A Peach of a Murder (12 page)

No matter what her faults might be, Carolyn Wilbarger was no killer.

Phyllis was still upset by the time Eve and Mattie got back from the high school, but she didn't say anything to them about Mike's visit or Carolyn's shocking revelations. Obviously, Carolyn didn't want the story of her daughter's troubles with Donnie Boatwright getting out, and Phyllis intended to honor that wish to the best of her ability.

Sam came in a short time later and found Phyllis in the kitchen. "I was wondering if I could ask you about something," he said.

"Of course. Whdt is it?"

"I notice there's a workbench in the garage. Was it your husband's?"

Phyllis smiled. "What makes you think it's not mine? A woman can work a saw, too, you know."

Sam looked embarrassed as he said hastily, "I'm sorry. The bench just looked like it hadn't been used for a while, and I figured-"

"You figured correctly, Sam," Phyllis broke in. "I was just teasing you. That was Kenny's workbench:"

"Oh. Well, I'm glad I didn't put my foot too far in my mouth. What I was wondering was-"

"If you could use it? Of course. I'd be glad to see someone getting some use out of it:"

"If you don't mind my asking," Sam went on, "what did your husband use it for?"

"Kenny collected model trains," Phyllis explained. "He had quite a setup in one of the upstairs bedrooms. He designed all the layouts himself and built all the little buildings:" She smiled at the memory of all the hours of painstaking work Kenny had put into his hobby. "They were very detailed. He was quite good at it."

"I'm sure he was. What happened to all the trains?" Phyllis's smile was touched with sadness as she said, "After he passed away, I donated everything to a children's hospital. That was what Kenny wanted done. He liked to think that after he was gone, his work could bring some enjoyment to children and parents who needed cheering up." "Sounds like he was quite a fella," Sam said quietly.

"But I already knew that."

"How could you know that?"

"Because of the lady he married," Sam said.

Phyllis didn't say anything, and at that moment the timer on the oven went off, telling her it was time to take out the meadoaf she was cooking. She had never been more glad for an interruption in her life.

Sam didn't leave, though, so after she had taken the meatloaf out of the oven, she changed the subject, sort of, by saying, "What do you intend to build?"

"Oh, I thought I might knock together a bookshelf or two. Most of my books are boxed up in storage, and I'd like to get some of 'em out. That is, if you don't mind my cluttering up the room with shelves."

"It's your room as long as you're here, Sam. You should feel free to do whatever you want."

"Okay. I've got some boards out in the pickup. I'll go, uh, unload 'em."

Phyllis laughed. "You don't lack for confidence, do you, Sam? You knew I'd let you use the workbench."

"Well, I didn't exactly know ... but I was hopin'."

He went out, and Phyllis continued getting supper ready. She wondered if Carolyn would come down to eat.

As it turned out, the answer was no. Phyllis knocked on her door, but Carolyn said she didn't feel like eating. At the table, Eve wanted to know what was wrong, and Phyllis said, "I think she's just a little under the weather."

"Hope it's not anything catchin'," Mattie said. "I've got a bunch to do these days. Can't afford to get sick:"

Phyllis wasn't sure how Mattie kept up with all her volunteer efforts anyway. Tutoring the summer school students took up most of her time, but she also put in stints at the library and the senior citizens' center.

"I don't think it's contagious," Phyllis said. "Maybe I'll take a tray up to her later, if she feels like it."

The conversation turned to what was going on at the high school these days. Even though it was summer vacation, things never really stopped completely at the school. There were the sunnner classes, of course, but there were also early band and football practice and other summer activities going on. It was less than a month until regular school started again, in fact. For most of Phyllis's teaching career, school had started in September and lasted until the end of May. These days, though, the trend was to start the school year earlier and earlier. Phyllis didn't like it, and was glad she didn't have to teach classes when it was well over a hundred degrees outside.

According to Mattie, a pall still hung over the school, caused by Billy Moser's suicide. While he hadn't been the most popular kid in school, he had been well liked.

"And of course, kids all think they're immortal to start with," Mattie said. "It really knocks 'em for a loop when something bad happens to one of their friends. Of course, they get over it fairly quick, at least on the surface, but I think it lingers in their minds for a long time. Once actual school starts, though, they'll be too busy to think about it much."

