Mossy Creek: A Maggie Mercer Mystery

by Jill Behe

  “Anyway, one night, about three months later—I’d just graduated, like, the week before, or something—we were on the way to my house, and he pulled onto Foggy Bottom Road … there, where it meets Old Bear Creek Swamp? Thought he had a flat. When he didn’t move, I asked what was wrong. He said he wanted to ask me something.

  “I wasn’t scared, but all of a sudden, it felt kinda creepy to be in the car with him, ya know? I didn’t say anything. A couple minutes later, he asked if I thought he was cute. It was weird; I mean, shit, he’s the mayor. What was I supposed to say? Right?

  “I told him, sure, he was cute, for a mayor. Cuz, ya know, I mean, to me he was old, but not, like, ugly. He laughed and then leaned across the seat—real quick—and kissed me … right on the mouth. I wanted to smack him. I mean, geez, he’s married. And he’s the mayor. He can’t be doing stuff like that. What a jerk.

  “But he wasn’t done. He had to go and ask if I’d liked it. Can you believe that?” She shook her head. “I was sooo disgusted. I said no, that he shouldn’t do it anymore, cuz, ya know, he was married and all, and I really liked his wife. He laughed again, and kissed me again—harder. Then, finally, he took me home.

  “I thought that would be the end of it, hoped. For the next few weeks, every time he took me home, he’d stop. I was so scared. He’d kiss me a couple of times, then drive to my house.

  “I never told anybody about it, but it started to get to me. I stopped eating, had trouble sleeping, and when I did sleep, the nightmares—of him looming, threatening me with all kinds of awful stuff—they were horrible. My dad started to notice. Thought I was getting sick like my mom. Wanted to take me to the doctor, but I said it was nothing, that I’d be fine. I didn’t want him worrying about me, with my mom so bad, right then.

  “I tried being more forceful. Told the mayor we couldn’t stop by the swamp, and he couldn’t kiss me, anymore. He just laughed, and things got worse.” She stopped and looked at Wyatt. “Chief Madison, could I have some water?”

  “I’ll get it.” I needed a break, anyway.

  Heavenly Days. Just when you think you’re in the loop, as far as what goes on in your town, you hear something like this. Apparently, I didn’t have a clue. Even the grapevine hadn’t caught wind of this.

  I grabbed a couple bottles out of the mini-fridge near the coffee pot and went back to Wyatt’s office.

  “Thank you, Miz Mercer.” She opened a bottle and took a long drink.

  “You’re welcome, Susie.” I handed the other one to Evey. She smiled her thanks, but didn’t open it.

  “I don’t remember the exact date,” Susie said, continuing. “But, the last time I babysat for them, he followed his usual route. We stopped. Then he slid across the seat—he’d never done that before—got real close. I couldn’t - didn’t - want him that close. He started kissing. Then, his hands….” She dropped her eyes, a deep pink blush flooded her face. “He, he was rubbing them all up and down the front of me, at first. And then he was pinching m-my….” She let out a small sound. “Sorry. It still makes me so mad.”

  Evey caught her hand again. “They have to know, Suz.”

  She nodded, and took another long drink. “He pinched my breasts,” she blurted. “It hurt, and I was mad, but I was scared that he was going to do more than that, and I didn’t want him to. Tried so hard to push him off, but he was too heavy, then he was moving down my belly, and I got sick. I mean: I. Got. Sick.

  “Threw up all over him. He started yelling and swearing at me, and then yelled some more. Told me what a stupid slut I was, how I’d tempted him. How was he going to explain the mess to his wife?

  “I was crying by then, and too sick to care much what he thought. I told him if he’d listened and stopped kissing me before, there wouldn’t be any mess to clean up.

  “Then his face went mean. Wicked bad mean. I got even more scared, but he didn’t say anything else. Just took me home and drove off.

  “Next day, I called Miz Ellie. Told her I couldn’t babysit anymore, cuz I’d got a job at Annetta’s. Of course, I hadn’t, but after I hung up the phone, I ran all the way to the restaurant, and asked Miz Annetta if I could be a waitress for her afternoon shift and on weekends. I guess she could see how desperate I was, cuz she said yes.

