Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery (13 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Maggie had
nurtured a soft spot for the Sassafras community since her early days as a
reporter at the
Sentinel
. Until that point in her life, she had been to
Sassafras, which was considered remote even by eastern Kentucky standards, only
a couple times with her dad. So, when she received an assignment to interview a
Sassafras woman on the occasion of the lady’s one hundredth birthday, she had
to ask for directions to the area. During subsequent visits to the community, she
had grown to appreciate the long drive, which allowed her to clear her mind,
and Sassafras’ landscapes, which featured long stretches of flat land, a
premium in the hilly region. She also had earned the gratitude of Sassafras’
citizens. They lavished praise and thanks on her for what, in her opinion,
amounted to little more than her doing her job. Once, when she tried to explain
this to an especially grateful denizen, she had received as a reply, “It’s like
the rest of the county forgot about us, so it’s nice to show them every now and
again that we’re still here.”

To her,
Sassafras represented an underdog and she took pleasure in highlighting the
community’s positive aspects. But in the weeks she had been looking into Hazel
Baker’s death, she had developed a growing dislike for Sassafras. She
invariably found herself on the two-lane highway that led into Sassafras behind
an old pickup that sputtered along at a snail’s pace and discharged a
breathtaking odor that smelled to Maggie like a mixture of motor oil and rotten
eggs.

When she pulled
off the road and into the parking lot of Catfish Corner, she intended to take a
moment to breathe non-toxic fumes and compose herself. She didn’t get the
chance. Before she had managed to cut the ignition to her car, Earl David
Osborne popped out of his office and headed toward her.

“Hey,” he said
as he approached the car. “You just can’t stay away from here, can you?”

“I guess you
could say that.” Maggie exited the car and closed her door. “I brought some
tomatoes to your uncle.”

Earl David took
a long draw off his cigarette. “What did you bring me?”

“Nothing, but I
did want to talk to you.”

“I’m opening
soon, but I can always make time for a pretty face. Why don’t we step into my
office?”

Even if he
hadn’t been flirting with her, Maggie had no intention of disappearing inside
his office, not in light of the reason for her visit. “How about we stay out
here? This shouldn’t take long.” He shrugged and Maggie said. “You know, I’ve
been thinking about that first day I came here with Stella. Do you remember
that? She and I visited your office.”

“Yeah, I
remember. What about it?”

“Well, I
remember seeing boxes of bleach in your office. There was a hand cart, too. At
the time, it didn’t seem odd, but I found this. It was in Hazel’s house.”
Maggie produced a copy of a receipt from her purse and looked around in the
hopes that a neighbor was sitting on a porch or mowing grass. Unfortunately,
all she saw was a stray cat lurking about Boone Osborne’s garden. Although she
couldn’t deny the apprehension that had caused her mouth to dry, she moved
closer to Earl David and said, “As you can see, it’s a receipt dated for the
day before her body was found floating in your pay lake. She bought a box
cutter, a hand cart, and six boxes of bleach.”

Earl David
studied the receipt, threw his cigarette on the ground, and immediately lit
another one. “So?”

“So, Stella said
there was one half-empty bottle of bleach at Hazel’s house and she has no idea
why her sister would buy that much bleach, not to mention a hand cart and a box
cutter on the same day. We know what happened to the box cutter. It ended up in
the water. And that hand cart and all that bleach ended up in your office. The
question is – how?”

Earl David blew
smoke out of the side of his mouth and squinted his eyes. “It’s awful big of a
little girl like you to come over here and talk to me like that.”

Maggie swallowed
a few times in a vain attempt to manufacture moisture in her mouth. “I’m not a
little girl and, in case you’re wondering, I shared my suspicions with Stella.
She suggested we go to the police –”

“The police?”

“Yes, the
police.” Of course, that wasn’t the entire truth. She had informed Stella who
conceded that Hazel’s purchases seemed suspicious, but Stella refused to allow
so much as a ray of light to block the tunnel vision that illuminated one
suspect and one suspect only – Earnest.

Earl David
flicked another cigarette to the ground, but he didn’t light a replacement.
Instead, he leaned against Maggie’s car. “If I tell you what happened, can we
keep it between us? Will you promise me you won’t go to the police?”

“You know I
can’t make that promise.”

He nodded, bit
his lip, and said, “I was afraid of that. Aw, I guess I need to tell somebody.
I didn’t hurt her. She was in the water when I found her.”

“You? I thought
Boone found her? I thought you were at your son’s?”

“Uncle Boone did
find her, but so did I. And I was at my son’s, but he and that girl he’s seeing
stayed up all night partying. I told him I had to get up early and drive back
home and then work all day, but you can’t talk to some people. We ended up
getting in to it and I drove back that night.”

“What time?”

