She felt bad for the whole McFall family, but she also felt a pang of hunger, and her thoughts turned toward her cassoulet. It had smelled wonderful when she turned down the oven and put it back in to stay warm, and she hoped it hadn’t dried out.
There was crusty French bread to go with it. Jeremy had probably uncorked the wine and made the salad already, and he would start tossing it with olive oil and vinegar as soon as she got home.
She turned onto Hilliard Court and a minute later had the car under the portico on the side of the antebellum mansion.
“Is everything named Hilliard, here?” Sabrina asked, and Taneesha laughed and said, “No. It’s just be big family that’s been here since the town was founded.”
She went in with Sabrina, helping her carry her luggage. Robin Hilliard came out to help. He was, Jaybird Hilliard’s first cousin once removed, Taneesha’s age, slender and elegant looking in a way that made his outgoing personality a nice surprise for most who met him.
As soon as they got in from the cold, he took Sabrina’s gloved hands in his, and said, “I’m Robin, and I’m so sorry for your loss. We’ve got the Dogwood Room all ready for you. It’s toasty warm, too.”
Robin’s partner Colin Fletcher came out of the kitchen and said, “We’ll have a big breakfast for you in the morning, but if you missed supper, we have some chicken soup on the stove, and I can make you a grilled cheese sandwich.”
“I can’t believe it, but I really am hungry,” Sabrina said. “Let me go change into something comfortable, and I’ll come back down. Thank you.”
And then she burst into tears for the first time.
“Get the brandy,” Colin said to Robin. “I’ll fix the food.”
Taneesha, who knew Colin and Robin well, smiled. She had done her duty. She had brought Sabrina McFall to exactly the right place, and now she was free to go home and enjoy having a fine dinner with the love of her life.
Chapter 5
Sam got home to a crackling fire. Mallory Bremmer, Tucker Townsend, and Bethie were gathered on the rug in front of the fireplace. They were playing a cutthroat game of Monopoly with an ancient set that he had played with as a child.
They made a cozy group, all in jeans and sweaters—Mallory repeatedly brushing her red hair away from her face, Tucker with his wire-framed glasses perched on his nose looking like a young wizard from a Harry Potter story—and Bethie, who seemed to Sam to look more grown up every day, sitting cross-legged, dice in hand.
“Hi, Dad,” Bethie said, looking up. “Mom’s upstairs putting Ty to bed. We saved you some marshmallows.”
She rolled the dice, studied the board and groaned.
“You are ruined, Bethie Bailey!’ Mallory said gleefully. “Park Place with two hotels! Pay up!”
“I’ll lend you some money,” Tucker said to Bethie.
“No, don’t lend her any!” Mallory said, glaring at him. “She’s not a little kid. She didn’t have any mercy on me last time.”
Tucker grinned. Bethie laughed and said, “I’ll let you win this time. I’ve got homework to finish anyway.”
Sam went to the fire to warm his hands, while they put the game back in its taped-together box.
When Hunter came downstairs a few minutes later, Mallory and Tucker were preparing to brave the winter wind, and Sam was getting some supper.
“So,” she asked when he had finished his first bowl of chili with a square of cornbread. “How did you leave things at the McFall house?”
“Very sad and quiet,” Sam said, getting up to refill his bowl. “I’m not sure old Mr. Barnard took it in, but Miss Pink is just crushed. We’re all pretty sure it was a heart attack. It looks like Buzz was already having angina attacks and hadn’t told anybody.”
“What about Lucasta Tilling?” Hunter asked. “The screamer?”
Sam looked exasperated.
“She’s the leader of that new Paranormal Society. Taneesha thinks she was probably ghost-hunting. I’m going to find her and ask her about that tomorrow.”
“I got what she said on my recorder,” Hunter said. “She said ‘Lillian’s up there.’ Who was she talking about?”
