Murder at Catfish Corner: A Maggie Morgan Mystery (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

During her drive
to Sassafras, Maggie held to a hope that Cullen would be at his dad’s when she
arrived at Fallon’s. She needed to have a serious talk with Fallon and she
feared the little boy would cause constant interruptions. She also had a
feeling the nature of her visit would prove upsetting to Fallon and she didn’t
want her to break down in front of the boy. But when Fallon answered the door
holding Cullen on her hip, Maggie accepted her fate.

“Hey, Fallon,
sorry to stop by unannounced, but I was wondering if you might have some time
to talk to me?”

“About what?”
Fallon remained in the doorway as Cullen nibbled on an ice cream sandwich.

“Well, can I
come in?”

Fallon stepped
back. “I guess you can for a minute, but I’ve got to clean Cullen up. We’re
going to my mom’s.”

“Hopefully, this
won’t take long.” Fallon didn’t make a move to sit, so neither did Maggie. As
they stood in the living room, she asked, “Fallon, did Hazel ever mention
evicting you?”

“Like how?”

Maggie’s brief
tenure as a sleuth had taught her certain truths – everybody has something to
hide, there’s no way to prepare people for the tough questions, and a suspect’s
failure to understand the meaning of a simple question or comment usually
indicates deception. “Did she ever tell you she was going to evict you?”

Fallon pulled a
baby wipe from a dispenser and washed Cullen’s face and hands, keeping her eyes
on the child as she answered Maggie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Miss Martin and her daughter are the ones kicking me out. Miss Baker is dead.”

Maggie produced
a sheet of paper from her purse. “According to this letter dated the day before
her body was found, Hazel planned to evict you.” Maggie tried to make eye
contact with Fallon, who focused her attention on rubbing the drying cloth over
Cullen’s hands. “Did Hazel show you this letter?”

Fallon shook her
head but answered, “Yes,” and hugged Cullen to her chest. “I did it for you.
Everything Mommy did was for you.”

Cullen squirmed
out of her embrace and ran down the hallway. Maggie heard Fallon sniffle and
realized she had started crying. “Come on,” she held out her hand to Fallon.
“Let’s sit down.” Fallon complied and once they settled onto the couch, Maggie
asked, “What did you do for Cullen?”

Through hiccups,
Fallon said, “Miss Baker called it prostitution.”

Not expecting to
hear that word, Maggie asked, “Excuse me, but did you say prostitution?”

“Yeah, she said
I was no better than one of those women you see walking along the four-lane.”
Fallon sniffed and turned her young face to Maggie. “You’ve seen them. They
wear halter tops, even in cold weather, and they’re either really skinny or
really fat. I’m not like them.”

“Fallon, was she
evicting you for performing prostitution in this house?”

“That’s what she
said, but it wasn’t like that.”

“What was it
like?”

“It ain’t easy
getting by. I don’t make much money and, well, I told you about Cullen’s daddy
losing his job.” Fallon blew her nose with the dry baby wipe. “He wasn’t able
to pay as much child support after that. It was hard and one day it got to me
and I started crying. Dennis saw me –”

“Dennis? Hazel
and Stella’s brother?”

“Yeah, him. I
don’t know no other Dennis. Anyways, he saw me crying and offered to help. He’s
real nice like that. He gave me money and I was so happy that I kissed him. One
thing led to another, you know how it is. He kept giving me money and …”

“One thing kept
leading to another.” Maggie pounded her head in an unsuccessful effort to run
unpleasant images out of her mind. “How did Hazel find out? Did she catch you?”

Fallon wiped her
nose with the backs of her fingers. “No. He was paying my rent every month for
me and giving me money for other stuff –”

“Like the new
bedroom suites?”

“Uh-huh. He
couldn’t afford the whole set for my room, but I was happy with what I got. But
he run out of money and I had spent everything on food and clothes and shampoo
and detergent and all the other things you need for a house. That stuff don’t
come cheap, you know. And there’s always something we need. It ain’t like I was
buying expensive shoes or toys, but it didn’t matter how hard I tried to make
it work. I didn’t have no money and I couldn’t pay my rent. I told Dennis and
for a while he gave me the money, but then he quit. When the rent come due that
month, he didn’t offer to help me. I asked him about it and he told me not to
worry. I thought he was going to talk to Miss Baker and when she come to
collect the rent, I told her what Dennis said about me not needing to worry. She
left for a while, then come back yelling and screaming at me. She called me
everything but a milk cow. She wasn’t nice at all.”

