Canary Murder (eBook)

Chapter One

St. Petersburg, Florida

Beth Grant stared into the abyss most recognized as a refrigerator. Scanning the shelves again, she willed the raw chicken breasts into something better. Like a gourmet meal.

She had managed to disprove the theory that all Southern women know their way around the kitchen, excusing her lack of proficiency by way of geography: she no longer resided in the storied South; she lived in fickle Florida.

Closing the refrigerator door to the ding of a text message, she skirted around two dogs and checked her phone. The text was from her Aunt Judy. They might release Alma from prison!

As an aura of dread illuminated the edges of her brain, Beth opened her laptop and ran a search for more information. She stared at the headline with parted lips, followed by a silent curse.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections will release a number of inmates due to overcrowding. Among those considered, Alma Carn, serving a life sentence for her role in the capital kidnapping of Lizzie Lancaster. Alma and her co-conspirator, brother-in-law Tom Carn, did not release Ms. Lancaster, even after her husband, Dwayne, paid four hundred thousand dollars for her safe return.

Beth took a slow breath. Dwayne Lancaster. She had always wondered why good people got hurt when there were so many assholes to choose from.

As a child, Beth had lived next door to Dwayne and his first wife, Lizzie—a well-liked twenty-six-year-old working for a law firm at the time of her disappearance.

In the wake of the kidnapping, on the heels of Beth’s eleventh birthday, she could think of nothing but saving Lizzie. The best eavesdropper in Preston, Mississippi, Beth had filled a notebook with clues, things that she had witnessed, in addition to what her parents had discussed.

Beth’s red-haired German shepherd nuzzled her leg and forced her thoughts back to the present. She scratched his head and then got up to look for her husband, Liam, who worked from home when he wasn’t traveling. She found him in the study on a business call, his eyes on his laptop.

Restless, she went outside to pre-heat the new gas grill. If Liam had replaced their old barbecue to encourage her domestic skills, he was going to be disappointed. She turned on the gas and spun the knobs, watching the blue flames ignite before they leapt across the grill top.

She closed the lid and escorted both her dogs across the covered pool deck and into the yard where trumpet vines grew along the wooden privacy fence, providing refuge to any number of creepy-crawlers on any given day.

The German shepherd, Frank, trapped a grey lizard and flung it three feet in the air, catching it again before it hit the ground. The shepherd’s version of the game, tag you’re it. In the meantime, Harry, a black cocker spaniel, flopped down onto the ground and rolled over, four paws in the air. A white patch under his bottom lip worked its way into a blissful smile when Beth called the dogs inside.

In the kitchen, she doled out dog treats and checked her phone for new messages.

As Southeast Regional Director of an electronic components company, Beth managed a seven-state territory, a position of pride until a Japanese conglomerate had acquired them. Japan’s consistent disruptions and inconsistent directives had taken a toll.

She had just put the phone down when her boss, Carlo, the CEO of North American Sales, called.

“Hi there,” he said. “Are you at home?”

“Yes,” she said. “I was about to pour a glass of wine.”

“A Barolo?” Carlo asked.

“No, a California cab,” Beth said with a smile.

He laughed. “Listen, I just landed in Tokyo. I need to know if you’re still on board.”

“I’m committed as long as Japan backs off.”

“We’re on the same page then,” Carlo said. “I’ll call you later.”

Beth hung up the phone and glanced at the open laptop and the glaring headline. The old grief, anger, and guilt slithered, a knot of snakes anxious to breach the surface yet again.

She returned to the study to find Liam scanning work email. “Hey babe,” he said, looking up from his laptop.

“Hey.” Beth dropped into a chair opposite the desk and then frowned. The too-cushy leather made her claustrophobic, as if she might disappear inside it. She curled her legs beneath her and straightened her back. “I heard they might release Alma Carn.”

“Who?” Liam asked.

“You know,” she said. “Lizzie’s kidnapping.”

He leaned forward. “You don’t talk about it very much.”

Beth nodded in silent agreement, remembering the darkness that had befallen the small town of Preston, Mississippi, in the aftermath.

