“Alleged?” Butler pulled his phone out of his pocket, opened it to Recent Calls, and handed it to Andy. “There. That 800 number. You can see they called me at three-thirty. By the time I got back here, you and Susan were here, and Aloysius arrived shortly after that.”
“You thought an 800 number was a hospital?” I asked.
Susan’s godfather gave me a bewildered look. “What do I know about how Florida hospital phones are set up?”
“Where was Aloysius? Where did he go after dropping Cordelia here?”
Susan answered me. “He went to Granny’s house to spend some time with her, he claims.”
“He claims?” Maybe she didn’t believe him? Mother or not, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Ish could kill someone.
“I mean, I checked with Sadie. She says he was there. I just can’t imagine Ish—the most self-involved man in the world—voluntarily spending time with an old woman, let alone one on the borderline of dementia.” Susan grimaced. “We all know how flaky my cousin Sadie is, though. Maybe you should follow up, Andy.”
“Believe me, I will. But for now…” Andy pushed the button on Mr. Butler’s phone to call the 800 number, and we all heard the message. “The number you have called is not in service …”
“Well.Somebodycalled him,” I pointed out, not wanting to believe he could be a cold-blooded killer. “We can see that. And I bet it’s easy enough to find out from the hospital if he ever arrived. But the murderer wanted Mr. Butler out of the house, so he—or she—could kill Cordelia.”
“Exactly,” Mr. Butler agreed, seeming to breathe easier.
“I can try to track down that phone number,” Susan said. “I have contacts …”
Andy nodded. “Maybe give me the contacts?”
When Susan shot him a hard look, he shrugged. “You know you can’t investigate the murder of a family member that took place in your house. And for which, no matter how farfetched, we need to consider you a suspect.”
I touched her arm. “Susan, step back from this one.”
Her face hardened, but she gave a grudging nod. “I’ll get you the contacts.”
“Great.” Andy turned back to Mr. Butler. “You also said you don’t have a gun and never have. We need to get people in here to search the house to look for the murder weapon.”
Susan made a tiny sound, but when I looked at her, she shook her head.
“Did you call Lizzie?” I asked.
“I did, but she’s off-duty tonight and went to Jacksonville to visit friends. She wasn’t planning to come back until morning. She didn’t answer her phone, but I left a message. And we have some help coming in from Orlando. It puts us in an … awkward position that somebody murdered our town sheriff’s cousin in her house. Worse, that we can’t prove Susan wasn’t here at TOD.” Andy looked miserable, but determined. He and Susan were great friends, so nothing about this made him happy.
Susan sighed. “Andy. I know what you need to do. I trained you to do a lot of it. Treat me like any other suspect. And the same goes for Greg, Aloysius, and anybody else who didn’t like Cordelia, although I suspect that is a very long list.”
“Oh!” I realized I hadn’t told either of them about Henrietta Quirksley yet. “I have a name to add to that list. She stopped by the shop today and pointed a gun at my face.”
The conversation got interesting after that.
18
Tess
Andy put out an APB—All-Points Bulletin—for Henrietta, statewide. I pointed out that she probably wouldn’t be leaving Dead End without her “loot.”
“She may have gotten it when she shot Cordelia, Tess,” Susan said.
“You think your aunt brought it with her?”
“Doubt it, but I wouldn’t put anything past the Phleabottoms. She could have had a key to a bus station locker or a safe deposit box or passcodes to an account, or, really, who knows?” Susan seemed almost numb, and I realized she was probably in shock.
“Okay, well, Ish probably knows, and Andy can get it out of him if he didn’t take off when he walked outside. For now, I’m making some hot tea. Susan, sit down, please.” I didn’t say “before you fall down,” but that’s what I meant.
Andy held up a set of keys. “When I told him not to leave town, I took some precautions. These are his car keys.”
