by Sheri Richey
“Sure, Chief,” Amanda said as she walked behind the table they were using for outside sales. “Did you decide against getting the tomato cages?”
“Um, well,” Conrad said clearing his throat. “Since I don’t even know exactly what those are, I decided I’d let Georgia take care of that.”
Amanda laughed and Cora slapped his arm teasingly. “Silly, it’s those things you stick in the ground to support the plants when they start to get tall.”
“These have a way to go before they need all that,” Conrad said smiling.
“True,” Cora conceded as Conrad handed a credit card to Amanda.
“You have Georgia’s credit card?” Cora blurted out when she saw it pass between them. The credit card was an eye-catching vivid blue and had butterflies all over it.
“Yes. She gave it to me when she asked me to pick these up.”
Cora raised both eyebrows as Amanda giggled.
“What?” Conrad said straightening his shoulders. “I’m the Chief of Police. I guess she thinks I can be trusted.”
“I guess so,” Cora said chuckling as Conrad smiled.
“Are you guys leaving so soon?” Mavis Bell walked up to the table carrying a price tag gun.
“Yes, gotta get these little fellers to Georgia before they die in my hands,” Conrad said holding up the flat of tomato plants. “I have that kind of special touch with plants.”
“Oh, I thought you had decided to start a garden, Chief,” Mavis said smiling.
“No, I’ve not crossed over that line yet.” Conrad pushed the receipt in his shirt pocket as a customer called to Amanda.
“Oh, Chief,” Mavis said rolling her eyes and smiling.
“I did have one thing I forgot to ask you earlier, Mavis,” Conrad said with a wrinkled brow. “Do you know a Stanton Bell? Does that name sound familiar to you?”
Cora’s eyebrows popped up in surprise and she turned to Mavis.
“No. I can’t say that I do.”
“Well he used to own all the land out in these parts, and I thought maybe he was a relative of Howard’s.”
“Might be,” Mavis said tilting her head. “He did tell me his family owned all this area back in the day. I don’t remember the name Stanton though. You might ask Miriam Landry. She could probably tell you.”
“Hmm,” Conrad said nodding and noticed Cora turning her head probably to hide her reaction. “Okay. Well, thanks Mavis. You take care. We’ll see you later.”
Everyone said their goodbyes as they strolled towards the parking lot.
“So, are you going to give old Miriam a call?” Cora said sarcastically.
“No, I think I’ll pass on that,” Conrad said haughtily as Cora giggled.
§
Cora saw Georgia’s eyes light up as soon as they walked in the police department. Sitting in the dispatch office that was partially encased in glass, Georgia popped up from her seat and looked over the console through the glass to see Conrad carrying the tomato plants. Walking into Georgia’s cubicle, Conrad sat the plants on the side of the counter. “There you go.”
“Oh, Chief. They look great. Thank you,” Georgia said as she leaned over to sniff the plants.
“Are they supposed to stink like that,” Conrad scrunched his nose. “They stunk up my whole car.”
Cora shook her head behind Conrad to let Georgia know he was only teasing.
“They smell wonderful,” Georgia insisted. “Just like they’re supposed to. There’s nothing better than homegrown tomatoes.”
“Well, if you say so,” Conrad said handing her back her credit card.
“I’ll bring you some one day. You’ll see,” Georgia said as she turned back around to respond to a call. It was shift change and the officers were reporting in. Georgia reached out and put her hand on Conrad’s wrist as he started to walk off, holding up a finger for him to wait.
“Here, Chief,” Georgia said handing him a phone message when she completed her radio call. “The coroner called while you were en route, and I told her you’d be here in a few minutes.”
“Oh, okay,” Conrad said glancing at Cora. “I’ll give her a call back.”
Walking out of dispatch, Conrad spoke quietly to Cora. “Let’s go in my office and see what Alice wants before we go to lunch.”
Grabbing up the phone, as they walked in the office, Conrad punched in the number on his message. Cora closed the office door and took a chair across from his desk.
