Redemption (8 page)

Overton sniffed the air. “Pine-Sol?”

“
Think so, but I haven’t found any cleaning supplies or a broom or mop anywhere. Someone took a lot of time and trouble to do this and took their cleaning supplies with them. I wonder what was in here. And why
only
clean
this
room?”

Why is this getting so complicated?
“Maybe Annie was expecting company and was doing a little cleaning the day she died.”

“
A
little
cleaning? This room’s in move-in condition. No. Someone is leaving us an obvious message.”

Autumn thinks she’s an amateur detective, but there’s definitely a message here.
“Maybe she just moved the junk out of here into another room.”

She pulled him back down the hall. “I thought that, too, but, believe it or not, there isn’t a thing out of place.”

“
Far as I can tell,
everything
is out of place.”

Autumn laid her hand on a tall stack of newspaper and magazine clippings. “That’s what I thought, at first. Then I started reading through the stacks and found a pattern. Annie was one extremely organized lady.”

In the last twenty-four hours, I’ve seen a woman who might have taken a shower and put on her dirty uniform
before
crawling into bed with a bottle of pills and all her windows shut on a hot night, I’ve asked a black woman to marry me, I can’t find a black man’s body after his home exploded, and a woman who walked into the path of a car has a filing system for her trash.

“
I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered.

“
What was that?”

“
Nothing. You say she had a system?”

She tapped the stack. “This stack concerns the political career of Jimmy Lee Sellers, Senior.” She held up the top newspaper clipping. “This is his obituary in the
Beacon
. Some of my best work.” She stepped to a much smaller stack. “This is Jimmy Lee, Junior’s stack.” She held up a clipping from the
Times.
“This one’s about him deciding to run for state senate. He hasn’t got a chance, you know. He won’t be able to unseat Connor Bowles. Are you listening to me, Sheriff?”

Overton looked around him.
Why would anyone do this? I’ve heard of folks collecting coupons, but this is pathological or something.
“Uh, yeah. Connor Bowles. How many stacks are there?”

“
I’ve counted around twenty so far, all but one devoted to someone from Snow.”

“
So she kept tabs on her neighbors. No crime or mystery in that. Who’s the other stack for?”

She held up the front page of the
Times,
“Miracle Baby Leaves Hospital” in a bold headline across the top. “Remember this story?”

Overton felt his chest tighten. “It was big news.”

“
Yeah. Almost sixteen years ago.” Her voice trailed off. “Just after Jeremiah. Made folks forget all about him overnight.”

Overton shook his head at the memory. Someone had left a newborn to die overnight at a cemetery in Calhoun.
That would never happen in Pine County.
And when the newborn had pulled through against all odds, the story made national headlines.

He sighed. “It’s easier to root for a live baby than a dead teenager.”

Autumn returned the page to its stack. “This might be Annie’s star child, huh?”

Overton rolled his eyes. “Do
I
have a stack?”

Autumn laughed. “It’s in the bathroom under the toilet paper roll.”

Figures.
“I’m touched.”

“
You fared better than Ramsey. I found his lone clipping lining a birdcage. No bird, though.”

“
What about
your
stack?”

“
In the knife drawer in the kitchen. Maybe she was trying to tell me something?” She smiled. “I am pretty
sharp
.” Autumn laughed then looked down. “I know I shouldn’t be laughing, what with Lester dead and all. Pretty terrible, huh?”

“
We don’t know that he’s dead yet.”

“
Come on, Miles. You saw the house, what was left of it.”

“
He isn’t officially dead until we have a body.” He wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead. “Did Lester have a stack?”

“
I haven’t found it yet, and I’ve checked out everything on this floor.” She looked down at the floor. “I’ve been, uh, waiting for you before going down to explore the basement.”

Overton smiled. “Well, let’s look.”

Annie’s basement smelled of dirt and decay, mold and rotting meat, but at least it was cooler than the floor above. There was just enough light leaking through newspapered windows to reveal hundreds of stacks of paper arranged neatly in rows.

“
We could be here a while,” Overton said.

“
It’s like something out of the
X-Files
, huh?”

Overton grunted and swatted at a persistent fly buzzing around his head. “Look, but don’t touch anything.”

Autumn examined a stack near the stairs then drifted down the row. “I never knew there were so many of these.”

“
So many what?” Overton took off his hat and swatted at the fly.

“
UFO sightings.”

“
Why aren’t I surprised?” The fly buzzed his ears once more then tore up the stairs.

“
And there’s even some organization here. These are from Sheetsville, these are from Clement Springs ...”

Overton tuned Autumn out.
People upstairs, UFO’s in the basement. What’s Annie trying to tell us?
“Any sign of Lester’s stack?”

“
Nope, not that he got in the
Beacon
that often.”

Overton had a thought. “What about Darcy or Annie herself?”

Autumn checked her notebook. “No. They aren’t here. Well, isn’t that strange. You don’t think ...”