“I don’t
remember the precise time, but I know it had to be after one when I left.
That’s when I got up for good and that’s when we had it out. I felt awful bad
about it later and called him to patch things up, but he acted like I done
something wrong. I’m a working man. I just wanted a night’s rest. Is that too
much to ask for? I’ve worked like a dog my whole life to give him and now his
little girl anything they want and he gets up on his rear end cause I ask him
to turn down the music? I thought I raised him better than that.”

Maggie didn’t
acknowledge Earl David’s paternal rant. “So,” she said, “let’s say you left at
two. It takes, what, three hours to drive from Lexington to Sassafras?”

“About that. It
wasn’t light when I got here.”

“Wait. You came
here? Why didn’t you go to your house?”

He nodded his
head toward his office. “I have a couch in there. I thought I’d get a few hours
of sleep before getting up and cleaning this place up. I don’t know what made
me notice her out there. But I did and I went over there and saw her. She was
already gone. I pulled out my cell phone to call 9-1-1, but something stopped
me. I looked around and saw that bleach and that cart and I knew they’d try to
send me up for it.”

Maggie’s mind whirled
in confusion. “Why?”

Earl David lit a
cigarette and stared at his lake. “I didn’t tell you and Miss Martin the
truth.”

“About what?”

“Me and Hazel.
There was no getting along with that woman. I can understand that she didn’t
like the lake, but she wouldn’t leave me alone. She was all the time
complaining about something or another. If it wasn’t that they was throwing
trash on her property then they was using the bathroom on it. A week before she
died, she marched over here with her fists clenched and told me that some of
those ruffians, that’s the word she used, ruffians. I didn’t even know what it
meant. I had to ask her. And she said these ruffians had been throwing balls
over the fence into her yard. Why, that didn’t even make no sense. I don’t let
my customers roughhouse and play games. They come to fish. Those balls come
from her neighbors on the other side. They have a couple youngsters. I tried to
tell her that and even offered to pick up the balls, but there’s no talking to
some people. So, that morning, I knowed they’d blame me. They’d see that bleach
and figure out what I already had, that she come to pour it into the lake to
try to kill the fish.”

Maggie couldn’t
believe what she was hearing. “Would that have worked?”

He shrugged. “If
you put enough of it in there, it might. I don’t know. I just stock them and
sell them. I don’t try to poison them. But as soon as I saw that bleach, I
knowed what would happen if I called the police. They’d figure I had caught her
trying to destroy my fish and killed her for it.”

“Did you? Is
that what happened? Did you kill her?”

Earl David’s
eyes met Maggie’s. “No, I did not. I did not hurt her. I didn’t do the right
thing, though. I shouldn’t have left her in that water. That wasn’t the
Christian thing to do. My mommy and my uncle Boone wouldn’t be proud of me if
they knowed that. It was wrong and I’ve had bad dreams ever since that night. I
know it sounds cold, but she was already gone when I got here and I couldn’t do
nothing for her. I had to think of myself and my business. And now I have to
live with that. I can’t be here at night and I see her when I close my eyes
when I lay down to go to sleep. I guess you could say she’s haunting me. Not
like a ghost or nothing. Just that vision of her. It haunts me.”

“I understand.”
Maggie tried to make sense of what Earl David had told her. “So, you took the
bleach and hand cart to your office and then what?”

“I went home for
a couple hours. I didn’t sleep none, though. I waited a while and come back. I
didn’t plan on Uncle Boone finding her, but he did and the police was here when
I got back. They ruled it an accident and I thought that was that.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“No, it wasn’t.”
Once again, he met Maggie’s eyes. “Please don’t go to the police. I did wrong,
but ain’t my guilt punishment enough? Even if they don’t lay a charge on me, if
this gets out, people will think bad of me.” He paused long enough to take a
drag from his cigarette before adding, “Maybe that’s what I deserve.”

Maggie told him
she would discuss the matter with Stella. She also warned him that her parents
and boyfriend knew she had planned to visit Catfish Corner that morning.

“So, if anything
happens to me …”

“Ain’t nothing
going to happen to you, not by my hand. I ain’t never hurt nobody in my life. I
was raised better than that, but I’d like to know what you’re going to do about
this.”

“I’m going to take these tomatoes to your uncle and think about it.”

Boone insisted
Maggie try a piece of rhubarb pie a lady from church had made for him. They sat
on his porch swing and shared the dessert while discussing bluegrass music and the
danger of canning in the signs of the secrets.

“Daddy calls the
secrets the unmentionables,” Maggie said.

“That’s what my
brother, Earl David’s daddy, called them.” Boone set his saucer on the porch
swing and took a sip of coffee. “Did I see you over at Earl David’s place?”

Maggie nodded. “I
stopped by to ask him about Hazel Baker. Boone, did you have trouble getting
along with her?”

