DEAD AS a DOORNAIL

by Tonya Kappes

  Did Blanche know something that might be a lead?

  “I thought the same thing and stopped by the gun show on my way over. Of course the women were all sad about Lucy, which is natural,” I added just for empathy’s sake.

  “Yeah, right.” The sarcasm was apparent in Blanche’s tone. “They don’t care about each other. I do all their alterations.”

  “Really?” I asked. “And?”

  Blanche’s eyes shifted sideways to look at me, but her face stayed turned to the dress. She gave a slight smile.

  “And they have all their private functions at that cabin that’s situated in the middle of all them deer stands. From what I heard, Art Baskin and Danny Shane not only built it for the club, but they put in security cameras in case someone came in and trashed the place. Darnell and Bosco were fighting over who was going to pay for their share. Darnell claimed he did all the taxidermy for cheap where Bosco did nothing.” She let out a deep breath. “Now, that’s just what I heard while I was pinning up Danny’s wife’s dress for the wedding.”

  She referred to Art Baskin, the owner of the only security system store in Cottonwood, and Danny Shane, owner of Shane Construction.

  “She told you this?” I asked but didn’t make eye contact.

  It was an unwritten law that if there was some knowledge, in this case gossip, being spread, eye contact while telling the tale made it more solid. And no one in Cottonwood would ever get caught gossiping. Right.

  “Sheila Shane was on the phone and I can’t help but overhear things.” She brushed her hands along the fabric around my waistline and down my hips. She took a step back. Her head tilted to the left and to the right as if she were getting perspective of her handiwork and how it fit me. “And there was some talk that they’d never know the truth behind the fight between Darnell and Bosco because the only witness was now dead.”

  “Lucy?” I questioned.

  “Honey, it looks so good now.” She drew up her chin up to my face, her eyes followed. She gave a sweet smile that told me she wasn’t going to confirm my question, but I knew I was right.

  “Well, I better get going.” I turned back around to let her unzip me. “I left Duke in the car. He’s probably ready to get going.”

  “The dress looks so much better.” She bent down and picked my clothes up off the floor since the dress and crinoline made it hard for me to even move. “Now, you take it home and next week a couple of days before the wedding, I’m gonna have you try it on again before I quickly sew it in place.”

  I slipped my jeans up my legs and took the dress up over my head to put my sheriff’s shirt back on.

  “What do I owe you?” I asked.

  “Just find out who killed Lucy Ellen Lowell. Not that she and I were best friends, but she does deserve to rest in peace.” She patted my hand. “You come back and tell me what happens with your mama and Christmas.” She winked and walked me outside of her house, making her way back to her garden.

  I hurried to the car with the dress draped over my forearm.

  “Good boy,” I said to Duke and shoved the dress behind me in the backseat. I patted Duke’s head and he gave me a couple of good kisses. “We’ve got to go make a stop to see Bosco Frederick.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about.” Poppa appeared in the front seat of the Jeep.

  Duke jumped to the back.

  “Duke.” I reached around and tugged on the dress but Duke didn’t budge. “Can you get off?”

  “He ain’t gonna hurt that ugly thing.” Poppa’s nose curled.

  “I guess you’re right.” I turned the engine over and pulled down Second Street.

  The dress was the last thing on my mind now that it fit. It was Blanche’s story that had me raring to go. I drew out on my cell and called Art Baskin. He’d worked with me on a couple cases before and I wanted to get his take on what Blanche had told me about the argument between Bosco and Darnell.

  “Hi there,” I said when someone answered the phone of Art’s office. “This is Sheriff Kenni Lowry and I wanted to speak to Art.”

  “He’s not here right now. Actually, he won’t be here for a few days. He’s gone hunting.” The lady told me. “But I’ll leave a message for him if he calls in.”

  “That’d be great. Thanks.” I hung up. I scrolled through my phone. I’d called Danny Shane a couple times about his construction business as well as his dairy farm. “Hello, this is Sheriff Kenni Lowry. Can I please speak to Danny?”

