Murder at Moonshiner Days

by Michelle Goff

  “So, she didn’t say anything about meeting someone?”

  Blake twisted the lanyard between her fingers. “Unless somebody can prove it to me, I can’t believe that she would even visit those online dating sites. But there was something going on. One night, I went to her room to tell her good night and she was on a video chat or Skyping or something like that with a man. When she saw me, she told me she’d be finished in a few minutes. When she came to my room a little later, she was really upset. She sat on my bed and told me that you never know people. She told me it was important that I remember that. That I remember that no matter how well you think you know someone, you never actually do know them.”

  “Blake, even though I met your mom, I won’t pretend that I knew her. But, from what you’re saying, she could very well have learned that a man she had been talking to had lied to her.” When Blake shook her head, Maggie added, “Why are you dismissing this possibility?”

  “Because I know. I just know.”

  “Okay. Do you remember when this happened?”

  “The summer before she died? Maybe. I’m not really sure. It could have been that fall.”

  Maggie pretended to review her notes before stumbling through the next sentence. “I, uh, wanted to ask you about something else.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ve also heard that, uh, you pushed your mom, uh, so hard that she, uh, fell.”

  “What’s going on in here?” Maggie turned to see Jeff Little standing in the doorway between his office and garage. Although he had displayed a quickness in movement during their first encounter, the speed at which he materialized at the door led Maggie to believe he had been eavesdropping on her entire conversation with Blake.

  “She was just asking me a few questions, Dad.”

  “I heard what she was asking you and I don’t like it.”

  “It’s okay, Dad, really it is.” Looking to Maggie, Blake added, “I’m not proud of that. It’s no excuse, but I had a bad day at school. I didn’t do well on an exam and then I messed up during soccer practice. And I had a zit in the middle of my forehead and another one on my chin. When I came home, Mom told me that I needed to do something about my acne. It made me feel so ugly. It reminded me of all the times she had picked on my clothes or my hair or the books and movies I like.” Blake was talking so rapidly that Maggie had trouble taking notes. She instinctively made sure the green light on her recorder was lit. “I yelled at her,” Blake continued, “and told her to leave me alone. She yelled back and told me that she would not be disrespected in her own home. She picked up the phone to call Dad. I don’t know why, but that made me even madder. I grabbed the phone out of her hand and pushed her away. I didn’t mean for her to fall down, but she did. I guess I pushed her too hard. There was a knot and a bruise on her head the next day. I really could have hurt her.”

  “But you didn’t hurt her and that’s all that matters,” Jeff said. “You didn’t hurt your mom.”

  “But I could have,” Blake said in a soft voice.

  “Did you know about this?” Maggie asked Jeff.

  “Yeah. Jennifer called me later that night. I agreed that Blake shouldn’t be disrespecting her, but I told her – for the umpteenth time – that she shouldn’t be so hard on our girl.”

  Recalling what Sylvie Johnson had told her about the day at the dress shop, Maggie asked, “Blake, was this before or after you went shopping for prom dresses?”

  “Before.”

  “Did anything happen when you and your mom were shopping for dresses?”

  Placing a strong hand on Maggie’s shoulder, Jeff said, “It’s time for you to go.”

  As Maggie extracted herself from his grasp, Blake pleaded, “Dad, leave her alone. She’s just asking questions and I don’t have anything to hide.”

  Maggie, who was now standing, collected her notepad, recorder, and purse and left without saying goodbye. She had reached her car when she heard Blake calling her name. She turned to see Blake jogging toward her.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Blake said. “He’s really protective of me, especially when it comes to my mom.”

  “That’s understandable.”

  “I also wanted to tell you something.” Blake hung her head. “Do you remember the first question you asked me about my mom?”

  “No, not right off.”

  “You asked me to tell you something about her nobody else knew.”

  “Oh, I remember that now.”

