Death of a Country Fried Redneck

by Lee Hollis

  Gemma sat back down next to Reid and put a hand on his knee. “Carrie called me that night to say she was going over to the hotel to tell Mickey to go to hell. She was never going to sleep with him. Under any circumstances. I begged her not to go. I knew Mickey might not take no for an answer. So I borrowed your car and raced over there to make sure she was all right. I know, I didn’t ask or leave a note. I’m sorry. I was just so worried about Carrie.”

  “That’s okay. Go on,” Hayley said.

  “I got there just in time to see Carrie running out of the hotel. That greaseball Mickey was right behind her still trying to paw her and talk to her. I waved her into the car and we took off leaving him in the dust. Then we dropped the car off here at our house and walked back to her place where I spent the night. Her father wasn’t home.”

  “Yes. I know where Ned was that night.”

  “Carrie never said anything to you about me being there because she didn’t want to get me into trouble,” Gemma said. “She didn’t have a gun, Mom. Carrie gets freaked out by guns. And she never left my side again the whole night so there was no way she could’ve doubled back and shot Mickey and driven him to Albert Meadow.”

  Reid took Gemma’s hand, which was resting on his knee, and squeezed it. “Gemma, are you just saying this to cover for Carrie? I know you’d do anything for her. She’s your best friend.”

  Hayley was surprised Reid was saying what she was thinking.

  Gemma arched her back, indignant. “Of course not. I wouldn’t do something like that. Carrie is innocent. And she shouldn’t go to jail for something she didn’t do.”

  Hayley believed her. She nodded. “You two get back to your movie. I’m going upstairs to get ready for Wade’s concert.”

  Hayley’s head was swimming.

  She was frustrated to be back at square one.

  What was she missing?

  Who was left?

  Wade.

  Stacy Jo.

  Curtis.

  Ned.

  Carrie.

  Even Liddy.

  All cleared.

  There had to be someone who was slipping under the radar.

  Someone she hadn’t even considered.

  But who?

  Chapter 36

  After calling Sergio to inform him that Gemma was offering herself as Carrie’s alibi and that according to her trust-worthy daughter there was no way Carrie was directly involved in the death of Mickey Pritchett, Hayley showered, applied a little mascara, and brushed out her hair. Then she rummaged through her closet for a dressy sweater to wear to the concert. Her mind wasn’t on her appearance at all because she was too consumed by Gemma’s admission. The facts of the case kept swirling about in her head, making her more and more confused as to who could’ve done it.

  She did a quick once-over in the mirror, grabbed her bag, and walked out of the bedroom.

  Dustin was in his room doing his homework, which was due in the morning. Hayley stopped.

  Where was she? In an alternate universe? Dustin doing his homework?

  She decided not to question it. She just kissed him lightly on the forehead.

  He squirmed, irritated, like most teenage boys do, and she gently patted his back before heading out.

  She was at the top of the staircase and stopped suddenly.

  She heard a song.

  But it wasn’t from Hairspray.

  Gemma and Reid had stopped watching the movie and turned off the TV.

  No, this was a live performance.

  Someone in her living room strumming a guitar.

  Obviously Reid.

  He was singing Gemma a song.

  It was a quiet ballad.

  Strangely familiar.

  About a woman in love with a man.

  And how she gets the man to fall in love with her by cooking for him.

  And how the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

  Wait.

  She had heard this song before.

  Wade sang it to her in his dressing room.

  Reid continued singing the chorus.

  The way to a man’s heart.

  And then he segued into another refrain.

  How the man couldn’t stop thinking about the woman’s food.

  And how she put so much tender loving care into each and every dish, it was as if they were her own children.

  And how a man like him couldn’t help but fall in love with a woman like that.

  And how, when you’ve found someone you love that much, there’s always room for dessert.

  Reid sang the chorus again. “The way to a man’s heart . . .”

  This was Mickey Pritchett’s song.

  The one he wrote and submitted to Wade.

