Over Troubled Water: A Hunter Jones Mystery by Charlotte Moore Page B

Carson’s pregnancy once Skeet brought Russell back indoors.
    She got up and replaced the clock. She noticed two small framed pictures side-by-side that were crooked, and went to straighten them. Up close she saw they were ink drawings with pastel colors, little mice dressed up in chef’s hats and aprons. Each one was signed “China Rose.”
    “I didn’t know that China was an artist,” she said to Rondelle.
    “I don’t know if you’d call her a real artist. It was a hobby,” Rondelle said. “She sure spent a lot on those frames. There’s a bunch more of them in their bedroom. I told her once she ought to draw those things the right size to fit the frames you can buy at the drugstore. She’d make them whatever size and shape she pleased, and then they had to be custom framed.”
    Taneesha thought to herself that Rondelle didn’t like her late sister-in-law.
    As for the drawings, they weren’t the kind of art Taneesha liked – entirely too cute and old-fashioned – but she could see that they were well done and that China Carson had talent. She felt annoyed at Rondelle for diminishing that talent.
    “I think she had a real gift,” she said. “I’m sure Russell is going to treasure these, so it’s good that they were professionally framed.”
    “Well. Whatever.” Rondelle said with a shrug. “You can tell Russell thought she hung the moon, but I need to change the subject. We need to start planning the funeral. Do you have any idea when they’ll be letting her body be brought back down here?”
    “It should be by this afternoon,” Taneesha said. “You can go ahead and call the funeral home. They know how to handle things from this point.”
    Russell had calmed down when Skeet brought him back into the kitchen.
    They had decided in advance that Taneesha would be the one to bring up China’s pregnancy. She couldn’t think of the right way to ask a man if he knew his own wife was pregnant, so she just stated the fact.
    “We heard from the pathologist this morning,” she said. “They’ve finished the autopsy. Of course, we knew already that the cause of death was bullet wounds to the chest. The pathologist also said she was in the early stage of pregnancy.”
    Russell looked blankly at Taneesha for a moment and then just seemed to withdraw. She thought he was about to start sobbing or hitting things again, but instead, he stared off into space, expressionless.
    “I’m so sorry,” Taneesha said.
    “They were sure about that?” Rondelle interrupted.
    Taneesha nodded.
    Rondelle looked upset for the first time, but Taneesha couldn’t read her face. Maybe she felt a loss. Maybe she was angry. It was hard to tell.
    “Excuse me!” Rondelle said and went outside, letting the back screen door slam behind her.
    In the meantime, Russell’s expression remained unreadable.
    “Had China mentioned anything?” Skeet asked Russell, as casually as he could.
    “Uh, yeah,” Russell said. “It wasn’t, you know, anything for sure. There were some other times that she thought she was and she wasn’t, you know…”
    They sat silently for a while. Russell got a worried look.
    “Y’all don’t have to go talking about that to the newspaper and TV, do you?” he asked Taneesha. “It happened before, I mean her being late and that stuff, and it never did amount to anything, I don’t even know why they’d be looking for something like that…” his face reddened. “That’s real personal.”
    “I’ll talk to Sheriff Bailey,” Taneesha said gently. “I can’t see any reason for it to be public information now.”
    She hesitated, and then said, “But I have to tell you if we make an arrest and make charges, it’s going to come out. District Attorney Sanders Beale will absolutely bring this up in the trial. It means a life was lost. He’ll charge the shooter with it. That’s a big issue with him.”
    “Well, I don’t think it’s any of his business,” Russell said in a sullen voice.
    When