“
Just making conversation.”
And scaring myself. I don’t like to do that.
“I mean, most folks keep scrapbooks for themselves and their kids, right?”

“
Right.” Autumn rubbed her arms. “It’s getting cold down here.”

“
Let’s go up.”

Overton checked Autumn’s list of stacks in the darkened kitchen, holding the notebook up to the light of a newspapered window over the sink. “This is going to sound even stranger, but maybe it isn’t who
is
here but who
isn’t
. What do all these names have in common?”

Autumn squinted. “How could she see to cook in here?” She tore the corner of the newspaper taped to the window. “That’s better. Let’s see. For one, they’re all still alive.”

Overton tore the rest of the newspaper from the window and looked out behind the house. “Wasn’t Mount Zion over there?”

Autumn shrugged. “I don’t know. I never went there when I was a kid. Okay, two, they’re kind of ...
old
. Older than you, Sheriff.”

Overton looked across a field of dense scrub brush to a slight rise where he was sure Mount Zion had stood from the end of the Civil War until the night J died. He checked the date on the torn newspaper: December 5, 1992.
So this window might have been clear back in ‘83 so Annie could see the fire.

“
Sheriff,” Autumn said sharply, “if you’re going to ask me a question, you better listen to the answer.”

“
I’m sorry, Miss Harper. We
old
folks tend to drift in and out. What were you saying?”

“
The folks on this list are all old except for Jimmy Lee, they’re all alive, and they’re all from fairly prominent Pine County families.”

Which doesn’t say much for Pine County.
Overton raised his eyebrows. “And what does this tell
you,
Detective Harper?”

“
I’m a reporter, not a detective. That’s your job. And I don’t know what it tells me. Maybe Annie kept track of high country society.”

“
Or,” he said, taking one more long look out the window, “maybe she kept track of everyone from around here, and whoever cleaned up only took
the stacks of those people ...”

“
He intended to kill,” Autumn said, and she dropped the notebook. “My God.”

“
Darcy, Annie, and Lester weren’t that old, they’re dead, and they weren’t prominent at all. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but just in case, maybe we better make a list of all the folks in or around Snow who
aren’t
old and wealthy.”

“
Knock knock!” a voice yelled, and Autumn jumped, shrinking back toward the stove.

“
In the kitchen,” Overton said.

In a moment, Travis Dillard, Pine County’s best-known auctioneer walked in, smiling ear to ear.

“
Howdy, Travis,” Overton said. “What brings you here?”

“
Howdy, Sheriff, Miss Harper.” Travis tipped up his black cowboy hat and stuck his hands in his back pockets, leaning against the wall. “I’m here to inspect the premises, see what needs done, clean it up, and get it ready for the auction Saturday. Got my crew comin’ right behind me. Looks like we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

“
So soon?” Autumn asked.

“
That’s what Mr. Sellers wanted,” Travis said.

“
Jimmy Lee?” Overton said. “Doesn’t,
didn’t
Annie own this place?”

“
No sir. Oh, and when will you be removin’ that police tape from Darcy’s?”

Overton looked at Autumn. “What for?”

“
That old Victorian gets auctioned, too. And once you’re finished with Lester’s place—”

“
Jimmy Lee owns
those,
too?” Overton interrupted.

“
Sure does. Wants ‘em all auctioned off as soon as possible.”

Autumn shook her head. “What’s the rush? Darcy and Annie aren’t even buried yet, and they haven’t even found Lester’s body!”

Travis smiled. “I don’t ask Mr. Sellers too many questions. He got a never-ending supply of bugs comin’ out his butt, but he pays real nice. I’m only here to do a job.”

Overton’s head spun.
Another coincidence?
“Has your crew already started cleaning up?”

“
No. Why?”

“
Just checking. Uh, how much are you expecting to take in?”

“
This place? We might break fifty, sixty if we’re lucky. Some nice flat acreage and a view.” He tapped the wall. “Sturdy little place. Brick to grade, heart of pine floors. Let’s see, the Victorian oughta fetch, oh, seventy-five, eighty since it’s zoned commercial and it looks like Darcy kept the place up nice. ‘Course, we’ll probably only take half that since she, uh, met her demise there. So maybe a hundred grand for the two houses. Lester’s, though, that ought to be the biggest sale. Forty acres, mostly wooded with hardwoods, a creek, a long paved driveway you could shoot streets off of if you wanted to put in a housing development, state road frontage. We may have to sell that one by the acre at, oh, maybe ten grand per. I’m hopin’ we get at least half a mil for the whole shootin’ match.”

A half million?
Overton whistled. “Think you can get that much on such short notice?”

Travis winked. “It’s what I’m good at, Sheriff. Y’all almost through?”

I have to slow down this express train a bit.
“Almost. Why don’t you come back tomorrow.”

“
No good,” Travis said. “Mr. Sellers won’t like it.”

Well that’s just too damn bad.
“Then have Mr. Sellers give me a call.”
So I can ask him why he owns the properties of three recently dead people.