Casey Mayes - A Killer Column

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Surely he’s not doing that just to get this letter.”

“There’s more to it than that. I’ll be right back.”

Zach walked out the front door, and Jenny and I followed him. He noticed, but didn’t comment.

As we stepped out together, a piece of paper was fluttering on the wooden porch floor. It looked like a note, and there was something holding it to the board.

It didn’t take a second glance to see that a knife had been stabbed through its center.

“I didn’t do anything,” a voice kept protesting from the yard, now lit by Murphy’s headlights.

“That’s not how it looked to me,” the detective said as he cuffed the man.

“I was going to see if I could do anything to help her,” Charlie protested again. “When I saw that knife sticking up, I couldn’t even warn them. Why did you put it there?”

“Me?” Murphy looked surprised by the implication. “I didn’t do it. You did.”

Charlie acted equally shocked. “You did! I watched you from my kitchen window. Just because you’re a cop doesn’t mean you can railroad me into this. I’ll testify in court that you’re the one who did it.”

“What’s going on?” Zach asked.

Murphy said, “When I drove up, I saw him creeping around the porch. My lights hit the knife, and he started running back to his house the second he saw me.”

“I had to get away from you!” Charlie shouted. “You did it! I saw you!”

“Screaming louder isn’t going to get anyone to believe your lies,” Murphy said.

“It’s your word against mine,” Charlie said, finally calming down a little.

I could tell he was nervous by the quiver in his voice, but he was standing his ground. Was he telling the truth? Murphy had a history with Jenny, one that might suggest something like this was possible. I leaned toward believing the policeman, though. But could Charlie be right? Was it going to boil down to one man’s word against another’s?

Zach said calmly, “I can help here.”

“How?” Murphy asked. “You weren’t looking out the window when it happened, were you?”

“Better than that,” Zach said. “I’ve got video cameras set up on the porch. We’ll be able to see who did it in just a few seconds.”

Charlie said, “I don’t believe you.”

Zach reached under the railing and removed one from its perch. “How about now?”

That was all it took to break the man. Through his tears, he told Jenny, “When you moved in next door, you were so nice to me. No one else even bothered to wave ever since I rented this place. I knew that the two of us had a special bond.” His expression grew angry as he added, “But then you changed. You started treating me like everyone else.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wave to you all the time,” Jenny protested.

“But not with the same vigor you used to. Something changed in you, Jennifer.”

“I’ve heard enough of this garbage,” Murphy said as he led Charlie to the back of his car.

“I loved you,” Charlie shouted, and I felt a shiver run through me.

Murphy forced him into the back of his car, and then rejoined us. “Nice work, chief,” he said to Zach.

“You, too,” my husband said.

“I owe you one. If you hadn’t been taping, that could have gotten messy for me.”

Jenny said softly, “I didn’t honestly think that you were the one stalking me, Shawn.”

“Thanks for that, but a good defense attorney could have put enough reasonable doubt without the tape to get him off.” He nodded toward us, and then asked, “Where’s that letter you told me about?”

“I’ll go get it,” Jenny said.

Zach added, “I’ll get you the tape for evidence, too.”

After they were gone, I said, “It’s a good thing you came by when you did. Thank you.”

He raised one eyebrow as he said, “Sometimes timing is everything. There’s something that’s bothering me, though.”

“What’s that?”

“How come you just found the letter, if you’d already searched through the telephone books you found in Derrick’s room?”

“We didn’t search all of them when you were here before,” I said, something that was the absolute truth.

“Okay,” he said. “Have you finished searching now?”

I nodded. “We went ahead and looked through the last one before you came.”

He seemed to think about that for a minute, and then said, “I’ll have an officer here in ten minutes to pick them up. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Why should I mind?”

He shrugged, and then said with a grin, “I just want to make sure you didn’t miss anything else.”

Or have an excuse to find anything else , I added silently to myself.

Zach arrived with the tape and the letter we’d found. The envelope was now in a large clear plastic bag. “Here you go. If you need me to testify, I’ll be happy to do whatever I can.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate that.”

Before he could get to his car, another squad car pulled up. Murphy directed him to collect the telephone books while he took photographs and then collected the knife and the note on the front porch.

In ten minutes, they were both gone.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Jenny was staring at Charlie’s house, noticeably shaking. “It’s just so creepy. He was living right there, watching me the whole time, and I didn’t even know it.”

“It puts a bad twist to the concept of a Neighborhood Watch program, doesn’t it?” Zach asked.

“You’re not helping,” I said to my husband.

“Sorry. Why don’t we go inside?”

“In a minute,” Jenny said.

I motioned for Zach to go on, and he nodded in understanding. Jenny and I stood out there for a minute, both our gazes on the house next door. “Did you have any idea he was just renting the place?”

“Not a clue,” she said. “I can’t believe I didn’t suspect a thing.”

“The man is nuts,” I said. “He fooled all of us.”

“I suppose,” she said. “But on some level, I don’t think he fooled you or your husband.”

I hugged her, and then I said, “Let’s go make some hot chocolate and do our best to forget about this.”

She smiled slightly at the suggestion. “Now that I think about it, I don’t believe I’ve had any since college.”

“Then it’s high time we brought back an old tradition, isn’t it? We’ll send Zach out to the store for some, and we’ll make it a party.”

“I’m not sure I’m up for that.”

I laughed. “Jenny, by party, I mean we make a long grocery list of food we’ve sworn off for ten years and make pigs out of ourselves. We can even tell stories from our dorm days and torture Zach with them. What do you say?”

“It sounds wonderful. I’m so glad you’re here. I just can’t believe it’s finally over.” A frown crossed her lips. “Not that it’s really over. There will be sworn statements, and I’ll have to testify. You will, too. I’m so sorry about dragging you into this.”

“Come on, I pulled you into a murder investigation. Testifying on your behalf is the least I can do. You can consider it a down payment on the legal fees I’m sure to amass.”

“Don’t worry. I’m worth every penny you’ll have to pay me.”

“I hope you’re worth more than that,” I said, and Jenny laughed again, this one full and genuine. It wasn’t much, but it did prove that she was going to get through this, and that was enough for me.

Chapter 21

AFTER WE’D ALL HAD OUR SHARE OF HOT CHOCOLATE, Doritos, and fudge ripple ice cream, Zach said, “I can’t believe you two used to eat like this.”