Sunflower Street Page 3

Hannah took out her phone and tapped the shortcut for 911.

  “There’s been a murder,” Hannah said into the phone, and then gave the address.

  “Why would you say she was murdered?” Jillian asked when she completed the call.

  She was making a big show of being upset, but Hannah noticed her eyes were dry.

  “Because of the dogs,” Hannah said. “Gigi loved these dogs; she would never leave them outside unattended, and they would never leave her side. Someone else accidently let them out when they left or put them out on purpose.”

  “Eugene,” Jillian said.

  “Don’t be silly,” Hannah said. “Eugene wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “I’m not so sure,” Jillian said, and then turned a meaningful look toward the women in the hallway.

  “Everybody should go downstairs and wait in one room until the police get here,” Hannah said. “I’ll guard the crime scene.”

  Ava led a protesting Jillian out of the room and all the ladies went downstairs. Hannah could hear Gwyneth complaining as she went.

  “I don’t see why we all have to stay here. We’re not witnesses to anything. I’m going home. The police can call me if they want to ask me anything.”

  Hannah made a quick survey of the area. There was a basket on the bed, filled to the brim with folded towels. Gigi’s ivory silk robe was draped across the foot of the bed, and there were damp towels draped over a towel bar in the bathroom. All the drawers in the bathroom vanity were pulled open, as if someone had gone through them. In the huge walk-in closet, all Gigi’s handbags were on the floor in a pile, as if someone had gone through them, as well.

  It looked as if Gigi might have surprised a burglar, but what had caused the allergic reaction?

  Back in the bedroom, she looked at Gigi’s body. She was dressed in a pale blue linen suit jacket and skirt, with a white silk blouse tied at the neck. Around her neck hung a double rope of pearls, and she wore pearl earrings to match. She was wearing stockings, like the older ladies still did, but her shoes were sitting neatly paired by the seat to her vanity, as if she had taken them off there or set them there to put on before she left the room.

  Looking closely, Hannah could see more red welts on Gigi’s lower legs.

  There were tubes and cases of make-up out on the vanity top. Hannah looked at Gigi’s face, which, although swollen, was neatly made up. Her lipstick was on but the lower lip was missing a crescent of pink. Hannah looked for a cup that would have the missing pink crescent on it. She found a fine china saucer, painted in a delicate floral pattern, on the floor by the vanity, but no matching cup.

  “Aha,” she said. “Where is that cup?”

  She crawled around on the floor, flipped the bed skirt up, and stuck her head under there, using the flashlight setting on her cell phone to look around. When the little dogs started yapping furiously, Hannah backed out from under the bed skirt.

  “Find anything interesting?”

  Rose Hill Chief of Police Scott Gordon was standing in the doorway.

  Hannah got up and explained what she was looking for and why. Scott bent down to look at Gigi’s face, checked her pulse just as Hannah had, and then looked back up at Hannah.

  “Sarah’s on her way,” he said. “Go downstairs and keep an eye on all the suspects.”

  “They were all locked out of the house together when I got here,” Hannah said. “I could start the questioning for you. Jillian was the only one alone with the body; I’ll start with her.”

  “Just please go downstairs and at least act like I have some sort of control over this crime scene,” Scott said. “Leave the questioning to Sarah.”

  “Yes, sir,” Hannah said, as she clicked her heels together and saluted.

  As she pivoted on her heel to go, Scott said, “Good detective work, Hannah. I think you’re right about the lipstick and the cup.”

  “Thanks, man,” Hannah said. “I left Sammy at the library with Dottie; I’ll just call her and tell her it’ll be a little while.”

  “Could you take these dogs with you?”

  Hannah scooped them up and put one under each arm.

  “Poor little orphans,” she said. “Come along with Auntie Hannah to the kitchen and we’ll find some expensive appetizers to feed you and me.”

  Downstairs, Jillian and Candace were in the dining room, whispering, while the caterers set up for lunch. Ava was sitting on a bench in the foyer, watching with polite interest but barely concealed boredom.

  “Someone needs to find Eugene and tell him,” Hannah said.

  “Not me,” Jillian said. “He might have killed her.”