“When was this?”

“A couple days
before she died. She come back the next day with that letter you showed me. I
called Dennis and he said he’d take care of it this time.”

“Hmm. Did he tell
you what he planned to do?”

“I don’t know. I
didn’t ask him.” Fallon had stopped crying, but her eyes suddenly filled with
tears. “I didn’t ask. I just wanted to stay here. Me and Cullen have it good
here.”

I’d say you do,
Maggie thought to herself. “Fallon, did Dennis tell you if he took care of
things for you?”

“No, but she
died right after that and I felt like God was sending me a message.”

“A message from
God?” Despite her best efforts, Maggie could not prevent feelings of disbelief
from dictating the inflection of her voice. “Really?”

“He wants me to
be happy and for Cullen to have a nice bed to sleep in. He don’t want me or him
to have to sleep on sheets that an old lady died on.” Fallon sighed. “It was
good for a few weeks. It was good until I got that letter saying we have to
leave.”

Maggie stared at the young woman and tried to determine if she were
capable of killing Hazel in order to remain in the house. Or, for that matter, if
Dennis could have killed his sister to guarantee Fallon’s happiness and to ensure
her dependence on him.

Maggie’s bad
luck continued. It started raining on her drive from Fallon’s to Dennis’
trailer, which ruined her plan to suggest to Dennis they converse on his
uncovered porch. She debated waiting out the rain, but she wanted to take care
of this task so she could go home. She sent Luke a two-word text, “with
Dennis,” and dashed from her car to the trailer. Dennis opened the door as soon
as she knocked.

“You’re as wet
as a duck.” He stepped away from the door and said, “Come in.”

“Thanks.” She instinctively
shook water from her head and rolled her eyes. “All days to forget my
umbrella.”

“Stella’s not
here.” Dennis stood a few feet from her with his hands folded over his chest.

“I didn’t come
to see Stella. I came to see you.”

“Me?” Dennis
stepped back. “Why do you want to see me?”

On the ride
over, Maggie had attempted to develop a strategy, but she couldn’t think of an
easy way to broach this sensitive topic. Instead, she said a silent prayer in
which she asked that Dennis not share too much information. “So, Dennis, I was
at Fallon’s and she told me that you had been paying her rent.”

He nodded and swayed,
keeping his eyes on the fraying carpet.

“She said you
had quit paying it, though. Do you mind telling me about that?”

“I had my own
rent to pay and I had to buy a used car last winter when mine broke down.”

Maggie
remembered the new sedan in Fallon’s driveway. “What about Fallon? Did you buy
her a car?”

“I did. Her old
car wasn’t reliable. She needed something safe for Cullen.”

“So, you were
paying rent on two places and two car payments. Did you buy anything else for
Fallon?”

“I wasn’t paying
two car payments. I used my savings to buy Fallon’s car. I bought furniture for
her and Cullen, too, and, sometimes, she didn’t have money for food so I helped
her out. She has it pretty rough.”

Doesn’t sound
like it to me, Maggie thought to herself. Sounds like you have it rougher than
she does. “After you spent all this money on her and Cullen, you probably
didn’t have much for yourself.”

“I didn’t care
about that.” Dennis looked at her for a moment before lowering his eyes. “I wanted
to help her and Cullen. We’re a family.”

“Oh.”

“I wanted to
move in with them, but Fallon said that wouldn’t look right. I guess she was
right and I didn’t mind helping, but it got tight. Stella noticed some of my
savings was gone –”

“How did Stella
know you dipped into your savings?”

“She’s on all my
accounts.”

Of course, she
is, Maggie thought. “Did you tell her what you had done with the money?”

“No.” Dennis quit
moving. “I let her think I had used it to buy games and action figures.”

Maggie’s
forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Games and action figures?”

“I collect board
games. I have an entire closet full. When my niece comes in, she plays games
with me and, sometimes, she talks Hazel, well, she talked Hazel and Stella into
playing with us. Fallon’s going to play with me someday, too. So is Cullen. The
figures are from
Star Wars
. I love those movies. Do you like them?”

