Bernadette’s voice broke in over the speaker on his desk.

  “Chief, a Ms. Paprika Parker and Mr. Jackson Wright are here to see you.” There was a pause and then she added, “And Ms. Culpepper.” Her voice raised when she said, “Now wait a minute, Jackson–”

  Suddenly, Jack was standing in the doorway. “Johnny, I may not practice law in this city, but I am a member of the bar, and I demand you stop questioning Caledonia right this minute.”

  Johnny looked from Jack to Caledonia. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. I have enough for now. Let’s see what the coroner’s report says. You’re free to go. Just don’t leave town.” He stood and walked around the desk.

  She jumped up. “Really? I can go? I’m not going to jail?”

  “I can put you in a cell if you’d like, but I don’t see the need right now.” He added with a smile, “I know where you live.”

  “You’re not going anywhere but home, Caledonia. Stop talking.” Jack took her arm.

  Caledonia lurched forward out of Jack’s grasp and wrapped the chief in a big hug. “Thank you, Chief. You are the most decent man I know.”

  Under his breath Johnny muttered, “Considering the moral fiber of last two men in your life, that’s not saying a whole lot.”

  “I take your point.” She stood back and studied his face. “But I stand by my statement.”

  Johnny winked at her. “Thank you. Now mind your attorney.”

  “Don’t you worry, Johnny. I’ll be fine. Wish I could say the same thing for Virgil.” She started for the door with Jack.

  “Listen,” he called after her, “don’t repeat your story to anyone, you hear? Mum’s the word for the time being. If people ask you, just talk about the weather or something. And for heaven’s sakes, don’t talk to the press. Or Junebug.”

  Saturday morning, noon, the morning after Dead Virgil

  Hank rushed into Johnny’s office. “Guess what I just found out about the woman over in Helechawa? The one who got sick on Goose Juice.”

  Johnny stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “Chief of police over there says she had a boyfriend. Guess who that might be?”

  “For the love of all that is sweet and good, will you spit it out, man?”

  “Okay, sorry. She was dating Victor Johnson. Paprika’s new beau.”

  “You don’t say?”

  “I do. And you know what else? You know what he wore to the Oktoberfest?"

  Johnny sighed. "A Cereal Killer T-shirt."

  "That's right. He’s taunting us, I tell you. And hiding in plain sight.”

  Velveeta came in just then. “Chief, I went through Virgil’s office with a fine-tooth comb like you told me. Didn’t really find anything.”

  “Okay, let’s don’t go getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk this out.” He walked to a dry-erase board on the wall and wrote, “Victor Johnson.” Johnny explained to Velveeta why Victor was a suspect and proceeded to fill in both officers on what Caledonia had said.

  Velveeta shook her head. “Chief, the way she said she hit him, that doesn’t sound like the damage to the head that I saw at the scene. The damage to his temple looked pretty nasty. Somebody put some force into that blow to the head.”

  “So you think someone came in after Caledonia left and finished him off? Or is Caledonia lying, and she really hit him twice?” Johnny sat on the edge of his desk.

  “Hell, she done turned herself in. Why would she lie about it? I think you were right the first time. Someone else came in and finished him off. Who knows? Maybe someone slipped him some Goose Juice.” Velveeta snickered.

  Hank nodded in agreement, but he didn’t want to say the other person he feared might be responsible.

  “Anyone else y’all like for Virgil’s murder?” Johnny asked.

  Hank had been mulling over the possibility of Wynona killing Virgil. That was a whole can of worms he wasn’t ready to open. He would pursue that line of thinking on his own. He stood up and pushed his hands in his pockets. “I have two possibilities. One, Jack pulled me aside earlier and told me about a conversation he overheard between Virgil and his ex, Mary Alice Larue.”

  Johnny stood. “Go on.”

  “Apparently, they lived together a while back and Virgil cheated on her with a friend and a cousin. Jack said he heard her threaten him. He said her tone of voice was downright chilling, and she appeared a little unstable. First she was hopping mad and then she was all flirty with him.”

