Her husband, equally irate, was as lean as she and looked about ten years younger. His straight brown hair came just below his ears. He had on tight jeans and a torn white tee shirt. The mild kyphotic curve of his spine caused his long torso to look slightly concave. Diane guessed it was from years of poor posture and not congenital.
Diane and Frank got out of the car and Diane retrieved the suitcase of crime-scene paraphernalia. She’d had Frank stop by her apartment on the way so she could dig the case from the depths of her closet.
They started toward the house and as they neared, Diane noticed Gil McFarland’s hands were stained black with grease. Abruptly, as if the sound of closing car doors only now reached their ears, Crystal and Gil turned.
“This is your doing, Frank Duncan.” She came at him with her fists raised. “George was my son, my son, and this is my house, my house-do you hear? Mine.” She stopped in front of him and put her hands on her hips. I’m going in
“This is Star’s house.” Frank was calmer than Diane thought she would have been. “And you will not take anything out of it. If you do, I’ll have you arrested.”
“You always was a turd, even when you was a little kid. Star was nothing to George. Those young ’uns was Louise’s doing. Couldn’t have ’em herself, so she takes someone else’s leavings and passes them off as theirs. I’m George’s blood. Star ain’t blood.”
“George loved Star. He left everything to her. I know, because I am the executor of his will, and I’m going to see that Star gets her inheritance.”
“You listen here.” Gil stepped up to Frank. “My wife’s got her rights.”
“Yes,” replied Frank. “I can’t disagree, but they don’t include taking Star’s possessions.”
“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” said Crystal. “Always a smarty-pants. Well you ain’t smart enough to steal what’s mine. I’m going to get me a lawyer and have you arrested.” She turned to Diane as if she had just now noticed her standing there.
“Who the hell are you?”
If this wasn’t so dreadfully serious, Diane would have laughed at the comic pair these two made. It occurred to her what Frank told her about Detective Janice Warrick allowing Gil McFarland into the crime scene. If she had done that, then she also may not have adequately interviewed him. Looking at Crystal and Gil standing there with their faces twisted in anger, the pair looked to her like suspects.
“What do you mean we don’t have alibis?” screeched Crystal. “We were together-all day and all night.”
“That’s what I mean,” said Diane, pushing. “You alibi each other. That’s not really an alibi, is it?”
“Listen here. Just what are you saying?” asked Gil. “We didn’t have nothing to do with this. We. . we was at a car show.”
“Yeah,” agreed Crystal, “a car show.”
“What car show? Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“They didn’t ask, Miss Smarty-Pants.”
“So you made that up just now.” Diane pressed her advantage. “Making something up on the spur of the moment won’t do any good. At an event like a car show, many people would have seen you. You won’t be able to find any because you weren’t there.”
“Now just how the hell do you know?” said Gil. “You sure as hell wasn’t with us.”
“She’s right.” The McFarlands whirled around at the sound of a new voice in the argument. The security guard Frank hired had come up and stood just a few feet away. He had a thin smile that threatened to break into a grin. “I’m what my wife calls a car nut. I go to and organize car shows, and I know there wasn’t any in the South- east then.”
“There’s that ’un at Gatlinberg that’s year round,” said Gil. “That’s the one we went to.”
“No, sorry. Closed for renovations.” The guard now grinned broadly.
“Well, ain’t you the la-dee-da know-it-all,” said Crystal. She spun around to Frank and Diane. “We don’t have to tell you nothing. We didn’t do nothing, and you can’t prove no different.”
“That’s what the lady is here for,” said Frank.
“Now, just a minute. That’s my son’s house. I’ve been in there.”
“And I was there with the detective looking to see if anything was stolen,” said Gil.
“To carry stuff out,” said Frank. “How will that look to a jury? You should never have been allowed in the crime scene. It looks to me like you were trying to cover up the fact that your prints were in the bedroom already, and I don’t think either George or Louise would have ever invited you into their bedroom.”
“You ain’t going to find nothing, ’cause there’s nothing to find,” said Crystal. “Come on, Gil, darlin’, we’ll go get ourselves a lawyer who’ll tell them a thing or two.” She and Gil headed for their car. Crystal suddenly turned to Frank. “Tell that Star she can’t inherit a thing if she’s convicted of George’s murder. And she will be. That brat did it. You mark my words-his property and everything will be mine.” She raised her chin high, daring Frank to disagree.
“No, Crystal, you won’t. Even if Star is convicted of her parents’ murder, you aren’t in the will.”
Crystal stared openmouthed for a moment. “What? You telling me all this goes to somebody else? Who?” Frank didn’t answer. “They can’t cut me out-I’m the closest blood relative George’s got. It’s not legal. Gil’s cousin’s daughter’s a paralegal, and I know for a fact you can’t cut blood out of your will. We’ll just see about this.”
The three of them watched the McFarlands get in their ’92 Lincoln and drive off, white smoke billowing from the exhaust.
“Well, that was interesting,” said the guard.
“It was something,” said Frank. Frank introduced Diane and started to lead her into the house.
“I’d like to take a look at the spot where Jay was shot before it gets dark.”
He led her to the place where Jay was found, near a live oak with a thick trunk and broad canopy. Diane wondered how old it was-decades older than Jay.
“Here,” said Frank, squatting next to a place where someone had dug into the ground.
Diane squatted beside him, scanning the area. “This is where they found the bullet?”
“I believe so.”
The sun was sinking behind the tree line; however, a remaining flicker of sunlight reflected on something. She took a pair of tweezers from her pocket, along with an evidence bag and picked up the object.
“What is it?” asked Frank, looking at the curled piece of clear plastic about the size of two postage stamps.
“Plastic.”
“Is it important?”
“Might be.” Diane put the fragment into the bag and planted a ribbon and nail in the ground. “The pictures aren’t clear about which direction the body lay.” Frank stood, hesitating for a moment before he spoke. “I know this is hard,” said Diane.
“Yeah. I just remembered, today’s Louise’s birthday.” Frank pointed to the house. “Jay’s head was pointing toward the house.”
“Do you know if they found any gunpowder residue on his jacket? I didn’t see any, but. .” She let the sentence hang as she backed up from where Jay had fallen. “If Detective Warrick’s saying he was coming home and was surprised by his sister, why was he shot in the back?”
“I guess she’d say she couldn’t face her brother.”
“But she’d just killed her parents in their bed.” Diane looked around the grass where she stood. She squatted and scrutinized the area again. Just a couple of feet in front of her she found another plastic fragment smaller than a postage stamp. She bagged it and marked the place.
“Did the crime scene find more of these pieces? I don’t see any tags. . ”
“I don’t know what they found. I’ll see if I can find out. You think it means something?”
