Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 07 - Mad as the Dickens

by Toni L. P. Kelner

  “Clara?” I blinked. Junior had said the Todgers kept a close watch around the area, but I hadn’t realized how close. For a moment I wondered if they’d seen me squatting to do my business, but I shook it off. “What else did she say? Was there anything about Junior?”

  “No, just that you needed help, and I should come right away. You ought to get yourself a cell phone before you go traipsing off alone, in your condition and all.” Then, all too casually, he asked, “What were you doing out in this neck of the woods anyway?”

  “We found a still,” I said carefully.

  “Is that right?” he said, and I thought he was gripping the steering wheel more tightly.

  Just because Mark hadn’t sent him didn’t mean that he’d be happy about my knowing how he made his money, so I said, “Of course, there’s no telling who’s been running it, out here in the middle of nowhere. I’ve heard that hunters run into them all the time and never do find out who they belong to.”

  “I’ve heard that too,” he said, and his hands relaxed.

  I went back to the important part. “Didn’t Clara say anything about Junior?”

  “What’s the matter with Junior? Is she out in the woods, too?”

  “Mark’s got her!”

  “Mark Pope?”

  I took a deep breath, not wanting to waste the time to explain, but knowing that I had to. “There’s no way to break this to you gently, Jake. Mark killed your father.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.” I explained why Junior had become suspicious, and how Mark’s actions had only made him look more and more like a killer. “We weren’t sure, but he must think we know more than we do or he wouldn’t have kidnapped Junior. We’ve got to find her before it’s too late.”

  “You really think he’s going to hurt her?”

  “He took her gun and handcuffed her, Jake. What do you think he’s going to do?”

  He shook his head slowly, but I could understand why he was having problems taking it all in.

  I said, “I’m sorry I had to spring it all on you this way, but we’ve got to figure out where he’s taken her.”

  Jake was quiet for a long time, and by the time he spoke, he’d turned onto the main road. “I think he’s heading for my house.”

  “You might be right,” I said. “He’s already tried to kill you once. Maybe he’s planning to take care of you and Junior at the same time.”

  “Tried to kill me? What are you talking about?”

  “Last night, with the gas.”

  “That was an accident.”

  “Mark wanted it to look like an accident—or even suicide.” I half laughed. “The funny part is that until that happened, Junior and I thought you might have killed Seth yourself.”

  “I did,” he said quietly.

  I think my heart must have skipped a beat, and I put my hand on the door handle again. “What did you say?”

  “I did kill Daddy. Mark’s been trying to help me hide it, but I’m the one who killed Daddy.”

  I don’t know how many questions ran through my head, but the one that came out was, “Why?”

  “Haven’t you figured it out? Mark must have thought you had.”

  I went over all we’d heard and the facts we’d learned, thinking so hard it almost hurt. “Did it have something to do with your son’s death?”

  “That’s right.”

  “But that was an accident, wasn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it was an accident, but it should never have happened. Barnaby shouldn’t have been at the still.”

  “Hadn’t he been there before?”

  “Never,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “Barnaby didn’t know what I did for a living, and I didn’t want him to know. Moonshining’s caused me nothing but trouble. I know worrying about it is part of the reason my mama got so sick when she was so young, and it messed up my marriage, too. I decided it was going to be different for Barnaby. I was stuck with it, because I didn’t know how to do anything else, but I wanted Barnaby to take after my brother. To go to school, and get a good job, and make something of himself—maybe even marry a good woman like Florence. That meant he wasn’t ever to know anything about the moonshining. Daddy knew how I felt, but he took him out to the still anyway.”

  Jake was watching the road in front of us, but I wasn’t at all sure that was what he was seeing. “It shouldn’t have happened, Laurie Anne. Barnaby shouldn’t have been there. I might have been able to forgive Daddy for that, and even for the accident, but I couldn’t forgive him for lying to me. He looked me right in the eye and told me that Barnaby got hurt at the house—even made me think it was that space heater I bought that did it to him. Those days and nights I spent with Barnaby at the hospital, wishing I could make it quit hurting, and thinking I’d done it to him myself …” He took a sobbing breath. “Then to find out that Daddy had lied …”

  “How did you find out? Was it Barnaby’s letter to Santa Claus?”

