A Vision of Murder (16 page)

“What did Jackson end up
doing for a living?”

“I know he was a traveling
salesman for quite a while, but I think here recently he settled down. I think
Cheri would make just a wonderful mother to that little baby. Oh, I hope they
work things out. It would be so nice! It just about broke my heart when she
came back to take over the salon and he wasn’t here. It looked like half of a
pair roaming this town.”

Roaming is right
, Mrs. Dodd thought a little
meanly. Though Cheri had not quite disgraced her family, she had certainly come
close, going a little wild after her return. Though Mrs. Dodd would admit that
she too thought it was from a broken heart.

The car rocked and shook as
Sissy pulled over a large stone on the edge of the driveway, jarring Mrs. Dodd
from her thoughts.
What has she been up to all day?
She thought as the
psychic approached her house through the dusky evening light.
That’s the
worst thing about investigating
, Mrs. Dodd thought,
I can’t watch that
psychic.

Streaks of red and orange
filled the skyline, darkening into a lavender-purple as it drifted towards the
rising moon. Here and there sprinkles of stars stood out in shining fashion
above the little town of Temple.

Mrs. Dodd took a deep breath
of the twilight air as she paused on the porch steps, waving goodbye to Sissy.
She did so love this little town. She felt the generations that preceded her as
she saw their descendants and passed their homes. Their love and hard work
seemed to have soaked into the very soil of Temple, becoming the center of its
being.

It was no longer just a
place, it was a home.

Mrs. Dodd straightened her
small stature resolutely.
And I’m just the person to defend it,
she
thought rapping her small knuckles on the porch banister.

“It
follows and gives chase”

I had seen Mrs. Dodd as I
approached and hurried past her. I didn’t want to get involved in a
conversation with her today. I had been busy with errands ever since the police
had dropped me off and I was exhausted.

I let the door slam behind
me and leaned wearily against it, slipping my shoes off and rubbing my feet. I
rolled my head around, stretching my tight neck muscles. This was all so
stressful.

After Simms and Dunn dropped
me off earlier, I borrowed a car from a neighbor that lived down the street, a
Mr. Nelson. I found myself driving deep into the country. It almost seemed like
a physical pull that brought me to the desolate area. I had first seen the
cabin many months ago when I moved to Temple and I had been exploring the town.
It was old, run down and abandoned.

At the time, I had thought
it looked interesting. It was on a dead end road with only one nearby house.
And it wasn’t even that close. Lately, I had found my thoughts returning to it
over and over. I became more and
more sure
about the
place as the days passed. Someone was going to be murdered there.

After I visited the cabin
and looked around, I went back to the Robins. Mr. Robins had stood frozen
again, as still as a statue as I had approached.

“Mr. Robins,” I called from
the safety of the car. He stood his ground as I approached, gazing steadily at
me. "Maybe I can help him. Gary. If you send him to me….”

“How could you help him?”

“I’m a psychic. I know you
know that. Everyone in this town does.”

He ducked his head slightly
in acknowledgement.

“If you truly believe he’s
innocent, send him to me.” I started the car and backed out carefully without
waiting for a reply.

I wondered now, if what I
had done had been wise. I thought of what Dunn and Simms would say when I
called and told them I was with the man they were looking for. I felt a smile
starting around my lips, and for once, I didn’t repress it. I smiled widely as
I went to run a hot bath. It was almost over.

The front door burst open
with a bang, startling Mrs. Dodd. She was standing over the frying pan in the
kitchen, scrambling eggs.

“Yoo-hoo!” Sissy called out
as she made her way down the hall. “I smell food!”

“That’s right,” Mrs. Dodd
said, scooping the eggs onto a plate already heaped high with sausage.

“No pancakes?” Sissy
frowned.

“Nope, but I have some
biscuits about to come out of the oven and some molasses and honey to go with
them.”

“You’ll never believe the
news, Velma!” Sissy was in a highly excited state.

“What’s that?” Mrs. Dodd
asked. She checked the biscuits before deftly removing them from the oven.

“Well.” Sissy accepted the
cup of coffee that Mrs. Dodd handed to her. “They have a suspect in the
murders.”

Mrs. Dodd’s face fell as she
sank in the chair opposite her friend, her own cup of hot chocolate forgotten.
“Who is it?”

