The Axeman's Jazz (Skip Langdon Mystery Series #2) (The Skip Langdon Series) Read Free Page A

coroner had had time to notify Linda Lee’s next of kin, Mr. and Mrs. Garner Strickland of Indianola, Mississippi.

TWO
     
    WHAT DID YOU say to a small-town woman whose daughter had been murdered after less than two months in the big city?
    If you were Southern, you said you wished there was something you could say, and please let you know if there was anything you could do. Even Skip knew that and she knew virtually nothing about how to be Southern. You had to say that, when all the while what you really wanted was for her to do something for you. Tell you everything.
    As it happened, Skip had found no one was more motor-mouthed than those suffering the first pangs of grief. Later they would talk only about themselves—what they’d been doing when they got the call, how the news had been broken, how they’d reacted. But at this stage they’d talk about the victim.
    Linda Lee was a good girl, took care of her baby brother when she was only six and a half, didn’t make straight A’s but did well enough, active in the MYF (“that’s Methodist Youth Fellowship”), and didn’t deserve the life she’d had. Her marriage hadn’t worked out and now she was dead.
    Skip tried to keep her voice neutral. “She was married?”
    “Five years. To Harry Beaver. Everybody liked Harry. He seemed like a wonderful husband for Linda Lee.”
    “But he wasn’t?”
    “Well, see, Harry drank. Nobody knew it, of course, because he was always so jolly and nice. I mean we knew he drank; we just never saw him drunk. Did you know you can be a complete alcoholic and never get, you know, commode-huggin’ or anything? When she told us, that did help explain why she never did get pregnant. I guess if you’re always full of booze—oh, well I shouldn’t talk about that. And also why he never had no real ambition. Like to broke Linda Lee’s heart, though.” She stopped to get control. “Oh, that poor, poor girl.”
    “How long have they been divorced?”
    “Oh, I don’t even think it’s final yet. She filed just before she left town.”
    “How did Harry take it?”
    “Well, he was broken up about it. He just loved that little girl to death.”
    “Do you know how I could reach him?”
    “Oh, are you gon’ break the news? Thank you so much—I just don’t think I could stand to do that. Here’s his number.” She rattled it off. “Or else you might try over to the sheriffs office. Harry’s a deputy here in Sunflower County.”
    “Mrs. Strickland, could I just ask you something? Do you know if your daughter had any enemies?”
    “Linda Lee? She was the most popular girl in town.”
    “I see. Then perhaps someone was jealous of her.”
    “I didn’t mean she ran around. I meant people liked her.”
    “Did she know anyone whose name began with A?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “I can’t tell you why I’m asking, but it’s important.”
    “First or last name?”
    “Either one.”
    “I sure can’t think of anyone, except maybe Tommy Axelrod, used to live next door to us. But he and his folks left town about ten years ago. Linda Lee used to babysit for him. ’Course, she knew his folks too, but that was different.”
    “Has she heard from Tommy at all?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Does the letter A mean anything else to you?”
    “Nothin’ except ‘angel,’ and that’s what my baby was.” A freshet of tears drowned her voice.
    Skip kept her on the phone long enough to assign Miss Kitty to Mr. Ogletree. Then she phoned the Sunflower County sheriff’s department, and got a lieutenant named Mike Bilbo, who said Harry Beaver was out. He said Harry was a good officer and didn’t have a mean bone in his body, but he hated to see what was gon’ happen when he found out somebody’d killed Linda Lee. They’d been living apart for six months before Linda Lee left town, but Harry never could accept it—said Linda Lee’d come back to him, it was just a phase she was going through.
    Not only had Harry been at