“This is Chief Harris from Spicetown. I’m returning a call to the coroner.”
Conrad sat down at his desk and glanced at Cora.
“Okay, I’ll be here for a little bit. Thanks.” Conrad hung up the phone. “She’s on another call,” he said to Cora. “She’s going to call back in a few minutes.”
“Did you ever get that DNA from Miriam’s sister?”
“I did. Her local PD sent it in, and Alice let me know she got it.”
“Do you think that’s what she’s calling about? Maybe she has an ID.”
“Could be,” Conrad said fiddling with paper clips on his desk. “She asked me for contact information for Wanda last time we talked. I think she was going to call her.”
“Have you been updating the Sheriff’s office on all this?”
“No. The case actually belongs to Alice right now and I don’t think Bobby wants to be involved in anything to do with Howard. That’s probably best.”
“Bobby doesn’t know Howard though, right?”
“No, he says not, but Karen Goldman said they were distant cousins she’d heard, so they may be related. It’s best for him to stay out of it just for appearances--” Cora jumped when the phone rang.
“Chief Harris,” Conrad said when he picked up the phone.
Cora twisted in her chair in anticipation while Conrad moaned, hummed, and said okay a dozen times. He wasn’t giving anything away.
“I just did today, but I haven’t written it up,” Conrad said nodding to Cora. “I’ll get it to you Monday morning. Thanks, Alice.”
Conrad released an audible sigh as Cora’s gaze drilled holes in him.
“We can go to lunch now,” Conrad said nonchalantly as Cora’s indignation welled up. She was about to come across the desk at him and he enjoyed teasing her.
Cora stood up and slammed both of her fists into the sides of her waist to lean forward. Conrad put up both hands in defense laughing. “Okay. Okay. Take it easy.”
Cora dropped back into the chair. “Spill it, Connie.”
“She’s got an ID and it is Howard Bell,” Conrad said pressing his lips together. “She’s declaring cause of death to be a blunt force trauma to the head, but she’s not ready to make a call on the manner of death yet.”
“Well, it’s not likely suicide.”
“No, but it could be accidental,” Conrad offered.
“Well, he didn’t plant himself in the darn ground,” Cora said rising to her feet. “Something hinky was sure going on. If it was an accident, someone would have reported it, not covered it up.”
Conrad fought the urge to tell Cora to simmer down because he’d learned that retort had a ricochet affect. He just nodded in agreement instead.
“Let’s go get lunch and I’ll come back this afternoon and write up my report with Mavis while it’s fresh on my mind.”
“Did you learn anything from her?”
“She has a good recall of that day,” Conrad said standing and hitching up his pants. “Sounds like she’s replayed it in her mind many times, but she was at work. I don’t think she knows what happened. She still believes he’s coming home one day.”
“Who is going to tell her?”
“We are, but not just yet,” Conrad said motioning Cora to join him as he opened his office door. Waving to Georgia as they headed down the hallway and out the side door, Conrad felt his phone vibrate and glanced at the text.
“So, where do you want to eat?”
CHAPTER 19
“Okay,” Cora Mae sai
d as she picked up their lunch remains and cleaned up the table.
Conrad had picked up sandwiches at Sesame Subs and they had taken them to Cora’s house to eat so they could talk freely. They couldn’t risk being overheard as Conrad filled her in on his call from the coroner.
“At 2:00 Alice and a deputy are going to visit Miriam while somebody with the local police is going to see Wanda, right?”
“Yes,” Conrad confirmed. “And we are going to Mavis’ house. Hopefully, the kids will be there, too.”
“Okay. I’ve never done a death notification before so tell me what to expect.”
“I wish I could, but no two are the same.”
“What do I need to do?” Cora said slipping her sweater on and looking around for her purse.
“Just provide comfort. I’ll do all the talking, but it’s always best for there to be two people. She’ll need a friendly face.”
“Okay,” Cora said breathing deeply. “Let’s go.”
