by Linda Ross
I didn’t even know if Thelma was home, but I thanked Jimmy and cheerfully waved good-bye, waiting until he was out of sight to ring Thelma’s doorbell. Her apartment was on the second floor, but the entrance was off the front porch. Someone in the bottom apartment was running a sweeper and having an argument with a spouse at the same time. All I caught was, “And if you think I’m cooking Thanksgiving dinner for your parents you’re crazy!” A chill went through me as I remembered that Dad and Momo were due in the next day.
The door opened, and Thelma gave me a sheepish grin. “Sorry about last night,” she said.
“Well, you should be.” I followed her inside and then up the stairs.
“I heard all the shouting inside,” Thelma said, “and there was Jimmy waiting for you. I figured it was better if I made myself scarce.”
“So you didn’t see me get escorted out?”
“They threw you out?”
“Escorted me,” I said. “There’s a difference.”
“Did you find out anything?” She gestured to the round glass table in the little eating area off the kitchen, and I sat down. “Want some hot tea?” She saw my expression and said, “Sorry, no Diet Coke.”
“Tea’s fine. And I found out that Kara nearly beat a guy to death with a crop. He’s some car dealer near here, wants to get into politics, and he’s married.”
“So visiting a B and D party wouldn’t look good.” Thelma put two mugs of water in the microwave.
“Definitely. And Jimmy told me that someone broke into Kara’s shed the other night. They don’t know what’s missing, if anything, because it was a mess in there. Plus Jimmy wants me to go to Arnold, Missouri, to talk to people about Rose and Kara. He doesn’t know that Rose already told us about the church.”
“Well, I’m up for a road trip if you are.”
“I’ll have a rental car,” I said. “There was an accident this morning.”
“What happened? Are you okay?”
“A little bump on the head. Someone put a big rat in my car and I ran into a ditch.”
“A rat? A live rat?”
“A big, live rat.”
We both just looked at each other as the implications hit us. The microwave dinged, and Thelma got up and brought the cups to the table. She set down a box of teabags and a couple of spoons.
“Do you think it had anything to do with the people we’ve been talking to lately?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve been going over people in my head to see if I think one of them might have done something like that.”
“What about someone from that B and D party last night?”
“Well, David Henderson was probably mad enough at me. I think the only other people who knew who I was were Leonard and the French maid.”
“What French maid?”
“A woman in a French maid’s outfit was like the hostess at the party. Leonard from the police department was working off-duty as a bouncer. I don’t see either of them putting a rat in my car. Besides, I think someone did it while I was at the party.”
“So, who have we talked to lately?”
I ticked them off on my fingers. “Ralph Pierce, who rented the house to Kara, and Derek Harper, the guy in the band. The guy who makes iron art, Loren Haskell, and Jordan Kirsch, the kid who hooked up with Kara after she modeled for his art class. Jordan seems the least likely of all of them.”
“And we still have a couple of ex-boyfriends on our list from Mr. Pierce. One of them might have heard that you were asking around.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “It seems to me almost everyone who knew Kara could be a suspect.”
“We need a fresh lead,” Thelma said. “That trip to Arnold might be helpful.”
“In the meantime do you want to drive by Stephanie Riley’s house again to see if anyone’s home?”
“We might as well.” We finished our tea, and Thelma got her coat.
There was a brisk wind blowing dried leaves across the road when we turned off Highway 79. When we passed Kara’s house I tried to see the broken window on the shed, but it was too far back. We drove slowly past Ralph Pierce’s house and the fields with their corn stubble. Stephanie Riley’s house came into view, looking as deserted as before.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“The newspaper’s still there. I don’t think anyone’s around.”
“Strange.”
“What do you want to do?” Thelma asked.
“Let’s park and walk the road. Maybe we’ll see something.”
Boy, did that turn out to be an understatement. Sometimes I wish I weren’t so persistent.
We parked in the drive right in front of the gate and got out. We started by heading away from the direction of the highway and Mr. Pierce’s farm. We walked slowly, Thelma on one side of the road and me on the other. “What are we looking for?” Thelma asked.
“I don’t know. I just have a feeling that if something happened it happened here. I don’t think she went anywhere.”
“But there’s just one car in the garage. Maybe she and her husband took a trip together in his car.”
“It just doesn’t feel right. The bill in the mailbox and the newspaper.”
“If they were planning a trip, they’d stop the mail and paper.”
“But they’d bring the last delivery into the house before they left.”
“Maybe they left a day earlier than planned.”
I made a noncommittal noise, and we walked on. We went about a quarter mile, then turned and headed back the other way. Something was pushing at my brain, something I’d seen, but I still had a bit of a headache from hitting my head on the car window, and I couldn’t dredge it up.
“Wait a minute,” I said, closing my eyes. I tried to remember the first time Thelma and I drove to the house and what we’d seen. Something was there at the edge of my memory. “Further up here,” I said. “I saw something last trip, but I’m not sure what it was. But it was out of place.”
“You’re giving me the creeps,” Thelma said.
“Yeah, well, I’m not too thrilled either.”
