Red Letter Slay (A Mail Carrier Cozy Mystery Book 8), page 10
“A few months? You just got here.” Iris was good at catching details. She stuffed another cookie in her mouth as she walked over to the wipe-off board.
She left Melissa’s name as a suspect but added Tracey Damski as another.
While Melissa continued to give the details about Horace and Tracey Damski, Iris wrote them down.
“Now for the salary. Horace has always had a big ego. He has that personality where everyone who meets him loves him. His viewers and listeners were the same. No matter if he gave a weather report that wasn’t a bit accurate, he was able to do it in a way that reached his audience to create these super fans.” She gave off a hint of satisfaction with a gleam in her eye. “It was very interesting to see. That made him very sought-after and marketable. With that comes big money. When you go to a small market where the viewership is less than stellar, cuts and changes have to be made in order to pay the hired help to come in and fix it.”
“That’s what Vick did.” I recalled talking to Lucy Drake. “And that’s why Levi and Tracey’s hours were cut. Right?”
“Yes. From what I gather, Levi Horn was very upset because he was in line to be the new meteorologist.” Melissa put her jazz hands in the air. “Surprise. Not only are you not getting the full-time gig, but you’re being demoted to recorded weather reports. Good luck,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Are you saying Levi Horn has a motive?” I asked to be clear.
“Now that you say it, he sure does. Him and Tracey Damski.” After Melissa confirmed the details one more time, Iris and I had added two more people to our suspect list.
“How do we know you’re not leading us on some goose chase?” I asked Melissa point-blank.
“I love my mom. I had no reason to divorce Horace or kill him. I am able to live my life and help my mom live her life. Horace was welcome to do whatever it was he wanted, and I guess I became too much baggage for his travels.” Her brow winged up. “Besides, I was with Mom and Vince. After bingo, we got takeout for dinner and sat in Mom’s room making Vince do his physical therapy exercises.”
I looked at Vince, wanting him to not only confirm that he was doing his exercises but also agree to Melissa’s alibi.
“Don’t look so surprised.” He gave me a hard look. “After you told me your theory, I knew I had to get the girls to tell you the truth. I already called Angela and told her they were with me. Even the log at the desk of the facility will show you the time Melissa signed in. You’ll notice she didn’t sign out because once she got the call from Vick about Horace, she left the facility in a hurry.”
“You were there when Vick called?” I asked to make sure I heard him correctly.
“Yes,” he confirmed with a firmness in his tone. “Melissa LeLand did not kill Horace. As far as Horace attempting to kill Sandra and mistaking me for her, I can’t be sure of, and now that he’s dead, I’m afraid we might not ever get the answer.”
“If Tracey and Horace were as close as you believed them to be, she just might have the answer to that question.” I sucked in a deep breath as the realization of the increasing complexity of the details of this case settled in my bones. “Now I’m worried I won’t have all of this solved by the time I get my wedding dress on.”
“What is the rush?” Melissa asked. “Why don’t you tell Sheriff Hafley and let her take it from here?”
“Because I hired Levi Horn to do the music for my wedding, and Angela has a way of figuring out crimes when a big thing like a wedding or funeral is planned. I’ve come all this way not to have my wedding ruined.” I pictured Angela storming to the farm on my wedding day to arrest Levi Horn. That wasn’t how I wanted my little bit of sunshine in the social section of the newspaper to read.
“Then it looks like we are going to be really busy the next couple of days.” Iris vigorously started to outline a timeline from the day Horace LeLand set foot in Sugar Creek Gap up to the time I was supposed to say “I do.”
“This shouldn’t be so hard. We only have two people to talk to.” Iris stated it like nothing else in the world was going on between now and Saturday.
“Where are we going to fit it in with Clara’s birthday and the football game?” I really was asking myself that as I looked at the whiteboard, trying to come up with any free time when there seemed to be none. “We are running out of time.”