“No, I did not,
but I hear tell she gave Earl David a hard time. She was good to me, though.
She even picked up my mail for me. Every day around three, she would get in that
car of her’s and drive down the road to the post office. Then, she’d stop by
here and leave my mail.”

Maggie finished
chewing the pie as fast as she could and asked, “Did you say she went to the
post office every day at three o’clock?”

“I did, I did.
It saved me a trip every day. I thought that was kindly neighborly of her.”

“It was,” Maggie
said, but she was thinking that Earnest’s last encounter with Hazel occurred at
the post office.

Chapter Twenty-Six

“I can’t wait
until Saturday morning.” Maggie sat with her back to the step railing of Luke’s
townhouse’s porch and watched Luke play fetch with his golden retriever. “I
need a break.”

Luke smiled. “Is
your case getting you down, Detective Morgan?”

Maggie eyed him.
“Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your voice?”

“I’d say it’s
more than a note.” Luke held the ball in his hands and narrowed his eyes as if
he were contemplating a philosophical theory. “What’s the word for more than
one note?”

“I have no idea.
I got a B in chorus.”

“How’s that even
possible?”

“You’ve heard me
sing.”

Luke grinned.
“In that case, I’m surprised it wasn’t a C.”

“Hey, why are
you being so mean to me?”

“I’m sorry.” He quit
playing with the dog and joined Maggie on the steps. “I guess I’m excited about
our trip. Just you and me on a semi-cross-country trip to the Grand Canyon.”

“Edie thinks
we’re crazy for driving.”

“Well, I think
Edie’s –”

“High maintenance?
Spoiled? A little snooty?”

“I was going to
say Ben’s wife and your best friend.”

“Sure you were.”
Maggie put her feet in Ben’s lap. “I think it will be fun to drive. My family
didn’t take vacations when I was growing up. We couldn’t leave the garden or
the livestock, so I still have so many places I need to see.”

Luke rubbed her
bare feet. “I’m glad we’re going to see them together. Of course, it would be
better if you’d agree to ride a mule into the canyon. But I guess you’re not as
much of a country girl as I thought.”

“We had a donkey
when I was little. It was a very bad-tempered animal and I will not ride one again
for love or money.” Maggie noticed the dog sitting on the sidewalk, wagging its
tail, and focusing on the ball in Luke’s hand. “He’s acting impatient and
disappointed. You should resume your game.”

“He’s fine.
Aren’t you, buddy?” Luke asked the dog. “What has gotten you so stressed out?”
he asked Maggie. “Is it this Hazel Baker investigation?”

“It is proving
problematic and confusing.” Maggie held her hand out to the dog, who responded
by allowing Maggie to pet his thick fur. “I don’t know if I have one more trip
to Sassafras in me.”

“You know, you
can walk away from it. It’s not your job or your responsibility.”

“Yes, it is.
Once I agreed to help Stella, it became my responsibility.”

“Do you want to
talk about it?”

She did
actually. She wanted to tell him about her conversations with Earl David and
Boone Osborne. She didn’t want to worry him, though, and she knew he would not
react too favorably to Earl David confessing that he had left Hazel’s body in
the lake. Earl David had seemed repentant to Maggie. On the walk over to
Boone’s, she had glanced back at him and she thought he had looked like he was
going to cry. But he had also begged her not to go to the police, which made
her wonder if he had more to hide.

She hadn’t
gotten around to calling Stella like she had told Earl David she would. She had
texted Stella, requesting to meet her in person during her visit to Sassafras.
Stella had replied to the text with the news that she was enjoying a shopping
spree in Tennessee with her friends. It wasn’t the kind of news she wanted to
deliver over the phone, but Maggie decided she would call her later that night.

“No,” she finally answered Luke. “I don’t want to talk about it. I just
want to sit here, watch you play with the dog, and discuss all the fun we’re
going to have next week.”

Stella responded
to Maggie’s narrative of Earl David’s admission with silence. When Stella
failed to speak for several seconds, Maggie said, “Are you there? Did you hear
what I said?”

“Are you telling
me he left my sister in that water? And for what? To keep from inconveniencing
himself?”

“He was afraid
the police would suspect him of killing her. But if he did nothing wrong then
he has nothing to hide. Do you think we should contact the police?”

“I don’t know,
Maggie. I just don’t know what to think about this. I never dreamed Earl David
would have been involved in any way.”

“I’m sorry to
have had to tell you, but I think you deserve to know.”

“Thank you for
that. I appreciate you, Maggie, and the effort you’re putting into this. I will
never forget your kindness and support.”

“I haven’t done
much.”

“You followed
the clues and figured out why she was out there that night. As for that, if
Hazel were still alive, I’d give her a good dressing down. Taking out her
frustrations – real or imagined – on innocent fish. I don’t know what she could
have been thinking. Our mother raised us better than that.”

