Barbara Graham - Quilted 03 - Murder by Music (26 page)

He found Theo and Nina chatting with his mother and aunt. Everyone looked happy. Evidently, Mr. Durand's donation to the museum was more than generous.

“Are you locking up the museum or leaving it open during the reception?” Tony asked.

His mom patted his arm. “We have to leave it open for the restrooms. There aren't any in the barn, dear.”

“Let's go eat.” Theo pointed to the door. “I'm starving again.”

Even though she had helped with the lights, Theo was stunned by the change in the barn. The draped tulle and tiny lights created a fairyland. In the center of the large room, a dance floor was roped off from the tables by garlands of greenery and roses. Round tables covered with damask held not only silverware, crystal and silver chargers, but bowls of roses and more candles.

Musicians filled the largest stall, making Theo smile. The horses once stabled there wouldn't recognize the place. The wedding cakes were in another stall. The bride's cake consisted of several elegant tiers, cascading the length of the table. The groom's cake had its own table. It looked like a snow covered football field. She whispered to Tony, “I think it's Red Velvet. Blossom made it.”

She heard his stomach growl.

The planner held a seating chart and directed traffic.

The DJ requested everyone be seated and offered a formal introduction of the bride and groom. Applause dropped to silence when no one appeared. Theo wondered if the happy couple had run away, leaving the problem of one too many mothers behind.

She wouldn't blame them.

And then, smiling widely, the couple walked in, holding hands. Everyone stood and cheered. Almost everyone. Not Theo or Elf. Elf sat at her designated spot, arms crossed, glaring at everyone. Her handsome escort was on his feet, applauding and cheering. At least Elf's driver was ready to party.

Dinner was delicious. The service impeccable. There were numerous occasions of toasts and jests. The DJ kept everyone to the prearranged timetable.

The groom led his bride onto the dance floor. The music began and the couple performed a well-rehearsed tango. Then Mr. Durand danced a slow waltz with his daughter.

It was time for the groom, Patrick, to dance with his mother, and he led Mrs. MacLeod onto the dance floor. As they began dancing, Elf jumped to her feet, threw her glass of champagne on the floor and stormed out of the barn. Her driver/escort was hot on her heels. She slammed the door in his face.

He calmly opened it and went out, closing it softly behind him.

When everyone in the room started breathing again at the same time, Theo realized she had been holding her breath as well.

The party began in earnest. Wade and Grace danced past her. Near them, Mike and Ruby looked happy to have the evening off. Together, Blossom's escorts led her onto the floor. Theo saw Mr. Durand dancing with Jane. Mr. Espinoza made Martha look like a dancer.

It was lovely.

Tony woke early Saturday morning. Halloween. He groaned into his pillow, already dreading the first complaint about stolen and smashed pumpkins. He yawned and stretched trying to unkink a knot in his back.

Until they discovered who killed Scarlet, or ran into a dead end, he would have to put in at least several hours each day. So this Saturday would be just another work day for him. He couldn't believe it had only been a week since the woman had died. It felt like a year. And, although the killings at the Shady Nest were clear cases of murder/suicide, the paperwork would require two trees.

At least he could be grateful for Katti Marmot. Claude's bride was just the assistant Theo needed. He didn't have to worry about his wife getting herself into trouble.

His cell phone buzzed and he checked the screen. “Not already.” He felt stomach acid begin to eat into his gut and reached for the antacids at the same time he answered.

“Sheriff.” Flavio's nasal twang blasted into his ear. “I hate to bother you on a Saturday, but, well sir—”

“Just spit it out.”

“I, that is we, just received a call from Elf's driver, and he says she's dead. Claims she was murdered in her fancy touring bus.”

“Did you tell him not to touch anything?” Tony reached for his uniform shirt.

“Yessir, I did, and he told me he walked in, found her, ran out and called me.”

“And, where are the man and the bus?”

“Parked behind Ruby's.”

“Call Wade and Doc Nash and tell them to meet me there. And notify the TBI. Let them know we need their help. Again.” He disconnected and finished dressing in record time. Having anyone murdered was a tragedy as well as a mystery. He guessed having a celebrity like Elf murdered would create a media frenzy beyond anything he could truly imagine. He wanted to arrive at the scene before the first newshound, especially Winifred.