“Gary Wright!” Sissy
spluttered as she burnt her lips on the hot coffee. “Velma, that’s scorching!”

“That’s how Lorene likes it,”
Mrs. Dodd said absently. She handed Sissy a handful of napkins which her friend
accepted gratefully.

Dabbing at her burnt lips,
she continued, “I couldn’t believe it either! I can tell by your face that
you’re just as shocked as I am.”

“Why do they suspect him?”

“Well, everyone in town
knows how odd he is. He does have a rather creepy way about him, you know that,
Velma.”

Mrs. Dodd nodded in reply.
“But I wouldn’t suspect him of being a serial killer.”

“The police do!” Sissy took
a biscuit and added it to her already full plate. Slicing it open with a knife,
she liberally applied butter and then covered it with molasses. “Apparently,
they found evidence at his house.”

“What kind of evidence?”

“Something of the girl’s
that died, they think.” She wagged her finger at Mrs. Dodd. “But they aren’t
sure.”

“What does he say about all
this?” Mrs. Dodd was regaining her composure. She took a sip of her hot
chocolate, a treat usually not allowed under Lorene’s watch.

“No one knows.” Sissy
shrugged. “They can’t find him. He’s done scooted off.” Her fingers made
walking motions before she shrugged indifferently.

“I’m sure he hasn’t gone
far. He’s somewhere around here. Gary Wright wouldn’t know how to function
outside of Temple.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He
would have to know how to function in the big cities if that’s where he got
those girls from.”

“You think he did it?”
Despite herself, Mrs. Dodd was astonished.

“Well, it makes sense,”
Sissy said defensively. She added another biscuit to her rapidly vanishing
stack of food.

“No, it doesn’t!” Mrs. Dodd
exclaimed. “I’m sure that Gary isn’t the killer. Why, he would have had to have
been murdering people all these years under our very noses. Taking off to
Alabama and Georgia…”

“He has disappeared before
Velma.
Quite often in the past.
Remember, what was it
now?” Sissy wrinkled her forehead in concentration. “Probably nine years ago
now, he disappeared for a month. The whole town was looking for him!”

“Well, yes, but he came back
and he hasn’t disappeared for that long since,” Mrs. Dodd replied stoutly.

“He’s disappeared long
enough to go kill some innocent girl and dump her body!”

Mrs. Dodd only grimaced in
reply, “Why do they think the thing they found is the girl’s?”

“Well, it was a bracelet and
they think that it was hers because the psychic was able to sense it. If it
wasn’t for her, I don’t know where we would be,” Sissy finished with a large
roll of her eyes. Mrs. Dodd knew she didn’t mean it sarcastically. She often
rolled her eyes when frightened. “My theory is that it’s more than one person.
I think someone’s working with this serial killer now. I think they might be
working together.”

Mrs. Dodd stared hard at her
before changing the subject.

“You know, Sissy, my mother
was distantly related to Old Mr. Robin’s mother,” Mrs. Dodd started.

“Oh.” Her eyes rolled again.
“Mr. Robins does frighten me.
Almost as much as policemen.
You know that.”

“I do,” Mrs. Dodd replied,
“but it is ridiculous for you to be scared of him. He’s really the only normal
one in that family.”

“Then why does he hang
around them? He’s practically the leader of that rascally bunch.”

“The Robins aren’t all that
bad for the most part. There are a few different ones, I’ll give you that. But
the problem is those darn Wrights! Trash, all of them! And the Robins can’t
seem to leave them alone. Now all that’s left that’s not backwards is old man
Robins. He married that awful Wright girl, you know her, the big fat one.”

“She wasn’t fat then,” Sissy
interrupted. She was settling into her coffee now that she had finished her
breakfast.

Mrs. Dodd, seeing that
company had finished, helped herself to seconds. “She certainly is now!
Didn’t waste any time making up for it, in my opinion.
Anyway, her brother married Mr. Robin’s sister. Gary is a double cousin to his
children. And he practically raised that child after his parents died.”

“Like one of his own,” Sissy
confirmed, nodding wisely over the brim of her coffee cup.

“What does old man Robins
have to say about all this?”

“Well, he won’t say much,”
Sissy lowered her voice, “but he’s standing by him. And by his orders,
all
the Wrights and the Robins are standing by him, though I’m sure they would
anyway. They seem to me like they’ve always had to work together as a bunch to
survive. It’s what their used to.
When hard times come, BAM!”
Sissy
swooped
her hand down on the table with a bang,
“They stick together.”

