1 A Small Case of Murder (2 page)

“The good news is that all of our furniture made it here in one piece,” J.J. reported to his father upon his and Murphy’s return home.

Joshua wiped a drop of dirty sweat from his brow and inspected his children’s progress in unpacking their belongings. Slumped in his recliner with a beer bottle braced between his thighs in lieu of a cleared-off end table on which to place it, Joshua saw Admiral, their big mutt, eying a spot on the sofa as if to determine if he would fit on it.

Seeming to sense his master’s eyes on him, the dog turned his head to see that his instinct was right.

“Don’t even think about it,” Joshua warned him.

Admiral retreated to his bed, which had landed in front of the fireplace after being yanked out of a moving crate.

The Thornton children had rescued the funny-looking puppy with huge paws from the pound. After they had bonded with him, a dog breeder informed Joshua that his family’s pet was a Great Dane/Irish Wolfhound mix. A year later, Admiral resembled a wire-haired Scooby Doo in looks and size.

“What’s the bad news?” Joshua took the clipboard containing a list of their belongings turned over to the movers. He had tasked Murphy’s identical twin, J.J., and Tracy, their fifteen-year-old sister, with checking off the items on the list while unpacking the boxes that had arrived the night before.

Tracy was a girl on her way to womanhood. Like her late mother, she was delicate-looking. With only a touch of make-up on her face, she was pretty. Exposed by the tank top and shorts she wore for relief from the misery of the summer’s humidity, Tracy’s flesh was the color of milk in spite of the California sun at their last home. She had pulled her auburn hair back into a ponytail in anticipation of a day of hard work.

“Seven boxes are missing,” J.J. reported.

Joshua studied the list. J.J. had checked off every item except for seven boxes. He read the contents of each box: legal documents (will, birth certificates, etc), photo albums/family videos, diplomas, puzzles, and the CD collection.

“How important is the stuff that’s missing?” Ten-year-old Donny lounged upside down in a wing-backed chair belonging in the study. The plump and bookish boy’s back was in the seat part with his legs up above him across the back of the chair.

“They only include your birth certificates.” Joshua didn’t tell them about the lump that formed in his throat when he noticed that one of the missing items was the framed picture of their mother that he always kept on the corner of his desk. “I’m going to have to call them.”

“I already did,” J.J. said. “They promised to call back first thing in the morning.”

Pleased with his first-born son’s initiative, Joshua took another swallow of his beer.

As if it would be news to them, Sarah said, “You’re aware that this house only has one bathroom.” She was practicing her juggling skills with ping-pong balls that she had found. Tossing multiple balls at the same time was easy for the tomboy. She wore her straight blond hair in a ponytail. No make-up ever touched her face. Cosmetics were for prissy girls, like her sister, who was older by two years.

Joshua moaned. “Yes, Sarah, I’m aware of that.” Additional bathrooms were a top priority in renovating the house built before multiple bathrooms had become a necessity for large families.

“Who ever heard of a mansion with only one bathroom?” she asked.

“This isn’t a mansion,” Joshua countered. “It’s a big old house built over one hundred years ago when indoor plumbing alone was a luxury.”

With admiration in her tone, Tracy added, “It was built by our great-great-great grandfather, Jeremiah Thornton, as a wedding gift for his bride, Rachel. He laid the cobblestone driveway. She planted the lilac bushes out front and the rose garden around the wrap-around porch.”

Sarah said, “I don’t care about that. If we don’t get another bathroom, one of these mornings I’m going to kill you for using up all the hot water like you did this morning.”

Tracy said, “Well, if you didn’t sleep so late you wouldn’t be the last one to get the bathroom.”

Joshua assured them, “We will get more bathrooms.”

J.J. tapped Murphy on the arm. “I guess we better start cleaning out that attic if we want to put our room up there.”

Before his sons could ascend the stairs to go up to the top floor, Joshua asked, “By the way, while we were gone this morning, did you find any skeletons up in that attic that I should know about?” He knew the monumental task before them when he had consented to the twins rooming in the attic.

From where she sat in the living room’s window seat looking out onto the rolling front lawn, Tracy answered his question by handing him a stack of letters tied with the pink ribbon. “They seem to be letters your parents sent to each other while your dad was in the Navy.”

Joshua studied the writing on the envelopes. When it came to his parents, he had vague memories of a young couple very much in love.

Tracy handed him the unopened envelope. “There’s one letter that wasn’t opened. It’s from Virginia Avenue right here in Chester.”

Joshua observed the difference in the handwriting across the front of the envelope from those in the stack bound by the ribbon. “This was written by a leftie.”

