Mama Pursues Murderous Shadows Part 4

6:09 A.M. Herman Spikes and Betty Jo left the Otis Motel.

9:00 A.M. Inez Wright finds Ruby Spikes's body.

9:10 A.M. Jeff Golick calls Otis police.

"I got a statement from Herman," Abe told Mama. "I had Rick talk to Betty Jo. She swears she and Herman were together from nine-thirty until six o'clock Sat.u.r.day morning."

"Who was on duty at the check-in desk at the Otis Motel when Herman and Betty Jo arrived?" Mama asked.

"n.o.body," Abe told her. "Seems that Herman came in about five o'clock Friday evening right after he knocked off from work. That's when he reserved the room."

Mama's eyes widened. "Why in heaven's name did he reserve the room so early?"

Abe rubbed the bridge of his nose. "According to Herman, he liked getting things ready ahead of time."

Mama cleared her throat. Then she said, "Abe, do you have the list of the phone numbers that Ruby called the night of her death?"

"Yeah," Abe replied, digging through a stack of papers on his desk. "She only made two calls. One was to her own house, the other to a Bartow number." Bartow is twenty-five miles from Otis.

"Would you get the phone company to trace the other number for me? It probably belongs to Ruby's boyfriend."

Abe agreed.

"I'm pretty sure that Ruby's boyfriend is not the mysterious Charles Parker," Mama told Abe. "I've talked with Inez Moore, the cleaning woman at the Inn who found Ruby's body. She knows Ruby's lover, even though she won't say his name, but she doesn't know a Charles Parker."

Abe's face darkened. "I suppose Inez didn't tell you about the fight she had with Ruby a few weeks ago, did she? For over six months, inventory at the factory kept coming up short and Clyde Thinner, the manager, was getting real concerned. But none of Clyde's efforts to catch the thief paid off. Then one afternoon he got Ruby to pretend she had a bad headache. He had her sit in the back of her car in the plant parking lot.

"According to Ruby, she heard a car come up in the parking lot. She watched as Inez's boyfriend parked directly in front of the door. After a few minutes, she saw Inez come out of the factory and slip a big bundle into the car's trunk. It was during the busiest time of day, late afternoon, when most workers were preoccupied with reaching their daily quotas. Ruby went right inside the plant and reported what she'd seen to Clyde. Clyde called me and I went to Inez's old man's house and found bundles of scarves and gloves. It seems as if Inez stole the stuff and her old man took it up north to one of his cousins who sold them and split the profit with Inez and her old man. Naturally, Inez was fired."

"That explains the hostile att.i.tude I sensed Inez had when we were talking to her about Ruby," Mama told him.

"Clyde told me that two days after Inez was fired, she sat in her car in the plant's parking lot and waited for Ruby to knock off from work. The fire in her eyes was like a dragon, he was told. It was like Inez had lost her mind. People saw her tear into Ruby like she was a piece of meat. It took four or five of Clyde's strongest men to get Inez off Rubya"he claims that several people swear that Inez would have killed Ruby right then and there that very day if she hadn't been stopped."

"That's interesting," Mama said softly.

"The plant headquarters in New York have instructed their lawyers to press charges against Inez, her boyfriend, and his cousin. Seems to me that Inez Moore and her crew are facing serving some time."

"Did Inez know about that?" Mama asked.

"Clyde got the news the day before Ruby died. He told Ruby and he told everybody at the factory. I reckon it wouldn't have been too much of a problem for Inez and her old man to find out that their troubles were just about to begin that same day."

"So it's possible that Inez and her boyfriend could have murdered Ruby," I suggested. "It would have been easy for her to have learned that Ruby was in the Inn, to get a key to her room and give it to her boyfriend. She of all people would know that the motel was almost empty that night. She could stand watch as her old man slipped inside and killed Ruby, then just pretend to find her body the next morning when she went in to clean the room."

"It'll be interesting to know what Inez and her boyfriend were doing the night Ruby died," Abe said.

"She told me and Mama that she was riding in Avondale around midnight," I said.

"She also told us that she saw Ruby's boyfriend in Avondale about the same time," Mama said thoughtfully.

"I'll get Rick to talk to Inez and her old man," Abe said.

"By the way," Mama said to the sheriff, "Jeff Golick told us that Ruby had a scarf around her neck when she checked into the Inn."

"Her clothes were there but a scarf wasn't in that room," he answered.

"I also told Jeff Golick that you would be wanting a list of the dates Ruby spent at the Avondale Inn during the past six months, and the phone numbers she called while she was staying there."

"You want me to call him and remind him to get it for me, right?" he asked Mama.

Mama flashed him a "yes" smile. "Jeff also told me that Ruby had a large sum of money in her purse that night."

"I suspect you'll want to see this too." Abe handed Mama another piece of paper. "Delcena Walker, the teller at the Otis bank, gave this to me. You'll see the savings activity shows that six months ago, in March, Ruby had a balance of $35,000. She'd been withdrawing an average of five hundred dollars a month until finally she withdrew $33,500 in May, almost exactly three months before the date of her death. Her checking account shows that she deposited seven thousand dollars six weeks ago, in July. She withdrew all seven thousand dollars the day before she died."

