by J. F. Margos
“Y’all don’t know anything. You want to get into everybody’s business even though it has nothing to do with Doug’s murder. Lori didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t kill anybody. That medal y’all are talking about is one that Lori got from her grandma, and she gave it to Doug. He wore it all the time—never took it off.”
“Jimmy, I saw Lori down at Mrs. Ferguson’s house in Houston. How do you explain that?”
He sat down in the chair and put his head in his hands. Leo and I sat on the sofa across from him and waited. He began to cry softly. He looked up at us with tears in his eyes.
“I loved my brother, and I already told you there was no way he was having an affair with Addie. Now I’ll tell you how I know. It’s none of your business, but I’ll tell you ’cause I want you to leave her alone.”
I looked over at Leo, and we both waited. Jimmy rubbed his hand over his face and looked down again. I could tell he was trying to keep his composure, and I did not know what to expect.
“Lori left and moved to Georgetown after Doug disappeared, because since Doug disappeared, he could not marry her, and that was a problem, because she was pregnant. Folks in Viola and Rock Hill don’t understand things like that. They would have persecuted her. Lori was distraught—because Doug was gone, and because she was pregnant. And everybody was saying he was having an affair with Addie Waldrep—bunch of gossips and liars.”
He choked and put his head in his hands again. We waited for what seemed like minutes but it wasn’t.
Jimmy looked up, and his chin quivered. “My little brother was a sweet guy. He would never do that to Lori and then mess around with Addie. He loved Lori. He was going to marry her. He was a great guy, not stupid like me.”
He stood up now and walked over and faced the wall.
“When he disappeared, Lori came to me for help because she was afraid to tell anyone else. I’ve been helping her out ever since.”
“Jimmy, where is the child?”
He turned around and looked at us both.
“I helped her. I took care of her. I wanted her to move down here so I could help her out more, but she didn’t want to live in the city, so she stayed up in Georgetown. So I went up to help her as much as I could, and I took her to the hospital when she went into labor.”
He walked over to the chair and sat down again. He was becoming more emotional. He was leaning over, looking at the floor.
“My nephew was born dead.” He was sobbing now and put his head in his hands. “She named him James Douglas Hughes, and I came up with the money, and we buried him in a little cemetery in Georgetown. Lori has never been right since. She’s been in and out of the hospital for her problems. I look after her ’cause she’s family to me.”
“Oh no,” I said.
I felt horrible. This was why he was evasive. This man was trying to protect the honor of a woman his brother had loved.
“Now maybe y’all see why I wouldn’t say. All these bodies start showing up—first Addie, then that Brian guy. Lori started having more problems again. She thought she was going to talk to that Ferguson lady and ask her if she knew where Doug was. Can you believe that?”
He shook his head. Tears filled his eyes and flowed over his scarred face.
“She saw you there at Mrs. Ferguson’s, and she got scared and left. She came to me to tell me about it. I got her calmed down, and I thought I got her kinda back on track. Then that Ranger told me they found Doug—” he wept harder now “—I had to tell her. I can’t lie to her.”
“Of course not, Jimmy.”
He shook his head. “She ain’t missing. I had to put her back in the hospital. The news about Doug broke her. In her mind she’s been thinking all this time he would come back. She won’t even talk now. I don’t think she’ll ever be right again.”
He put his head back down in his hands and just sobbed harder.
Leo and I sat there, not really knowing what to do, and then I gutted up and went to him, and kneeled next to him and put my arms around him.
“You did the right thing, all the way down the line, Jimmy. None of it is your fault. You did all anyone could do, and more. I am so, so sorry for everything.”
He put his head on my shoulder and sobbed for a good five minutes.
Leo and I sat in the Mustang for a couple of minutes without talking. We were stunned, and I for one was ashamed of myself. I knew there was no way I could have known, but I was ashamed anyway—but I was proud of Jimmy Hughes—proud and amazed at his integrity. Jimmy Hughes gave chivalry a whole new definition.
