Looking for Lillian (Hunter Jones Mystery Book 7)

by Charlotte Moore

  “She’s quite an actress in that case,” Sam said. “Last night she seemed to me to be terrified.”

  “It looks like she got over that, “ Taneesha said.

  “I just don’t think she killed Buzz McFall,” Sam said. “If she’d been cold and calculating enough to suffocate a man who was probably near death already, she would have just gone down the back stairs and blended in with the crowd, and we probably wouldn’t have even known she was ever upstairs.”

  “Yeah, but then she wouldn’t have had her fifteen minutes of fame as a psychic,” T.J. said. “Let’s go talk to her.”

  Deb McFall hadn’t watched the news. She was worn out from spending most of the day with her ex-in-laws. Back home, she was relieved to hear Tab leaving with Caitlin. She felt sorry for the girl, but she hoped her son wouldn’t get the notion that he was responsible for his half-sister while she waited for her mother to show up from Spain. For one thing, she was a little worried that Phoebe would find some excuse for delaying.

  If Caitlin was anybody’s responsibility other than Phoebe’s, Deb thought, she was Sabrina’s. But she had already heard from Tab that Caitlin wasn’t close to Sabrina.”

  “We barely knew her,” her former mother-in-law had said earlier that day, dismissing the subject of Sabrina. “Buzz brought her by once after they eloped. She’s a pretty thing, and she has sweet southern manners, like girls from around here, really much more like one of us than Phoebe. But she was far too young for him, and certainly not old enough to be a mother to Caitlin.”

  Chapter 15

  Back at the courthouse, the interview was beginning.

  “Ms. Tilling, It’s good to see you again,” Sam said when he entered the conference room. “This is District Attorney Sanders Beale. I think you’ve met T.J. Jackson and Sgt. Hayes already.”

  She smiled slightly and nodded as if she were granting them an audience.

  “We’ve been looking for you all day,” Sam said.

  “So I’ve been told,” she said. “I had the strangest feeling that I was being followed in some way. But I certainly wasn’t hiding. I just went to have my hair done and then I took a little shopping trip.”

  “You left the McFall house last night after I told you to wait,” Sam said.

  “I apologize for that,” Lucasta said, “but I really had no idea you were the sheriff. You weren’t in uniform. I just thought you were one of the guests or a member of the family, or you might have something to do with the dead man upstairs and be planning to kill me as well. I was in shock.”

  T.J. looked down at the table, smiling at the idea that somebody in Magnolia County might actually not recognize Sam Bailey.

  Sanders Beale raised his eyebrows and drummed his fingers on the table.

  They had all agreed that they would not discuss Lucasta Tilling’s dealings with Channel Seven. They had learned by calling the station that she had initiated the contact, calling them at nine that morning. The station’s producer had set up the interview. No law had been broken, and they needed to keep the focus on her discovery of the body.

  “Well, you are now a significant witness and perhaps a person of interest in a murder investigation,” Sanders Beale said. “So we need to get some facts from you. Facts please, and no drama. None of us here believes in ghosts. ”

  “The correct term is spirits,” Lucasta said, clearly unimpressed with Beale’s authoritative tone. “And we in the paranormal community are used to skeptics. I am the one who was upstairs in that house with the spirit of Lillian McFall. I am the one who heard her calling to me by name, and I am the one who found the body of Buzz McFall. I have realized since then that she was trying to warn me of the presence of a brooding evil in the house. If you allow me to return to the house and communicate further with her, I believe I can assist you.”

  Sam broke in.

  “We will get a restraining order if necessary to keep you from disturbing the McFall family,” he said. “And something you need to know is that we already have a statement from Stacy Vann.”

  “Oh, poor Stacy,” Lucasta said, looking a little distressed for the first time. “I’m afraid I just abandoned her in my flight…”

  “We know all that,” Sam said. “Stacy Vann says that she went upstairs and called out your name several times, and then she heard you scream and run out of one of the bedrooms and down the stairs. So let’s assume that it was her voice you heard calling your name.”

