The Root of Murder Page 24

  “You want to invite J.J.’s old girlfriends to the wedding?” Izzy asked. “Wouldn’t that be awkward?”

  “Why would it be awkward?”

  “I guess not,” Izzy said with a roll of her eyes.

  “Heather wanted to talk to you tonight, Dad,” J.J. said.

  “When did she say that?” Joshua shot a glance across to J.J. in the passenger seat.

  “At the dance studio when we were leaving,” J.J. said. “I was holding the door open for her to walk out, and she was staring at Elizabeth.”

  “I remember that,” Poppy said. “She and Elizabeth were staring at each other like two cats wanting the same mouse. I was afraid J.J. was going to have to break them up.”

  “Interesting comparison,” Joshua said.

  “When we got out onto the sidewalk,” J.J. said, “Heather asked me if you were going to be at the meeting tonight—you know at the house with Kathleen and Sherry? She wanted to talk to you.”

  “And she was staring at Elizabeth right before that?” Joshua turned left onto the long lane leading to J.J.’s farm house.

  Three vehicles were parked next to the house. Tracy’s SUV, and Hunter’s and the sheriff’s cruisers. Poppy’s truck was parked in its usual spot in front of the barn.

  Ollie shot out of the pet door, bounced across the porch and down the steps to greet them. His wings spread wide, Charley screeched from where he was perched on the porch railing. The dogs gathered together to welcome their masters.

  Tracy opened the door and hurried out. Sheriff Sawyer and Hunter followed her.

  “Dogs!” Luke pointed out the window. “Lots of dogs. All different shapes and sizes. I like dogs.”

  “Wait until you see the horses,” Izzy said while helping him out of his seat.

  Joshua hurried around to help J.J. when he saw Izzy and Luke taking off for the barn. Ollie and a trail of dogs followed them. “Don’t go too far. Luke’s aunt is on her way to pick him up.”

  Joshua turned the corner of the SUV to find Sheriff Sawyer, his hands on his hips, standing before him. His crisp uniform was adorned with white feathers of various sizes.

  “That rooster is crazy.” The sheriff jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at where Charley stood guard on the porch railing.

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Joshua said.

  “Charley’s not crazy,” Poppy looped her arm through J.J.’s “He’s very protective of those he loves.”

  “Loves?” Sheriff Sawyer asked. “That mutant vulture is about as loving as a badger.”

  “Actually, badgers have gotten a very bad rap,” Poppy said while keeping J.J. steady on his feet through the front door, which Tracy held open for them. “They’re basically shy. All they want is to be left alone. They get cranky when humans back them into a corner.”

  “First time I ever heard of a badger described as being ‘cranky.’”

  “One man’s ‘vicious’ is another man’s ‘cranky,’” Joshua said while trotting up the steps to the front door.

  As Sheriff Sawyer passed him, Charley rose up onto his feet, spread his wings and let out a screech as if to remind the lawman that he oversaw the farm’s security. The sheriff paused to fire off a glare at the bird, who, refusing to back down, returned it.

  The pleasant scent of pot roast wafted through the house. Bread was baking in the bread maker. Tracy had also delivered an extra cheesecake that she had made while cooking for an event the next day. “After the day you two have had, you deserved it more than I do,” Tracy said while giving J.J. a hug.

  “But—” A sharp look from Tracy silenced Hunter’s objection.

  “Hunter, see what you can do to help J.J.,” Tracy told her husband from over her shoulder as he followed her into the kitchen to plead his case for the cheesecake.

  “He’s got my cheesecake. What more does he need?” Hunter grumbled.

  Poppy entered the kitchen as Hunter left. “Do you need any help?”

  “Asked one of the patients,” Tracy said with a laugh. “I’m fine. This is what I do. Go rest with J.J.”

  “I should go out to the barn to check on Pilgrim.”

  Tracy cut her off before she could go out the back door. “Izzy is out there. You know she will check on each critter and let us know if there’s any problem.”

  Poppy cringed. “Pilgrim is still adjusting and I’m afraid she’ll have a difficult birth.”