  “I’m sorry. He’s on vacation this week.” His secretary was a lot more discreet than Art’s. “I’ll tell him you called, unless this is an emergency? Then I can put you through to Sandy.”

  “No thanks. I’ll just wait to talk to Danny.” I clicked off my phone.

  “We are on our way to Darnell’s.” I tapped the wheel in anticipation for the stoplight to change so I could turn left out of Second Street and then take a right on Main. “But first I want to drop Duke off at the department.”

  The thought of the murder sprinkled goosebumps along my neck.

  “The question I keep going back to is who is framing Tina.” I looked over at Poppa. His stare were haunting.

  The next hour I spent going through the Lowell house with permission of Darnell. I picked up couch cushions, went through Lucy’s car and all of the beds and drawers, plus the basement, and literally found nothing. Finn was right. It was as if the killer and any sort of crime had vanished. I’d even looked for the bottle of pills Darnell told me Lucy Ellen had been taking since Camille didn’t seem to know when I asked her about it at Blanche’s house. Camille said that Lucy Ellen didn’t have high blood pressure or any other illness. What was she taking?

  I flipped on the light to Darnell’s work building, which was just a detached garage behind their house. The beady eyes of mounted deer heads, bucks, raccoons, and other critters with their mouths open, teeth showing, stared back at me. It was an unsettling feeling being here and knowing they’d met their demise from someone actually stalking and hunting them, sort of like the person who wanted Lucy Ellen dead.

  I stepped inside to take a look around. Not that I thought Darnell had even thought to kill his wife, much less put cyanide in her fingernail polish, but just like Poppa said, no stone unturned until we find the killer.

  The unsnapping of my flashlight holder echoed through the garage as I curled up on my tiptoes to shine the light into the animals’ mouths in case something was hidden.

  “The killer doesn’t want to be found out.” Poppa scared me out of my skin.

  I jumped around with a tight grip on the handle of the black flashlight.

  “Poppa! What happened to letting me know you were coming?” I asked.

  “We’ve gone over this,” he said flatly. “I’ve shown up unannounced and this is how you react. I’ve shown up announced and this is how you react. It seems to me that it’s you who needs to be more observant.”

  “Whatever.” I eyeballed him. “You never told me what happened at Dixon’s.”

  “Just a bunch of rowdy preteen boys that needed a little scaring. If they don’t get scared now, they will be the next criminals.” He laughed. “I’m kinda liking this ghost thing. I untied one of the boy’s shoes and stepped on the shoelace with one foot and did the same to the boy standing next to him. When I sent the candy flying off the shelf, they looked at each other and tried to take off running. Then tripped all over one another because I was standing on some shoelaces.”

  This was a different side of Poppa that he rarely showed. When he was living, he was so focused on the job and not living life. Being a ghost brought out the playful side in him and I enjoyed seeing it.

  “Heathens,” he spat, and both of us laughed.

  There were a few of those cardboard boxes that stored printer paper with “photos” written in Sharpie stored on one of the wire shelves.
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  “Yeah. There’s a lot of heathens around here lately.” I slid the lid off and started going through the memories Darnell was holding onto.

  There were photos as far back as their wedding. Lucy Ellen sure did make a beautiful bride. Looking at her made me think of Polly. I really should be much more involved and nicer than I’d been. After all, it was her big day.

  The beach pictures of her and Darnell were sweet. They were smiling and laughing. Though they never had children, they did look like they really enjoyed themselves.

  “Whoa, look at that.” Poppa was looking over my shoulder. “They sure were good friends.”

  Darnell and Bosco were in some hunting photos holding their trophies up by the antlers.

  “And vacations?” he asked when I continued to thumb through more photos of Lucy, Darnell, Bosco and Alma together on what looked like a cruise, at casinos, and on the beach.