“You’re right, Sissy.” Mrs.
Dodd finished her breakfast and gathered the plates. “They won’t give him up.
Not without a fight.”

“Why do you look so worried?”

“Because I
am.
Let
me think for minute, Sissy.” Mrs. Dodd made another cup of hot chocolate, all
the while gazing into space. Sissy followed directions and did nothing to
disturb her.

“Sissy.”
Mrs. Dodd finally turned
back to her friend. “I have a very bad feeling about this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a feeling there will
be another murder.
Very soon.”

A horrified expression
crossed Sissy’s face and she almost dropped her cup of coffee on her lap.
“Why?”

“Because
this case is almost closed.”

“So the serial killer will
want another victim before it’s all over?”

“They might need another
one,” Mrs. Dodd admitted. “Sissy, I think the person that killed these last two
girls is a copycat.
A very, very dangerous one.”

“We’ve got to find Gary,”
Sissy exclaimed.

“That,” Mrs. Dodd replied,
“we can agree on. We have to find him.
As soon as possible.”

“Well, I have a hair
appointment at eleven o’clock. I’ll see what they’re saying at the
parlour
.”

“Good idea.” Mrs. Dodd
thought a moment. “I think I’ll just stay here for now.”

Sissy’s eyes rounded in
surprise as she glanced at the clock. “Look at the time, I better
go
. I’ll be back this afternoon.”

Sissy left in a hurry and
Mrs. Dodd settled down to her thoughts.

“To
snare me is its fun”

Mrs. Dodd had been watching
the psychic ever since Sissy left, but so far, nothing of interest had
happened. She stood wearily and shuffled towards the kitchen. The coming storm
was making her bones ache.

The tall glass of tea perked
her up considerably. The psychic was still working in the backyard, kneeling
over Lorene’s plants. She looked up suddenly and caught Mrs. Dodd’s eye.

I stood and removed my
gardening gloves wearily. They were a habit that my mother had instilled in me.
“You can always tell a lady by her hands,” she had said time and time again.
Mine were still delicate and pale, young, despite my age. My lower back ached
as I pocketed the dirty gloves and I stopped to brush the dirt off of my pants.
Taking care of these plants was a lot of work. I wished again that Lorene had
not left me responsible for these precious charges of hers.

I approached the house
slowly. I knew I had seen Mrs. Dodd staring at me only a moment before.

“Mrs. Dodd?” I called, as I
climbed the steps, one hand on the railing.

“Yes?” she asked pleasantly
from behind the screen door. She looked like a small grandmotherly type now,
but I had seen her just the day before, standing on her porch as if she was
presiding over her town.

“Are you alright? Do you
need anything?”

“I’m doing fine, dear. How
are you?”

“I’m doing well,” I replied.
I hoped that the circles under my eyes didn’t give me away. I had been awake
almost all night.

“You look tired? Did you
sleep well last night?” Mrs. Dodd
asked,
suspicion in
her voice.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes with
my hands. “Not very,” I admitted. “And you?”

“I slept solid,” she said
despondently.
How odd,
I thought. Usually women of her age relished a
good night’s sleep.

“Well, I told Lorene I would
check on you,” I said. “I’ve noticed you’ve been gone quite a lot recently.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Dodd answered.
“Since Lorene’s been out of town, I’ve been spending a lot of time with my old
friend, Sissy. She’s been visiting me again just this morning. She likes my
breakfasts. She just left to get her hair done. You know Sissy, don’t you?”

I did. I had first met her
right after I moved to Temple. I had answered my door to a pudgy woman with
very loud makeup. “Do you do fortunes?”

“What?” I had asked.

“I would like to get my
fortune read.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not that
kind of a psychic,” I had replied, but she had persisted. Finally, after
several minutes, I was able to explain to her what I did and she lost interest.
I had seen her visiting Mrs. Dodd on several occasions since then, but she
hadn’t gone out of her way to speak to me again.

“What have you been doing
together?” I asked, attempting to sound friendly.

“Oh, you know what we old
ladies do. Visit old friends, gossip, go shopping. We’ve been having quite a
lark since Lorene left.
Any more news on the murders?”
She switched tactics so
quickly,
it left me scrambling
to keep up.

