A Peach of a Murder (11 page)

Right now, she didn't care if she ever ate a peach again. Taking a deep breath, she got back to work and put away the rest of the groceries. The house was quiet. Eve and Mattie had gone out to the high school for their tutoring sessions with the summer school students. Carolyn was probably upstairs in her room. Sam's pickup had been gone when Phyllis came in from the store, so she didn't know where he was. The silence made the knock on the front door sound even louder than usual-and somehow ominous. Phyllis frowned and gave a little shake of her head. There was nothing sinister about a knock on the door, she told herself. She was just being silly because it had been such a hectic, upsetting summer.

She went up the hall and through the living room, touching her hair out of habit as she went to make sure it was in good order. A smile spread across her face when she looked through the curtains over the window beside the door and saw Mike standing there.

"Come in," she said as she opened the door. "What brings you by?"

"Business, I'm afraid." He stepped into the house, holding his Stetson. He was in uniform, and his expression was solemn. Phyllis felt an immediate stirring of apprehension when she saw the look on his face.

"This is about Donnie Boatwright, isn't it?" she asked tensely, lifting a hand to the throat of her blouse.

"Yeah." Mike glanced around. "Is Miz Wilbarger here?" "I think she's upstairs. Why do you-"

Phyllis stopped and began to shake her head. "Oh, no, Mike. I told you, that was just a crazy moment on my part. Carolyn would never have poisoned Donnie just to make me look bad. Not even by accident:'

"It's not that. It's not about the contest at all. But it looks like Miz Wilbarger might've had another reason to hold a grudge against Mr. Boatwright. The investigation has uncovered some information about her daughter."

Phyllis stiffened as she remembered the way Sandra

Webster had looked at Donnie's funeral and the odd comment she had made afterward. Neither Sandra nor Carolyn had seemed particularly upset that Donnie was dead.

Mike had noticed her reaction. He said quickly, "Mom, what is it? Do you know something about Miz Wilbarger's daughter?"

"No!" The shout came from the top of the stairs before Phyllis could say anything. "No, she doesn't know anything."

Phyllis and Mike both turned their heads to look up the stairs. Carolyn stood there, gazing down at them with a rather stunned expression, and as they watched, she raised her hands, covered her face, and began to sob in total misery.

For one awful moment there, Phyllis had been convinced Carolyn was about to confess that she had murdered Donnie Boatwright. It was a horrible, unbelievable, unsettling feeling.

But after Mike had gone up the stairs and gently but firmly brought Carolyn downstairs to the living room, Carolyn sank down in an armchair, wiped away some of her uncharacteristic tears, and said bluntly, "I didn't kill him. I didn't have anything to do with his death, and neither did Sandra. I won't lie to you and say that we were sorry to see him dead, though. After the things he did, he deserved it. After what he did . . ."

"Why don't you tell us about it, Miz Wilbarger?" Mike suggested quietly.

Phyllis thought that she should probably leave the room, that whatever Carolyn was about to say was really none of her business. But Carolyn didn't ask her to go-in fact hardly seemed to know that Phyllis was even in the roomso she stayed as Carolyn began to talk in a halting voice.

"At first we all thought it was a good thing Sandra had gone to work for Donnie Boatwright. Jerry

... well, Jerry's had trouble at times holding a job.... He's doing fine now, he's been at Home Depot for a couple of years and is doing really well, but back a few years ago Sandra's salary came in really handy."

"What did she do for Mr. Boatwright?" Mike asked.

"She was his secretary and bookkeeper. He had an office down on the square, you know, where he kept up with all of his various businesses. That's where Sandra worked, in the office. It was just the two of them. I guess ... I guess that's why Donnie thought he could ... could. . ."

"Just take your time," Mike told her gently. "What did Mr. Boatwright do?"

"He was always touching her," Carolyn said. "He'd put a hand on her shoulder or come up behind her and rub her neck, and more than once while she was at the filing cabinets, he'd reach past her to get something and his arm would brush up against her ... her breast. She thought it was just an accident at first it was a small office-but it didn't take her long to realize that there was nothing accidental about it."

As she listened, Phyllis thought that what Carolyn was saying didn't sound at all like the Donnie Boatwright she had known. Sure, he was loud and boisterous, but she had never seen him acting in such a crude, offensive manner.

Of course, she had never been alone with him, either, she realized, and she hadn't been close to anyone who worked for him.

Mike nodded. "What did Sandra do?"

"Well, she put up with it, of course. She and Jerry needed the money. But after a while it got so bad

... He started touching her even more, and he suggested that she come to his house so they could work there...... Carolyn sniffed angrily. "As if Sandra didn't know exactly what he meant by work.... Anyway, she asked him to stop it, and he acted like he didn't know what she was talking about. But things got better for a little while, and Sandra started hoping that he'd gotten the message."

"But things didn't stay that way, did they?" Mike guessed.

