Pecan Pies and Homicides (18 page)

Ella Mae tried to shut out the image of Barric's glassy stare. “He didn't die peacefully. It's pretty bad, Reba.” She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the feel of Hugh's fingers on her skin as he removed her borrowed sock. “Could you bring me a coat, please? Mine's all wet.”

Reba growled. “Why do I get the feelin' that this has nothin' to do with the snow?”

“I fell in the lake,” Ella Mae admitted sheepishly. “But I'm fine. Hugh's examining me right now.”

“I bet he is.” Ella Mae could almost picture the wry grin on Reba's face. “But if he plans to warm you up the way I'd want to be warmed up, make sure the gurney brakes are on or your
examination
will be over right quick.”

“Reba—” Ella Mae's tone made it clear that she wasn't in the mood for coarse humor.

“I know, honey.” Reba was instantly contrite. “I'm makin' jokes when there's nothin' to laugh about. Truth be told, I'm furious with myself for failin' to catch Barric alive, because now we need to consider an awful possibility. Let me ask you a question before I continue. Did Barric kill himself?”

Ella Mae felt her throat constrict, but she couldn't say much in front of Hugh. She'd never told him that she was investigating Eira's murder. “Not a chance.”

“Then you're probably thinkin' what I'm thinkin',” Reba said darkly. “If someone bumped off Barric, then we might have more than one murderer runnin' loose in Havenwood.”

• • •

An hour later, Ella Mae was standing under a stream of scalding water. The glass doors in her shower were fogged over to the point that she could no longer see Chewy. He liked to curl up on her bath mat and wait for her to open the shower door and reach for her towel. The moment she did, he'd zip into the shower and start licking the tiles. Sometimes, he'd walk right by his water bowl and stand expectantly, all four paws on the fluffy white mat, until Ella Mae turned on the shower and let it run long enough to form a small puddle around the drain. He was on the mat now, but Ella Mae was enjoying the feel of the hot water running over her too much to rush on his account.

Hugh had driven her home and planned to accompany her to the police station, but he was called back to the lake to help some of the other firemen search for the murder weapon.

“Tonight?” Ella Mae asked after he'd told her that he had to leave. “It's dark. Besides, dozens of cops have been hunting for it all afternoon. Why do you have to go now?”

“I'm on the water rescue team and they've asked us to search the lake near where Barric's body was dumped. It really doesn't matter when we dive because it's dark at the bottom anyway.” Hugh had kissed her hand. “The cops are really riled up, Ella Mae. This benefit was really important to them and they won't rest until the murderer's caught.”

Ella Mae had been relieved to think that in addition to having the entire Havenwood police force out looking for clues, the visiting cops were helping as well. “There must be a hundred men and women involved,” she'd said.

Hugh had nodded. “They've combed every inch of woods, path, and shoreline and have taken inventories of every tent. However, none of the visiting lawmen packed dry suits in their bags. The whole point of the plunge was to jump in wearing as little as possible, remember? Besides, it seems pretty likely the murder weapon was tossed in the water. It's a convenient place to get rid of an incriminating piece of evidence.”

“It's also a big lake. All kinds of things could be down there,” Ella Mae had pointed out in a distracted whisper. Her thoughts had turned to the magical object growing in the deepest part of Lake Havenwood.

“And a cold one. We'll go down in pairs and take fifteen- to twenty-minute shifts,” Hugh had said. “We have two underwater light cannons, but even those will only help so much. The water's pretty murky away from shore and, according to the ME, we're probably looking for a rock. A rock in a lake filled with rocks.” He'd shrugged. “Still, we have to try.”

Ella Mae hugged him hard. She hadn't liked the idea of him swimming down to the bottom at night, his rubber fins cutting through the moving shadows, swirls of silt clouding the water. She imagined the branches of aquatic weeds grabbing at his arms and legs. Ella Mae would never have conjured such images before reading Rupert Gaynor's book, but she'd thought of his descriptions of malicious water spirits and deadly serpents and held Hugh even tighter. “Be careful, okay?”

“I'll be fine,” he'd promised. “After all, I'll be in my element.”

He kissed her cheek and threaded a strand of hair behind her ear. “We might be out on the lake for hours. You should rest and have someone check on you. Could you ask Reba to spend the night?”