  “Mrs. Gamp gave it to me that day at rehearsal. She thought it was so sweet that Barnaby had been working to get me a present, but I realized that Barnaby had been working for Daddy. I wanted to believe that it was with the chairs, but I had to know for sure. I saw Daddy going to take a cigarette break, and I went with him. Before I got a chance to say anything, Daddy handed me the cane he was using for Scrooge and asked if I could sand it down because it was rough on his hands.” He snorted, as if amazed that anybody would care about anything like that. “I asked him about Barnaby, and that’s when he told me how my boy really got hurt.”

  He looked at me, but I was too appalled to speak.

  Jake took a ragged breath. “You know he even got Barnaby to lie for him? Daddy told him that if he told anybody the truth, the police would put Daddy and me in jail, and Barnaby would have to go to an orphanage. They don’t even have orphanages anymore, but Barnaby believed him, just like I always did. So he lied, even though he was afraid Santa Claus would hold it against him. Daddy said he was sorry, like that was enough. He expected me to forgive him, right then and there. Can you imagine that?”

  “So you …” I couldn’t bring myself to actually say it.

  “So I took that cane and I hit him. As hard as I could.”

  “Did you mean for him to die?”

  “I don’t know, Laurie Anne, I swear I don’t. But I didn’t call for help afterward. I just left him there. So I don’t guess it matters what I meant to do, does it?”

  I wasn’t sure of the answer to that one myself.

  “I should have gone ahead and told Junior what happened, but I couldn’t.”

  “Because you were afraid?” I said.

  “Afraid? What did I have to be afraid of? My boy was gone. My daddy was gone. What else could anybody do to me that would matter? I wasn’t afraid. I was ashamed?”

  “Of what you’d done?” I said, not quite understanding.

  “No, not of what I’d done. I was ashamed of what Daddy had done.” He made a sound that might have been a laugh if it hadn’t been so sad. “David was always ashamed of Daddy’s moonshining. He tried not to be, but I know he was. Not me. I was proud of the way he pulled the wool over everybody’s eyes. I knew we had to keep it quiet because of the law, but if it hadn’t been for that, I’d have shouted it from the housetops. But I couldn’t stand the thought of people knowing how Daddy had let his only grandchild get hurt. How when Barnaby was in all that pain, all Daddy could think of was covering his tracks so nobody would find the still.” He looked at me. “Would you want folks knowing that about your daddy?”

  I couldn’t even imagine being in that situation, but I said, “I guess I wouldn’t.”

  He was quiet then, as if he’d explained everything, but I still had questions. “How did Mark get involved?”

  “Didn’t y’all figure that out? Mark said you would if we weren’t careful.”

  “Figure out what?”

  “That Mark was part
of it. Of the moonshining, I mean.”

  “What?”

  “He didn’t do any of the work himself. He just told us when to lay low and when it was safe to deliver. When Andy Norton took a notion to watch us, he’d tell us that, too.”

  “Why?”

  He looked at me as if I was crazy. “For the money, of course. Daddy paid him the first of every month.”

  “Mark’s been taking bribes?” I leaned back in my seat, both aghast that he would do such a thing, and aggravated that Junior and I had suspected Mark of the wrong crime. “How much did he want for helping you cover up your father’s murder?”

  Jake looked shocked. “That didn’t have anything to do with money. After I saw Daddy’s—after I saw what I’d done, I meant to come clean. So as soon as I could, I told Mark what had happened. He said he didn’t blame me, that no court in the country would convict me. The thing was, if it went to court everybody would find out about Daddy’s moonshining.”

  “Not to mention finding out about Mark being on the take,” I added. That would have quashed his hopes of being police chief forever, in Byerly or anywhere else.

  “That wasn’t it. We were worried about David and Florence. How would it be for them if everybody found out?”