“A leftie?” Murphy and his twin came back into the room to learn more about the unread letter.

“I can tell by the slant in her writing.” Joshua showed them the handwriting across the front of the envelope. “This was addressed by a left-handed woman.”

He noticed the post date: May 8, 1970. Struck by the date, he dropped back into the recliner. He studied the handwriting on the envelope.

J.J. noticed the color drain from his father’s face. “What’s wrong, Dad?”

“This was mailed the same day my parents died.”

Tracy caught her breath. “The same day they died? I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t realize.”

“That must be why the letter was never opened,” J.J. said. “The addressee was deceased by the time it arrived.”

“Didn’t Grandma and Grandpa die at the Grand Canyon?” Sarah asked.

“They went on a second honeymoon after my father got out of the Navy and were killed in a car accident on their way back.” Joshua opened the envelope and took out the letter written on two sheets of purple stationery. “Grandmomma must not have had the heart to open this so soon after they died and then forgot about it.”

He digested the contents of the letter while his children studied his expression as he read and reread every word. In an attempt to read over his shoulder, they moved in closer. Even Donny rolled out of the wing-backed chair.

Joshua muttered, “I didn’t know about any of this.”

Demanding to know the contents, his kids crowded closer around him.

“It’s from a Lulu…” Joshua checked the last name written on the return address on the envelope. “…Jefferson. I never heard of her.”

Unable to summarize the letter in a few words, he read the letter out loud:

Dear Claire,

Tomorrow I’m leaving for Philadelphia. Would you believe I got a singing gig at a real club? Things are really looking up.

Anyway, I tried to call you but Frieda…

Joshua stopped reading to remind his children that Frieda was his grandmother, their great-grandmother.

Anyway, I tried to call you but Frieda told me that you and Johnny are on a second honeymoon in the Grand Canyon. You two must be serious about giving Josh a little sister.

Remember that dead body we found in the Bosley barn? How could you ever forget? His face is seared into my mind. Well, I saw him today in Reverend Rawlings’ office. I went there to talk to the reverend and Marge and Al about the music for their wedding, and there was his picture on the wall. It was a picture of Reverend Rawlings and Sheriff Delaney and some other guys in army uniforms. Reverend Rawlings said it was a picture of him and some of his buddies from the Korean War. That’s why Sheriff Delaney said we lied. Our body and them were all war buddies.

It was him. I’m positive. Tell Johnny and see what he thinks. I tried to call Ricky Pendleton about it, but since he moved to Youngstown I don’t have his phone number. Maybe Johnny has it. I’m sure Johnny will be able to make sense out of all this.

Call you when I get back.

Peace & Love,

Lulu

P.S. Good luck on that baby sister for Josh.

Joshua folded up the letter and put it back into the envelope. Once again, he studied the handwriting on the front of it.

J.J. spoke first. “So your dad died before he could check into it. I wonder what she did about it.”

Sarah asked, “Was this body in the barn murdered or—”

After Tracy pointed out that Lulu referred to it as simply a body in the barn, her sister proposed that they go find Bosley’s barn to see where the body had been discovered.

“That was over thirty years ago. That barn is probably long gone by now.” J.J. asked his father. “Who is this Reverend Rawlings, Dad?”

That was one question to which Joshua knew the answer. “Now, there’s a piece of work,” he replied to the question. “Reverend Rawlings has a church in New Cumberland. I went to school with his son, Wally.”

“Were you friends?” Tracy asked.

Her father laughed. “Not exactly. Wally always tried to make me feel like there was something wrong with me since my parents were dead. He’s now the county’s prosecuting attorney.”

Joshua dismissed the contents of the letter in his hand with a single shake of his head. “We’re talking about a thirty-year-old letter from some lady I never heard of that’s about a body that may not have been murdered. It was probably a vagrant who crawled into the barn to keep warm and died of natural causes.”

“If that was the case,” Murphy argued, “why would it be so important to this Lulu to tell your folks that this reverend knew the guy? She couldn’t even wait to get back from her singing gig to tell them. She had to write them a letter to make sure they knew about it as soon as they got back from making you a sister.”

Joshua confessed to his own curiosity. “I’ll find out what happened when Mom didn’t get this letter.”

That prospect was promising to the children.

“How are you going to do that?” Murphy wondered.

“One of the advantages of small towns over the big city is that in every small town there’s one person who knows every-thing.” Joshua winked at his children. “Fortunately, I know him.”

