Middle River Murders (4 page)

They came in single file as if they were going to the
gallows… all except the chief. He walked in with his head held high and was the
first to ask if he could hold his grandchild. My heart filled with awe. I
handed Ethan to him and watched as Mom and Sarah surrounded the two. They made
silly noises and each one took their turn holding their new grandchild. It was
a sight to behold. I guess I couldn’t yell at either one of them after all… at
least, not now.

The nurse returned and took Ethan back to the nursery.

“The nurse said they were going to release you tomorrow,” Mom
said.

“Can you believe it?” Sarah asked. “In my time, we were in
the hospital for four or five days. Now they shove you out before you have time
to think straight.”

“It just goes back to what I’ve said all along,” Mom added.
“The insurance companies don’t care about the health of the patients. They want
to get away with paying as little as they can. It gets my goat sometimes. If I
had it my way, I’d change a few things about the health care system.”

“You can, Mom,” I said. “All you have to do is get involved.
Write your congressman and your senator. Join a group involved in making the
system better. Of course, you’ll have to wait until your job as Miss Snoop the
detective is over.”

“See, you say such nice things and then you throw in that
little barb. What am I going to do with you?”

“What am I going to do with you? You do things behind my
back. What would I do if something happened to you? If someone hurt you, then
I’ve have to turn into a killer myself. Is that what you want for your
grandchild’s mother?”

“That’s not fair using my grandchild like that.”

“Enough, ladies,” Billy interrupted. “It’s time to get down
to business.” He looked at Mom and said, “We need to let Jesse in on what’s
been going on.” He then turned to me. “We kept all this from you because there
was nothing you could do to help. You were over seven months pregnant and you
were having too good a time enjoying your pregnancy. We didn’t want you to get
involved and your mom thought you should have this time to enjoy yourself. She
said she’d never seen you so happy. You were walking on a cloud. I never
expected you to be so happy either. To tell the truth, with the way it started
out, I thought for sure you were going to be miserable the whole nine months. I
couldn’t bring myself to take all that pleasure away from you by asking you to
go back to work, but most importantly, I wouldn’t allow myself to put you and
my child in harm’s way.”

“Get to the point,” I said, giving him the eye. “I get the
message.”

“A month ago, I got a call from a woman named Alice Aikens.
She belongs to a club called the Stanardsville Social Club. The club’s made up
of a bunch of rich, middle-aged women with nothing better to do with themselves
other than socialize, spend money, and spread rumors. However, they’re women of
influence in the community, so nobody gives them any grief about their silly
club. Most of their husbands are retired and do their own thing. Anyway,
Alice
joined the club because of her friend, Pat Johnson
who died several months ago. Before Pat’s death, she had voiced concerns about
some of the women in the club. She said they had become extremely competitive
and petty. They began arguing over who was going to be the next club president
and silly things like that. One of the women said that Pat should become the
next president and the others agreed. All of a sudden, a woman named Daisy
Clark began spreading rumors about Pat and tried to cause a rift among the
other members.”

“Social clubs—what a waste of time!” I interjected.

“Once Pat died from what was suspected to be e-coil bacteria
after a dinner at Daisy’s house,
Alice
got involved. The medical examiner ruled Pat’s death as an accident brought on
by eating raw hamburger earlier that day. But
Alice
suspected foul play. Another member mentioned to her the
fact that Pat was served mushrooms that were different looking than what the
rest of the women were served. She said it might be nothing, but she thought it
was a little odd.
Alice
went to the police and told them
there was no way Pat would eat enough raw hamburger to cause her death. She
told them what she was told about the mushrooms.”

“What did the police say?”

“The police pretty much wrote off
Alice
’s accusations. So
Alice
joined the club to see if she could get to the bottom of the truth. In the
meantime, another member died. This time the woman died from arsenic poisoning
and her husband’s probably going to prison for her murder.
Alice
met Harriett Shifflett when she joined the club and
then met Harriett’s husband, Joe, at a dinner party a while later. She said
they acted like love birds and looked like they had a great relationship. After
getting to know them a little, Alice said there was no way Joe Shifflett would
do this to his beloved wife. That’s when
Alice
came to me. I was recommended to her by a friend, Russ Shank.”

“Russ?” I asked.

“I figured if Russ sent her to me, he must think there’s
something to her allegations. He’s got better things to do than waste his
time.”

