Claws for Concern

by Miranda James

  * * *

  • • •

  The experience with Elizabeth Barber shook me pretty badly. It would be a long time before I could get that scene out of my mind, if ever. Even with her arms behind her, cuffed, she still struggled to get to Bill Delaney. Her ranting, obscenity-laden words sounded like those of a madwoman. Her paternal grandmother’s legacy to her and her father, no doubt. Blocked from being able to kill Delaney, she seemed to lose all contact with reason.

  I stayed at the hospital until nearly eight o’clock, answering questions for both the police and the sheriff’s department. Kanesha Berry was there herself, and Elmer Lee Johnson turned up halfway through my session with Kanesha.

  I told them what I thought happened on that night twenty years ago when the Barber family was murdered. They were somewhat skeptical, but I was pretty sure I was right. The only two people who could confirm my suspicions were Bill Delaney and Leann Finch. I wondered whether they would be willing finally to tell what happened that night.

  * * *

  • • •

  After a rough night with not much sleep—sleep haunted by Elizabeth Barber’s mad ranting—I got up the next morning hollow-eyed and tired. Azalea’s breakfast perked me up. By the time I arrived home the night before, I couldn’t eat anything. And for me, not being hungry or wanting to eat was a definite sign of abnormal distress.

  I made up for those lost calories with a second helping of grits and a fifth biscuit with grape jam. Diesel feasted happily on bites of bacon. Azalea didn’t press me to talk. She could tell I wasn’t in the mood to discuss the events of the previous night.

  By nine I was dressed and ready to go. I explained to Diesel that, once again, he would have to stay home. I was going to the hospital, and I couldn’t take him. He protested with the usual indignant meows and trills, but Azalea offered him a little more bacon to distract him. For once he didn’t fuss. I slipped out the back door and drove to the hospital.

  Jack was waiting for me in the lobby. We were going to see Bill Delaney to ask him if he would tell us the whole story.

  “I’m sorry that you had to witness such a terrible scene,” Jack said. “I can only imagine how bad it was.”

  I nodded. I didn’t really want to talk about it right now, and Jack appeared to sense that. He let it drop. He did ask, however, whether I thought Bill would talk to us.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m hoping that he’s thought about it and decided to let the truth be known. I think I know what happened, but I want him to confirm it.”

  “What do you think happened?” Jack asked as we stepped into the elevator. I had checked earlier, and Bill Delaney was still in room 227. I took that as a good sign. I was afraid he would be back in the ICU.

  I answered Jack’s question without going into any details. To my surprise, he didn’t scoff at my solution. “Interesting,” was all he said.

  We strolled down the hall to Bill’s room. The door was open, and I could see Bill sitting up in bed watching television. I knocked on the door, and his head turned toward us. He shrugged when he saw us, but he didn’t tell us to go away. Instead he turned the television off and motioned for us to come in.

  We bade him good morning, and he returned the greeting, though he eyed us a bit warily, I thought.

  “Mind if we sit?” Jack asked.

  “Help yourselves,” Bill said.

  Jack brought chairs to the bedside for both of us, and we sat.

  “You know why we’re here,” I said.

  Bill nodded. “You want the whole story.” He sighed. “I spent a lot of last night thinking about it, and I guess I should set the record straight. I realized I wasn’t quite ready to die after all. I keep thinking about my mama. She hated to lie, but she went along with it. I didn’t tell even her the whole truth. I reckon I’ll tell you, though.”

  “We’re listening,” Jack said. “Do you mind if I record you?”

  Bill shrugged. “Don’t see why not. Go ahead.”

  Jack pulled out his digital recorder and turned it on. He placed it on the nightstand next to Bill’s bed. “Interview with William Delaney,” he said, then added the date and the location. He also included the fact that I was there as a witness. “Go ahead.”

  Bill looked at me. “Do you already know what I’m going to say?”

  “I think I know some of it,” I replied. “I know that you didn’t murder anybody. I think you still loved Betty Barber too much to harm her or her children.”

  “No, I didn’t kill them,” Bill said. “I was trying to rescue them from Hiram. That son of a bitch deserved to die, and I’m not sorry he did.”

  “You were trying to rescue them?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah,” Bill said. “Betty was desperate to get away from Hiram and get the boys out, too. Hiram treated her bad, and the boys, too. He was getting crazier all the time, like his mama did before they sent her to Whitfield. I was going to get them that night after Hiram fell asleep. Betty was going to put something in his milk to make sure he slept.”

  “Was Elizabeth in on the plot?” Jack asked.

  “She was,” Bill said. “Told me she wanted her mama and the boys to be safe.” He scratched his chin. “She arranged to spend the night with her friend Leann so she’d be out of the house. We didn’t want her father to know that she knew anything about it.