  Velveeta spoke up. “Mary Alice asked me a few days ago if it was against the law to put skunk spray in someone’s house. She suspected Virgil had done that to her. I told her she might get him on breaking and entering, but it would be pretty much impossible to prove he was responsible for the skunk spray, not to mention I don’t think there’s a statute against making someone’s house smell. She was with her friend—Mona Gayle, I think—who spoke up and said Mary Alice was so mad after that skunk spray incident she said she was gonna kill Virgil. They both laughed, and Mary Alice said she was just kidding, of course.” Velveeta spread out her hands. “But here he is, dead as a doornail.”

  “You mean to tell me you think she killed him because he made her so mad she finally snapped?” Johnny propped against his desk again.

  Velveeta sat back and crossed her beefy legs. “That or the fact that she kept trying to win him back, but he wouldn’t give her the time of day.”

  “Well, with two reports of her threatening to kill him . . . ” Johnny pushed off the desk and added Mary Alice’s name to the dry-erase board. “Okay, who’s your number two, Hank?”

  Hank’s expression suggested it was obvious. “I think we have to consider Bunhead Shaw. I mean, I know we talked about it, but I do think we have to look at him. He’s bound to be behind the still operation.”

  Johnny wrote Bunhead’s name down as Jack walked into the room. “Sorry to interrupt. But I may have a lead on Virgil’s killer.”

  “Spill it.”

  “I just got finished talking to Louis P. Howe. I did some research on the company that bought my land. Turns out Louis P. is listed as the registered agent. No other names are listed. What if he and Virgil were behind the deal all along, and Louis killed him so he’d get the land and take over ownership? That would explain why he didn’t want to take my case to fight for my land. He was up to his hips in that deal. He woulda been suing himself. Of course he couldn’t take the case.”

  Johnny leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, at the very least if he handled the closing, he was involved with the party you’d be suing. He couldn’t be the attorney for both sides. That doesn’t mean he killed Virgil.”

  “I agree it’s something we need to question him about,” Hank said.

  Johnny wrote Louis P.’s name under Mary Alice’s.

  Velveeta stood up. I have one more name, Chief.”

  “Go on.”

  “Mayor Buck Lyle. He had everything to lose if Virgil beat him in the race. You know mayorin’s his life. No one ever challenged him before.”

  Johnny swiped his hand over his face and added Buck’s name to the board.

  Just then, Bernadette’s vocie came over the speaker. “Chief, Mayor Buck’s here to see you.”

  “Speak of the devil.” To the intercom he said, “Show him to the break room. I’ll meet with him there.” He turned to Hank and Velveeta. “I’ll talk to Buck and then Mary Alice. Y’all go have a word with Victor Johnson and Bunhead Shaw. Y’all have your orders. Get busy.”

  “Yessir,” they said in unison.

  Johnny turned to Jack. “Thanks for the info, Jack. We’ll take it from here.” They left Johnny’s office. Jack turned left toward the front of the station, and Johnny turned right toward the break room.

  Johnny found Buck putting money into the candy machine. They shook hands, Buck took his Snickers bar from the machine, and Johnny invited him to sit.

  “What can I do for you, Mayor?”

  Buck unwrapped his candy bar. “I thought it best that I fill you in on some things you may not know.”

  “Things?”

  “Concerning the town council. It may have relevance with Virgil’s murder.”

  “Go on.”

  He took a big bite of the candy and talked around it as he chewed. “I found out Buford Goodwin’s been pushing the zoning change. Councilman Bossy came to me and admitted he was threatened by him and says some others were blackmailed. He thought I should know, what with Virgil being dead as iced catfish and all. He said Buford made it sound like he was acting on Virgil’s orders. But here’s the thing:” Buck pointed his finger at Johnny, “I have reason to believe someone on the inside was working with Virgil Pepper. Buford is my prime suspect for that inside man.”