“I see,” I said, looking at Mom. “That’s where you come in.
I’d be willing to bet you’re the newest member of the Stanardsville Social
Club, huh? Is that what you’ve been doing those nights you slipped out of the
house on the pretense you were dining with your new male friend?”

“Eddie has a name,” Mom smirked. “He’s a fine gentleman and
your father would be glad that I’m moving on with my life.”

I looked at Billy and then back at Mom. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m
glad you have someone in your life. Maybe it’s time we got to know him.”

“That’s a good idea,” Mom said. “I know he wants to see the
baby; he told me so.”

“I guess we’d better hire a nanny, because if you two think
I’m going to sit around and wait for something bad to happen to my mother,
you’re both nuts.”

“I’ll take the job,” Sarah said as she stepped forward.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” Mom said, and then looked
at me. “Now that you know, there’s no way we’re going to get away with not
including you, and it’s not as if it would be full time. Daisy even suggested
that I bring you to a gathering once the baby comes, and I said I would. Of
course, I didn’t really mean it. Sorry, honey. You know I don’t tell lies, but
this is different. Fabrication comes with the territory when you’re a
detective.”

“Fabrication? I can’t believe it! Your vocabulary sure has
branched out since you became a snoop. Is that what Billy taught you? A fancy
word to describe a simple one—lies, that’s what they’re called, Mom.” I looked
at Billy. “See what you’ve done!”

“What surprises me is that she’s so good at it,” Billy said
as he smiled at both of us. “She lies almost as well as we do.”

“Watch your mouth, young man,” Mom said. “I’ve been telling
fibs because it’s part of the job. I tell myself it’s just a form of acting.”
She winked.

“Welcome to our world, Mom,” I said with a grin on my face.

We let the matter rest for the time being so that Mom, Sarah and Chief Sam could
go down to the emergency room to check on Jonathan.

“Call and give us an update,” I said as they were getting
ready to leave. “Then y’all need to go home and get some rest. Billy will be
here, won’t you?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I thought for a second, looked at Billy and then said, “Why
don’t you go ahead and go down with them? I know you’ll feel better if you do.
I’ll be fine here by myself, unless Daisy Duke comes in and tries to feed me
raw hamburger.”

They all laughed… nervously.

“Her name’s Daisy Clark and it wasn’t raw hamburger she fed
Pat Johnson,” Billy said. “I think
Alice
is right about Daisy being a killer, but I’m not so sure anymore about the
mushrooms being the culprit.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The medical examiner can distinguish the difference between
bad hamburger and bad mushrooms. I believe Daisy believes Pat’s death was due
to the tainted mushrooms she served her. For some reason, Daisy thinks she
killed Pat and got away with it, and now she’s moved on to bigger and better
things. Don’t get me wrong. People have died from eating food containing
contaminated mushrooms, but it was usually botulism, not E. coli poisoning that
killed them.”

“It’s scary to think you could eat something so seemingly
harmless and then die from it.”

“Jonathan talked to several of Daisy’s neighbors and one of
them said she saw Daisy out in the cow pasture, flipping over cow pies, picking
up something and putting it in a bag. She assumed Daisy was collecting
mushrooms, but wasn’t sure. She knew about mushrooms growing under cow pies, but
couldn’t figure out why Daisy would be collecting them when she could go to the
store and buy fresh ones.”

“That would seem odd.”

“Yeah, she said it all seemed very strange to her. She
started to go over and ask Daisy what she was doing, but decided to mind her
own business. Since she lives on a hill about a tenth of a mile up the road,
the only way she could’ve seen Daisy was if she was watching her through
binoculars. So she shot that idea down.”

“This story just keeps getting better and better,” I said.
“Who’s the woman you’re talking about?”

“She’s a widow named June Robinson.”

“Ah, the widow on the hill! How many times have I heard a
tale involving a widow on a hill? Is it an urban legend, or will another eerie
ghost story follow?”

Billy ignored my silliness, leaned over and gave me a kiss.

“I’ll be back soon. I’m going to check on Jonathan and when
your mom’s ready to leave, I’m going to make sure she gets to her car safely.”
He looked at Sarah and the chief and then back at me. He pointed to his folks.
“I’m not going to be able to pry them away from the hospital.”

“You can say that again,” Sarah said. “We’re staying until my
son’s out of danger even if we have to sleep on the floor.”

