Mail Carrier 06 - Post Mortem, page 5
“Jigs walked into the brush. He’s bent over the body.” Colvin lifted his chin and crossed his arms. “You’ve been involved in a few of these type of situations. How long do you think they are going to keep us? I’ve got things to do before supper.”
“Supper?” I gave him an odd look. “It’s just about time for dinner.”
In the South, dinner was what some people called lunch, and supper was what some people called dinner. Them some people were wrong. It was breakfast, dinner, and supper. End of story.
“Yeah. They serve supper over at the nursing home starting at four thirty. If you aren’t there on the dot, sometimes you don’t get your choice of dessert, and tonight is banana pudding night.” He licked his lips. “I love me some ’nanner puddin’.”
We stopped talking when Angela started to walk back over to us.
“How long we gonna be here?” Colvin whined.
“He’s got to get back in time for supper,” I told her, making her head pop up with a curious look. “Banana pudding night at the nursing home, and he’s got things to do before he can get back in time. Plus I have to deliver the mail.”
“I guess you two can leave. I don’t have any questions as of right now, but I might give y’all a call.” Angela thankfully was giving us the green light. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep it a secret that you two found the body, but I will as long as I can.”
“No problem.” I pointed to my bike. I didn’t want to see Jeff’s body any more than I already had, and if I walked over to get my bike, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from looking. “Can you go get my bike for me?”
I noticed the deputies were starting to take photos from the scene from the various angles. Now that I’d seen firsthand how Angela used these photos to help solve cases, I started to see how her routine of a crime scene pieced together. Jigs was also directing them in what he would like photos of.
After the scene was released and the tape taken down, she was really good at compiling the photos to recreate the scene back at the station.
“Yep. I’ll get it for you.” When she walked back to the scene where my bike was, I noticed Jigs said something to her, but it wasn’t loud enough for us to hear.
Colvin and I got down from the tailgate of his truck, and I helped him lift it to slam it shut. He proceeded to walk to the driver’s side to get in, and I went to the passenger side to grab Rowena, who apparently wasn’t fazed by the body she’d found.
“I guess we will always have this in common,” I teased Colvin.
“No offense, Bernadette, but this is one thing I wish we didn’t have in common.” He shook his head and started the engine. “I’ll see you later at bingo.”
“Oh, is tonight bingo?” I had totally forgotten that it was bingo night at the nursing home and I helped Iris out. She called the numbers, and I wrote them down on the big whiteboard since some of the residents were hard of hearing, or they couldn’t remember what number Iris would call out. We’d learned that printing the numbers on the whiteboard was the perfect way to prevent Iris from losing her voice after repeating the numbers over and over.
“Sure is. Tonight’s big winning prize is a free latte from the café.” He lifted a finger before putting his hand on the three gear shift and throwing it into drive, leaving me and Rowena standing in the gravel on the side of the road.
“Here you go.” Angela had walked my bike over to me.
“Thanks.” I stuck Rowena and her leash in the basket. “Say, Angela,” I called after her.
She turned around.
“Do you suspect foul play?” I asked.
“If you call getting stabbed over twenty times in the back foul play, I guess you could call it that.” Her words left me standing there stunned.
Had she just told me that Jeff Faulkner had been murdered?
Chapter 6
The news that a dead body had been found had not only spread across all the scanners that everyone in Sugar Creek Gap loved and kept on twenty-four, seven, but Jeff Faulkner’s name was thrown into the mix.
The first house Rowena and I pedaled up to was the Tillett house. When I noticed the curtains in the front window shaking closed, I knew I was a much anticipated visitor. When I heard the suction break from the closed main door, I sensed she was trying to get my attention, so I didn’t look.
I looked into my mail carrier bag and grabbed her bundle of mail. I opened the door of their mailbox, shoved it in, and closed it.
“Good morning, Bernie.” Vivian Tillett, Gill’s wife, who didn’t work outside of the home, opened the storm door. “Did I get anything good today?”