After supper, Phyllis went upstairs again and knocked softly on Carolyn's door, intending to ask if she wanted her to bring up a tray. When there was no answer, a frown creased Phyllis's forehead.

She didn't believe for an instant that Carolyn would ever do anything to, well, hurt herself, but with the talk of Billy Moser's suicide fresh in her mind, it was difficult not to at least consider the possibility. Phyllis caught her lower lip between her teeth and hesitated as she looked down at the doorknob. Respecting the privacy of her boarders was one of Phyllis's ironclad rules, but if something was wrong with Carolyn, and she just walked away and let it happen, she would never forgive herself. She was just looking out for her friend's welfare, she thought as she reached for the knob.

She turned it slowly and quietly and found that the door wasn't locked. Easing it open, she leaned forward and looked into the room. The blinds were closed and the curtains were drawn, but enough of the evening afterglow seeped

. in so that Phyllis could make out the shapes of the furniture.

She saw Carolyn lying on the bed, fully dressed except for her shoes. Phyllis listened intently and heard her deep, regular breathing. Relief went through her as she-realized that Carolyn was just sound asleep. That was probably the best thing in the world for her right now.

Carefully, Phyllis pulled the door closed so that it didn't make any noise. She turned away And stopped short as she saw Sam Fletcher standing in the hall at the head of the stairs, his hands tucked into the hip pockets of his jeans and a quizzical expression on his face. Phyllis lifted a hand. "I can explain=' she began. "No need," Sam said. "This is your house, after all." "Listen, Sam, I was ...

worried about Carolyn."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. You said she was feeling poorly."

"It's not just that she's sick." Phyllis felt an almost overwhelming compulsion to explain herself.

More than that, she realized suddenly that the knowledge she had gained today was a heavy weight.

She wanted to share it with somebody, but she couldn't tell Eve or Mattie. They had known Carolyn for too long and were too close to her. Carolyn would be humiliated if she ever found out that two more of her friends knew her daughter's secret.

But Carolyn barely knew Sam. Odd though it might seem, she would probably be bothered less if Sam knew about Sandra's troubles than if Eve or Mattie found out.

And it wasn't like Sam would ever have any reason to mention the matter to Carolyn, either. The two of them hardly spoke. Anyway, if Phyllis swore Sam to secrecy, she knew instinctively that he would keep his word.

"Wbre you going to your room?" she went on.

"Yeah, but just to get my work gloves. I thought I might get started on those bookshelves we talked about."

"Do you mind a little company? Or does it bother you to have someone around while you're working?"

His graying eyebrows lifted in surprise. "I'd be glad for the company," he said.

"Good. I'll meet you in the garage."

Sam nodded, still looking a little puzzled, and went past her toward the door of his room.

Phyllis went downstairs and was waiting in the garage when Sam got there a few minutes later. Eve and Mattie were in the living room watching some reality show on television, so Phyllis didn't think she and Sam would be interrupted.

Sam was pulling on his gloves as he came into the garage. Phyllis said, "I know it looked like I was snooping, but-"

"Hold on a minute," Sam said. "I figured you wanted to talk about that, but let me get a board up on the bench first." He selected a board from a stack of one-by-sixes he had unloaded from his pickup earlier, and placed it on the workbench. Then he took a folded piece of paper from his shirt pocket, unfolded it, and smoothed it out on the bench.

"Plans I drew up," he explained. "Architecture's beyond me, but I can design some bookshelves."

He took a short pencil from his pocket and laid a four-foot metal ruler on the board. "Go ahead, Phyllis. Tell me whatever you want to tell me ... and I'm guessing you want me to keep it under my hat: "

"I'd appreciate it."

"You've got my word on it," he said simply, and that was good enough for her.

"Mike was here this afternoon. He had some questions for Carolyn ... about Donnie Boatwright's murder, and about Carolyn's daughter, Sandra."

Sam started to look surprised, but he managed to confine the reaction to one quirked eyebrow. He lined up the ruler on the edge of the board and marked off four feet. Then he moved it and marked off two more feet for a total of six. "Go on," he said as he used a square to draw a straight line across the width of the board.

