Rock-a-Bye Bones Page 14

  For my part, I avoided Coleman’s provocative look. He had me in retreat, and he knew it. I’d shown my hand when I reacted so strongly to his kiss.

  “Sarah Booth,” Coleman said lazily. “DeWayne’s got a composite for you. Thanks for sending that midwife, Betty McGowin, in to talk to him.”

  “I thought you were in Memphis.”

  “Got home late last night. I’m hoping my part in the triple murder investigation is done. This ring of criminals is bigger than DeWayne and I can manage, and it’s spread all across Mississippi and Arkansas, wherever there are large tracts of isolated farmland. I can cut the tail off the snake here in Sunflower County, but they need a regional or national initiative if they want to chop off the head. These criminals are entrenched and smart.”

  I was glad twice over that he wasn’t investigating gangs that dealt in drugs and guns. Those were violent people with no regard for life. “So you’re home.”

  “I am.” He grinned and gave me a wicked wink. “Your powers of observation amaze me.”

  “Keep it up. I’ve had to deal with Macho Kick-Butt Tinkie and a spewing baby this morning, and besides…” I let it hang there. “I’ve solved the case.”

  “Do tell.” Coleman was really feeling his oats. He hadn’t been so filled with mischief in a long time.

  “It’s Tally McNair. She did something to Pleasant so she could steal her music. I’m going to Nashville tomorrow evening to talk with a music agent, Benny Hester. He signed Tally to a contract to license her songs. Only they aren’t Tally’s; they’re Pleasant’s songs.”

  “That’s motive. And I can see where McNair would have opportunity and means. So where is Pleasant?”

  “That’s what I need you to help me with.”

  “Go on.”

  “You don’t have jurisdiction in Bolivar County, and I don’t trust Hoss Kincaid to do anything, much less the right thing. So I’m going to lure Tally over here, and then you can arrest her.”

  “On what charge?”

  “Theft, fraud, identity theft. What do I care? Just arrest her, put her in the box, and let’s sweat her. Maybe I can give her a tune-up.”

  “Stop watching NYPD Blue reruns, Sarah Booth. We don’t give tune-ups in Sunflower County.”

  “This case may be the exception.” If Tally McNair didn’t come forth with helpful information, I’d work her over. The idea of a grown woman stealing from a teenager—to say nothing about putting a very pregnant young girl in danger—made me want physical retribution. In the corner, DeWayne was laughing and not doing a lot to hide it. He apparently enjoyed the repartee between his boss and me.

  I decided to enlist him on my side. “DeWayne, find a stocking and I’ll put an orange in it. I hear that’s the thing to use when a criminal won’t talk.”

  Coleman was laughing now. “Okay, I’ll arrest her. But you aren’t going in the cell with her, and just so you know, we don’t have a ‘box’ here to sweat anyone in.” He laughed again. “The things you get in your head.”

  I made the call to Tally and told her I had a lead on Pleasant. “Deputy DeWayne Dattilo here in the Sunflower County sheriff’s office has put together a composite sketch of a man who may have been involved in the abduction.” I wasn’t lying. DeWayne had the composite of the young man who’d been by Betty McGowin’s house asking for medicine for cramps for a woman who’d just delivered a baby.

  “Really?” Tally sounded suspicious.

  “Please stop by and see if you can identify him.”

  “I have no clue who took Pleasant. How can I identify anyone?”

  She was getting on my last nerve. “We need to know if you’ve ever seen this man. Maybe hanging at the school or watching the band. You know, suspicious behavior.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She hesitated. She was smarter than I’d assumed.

  “Now, Tally. It’s urgent. If this man has Pleasant and we can find him, we may be able to save her.”

  “I have a hair appointment.”

  “Okay. Hold on.” I half muffled the phone with my hand. “Sheriff Peters, she can’t help us. She has a hair appointment.”

  “Does she know she may be condemning Pleasant Smith to injury or death?”

  “She’s not an idiot. She has to know.” I gave it a beat. “I guess she doesn’t care.”

  “Up to her,” Coleman added. “I hope she’s aware of potential legal repercussions.”

  I spoke into the phone. “Okay, Tally, if you won’t help.”

