by Casey Mayes
“No, as far as I knew, Joanne wasn’t a big letter writer.”
We sat on the front steps, and Laura seemed to really enjoy the coffee I’d brought her. “What did you want to talk about?” she asked me.
“It’s about Sandra,” I said.
“I don’t really want to discuss her,” Laura said, and I could see her spine stiffen a little as she spoke.
“I understand you two had a falling out, but there’s something I need to know. It’s important, or I wouldn’t ask.”
“Okay, I don’t see what it can hurt,” she finally conceded. “I’ll answer it if I can.”
“Is it true that she thanked Joanne for breaking up her relationship with the married man she was seeing?”
Laura looked at me for a few seconds, and then nodded. “Yes, but I’m surprised she told you about it. That was her deep, dark secret. I thought I was the only one who knew.”
“About the affair, or the thanks?” I asked.
Laura chuckled slightly. “Probably a little bit of both. It wasn’t exactly her proudest moment, going after a married father like that. I tried to tell her that she was wrong, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
I took a sip of my coffee, and then I said, “Thanks for being so honest with me about it.”
“It’s okay. I don’t mind, not really. Can it be my turn now?”
I was more than a little confused by the question. “Your turn for what?”
“To ask you something.”
“Fire away. I’ll answer it if I can.”
I wasn’t sure what was coming next, but she surprised me anyway when she asked, “Do you have any idea why Sandra won’t speak to me? It’s kind of tearing me up inside, if you want to know the truth.”
I knew, but did I really want to tell her and give the young woman more pain than she already had? “I’m not sure I should say anything.”
“That’s not fair,” Laura said. “I told you what you wanted to know. I thought we had a deal.”
“I’m not holding anything back. It’s just that I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like the answer.”
Laura took another sip of coffee, swallowed it, and then took a deep breath before she said, “Go ahead. I can take it.”
She asked for it, and I had no right to sugarcoat it. “She’s afraid there’s a possibility that you might have killed Joanne for her money,” I said.
“Why would she think that? I didn’t know she had any money, and if I did, I never dreamed I’d inherit any of it.”
“Sandra seemed to think you did,” I went on. It was time to take a stab in the dark. “Do you have any bills you can’t pay?” I didn’t like going after her when she’d just been so helpful to me, but I really didn’t have any choice. It might just yield me a more honest answer than when she had her guard up all of the way.
“Who doesn’t?” Laura replied as she nodded slightly. “The money is going to be tremendously helpful, and I’m not denying it, but I had no idea there would be any, or that I’d be the one getting it.” She took a last sip from her cup, and then put it on the step between her feet. “I can’t believe she thinks I’m capable of killing another human being.”
“Don’t be too hard on her,” I said. “I just accused someone close to me of the same thing as well.”
“Don’t worry about it, Savannah. Rob will get over it,” Laura said.
“You’ve heard already?”
She nodded. “It didn’t take long for word to get around. Nobody I know believes that Rob is capable of murder.”
“Is there any chance that anyone in Parson’s Valley is saying the same thing about the two of us?” I asked.
“Well, about me, maybe,” she said with a faint smile. “I’ve lived here my entire life. Your history isn’t as well known as mine, so some folks have probably already convicted you without a trial.”
“I never realized that it was such a big issue being an outsider here before,” I said.
“You probably never would have found out if this murder hadn’t come up. Folks around here have a tendency to pull together when there’s trouble, and nothing’s more serious than murder.”
“All the more reason I have for finding the killer, then,” I said.
“I hope you do,” she said as she stood up. “It’s been eating away at me since it happened. I should have been nicer to Joanne, and now I’ll never have the opportunity to make things right between us.”
“We all have our missed opportunities,” I said.
“True enough, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try harder.” Laura stretched, and then added, “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got a ton of work to do if I’m ever going to finish.”
“I could help you,” I said, at the moment not caring about clues as much as wanting to help someone in need.
“Thanks, but I’ve got it under control, even if I do complain about it. I’ve almost got it licked.” She stretched again, and then added, “The coffee was great. Feel free to stop by anytime.”
After I collected my frame and left Laura, I thought about what she’d said. She’d confirmed what Sandra had told me about thanking Joanne, so it appeared that Sandra’s name could be struck off my list of suspects.
At least that was some kind of progress.
But I had too many more names there to make me feel all that good about any of it.
It was time to have another chat with Harry Pike. I drove to his nursery, hoping to find him in his office. His assistant was on the telephone when I walked in, so I stayed in the shadows outside the door until she got off. The place offered no privacy at all, and I wondered how one person could work there, let alone two, though I had my suspicion that Harry used his truck more than this space.
I heard the woman inside say, “I know your bill’s past due. We’re doing what we can to pay it, but we need more time. You need to work with us, if you ever expect to get paid.” Finally, she said, “Go ahead, get in line and call a collection agency. Be a real jerk about it, why don’t you?” She slammed the phone down, and started wading through a stack of bills on her desk when she noticed that I was standing there.
