Do Unto Others

by Jeff Abbott

  Ruth Wills—nurse at Mirabeau Hospital. Claims to have witnessed a violent argument between Beta and Bob Don last Saturday. Her quote is 2 Kings 4:40. “There is death in the pot.” Guess is that it refers to Ruth’s alleged attempt to poison Beta.

  Bob Don Goertz—local car and pickup truck czar. His quote is Judges 5:30. “Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two?” Sounds like Bob Don had either reaped a windfall of women; or that he possibly had a mistress on the side? Could it have been Beta herself, if not now then in the past? Knew her since she was young and claimed she was wild then.

  Anne Schneider Poteet—my mother. For whatever reason, her quote is Genesis 3:16. “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” I have no idea what this means in connection with my mother. Probably the sorrow was to be that I (someone Beta loathed) was her child.

  I closed my eyes as I finished reading my notes. Mama. This of all made the least sense. My mother hadn’t hurt a fly in her whole life. She was caring, forgiving, loving. Yet she’d made it onto this list of Beta Harcher’s sinners. Perhaps Ruth was right; crazy people didn’t need motives. Putting my mother on that list was proof enough.

  I paused, then realized I’d left something out. I scribbled again:

  BOARD MEMBERS NOT ON LIST

  Reverend Adam Hufnagel—preacher at First Baptist Church of Mirabeau (for past five years). I haven’t spoken with him regarding Beta’s death—must do soon. Why is his wife on Beta’s list? Why isn’t he?

  Janice Schneider—homemaker, my cousin-by-marriage (married to my second cousin Harold Schneider). Mother of Hally and Josh. Perky, Stepford-wife, greeting card type. Had Beta baby-sit her son Josh on occasion—apparently tried to make up with Beta after library incidents. Why is her son Hally on Beta’s list? Why isn’t she?

  I drummed my pen against the paper. Those ending questions were both damned good ones. Perhaps there was no reason to it; after all, Mama was on the list. Maybe Tamma and Hally were there as well to strike against imagined betrayers Adam and Janice. Janice had voted against Beta and Adam hadn’t argued hard when the board voted to remove her. That assumed this list was some sort of weapon Beta could’ve used against those she hated. Or maybe Hally and Tamma had been doing their own wrongs against Beta. I decided talking to Brother Adam and cousin Janice was a priority.

  There was one more addition to the notebook:

  BETA HARCHER

  Mid 40s. Never married, as far as I know. Mirabeau native. Did not work; lived off trust left to her by family. No close relatives in town; has a niece in Houston, according to Tamma Hufnagel. Do not know of anyone that she considered a close friend or confidante. Extremely religious; a zealot. According to Bob Don, got religion in her early 20s; previously had a reputation for being wild (whatever that means). Had served on library board less than six months when she began attempts to ban books she considered unwholesome. Ejected from library board by other members. Acted as though she operated by divine guidance; even stated as much when she assaulted me in the library. Deposited large, unexplained amount of cash recently in her savings account. Apparently argued with Bob Don Goertz (if Ruth is to be believed) and was having a late night meeting with longtime enemy Eula Mae Quiff in the week before she died.

  Eula Mae and Bob Don. A well-to-do writer and a prosperous car dealer. And $35,000 in Beta’s savings account. I wondered if for all her moralizing, Beta Harcher considered blackmail a sin.

  I switched out the light and considering the length and stress of the day I’d had, collapsed quickly into a deep sleep. Beta Harcher kindly stayed out of my dreams.

  THE NEXT MORNING STARTED OFF AS MOST mornings did, except I kept wondering whether or not I could open the library and whether Junebug still considered me a prime suspect. I fixed breakfast for Mama and Mark and checked on Sister; she snored in her room, worn from an evening of cooking up homestyle food for wayfarers.

  I’m not nearly as good a cook as Sister, but Mama and Mark didn’t complain. Course it’s hard to mess up toaster waffles and Rice Krispies, but I do pride myself on my ability to coordinate every part of the meal so it reaches the table simultaneously.

  Junebug didn’t disappoint. He showed up about eight-thirty and I was glad to see that Billy Ray wasn’t in tow.

