by Gen Griffin
“What did your son see?” Sully asked. He wondered why none of what Billy Jones was telling him had made it into the official police report.
“He said Beverly's car was still in the parking lot. The store was all locked up but Bev was gone.” Billy choked back a sob. “I drove down there as fast as I could and I told Joey to call the cops. By the time I got there, there were police on the scene but they weren't real interested. You see, nothing was broken. The locks on the doors were all fine. None of the windows were busted. Beverly's phone and purse were gone. The officer on the scene asked me if it was possible my wife had simply gone out with a friend. I said it wasn't, but they blew me off. Nothing looked to be missing. Of course, I didn't work in the store and neither did Joey. We didn't realize there were items missing from the safe in the back until almost five days after Beverly went missing.”
“What kind of items were missing?” Sully had suspicion he already knew the answer to his own question.
“Mostly jewelry,” Billy said. “Kenneth, our assistant manager, went through everything in the store and re-cataloged it all by hand to make sure of exactly what was gone. He wanted to be the only one doing the inventory so that we could be sure there were no errors. He gave the full list of missing items to the officer in charge of Beverly's case.”
“It never made it into the case file,” Sully said.
Billy Jones didn't look surprised. “Officer Pinkerton doesn't believe Beverly is, I guess was, missing. He insists she ran off and left me. He said she was the legal owner of the jewelry because she owned the store. He said that the missing jewelry was a civil issue between me and Beverly, not a criminal one.”
“Unless it was stolen,” Sully mused out loud. “Had the safe been broken into?”
“No,” Billy Jones said. “The safe was intact. Everything in the store was intact. The only thing odd, and believe me when I say this is real odd, is that the security system had been manually turned off.”
“Manually turned off?”
“Yes. We have four cameras in the store. Each of the cameras was individually turned off.”
“Any idea who turned them off?” Sully asked.
“Beverly. The last footage on the cameras is of Beverly walking towards each one of them. The picture quality isn't great but she looks like she's crying.” Billy hugged himself with shaking hands. “Someone forced her to turn the cameras off and open the safe. She probably did everything they told her to. Bev wasn't stupid. She wouldn't have fought an attacker to save a couple thousand dollars worth of merchandise. We have insurance.”
“You're sure she would have cooperated with a robbery?” Sully didn't like where this was going in his head.
“Yes sir. I do.” Billy swallowed unhappily. “I told all this to Officer Pinkerton. Didn't he pass any of it on to you?”
Sully considered the older man for a minute. His gut instincts told him that Billy Jones was exactly what he appeared to be. Sully reached into the file he was holding and pulled out the official report that Officer Pinkerton of the Rockdale PD had filed.
Billy Jones took it from him with a shaking hand and read it. “That lazy son of a-.” Billy held the report up. “Is this all he gave you?”
“Yes sir.”
“That worthless bastard.” Billy's eyes shone with anger for the first time since Sully had walked into the house. “He never took me seriously. He blew me off when I called to check on her case. He kept telling me to move on with my life and accept that she'd left me.” He took a deep breath and straightened his aging shoulders. “Where did you find Beverly's body?”
Sully opened his mouth and then closed it again. He took a deep breath. “I'm afraid that we've only found part of your wife's body, Mr. Jones.”
“Part of her body?” Billy sucked down a deep breath. “What kind of part of her body? Is there any chance she could still be alive?”
“No sir. There's no chance she's still alive. We, ah well, we found her head.” And possibly her arm, Sully mentally added. He was fairly sure the arm that had been left in the jail was going to be a DNA match to Beverly Jones.
Billy Jones turned ghostly white. For a moment he was speechless. The horror in his eyes was as real as any Sully had ever seen. “You found Beverly's...I'm sorry. You just said you found her head?”
“Yes sir.”
“You're sure it's her head?”
“Yes sir. We ran DNA and we got a hit from the DNA you'd had put on file. The medical examiner checked your wife's dental records against the-,” Sully caught himself before the word 'skull' came out of his mouth. “We're absolutely certain the head we found belongs to your wife.”
“Where is the rest of her?” Billy Jones was being brave now. He held his head up high and pretended he was strong enough to deal with the horrible hand life had just dealt him.
“We don't know,” Sully admitted.
“Are you going to try to find her?” Billy asked.
“Yes sir. Of course.” Sully didn't have to think twice about his answer, but Billy Jones looked relieved.
“Good. Please, find her.”
“Mr. Jones-.”
“Billy. Call me Billy.”
“Billy, do you have any idea who would have done something like this to your wife?”
“No.”
“Did she have any enemies?”
“No.”
“Disgruntled customers?”
“Not really. It's a pawn shop so we always have a handful of nuts and druggies, but I can't see any of them doing something like this to her.”
“Not that crazy?” Sully asked.