“Why not Aiden?” Ella Mae had teased. “He's right across the garden. I could just call over there.” She pointed at Partridge Hill.

Hugh had scowled. “I think he's seen enough of you for one day.” He gave her another kiss, more forceful and possessive than the last. “If he hadn't saved your life, I'd have to kill him.”

Gently pulling away, Ella Mae had opened the car door and stepped out into the cold. The snow had stopped falling and a row of icicles glinted like translucent daggers from the roofline of her cottage. “I think we've had enough killing for one day,” she'd murmured to herself and hurried inside.

Now, bundled in flannel pajamas and a robe, Ella Mae decided to make tea. Just as the kettle starting whistling, Reba arrived. She wiped her feet on the mat, shrugged out of her coat, and wiggled her index finger at Ella Mae.

“I don't want any of that herbal decaf crap.” She plunked down an unopened bottle of Jack Daniel's and a bag of coffee grounds. “Jenny gave me the recipe for Tennessee Coffee and that's what I'm havin'. After I'm done tellin' you what I saw, you'll want one too, so I'm gonna go ahead and make two cups.”

“I don't like the sound of that.” Ella Mae frowned and put the kettle aside. She handed Reba a pair of glass mugs and opened the bottle of whiskey. Chewy greeted Reba with several licks and then jumped on the sofa and yawned. He stretched out and laid his head on his paw, his eyelids drooping.

“Oh, to be a dog.” Reba smiled indulgently at Chewy. She then dumped three tablespoons of coffee grounds into Ella Mae's French press and used the water from the kettle to wet the grounds.

Ella Mae poured milk into a saucepan and dug around in her drawers for her immersion blender. “Start talking, Reba.”

Reba added more water to the grounds. “Before I came over, I went to check on the progress at the lake. Lots of folks are there. Looks like a damn tailgate party. The campfires are roarin', people are sharin' fried chicken and hot dogs and passin' flasks and bottles of Bud around. Of course, they've had to move their tents away from the action. A huge area is off-limits, even though the cops haven't found a single piece of evidence.”

“What about Hugh and the rest of the divers?” Ella Mae plugged in the blender.

“They were in the water, lookin' like sharks in those black rubber suits.” Reba poured espresso into the glass mugs. “It was kind of spooky. You could see their lights sink as they dove down and they created this weird, greenish glow. Reminded me of ghost lights.” She shrugged. “The divers kept complainin' that there was almost no visibility near the bottom. Seems like the whole endeavor is pretty pointless.”

Ella Mae frothed the milk. “It was certainly a long shot,” she said over the whirr of the blender. “If Barric was struck by a rock, what were the chances of someone finding it? A million to one.”

Reba stirred a shot of whiskey and a teaspoon of sugar into each cup of coffee. She then stepped aside so Ella Mae could add the milk. When the drinks were ready, Ella Mae touched Reba's glass with her own.

“
Cha ghéill sinn gu bràch
,” she said softly. She'd read the Gaelic war cry in an old scroll in her mother's library and liked the sound of the old language. It was both strange and familiar.

“
Cha ghéill sinn gu bràch
,” Reba repeated. “What's it mean?”

“‘We'll never fall back.'” Ella Mae took a sip of the Tennessee Coffee. It filled her mouth and throat with welcome heat. “This is delicious; now tell me why I need it. What did you see at the lake?”

Reba wiped a smear of frothed milk from her upper lip. “While I was there, two of the divers called it quits, but Hugh wouldn't give up the search. With his partner sittin' in the boat, freezin' his tail off, your man wouldn't get out of the water. He didn't seem to get tired or cold. He'd stay down for fifteen minutes at a time. Then twenty. The last time, he was under for twenty-five minutes. I timed him. And then he finally called it a night and headed back to shore.”

“Go on.”

“I waved and tried to get his attention to see if he needed food or somethin' hot to drink. I know what he means to you, honey, and he'd been given a miserable job.” She took of gulp of coffee. “He didn't hear me callin' so I edged along the caution tape until I was close to his truck. He got out of the boat, took off his fins, and came to his truck to get a towel. That's when I saw the hose—the one that goes from his breathing thingy to his tank. It wasn't attached all the way, Ella Mae. That thing was leakin' the whole time he was underwater.”

Ella Mae had been scuba diving several times and knew exactly what Reba meant. “The hose connecting his regulator to his tank wasn't connected?” She paused to think. “Maybe it came loose when he climbed back into the boat.”

