speak to their minister. I think it would be harder in that circumstance for the sheriff to do whatever it is he planned if he caught me in his county. And most of the people I need to speak with will probably be in church. It sounds like a good plan.”
“It could work,” said David. “It still scares me.”
“Really, what do you expect him to do, except give me a hard time? He’s parochial in his attitudes, but he’s not a maniac,” said Diane.
“Well, your mouth to God’s ear, lady,” said Izzy, with more vehemence than she’d heard from him in a while. “I’m with David. I’ve known about Sheriff Conrad for a long time. And maybe he means well, but he is hard-nosed and stubborn-and he thinks he’s right. I don’t think he’ll kill you, or beat you up, but. .” He shook his head and looked from David to Diane. “I don’t know; there’s something about this whole thing that I don’t like. Reminds me of Hamlet.”
Both David and Diane stared at Izzy in surprise. She never thought he was the type of person to read Shakespeare. Then she remembered Izzy saying he liked to read things his son had read so he could have ideas and words in his own head that his son had in his. Daniel Wallace, Izzy’s son and a Bartrum University student, was killed in one of Rosewood’s worst tragedies. A meth lab in the basement of a house blew up, taking with it over thirty young partygoers who hadn’t a clue what was in the basement. She also remembered the discussion she and Izzy had not long after Daniel died regarding Hamlet’s contemplation of suicide. Izzy had related to Shakespeare then. She guessed he continued reading. It surprised her, and she felt just a little ashamed of herself.
“Actually, I’ve found ol’ Shakespeare often knew what he was talking about. Now, if you will wipe that look of utter astonishment off your faces, I’ll proceed with my analogy. And. .” He glanced over at Diane. “I’ve been informed how you hate bad analogies, so I will speak with care.”
Diane had to laugh. She’d never heard Izzy like this. “Sorry, Izzy. Please, what were you saying?”
“I was talking about something being ‘rotten in the state of Denmark.’ And it strikes me as. . What is that word you used the other day, David? Apropos? See, I’m learning your highfalutin ways.” He grinned at the two of them. “There’re too many little things going wrong in the county-two double murders, the skeleton in the tree, that Massey guy and his girlfriend, the threats against Diane. Now, even given the sheriff’s xenophobia-see, that’s another word I learned from you, David. You are just a walking university.”
David smirked and rolled his eyes. “I’m shocked you ever listen to me,” he said.
Izzy laughed at them. “As I was saying, even given the sheriff’s dislike of everything outside his county, why in the world would he forbid Diane to set foot in the county like that? What’s he afraid of? And what’s with the stranger Diane saw in the woods? Who the heck was he? See, there’re just too many weird things in Rendell County that need explaining. Something’s going on, and it’s rotten.”
“I agree,” said David, looking over his list. “Any idea what it is?”
“Not a clue,” said Izzy. “But I’m thinking that me and Evie might go to church with Diane and Frank. You know, make you look legit.”
Diane smiled. “I would appreciate that.”
“So, it looks like you have a plan,” David said to Diane. “Just be careful. I’m really into Izzy’s analogy.”
“I’ll be careful. I really don’t think there is anything to worry about from him,” she said.
Diane walked back to her museum office. Andie had gotten the secretary to fill in for her. Like many of her employees, Sierra wanted to expand her job skills at the museum. She had jumped at the chance to fill in as Diane’s assistant. In the past, Andie had gotten one of the docents or someone who worked in Archives to fill in as Diane’s assistant when she was on vacation, because they knew the museum so well. Sierra volunteered, and because it was only a day, it was a good time to let her try out new skills.
“Hello, Sierra, anything I need to know about?” asked Diane. Sierra had smooth black hair, dark eyes, and a small, compact figure. She usually wore her hair long, but today it was tied in a low ponytail. She wore a crisp navy suit and white blouse and looked very efficient.
“It’s been very quiet. Mostly routine calls. I’ve put the notes on your desk. I’ve been going through the e- mails and sorting them. Andie didn’t want me to answer them.”
“That’s fine. If any look urgent, send them to me,” she said. “Or if there’s anything routine you know the answer to, go ahead and respond.”
“Okay, Dr. Fallon,” she said.
Diane went to her office and sat down. She considered calling Frank’s minister. She thought of him as Frank’s minister even though she sometimes attended with Frank, but she wasn’t a member of the church. She decided to ask Frank to speak with him. She would discuss her plan with him this evening.
It would be good if she could speak with Christine and Spence before she went to the church-get a little advance information on whom to talk to. She hadn’t asked them when the funeral was going to be. She didn’t even know if the sheriff had released the bodies. Going to the funeral and talking to people might be a better idea. How could the man possibly object to her going to the funeral of friends? But the funeral would be a hard time for everyone, and she hated the idea of going around asking questions.
Diane tried to put all of that out of her mind and answer some letters she’d been putting off. She had finished three of them when her phone rang. It was her private number that only a handful of people knew. She picked it up.
“Fallon,” she said.
“Diane, this is Ben Florian. How are you? I was shocked to hear about your experience up in the mountains.”
“I’m fine, Ben. Thanks for asking,” said Diane.
This was unusual. She didn’t think Ben had ever called her, except once, when Frank was shot a few years ago.
“Frank and I’ve been canvassing the free clinics around the area and some of the homeless shelters, and I told him I wanted to call and tell you what we’ve found out.”
Diane’s heart quickened. They had found something.
“You won’t believe this, but our gal’s known in about every place we visited. We were thinking we’d be real lucky to find anyone in the area who had seen her. After all, even if we were right about her, she didn’t have to do her hunting in Atlanta. There are any number of places she could have gone-Augusta, Columbus, Savannah, Chattanooga even. But Atlanta’s closer to Rendell County, so it wasn’t a bad bet.”
“You’re kidding,” Diane said when he paused for a breath. “You found people who know Tammy Taylor?”
“They knew her under different names, but they knew her. Most had a real good opinion of her. She made out to do volunteer work-a regular girl Friday with a heart, she was. Had access to files and everything. Yeah, the gal had a good racket going. She befriended several ladies. But nobody we talked with knew she took people home with her.”
“That’s all too much to be simply innocent coincidence. Where do we go from here?” asked Diane.
“Well, we do have one definite crime, for certain,” he said. “That’s the unreported death and the improper disposal of the person whose skeleton you found cemented in the tree. Tammy is a common factor linking the skeleton with the old folks here in the Atlanta senior centers. Frank and I are going to talk to the GBI-see if there’s enough grounds for them to set up an investigation. I think we can make the case that the crime started here in Atlanta and extended across county lines. Really, the discovery of one pension check being deposited to an account with Tammy’s or Slick’s name on it ought to be enough. That would get it out of Conrad’s jurisdiction.”
“That so? Well. . Wait a minute,” he said.
He left the phone and Diane waited. It was a relief to know what the whole Slick-Tammy-skeleton thing was about-or probably about. Ben came back on the phone.
“That was a call from one of the shelters. A woman showed up today and told them she’d been brought back to Atlanta by a woman named Tammy Taylor who was supposed to take care of her. They said the woman was pretty upset about it too. Frank and I are going to talk with her right now. Looks like maybe our gal got scared. Frank’ll fill you in this evening.”
“Thanks for calling, Ben. It’s a relief to know what the heck’s going on,” said Diane.
“We don’t know yet, but I’m betting that I’m right.”
