1 Murder on Sugar Creek Page 15

  “Good afternoon, ladies,” the trooper said. “Miss Morgan, do you mind stepping over here with me?”

  “You want to talk to me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Okay, but you should watch her,” Maggie pointed at Carla. “She has a gun in that backpack and she apparently knows how to use it.”

  Maggie’s advice to the officer wiped the smirk off Carla’s face.

  “She’s going to stay right where I can see her,” he said. When he and Maggie reached the end of the driveway, he asked, “What’s this about?”

  “Carla killed her husband, Mac Honaker.”

  “Ma’am, I’m here as a courtesy to Detective Heyward, but please, do not waste my time.”

  Maggie looked over her shoulder at Carla before sharing the evidence with the trooper.

  “Let me see if I get this straight,” he said. “You think she killed her husband because she’s wearing her hair under a ball cap, because she runs and hikes, because she has boyish shoulders but no hips, and because she drives a silver SUV? Oh, and I almost forgot, because she kidnapped your dog, but brought him back.”

  Maggie did not appreciate the officer’s tone. “Listen, I know what I’m talking about. You can’t let her go.”

  “You’re right. I’m taking her in and I’m taking you in, too.”

  “What? You can’t go around arresting people for no reason.”

  “That’s what you want me to do with her. And I’m not arresting anybody. I’m going to take both of you to post where we can sort this out.”

  Carla did not react well to the news.

  “You’re interrupting my afternoon on the word of this lunatic? Is it because she used to date a Jasper police detective?”

  “How do you know about that?” When Carla didn’t answer, Maggie said. “You seem to know a lot about me.”

  “I need both of you to keep quiet,” the trooper said. “As soon as my backup gets here, I’ll take you,” he pointed at Maggie, “and he’ll take you, Mrs. Honaker. Until then, not another word from either of you.”

  The ladies heeded the officer’s warning. The other trooper arrived a few minutes later and, after the officers chatted, they asked the women to take a seat in the backs of their respective cruisers. As she walked past Maggie, Carla leaned in and asked, “How’s your dog? Does he miss me?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Maggie tried to plead her case in the cruiser, but the trooper cut her off.

  “Miss Morgan, could you please be quiet? We’ll have plenty enough time to discuss the matter at post.”

  Maggie fell back onto the seat and considered her situation. How did it come to me riding in the back of a surly trooper’s cruiser? she asked herself. All I wanted to do was help Kevin by proving he didn’t kill Mac. And I did. But nobody will listen to me.

  “I just have one question.” The trooper didn’t speak or look at her through his rearview mirror. Maggie took that as an invitation to continue. “Why didn’t you even ask to search her backpack? Sure, you would have needed a warrant if she had said no, but it wouldn’t have hurt to ask. Of course, she could have volunteered to open the backpack as soon as I mentioned her having a gun. An innocent person would have handed the backpack to you and said, ‘Be my guest.’ But she didn’t. So, she has to have the murder weapon in there. If it was any other gun, she would have said, “No, I don’t mind you looking at it.’ But she didn’t. And that speaks volumes.”

  “Miss Morgan, I’m going to ask you one more time to sit back and shut up.”

  Maggie reluctantly obeyed his commands. Once she settled down, she had to admit that speeding past the other traffic in the back of a police cruiser had its advantages.

  As Maggie walked up to the conveyor belt, the officer ordered, “If you have anything in your pockets, place them in the tray.”

  She inserted her hands into each pocket of her pea coat with no expectation of finding anything. When her right hand touched metal, her eyes widened. She pulled the digital recorder out of her pocket all the while hoping her expression did not betray the cool demeanor she wanted to project.

  After Maggie walked through the security checkpoint, the officer handed her belongings to her, escorted her to an interview room, and asked her to take a seat. Without saying another word, he left the room. Maggie wished he had allowed her to retrieve her phone from her car. She needed to call Luke and explain why she had missed their lunch date. She also wanted to call her parents, but before she could become too consumed by guilt, a plain clothes police officer, who Maggie immediately determined to be a detective, and the trooper who had escorted her to post entered the room.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” the detective asked.

  “No, thank you. Here,” she held out the recorder to him, “I recorded my conversation with Carla. At the end, she says something about my dog.” When the trooper rolled his eyes, Maggie said to him, “You told me I could talk once we got here. Well, we’re here and I’m talking.”

  She pressed play. At first, all she heard was static silence, which made her doubt the success of the operation. Suddenly, Carla’s voice asked, “Excuse me?”

  Maggie fiddled with the recorder. “She mentions my dog at the end. I’ll fast-forward to that part.”

  “No,” the detective said. “You’ll place the recorder on the table and we’ll listen to the entire conversation.” When the recording ended, he took out a notebook and said, “Tell me everything, from the beginning.”