The car ride north of town was somber, but Cora’s mind was not still. “I just can’t logically create any circumstance that would make me feel like I needed to bury a body I found, unless I had killed them,” Cora said shaking her head. “How could this be any kind of accident?”
Conrad shrugged. “It has happened. There’s a lot of emotion around death. People feel guilt from accidents and can try to cover them up sometimes. It was almost nineteen years ago when Howard disappeared. Who knows what was going on back then?”
“I guess Bing should have looked harder,” Cora said shaking her head and looking down at her hands. “I’m sure Miriam reported it to him or someone that worked for him. He just thought he’d left town.”
“No, actually Miriam contacted the county sheriff’s department. The deputy that took the report doesn’t work there anymore, but I read the report.”
“Did she think someone killed him?”
“No, it just read like a missing person’s report. She said he had disappeared, and no one knew where he was. She made allegations he was not of sound mind, might have wandered off, that kind of thing. There wasn’t any mention of suspicion someone had done anything to him.”
“Not of sound mind,” Cora screeched. “I’ve never heard anything like that. Why would she say something like that?”
“I don’t know. The medical reports I’ve seen don’t support that either.”
“When did Howard’s mother die again?”
“1997, I think.”
“Was there an estate or anything filed?” Cora turned in her seat to stare at the side of Conrad’s head while he drove.
“I don’t know,” Conrad said quizzically. “But I’m going to check on that first thing Monday.”
“Maybe she was part owner of all this land? We need to find out who Stanton is. Did you ask Wanda?”
“No, but I can,” Conrad said. “She didn’t seem very connected to the family though. I got the feeling she left town young and stayed away. I’ll need to give it a few days before I contact her.”
“Yes, she needs time to process the information.”
“I didn’t ask Miriam either, but that whole interview wasn’t very productive and frankly, I don’t think Miriam would tell me even if she knew.”
“Uncooperative, was she?” Cora said smiling. “I’ve never known her to be any other way.”
Conrad chuckled as they drove past Stotlar’s Nursery for the second time that day. “I’m going to check the house first. If she’s not there, we’ll have to go back to Bryan’s and get her.”
“I think Amanda told me Mavis just helps out in the mornings, so she should be home by now. I don’t know about Leanne though.”
Pulling into Mavis’ gravel driveway, they saw her outside in a small garden off on the edge of the side lawn. Mavis turned around and waved to them as she brushed off her hands.
“Well, hello you two,” Mavis called out cheerily as she approached.
“Hello, Mavis,” Conrad said. “You just can’t get enough gardening?”
“Well, all of Bryan’s stuff gets me inspired,” Mavis chuckled. “I had to put out a few things of my own.”
“Can we come inside?” Conrad said holding out his arm to motion her towards the door. “I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“Sure, Chief. Come on in. Leanne’s still over at Bryan’s, but Daniel is inside.”
Holding the door open, Conrad followed Cora inside and glanced around. Daniel was sitting on the couch with the remote in his hand and he nodded hello.
“Can I get you both something to drink? Iced Tea?”
“Oh, no,” Conrad said. “No, thank you. We’ll just be a minute. Are your grandchildren here?”
“They’re out back playing. Come on in. Have a seat.” Mavis tapped her son on the arm and Daniel moved over so she could sit. Conrad and Cora took chairs across the room.
“Mavis, I’ve got some bad news I need to tell you,” Conrad said beginning slowly.
“Bad news?” Mavis said squinting her eyes and Cora could see she was searching her mind for what it could be.
“The coroner called me this afternoon and they’ve identified the bones Bryan found. They do belong to Howard.”
The few seconds of silence were fragile, and Cora realized she needed to let herself breathe as she tried to focus on Mavis. Flashbacks of doctors coming to tell Cora that Bing had died were choking out her thoughts and clouding her reaction. “I’m so sorry, Mavis,” Cora said clutching at the ribbing on the bottom of her sweater and fighting back tears from her own painful memories.
