She shook his hand and left the shop clutching her shopping bag and the fetish. As she headed for home she was glad she’d bought the bottle of wine. She’d need it even more now.
Chapter 4
Fishing Buddies
Early Tuesday morning, Elle came by Charli’s house to pick her up. As they got in the car, Charli considered telling Elle about meeting Dorian and finding the fetish, but the weirdness of it, the apparent coincidence put her off. She wasn’t sure what it meant yet and it wasn't useful to muddy the waters.
Elle had arranged everything. “I told the two guys who were fishing with Carter when he disappeared that we needed to hear them tell their story. They weren’t really happy to talk to us. They said they have nothing to add to the statements they gave the police.”
“So why...?”
“The dreams for one thing.... so you hear it live. And I figured that if we hear them tell the story, who knows? Listening, we might think of questions the police didn’t ask.”
Like what they were doing messing around with a green lady who lurks around Reelfoot Lake? That was Charli’s big question, but she doubted asking it would lead anywhere.
“On the way, tell me what you know about the guy who disappeared,” Charli said.
“Carter Block, our missing person, owns a car lot over in Martin, and his wife Melly works at Pages.” That was the local bookstore. “She’s the manager.”
“Are we going to see her?”
“Later,” Elle said. “She went to stay with her sister in St. Louis. The cops didn’t see any need for her to be close. They’ll call her if they find out anything.”
“So we talk to his pals.”
“Carter did a lot of fishing and all that icky outdoor stuff. Most of the time he went with the same guys.”
“What do you know about these guys?”
“Ralph and Shorty are cousins who work at the refrigeration repair place on Elm. That’s where we're going to meet them. They’ve been friends of Carter Block since grade school, it seems.”
“So they should know him as well as anyone.”
“That’s the idea.”
The shop where the men worked was a cluttered maze of electric motors, freezer carcasses, various tanks of gases, and a hoard of tools—all well used and greasy. Walking through that junk made Charli glad she’d worn jeans and a sweatshirt.
It seemed obvious that the men were uneasy talking about what had happened, which struck Charli as odd. When she saw tragedies on television, live events on the news, the survivors or spectators all seemed eager to share their knowledge and speculations and feelings. Not these guys. Even though they weren’t cops, just people looking for their friend, the two men weren’t enthusiastic about sharing details that might help.
“Tell the whole story,” Elle suggested. “From the beginning.”
“It was a usual weekend fishing trip,” Ralph shrugged. “We got to the campsite on Friday and got up early.”
“We spent the day fishing,” Shorty said. “Sitting in the damn boat under the hot sun with precious little to show for it at the end of the day.”
“That night we ate the fish we caught,” Ralph said. “That part was good. We had some bowfin and bluegill that fried up nice in butter.”
“And we had some potatoes,” Shorty added.
“Fried them too.“Ralph was remembering that part clearly. ”And beer, lot’s of beer.”
“We always take a couple of cases on ice,” Shorty agreed.
Their menu didn’t seem to be what Elle wanted to know about. “What time did Carter disappear?”
“Heck, we don’t know, that.” Shorty said.
“Didn’t know for sure he was missing until morning, see?” Ralph said.
“But you knew he’d left camp?” Charli asked. “The police report says he woke you guys.”
Shorty nodded. “Right. After we ate, we played cards and drank beer until late. Then he woke us up in the middle of whatever was left of the night.”
“I was thinking he wanted to go night fishing,” Ralph said.
“But he started ranting about some woman he heard calling for help.”
I took the bait. “A woman?”
“That’s what he said.”
“We didn’t hear it though,” Shorty assured me. “It was quiet as all get out then. So when he wanted to go see what was going on...”
“We just let him,” Ralph said.
“He gets these ideas in his head sometimes,” Shorty said. “Whenever that happens, it’s best to let him chase whatever it is.”
“This happens often? Him hearing women calling for help and you hear nothing?”
“Naw,” Ralph laughed. “All sorts of middle of the night stuff. Sometimes he gets ideas that we should go stare at the stars like he expects to see aliens landing or something.”
“Maybe he was right and those aliens got him after all,” Shorty said, laughing hollowly.
“You don’t seem to be too upset that Carter disappeared,” Elle said. “Is there something you aren’t telling us?”
The two men exchanged glances. “Not really,” Shorty said.
“Just that he’s always been a little flakey around the edges.”
“Like how?” Charli asked.
“We all worked together for a long time. All them years after high school.”
“Right here, ”Shorty said. "Fixing refrigerators and such. Then all of a sudden, that weren’t enough for Carter. He decided he had to go into the car business.”
“After he married Melly he wanted more,” Ralph said. “Finally he used all his savings to make a down payment on that car lot in Martin. Said he was tired of getting his hands dirty.” He held up his own grease-encrusted hands. “Hard work is good, enough for us but it didn't suit Carter Block. He wanted more.”
“And it isn’t like he had the greatest head for business,” Shorty added.
“It isn’t like he was the smartest guy in Union City,” Ralph said.
“Was his business in trouble?” Elle asked.