“I can’t discuss that,” I
replied.

“Word around town is that
you’re looking into the Wright boy, Gary.”

I didn’t reply, which didn’t
matter because she was more than happy to continue.

“You know, I’m distantly
related to that family. They have some characters. Like old man Robins. You
ever met him?”

I nodded in reply. I could
see how that crafty old man would be related to this crafty old woman.

“What did you think?”

“He seems… very capable.
It’s obvious he’s the one in charge. Hopefully, he will see the light and let
things pan out as they should.”

“As they should…
interesting
,” the old lady commented. The screen door masked
her face from me, but I felt nervous suddenly. I hadn’t felt like this since
the last time she had confronted me. The time that she went crazy….

“I better
be
going…” I said, backing away from her. “Let me know if you need anything.”

“Oh, I will,” she said. The
way she said it made me suddenly angry.

“You shouldn’t be messing
around with this. Can’t you just let the police and
me
do our jobs? You’re going to end up getting hurt.”

“I’m not worried about
that.” She opened the screen door slightly to let the cat out. It slinked by my
feet, running swiftly to the garden. “I’m only trying to help.”

Her blue eyes peered at me
intently as I replied, “Please, please just leave this to us. I like Lorene. I
don’t want anything to happen to you, not when I’m supposed to be looking out
for you.”

“It’s time for this to end.
If you won’t end it, if the police won’t end it, then I will,” she said. It
gave me chills. That was exactly the wording I had used the night before.

“Well, then,” I said,
turning to face her with one hand on the railing, “I’ll be checking on you. I
heard that a storm’s moving in. I may be checking on you sometime tonight or
tomorrow,” I warned her. The last thing I needed was for her to get in the way.
Not when this was so close to being over.

Mrs. Dodd watched the
psychic cross the lawn and open the gate to her own yard. She let the screen
door fall softly shut. “
Hmmph
,” she said to Ginger,
who wagged her tail softly on the floor in response. “She thinks she can scare
me off this case, but she won’t. I’ll see it through to the end, come hell or
high water.”

Her gaze drifted to the
television, which was on with the sound low. A large mass seemed to be hovering
on West Tennessee.

“Which may just happen,”
Mrs. Dodd said. Ginger cocked her head at her as if trying to understand.

“The high
water part, Ginger.”
Mrs. Dodd’s hand drifted down to rub the dog’s head. “You don’t
need to worry about the other.”

“I have a feeling,” she
said, as she watched the meteorologist go on and on about how severe the storm
was going to be, “that trouble’s coming with this storm.”

Mrs. Dodd raised her
eyebrows at Pumpkin when the doorbell rang the next morning. “Who do you think
that could be?” she asked the cat, before rising from the kitchen table to
answer the front door. Sissy had called her the night before to let Mrs. Dodd
know that she had not been able to discover anything additional.

 “It can’t be Sissy,”
she told the cat. “She said last night that she wasn’t coming by till around
noon.”

Lorene always warned her to
check through the window before answering the door, but it was behind the large
couch and it took such a while for her to push her way back there. She shook
her head and swung the door wide open instead.

It was hard to recognize the
tall figure standing on the other side of the screen. The net disfigured his
face, which was in shadow. His hand clenched the screen door handle. Mrs. Dodd
felt a momentary stab of fear.

“Mrs. Dodd?” The voice
sounded familiar somehow, but she couldn’t quite place where she had heard it
before. The screen door started to open slowly. “I need to talk to you.”
Something from the past, something….
The voice was taking
her back to a time she’d rather forget.

I rose early the morning of
the storm. The day started so pleasantly that I halfway expected the news anchor
to explain how mistaken they had been.

But upon turning on the
news, I heard the weather girl gleefully informing all listeners that the storm
had built in strength and had already caused massive damage across the state.
It was extremely slow moving and would be on top of us sometime tonight.

I dressed and ate leisurely,
my spoon often lingering in my bowl of oatmeal as I thought. A sharp knock on
the door interrupted my reverie.

“Emily?” Dunn was standing
outside, smiling in a friendly fashion.

“Yes? I’m
sorry,
did I miss a call from the station?”

“No!” He caught himself.
“No, I just wanted to come by and check on you. I don’t suppose you’ve had any
more visions?”

“No, I haven’t yet.”

