The Killer Enigma, page 13
“You know, sir, I didn’t start any of this situation, nor did I last time. I really don’t want us at odds. It started because my wife wanted a slice of Magnolia Bluff to visit regularly. I like answers when I see problems I can fix.”
“Last time, I discounted you and Jo’s determination, which turned out incorrect and resulted in my eating crow. This time I’m mad, but I’m not discounting you. I figure you’re knee-deep in this hot mess, and it’s about time you spring new material on me. Let’s get all of it out on the table.”
JJ laughed, feeling relief course through him. Perhaps Tommy was an ally. “Fair enough, sir.”
Tommy pulled the car to a stop. “I can pull the officer of the law card. You can dole out pieces of information like tortilla chips in a Mexican restaurant. Or we can work together, and you can call me Tommy!”
JJ swallowed again, to make sure the lump was gone and his voice would come out loud and clear. “The property Jo and I wanted; well, you know that history.”
Tommy nodded.
“A lot going on since we’ve arrived. Their story seemed so sad with a man setting up a trust to pay taxes for twenty-five years, yet he vanished from a town that rallied around him. A part-time caretaker for the same man’s wife made a scene at the wife’s funeral, had friends in town, but also left town for greener fields. A lady at Flower recently made my skin prickle for no identifiable reason, so I captured her fingerprints. I’m waiting on feedback to see if she has a record. A financial investor comes to town to invest in the bank, yet had some sort of disagreement with Gunter Fight. A body gets found on the property I invested in. And now buried money. I’ve been digging around every loose thread. I’ve some documentation I’m happy to give you.”
JJ ran his fingers through his hair then moved the vent pouring out the cool air so that it was pointing toward his face. “I’m stuck at unsealing court records of a sister to Marissa Stevens which might open other threads to pull. My, uh…resources are unable to access them. We’ve tried every angle. Oh, and our room at Flower was visited by an unknown someone looking for something, messed with my laptop, and who forgot to put stuff back. That’s the worst because I will do anything to protect my wife. A hint of her being at risk in this town sends me into total protect mode.”
Tommy looked out the window in the distance for a moment, which JJ hoped was a positive thing. Then he turned back to JJ. “If I were married to the acclaimed model Jo W, I’d be careful too. Now the court records issue…that I can help with. I am a peace officer with contacts.”
JJ tried to contain his surprise and concern that Jo was not safe. Fury welled in him. If Tommy knew, others likely did too. This wasn’t a haven. She’d be heartbroken. “When we get to Flower, I’ll tell Jo I changed my mind about the property. With all this mess, we can leave tomorrow, and she can write letters and call her friends to keep up with the changes. I don’t know how you found out, but if everyone knows, then this is not the refuge she hoped it might be. We wanted to be a part of this town, but now…” JJ pulled out his phone to put some flights in motion out of Austin. He stopped feeling Tommy’s hand on his arm.
“JJ, wait. Everyone doesn’t know. Lily does, of course, because she and Jo spoke about it. Lily enjoys her gossip but loves Jo like a daughter. She is thrilled you might be here part-time. I found out when you were here before. Dare I repeat myself, I’m a darned good peace officer. Lily folded like a cheap lawn chair after she was attacked, and Jo wielded her frying pan. She begged me to keep it quiet. Heck, I agreed. Y’all are nice people.” Tommy put the vehicle into drive, moving at the speed limit. “Whose fingerprints?”
“I get irritable when someone tries to break into my laptop, so I asked my reference librarian if they could, uh…shed some light for me. Stacie Duncan is not who she pretends to be. She and Calvin, who were not a couple, according to Lily, left with no explanation.”
“They pissed off Gunter with some heavy-handed tactics, and he threw them out of his bank.” Tommy laughed. “He’s a Texan who can spot a con even when it’s called a friend. He told me yesterday when he filled me in that he has no evidence. As a banker, character assessment is something he does quite well.”
“Before we leave town, I’ll give you my research on Stacie for your investigation. We have nearly three weeks left on our vacation; I’ll find another place to relax.”