“No, that can’t be,” Mavis said as her son scooted closer and put a protective arm around her. “That can’t be Howard. How could he, how did he get there? How did he die?”
“The coroner says he died from a head trauma, but they don’t know anything else yet. It could have been an accident or—”
“But he didn’t bury himself,” Mavis said indignantly even though tears began to fall. “Nobody would want to kill Howard. Why did this happen? Are they sure? Did they have DNA?”
“Yes, they compared DNA from his sister,” Conrad said as Cora handed Mavis a tissue from a small box she had shoved in her purse before they left home.
“Miriam?”
“No, his sister, Wanda,” Conrad said softly. Cora pulled out another tissue and dabbed at her own eyes.
“I can’t imagine how this can be,” Mavis said becoming more composed. “What happens now? They need to find out who did this.”
“You need to decide what you want to do next. The coroner will call you in a couple of days. They will want to know where to release the body to, a funeral home or a crematorium. It will be something you will need to decide as next of kin.”
“Have you told Miriam?”
“I haven’t, but the coroner is talking to her now.”
“She’ll want him cremated and I don’t want that,” Mavis said chewing on her bottom lip and sniffing.
“Legally, it is your decision to make right now. Whether you want to discuss it with Howard’s family is up to you, but the coroner will contact you for those arrangements.”
“Are they going to try to find out what really happened? Is somebody going to find out who killed him?”
“The coroner’s office is still working on it. If they find evidence, they’ll turn all that over to the sheriff’s department,” Conrad said as he stood. “I’m sorry, Mavis. Truly, I am.”
Cora stood and left the tissue box on the table. Mavis rose to walk them to the door and hugged Cora tightly bringing fresh tears to both of their eyes. “You call me if I can help you,” Cora said wiping a tear from Mavis’ cheek with her thumb. “If I can help you at all, please let me know.”
“I will. Thank you, Cora Mae. And thank you, Chief. I know, I know this isn’t fun for you either. I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” Mavis said wiping at her eyes.
“I’ll be by Monday to check on you,” Conrad said patting Mavis’ shoulder. Mavis nodded as she
slowly closed the door.
§
“Thank you for coming with me,” Conrad said as they backed out of the driveway. “I know that wasn’t easy for you, but I think it helped Mavis to have you there instead of another police officer.”
“Oh, I was happy I could help. I’m not very good at it, but I hope it helped her. It’s a horrible thing. A truly horrible thing to live through.” Cora had lost Bing many years ago, but Conrad remembered how lost she had been right after it happened. There was a vacant look in her eyes as if life was moving around her and she wasn’t participating. She did bounce back, but it took several weeks. He hadn’t thought about how hard this would be for her when he had asked her to accompany him.
“I think she was grateful.”
“Although this is horrible news, at least she has already grown accustom to his absence. I think that is what hit me harder than anything. Having an empty house, feeling like you lost half of yourself. Having her kids there will help, too. I felt so alone,” Cora said looking down at her hands in her lap. “It’s something you never forget.”
Conrad nodded and they drove in silence.
Coasting into town and driving slowly down Fennel Street, Conrad surveyed the businesses and sidewalk traffic. “I’m going to drop you off at home and go back to the office so I can write up all this for Alice.”
Cora shifted to her hip and frowned at Conrad. “What about insurance? Howard would have life insurance, wouldn’t he?”
“He was a miner,” Conrad said shrugging and glancing over at Cora. “Don’t they have good benefits?”
“But his mine closed. Maybe that insurance is only for work-related accidents.”
“That could be,” Conrad said. “I can check on that Monday.”
“I asked Amanda to check on Mavis’ property to see what name the deed was in and then I forgot to ask her what she found,” Cora said slapping her leg. “I’ll do that Monday.”
“It could be Stanton Bell if it’s a family home.”
“Didn’t you think it was odd Mavis popped up with that comment about Miriam wanting him cremated?”
“It did stand out to me,” Conrad said as he slowed for a stop sign. “Maybe it’s a religious issue for her.”
