Death Over the Dam (A Hunter Jones Mystery Book 2) by Charlotte Moore Page B

Stone Mountain, and go to Meredith’s tomorrow.”
    Deirdre was all smiles again, back to her sweet self. Grady relaxed a little. He had enough on his mind without worrying about without Dee Dee getting into one of her bad moods, and it seemed like a very good time to take a little vacation.
    The phone beeped again. This time he could tell it was his mother, and he didn’t much want to talk to her because he knew what she was going to say. He let it beep until the message came on, and then turned the phone off and went to pack a few clothes for himself and for Dee Dee. When everything was ready, he opened the metal lock box on the top shelf of the closet, and took out cash for the trip.
    Hunter ran out of things to do at home by 11. She knew Sam would be all tied up with the Thigpen murder investigation, so she called and asked him if he wanted her to bring him some lunch at noon. She wanted to tell him about the cake for Bethie.
    He sounded happy to hear from her and definitely did want lunch.

CHAPTER 13
    T HE PHONE RANG AT M AGNOLIA C OUNTY sheriff’s office and Shellie, who was having coffee and conversation with Skeet Borders, took the call.
    “Magnolia County Sheriff’s Office. May I help you?”
    “I know whose body that is in that coffin.”
    The voice was nearly a whisper.
    “Who is this please?” Shellie asked, turning on the speakerphone and giving Skeet a significant look.
    “I don’t want to tell you my name,” the voice rose. “I’m married and my husband don’t know I knew this man, that is the one in that coffin.”
    “Who is it?” Shellie asked as Skeet reached for his notebook. Shellie jotted down the number that had showed up on her telephone.
    “J.T. Collingsworth. That wife of his killed him. You ask out around that trailer court.”
    “Can you spell that last name?’
    She spelled it slowly.
    “Which trailer court?” Shellie asked.
    “The one almost to the county line just off 23. You just ask them out there, and that’s all I’m gonna say.”
    “Oh, come on,” Shellie said in a just-us-girls voice. “You can tell me what her name is. It’ll save us a lot of time.”
    “Her name is Lucille Collingsworth unless she’s got married again. I wouldn’t know ‘cause I don’t go near where she lives and I wouldn’t know her if I saw her, but she killed him for sure, and I ain’t never heard of his body turnin’ up. And that’s all I’m gonna say, and I gotta go now.”
    “How did you know Mr. Collingsworth?” Shellie asked.
    We was in love,” she said softly. “He was gonna get a divorce from her, but it was takin’ a while cause she was sayin’ she wasn’t goin’ to move out, even though that trailer was his. They was fightin’ all the time, about it, cause she had paid to put the fence up.”
    “So they were fighting,” Shellie said. “What makes you say she killed him?”
    “You just ask those people out there,” the woman said. “They heard the gun shots and the dogs carrying on, and he ain’t never been seen since by nobody. I even called his job and they said just hadn’t showed up for work.”
    “Where did he work?” Shellie asked.
    “At the kaolin plant.”
    “About when did all this happen?” Shellie asked in a relaxed way, because the woman seemed to be relaxing.”
    “Five, six years ago.”
    “Did anybody report him missing?”
    “I didn’t, ‘cause at first I thought maybe he had just left town and I’d hear from him. I don’t know about nobody else. Prob’ly not though. That’s one mean woman. I knew somebody who lived out there, and the talk was that she shot him and them pit bulls ate him. I got married about a year after all that, but I still got a place in my heart for J.T. and I would sure like to think he’s gonna get a decent burial.”
    “M’am, if that’s what you want to see, and you want justice done, it sure would help if you’d come in and talk to us, or tell me where you are, and I’ll come there.”
    The phone