Over Troubled Water: A Hunter Jones Mystery (10 page)

“No,” Sam said. “Just the rifle. We’re waiting for a ballistics report.”

“I know he’s odd, and he’s high strung,” she said. “And he can be rude, but he’s not crazy. He’s never hurt anyone.”

Sam planned to leave the question of Andy Chapman’s mental status to the experts.

Sunshine sighed and said, “When you see him, please explain to him about the keys. I’ll give him one of the new keys if he promises not to change the locks again.”

Sam decided that Sunshine Chapman had a great talent for denial.

He took out a copy of the Abomination letter and showed it to her.

“We’re getting a computer expert to see if this came from Andy’s computer,” he said. “Do you think he could have written it.”

She read it and gave Sam an incredulous stare.

“Of course he didn’t write this garbage,” she said. “Andy’s an educated man, and he’s always been a good speller and an excellent writer. This is ridiculous.”

“Could he have misspelled the words deliberately?” Sam asked. “This was mailed before the shootings, so we know it’s connected to the shooter. Would your brother be capable of coming up with a plot to make us think it was some mentally ill fanatic who did the shootings?”

“Andy wouldn’t kill anybody,” Sunshine said. “And he wouldn’t have paid somebody else to do it if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Sam’s look must have disclosed his doubts, because Sunshine, reached out for his hand.

“I know him,” she said. “He’s a real pain, Sheriff Bailey, but he’s my brother.”

When the sun went down over Magnolia County, Andy Chapman was still at large.

Sam decided that he could wait at home as easily as he could wait at the courthouse and sent Taneesha to give Bub a break at the Chapman House.

Home, as always, was a relief. Bethie, who had been thrilled to have two days out of school, was now thrilled that it would be open again on Friday. There was leftover ham. Hunter had made macaroni and cheese and insisted on making him a salad to go with it.

He started telling her what he could about the situation with Andy Chapman and wound up talking about the house itself.

“The best thing about it,” he said, “is the staircase… well, the staircase and the hardwood floors. I think they’re heart pine. And the windows. The windows are beautiful. Some of them have the original glass. There’s a magnolia tree in the back yard, just perfect for climbing.”

“Something’s no doubt wrong with it,” Hunter said with a grin.

“It doesn’t have central heat and air,” Sam said, “and there’s no room for a vegetable garden in the back yard.”

At a little after nine Sam got a call from Aaron.

“The Volvo just came off I-75,” he said, “Looks like he’s heading home. What do you want me to do?”

“Follow him,” Sam said. “I’ll set things up. Taneesha’s at the house, and I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

In the end, it turned out to be remarkably simple.

Andy Chapman never noticed the surveillance. He pulled into the driveway of the house on Clearview Circle, and Sam waited until he had stepped out of his car. Then he turned on his siren and lights and pulled into the driveway. Andy ran toward the back of the house. Taneesha stepped out and blocked his way.

“Mr. Chapman,” she said. “We need to take you down to the courthouse to ask you some questions.”

Andy turned to see Sam, with Skeet and Aaron coming up behind him, and decided he’d deal with Taneesha instead.

“Whatever you’re doing, I have a right to an attorney,” he shouted at her.

“You certainly do,” she said in a calm voice, “Now are you going to get in the back of the Sheriff’s car on your own with no fuss, or will I have to handcuff you?”

When Andy was in the car, muttering but uncuffed, Sam asked Taneesha to call Sunshine at Hilliard House and let her know that her brother had come home on his own and that they were taking him to the courthouse for questioning.

They had just gotten Andy seated in the conference room when the dispatcher told Sam that Dirk Wells from the GBI had left a message ten minutes earlier.

Sam went to call him back.

“Skeet called to let us know you’ve picked Chapman up,” he said, “I just wanted to tell you that our guys say they can’t link his weapon with the shootings. They don’t think it has ever been fired.”

“What about the computer?” Sam asked.

“If he wrote the Abomination letter, he didn’t write it on this computer,” Wells said. “All he used this one for was to order some random things online – like books and underwear ,” Wells said. “And he was writing a lot. There’s this really long thing called
The Five Moons of Modor
. One of the guys who read some of it says it’s about this planet called Modor that has five moons and each time one of the moons is full, everybody changes except this one guy. Oh, and he did a search on it for the word ‘abomination’ and didn’t come up with anything.”

“Are you sure this is something he’s writing?” Sam interrupted. “It could be some e-book he bought.”

“Oh, it’s definitely him that’s writing it,” Dirk said, sounding amused, “Every chapter starts with ‘Copyright Charles Andrew Chapman.’ It’s like 180,000 words long— in three parts.”

Taneesha met Sam in the hallway. She was looking annoyed.

“He’s got an attorney,” she said, jerking her head toward the doorway, “His sister arranged it.”

Sam stepped into the room and saw Jeremy Hayes huddled at the end of the table with Andy Chapman.

“Better let me ask the questions,” he said to Taneesha. “Looks like we’re wasting our time, but there are still some things I want to know.”

Jeremy seemed to have Andy’s cooperation when the questioning began. He told Sam that he was only there to advise Andy regarding any questions related to his mother’s death and would recommend that Andy obtain legal counsel from another firm if he needed it after this interview.

“His sister was concerned that he might not be able to find an attorney this late in the evening,” he said.

Andy was sullen but cooperative. He said he had gotten the call from Miss Angelica and thought he should go home, but then he changed his mind, because if Sunshine was in trouble, she didn’t need his help, and he thought probably the boxes being taken out were things she was trying to move into the house.”

“But you didn’t go back to work?” Sam said.

“I had told my supervisor it was a problem at my house, and he said to go ahead and take off until after my mother’s funeral, so I didn’t need to go back.”

