Disrobed for Death (24 page)

“Short with a slim build.”

Wesley glanced at Susan. “I thought you said Vera was watching the house next door.”

“She was, and she didn’t say anything about cleaning Jack’s apartment. But since Gary was long gone, there really wasn’t any reason for her to keep an eye on his place. Maybe she decided to get on with some of her cleaning jobs. She knew the doctor was at the hospital and wouldn’t be home till late.”

“Maybe she noticed something out of the ordinary,” Wesley said. “I’d like to talk with her, find out when she arrived and more importantly, when she left.”

“You don’t suspect Vera, do you?” Ramona said. “I can’t believe she would be capable of such a thing.”

“I can’t rule out anyone,” Wesley said. “Any reason she might hold a grudge against the doctor?”

“No…uh…wait, no, it can’t be. Not after ten years!” Ramona said.

“What after ten years?” Wesley asked.

“I operated on her husband for an aneurysm,” Jack said. “From all indications, the surgery was a success. Then the day he was released from the hospital, he dropped dead. It was a shock to all of us. She took his death hard but never said anything to make me think she blamed me. And she never sued me or the hospital.”

“Doesn’t make sense she’d wait this long to seek revenge, but stranger things have happened,” Susan said. “Maybe her love for her late husband was stronger than we could have imagined. She sure had me fooled. I was convinced she’d found happiness with someone else. Instead, maybe what she found was an accomplice.”

“Are you talking about Herman?” Wesley asked. “How well do you know him?”

“Even less than I know about Vera,” Susan said.

“And how do you know he was really following Gary? I can’t rule him out, either.”

“He does seem to know the kind of people who could have supplied the gun, either for him or for Vera. Oh, I just thought of something. Maybe Vera got a gun the day she went to New Orleans to visit her sister, the day she had the accident on the Interstate.”

“Wait a minute,” Ramona said. “Vera doesn’t have a sister. She did have a daughter, though. She was a teenager when her father died. I understand she left home soon after that.”

“Vera never mentioned her to me,” Jack said.

“I don’t think mother and daughter had a very good relationship,” Ramona said. “I never met the daughter, but she has to be in her twenties by now.”

“What was her name?” Wesley asked.

“Brandy.”

“And the father’s?”

“David Barksdale.”

Wesley wrote down the names. “Maybe the New Orleans Police Department has something on the daughter. Somehow or other she might be a piece of this puzzle. I’ll contact headquarters to request the information.” Wesley stepped into the hall. When he returned, he said, “If New Orleans has anything on her, I should hear something shortly.”

“Susan?” Herman’s big frame swallowed up the doorway. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but could I have a word with you and Wesley?

The two excused themselves and stepped into the hall.

“Something’s not right with Vera,” Herman said. “Ever since she went to New Orleans to see her sister, she’s been acting strange. Last night, for no reason, she broke off our relationship. I don’t understand what happened. She’s not the same person.”

“How long have you known Vera?” Wesley asked.

“Several months, but it seems I’ve known her all my life. I really love her.”

Susan placed a hand on Herman’s arm. “Vera doesn’t have a sister.”

“What?”

“Ramona just told us she had a daughter. Wesley is trying to find out more information about her.”

“Why would Vera lie to me?”

“Like you said, she’s not herself,” Wesley said. “Do you know if she had a gun?”

Herman shook his head. “I never saw one and never had any reason to ask.”

“I think it’s time I pay Vera Barksdale a visit,” Wesley said.

“Mind if I come along?” Herman said. “There’s something else you should see.”

“Well you’re not leaving me behind,” Susan said. “I’ll follow in my car.”

Wesley agreed. “I have a feeling I couldn’t stop either of you if I wanted to. Just don’t interfere. When I locate Vera, it just might take a woman’s touch to get through to her, or she might just want to talk with Herman.”

“Standing by the door, I couldn’t help but overhear,” Ramona said. “You will call and let us know if you find out anything, won’t you?”

Wesley nodded.

When they exited the hospital, they ran into A. K. who was coming down the walkway.

“How is he?” she asked.

“Much better, and I’m sure he’ll be pleased to see you,” Susan said with a wink.

“Where are y’all going?”

“No time to talk,” she said as Wesley tugged on her arm. “I’ll fill you in later.”