  “Wait a minute. What repercussions?”

  “Depends on what happens to Pleasant, I guess. You’d have to talk to the sheriff about that. I’m not a law officer, you know. I’ll put the sheriff on the phone.”

  “No! No! Don’t do that. I’ll come look at the picture.”

  The mouse had taken the bait. “Perfect. I’ll wait here at the sheriff’s office for you.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  * * *

  Tally, ponytail swinging behind her, arrived at the sheriff’s office with an equal mix of annoyance and trepidation. DeWayne sat at his desk, taking it all in. Francine was a little more proactive. She came up to the counter. “Care for some coffee?” she asked. I had to wonder if maybe Coleman had put her up to getting a DNA sample or something.

  “I don’t have time for coffee,” Tally said. “I’ve got band rehearsal tonight. The Christmas parade is just around the corner and my students are going to blow everyone away.” She looked around the old office, taking in the battered wooden desks, the worn hardwood floor, the general air of neglect that occurred in two-hundred-year-old buildings unless they were meticulously maintained. Her gaze stopped on Pluto, sitting on the counter watching her. “You have animals in the office. Is that allowed?”

  Pluto shifted from his pose and sauntered over to Tally. He stayed out of range, but he fixed her with a glare. On the floor at Coleman’s feet, Sweetie gave the sweetest doggie sigh and yielded to sleep.

  “Oh, they’re just here for a visit,” I said. “Pluto is like a living, breathing lie detector test. When someone is lying, he knows it.”

  Poor Tally. Her life was about to unravel. Animals in a public office and the Christmas parade would be the least of her worries. She faced grand theft charges, if not worse.

  “Show me the picture,” she said. “I know I can’t help, but I would never want you to think I didn’t try. Pleasant is the most talented student I’ve ever taught.”

  “Is that why you stole her songs and sold them as your own?” I asked.

  Tally didn’t even attempt to defend herself. Her face crumpled and tears literally squirted from her eyes like some cartoon character. “I thought she was dead.” She boo-hooed harder. I only wished Tinkie were here to witness the breakdown. In her current mood, she’d probably toss Tally to the floor and sit on her.

  Coleman read Tally her rights and proceeded to list the charges against her. When he had thoroughly terrorized her, he put the composite drawing in front of her. “Do you know this man? Before you answer, consider that you may do yourself some good by helping us find Pleasant. Right now, you aren’t charged with anything relating to Pleasant’s disappearance. That will change if something happens to her. You could be facing charges of kidnapping. Or murder.”

  “Oh, god. I didn’t have a thing to do with her disappearance. I didn’t.” She looked from Coleman to me to Francine. She didn’t have a friend in the room. “I didn’t. I warned those girls—” Her eyes widened. “I want a lawyer.”

  “You’re entitled to one,” Coleman said.

  I wanted to kick him. Or kiss him. I was torn. But I didn’t want her to have a lawyer. “Sure. Go ahead. Call a lawyer. If Pleasant dies, you’ll be complicit in a capital murder.”

  “Capital murder?” Tally’s tears fell freely. “Why capital? Does that mean the death penalty?”

  I lowered the boom again. “Yes, harming a pregnant woman is capital murder. That means the gas chamber!”

  Tally went gre
en. Behind her, Coleman signaled me to cease and desist. He was not kidding around, either.

  “Who is this man?” I pushed the picture at her.

  “I don’t know his name.” She struggled for composure. “I’m not involved in the kidnapping. I took her songs when she didn’t come back. I’m a thief, but I didn’t kill anyone and I wasn’t involved in abducting Pleasant.”

  “But you knew about the plan to abduct her and you didn’t stop it.”

  “Is that true?” Coleman asked her in a tone weighted with seriousness.

  “I … uh, I can’t … I—”

  “You know who took her. You’d better tell us now!” I slammed the desktop with my hand. Papers and paperclips jumped, and so did Tally and Francine.

  “Break it and you own it,” Francine said under her breath.

  While Francine wasn’t impressed with my tactics, Tally almost peed her pants. “I only overheard them talking. I thought they were kidding.”

  “Who is they?” Coleman asked softly.