I spoke up and asked, “Is Harry here? I saw his truck out front.”
She looked at me and said in an exasperated voice, “He’s around somewhere. Do you want me to call him on the two-way?”
“No, if it’s okay, I’ll go look around a little myself.” I figured there wouldn’t be much chance of catching him doing something incriminating, but if my presence was announced, the probability would fall all the way to zero.
“Help yourself. Take a set of yellow tags, a lot sheet, and a black marker with you.”
“Why should I do that?” I asked.
“You might find a tree or a bush that you like. If you do, tag it with a yellow marker, and then make a note on the lot sheet so we can save it for you.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that,” I said. I’d been looking for a tree to replace a pin oak in our yard that had been struck by lightning during a violent summer storm. It had blown the bark off both sides of it, scoring it nearly the entire length of the tree. I’d had hopes that it might recover, but small piles of fine sawdust around the base told me that it was most likely a hopeless cause.
As I walked among the trees, I got so caught up in envisioning each one by our cottage that I almost missed Harry down on his knees pruning an evergreen.
“There you are,” I said, clearly startling him.
“Savannah, I didn’t know you were here,” he said as he stood and brushed off his pants legs.
“I didn’t realize that you had to prune every tree and bush on the place. How do you ever get anything else done?”
“It’s not a chore if you love doing it,” he said as he holstered his pruning shears.
“That’s a yew, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s an English yew. They’re very popular around here.”
“They’re also really poisonous, aren’t they?”
“I was looking for a tree,” I said suddenly, realizing that I might have more luck questioning him if I was a little more subtle about it.
“Then you came to the right place,” he said with a smile. “What kind of tree are you looking for?”
I recounted our lightning-struck pin oak, and he started showing me a host of replacements.
“Have you heard what’s going to happen with the land deal you had going with Joanne yet?” I asked idly as he showed me yet another oak tree.
“No, it appears that the lawyers are going to end up sorting it all out. If Laura Moon gets Joanne’s share, like everybody in town thinks, I might be able to work something out with her. I understand she’s in some pretty serious need of money herself.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Word gets around. Now, we have some nice ornamental plums over here. They have some pretty spectacular foliage through three seasons.”
“I’ll have to check with Zach,” I said absently. “Would it be a bad thing if Laura inherits Joanne’s share?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “She would have to be easier to deal with than her cousin. I’ll tell you what. That was my last deal with Joanne, no matter how much money we stood to make.”
“You didn’t like doing business with her?”
He shook his head. “She was always looking over my shoulder, giving me opinions and advice that I didn’t need. I like my partners a little more on the silent side, if you know what I mean.”
“I can understand that,” I said. Trying to be as casual as I could, I asked, “Did you ever get any letters from Joanne?”
He nodded. “Yeah, the crazy old bird sent me one once a few years ago. She said I’d better keep my nose clean, or she’d tell the world what I was up to.”
“What did she mean by that?”
“She accused me of cheating a client of mine; it was some friend of hers who accidentally got billed twice for some work I did for her.”
“But you didn’t mean to cheat her.”
He laughed. “Not on purpose. My accountant made a mistake and double-billed the woman. I paid the money back and gave her an extra maple tree to make up for it.”
“Did that fix the problem?” I asked.
“I have to believe that it did. She was happy the last time I saw her. Is there anything else? I’ve got a ton of work to do.”
I was about to ask him another question when my telephone started quacking like a duck.
When I tried to ignore it, Harry asked, “Aren’t you going to get that? I can’t stand a ringing telephone, even if it is quacking.”
“It’s just Zach,” I said. “It can wait.”
“Not on my account. Like I said, I’m jammed for time. You should talk to him.” He paused, and then smiled. “While you’ve got him on the telephone, ask him about that plum tree. You won’t be sorry, I can promise you that.”
“Okay, I’ll do that,” I said reluctantly as I answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, you’re the one who called me first, remember? How did your little chat with Sandra go?”
“It was illuminating,” I said.
“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”
I didn’t want to admit that I’d called him earlier more as a safety issue than actually wanting to speak to him. “Okay, but this isn’t a great time for me. Can I call you right back?”
“Why? Where are you now?”
“I’m at Harry Pike’s nursery. I’ve been looking at trees,” I said loud enough for Harry to hear, though he’d started to walk away to work on another subject when I’d answered the telephone.
“Don’t buy anything without me. We agreed, Savannah.”
I lowered my voice. “Take it easy, Zach. It was just an excuse to talk to Harry,” I admitted.
“That’s not bad,” he answered, lowering his voice as well, though I couldn’t imagine why. “Did you have any luck?”
I looked around, but Harry was already out of sight. I might as well tell Zach what I’d uncovered so far. “He believes that Laura will be easier to deal with than Joanne was,” I reported. “Is that motive enough for murder?”