"There was no money in her motel room?" Mama asked.

"Not a dime," Abe answered.

"Except for the receipt for that five-thousand-dollar certified check you found in Ruby's purse, there's no trace of all that money," Mama murmured.

Abe's expressive face turned sour. "Ruby could have shot herself because the money got away from her," he pointed out.

Mama looked thoughtful. "Did you ask Herman Spikes about Ruby having that much money?"

"Herman told me they kept their money separate."

Mama shook her head. "This is all so puzzling."

"You might as well know that the gun Ruby used to shoot herself was reported stolen by a Jason Tuten who lives near Cypress Creek, not far from your cousin Agatha."

"When?"

"July twentieth. Two days after the attempted rape on Ruby," Abe said.

"When did Jason Tuten say he missed his pistol?"

"He said he usually kept it in his pickup. He was fishing, saw a snake, went to his pickup to get his .22 and it was gone. He came right to the office and reported it stolen."

"Did he know Ruby? Or remember seeing her anytime before he missed his gun?"

"Nope. Jason swore to me that he never met Ruby Spikes, never even heard of her until I mentioned her name."

Mama had a look on her face like she was trying to figure things out. She took a deep breath, then stood up. "This is all so confusing, Abe. Simone, let's go. I want to stop by to check on Sarah before we go back to the house."

My heart sank. "Do we have to visit Sarah tonight?" I asked, not wanting to hear Sarah whine about not having enough money to pay her taxes or the evilness of her neighbor who was lurking about, waiting for her to lose her property.

"Jeff Golick made it clear to us that he got the impression that Ruby didn't have any friends, at least none close enough for her to confide in. But Sarah was Ruby's G.o.dmothera"Ruby might not have told Sarah everything, but I'm willing to bet there isn't much that Sarah Jenkins, Carrie Smalls, and Annie Mae Gregory don't know about Ruby Spikes."

CHAPTER.

EIGHT.

There is still a lot of daylight at seven on an August evening. As I opened my car door, I saw a white Volvo 940 parked directly across from Abe's office. The windows on the automobile were darkly tinted, so I couldn't see the driver. Still, I had the distinct feeling that my mother and I were being watched. I started to say something to Mama, then decided it wasn't anything to call attention to; the feeling was so faint it was probably foolish to mention it.

As I had expected, Sarah Jenkins's comrades, Carrie Smalls and Annie Mae Gregory, were keeping vigil with her on her front porch. "Candi," Sarah asked excitedly as Mama walked up the front steps, "have you found who killed poor Ruby?"

It's only because I know my mother well that I saw the shadow of caution cross her face. "Sarah," she replied gently, "how are you feeling this evening?"

"You haven't found anything, have you?" Sarah asked without answering Mama's question.

Mama shook her head. "No."

"Simone, go in the house and fetch you and your mama a chair," Carrie Smalls ordered, shaking her head as if she was not pleased with Sarah jumping right on Mama about Ruby before offering her a chair to sit in. "Might as well sit down and rest your feet."

I hurried inside, found two folding chairs in the kitchen, and brought them out to the porch.

"Sarah," Mama said once she was seated, "I've talked to a few people anda""

Sarah cut in. "Ruby didn't kill herself, Candi. I tell you, that girl didn't shoot herself and you've got to prove it by August thirtieth. I've never been so embarra.s.sed in all my life. Everybody is talking about me, saying that I was stupid to send my tax money to Canadaa"you'd think the people in Otis are the smartest people in the world! The only way I can stop their wagging tongues is to pay my taxes on time just like everybody else. And people been calling me trying to steal my land for nothing. It's getting so I can't answer my telephone. I told Carrie and Annie Mae that is the only way I can shut the mouths of the people in this town and stop them from talking about me and my business like I was some low-lifea""

Mama interrupted. "Tell me something about Ruby. Who were her people? Where did she come from?"

Sarah took a breath. "Ruby was born in the country outside of Bartow. Her mother married one of my cousins. Cousin Sam was from my mother's side, the poor folks in my family. He wasn't much. Come to think of it now, during them times there wasn't much to choose from."

"What was Ruby's mother's name?" Mama asked without showing any reaction to Sarah's derogatory remarks about her own family.

"Nina," Sarah whined as if she felt that Mama was asking questions that didn't have anything to do with Ruby's death. "Nina and Sam had two children. Their older child died when he was ten. Had the whooping cough. Ruby was eight at the time. When she was sixteen, her mother died. The next year, Sam accidentally shot himself to death during a hunting trip. Ruby had quit school, was working in the sewing factory."

"You know what I heard this morning, Candi?" Annie Mae asked, as if she, too, was tired of hearing Sarah's whining.

"I declare, I couldn't believe my ears," Carrie added before Sarah could say anything.

