to escort her to the door.

  “Anton!” Josephine yelled as soon as Alice was gone.

  The man appeared so suddenly behind her that she almost bumped into him.

  “Yes, please?” the little man said, looking down at the floor.

  “I have a chore for you to run.” She made sure he knew where Matthew lived and sent him to the boarding house with a note telling Matthew to meet her at the Robertsons’ house that night.

  An hour later, she found Bobby Tucker still at Charlie Parsons’s house.

  “Took me forever to find you. Most of the folks I asked weren’t sure where you were,” Josephine told him while her eyes took in the boarded-up window at the front of the house. “What happened here?”

  “Good question. I’m still not sure that what I saw actually happened.”

  “What?”

  Bobby sighed. “Last night, Blasko and I confronted Parsons. We found, actually the baron found, a piece of cloth with blood on it. He was sure that it was Parsons’s blood and… I guess we got it in our heads that it might be from a bite. I said as much and Parsons went… wolf.” There was no humor in Bobby’s words.

  “Went wolf? You mean he changed? In front of you?”

  “Damn straight! I…” He ran his hand over the top of his head, a tell for when he didn’t have a good answer for something. “I don’t know. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Crazier than the tentacled monster crawling out of the pit beneath Mrs. Rosehill’s?” Josephine found that hard to believe.

  “Yes, in its own way. To watch a person transform from a human into a werewolf? I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Needless to say, I haven’t broadcast what I saw beyond Etheridge, Blasko and you. I’ve been telling the deputies and the public that Parsons had been keeping a giant wolf hybrid that escaped with him. Both are to be considered dangerous.”

  “Speaking of Etheridge, we might have a problem.” Josephine told him what she’d learned that morning and what she suspected about François.

  “Willard Paige? That can’t happen. I’d quit before I’d work for that clodhopper,” Bobby said with resolve.

  “I’m going to a séance tonight. My plan is to find out what François’s game is.”

  “I don’t think that’s very wise.”

  “I’ll have Matthew with me.”

  “Still doesn’t sound like a great idea.”

  “I’ll be safe enough. I just hope I can pierce François’s suave veneer.”

  “I got through Parsons’s veneer last night and he turned into a wolf. You need to be careful and keep us informed of where you are and what’s going on,” Bobby insisted.

  “No word on Molly?”

  “Not yet. I think the options are all bad. Either she’s been killed by Parsons or she’s somehow involved.”

  “Involved? How?”

  “I’m just sayin’. She either was taken or ran off. Why else would she run off if she wasn’t involved?”

  “Scared, delirious. You saw her. She was half out of her mind from fear the day we met her. If she saw her mother and father killed, how much worse would she be?”

  “You have a point there,” Bobby agreed.

  “Could Parsons have killed Taylor and the Chesters?”

  “I will swear to the fact that he has the means. But motive and opportunity, I don’t know. I was just finishing going through all of his papers when you showed up. Want to go along with me while I talk to some of his friends and co-workers?”

  “Ready when you are, Sherlock.”

  “Let’s swing by the jail first. I think I can let Mr. Handlin go free.”

  “Should he go home with Parsons running loose?”

  “No. I’ll suggest that he leave town until Parsons is captured,” Bobby said, locking the door of the house and ushering Josephine out to his car. “I’ll follow you to your house, and you can drop off your car.”

  At the jail, Bobby had Timothy Handlin brought into an interrogation room. He looked even worse than the last time Bobby had seen him. His bruises had turned yellow and purple, making him look like some half human vegetable.

  “Charlie Parsons was having an affair with your wife,” Bobby told him, seeing no way to sugarcoat the information.

  “No,” Handlin said, shaking his head emphatically.

  “I’m sorry. There were articles of her clothing in his house and he admitted to seeing her.”

  Without saying a word, Handlin put his head down on the table.

  “Did you see any signs of their relationship?”

  “Maybe. She was gone sometimes in the afternoon and, when I’d ask her where she’d been, her answers didn’t always make much sense,” he said without lifting up his head.

  “You didn’t press her on it?”

  “I didn’t want to be one of those jerks who has to know what his wife is doing every second of the day. I wanted her to feel like she could take some time to herself. I sometimes just drive out into the country and sit in the car and smoke a cigarette. You know?”

  “Did you ever see Parsons?”

  “Sometimes. We had a few parties at the house. Charlie would bring the booze. What are you saying? Charlie didn’t do this. It was some sort of creature. I saw it!” He looked up.

  “You were badly injured. We think that Parsons wore a costume of some sort when he broke into your house and killed your wife and attacked you,” Bobby lied. “We think the motive for the murder could be that your wife was going to break off the affair.”

  Josephine looked hard at Bobby. He didn’t know any such thing. He was just throwing the poor man a bone, something he’d be able to cling to in the long days that were to come. Handlin would be able to think that, in the end, his wife was going to come back to him.

  “Do you know if Charlie Parsons knew the Taylor or Chester families?”