There was a last-notice statement saying that her water would be turned off. It wasn’t a good day for her mail, but I kept my mouth shut.
“I don’t know. I don’t thumb through the mail. I just deliver it.” I didn’t want to answer with the truth due to the fact that when she did get her mail, she would know that I knew they weren’t paying their bills on time, which sent my mind down a different rabbit hole as to why that was.
This was another time that I figured a little white lie didn’t hurt anyone.
“I guess I better look.” She hurried out her door with her house slippers on her feet. She patted around her head of hair. “Don’t mind me. It’s baseboard cleaning day, and I sure don’t doll myself up to be on my hands and knees just to wash them.”
She reached out and gave Rowena a scratch on the ear.
“I understand. You don’t need to apologize to me.” I put my foot back on the pedal and was about to push off with my other one to get me off to the next house.
“Did you hear they found a body?” she asked.
Dang, I’d almost gotten away. Without me denying or admitting that I knew, she continued to carry on.
“You know Jeff Faulkner has been missing. Do you think it’s him?” Her brows pinched. “Goodness, I sure hope for Rachel’s sake it ain’t him. I mean, young Les is about to go off on that big adventure with his schooling and all.”
She opened the mailbox and took out the mail.
“That would be awfully hard for Rachel. If Jeff died, she’d have to deal with that, then Les moving away.” She focused on thumbing through her mail while her mouth was on autopilot. “I know Rachel Faulkner is a strong woman, but to take two life blows—I have no idea what I’d do.”
I watched as she stopped at the last-notice piece of mail before she folded it and slipped it into her pocket then ripped the rest of the mail in half.
“I have no idea why they keep sending these ads. I have never shopped at the Quarter Final Liquor Store in all of my life, and they send me these.” She shook her head.
“How’s Drucilla?” I asked about their daughter.
“She’s mighty fine. I tell you Gill and I were blessed to have such a wonderful gift.” She winked. “And at our age.”
Gill and Vivian were a little up in age when they had Drucilla, and it pretty much sent a shock wave through the community. I recalled hearing my parents talking about it over supper when they’d come over to see Grady and me. Still, a baby was a blessing, no matter how it came into someone’s life, and Drucilla was a blessing to Sugar Creek Gap.
“She is a gift.” I put my foot back up on the pedal.
“But back to the body. Did you see Rachel running around asking about Jeff last night? That’s why I think it’s him. I can’t imagine. I mean, did you hear along your route?” She was fishing for gossip.
Did I hear? I wanted to say, “I found him.” But I simply shook my head.
“You keep your ears peeled. From what I understand, Jeff had a very big secret, and he was going to expose someone. I’m not sure what the secret is, but I’m digging into it. And well,” she patted my hand that was gripping my handlebar, “from what I understand about your ability to help find things out,” she winked again, “I figured you’d know something.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Have a great day!” I didn’t bother letting her stop me again when she went to open her mouth. I quickly pedaled off and decided to just go to the far end of the neighborhood and work my way backward, but not before nearly getting hit by a big SUV.
I swerved, causing the bike to teeter and totter.
“Hold on, Ro.” I put my feet down to drag us to a stop. “Who was that?”
As I steadied my bike, I turned my body to look backward. When I saw the license plate read STEM, my heart fluttered. It was a feeling I recognized all too well. Not the kind of flutter when looking at a romantic crush. The kind of flutter when bad news hits your soul when you first hear it.
It was Rachel.
By the way she was driving, I knew.
She knew.
Chapter 7
“Twenty-two! Twenty-two!” Iris screamed into the microphone from the front table located in the nursing home dining hall, which was converted into the bingo room once a week. “If you’ve got the number twenty-two, make sure you use the dabber on that space.”
The room was full of residents. Bingo night was the most popular night in the nursing home. Everyone wanted to win something. Needless to say, most of the items were trinkets, but the older residents loved those things.
