“Oh,” Bubba said. “Meetcha.”
“Sorry about the gun,” Demetrius said lamely. The other two men were playing Blackjack on the coffee table and absently listening.
“That there is Mikael and the other one is Chi,” Big Mama said, pointing at the other two men. “They’re nephews.” They waved and went back to Blackjack.
“Miz Demetrice knows Big Mama,” Janie said, clearly impressed. “That’s wicked bad.”
“And this is the deputy’s niece,” Big Mama said. “Does her mother know that she’s out gallivanting with ya’ll?”
“No,” Bubba said shortly. “I got to liking all my limbs still attached, so I’m reluctant to call her, although I don’t want her worrying. Kid won’t give me her phone number.”
“You should call her mother,” Big Mama directed sternly. “And your ma, too. Maybe his, too.” She pointed at The PSS with a slotted spoon.
“My mother died on a distant world that exploded,” The PSS said, reaching for more cornbread. “She put me in a special spaceship that brought me to earth. She knew that I would be stronger than humans. Bullets bounce off my flesh.”
Demetrius scrutinized The PSS. “Hey, Ma, will you let me shoot him? I want to see if bullets will really bounce off.”
“No!” Big Mama said. She washed her hands and dried them with a fluffy, pink towel. She poured herself a glass of merlot and sat down next to Bubba at the dining room table.
“Have some gumbo and then we’ll get you down the road,” Big Mama suggested. “Folks always think better on a full stomach.”
“You could have said that over the phone,” Janie said.
Big Mama shrugged.
“What makes you think that this Le Beau fella is a dead end?” she asked and sipped her wine.
“He’s been inpatient at a mental health clinic since before the sheriff’s deputy vanished,” The PSS said.
Demetrius snorted. “I used that one once when- ”
Big Mama cleared her throat.
“Just saying it could be faked,” Demetrius added quickly.
“It’s true I didn’t see the proof,” Bubba admitted, “but the police will make sure of it. That social worker said they had hourly checks. And there’s more.”
“More?” Big Mama said. Bubba frowned and she added, “Who you gonna tell? Your ma? The last time I talked to her she was talking about tying you to four horses and firing a muzzle loader into the air.” She cackled. “Just like she done to your pa.”
“Pa had a heart attack,” Bubba said wearily.
“Okay,” Big Mama said as she put her glass down. “They got hourly bed checks at this facility your guy was at and probably some other stuff, too. Cameras and all. Probably all kinds of records of his being there. If it’s a reliable place, then it’s a no brainer.” She paused, then asked, “Who else is it gonna be?”
Bubba turned his gaze upon The PSS. The PSS hadn’t answered his question about who Nancy Musgrave had been planning to kidnap. “David,” Bubba said. “Tell me.”
The PSS swallowed convulsively. A lump of cornbread went down awkwardly, and he thumped his chest twice. He managed to clear his esophagus and said, “Miz Demetrice, of course.”
“Miz Demetrice, of course, what?” Big Mama said. “Miz Demetrice ain’t gonna kidnap that girl.”
“It’s a real long story,” Bubba said. “Did Ma tell you about the Christmas Killer?”
“The woman who wanted to get revenge for her daddy getting put in prison all those years ago,” Big Mama stated. “Yep. She did mention it. Pegram County ain’t had so much excitement for decades as it has this last year.”
“Oh yeah,” Demetrius said, “that’s the place with the buried gold.”
“Ain’t no gold,” Bubba barked. He took a breath and continued with the story about the Christmas Killer. “Well, Nancy Musgrave is the woman’s name. She was a social worker with three outreach patients.” He gestured at The PSS. “This is David Beathard, one of the patients. Sometimes he thinks he’s a psychotherapist. She pretty much connived all of them into helping her.”
“She threatened to have us put into solitary,” The PSS said. “Even though I could have left, she said that with her statement the judge would commit me involuntarily. She also gave us lots of drugs.”
“That’s not so bad,” Demetrius said.
“Not those kinds of drugs,” Big Mama said.
“Too bad,” Demetrius murmured.
“And Nancy also talked about her plans with her patients,” Bubba threw in.
