Music, Murder, and Small Town Romance

by K C Hart

  “Good, then maybe you will be a return customer.” She eased her apartment door open. “Have you got time to come in for a visit, or are you on the clock?”

  “Sure, I have time if you have time.” She stepped past Pam, who held the door for her, and walked inside. A bark immediately started from the behind the adjoining bedroom door.

  “I’m sorry. Moose is a little over-protective. If you aren’t afraid of dogs, I’ll let him come sniff your hand. Then he’ll be quiet.”

  “No, I love dogs and I would like to meet Moose. I’ve heard him quite a few times before when I was next door seeing my patient.”

  Pam opened the bedroom door and grabbed the collar of a massive black German Shepherd as he attempted to squeeze his way past his owner. “He’s very gentle, and he likes almost everybody.” She led the dog over to the couch where Katy was waiting. The shiny black fur and the sheer size of the dog were enough to deter any would-be robber. “Just stick out your hand for him to sniff.”

  Katy placed her hand out palm up, and the dog gently nuzzled it with his cool nose. She rubbed his neck with her other hand. “Hello, Moose. I would say that your bark sounds a lot worse than you look, but I have to admit that you’re a pretty fierce-looking fellow.”

  “That’s why I got him to start with. I wanted a dog to scare off any unwanted attention. My friends own his parents and assured me that he would be every bit as big as his ole dad. And they were right, weren’t they, boy?” Pam affectionately scratched the dog’s head. He turned away from Katy and began to lick Pam’s hand. “He’s really just a big ole, loud-mouthed teddy bear.”

  “He sure loves you.” Katy watched as Pam led the dog back to the bedroom and closed the door. She looked around the small apartment with interest. A snapshot of Pam and Rob Clay in front of the music store was sitting on a small bookshelf. She counted four more similar pictures spread throughout the room. “I like your apartment.”

  “Thanks. It’s in the budget so I make it work.” The corners of her mouth turned up in a sad smile as she gazed around. “Rob never would come over here. His place was just so much nicer, and he liked to go out of town a lot. He said this place was just too cramped. But I brought as much of him home with me as I could.”

  Now he was starting to sound like the Rob that was known around town. Maybe John was right. Maybe Pam was just seeing who she wanted to see. “Those are some really nice pictures of you two.”

  “Rob loved to take selfies. I actually hate getting my picture made.” Pam picked up a photo from the bookcase. “Now I’m glad he insisted on all of these pictures.” She brought the picture over and sat down beside Katy. “This is my favorite one. He took me to see A Christmas Carol at a theater in Baton Rouge. I had never been to anything like that.”

  Katy looked at the smiling couple. “You both look very happy. Did you go to Baton Rouge a lot?”

  “No, mostly to Jackson. Rob had some kind of business stuff he had to take care of up there, and we would go spend a night in a nice hotel and eat out.” She sat the picture on the coffee table in front of her. “But every once in a while, we would go other places and do something unexpected.” She sighed and another half-smile crossed her face. “But that’s over now. I have to get back to living and using what the good Lord gave me. In my case, that happens to be my brains and my hands.”

  “Are you planning on going to see your brother today?”

  “No, I ended up going last night. He called and said he was out of cigarettes. I know how that feels, so I drove on over.”

  “Did he tell you who was supplying him with drugs?” Katy twisted her keys in her hands, trying to not let her nervousness show. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “I don’t mind you asking. No, he didn’t tell me. He said if he told me the truth I would either hate him forever or I wouldn’t believe him.” Pam leaned back on the couch and ran her fingers through her shiny black and blue hair. “I kept after him and even threatened to not visit him again.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said to go to the music store.” Pam looked down at Katy’s keys then back up to her face. “That’s all he would say…go to the music store.”

  Katy watched as tears formed in the corners of Pam’s heavily lined eyes. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m sure not going to sit here in my apartment and cry all day.” Pam wiped the back of her knuckles across her eyes. “That will accomplish absolutely nothing. I drove around for a long time last night, trying to decide if Brock is trying to tell me what I think he’s trying to tell me. I didn’t get home until almost midnight.”