  Lucasta gave him a wide-eyed look and then recovered with a toss of her dark, recently styled hair and a rearrangement of her just-purchased shawl.

  “Really, Sheriff Bailey,” she said, “I don’t assume anything of the sort. I’m sure if Stacy says that she called me, it’s true, but she’s such a timid soul that I doubt she did more than whisper, and I certainly never heard her. What I did hear was Lillian McFall’s voice. It was distant and musical, like chimes in the wind. Ethereal.”

  “Enough,” Sanders Beale snarled. “We need facts. Did you see anybody else while you were up there? I mean anybody but the deceased?”

  “No,” Lucasta said. “Nobody.”

  “Did you hear any sound of struggle, the sound of someone falling, anyone running from the room?”

  Lucasta assumed a grave, pondering expression.

  “I believe I did hear a thudding sound,” she said, “That was when I was in the turret room. It was a sound that could have been Mr. McFall falling.”

  “I’m not sure you’re telling us the truth,” T.J. said. “I think you were prowling around upstairs, and maybe you even picked something up to steal, and he caught you, but then he had a heart attack and collapsed, and you—you assisted him in dying when his life could have been saved.”

  “I have never stolen anything in my life,” Lucasta said, glaring at T.J., visibly upset for the first time in the interview. “And the man was dead when I first saw him. Stone. Cold. Dead. I know dead when I see it, and he was totally dead. I never saw anybody so dead. His eyes were open, and his face was puffed up and red and blue around the lips. That’s why I screamed and ran away. It was a terrible sight. I thought he had died of fear. I told this man here—I didn’t know he was the sheriff—that the man upstairs was dead. I told him Lillian was up there. ”

  “Ms. Tilling,” Sam said. “We know all we need to know about the late Lillian McFall and your notion that her ghost is in the house. Did you ever met Buzz McFall before Monday night?”

  “No,” she said, “I didn’t even know the dead man WAS Buzz McFall until today when I talked with the television people about my experience of discovering a body at the open house. I thought Buzz McFall was downstairs giving a talk. They were the ones who told me that it was him, and they wanted to interview me. They cleared it up right before the interview. I went upstairs in that house with only one purpose, and that was to try to make contact with the spirit of Lillian McFall. I believe that Lillian was a witness to the crime, and you should be communicating with her. I can help you with that.”

  “Do we have any reason to keep Ms. Tilling further?” Sanders Beale said to Sam, covering a yawn. “I really need to get home.”

  Sam knew that meant that the District Attorney saw no option of charging Lillian McFall with anything unless some real evidence turned up and that probably he thought she was mentally unstable.

  “Would you like for me to take a lie detector test?” Lucasta asked brightly. “I’d be quite willing. Or perhaps you could have me put under hypnosis?”

  “Perhaps we will,” Sam said. “And you’re free to go, but don’t leave town for the next few days, and do NOT make any contact with the McFall family. They are grieving. Please respect that.”

  Chapter 16

  After Ty was tucked into bed, Sam and Hunter collapsed on the sofa together, and Flannery joined them, lying at their feet, her big brown eyes fixed adoringly on Sam.

 
Sam scratched the dog on the head occasionally as he talked about his day in detail, including the discovery of the blue pillow.

  “That’s all off the record,” he said to Hunter. “Way off the record.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “It was awful. Somebody killed Buzz while he was already having a heart attack,” he said. “Lucasta Tilling has gotten herself right in the middle of it, but none of us think she killed him. She just happened to find the body.”

  “She looked terrified last night when she came running down the stairs,” Hunter said. “But when on television this evening, and she seemed to be all calmed down. She had her hair done, too.”

  “I guess she got over the shock of finding the body,” Sam said, “and then she realized that she could get some local celebrity out of it. She likes the spotlight. I honestly don’t know if she believes all the stuff she says, or if she’s putting on an act.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t know, either,” Hunter said.