“Never tell your crew all the plans,” Demetrius advised gravely.
“Deniability,” Janie said.
“ ‘Xactly,” Demetrius said. He glanced at his mother. “Smart kid.”
“But what David is saying is that Nancy talked about kidnapping Miz Demetrice,” Bubba clarified.
“Why kidnap Miz Demetrice?” Big Mama asked.
“She was the one that Nancy blamed the most,” Bubba explained. “She got the twelfth-day letter. Nancy sent letters to all her victims and potential victims. Nancy wanted Ma to watch all the others die while she had to wait for the end.” He rubbed his jaw absently. “I don’t remember what her letter said.”
“ ‘On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, the gift of watching all the others die before me.’ ” The PSS appeared smug. “I helped compose it, you know.”
Bubba frowned. “And there was another sentence.”
“ ‘And if I tell, then my son will be next.’ ” The PSS said quickly.
“I didn’t think about it before,” Bubba said. “Anyone who knows Ma, knows she ain’t gonna sit tight while folks are being sliced and stabbed. I guess Nancy accounted for that, too.”
“Nancy was going to kidnap Miz Demetrice and hold her until all the others were dead,” The PSS said somberly. “That way the one Nancy hated the most couldn’t get away, couldn’t be protected.”
“Dah-ammm,” Demetrius muttered. “That B was all into revenge and shit.”
“Mind your language around the little girl,” Big Mama snapped.
“Sorry.”
“But Big Joe jumped the gun,” Bubba said as he thought about it. “He just wanted to get someone in jail, and Ma was just as good as anyone.”
“Big Joe is Pegramville’s Chief of Police,” Janie explained to Demetrius. “He’s a big, dumb blowhard. He doesn’t like Auntie Wills much but that’s okay. Auntie Wills doesn’t like him either.”
Silence blew over the table like a chilly breeze.
Big Mama got up to stir the gumbo, and everyone quietly watched her.
“Ifin Nancy was going to kidnap Ma and keep her alive until all the rest was dead,” Bubba said suddenly, and everyone jumped, including Big Mama, “then she had to have a place to put her.”
He turned toward The PSS. “David?”
“Nancy didn’t tell us that,” The PSS said.
“Maybe the institute? Her house?” Bubba persisted, but The PSS shook his head.
“Oh, woman tells her crew everything and she don’t say where she gonna put the gal she blamed for everything,” Demetrius pooh-poohed.
The PSS shrugged sadly. “I wasn’t a superhero, then.”
“David,” Bubba said gently, “are you sure?”
The PSS shook his head, and his eyes feasted on the cornbread again.
Janie said, “What? What are you thinking about, Bubba? That woman, Nancy Musgrave, didn’t want to kidnap my auntie, so what does she have to do with her disappearance?”
“I went to the prison to talk to Nancy. I thought she could tell me something about stalkers that might help,” Bubba said. “I was on her list of approved visitors.”
Big Mama came back to the table. “This woman hates you, too. Am I right?”
“At the end,” Bubba said, “she was just as mad at me as she was at Ma.”
“And did she know about Auntie Wills and you?” Janie asked quickly.
“Hooking up wit
h a sheriff’s deputy,” Demetrius crowed with his head bobbing in approval. His mother cleared her throat again and he said, “Sorry.”
“Rumors run around like chickens with their heads cut off in Pegramville,” Bubba said darkly. “Sure, it’s possible. But we ain’t even had a date yet.”
“No date,” Demetrius repeated doubtfully. “You ain’t made a booty call with the hottie yet?”
“I was working my way up to asking her out,” Bubba protested. “We were supposed to go out…last Thursday evening.”
“Oh,” Janie said understandingly.
“But Nancy has an alibi for the time that Willodean disappeared,” Bubba said. “Hell, she was completely engaged with trying to kill me and a whole bunch of other people. David was there.”
“She was totally occupied with attempted murder,” The PSS admitted austerely.
“And her three accomplices were with her,” Bubba continued.
“We were,” The PSS acknowledged. “But we did try to warn you.”
Big Mama’s eyes rolled. “Why is this man hanging with you?”