  But Wade had yet to record it or even perform it because he said he had more work to do on it.

  Then how on earth did Reid know the song?

  Where could he have possibly heard it?

  Hayley’s blood ran cold as she listened to Reid singing the song to her daughter.

  She instinctively pulled her cell phone out of her pants pocket and began recording Reid singing.

  The pieces of the puzzle were finally starting to come together.

  Chapter 37

  Hayley continued recording Reid singing, holding her cell phone in the palm of her right hand as she slowly descended the stairs, trying to stay calm. When she reached the bottom, she saw Gemma beaming as Reid sang to her. He finished just as Hayley walked into the room.

  “Isn’t it beautiful, Mom? Reid wrote it,” Gemma cooed.

  “I smell a hit,” Hayley said, forcing a smile. “Gemma, I’m in the mood to do some baking. Could you run to the store for me and pick up a few things? I’m a little low on the essentials. Milk, eggs, flour.”

  “Now? You just baked enough muffins this morning to feed my entire class,” Gemma said.

  Hayley pulled a twenty from her wallet and handed it to Gemma. “I’d really appreciate it.”

  Gemma knew her mother was not going to budge. “Fine. Let’s go, Reid.”

  Reid set his guitar down on the couch and started to get up.

  “No, why don’t you go and Reid can stay here. It’ll give us a chance to get to know one another,” Hayley said, eyeing Reid, who smiled.

  “No way! I am not going to leave him here so you can give him the third degree!” Gemma said, stuffing the twenty dollar bill in the pocket of her pink sweat jacket.

  “I don’t mind, Gemma,” Reid said. “Your Mom’s pretty cool. I’d love to hang out and chat with her if she wants.”

  Gemma eyed Hayley suspiciously.

  She definitely did not want to leave her boyfriend at the mercy of her mother.

  But she was outnumbered.

  “Whatever,” Gemma sighed. “But I’ll be back in ten minutes!”

  Gemma then pointed a finger at Reid. “You call me if she gets to be too much!”

  Reid laughed. “I promise.”

  And Gemma trudged out of the house.

  “Can I get you something to drink, Reid?” Hayley asked pleasantly.

  “No, I’m fine. Thank you, Mrs. Powell.”

  “You have a beautiful voice. I was bowled over by your talent that first night Gemma and I came to see you at the coffeehouse.”

  “That’s very nice of you to say. I really want to make it as a singer-songwriter someday.”

  “Well, you have the talent. That’s for sure. But it’s a tough business. A lot of stiff competition.”

  “Oh, I know what I’m in for, believe me.”

  “A lot of lowlifes and bottom-feeders who will try to take advantage of you and use you and take you for everything.”

  Reid nodded, not quite sure where Hayley was going with this.

  “Like Mickey Pritchett, for instance.”

  Reid tried not to change his expression.

  He was still smiling.

  But Hayley detected a slight flinch.

  A flash of surprise in his ey
es at hearing Mickey’s name.

  “You knew Mickey, right?”

  “I knew of him. I knew he tried to get in Carrie’s pants. And I certainly don’t blame her father for taking matters into his own hands.”

  “But Ned Weston didn’t kill Mickey. He was nowhere near the murder scene that night. He was on a boat in the harbor with his girlfriend. And you just heard Gemma say she was with Carrie the whole night. So Mickey Pritchett had to have been killed for an entirely different reason.”

  Reid nodded.

  There was a trickle of sweat on his forehead.

  “And everyone else who had a motive to kill Mickey has been cleared by the police. That just leaves one person unaccounted for.”

  “Who?”

  “You, Reid.”

  “Me? Why would I kill a guy I didn’t even know?” Reid said, picking up his guitar again.

  “But you did know him, Reid. You had to.”

  Reid began nervously strumming the guitar, keeping his eyes on his strings and not looking at Hayley. “Why do you say that?”

  “That song you were just singing to Gemma. The song you wrote.”