After I wrote the numbers on the board, I looked around to make sure everyone was doing okay. I kept a close eye on Kate and Willie Pitts, along with Elsbeth Clark. All three used to be customers of mine before they started having memory loss.
Iris looked over at me and covered the microphone with her hand.
“Will you go look at Elsbeth’s card?” She asked. “I think she’s got that one.”
After I wrote ‘22’ on the whiteboard, I put the lid back on the dry-erase marker and headed on over to Elsbeth Clark’s table.
“Bernadette, honey, I pray for you often. I heard your husband passed away. I’m so sorry. When my Elton died, I never in my life thought I was going to get over it, but somehow the good guy in the sky helped me out. Do you believe, Bernadette? Please tell me you do.” Mrs. Clark had been a long-time customer on my route, and when she’d gotten placed into the nursing home for memory loss, I was so sad.
And from the way she was acting today, I could tell she was having one of those bad days. After all, it’d been almost fifteen years since Richard had died.
“I’m doing just fine.” I patted her on the back. “Now, let’s look to see if you have number twenty-two. You don’t want to miss out on the big prize.”
“Good evening, Mrs. Clark.” Vince Caldwell, my favorite customer at the residential living area, where my parents lived, walked up to the table. “Is this chair taken?”
“Why no, sir.” She grinned and blushed. “Are you married?” She asked him.
“No ma’am, I am not, but I’d like to sit here and play some bingo if you aren’t saving it for your young beau.” Vince made me smile. He was such a nice man.
“Young man, you can join me.” She giggled like a young girl and looked at me.
“I’ll help her.” He told me and sat down. “I heard some rumblings about Jeff Faulkner.” He talked out of the side of his mouth for me to hear.
Vince was a retired FBI agent, and when I needed a little insider information on something, he was able to help me out. He’d sorta started to stick his nose into a few crimes that had taken place in Sugar Creek Gap.
It was like a game we played with each other. We would compare notes on what the other could find out.
“Yeah. I found him.” My words brought a slight grin to his face.
“I hear they’ve not got any clues in the case. Is that right?” he asked and unscrewed the lid on his dabber.
“Ten! The number ten!” Iris called out in the background.
“I’m not sure. I was delayed on my route because, well, I found him, and then I forgot I’d told Iris I would help out here tonight. I had Rowena with me, so after I got her home and Buster fed and out, I had little time to change my clothes to make it here on time.” I pointed to the number ten on Elsbeth’s card so she would dab it, only she got my hand. “What I do know,” I said through the side of my mouth, “is he was stabbed multiple times in the back.”
“Multiple, huh?” That got his attention. “Do you know what that means?”
“He’s dead,” I stated the obvious.
“Someone wanted to make darn sure he was, but multiple times really means someone was fiercely angry.” He gave me the look that told me he was very intrigued.
“Are you thinking what it looks like you are thinking?” I asked.
“Bernadette Butler,” Iris trilled over the microphone to get my attention. “Can you please come write the numbers on the board?”
“See me after this.” Vince went back to looking over Elsbeth’s multiple bingo cards. She truly only needed one.
“Number five!” Iris held up one hand. “Five!”
I wrote down the couple of numbers I had missed writing down while Vince helped Elsbeth.
“Bingo!” Vince yelled. “Elsbeth has bingo.”
“Good for you.” Elsbeth clapped her hands.
“No. I don’t have bingo. You have bingo,” Vince told her a couple of times before she broke out in a big grin.
“Thank y’all so much for coming tonight. If you won at bingo, please be sure to pick up your prize before you leave from Vita Dickens next to the door.” Iris was busy giving all the details while I cleaned up the tables where the residents left the bingo cards and used dabbers. “Be sure to check the community board for the day and time of next week’s bingo night.”
The residents loitered around for a little bit and talked amongst themselves before Kate called me over.
“Bernadette, how are you?” she asked.
