My anger grew, lessening the affect of my fear. “Leroy, are you sure you want to do this?”
Duh, I guess he did, or he wouldn’t be here, Trixie.
“You’re dang right. It’s your entire fault I had to take it this far.”
“And why would that be?”
Dee Dee rolled her eyes. I knew what she was thinking: Why can’t Trixie ever keep her mouth shut? She could be right. My mouth had gotten me in trouble more times than I wanted to remember.
“Sit!” He didn’t have to tell me more than once. I went over and sat by Nana. I gave her arm a reassuring squeeze.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” Leroy growled.
Nana stuck her tongue out at him.
“Why don’t you just let us go?” I suggested. “It’ll be a lot easier on you if you let us go now.”
“No way. You know too much, and I ain’t goin’ to jail for murder.”
“You?” Dee Dee asked. “You killed John Tatum?” The cat was out of the bag now. We were in deep. The best thing I could hope for was a confession from Leroy. If we got out of this alive, I imagined it would come in handy. If not, then maybe someone would find it. I snuck my hand into my sweater pocket.
“Did you, Leroy?” I spoke a little too loudly, but I didn’t want him to hear me switch on the mini tape recorder.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I don’t guess it’ll hurt to tell you. You won’t have a chance to pass it on.” His sinister laugh sent a chill up my spine. “Yes, I killed him. I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if you hadn’t stuck your big, fat nose where it didn’t belong.”
“Your friend was the perfect scapegoat.” He emitted a spine-chilling laugh as he directed an evil glare in Dee Dee’s direction. “She was dumb enough to pull out the pickaxe and get her fingerprints all over the murder weapon.”
“Takes a dummy to know one,” Nana pointed out.
I heard a deep intake of breath from Dee Dee. I didn’t know if it was indignation from being called stupid or because of Nana’s brassiness.
Leroy continued blabbing, ignoring Nana’s comment. “The sheriff obliged me by making her the main suspect.”
“Then you,” he turned towards me as he continued. “You had to ask questions around town, playing Little Miss Private Investigator.”
I sat a bit taller, though my heart was still pounded.
Leroy was on a roll. “I followed you to find out what you were up to. It paid off yesterday when I saw Sueleigh go into your room. I figured something was going on. When she came out I offered her a shoulder to cry on and us being the good friends we are, she spilled her guts. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”
“Well…”
“Shut up.” He shoved me and I fell back, striking my head hard enough against the wall to see stars.
“Hey, who do you think you’re telling to shut up?” Nana put in her two cents worth.
“I’m telling you to shut up old lady.”
Nobody tells Nana to shut up and gets away with it. Well, he definitely wouldn’t have gotten away with it if he wasn’t pointing a gun at her.
“Uh, just a minute, Leroy. What made you think we found out you killed Tatum?” I dared to ask, hoping he’d continue.
“I wasn’t sure until this mornin’. My buddy over at the courthouse called and told me what you were up to. I’d come too far for you to mess up my plan. If you’d left things alone, your friend could’ve been free. Stupid females.”
“What do you think I learned at the courthouse?” I hoped he didn’t know everything. What I had found out could put all of us in danger, but if I were going to get a full confession and motive on tape, I needed to keep him talking.
“Why don’t you tell me, Ms. Know-It-All?”
I figured I might as well. We had nothing to lose—except our lives. Before I could start, a knock at the door interrupted me. Thank God, somebody was going to save us. A rush of relief flowed through me.
“Leroy?”
Joyce! Thank heaven.
“Come on in.” He ordered.
Joyce entered and looked around to take in the situation, but I could tell by the look on her face that she offered no salvation.
“Ms. Montgomery was just going to tell us what she found out at the courthouse this morning,” Leroy sneered.
“Joyce! Why?” I blinked back tears, realizing now that she was just as deep in this as her nephew. “I hoped you weren’t involved. Surely there’s nothing worth taking someone’s life for.” The look she gave me should have turned me to stone.
“What do you know? Who are you to tell me what a life is worth? You think you know the whole story. You don’t.”
“I know your maiden name is Haygood, isn’t it?” I was gambling with our lives by antagonizing her, but it was important to get her to admit her part. Out loud.
“Isn’t that the man Sueleigh was telling us about?” Dee Dee asked. “How’d you figure that out?”
“I remembered seeing a certificate on the wall of Joyce’s office when Leroy took me in to get change. The full name was Joyce Haygood Johnston.” I studied Joyce’s face.
“You’re right Trixie, Haygood is my maiden name. The gold Joshua Tatum found on my grandparent’s land should have been ours. After Grandpa died, Tatum coerced Grandmother into selling him the land and moving into town.”
“That hardly seemed fair.” I touched the recorder and hoped the batteries wouldn’t die before she incriminated herself.
“He acted like he was doing her a favor.” Joyce sniffed her distaste and continued. “She didn’t have a choice. She had two children to support. After they moved off the land, he supposedly discovered gold. Daddy always said Grandmother believed Joshua Tatum killed my Grandpa so he could get the gold. She could never prove it, though. The Haygoods were considered nobodies. She would’ve never stood a chance against Joshua Tatum.”
I looked over at Dee Dee and Nana. The way their mouths lay open, they could’ve easily been mistaken for Venus Fly Traps. I mirrored their thoughts, I’m sure. How could this nice, sweet lady be involved in something so sinister?
“Why seek revenge now, Joyce?” Keep her talking. “That was so long ago.”
“Why, indeed,” Joyce spat, words full of venom. “My family poured their sweat and blood into this inn. When Grandmother moved into town all those years ago, she began working at the inn as a maid. A maid! She labored like a slave for years so she could take care of her children.
“When we were old enough and had saved enough, my sister and I bought the inn. We wanted to take care of our family and pay them back for all their years of hard work. Of course, the Tatums owned the place.” Her eyes narrowed and her face reddened. “We’d been making payments to the Tatums all these years so we could own it out right.
“We just about had it paid off, too, when she got cancer and died. Her insurance policy barely paid for the funeral expenses. It didn’t begin to cover her medical expenses. Leroy and I have been trying our best to make ends meet so we could continue the payments. We were a couple behind and, according to the contract, John had the right to call in the loan if we missed any payments.
“We begged him to work with us. Oh no, not Mr. Fancy Pants. It wasn’t enough that he’d bought up most of the town. He wanted the inn, too. He came to me, demanding that we pay the loan in full. Yeah,” she snorted, “like that was going to happen. He knew it was an impossible task.” She stopped to get her breath, and stared where my hand, holding the recorder, made my pocket bulge. Her brows lifted.