  “It’s a nuisance,” Sam said, “If she would just get off her psychic kick and think it all through in a normal way, she might actually remember something that would help. It would help her, too. As it is, she’s still a person of interest in the investigation, and we may be questioning her again. T.J.’s doing a thorough background check on her.”

  “So, what are you going to do next?” Hunter asked. “Who had a motive?”

  “I’m not concerned with a motive yet,” Sam said. “I guess several people could have had one, and there are always motives we don’t even know about. The thing is it was an opportunistic crime. Nobody there could have predicted he’d even go upstairs at that point, let alone have a heart attack. It all happened in a very tight time frame, and there were a lot of people in the house. We need to rule people out if they were downstairs the whole time and figure out who could have been upstairs. I’m sure you were paying more attention to who was there than I was. You could help by writing down a timeline of who you saw and talked to before the screaming started.”

  “Okay, I will,” Hunter said. “But Bethie’s using my computer now. I’ll do it first thing in the morning if you’ll wake me up and remind me. I’ll tell you, though. You can rule out Sabrina McFall. She was in the dining room talking with Jaybird and AnneMarie when I got there, and she stayed downstairs until she followed you upstairs.”

  Sam got up from the sofa, and Flannery—sensing his plans—ran toward the back door, looking back and barking.

  “Yes, I’m going to take you out for your walk,” Sam said to the dog, “But don’t blame me if your nose freezes.”

  Chapter 17

  On Wednesday morning, Sam woke Hunter up early and brought her a cup of coffee. Tyler was close behind his father, and insisted on an extended hug before leaving to go back downstairs.

  Hunter pulled on a robe and some fuzzy socks and went to her computer to write down everything she could remember about the McFall open house, starting with her arrival,

  First, she wrote down the names of everybody she remembered seeing, and when and where she first saw them. The elected officials and their wives were easiest. There were a few older people she remembered seeing but didn’t know. She wrote, “Grayhaired lady in purple dress” and “Old bald man, a friend of Barnard McFall.”

  As she got to the time that everyone was gathered in the dining room, she remembered Dawson Reeves’ introductions and got her digital recorder.

  He introduced Sabrina, and then the older McFalls, then Tab, then Caitlin, and then…

  “I’ll introduce the rest of the campaign staff after Buzz talks.”

  She remembered his looking around and frowning.

  She spent some time cutting and pasting names and putting them in categories. Some had been in the front parlor the whole time she was there, and some in the dining room. They could probably all be ruled out. Some she had seen on first arriving but didn’t remember seeing again. They might have left early. Others she remembered from later in the dining room. Stacy Vann and Lucasta Tilling were already on Sam’s radar, but she included them anyway.

  Finally, she printed out her list, got dressed and went downstairs.

  Sam and Ty were having pancakes. Bethie was dressed for school and making herself a smoothie in the blender.

  “I’ve made my list,” Hunter said to Sam, handing it to him,“but there was one person I didn’t know. Dawson Reeves was looking for some campaign staff member, who wasn’t there to introduce, so he said he’d introduce somebody later. And I didn’t know the names of the video team.”

  “The video team was in the front parlor the whole time,” Sam said, “and they were hired from Macon for the event. I don’t think they even met Buzz. He was probably talking about his son, Declan. Skinny kid, just out of college. He was the one who sent the ad to the paper. He was really shaken up about Buzz’s death.”

  “What was he wearing?” Hunter asked.

  Sam closed his eyes and concentrated.

  “Dark red crew neck sweater and tan corduroy pants,” he said. “Expensive looking clothes.”

  “I never laid eyes on him,” Hunter said.

  “I’ll make sure he’s coming back for the funeral with his dad,” Sam said. “I need to talk to both of them again. I thought the kid was scared of his own shadow, and he was definitely afraid of Miss Pink McFall, but he may have seen something that we need to know about.”