Leo finally spoke. “Well, I guess we both know that he’s no killer.”
“That poor girl.”
“And Jimmy, too. Their lives have been totally wrecked by all this.”
I was supremely frustrated. Frustrated over the predicament of Jimmy and Lori, and frustrated that we had no evidence to tie a killer to this crime.
“That whittles down our suspect list,” I said.
“It has to be Dody, or else it’s just some psycho who randomly killed them all. That last scenario doesn’t fit what the crime scenes say, but Dody as killer does.”
“Okay, so how do we tie him to any or all of these crime scenes? He lives outside of Austin, and I don’t know of any connection he has to Hempstead, and no one there recognized Addie. If Doug and Addie weren’t involved with each other, how and why were they in Hempstead. Did Dody follow them there, or take them there?”
Leo nodded. Then I thought about everything Leo had said previously about the burial site, about a connection between Gunther or Burkhardt and the killings, about what Addie and Doug would have been doing in Hempstead, and then I thought about something Dad had said.
“Hey, kid, want to go get the best pie you ever had?”
“Huh?”
“Let’s take a little ride up to Viola and see my new friend, Doris.”
Leo agreed reluctantly. I think she only agreed because she knew I must have a reason. We were dazed after the visit to Jimmy, and we had nothing else to go on. I cranked up the Fastback and we took off.
On the way up, I gave Leo the lowdown on Doris. I wheeled the Mustang off of the state highway and onto the farm-to-market road that led to Viola. Leo and I arrived at the Main Street Café in less than an hour. It was lunchtime and the place was full of all the locals. Leo and I had decided on the way up that we would do the whole lunch thing. Doris greeted us at the door.
“Toni!” she exclaimed. “Hon, it is so good to see you again. Who’s your little friend here?”
“Doris, this is Lieutenant Leonie Driskill from the Austin Fire Department.”
“You’re a fireman, hon?”
“Yes and no. I was a firefighter in active combat, but now I’m a fire investigator.”
“An investigator—well, now, that sounds real interesting. So, do y’all work together sometimes?”
“Yes, we do,” Leo replied.
“Y’all want a booth?”
“Yes, Doris, that would be nice,” I said.
“Good, because I have one right over here that would be perfect for you two ladies. Now y’all look at those menus and I’ll be right back to take your orders.”
We made our decisions and took our time enjoying our lunches while Doris took care of her lunch crowd and got them all fed and cleared out. I think the whole town must have been there that day. Doris definitely had a full house. When she was finally done with all that, Leo and I had finished our meals.
“Y’all want pie?” she asked, winking at me.
“You know I do,” I said. “And you know what kind.”
“Alrighty, apple for you with no ice cream. What about you, hon?” She looked at Leo.
“What’s my other choice besides apple?”
“The other choice is my homemade chocolate-cream pie. It’s icebox pie, hon. Know what I mean?”
“Yep. Load me up with chocolate cream,” Leo said.
“Don’t tell her to load you up until you’v
e seen the size of the normal pieces,” I advised.
“Okay then, don’t load me up, but bring me your normal slice.”
Doris chuckled as she walked off. She returned in short order with two plates, and slid the pieces of pie in front of Leo and me. I thought Leo’s eyes would pop out of her head when she saw the size of that slice.
“Wow!” she exclaimed.
“Save your ‘wow’ until you’ve tasted it,” I told her. “You’re going to exhaust your superlatives too soon.”
She put a forkful of that pie in her mouth and within a millisecond the blue eyes began to roll.
“Oh man!”
“Told you,” I said with a mouthful of apple.
Doris was delighted, of course. She lived for those moments of extreme praise.
“You ladies make me feel good. I’ll go and get you some coffee to wash it down with.”
Doris made her way to the coffeepot and brought back two cups and set them down for us.