  “Hey, Jordy. Good morning,” Junebug held his Stetson in his hands, as if sparking Sister rather than grilling me.

  “Good morning, Chief Moncrief.” I kept my tone formal. He frowned.

  “I’d like to speak with you for a minute, Jordy.”

  “Don’t you need a backup, Chief? After all, I’m a dangerous suspect.”

  “Come on, Jordy,” he sounded like the Junebug of old, asking for his baseball back when we’d disagreed about a hit being foul. “Quit being pissy about this. I got a job to do. I’m not here to arrest you.”

  I relented. “I just made some coffee. Come on in.”

  He came awkwardly into the kitchen, watching Mama. “Good morning, Miz Poteet, Mark. How y’all doing?”

  Mama stared at Junebug, as if she feared he might be here to escort her to a nursing home. She smiled cautiously in his direction.

  Mark once again put himself first. “I already told you what I know, Chief,” he said, sounding like a prepubescent version of a Bogart-movie thug.

  Junebug regarded Mark critically. “Yes, son, I know. Thanks again for your cooperation. I’m here to see your uncle, though. Would y’all mind giving us some privacy?”

  “Mark, please take Mama upstairs. Then go outside and play,” I said. Do thirteen-year-olds still play?

  Mark’s eyes widened like drops of ink in water. “Are you going to arrest him?”

  “No, son. Good to see you again, Miz Poteet.” Junebug nodded politely at Mama as Mark escorted her out of the kitchen.

  I poured Junebug black coffee and set it before him. I decided to act like what I was, just a bystander to all these nasty little events. “So when can I reopen the library?”

  “Not today,” he said in his slow voice, sipping the brew. His blue eyes flicked at me. “You make good coffee.”

  I sipped my own in response. “Is that what you came by to tell me, that the library has to stay closed? You could have phoned.”

  He set the mug down. “Jordy, I think Beta might’ve been in the library to burn it down.”

  I felt the heat of the mug in my hands, but it paled next to the heat in my face. Burn the library? Bum my library?

  Junebug read my expression. “I didn’t get into this with you before, because we didn’t know. Her fingers smelled of gasoline, and the coroner found traces of gasoline on her clothes. And there was a pack of matches in her skirt pocket.”

  “Did you find gas cans?” My voice sounded stunned.

  “In her car. It was parked down the street from the library. Found it there yesterday.”

  “Not enough that she tried to ban books. Not enough that she threatened to shut the library down. No, if she couldn’t have her way, she’d just torch it. Even the many books she didn’t object to, just to get rid of the few.” I jumped up from my chair and paced the kitchen madly.

  “She didn’t threaten to burn the place down to you?” Junebug asked in his relaxed drawl.

  “Never.” I stopped. “You know I would have reported any such threat to you. I’d have had you and the volunteer fire department on twenty-four-hour alert. And I’d have had Billy Ray throw a book she couldn’t burn at her skinny butt.”

  “Unless you decided to stop her yourself.” He said it as casually as if he were reading a high-school football score from the paper.

  I felt my lips tighten. “You know I wouldn’t kill her. There’d be no reason for me to. You’re the law. I would have come to you.”

  “I think you would have, too,” Junebug said. “But that’s not how Billy Ray sees it. He figures—”

  “Billy Ray couldn’t figure if you gave him both sides of the flash card,” I interrupted.

  “—that if you
knew she might try something like that; but you didn’t have solid proof, you might just take it into your head to guard the library. Maybe keep a bat handy. A bat that has only your prints on it.”

  Only my prints. I gulped, but pressed on. “Does that sound as stupid to you as it does to me? Tell Billy Ray to unknot his lariat from around his ankles and try throwing again. Instead of dreaming up little scenarios between me and Beta, why doesn’t he get busy finding out about that money in her account? Or why Bob Don had such a fight with her last week? Or why she accused Ruth Wills of trying to poison her? Or why Eula Mae was meeting her late at night last week? Or why she bothered to make that list in the first place?” I stopped. “Or why only my prints are on that bat? If some kid just left it in the lot, it’d have to have his prints on it, too. Right?”