Under questioning, he said that he had lunch at the Waffle House, then watched three movies in a row at the Twin Lakes Cinema, and had supper at Waffle House. He pulled the ticket stubs out of his pocket and said that he had paid for his Waffle House meals with his credit card.

When asked, he said that he hadn’t listened to any cell phone messages after he left work and that he turned the phone off after it rang the second time at Waffle House.

Sam decided to move ahead.

“Have you ever heard of a letter writer who calls himself Abomination?” he asked.

“Huh?” Andy said.

Sam repeated the question.

“No,” Andy said. “Who would call themselves something stupid like that?”

Sam decided to let that wait.

“How would you describe your relationship with your late mother?” he asked.

“Okay,” Andy said. “We had things worked out.”

“So you got along pretty well?”

“Yes,” Andy said. “She didn’t bother me much.”

“Could you explain to me why you had a lock installed on the outside of one of the rooms you were using?” Sam asked.

“To keep people out,” Andy said as if the answer were obvious. “Sunshine must have told you about that. She went into the house, didn’t she?”

“Who were you keeping out of the room?” Sam asked.

“Everybody.”

“Was that so they wouldn’t see your rifle?” Sam asked.

Andy Chapman stared at him, gripped the table, turned red, and exploded with a storm of curse words.

Taneesha moved toward him, but Jeremy shook his head and patted Andy on the arm.

“Lower your voice,” he said. “Control yourself. You don’t have to answer the question.”

“Who’s been in my study?” Andy said to Sam. “Was it Sunshine?”

And then he wailed.

“She didn’t bother my computer, did she?”

Sam had a sinking feeling that he had just wasted an entire day and half the night.

Sam and Taneesha stepped outside to talk while Jeremy consulted with his unhappy client.

“Are you letting him go tonight?” Taneesha asked.

“I don’t have enough to charge him with anything,” Sam said. “The weapon has never been fired. Even if he wrote the Abomination letter, which I doubt, we don’t have any proof.”

“Sounds like he’s calmed down in there,” Taneesha said.

“Well, he’s probably about to explode again,” Sam said wearily.

Later, Sam would say he had never had anyone curse at him longer and louder than Andy Chapman did when he learned that his computer was in the hands of the GBI. Sam finally left the conference room so that Jeremy Hays could get Andy calmed down.

Taneesha sat at one end of the conference room table watching her husband deal with an exhausted and shaken Andy Chapman at the other end of the table.

Jeremy said, “Don’t worry about the computer. We’re going to get it back to you. Nobody’s going to steal your writing, and Sunshine didn’t have anything to do with their taking the computer.”

“Why did they take it if they didn’t want to steal what’s in it?” Andy asked.

“They were looking for something else,” Jeremy said. “Now, let’s talk about where you’re going to sleep tonight. Your sister had the locks to the house changed today, and you need a new key to get in tonight.”

“Why’d she do that?” Andy asked.

“Because she needed to be able to get into the house,” Jeremy said, “You wouldn’t let her come in, and you had changed the locks so her key wouldn’t work.”

“Yeah,” Andy said wearily.

“Anyway, she knows you need to get into the house,” Jeremy said “So she has authorized me to give you this key to use provided you will agree to meet with us tomorrow morning in my office to discuss your mother’s will.”

“My mother had a will?” Andy asked.

“Yes, and I was her attorney,” Jeremy said. “So, if I give you this key and drive you back over to your house, do you agree to be at my office tomorrow morning at nine a.m.?”

He held up the key, along with his business card.

“What did she say in the will?” Andy asked, looking worried.

“That’s what we’ll discuss in the morning,” Jeremy said. “I’ll give you the key if you’ll agree to be my office at nine tomorrow morning. Do you agree?”

“Whatever,” Andy said.

“That’s not good enough,” Jeremy said with a good-natured smile. “I need a ‘yes.’”

“Yes.” Andy said and held out his hand.

“Great,” Jeremy said, handing him the key and giving Taneesha a quick glance and a wink.

“May we go now, Lieutenant?” he asked politely.

“Yes,” she said. “Sheriff Bailey says he may have more questions later, but Mr. Chapman is free to go.”

CHAPTER 8

“So,” Sam said to Hunter over breakfast, “It looks like we spent all day and half the night chasing down a would-be novelist. He was way more worried about his computer than his rifle.”

“I can see that,” Hunter said. “I’d be furious if somebody took my computer away with all my stuff in it. I wonder if his novel is any good.”

“It’s science fiction, and it’s a good thing it’s set on another planet,” Sam said. “I don’t think Andy Chapman knows much about life on Earth.”

“I hope you’re going to get his computer back soon,” Hunter said. “He might have withdrawal symptoms if you don’t. If it’s really as long as they say, he’s probably been spending all his spare time working on it.”

“I’m sending Skeet and Aaron over there to pick it up this afternoon,” Sam said. “And I wish you would stop sympathizing with him. That’s half his problem, right there. No matter how badly he behaved, his mother put up with it and now his sister makes sure he has a lawyer and gives him a key to get back in the house.”

“You’re in a bad mood,” Hunter said. “I hope you’ll get a break this weekend.”

“There are two funerals tomorrow,” Sam said, sounding gloomy.

Taneesha smiled at Jeremy over grits and eggs at R&J’s.

“You were really good at handling that lunatic last night,” she said. “I was impressed.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy said, “but I may have to call you and Sam after I tell him what the will says.”

“If he actually shows up,” Taneesha said.

Andy Chapman did show up at Jeremy’s office promptly at nine. He acknowledged his sister with a curt nod and sat on the other side of the room.

Twenty minutes later, he stormed back out yelling that he wasn’t signing anything and he’d get his own lawyer.