  “The other people that were attacked?”

  “Yes. Did he ever mention them?”

  A thought occurred to Josephine and she spoke up for the first time: “Did the dairy get milk from local farmers?”

  Handlin nodded. “Sure. Charlie talked about the supply and some of the troubles they had. Particularly when the banks were failing and milk prices crashed. Farmers didn’t want to deliver the milk. Some of them would pour it out on the ground rather than sell it to Charlie’s company at the prices they were paying. He bragged that one of the reasons he got the promotion to manager was his idea of forming relationships with some of the smaller dairy farmers so that the company wasn’t beholden to just a few of the largest dairies. He said it also kept the small farms from undercutting their prices.”

  “Taylor has a herd of dairy cows,” Bobby said.

  No matter what they tried, they couldn’t get Handlin to remember Charlie Parsons ever talking about Seth Taylor or Molly Chester.

  “We’ll walk you out,” Bobby finally told him. “Do you need a ride home?”

  “After being cooped up in here for days, I’m looking forward to stretching my legs.”

  “Go home and get what you need, but until we catch Parsons, you need to leave town.”

  Handlin looked at them with sa
d eyes and nodded.

  “Where to now?” Josephine asked once they were back in Bobby’s car.

  “The Taylors’ farm. I want to see if any of them remember Parsons ever mentioning Molly.”

  Josephine and Bobby received a cold welcome from Elroy Taylor.

  “Where’s the murderer of my son?” he asked as soon as Bobby and Josephine got out of the car. He’d been preparing the soil in a garden plot beside the house when they drove up. As soon as he saw them, he’d tossed the reins of the mule over the fence and walked up to them.

  “I confronted a man who might have been involved last night,” Bobby said.

  “Involved? What kind of word is that? Did he kill him or not?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Who?”

  “Charlie Parsons.”

  “The guy from Southern Alabama Dairy? That fella? What sense does that make?” Elroy was shaking his head, looking like he couldn’t decide whether to be angry or confused.

  “We think he might have been interested in Molly Chester.”

  Elroy deflated before their eyes and leaned against Bobby’s car. Even though the air was cool, sweat formed on his brow.

  “Why don’t we go up and sit on the porch?” Josephine suggested. She gave Elroy a smile and a nod toward the porch as encouragement.

  “Of course.” Looking even older than his years, he led them through the gate and up to the porch. There were several rocking chairs and a swing. Josephine took the swing while the men sat in the rockers.

  “I didn’t know that Seth was seeing the Chester girl and I don’t know how I feel about it. Now Chester and his wife are dead. It’s too much. My missus wants us to sell up and move. But who’s going to buy a farm now?”

  “Did Parsons come out here very often?”

  “I don’t think he came more than once or twice. First time was to give us a sales pitch about how much money we could save letting Southern Alabama do all the sellin’ and deliverin’. He said all we’d have to do is fill up the milk cans and have them ready for his trucks to pick up. Guess he was as good as his word. Only once did I have to go in and talk to him. The driver, when he picked up, didn’t count one of the cans. I knew ’cause it’d been the same amount every time.”

  “You went in and questioned them? Did you talk to Parsons himself?”

  “He was the one who sold me on them, so, yeah, I went to talk with him. Can’t say a bad word about him. He looked at all the old invoices and then corrected the one that’d been wrong. Gave me my money right there. Now you’re telling me that he killed my son?”

  “We think so. We know that he killed Mrs. Handlin.”

  “Heard about that. Everyone sayin’ it was the same animal that killed Seth, but that don’t make no sense. What kind of animal ranges that far and kills one man out in a field and then some woman in town? No sense.” He shook his head.

  “Did you ever hear anyone, your son, Charlie Parsons, anyone, mention Molly Chester?”

  “Nope. I’d hardly heard of the girl till my son was killed and people were sayin’ they stepped out together. Now, my wife, she did know Molly. The Chesters went to church at Broad Creek Baptist, same as us.”

  “Could we talk to your wife?”

  “I’ll check. She had a sick headache earlier. Been gettin’ a lot of them since Seth was killed. My other son and daughter come by regular. Doesn’t seem to help. She doted on that boy.” He got up slowly and went into the house, letting the screen door close with a bang.

  The woman that came back with Elroy was thin and sad-eyed. She wore a housedress and fidgeted with her clothes.

  “Vera, they just want to ask you a few questions,” Elroy told her. Bobby had stood up as soon as she came out of the house.

  “I’m Deputy Tucker and this is Josephine Nicolson. Go ahead and have a seat.”

  “I don’t know what I can tell you,” she said, sitting on the edge of one of the rockers.

  “Did you know that your son was seeing Molly Chester?” Bobby asked and saw her glance up quickly at her husband, who was standing across from her.

  “I thought he might be sweet on her,” she said softly.

  “Why was that?”

  “He was goin’ to church. Seth quit goin’ when he was ten, then all of a sudden he’s gettin’ dressed up to go to church again. I seen them makin’ eyes at each other a couple times.” She looked down, not meeting the look her husband was giving her.