“No. He spotted the problem when he took the tank off and glanced around, guilty as a kid caught sneakin' cookies before supper, to see if his buddies were watchin'. No one was, so he let out a bunch of air so that it would look like he'd used what was in his tank. I could hear it hissin'. He was under that last time for twenty-five minutes! The world record for breath holdin' is nineteen minutes and change. I looked it up. So what the hell was he breathin' down there?”

The two women stared at each other.

“What is he?” Ella Mae said uncertainly. “He's not our kind. If he's not human, then what is he?”

Reba shook her head. “Damned if I know. I never thought you two should be together. At first, I didn't want you to fall for him because he was under Loralyn's thrall, but the truth is, I've been wonderin' about Hugh Dylan for years. Like how he could beat anyone in a swim race even when he was real little. Or how his skin never got wrinkly, no matter how long he stayed in the water. He'd splash and float and dive like an otter, like he belonged in the lake or the swimmin' hole. Like—”

“He was in his element,” Ella Mae said, using the exact words Hugh had spoken earlier. Shaken, she asked Reba to give her a minute and went upstairs to find the book Suzy had leant her.

For a moment, she stood next to her bed, staring at the book on the nightstand as if it were toxic. And then she turned to the chapter on water elementals and began to read.

Later, Ella Mae came downstairs to find Reba waiting for her on the sofa. One glance at Ella Mae's face and she gestured at the glass of whiskey and soda on the coffee table.

“It's that bad?” Reba asked.

Ella Mae showed her an illustration of a male water elemental. He was beautiful. Not handsome, but beautiful. With his waves of dark hair, large eyes, proud nose, strong jaw, and full lips, he looked like a Greco-Roman sculpture. The man also had a swimmer's body—a pair of wide shoulders tapering to a narrow waist.

“Lord Almighty. He could be Hugh's twin.” Reba took a swallow from the tumbler she'd poured for Ella Mae. “When was that book printed?”

“At the turn of the nineteenth century.” Ella Mae motioned for Reba to pass her the glass. “Water elementals are typically female,” she said after taking a sip. “A male is rare and is incredibly attractive to humans and to all types of water spirits.”

Reba groaned. “Like Loralyn Gaynor.”

“Exactly.” Ella Mae pointed to a paragraph below the illustration. “These elementals must live near the water and can become weak or seriously ill if they don't immerse themselves in a natural water source on a regular basis.” She glanced up. “You know, Hugh left Havenwood for a period of time to travel the world. He told me once that he wanted to learn more about where his people came from, but maybe he was really trying to discover what he was. I wonder if those destinations were all close to an ocean, river, or lake.”

Frowning pensively, Reba said, “Remember how often he was at the swimmin' hole when you were kids? It was like he owned the place.

Ella Mae thought back to those days. “Maybe he did. Water elementals choose a body of water to guard. If not the swimming hole, then maybe he's claimed Lake Havenwood. If that's the case, do you know what that means?”

Reba started to shake her head and then stopped, her eyes going wide. “He could be the guardian? The creature you need to fight to get that flower for your mama?”

“If the love of my life is truly a water elemental, then he might be able to transform, to adopt the physical attributes of certain aquatic animals.” Ella Mae closed the book. “Of course, I have no idea of this author's findings are accurate. It doesn't seem possible that he could know so much about our kind.”

“You'll have to ask Suzy about that. Let's get back to the subject of Hugh. Is there a test or somethin' you can give to see if a person is an elemental? Because two men who are real close to you seem to fit the bill. You've got a man livin' in your mama's house who might juggle fireballs in his spare time, and you're sleepin' with a man who could be part fish.”

Ella Mae shook her head. “The odds of having two elementals in one place are extremely small. And I don't care if Aiden's an elemental, one of us, or a genie released from a lamp. The fact is that we still have no idea why he was down by the lake when I found Barric's body. I think he was following Barric. He may even have killed him. Aiden's strong as a bull. He could have struck Barric, dumped him in the lake, tossed the bloodied rock into the deep water, and then thoroughly dried himself using his gift. The whole thing would have taken less than five minutes.”

Reba's brows rose. “What's his motive? I know he didn't like Barric, but there are plenty of folks I can't stand and I don't go around knockin' them senseless.”