  “There is something about her that no one else, well, almost no one else, knew. I’ve kept it as a secret because I didn’t want to cause trouble for anybody. But it’s the reason I know she wasn’t seeing somebody she’d met online. Mom had a boyfriend. She was seeing Mr. Taylor.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The speed at which information was coming at her overwhelmed Maggie. She couldn’t dwell on Blake’s news, though. She had to focus on her meeting with Didi. But as she drove to Didi’s, images of Jennifer Wagner and Todd Taylor kept encroaching into her thoughts.

  “Jennifer. And Todd. How did I not see that? Were there clues that I missed? This means he had a motive. He could have killed her. And he could have cut himself while doing so. Oh, my God. Stop. Think about Didi. Just Didi. I wonder if Traci knows about Todd and Jennifer. This gives her a motive, too.”

  Such thoughts played on a loop in Maggie’s mind until she arrived at Didi’s.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Didi asked. “Your face is flushed. Are you sick? This change of weather will give every one of us pneumonia. It was so nice last week and we all lost our minds and ran around in short sleeves and shorts and without shoes. And it not even May. You know, my Mommy wouldn’t allow us to go outside in our bare feet until the first of May.”

  Maggie settled into the same rocking chair in which she had sat during her first visit to Didi’s. “My mom says the same thing. One time I asked her what we would do if it was seventy degrees and sunny on the last day of April, but forty degrees and rainy on the first day of May. She told me to quit being a smarty pants.”

  “You sure you don’t want to go inside?” Didi asked. “This porch keeps out the rain, but it’s still chilly out here. You won’t have to worry about Winfrey. I’ll put him in his room.”

  “We can stay out here, if that’s okay. I am kind of hot. I need to cool down.” Her meeting with Blake notwithstanding, Maggie tried to avoid going indoors alone with anyone she suspected of murder. Of course, she always informed at least one person of her whereabouts in case she disappeared into an abandoned mining shaft, and earlier in the day she had shared her sleuthing plans with her mom. Still, she knew better than to take unnecessary risks.

  “Didi, when I was here before, you told me you hadn’t talked to Jennifer in six months. I have since learned that you and Jennifer had a shouting match at her house a few weeks before her death.”

  Didi remained perched on the edge of her chair. “I’m sorry for leading you to believe that. I could make excuses about how it wasn’t really a lie, but that would be a lie, too.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

  “I’m not stupid. I know how it looks. I mean, that’s why you’re here now. If I had thought somebody had seen us arguing, I would have told you the truth right from the get-go. But when the police didn’t come talk to me, I figured nobody knew.”

  “What were you arguing about?”

  “What else? The property.”

  “But why that day?”

  “One Sunday evening, me and my husband were sitting out here. He was playing the guitar for me. He likes to do that. It being a Sunday, he was playing gospel songs. And all of a sudden, Jennifer drove by and pulled into Mel’s property. There was another car behind her. I knew who it was before the man got out of the car. He sells dope in a holler that’s just down the road. He got out of that car like he already owned the place. She showed him around and then they stood in front of her car for a minute before shaking hands and gettin
g in their cars. She had a big smile on her face. When she drove past the house, she tooted her horn at us and waved. That infuriated me. I called her, but she wouldn’t answer. I tried calling her for days, but she still wouldn’t answer. I took it till I couldn’t take it no more, and one day I jumped in my car and went to her house. I let her have it. I told her that Mel would be ashamed of her for selling property that had been in his family for two hundred years to a no-good drug dealer.” Didi’s eyes began to water. “You know what she said to me? She told me that Mel was the one ashamed. That he was ashamed of me. That he made fun of my big hair and chubby fingers. Why would she say such a thing to me? What did I ever do to her? I just wanted my daddy’s land.”

  “I’m sorry, Didi. It does sound like she went out of her way to hurt you.”

  “You can say that again. You know how I told you she wanted double for the property? Well, that day, she told me she’d take no less than a hundred thousand dollars for it. And that if she didn’t get it by a certain day, she’d sell it to that dope dealer.” Didi’s voice cracked. “That broke me. I couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t live with the thought of this place being run over by druggies. I wouldn’t be able to rest. I wouldn’t feel safe.”