Wesley, Herman, and Susan arrived at Vera’s a few minutes later, each in their own vehicle.

“Vera’s car’s gone,” Herman said.

“That doesn’t mean she’s not in here,” Wesley said. “Her car could be out back. Before we go snooping around and get ourselves shot, let’s make sure.”

Herman knocked. “Open up, Vera, it’s me.”

No one answered. He knocked again, and then they looked in the windows. No one saw anyone. Herman took out his key and opened the door. “Please, don’t let us find her body.”

Susan cringed at the thought of Vera committing suicide.

“You two wait right here until I check it out,” Wesley said. He drew his gun and stepped inside. A few moments later, he called to them. “It’s okay.”

Susan was relieved that Vera wasn’t lying in a pool of blood.

“You wouldn’t happen to know where she might keep a weapon, would you,” Wesley asked Herman.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Herman said.

“Then this might take a while.”

Wesley searched every possible hiding place and turned up nothing.

“I need to show you something out back,” Herman said. Once out the door, he pointed to tire tracks left deep in the mud after the rain. The trail led to the garage and a muddy Harley. “I sure as hell didn’t take the bike out last night. But Vera…? I can’t bring myself to believe she would shoot the doctor.”

“It doesn’t look good,” Wesley said.

“A motorcycle! Yes, I remember hearing a deep rumbling the night of the stakeout,” Susan said. “I was concentrating on people and cars. It never crossed my mind to look for a motorcycle.”

“I remember seeing someone leave on a bike,” Wesley said, “but the rider looked like a kid, so I just blew it off.”

“Vera might be tiny, but she’s more than capable of handling a bike in any weather. And with me watching Clarissa’s place, there was no one here to question her whereabouts. Boy, did she play me.”

Wesley rechecked the drawers in a hutch. “I sure would like to know if she’s still armed. If she’s smart, she would have ditched it by now, unless she has other plans. It’s obvious she isn’t thinking straight. What kind of car does she drive?”

Herman spoke up. “A gray, 2007 Nissan Altima.”

“Oh, guys!” Susan said. “Do you think she’d go after Jack again, finish what she started? I’m sure by now the news has spread. We have to warn the hospital, get an officer out there.”

“You sure you didn’t go to the academy?” Wesley asked. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do, and request they issue a BOLO.”

He hit his mike and talked to headquarters.

Herman paced the back and forth. “I can’t believe it. How could I have been so blind?”

“Looks like Vera fooled everyone,” Susan said. “Let’s hope we can stop her before she does any more harm, to Jack or to herself.”

“Okay, headquarters issued a BOLO,” Wesley said, “and an officer has been dispatched to the hospital.”

“I’ll let Ramona know one’s on his way,” Susan said. When Ramona answered, Susan explained the situation. “Is A. K. still there? Good. I’ll keep you all posted.”

“This isn’t New York,” Wesley said, “More than likely someone will spot Vera or her car before long.”

“Not necessarily. We don’t know when she left. She could be several states over by now,” Susan said.

Wesley walked into the kitchen. “I don’t think so. The coffee pot’s still warm. I’m guessing she hasn’t been gone too long.”

“I can’t see where she took anything,” Herman said. “Her closet is still full of clothes and so is her chest of drawers. That really worries me.”

Wesley looked out the window and drummed his fingers on the counter. “Where could she have gone?”

Susan could tell Wesley was thinking out loud. Neither she nor Herman offered an answer.

“Well, I’m not one to sit and wait,” Wesley said. “Police and state troopers will cover the highways and Interstate, but they can’t cover all the back roads. She might be looking for a secluded spot.” He made eye contact with Herman. “Suicide is a possibility.”

Herman’s knuckles whitened as he clamped the back of the kitchen chair. “We can’t let that happen.”

“Then you better hope we find her,” Wesley said. “I can’t have you two riding around in my unit, but we can cover more ground anyway if we split up. Susan, go with Herman and search the Covington Highway and any of its offshoots. I’ll take Pontchartrain’s Lake Front Highway. If you spot her or the car,
do not
approach her. Hang back and wait for me to get there. I’ll take it from there.”