“The prisons are overcrowded.” She took a quick breath. “The DA gave Alma a plea deal, so she never testified in court. And now, she could get out. Without telling anyone where to find Lizzie.”

Beth had never understood why the district attorney gave Alma Carn a deal, in light of the fact Alma had refused to divulge the whereabouts of the victim.

Liam drummed his fingers against the wooden desk. “The mastermind committed suicide, right?”

“Yes,” Beth said. “He shot himself in the chest with a rifle. He pulled the trigger with his big toe.”

Tom Carn’s suicide had been the most frustrating aspect of all. In addition to taking his own life, he took Lizzie’s last known location to the grave.

“Crazy, eh?” Liam’s Canadian roots on full display, he had grown up across the border and sometimes made her feel like a foreigner, instead of the other way around.

“It’s crazy, alright.”

Liam nodded. “From what you said, Lizzie’s husband was a piece of work.”

“Yeah,” she said. “When the police told him the kidnapper was dead and they were running out of time to find Lizzie alive, Dwayne told them to shut up—the Ole Miss game was on. Not long after that, he sold the house and moved away.” She narrowed her eyes. “How could he do that when Lizzie’s family and friends were still looking for her?”

“He knew where she was.” Liam shrugged. “Or didn’t care.”

Or both, she thought to herself. “The FBI asked him to take a lie detector test.”

“Did he pass?”

“I doubt it,” she said. “He walked out halfway through.”

Which left the age-old question: Why hadn’t law enforcement investigated Dwayne Lancaster’s probable role in his wife’s abduction?

Liam raised his brows. “I guess he didn’t care for the FBI’s questions.”

“My mom said he was too worried about Lizzie to concentrate.”

“What about your dad?”

“He thought Dwayne was a jackass.”

“I concur,” Liam said. “Where is he now?”

“He’s a defense attorney in Jackson.”

“Where?”

“Do you know anything about Mississippi?” she asked.

“It’s south of Canada,” he said.

“Nice,” she said. “Jackson is the capitol.”

He winked. “I know you guys moved to a small-ass town with a dude’s name because of your dad’s eye clinic.”

“It was a teaching hospital. We lived in Preston.”

“Like I said…dude’s name.”

Beth nodded and tucked long blonde bangs behind her ear, while the clickety-clack of canine toenails tapped the wood floor outside the study. Harry bounced into the room and onto her lap. She weaved her fingers through his coat, and Liam’s attention drifted to his laptop.

As Vice President of International Sales for a plastics company, Liam dealt with a lot of pressure, too. He cleared his throat and rolled the chair away from the desk. “What was Alma’s role in the kidnapping?”

“She called Lizzie and Dwayne in the middle of the night, screaming their neighbor’s house was on fire.”

“Oh, that’s right,” he said. “They got out of bed and ran outside.”

“Yes,” Beth said. “As the story goes, a masked man was hiding in the bushes. He forced Lizzie to duct tape Dwayne. Then he punched Lizzie and put her in the back of her Pathfinder.”

Liam hesitated. “I didn’t realize they took her truck.” Then, he asked, “How the hell did the kidnapper get there?”

“Alma supposedly dropped him off and then drove to a payphone to call the house.”

In Beth’s opinion, the official story was a load of crap. The Carns had pulled off the biggest kidnapping for ransom in Mississippi history, yet a fictitious fire and Lizzie’s Nissan Pathfinder had been part of the plan?

“They don’t grow ‘em too smart in Mississippi,” Liam said with a fake drawl.

Beth resisted the urge to educate him about distorted Southern stereotypes and petted the dog instead.

“What about Dwayne?” Liam asked. “Did he try to save Lizzie?”

“No,” she said. “He told her parents, there wasn’t anything he could do.”

He scrunched his nose. “If that was you, I’d find a way.”

She winked at him and then pressed her lips together. “Dwayne got drunk at a party and mouthed off about how happy he was to be rid of Lizzie.” It had been shocking for Beth to hear what several of her father’s patients had witnessed.

Yet, from all...