  “What was the deadline?”

  “I don’t even remember now. It’s so funny how things work out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jennifer died, Blake sold me the property, and I tried to forget all about the drug dealer.”

  “But, Didi, this gives you a motive.”

  Shrugging, Didi said, “I know my feelings for Jennifer are wrong. I know that only God should have the power to give and to take a life. But I’m grateful for the person who took Jennifer’s life. You know what I found out after she died? I ran into the dope dealer when I was getting gas. I marched right up to him and said, ‘I guess we’re not going to be neighbors after all.’ He give me the strangest look, so I told him who I was. He smiled and said he never had no intention of buying that property. He only come up here that day cause Jennifer paid him to. I know it would disappoint my mommy and daddy and Oprah, but I can’t change the way I feel. I’m glad Jennifer’s dead.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Maggie’s eyes slowly closed and her head bobbed to the right. In the few precious minutes she spent in that sweet spot between wakefulness and sleep, she listed the questions she intended to ask Todd Taylor. She also imagined she was making microwave popcorn. Although the hum from the microwave lulled her even closer to a rendezvous with Mr. Sandman, she suddenly reminded herself that she preferred to make popcorn on the stovetop and that she was waiting in the teachers’ lounge for Todd. Her eyes flew open just as the microwave beeped. When she blinked away the sleep, she saw Todd standing before her holding a bag of microwave popcorn.

  “Oh, my God,” she said. “I can’t believe I fell asleep. I’m so embarrassed. Why didn’t you wake me?”

  Lowering himself onto a tattered sofa, Todd said, “I figured that if you were falling asleep in the middle of the day, and in public no less, you probably needed the nap.”

  “I am really sleepy,” Maggie admitted. The night before she had been repeatedly jolted awake during the fits of sleep she had managed to steal. Her mind had raced with garbled thoughts of the suspects in Jennifer’s murder and with the increasing understanding that she was missing something important.

  Shaking the bag, Todd asked, “Want some popcorn?”

  “No, thank you. How’s your arm?”

  “It’s good. I should only have to wear the sling for a few more days.”

  Stifling a yawn, Maggie said, “I don’t want to take up your entire planning period, so I’ll give you one more chance to tell the truth. Is there anything you haven’t told me about Jennifer?”

  Todd stopped chewing. “No, I’ve told you everything I know, which isn’t much.”

  Sighing, Maggie asked, “Todd, were you having an affair with Jennifer Wagner?”

  Todd sat staring open-mouthed at Maggie. He seemed to be in a trance, so Maggie snapped her fingers and said, “Todd, tell me about your relationship with Jennifer.”

  “How do you know about that? Nobody else knew.”

  “Actually, Blake knew. She kept your secret for months, but she finally told me yesterday.”

  Crunching the bag with his free hand, Todd said, “Jennifer swore Blake didn’t know.”

  “I guess she was wrong.”

  Todd repeatedly pounded the bag against the couch. “This can’t get out. I have a good reputation in this town.”

  Perhaps you should have considered your reputation before you started an affair, Maggie thought to herself. To Todd, she said, “You’d better watch that bag. Popcorn is getting all over the floor.” Todd looked at the floor, sighed, bent over, and started picking up the stray popcorn. Maggie considered helping him, but didn’t do so lest he interpret her kindness as a weakness. “Let’s start at the beginning,” she said.

  Throwing a handful of popcorn into the trash can, Todd said, “It was a mistake. It should never have happened. But Traci and I were going through a tough spot. I don’t want to blame her. I’m the one that did wrong, but, well, Traci’s a perfectionist. Every little thing has to be perfect. She criticizes the way I wax the car, the way I unload the dishwasher, the way I brush my teeth.” He pulled the bag up again, before bringing it to a gentle rest on his lap. “They’re my teeth. I don’t tell her how to brush her teeth. She shouldn’t tell me how to brush mine.”

  “Maybe you should consider marriage counseling.”

