Six Cats A Slayin'

Ronnie Halbert. I didn’t know why it had taken me so long to make the connection, but I suddenly figured out the use of the name Ronni Halliburton. Close to Ronnie Halbert, but different enough so that people probably wouldn’t connect the two. Unless they happened to know who Ronnie Halbert really was, I decided.

“Is this story going to help your case?” I asked.

“It’s filled in the major gaps in Gerry Albritton’s history,” Kanesha said. “Now that I have the name Ronnie Halbert, I should be able to dig up more information and find out where he was for all those years.”

“I wonder if Ronnie joined one of the armed forces,” I said. “That was apparently the speculation at the time he disappeared.”

“We’ll search military records, too,” Kanesha said. “The most important point about this backstory, however, is the connections it gives me to the suspects.”

Melba finally seemed to have recovered from the shock of learning about Gerry’s sex change. “Are you any closer to making an arrest?”

“Maybe,” Kanesha said. “I’ll be questioning Mr. Albritton about breaking into his sister’s house. He has a lot of explaining to do. I found two more witnesses from the party who say they also saw him briefly.”

“His other sister was there, too,” Melba said.

Kanesha nodded. “Yes, I’ve been tracking her movements as well, based on witness statements.”

“His other sister?” I asked, puzzled. I remembered Melba had mentioned this sister several times, but I couldn’t recall if she had mentioned a name.

“You know her, Charlie,” Melba said in a chiding tone. “She lives down the street from you.”

When I still looked blank, Kanesha said, “Mrs. Betty Camden. Married to the lawyer.”

Light dawned. Betty Camden. Now I remembered Melba mentioning a sister named Betty when she said she wanted to talk to Billy Albritton. She hadn’t told me that she was Betty Camden, of all people.

“Honestly, Charlie, you don’t know anything about the people who live around here,” Melba said.

“For the most part I know what I need to know,” I replied with some asperity. “I’m not a walking genealogy of everybody in Athena like you are, for Pete’s sake. I was gone from here for thirty years, remember?”

Melba grimaced at me, but evidently she decided to let the remark about being a walking genealogy pass without comment.

I turned to Kanesha. “I had never even considered Betty Camden as a suspect,” I said. “You must have, since you knew the connection.”

Kanesha nodded. “Yes, I was aware of that, and frankly, I thought you knew, even though you never mentioned it. Otherwise I would have said something about it.”

I shrugged. “That’s okay. I guess I’m going to have to start paying more attention to who’s related to who in this town. You can get tripped up pretty easily if you don’t know.”

“You certainly can,” Melba said. “I never dreamed you didn’t know about her.”

“I remember you said you don’t like her, and she doesn’t like you,” I said. “You never said why, though.” I thought for a moment. “She’s got to be several years older than us, so surely it wasn’t something to do with high school.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Melba said. “Chip Camden was a widower, about twenty years ago, and I went out with him for six months. Then Betty Jones—she was a widow—started chasing him. He dropped me for her, and she went around bad-mouthing me, saying she had saved Chip from a terrible mistake.”

That all this still rankled, even after two decades, was obvious. Melba wasn’t usually one to hold a grudge, but I could understand why she held on to this one. What a nasty thing to do.

Kanesha had listened to this without reaction. Once Melba stopped talking, the deputy looked at me for a moment.

“Since you weren’t aware that Mrs. Camden and Mr. Albritton are siblings, you might also not be aware of Mrs. Camden’s background in education.”

“I know she is a retired teacher,” I said. “But I have no idea what she taught.”

“Yes, she retired three years ago,” Kanesha said. “She taught high school chemistry and biology for twenty-five years before that.”

THIRTY-FOUR

Chemistry. The word resounded in my brain. If she was adept at chemistry at all, then Betty Camden would be as capable of making her own cyanide as Tammy Harville.

The suspect list now included Deirdre Thompson—still my favorite—along with Billy Albritton, Betty Camden, Jincy Bruce, and Tammy Harville. The final two on my list I considered less likely, although if Jincy had embezzled all that money, that was a strong motive. I thought the family connections that Gerry had had with the other three were far more likely to be the source for the motive to kill.

“Any hard evidence that points to one of the suspects?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Kanesha replied. “I really need to track down that brandy snifter. I don’t know how the killer managed to get it out of the house.”

“In a purse,” Melba said. “A man couldn’t have smuggled it out without a bulge under his jacket, I’d imagine. So probably a woman.”