  “Those girls. They hated Pleasant. Lucinda had it in her head that Pleasant would get the scholarship that should have gone to her. The full ride. Lucinda was furious. They were talking about detaining Pleasant until she missed the deadline to interview for the scholarship. I thought it was a joke.”

  “But when Pleasant didn’t return to school, did you report this information to anyone?”

  “It was hearsay. I didn’t have any proof.”

  “It was information that could have saved a pregnant young woman. Now, where did those teenagers say they were going to take Pleasant?” Coleman was through being Mr. Nice Guy. “You’d better tell me right now.”

  “They didn’t say. They really didn’t. They were just talking about making her miss the scholarship deadline, which was a month ago. It was like an overnight thing, the way they were talking. I didn’t believe they’d really do it. I don’t know that they did.”

  “Who is the man in the drawing?” Coleman pushed it in front of her again. “Help yourself and tell us.”

  “He’s some guy Lucinda knows.”

  “How do you know this?” Coleman asked.

  “I don’t know it. That’s what Lucinda said. I saw her talking to him a few days before Pleasant disappeared. They were arguing under the bleachers, so I asked her who he was and what he was doing on campus. He’s too old to be a student.” She forestalled my next question. “That’s all I know about him. And I only saw him that one time. I did see her talking to another guy, too.”

  “This man?” I showed the photo of Alfred Uxall.

  “No, not him. Rudy. That’s Rudy Uxall’s brother, Alfred.”

  “Do you know the Uxalls?”

  “They were students, when they bothered to come to class. Rudy followed Pleasant like a lovestruck dog. Maybe he took her.”

  “Rudy Uxall is dead,” I told her. Her shock seemed genuine, but Tally was an accomplished liar.

  “Okay. Now what girls were in on the abduction scheme?”

  “Lucinda, Amber, and Brook. Those are the ones I know.”

  “Any boys from the high school?”

  She shook her head. “Those girls won’t give Cotton Gin High boys the time of day.”

  Coleman stood up. “DeWayne, please escort Ms. McNair to a cell.” He looked at Tally. “Make yourself at home. I have a feeling you’ll be our guest for a lot longer than you want.”

  I thought Tally might make a break for freedom, but she followed behind DeWayne like a ghost.

  Francine went to wash out the coffeepot. Her day was done. Coleman took the opportunity to step close to me. I thought he might kiss me again, but he had other things on his mind.

  “You’ve solved the case, Sarah Booth, but we still don’t have a clue where Pleasant is. I do believe she’s alive, though. I can’t wrap my mind around the concept that three teenagers pulled this off without help from an adult. Rudy Uxall might have been inadvertently involved, but it sounds like he genuinely cared for Pleasant. From what I’ve learned, he doesn’t sound smart enough to plan this. And who stabbed him? So far DeWayne hasn’t found the scene of the stabbing. It might not have even happened in Sunflower County.”

  “As much as I want to figure out who stabbed Rudy, and we will do that, my first priority is finding Pleasant. If she is alive, imagine how anguished she is over her baby.” I took a breath. “Charity believes Rudy took baby Libby to my house because Pleasant told him to. She believes Pleasant was trying to send a message for someone to come looking for her.”

  Instead of laughing, Coleman rubbed his chin in thought. “So maybe Rudy was duped into helping abduct Pleasant, and then he realized she was really in danger. So—”

  “Amber is capable of stabbing someone.” I didn’t have a doubt. “Maybe Lucinda and Brook, too. If those girls are behind this, someone helped them. I think it was Carrie Ann Musgrove.”

  “Lucinda’s mother? The Olympic gymnast. Man, a lot of the boys had some hot fantasies about her.”

  “More information than I want to know.” I put my hands over my ears. “Too bad Carrie Ann is in Bolivar County or we could pay a visit on her. We’d be right on time for supper.”

  “She lives in Sunflower County. Just on the line, but in this county. June Bug community straddles the two counties, but her house is here. I had to go out there two years ago with the tax assessor. She threated to shoot him.”

  “What are we waiting for?” I was starving and tired, but the thought of arresting Carrie Ann was like a jolt of pure adrenaline.

