Miss Julia Paints the Town

by Ann B. Ross

  “I mean,” Lieutenant Peavey said as he jotted a note on his pad, “well, we can get that information from the bank.”

  Mildred gasped as she understood the implication. “He could’ve been robbed! Somebody could’ve run him off the road and hidden his body. Oh, what am I going to do without him?”

  “Mrs. Allen,” Lieutenant Peavey said in what I took as an attempt to comfort, “he may be gone, but we’re not convinced that he’s gone for good. What we do know is that he’s not near that accident site. We’ve searched every inch of the mountainside and combed the road for a mile in each direction, and there’s nothing to indicate what happened when his car went off the road. Of course, it rained last night, which washed away any footprints or tire marks that might’ve been there.” Lieutenant Peavey leaned forward in an intimidating manner and hardened his voice. “We’ve come to the conclusion that he walked away from the accident, so I repeat, where could he be now?”

  I could keep silent no longer. “Well, she certainly can’t tell you. Don’t you know that a wife is always the last to know anytime a husband gets in trouble? I’m surprised at you, Lieutenant Peavey. You seem to think that his own wife is hiding him away somewhere. This is not a criminal case, you know. If indeed you haven’t found Horace’s body, then it’s simply a missing persons case and he hasn’t been missing for forty-eight hours yet, so what’s the purpose of all these questions?”

  The lieutenant gave me a freezing glance, frowned and addressed Mildred as if he’d just decided to share something with her. “It’s like this. We found a sheet of paper wadded up under the passenger seat, a sheet that indicates some connection to Assured Estate Planners. Which, as you may know, we are investigating and whose owner is also missing.”

  I thought Mildred was going to faint dead away. If there was one thing she could not abide it was fraudulent dealings where money was concerned. Her financial reputation, as well as her family’s, had always been impeccable, and now to have her husband associated, all unbeknowst to her, with a company accused of defrauding her friends and neighbors was almost more than she could bear. She began to cry in earnest, hyperventilating and emitting with each gasp little cries of anguish. She sprawled back in her chair, making me wonder if she’d slide right off that silk chair onto the floor, where I’d never get her up again.

  “I better get Ida Lee,” I said, my futile efforts to fan Mildred’s face going for naught. “This session is probably over, Lieutenant. I’ve seen her like this before when her son came home in a dress and high heels. You can’t get any more information here anyway. She’s told you all she knows, and I think that you can see she knew nothing whatsoever of any dealings that Horace may have had with Richard Stroud.”

  On hearing Richard’s name, Mildred’s cries reached a piercing crescendo, and Lieutenant Peavey came to his feet in a hurry. Backing away, he said, “Should I call for an ambulance?”

  “No, just Ida Lee.” As I hurried to the door, Ida Lee herself opened it and ran to Mildred. I heaved a sigh of relief since help had heard and answered the call. So I went out into the hall, with Lieutenant Peavey close behind.

  Closing the door on Mildred’s pitiful cries, I looked up at him. “I can’t believe that Horace Allen and Richard Stroud could be connected in any way, Lieutenant. Except I think they both like to play bridge and may be in the same bridge club. And they both belong to the country club, but so does most everybody else in town. What kind of paper did you find, Lieutenant? And how does it connect those two?”

  Lieutenant Peavey stared down from his great height and said, “That’s evidence and not for public dissemination. But people who’ve lost money are up in arms, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it sooner or later. And if not us, the FBI.”

  He turned and headed for the stairs, leaving me stunned at the unsettling knowledge of all the underhanded dealing by and with and to my friends and neighbors that I had known nothing about.

  Chapter 11

  Then as another thought came to mind, I took myself in hand and trotted after Lieutenant Peavey. He was well ahead of me, his long legs making strides down the staircase and through the crowd in the foyer. No one dared delay him with questions, but they all stopped and watched as he went out the front door. I was right behind him.

  “Lieutenant Peavey,” I called, as I hurried to catch up to him before he reached his squad car. He’d parked on Mildred’s lawn, which was the only clear space, but I knew she’d have a fit when she saw tire tracks on her grass.