“But she might—”

“I know you’ll want to go to her, Herman, but you can’t. You go charging up to her, and she might just blow her brains out. Could you live with that? We’ve got to be careful how we approach her.”

“It’ll be hard, but I’ll try. Only you’d better decide in a hurry what to do. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee anything.” Unspoken words darted between the two men. But after a few moments, Herman nodded his head in agreement.

Susan watched the tendons in Wesley’s neck tighten. Herman had hit a nerve. “What’s done is done, but you try and take matters into your hands and something far worse can happen. Only this time, it won’t be because of something I did.”

Wesley spoke into his mike and let the dispatcher know he would be searching the back roads around Palmetto.

“Guess I’ve got my marching orders,” Herman said to Susan. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find her.”

Wesley drove out of the parking lot and onto the highway then took a right on a secondary road that led away from Palmetto and toward the lake.

Herman and Susan continued down the Covington highway until they reached Coburn Road where Herman took a left. He slowed to between thirty and forty miles an hour so they could search the woods on both sides of the rural road. Then he would return to Coburn Road and take the next offshoot from it. After covering the gravel roads, they failed to see either Vera or her car.

“Any suggestions?” Herman asked, traveling once again down Coburn Road.

“What about her friends? Was there anyone special she liked to visit?”

“Now that you mention it, I can’t remember meeting any of them. Seems my friends became her friends. That seemed a little odd at first, but she was so easy-going and likable, I didn’t pay it much mind.”

Along the way, they passed several small churches. One in particular had a mobile sign atop a flatbed trailer parked in front. Black letters against a white background stood out and beckoned to passersby and members of their congregation. Herman mumbled the first four words of scripture. “I am the way.” His brow wrinkled as he gave Susan a sideways glance.

Vera always said she knew she could go to the Lord with her problems, said that church was her haven.” His chest swelled as he drew in a deep breath. “That’s it! I don’t get why everyone thinks she will commit suicide. Maybe she’s seeking forgiveness.”

Herman pounded the steering wheel. “That has to be where she is. She was pretty regular about attending Sunday service. Tried to get me to go with her, but I see religion in a different way. My Lord isn’t confined to a building. He’s everywhere, and I can talk to him anytime, and I do. To me, every day is Sunday.”

“What’s the name of her church?”

“Plainview Baptist. It’s just off the Old Spanish Trail on Horse Shoe Road. We’re not far from there.”

“Then let’s check it out.”

Susan called Wesley, who agreed to meet them and again told them not to do anything if she was there.

Herman gunned the motor, and they sped down the flat, two-lane highway, bordered on either side by dense woods.

If ever a man looked down-trodden, he did. Susan’s heart went out to him, but she knew words would do little to comfort him. His life had been turned inside out. He really loved Vera, and she had used him. She was a real live Jekyll and Hide. Susan leaned her head against the window and prayed they would find her alive.

The landscape rushed by in a blur as the vehicle wound through the piney woods that covered the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was spring eternal for the towering Loblolly pines whose bright green needles scoffed at the barren branches of willows, cypress, and swamp maples.

Ah, spring
! It couldn’t come fast enough. By then, maybe the disaster of this winter would soon be put to rest. As her mind continued to churn, she gave a silent chuckle. She had waited so long to get home to the peace and serenity of her quaint little town. So much for that! What other surprises might Palmetto have in store?

The church sat back a ways from the road. The white, wooden structure with a steeple and cross on top looked freshly painted. A parking area in front provided ample space for members and visitors.

“She’s there,” Herman shouted. “That’s her Nissan parked beside that black Buick sedan.” Herman pulled onto the shoulder of the road. “I’m telling you, Wesley had better get here in a hurry. I can’t wait much longer.”

Susan called Wesley, and moments later, his Crown Victoria pulled in front of them. He got out and walked back to Herman’s truck. “Okay, let’s pull into the parking lot…nice and easy now.”

Herman parked alongside Vera’s car, and Wesley parked behind it, blocking Vera from leaving.

Immediately, Herman jumped from his truck and headed toward the church.

“No,” Wesley said. “You and Susan wait here until I can assess the situation. The other car is probably the preacher’s. Maybe he’s talked some sense into her.” Wesley activated his mike and requested backup. “Officers are not to approach the subject. They are to await further orders from me.”