Barbara Graham - Quilted 05 - Murder by Sunlight (3 page)

Without looking at his wife, Tony said to Theo, “I presume you know where our boys are?”

“Yes. Nina said she’d drop them off at practice. Remember, Chris has a game this evening.” Theo watched Tony as he continued to watch Candy. “Did you stop at the bank for me?”

He didn’t change his focus but reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash and handed it to her. Still studying Candy, he shifted the paint can and reached for the handle on the nearest infant carrier and lifted it.

Relieved she wouldn’t need to get some money herself, Theo stuffed the cash into her pocket and, grabbing the remaining baby carrier, walked past her husband and into the house. She couldn’t help but wonder what he found so fascinating about Candy. The last time she looked, he still hadn’t moved.

When Candy was out of sight, Tony turned to Alvin. “Will she come back for her car?”

Alvin gave a slight shrug. “If she remembers where she left it. Luckily it’s only four miles out to the house, and she walks home unless she gets a ride when she drinks too much.”

Tony looked at the car blocking his driveway. The brown sedan was as disreputable in appearance as its owner. The keys were in the ignition. “Shall we take it out to her?”

Alvin hesitated. “Sure. Give me a head start. I’ll leave it in the garage for her. While I’m out there, I’ll check on the plants in my garden.”

Theo followed the smell of fresh paint and found Tony in the girls’ new room. She chattered away, talking to him about the upcoming town events and household schedule. “There’s going to be a picnic, games, and fireworks to celebrate the Fourth of July. And of course there’s the parade. You won’t want to miss it. The girls are going to be peas in a pod. The boys came up with the idea.”

Tony kept his eyes on the paint-laden roller as he moved it across the slightly pebbled surface of the nursery wall, turning it the color of sunshine. “Uhm-hm.” So far nothing Theo said was cause for alarm. Unfortunately he’d had enough experience in the years they’d been married that he was able to guess word of an impending calamity was coming. He could sense it building like a thunderstorm. Theo didn’t tiptoe around a subject unless she was trying to be diplomatic. Diplomacy was a feat she was not good at. It wasn’t that she didn’t try, but Theo’s childhood with the “old people” had required her to be silent or absolutely honest. Her current attempt at tact could only mean one thing. Disaster brewing. “What kind of celebration is my mom planning?”

Surprise lit Theo’s green-gold hazel eyes and she ran her fingers through her blond hair—now grown back after a shorter cut to the natural curls they both preferred. “I’m not sure of the details. When she told me to reserve the date, she mentioned a few things.”

“More flying vegetables?” Tony exhaled sharply, wondering if you ever really outgrew the parent-child relationship. His mom could push his buttons faster than a catapult could launch a squash. “The ramp festival was chaos.”

“Everyone enjoyed the vegetable weapons though.” Theo didn’t dispute the “chaos” part of the comment but mumbled, “I really don’t know what’s planned. When do you think we can move the girls in here?”

Tony wasn’t sure if this was his wife’s way of changing the subject or simple curiosity, but he followed her lead. “Once the paint is absolutely dry, like tomorrow morning, we can hang the curtains and put in the rugs. At least it’s warm enough to have the windows open, so the room can air out completely.” He wiped the sweat off his bare arms with a rag, spreading a glob of yellow paint up to his shoulder.

Theo began laughing. “It’s July. With the outside temperature today it’s warm enough to bake a potato in here. I’m more concerned about finding a way to cool it off.”

Since he was sweating like crazy in his cutoff jeans and a t-shirt with the neckband and sleeves removed, Tony admitted to the same concern. “Gus said the portable air conditioner he supplied would be able to handle cooling the girls’ room and my new office.”

“You didn’t want to use it while you paint?” Theo wandered around the room, the expression of joy on her face having nothing to do with his painting and everything to do with a room large enough for their infant twin girls to share through high school.

“Truth? It didn’t occur to me.” Still wondering how he and Theo would ever be able to repay Catherine and Gus for the amazing addition, Tony rolled more paint, hoping the mundane chore would ease some of the concern he felt, which had nothing to do with his mom’s celebration and everything to do with Alvin’s mother. Candy Tibbles had a long history with the Park County sheriff’s office, but something in her expression made him think they didn’t have as much information about her as needed. Or, more specifically, the people she hung out with. Candy couldn’t organize the items in an empty box without help.