Phyllis sketched in the details of what she had learned that afternoon. Sam listened impassively as he took a circular saw from the cabinet underneath the workbench. Obviously, he had investigated to see what tools were stored there. Phyllis paused in her story and felt a funny little twinge inside when she saw one of Kenny's tools in Sam's hands, but then a feeling came over her that told her it was all right. Just as Kenny had wanted his work on the model trains to be put to good use, he wouldn't have wanted perfectly good tools to just sit in the cabinet and rust.

Phyllis resumed the story, and when she had finished, she said, "So you can see why I was worried about Carolyn. I thought she might have done something." Her voice trailed off. She couldn't even say it, the idea seemed so ludicrous now.

"You thought maybe she really did poison Donnie Boatwright, and she was takin' the easy way out instead of waiting to get caught," Sam said.

"Well, yes. I know it's ridiculous. Carolyn would never do either of those things. But I guess my wont' just got the best of me for a minute."

"No crime in worryin'.about a friend. I'm not sure I agree with you completely, though."

"Oh? What don't you agree with?"

"I can see Carolyn gettin' mad enough to try to even the score with Boatwright, but if she ever did something like that, I don't think she'd kill herself over it, or even deny it. Seems more likely to me that she'd stand up straight, spit in the eye of whoever accused her, and say that heck, yes, she did it, and Boatwright had it comin' to him"

Phyllis couldn't help but smile at that description. "That does sound more like Carolyn, all right."

Sam shook his head and said, "I never have thought that she did it. She might slap somebody silly, but she wouldn't poison 'em:' He plugged in the saw. "Innocent or not, though, she's still got a mighty big problem on her hands."

"Why do you say that?" Phyllis asked with a frown. "Because Boatwright's murder has got the whole town stirred up. Mike may not have said anything to you about it, but I'll bet the Fops are under a lot of pressure to arrest somebody."

"You don't think they'll really come after Carolyn, do you?"

Sam raked a thumbnail along his jawline. "I don't know. Sounds to me like she's their main suspect.

And you've got to admit, she's got a good motive. She's been up to her elbows in peach pits lately, too, and that's where the cops think the chemical that killed Boatwright came from. On top of that, she was around the festival all day, and she could have slipped the stuff into his water bottle. In a big crowd like that, you'd think somebody would notice something that unusual, but that's not necessarily the case. Most folks don't pay any attention to anything that's not right in front of their noses."

"I've had a lot of peach pits in the house, too," Phyllis pointed out, "and I was around the festival enough that I could have poisoned Donnie's water. That's true of dozens of other people."

Sam shook his head. "You didn't have any motive. Carolyn did:'

"What about all those other people, especially the ones in the contest?"

"That's what the cops ought to be trying to find out." Sam slipped a pair of safety goggles over his head. "I don't know if that'll happen, though. Once they start looking hard at a particular suspect, they sometimes tend to neglect all the others."

Phyllis didn't think that would happen, especially with Mike being involved in the investigation ...

but you could never tell about these things. If Chief Whitmire and Sheriff Haney decided that Carolyn was guilty, they might try to push the case through the system in a hurry. What was that old expression? Railroaded? Phyllis respected both lawmen enough to hope that they wouldn't do such a thing, but they were, after all, politicians....

"Somebody killed Donnie Boatwright:"she declared firmly, "and it wasn't Carolyn. They'll just have to find out who it really was. Somebody will have to find out the truth."

"Uh-huh;" Sam said, and then he bent over and set the saw on the board he had clamped to the end of the workbench. He pulled the trigger and the circular blade began to revolve with a high-pitched whine. It bit into the wood, shearing smoothly through it as Sam followed the line he had drawn.

The blade cut the end of the board off cleanly, and it dropped to the concrete floor of the garage.

Sam set the saw aside, straightened up, and pushed the goggles up on his head as he turned to look at Phyllis. "Somebody meaning you?"

She returned his level gaze but didn't answer. Her heart pounded in her chest, as if she were standing on a high place, looking down at empty air just waiting for her to step out into it....