“Bernadette Butler, I told these ladies we could count on you.” Vince wasn’t going to let my apprehensiveness grow roots. “Now you do what you do best and what I’ve taught you over the years.”
With the little confidence boost Vince gave me, I knew I had to see Tracey Damski first. A scorned lover seemed like a fitting place to start.
Chapter 12
“Breathe in.” Peaches Partin could do all her yoga moves with her eyes closed and balance at the same time. “Breathe out.” Her voice soothed even the most nervous Nelly of souls. “If you’d like to enjoy this pre-nuptial yoga as we celebrate our dear friend Bernadette Butler, close your eyes and listen to my voice as I guide you through this meditative offering.”
“If I keep my eyes closed, I’ll get dizzy and fall over.” Iris didn’t mean to be funny, but she caused everyone to snicker.
Ahem. Peaches cleared her throat.
The one leg I was standing on started to wiggle, since I’d lost focus while I peeked one eye open to look at Iris.
“Whoa.” My arms whirled around to try to keep me balanced, like a flamingo’s wings. “Dang.” I fell to the ground and started to laugh, sending the rest of the group into a fit of laughter.
Rowena took the tumble as a way for her to come over and get some scratches along her back.
She and Buster knew the farm so well. Rowena had lived here with me, but Buster didn’t. He’d lived in the house on Little Creek Road with the previous owner, a customer of mine, who left me the house in his will. Getting the house also meant taking care of Buster.
“You’ll be a funny-looking bride with a cast on your leg or worse.” Harriette Pearl patted her hip. “Your hips.”
“Breathe in the gratitude for our friend Bernie!” Peaches took her job seriously, and by the tone of her voice, she was talking herself into her breathing in gratitude. “Breathe out the love for her upcoming union.”
“Mamaw!” Clara didn’t give two iotas about yoga. “No nap!” she screamed from the old wooden chair swing, which was attached to a low-hanging limb of the tree a few feet away from us. Her legs flailed in the air, nearly hitting Buster in the head.
Buster liked it when Clara was around. He’d taken pride in sitting next to her or beneath her in hopes something edible would drop from her chubby little fingers.
“Shhhh.” Melissa put her finger to her mouth to shush Clara. Clara flung her little legs out straight as a stick in front of her and started to scream more loudly.
“No! Mamaw.” Her scream turned into a cry, which she knew would send me right over there to pick her up.
“What if we sit on our yoga mats and tell our friend Bernadette how much we love her.” Peaches made a suggestion everyone could get involved in.
“I’m sorry.” There was no way I would let sweet Clara sit in the swing when she wanted me. Or least faked that she wanted me. Once I picked her up, she wiggled her way to the ground and toddled over to the group of ladies to test out everyone’s lap until she finally got to Mom’s.
“Nacky?” Clara put her hand out to my mom. “Nacky, Nana.”
“Shhhh. That’s Nana’s little secret.” My mom wasn’t fooling anyone. “Nacky” was how I said the word “candy” when I was a baby, and it was passed down to Grady. The pronunciation had become a universal word for “candy” in our family, and Clara naturally picked it up.
Julia shook her head.
“You can give her a piece—a piece,” Julia emphasized, “a piece of candy.”
“Your mommy said you can have some nacky.” Mom scooped Clara into her arms, popped up, and headed straight to the house. Before she opened the back screen door to the kitchen, she turned around and said, “Why don’t y’all all come in and eat before Iris serves the cake.”
The mention of food was all it took for Millie, Gertrude, Ruby, Revonda Gail, Julia, and Peaches to scurry off the yoga mats Peaches had brought, leaving me there in the corpse pose.
My soul filled as their chatter fluttered out the open windows of the old farmhouse. Though my friends and I were together a lot, hearing them come together specifically to celebrate a second wedding at my age truly meant something to me.
The farm took on a whole different look each season, and fall was one of my favorites. Even though the grass would be brown soon, the trees had started to shed their leaves, making the path around the area where the wedding would happen its own colorful carpet for me to take my walk down to Mac.