  “Mark cared about that?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Of course he did. He said that there were some things people didn’t need to know.”

  I wriggled uncomfortably at that. I’d held on to more than one secret myself—things I’d decided people didn’t need to know. Was I any better than Mark and Jake?

  “Mark said we were lucky that Junior was on vacation, because she wouldn’t understand. He figured he’d pretend to investigate until things died down, and nobody would be hurt. He even hid the cane where nobody would find it.”

  “It didn’t bother him that a murderer would be walking around?” Then, remembering that I was sitting next to the murderer in question, I said, “I mean …”

  “I know I’m a murderer,” Jake said. “I killed my own daddy—there ain’t nothing on earth lower than me.”

  “Then you did try to kill yourself last night.”

  “I keep telling you,” he said, irritated, “that was an accident.”

  “But …” I couldn’t understand why he’d admit to murder but not suicide. “How could it have been an accident, Jake? My aunts didn’t leave the stove on. I saw Aunt Nora use it to make a pitcher of iced tea, and I was there when she turned it off. Unless you did it yourself when fixing dinner …”

  “I didn’t exactly eat dinner,” he said sheepishly. “I meant to, but I got to drinking and fell asleep.”

  Passed out, in other words. “Then how did the stove get turned on, and how did the pilot light go out? I’m telling you, it was Mark. He must have decided that killing you was the only way to cover his tracks. Once you were dead, he’d have produced evidence proving you killed Seth. Didn’t you say he’s got the cane you used? It’s bound to have your fingerprints and bloodstains from Seth. All he’d have to do is plant it nearby. He’d probably have claimed to have found out about your moonshining, too. What would that have done to David and Florence?”

  “Mark wouldn’t do that,” he said, shaking his head over and over.

  I couldn’t really blame Jake for being taken in by Mark. How many years had he been fooling everybody in Byerly? “What now?” I asked. “Are you going to kill me, too?”

  The car swerved sharply, then he pulled back into the lane. “Jesus, of course not. What do you think I am?”

  I couldn’t think of an answer other than the obvious one, and saying that might change his mind. “Then what are we going to do? Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to talk to Mark. I can’t let him do anything to Junior, not on my account. He’s done enough to keep me out of trouble.”

  I spent the rest of the drive trying to talk Jake into stopping so I could call somebody else for help, but he wouldn’t do it. He kept saying that he’d handle it himself, and when I pointed out that Mark was probably waiting for him and had likely set a trap, all he would say was that Mark had no reason to hurt him. It didn’t matter how much logic I spouted, how convincing my arguments were, or how fast I talked. He just kept shaking his head. I even tried pretending that there was something wrong with the baby. Maybe a visitation from Marley’s ghost would have convinced him, but nothing less than that would.

  If we’d passed close enough to one single car, I’d have pounded on the car horn or waved for help through the window, but the roads leading to the Murdstone house were empty that night.

  Finally we turned into the long, dark driveway to the house. I’d expected Jake to drive all the way down, but he stopped about halfway, where a slight bend in the road blocked anybody in the house from seeing us.

  “You better wait here,” he said. “Just in case.”

  “You’re starting to realize what Mark’s been up to, aren’t you? That’s why you don’t want me to come with you.”

  “No, it’s just that—I figure we can’t be too careful, not with you in the family way.” Darned if he didn’t reach over to pat my tummy. “You don’t ever want to lose a child, Laurie Anne.” He started to get out.

  “Can’t you leave me the keys so I can keep the heater running?” I said plaintively. It was lame, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

  Jake shook his head. “You wait here. If I’m not back soon …” He paused, and I think he couldn’t stand to consider why he wouldn’t come back. “Just wait until I get back.”

  He pushed the door closed and silently picked his way down the gravel driveway toward the house.

  Chapter 36

  Needless to say, I had no intention of waiting for Jake. The question was, what could I do to help Junior? Even if I hadn’t been waddling, I wouldn’t have known what to do against an armed police officer. Mark might be crooked, but even Junior had said he was competent.