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “Wade sang me that same song in his dressing room the night of his first concert at the Criterion. He told me Mickey wrote it.”

  Reid stopped strumming his guitar but did not lift his eyes to meet Hayley’s.

  “But you were really the one who wrote that song, and I’m guessing you were obviously inspired by my obsession with Wade Springer. You saw me trying to win him over with my cooking and what you didn’t see, I’m sure Gemma told you. And so you wrote a song about it.”

  Reid shrugged, not yet willing to admit anything.

  “You knew Carrie had met Mickey and you saw an opportunity. Why not ask Mickey if he could help you get your song to Wade? So you had Carrie make an introduction, and Mickey really liked the song, and he told you he’d pass it along to Wade. I’m sure you were flying high. Until you found out Mickey sang the song for Wade and claimed he was the one who wrote it. You were enraged. That song was your ticket to stardom.”

  “You’re just making all this up as you go along.”

  “Wade said he had never played the song for anyone. He wanted to do some work on it first, before he performed it in public or recorded it. There was no way you could have heard it before. Unless the song really was Mickey’s and he sang it to you.”

  Reid couldn’t help himself. “Are you kidding? That loud mouthed idiot drunk couldn’t write his own name!”

  “Which means he stole it from you and that gives you a motive for murder.”

  “Even if all that’s true, it doesn’t mean I killed him. He was shot with Ned Weston’s gun. How would I ever get my hands on it?”

  “Very easily. You and Gemma hung out at Carrie’s house all the time. You saw where Ned kept it.”

  Reid’s foot began tapping nervously.

  Hayley was getting to him.

  She kept going. “Then there was the night you asked me to drop you off at Carrie’s house because you left your guitar there and wanted to pick it up. You said Carrie told you where they hid the key to the house. You were free to come and go as you pleased. You just waited until no one was home and snuck in and made off with the gun sometime before the murder.”

  Reid stood up, a hardened look on his face.

  “You were out for revenge,” Hayley said, taking a step back. “You wanted to get back at Mickey and then somehow prove to Wade that it was you who wrote the song. And by shooting Mickey with Ned Weston’s gun, you could insure Ned would take the fall. You hated him for being so strict with Carrie. Why not steal his gun and make it look like Ned was furious about Mickey putting the moves on his teenage daughter? You knew Carrie and Gemma would back you up. But the thing is, Ned may be a jerk but he’s no killer.”

  “If I did it, why aren’t my prints on the gun?”

  “You’re a smart kid. I’m sure you watch all the CSI shows. You probably wore gloves. You showed up at the Harborside Hotel and ran into Mickey, who was leaving town. You pulled the gun on him.”

  “I read the papers. Nobody inside the hotel heard any shots.”

  “Because you forced Mickey into the tour bus and had him drive you to Albert Meadow, which is just off the shore path. The loud crashing of waves against the rocks would cover the sound of a gun firing. It was there you shot him dead. Then you set the tour bus on fire, hoping it would destroy any evidence of you ever being there.”

  Reid clenched his fists.

  His face ashen.

  His foot tapping incessantly.

  “And you tossed the gun into the Atlantic knowing if it was ever found and linked to Mickey’s murder, Ned would be the one arrested because his motive would be clear, once it became public knowledge that Mickey was sexually propositioning his daughter, Carrie.”

  Reid finally raised his eyes to meet Hayley’s.

  They were full of hate.

  Unrecognizable from the sweet boy who had worked so hard to make a good impression on her earlier.

  No, this was a totally different person in her living room now.

  Mean.

  Menacing.

  Dangerous.

  Chapter 38

  Reid took a small step forward.

  He was much taller than Hayley.

  Broad shouldered.

  A strong kid.

  Hayley took another step back.

  “Did I miss anything, Reid?”

  Reid shook his head. “No. You got it right. But who are you going to tell about it?”

  Hayley had one thought swirling in her head. Thank God she got Gemma out of the house.

  But Dustin was still upstairs in his room. Probably done with his homework and watching TV, completely oblivious to the danger downstairs.