"That crazy Betty Jo Mets has moved right into Ruby's house," Annie Mae announced. "Betty Jo is sleeping in Ruby's bed, wearing Ruby's clothes. The girl ain't hardly dead yet and Betty Jo is making herself at home with Ruby's husband."

"I have to admit, it's hard to believe," Mama murmured. But her attention seemed to be elsewhere.

"And Ruby had some nice things. She might have had her faults, but Ruby Spikes knew how to buy the best. It's a pity that tramp will be using them now that she's gone."

Mama looked up as if she had recollected herself and was once again interested in what the women had to say. "Do any of you know whether or not Ruby had a man friend that she had a habit of meeting at the Avondale Inn?"

"Sure, we know that Ruby met a man from Bartow at that place in Avondale," Sarah jumped back into the conversation with full force. "I could have told you that long ago. Both Herman and Ruby slept around. Ruby's sugar daddy was named Leman Moody. He is a tall, good-looking fella who gambles as hard as he works. Now that I think of it, Leman could have killed Ruby. I know for a fact that he'd told Ruby that he was tired of her, that he didn't want anything more to do with her. My pastor's daughter told me that she saw Leman hitting on two other women a few days before Ruby died."

"Things were really going bad for Ruby," I said, thinking about the attempted rape in her own bed, her feud with Inez Moore, her being dumped by her boyfriend, and her husband sleeping with the town's s.l.u.t.

"Ruby had sense enough to work hard, but that's about all," Sarah replied. "Come to think of it, that girl she worked with, the one that jumped on her and beat her behind in the plant's parking lot, she could have gone to the motel and killed Ruby!"

"You know about the fight between Inez and Ruby?" Mama asked.

"I should have told you about it sooner," Sarah said. "Candi, I've been so upset about my tax money and the vultures that's trying to take my property away from me that I ain't been thinking right. I know there are things I should have told you before now but, well, you understand that I've had so much on my mind,"

"I understand," Mama said quietly.

"Fact is, Candi, if I was a betting woman, I'd put my money on that Inez putting a gun to Ruby and trying to fix it so that it looked like Ruby killed herself."

I couldn't help thinking that Sarah's betting instinct hadn't kept her from being swindled of her tax money. But I kept still.

"Did Ruby have a relative named Charles Parker?" Mama asked.

Sarah coughed feebly, like something was tickling her throat. "The only living relative Ruby had other than me was her mama's sister, Laura. And she moved to Philadelphia years ago, before Ruby's mama married Sam. The last thing I heard about Laura was that she was in an old folks' home. If a Charles Parker was some kin to Ruby, I'd be the one to know it," she whimpered, as if suddenly she felt a great attachment to the dead woman.

Mama nodded. "I'm surprised that Ruby didn't come to you when she was having so many problems."

"Ruby kept to herself like she didn't want me to know her business. The truth is, I don't reckon she came to see me more than two or three times since Nina died, but that didn't stop me from hearing about what she was up to."

"How did it come about that you became Ruby's G.o.dmother?" Mama asked Sarah.

Sarah lifted her chin. "It was one of those things that just happened without warning. The Sunday morning Nina planned to have the baby christened, she came to my house in tears. The woman who had offered to be the child's G.o.dmother decided not to do it. It was too late for Nina to find somebody else. She asked me to stand with her to be the child's G.o.dmother, saying that she wouldn't expect anything more from me. After both Nina and Sam died, I took out this little policy on the girl, figuring that if something happened to her, I'd end up having to be the one most likely to see to burying her. Fact is, Ruby got married and even though my obligation ended, I still kept the policy. Didn't think much of it until after Ruby's body was found."

"So you didn't know about the man who slipped in through Ruby's back window and tried to rape her?"

"She didn't tell me about that either," Sarah said. "Like I said, Ruby kept to herself. But I heard talk about what happened. A woman on the other side of town told me she overheard Ruby talking on the phone at the plant. Whoever she was speaking to, Ruby told that person that if it wasn't for the fact that Herman came driving up during the time she was wrestling with her attacker, she didn't think she could have held out much longer."

Mama asked, "Sarah, do you have an address for Ruby's aunt Laura?"

Sarah thought for a moment. "If I do, I can't remember where I put it."

"It's the right thing to do to notify her that Ruby's dead, don't you think?" Mama asked gently.

Annie Mae crossed her arms under her large bosom. "Candi, I've got a cousin in Philadelphia who keeps up with folks who move there from Otis. If you want me to, I'll call her and ask her to look up Ruby's aunta"let her know that her only niece done gone to her reward."

"I'd like the phone number and the address of Ruby's aunt myself," Mama said as if it were an afterthought. "I'd like to be the one to tell Laura about Ruby's demise."

"Suit yourself," Annie Mae said. "As soon as I can get an address and a telephone number, I'll give it to you."

Mama stood.

"Candi, if I remember anything else that will help you track down who went into the motel room in Avondale and killed Ruby, I'll call you," Sarah said. But I couldn't tell if the tears in her eyes were for herself or for the dead woman.

"I know you will," Mama responded kindly before she eased off the front porch and headed for my car.