“I think that’s a McFall ancestor who’s got a local reputation as a ghost. She was probably just terrified when she found the body. Maybe she really believed there was a ghost up there, and that’s what she was talking about,” Sam said. “Hold onto that recording, though. This is probably going to be wrapped up tomorrow, but I’m still going to have to talk to her and write an incident report.”
He told her about Taneesha’s taking Sabrina McFall to Hilliard House, and she smiled.
“Robin and Colin will look after her. They’ll probably know the story of her life by tomorrow morning.”
Sam grinned and agreed.
“And about ten minutes after she left with Taneesha, Deb McFall came over,” he said. “That was a big help because Tab needed her and she’s always been close to the old folks.”
“How about the teenaged daughter?” Hunter asked.
“She kept trying to reach her mother and some friend of hers,” Sam said. “It was sad. She was either calling and texting just about every time I saw her. It turns out her mother—that’s the second Mrs. McFall—is living in Spain, and Caitlin’s been living with Buzz and his third wife less than a year. She doesn’t seem to be close to her stepmother, or know her grandparents very well, but Tab was trying to get her to eat something when I left. I think they have a pretty good relationship.”
“That’s a help,” Hunter said. “Poor kid.”
He nodded and said, “It all reminded me how lucky Bethie is that I married you. If I dropped dead…”
“If anything happened to you,” Hunter said, “Bethie would have me, and two grandmothers, and two uncles and aunts, besides having Rhonda.”
Rhonda Ransom, now remarried and living in Nashville, was Sam’s first wife and Bethie’s birth mother. A former Miss Magnolia County, she had taken off for Nashville in search of a career in country music when Bethie was four. She visited and called from time to time, and sent Bethie presents, but Hunter was the one Bethie called Mom.
Sam still frowned a little at the mention of Rhonda’s caring for Bethie, but not because of his failed marriage. He just didn’t want Bethie to grow up anything like Rhonda.
“Do you want some ice cream?” Hunter asked, changing the subject.
In her one-bedroom apartment at Dogwood Terrace, Stacy Vann was holding an ice pack to her swollen ankle and wondering if she’d be able to work the next day. Her ankle was throbbing, and she had a bad bruise on the side of her leg.
She had called Lucasta repeatedly, but the line was busy. She knew that could mean that Lucasta was talking to somebody, but it could also mean that she was meditating and didn’t want to be disturbed. Lucasta didn’t have “call waiting” and there was no way to leave a message.
Stacy’s phone rang, and she saw it was her older sister Candy.
“I’ve been trying to call you for a half hour,” Candy said. “Did you hear about what happened at the McFalls’ house tonight? Tom says that Buzz McFall—you know, the one who was running for governor—died right there in the house, and they’ve brought his body in for Dr. Patel to do an autopsy in the morning.”
Stacy felt queasy.
“Are you there?” Candy asked.
Stacy wanted to say, “That’s not true. I was just there,” but she didn’t want to tell Candy she was there, and she knew it must be true. Her brother-in-law was in charge of security at the hospital. He was a common sense type and so serious about hospital policy that he usually wouldn’t even tell Candy who was in the hospital unless they had given birth or died.
“Are you there?” Candy asked again. “Stacy?”
“No. I hadn’t heard that,” Stacy said. “What happened to him?”
“They
think it was a heart attack,” Candy said, “Isn’t that unbelievable? He comes back home, and all these people come to the house to hear him talk about running for governor, and he DIES. I’ll bet it’s going to be all over television tomorrow.”
Stacy realized that the story about Lucasta running down the stairs screaming could also be all over town by morning. She hoped her sister wouldn’t find out about her having been at the McFall house with Lucasta. She’d never hear the end of it. Stacy had never liked Lucasta, and Tom had called the Paranormal Society “looney tunes.”
Fortunately, Candy changed the subject to tell Stacy all about a baby shower she had attended over the weekend.
Stacy didn’t mention her injury, either. When Candy finally said goodbye, she tried calling Lucasta again, but the line was still busy.
She got up and hopped clumsily to the kitchen, trying to avoid putting any weight on her ankle. She was hungry, despite everything. She managed to make herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and get a glass of milk.