  “Look, I’m not trying to tell you what you should do, but I don’t think you need to go looking for a drug dealer by yourself. Why don’t you talk to the police? My nephew is a deputy here. He can help you figure this out.”

  Pam reached over and picked up the photo from the coffee table. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. Sometimes Brock says stuff to just push my buttons.” She ran her thumb slowly around the edges of the picture frame. “Right now, I’m going to take a shower and go to my shop. If I’m lucky, somebody will stumble in wanting to see who the new woman is that opened a shop on the wrong side of town. If I am really lucky, I can talk them into letting me give them the best haircut they have had in years, or maybe ever.”

  Katy stood up and tried to smile. “Does that usually happen two days in a row?”

  “No.” Pam stood up and sniffed her nose. “But it never hurts to dream.”

  Pam walked Katy back to her car. “If I decide to look into what my brother told me, don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I don’t believe in taking unnecessary risks.”

  “Good. It’s taken me a long time to find somebody that can do something with my hair.” Katy leaned over and gave Pam a hug. “I would hate for something to happen to you now that I am kind of liking actually having a decent hair style.”

  “Glad I could be of service.” Pam stepped back and watched as Katy opened her car door. “Stop by again. I don’t have any girlfriends. This was kind of nice.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Katy turned onto Huckleberry Lane and drove slowly past Donnie Gibson’s house. John would kill her if he knew she was snooping around this man’s place, but she wasn’t really snooping. She was just going for a drive. Donnie’s car was not at the house. What did she expect? The house was sitting peacefully in its manicured lot, just like all the other houses on the street.

  What was Pam’s little brother insinuating last night? Was he meeting someone at the music store to get meth or crack or pot to sell? That’s sure what it sounded like to her. And, of course, the next logical question would be, did Rob Clay know about this part of Brock’s life, or did this just start after his death?

  She stopped at the corner and gave her signal. Maybe that’s what Donnie Gibson was hiding. Maybe Floyd Perkins was somehow involved in all of this. And maybe she needed to quit speculating on things that she couldn’t prove. She sighed and turned the car back toward the center of town.

  She pulled into Friends Drug Store and picked up her phone to text Todd. Hopefully he had found out something new after talking to Mrs. Smithers. She sent the text then went into the store. She needed to get her blood pressure medicine refilled, anyway.

  “Hello, Katy,” Mr. Friend, the pharmacist and owner of the store, greeted her from behind the counter. “I haven’t seen you in here in a while. I was beginning to think you had switched to using a mail order drugstore. Some folks are doing that nowadays.”

  “No sir, It just took a while to use up that ninety-day supply that you filled last time.”

  “Yes, I guess that’s true. By the way, congratulations on being picked for the big shindig.” He reached down and straightened the candy display on the counter. “Although the show won’t be quite the same without Rob there to be the MC. Have you heard who they are going to get to replace him?”

  “No sir, I sure haven’t. Who do you t
hink it will be?”

  “The kids at the school say it’s going to be Floyd.” He reached down again and put the candies back where they had originally been. “I guess he will do fine. Speaking of all of that,” he coughed slightly to clear his throat, “have you heard the latest news about Rob?”

  “Uh, no sir, I don’t think so.” Katy looked around the store to see if anyone else was near to save her. She had forgotten how big of a gossip Mr. Friend could be, and he had the reputation of not always getting his facts straight with the tales he told. “Are you manning the store by yourself today?”

  “No, I have Daisy making some deliveries to the assisted living. She’ll be back in a minute. Anyway, the talk is that ole Rob left his house, his half of the store, and all his belongings to Donnie’s girl, Jennifer.”

  “His cousin’s daughter?” Katy thought of poor Pam and the other women Rob was leading around on a string. At least none of his mistresses would be fighting over his stuff. “That was mighty kind-hearted of him. But I guess since he didn’t have any kids of his own, that was sort of expected.”