“Son, I suspect neither you nor Jo know the meaning of the word. You folks found a body no one was looking for, and a footlocker of cash that everyone’s gonna want. Now you’re going to vanish. With all the clues you keep turning up, you can’t say you don’t want to know the answers. Heck, if you stay, will you at least let me be your deputy when they elect you Chief of Police?”
“I don’t know. How good are you at getting coffee?”
Tommy laughed aloud. “At Flower I’m great, and the price is right, but don’t push your luck.” He positioned the vehicle close to the station’s door behind the building. JJ and Tommy wrestled the footlocker into his conference room.
Tommy clapped JJ on the back. “You’re safe in Magnolia Bluff. We’re fond of stories, and you keep uncovering some dandy fodder.”
JJ sent a text telling Jo to let him know when she arrived. He debated how much he’d share of his conversation with Tommy. “Let me figure out how to tell Jo, okay?”
“Of course.”
Tommy moved the chairs to one side of the conference room. The table was bare except for the parcel they deposited. Tommy and JJ put on rubber gloves. Tommy slid the footlocker to one side of the table and unwrapped it, careful about capturing possible trace evidence.
“JJ, hold open this bag and I’ll add the tarp.”
Tommy felt this case could change history in Magnolia Bluff.
“Okay. I can hold bags and mark them if you want.”
“I’ll send anything we collect for Jake to look at, or on to Austin if necessary.”
He dusted the footlocker for fingerprints and directed JJ to take pictures. His gut clenched from worry that he’d miss something. “You’re sure neither you or Jo touched the box or the latch?”
“I’m positive I flipped the latch with the edge of the chisel.”
“Then we have two partials. The best one is on the underside.” He laid out lines of fresh butcher paper off a roll he grabbed from the corner. “Now, I want to dust the outside of each stack of money for prints. Since it was new money when it was put into the box, the number of prints should be limited. We might get lucky.”
Tommy stopped and retrieved a badge from his desk. “Hold up your right hand. I’ll swear you in as my deputy for now, but I do the direction.”
JJ nodded and raised his right hand. “Yes, sir.”
“It’s going to be tedious, but with both of us we can make it like an assembly line. As a standard, there are a hundred bills per banded group. For Jackson then, that is two thousand dollars per stack.”
“Tommy, since it is new, do you think the numbers might be consecutive in the stacks?”
“It’s possible, and a good call. It would make it easier to count that way. Banks band by the hundred so counting is easier if the recipient doesn’t have a machine. Band colors are denominations, like the violet we see here is twenties.”
JJ’s phone lit up with an incoming text. “Jo’s here. I’m going to let her in.”
“Fine, just lock the door afterward. She’ll get sworn in too.”
Tommy heard them talking before he spotted them. Jo carried a bag and appeared to have changed into cleaner clothing. He wondered if she’d brought JJ clothes. They were such a cute couple.
“Hi, again.” Jo grinned. “I decided we might all need food, so I had Lily prepare lunch. I hope it’s okay.” He swore her eyes twinkled when she set the bag on the empty table.
“I like a girl who thinks on her feet. You timed it well, Jo.” Tommy went and retrieved another badge. “I need you to swear to uphold the law and do as I direct.”
Jo raised her hand, appearing serious. “Yes, sir. I do.”
He handed her the badge. “I was giving your husband some ground rules for handling this cash while we count it. Would you mind writing down some serial numbers if we find them in order? It may help for counting.”
“Sure. Where do I find a pad and pencil?”
Tommy pointed through the glass windows toward a cabinet. “Second drawer for a notepad in the grey cabinet, and pencils on any desk. My deputy is on vacation until next Monday.”
Tommy kept an eye on Jo while she fetched the materials and returned. He was comfortable trusting these two, and that was an odd sensation for him.
Once the photographs were captured, they dusted the stacks and laid them in rows on the table.
“Whoa. Hamilton made an appearance under the latest stack I pulled. Jo, we’ve been reading numbers to you. Do they match up?”