  He stopped and barely turned to see who had called him. At the sight of me, I do believe he would’ve continued on if I hadn’t moved in front of him and stood there on the walk beside the corner of the sunroom, next to a camellia bush.

  “Lieutenant Peavey,” I said, all in a rush since he wasn’t what you’d call the conversational type. “Mildred Allen is a good friend of mine, and I would be remiss if I didn’t bring to your attention something you seem to have overlooked.”

  His eyes narrowed and he looked down at me from his great height. “If you know something germane to this case, let’s hear it.”

  “I don’t know if it’s germane or not, but you seem to have only two possibilities in mind—either Horace was killed in that wreck, which is unlikely since you can’t find his body, or he’s involved with Assured Estate Planners and is running from the law. I’d like to remind you that there is another possibility.” I stopped to take a breath, then hurried on before he could dismiss me, which he had a way of doing whenever he thought somebody was interfering with the way he enforced the law. “Think about this: What if Horace was a victim of a carjacking? What if somebody bashed him over the head, far from that accident site, left him dazed and injured, then drove the car up that mountain and crashed it? Then that thief walked away, leaving everybody to think that Horace had been driving it, when in fact Horace is on the other side of the county or in Asheville or who-knows-where, all unaware of what he’s being accused of. And furthermore,” I went on hastily, since Lieutenant Peavey didn’t seem too impressed with what I was saying, “that driver, whoever he was, could be the one who left that paper in the car. He, not Horace Allen, could be connected to Assured Estate Planners. Don’t you see?”

  I didn’t think the lieutenant’s eyes could get any narrower, but they did. Then they lifted from their gaze of me to look over my head as he slipped on his dark aviator glasses, in spite of the fact that the sun had almost set. “It’s possible,” he said.

  “Of course it’s possible, and…oh, my heavens!” I almost reached out to support myself on his arm, but decided against it.

  “Are you all right?” The touch of concern in his voice moved me since I’d never known him to be all that sensitive to human feelings. “You look a little peaked. Maybe you better go inside and rest.”

  “I don’t need to rest,” I snapped. “I just thought of something else.” I swayed just a little, trying to think of something else I’d just thought of. “I’m supposed to send somebody to meet Mrs. Allen’s daughter at the airport, and I forgot all about it. She’ll be punching that cell phone all afternoon, unable to get through. There’s been so many calls here, you know. Excuse me, Lieutenant, I’d better see about that right away. That poor girl will think we’ve abandoned her.”

  I sidled around him, hoping to get away from those piercing eyes before he saw what a tale I’d told.

  He stopped me cold. “Mrs. Murdoch. Don’t let your imagination run away with you. I can assure you that we have not overlooked any possibility. That’s why we’re tracking Mr. Allen’s movements since yesterday, although I didn’t want to distress Mrs. Allen any more than necessary by laying any of this out. And I’d caution you against making it harder on her by telling her.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said, but he’d already sidestepped me and was heading for his car.

  “Hazel Marie,” I said, drawing her into a corner of the dining room and keeping my voice low. “I think it’s time to
call Mr. Pickens.”

  “Oh, good,” she said, turning to leave. “I hope he can get right on it. I’ll call him from the kitchen.”

  “Wait, Hazel Marie. We’d better talk to Mildred first.”

  Hazel Marie’s eyes widened. “Oh, I thought…well, yes, I guess we better.”

  We met Ida Lee on the stairs as we were going up and she was coming down.

  “Is Mildred still in the sitting room?” I asked.

  “No’m, she say that lieutenant give her a migraine, so she laying down now. I’m going to fix her something to drink.”

  “Oh, dear. What do you think, Hazel Marie? Should we disturb her?”

  Hazel Marie said to Ida Lee, “Is it a bad one?”

  “Yes, ma’am, she say she about blind with it.”

  Hazel Marie made the decision. “Then let’s wait till Tonya gets here and talk to her. Ida Lee, I bet you haven’t had a bite to eat. Why don’t you fix a plate and take it upstairs where you can eat in peace and rest a little? You need to stay close to Mrs. Allen, anyway. There’re enough people to see to anything that needs doing down here.”