He nodded swiftly. “I want you
to be careful tonight. This storm is going to be bad.”

“I will be,” I said, my
voice soft. Dunn’s smile seemed to go straight to my heart. “You be careful,
too. Have you found…?”

“No, not a
sign of him.
I’m worried about you staying here alone tonight. Anything could happen with
him on the loose. I think you should know, me and Simms, we think now that he
may be copycatting the original serial killer’s murders. We just hope that
there aren’t more victims. ”

“It seems to make the most
sense, I suppose. But Gary would still be considered a serial killer, wouldn’t
he?
Even if only a dangerous copycat.”

“He certainly would be,”
Dunn said.

“And, Dunn, you don’t have
to worry about me in this storm,” I assured him. “I’ll call if I need you.” I
offered to show him my garden on the spur of the moment and I couldn’t resist
smiling when he accepted. I had found that Dunn tended to have that effect on
me.

“Can I come in?” the voice
asked again.

“Of course Jackson, but I
don’t have any cookies for you to steal today,” Mrs. Dodd chuckled. “Why don’t
you have a seat? I’ll be right back.”

Ginger lay stretched on the
rug in the living room, sleeping soundly through the strange visitor’s sudden
appearance.

“Some guard dog you are,”
Mrs. Dodd muttered, as she walked back to the kitchen. Pumpkin trailed her down
the hall, winding against the legs of the antique table, his tail curling
around it like a snake.

The wide bank of windows
overlooking the backyard was shaded by the porch. The weather appeared to have
not changed much through their eyes, but the kitchen window told a different
story. The trees appeared to be leaning slightly against the gusts of wind and
a dim presence seemed to have crept up and overtaken the small town. Though the
sky was clear of storm clouds for the moment, a hot, hazy atmosphere reigned
over the inhabitants, broken only by sporadic bursts of a chilly breeze. It was
a strange day.

Mrs. Dodd filled two glasses
with tea and paused to add two large slices of pie to the tray. She felt an
incredible urge to stare out of the window, as if the storm may break at any
moment, without warning, and to disastrous consequences.
Perhaps I could
keep it at bay if I kept watch
, she thought irrationally. Still shaking her
head at the idea that had crossed her mind, she turned and gasped aloud.

Jackson stood in the doorway
of the kitchen.

“Jackson, you startled me! I
thought you were waiting in the living room,” Mrs. Dodd said, still clutching
at the tray.

“I was, but I thought you
might need some help.” He approached and took the tray from Mrs. Dodd’s hands.
They were still shaking from the fright he had given her. “Did I scare you that
badly?” he asked, his voice concerned.

“Oh, no, I’m fine.
Just a bit jumpy today.
I have a feeling it is going to be a
day of great importance,” Mrs. Dodd replied.

Jackson sighed. His eyes
seemed sad as he looked at her. “I think it will be to.” He gestured with the
tray. “Lead the
way,
I’ll be right behind you.”

“Whose car is that at Mrs.
Dodd’s?” I glanced at her drive as I showed Dunn out. We had lingered in the
garden for quite a while and the cold breeze that was picking up was leaving me
chilly.

“Hmm,” he said with some
surprise. “I didn’t notice anyone pulled into the drive when I came.”

“Well, someone is there
now,” I said doubtfully.

“That looks like Jackson
Reilly’s car. Wonder why he went by to see her?”

“Maybe they know each
other?”

“I guess so. His wife just
died you know,” Dunn said.
“Left a child behind.
You
have to feel bad for the man.”

Busy watching the house, I only
nodded in response.

“I’ve known you all my life,
Mrs. Dodd.” Jackson shifted uncomfortably on the hard sofa. It was hard to
understand why frail old ladies insisted on having uncomfortable furniture. He
was already on edge and having to balance precariously on the end of an
inflexible, old couch was not helping matters.

“Yes, you have.” Mrs. Dodd
stared at him, one hand poised over her pie expectantly. She decided to help
him out. “Is there something more to your visit today than just catching up?”

“There is.” He swallowed
hard. He was so nervous that the pie felt like sawdust in his mouth. “I’ve got
a confession to make.”

Mrs. Dodd pressed her lips
together and placed her snack on the coffee table. She lowered her hand and
waved her fingers to Ginger, who hopped up immediately and ran to her owner.
The old lady twined her fingers through the dog’s hair.