  Johnny raised his eyebrows. “On the inside? What do you mean?”

  “In order to blackmail a commissioner, they’d have to know things about our council members that only someone who had access through the city’s online files would know. Very few people know about these things.”

  Johnny’s brow furrowed. “What kind of things?”

  Buck pulled some papers from his coat pocket and handed them to the chief. Johnny opened and read from them. The papers detailed Otis’s and Louis’s indiscretions.

  “Why didn’t anyone find out about this stuff?”

  “On account of me. If I don’t want anyone to know about it, then it won’t be known. But I was stupid enough to keep it on my computer.”

  Johnny put the papers on the table and looked up at Buck. “That’s only two. He’d need four yes votes.”

  “Les told me Buford didn’t have anything on him, but he was going to make stuff up. He emailed him a doctored-up picture of Les’s head on somebody’s body. And the body was doing vile things. He told him he could come up with more if he needed to. It was enough to scare the bejeebers out of Les. He didn’t want anyone hearing those lies. You know how people are. They believe just about anything they hear. And if there were pictures . . .” He handed Johnny a copy of the phony picture. “Pshew-wee.” He shook his head. “I haven’t talked with the other commissioners yet, but it’s a good bet he got to at least one other.”

  “How do I know you didn’t kill him?”

  “That’s why I’m here, Chief. Those files in question were accessed by one and only one computer: mine. It’s the only computer that has those docs. Buford works in the building. He coulda snuck into my office.”

  “You keep files on people?”

  “Chief, politics is a dirty business. You have to be prepared. We’re getting off-topic here though. I think someone knew what they were doing. I think this was planned and they were setting me up from the beginning. I figured I needed to get ahead of this and tell you about it myself.”

  “So you’re here out of self-preservation not your civic duty?”

  “Yes.” He did a double take. “I mean no. Of course not. I just didn’t want you suspecting me is all. I didn’t want you wasting your time.”

  “Why would someone want to send Virgil to the Marble Orchard?”

  “Well now, you’re gonna have to figure that out for your own self. I can’t do everything.”

  Twenty-three

  I hate a liar more than I hate a thief. A thief is only after my salary. A liar is after my reality. –50 cent

  Saturday, sixteen hours after Dead Virgil

  After Johnny finished talking to Buck, he instructed Bernadette to call Louis P. and have him come to the station. Then he headed over to Mary Alice’s house. She answered the door wearing a bulky red sweater, jeans, and no socks.

  “Hey there, Chief. What brings you to my humble abode?”

  Johnny dipped his GPJPD hat. “Wondered if we could have a few words, Mary Alice.”

  “Why sure, come on in.” She led Johnny into one of the messiest houses he’d ever seen. There were socks and clothes and papers and books on every surface, even the floor.

  “Did you have a break-in or something, Mary Alice?”

  She smiled. “No, Chief. I just like things where I can find them, you know? I put things away and I forget I have them.” She sat in a chair opposite Johnny as he moved some newspapers so he could sit on the couch.

  “Well, it has the lived-in look.” He smiled at her, and his smile was genuine. He liked Mary Alice. And he liked that she wasn’t a bit embarrassed about her messiness. “Mary Alice, I was wondering what you do for a living?”

  Mary Alice appeared confused. “For a living?”

  “Yeah. You’ve got this nice house, but I don’t know of a job. Do you work anywhere?”

  “No, Chief, I don’t. I’ve got arthritis that keeps me from being able to work.”

  “Well, how do you pay your bills?”

  “Savings.” She didn’t elaborate.

  “Okay. I believe in being direct, so I’m just going to come right out and ask. Did Virgil make you mad enough to kill him?”