When Mac asked me to marry him, and we’d decided to wait for autumn, fall had seemed so far away. We loved being outside during these next few months. Both of us loved to sit on our porches and patios, grill out, and even take a few nightly strolls with the fur babies.
This was where Richard and I had spent our entire married life, and it was also the home where I’d grown up and spent most of my life, so it was natural to begin my new chapter right here with Mac Tabor.
“Breathe in,” I whispered. I lay in the corpse position, eyes closed, one hand on my belly, the other on my heart. Peaches had taught me to do this position when I’d become so stressed out I started taking her class to learn how to chill. “Breathe out.”
The sound of a car approaching caused me to bounce up on my elbows.
Levi.
I jumped to my feet and waved to him.
“I’m glad you got my text.” I greeted him on my way over to his car. “Are you okay?” I asked, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. Something you might see from someone who hadn’t been sleeping, had something on their conscience, maybe murdered someone.
“I’m good.” He tried to disguise the lie by nodding and giving a faint smile.
“Really? Are you?” I asked. “I mean, I heard about your co-worker.”
“Isn’t it awful?” Levi was tall and thin. He had short blond hair. If I had to guess, I’d say he was in his thirties. He wore a pair of blue jeans, a green button-down shirt half tucked in, and a pair of tennis shoes.
“Is it?” I asked just to see his response. He glanced at me before deciding to change the subject.
“What’s going on here?” He pointed off in the distance at the yoga mats.
“My bridal party.” I used the term loosely, since Julia was the only one standing up with me, and Grady was going to be standing with Mac. “Decided I needed a bridal shower filled with yoga and food.”
“That’s nice.” He rocked back on his heels. “I’ve got limited time tonight. I’m sorry I’ve not been able to call Mac back, but when I’ve DJ’d weddings before, I’ve found it’s the bride who I really need to talk to about the events of the wedding.”
“This bride wants to make sure you keep it clean and going. That’s it.” I gestured for him to follow me around the side yard to the back of the farm, where we thought it would be nice to set up along the field near the small creek. Grady and Mac had already had the tents delivered back there and set up a cute little altar Grady had made out of some sticks. Though it didn’t look like much now, Sara and Larry were going to weave the same flowers from the tablescape arrangement into the altar to make everything cohesive.
“We were going to have the dancing part of the reception under that tent.” I pointed at the tent on the right. “That one is going to be where everyone will be able to sit and eat. Mac hired a bartender. They will have one bar set up under each tent. I guess you need to tell me where you’d like to set up. Then I’ll decide where to put the bar.”
“I’m going to have a few strobe lights, and I think it’d be nice if your guests were dancing facing the stream. The lights will look great mirroring the water.” He had a good view as he pointed out the various places he was talking about before his phone chimed, immediately taking his attention. “I’ve got to go. Don’t worry. Everything is going to look great.”
I hurried next to him, trying to keep up the pace as he double-timed it back across the field in the direction of his car.
“Now that Horace is no longer at the radio station, do you think you’ll be back on air, not recorded?” I had little time to get the answers I really wanted from him. I couldn’t give two hoots about what music he played or even where he set up his equipment. We certainly didn’t need strobe lights.
He stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at me, his face still.
“I think a lot of things need to happen at the station.” He appeared as if he wanted to say something but held back. “Horace was leaving anyways.”
“Leaving?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m guessing you know my forecasts had been shrunk to those recordings, since you mentioned it, so I had to take another job in order to help pay my bills. No thanks to Horace.” He scoffed, not appearing to be a bit sorry about what had happened to Horace. “The only thing I could find that was flexible enough in case Vick called me in on a whim to fill in was a cleaning position for one of those companies who clean office space.” His shoulders bounced as he laughed. “As fate would have it—and maybe to stab me in the back a little more—I was assigned to clean the station.”
In the background, I could hear all the ladies in the kitchen laughing and enjoying themselves.