  Junebug’s jaw wavered. “How the hell—”

  Open mouth, do not insert foot because of torrent of words that pour out in temper. I sat down quickly. A model schoolboy.

  “I guess you’ve been checking up on folks,” he said sternly. A model principal. “That’s my job, Jordy. Mine and Billy Ray’s.”

  “Well, do your job, Hewett.” He’s not real crazy about being called by that name. How inconsiderate of me. “You know in your heart that I didn’t murder anybody. You know I couldn’t. Get that schnauzer of a lawyer off of me.”

  The front door creaked and it wasn’t a schnauzer of a lawyer that came in. It was a chihuahua of a lawyer, little and hairless. Bidwell J. Poteet, attorney-at-law. My beloved uncle Bid. He stood in the doorway of the kitchen, resplendent in his small-town lawyer’s light gray suit, smoking an obnoxious cigarillo. It fit him. He was short, like my father had been, and he’d lost most of his hair. What little remained was scraggly and white. A soul less charitable than myself would’ve said it looked like cat mange. His eyes were a deep lake blue, but icy and cool. The stub of that cigarillo popped out of his thin lips and his raspy drawl pervaded the room like the nauseating smell of the smoke.

  “I hope you’re not trying to intimidate my client, Chief,” Uncle Bid wheedled. “He ought to have my representation if you’re trying to coax a confession out of him.”

  Junebug frowned. “This isn’t an interrogation, Mr. Poteet. Jordy and I are just talking.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that, sir.” Uncle Bid sat in the chair. He blinked at me, like a troll at a billy goat gruff. “Aren’t you going to be hospitable and offer your poor old uncle some coffee?”

  Soon as I find the rat poison for it, I thought, getting up and slopping coffee into a cup. “Your sister-in-law is doing fine, thank you for asking,” I announced.

  Bid made a hoarse reply that lacked concern. He’d done nothing to try to help Mama, the wife of his older brother. He’d dropped by only once before since I’d moved home, just to explain what an idiot I was to return to Mirabeau—and grieve that Daddy was spinning from his grave all the way to China on account of my giving up my career. Feel the love?

  “Mr. Poteet, let me assure you that I wasn’t questioning Jordy. We were simply discussing when he could reopen the library. It is a crime scene, you know, and we can’t run the risk of tampering there,” Junebug said.

  Bid sucked down boiling-hot coffee as if it was ice water. Those cigarillos must build up the scar tissue fast. “Well, then, if you two have concluded your business, I’d like to speak privately with my nephew.”

  Junebug arched an eyebrow, but didn’t argue. “Yes, we are finished, I believe. Jordy, I’ll let you know when you can reopen.” I nodded mutely and escorted Junebug to the door.

  He paused on the porch as he adjusted his hat and blinked into the morning sunshine. “It’s a nice day. Why don’t you spend it with your mother? Take her out to the park or out to lunch?”

  “I have other plans, Junebug.”

  “Remember, Jordy, I’m the law. I’ll handle the investigating around here. And one thing I might have to investigate is how you knew about that money in Beta Harcher’s account.”

  I didn’t want to get Candace in trouble for sneaking around bank-record confidentiality. But I didn’t want to lie to a police officer either. Best to take the blunderbuss approach. “Have you found where all that money came from?”

  “No, we haven’t,” he confessed. “You know anything about it?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  “Will wonders never cease? I’ll see you later, Jordy.” Junebug smiled at me, set his hat to his liking, and headed for his cruiser.

  I went back into the kitchen. Uncle Bid leaned against the open refrigerator, his bald head surveying the shelves up close.

  “Breakfast service is closed,” I quipped. “If you want the special thrill of having a relative cook for you, wait till Sister wakes up. I’m sure she’ll whip up your favorite. And get that smelly cigar out of the fridge. And out of the house. But there’s no need to spit it out. Just let your lips follow.”

  He slammed the door shut and rubbed an apple on his lapel. “You’d shame my brother, talking to me that way.” He could invoke a father’s ghost faster than Hamlet.

  “No, he’d be ashamed of how you’ve ignored Mama. You never call. You never come by unless it’s to offer less-than-constructive criticism. Your absence is a blessing to me, though, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.”