  “And look at this one.” I held up one where Lucy Ellen was sitting on Darnell’s lap and Alma was glaring at them. Bosco must’ve taken it. “And this one.”

  There were several photos where Alma was not the happy one in the photos.

  “And she told me they weren’t friends.” I let out a long deep breath. “I’ve got to go see Bosco Frederick. I wonder if he’s at home.”

  “Only one way to find out.” Poppa was thinking what I was thinking.

  “With Alma at the gun show, maybe he’s home, so we’ll check there first.” I stuck a couple of the photos in my pocket and put the lid back on the box before I slid it back into place on the wire rack. “If he’s not there, we might have to go to the woods.” I looked over at Duke. “I’m going to take you to the department first.”

  Within a couple of minutes, we’d pulled in front of Cowboy’s Catfish in the open parking space, which was rare, so I took it.

  Laughter spilling out of The Tattered Cover Books and Inn caught my attention. Darnell had said he was staying there and a quick stop in to ask him about the photos wouldn’t hurt. I needed to get down to the truth about the friendship Alma and Lucy Ellen had and why Alma was going to great lengths to cover it up.

  Duke and I trotted across the street like a game of Frogger. The Tattered Cover Books and Inn, Tattered Cover for short, was one of two places to stay while visiting Cottonwood. The other was The Inn and it was located near the river. So you could choose to enjoy the downtown shops and eateries if you stayed at The Tattered Cover or the beautiful Kentucky scenery and landscape the country had to offer at The Inn.

  “You stay out here,” I instructed Duke. He wasn’t very fond of cats and Purdy was the mascot of the hotel.

  Nanette was sitting with Darnell in what I called the refreshment room, to the right as soon as you walked through the front door. Nanette was the owner and operator of the hotel and she took great pride in offering refreshments and cold iced tea to her inn guests.

  “Lucy Ellen did love cats.” Darnell rubbed down Purdy, the feline curled up on his lap.

  “You know if there’s anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable, you just have to blink. Not even ask.” Nanette stood up. She gave me a sympathetic smile when she noticed I’d walked into the room.

  “Hi, Kenni.” When she said my name, Darnell looked up. The sudden jerk must’ve scared Purdy because she bolted off his lap.

  “Hello, Nanette.” I gestured to Darnell. “I wanted to come by and ask Darnell a few questions. Do you mind leaving us alone for a minute?” I asked.

  “Sure.” Nanette nodded and walked backward toward the hallway. “I can even shut the double doors so no one else will interrupt you.”

  She moved back a couple of the wing-backed chairs that helped keep the doors propped open and quietly shut the doors behind her.

  “Do you have any news?” Darnell asked.

  “Nothing yet, but I wanted to know about these.” I pulled the photos out for him to look at.

  He cracked a weak smile and gave a slight nod of his head.

  “Those were the days.” He flipped through them again before handing them back to me. “The four of us were good friends in our younger days. Me and Bosco used to be hunting partners, but Alma put an end to that.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “She started to do some really weird things, like sabotage things Lucy Ellen would do for the club. The members of the club, we like to get together. Lucy Ellen had prepared all the meat for one of them get-togethers and it was all the meat from our freezer. Alma ended up bringing Bosco’s meat.” He looked down at his hand and twirled his wedding band.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s a big deal to have your meat featured at a cookout and all your buddies eat it. Lucy Ellen loved to prepare my meats in a fancy marinade and sauce. Bosco didn’t let Alma prepare his meat. But Alma couldn’t stand that my meat was going to be featured and when she pulled out their meat, Lucy Ellen lost it. She didn’t understand why Alma would do such a thing when there was an unwritten rule.”

  “I see.” I eased up to the edge of the chair. “Are you okay?”

  His hands were shaking, he looked up with wet eyes, his lips curled in, his chest jerked as he tried to fight back tears.

  “I never thought of Alma hurting my Lucy Ellen until now.” His voice cracked. “Do you think she did it?”