When he pulled his Blazer into Ruby's parking lot, he parked to block the entrance into the overflow area where Elf's huge bus sat alone, its lily-decorated paint job gleaming in the first rays of the morning sun. It should have been a lovely sight.

Mike and Dammit walked toward him from the café's back porch. The big dog looked like he suffered from a hangover. It was his usual off-duty expression.

“Don't you get a honeymoon?” Seeing him, Tony felt a sense of relief. They needed every officer they had. His tiny force was simply not equipped for celebrity homicide.

Mike shook his head. “We don't leave for our cruise until next week. Ruby wanted to get married on Anna, er, Angelina's birthday.”

“So that's why she picked Tuesday.”

“Yep. I'm just lucky we didn't have to go through eleven months of the calendar after finding Angelina.” Mike tipped his head toward Elf's driver who sat on the café's deck staring at the bus. “He's pretty shocky.”

Wade pulled in next to the Blazer, and Doc Nash parked on the far side. Neither of them smiled as they stood studying the bus. Wade carried a large camera bag and a stack of yellow plastic numbered markers. “You want me to start here or inside?”

“Start here.” Tony needed to see the crime scene. “Take some pictures of this whole area for reference.” Tony waved his arm to indicate the parking lot, the motor home, and the driver.

Without another word, Wade began systematically photographing the area. He placed a couple of markers as he moved toward the open door but generally focused on the broader view. The doctor was right on his heels, following in his footsteps. So was Tony. Mike and Dammit began setting up barricades and stringing crime scene tape to limit, as much as possible, contamination of the area.

Tony thought Wade's camera clicking sounded amazingly loud in the unnatural silence. Not a dog was barking, nor a bird was chirping anywhere nearby. He climbed into the bus and took more photographs. Tony, watching over Wade's shoulder, knew when he focused on Elf. Wade, prepared for his inevitable reaction, quickly handed Tony the camera and pulled a plastic lined paper bag out of his pocket and threw up into it.

Tony barely noticed. He felt a chill run through him that had nothing to do with the weather. Elf's body lay sprawled in the open space of the living room. No longer dressed in the “black lounge singer gown” she'd worn to her son's wedding, she wore baggy jeans and a well worn oversized gray sweatshirt. Her bare feet looked no bigger than a child's. He'd catalogued her overall appearance quickly but now he stared, feeling queasy in the closed space. Tightly wrapped around her neck, he guessed twice, was a thin steel wire with a loop on one end. A dulcimer string.

On the coffee table was a bottle of wine and two glasses. Both looked untouched. “So she had company or was expecting it.”

He glanced into the doctor's face. Doc Nash was shaking his head even as he pulled latex gloves onto his hands. Tony watched him move close to Elf's face.

“Wade, picture.” The doctor pointed at the face.

Wade slipped his barf bag into another plastic bag and stuck it into a small pouch hanging on the camera bag. Eyebrows lifted, he followed the doctor's instruction, taking multiple photographs of the face from several angles before following his own protocol for cataloging every inch of the crime scene.

“What is it?” Tony stepped closer to see what drew the doctor's attention.

“Paper in her mouth. That color.” Doc pointed to a stack of paper next to a small electronic keyboard on the coffee table. “There was nothing in Scarlet's mouth or throat.”

Wade took a few pictures of the table and paper.

Tony, his hands covered with gloves, slid the paper from the table into an evidence envelope and jotted a note on the outside.

“The wire?” Tony stared into the doctor's face. “Is it the same kind?”

“You'll need a wire expert, but I'd say unofficially ‘yes,’ and I'd say the wrapping technique is the same as Scarlet's or very similar. I'll let you know after the autopsy if the paper was put there before or after she died.” Doc Nash's frown deepened. “But why?”

With a shake of his head, Tony moved his gaze from Elf. He studied the interior of the motor home. A wall of glass cabinets with a mirrored lining flanked the doorway into the next living space. Dulcimers of many sizes and shapes were on display in the cabinet. Most were traditional hourglass shapes, some crudely formed and some with delicate inlays of mother of pearl or multiple colors of wood. One exquisite teardrop-shaped dulcimer had “ELF” inlayed under a heart-shaped sound hole.

