A Seamless Murder (13 page)

“He disappears,” Todd said. “He doesn’t like to be here.”

I thought back to the tag sale that morning.
Anson can barely get through the day without her
, Coco had said.
He isn’t showing up to work. He’s standing up clients. That’s what happens after so many years of marriage, do you know? There are good times and bad times, but you’re more of a unit than you’re not, and when the unit is ripped apart, well, what do you do?

I hadn’t really thought of marriage in quite those terms, but she was right. Mama and Hoss McClaine had been hitched only a few months, but they were like peas and carrots. I could hardly remember what Mama was like before she had Hoss, and I was pretty sure she couldn’t, either. The Mobleys weren’t wealthy and didn’t have a lake house in Granbury or a second residence anywhere that I’d ever heard of. “Where does he go off to?” I asked.

Todd shrugged. “No idea.”

“Does he have a friend he can lean on?” I thought about my conversation with Jeremy Lisle. Even if it were true that Anson was having an affair—and right now there was no proof that he was—he was still mourning the loss of his wife. “Someone who maybe y’all don’t know about, perhaps?”

Jessie Pearl considered me for a good long beat, and then blew a burst of air through her lips. “Now why in heaven’s name would you say that?”

I felt my cheeks turn warm. “Just a thought.”

Jessie Pearl considered me, her lips thin and tight. Right now it looked as if she were ready to shut down. “You know, don’t you?”

The color drained from Megan’s face. “Know what? What does she know?”

I cursed under my breath. Had I been that transparent? Jessie Pearl was a perceptive old woman, and she called things as she saw them. She was a lot like Meemaw in that respect. “I heard someone say that your dad might have been having an affair,” I finally said.

Jessie Pearl nodded, her eyes narrowing, but I got the feeling I’d at least earned a new measure of respect in her eyes for being straightforward.

But Megan drew in a sharp breath. “No, he’s not—”

“Let’s listen to what she heard,” Jessie Pearl said, shushing Megan with her hand. “The sheriff is on his way, remember? It’ll all come out in the wash, anyway.”

Megan closed her mouth, swallowing whatever she’d been about to say. “How did you find out?” she asked after a beat.

I didn’t want to say that Pastor Kyle had told Jeremy who’d told me, so instead of giving her a straight answer, I
asked my own question. “I heard she hired someone to follow your dad. Did you know that?”

I didn’t know if my theory was true, but if she’d hired someone to follow Jeremy Lisle, why not do the same to learn the truth about her husband—assuming she’d suspected? I’d planted the seed. Now I just needed to see if it would take root.

Todd shook his head and started to say no, but once again Jessie Pearl beat everyone to the punch. “She most certainly did. Probably as short, bald, and stocky as the day is long, but I guess he’d be good at his job.”

She said it as if most short, bald, stocky men weren’t. “What did he find out, exactly?” I prodded.

“Not much, unfortunately, but she gave the whole kit ’n’ caboodle to Todd.” Jessie Pearl rolled her eyes. “Said she couldn’t stand to look at it for one more second.”

I didn’t blame Delta for not wanting to have the file to look at. It would be akin to having a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer, calling to you. How could you not succumb and take a bite? Or eat the whole thing? Or in the case of Delta, read and reread the report about her husband’s infidelity? Giving it to Megan wasn’t an option. What mother would burden her daughter with that kind of evidence about her father? Giving it to Jessie Pearl was out, too. More fodder for her to hate her son-in-law. No, Todd was the logical choice. He was one step removed from the family, so he was safe.

“I thought about burning it,” Todd said. “Or taking anything incriminating out to protect them.”

“But there wasn’t much there,” Megan said.

My heart raced with excitement. “So you still have it?”

I looked at each of them in turn. Megan fought back tears,
her chin quivering. Todd was beaten down, as if he couldn’t believe he was mixed up in such a sordid tale, and Jessie Pearl looked triumphant, as if she’d just won a bet. “Todd, go on and get it.”

“It’s private,” he said, lacing his fingers together and staying put. “Personal family business.”

“Harlow’s involved, and if she can help figure out what happened to Delta, then we can’t hold anything back. We all know Harlow has a gift for crime solving,” she said, shooting me a quick conspiratorial look, “and if the report can help her, then who are we to hide our dirty laundry? We need to hand it over to the sheriff, too. Should’ve already done that, don’t y’all think?”