“Not to one another. A few of the number sequences equate to the one hundred bills you mentioned, but the others are not in order. They look like the same height though.”
“Feds have used counting machines for decades and the color bands as well. How many stacks so far?” Tommy asked.
“I have one hundred and twenty so far.”
“We have five more stacks on top of the ten-dollar denominations,” JJ announced. “That would equal two-hundred and fifty thousand.”
Tommy looked up and caught Jo’s eyes as wide as saucers.
“That’s a bunch of money.” He scratched his ear with a gloved finger. “I have no unsolved robberies in the area for that amount, or more, based on the next layer we’ve got. And they aren’t in total consecutive order. This is weird; something doesn’t add up.” Tommy eyed JJ.
“Don’t look at me. I’m out of ideas for now.”
“Let’s grab some food. Thank you, Jo, for bringing it. Then we can attack the next denomination. Makes me wonder if Lincoln is below Hamilton, if these were stacked low to high bills.”
They sat in chairs, staring at the stacks of money. “Tommy, why would someone put a freezer on top of a stash of money?”
Tommy chewed and swallowed. “I got a better question. Why would anyone dispose of a body on top of a cash stash in a barn for years?”
“Drug monies stashed here since no one is living here but the property is vacant?” JJ mused. “If no one comes prowling around like we did, the money was safe.”
“If that’s true,” Tommy reasoned, “putting the freezer on top of the money meant they weren’t coming back anytime soon. It looks like the area hasn’t been touched in years. Your theory doesn’t seem to add up.”
“Perhaps the dealer or trafficker got interrupted and couldn’t return. Perhaps the body in the freezer was an isolated event, and the two are not connected.”
JJ stared toward the invisible horizon. “In light of the digging occurring around the property, someone must know enough to come to look for buried money.”
“Let’s think of other ideas. Anything is possible, it seems,” suggested Tommy.
Jo daintily dabbed at the mayo on her lips. “What if the body turns out to be Thomas Stevens? Then it might be no one knew where, if he hid it.”
“Jo, you are not only a champ at swinging a pan, but you have a point. I’m waiting for Jake to update me. Just before I rushed to your place,” he eyed JJ, “Jake said he found some teeth in the freezer that might match dental records. I asked him to check within a forty-mile radius first, maybe pull a few favors with long-time practices first. The scavenger flies cleaned up everything before they expired, so no fingerprints. Using county support, Jake dusted inside and out of the freezer for prints and sent them in for checking. That could take a few days or more without getting the feds involved.”
JJ rounded up the trash and placed it in the receptacle inside the conference room. “Tommy, can I go wash up before we start again?”
“Yep, no phone with you when you walk out. I’ll do the same when you get back. And, just so you know, I am trying to keep us above board in case we need to testify.”
JJ nodded and washed up, returning so Jo could take a turn, then Tommy.
With the production line in place, they started on the ten- dollar bills. Again, some stacks were sequential, but not all of them.
“Tommy,” Jo said, stretching. “I looked for the dates based on the serial numbers like JJ suggested. None of the bills so far are newer than 1973. Based on the sounds you guys are making when you finger them, these are new bills.”
“No new monies were added since it was buried,” stated JJ. “We must stay within the time capsule for the crime.”
“JJ, can you use your source and upload a few of those fingerprint photos to see if we have any identified?”
“I can, but I think we only have a few more to go. Jo, how many stacks of tens do we have so far?”
“Our count is at two-forty. Tommy, that is nearly half a million dollars, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. And I am counting ten in here before we hit a plastic wrapped bundle. Looks like an old Comet Cleaners garment bag. We had that company in town before Quik Clean bought it out. Let’s count these bills. I want to see what is on the bottom.”
They pushed through the last ten for a total of two hundred and fifty stacks of Hamilton bills. Tommy lifted the bundle, and JJ moved the empty footlocker to the side. They scooted the stacks to one end of the table. Tommy used the open space to loosen the plastic. JJ picked up the plastic and added it to a new evidence bag.