“Get on with it, Kate. Bernie don’t have time for small talk.” Willie never was one to beat around the bush. “We all want to know what you think about Jeff Faulkner. It seems like we are never kept in the loop since we moved out of the neighborhood.”
“That sure is right.” Elsbeth nodded. “I heard that Jeff was dead. Is that right?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry to say he is.” I hated to be the bearer of bad news, but between the three of them, none of them would remember asking me this. I was actually quite surprised they were even asking me. My thoughts were right, because before I could even begin to answer their questions, Kate and Willie had already shuffled away.
“Mmmhhh,” Elsbeth lifted her crooked pointer finger and shook it. “I always said that man was going to get his revenge.”
“What do you mean?” Even though I knew she had mild dementia, I also knew she did remember a lot of things.
“With little Beefy.” She looked around. “Just the other day, I had to go out on the playground and tell Beefy to leave Jeff well enough alone. I reckon Jeff had had enough of that bullying.”
“Playground?” Vince questioned, still hanging around like he was in charge of getting Elsbeth back to her room.
“Mrs. Clark was a schoolteacher.” I looked over her head at him. “Isn’t that right, Mrs. Clark?”
“What’s that, honey?” she questioned, and by her tone, I realized she’d already forgotten what we were talking about.
“Bernadette was saying that it’s getting late, so I should get you back to your room.” Vince put his elbow out for her to take, and they took off toward the door. “I’ll be right back.”
The smile crossed my lips as I watched all the residents leaving the dining hall and helping each other out. It was a heartwarming sight for a person who lived on the outside, a child of community members. They were here in this community taking care of each other while we, their children, were out in the community taking care of each other.
“You sure are daydreaming tonight.” Iris walked up with a basket, continuing to collect the items off the table I hadn’t yet gotten to. “You didn’t even respond to my text about them finding the body of Jeff Faulkner. I told you I had a feeling.”
“Yep, and when Rowena found him, you can’t imagine the shock I was in.” And that was how I told Iris that I’d found Jeff.
Her mouth flew open and slapped shut before it opened again. Nothing came out.
“He was murdered.” I didn’t think I could shock her any more than I had. Her arms went weak and the basket tilted. The contents teetered on the edge before an item fell out and got her attention.
“I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t have a feeling he was murdered.” She gasped and bent down to pick up the fallen dabber. “My goodness. Who did it?”
Her eyes roamed around my face. She must’ve noticed my gaze and set jawline.
“No, no, no.” She shook her head. “Don’t tell me they don’t know and you already have someone in mind, which means you want to check it out before you go to Angela Hafley with the information.”
“I guess I don’t have to tell you.” I laughed. Her shoulders curled and her posture slumped.
“Can’t we just leave it up to the sheriff’s department?” she whined.
“We?” My tone lifted an octave. “You mean to tell me you’re going to help?”
“Only if you help me get this stuff back to the bakery.” She glanced to the dessert table, where her various empty platters and tiered displays were sitting. “The nursing home staff will take care of all the tablecloths and put the number wheel back. They will vacuum tonight for us.”
Iris and I put a lot of effort into cleaning up after bingo to make sure we left the hall the way we found it. It was just plain old good manners.
“That was fast,” I greeted Vince when he walked up. “Vince was taking Elsbeth back to her room.”
“Oh.” Iris nodded and smiled. “Thank you for helping her tonight. We’ve noticed she’s been getting a little more on the memory-loss side these days.”
“I don’t mind at all. I will probably be in their shoes, and I just hope someone takes interest enough in me to help me out.” Vince vigorously rubbed his hands together. “So who is Beefy?”
“I have no idea. It has to be someone from the class, which we can’t even use as a suspect because she’s going back some forty years or so.” I covered my mouth when I yawned. “Goodness. Sorry, y’all. It’s a day’s work after I walk a million miles and find a dead body. And after a couple hours of bingo, you’re going to have to put a fork in me.”