Late that night, after his children had fallen into an exhausted sleep, Joshua used the excuse of taking Admiral for a walk to go visit the best source for information about Lulu Jefferson.

Dr. Tad MacMillan’s office was on the ground floor of a two-story cape cod tucked between two red brick houses on Indiana Avenue, near the corner of Sixth Street. When he wasn’t tending to patients, Tad lived upstairs in a one-bedroom apartment with Dog, an unruly stray he had nursed back to health after it had been hit by a car.

“I’ll get it!” a feminine voice called out when Joshua knocked on the screen door located at the top of the steps for the back entrance in Church Alley.

When Admiral saw Tad’s shaggy mongrel peek out from under the kitchen table, he hid behind his master’s legs and stuck his head between his knees to peer back at the dog half his size.

Tad sat back in a kitchen chair with his bare feet perched up on the corner of the table and one eye aimed at the news on the portable television set hooked up under the cupboard. Even though he was a few feet away, instead of ushering the visitor inside, he laughed at Admiral. “What is that? A pony?”

“He was much smaller when Valerie and the kids picked him up from the pound,” Joshua told him through the screen door between them.

Her legs swishing under an oversized nightshirt, Maggie MacMillan hurried in from the living room and through the kitchen to answer Joshua’s knock. The hairbrush she wielded in her hand told him that she had been brushing her wavy, strawberry-blond hair. Judging by her tan, she hadn’t spent much of the early summer indoors.

After allowing him inside the apartment, Maggie threw her arms around his neck. “Uncle Josh, how was the move?” She kissed him on the cheek.

“Maggie?” He felt old.

She asked, “Who did you think I was?”

“I haven’t seen you since …” Joshua held his hand out to his hip.

Tad laughed out loud. “This is what they grow into.”

Seeing that they were blocking the view of the television, Maggie led Joshua by his hand to the living room doorway. “I’m passing through on my way to Penn State.”

“Pennsylvania State? That’s where I went to law school.” Joshua shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’ve graduated from high school.”

“Did you see the car Dad bought me for graduation?” When he answered with a shake of his head, she led him back across the room to show off the blue coupe parked next to Tad’s motorcycle in the alley. “I wanted a convertible, but Dad said it isn’t safe.”

“This from a man who only drives Harleys?” Joshua said when he heard Tad growl at the joke made at his expense.

Explaining that it had been a long drive up from Florida and she was tired, Maggie excused herself. After once more kissing Joshua on the cheek and hugging Tad, she trotted off in the direction of the bedroom.

“She’s a lovely girl.” Joshua sat at the table across from his host. “She must get her looks from her mother.”

“She gets them from me.”

“Do you ever hear from her mother?” Joshua asked.

Tad responded with a shake of his head and a sideways glance in his cousin’s direction before returning his attention to the television. “You never stop, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” Joshua said. “Look, it’s been eighteen years, and you have never once referred to Maggie’s mother by name. It’s only been ‘the mother’. You never even told your own mother—Maggie’s grandmother—”

“It was a one-night stand, ancient history, and none of your business. What do you want besides to pick a fight?” Tad pushed against the table with his feet to balance his chair on its hind legs. As a further sign of his coordination, he shoved a box of Pepperidge Farm cookies across the table to Joshua in the form of an offering while performing his balancing act.

While he accepted the offer, Joshua noticed that Tad wasn’t eating the cookies, but instead feeding them to Dog. “I saw your light was on while I was walking my ‘pony’.”

Admiral had lain down dangerously close to the only two legs of Tad’s chair touching the floor.

Keeping an eye on the television, Tad plopped the chair down onto its four legs and got up to pour two cups of tea from a kettle warming on the stove.

Joshua nodded towards the portable set. “What are you watching?”

Tad set a mug with the tea bag seeping in the boiling hot water in front of Joshua. “Tess Bauer, she’s a local girl, went off to Pittsburgh and is with the station out there. She’s been doing an in-depth investigation into the drug traffic here in the valley.”

Joshua took a sip of the hot tea.

Much to Dog’s dismay, Tad tossed a cookie to Admiral. “She actually found a source willing to go on camera. They’ve been showing interviews with her all week.” With the remote resting at his elbow, he turned up the volume on the television. “There she is.”

Joshua turned his attention to the portable set.

The woman appeared to be barely out of her teens. Her hair, a reddish hue that matched that of freshly spilt blood, was a fraction of an inch longer than a crew cut. She wore a black top with spaghetti straps, which revealed a black widow spider tattoo on her bare left shoulder. Her stark make-up, including black lipstick, on her pale skin made her appear eerie. She wore a thick collar of dozens upon dozens of black strings, leather straps, and silver beaded necklaces; matching bracelets on her arms; and rings on every finger. Her hands were further adorned with black fingernails that looked more like the claws of a carnivorous beast.

