Authors: Jude Pittman
“Did you recognize the guy she was talking about?” Gus asked as they walked back to the car.
“Bubba. But if you think he had anything to do with strangling Anna, you can forget it. Bubba’s one of those guys who wears guilt plastered all over his face. I’ve talked to him and if he was hiding something about Anna’s murder, I’d damn sure have got a sense of that.”
“Greed does strange things to people,” Gus said. “We’re already checking him out anyway. One of your Creek people told us Bubba had a falling out with Anna over some fish camp he wanted to buy.”
“Frank Perkins,” Kelly snarled. “If there’s any shit to start you can always count on Frank. Sure, Bubba and Anna were talking about buying a fish camp and apparently they had words about it but that was just booze talk. Anna was temperamental when she got to drinking and Bubba knew it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Gus pulled his car up beside Old Blue and turned to face Kelly. “I’m running a check on everybody out there, especially the ones who were hanging around the Hideaway that night. If I come up with anything, I’ll give you a call. In the meantime, keep your ears open and let me know what you hear.”
“Will do,” Kelly said. “And thanks for the ribs. Next time, they’ll be on me.”
It was after ten when Kelly reached Indian Creek but he knew Cam would be waiting for news, so he stopped at the Hideaway. The bar was empty, except for Leroy and Marty at their usual table playing cribbage. Kelly sat on a bar stool and Cam reached in the cooler for a Budweiser.
“Anything new?”
“Gus found the mystery woman.” Kelly propped his arms on the counter. “She wasn’t much help though.”
“I see.” Cam’s face dropped.
“It’s not hopeless. She gave us a couple of leads I’m going to follow up. That’s more than I had before I went there. Krystal—that’s her name—is Anna’s daughter and from what she had to say, I’ve an idea that Anna’s past could stand some looking into.”
“I’ll be damned.” Cam’s eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelief. “I never figgered Anna for having a kid. How come she never came around before?”
“Seems Anna took off when Krystal was seven and left her with her grandmother. Krystal hired a detective a couple weeks ago and he tracked Anna down.”
Cam
frowned. “There was a fella named Boscon nosing around out here. He claimed to be writing a story for some fishing magazine. I wondered about him at the time. He asked a lot of questions and most of them had nothing to do with fishing.”
“That’s the guy. He told Krystal about Anna’s stall at the flea market and she came out to look. She was waiting for a chance to talk to Anna when Bubba showed up with a bottle of whiskey.”
Cam
grinned. “Sounds like Bubba.”
“Yep! You know how Anna was. She tipped the bottle right there in her stall and started guzzling. Seems Krystal snapped when she saw that. She tried to grab the bottle and fell into Anna’s chair.”
“Do you believe her?” Doubt registered in Cam’s dark eyes and his unsmiling face showed the strain he was under.
Kelly nodded. “Yeah. Her story pretty much jives with what I saw. It’s her family situation that’s got me curious. Apparently, Krystal has always wondered what happened to her mother but nobody in the family would talk about it. All she knows is that her father committed suicide and her mother disappeared the same night.”
“Sounds like a can of worms.”
“It’s got a nasty smell all right,” Kelly agreed.
“I’m planning to dig around a bit into Anna’s past and I think I’ll start with her husband’s suicide.”
“Maybe Anna killed him.”
Kelly shook his head. “I doubt it. The police are damn good and thorough when one of the rich crowd commits suicide. What I can’t figure is why Anna walked out on his estate the way she did.”
“That doesn’t sound like Anna.”
“That’s what I mean. She was tight about money. I’d have expected her to fight like a tiger to hold onto what was hers.”
“I always had a feeling there was something strange about Anna moving here.”
“What do you mean strange?” Kelly frowned, waiting for Cam to explain himself.
“You weren’t around when she first came to the Creek.” Cam shook his head, his eyes thoughtful, digging back into memory. “She was a real looker then. Lots of class. Most of us thought she was running away from a bad marriage. Funny! I knew her damn near eighteen years and she never talked about her past.”
“Anna knew how to keep her mouth shut.” Kelly set his beer can back on the counter. “I’m going to call it a night now but don’t give up hope. I’ve offered to meet with Krystal and tell her what I know about Anna. She seemed to like the idea, so hopefully we can get together.”
Chapter Nine
First thing Wednesday morning, Kelly called Krystal’s number. She readily accepted his invitation to dinner and after hanging up the phone, he turned to Jake and grinned. “Looks like I’ve got me a date,” he said, reaching down to rub the dog’s ears. “I wonder where I ought to take her. Maybe Martini’s out on the lake. They’ve got a great view and the tables are set up nice. The food’s good too.”
Jake shoved his head against Kelly’s leg reminding him to continue scratching and Kelly laughed. “You’d pay more attention if it was a female shepherd I was talking about, wouldn’t you, boy? I’ll give Martini’s a call, then we’ll go for a walk.”
Kelly still hadn’t caught up with Frank and he still wanted to talk to him, even if it was just to confirm the worst.
