Free Two Bits Four Bits by Mark Cotton Page B

Russell Chilton’s murder, but
since I had a personal connection to the family those in attendance
might view any attempt to gain information at such a gathering as
disrespectful. I doubt that I would have thought twice about such
perceptions were I on the job investigating the murder, but a few
months away from the constant questioning of witnesses and
gathering of facts had given me some perspective that I didn’t have
before.
    Despite my neutral
investigative approach, I did pick up a few things just from
listening in on the conversations of the women working around me.
For one thing, it didn’t really feel like any of Kandy’s friends
were particularly close to her. Almost as if they were friends on a
social level, but didn’t spend time with her outside of public
fundraisers or Pilates class. None of the women seemed to be
familiar with Kandy’s kitchen, and I knew from my own twelve-year
marriage that when women were very close they usually spent so much
time in each other’s kitchens that they could find the silverware
drawer or the cabinet door concealing the trash can with their eyes
closed. And, there was more than one episode of quiet whispering
between the women that had appeared to be outright exchanges of
gossip, most likely about Kandy or Russell. I wondered if Russell’s
reputation as a skirt-chaser might not be the reason for some of
the discreet discussions.
    The other interesting
thing I discovered during my dishwashing stint was something I
noticed while putting away some dessert plates I had just finished
drying. I was opening cabinets, trying to figure out where to put
things when I noticed a high shelf containing a variety of
unmatched coffee mugs. A couple of them featured the logo and name
of Elmore Bank & Trust in gold lettering. Another, this one
pink, was from the Elmore Breast Cancer Awareness Run for the Cure.
But, the one that caught my attention was a simple, black mug
decorated by a large decorative “E” surrounded by scrolling lines
and outlines of roses.
    Since the design was
clearly feminine, I mentally ticked off the names of women I knew
might have occasion to keep a coffee mug in the Chilton kitchen,
finding none that began with an “E”. Kandy’s daughters were Megan
and Heather, and her mother Beverly. The only “E” name that came to
mind immediately was Eva Trout, although I wasn’t acquainted with
the Chilton’s entire circle of friends and relatives. If the mug
did belong to Eva Trout, and if she and Kandy were talking
frequently on their phones, maybe she was close to Kandy and
Russell as a couple, and not simply a romantic interest of
Russell’s, as Jay Bradley seemed to suspect.
     
     
    * * * *
     
     

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
     
    When the crowd thinned out
at the Chilton residence, I spoke with Kandy briefly, extending the
same offer of assistance that she had undoubtedly heard hundreds of
times over the past few days, and then drove out to my parents’
place through the scorching afternoon heat. I changed into blue
jeans and a T-shirt and had resumed the task of bagging some of my
father’s old clothes to deliver to the Salvation Army when I heard
a vehicle pull up outside.
    I watched through the
front window as Detectives Reese and Puckett sat in their police
vehicle with the engine running for several minutes before stepping
out and approaching the front door. I met them before they knocked
and invited them inside. After explaining the reason for the
scattered piles of clutter in the living room, we moved to the
kitchen and sat down around the battered metal table at which I had
eaten my first meals forty-three years earlier. After the social
niceties were out of the way, Bob Clemmer steered the conversation
to the reason for their visit.
    “As you know from your
time on the job, part of what we do is talk to anybody who might
know something about the victim that might help solve the crime, no
matter how unimportant that something might seem.”
    I nodded,