  “I can’t speak for other men and why they’re unfaithful to their wives, and again, I’m not blaming Traci, but I don’t think I would have turned to Jennifer if Traci had just listened to me. If she had talked to me and not at me. Not treated me like one of the children.”

  Maggie couldn’t resist. “So, I guess that means you and Jennifer just sat around talking about your feelings.”

  Maggie noted a flicker of anger behind his eyes. “No, we had a full-fledged affair.”

  “How long had it been going on?”

  “Eight, nine months. It started in the summer. We were grilling out at the house. She and Phil were there together. Of course, at some point Traci started picking at something I had done wrong. I don’t remember the details, but I do know it had something to do with onion dip. Jennifer found me in the hallway later. She told me that Traci was out of line and that she was there if I needed to talk.”

  Yeah, talk, Maggie thought. “Now that I know this truth, would you like to change other aspects of your story? For instance, how you ended up with a laceration on your hand? You have to admit, it looks mighty suspicious that you were sporting a cut the morning after your lover was stabbed to death.”

  Releasing the bag of popcorn, Todd covered the top of his head with his hand. “You know, I didn’t even make the connection until you mentioned it. What happened to me is so far removed from what happened to Jennifer. I mean, Traci stabbed me –”

  “Wait, wait, wait. Traci stabbed you?”

  Todd dropped his hand onto his lap. “Yeah. She was still enraged the morning after.”

  Although Maggie asked, “Morning after what?” Todd didn’t seem to hear her. He continued talking. “She was the one opening the bacon. It was that nasty, turkey bacon she bought me. My blood pressure was up. That was true. And it’s true that Traci put me on a diet. She decided I needed to switch to turkey bacon. She was opening the pack and all of a sudden, she turned on me and said, ‘I don’t know why I care so much about your health.’ And she stabbed me.” Todd squinted one eye. “Actually, I guess it was more like a cut. Yeah, that’s it. She cut me. I wasn’t about to go to the ER. I knew they’d ask questions and they might be able to figure out from the angle that I didn’t cut myself. So, I washed out the wound and put some Super Glue on it. Traci took the kids out of town. That was the truth, too. The last thing she said to me on her way out the door was, ‘Clean up this mess
.’ Our little girl asked why Daddy was sitting on the kitchen floor holding his bloody hand, and Traci told her I’d be all right. Our little boy didn’t even notice. Or, if he did, he didn’t say anything.”

  As Todd lamented his son’s growing distance from the family, Maggie thought to herself, I’m still asleep, this is a dream. She let him finish talking about Tate Taylor’s teenage angst before asking, “Why did Traci stab, I mean, cut you?”

  Todd looked at her quizzically. “Because of Jennifer.”

  “She knew about Jennifer? About you and Jennifer?”

  “Yeah, I told her the night before. That’s why she was still enraged the next morning.”

  Maggie held up one hand. “Let me see if I’m following. You told Traci about you and Jennifer the night Jennifer was killed?”

  “Yeah.”

  Maggie could barely find the words to speak. “How? Why? How? What?”

  “Why? Because Jennifer wanted more from me. She wanted me to leave Traci for her. I had no intention of letting that happen. I have a good reputation in this town. And Traci and I have kids. I love my little girl so much that it hurts. I have to be a good, positive male role model for her so she won’t grow up to be promiscuous or marry an abuser. And my son is at an impressionable age.”

  “You mentioned that.”

  “And Traci might be a controlling pain in the neck, but Jennifer wasn’t perfect, either. I don’t know if you know this, but she spent money like it was falling from the sky. I wasn’t getting myself on the hook for any of her debt.”

  “I know. You were just hanging out and,” Maggie put air quotes around the next word, “‘talking’ to your wife’s best friend.”

  “Hey, I know it wasn’t right. And that’s one of the reasons I don’t want anybody to find out. I need to set a better example for my kids and my students and players. I need to be the kind of man they need me to be.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maggie said. “I have no right to judge.”