  “I’d arranged to get there about ten thirty. Hiram was usually in bed by eight, and I figured by ten thirty he should be sound asleep. Mama knew about this part of the plan, of course. I pretended to be real drunk when I got home that night, and Mama would tell everybody I passed out and never left my room—in case Hiram came nosing around.

  “I parked my car a couple hundred yards down the road leading to the house.” He reached for a cup off the nightstand and drank from it. “When I got to the house, I had this feeling something was wrong. Everything was too quiet. I let myself in the front door like I’d said I would do. Betty and the boys were supposed to be waiting for me just inside. They weren’t there, so I started looking for them. I walked into the kitchen, and the first thing I saw was Elizabeth standing there, looking at her father, this horrible expression on her face. Hiram was sitting in a chair with a shotgun across his knees. He seemed dazed.

  “Then I caught the smell. Blood. So bad it gagged me.” He paused to drink again from his cup. His hand trembled a little. “Elizabeth saw me. ‘Look what he did,’ she said. She pointed, and I looked over. Betty and the boys. Dead.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. “I know this is painful for you.”

  Bill nodded. “For a minute there, I didn’t know where I was, or who I was. All I could think of was killing Hiram. I went for him. Elizabeth grabbed the shotgun. I pulled Hiram out of the chair. He came to enough to realize I meant to hit him. He twisted himself out of my arms and turned away. Had his back to Elizabeth. That’s when she shot him.”

  Jack looked at me. So far everything I had told him earlier matched Bill’s account.

  “Do you believe Hiram actually killed his wife and sons?” Jack asked. “Couldn’t it have been Elizabeth?”

  “No, I know he did it,” Bill said.

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked.

  “I just know,” Bill replied. “Elizabeth told Hiram I was coming to take Betty and the boys away from him. They were my sons.”

  “That made him go crazy and kill them?” Jack asked.

  “Partly,” Bill said. “Elizabeth also told him I was the boys’ father. He’d always suspected they weren’t his, I think, and Elizabeth telling him she knew it for a fact pushed him over the edge.”

  THIRTY-SIX

  “Yes, Sean, you’re right,” I said, trying not to sound long-suffering, though I wasn’t sure I was completely successful. “If I hadn’t gone to the hospital the deputies would have handled things very well on their own.” I
was thankful Sean had at least waited until we finished our Sunday dinner before he brought up the subject. I don’t think I would have been able to eat otherwise.

  “I know you think I’m nagging, Dad,” Sean said. He sounded aggrieved.

  “Well, you are,” Laura said. “You talk to him sometimes like he’s an adolescent.”

  “Thanks for the support, sister dear.” Sean leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “She’s right, sweetheart,” Alex, Sean’s wife, said. “I can hear you sounding just like that about fifteen years from now with our child.” She smiled at him.

  Sean’s gaze softened as he looked across the table at his wife. He might fuss at me, but he wouldn’t fuss at Alex.

  “Go on, Charlie,” Stewart said. “Before Sean launches into another lecture on proper behavior for grandfathers.” He grinned.

  “Ha-ha,” Sean said.

  “I did feel a little foolish hiding in the bathroom,” I said, “but I couldn’t take the chance. If the deputy hadn’t shown up, and I hadn’t been there, Bill would have died.”

  “What was in the syringe? Were you able to find out?” Haskell asked.

  “A powerful tranquilizer, with a dose strong enough to bring down a couple of bull elephants,” I said. “Lethal to Bill, obviously.”

  “She was desperate,” Helen Louise said. “Despite the fact that she murdered her own father and tried to kill another man, I do feel sorry for her. She was not quite sane.”

  “Sane enough to kill people to get what she wanted,” Haskell said. “And she nearly got away with it. I wonder how long it would have been before she turned on someone else, like her husband or her children.”

  That didn’t bear thinking about. I felt desperately sorry for Campbell and the children. I imagined he would be watching his children closely from now on for signs of their mother’s extreme behavior.

  “The one I feel really sorry for is Bill Delaney,” Laura said. “He thought he was going to be able to save the woman he loved and his sons from a monster.” She shook her head, and I could see tears running down her face. Frank obviously noticed, too. He left his chair and went around the table to comfort her.

  “I agree, honey,” I said. “To me, that is the real tragedy in all this.”

  “Why did Delaney protect Elizabeth all these years?” Sean asked. “I don’t understand that at all. Why didn’t he turn her in?”

  “I asked him that,” I said. “He told me he couldn’t. He didn’t want her to go to prison. It wouldn’t have been self-defense with her shooting him in the back. If Hiram had intended to kill her, she would have been dead by the time Bill arrived. She was Betty’s daughter, and he felt he had to protect her. It was all he had left that he could do for Betty.”