They shook their heads. “It wasn’t doing great, I don’t think.”
“At first he was on about it all the time,” Shorty agreed. “Then he stopped talking about business and we weren't asking. We figured he wasn’t making a go of it.”
Elle glanced at Charli. “We need to follow that up. I’ll get someone on it.”
Charli noted that Elle's comment made the men nervous. She stared at Ralph, being obvious about it. Finally, he shrugged. “We don’t know anything useful. Sorry.”
“So after he went out, by himself, to rescue this woman you didn’t hear, what happened next?” Elle didn’t sound like she believed any of this.
Ralph frowned. “As I recall, me and Shorty decided to have a beer and see what happened. We expected he’d drag his ass back in soon enough all embarrassed cause there was no woman out there.”
“When he didn’t show up, we went back to sleep,” Shorty said. “In the morning, he still wasn’t there. We went out looking for him and shouting, but didn’t find nothing.”
“So we went to the ranger station. Roger was just opening the place when we got there.”
“Roger?” Charli asked.
“The Wildlife department ranger. He came back with us, checked it out, then organized the search party. He took the stinky shirt Carter had been wearing to give the dogs the scent, then told us to go home.”
“And they found nothing,” Elle said.
“Well, they found tracks that were heading down to the edge of the lake, where it gets pretty swampy, but nothing else,” Ralph said.
“Except for the panther,” Shorty said.
Ralph frowned. “Oh yeah, there was that.”
“They found a panther out there?” Charli asked.
“No, but they found tracks. Big ones.”
“You think it ate him or something?”
“No idea,” Ralph said. “But then the woman crying made some sense.”
“How is that?” Elle asked.
“Well, the thing is, a panther has this cry that is incredible and eerie.”
“Sounds like a woman screaming,” Shorty said.
“And you two think that’s what Carter heard?”
They shrugged in synch. “Could be. Might’ve scared the crap out of poor old Carter.”
“If it saw him, it coulda chased him into the swamp.”
“Or not,” Elle said.
The men exchanged glances again. Shorty scratched his ear. “Well, we don’t know what happened, like we told you.”
“Anything could’ve happened,” Ralph said.
“Well, that’s really helpful,” Charli said.
“It is?” Ralph asked.
“No, I was being sarcastic.”
Ralph pulled a rag out of his pocket and wiped his hands. “Well, we gotta get back to work.”
“The convenience store on the corner has a problem with its beer cooler,” Shorty said.
“It’s a civic emergency,” Ralph said. “We gotta fix it.”
“One last question,” Elle said, “then we will leave you to your act of heroism... if by some chance Carter just ran off, making it look as if he disappeared, where do you think he’d go?”
The men considered the question for a moment. Finally, a broad smile crossed Ralph’s face. “Orlando.”
Shorty laughed, nodding. “Absolutely. Damn true.”
“Why Orlando?” Charli asked.
Ralph was sure of himself now. “Carter always wanted to see Disneyworld. If he took off, that’s where he’d be headed.”
Walking back to the car, Charli mulled over what the men had told them. “Elle, I have a question for you.”
“Shoot,” she said.
“Are those two all there? They come across as either moronic or, if they are hiding something, diabolically clever.”
Elle sighed. “In insurance work, you learn that those two are not mutually exclusive.”
As Elle drove away, Charli slumped against the window and watched the familiar buildings glide by. “I was afraid of that.”
“There’s no doubt they are hiding something, or trying not to talk about something that went on. The question is whether it actually has anything whatsoever to do with Carter Block disappearing. For all we know they were cooking meth out there and would prefer that wasn’t known.”
“Good point,” Charli said, feeling that irritation that accompanied the growing collection of unanswered questions. “Do you think we could learn anything by visiting the scene of the possible crime, assuming a crime was committed.”
“Could be. Let’s stop for lunch at Ernie’s Place and then drive out there. The ranger who led the search should be there.”
“Not Tom’s? I mean is it so important that we be overloaded with cholesterol when we talk to this ranger?”
“Ernie’s is faster and on the way.”
Charli sighed. “He doesn’t deep fry the salads, does he?”
“You love it.”
“Which is why I try to avoid it.”
“This is in the line of duty. The insurance company is buying.”
There were times, Charli decided, when being virtuous had no point whatsoever. “Fine,” she said. She did like Ernie’s fries.
Chapter 5
The Scene of the Crime: If There Was One
Charli didn’t get out to Reelfoot Lake very often. It was a gorgeous area, and grand for picnics, but that wasn’t big in her rather small circle of acquaintances. Other than Elle and Lester, and now Dorian, almost everyone she knew was involved with the University and lived and worked in the city of Martin. They considered the 15-minute drive to Union City, where Charli lived, to be an unwelcome adventure into rural America.
Elle and Lester weren’t even close to being outdoor types. A backyard BBQ was as close as either of them wanted to get to the great outdoors. Going out there alone was fine if you were Thoreau trying to be one with the wilderness, but it had been a long time since Charli had even thought about doing that.