“Stella, there’s
something else. I chatted a bit with Boone and he told me that Hazel went to
the post office every day at three o’clock.”

“That’s right.
She did. She had gotten in the habit of doing so when she worked at the
clinic.” Stella chuckled. “She waited until late afternoon to give all the
regulars who hung out at the post office time to clear out.”

“Did everyone
know this about her?”

“I can’t speak
for everyone, but anybody who knew her well certainly did.”

“Would Earnest
have known?” Maggie asked.

“Absolutely.
Why?”

“This may be
nothing, but Earnest said he happened to run into her at the post office. Maybe
he did, or maybe he had forgotten about her routine.”

“That’s not
likely. He went there intentionally to talk to her. I know that like I know my
own name.”

“Let’s slow
down. I’m going to check her computer in a bit. Did she have a Facebook page or
a Twitter profile?”

“Are you kidding?” Stella laughed. “She thought that was silly, but it
didn’t keep her from looking over my shoulder and checking out my page.” Stella
sighed. “That was Hazel. She thought Facebook was a waste of time, but she
watched
Dancing With the Stars
religiously and never failed to vote for
her favorites several times a night. That was my sister. She was one of a
kind.”

Maggie was
thankful Hazel Baker had made it convenient to log onto her computer. She had
taped her password to the laptop’s lid and her email remained opened to the
last message she had read. It had been from her niece and Maggie found a tender
reply in the sent file. Although Maggie felt uneasy reading the private
exchange, she was glad for the glimpse of Hazel’s other side. She thought that,
for the most part, Hazel seemed like a spiteful person and that business of
trying to kill catfish had soured Maggie on her. From Maggie’s viewpoint,
catfish didn’t have much to look forward to as it was. Still, if Hazel had been
murdered, Maggie thought somebody needed to pay for the crime.

She scrolled
through the messages, finding several recipes from a cooking website and offers
from the official UK fan site as well as correspondences between Hazel and
various cousins and friends.

“Wow,” Maggie
said to Barnaby, “it appears that some people actually liked her. Let’s see
what she and prettyboy415 had to say to each other.” She had read only three
words when she realized prettyboy415 was Earnest. She puckered her face and
asked, “Goodness, who lied and told him he was pretty? And what does he mean by
‘there’s no reason to involve lawyers?’”

The
conversation’s previous messages answered one of her questions. In the first
one, Earnest had asked Hazel to agree to modify the part of the divorce
agreement that provided her with half his pension. Hazel succinctly replied,
“No.” That led Earnest to send another message in which he explained that
Brandi and Paradice were bleeding him dry. His salary barely covered the
mortgage and payment on Brandi’s new car and he was “up to his eyeballs” in
credit card debt. He was borrowing against his pension “to stay above water,” a
phrase that made Maggie wince. If he didn’t make some changes, there would be
no pension left when he retired. He also reminded his ex-wife that he had given
her the houses without a fight.

This time, Hazel’s
reply wasn’t so succinct. “You expect me to care about your self-inflicted
problems? I hope they repossess the car, the house, and everything in it. But
call me first so I can come over and gloat. Let’s see how long that
money-grubbing hussy stays with you when you quit paying the bills. And don’t
try to tell me that you weren’t prepared to fight me for the houses. If that
tramp hadn’t convinced you she was pregnant, the divorce would have dragged on
for years. You wanted to give your non-existent child your name. That’s the
only reason you walked away without putting up too much of a fight. Well, that
and you’re a coward. But if you have grown a spine and want to modify the
divorce agreement, have your lawyer call mine. It won’t do you any good,
though. I’ll die before I give up what I earned during the years I endured your
laziness and fits of hypochondria, starched your clothes, cut your food into
smaller pieces, and, well, I could go on but it’s time for me to go to bed
where, thank the Lord, I will not be forced to listen to you snoring.”

Earnest
obviously didn’t get the message because he continued to send Hazel emails, all
of which she answered with one sentence, “You’re wasting your time, but feel
free to contact my lawyer.”

According to the
time stamp, the last email arrived one week before Hazel’s death. Maggie
checked the sent folder, but saw no reply. “She didn’t answer him, so he
tracked her down at the post office. And then what?”

Maggie spent
twenty minutes more looking through Hazel’s emails, but found nothing else
pertaining to the case. She moved on to Hazel’s documents, which featured a
folder for recipes, another for dress and shirt designs Hazel had found on the
Internet and annotated with instructions for Sylvie Johnson, and one for a
collection of correspondences.

As Maggie read
through the letters to friends, family, and acquaintances, she began to feel
sad. “She still wrote letters. I haven’t written a letter since college.” One official-sounding
letter nestled among those friendly notes caught Maggie’s eye. After reading
it, she closed the laptop, rested her head on it, and said to Barnaby, “It’s
looks like I’ll be making another trip to Sassafras.”