“Doris, can you sit with us for just a bit? I have some questions to ask again.”
“Hon, I was wondering when you were going to get around to that. I would love to sit down for a bit. I’ve been on my feet since six this morning.”
Doris sat next to Leo. I told her about Brian and his friends from Hempstead. I told her all about Doug being found in Hempstead on some farmland and that it looked like the original burial site.
“I just want to go over this again and make sure that you can’t think of any connection that might have existed between Addie and Hempstead, because I never asked you that question.”
“No, hon, you did not,” Doris said. “And you didn’t tell me that boy Brian was from Hempstead, you said Houston—and it said Houston on the news.”
My heart skipped a beat. I was hoping for all I was worth that I was onto something.
“His mother lives in Houston and that’s where he grew up,” I said, “but he moved to Hempstead and lived there at the time of his disappearance.”
“Well, Addie don’t have no connection to Hempstead, hon, but Dody sure did.”
Leo nearly choked on her pie. My eyes were wide as saucers.
“Well, go on, Doris.”
“Well, Dody’s family is originally from there. His granddaddy lived there. Of course, his mama and daddy are both dead, so they don’t have no ties there anymore, but back in the day they sure did.”
“Did Dody or Addie ever live there?” I asked.
“Oh no, hon. Dody’s granddaddy lived there and then he died. I think Dody had an aunt and uncle who lived there for a while, but I think they’re gone now, too.”
“Whereabouts did Dody’s family live in Hempstead?” I asked.
“Near Angler’s Point.”
My heart came up into my throat I was so excited. I almost held my breath.
“What was their name, Doris. Do you know?”
“Well, of course I know, hon.” She looked at me suspiciously. “Why does that matter?”
“Doris!”
“Well, all right, then. It was Gunther. Does that mean anything?”
I exhaled and put my head into my hands, and then ran my hands all the way through my hair and looked up at Leo.
“Oh man,” Leo exclaimed. “You have done it!”
“Done what? She’s done what?” Doris asked.
“I found the one missing link we needed, Doris—the one missing link.”
“How did you know? How did you think of it?” Leo asked.
“It was something Daddy said about how the killer wouldn’t have picked that site by throwing darts on a map. There had to be a reason they were there. You said something one time on another case about killers being in their comfort zone. And earlier today you were confused by the burial place where Doug was found being called the old Gunther place when Gunther doesn’t live there anymore. You were trying to link it to Burkhardt. The names were different.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, I thought about how the names were different, and about how that was confusing. Then I thought of another reason names are sometimes confusing, and I thought about me and Daddy and how my name is Sullivan and his is Kennedy…”
Doris said, “The Gunthers are Dody’s mama’s kin!”
“Right.” I nodded.
“They’re his maternal relatives, so the names are different,” Leo said, shaking her head.
“Right. So we never made the connection to the name of the place and to Dody.”
“I’ll be! You mean to tell me that evil little man buried her and Doug and that other boy up there on his granddaddy’s place?” Doris exclaimed.
“Yep. Only it isn’t his granddaddy’s place anymore. It belongs to a cranky old coot named Burkhardt.”
“That wicked little man killed them and that boy Brian?” Doris asked. “Why did he kill that poor Brian boy? Oh my!” she said, slapping her hand over her mouth in realization.
“Now, Doris, you have to keep this under your hat. You cannot tell anyone. I’ll tell you all the details later, if you keep it all a secret. We have no proof at this point, and we don’t want him to get away.”
“Well, I certainly do not want him to get away. So, how do you go about getting proof?” she asked.
“Well, we may have it soon. The Texas State Crime Lab is working on it, and what you have just told us helps a lot.”
“It does?”
“Yes, it does. Do me a favor, Doris, and don’t talk to anyone about this right now. I’ll let you know sometime in the next few days when you can tell, but for right now, I need your help and I need you to keep it all confidential.”
Doris grinned and then popped her chewing gum real loud.