  Maggie tried to ignore her hunger pangs. Although the detective had asked the eye-rolling trooper to bring her a snack from the vending machine, she had declined the offer. She reasoned she wouldn’t be there much longer and planned to join Luke as soon as the detective released her. But as the afternoon lapsed into evening, Maggie decided to take them up on the offer of a snack as soon as somebody checked on her again. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, it was almost eight in the evening, and she had been alone in the room for hours with only her imagination to distract her from her hunger and her self-doubt. The detective had shown no emotion as she shared her story. At one point, she had almost slipped up and told him about Dottie’s grandson, Corey, as well as Mac’s money-making schemes with Bug. She knew police officers were trained to sniff out deceptions the way Barnaby sniffed out the scent of other dogs, but she hoped he would attribute her stumbling over words to nerves.

  She was debating on whether to knock on the door and ask for a snack when the door opened. A detective entered the room, but he was not the one she was expecting to see.

  “Seth, what are you doing here?”

  He pulled a chair up next to hers. “I came over here as soon as my shift ended so I could check on you. I talked to my buddy a couple times, but I wanted to see you for myself.”

  “If your buddy is the one who drove me to post, you need to talk to him about his attitude.”

  “How about we focus on your attitude or, rather, your actions? Maggie, do you realize how foolish you behaved today? Do you realize how dangerous it was to confront Carla on your own?”

  “If you believe Carla is dangerous, does that mean you believe me?”

  Seth nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

  “Do they believe me?”

  “They’re leaning in that direction. They’re waiting on a warrant so they can search her house.”

  “Have they arrested her?”

  “No, they’re waiting for more evidence.”

  “A lack of evidence didn’t stop them from arresting Kevin.”

  “Maggie, calm down. I know you’ve had a stressful day, but you need to relax and let them do their jobs.” Seth shook his head. “I feel like we’ve had this conversation before. Back when all this started, I advised you to have a little patience and believe in the system. You wouldn’t listen then, but I hope you’ll listen now.”

  “I can’t make that promise,” Maggie said. “What’s Carla saying?”

  “That you’re a nut job. I�
�m not so sure she’s wrong.”

  “Hey, I got to the truth when no one else could. Right?”

  “Apparently.” Maggie’s growling stomach attracted Seth’s attention. “What’s that noise?”

  “It’s my stomach.”

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t eaten in hours.”

  Seth stood up. “Let me see if we can get you out of here, so you can silence those rumblings.”

  Seth left the room and, moments later, the door opened again.

  “Miss Morgan,” the state police detective said, “you’re free to leave. Before you go, I want to remind you that this case is still under investigation.”

  Maggie nodded.

  “And, one more thing,” he said. “In the future, could you refrain from conducting your own investigations? Let the professionals do their jobs.”

  When Maggie and Seth reached the fast-food restaurant, Maggie ordered a double cheeseburger, a large order of fries, and chicken bites. “Why are you laughing?” she asked Seth.

  “I was just thinking that your appetite hasn’t changed. That’s another thing I always appreciated about you. You could pack the food in.”

  “That’s catching up with me,” she complained. “And this police work hasn’t helped. Now I know why cops are usually overweight and out of shape.” Maggie remembered Seth’s concerns about his weight gain and added, “Present company excluded.”

  “That’s okay,” Seth chuckled and patted his stomach. “I’m finally getting rid of a little bit of this. I think it’s the stress from worrying about you.”

  They arrived at the Honaker residence to find two detectives conducting a search of the premises.

  “I guess they got their warrant,” Seth said. “Hey, you’re shivering.”

  “It’s cold and I’m tired.”

  “Are you sure that’s all?”

  “Yeah,” she fibbed. “Thanks for everything you did for me today. You went above and beyond.”

  “Nah, just doing my job.”

  Before Maggie could make it inside her house, she heard the phone ringing. She ignored the shrill sounds, placed her food on the table, and took Barnaby outside. They made their way back inside to find Robert pounding on the front door.

  “Where have you been all day? Your mother tried to call that cellar phone a dozen times.”

  Even after a long day spent pursuing a killer, Maggie laughed at her dad’s mispronunciation of cellular. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I figured you were worried, but I couldn’t call you. I didn’t have my cell phone.”

  “We’ve been imagining everything.”

  “I’m sorry to have worried you, but I’m fine. Please, go home and let me enjoy my dinner. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”

  “Well, all right, but as soon as you eat, you get your rear end to the house.”

  Maggie opened her mouth, but just as quickly closed it. “Barnaby and I will be right over.”

  Maggie spent a restless night at her parents’ house and returned to her home the following morning. When she walked into the living room, she noticed the answering machine light flashing.

  “One message,” she said to Barnaby. “Wonder who called us last night?”

  She pressed play and heard Seth’s voice saying, “You were right. She confessed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  By the time Maggie arrived at work the following Monday, news of Carla’s arrest and Maggie’s involvement in the case had spread throughout Jasper and into the county. The advertising and bookkeeping departments as well as the publisher besieged her for information on the investigation. When Joe and Tyler strolled into the office around ten o’clock, Maggie had already told her story six times.

  After repeating the story one more time to the satisfaction of the two men, she followed Joe into his office.

  “I just want you to know that my snooping, for lack of a better word, was done on my own time.” She paused. “Well, except for the exchange of emails with a source, but everyone sends and receives personal email at work, so it’s not that big of a deal. Right?”

  Joe nodded.