  “She’s not due for another two months.” Tracy guided her toward the hallway leading to the living room. “We’re here if you need anything. I suggest you take a break from the farm animals and focus on finding that wedding gown.”

  “You still don’t have a gown?”

  Joshua’s voice startled both women. They turned around to find Joshua at the refrigerator with a glass in hand. He had been fetching a glass of water for J.J. to wash down a pain pill.

  “Don’t tell J.J.” Tracy warned.

  “Don’t you think he’d notice if Poppy came down the aisle in her birthday suit?”

  Poppy giggled at the visual.

  “She has a very specific gown in mind, and we can’t seem to find it. I think she needs to give up,” Tracy said with a roll of her eyes. “They just don’t make wedding gowns with gold lace overlay.”

  “Maybe they don’t make gowns like that,” Poppy said, “but there is one out there that I’m meant to wear. Just give it time. It will find me.”

  “Hey, Josh, have you got that water?” Hunter called to him.

  “I need to help J.J.” Poppy took the glass of water from Joshua and hurried into the living room.

  “Gold lace overlay?” Joshua murmured.

  Hearing him, Tracy nodded her head. “I’ve never seen a gown like that. Have you?” Without waiting for his response, she followed Poppy.

  J.J. insisted on resting for a while in the living room instead of going to bed and resting like the doctor had ordered. “It’s just a mild concussion,” he said to the room full of family and friends staring at him. “Don’t worry about us. You need to get out there and find Maddie.”

  “I never dreamed Elizabeth would do this type of stuff,” Tracy said. “She did some nasty little things in high school but—”

  “What kind of nasty little things?” Joshua had kept his and Cameron’s suspicion about Elizabeth murdering John Davis to themselves until they uncovered a clear motive.

  Tracy shrugged. “Stealing stuff. Little things. Jewelry. Hairclips. MP3 players. At the dance school, we all knew that she was a kleptomaniac. We’d just be careful not to leave things laying around. It was like she couldn’t help herself. We felt sorry for her.” She let out a gasp. “Now that I think about it—”

  “Think about what?” Sheriff Sawyer asked.

  “It was during our senior year, Heather had gotten really sick on the day of the championship competition.” Tracy told J.J., “This was after you had gone off to Penn State.”

  “A.J.J,” Hunter said with a chuckle. “After J.J.”

  “It was bad. Heather got really sick.” Tracy scrunched up her face while saying in a low voice, “Stomach pains. Digestive issues. When she’d finished her bottled water, she noticed that there was a white substance at the bottom of the bottle. She asked me if it would be possible to find out what it was. I took a sample of the substance to Tad, and he ran a chemical test. It ended up being a very strong laxative. Heather was thoroughly convinced Maddie had done it, but Maddie swore that it wasn’t her. I believed her. Heather’s friends didn’t, of course. I’ve always wondered who did do that. Now, after what happened today … I wonder.”

  “Was Elizabeth competing against Heather at the competition?” J.J. asked.

  “No,” Tracy said. “But Maddie was, and Elizabeth had a thing for Maddie.”

  “What kind of thing?” Sheriff Sawyer asked with an arche
d eyebrow.

  “Not sexual,” Tracy said. “I think she considered Maddie a close friend—like best friends. Maybe Maddie was her only friend. We’d noticed that she spent a lot of time hanging around Maddie and Maddie was very nice to her. Now, I’m thinking she tried to sabotage Heather out of loyalty to her.”

  “Which would give her extra reason to be jealous when Madison and Heather reconnected and became besties,” Poppy said. “Elizabeth put a lot of work in helping Madison set up her own dance studio.”

  “One could see it as Madison using Elizabeth’s loyalty to sabotage Heather,” Sheriff Sawyer said. “Now, years later, she uses her again to help her set up her business. Is it possible that Madison manipulated Elizabeth to do her dirty work?”

  “Maddie didn’t need to sabotage Heather,” Tracy said. “Maddie was always a couple of steps ahead of her in competition.”

  “That’s not how Maddie operates,” J.J. said with a shake of his head. “Maddie has been gone for how many years? Even if Elizabeth sabotaged Heather back in high school, wouldn’t you think she’d moved on since then? Why now, after all these years, would she feel compelled to kidnap Maddie?”