“Like one of those informers for police that you see on TV on them crime shows.” She nodded her head and widened her eyes.
“Exactly,” I said.
Doris clapped her pudgy hands together with her long red nails making a clicking sound.
“This is exciting,” she said. “I’m happy to do whatever you ask, Toni.”
I reached across the table and patted her on the arm.
“You’ve been a tremendous help through all this, Doris. I’ll make sure that the Texas Ranger we’re working with knows what a great resource you’ve been.”
“Texas Ranger,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Yes.”
“Ohhh, when y’all are done with the case, bring him for pie. A Texas Ranger right here in my café. Wouldn’t that be the limit? The people in this town would all know I helped solve the case, and the Texas Ranger came to say thank-you and eat pie.” She grinned from ear to ear.
I only hoped I could talk Drew into it.
Chapter Seventeen
It seemed that death had been following me lately like a little, ugly black shadow. Never before in my career had I done so many reconstructs at once. I was tired—not physically, but emotionally. I felt I had almost no time to decompress and regroup in between each one and it was wearing on me mightily. I needed a vacation on an island somewhere, but not Hawaii this time. I was thinking Patmos in the Med—some reflection and meditation there and time on the beach to sit and watch the boats go by. A month without bones or reconstructions or murder cases.
I had called Drew on the way back from Viola, and had left him a message to call me. I was sitting at home on the sofa decompressing with a cup of hot chamomile tea, when the doorbell rang. It was Drew. He came in and I got him some tea, and we sat down on the sofa together.
“So, how did it go?” he asked.
I filled him in on all the details about Jimmy and Lori. He shook his head and looked sad. Then I told him about my brainstorm.
“Leo came over today and looked at the crime scene photos and she and I were brainstorming and she got confused over the reference to the old Gunther place and thought the crank who lived there was Gunther. So I explained it to her.”
“So?”
“So, then after we found out Jimmy and Lori weren�
��t suspects in all this, I started thinking about the confusion over the names, how that family hadn’t lived there in a while, etcetera.”
“And?”
“I drove Leo up to Viola and we had pie at the Main Street Café and talked to my friend Doris.”
“Now who’s jerking whose chain, Toni?”
I grinned. “Dody’s mother’s family had a place down at Angler’s Point near Hempstead. It was his granddaddy’s place. His granddaddy’s name was Gunther.”
“No way!”
“Yep. So, with that bit of evidence, don’t you think we have enough to connect Dody to the crime scene and maybe make a case?”
“We have more of a case than you think, my friend. While you were tracking down that all-important piece of information, I was doing a little legwork myself.”
“I’m waiting…”
“You know Dody has had a lot of jobs in the last fourteen years.”
“Yes,” I said impatiently.
“Two months ago Dody had a different job than the one he has now.”
“Drew!”
He laughed. “All right, Toni. He was one of the crew on the sanitary sewer job.”
“Sanitary sewer job?”
“Yes, you know the one the city of Austin had going down at Red Bud Isle two months ago.”
“Oh man! Drew, that is sweet!”
He laughed and clapped his hands together. “And that’s not all, Toni.”
“There’s more?”
“Mmmm, hmm,” he said, sipping his tea. “The lab got hair and fiber samples out of the crime scene in Hempstead. Stuff that they say is fresh. They sifted that soil and found evidence in the grave itself.”
“How do they do that?”
“I don’t know. It’s what they do. They sift that stuff and bag everything. It blows my mind. They look at it under microscopes, put it into centrifuges and gas chronometers. It’s incredible.”
“So, you think they’ll match fiber or hair samples?”
“I hope so, but that’s not all. Our murderer left a wadded-up hankie there.”
“Where?”
“In the hole, under the dirt. Apparently, he used it and just threw it down or lost it. It got covered up with the bones. You know, he never thought we’d find them, and if it weren’t for those women and their ‘bird-watching’ outing, we never would have.”