There was a crisp chill in the air and they set a fast pace toward the Hideaway. “Gets your circulation going, doesn’t it?” he teased Jake as they loped up the hill.
The grass along the roadside had faded to brown and the trees were all decked out in their fall finery. A couple of pickups honked as they passed and Kelly waved. At the top of the hill, a car pulled up beside them and stopped.
“Getting your exercise?” Gus leaned his head out the window.
“Good for the paunch.” Kelly grinned and patted his stomach. “What are you doing out this way?”
“One of the boys searching Anna’s cabin turned up a metal box that looks like it’s been rifled. I’m going over to take a look. You want to come along?”
“You bet.” Kelly walked around the car and opened the passenger door. “Okay if Jake rides?”
“Sure. Let him in.” Gus motioned to the back seat.
“Was there any sign of a break-in?” Kelly asked.
“Nope. Whoever did it was real good or had a key. Know any possibilities?” Gus took his eyes off the road and gave Kelly a sharp glance.
“Well, Bubba of course but I can’t see him searching her cabin. Maybe she left the door unlocked. That’s not uncommon out here.”
“Could be but it still gives me one more reason to have a little talk with your friend Bubba.”
“Why don’t you let me talk to him? Bubba’s always been straight with me. If he knows anything, I’ll let you know and you can pull him in for an official grilling.”
“I dunno. I’ll think about it. First let’s take a look inside. Maybe you’ll notice something that doesn’t fit. You’ve been inside before, haven’t you?” Gus pulled up in front of a small pine slab cabin. The front door stood open, a deputy framing the doorway.
“Sure, I’ve been inside but I never paid much attention to what she had in the place.”
“Howdy, Fred,” Gus acknowledged the deputy. “Where’s the box?”
“Over here, sir.” The deputy led them into a small, wood-paneled bedroom. The bed had been shoved aside and a floorboard pried up, leaving a hole in the floor. A green metal ammunition box was on the floor next to the hole. “You can see the lock’s been pried off.” Fred pointed to a small padlock hanging, still locked, on the frontispiece of the box. “Looks like somebody used a pry bar on it.”
“What’s this stuff?” Gus indicated a pile of papers stacked alongside the box.
“The thick one’s her will. The rest of it’s all financial stuff—stock reports, bonds, the works. There’s a couple of bank statements too and wait’ll you get a load of the balances on them suckers.”
“Have the lab boys finished going over the place?”
“Yep. They wrapped it up just before I called you.”
“Okay. I’ll take things from here. You and Mike head back in. I’ll bring the papers along when I’m done.”
Gus picked up a thick envelope that bore the words ‘Last Will and Testament.’ He removed the document and crouched on the floor scanning the pages.
“Take a look at this.” He handed the will to Kelly. “Except for a couple of bequests, she’s left the whole lot to Krystal. Of course, since we know she’s the daughter, that’s natural enough but read the third paragraph.”
Kelly scanned the page to find the passage Gus had indicated. “In the event that my said daughter, Krystal Marie Davis, is not living at the time of my death, or is prevented for any reason whatsoever from claiming the proceeds of my estate, I designate my good friend and companion, James Bubba Tate, to be the recipient of the residue of my estate.”
“I don’t see anything odd about that.” Kelly handed the document back to Gus. “Bubba and Anna had been together a long time.”
“It looks like she left a nice chunk of change.” Gus swept his arm across the stack of papers spread out on the floor.
“Yeah, well, there’s always been talk about Anna having money hidden away out here. I knew she was smarter than that.” Kelly picked up one of the passbooks. “It seems she was a pretty shrewd investor.”
“I wonder if Bubba was aware of that passage.”
“What difference does it make?” Kelly shrugged. “Krystal’s very much alive and she gets the bundle. Now if Krystal had been murdered, you might be justified in wondering about Bubba.”
“Providing nothing happens to Krystal between now and when they probate the estate.”
“Horse shit,” Kelly grumbled.
Gus let out a chuckle, then folded the will and put it back in the envelope. “Don’t get your tail in a knot,” he said. “I’m just looking at all the angles. I’ll tell you something I am wondering about. I don’t see any sign of that note your friend Cam was so het up about. That strikes me as odd. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to find with the rest of this stuff. You got any ideas?”
“I don’t know.” Kelly frowned. “Maybe Bill Shipton’s got it. Do you want me to ask Cam?”
“No. You stay away from him. I’ll take care of that end. Go have a talk with Bubba. Find out what he knows about this will and that scarf. I’m going to dig around here awhile. I’ll get back to you later tonight or in the morning.”
“Okay. If it’s tonight, you’ll have to leave a message on the machine. I’ve got a dinner date with Krystal.”
“Didn’t waste any time did you?”
Kelly blushed. “She’s a nice kid and I want to find out a little more about the Davis clan and what happened between them and Anna.”
“Just watch your step. The Davises are in a position to cause me a few headaches and I don’t need that right now.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t cause any flack. I’ll slip a few pointed questions into the conversation and watch her reaction. If she gets skittish, I’ll back off.”
“See that you do. Now get the hell out of here and let me do some work.”