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to move on,” Joshua said. “Look at her life. She got pregnant right out of high school. She gets married and has two kids. She’s trapped in what may be an unhappy marriage—”

  “Unhappy enough to cheat on Aaron,” J.J. said.

  “Cheat on Aaron?” Joshua asked.

  “Remember I told you that she claimed to be Maddie’s alibi,” J.J. said, “because she had lied to Aaron when in reality she was out with another man.”

  “When she provided a phony alibi for Madison, she also provided a phony alibi for herself,” Joshua said. “Cameron and I have reason to believe Elizabeth was the one who’d murdered John Davis.”

  “Why would Elizabeth kill John Davis?” Hunter asked. “Just because she’s unhappy with her life? That’s not his fault.”

  “I don’t think she’d even met him,” Tracy said.

  “What makes you think she killed him?” J.J. asked.

  “Elizabeth arrived at the hospital after we’d broken the news to Kathleen and Sherry about Davis’s bigamy. They were in the ladies’ room and Elizabeth asked Madison if the same killer who’d murdered her father had come after her mother. At that point, the only way Elizabeth could have known that Shawn Whitaker was dead was if she had been involved in his murder.”

  “She’s a very disturbed girl,” Sheriff Sawyer said. “Cameron called a bit ago. The pizza place on the corner next to the dance studio has security cameras outside to catch kids up to mischief after closing. Heather Davis’s vehicle was right there in the shot. They caught Elizabeth loosening the lug nuts on her tires.”

  Stunned, Tracy shook her head. “Abduction. Attempted murder. Actual murder. I never would have dreamed Elizabeth would have been capable of something like that.”

  “We’re meeting Cameron out at the Collins place,” Sheriff Sawyer said. “I imagine you want to ride along, Josh.”

  “Just try to stop me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The Collins home was a rundown colonial in New Manchester, a crossroads between Chester and New Cumberland. Most of the tiny community’s residents lived on what amounted to three blocks. The young family’s apartment was built above Aaron’s parents’ detached garage.

  Joshua rode with the sheriff while Hunter led the way in his police cruiser.

  “I’ve got a question,” Joshua said while the sheriff raced along the rural country roads.

  “We’ve all got questions,” Sheriff Sawyer said. “What one do you want to discuss now?”

  “Davis’s body was dumped at the Newhart farm in Hookstown.” Continuing, Joshua murmured, “The Newharts are Sherry Whitaker’s parents. That connection is to the Whitaker family. The murder weapon was planted in Derek’s trailer. That dot connects to the Davis family.”

  “I thought you guys had been all over this already,” the sheriff said. “Whoever killed Davis knew about his double life and both families.”

  “And Elizabeth danced with both Heather and Madison,” Joshua said with a nod of his head. “She worked at Madison’s dance studio. Elizabeth could have learned through lurking around about Madison and Heather’s secret. My question is this. How did Elizabeth move John Davis’s body from that apartment in Calcutta to the farm in Hookstown? She’s not that strong.”

  Sheriff Sawyer shot a glance in Joshua’s direction.

  “Why planted the knife in Derek’s trailer and dumped the body in Hookstown?” Joshua tapped his chin with his finger while the answer came to him. “Someone else moved the body.”

  “The apartment manager?”

  “The Bayles knew Davis had a double life, but they didn’t know any specifics,” Joshua said with a shake of his head. “Cameron told me that Ross Bayles wasn’t even aware that Bishop Moore had other identities. Now, J.J. mentioned that Aaron was setting up the computers and networking at the studio. The Collins used to be neighbors with Derek and Lindsay—”

  “Until they got evicted,” Sheriff Sawyer said. “Aaron has a lot of trouble holding a job. He thinks he’s smarter than he really is.”

  “I think Aaron dumped the body and cleaned up the crime scene,” Joshua said.

  “Why?”

  “The same reason he claimed to have picked up Elizabeth at Chester Park the night of the accident. To protect his wife. Whoever killed Davis had to have been covered in blood. How could he not have known what she’d done when she came home that night?”