  “I’m concerned about you, Jordy, and I’m here to help. You need my representation. I’ve just had me a fascinating conversation with Billy Ray Bummel.” He bit into the apple and chomped noisily. That didn’t keep him from talking. “Let’s look at the facts, boy. Beta Harcher popped you one and threatened you in front of a library full of witnesses. You were in the library, by y’own admission, in the range of time the murder took place. If she was going to burn down the library, that was an immediate threat not only to you but to the only employment that you are remotely suited for in this town—aside from village idiot. And only your prints are on the murder weapon. Now do you still think you don’t need my help?”

  “I’ll get my own legal representation, thank you.”

  The phone rang. I scooped it up, willing to chitchat with an obscene caller rather than Bid. It was Candace.

  “Glad to see you’re home. I waited last night for your call.”

  Oops. I’d been so wrapped up in pulling my thoughts together and writing out my notes I’d forgotten my promise to phone Candace.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Look, this isn’t a good time. Can I call you back?”

  “As long as you’re not fixing breakfast for Ruth Wills.” It might’ve sounded mean if she hadn’t laughed.

  “I’m not. Talk to you in a minute.” I hung up and turned back to Bid. He munched the apple down to the core. I kept hoping there was a seed or two he might choke on.

  “I’m offering you free legal representation, just as soon as you’re arrested,” he said, wiping his mouth with a dainty, monogrammed handkerchief.

  “I’m not going to be arrested. If they had anything on me, they’d have arrested me by now.” I said it with more conviction than I felt. “And even if they do, I’ll get me a good attorney, someone over in Bavary who actually hasn’t been investigated by the state bar.”

  Bid shrugged away the history of his luminous career. “And how will you afford it, Jordy? With your stellar librarian’s salary?” He got up and thumbed his cigarillo stub into the trash. “You don’t have the money to spend on legal defense. And trust me, you don’t want a public defender. Bonaparte County’s recruiting from the very dregs of the dreggiest of law schools.”

  “I’ll take my chances, thank you. I’m sure any public defender would do a more conscientious job for me than you would. You’ve never given a crap about me or my family. You always acted superior because you had all the education and Daddy didn’t. Well, I’ve got an education now, Uncle Bid. But I didn’t need that to see that you’re just an uncaring, selfish bastard.”

  His bony, ugly face (thank God I didn’t favor the Poteet side) screwed up in anger. He turn
ed red. “You listen to me, boy. I will represent you. You are kin and I will not have the Poteet name disgraced. I will not entrust your defense to some wet-eared kid straight out of school. There’s too much at stake—”

  “Too much what?” I crossed my arms and smiled. “You’ve never offered to do anything that you didn’t get a ton of benefit from.”

  He fished another cigarillo from his pocket and lit it in a fluid motion. He took his time, making the end of the nasty thing glow with each suck of whispered breath. When he finally spoke, his voice was sulky but reasonable.

  “Jordy. I know we’ve had our differences. I know I haven’t been”—his face screwed up as he breathed in smoke, making him look like a little dragon—“the best uncle to you and Arlene. I’ve been remiss in my duties to your poor mother. I’m asking for a chance to help you.” He laid his palms up in mock surrender. “Please, let me help you if the worst happens and you get charged with Beta’s murder.”

  I watched him. He acted sincere. Acted. I’d had enough experience with him to avoid embracing him and sobbing that all was forgiven. But maybe the old coot was genuine this time.

  “Please,” he said once more.

  I loved hearing him beg, but I wanted him gone more. “Tell you what, Uncle Bid. If I do get arrested, I’ll retain your free services. Until then, we won’t have any sort of formal agreement. Deal?”

  He didn’t look entirely pleased, but he’d honed his ways of hiding disappointment through his many failures in the courtroom. He came forward and shook my hand. His was sticky with apple juice. “Deal, then, Jordy.” He relinquished my hand and tried a new buddying-up tactic. “Although I remain staunchly convinced of your innocence, it wouldn’t surprise me that you could’ve killed that woman. Crazy old bitch. Waste of what was once fine womanhood.”