Zach laughed at that. “It might be. You can’t blame him for feeling that way. I can’t imagine why he ever went into business with her in the first place, can you?”
“From everything I’ve seen, he needed her money to make the deal happen,” I said. “But I’ll be honest with you. He didn’t seem all that excited about the prospect of working with her ever again.”
“I’m not sure I could ever need somebody else’s money that badly. Did you find out anything else?”
I lowered my voice, though Harry was now completely out of sight. “He admitted that Joanne sent him a letter threatening to expose him as a crook a few years ago, so that fits in with those letters I found at her place.”
“Why would he ever admit that to you, Savannah?”
I laughed. “Maybe I’ve got a trusting face.”
“There’s got to be more to it than that. He had a reason to tell you. You just don’t know what it is, yet.”
“I don’t think there’s anything sinister about it, Zach. Harry explained that it was all just one misunderstanding. His accountant double-billed a friend of hers, but he made it right with a full refund and a free tree thrown in, to boot.”
“What else have you been up to?”
“You already know that I spoke with Sandra.”
“Sure I do, but you never told me what she said.”
That was true enough. “She claims that Joanne did her a favor breaking up her relationship with a married man, and Laura confirms that Sandra even thanked Joanne for it after the fact.”
“So that’s good news. We can strike her name off the list.”
It was true, as far as it went. “It still leaves quite a few names under consideration, doesn’t it?”
“Don’t get discouraged,” Zach said, clearly trying to buoy my spirits. “Nobody ever said this process was quick. Hang on.” He covered his mouthpiece with one hand, so all I could hear was some mumbling. “Sorry, Savannah, but I’ve got to go,” he said.
Before I could say good-bye, the line was already dead.
Worse yet, Harry was gone, and I doubted that I’d ever be able to find him on his home field, especially if he was through with me.
It seemed that no one wanted to talk to me.
I wasn’t about to let that stop me, though.
I had a mission, and I was going to see it through, no matter what.
Chapter 16
“I USUALLY DON’T CUT WOMEN’S HAIR,” GREG SAID WHEN I walked into his barbershop twenty minutes later. There wasn’t an ounce of humor in his voice, and I knew that I was going to be fighting an uphill battle getting him to talk to me. There was a man in his sixties in the chair getting the finishing touches on a flattop, and the crown of his head was so smooth you could land a toy airplane on it.
“That’s good, because that’s not why I’m here,” I said with a smile.
Greg nodded, and the electric clippers in his hand bobbed with him. If the man in the chair noticed it, he didn’t say anything, and if he did, I had to admire him for not even flinching.
“Talking is extra,” he said as he pointed to a sign mounted on the brick wall behind me. It had been clearly hand-lettered, and after listing the price of a haircut, it said, “If you take a cell phone call in the chair, it’s going to cost you a dollar a minute. If you complain about it, get your hair cut somewhere else.” Below that, he had added, “If you want to talk to me and not get your hair cut, that’s a dollar a minute, too.”
After the man in the chair examined his cut in the mirror, he nodded and stood as Gre
g removed the apron around him. Silently, he handed Greg a twenty dollar bill, got his change, and walked out the door with a wave, but not a word.
“He’s a real talker, isn’t he?” I said.
I handed the barber a ten dollar bill, and he stared at it a second before looking back at me. “What’s this for?”
I pointed to his sign. “I figure that should buy me ten minutes. I want to talk to you more about Joanne Clayton.”
He shook his head and handed the bill back to me. “No thanks. I don’t want to talk about her. Keep your money, Savannah.”
“What’s it going to take to get your cooperation? Do I have to come back here with Rob Hastings?”
Greg smiled at me. “That would be a cute trick, since I heard that he threw you out of his hardware store. You just lost your biggest ally, Savannah.”
“Not even close. How about my husband, Zach? I can have him over here in ten minutes if I have to. I know you don’t like talking to me, but what if he brings the state trooper investigating the murder with him? Will that make it easier on you? We can close the barbershop and have ourselves a little party.”
Greg thought about fighting it—I could see it in his eyes—but he finally just slumped down in his chair. “Okay, you win. I’ll give you one question, and it’s on the house. After that, call your husband. I’m not afraid of him, or the cop tagging along behind him.”
“You probably should be,” I said.
“Of which one?” It was clear that he didn’t think of either one of them as a threat. Wow, was he ever wrong.
“As far as I’m concerned, you should be worried about both of them.”
Greg sighed audibly. “Savannah, do you want to keep dancing around this, or do you want to get to the point?”
I nodded. “That’s fair enough. You say you had nothing to do with Joanne’s murder.”
“That’s not a question, it’s a statement.”
“So it is. How about this, then? What would you say if I told you I have reliable witnesses who tried to get haircuts ninety-five minutes apart on the day that Joanne was killed, and they were turned away by your ‘closed’ sign?”
“I’d say they were either lying, or badly mistaken,” Greg said, though it was clear that he was shaken by my statement.