  Having tasked Tony with taking Sherry Whitaker home in case Madison called, Cameron waited in the parking lot of an abandoned pizza place located in the turn-off to New Manchester. Upon seeing the two police cruisers, she pulled out and led them one hundred yards down the street before parking in front of the house with wire fencing marking the Collins lot.

  “We need to send the kids over to their grandparents before we talk to Aaron,” Joshua told Cameron when she climbed out of her cruiser.

  “Did Sawyer tell you that we have security video of Elizabeth tampering with Heather’s tires?” Cameron asked him. “First, she tried to kill Heather and now she snatched Madison. I have a bad feeling about what she may do to her.”

  Sheriff Sawyer jerked his chin in the direction of the Collins’ front stoop. Waiting behind the storm door, Aaron’s mother and two small children, all dressed in pajamas and bathrobes, stared at the collection of law enforcement with curiosity filling their faces.

  “This is your gig, Gates,” Sheriff Sawyer said.

  Cameron took out her police shield and made her way up the walkway to the door. “I’m Lieutenant Cameron Gates with the Pennsylvania State Police. We need to talk to your daughter-in-law Elizabeth. Is she here?”

  “She’s at work,” the elderly woman said. “That’s why I’m taking care of the grandkids. She teaches dance out in Beaver Falls. She’s working for a big choreographer from Broadway.”

  Cameron exchanged looks of concern with Joshua. Someone had been telling lies. Was Elizabeth’s lies a sign of deception or delusion?

  “What about Aaron?” Joshua asked. “Is he here?”

  She tossed her head in the direction of the garage. “He’s over there. He claims he can’t take care of the kids because he’s got work to do.” She scoffed. “If that’s what you want to call it. Every time I look over his shoulder, he’s playing a game.”

  Hunter was peering through the garage door windows when Cameron and Joshua rounded the corner of the house. “Looks like someone here has an old SUV. Didn’t you say you have impressions for the vehicle that dumped Davis’s body?”

  Cameron looked through the window at the full-sized SUV. “That will work.”

  His hand on his service weapon, Hunter led the way up the narrow steps to
the apartment door. The steps and landing at the top were only wide enough to serve their purpose and nothing more. In a line along the stairs, they waited while Hunter pounded on the door.

  “Aaron Collins, Hunter Gardner with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. We’re here with a detective from the Pennsylvania State Police. We’d like to talk to you, if we may.”

  There was silence.

  “He certainly had to hear that,” Cameron said.

  Hunter pressed his face close to the window in the door. “I can see him on the sofa.”

  “And what’s he doing on that sofa?” Cameron asked.

  “He’s not moving.” Hunter wrested the doorknob. It was locked. Once again, he pounded on the door. “Collins! Can you hear me?”

  “Something’s wrong,” Cameron said.

  Hunter stepped back and kicked in the door. They spilled into the apartment. While Hunter and Joshua searched the apartment for any sign of Elizabeth, which took five seconds, Cameron and Sheriff Sawyer descended on Aaron, who was sprawled out on the worn sofa with a gaming keyboard resting on his stomach. An oversized computer monitor was set up at the end of the coffee table, positioned for Aaron to see from the sofa. A huge plastic drinking glass rested on the floor next to his hand.

  Sheriff Sawyer searched for a pulse on Aaron’s flabby neck. “He’s alive!” he told Hunter who was calling for an emergency crew. “It’s faint, but I’ve got a pulse.”

  Cameron sniffed the drink. It was a flavored energy drink. Taking the container close to the lamp, she peeled off the cap and looked inside. She swirled the inch of drink around and studied the bottom. She could see some granular substance at the bottom. “I think she poisoned him.”

  “We’re dealing with a very dangerous woman,” Sheriff Sawyer said.

  “I hope we find Madison in time,” Joshua said.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Cameron was grateful for Joshua’s presence in dealing with Martha Collins while the emergency crews worked on her son to rush him to the hospital. They took the cup with them. Hopefully, the staff in the emergency room would be able to determine with what he had been poisoned.