  What I really needed were reinforcements, but the Murdstone house was so isolated that I might as well have been back in the woods. The Todgers had played guardian angel once already; I couldn’t count on them doing it again. I still didn’t have a cell phone and I still hadn’t learned how to hot-wire a car.

  Maybe I didn’t have to, I thought. Surely Jake had a spare key somewhere. I climbed out of the truck and wasted five minutes searching both bumpers to see if he’d hidden a spare set before I gave it up as a lost cause.

  So I couldn’t drive anywhere, and in my current condition, I wasn’t likely to get to the nearest neighbor fast enough to do any good. What did that leave?

  I looked speculatively down the driveway. There was a phone I could reach—if I was lucky. Though I wasn’t about to try to sneak into the house, I remembered seeing a phone in Seth’s workshop. The door had been unlocked the previous day. Dared I hope that it was still unlocked? And that Mark hadn’t cut the phone lines? And that …?

  I stopped myself. There was no point in imagining all the things that could go wrong, because there was nothing I could do about any of them anyway. So, just as I had known I would, I followed Jake to the house. Later on, I wondered if Jake hadn’t also known that I would eventually come after him.

  I did make a quick stop. I was trying to decide whether my pocketbook would be a hinderance or a help when I thought of something. Richard had joked for years that my bag was so heavy it must be full of rocks. Though I hated to do it to a brand-new D’Arcy bag, a bag of rocks could make a formidable weapon. I upended the bag on the seat of Jake’s truck and then filled it up with gravel from the driveway. It was a testimonial to the designer’s workmanship that the shoulder strap held.

  Carrying it didn’t slow me down much, because if I’d gone any slower, I’d have been going backward. As much as my nerves wanted me to hurry, I knew that I couldn’t afford to be heard. That meant taking my time.

  Once I got within sight of the house, I glued myself to the shadows, thankful that Seth had never felt the need to
knock down trees and create a featureless lawn where I would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Junior’s Jeep was parked in front of the door, and there were lights on in the house, but with the curtains drawn I couldn’t tell where anybody was—or, more important, what condition they were in. I was tempted to creep closer just to see if I could peek in a window, but I resisted. There would be plenty of time to peek once I had a brace of my cousins and Junior’s brothers-in-law at my side.

  Instead, I kept going toward the workshop in the backyard, wincing each time I stepped on a twig or rustled a fallen leaf. Only when I made it to the door without being discovered did I relax. I reached for the knob. The only thing that saved me from walking right in was a loud thump from inside. I’d read about people’s hearts jumping into their throats, but that was the first time I knew what it meant. I inched away from the door and to the side of the building farthest from the house. I don’t think I even breathed until I was around the corner, where I couldn’t be seen.

  There was a small window on that side, and since it was only a workshop, Seth hadn’t bothered to put up curtains or blinds. He had stacked half-finished chairs in front of it—not enough to keep me from looking in, but enough that I felt somewhat concealed from whoever was inside.

  It wasn’t just curiosity, though I had enough of that to burn. I needed to see who was inside so I would know if there was anybody left in the house.

  The first thing I saw was an oddly familiar assortment of tubing and pots set up in the center of the room. It was the camp stove underneath it that helped me recognize it as a still. Before I could even begin to guess why it was there, I saw Mark dragging Junior across the floor. She was so limp that, for one horrible second, I thought she was dead. Then I heard her moan as Mark dropped her like a sack of potatoes.

  Jake was in there, too, watching Mark lean down to unfasten the handcuffs from around Junior’s wrists.

  “You shouldn’t have hit her like that, Mark,” Jake said.

  “I had to,” Mark said matter-of-factly. “We can’t let her body be found wearing handcuffs, and I couldn’t take them off with her awake. It’s got to look like she got caught in her own trap, which is exactly what she deserves for trying to plant a still on your property. If I hadn’t followed her out here and caught her, she’d have put you in jail for moonshining, and then it would only have been a matter of time until she sweated the rest of it out of you. Then you’d have a murder rap on top of everything else.”