Observing her high cheekbones and facial bone structure, Joshua thought she would be pretty if it weren’t for the morbid make-up and attire.

Journalist Tess Bauer contrasted her source’s appearance in a conservative pale blue women’s suit. With bangs chopped straight across her forehead, she wore her honey-blond hair straight down to her shoulders. Tess was what Joshua called handsome.

“Her name is Amber. She doesn’t give her last name,” Tad told him.

The interview took place in what appeared to be some-one’s living room. The conservative furniture didn’t appear to be what one would expect to find in a drug addict’s home.

“Amber claims to have been involved in the drug trafficking here in the Ohio Valley,” Tess was saying from off camera.

Amber’s expression was between that of a sneer and a smirk. “I don’t do the trafficking myself, but I’m real close to one of the top people.”

“Who is that?” Tess asked from off-camera again.

Amber said in a brisk tone, “Vicki Rawlings.”

“We’ve talked about Victoria Rawlings before.” Tess was sitting in a chair with a forest of house plants behind her. “You said in previous interviews that Victoria, the granddaughter of the Reverend Orville Rawlings, is heavily involved in the drug trade in the Ohio Valley.”

Amber appeared on camera again. “You might say she’s the manager and Reverend Rawlings is the CEO.”

“Do you believe—” Joshua started to ask Tad, who held up his hand to hush him.

“Now, as I told you before off-camera, Amber, you can’t make statements on-camera that you can’t prove.”

“Oh, I can prove everything.” The girl slapped a micro-cassette tape onto the glass top coffee table. “Here’s your proof.”

The setting changed. From behind the news desk, Tess Bauer spoke to her television audience. “I brought the tape that Amber had given me during that interview here to the studio. It contains a telephone conversation between Amber and a woman she identified as Victoria Rawlings. We will play that tape for you now.”

“But—” Joshua tried to object only to be shushed again.

The transcript of the telephone conversation on the tape was displayed on the screen while the audio played two women discussing a drug shipment they had delivered.

“I never saw so much money in my life,” the woman identified as Amber was saying. “Let’s go to Hawaii.”

“Someday, girlfriend, some day,” Vicki said.

Joshua noted that Vicki’s voice sounded younger than Amber’s.

“But there was so much,” Amber argued. “How much was there?”

Vicki answered, “Two hundred thousand.”

“Two hundred thousand?” Amber cursed, “Damn! Let’s move to Hawaii.”

“I only get to keep ten (bleep) percent.”

“How many ways is the cash split?” Amber asked.

“Two. Three, if you count that man they call my father.” Vicki giggled. “But he doesn’t really count because I can usually get him to give me some, if only to shut me up.”

“That’s Wally Rawlings, our prosecutor,” Tad whispered to Joshua, who was watching the report in disbelief.

“Who are the other two?” Amber was asking.

“Aunt Bridgette and Grandfather,” Vicki laughed. “If his congregation only knew that their leader was the biggest (bleep) drug lord in the whole (bleep) valley.”

Joshua looked at Tad with surprise. “Did you know that?”

“It’s common knowledge in drug circles.”

“They’re going to get their butts sued.” Joshua indicated the television station playing the news broadcast.

Tad turned off the set. “It’s also common knowledge that Vicki Rawlings hates her family. Rawlings’ lawyer can make a case that she made it all up and sue the pants off Bauer.”

“How about this Amber? What family is she from?”

“I have no idea. I never heard of her before, and I thought I knew everyone. Most likely some barfly wanting to get her face on television. When Rawlings sees this, she’s going to find out personally the high price for fifteen minutes of fame.” Tad took his empty mug to the sink. “Want some more tea?”

“No thanks.”

Tad washed his mug and the other dishes in the sink. “How are you doing?”

Joshua avoided the real topic about which he was asking. “My back is killing me.”

“That’s old age.”

“It’s not.” Joshua revealed his somber mood. “When is the pain going to go away?”

“It won’t.” Drying his hands on the dishtowel, Tad turned back to him. “It’ll become livable, but it won’t ever go away.”

Joshua sat back in his chair. “I seem to recall you being more help when you drank. At least I liked your advice better then.”

“Hey, blame yourself if you don’t like me this way. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even be here, let alone drinking tea while watching the news.”

“Are you sorry that I dragged you out of that shack and took you to Glenbeigh?”