Tony stood in the dugout watching the baseball game when his cell phone began vibrating. Chris’s team was playing hard and held the lead going into the bottom of the last inning, but they had lost games on the last play in the past. No lead was large enough for this team. Tony reached for the phone. Caller ID showed the dispatch desk. One person handled calls for the sheriff’s office, fire department, and search and rescue. This call was for him.

“Sheriff, I hate to bother you,” dispatcher Karen Claybough stated briskly. “We have a situation.” Wade’s sister sounded intrigued more than concerned.

Tony wondered if he’d still hear those words in his head after he retired. When he agreed to run for sheriff, he didn’t expect to have a nine-to-five job and weekends free, and he didn’t. He’d also learned “a situation” could be anything from a lost cat to a bank robbery or murder. “And?”

“Well, sir, Sheila’s found a dead body. In a tree.”

At least this call showed some originality. “Is it a possum or a raccoon?”

“Oh, no, sir, it’s a man. Human,” Karen said. “Near the old underpass.”

Tony heard a great cheer behind him and turned just in time to see Chris make a diving catch to end the game. The whoop he made into the phone probably rendered Karen deaf. “Sorry.”

“No problem, sir.” Karen’s voice sounded a bit strained.

Tony caught Chris’s attention and grinned and pumped his fist showing his excitement to his son. He paused as he walked past Theo. “Tell him great play!”

Theo nodded.

“Where’s the tree?” Tony listened to the address and talked to Theo at the same time. “I have to go. Are you getting ice cream?”

Theo gave him the “Are you kidding? Of course we’re getting ice cream” look and sent him away with a nod and the wave of a hand.

By the time he arrived at the address, the ball game excitement had diminished somewhat, and his curiosity had heightened. How did a body get into a tree? How did Sheila find it? A small group of people had gathered on one side of the road, watching his only female deputy stringing yellow tape. It was early evening and still almost as hot as it had been in the afternoon. Sheila’s face was scarlet, and sweat dripped off it like rain. Her neatly braided blond hair appeared much darker than its usual color, when it was dry. The audience was sweating too, but most of them were dressed in shorts and t-shirts, while Sheila wore her brown uniform shirt over a protective vest, khakis, and a heavy utility belt. Tony had seen her look happier.

He parked the Blazer between Sheila and the audience, and flipped on every light he had that could flash. He waved a couple of volunteers toward him and sent them off with “road closed” signs before approaching his cranky-looking deputy.

Sheila didn’t say a word, just pointed above her head.

She needn’t have bothered with the hand signal. Tony could smell it. Rank, rancid, and rotting were the first three words to enter his head. He accepted the flashlight she offered and looked up. There was no doubt about what was lodged in the branch. A human, male, deceased for some time. The legs dangled on one side of the sturdy branch and the head and arms on the other. The sound of the flies buzzing about the body was almost deafening. He said to Sheila, “Have Karen call out the doctor and tell her to bring her husband.”

“Doc Nash is still on vacation?” Sheila reached for her radio.

“Yep, so our Grace is the physician on call.” Tony hoped this wasn’t going to cause her to rethink marrying Wade and moving to Silersville. If she decided against life here, Wade would follow her anywhere, even to the moon. A good doctor and a good deputy had options. In fact, Tony knew Wade had turned down offers from some federal agencies, but he could still change his mind. “Oh, and tell Karen to send some trucks with tall ladders.”

With the barrier tape in place and the doctor on the way, Tony suggested Sheila take a break. “How did someone find this?” He nodded toward the tree.

Sheila wiped her face with a handkerchief. “There were some kids riding their bikes around here.” She pointed to a section of the road with a fairly steep drop and a yellow speed hump. “They love to pedal downhill super-fast and use that smooth edge on the hump to launch their bikes into the air.”

Tony studied the hump. Sure enough there was a spot on one side, smoother than the rest of it. He guessed it would allow the bikes to take flight rather than be stopped when the wheels rolled into it.

The fire truck arrived first. Tony had it park well back from the branch and extend the ladder to just below the body. Wade and Grace got there in time to watch it settle in place. A second ladder lined up next to it.