Tommy leafed through some pictures, circa seventies and before, based on the clothes and hairstyles. There were baby clothes neatly folded, along with a baby-sized spoon and matching fork, stamped sterling silver. Then he located an envelope between the clothing. It was unsealed with a handwritten letter inside. Tommy opened and read the letter silently. With a shaky hand he handed it to JJ, then wiped his tears.
“Are you all right?” JJ asked as he held the letter.
Tommy waved his hand that suggested he needed a minute. JJ held it while he and Jo read it together. Halfway through, Jo clasped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears while she continued to read. JJ turned the page over and they finished.
“Oh, my goodness,” Jo started, with tears trailing down her cheeks. “Marissa’s sister Anastasia was actually our Annie Flagstone. I wonder how she discovered her sister was ill. A kindness to take care of her sister, but the price. Poor Thomas.”
Tommy punched his right fist into his open hand. “I need a picture of the letter, and I need to talk to Gunter.”
“Tommy, I found the sister, Anastasia. Those are the court records I couldn’t get unsealed,” reminded JJ.
“Good. You two go back to Flower. Make certain the girls and Lily are safe. I’ll call you after I speak to Gunter. And again, keep this a secret, deputies.” He shook his head. “What a mess.”
Tommy marched into the quiet bank. There were no customers inside, and folks behind the counters were chatting, looking bored. He approached the first window and cleared his throat to get service. “I need to speak with Gunter. Let him know I’m here.”
“Chief, Mr. Fight is in a meeting with some high-profile clients,” the teller announced. “Can this wait?”
Tommy flexed his jaw muscles. Holding in his temper, he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “With the extra time on my hands, perhaps I should rework the warning ticket I gave you last week into a misdemeanor for drunk driving. Your thoughts?”
The man’s face turned scarlet, and he raised his eyebrows, looking left to right hoping no one overheard. “Chief, I’m sure Mr. Fight would be grateful to know his current meeting ended early. Give me a minute, please.” He picked up a phone, turning away as he spoke.
Less than a minute later, Fight’s office door opened and two businessmen, appearing confused, shook hands with Gunter as he escorted them out the entrance. When Gunter turned, Tommy noted his sour face and clenched teeth, emphasized with a hand gesture for the chief to follow him. Tommy entered and heard the door shut behind him.
Both men took a seat. “What the heck, Tommy, you come in here without an appointment? I do run a business. I don’t mind you scheduling a meeting.” Gunter sighed and set both hands atop his neat desk. “You wanna tell me what this is about?”
Tommy set his jaw and stared at Gunter. “What happened at your bank in 1973? One minute Johnny Laughlin ran this place, then you took over. I was fairly new and not paying attention to local politics, but the rumor mill was cranking at full steam. Why did you take over?”
Gunter shifted in his chair then gazed toward the open window. “You mean, how did a guy like me with no formal training become a bank president?”
Tommy watched every nuance from the man. “Yes.”
“I started out as a crazy wildcatter in both Texas and Oklahoma. My new in-laws invited me to buy in on a speculation hole. We hit right where the geologist said, but it was mostly natural gas. The back pressure ejected the drilling pipes. Before the pipes landed, the lead partner offered to buy me out for twice my investment.” He smiled. “Needless to say, I got hooked. I hit four of the next five wellbores, and money poured in. I shoved my speculation winnings into the bank. First National Bank of Magnolia Bluff, to be precise.”
Tommy frowned. “I don’t need the whole story of how the West was won. What I want is—”
Gunter banged his fist on the desk. “If you’re gonna barge in and interrupt my day, then you listen to the whole story, Tommy, or git.”
Tommy snorted and his nostrils flared.
Gunter blinked. “Playing it safe, I cashed out as quickly as I could. I worried the oil high was too good to last. I was right. The following year, oil and gas prices went to hell in a handbasket. I laughed all the way to the bank as I was free and clear. Six months after the industry shift, it cost more to pump and transport the stuff than the selling price. I felt smug about my market timing.”