  “I’m not sure. But I’m looking at everyone.” I patted his leg. “Did you know of any other tension between the two women?”

  “That was the beginning of this crazy notion that Lucy Ellen had to compete with Alma. Lucy Ellen started doing weird shopping and wanting all sorts of crazy things done to her body like...” He started to tap his head.

  “Botox?” I asked.

  “Yes. Lucy Ellen said she talked to Camille about it. I told her no. That she was beautiful the way she was and she said that she didn’t want to look older than she was. I told her she was acting nuts.” He gulped.

  “I talked to Camille and she didn’t say anything about Botox, but she did say that Lucy Ellen didn’t have high blood pressure or any other illness. You said…” I took my notebook out of the front pocket of my shirt and started to flip through it. “Where is it?”

  I continued to flip until I got to the page.

  “Here.” I read off my notes from the initial investigation. “You said that she was taking a pill. Do you know what pill that was?”

  “No clue.” He shrugged.

  “I couldn’t find any pills at the house and Camille said it could be a vitamin. Did she take vitamins?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. She took care of any medical things. If I got a cold, she took care of me and I swallowed whatever she gave me.”

  I smiled at his words.

  “Who’s going to take care of me now?” He put his head into his hands and began to sob. “Who would do this?”

  “I’m not sure.” I rubbed his back and sat with him for a few minutes until his crying stopped.

  “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be crying like a baby, but me and Lucy, we don’t have no kids and no family here. My brother down in Tulsa said I could come live with him and his family, but that’s just not home.” He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. “I’ve got an appointment with Max today to make arrangements for the funeral.”

  I wanted to tell him to steer clear of next weekend’s Parker wedding, but I figured Max would know all of that.

  “I’ve taken up enough of your time. If you remember anything specific about Alma and Lucy, let me know.” I stood up. “One more question. What did Bosco think of all this nonsense between your wives?”

  “He said that we couldn’t be partners anymore. He said that Alma continued to ask him to find out what Lucy Ellen was doing or where she was during the day, clubs she was in outside of the Hunt Club. It was weird, so he said that it was best we didn’t hang out anymore because
it drove his wife crazy and she was driving him crazy.” He sniffed.

  “Thanks, Darnell. I’ll be in touch.” I opened the double doors and waved to Nanette on my way out of the hotel.

  “Good boy.” I patted Duke on the head. He’d stayed exactly where I told him to. He was such a good boy.

  We crossed the street and headed on back to Cowboy’s Catfish.

  The restaurant was busy and so was the staff. Duke and I headed on back to the office, though Duke did make a small detour to the many outstretched hands that summoned him over for a pat. He was a sucker for those fingers.

  “Thank gawd you’re back.” Tina jumped up from the cot and stuck the center of her face in between the bars. “I’ve got to get a shower before tonight. I’ve got an alibi. This is ridiculous.”

  “Kenni, she’s driving me crazy.” Betty raised her hand in the air, extended her fingers, and make the talking gesture.

  I looked between them. Betty’s face was pinched and stressed.

  “Wally hasn’t come to get her yet?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Betty griped.

  “I was going to leave Duke here, but I guess he can go with me. I can drop Tina off.” I knew it was unconventional and her lawyer should come get her, but Cottonwood and our department was unconventional.

  “Great. And,” she handed me a piece of paper, “call your mama.”

  I tucked the piece of paper in my back pocket and walked over to the cell. I twisted the handle.

  “You mean to tell me this wasn’t locked?” Tina stepped out.

  “Nah.” I put my hand on my utility belt. “Betty, can you pull up Bosco Frederick’s address?”

  “I know where they live.” Tina sucked in a deep breath. “Freedom sure does smell good.”

  “You know how to get there?” I asked.

  “I had to go out there once when Alma had the Hunt Club ladies over for a spa day. I’m not gonna say it’s far, but I had to grease the wagon twice before I hit the main road.” Her lips duck-billed.