  “The mayor would come in all the time, after that, especially when I was on shift. He’d just stare, real hard, mad-like, but he wouldn’t say a word.

  “I never told anyone, not ’til I heard about Randy. Then Evey and I started really talking details.” She looked at her friend. “I’m done.”

  CHAPTER 22

  EVEY STARTED RIGHT IN. “Well, I didn’t hear about the babysitting thing until two months into my senior year. Kendall had turned one, the month before. The Patterson’s were gone on an extended vacation, to visit some of Mrs. Patterson’s relatives, and then tour Europe. At least, that’s what she told me the first time I sat for them. She seemed really friendly, then.

  “Miz Forbes, the school secretary, called me to the office, about the end of the month … October, like I said. She told me she was starting a new senior list, and was I interested in babysitting the mayor’s son. It had worked out really well the year before; they’d kept the same girl the whole year. But, it would only actually be half a year. Anyway, since Susie graduated, they needed another senior.”

  Wyatt interrupted. “She mentioned Susie’s name specifically?”

  Evey nodded. “Oh, yeah. She said Susie Chapin had done such an excellent job, the mayor wanted to continue the … uh, tradition—if you can believe that—of using a senior girl.”

  I had to find out. “So, Miz Forbes never knew what Susie had to put up with?” It was hard to believe no one even suspected. “The Patterson’s gave Susie a good report, even though she quit so unexpectedly?”

  Evey shook her head. “Miz Forbes never mentioned Susie having any trouble. She seemed relieved that the Patterson’s were happy.”

  “I see.”

  “I don’t know if Ellie ever got suspicious of what he was doing.” Susie broke in. “She was the one I called the next morning. She actually asked if I was feeling any better. I guess he’d told her I’d gotten sick in the car, but of course, not why. At least, she never mentioned it, and she treated me the same way as always, anytime I saw her after that.”

  I sat back in my seat. Thoughtful.

  “Evey?” Wyatt prompted. “Is there more?”

  “Oh-ho, yes. Much, much more.”

  She opened the water I’d given her, and took a long draw. “It gets messy from here on out. And, it’s embarrassing for me. But, you need to know. Suz and I talked about it a lot before we decided to come in.”

  “We wanted to before now,” Susie jumped in to explain. “But it was— We felt so humiliated. I mean, who would believe us? The mayor’s a big shot. But when we heard what happened to Miranda, and since she’d been the next babysitter, we couldn’t keep quiet any longer.” She looked over at her friend. “We feel really guilty about what happened to her, actually.”

  “Guilty? Why would you feel guilty?” Wyatt’s gaze flicked from one girl to the other.

  “If we’d said something sooner, she might still be alive.”

  “Oh no,” I blurted. “No. You can’t think that way.”

  They shook their heads. “If we had come forward. Well, if I had told Miz Forbes what he did to me—or tried to do to me—the first time it happened, she never ever would have given him anymore names.” Susie began to cry. “I should have reported him, the first time he kissed me. But I was— He’s so important, and I was just a … just a teenager.”

  Evey grabbed her hand and held on.

  “Remorse aside,” Wyatt told them quietly. “It’s done and over. You can’t change what happened, but you can help stop it from happening again. It wasn’t your fault.”

  Evey took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re right. You are. But, it doesn’t change how we feel about it.”

  Susie wiped
her eyes, and nodded her agreement.

  Evey continued. “Okay. Like I said, I started in October. The first time he stopped on Foggy Bottom Road was in February—our first kiss was on Valentine’s Day.” She shook her head. “Said that was why, because I hadn’t had a date, he wanted to make up for it. Shit.

  “Later, when I found out what happened to Susie, I figured that her puking on him might have made him think twice about trying it with me, but perverted as he is, he couldn’t help himself. It just took him longer to work up the gumption to do it again.

  “From that kiss, though, things escalated. My reaction was different from Susie’s. I was flattered. He was good-looking, charming, important, experienced. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about his being married, just that he was interested. Like, an older man had the hots for me, ya know? Since I didn’t protest, he went from kissing, to petting pretty quick.” She paused for another drink. And, after a few minutes of silence, I wondered if she was going to end things there.