Megan turned her back on us, leaning close to Jessie Pearl. “Do we have to?”

“Yes,” I said. “Definitely. If it’ll help them, they need to see it.”

“But the report is inconclusive,” she said between sobs. “It doesn’t actually prove Daddy’s seeing anyone.”

“Megan, I know this is hard,” I said, “but if he is, and if your mother found out, do you think he could have killed her?” I asked, cutting to the chase.

Megan let out a loud, angry sob. “No!”

Jessie Pearl sighed. “Megs, I’ve lived a lot of years, and one thing I’ve learned is that people can snap. If she pushed him too far, who knows?” She looked at Todd. “Go on. Get the report.”

He hesitated, but finally got up and headed down the hall to the bedrooms.

“I told him to hide it,” Megan said to me after Todd had been gone a few minutes. She’d dried her tears, but from where
I sat, it looked like she’d break down again any second. “I didn’t want it just lying around, you know?”

“It could be evidence,” I said. “The sheriff might be able to get to the truth if he has more information.”

“But it doesn’t prove anything one way or another,” Megan said.

“Are you sure?” I laid my hand on hers and tried to reason with her. She didn’t want her father to be guilty, but I agreed with Jessie Pearl. People didn’t always behave rationally. “Don’t you want to know the truth, whatever it is?”

Before she could answer, the doorbell rang. Jessie Pearl nodded to Megan, who jumped up, looking relieved to escape answering my question. She scurried off to the front of the house, returning a moment later with Sheriff McClaine and his son, Gavin, the deputy sheriff, in tow. “Evenin’, y’all,” Hoss said, tipping his white cowboy hat. He looked at Mama, and I could have sworn he winked, but it happened so fast that I wondered if I’d imagined it.

He gave a slow nod to Jessie Pearl, in particular. “Ma’am.”

Jessie Pearl dipped her chin in return. “Sheriff.”

Hoss McClaine, with his salt-and-pepper soul patch and iron gray hair, was as weathered a lawman as you were likely to find in Texas. He looked like he’d just as easily wrangle a mess of wild horses as catch a posse of bad guys in Bliss. He sat down next to Jessie Pearl and got right to it, looking at the messages I’d pulled out of the figurines. “What would have possessed your daughter to hide these?” he asked her. “The likelihood of them being found by someone who might think they’re important was slim.”

Jessie Pearl shrugged. “And yet, they
were
found . . . right here in this house, just days after Delta’s murder.”

“You’re right about that, ma’am. Still, not a surefire way to communicate something.”

“Isn’t it? Sheriff,” I said, addressing him formally, since this wasn’t our family gathering. “The family wrote notes to each other, and donating these figurines meant someone would be examining them. I think it’s a great way for the notes to have been found.”

“She’s right about the note writing. Mother still does it,” Megan said before catching herself. “I mean, she still did it up until . . .”

“It’s okay, darlin’,” Jessie Pearl said, patting Megan’s hand. “What she means is that Delta never stopped. She left notes for Megs all the time.”

“Do you have any of them?” the deputy asked.

She nodded. “Do you want me to get them?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Gavin said. “You can bring them to me.”

I hid a smile. Gavin would never abide my being involved in crime solving in Bliss. He saw it as an intrusion into his domain, and I didn’t disagree. But I wouldn’t say no to a friend—not if I could help. By now, he knew that about me, too.

Todd returned just as Megan went to get the notes her mother had left her. He clutched a goldenrod envelope in his hand, stopping short as he reentered the kitchen, looking unsure of where to go with the investigator’s report.

“Mr. Bettincourt,” Hoss said, nodding at Todd.

“Sheriff.”

Hoss nodded to the envelope. “What d’ya have there?”

Todd hesitated, looking to Jessie Pearl for help. She jerked her head toward Hoss. “Hand it over, son.”

I had the feeling that, just like Meemaw, whatever Jessie
Pearl wanted, she got. I suddenly saw where Delta may have gotten her straightforward mentality. Jessie Pearl might look frail, but they were two strong personalities.

As Hoss took the envelope, I was able to catch a glimpse of a company logo in the upper right-hand corner. Boyd Investigations. I couldn’t make out the address, but with the company’s name, I’d be able to find it and dig a little deeper into what had been in Delta’s mind when she’d hired them.