We kept walking, and I scoured the sides of the road. “Uh-oh,” Thelma said. I looked up, and she pointed to the field ahead of us. An animal was loping toward us, and I figured we knew that particular animal. I sure hoped he remembered that we were friends and not lunch.
“Hey, Puddin’,” I said as he drew closer. He stopped and lifted his nose warily, then apparently recognized us. The tail started wagging, and he bounded to us, nearly knocking me over as he shoved his muzzle into my hand. I obliged by rubbing his ears and massaging his shoulders.
“You are so lucky,” Thelma said. “That dog could eat you in two bites. Well, maybe a few more than that.”
“Come on, Puddin’,” I said. “Don’t listen to her negativity.”
We kept walking, Puddin’ dashing ahead and then running back to us, thrilled to be doing group walkies. I kept looking to the sides where the fence lined the field, separating it from the ditch along the road. I knew I’d seen something before that seemed out of place, but I just couldn’t remember what it was.
Just ahead on the right I saw some plastic trash bags caught on the jagged corn stalks and blowing in the wind. “That’s it,” I said. “It was around here. I remember seeing something pink leaning against a fence pole.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know, but it didn’t look right.”
We walked a few more steps, and Thelma said, “Over here. I see something pink just behind that weed.”
There were some hardy wild roses trying to grow along the fence line and the remains of ragweed, and there behind them and against the fence post sat a lone pink running shoe. “That’s it!” I said. “That’s what I saw.”
“Do you know how many sneakers you can find along the road?” Thelma asked. “Probably dozens.”
“But this is a pink running shoe. And Stephanie runs on this road.”
> We kept looking, moving further away from the shoe. The ditch was filled with dried leaves, and I was thinking about looking for a big stick to poke around when I saw something that made me stop in my tracks.
“Thelma,” I said in a shaky voice. “Come here.”
She walked back and stood beside me as I pointed into the ditch. There was a white sock lying there, and it appeared to be on a leg. Or what we could see of a leg. The leaves obscured the rest.
“Sweet Jesus,” Thelma said, crossing herself.
“Oh, crap,” I said.
Puddin’ made a sound like Scooby Do saying Ruh-Roh and promptly headed for home.
I pulled out my cell phone and called Jimmy. I told him where we were and said I thought we had found a body.
“What do you mean you think you found a body?” he asked. “Why aren’t you sure?”
“It’s pretty well covered in leaves, but I can see a sock and part of a leg.”
Jimmy sighed. “Be right there.”
Thelma and I walked away from the ditch while we waited for Jimmy.
After some silence, Thelma said, “I don’t think I like this road very much. A lot of bad things happened here.”
“Kara was killed at the salon, remember,” I said.
“But who knows what she was doing when she was home?” Thelma shook her head. “This is one bad road.”
Jimmy arrived first, followed closely by two county cop cars. Jimmy looked grim when he got out. I walked over to the ditch and pointed down. Jimmy knelt and pushed aside some leaves with a pen, then called to the cops. “There’s a body here. Better call it in.”
“Do you think it’s Stephanie Riley?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s a young woman.”
“There’s a running shoe over there,” I said, pointing to the pink sneaker by the fence. “That’s what I saw first.”
“What were you doing out here?” he asked.
Thelma and I exchanged looks. “We wanted to talk to her about Kara,” I said, “but she hadn’t been home.”
“You were here before?”
I nodded. “You might as well know we walked up to the house and looked through the windows before. There’s a car in the garage, but no one home. And a bill has been sitting in the mailbox for probably a week. A newspaper’s there too.”
“Anything else?” Jimmy asked sarcastically. “I don’t suppose you went inside and checked for phone messages.”
“That would be breaking and entering,” I said tartly. Clearly Jimmy wasn’t happy at the moment.
Jimmy sighed, something he seemed to do a lot lately. “One of the county guys is going to want your statements,” he said. “Then you probably ought to go home and stay home.”
“You’re still coming for Thanksgiving, right?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, but the look he gave me before he walked away made me think I’d better bake a really good cherry pie.
Thelma and I told the county guys what we knew, which wasn’t a whole lot, and we got in her car to get out of there. My phone rang, and I saw Lorenzo’s ID come up. The man must have radar.
“You found another body?” he asked immediately.
“Yeah. Thelma and I did. We just finished talking to the police.”
“Moon, you’re the truffle pig of dead bodies!”
Well, I suppose that was high praise from someone like Lorenzo.
“We don’t have time to get another story in Monday’s paper, but plan on something for the week after.”
“Listen, Lorenzo,” I said. “Kara and Rose both lived in a little town south of St. Louis for a while, and Thelma and I were going to go down there and see what we could find, if that’s okay. We were planning on being out of the office all day Monday.”
“Sure,” Lorenzo said. Another dead body was making him magnanimous. “Dig up anything you can. This is going to be a great story.”
“So, you want to leave for Arnold on Monday morning?” I asked Thelma after I clicked off.
“Sounds good. I just hope you don’t trip over any more dead bodies.”
“Yeah, according to Lorenzo, I’m the truffle pig of dead bodies.”
“I’m sure it was a compliment,” Thelma said. “Should I drop you off at your house?”