  “You see,” Mr. Friend leaned across the counter toward Katy, “here is the thing. The rumor is that Rob thought that the girl was more kin to him than he let on.”

  “Well, I know that he had her call him Uncle Rob when he was not really her uncle.” Katy’s eyebrows drew close together and she looked Mr. Friend in the eye. “Is that what you are talking about?”

  “No, everybody knows that.” His voice lowered to a loud whisper. “I heard that Rob thought that the girl was actually his daughter instead of Donnie’s daughter.” He nodded his head and stood back up straight. “That would explain why he left everything to her instead of to his cousin, who is, after all, his business partner.”

  Katy silently watched as Mr. Friend walked back into the private area behind the counter to fill her prescription. She hated to admit it, but that bit of gossip did make sense. The man had Jennifer call him Uncle Rob even though she said the family was not that close. He had blackmailed the drama teacher to make sure she got the lead in the school play. That seemed a little too involved for a cousin to do and did seem more like something a rather crooked, egotistical father would do.

  “Hey, Mrs. Katy. Has Pawpaw already got your prescription?”

  Katy smiled as Daisy made her way around the corner and behind the counter. “Yes, he does. And how are you today?”

  “I’m fine. Just trying to stay caught up on these deliveries.”

  “Daisy, have you ever made a delivery to Rob Clay’s house?”

  “Yes ma’am, a couple of times. He lived over in the garden district. Do you want his address?”

  “Yes, I think I do.” Katy waited for the girl to ask her why she needed it, but Daisy just looked in the computer, jotted the address down, and handed it to her, no questions asked.

  “Mrs. Katy, I hope you figure out who killed that man, because everybody knows that Tubby’s wife didn’t do it.”

  “What makes you think I can figure that out?” Katy paused while Daisy turned and got the medicine from the basket behind her and started ringing it up. “That will be done by the sheriff.”

  “If you say so, Mrs. Katy, but I heard that Tubby hired you as a private eye to figure it out for him so he wouldn’t have to kill your nephew for throwing his wife in the slammer.”

  Katy stopped digging in her purse for her wallet and looked up at Daisy. “I don’t know where you heard that foolishness from, but not a word of it is true. I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t spread it around either.”

  “I won’t, Mrs. Katy.” Daisy blushed bright red. “I heard it at the post office this morning, so I guess I should have known it wasn’t so.”

  “And you need to remember what that kind of talk can do to someone’s reputation before you spread rumors like that.”

  “Yes ma’am, you’re right. That will be two dollars even. Oh, and Pawpaw has a note here. You are out of refills. You need to see Dr. Roberts before you run out of this again.”

  “He must not have given me the whole prescription if it’s only two dollars.”

  Daisy looked at the bag. “No ma’am, just five pills. You must be way overdue for a check-up.”

  Katy fished in her pocket for the five-dollar bill she was going to use for a Diet Coke and candy bar later. “It has been a few months. I’m sure I’m probably overdue for a check-up.” She laid the money on the counter. “I’ve got to go in for bloodwork soon.” Oh well, too late to worry about cholesterol levels and weight now, she thought. I sure can’t get any of that under control in just five days.

  Katy threw the bag and her purse in the passenger’s seat as she got in the car. She started the engine and read the address that Daisy had given her. Rob Clay lived over on the ritzy side of town. No wonder he didn’t want to go hang out in Pam’s little low-income apartment. Did he take Pam out of town because he didn’t want to be seen with her in his hometown? Maybe, but he also took Mrs. Smithers and Edna out of town a lot, too. It was probably the best way to keep all his dalliances straight and away from each other. And if he was the father of his first cousin’s only supposed daughter, then he had been at this game a long time. She drove slowly past the two-story brick house on the outer edge of the garden district. It was one of the smallest homes in this part of town, but the fact that it was in this part of town showed the value of the home and the lot it was sitting on. Katy’s jaw tightened as she drove on past. Rob Clay had to be getting money from somewhere other than his two known sources of income. She was sure of it.