  She shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable, and gave a short laugh. “I had this all rehearsed, ya know? It’s harder in front of an audience, especially—sorry, Chief Madison—but especially in front of you and Officer Anderson.” She cleared her throat. “So, okay. It was April, or maybe May, he, we, got hot and sweaty in the backseat of his car.” We watched her face turn bright red, but she didn’t stop. “It’s nauseating to think about it now, but I was in seventh heaven for a while. Then it started to wear off, sometime around July, I guess. It got sleazy, really sleazy, and it was hard to look Mrs. Patterson in the eye.

  “One night, in early August, I think, we were on the way to my house. He stopped the car, and began the routine, like always. But I’d had enough and told him no. Told him I didn’t want him to touch me anymore; that it had to stop.

  “First he tried the ‘ah, come on, baby,’ thing. But I was done. Then he got ugly mean, instantly. Grabbed me by the throat and started to squeeze … hard.” Her hand caressed her neck as she remembered. “I thought he was killing me. Maybe that was his intent. All I know is, I couldn’t get any air, and passed out. When I came to, I was naked in the bushes, out along Bear Creek Swamp. I’d rolled almost all the way down the bank. He probably figured I’d fallen in. If I had gone into that muck, I’d have drowned. No question. He’d tossed my clothes to the side of the road, so maybe…. I don’t know.

  “Scared the spit outta me, that’s for sure. I called Mrs. Patterson the next morning. Told her I had to quit babysitting. Then I called Suz, asked her what I should do. I needed to stay as far away from him as I could. She told me to go to Annetta’s, like the next day, and ask for the afternoon shift. She was going to answer the sign in the window at Sporelli’s Bakery, so there’d be a spot open at the restaurant.

  “I never told a soul—except for Suz—what we’d done. I didn’t even tell her I thought he’d tried to kill me.” She glanced at the girl. “Sorry, Suz.”

  “It’s okay, Evey. I don’t think I could have told anyone, either.”

  They briefly joined hands again. Female support structure at work.

  “Anytime I see him - even to this day - I turn and go the opposite direction, or cross the street, if at all possible, to avoid being anywhere near him.

  “When school started, I knew Miz Forbes was gonna get another list of seniors, and called. Asked her what senior girl she’d picked for the primary sitter spot. I didn’t tell her what happened. But I should have.

  “She said Miranda Richards was the primary. I remembered seeing her on the cheerleading squad, during pep rallies, and at games when she was a sophomore and junior. One day, when I figured practice was over, I went to talk to her. I explained that I’d been the babysitter the year before. She said she already knew that, was kinda snippy about it, too. I told her to be careful about getting rides home from the mayor, that he’d hit on me. She laughed. I couldn’t tell if she believed me, or if she thought I was an idiot. I know she had a rep for being loose with the guys, so maybe she was laughing at my warning.” She shrugged.

  “I’m so ashamed of what I let him do to me, but he was someone important. I should have been able to trust him. Instead, I was trying to get away from him. He shouldn’t have put me in that position. I know I shouldn’t have let him, but….”

  Susie grabbed Evey’s hand, again, and squeezed. “We think, whatever happened to Miranda, the mayor had something to do with it. Because of what happened to us, anyway. That’s our opinion.”

  Evey finished off her water. “He’s not fit to be mayor of this town, even if he didn’t kill her. He’s….” She paused, as though deciding whether to finish the sentence. “He’s a piece of slime.”

  “Yeah,” Ricky agreed. “He is.”

  “I’m just, so, shocked.” Was about all I could get out.

  Ricky looked like he wanted to hurt something, really badly, and I had a pretty good idea who it was he had in mind.

  “I’m really sorry you two had to go through all that. Especially alone.”

  Evey nodded. “He was very charming, very … suave, and sophisticated, and attractive, and he knew it. He used that, and his social status, to take advantage of us. Made us feel like he couldn’t live without us.”

  “Seems we weren’t supposed to live without him,” Susie added. “Guess that makes us lucky to be alive.”

  “Evey, you mentioned that the first time you babysat was in October. That was 2006?” Wyatt consulted his notes.

