Death of a Wolfman (A Lily Gayle Lambert Mystery Book 1) (5 page)

I handed over the bike, then climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep. Bill got back in, looked to make sure I had my seat belt fastened, then made a U-turn in the intersection.

“It’s illegal to make a U-turn in town, Bill.”

He grinned at me. “I’ve got the cousin of the sheriff in the car and am taking her on official business to see Doc Hallowell. Don’t think I’ll get a ticket for that.”

I grinned back. “I don’t know about that. Ben might not thank you for helping me interfere in official police business.”

“Oh. Is that what you’re up to? I had no idea. I’m just doing a favor for a friend.”

I reached over and squeezed his arm. “You’re one in a million, Bill. Thanks.”

We drove along Yancy Street in silence, the wind from the open Jeep whipping our hair, the crisp fall temperature making my blood run faster.

“You cold?” Bill asked.

I shook my head. “This is probably one of the last days you’ll be able to run around with the top off. Hard to believe it’s November first and this warm during the day.”

“Must be some of that global warming business.” Bill shrugged. “Whatever’s causing it, I’m going to enjoy it as long as possible.” He turned the Jeep off Yancy Street into the Clay County Hospital parking lot, then swung around the building to the back. “Here you are. Delivery right to the morgue back door.”

I tried to arrange my curls into some form of order. “I don’t know why you’re assuming I’m on my way to the morgue.”

Bill just grinned, jumped out of the Jeep and lifted my bike to the asphalt. “I’ve known you all your life, hon. This is the one place I know you want to be since Doc’ll be doing the autopsy on the wolf man today.”

I sighed. Small-town life sure had its major downside. “Give my love to Lucy and the kids,” I told my old friend. “I’ll see y’all around the grocery store.” I pushed my bike over to the building, leaning it against the wall. Turning, I waved to Bill. “Thanks for the lift.”

“Any time.”

I watched the Jeep turn the corner around the hospital building before opening the morgue entrance door.

Jimmy John Spencer sat behind the sign-in desk just inside the door. He’d been the football team captain when we were in school together, and all that bulk had gone to fat. He’d married the head cheerleader, Candice Whitaker, but they hadn’t stuck, and it seemed like ever since their divorce Jimmy John had just gotten fatter and unhappier with every day that passed. Now he sneered as he looked at me.

“Well, looky here. Miss Nosy come to mess in stuff that ain’t her business. Why ain’t I surprised to see you?”

“Can it, Jimmy John. Just let me past and we’ll forget what a jerk you are.”

Jimmy John seemed to swell to twice his already considerable size. “Don’t you be gettin’ an attitude with me, Lily Gayle Lambert. You ain’t all that perfect yourself. You got no business down here.” He reached for the phone. “Why, I reckon if I called your cousin Ben, he’d tell me to kick your smart-ass right on out that door behind you.” His hand gripped the phone but didn’t lift it from the cradle. I knew he wanted to piss me off, and while he’d succeeded, I didn’t see any reason to let him know that.

Before I could open my mouth to tell him to go right ahead and call Ben, my cousin came through the door behind me.

He took one look at the two of us and sighed as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “Lily Gayle, you know you’re not supposed to be here. I thought we agreed you’d stay out of this case.”

Jimmy John shot me an I-told-you-so smirk from behind his desk.

“Wipe that grin off your face, JJ. I don’t even have to hear what’s been going on here to know you’re probably overstepping your authority.”

Jimmy John did stop grinning but said, “Hey, it’s my job to keep unauthorized people out of here. Last I knew, your cousin wasn’t on the list of those OKed to go back.”

Ben stood tall staring down the other man. “I say who goes back and who doesn’t.”

Jimmy John deflated like a punctured balloon, grumbling about how was he supposed to know who to let in and who not if the sheriff kept changing the rules on him.

Ben chose to ignore the grumbling, instead fixing a glare on me. “You’re here and I know you’ll pitch a fit if I don’t let you go back there so I’m going to make an exception this one time.” He pointed a finger at me. “But this is it. This is where you back off and let me and my men do our jobs without any interference from you.” He paused. “Is that clear?”

“As a matter of fact, I have some information about the case for you. I knew you’d be down here and wanted to get that information to you right away.”

Ben raised both eyebrows. “Really?”

I raised a single eyebrow. “Really.”

“Well, let’s hear it.”

I glanced at Jimmy John, who was pretending to shuffle papers on his desk, though his ears were doing everything but flap in his effort to hear what the two of us were saying.

“I won’t say in front of this unauthorized person. I should tell you in private.”

I had the pleasure of seeing Jimmy John’s ears turn deep red, then remorse took over. The guy couldn't help it if he was an ass. I shouldn't be needling him like that. But it did feel good to get back at him for his attitude when I first came in.

Ben motioned me past the check-in desk. “Then by all means, let’s go back to the morgue and you can tell me on the way.”

As we walked along the institutional green cinder-block hallway, Ben commented, “That was pretty mean, what you said in front of old JJ back there. He’s not such a bad guy.”

I shrugged. “The imp of perversity always sits on my shoulder.”

“You mean you have a smart mouth and don’t take crap off anyone.”

“Yep. You should know.”

He put his hand on my arm. “Why don’t you tell me this earth-shattering news before we go in to see Doc?”

We both leaned against the cool cinder-block wall while I told my story. At the mention of Miss Edna as the source, he grimaced but listened anyway.

“I wish she’d told me instead of you. I need that kind of information for this case.”

Crossing my arms, I gave my cousin a knowing look. “If she’d left a message for you at the station, there’s no telling how long it would have taken for you to get back to her.”

He gave me a defensive look. “Do you know how many times she’s called the station to report some kind of suspicious activity that turned out to be nothing? Can you blame me for not jumping every time she calls now?”