  “I didn’t know he was violent,” Candace said. “Here I thought he was just this pathetic, timid little man.”

  “He has these seizures,” Jillian said. “He has rage attacks afterwards. Aunt Gigi was very worried about them.”

  “Had they been to a doctor?” Candace asked.

  Jillian shrugged.

  “I just know what she told me,” Jillian said. “She was becoming frightened of him.”

  “That’s bullcrap,” Hannah said. “Eugene wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

  Jillian looked down her nose at Hannah’s wrinkled shorts, tanned, unshaved legs, fallen wool socks, and work boots.

  “I hardly think you’d be in a position to know my family better than I would,” she said.

  “I’ve known Eugene for thirty-five years,” Hannah said, “How long have you known him?”

  Jillian rolled her eyes, smirked at Candace, and ignored the question.

  “Since you’re such a close family member, I guess you won’t mind taking the dogs,” Hannah said. “I’ll put them in a travel crate for you.”

  “No, I’m sorry,” Jillian said. “We have two large dogs at home that can’t be trusted around small dogs.”

  “I’ll get the crate,” Hannah said. “We can figure out some arrangements later.”

  Hannah handed off the dogs to Ava and Candace, and went down the hill to her truck to get a crate. She called her cousin, Maggie, as she walked.

  “Hey, Watson,” she said when Maggie answered. “The game is afoot.”

  She began to explain what had happened, but Maggie interrupted her as soon as she told her Gigi was dead.

  “Eugene is here, in my store,” Maggie said. “He’s been here since before lunchtime. What should I do?”

  “Do you know the exact time he got there?” Hannah asked. “You might be his alibi.”

  “I think a little after eleven,” Maggie said. “Kirsten starts her shift at eleven, and she was working.”

  Hannah ended the call with Maggie and then called Scott to report Eugene’s location. He said he would have Deputy Skip or Frank go round him up.

  A siren could now be heard in the distance.

  “Constable Cat Litter has arrived,” Hannah told him.

  “Try not to make her mad,” he said.

  “Like that’s possible,” Hannah said.

  A county car followed an ambulance up Morning Glory Avenue and parked behind it in the middle of the street. The ambulance crew took a gurney up the driveway while Sarah Albright got out of the county car, approached Hannah, and stuck out her hand

  “Ms. Campbell,” Sarah said, “I understand you’re running for city council.”

  Hannah shook the proffered hand and smiled at the woman for whom she and her cousin Maggie took delight in making up names. Maggie was married to Scott, but that didn’t stop Sarah from trying to get in his pants every chance she got.

  “Oh, I’ve got that seat locked up,” Hannah said. “The election is a mere formality.”

  “I’m sure,” Sarah said. “Why are you here?”

  Hannah explained what had happened, but did not mention her detecting activities at the scene of the crime. She showed Sarah the crate.

  “I’m going to take the pups home with me until we can figure out what to do with them.”

  “That’s kind of you,” Sarah said. “I’ll
call you later if I have any more questions.”

  “Hey, Sarah,” Hannah said, as they walked up the driveway. “You’re gonna hear Jillian in there bad-mouthing Gigi’s son, Eugene, but he’s really a harmless little guy. Take it easy on him; he’s got a lot of health problems and he scares easily.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Sarah said.

  The city’s police cruiser pulled up behind the county car and Eugene was out of it and running before Deputy Skip could get completely stopped. Hannah later thought that as long as she lived she would never forget the terrified look on Eugene’s pale face. As he pushed past them, Sarah put her hand on her gun and shouted, “Stop!”

  Hannah didn’t know what possessed her, but she put her hand over Sarah’s on her gun.

  “That’s his mother in there,” Hannah said. “She was the only person he had in the world. Let him go to her.”

  “Understood,” Sarah said. “But if you ever put your hand on my gun like that again I will shoot you.”

  “Understood,” Hannah said, withdrawing her hand.

  “It was awful,” Hannah was telling Maggie and Claire, later.

  Maggie was sitting at Hannah’s kitchen table, drinking a root beer and eating chips and salsa. Claire was drinking water with lemon and refusing to even look at the chips. Hannah was at the stove, preparing chicken enchiladas for dinner.