Carolyn shook her head. "No. A few weeks later, Donnie said he had to go to Corpus Christi on a business trip. He wanted Sandra to go with him. She told him that she couldn't do that, and he said that if she wanted to keep her job, she'd go with him and do whatever he wanted. Well, that was the last straw."

Phyllis felt anger burning inside her. Even though Carolyn's story was at odds with Donnie's public personality, her words rang with utter conviction, and Phyllis knew that she was telling the truth.

Donnie should have been ashamed of himself. The old goat! Phyllis couldn't blame Sandra for being upset or Carolyn for being mad, even after all this time.

"What did Sandra do?" Mike asked.

"She told him to back off or she would go to the police and have him charged with sexual harassment."

Mike frowned. "That's usually an internal matter within a company, isn't it?"

"Donnie was the company. There was no one else for Sandra to complain to. But sexual harassment is against the law. She could have filed charges against him. At the very least she could have sued him, and that would have brought it all out into the open. Donnie couldn't allow that to happen. Not the great Donnie Boatwright."

"So what did he do?"

"He framed her!" Carolyn burst out. "He changed the books and made it look like she was stealing from him. He said that if she didn't drop the whole sexual harassment thing, he would have her arrested for embezzlement!"

That accusation was just as shocking as the ones Carolyn had already leveled at Donnie, Phyllis thought. Donnie's behavior had gone beyond being crude to being downright criminal.

"If it was a frame-up, why didn't she go to the cops herself?" Mike wanted to know.

"Oh, come on!" Carolyn said disgustedly. "Who were the police going to believe, my daughter or the great Donnie Boatwright? I can tell by looking at Phyllis here that she doesn't want to believe Donnie would do such a thing. The police certainly wouldn't have."

Phyllis said, "For what it's worth, I do believe you, Carolyn. I never knew Donnie was like that, but I know you're telling the truth:'

"I certainly am. Sandra told me all about it when it happened. I got so mad I wanted to."

"Wanted to what, Miz Wilbarger?" Mike asked quietly. "You know good and well what I was about to say, Mike. I wanted to kill him."

"Did you kill him?" Mike's voice was so hushed that it was almost a whisper. Phyllis didn't want to believe it was possible Carolyn could have done such a thing, but after what she had heard in the past few minutes she didn't know what to think anymore.

"No." Carolyn's answer was a whisper. "No, I didn't kill him"

The room was silent for a long moment as Carolyn's denial of guilt hung in the air. Then Mike said,

"What happened with the trouble between your daughter and Mr. Boatwright? How was that resolved?"

"Well, Sandra had no choice," Carolyn said with a shake of her head. "She had to promise that she would drop the whole matter, and in return Donnie wouldn't go to the police about the embezzlement. The phony embezzlement, I should say, because Sandra never stole a penny from him. Not one penny." Tears began to roll down Carolyn's cheeks again. "But then he ... oh, Lord, that vengeful bastard ... he had Sandra arrested anyway."

Phyllis's eyes widened in shock. "My God, Carolyn, why didn't I know about all this? Why didn't you tell your friends?"

"You think I wanted my friends to know that my daughter had been arrested for embezzlement?"

Carolyn took a deep, shuddery breath. "Some things you do your best to keep in the family, Phyllis:' Her tone softened a little. "Besides, it hadn't been all that long since you'd lost Kenny. I didn't want to burden you with my worries."

Phyllis reached out and caught hold of Carolyn's hand, squeezing it. "It wouldn't have been a burden," she said. "I would have helped you any way I could."

"But there was nothing you could do. There was nothing anybody could do. He was ... Donnie Boatwright. He was untouchable." Carolyn's breath hissed between her teeth. "But somebody touched him, all right. Somebody touched him real good."

Phyllis glanced at Mike, who was watching and listening intently, taking in everything Carolyn said, and the way she said it. Carolyn certainly wasn't making her earlier _denial sound any more believable with statements like that.

"Was your daughter ever prosecuted?" he asked after a moment.

Carolyn shook her head. "No. In fact, Donnie dropped the charges less than twenty-four hours later.

I don't think he really wanted Sandra to go to jail. He was just ... punishing her for daring to defy him."

"She never lodged a sexual harassment complaint against him?"

"What would have been the point?" Carolyn asked with a shrug. "Donnie having her arrested was like a, what do you call it, a preemptive strike. By putting his charge on the record fast, he made it look like anything she said would just be a lie to get back at him."

"She didn't work for him after that, of course."

"No, he fired her, and since she had the arrest on her record, she had a terrible time getting work for a long time after that. Things have gotten a little better now. Sandra works in the medical records office at the hospital. But she's never forgotten what Donnie Boatwright did to her ... and I've never forgiven him for it."

Stop it, Phyllis thought. You're just digging yourself a deeper and deeper hole.

But that was the way Carolyn was. She had always been blunt and opinionated, never hesitating to tell anybody what

was on her mind. In a way, Phyllis was shocked that Carolyn had managed to keep Sandra's troubles with Donnie a secret for all this time.