“Not that motivated,” Billy Jones corrected. “I could see someone trying to rob the store, but why the rest of it? Why take her? Why not just leave her behind?”
“All valid questions.”
“Why not take more of the merchandise?” Billy asked. “We have 78 guns in inventory. Kenneth counted them first the morning after Beverly went missing. We still had 78 guns. Only jewelry and cash were missing.”
“Jewelry and cash are portable,” Sully mused out loud.
“That they are,” Billy Jones agreed sadly. “How did you find Beverly's head?”
Sully chose his next words carefully. “Our department received an anonymous tip about a suspicious vehicle that would be coming through our jurisdiction.”
“And you found Beverly's head?”
“I did.”
“You did. Not we?”
“I made the traffic stop. I searched the vehicle.”
“Did you make an arrest?” Billy asked. “Can I at least tell my children that the animal who hurt their mother is going to be locked away where he can't hurt anyone else?”
Sully hesitated. “It's an active investigation, Mr.- Billy.”
“You don't have him?”
“I won't know what I have until I finish my investigation. I don't want to mislead you.” Sully cracked his knuckles into the palm of his hand. “I hate to bother you for this now, but can you give me the exact descriptions of the missing jewelry?”
“Do you want the descriptions or do you want full copies of the pawn tickets?” Billy asked. “I can give you both.”
“I'll take anything you have,” Sully told him.
Billy Jones stood up, shaken but not broken. He gestured for Sully to follow him towards a doorway that was just off the side of the living room. “Follow me to the office. I'll give you everything.”
Chapter 33
“I still don't understand what anyone would get out of sabotaging your wedding,” said Miss Loretta as she carried a metal bucket full of wedding favors up the long gravel driveway that lead to the restored historic barn where Gracie and Cal were having their reception.
“I guess they're trying to embarrass me?” Gracie guessed as she lugged her own, even larger tub out of the backseat of Cal's truck.
“I don't see what canceling the band would do for anyone except ensure everyone would have to dance to whatever
music Calvin has on his cell phone,” Miss Loretta continued.
“Did they cancel the band?” Trish asked. She was carrying the wedding guest book and several professionally framed copies of Gracie and Cal's engagement photos.
“Yes, but I re-hired them.”
“Well, that's a relief.”
“I'm just glad you girls found another florist. Mary Greer is such a horrible woman. I really regret giving her the deposit before she delivered the flowers, but I understood that she had to order the supplies to make your arrangements. At this point, I wouldn't even trust her to try and fix your flowers. She might screw the order up a third time out of sheer spite. I despise that woman.”
“If you hate her, why were we using her as a florist?” Gracie asked.
“She's Jerry's cousin. We're spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for flowers. We never would have heard the end of it if we'd gone to someone else first.” Miss Loretta shrugged her round shoulders and adjusted the neckline of her blouse, smoothing out wrinkles that no one else would have even noticed. “Hopefully the new girl you found will be able to do a good job on such short notice.”
“I just don't understand why anyone would want to ruin my wedding,” Gracie said. “At first I thought it was April Lynne, but now I'm not so sure. I know she doesn't like me, but I don't think she hates me enough to go to all this trouble. I also can't see where making a mess out of my wedding would benefit her in any way.”
“Cal have any scorned ex-stalkers?” Trish asked.
“The only girl he's ever dated other than me is Jo Beth Greene,” Gracie said. “She wouldn't do this.”
“Are you sure?” Trish asked.
“Jo's got more class than whoever is doing this,” Miss Loretta said. “She wouldn't bother stooping to this level. Besides, I think she's moved on.”
“With who?” Gracie looked at her soon-to-be mother-in-law with open curiosity. “I hadn't heard she was dating anyone.”
“Rumor has it that Jo and Tate Briggs have been spending a lot of time together,” Miss Loretta explained. “They're supposed to be pretty close.”
“Tate and Jo?” Gracie considered the possibility and then nodded. “I can actually see that working. He's a little older than all the rest of us are, but I could see where she'd go for him.”
“Tate's a hottie, and not just because he's the fire captain. Half the women in town would go for him in a hot second,” Trish said and then quickly looked away. “Not that I've been looking.”
Loretta started laughing. “You'd have to be dead not to have noticed him. Or Sully, for that matter. Good looking pair of boys. The entire garden club has noticed them. If I were forty years younger and single, I'd be doing more than noticing. I think Jo Beth is making a good choice with that one. She's a very sensible girl, of course. Always has been.”
“You like her?” Trish appeared visibly surprised.
“She's not Gracie, but yes. I like her. She's a good person. She and Cal didn't make the best couple, but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with either one of them,” Loretta said with a small smile. “Jo Beth isn't the one sabotaging Gracie's wedding. She'd come straight to Gracie if she had a problem with her. Or confront Calvin. Whichever she felt was the morally right thing to do.”