  The cold snap was in its third day, with temperatures due to rise into the low fifties and then drop below freezing again. Still, the sun had come out, and there wasn’t any wind, so it seemed more bearable. Sam drove Bethie to school, and Hunter got Ty bundled up for his playschool.

  Rose Tyndale was on the phone to Ellie Bankston at nine a.m.

  “I need a favor,” she said, “Are you going over to Pink’s house again today?

  “Yes, I thought I’d go over after lunch,” Ellie said. “There’s just too much for Augusta to handle by herself, and Pink needs to get all the funeral plans settled. Did you want to go over there with me?”

  “No, I think I’d better stay home. I’ve got a cold, and nobody needs that. The thing is, I left my new watch over there yesterday. I’ve been looking everywhere, and I just remembered taking it off and putting it on the windowsill over the sink before I washed Marsha Hale’s cut glass platter. Could you pick it up for me?”

  “Sure,” Ellie said. “What does it look like?”

  “It’s the one Hunter and her family gave me for Christmas, Ellie. She had noticed that I was having a hard time handling the buckle on my old one, so she got me one with a stretchy band. It’s silver, and it has a round face with very clear numbers. She got my initials engraved on the back. I’ve got my old one on now, but honestly, it took me five minutes to buckle it with my arthritis, and I have to squint to see the numbers.”

  “That was really a thoughtful gift,” Ellie said. “Don’t worry. I’ll find it and drop it by your house on the way home. Have you heard any more about the investigation? You did see that crazy woman on Channel Seven last night, didn’t you?”

  “No, I missed it. I just found out when Annie Laurie called me this morning,” Miss Rose said. “She told me about that silly Tilling woman, and she said she heard all kinds of people were driving down Literary Lane last night and stopping to stare at the house.”

  “That’s awful,” Ellie said. “I hope Pink didn’t notice.”

  Chapter 18

  Mallory, who handled most of the computer layout, was working hard that morning to meet the deadline. The front page design had been a challenge because the main story kept changing, and the happy photos Hunter had taken at the open house were inappropriate to use following his death.

  Fortunately, Hunter had a good story from the Merchantsville Planning and Zoning Board meeting, with citizens indignant over a request for a variance to allow a kennel, and Mallory had g
otten another from the Rescue Unit about their efforts to check on shut-ins during the cold snap.

  None of it was really big news, except Buzz McFall’s unexpected death under suspicious circumstances, but the inside of the paper was full of the kinds of stories that kept community weeklies going. There was Buzz McFall’s obituary, which was separate from the news story about his death. First Baptist Church was hosting a revival. The Magnolia County Library was hoping to find enough people for a morning book group, and the Historical Society was having its annual dinner. The local veterinarian had chosen ear mites for the subject of her weekly column. The Community Calendar listed the next meeting of the Magnolia County Paranormal Society at the home of Lucasta Tilling.

  However it might look to someone from a big city, it was a paper that Hunter could hand to Tyler Bankston, knowing she had not let him down.

  Tyler, the man for whom little Ty was named, was the owner and publisher of the paper, now retired after a career of winning awards for his hometown paper. He still wrote the paychecks, and still wrote his widely-read column each week, and she knew that he read every word of The Messenger.

  The week before he had caught a typo in a recipe for chicken and rice casserole on the food page and a split infinitive in one of Mallory’s stories.

  He was the one who had talked Hunter into moving to Merchantsville, and the one who had told Sam Bailey that he needed to go ahead and propose to Hunter. Hunter had always suspected his reason wasn’t all that romantic. Tyler wanted to retire, and he wanted to know his paper was in good hands. The only way he could make sure Hunter stayed in Merchantsville was for her to marry Sam, who would never leave Merchantsville.

  Chapter 19

  When the paper was finally “put to bed” and they could hear the sound of the press rolling, Hunter relaxed and asked Mallory how the visit with Ben had gone.