“Aiden and Jenny are keeping a secret, remember? Something they're scared to have brought to light,” Ella Mae said. “Maybe Aiden was sweet on Eira. Maybe
he's
the third man. The father of her unborn child.”

“He does seem to like the ladies,” Reba muttered and the two women exchanged worried glances.

At that moment, the phone rang. Reba leapt to answer it. She listened to the caller for a few seconds and then pursed her lips in defiance. “No, sir. She's done in. I've sent her to bed. You can talk to her first thing in the mornin'.” She paused and then glowered. “No, that's an ungodly hour for anyone to be out and about. She'll be there at eight and not a minute earlier.”

“Who was that?” Ella Mae asked after Reba put the phone down.

“Officer Hardy. He wanted to question you tonight, but I put a stop to that. Your man was right; someone needs to make sure you get lots of rest.”

Ella Mae tilted her tumbler, watching the amber liquor slosh back and forth inside the glass. “My man. Whatever else he may be, he's mine.” She thought of all the times she'd seen him swim, of how often she'd compared him to a merman, and of how he'd seemed so at home in the water. She'd always felt a little in awe of him. But afraid? Never. “Maybe Hugh's being an elemental could turn out to be a good thing. It might explain our bizarre reaction to each other.” She picked up Suzy's book again. “Suzy said that a fire elemental is unable commit to one person. What if that's true for water elementals too?”

Reba took the book away and pointed at the stairs. “No more of this now. March on up to bed. You've got a police interview in the mornin', and then you and I need to dig into Barric's past. It's nice to have the cops involved, but Eira and Barric were both our kind and they were probably killed by our kind as well. When magic and murder are paired, the clues can be too hard for regular folks to spot. Decent, determined people like Officer Hardy don't stand a chance against an enchanted killer.”

“Do we?” Ella Mae asked. “Murders. Ruined groves. Elementals. Flowers growing on the bottom of our lake. The world gets crazier every day.” She hugged Reba tightly. “You're the one constant in my life. What would I do without you?”

“Drink less booze, I'd imagine.” Reba kissed her on both cheeks and then sent her up to bed.

As Ella Mae climbed the stairs, she heard Reba shooing Chewy off the sofa. “It's time for you to turn in too, Charleston Chew. I'm gonna sit and read for a spell. This old dog needs to learn some new tricks. The kind that'll keep that precious girl of ours safe. Her man might guard some puddle of water, but I guard her. Just like you do, boy. You and I need to keep the monsters at bay. You got that?”

Chewy gave a little bark in reply and then Ella Mae heard his quick, light tread as he trotted upstairs and into the bedroom.

Ella Mae patted the covers and Chewy scrambled onto the bed. She ruffled his fur and kissed his black nose and then watched as he performed three lazy circles before finally settling down near her feet. Ella Mae smoothed a wrinkle in the quilt her mother had placed at the foot of the bed in the beginning of September. It had been made by Ella Mae's grandmother and was divided into equal panels, each depicting a garden during one of the four seasons.

Ella Mae kept the quilt folded so that the spring and summer scenes were on top because the colors matched her comforter. Now she turned it over and spread out the other side, tracing the path of yellow and orange leaves drifting onto a cluster of chrysanthemums and asters. Her fingers moved to the winter panel, which featured delicate snowflakes swirling around holly leaves, firethorn berries, and camellia blossoms. Examining the needlework more carefully, Ella Mae noticed that some of the snowflakes resembled tiny white butterflies. Others looked like four-leaf clovers. Upon closer inspection, she saw those shapes in each of the four panels.

“Call the butterflies,” her mother had said. The advice still made no more sense to Ella Mae than it had in the grove. “I'll think about it tomorrow,” Ella Mae whispered sleepily. She pulled the quilt over her and turned off the light.

She dreamt of a fire in the pie shop's kitchen. Smoke poured from the oven, so thick that Ella Mae couldn't get close enough to see what was burning. She heard sirens, and then the scene abruptly dissolved and she was wading into Lake Havenwood dressed in her Charmed Pie Shoppe apron and winter boots. The water was black and oily and she was afraid.