  “Do you know Charlie Parsons?” Bobby asked.

  Vera looked up at him, confused. “Who?”

  “Charlie Parsons. He ran the dairy that processed and distributed your farm’s milk.”

  “I don’t have anything to do with the milk.” She shook her head.

  “Never heard Seth mention him?”

  “No.”

  “How well did you know Molly?”

  “I didn’t hardly know her at all. I knew her mother a little. Horrible, horrible what happened to them.” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she wiped them away. “Our church is reaching out to their family in Birmingham. And Molly, where is that poor girl? Killed, I’d expect.” She wiped more tears. “What’s happening to our town?” she said, looking at Josephine and Bobby.

  “There is evil loose in the county and I promise you we’ll track it down,” Bobby said.

  “You need to get on with it,” Elroy said sadly. He stepped forward and put his hand on his wife’s shoulder and she reached up to clutch it. “We’ve buried our son. Now I’d like to see his killer buried.”

  They left the couple looking forlorn on the front porch.

  “We didn’t prove much,” Bobby said.

  “We know that Parsons was visiting local farms. It’s possible he could have met Molly.”

  “He was already seeing a married woman. Why would he suddenly go after Molly?”

  “Maybe he had some sort of grudge against Seth.”

  “Back to Seth being the intended target. Then why go after Molly and her family?”

  “Because she saw something that would lead back to him.”

  “Molly eliminated as a witness. That makes more sense to me than Molly as a love interest.”

  “Now only Molly and Parsons know the truth,” Josephine said, “assuming Molly is still alive.”

  “Finding either one is going to take a stroke of luck.”

  Bobby drove them back to Charlie Parsons’s house.

  “I want to walk through the house,” Josephine said.

  “Sure. I’ve been through everything, but another pair of eyes won’t hurt.” Bobby shrugged.

  Inside, Josephine examined the wreckage in the living room. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

  “The baron was quite the sight, riding on the back of that thing. I owe him. Ever since he came to town, the world seems to have flipped on its head. On one hand, I want to blame him for it, but we’ve come through the worst of it because of him.” Bobby shook his head.

  “The older I get, the more I believe in fate. I believe that we can shape our destiny, but we can’t avoid it,” Josephine said.

  “You think this insanity is our destiny?”

  “Since we are living it, I do.” She turned and started down the hall. In the master bedroom, all the dresser drawers had been turned out.

  “I didn’t do the neatest job,” Bobby apologized.

  She picked up a cardboard photo album. Opening it, she found black pages with pictures glued neatly in place. All of the pictures were of Madilyn Handlin. Charlie Parsons was in some of them, but most of them were just her. Many had been taken outdoors, and Madilyn was smiling in all of them. Her white teeth gleamed and, even in the black-and-white photos, Josephine thought she could see a twinkle in the woman’s eye.

  “She looks so happy.”

  “So does he. But being a deputy, I’ve learned that love can change to hate in a very short time. You mix in a husband and, well…”

  “I see your point.” She looked at some of t
he other items Bobby had uncovered, then picked up a small cedar box full of trinkets. Inside were tickets, cards and letters. All of them were from Madilyn.

  “They’re well worn. Looks like he took them out and read them often,” Josephine said.

  “I looked through a few of them. Pure mush. She was clearly in love with Parsons.”

  “Anything about her husband?”

  “Just regrets. When she mentions him, it’s in comparison to Parsons and Handlin doesn’t fare will. Nothing nasty, though. I was talking to a deputy who knows the Handlins. He said that they married when they were both sixteen. Guess the love just didn’t last.”

  “That was sweet of you to tell him she was planning to give up the affair.”

  “I hope he never sees these letters.”

  “Think Madilyn had a similar box?”

  “If so, I hope she hid it well.” Bobby was quiet for a moment, then asked, “You ever think about us?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What would have happened if we’d… you know, gotten married,” Bobby said, looking at her with a solemn expression.

  Josephine sighed. “I used to… Bobby Tucker, you are a good man. I think in the right situation, you could be a great man. But together, I never felt like we raised each other up. I think you are better without me. We make great friends. I don’t even mind that I feel a spark of… something once in a while. But a real relationship between us, I think, would lessen each of us.”

  When she saw the hangdog look in his eyes, her heart ached for him. There had been times when she had tried to force her heart to care more for him than it did. Those days were part of her youth now, and she wasn’t going to revisit them.

  “I think I understand. Maybe you’re right. If so, then I’m glad you were strong enough to resist. I wouldn’t have been.”

  Josephine reached out and took his hand and, together, they walked out of the house.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Josephine found Grace and Anna in the kitchen.

  “I’ll be going out this evening, so I’d like to eat early,” she told them. Hearing the sound of snoring, she turned to find Anton Lacob in a chair behind the door with his head on his chest as it rose and fell. “He can’t be comfortable,” she muttered as she left the kitchen.