“I thought he could help me with the psychology behind stalking,” Bubba snarled. “I thought he could help me find the man who had scared Willodean so badly.”
“I helped with that secretary today,” The PSS dissented. “Also that social worker. Once I laid out Tarasoff Versus Regents of the University of California, she was a goner.”
“Huh?” Demetrius said.
“It’s a very interesting case by which clinicians are held accountable for imminent threats from patients to other people and from patients to themselves,” The PSS explained. “Basically, it delegates that a therapist has a duty to warn when a patient has a specific threat against themselves or another person.”
“I be trying to remember that,” Demetrius said flatly.
Big Mama stared at The PSS. “What is he besides a mental patient? A doctor? A lawyer?”
The PSS turned to Big Mama. “A mail carrier.”
“A mail carrier.”
“Yes, twenty years on the job,” The PSS said sadly. “People kept expecting me to go postal. That’s a terrible parable for you. The fifteenth time a dog bit my ankle I threatened to parboil the schnauzer on my grill.” He grimaced. “I wouldn’t have done it, but the owner’s kid was filming it on his smart phone, and that was the end of that career.”
“So this Nancy woman never threatened your deputy?” Big Mama’s attention refocused on Bubba.
“No, not even close.”
“And maybe she knew that the deputy was special to you?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s a long shot,” Demetrius said.
A confused expression settled over Bubba’s face. “But Nancy was surprised when I saw her in prison.”
“She was surprised to see you?” Big Mama said.
“No, surprised that something hadn’t happened to Ma,” Bubba said.
“They keep new prisoners segregated until they acclimatize,” Big Mama said slowly. “Nancy thought something was going to happen to Miz Demetrice, and when you went in, she hadn’t been able to watch the news. Hmm.”
“Maybe while Nancy was killing you, someone else was supposed to kidnap Miz Demetrice,” Janie suggested.
“I love the way this kid thinks,” Demetrius said with a laugh.
“David,” Bubba said, “is there another accomplice? One I don’t know about?”
“Nancy talked to people on the phone a lot,” The PSS whined. “She also upped my Thorazine level to the realm of I-forgot-most-of-that-week. It’s a little cloudy.”
“David,” Bubba said warningly.
“I am a superhero now, Bubba.” The PSS perked up. “If I knew where the attractive Deputy Willodean was located and who had taken her, I would have told you days ago.” His face became graven with solemnity. “I swear upon my dead mother’s soul as she rests upon the distant plane, XYB, in the Gamma-Omega Quadrant.”
“Someone couldn’t get Miz Demetrice in jail, so they took the deputy instead?” Big Mama concluded.
“If they thought that Auntie Wills was someone important to Bubba,” Janie pondered, “then maybe they would have, but Auntie Wills’ got a gun and she knows jujitsu.”
“And it was someone who’s close to your Christmas Killer,” Demetrius added.
“Who’s close to Nancy Musgrave?” Big Mama asked.
“She’s got a brother,” Bubba said. “But Nancy said that he wasn’t involved. Said he worked in Dallas and has a family.”
Demetrius sneered. “You believed the woman who tried to kill all ya’ll? Seriously?”
Chapter Nineteen
Bubba Gets a Clue
Thursday, January 5th
“Nancy Musgrave put you on her visiting list because she thought her other accomplice kidnapped Miz Demetrice and you’d be coming to see her soon. She could torture you with it.”
Big Mama’s summation hit right where it hurt the most. Bubba didn’t like it much because he hadn’t put it together earlier; he had been completely focused on Howell Le Beau, the recognizable bad guy.
As he scowled to himself, Big Mama went on, “But her accomplice couldn’t get Miz Demetrice and decided to get the deputy instead.”
“But this accomplice might not want to hold her like they would have held Miz Demetrice,” Janie said unhappily. Precious nuzzled her leg. “She might not be still- ”
“This all be conjecture and assumptions,” Demetrius said. “Ain’t no evidence to show it was the Christmas Killer’s brother or someone else. Could be Jack the Ripper, for all you know.”