“No.” Tad grinned at his cousin as he sat across from him. “I never did thank you for that, did I?”

Feeling uneasy in the face of gratitude, Joshua concentrated on an imaginary blemish on the kitchen table’s finish.

In spite of Joshua’s discomfort, Tad continued, “How many men would fly across the country to break into a house, drag a guy out kicking and screaming, and take him to rehab?”

Joshua felt brave enough to ask, “Were you trying to kill yourself?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Life isn’t fair, Josh. You read the Bible, didn’t you?” Before he could answer, Tad told him, “The word ‘fair’ isn’t in there. God never promised that life would be fair. I mean, why is it that a bum like me has some-one like you go out of his way to save him, while a good person like Valerie—?” His voice trailed off.

Both men became lost in their own thoughts.

Joshua changed the topic. “Did you know Lulu Jefferson?”

Tad repeated the question with a naughty tone, “Did I know Lulu Jefferson?” He smiled broadly until Joshua caught the meaning behind his expression.

“Wait a minute. Lulu was Mom’s friend.”

“She was also a good teacher.”

“What kind of teacher?”

“Guitar.” Seeing Joshua’s doubtful expression, Tad went on, “I mean it. She did teach me how to play the guitar…and other things. Let me set it up for you. She was twenty-five with a tiny waist, big breasts, and legs that didn’t stop. I was fifteen and eager to learn.”

“Do you mean that—”

Tad said, “Aunt Claire didn’t know. She would have killed Lulu.” He paused. “Now if they didn’t make an odd pair.”

“Why did they make an odd pair?”

“Lulu played the guitar and knew all the guys. Aunt Claire only dated your dad from the time they were old enough be boyfriend and girlfriend. She dressed more like Laura Petrie than Joey Heatherton, which was how Lulu dressed, but they were the best of friends.”

Tad took a couple cookies from the bag and handed one to Joshua. “Too bad,” he mused before biting into the cookie. “That was so bizarre.”

“What?”

“Lulu and Aunt Claire died separately on the same day.” Tad put his feet back up on the table and pushed his chair so it teetered back on its hind legs.

“How did Lulu die?”

“A drug overdose on the same day your parents were killed in that car accident out West. That was one awful week.” Struck by a realization, Tad asked him, “Why do you want to know about Lulu?”

“I heard the name.”

“You heard the name from whom?”

“Around.” Joshua stood up and stretched. “Thanks for the tea.” He patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Admiral waited for his master to open the door to make his escape from the other dog.

“Want a piece of advice?”

To answer Tad’s question, Joshua stopped at the door and turned around.

“Watch with whom you spread certain names. Reverend Rawlings may be old, but he’s not dead.”

“I said nothing about Reverend Rawlings.”

“Didn’t have to. A mysterious death in Chester? You don’t have to look long before Reverend Rawlings’ name creeps up like a cancer. He didn’t become a drug lord by quoting Jesus.”

Admiral looked longingly up at the unopened door.

Joshua stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “Did Lulu ever mention a dead body to you?”

“Are you talking about the body your folks found on their prom night?”

Joshua whirled back around. “They found a dead body on their prom night?”

“I thought you knew about it,” Tad replied. “You brought it up.”

“All I know is that Mom and Dad found a dead body, and Lulu and a Ricky Pendleton were with them.”

“I didn’t know that. I assumed they were alone.”

“But you know about the body.” Joshua gave up on leaving and leaned against the kitchen counter across from him.

Admiral plopped down onto the floor between them.

“I remember your folks talking about it like once. It really scared them,” Tad said. “Lulu never mentioned it to me at all."

“Because you two didn’t talk that much,” Joshua replied. “How did they come to find a dead body?”

Tad said, “All I know is that it was the night of their senior prom and your folks went to Bosley’s barn to make out—”

“Make out?”

“That wasn’t the way they put it when I was in the room, but I assume they wanted to have sex.”

“I know what making out is. What happened at Bosley’s barn?”

Tad shrugged his shoulders. “They found a dead body. It was a man.”

“Murdered?”

“I don’t know the particulars, but I assume so.”

“Did they know who he was?”

“Never saw him before,” Tad answered. “They went to get the sheriff. Chuck Delaney was the sheriff then. When they came back, the body was gone and the sheriff threatened to arrest them for filing a false police report.” He threw up his hands as a gesture of completing the story, as he knew it. “That’s all I know.”

Joshua squinted. “The body was gone?”

“Yep.”

Joshua asked, “Who’s Ricky Pendleton?”

“Maybe Jill Stewart’s brother. Her maiden name is Pendleton.”