At least I hoped I could.

“What’s this?” Hoss asked as he slid the report from the envelope and perused it. He had only one speed: slow.

Megan spoke up, anger tingeing her voice. “My mother hired this Boyd guy to follow my dad. It’s all right there,” she said, nodding at the file in his hand.

I angled my neck, stretching to see what Hoss was looking at. It was a typed document with random dates, times, and what I presumed were Anson’s actions.

“I never would have guessed that he had it in him,” Jessie Pearl said with a frown. “He was sly, I’ll give him that.”

Hoss pulled out a handful of photos, taking in the details in each picture. I was able to catch glimpses of a few. His Jeep at what looked to be a hotel. The same car parked in front of the church tag sale tent, and at a few other locations around Bliss, but not a single one showing a woman he might have cheated on Delta with. “No idea who he might have been cavorting with?” Hoss asked.

Megan, Todd, and Jessie Pearl all shook their heads. “Delta die—was kill—” Jessie Pearl broke off, collecting herself. “She fired the investigator just before she passed, so she never got a name,” she finally said. “Guess she decided she didn’t want one.”

“How’d she know there was an affair in the first place?” I asked, ignoring Gavin’s low, guttural growl.

They looked at each other, but none of them seemed to have the answer to that. Megan shrugged. “She didn’t ever say. I was making cookies, and she just walked into the kitchen and dropped the envelope on the table. She started muttering about Auntie Coco and Auntie Sherri. She said she wasn’t going to be made a fool, and then she told me that he couldn’t be trusted. She said to give it to Todd.”

“And that’s what you did?” Gavin asked.

“My mother left, and I called Todd. I was afraid to look at what was in the envelope until he was with me.”

“I was at the church doing some projects in the garden, but I came right home when Megs called. I looked at it all first, and then we sat around the table—pretty shocked, I must say.”

“Speechless,” Megan said, reaching toward Todd.

“She came back then, and I asked her what she was going to do about Anson,” Jessie Pearl said. “She looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and then she laughed and said,
Anson? Bah. I’ve got bigger fish to fry
.”

Jessie Pearl looked to Megan and Todd, who were both nodding. “That’s exactly what she said,” Megan confirmed. “
Bigger fish to fry.
Whatever that meant.”

“That was the night you left her apron on the front porch,” Jessie Pearl said to me, “and the next morning, her body was found.”

“Your dad still lives here?” I asked. They were a family of SUVs, and I saw him pretty regularly pulling in and out of the driveway in his Jeep, but rarely saw him out in the yard.

Megan nodded, but Todd answered. “They didn’t talk
much. At least not since I’ve been part of the family. I wouldn’t say it was a very good marriage.”

Megan glared at him. He threw his hands up defensively. “It’s true, babe.”

I pondered this. Despite whatever their marriage had become, presumably they’d loved each other once upon a time, but if Delta and Anson’s marriage was on the rocks, why would she hire a private investigator to catch him in an affair? There seemed to be one of two reasons. Either she still loved him and desperately wanted to be wrong, or she wanted to use the information against him in a divorce.

I looked on as Hoss flipped through the stack of glossies. Had Delta seen something in these pictures to clue her in to the mystery woman Anson Mobley had been with?

The close-ups of the car obliterated any excess scenery. The next set showed the Jeep at a distance. In one, a hotel sign was clearly visible. Had Anson just left, was he arriving, or was he just passing by? There was no way to know. In another, just on the edge of the frame, was a flash of white. Beyond the car was a blur of trees and a dark brown barn that looked like any other barn across North Central Texas. It was nondescript and didn’t give a single clue about where the picture might have been taken. The next shot showed the back of the car as it drove through the square in town, the back of Anson’s head above the seat back. I peered, looking more closely, gasping suddenly. “Look,” I said, pointing at the picture. “Right there through the window, do you think that could be a
red hat
?”

Hoss held it up close to examine it, then handed it off to Todd. “I don’t know. It’s pretty hard to tell.”

Megan looked over his shoulder, her eyes narrowing to
slits. “It might be, though. In fact, it kind of looks like
hers.
” She thrust the picture at Jessie Pearl. “Doesn’t it?”

“You mean Delta’s?” I asked.

Megan nodded. “’Course they all sort of look the same. Red. Feathers or flowers. But, I don’t know, there’s something . . .”