“I like the
earlier ones.”

“My sisters
didn’t like any of them and they called the action figures dolls. When Stella
noticed the money missing, she asked me if I had been using my money to buy
dolls. I didn’t get a chance to answer her.”

“I’m sure you
didn’t,” Maggie said. “But surely action figures are not as expensive as a
car.”

Dennis resumed
his swaying. “They’re not, but she didn’t know better. She told me to sell them,
so I could get my money back. I did sell some of them and a few games I’d had
for a while, and I put the money back into my savings, so she’d see I was
trying. I thought about telling her the truth, but I couldn’t think of what to
say.”

“It is difficult
to comprehend,” Maggie admitted. “So, let me see if I understand it. You had
used your savings on Fallon’s car and were paying your own car payment, so you
didn’t have the money to keep helping Fallon on a regular basis. Is that right?”

Dennis nodded. “I
couldn’t use the rest of my savings without Stella noticing. I don’t make
enough to keep up two houses and Fallon wouldn’t let me move in. I felt bad
about not paying her rent for her, but I couldn’t come up with a solution to
this problem.” He suddenly looked at Maggie. “I wish I had known you then. You
listen to people when they talk. You would have helped me figure out what to do.”

Maggie massaged
her temples. “Dennis, did Hazel come over here and talk to you about Fallon not
paying her rent?”

He nodded. “I
hadn’t seen her that mad since Earnest left her.”

“Did you tell
her about your,” Maggie paused, “arrangement with Fallon?”

“You mean that
Fallon’s my girlfriend?”

Maggie raised her
eyebrows. “Your girlfriend?”

“I had thought
about telling my sisters about us, but I didn’t think they’d understand. And
Hazel didn’t. She said some pretty mean things and then told Fallon she had to
move.”

Maggie studied
the balding, aging, heavyset boy child who stood swaying left and right to a
beat only he could hear. He had held down a job for three decades and paid his
bills every month, yet he had lived for more than fifty years with an apparent
misunderstanding of how the world worked. “Fallon said you told her you’d take
care of the situation.”

“I did.”

“What? Take care
of it? How?”

“I talked to
Hazel. At least I tried to talk to her. She wouldn’t listen. She threatened to
tell Stella and my niece. I told her that was okay with me. I wanted them to
know. I wanted everyone to know. But she had twisted everything around.” Dennis
squeezed his crossed arms and hunched his shoulders. “She had made it sound ugly.”

“Is that what
you and Hazel talked about the night she died? Fallon’s rent?”

“I called her one
last time to try to convince her to see it our way. Mine and Fallon’s. But she still
wouldn’t listen.”

“Dennis, did you
drive over to Hazel’s that night?”

Dennis, who had resumed looking at the carpet, raised his eyes to meet
Maggie’s and asked, “Why would I do that?”

After Maggie had
found the email exchanges between Hazel and Earnest, she had called Brandi and
requested an interview with her husband.

“Why? Ain’t you
left this alone yet?” Brandi had asked Maggie.

“No, I haven’t.”

“You know, I’ve
been thinking. I know I told you I thought Earnest killed Hazel, but that was
just my emotions talking. I was under a lot of stress.”

“I’ve been under
a lot of stress, too, Brandi. All these trips to Sassafras have gotten the best
of me. And not to mention the stress of having someone vandalize my car.”

“All right. Come
by a little after noon. That will give him time to get home from church.”

Maggie left
Dennis’ trailer right at noon. The rain stopped en route to Brandi and
Earnest’s house and a blinding sun peeked out from behind the clouds. “Please
let this be an omen of good things to come,” she said as she turned into the driveway.

She heard the
raised voices from the porch. The shouting didn’t stop when she rang the
doorbell. In fact, it became clearer and, before Brandi opened the door, Maggie
determined that the subject of a nap had for some reason enraged Brandi.

Brandi opened
the door, shrieking over her shoulder all the while.

“I told you we
was having company and you couldn’t take no nap. Well, company’s here.”

Earnest slouched
into the foyer, but his scowl turned into a smile when he saw Maggie. “Miss
Morgan. This is a surprise.”