  “That’s good advice, Ida Lee,” I said. “And I hope you take it. We can’t have you giving out. Have you heard from Tonya?”

  “Yessum, the only flight she could get was to Charlotte, and she called from there a minute ago. She’s driving a rental car on home, so she ought to be here in a couple of hours.”

  “Then let’s go on home, Hazel Marie, and see about things there. Ida Lee, please ask Tonya to call us as soon as she can. It’s extremly urgent that we talk with her. We may have a way to find her daddy.”

  “Lillian,” Hazel Marie said as soon as we walked into the house. “Is Lloyd home yet?”

  “Yessum, he upstairs workin’ on something. He say he got a big report due on Monday, an’ he don’t wanta mess up his whole weekend with it.”

  “I thought he’d finished that,” Hazel Marie said, as she started for the back stairs. “I’ll run up and speak to him.”

  “Don’t be long,” I said. “We need to talk things over before Tonya gets here. I’ve come up with something that’s worrying me to death.”

  As she ran up the stairs, Lillian looked at me from under lowering brows. “What you cookin’ up to do now?”

  “Not one thing, except to talk Mildred into hiring Mr. Pickens. I tell you, Lillian, I don’t have much confidence in Lieutenant Peavey. You remember him, don’t you?”

  “Yessum, and you better leave that man alone. He chew you up and spit you out ’thout thinkin’ twicet.”

  “Well, I can’t just stand around and let him ignore clearly marked leads and evidence, as he seems to be doing. He has one thing on his mind and one thing only, and can’t see the forest for the trees.”

  “Well, I’m jus’ sayin’. You want some ice tea? I got some in the Frigidaire.”

  “No, I’m too nervous to think about anything right now. Has Sam come in?”

  “No’m, he stayin’ scarce today.”

  I strode across the kitchen to the telephone, mumbling to myself, “What has that man been doing all day?”

  “James?” I said, when he answered the phone. “Let me speak to Mr. Sam, please.”

  “Who I say’s callin’?”

  “James! You know who’s calling. Now put him on the phone.”

  “Yessum, I would if I could, but I can’t. He come in a while ago and get a call on the telephone. Then he go back out, so I’m fixin’ to go on home myself. ’Less you need me for something.”

  “You don’t know where he went?”

  “No’m, he don’t say.”

  I hung up after telling James he might as well go on home, then turned to Lillian. “I don’t understand it. Sam’s been in and out all day and, come to think of it, he was doing the same thing yesterday. It’s not like him to be out of touch so long.”

  “He prob’ly got things to do, an’ jus’ let the time get away from him.”

  “Well, he’s never let time get away from him before. If he doesn’t show up soon, I may have to set Lieutenant Peavey on his trail.”

  I smiled when I said it, but there was a niggling worry in the back of my mind. With all the husbands that had gone missing in this town, I certainly didn’t want mine numbered among them.

  I waited in the living room for Hazel Marie to come down, which she did before long. “My goodness,” she said, “Lloyd’s really working on that end-of-term paper, which I thought he’d already finished. But it’ll be half his semester grade, so he wants to get it right. In spite of playing tennis all day. He said he wasn’t even hungry.”

  “Hazel Marie, I don’t want to have to worry about that boy, but don’t you think he ought to be putting on some weight? He’s tired all the time, and it’s not like him to wait till the last minute to get a major paper done.”

  “I know, but he had a checkup last fall, and the doctor said he was fine.”

  “Well, I’m wondering if he could be wormy. Children get those things you know, and he might need a few doses of a laxative to clean him out.”

  “Oh, don’t say that!” Hazel Marie was aghast at the thought, and I felt pretty much the same way. “I’ll make another appointment for him this week.”

  She shuddered and sat down beside me on the sofa. “I don’t know if I can concentrate on Mildred after that. But tell me what you think is going on.”