What Demetrius said wasn’t much better. In some ways it was worse. If the person who had taken Willodean Gray wasn’t Howell Le Beau, and it wasn’t Nancy Musgrave’s brother, then no one had any idea who it was. That pretty much sucked gigantic ostrich eggs.
“Big Mama,” Bubba said abruptly, and he pushed the chair back as he stood up, “it’s been fine meeting you, even with the kidnapping and all, but I got to go find Nancy Musgrave’s brother. The sooner the better.”
Big Mama took a sip from her merlot. “The DPD investigator is going to have you arrested as soon as you go back to the hotel. Throw you in the slam so hard your mama’s head will bounce. It seems you might have skirted some of the instructions of the judge who released you a few days back.”
A deep, black furrow crossed Bubba’s brow. “Oh yeah. Guess we cain’t go back to the hotel.”
Big Mama put her glass down and carefully put her fingers into a steeple. “Let’s get the young lady safely back to her house, and Demetrius can pick up your truck. Then you can head wherever you need go.”
“I’m not going back to my house,” Janie announced. “Auntie Wills needs me. I helped you put this together. And I can help more. I’ll kick everyone’s ass if you don’t let me come.”
Demetrius chuckled. “I love this kid.”
“Your ma is going to be sick to death ifin she realizes that you’re gone, too,” Bubba said quietly to Janie. “It’s okay right now because everyone is torn up and don’t understand you’re gone. But your ma and your granny are going to be worried senseless. Be right cruel to do that to them at this time.” He hunkered down beside the young girl so that they were eye to eye. “Yes, you helped. Ain’t no one gonna say you didn’t. Willodean will be proud of you when we find her. I know she will. But you got to go home now and help out there as best you can.”
Janie’s face wrinkled. “If you find her.” She suddenly burst into tears and launched herself at Bubba. She wrapped her thin arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest.
The PSS stood up and thumped his chest twice with a clenched fist. He said formally, “I swear I shall search for your auntie until my feet bleed and my eyes go blind.”
Lifting her tear-streaked face from Bubba’s chest, Janie gave The PSS an incredulous glance. “You’re a crazy person, you know that?”
The PSS shrugged. “Well, even superheroe
s have flaws.”
•
“Promise me you’ll go inside and stay with your family,” Bubba said to Janie thirty minutes later. The black Suburban was parked one house down from Janie’s home.
“I promise,” Janie said but her face was mulish. Bubba had seen the expression before. It looked a lot like her grandmother’s face when she was told that she couldn’t do something that she wanted to do. It even resembled Willodean’s expression when Bubba thwarted her.
Janie climbed out of the Suburban. She looked at Bubba and then at Demetrius who was driving. Precious leaned out the window of the Suburban and slobbered on Janie’s hand. Finally, she looked at The PSS. “I can’t believe you’re going to take him but not me. He’s like a perp. He’s completely ka-bonkers. You’re going to need backup and he’s going to be like, ‘But I don’t have enough purple Tinker Bell stuff to help you out,’ and someone’s going to shoot you in the back.”
“Hey,” The PSS objected, “at least I’m legal.”
“Got you there, kid,” Demetrius threw in.
Janie’s shoulders slumped. “You better find my auntie, Bubba,” she growled at him. She turned and trudged to the next house. A moment later, she opened the front door and went inside. Bubba listened. He heard a startled, “JANIE! Where have you been?” echo back to them.
“Guess they finally figured out she weren’t home,” Demetrius commented. He pulled out of the parking spot and headed toward downtown Dallas.
•
The Chevy truck seemed to be unencumbered by official individuals. Demetrius parked down the street from the hotel and the truck and waited judiciously. Bubba didn’t want to wait. Demetrius held up a hand when Bubba started to speak.
Demetrius reached into the middle console and took out a small pair of binoculars. It took about a minute for him to systematically scan their surroundings.
Bubba waited for another few minutes and said, “I don’t have time to mess with this, Demetrius. Let me have your Suburban and I’ll- ”
“Cops have come and gone,” Demetrius announced. He put the binoculars back into the console. “They’ll be back in the morning to pick you up.”
Bubba and the Missing Woman Page 21