  The fax machine beeped and Coleman hurried to Francine’s desk. In a moment he looked hard at me.

  “What?”

  He printed off a sheet of paper and brought it to me. He handed it over without comment.

  The photo was grainy, but it was evident that Gertrude Strom, in a Chinese-red Mercedes roadster, just like my mother’s, was filling her tank with gasoline. In the distance were cotton fields that stretched forever. She was in a Delta area, in Mississippi, Arkansas, or maybe Louisiana.

  “Where is she?” I asked.

  “Bolivar County. The clerk at the station thought she looked familiar, but a tanker pulled in to fill the pumps and he got busy. This was about two hours ago. He checked the store’s security cameras and compared the likeness with those on the wanted posters. He’s after the reward.”

  “Then he should have acted more quickly.” Two hours. Gertrude could be sitting outside the courthouse right now with a rifle and a scope.

  “I’m going to take you home and stay with you.” When I started to speak, he shook his head. “No arguments. I’ll stay in a guest room.” He was all business. Now wasn’t the time for innuendo or teasing. “I want to keep you safe.”

  “Why can’t someone catch her?”

  “Sarah Booth, there are two, maybe three deputies in most of the rural counties. We need ten or twenty to do the job properly, but the supervisors aren’t going to fund law enforcement when roads aren’t paved and bridges aren’t maintained. Schools are falling down around our ears. The state can’t help because they’re in deficit spending. There are half a dozen highway patrolmen for the miles and miles of highway in the region. There’s not enough manpower, and when the average citizen sees an antique car pass, they think, how nice. That’s it. Gertrude Strom is the furthest thing from his mind.”

  “That’s not comforting in the least.”

  “It isn’t meant to be. DeWayne and I will do everything we can to protect you. So will your friends, but you have to be hypervigilant. You are the target. No one can take better care of you than you. Pay attention.”

  “She’s like a force of nature. She can’t be stopped. Do you really think she wants to kill me?” I’d done nothing to Gertrude. She hated me for an imagined slight my mother had made against her. In Gertrude’s mind, my mother had given away the secret of her illegitimate pregnancy.

  That was untrue and crazy, but even nuttier was that Gertrude had ended up killing he
r own son. Her target had been a pseudo-intellectual and academic, Olive Twist. Instead of killing the obnoxious Twist, Gertrude had poisoned her own child. Next, she meant to harm me. She’d made a few unsuccessful attempts, and she wasn’t done yet. Gertrude had gone from a local kook with a mean streak to a full-blown sociopath.

  “Let’s get you home. It’s too dangerous to be running up and down the roads in the dark.”

  “What about interviewing Carrie Ann?”

  “It can wait.”

  I agreed with some reluctance. Pleasant’s life could be in jeopardy—we needed to focus on squeezing the truth out of Carrie Ann Musgrove, not hide out at Dahlia House. Would Carrie Ann be smart enough to cover her tracks? I didn’t want to delay, but I was a coward. I was afraid of Gertrude.

  15

  Sweetie Pie led the way to the kitchen. While I put coffee on to brew, Coleman went through the refrigerator to see what supplies I had. All of us were starving. A sit-down at Millie’s Café would have been my preference, but Coleman didn’t want me in town, easily visible in the plate-glass windows of the diner. It was make do at home.

  “Stir-fry,” Coleman said as he pulled out vegetables. “I’ll cook if you clean.”

  “You’ve got a deal.”

  While he busied himself with our meal, I heated some beef stroganoff for Sweetie and a bit of leftover amberjack for Pluto. Both appreciated my efforts and fell asleep under the table. As I set the small table in the kitchen, my heart thudded. Food preparation and cleanup would be behind us, and I would be with Coleman, alone, in my cold home—knowing that he had everything needed to warm me up.

  My body was surely ready for the adventure, but was my heart? Coleman and I had gotten crosswise of timing in the past. I’d been free and ready, and he’d been married and ready. I respected him for refusing to engage in an affair while Connie wore his ring. Until it became abundantly clear that Connie had no honor. A fake pregnancy had brought Coleman home, and when her deception was revealed, it had ended their marriage.