Claws For Concern

“Someone will call you when he’s able to have visitors,” she said.

With that assurance, I left the hospital. On the drive home I thought about the hit-and-run. Why had someone hit Bill Delaney on purpose? A random act of violence? Sadly there were people in the world who would do things like that, I knew. I suspected, however, that there was a personal motive behind this attack.

I didn’t know what Delaney’s personality was like when he was drinking heavily. Was he combative? Aggressive? Or was he the quiet type of drunk who didn’t bother anyone and kept to himself?

If he was the nasty, bellicose sort of drunk, he could easily have made a number of enemies over the years, I reckoned. Maybe one of them had seen him lumbering toward the street and seized the opportunity when he moved within striking distance.

I suddenly remembered something Haskell had told me. Not long after the initial investigation into the Barber murders failed to produce a viable suspect, Delaney had disappeared from Tullahoma. No one, perhaps other than his mother, knew where he had been since then. He suddenly resurfaced in Athena after his mother’s death. In Tullahoma, I presumed. I ought to check on that and find out where she died. Ernie Carpenter might know. I figured there would have been something in the Tullahoma newspaper about Sylvia Delaney’s passing.

I had the uneasy feeling that the hit-and-run was connected to the events of twenty years ago—the Barber case. There was that lipstick in Delaney’s apartment to account for. It could have been left there by the previous tenant, I supposed, but somehow I didn’t think it had. Surely Delaney would have noticed it and disposed of it before Diesel found it this morning.

Delaney’s life could be in danger. If the person who struck him down found out Delaney was still alive, he or she might try again. The man seemed to have no friends, and we were connected by the fact of his father’s marriage to my aunt. My step-cousin.

I knew what Aunt Dottie would want me to do.

By now I had reached home. I turned into the driveway and pulled into the garage. I left the car’s motor and air-conditioning running while I dug my phone out of my pocket. I found Jack Pemberton’s number in my list of calls and tapped the call button. I waited long enough for an answer that I thought the call was going to voice mail, but Jack finally answered.

He must have recognized my number because he greeted me by name. “Have you thought it over?” he asked. “About us working on the Barber case?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m in.”

NINETEEN

I regretted those last two words the moment they were out of my mouth because I foresaw nothing but difficulties in involving myself in a twenty-year-old quadruple homicide case. I also knew that I couldn’t back out now, not with Aunt Dottie’s voice in my head urging me to do whatever I could to help Uncle Del’s son.

“That’s great, Charlie,” Jack said. “How about we get together tomorrow and talk about it? That is, if you’ve got time. I can come to Athena or, if you’d rather, you can come here. My wife knows all about this and is really looking forward to meeting you.”

“I’ll have to call you back later today about getting together,” I said. “I need to discuss this with my family first. I made the decision only a minute ago, and they need to know about it. There’s also more to tell you from this end, but I can’t go into it right now.”

“Okay, whatever works. Call me when you’re ready,” Jack said.

“Will do.” I ended the call.

I sat in the car, trying to plan how I was going to present my decision to Helen Louise and my children. I didn’t think any of them would be really happy with me about this. Sean would be more upset than anyone else. He was the one who usually nagged me the most about my knack for getting involved in murder cases.

I switched off the air conditioner and the ignition. Time to go in and get it over with, I told myself.

Diesel greeted me at the door with a loud recital of things he had to tell me. A couple of the meows sounded like complaints because no matter whom I left him with, he was always aggravated that I left him behind when I went anywhere. I rubbed his head several times, which had the desired effect. I seemed to be forgiven.

“He was perfectly happy with me and baby Charlie until he heard you pull into the garage.” Helen Louise gave me a kiss. “I guess that’s when he remembered that you abandoned him.”

I laughed. “He’s the nagging wife I never had, or at least it feels that way sometimes.” I kissed Helen Louise back. “Are Laura and Frank still here? I didn’t notice whether their car was parked on the street.”

“They’re in the living room getting Charlie ready to go home,” Helen Louise said. “They haven’t said much of anything about Bill Delaney because Laura couldn’t wait to see the baby. How is he?”