“I guess we can scratch her off the list of suspects.” Trish pursed her lips. “Um, I know this may not be the ideal time to bring this up, but David doesn't have any crazy ex-girlfriends, does he?”
“No,” Gracie said.
“None,” Loretta confirmed. “He's never really dated anyone until you came around. Not in the traditional sense of dating anyhow. I'm quite certain he's not a virgin.”
“He's not a virgin,” Gracie said with a shake of her head. “Not by any means.”
“Addison is the one who comes with a zombie horde of psychotic stalkers trailing after him. I pity the girl who finally settles down with him,” Loretta said. “She's going to have a hell of a time getting rid of his baggage. She'll probably need a shotgun.”
“Makinsley stayed the night with him last night,” Trish shared. “She came over to our house and cooked everyone breakfast this morning because she was hungry and he doesn't have a kitchen.”
“Ugh,” Gracie groaned.
“Can she cook?” Miss Loretta began setting up the photographs and guest favors on a table just inside the front doors of the barn.
“Surprisingly, yes.” Trish shrugged. “Y'all don't think she's crazy enough to sabotage Gracie's wedding, do you?”
“Mak?” Gracie considered the possibility for a minute and then shook her head no. “She's crazy enough, but I fail to see how ruining my wedding would play into her endgame.”
“Her endgame?”
“Mak wants to be Mrs. Makinsley Madison Malone. She'll do pretty much anything to get my brother down the aisle.”
“Sabotaging your wedding won't make Addison want to marry her.”
“Sabotaging my wedding would piss him off,” Gracie said. “I have no doubt that Mak would do anything in her power to stop the wedding if Addison were the one getting married. He's not.”
“I don't think Mak cares that Gracie and Cal are getting married.” Loretta looked deep in thought. “Makinsley isn't interested in Calvin. Thank God.”
“Who would care?”Trish appeared to be deep in thought.
“Gracie, you don't have any crazy ex-lovers, do you?” Miss Loretta asked jokingly.
“What man would screw up wedding flowers for revenge?” Gracie asked, wanting to avoid the question completely even if it was a joke.
“Probably not one you would date,” Trish acknowledged. “How many guys have you slept with other than Cal?”
Gracie turned bright red instantly. “Oh boy, can we not have this conversation?”
“Cal slept with Jo Beth while the two of you were split up,” Miss Loretta said, taking no mercy on Gracie. “You don't have to be ashamed if you had a fling or two while you were at college. It could be important. Did you leave some poor, heartbroken soul up at State University pining for you?”
“No,” Gracie said quickly. “No one. I didn't date anyone. Ever.”
“You didn't date anyone at State?” Miss Loretta eyed Gracie with obvious skepticism.
Gracie's cheeks were now burning with hot embarrassment. “I never slept with anyone at State. I swear.”
“You're turning awfully red for someone who managed the nearly impossible task of staying virginal as a college freshman.” Trish was smiling as she teased her.
“I...um, well. It's just-. Oh gosh, can y'all just trust me when I say that no one I've ever dated or slept with is responsible for this?”
“I suppose,” Miss Loretta said. “Though now I'm really curious who you slept with. If you didn't meet him at State then he's probably local.”
“I don't kiss and tell,” Gracie said quickly.
“Does Cal know?” Miss Loretta asked.
“Yes,” Gracie said, feeling like she was on a little bit firmer moral footing with this one.
Miss Loretta spun around on one heel and focused her gaze on the middle of the room. David, Cal and Cal's Dad, Jerry, were almost through arranging the circular guest dining tables around the dance floor. A stack of shining gold tablecloths and cloth napkins had been delivered less than an hour ago and were waiting to go on the tables. The beautifully restored wooden walls and floors gave the entire room a warm, rustic feeling that would have felt even more welcoming if Gracie hadn't been quite so nervous about what her future mother-in-law was about to do.
“Cal, come here for a second.” Miss Loretta beckoned Cal over to them with one finger.
Gracie squished her eyes closed and sent up a silent prayer that lightning would come down from the heavens and strike her dead in the next three seconds.
“What's up?” Cal asked as he walked over to them. The dark blue t-shirt he was wearing was just tight enough to emphasize exactly how thick and muscular his chest and arms wer
e. He still had a stack of folding event chairs balanced on his right shoulder.
“Gracie's keeping secrets and I'm nosy. Who else has she slept with besides you?”
Cal, who had barely spoken two words to Gracie when he'd arrived earlier, looked startled by the question. He didn't look at her now as he said, “No one?”
“Oh come on now, she already admitted there was someone,” Miss Loretta was clearly having a good time picking on her son. “She won't tell me, but she says you know. You can tell us.”
Cal's eyes widened and then he shook his head at his mother. “I don't think so, and trust me when I say you don't need to know.”