Dr. Grace Claybough was not quite as attractive as her absurdly handsome husband but lovely nonetheless. She glanced at the tree branch and exhaled sharply. Grace, a recent bride and their new doctor, turned and smiled at Tony as she walked toward him. “Doc Nash did warn me.”

Tony relaxed. So far, Grace didn’t look like a woman about to throw in the towel. She also didn’t look at her husband, who was quietly throwing up into a shrub. “Shall we climb?” Tony asked and gestured toward the ladders.

With a nod, Grace accepted a helping hand from the fireman nearest her and headed up the ladder with her medical bag slung over her shoulder. Tony moved up the other ladder while holding a flashlight and carried a larger light on his back. There was still daylight left, but he guessed this would not be a quick examination, and it was much darker under the canopy of leaves. “Take all the time you need, Doc.”

Grace gave him a saucy smile. “He’s definitely dead. Let’s see what else we can learn.” Disturbing the buzzing insects, she stood on the ladder and studied the body by the light she took from Tony. For what seemed like a long time, she was silent and intent but didn’t touch anything with her gloved hands. When she was apparently satisfied by what she observed, she reached out and, gently but firmly, checked the body and measured the liver temperature. “Sheriff, can you lift him, just a bit, right here?”

Following her precise instructions and trying not to breathe in, Tony lifted. It wasn’t easy, as the body seemed to be stuck on something and gravity was working against them. The way the legs dangled on one side and the shoulders and arms on the other, it could probably withstand gale-force winds without falling out.

“Stop.” Grace shone the light under the body while Tony held it. “Okay, you can let go. I’ve seen something like this before. We had a rash of these kinds of things in Georgia when I was doing my internship. This is the first time I’ve had one die in a tree though.” She backed down the ladder to the ground and waited for Tony. Wade and Sheila joined them immediately. Grace glanced up again. “I’ll want to examine the body once it’s down, of course, but I think this guy might have been car surfing.”

“Surfing?” Sheila frowned. “On a mountain road?”

Grace nodded. “I didn’t say he was smart or sober. I’d say he was standing on the roof of a car or pickup when he hit the branch and was impaled. It’s possible he might even have survived with immediate, proper medical treatment.”

Tony shook his head, denying what she told him. “So the driver just left him up there?”

Ignoring his question, Grace pointed to the body. “I need the measurement from that limb to the ground. Then we’ll be able to figure the height of what he was standing on.”

Wade pulled a measuring tape and markers and the camera out of his investigation kit. He took pictures from all directions and then measured the height his wife requested. Tony and Sheila walked along the road, searching for anything that might have fallen off the body. The only thing they picked up was a half-full can of malt liquor.

“I’ll bet this can has got some interesting fingerprints on it,” said Sheila, holding it with her gloved little finger inside the can.

Tony agreed. “Driver, or surfer, or neither?”

“Loser buys pie?” Sheila suggested. “I’ll say surfer.”

“You’re on. I’ll take driver.” Tony saw the ambulance waiting and waved it closer. “Let’s get this guy down and give him to Grace.”

Getting the body off the branch and into the ambulance proved more difficult than originally thought. They ended up cutting the branch from the tree with a chain saw. By the time the body and a significant section of the tree were loaded into the ambulance, most of the crowd had dispersed. Tony made sure Sheila got names and addresses for everyone watching. He was almost certain one of them had been driving the surfer.

The surfer’s wallet was in his pocket. Grace held it open so Tony could get the dead man’s name and address before she placed it in the bag with the body. The license photograph matched their body.

Grace rolled her shoulders and loosened her neck. “I’ll go with it. I’m sure there needs to be an autopsy and I can’t do it, you know. I’ll let you know what’s happening.”

Half wishing their county’s coroner hadn’t taken off on a well-deserved vacation, Tony saw nothing else he could do here. He turned to Sheila, “I’m going home to change my clothes before we call on the family.” The absolutely worst part of his job was death notification, and doing it alone was not a good idea.

“I’ll meet you there.” Sheila glanced up from her notebook. “Fifteen minutes? That will give me enough time to at least wash my face and hands.”