Hard Hat Man (26 page)

I screamed at him in my grief and anger.
‘
What happened?
’

‘
I found her fornicating with that man in the barn and I killed him. She fought me and swore at me, then ran, so I had to kill her, too, or she’d have told on me. It’s her own fault for sinning like that. She deserved to die for her sins.
’

I screamed,
‘
And you should die for killing them. I’ll tell the sheriff.
’

He said,
‘
If you do, they’ll put me in jail and you’ll lose this farm. We owe too much on it to sell it and you’ll have no place to live and no income.
’

‘
I don’t care,
’
I told him.
‘
You deserve to be punished.
’

‘
If you tell, my church friends will punish you as well.
They’ll protect me and their church members.
’

‘
She’s dead and buried with her lover.
I got Alex Porter to help me bury them where no one will ever find their bodies.
I’ll tell everyone she ran away
and
eloped with h
er lover
. They’ll believe it and everything will go on as it has.

‘
Remember the Bible says you must obey your husband
’
.

So I kept silent. I sit in Nancy’s room and cry for her. I changed
her room
back
as it was in
the days when she was a happy and obedient child, not a rebellious teenager, so I can remember the good days.

But I can’t continue living like this. I still have some of my dad’s heart medicine. When I took care of him before he died, his doctor warned me not to give him too much, or he would die from the overdose. So I have a way out and I must take it. I can’t stand living with Horace anymore, knowing he killed my only child.

May God forgive him, because I can’t.

***

The oven timer buzzed, bringing
Jan
out of
her
shock.
She
rose
,
turned the oven off and took out the muffins.

Kyle appeared, his hair still damp from the shower. “Something smells delicious!”

Jan looked up. “Oh, you’re up. I’d planned to make eggs and bacon, too.”

“What’s the matter? You’re pale as a ghost. Your ghost didn’t follow us here, did she?”

Jan nodded and poured him a cup of coffee. “I didn’t see her
ghost
, but I found a message
E
s
t
he
r
left before she died.” She pointed to the notebook. “Read this.”

She put some muffins on plates, got the butter from the refrigerator, then sat
and ate a muffin
while he read it.

Kyle face held shock as he read Esther’s words.
“
No wonder Alex didn’t want us to build here. He knew we’d take down the silo and find the bodies. He probably knew Esther would have left some evidence somewhere, too. He’s probably the one who searched the house looking for anything she might have left. And when he didn’t find anything, he set the house on fire, not even caring that we were inside.”

Jan nodded. “I need to take this to Sheriff Casey.”

“Definitely. I’ll go with you. I don’t want anything to happen to you or the evidence before the sheriff gets it.”

***

They
got into Kyle’s truck,
drove into town without incident
,
and strode into the sheriff’s office. A deputy sat at the front office. When they asked to see the sheriff and said it was in regard to the old murder cases, she buzzed him on the intercom and announced them.

“Send them right on in,” Casey said.

Casey sat at his large, messy desk, but rose to shake hands. “
Have a seat.
What have you got
for me
?”

“I found this in Esther’s recipe book,” Jan said. She opened the grocery bag she’d hidden the book in and laid it on the sheriff’s desk, open
ing it
to the page where Esther had written about Nancy’s murder.

“It’s in my aunt’s handwriting,” she said. “And I’m sure she wrote it in her recipe notebook because she was quite sure Horace would never think to look there. He didn’t ever use a recipe, barely cooked at all.”

Casey frowned, reading Esther’s letter. Then he
took it to his copy machine and made several copies of the pages, handing one back to Jan. Putting a copy into a drawer, he said, “
We picked up Alex last night. The dogs followed his scent from the gas can, through the woods to his farm and we brought him in, so he’s in my cell here now, but he wouldn’t say anything.
Let’s see what
he
has to say about this. Maybe
seeing Esther’s words wi
ll make him talk.”

He buzzed the deputy. “Bring Alex in here. With cuffs.”

“She also says she planned to commit suicide,” Jan said. “So that’s how she could write the date of her own death in their family Bible.”

Casey nodded. “Yeah. And that explains why she died so suddenly when no one thought she’d had heart trouble.”

She sighed. “And we were right to think she died of a broken heart.”

Jan rose to leave, but Casey held up his hand. “Not sure if it’s proper or not, but I’d like you both to hear what
Al
e
x
says about this. I’ll tape it, too. He pressed a button as the deputy appeared at the door with Alex.
She closed the door and leaned against it, watching them.

Alex glared at them and the sheriff, but
dr
opped down into the chair Casey indicated. His
wide
face held bruises
the deputy
had given him the night before
when he’d resisted arrest
. “I’ll get you for false arrest, Casey,” he blustered. “I ain’t saying nothing.”

“Fine,” Casey said. “I want you to read this.”

“Read what?”

“Esther wrote this interesting story about the night Nancy disappeared.”

Alex paled under the purple bruises. “What did she say? She didn’t see nothing.”

“No? What was there for her to
not
see, Alex?” Casey asked.

“Nothing. She
was
just a hysterical woman. Always objecting to our church stuff and the time and money Horace gave to it.
Never even came to the services.
She hated anything we did, so she’d make up anything to get back at us
for the money Horace gave us
.”

“
Read this,” Casey repeated, shoving the book
across his desk,
closer to him.

Alex
leaned over the desk,
looked down at the book and read, going paler by the minute. When he got to his name, he shouted, “It’s a lie! I didn’t have nothing to do with killing them. Horace did it. He just came to me for help afterward. Said he caught them in the act in the barn and killed
the
man. He was one of those transients
w
h
o
were building the silo. H
orac
e couldn’t stand the idea that his only daughter would
go against
his teachings. After all his sermons about staying pure until marriage, she goes and sins with this tramp! She deserved to die.”

“So you knew about the murder, but didn’t report it?” Casey asked.

“What could I do? They were already dead. Horace was our church’s main supporter. He even mortgaged his farm to keep the church going. We couldn’t lose him over something like that, not when their sin caused it in the first place.” He sank back into the wooden chair with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. Tears rolled down his bruised cheeks and he sniffed and raised a shoulder, trying to wipe his nose. With his hands cuffed behind his back, he couldn’t succeed.

“So you helped bury them in the silo pit?” Casey asked.

Alex
jerked his head in a
nod. “The foundation was all in and they were about to pour the cement floor the next day, so we figured no one would ever find them under there. Then this nut
—” he glared at Kyle, “had to get the bright idea of taking out the silo and digging in a swimming pool.
Bring out all those city people.
”

“So you knew when they removed the silo, they’d find the bodies and so you tried to stop his project with your dirty tricks?” Casey asked.

Alex dropped his head on his chest and nodded.

Casey
pointed at the tape recorder and
said, “I’ll
have this
type
d
up and you can sign it, okay?”

Alex nodded
again
.

Casey glanced at the deputy. “Take him back to his cell for now.”

Alex
raised his big head and
looked at Casey. “What’ll
you
charge
me
with?”

Casey sent him a disgusted glare.
“I haven’t decided, yet. Everything I can make stick, that’s for sure. Arson and attempted murder in the house fire, since Kyle and Jan were inside the house and you knew it.”

Alex swallowed hard, but obeyed the deputy
as she urged him up,
and rose to leave. “And for burying the bodies?”