  “Yeah. End of October, ’06.” She thought for a minute, then nodded. “I graduated in 2007, so, yeah.”

  “What did you mean by ‘she seemed really friendly, then’?”

  She looked at Susie. The other girl shook her head. “The mayor and his wife are not at all the loving couple they would have you believe. In private, they bicker, a lot. Sometimes it’s more than just bickering. I’ve heard pounding on the walls, doors slamming, sometimes even glass breaking, during and after a shouting match.”

  “I saw it, heard it, too,” Susie admitted. “Never right in front of me, though. Once, they were upstairs, probably in their room, it got so bad I thought one of them was going to get hurt. When they came down, they acted like it never happened.”

  “Mrs. Patterson has a very nasty temper. So does the mayor, but I was shocked at how fast she loses it, and over little things.”

  “Is there anything else you’d like to add?”

  “Yeah.” Susie raised her hand, then lowered it with an embarrassed smile. “We did something.”

  “Nothing I’m going to have to arrest you for, is it?” Wyatt wasn’t joking.

  She shook her head. “No. We, Evey, called the school secretary and told her not to make anymore senior-girl lists. She didn’t ask why, but did have a few nasty things to say. The mayor’s name was mentioned, in between some words I didn’t even think she knew.”

  “What’s going to happen now?” Evey looked at Wyatt.

  We all did.

  He stood and turned off the tape recorder, then glanced at the clock. “Now, I have to get ready for an appointment. If the mayor can’t see me, Officer Anderson and I will take a ride out there as soon as he gets back.” He shook hands with the girls. “Ladies, thank you for coming in, today. I appreciate the courage it took for you to reveal your stories. It’s been … enlightening.”

  “You’re welcome, Chief Madison.”

  CHAPTER 23

  SATURDAY MID-AFTERNOON

  A LITTLE WHILE LATER, Wyatt came out of his office and up to my desk, hat dangling from his left hand. Preoccupied, he stood, shifting from one foot to the other, not saying anything.

  I waited.

  Five minutes later, still nothing. Almost like I wasn’t there. Finally, I couldn’t stand the silence. “Was there something you needed?”

  He blinked, as though just realizing where he was. “Hmm? I, uh, I’m going over to talk the Pattersons.”

  “Yes, I know. You made an appointment with them for 2:30.”


  “I did. Yes. Mrs. Patterson just called my private line. Apparently, the mayor’s been called out of town unexpectedly. She assured me, though, that she’d be there. Sounds fishy. I’ll have to reschedule with the mayor, as soon as he’s available.

  “I’m feeling oddly apprehensive about talking to the mayor’s wife about her babysitters. She seems upset about the whole Miranda thing, which is understandable. After the way she acted at the funeral…,” he made a helpless gesture. “I don’t know that I trust her … feelings.

  “I’ll be conducting an official investigation, and she’s the wife of a town official, so I have to address her formally. That’s creepy.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve always been on a first name basis. I’ve been to their house for dinner, for Pete’s sake, and bounced their son on my knee.”

  Sounded like babbling to me. He’s usually more in control than that. To say he was uncomfortable was probably an understatement.

  And yes, Ridge Patterson suddenly being unavailable was definitely fishy.

  I leaned my elbows on the desk. “You don’t want to go over there. I get that.” It was a statement. I couldn’t blame him; I wouldn’t want to, either.

  He huffed and smacked his leg with his hat. “No. No, I don’t want to go over there. I don’t want those girls to have gone through what they did because of that man, but they did. I don’t want my friend’s daughter to be dead, either, but I don’t get a say in the matter.” He stopped and stared at his boots, for a moment. “Sorry. I’m frustrated, and angry. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

  Sometimes it sucks to be the king.

  “You have a right to vent, you know. If you can’t let loose with your friends, well, who else is there?”

  He gave me a look, but I didn’t take it personally.

  “Thanks, Maggie, I think. Don’t know exactly why I don’t want to go. It’s routine to question anyone who had contact with the victim. I guess it feels weird because it’s the mayor, for one; and knowing he’s guilty of a crime, that may or may not have led to her death. And then, to talk to the wife as though you don’t know that—”