  Gigi’s little white dogs were in the sunroom, fighting over a large rawhide bone that belonged to Hannah’s big dogs. Sammy was sitting on the kitchen floor, building a death ray out of snap blocks.

  “I won’t buy him toy weapons so he builds his own,” Hannah told them.

  “Pew pew,” Sammy said, as he aimed it at Claire. “I kilt you dead.”

  “That’s too bad,” Claire said, “cause I was going to let you play games on my tablet.”

  “Pew pew,” he said, as he aimed at her again. “Now you no dead.”

  “Thanks,” she said, and reached for her handbag. “You can play the games we already have on it, but don’t buy anymore without asking me.”

  “Them’s a deal,” he said.

  “You know he’s gonna buy more games,” Hannah said.

  “The last time he spent thirty bucks, so I put a password on it,” Claire said.

  “How is Eugene now?” Maggie asked. “I thought he was gonna faint when Skip came to get him.”

  “He knows Skip, so that probably helped,” Claire said. “Better than if some County Mountie he didn’t know came for him.”

  “The sound he made,” Hannah said with a shudder. “It was like a wounded animal howling.”

  “Poor Eugene,” Claire said. “If you had heard how Gigi talked to him.”

  Claire told them about her morning spent with Gigi and her son.

  “It couldn’t be easy being Eugene’s mother,” Hannah said. “You should hear how I talk to Sammy sometimes.”

  “Hannah always say cussing,” Sammy said. “Now she hafta gimme a million dollars.”

  “I’ll put it in your piggy bank tomorrow,” Hannah said. “I don’t have any cash right now.”

  “Nuh uh,” Sammy said. “You hafta gimme a dollar for my box on this day.”

  Claire took a ten-dollar bill out of her wallet and handed it to Sammy.

  “Put this in your box, Sammy,” Claire said. “We’ll probably all do some more cussing before the evening is over.”

  Sammy ran off to get the tin box he kept all his treasures in.

  “Poor Eugene,” Claire said. “What will happen to him now?”

  “Once Sarah’s done questioning him he’ll probably hang,” Hannah said.

  “When are they doing that?”

  “When they carried Gigi’s body out, he got so upset he vomited, passed out, and hit his head on the stairs,” Hannah said. “They’re keeping him at the hospital overnight for observation. Scott’s going to pick him up tomorrow and bring him to the Rose Hill station for questioning. He convinced Sarah that would be better than a place he doesn’t know.”

  “What time do you think?” Maggie asked.

  “Ten, I think they said,” Hannah said. “Why, what are you going to do?”

  “Stand on the back of the couch in Scott’s office and press your ear against the heat vent?” Claire asked.

  “Yep,” Maggie said.

  “What can I do to help?” Claire asked.

  “Snoop,” Hannah said. “Find out what the story is on that Jillian. I didn’t like her, not one little bit. You should’ve heard her talking trash about Eugene when his mother’s body wasn’t even cold.”

  “What’s Scott say?” Claire asked.

  “They don’t know how she died,” Maggie said. “The medical examiner will have to say.”

  “I think she was poisoned,” Hannah said, and told them about the swollen face and red welts on her body. “Did he tell you about the missing cup?”

  “No,” Maggie said.

  Hannah told them about the lipstick and the saucer on the floor.

  “We need to get back in there and look at her china,” Maggie said. “If there’s not an even number of cups and saucers, we’ll know why.”

  “You think the murderer poisoned her and then took the cup with him?” Claire asked.

  “I think Jillian took it,” Hannah said. “Gail Godwin cleans that house, so you know it’s immaculate. Why else would there be a lone saucer underneath her vanity?”

  “We should call Gail,” Maggie said. “She can count the cups for us.”

  “If it’s a crime scene, they won’t let her in,” Hannah said.

  “She’s sleeping now,” Maggie said, as she looked at the clock on the wall in the kitchen.

  “I’ll catch her when she cleans the bank tonight,” Hannah said.

  “I’ll do it,” Maggie said. “You’ve got Sammy to look after.”