  Her cell phone buzzed just as she was pulling into her carport. “Hey, Todd. I was just thinking about you and how all of this stuff is starting to fit together.”

  “Well, you might want to hold off on any new theories just yet. We finally got Emma’s guitar back, and what they found ain’t good.”

  Katy grabbed her pharmacy bag and started fumbling through her keys to get the house key. “What did they say?”

  “They found Floyd Perkins’s key to the back door of the auditorium. It was taped inside the belly of Emma’s guitar.”

  “What!” Katy dropped her keys in her lap and fell back on the car seat. “How in the world...” She paused, thinking about the implications of what Todd had just said. “Surely you know that was planted. There is just no way on this earth you will make me believe that girl killed Rob Clay. She handed that guitar over to you without a second thought. That’s not the actions of a person who knew there was evidence in there that would do her in.”

  “Just between you and me, I don’t believe it, either.” Katy could hear the strain in Todd’s voice. “But the evidence is saying something different. Until we find something to lead us in another direction, we will have to continue to pursue this one.”

  Katy leaned her head back on the car seat and closed her eyes. She had already had this conversation once before with Todd and knew that anything she said today wouldn’t change what had to be done. “Do you want me and John to be there when the sheriff tells them about this?”

  “No ma’am. The sheriff doesn’t even know that I’m telling you what we found out. Just wait and let us handle it the way he wants it handled. I figured a few prayers being said about now wouldn’t hurt.”

  “You’re certainly right about that.” She lifted her head. “Do you have any good news at all?”

  “Rob Clay was always taking Mrs. Smithers and Edna Morris to Jackson to this fancy hotel to spend the weekend.”

  “Yeah, I was wondering about that, too. His other girlfriend, Pam Newman, said he took her there as well.” Katy paused. “What are you thinking?”

  “What if he used the same hotel room all the time? What if he had it leased or something and that’s where he kept all the stuff that he didn’t want anybody to know about? That’s where he kept the women that he didn’t want anybody around here to know about.” He stopped and took a breath.

  “I see where you’re headed.” Katy t
apped her fingers on the steering wheel. “If you’ve searched his house and the store, and he doesn’t have a safety deposit box, maybe he has a place in Jackson that has all his secretive stuff, like his cooked books and blackmailing pictures.”

  “Exactly. I’m going talk to the sheriff and see if we can get the name of the place that he took these women to. If it’s the same place, like we’re thinking, then we may be on to something.”

  “It’s worth a shot.”

  “Yep, because right now we are back at a dead end. All we know is that a lot of people had a reason to hate the man’s guts, but those guitar strings with the fingerprints, and now the key to the auditorium, all point to Emma.”

  “You’ll keep me posted, won’t you?”

  “Yes ma’am. But if you haven’t heard from me in a while, call and check on me. Tubby may break my jaw if I have to put handcuffs on his wife.”

  “Oh, Todd, what are you going to do?”

  “The only thing I can do: my job. The rest is up to the Good Lord. But I have to tell you, right now Emma and Tubby could really use a good miracle.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Mr. Cleveland, the man with the leg ulcer, called and said he needed you to come by. Apparently, something happened in their neighborhood last night, and now the parking lot is like a zoo. I’m not sure if he needs you to rewrap his wound or just check on him.”

  Katy pulled the sash on her pink fuzzy robe a little tighter. “Does it matter what time I get there? I know his wife usually likes to sleep in.”

  “He said come on by any time. The police have been snooping around, making noise since four this morning. Oh, and he said he’s running low on gauze, so you might want to take a couple of rolls with you.”

  Katy got the rest of her visits for the day from the scheduler and ended the call. She glanced at the kitchen clock as she put the coffee mug in the sink. Seven-thirty. She could get to Mr. Cleveland’s by eight thirty and then on to see Mrs. Brenda at ten. If things went well, she would have her visits done by lunch time.