“As soon as my son is out of danger, I want you to go find
the one who did this to him,” Chief Sam said, looking at Billy. “Then I will
deal with him or her in my own way.”

“Let me handle this, Dad,” Billy replied.” You know I’ll do
the right thing. We don’t need for you to go do something we’ll all regret
later. I’ll look into the situation and see what I can find out. Just give me a
little time before you call out the entire Indian nation.”

“I trust you will find my son’s shooter.”

“You can count on it, Dad.”

The chief then put his arm around Sarah and walked out of the
room.

Billy blew me a kiss as he followed them, and then closed the
door.

I stretched out in the bed and lay back, thinking about
everything that had happened in the last couple of days. All the horrible tales
of childbirth pain wasn’t as bad as I’d been told… not for me anyway. I guess
I’m one of the lucky ones you hear about. They go in and have a baby and then
they’re back out in the field weeding the garden as if it was nothing. I
wouldn’t say I was that lucky, but it sure wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.
What a relief! The next time I’ll probably go through… no, I’m not even going
to go there. Becoming a mother was the most thrilling and satisfying experience
I’ve ever felt… except for when I fell in love with Billy.

Talking about something strange, that was totally out of the
blue. Falling for Billy never occurred to me until the moment it happened.
Actually, I was sure that Cole and I would get married; at least, that’s what I
had hoped. I had fantasies of the day Cole and I would walk down the aisle. I
was determined to do whatever I could to make that happen, but things change,
people change, and I realized that Cole wasn’t the right man for me. I wanted a
man to love me and share a life with me. Cole couldn’t do that, but Billy
didn’t hesitate to step up to the plate. Billy’s got a few years on me, but
I’ve learned that age doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to love. I dozed off.

“Jesse, wake up, honey,” Mom said. “It’s time to feed Ethan.”

I slowly opened my eyes and cast them upon a beautiful sight.
Mom was sitting on the edge of the bed holding Ethan. The look on her face
spoke a thousand words. She was so happy, not just because she was a
grandmother again, but because I now had what she wanted me to have—a man to
love me and a baby to love. She was ecstatic.

“He looks so much like Billy, except…”

“Except what, Mom?”

“He has your mouth… the Watson mouth…just like Mack’s.”

“I’m glad to hear he favors me in some way.”

I tried to come to life, but I was so tired. My pain was
mild, but I had the feeling that the stiffness I felt in the lower part of my
body might be a prelude to something a little bit more uncomfortable. Yes, I
did get a local to numb the specific area in question at the last stage of
labor… I’m nobody’s fool.

Anyone who thinks a woman can push a six pound baby out of a
space the size of a walnut without suffering, has a few things to learn. I held
off to the very end, but let’s face it, there’re some things the mind can
handle, but the body doesn’t want to. I opted out of having an epidural; nobody
could give me one instance of a woman having one without complications.

While I was pregnant, every woman I talked to about it had
her own horror tales. I especially flinched at the one about one side of the
body not being numb like it was supposed to be. That one really scared me.
Also, I think you can reach a stage where it’s too late in the course to have
the epidural administered. It didn’t matter, because by the time I got to the
hospital, they barely had time to put me on a bed. My labor time probably ranks
right up there on a list of the shortest labor cases in history. Somebody was
looking out for me.

Ethan let out a tiny whimper.

I reached out and took him and then did what came naturally.

“It’s amazing, Mom,” I said. “I was afraid I wouldn’t be able
to nurse him, because I thought only women with large breasts could do it, but
look at us now. We’re pros.”

“Breasts were made for nursing. Unfortunately, not all women
can do it. Maybe, they’re afraid, or insecure. I don’t know all the reasons,
but now they have Lactation Aides to help women who experience difficulties.
Breast size has nothing to do with a woman’s ability to breast feed.”

“Who told you all this stuff?”

“I talked to a lady at the nurse’s station,” Mom said. “She’s
one of those aides or something. She said she came by to talk to you, but you
had Ethan with you, so she came by later. You were asleep so she left a
brochure. It’s on the nightstand.”

I looked over at the nightstand and said, “I’ll look it over
later.”

“Oh, I think you’re going to do just fine. You have that
motherly instinct, honey. I knew it was there somewhere, and now look at you.
All you needed was the right man to bring it out.”

“Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing
before I dozed off.”

“Jonathan’s going to be okay,” Mom said. “He’s in intensive
care, but I don’t think he’ll be there long. The doctor said he was lucky. They
got the bullet and said there wasn’t a lot of damage. Because of the
description given to the police from the two eyewitnesses, Billy swears it was
Daisy who shot Jonathan.”

“Billy’s usually right about these things. If he thinks
Daisy’s the woman who shot Jonathan, I’d bet on it. He has great instincts.”

“Billy also said that women are more likely then men to use a
.22 handgun. Men carry big guns like a 9mm or a .45 caliber. Plus, he thinks
Daisy might’ve got wind of Jonathan snooping around and asking questions. She
does have some friends. If she did kill two people, what’s one more to her?
She’s come this far, why stop now?”

“Why did this happen? What makes a person do what she did, if
it’s true?”

“Greed, ambition, boredom. From what I’ve learned of her, she
definitely likes to be the center of attention. She’s used to getting her way,
I can tell you that. I think she was afraid Jonathan was going to bust her and
that would ruin everything. She was just getting started.”

“Not to change the subject, but I thought you were going
home. Aren’t you tired? It’s probably
midnight
.”

“It’s almost one-thirty. I think sometimes you reach a point
where you’re so tired your body does a complete turnaround. Also, I wanted to
see you before I leave and make sure you’re not mad at me. As soon as Billy
gets back, he’s going to walk me to my car. Sarah and the chief aren’t leaving.
The rest of the family’s gone home.”

“Why don’t you go over there, sit in that chair and prop your
feet up?”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No, never, Mom.”

She leaned over and gave me a hug. “I’m so happy for you,
honey.”

“Thanks, Mom. I know you are. I’m about as happy as I can be.
I have everything I want.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Billy said as he walked into the
room. “How’s my warrior?”

“Your lawyer/doctor is doing fine.”

Mom had a strange look on her face, but it didn’t take long
for her to figure out what we were talking about.

“I see you already have plans for my grandson, Ethan.”

“Of course, we do,” Billy and I said, smiling at each other.

“I think I’m ready to go home,” Mom said. “Before you get
settled in, would you walk me to my car, Billy?”

“Sure,” he answered. “It’ll give us time to plot behind
Jesse’s back.”

“That’s not a bit funny,” I said. I looked at Mom and asked,
“Are you going to be all right driving home?”

“I’m going to your house,” she said. “That’s not far. I’m too
tired to drive back to
Dogwood
Valley
.
Besides, I want to be here before they release you.”

“Okay,” I said. “Be careful and lock your car doors. I don’t
want that crazy Daisy after you.”

I was only joking, but I could see from the look on both
their faces that they didn’t think it was funny. This woman must be more
dangerous than they’re letting on. I had to know.

“Do I need to be afraid for you, Mom?”

“Don’t worry about me, honey. I’m not taking any chances,”
she said. “I have a gun in my purse.”

“Are you serious? I can’t believe you brought a gun into this
hospital. Do you know what would happen if you got caught?”

“I most certainly am serious, and I’m not going to get
caught.”

“You worry me sometimes.”

“I don’t know this woman well enough to know whether she’s
actually capable of murder, but I’m not taking any chances. She has said a
couple of things to me that make me think it wouldn’t take much for her to go
off the deep end. But don’t you worry, Jesse. I’ve been around Billy long
enough to know how to take care of myself.”

“If you’ve got a gun in your purse, I’d say you sure have,” I
replied, looking at her strangely. “How long have you and Daisy been such close
buddies?”

“It’s been about two months.”

“Y’all snuck around behind my back for two months and I
didn’t suspect a thing. What kind of private investigator am I?”

“You were busy, honey.”

“You said that she said a couple of things that make you
believe she’s capable of murder. What kind of things?”

“She told me she’s finally reached a point in her life where
she knows how to get exactly what she wants from people. I asked her what she
meant and she winked at me and said that she’s just not going to let people
push her around or get in her way anymore. I tried to get her to be more
specific, but she wouldn’t say much more than that. So I let it go and
didn’t pressure her. I didn’t want to set off any alarms. She’s just beginning
to trust me.” Mom looked at Billy and then back at me. “I have to say that I
find it hard to pretend to be her friend, lie to her, and then turn around and
hang her out to dry.”