Part of her reluctance related to the old woman, the Indian woman in her dreams. While Charli knew little about her, it was clear that she was definitely an outdoor type and it was hard to shake the feeling that she was out there somewhere, waiting. Not that there was anything sinister about the woman, but the idea that she might actually exist outside of Charli’s dreams was unnerving.
The ranger station was a smallish, unimpressive concrete-block building that housed a small, spartan office. Most of it was given over to a garage that housed a jeep and a fire truck. More to the point, it had a small office manned by the ranger—Roger Tanner. According to the patch on his broad shoulders, the man worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He was friendly, cheerful, and, in Charli’s completely unbiased opinion, quite good looking.
“I know Carter Block,” the ranger said when Elle asked about him. “Or knew him... Hard to know how to put that when we don’t know what happened to him.”
“How well did you know him?” she asked.
“Just casually. He was a regular. He and those dim buddies of his came up here often. I’d chat with them when they bought permits for camping or fishing.”
“Anything special about them at all?” Elle asked.
He shook his head. “Not really. I know they weren’t great fishermen.” Charli was about to ask how he knew when he smiled. “I pay attention to that. Part of the job is to spot check the fishermen to make sure they observe the legal limits, not catching tiny ones or too many of the big ones. The regulations are to ensure there are fish in the lake for years to come.”
Charli liked the sound of pride in his voice. The man obviously considered his work something worth doing. She was sure a lot of her colleagues would envy him that. “Can you show us where he disappeared?” she asked.
“Show you the place where we didn’t find him or any trace of him?” He laughed. “I could show you any spot in the park and it would qualify. But since you are nice ladies, I’ll show you where we looked for him and where we found the tracks that might actually be his.”
“Perfect,” Charli said.
“I’ll get the jeep,” Tanner said.
“We can follow in my car,” Elle said. “It’s air-conditioned.”
Charli started to suggest the ranger ride with them when Tanner nodded at her. “You’re welcome to ride with me,” Tanner said. “In case you want to ask more questions. Your friend can follow in air-conditioned comfort if she prefers.”
“She does,” Elle said.
Your friend... Charli thought... that’s how he’d referred to Elle. Having him focused on her, and Elle relegated to the status of “your friend” charmed her. “I’d love that,” she told him.
It wasn’t a long ride, and she didn’t think of any new questions on the way. Instead, he gave her a little of the canned speech about the area, the wildlife. She liked the sound of his voice.
They stopped on a paved road next to a clearing with a fire pit. Looking down a slope, through a break in the trees Charli could just see part of the lake. The sight and the smell of the water gave her a chill. It brought back the dream. She hadn’t realized that she’d smelled the water in the dream, but she had.
“Your report said the tracks led to the lake, right?” Elle asked after prowling around a few minutes, staring at the ground as if she expected to find something. She was pointing down the trail. “Down here?”
Roger Tanner shook his head. “No. We didn’t find any tracks down the trail. The ground was too hard. Let me show you.” He led the way in a different direction through the trees.
“I thought the lake was that way,” Elle said, pointing.
Tanner nodded. “The main part is, but it’s fed by little rivers that pass through other areas. In Louisiana, places like that, they call them bayous. Technically we don’t have bayous around here, but this lake has several that will pass for one. The tracks were over here.”
> As they walked, Charli noted a rising smell of rot. “It stinks,” she said.
“And brings life to all sorts of creatures,” Tanner said. Then he stopped and pointed. “The tracks started here, where the ground doesn’t really dry out.” His finger traced a line. “They’ve faded now, but they went in a line in that direction.”
“And ended at the water’s edge?” Charli asked.
“Before that, actually,” he said. “Of course, that doesn’t tell us anything at all. We don’t know if they were his, although the dogs found his scent here.”
“So you think he just ran into the water?”
“Officially, that’s the guess. I have no idea what happened to him,” Tanner said. “All I can say is the trail ended there.”
“Do you have your own guess?” Elle asked. “Off the record?”
He shrugged. “Well, I used to work in Florida, and I’ve seen things similar situations. Doesn’t seem likely here, though.”
“What was it in Florida that this reminds you of?”
“Alligators,” he said. “Sometimes a hungry bull gator will slip up the bank and grab a dog or even a person. They pull them into the water, drown them, and then stuff them under a log or rock so they start to decompose. Gators prefer their dinner slightly rotten.”
Charli shivered and stepped back from the edge slightly. “But that doesn’t happen here?”
“No Ma'am. Not here. There aren’t any alligators here. Not any big enough to drag a man off.”
Charli cringed at the ranger's reply. Not only did it sound like he’d been teasing her, but he’d called her Ma’am? That made her feel old, it was formal. Now that she’d decided that she was attracted to him, she didn’t like it at all. Having him call her Ma'am like that was formal and stuffy.
“So what you're saying is you have no idea what happened to him,” Elle was saying.
“That’s about it,” Tanner said.
Elle scowled. “No other educated guesses besides alligators that don’t live here anyway?”
He shrugged. “If the man is still out here, and not deliberately hiding, then most likely he got into some swampy ground and got sucked under.”
A Murky Murder Page 3