After she had eaten, she started to try calling Lucasta one more time, but it struck her that Lucasta was making no effort at all to check on her.
She hopped to her bed, and fell into a restless sleep.
Chapter 6
Tuesday morning was cold and gray. The temperature had dropped well below freezing and fountain in the park next to the Merchantsville City Hall had created its own ice sculpture. A few people, including Mallory Bremmer, were braving the cold to get photographs of it.
By mid-morning Sam was still waiting to hear the official report on the cause of Buzz McFall’s death, but he had gotten a good deal done in the meantime.
He had let his secretary, Shellie Carstairs, field the calls from the press.
“Confirm the death and tell them we’ll send out an official statement as to the cause after a medical report later in the morning,” he said.
He had asked Taneesha to check on Sabrina McFall.
“See if she needs transportation back to the McFalls’ house,” he said. “Now that the shock’s worn off, it might be good for Buzz’s daughter if she were there.”
In the meantime, his greater concern was with the impact of the freezing weather on the community he served. He had sent Sgt. Skeet Borders and Deputy Aaron Whitchell to work with the county’s volunteer rescue unit visiting some old and disabled people who needed checking on from time to time.
“Just make sure the Lucases are warm enough,” he told them, “And if you can get inside, check to make sure they’re not about to set something on fire with space heaters and that they’ve got water. Lots of these old houses, like the O’Reillys, have exposed pipes, and they might be frozen.”
“Yeah, I know,” Aaron said. “Like mine!”
Sabrina McFall was having a late breakfast at Hilliard House when Taneesha arrived. There were dark circles under her eyes, but she managed a smile and thanked Taneesha for her help the night before.
“No. I’ll just stay here,” she said in response to Taneesha’s offer of a ride to the McFall home. “I’ve already called and talked to Buzz’s mother. My brother and his wife are driving down. They’ll be here this afternoon, and they can take me over to pick up my van and visit for a little while. They’re going to stay through the funeral, whenever that’s going to be.”
Taneesha asked, “Aren’t those arrangements up to you as his wife?”
“Not really,” Sabrina said, “Buzz’s mother had already talked to the funeral director when I called, and it makes sense for her to have it her way. They have a family plot. It would be awful to expect them to have the funeral in Atlanta, and I’m not going to stay in Atlanta anyway. I decided that last night when I was talking with my mother and brother. I’m just going to pick up a few things there after the funeral and go back home to South Carolina.”
“What about Buzz’s daughter?” Taneesha asked. “Will she go with you?”
“No,” Sabrina said. “Her mother needs to come and get her. I told Buzz’s mother when she talks with Phoebe to make sure she knows that I’m not going to be responsible for Caitlin, that I’m not even going to be living in that house.”
Taneesha must have looked surprised at how adamant she was because Sabrina explained a little more.
“Really, I’m not a wicked stepmother,” she said. “Phoebe put Caitlin on a plane from San Francisco to Atlanta back in June. That was about two months after Buzz and I got married. She just did it and then called Buzz to give him Caitlin’s arrival time. So, okay, Buzz thought it was just for a visit, and that was fine. He hadn’t seen Caitlin in a year. But then Phoebe flew off to Spain, and about a six weeks later, she had a lawyer contact Buzz to tell him she wasn’t planning to come back, that she’d send money to cover Caitlin’s costs in the best private school we could find, and would be responsible for her college education.”
“Just like that?” Taneesha asked.
“Just like that,” Sabrina said. “And—to tell you the truth— it was already a problem for me at that point. Buzz just wasn’t used to being a full-time dad. He spent a lot of time doing fun things with Caitlin for about a week when she first arrived, but then he went back to being a workaholic, and I had really expected to finish my education … and, well, it’s all over anyway. No need to dwell on it.”
She rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache coming on and said, “The main thing isn’t me, though. It’s that Caitlin really needs to be with her mother. If Phoebe has any notion that I might take the responsibility for her, I know she’ll delay coming back for Caitlin, or she might not come at all. Buzz’s mother said they can’t keep her either. Mr. Barnard has problems with his memory, and Miss Pink may have to have knee surgery. I told her she’d better make sure Phoebe knew that.”
“I see,” Taneesha said, and she did. Phoebe sounded like bad news. Taneesha had been abandoned by her own mother when she was still a baby and brought up by a loving aunt and uncle and a wonderful grandmother, who had never—to her knowledge—been anything but happy to have her with them.
She couldn’t help feeling sorry for a teenager nobody seemed to want, whatever their excuses were. It was a pity, she thought, that Caitlin McFall hadn’t been as blessed as Bethie Bailey in her father’s choice of a new wife.
Chapter 7
When Sam finally heard from the pathologist, his plans for the day changed completely.
“Buzz McFall did have a heart attack,” Dr. Tommy Patel said over the phone, “but that wasn’t the cause of death. In fact, if he had gotten help in time, he might have survived the heart attack. The actual cause of his death was suffocation.”
“He was suffocated?” Sam asked.”How?”
I’m surprised the coroner didn’t notice the broken blood vessels in his eyes,” the pathologist continued. “But I suppose with the pills there, and no visible wounds, it was understandable to assume it was just his heart. I thought at first he might have choked on something, or that he had been strangled, but there was no obstruction in his throat or windpipe and no bruises or ligature marks on his throat.”
“Then how?” Sam repeated.
“I found some blue fibers in his nostrils and his mouth. I think it was a blue pillow. Maybe velvet. If you find it, it will have saliva and mucous on it.”
“Dr. Patel,” Sam said trying to reject the idea of homicide. “Buzz McFall was a big man. I don’t know how anybody could have suffocated him without his fighting back. It would have been a huge struggle, and noisy, too.”
“Not if he was already incapacitated by his heart failing and had already collapsed,” Dr. Patel said. “He could have even been unconscious. I’ll send you my written report.”
When Sam put down the phone, he allowed himself one highly expressive curse word and began to think what he had to do.
He needed to inform the D.A. who would surely want to be present at press advisor
y. He needed to bring Lucasta Tilling in for questioning. He needed to…
He stopped.
What came first, he realized, was seeing if the murder weapon could still be found and getting the crime scene technicians to the McFall house.
“Skeet!’ Sam yelled.
Sgt. Skeet Borders, who had just returned from checking the last house on his list, came to his open doorway.
“We’re going over to the McFall House,” Sam said.
“What’s happening?” Shellie asked.
“We have a homicide,” Sam said, “Dr. Patel says Buzz McFall was suffocated while he was having a heart attack.”
He punched a number on his cell phone.
“Taneesha,” he said, “Are you with Sabrina McFall right now? Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“Say nothing about this in front of her. It turns out Buzz McFall was suffocated on top of having a heart attack. It’s a homicide. We’re not telling the family yet. I want you and Aaron to go pick up Lucasta Tilling and Stacy Vann. Stacy works in the cafeteria at the middle school. Bring them in separately. I don’t want them talking to each other until I talk to them. I’ll be at the McFalls’ with Skeet.”
Ten minutes later Augusta Wren answered the door of the McFall home, wearing a heavy sweater. She hurried Sam and Skeet inside so that she could close the door and keep the cold air out. A few friends of the McFalls had arrived and were talking quietly in the parlor with a subdued Pink McFall.
Deb McFall, Buzz’s first wife, was there and seemed to be in charge of welcoming people and taking casseroles to the kitchen. Miss Rose Tyndale came through the dining room pushing an old fashioned trolley cart with tea and muffins. She gave Sam and Skeet a surprised look. He knew her well enough to know she would be asking Hunter about it later.
For now, though, she smiled sweetly and turned her attention back to offering refreshments. Voices were lowered, the way they often were after a death in a family. Now was the time that a community of friends would play their accustomed roles in bringing food and quiet comfort.
Looking for Lillian (Hunter Jones Mystery Book 7) Page 4
