Redemption (4 page)

“
Where’d you hear that? In college?”

Autumn laughed. “No. Something I saw on TV once.” She flipped through her notes. “So the driver could have either been a tanned white man or a light-skinned black man.”

“
Hold on, now. Remember the source. Maybe Annie saw what she
wanted
to see.” He looked up and down 115. “No skid marks. Maybe the driver didn’t see her. Maybe she jumped out.”

“
Another suicide?”

“
Don’t know. Put yourself in her place. You’ve just seen your only child’s dead body, you go out walking on an incredibly hot day, you’re depressed as all get-out. It makes sense, well, unless ... “

“
Unless what?”

“
Unless Crazy Annie’s just playing with our minds one last time, one last little joke she’s leaving us with.”

Autumn reclined in her seat. “Shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, Sheriff.”

“
Just telling it like it is.”

“
Oh, I don’t think Annie was completely crazy. I remember once finding her at the library up at Pine. She was surrounded by a couple dozen books and seemed to be reading them all simultaneously.”

“
And that ain’t crazy?”

“
A little, but at least she could read.”

“
What was she reading?”

Autumn revved the engine again. “Oh, books on UFO’s, astrology, astronomy, even
Gray’s Anatomy
and a few books on childbirth.” She laughed. “At the time, I thought she was looking for a star child or something.”

“
Or something.”

“
You know, I’d really like to take a look inside her house.”

“
Not a good idea.”

“
Why not? Powell won’t be around for a while.”

Overton groaned and stretched.
Fords used to have more legroom.
“We have to wait for him.”

“
We? I can go.”

I know that, but I need your AC.
“Annie’s place isn’t safe. After last year’s big snow I went to check up on her, and she had the front door booby-trapped with a loaded shotgun.”

“
Really?”

No. Only thing loaded at Annie’s was usually Annie.
“Really.”

“
I’ll stay here then.”

“
Good.”

“
But we’ll go together, like tomorrow, right?”

“
We’ll see.” He put on his hat. “Guess you’ll have a slam-bang front page this week, huh?”

“
I should, but I don’t know how to write it yet. A mama and her daughter are dead on the same day of some very strange circumstances.”

“
What’s strange about it? People kill themselves every day.”

“
But on nearly the same day?”

Yeah, I’ve been thinking on that one, too. It’s too damn convenient.
“I guess anything’s possible.”

She flipped open her notebook. “At least give me some more quotable quotes on this one.”

“
The investigation will continue.”

Autumn tapped her pen against the page. “C’mon, Sheriff. Live a little.”

He leaned further back, drying sweat off his arms. “Okay. How about this: an investigation is underway.”

She wrote the line then crossed it out. “Oh, that’s much better.”

“
I just like to have all the facts first.”

“
But isn’t this an election year?”

“
Yeah. So?”

“
So? You don’t care if you get re-elected or not?”

“
What does this have to do with gettin’ re-elected?”

“
It’s free publicity, Sheriff.”

“
Oh yeah.” Overton blinked. “You know that I never tried to get elected in the first place, Miss Harper. Sheriff Hughes retired, and I kind of inherited the job. Every so often someone puts me on the ballot, and I win.”

“
There’s more to it than that and you know it, but I’ll let you slide. What if ... never mind. That’s another story.”

“
What if what? What if I wasn’t sheriff?”

“
Well, yeah. What would Miles Overton do if he wasn’t ... what is it you do, exactly?”

Overton ignored the remark. “If I wasn’t the sheriff, I’d be fishing at Pine Lake every damn day.”

“
The water levels are too low.”

“
I know, I know. I just said I’d be fishing. I didn’t say I’d be catching anything.” He smiled at Autumn. “Here’s my final thought, and you can quote me on this.
My
investigation is underway and will continue.”

Autumn slapped the notebook shut. “Ooh, that’ll get me a Pulitzer. With quotes like that, you’ll get re-elected for sure.”

Overton looked through the back window. “Here comes Mr. Quotable.”

A black coroner’s van, CENTRAL FORENSIC emblazoned on the side, rolled up and parked beside the Escort. “Oh joy,” Autumn said, “it’s the famous Madison Powell.”

Overton got out and approached the van as Powell jumped out. Trim, fit, and wearing a dark suit, Powell could have been the poster-boy for the FBI. “Thanks for coming, Madison.”

“
How y’all doin’, Sheriff Overhill?”

The boy is more country than me, and he’s from the city.
“It’s Overton.”

Powell took off his jacket and laid it on the front seat. “Two in one day. Is this a record for y’all?”

Overton ignored him. “You have a preliminary report on Darcy?”

“
Who?” He stretched two rubber gloves over his fingers.

“
Victim number one.”

“
Oh. Her name was Darcy? How country.” He grabbed a suitcase. “It ain’t preliminary, Sheriff Overdale. It’s final. Suicide by ingestion of sleepin’ pills which caused her heart to stop. Case closed.” Powell looked past Overton to Annie’s body. “Nice blanket. Is this by any chance vehicle-related?”