Carolyn dabbed at her eyes and said again, "I didn't kill him. I don't know if you believe me or not, Mike, but it's the truth:"

"You've been using a lot of peaches in the past few weeks, getting ready for the contest, haven't you?"

"So has your mother," Carolyn responded with some of her more characteristic testiness. "I don't see you accusing her of murder."

Mike shook his head. "I'm not accusing you of murder, Miz Wilbarger. I'm just trying to gather information." "Well, here's some information for you-there are a lot of other people around here who have been handling peaches lately. For God's sake, this is Parker County. Everybody has peaches. "

"That's true," Mike said, "but not everybody had a good reason to hate Donnie Boatwright."

"Look harder," Carolyn said flatly. "If he was the sort of man who would do what he did to my Sandra, he must have done terrible things to a lot of other people."

That was a good point, Phyllis thought. Maybe Donnie had more enemies than anyone knew about.

"I promise you, there'll be a complete investigation," Mike said. "We're not going to overlook anything. That's the reason I had to come and talk to you today, Miz Wilbarger, even though I didn't really want to bring up all those old troubles. Sheriff Haney and Chief Whitmire thought it might be a little easier on you if it came from somebody you knew."

"Well, I'm not sure that it was," Carolyn said. "But I don't blame you, Mike. You're just doing your job."

"Yes, ma'am."

She wiped away the rest of her tears. "Was there anything else?"

"No, not right now."

"Will ... will you have to talk to Sandra?" "I'm afraid so."

"She didn't even go to the peach festival, you know," Carolyn said quickly. "I happen to know she drove over to Fort Worth on Saturday, to go shopping at Ridgmar Mall."

Phyllis was shocked to realize that Carolyn was trying to establish an alibi for Sandra. But that made sense, she mused, because if Carolyn was a suspect because of what Donnie had done to Sandra, then Sandra herself had to be under suspicion, too.

"I'll sure ask her about that," Mike said. "In the meantime, you're not planning on leaving town any time soon, are you?"

"Mike!" Phyllis couldn't contain the exclamation. "What a terrible thing to ask!"

Carolyn lifted a hand. "No, it's all right, Phyllis. Mike was always such a nice, polite boy. I know he doesn't like this any more than we do."

"No, ma'am," Mike said fervently. "You've sure got that right."

"I'm not going to be leaving town. You can find me right here, any time you need to talk to me."

Mike got to his feet and nodded. "Thank you. We'll be in touch."

Carolyn stood up, too, and said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go upstairs and lie down for a while."

"Can I get you anything?" Phyllis asked.

Carolyn shook her head. "No, I ... I just want to rest." Phyllis and Mike stood there as Carolyn climbed slowly up the stairs. When she was gone, Mike sighed.

"I sure didn't want to do that," he said.

Phyllis felt like giving him a maternal thump on the back of the head for upsetting Carolyn like that. At the same time, though, she knew it was true what Carolyn had said-Mike was just doing his job.

She followed him onto the porch, well out of Carolyn's earshot. "You knew about all of that before you got here, didn't you? That didn't just come out of the blue."

He shrugged. "I knew some of it. Chief Whitmire turned up the arrest record for Sandra Webster.

That happened before he came to Weatherford, but the record of the arrest warrant was still in the computer. Since the charges were dropped, they never made it as far as court records."

"What about the sexual harassment charge?"

"Now, that I didn't know about," Mike said. "We only had half of the story-the half that said Sandra Webster embezzled money from Donnie Boatwright." He hesitated. "I've got to say, the things that Miz Wilbarger told me just make it look worse for her."

"Michael, you know good and well Carolyn Wilbarger never killed anybody. She's been my friend for thirty years." His eyebrows rose in surprise, and she knew it was because she had called him Michael, which she hardly ever did-only when she was really mad or upset. "I'm sorry, Mom," he said, "but she's been Sandra's mother for even longer than that. And what would you feel like doing if somebody did their dead level best to ruin my life?"

"Why, I'd " Phyllis stopped short, frowned, and then said, "I wouldn't murder anybody because of that."

"No, but you'd feel like it, wouldn't you?"

Phyllis just looked at him for a long moment and then finally said, "I don't believe it. I can't believe it. Carolyn wouldn't do such a thing."

"I hope it turns out you're right." He turned his hat over in his hands. "You know, I really shouldn't even be talking to you about all of this. The details of an investigation are supposed to be confidential."

"I'm your mother. If you can't talk to me, who can you talk to?"

He put his hat on and smiled. "I'll remember to tell that to the sheriff if he ever calls me on the carpet about this." Phyllis folded her arms and said firmly, "You just tell Sheriff Haney to talk to me if he has any problem with you. I'll set him straight."

She just wished that settling this whole awful murder business could be that simple, and that she could make everyone else see what was so plain to her.