  “Oh, and I did search the public records the day I went to the courthouse to get the indictments, but I’m entitled to breaks. Right?”

  “Yes, you are.”

  Maggie turned to leave, but just as quickly changed her mind. “One more thing. They consider my recorder evidence. It was my personal recorder, but I had saved some interviews on there. You know, in case of a lawsuit. I guess we can always appeal to the courts for the release of the recorder if need be.”

  “If need be what?”

  “If one of my stories results in a lawsuit.”

  “Maggie, how many years have you been working here?”

  “Uh, thirteen years, give or take a few months.”

  “Have you ever been sued?”

  “No.”

  “Have you written something recently that contained libelous information? For example, have you libeled the man who displays hundreds if not thousands of fishing lures on the wall of his machine shop or the teen who won the Jasper Idol singing competition?”

  “When you put it that way, the answer is no.”

  “Then, I think we’re good.” Maggie once again turned to leave, but this time, Joe prevented her from making an exit. “By the way, you did a good job. I guess you’re an investigative reporter after all.”

  Maggie finally made her departure and, as she walked by Tyler’s desk, he removed his ear buds.

  “That was really smart of you,” he said. “You know, recording her. I’m impressed.”

  I’ve solved a murder and received two compliments from Tyler, Maggie thought to herself. Wonder what I’ll accomplish next month?

  Unlike Tyler, Luke was not impressed with Maggie’s accomplishments. She spoke to him on Sunday long enough for him to tell her they needed to talk. On Monday evening, Maggie joined him at his place for pizza.

  “Listen,” she said before he could speak. “I’m so sorry about Saturday. I feel terrible for standing you up, but I got behind the trailer and, of course, I couldn’t get service up the holler –”

  “When did you call Seth?”

  The slice of pizza she held fell limp in her hand. “What do you mean?”

  “At some point while you were still on Sugar Creek, you called Seth. I’m just wondering how you got service long enough to call him.”

  Maggie placed her pizza on the plate. “Is this about Seth?”

  “Not entirely. I know you have a past with him, but I thought we – you and me – had the makings of something special. I know we’re not there, yet, but I thought we could get there.”

  “We can.”

  “Then why did you turn to him?”

  “Because he’s a police officer.”

  “Was Saturday the first time he helped you on the case?”

  “No, he came out and looked around after the Barnaby incident. But only after Edie let him know what was going on. Edie made the first contact with him. I did accept his help, but I only asked him for one favor and I didn’t do that until Saturday.”

  Luke chewed on a bite of pizza for what Maggie considered an exorbitant amount of time. “I’ll give you that,” he said, “but why didn’t you confide in me? Why didn’t you tell me what was going on in your life? Why did you leave me in the dark?”

  “I guess for the same reason I didn’t tell my parents. I didn’t want to worry you and I knew you’d try to talk me out of it. Edie and Seth certainly offered discouragement.”

  “Do you want to keep seeing me?”

  Luke’s question took Maggie by surprise. “Of course, I do. You’re fun and funny and, well, easy on the eyes. I very much enjoy your company and I like the way I feel when I’m with you or even thinking about you.”

  Luke’s eyes twinkled. “I very much enjoy your company, too, and I like the way you make me feel. But, if we’re going to keep seeing each other, this can’t happen again.”<
br />
  “Don’t worry,” Maggie picked up the slice of pizza. “My sleuthing days are over.”

  Maggie read the first sentence of Joe’s editorial. She couldn’t believe someone with as much knowledge and with as many years’ experience as Joe had never mastered the “then versus than” rule. She circled the errant “than” and rolled her eyes. She had found a misplaced comma when the phone rang.

  “Jasper Sentinel. This is Maggie Morgan. How may I help you?”

  “Good afternoon, Miss Morgan. This is Detective King with the Kentucky State Police.”

  “Oh, hello detective. What can I do for you?”

  Maggie assumed he had called with a request for more information or to thank her for her role in nabbing Mac’s murderer. She was not prepared for what came next.

  “Miss Morgan, this is out of the ordinary, but we wanted to let you know that Carla Honaker is asking to see you. Of course, you don’t have to talk to her, but we’d consider it a favor if you did. She’s already confessed to the murder and we have the murder weapon, but there’s a reason she wants to see you and we’re hoping that reason might involve sharing information with you. She would not give us a motive. Although we don’t need one to proceed, it would be helpful to have one in order to fill in the blanks.”

  The sensible side of Maggie believed nothing good could come from meeting a confessed murderer in lockup. The curious side of Maggie couldn’t believe her luck.

  “Will she be behind a glass?”

  The detective chuckled. “No, ma’am, the Jasper Detention Center doesn’t have enough money in its budget for such luxuries. You would be in the same room with Carla Honaker but never alone with her. And she would be handcuffed the entire time.”

  Maggie’s mental deliberation lasted less than two seconds. “What do I need to do?”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Officer King met Maggie at the detention center’s entrance and escorted her inside. Although she knew it was a ridiculous thought, Maggie had expected to be ushered into a commons area with rows of cells and prisoners towering above her. Once they passed through the security check, he took her to an area that reminded her of a classroom. Carla sat at one of the many tables as a guard kept watch.