  “Did he tell you what he did with the shotgun?” Stewart asked.

  “He drove out to Tullahoma Lake and threw it in. Even if the sheriff’s department had looked for it there, I doubt they would have found it. It’s a big lake,” I said.

  “Did Dr. Finch know all of this?” Alex asked.

  “I’m not sure how much she really knew,” I replied. “I believe she knew Elizabeth was planning to help her mother and brothers escape from her father. I also believe Elizabeth told her that Bill Delaney killed Hiram in revenge for Hiram murdering her mother and the boys. Elizabeth swore her to secrecy because she said she didn’t want Bill to go to jail.”

  “She was still trying to protect her all these years later, I suppose,” Helen Louise said. “Now that is a best friend for you.”

  “She loved Elizabeth like a sister, and that’s why she was feeding Elizabeth information on Bill’s condition, although that is unethical,” I said. “I don’t think she ever realized that Elizabeth had such a dark side to her personality.”

  “She was pretty good at keeping it hidden,” Haskell said.

  “For the most part, yes,” I said. “I didn’t trust her, although the act of contrition she put on at Bill’s bedside almost convinced me I was wrong. That was before she tried to kill him, of course.”

  “Was she afraid he would finally tell the truth to someone?” Frank asked. “After he’d been silent for so many years?”

  I shrugged. “That’s my guess. She didn’t trust him. He promised never to come back, apparently, and then he did. That spooked her.”

  “I’m thankful she’s off the streets,” Laura said. “I’d hate to think of her loose out there.”

  “And hopefully she’ll stay off the streets,” Haskell said. “Depends on the kind of bond the judge sets. Right now she’s in our jail waiting to go before the judge to be indicted.”

  “She’s here, in Athena?” Laura sounded alarmed.

  “Yes, for the attempted murder of Bill Delaney,” Haskell said. “It will take a while before the other charges are brought. Delaney will probably face charges, too, though they might go easy on him because of his health and the fact that he’s now cooperating with the investigation.”

  “The main thing is she’s where she can’t harm anyone else,” Alex said. “What I don’t understand is why Elizabeth hated her father so much? Especially since he supposedly spoiled her. Was she abused, do you think?”

  “I suspect she might have been. If she was, it will probably come out at the trial,” I said.

  “How is Bill Delaney doing?” Helen Louise asked. “Have you made a decision yet on inviting him to live here?”

  “He’s doing better than I expected, after everything that happened,” I said. “He could live three days, three weeks, or three years, but he won’t be living them here. I invited him to stay here. He thanked me, but I could see that being around me would remind him too much of recent events.”

  “So what is he going to do?” Laura asked.

  “He’s going back to Tullahoma,” I said. “Turns out he has more than enough to live on. He is pretty frugal with his money. He has a little apartment there, and a couple of his old Marine Corps buddies are still around. He told me he has realized he isn’t so ready to die after all. The fact that Elizabeth tried to kill him again convinced him he shouldn’t try to protect her anymore.”

  “I’m glad to hear he’s got a home,” Helen Louise said. “He might not be able to find much happiness in the time he has left, but perhaps he can find peace of a sort.”

  I smiled at the woman I had grown to love so much. In her articulate, sensitive way, she had voiced my own thoughts beautifully.

  “I think it’s time we changed the subject to a happier one,” I said. “I’d like to hold my grandson for a little while, if that’s okay.”

  Laura glanced over to the bassinet by the wall. Diesel lay beside it, ever vigilant should baby Charlie start to cry.

  “I think he’s probably ready for a meal anyway, so why don’t you give him a bottle, Dad?”

  “I’ll get one from the fridge and put it in the warmer,” Frank said.

  I nodded my thanks, and he headed to the kitchen. I went over to the bassinet and picked up my grandson. He was already stirring a little, and Laura was right. He would soon be demanding to be fed. I returned to my chair and held him in my arms. Diesel came with me and sat beside my chair. He had to be sure I was taking proper care of the baby.

  Looking at baby Charlie, at that perfect little face and head, I was able to push away the dark thoughts brought about by recent events. I held the future in my arms, and I would do everything in my power to see that it was a future full of love, light, and laughter.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Miranda James is the New York Times bestselling author of the Cat in the Stacks Mysteries, including Twelve Angry Librarians, No Cats Allowed, and Arsenic and Old Books, as well as the Southern Ladies Mysteries, including Fixing to Die, Digging Up the Dirt, and Dead with the Wind. James lives in Mississippi. Visit the author at catinthestacks.com and face
book.com/mirandajamesauthor.

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