  And she intended to keep it that way.

  There was no way she was going to involve her son in any of this.

  Hayley held up the cell phone cupped in her hand and showed it to Reid.

  He grimaced upon seeing the image of a microphone on the screen.

  Hayley took a deep breath. “I got it all. The song. Your admission. Everything.”

  “Give it to me, Mrs. Powell.” Reid stuck out his large hand. “I’m not going to ask you twice.”

  Hayley kept eye contact with Reid but her thumb was working the screen.

  Reid noticed her finger moving. “What are you doing?”

  Hayley didn’t answer.

  She quickly glanced down at the screen and tapped the SEND button.

  Reid suddenly realized what she was doing. “No!”

  He lunged forward and grabbed her around the neck with his hands.

  Hayley fell back against the wall. “It’s over, Reid. I just e-mailed the recording to Chief Alvares. He’ll be here any minute.”

  But Reid didn’t let go.

  He squeezed Hayley’s neck harder. “You ruined everything!”

  “Reid, please . . . ,” Hayley choked out, gasping for breath.

  He was out of his mind.

  All his hopes and dreams.

  Suddenly shattered.

  Hayley reached for a lamp.

  The tips of her fingers touched it, but there was no way to get a good grip on it and use it as a weapon.

  Leroy, alerted to the scuffle, came bounding down the stairs, barking wildly and nipping at Reid’s heels.

  The ultimate protector.

  Too bad he was the size of a ladies’ small handbag.

  Reid just kicked him away.

  Hayley was a mere seconds from passing out.

  Reid was about to finish the job Jesse DeSoto had started.

  She still couldn’t reach the lamp.

  Then, from the top of the stairs, Dustin called down, “Mom, is everything all right down there?”

  Leroy’s barking must have finally alerted him to the commotion.

  Dustin’s voice distracted Reid long enough for Hayle
y to inch her way toward the lamp where she was able to finally grab it and smash it into the side of Reid’s head.

  He let go of her neck.

  Hayley ran for the kitchen.

  Reid felt for blood on his scalp, then, filled with fury, chased after Hayley.

  She grabbed a coffeepot off the stove and swung it at him.

  He ducked.

  She hurled it at him and he raised his arm up, the pot bouncing off his elbow.

  He wailed again.

  Madder than hell.

  And kept charging her.

  Hayley threw open the screen door leading outside to the deck and flew down the steps and into the driveway.

  Better to draw him away from the house for Dustin’s protection.

  Reid hurled himself off the deck in an attempt to tackle Hayley, but she was far enough out of his reach that he failed to get a hold of her.

  He landed in the middle of the driveway just as Gemma, behind the wheel of Hayley’s Subaru, pulled in.

  Reid made a grab for Hayley, but she shoved him back, right into the path of the car.

  Hayley could see the look of shock on her daughter’s face as she slammed on the brakes, but not fast enough. The car rammed into Reid and he went sprawling to the pavement.

  Gemma just sat behind the wheel, screaming.

  Hayley took a step forward to examine Reid.

  He was moaning, clutching his elbow. “I think I broke my arm.”

  Reid was no longer a threat.

  Gemma stopped screaming and jumped out of the car. “Omigod! Omigod! Reid, are you all right?”

  She ran toward him, but Hayley intercepted her.

  There was no way she was going to allow her daughter to get any closer.

  “No, Gemma. Stay away from him.”

  “I saw you push him! I know you don’t like him, but do you have to kill him?” Gemma yelled.

  Flashing blue lights flooded the driveway as Sergio pulled in behind the Subaru and got out of the car.

  “He’s hurt, Sergio, but he’ll live,” Hayley said.

  Sergio nodded, and then pulled his handcuffs off his belt and walked over to talk to Reid, who was sitting up now, rocking back and forth, still moaning.

  Hayley took Gemma by the arm and walked her inside.

  She sat her down on the couch and explained everything.

  Gemma tried arguing at first.