Rowena had found a rubbing post on Levi’s legs, snaking her body from one shin to the other.
“I was in there one Sunday night and caught Horace with Tracey Damski. They were…” He blushed.
“I know. Melissa told me.” I let him off the hook, since he looked embarrassed enough.
“Yeah. Apparently, they had this whole agreement or something.” He threw a hand in disgust. “I quickly excused myself from the room and went into the offices to collect trash. I was nervous about the whole catching them because I knew if he gave the word to Vick, he’d fire me.”
“What word?” I was confused.
“If Horace told Vick to fire me, Vick would. Vick does—did—everything Horace told him. I guess he had to because he’s the one who spent all our money to hire Horace. Horace knew it too. He walked around the station like he was the one in charge and writing all the checks.” He snorted. “Really, he was, but when I was emptying his trash, I accidentally knocked into his desk. His computer came to life, and Zoom popped up.”
I wasn’t sure where Levi was going with this, but it sure did seem important.
“Horace had been interviewing for new jobs. Bigger markets. I got curious and started to poke around. I got so wrapped up into all the places he’d been interviewing and learning he took a job in Texas that I didn’t even hear Tracey come into the office.” Was Levi saying what I thought he was saying?
“She jumped down my throat, asking me why I was on Horace’s computer, and I told her I knew he had taken a job in Texas. I guess he hadn’t let her know, and she kinda had a meltdown. She started to tell me things about how they’d planned to go away together after Sandra died so he didn’t have to be tied to Melissa anymore. They were going to live on some money he was going to get from Sandra’s death, and he was leaving the meteorology field for a life with her.” It sounded like Levi was telling me about a book he’d read, not a real-life occurrence. It was so strange.
“When was this?” I asked, trying to put together a timeline of events.
“Gosh. A few months ago.” In other words, this was before Vince had gotten stabbed, which made me wonder if Tracey Damski had…
“When was the new job he took in Texas going to happen?” I asked.
“That’s another thing, Tracey never told Horace I found out about the job. The next week I was there, they were there. I guess they met there on Sunday. There was no one in the building on Sunday anymore, since Vick took away all the live broadcasts and replaced them with syndicated shows and recorded weather reports.” He rolled his eyes. “It was a perfect place for them to be alone. Every single Sunday night, I went there to clean, and they were there, huddled into a studio doing what I don’t know, but I’m sure you can use your imagination.”
“Yeah, no thank you.” My lip twitched at the thought.
“I overheard them having an argument, and she blurted out that she knew he was going to leave once he got the bonus fulfilled on his contract.” Levi’s story was definitely pointing me in the direction of Tracey Damski, just like Melissa had mentioned.
“They had this big argument where he told her things had changed between him and Melissa. They were working things out, and he knew this new life in Texas would make them come together like man and wife as they should. Tracey smacked him across the face and said she’d done things for him no one would do.”
“Things like try to kill Sandra a few months ago so they could be together.” My thoughts ended up coming out of my mouth.
“What?” Levi squinted. “Tracey tried to kill Sandra?”
“No. I’m—umm.” I pulled my lips tight and blinked a few times before tilting my head at him while collecting my thoughts. “No. Not that I know of. I have no idea why I would say that. I’m sorry. Go on.”
“All I know is they broke up, and when I was cleaning the other night, I found him dead. On a Sunday. You do the math.”
“You found him?” I realized I’d not known who had actually found him.
“Yeah. I thought it was strange because the door was unlocked. Every Sunday, when I went to clean, the doors were all locked up, but Horace and Tracey were inside. This time the door was unlocked. It made me stop, but I figured they’d gotten lax about meeting up in there, so I went on in and started my normal cleaning routine. When I got to the broadcast booth, that’s when I found him.” Levi looked off into the distance. His phone chirped again. “Sorry. I’ve got to go. It’s Vick. I’m meeting him at the Wallflower Diner. I think he might be offering me a job, but joke’s on him.”