“Thanks. I wish I could avoid home since Dad and Momo are coming in tomorrow, but Eileen is probably pulling out her hair by now.”
And when I tapped on Eileen’s door and walked in, she did indeed have her hands in her hair. She also had whipped cream in her hair, on her face and on the front of her T-shirt.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
She turned her glazed eyes on me. “Dad called. They’re only two hours away. I’m trying to make a salad, but Tiffany asked me a question while I was whipping the cream, and I guess I was distracted. I pulled the beater out while it was still running. And now I think I’m getting a headache.”
“Okay, you go lie down, and I’ll finish making the salad. What kind is it?”
“That lime gelatin one with pineapple and cottage cheese.”
“Oh, my favorite! I know how to finish it.”
Eileen went upstairs to lie down, and I folded the whipped cream into the whipped gelatin. The walnuts were already chopped and the pineapple and cottage cheese had been folded in. I added the walnuts and a teaspoon of horseradish, then poured the concoction into a glass dish and put it in the fridge. Well, that was one thing done. I wiped down the kitchen, knowing it would have to pass Momo’s cleanliness test. I would have to keep her away from my home. There were times it wouldn’t pass any kind of test. I called up the stairs to Eileen that I was going to go home, and I left.
I was halfway across the yard to my place when I saw a convoy coming up the drive, led by Jimmy’s truck. The middle vehicle was a red Kia with a dealer plate. And bringing up the rear was a cop car. Jimmy got out of his truck, then Leonard got out of the Kia, which I saw had seen better days by the looks of the bumper. It had apparently been in a wreck at one time and now looked like it was permanently frowning.
“So what’s this?” I asked when I got close. “A parade?”
“This is your rental car,” Jimmy said indicating the Kia. “I stopped by the body shop to take another look at your car, and they had this one ready for you.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate it.” I directed that at Leonard, who backed up as if afraid to get within striking distance of me. I guess he still remembered that buggy whip.
“Do you guys want to come in for a beer?” I offered.
“They have to head back,” Jimmy said, “but I need to talk to you.”
Leonard hustled to the cop car and they took off, and Jimmy came inside with me. I got him a beer and myself the usual Diet Coke. I was hungry and rummaged in my pantry until I came up with a box of Little Debbie cakes, some graham crackers and a jar of peanut butter. Nancy sat by my side, hoping for a bite. I fixed one of the graham crackers with peanut butter and broke off a piece for her. That kept her busy licking peanut butter off the roof of her mouth.
Jimmy still had his leather jacket on, and I was wearing a denim jacket. It was one of those fall days that promises winter. I realized I really liked sitting at my table with Jimmy, drinking Diet Coke and thinking about the Little Debbie cakes.
But I knew he had other things on his mind. “Did you identify the body?” I asked.
He nodded. “It’s Stephanie Riley.”
I was pretty sure it was when I found it, but I still felt a chill knife through me.
“Do you know how she died?”
“We think she was hit by a car. We’re working with county on this one since the body was found so close to Kara’s house.”
“Do you know when it happened?”
“I think your timeline is right. Probably a day or two before Kara was killed. Stephanie’s husband was out of town in Las Vegas for a convention, and she was supposed to go to a spa in St. Louis for the week. She never showed
up, but I guess she’d done that before and the spa didn’t think anything was unusual. Her husband is coming in today. We had police out there notify him. He told them he’d tried to call her a couple of times, but apparently they’d had a fight before he left and he figured she didn’t answer because she was still mad at him.”
“Do you know what the fight was about?”
“He was reluctant to say much, but police got the impression there was a third party involved.”
“He was seeing someone?”
“Or she was. We don’t know at this point.”
“Is he a suspect then?”
“His alibi is good. He was with people the whole time and no evidence that he caught a plane back home at any point.”
“So who would want both Kara and Stephanie dead?” I wondered out loud. “What’s the connection?”
“There was that confrontation they had at the salon close to the time they were both killed, but nobody knows what it was about.”
I mentally went over the road between Kara’s house and Stephanie’s. Was there something there that tied the two of them together? “The car,” I said. “Kara’s car had damage from hitting that tree. What if someone used her car to run down Stephanie and then hit the tree to cover it up?”
“I thought of that. We’ve got a team going over the car for any evidence.”
“So someone could have used Kara’s car to run down Stephanie. Or Kara could have run down Stephanie and then someone killed her.”
“That second one sounds more plausible. Maybe someone saw her kill Stephanie, someone who cared about Stephanie or had a relationship with her.”
“A lover?”
“Possibly. We haven’t been able to sit down with her husband yet.”
I sighed. “I sure wish I knew what that little spat was that she had with Kara.” I looked out the window as a car pulled up the driveway. “Oh, no.”
“What’s wrong?” Jimmy moved to the window.
“Dad and Momo are here. And they’re early. When I left Eileen’s, she was lying down with the beginning of a migraine. I guess I’d better get over there.” I stopped and gave Jimmy my most inviting smile. “You wouldn’t want to come with me, would you? There’s a killer Jello salad, and I bet Eileen has lunch meat and cheese for sandwiches. And probably dessert.”
