Death By A HoneyBee (29 page)

   
“I hope you’re not asking me to get you out.”

   
Taffy looked sheepishly at me.
 
“I know you think I’m a bad girl.”

   
“I think you were going to harm me is what I think.”
                                                                 

   
“Oh no, that wasn’t the plan,” Taffy said quickly.

   
I put the tape recorder on the table.
 
“Well, before we come to what you want, we are going to do a little horse trading. Tell me what I want to know and then we’ll see if I help you at all.”

   
“That seems fair.
 
I tell you what you want, then you’ll call my mother and talk to her?”

   
“I won’t make that promise.
 
I have to see, but if you don’t answer my questions with the truth, then I won’t do anything at all except try to see that the police keep you here.
 
Where is that nutter friend of yours – Nancy?”

   
“She had some money saved up and paid her bail.
 
She didn’t have enough for me too.”
 
Taffy rubbed her forehead.
 
“She’s the cause of all this mess.
 
I wish I had never met her.”

   
“I just want you to know that I have alerted the Fayette County District Attorney that I am meeting you.
 
If anything happens to my farm while I’m here . . then they will pick up little Miss Nancy again.”
 
It was true that I had told Officer Kelly about this meeting and he agreed to watch my property while I was on my little mission.
 

   
“This is on the up and up, Miss Josiah.
 
I swear.
 
I’ll do what you want.
 
Ask me anything.
 
Just help me with my mother.”
     

   
I turned on the tape recorder.
 
“Why have you been harassing me – the letters, the car accident?”

   
Taffy paled.
 

   
So I was right – she was not denying the letters or the accident.

   
“I don’t know why really.
 
Daddy’s death on your farm. I didn’t understand why he would be there.
 
And there was the incident where you pushed him into a glass case.
 
I can’t explain it.
 
I was just angry. I didn’t really mean any harm. It was Nancy that goaded me into writing the letters,” she gushed.
 

   
“And Brutus is an honorable man,” I quoted sarcastically.

   
“Huh?”

   
“First of all, I did push your father but only after he had pushed me.
 
I don’t take kindly to men bullying women.
 
It makes me mad. But I had nothing to do with your father’s death.
 
I had no idea that he was on my property and that he was in need of any type of medical assistance.
 
Had I known, I would have tried to help him.
 
To that, I will swear on the Bible.
 
I had nothing to do with your daddy’s death.”

   
“Nancy said you had to have something to do with it and that you were getting away with it because you’re rich and your daughter has connections.”

   
“Let’s leave my daughter out of this.
 
Nancy is wrong.
 
It wasn’t me.”

   
“Oh.”

   
“Why did you use a typewriter?”

   
“The printer for my laptop was broken so I used Daddy’s old typewriter.”
    

   
“What is your relationship with Nurse Nancy?”
 

   
Taffy shrugged.
 
“She’s into chicks.”

   
“Are you?”

   
“Not really, but I was between boyfriends . . . and I thought – what the hell.
 
I was willing to experiment.”

   
“How has it been?”

   
“At first, it was good.”
 
She grinned.
 
“And the sex wasn’t too difficult to get used to.
 
In fact, it was fun but she is so bossy.
 
Nancy has all these weird ideas about people.
 
She had been pushed around a lot between foster homes and such when she was little, so she hates anyone who has it better.
 
I’m not like that.”
     

   
“So from what you are telling me, all these ideas were from Nancy, and you went along with them?” I asked to clarify.
 
I was going to point out that Nancy was old enough to be her mother but I am sure that Tellie had already had this conversation with Taffy.

   
“I couldn’t say no to her.
 
There was no point.
 
She’d just keep badgering me until I gave in,”
 
Taffy pouted.

   
“Did it ever occur to you to talk to me?”

   
“No, I’m sorry.
 
Now I know I should have.”
 

   
“Those letters you sent about my husband were hurtful.

 
They also kept the cops on my ass.”
      

   
“That’s how Nancy knew you.
 
She said she was a nurse

when your husband was sick and you were so mean to him that you caused him to die.
 
She was so sure you had something to do with Daddy’s death too.”

   
“My husband died from a coronary episode which stemmed from heart disease.
 
Did she tell you that he had a mistress who led him to desert his daughter and me?”
 

   
“She didn’t put it that way.”

   
“Of course not, it depends on whose viewpoint you take.
 
He never thought of the pain he was causing his wife and daughter.
 
He just cared about his new squeeze.
 
Let’s not waste time on my late husband.
 
So far, I’ve got that you were having an affair with Nancy Wasser because you were bored and she talked you into believing that I had something to do with your father’s death.
 
Does that get it?”

   
Taffy nodded, her cheeks a hot pink.

   
“Say yes or no.”

   
“I would say that sounds about right.”

   
“That the two of you conspired to write letters to the police and to myself accusing me of killing your father and my husband?”
                                                                                                                                    

   
“I didn’t think it would really do you harm,” whined Taffy.
 
“I just wanted the police to investigate, just to be sure, you know.”
 

   
“Why the old English in the last letter?”

   
“Nancy thought it would throw suspicion off from us.
 
That’s all.”

   
“And that the two of you thought it was okay to push me to the brink of death by driving my Mercedes off the road after the Harvest Ball.”

   
“I had nothing to do with that.”
  

   
“Did Nancy?”

   
“No.”

   
“The two of you had nothing to do with chasing me down on Ironworks Pike and forcing my car into a fence?”

 
  
“No!”

   
“How do you know Nancy didn’t?
 
How do you explain the fact that her car has a dent in the front?” I lied.

   
“We were at the ball together.
 
You saw us.
 
She never went after you.”

   
“Were you two together the entire night after Matt and I left?”

   
Taffy looked at the guard and mouthed that she wanted to leave.
 
I grabbed her hand.

   
“Answer me, Taffy, or I will not help you with your mother.”

   
The guard shifted his feet while placing his hand on his pepper spray.
 
He shook his head at me.
 
I pulled my hand away.

   
“Well, we were going to leave too. She said she had to go to the bathroom and then she was going to get the car.”

   
“Whose car?”

   
“My Mom’s.
 
She was using our new car that night and I was to use her old one.”

   
“She was using the Prius?”
   

   
“Yes.”

   
“Okay, so you were using your mom’s old car, the Suburban.
 
Was Nancy gone a long time?”

   
“She said she had trouble finding the bathroom. The line was long so she decided to warm the car up for me and drive it closer to the front door and then went to use the bathroom.”

   
“That didn’t seem odd to you?”

   
“No, she could be thoughtful like that.”

   
“Did your mother’s car have any scratches or dents?”

   
“Never looked.”
 

   
“Your mother say anything?”

   
“No, except that she didn’t want me to see Nancy no more.
  
She warned me that Nancy was no good and would get me into trouble.”
 
Taffy started to sniffle.
 
“She was right.
 
Look where I am.”

   
“Okay.
 
Let’s go back. Nancy went to the bathroom, got lost and then went to get the car, letting it warm up.
 
So she was gone fifteen to twenty-five minutes,” I said, putting the pieces together.

   
“Yeah.”

   
“Or even thirty minutes?”

   
“I dunno.
 
I wasn’t watching the clock.”

   
“Could she have been gone thirty minutes?”

   
“Maybe.”

   
“What about coming to my house with a gas can and duct tape?”

   
“What was just a prank really to get you back for the way you and Matt treated us at the ball.
 
Nancy said you insulted us and then you took off with our drink glasses.
 
Nancy didn’t like that.
 
At the most, I thought we’d set some shed on fire.”
 

   
“Whose idea was it to bring the duct tape?”