“Do you suppose the killer brought the string or used one of hers?” Tony talked to himself. Scarlet didn't have any musical instruments.”

The doctor frowned, staring around the space. “Not much seems knocked around. Don't you think she'd kick over a crystal lamp or something?”

Tony thought the same thing. “Unless she died instantly, or maybe she did thrash about and our killer took the time to put everything back.”

“I'll dust every surface including the keyboard.” Wade gazed around, probably seeing it for the first time without a camera lens. “It wasn't robbery because her purse is right there.”

Tony agreed. Without touching it, he could see a stack of money inside.

A horn blaring in the parking lot drew their attention. The TBI's crime scene van had arrived. Reinforcements.

Theo was enjoying Saturday morning home with the boys. They were busy mixing the family recipe for pumpkin cookies. She sat in her wheelchair watching a blob of dough stuck to the ceiling and wondered if it would fall. Even with the energetic stirring, she thought it was in a remarkable location. Tony was the only one who'd be able to reach it.

As if her thoughts conjured him, her cell phone chimed. Tony barely let her answer before he rattled off his request that she and the boys go to the shop, told her Elf was dead, and informed her Katti was on the way to pick them up. Then he disconnected.

Theo put the uncooked dough in the refrigerator. She guessed he wanted her to keep track of the conversations at “gossip central,” as Tony liked to refer to her shop. She preferred the term “local news,” but whatever called gossip or news, it flowed through the quilting room like water through a sieve.

At the shop, the boys vanished upstairs into her office, where a corner belonged to them. Theo and Katti barely made it into the classroom before a deluge of quilters, seeking information about Elf, struck like a tsunami. She wondered how they heard the news before she did.

Summer Flowers stalked into Theo's classroom, sending the quilters hurrying back into the fabric end of the store. Summer and Autumn Flowers were brothers. They didn't act like brothers. Theo had known them all her life and their differences still came as a surprise. The two men didn't look like brothers. Blossom's father, Autumn, was round of face and body like his daughter and loved to tell corny jokes; Summer, known as Sum, was lean and hard and wore a perpetual expression of gloom and doom on his gaunt face.

Sum Flowers was
not
a nice man. Theo watched him carefully. He stood in her makeshift workroom clasping and unclasping his skeletal fingers and staring at his feet. His heavy boots were shedding dry mud on her clean floor.

Theo felt warmed and relieved when Katti came to stand beside her and, although she said nothing, it was clear Katti wasn't pleased to see him either. Theo couldn't imagine what brought him into her shop. She waited for him to speak.

“She wasn't a good girl.” His raspy voice finally broke the silence. His eyes lifted from the floor to give Theo a malevolent stare. “Got what was coming to her.”

Theo felt a ripple of fear. She would not want to be alone with the man. Was he talking about Scarlet or Elf? Theo didn't know what she was supposed to say to the man who'd lost both his daughters. What happened to not speaking ill of the dead? She considered asking him to leave.

The man's first wife, the girls' mother, had been an alcoholic who drank herself to death, leaving her daughters to run wild. His second wife didn't last more than two years with him before she packed a couple of bags and left town with a package delivery man.

“Mr. Flowers?” Theo rolled her chair a bit closer in spite of her distaste for the man. He hadn't been at Scarlet's funeral. “Why did you come here today? Do you need something?”

“Her and her sister both.” He seemed to study the room, ignoring her. “Trash, giving birth to more trash.”

“Sir?” Theo saw Katti reach for the broom.

“You tell your husband he don't need to strain nothing looking for who rid the world of them girls.” He spat on her floor.

“Out.” Enraged, Theo pointed to the door. “Get out.”

Katti waved the broom and yelled something in Russian.

Sum left.

Stunned, Theo and Katti stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Katti broke the silence. “He come back, Katti fix him. Not good man.” She pantomimed slitting her throat.

Theo nodded. The way Sum made her feel, she'd probably help. Even from a wheelchair, she could mop up blood.

Tony and Wade attended the autopsy of Easter Lily Flowers. Doc Nash went along with them, more from professional curiosity than necessity. The medical examiner in Knoxville, with the unfortunate name of Gould, had done work for Park County before and welcomed the threesome like he was inviting them into his home for a card game.