Without warning, a massive tentacle snaked through the water and wrapped around her right ankle. Another slimy appendage coiled around her arm. The thing tried to pull her under, but she twisted and squirmed and fought to stay on her feet. She could hear Hugh calling her name and she screamed for him to help her. And then, she saw that he was the creature grabbing her. He wasn't at all the Hugh she knew. The nightmare Hugh had scales instead of skin. His eyes were no longer bright blue but the flashing silver of startled minnows. And when she looked down at the hand clamped around her wrist, she saw that it was webbed. She screamed again, and managed to wrench free of his grasp. She splashed out of the water, her heart pumping wildly in terror, and raced into the woods. She ran all the way up the mountain trail, finally coming to a stop at the boulder wall. She put her hands out but couldn't get into the grove. Sliding to the ground, she pulled her knees to her chest and remembered that this was the very place where Eira had died.

An owl called forlornly in the distance and Ella Mae cried out in her sleep.

She didn't dream any more that night.

• • •

The next morning, Ella Mae told Officer Hardy what she could about Barric Young. There wasn't much to say that he hadn't already heard when she'd called to tell him that she believed Barric should be considered a suspect in Eira's murder. Ella Mae felt a fresh twinge of guilt over leaving out the part in which Jenny slugged Barric at the pie shop, but nothing good would come of the police investigating the Upton siblings. Hardy had little chance of discovering their shared secret. That task was Ella Mae's to complete.

“So that's it?” Hardy was staring at her intently, making it clear that he didn't believe she was telling him the whole story. “He glared at you from across the street and then turned and ran?”

Ella Mae nodded. “Yes, but he was looking at
someone else first. There were people everywhere, so I don't know who was the original target of his anger.”

Hardy grunted. “But he shifted his gaze, the two of you locked eyes, and he suddenly bolted?”

“Like a spooked deer. Though I didn't think he was running off for good. His expression was determined. Defiant. I got the feeling that he wasn't going to leave until he did what he came here to do.” She shrugged. “Whatever that was.”

Hardy looked doubtful. “You deduced all that in one glance?”

“His eyes were full of a cold rage,” Ella Mae insisted. “Believe me, I'm not here to waste your time or tell you colorful stories. I'd rather be doing other things on a Sunday morning.” She gestured around the conference room. “This place doesn't exactly bring back fond memories.”

Hardy ignored the reference to the time she'd been considered a person of interest in a murder investigation. “Okay. After informing Officer Weiss that Mr. Young was a suspect who needed to be apprehended, you headed to the community center to look for me. When you didn't find me, you went to the lake next. Can you explain how you happened to come across Mr. Young's body? It's an unusual coincidence that you were the one to discover him not long after seeing him in town.”

“As I said, I was looking for you, but no one was at the lake yet.” Ella Mae couldn't keep a defensive note from creeping into her voice.

“Unfortunately, I was delayed by the mayor. He cornered me about—” He waved his hand. “That's not important. I should have been there, but I wasn't. Please continue.”

“I walked near the water, caught up in thinking about all the crazy people who'd be swimming in it soon. That's when I saw one of Barric's boots. I got as close as I could without getting wet. Close enough to notice the second boot.” Ella Mae described how the boots were both pointing skyward, and yet still seemed anchored to the muddy bottom. “I realized I was looking at a body, so I went in. Later, I fell trying to pull Barric out.”

Hardy examined his notes. “Luckily, Aiden Upton came along and carried you to safety.”

“That's right.” Ella Mae hoped she wouldn't have to go into detail about Aiden's having to remove her clothes. However, Hardy seemed more interested in learning what he could of Aiden's background and his movements during the rest of the day. Once he'd exhausted that subject, he wanted to know more about Barric's head wound and any other observations Ella Mae could make about the body's appearance. “He didn't look human anymore.” She finished by saying, “He was white and wet and whatever had made him Barric Young was gone.”

“Yes,” Hardy agreed. “But not forgotten.”

They looked at each other for a long moment and Ella Mae knew that Hardy would do everything in his power to solve Barric's case. In that way, she and he were alike, only Hardy didn't know that Ella Mae was investigating the murders on her own. She dropped her gaze and he cleared his throat and got to his feet.

“Thank you for your time,” he said. The interview was over.

Ella Mae stepped into the hall, where Loralyn was pacing back and forth like a caged leopard. When Ella Mae saw her face, she paused in surprise. Loralyn's skin was splotched and her eyes were puffy from crying. Ella Mae had never seen Loralyn cry before. She found it very unsettling.