  “Where’s Sam?” Claire asked, about Hannah’s husband.

  “He’s down at the community center, same as always,” Hannah said, and Maggie gave Claire a “drop it” look.

  “Who are Gigi’s next of kin?” Claire asked.

  “She’s got a slimy brother named Chester McClanahan who lives just down the holler from us,” Hannah said. “His nickname is Cheat.”

  “People call him ‘Cheat’ because that’s what he does to the out-of-town property owners who hire him to manage their rental properties,” Maggie said.

  “He calls himself a property manager,” Hannah said. “As soon as he gets the keys to a place he strips it of every valuable thing, takes it all to Pendleton Pawn, and then reports a break-in to the owners. They collect the insurance payout and Cheat half-asses the repairs.”

  “You hafta gimme a dollar,” Sammy said.

  “Make a mark on this paper for every cuss word you hear,” Claire told him, as she handed him a notepad and pen. “When you get to ten, let me know.”

  “I heard Gigi talking to her brother on the phone,” Claire said.

  She recounted the conversation as best as she could.

  “I think I met him in the driveway as I left,” Claire said, then covered Sammy’s ears and told them what he’d said.

  “Ew,” Hannah said.

  “Me mark a cuss on you,” Sammy said, after Claire removed her hands from his ears.

  “They don’t count if you can’t hear them,” Claire said. “And I didn’t cuss.”

  “You think after you left, maybe Cheat K.I.L.L.E.D. his sister?” Hannah said.

  “Hannah’s talking ‘bout candy?” Sammy asked Claire. “Me never gets candy.”

  “She said she had a meeting with someone before the lunch,” Claire said. “She wanted to be sure Eugene was gone by eleven.”

  “Was he?” Hannah asked.

  “I left at ten till eleven,” Claire said. “I don’t know how soon Eugene left after I did. He was worried about leaving on time, though. He kept looking at his watch.”

  “I’m pretty sure he was at the café just after Kirsten started her shift
at eleven, and Kirsten is never late.”

  “I’m willing to help, but I’m not willing to go near that slime ball, Cheat,” Claire said.

  “I can handle Cheat,” Hannah said. “You get the dirt on Jillian.”

  “Is ‘sign ball’ a cuss?” Sammy asked Claire.

  “No, honey,” Claire said. “But don’t worry, the night is young.”

  Scott and Ed showed up in time for dinner.

  Ed kissed Claire hello.

  “Ew, kissing,” Sammy said. “Go to you’s room.”

  “No, Sammy,” Hannah said. “It’s ‘get a room,’ not ‘go to your room.’ You try to teach a kid basic manners ...”

  Scott sat down with a sigh, and thanked Hannah for the beer she placed in front of him.

  “Tough day?” Maggie asked him.

  “Eugene went berserk at the hospital,” he said. “They’ve placed him on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.”

  “Oh no,” Claire said. “That’s terrible. He must be so scared.”

  “He’s in a secure psychiatric ward,” Ed said. “I tried to see him but they wouldn’t let me in. I know one of the nurses and she said they’re going to keep him restrained until they’re sure he doesn’t have a concussion. Then they can give him a sedative to calm him down.”

  “That’s not going to help his case,” Claire said, and Scott shook his head.

  “Sarah thinks he did it, doesn’t she?” Hannah said.

  “Afraid so,” Scott said.

  “That Jillian,” Hannah said. “I’d like to put her through what he’s been through and see how she likes it.”

  “When will you have the medical examiner’s report?” Maggie asked Scott.

  “Within 24 to 48 hours if it’s natural causes,” Scott said. “If it’s more complicated than that, it could be weeks or months.”

  “So, they can’t have the funeral right away.”

  “If the coroner determines it’s a possible homicide,” Scott said, “they hold the body an additional 24 hours, and extract what tissues and fluids they need to do further testing. Worst case scenario, they’ll release the body to Machalvie’s Funeral Home in three days.”

  “Do you think Eugene will be well enough to attend the funeral?”

  “I’m not sure Eugene will ever recover from this,” Scott said. “I’ve never seen anyone have a total nervous breakdown; it was scary.”