I held up my hands. “Hey, don’t kill the messenger here. That’s probably why she told me instead of calling the station. She knew you’d take your time getting back to her and she wanted you to have the info.”

He rubbed his hand across his chin. “Well, she still should have called the station. If she’d said it was about seeing the wolf man, I’d’ve gotten right back with her.”

My face must have given away my doubts about that.

“I swear. I would have followed up on it immediately.”

I put a hand on his arm. “Down, boy. No need to get so defensive with me. I know how she is. She’s cried wolf so many times, nobody pays any attention to what she says.” I jabbed him in the ribs. “You should be laughing.
Cried wolf too many times
. Real wolf this time. Don’t you think that’s funny?”

“Hysterical.”

“There hasn’t been a murder in this county since 1996, and that was a bar brawl in a roadhouse out by the county line.”

“You should know.”

Thinking he must be making some reference to my reputation for nosiness, I bristled.

Ben chuckled. “Calm down. I’m just talking about all that genealogy stuff you’re so fascinated by. I bet you know more about every family in this county than they do themselves.”

I grimaced. “The younger people just don’t seem to care about where they came from or who their people were or…”

He held up his hand. “Let’s don’t get up on that soapbox right now. We’ve got other business to take care of.” He pushed away from the wall and got so close to my face I almost had to cross my eyes to focus on his. “I’m letting you hear what Doc has to say about the dead man, then you’re out of the case completely. Understand?”

I nodded, still trying to focus on his face.

“I want to hear you say the words out loud, Lily Gayle.”

“Fine. I promise to stay out of the case after I hear what Doc has to say today.”

He stared at me another minute, then turned and started down the hall to the double doors at the end. Uncrossing my fingers, I followed.

***

Young Todd stood against the far wall, looking as white as the sheet covering the body of the victim. Doc Hallowell looked from Ben to me.

Ben said, “I told her she could be here for this part, but then she’s out of the case.”

Doc gave me a knowing grin but said nothing. Nobody fooled the old doc. I had no doubt he knew I wasn’t going to butt out after today. Just like Ben probably knew it too, but Ben had always been an optimist.

Doc pulled the sheet back far enough to reveal the face of the victim. In the cold white light of the autopsy room he looked even more like a werewolf than he had out in the dark woods last night. Hearing a gulping sound behind me, I hoped Todd wasn’t about to lose his lunch on Doc’s highly polished autopsy room floor. A slight queasy feeling squirmed through my own stomach for just a moment, then thankfully passed. Good thing the doc hadn’t pulled the sheet completely down. I didn’t think I’d be able to pull this off with the entire body visible—including the autopsy cuts.

Looking at the three of us, Doc said, “The victim is a male, approximately fifty years old and in excellent health with the exception of…”

“Wait!” I held up my hand and turned to see Todd still standing against the far wall, even whiter than before if that were possible. “Do you still have that piece of paper I gave you last night?”

He tore his eyes from the corpse to look at me. “Y-yes, ma’am.”

“Did you look at it?”

“N-no, ma’am. It’s still in the spot you saw me put it last night.”

I nodded. “Good. Take it out of your wallet and give it to Ben.”

With a shaking hand, Todd took his wallet out of his pocket and removed the folded piece of paper from the same place I’d put it the night before. He took two steps away from the wall, holding out the paper as far as he could reach. It was still about two feet short of Ben. Looking disgusted, Ben stepped over and took the paper. Todd backed against the wall as if his life depended on it. No doubt he’d really regretted he’d been on duty last night and had caught the call about this case.

“What’s this all about?” asked Doc.

Ben frowned. “Last night Lily Gayle had an idea about this guy. When she told me it was something she’d seen on
CSI
, I laughed, and she got pissed off and wouldn’t say another word about it. But you know my cousin; she’s going to get her word in one way or another. Her opinion is written on this piece of paper as proof that she knew something before I did and it’s my own damn fault she didn’t tell me last night.”

“Hmm.
CSI
? I don’t remember seeing an episode that covered this. I must have missed that one.”

At Ben’s incredulous look, he said, “Well, they get some of the technical stuff right. I just watch it for the entertainment value.”

Ben waved the still-folded paper in my direction. “Do I get to look at this paper now or do I have to wait until Doc tells us?”

I smirked at him. “Oh, do go ahead and look now. I wouldn’t want the suspense to kill you before Doc proves me right.”

Ben unfolded the paper, squinted at my bad handwriting, then folded it shut and tucked it in his pocket. “Well, Doc, let’s see if she’s right.”

“As I said earlier, this man is in excellent health with the exception of having been born with a rare genetic disorder called hypertrichosis.” He looked between the two of us. “Well? Did she get it right?”

Ben nodded but said nothing.

I wanted to high five the doc but restrained myself.

Doc continued, “The cause of death was a bullet to the heart. There’s a slight scrape on one of his ribs, but I’d say whoever killed him was a crack shot because I didn’t find any other evidence of a fight. No bruising around the body, nothing to indicate direct contact with anyone else.”

Ben turned to Todd. “Did you and Mark do a thorough search of the area this morning?”

Todd stood ramrod straight. “Yessir, we did. We didn’t find any other bullets at the scene or any evidence that one had lodged in a tree or even scraped one.”

Ben frowned, looking thoughtful. “Take Mark and the two of you go back out there and widen the search area. I want to make damn sure we don’t miss anything on this one. Get on your hands and knees and search every speck of dirt out there and then look in the trees. Shooter could have been hiding up a tree waiting on the victim.”

Todd shot out of the autopsy room so fast I thought the tiles might start emitting waves of heat the way the highway does in the summertime.