  “Well, it’s like this. I almost told Lieutenant Peavey, but I knew he’d discount anything coming from me, so I didn’t. But what I’ve come up with is all the more reason to get Mr. Pickens on the case, and I hope Tonya will talk her mother into doing it.” I straightened my shoulders and began to bring Hazel Marie up to date in my thinking. “Lieutenant Peavey conceded that it was possible that Horace’s car could’ve been stolen. You know, carjacked? Leaving him injured on the side of the road somewhere. Maybe even with amnesia, but I didn’t mention that because I didn’t think of it at the time. And he seemed to allow that it was possible that whoever stole the car was the one who ran it off the road and wrecked it, and could’ve been the one who left that wadded-up paper about Assured Estate Planners in the car. You didn’t hear about that, did you? Anyway, that was as far as I got, because another thought came to me that I couldn’t bring myself to share with him.”

  I squirmed in my seat, hesitant now to put into words what I was thinking. “Hazel Marie, what if the person who was driving Horace’s car and wrecked it and left that paper in it was none other than Richard Stroud? What if Richard was the carjacker and the thief? You know, if a person would steal money, he’d do most anything else.” I paused to see how Hazel Marie was taking it, then my thoughts jumped ahead of even me.

  “Oh,” I said, grasping Hazel Marie’s arm, “what if Richard didn’t just leave Horace on the side of the road? What if he kidnapped him and has him tied up somewhere? What if Horace is a victim, while all this time he’s being accused of fraudulent intent and leaving the scene of an accident?”

  “Oh, my,” Hazel Marie said, “you reckon? I can’t believe Mr. Stroud would do something like that. But maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s not that Mr. Allen doesn’t want to come home, but that he can’t. Of course,” she mused, tapping her fingers on the armrest, “we’re not considering Mildred. He might not want to face her, regardless of what’s happened to him.”

  “Well,” I said, recalling the flashes of anger Mildred had occasionally displayed toward Horace, “taking her temperament into account, I wouldn’t, either.”

  Chapter 12

  Idly twisting the charm bracelet on her arm, Hazel Marie said, “I wish I could talk to J.D. about it.”

  “I don’t see why you can’t. I certainly intend to tell Sam. If he ever gets home. But, Hazel Marie, you can’t hire Mr. Pickens. Only Mildred, or maybe Tonya, can do that.”

  “Oh, I know, but he may have some ideas without being officially on the case. If you think it’s all right, I’ll call him now.”

  As s
he got up, the doorbell rang and she veered to answer it. LuAnne came swishing in past her, saying, “Hey, Hazel Marie, I need to talk to Julia. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Not at all,” Hazel Marie said, unperturbed by LuAnne’s rudeness. “I was just going upstairs anyway.”

  LuAnne plopped down on the sofa beside me, her eyes following Hazel Marie as she left the room. Twisting her mouth, she said, “You think she’s been enhanced?”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “Well, she’s got such big…” LuAnne’s hands made a rounded motion in front of her own ample bosom. “And she’s so skinny everywhere else. Just all out of proportion.”

  “No, LuAnne, there’s nothing artificial about Hazel Marie. She’s been like that ever since I’ve known her. Some people are born that way, you know. With the potential, I mean.” Then, because I was offended by her comments, I said, “How’s Leonard?”

  “I don’t know how he is, and it’s hateful of you to ask when you know how upset I am. Besides, you have your own problems, which is why I dropped by. Do you know where Sam is?”

  “Not at this exact minute, no. But he’ll be coming in any time now.”

  “Well, good. I hope so.” She stood up, clasping her purse under her arm. “I’ve got to be going. It’s almost suppertime.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said, standing, too. “What do you mean, saying I have problems of my own? What’s going on, LuAnne?”

  “Well, I thought you’d be worried about Sam, so I just came by to put your mind at rest.” She sniffed. “But I see you’re not at all concerned. It must be nice to have a husband you can trust, no matter where he is.”

  “LuAnne, stop this. I know you aren’t happy with me, but you don’t need to take it out in innuendos. If you want to tell me something, then tell it.”

  “All right, I will. Your husband is over at Helen Stroud’s, and he’s been there all afternoon.”

  That rocked me back on my heels. I stared at her as a white haze blurred my vision. “How do you know?”