  Mary Alice chuckled and sat back. “So that’s why you’re here. I guess it was just a matter of time. I’ll just be direct right back: yes.” She let that sink in for a moment and then added, “But I didn’t kill him. To be honest, I had the chance. I came upon Virgil right after Caledonia left the tennis court. He was on the ground, and I coulda finished him off with that racket she’d left behind. Actually, he made me so mad I did take a swing at him. He ducked, and I missed. And then I thought, I’m not a lunatic who goes around killing people. Karma will take care of him. And I dropped the racket on the ground and walked away. I admit it wasn’t very nice of me to leave him there hurt and all, but I figured after all he’d done to me, I’d have to be a special kind of lunatic to help him out. And then if I were that kind of lunatic, what would keep me from being a killing kind of lunatic, you know? It’s a vicious circle. So I walked away. Do you think Caledonia’s the one who killed him?”

  Johnny ignored her question. “Don’t you mean a vicious cycle?”

  “Tomato, tomahto.”

  Johnny nodded. “Did you happen to see anyone in the area when you left?”

  “There were some kids playing on a tennis court way down from where Virgil was, but they’re the only ones I saw.”

  “Do you know who the kids were?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t. Being new to the community and all, I don’t know the young people. They all look the same to me.”

  Johnny started to stand then sat back down with his eyebrows knitted together. “What did you mean when you said you ‘figured it was just a matter of time?’”

  “On account of Mona Gayle telling Velveeta that I wanted to kill Virgil. It was just said in the heat of the moment, and of course I didn’t mean a word of it. That would put me back to the killer lunatic type, you know?”

  Johnny smiled and stood. “I do, Mary Alice. That I do know.”

  Hank and Velveeta were still out when Johnny got back to the station to find Louis P. waiting for him. He showed the attorney into the break room and offered him coffee, which Louis P. declined.

  “What am I doing here, Chief?”

  “I wondered if you could help clear up a few things.”

  “I will if I can. What things?” Louis sat down, pinching the crease of his pants at the knee as he crossed a leg.

  “I hear tell you handled the sale of Jackson Wright’s land.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Who bought it?”

  “A company called P&G Land Development.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know. Tell me the name of the owner of P&G.”

  “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to divulge that information just yet. It will become public knowledge when I register the LLC with the state of Tennessee. But until then, I’m bound by attorney/client privilege. I can’t disclose the name or names without my client’s permission.”

  “What are the chances now that Virgil’s dead, you’re the sole owner?”

  “That, I can tell you unequivocally is not the case. I am not now nor do I ever plan to be an owner of P&G.”

  “What’s this I hear about a possible blackmail scheme to get you and some others to vote yes on the zoning issue?”

  Louis’s face dropped. “How’d you hear such a thing?”

  “Mayor Buck told me. And he ought to know. Was Buck the one doing the blackmailing? Or was it someone else?”

  “It wasn’t the mayor. And I don’t want this person to be vindictive and spread the information around town, which he said he would do if I told anyone about it.”

  “Was it the zoning commissioner himself, Buford Goodwin, who approached you?”

  “I can neither confirm nor deny the identity of a supposed person.”

  “I happen to know Buford approached Councilman Bossy. Stands to reason if he talked to Les, he woulda talked to you. And he was throwing around Virgil’s name as if Virgil were involved in the scheme. What might you know about that?”

  Louis stared at Johnny for several moments before letting out a sigh and answering his question. “If you’ll keep my name out of it, I might be able to nod my head slightly in a way that might lead you to believe I confirm that information. But I don’t know anything about Virgil’s demise.”

  Twenty-four

  Lies are like cockroaches, for every one you discover there are many more that are hidden. –Gary Hopkins

  Monday, three days after Dead Virgil

  Jack called his lawyer’s office and insisted he speak to her.

  Anna Mae Mayfield took the call and her sugary sweet voice came on the line. “What’s up, Jack?”

  “I want my land back, and I want it back now. You know I always thought Virgil was behind that land deal. Now that he’s dead, the plans for development would be dead too. I want my land. And I want to pay what I sold it for.”

  “We can try, Jack. Did you have any luck finding the corporate filing information of the LLC that bought the land?”