“
Could be. This is Annie Mitchem, victim one’s mother.”

Powell strode to the body. “Interestin’.” He knelt down and flipped back the blanket. “Any skid marks?”

“
None.”

“
I wouldn’t rule out suicide on this one either. Old girl walked right into the vehicle that hit her, maybe even threw herself at it.” He threw back the blanket, Annie’s forehead still visible. “Two suicides in one day. Is the drought that bad down here? Hurricane Anthony could still turn our way.”

Autumn edged closer to Powell. “Mr. Powell, did you notice that the windows were closed at Darcy’s?”

Powell looked past Autumn to Overton. “Who’s this?”

Overton knew better than to answer.

“
I
am Autumn Harper of the
Snow Beacon
.”

“
Y’all still have a newspaper?” He smiled. “I’ll be with you in a moment, little lady.”

Autumn returned to her car, Overton following at a distance. “That person is no longer a prick. He’s a dick now.”

Overton caught up to her. “Is that worse?”

She leaned heavily on the hood. “Yes. ‘Be with you in a moment,
little
lady.’ Sexist and mean to short people. I’m going back to town. Need a lift?”

“
No, but thanks for the ride.”

“
And the AC, right?”

Sharp lady.
“Right.”

After Autumn left, Overton squatted beside Powell. “What could have done this?”

“
Around here, I’m thinkin’ truck.”

Not all country folk drive trucks
. “Before she died, Ms. Mitchem said it was a pink Cadillac.”

“
You’re kiddin’. Around here? I guess it’s possible. Whatever it was, it was really movin’. Her pelvis is shattered. She’s practically been snapped in two. Guess you’ll be checkin’ bumpers, huh?”

“
I might.”

Powell stood. “Where’s your car?”

“
In the shop.”

Powell smiled. “That’s what I heard. Bad day for it to be out of commission, huh? As if the suicide gods were just waitin’ for that car to go bad.”

Another coincidence?
“Yeah. Uh, there’s another problem.”

“
Let me guess. No place for mother and daughter to spend the night.”

Not the nicest way to put it, but yeah.
“McSorley’s, the funeral parlor we use in Pine, is closed for the week. Their annual vacation. No one’s supposed to die this week.”

Powell laughed. “Well, I suppose we could take them off your hands, for a fee, of course.”

“
Of course.” Most of the Pine Lake drowning victims ended up in Calhoun thanks to a county board of commissioners that didn’t want any bad publicity for Pine County’s cash cow. “Bad for tourism,” County Commission Dexter had said.

“
Just charge it the usual way,” Overton said.

“
Already did.”

The two men loaded Annie into the van to lie next to Darcy, two zippered black bags headed for Calhoun. “So, Sheriff Oversmith, you need a lift?”

It’s Over
ton
, you dick!
“I sure do, Maddy.”

They got in, and Powell swung the van around to head back to Snow. “I won’t charge you.”

Overton rolled his eyes. “Madison, what do you think about the windows being shut at Darcy’s?”

“
It’s not uncommon for a suicide to do that. Maybe she was ashamed of what she was about to do. Or maybe she was a neatness freak and didn’t want to stink up the neighborhood. If you think of it, it was a rational act prior to an irrational act. I guess that’s why some folks who slit their wrists do it in a bathtub. Less cleanup, you know. I had this jumper once who wore six pairs of underwear because he knew—”

I should have walked back.
“Just drop me off at Lester’s.”

Powell looked over and chuckled. “Don’t get many jumpers around here, do you? We got regular jumpin’ beans up in Calhoun. Why just last week some poor soul decided to jump off the Spring Street Bridge on account of the heat, only there was no water under that part of the bridge, and he—”

“
This is Lester’s,” Overton interrupted.

Madison stopped the van.

“
Thanks for the ride.”

“
Don’t mention it. I’ll send my official report to y’all in a couple days. Should I send it here, to Lester’s?”

“
Just use the PO box like usual.”

“
Y’all still have those?” Overton nodded. “How quaint. Hey, it’s been nice doin’ business with y’all.”

I’m gonna have to ask Autumn what’s worse than a dick.

An hour later, Lester stuck his head into the waiting room and announced, “All finished.”

Thank God
, Overton thought. He had had enough of Ramsey’s body odor for one day. Ramsey had sat sucking down orange sodas in front of the room’s only fan, occasionally talking to the blades, saying, “Luke, use the force.”

Lester lit a cigarette. “I never seen so many things go bad so quickly.”

Overton looked under the hood at a bunch of shiny new belts and hoses. “Didn’t we pass inspection last month?”

“
Yeah,” Lester said, and he squinted through the smoke. “But everything looked fine then. Guess the heat’s responsible.” He pointed to a collection of hoses and belts on the floor. “They was all bad. Your radiator hose, your fan belt, your AC hose, your compressor belt. Soon as I’d fix one, another’d snap. Guess the heat sped up the dry rot or something.”

Overton picked up the old fan belt, examining it closely. “What about all these little cuts?”

Lester lit another cigarette and looked at the belt. “That’s what rubber does when it cracks.”