Clearing the Course

by Diane Weiner

  “Sure. Didn’t we see something in those newspaper clippings about gambling? I’m going to get the articles.”

  “I’ll do it. You shouldn’t be climbing up and down from the loft any more than you have to with one arm out of commission.” He started the coffee, then went upstairs for the clippings.

  Emily’s eyes were glued to the TV. The show was talking about how illegal gambling was often signified by placing a playing card under the mat. Did the playing card in the silver box have something to do with gambling?

  “Here you go. I got the articles and the old bible. Let’s see here…” Henry read the headlines. “I’m not seeing much.”

  Emily flipped through the old bible. She found various papers stuck in between the pages. “Here’s the original deed to the cabin. I thought he built it himself?”

  “My grandfather made comments when I started puttering with woodworking. He said I got my talent from his father. But no one builds a house singlehandedly. He had to have had help.” Henry stopped sifting. “This is an article about the disappearance of Charles Rivers. He was last seen near the town square, then seemed to vanish off the face of the earth.”

  “His family must have been worried sick.”

  “It doesn’t mention him having a family.” He read through more articles. “He was unmarried. Not surprising. He was unscrupulous. Stole businesses out from under people. Looks like he had a lot of enemies. Possible mob connections.”

  Emily said, “I think I found something. Look! It’s a transfer of title. Your grandfather was transferring ownership of the lumber mill to Charles Rivers. What’s the date of his disappearance?”

  Henry looked back through the articles. “June 2, 1910.”

  “This contract was signed by Charles Rivers, on June 1. And it has your grandfather’s signature as well.”

  “The mill technically belonged to Rivers at the time of his death.”

  “But it stayed in your family for another generation, right?”

  “It wasn’t sold until my father decided to go to college.”

  “Why was your grandfather transferring ownership of the mill, and how lucky was he that Charles Rivers went and disappeared before it could happen?”

  “I’m not sure I want to connect these dots. Let’s call Maddy and say goodnight. Enough investigating for today.”

  Emily picked up her phone. “Maddy, how are you feeling? That’s good. Who’s there with you?” She whispered to Henry, “It’s Robby.”

  “Let me say goodnight.” He took the phone. “Hi, honey. Yes, I’m thrilled Robby is out and it’s so nice he’s keeping you company. We’ll be by in the morning. Love you.”

  “She sounded very upbeat. Do you think Robby is the reason? Are they becoming more than friends?”

  “I’m not sure I’m ready for it if they are. This is a whole new phase. Where did you put those parenting manuals?”

  Chapter 28

  In the morning, Emily and Henry headed to the hospital to see Maddy. When they got to her room, she was sipping juice and picking at a plate of scrambled eggs.

  “I see you’ve graduated to real food,” said Emily.

  “If you can call it that. These are pretty awful.”

  Henry said, “But it’s a sign of progress. Your doctor says you’re healing nicely and can come home in a few days.”

  “Wait till you see the kitchen! How was your visit with Robby?” asked Emily.

  “He’s so sweet. We talked for hours. We have so much in common. Coralee said he can stay at the inn rent free if he picks up some odd jobs for her. She says the fall foliage season is coming up and there are a lot of little repairs to be done.”

  “I thought Dallas was handling those? And Noah? And Franklin?” said Henry.

  “You know Coralee,” said Emily. “She always finds a way to help others. Besides, Dallas will be going back to his teaching job soon and Noah has school in the fall.”

  “And Robby? Isn’t he going back to school?”

  “Of course. Robby said after seeing Jonathan in action, he wants to be a lawyer. He’s really smart, you know. And he needs the money.”

  “I can tell by talking to him that he’s smart,” said Emily. “It’s just that he’s quite a few years older than you, Maddy.”

  “But I feel like I’ve known him forever.”

  Emily gave Henry a knowing look. Between the two of them watching Robby like a hawk, Maddy would be protected. Overprotected.

  Henry received a text. “Chauncey has turned a corner. Looks like he’s going to make it. Come on, let’s stop by his room.” He and Emily kissed Maddy and took the elevator to Chauncey’s floor.

  “If he can identify the car that hit him as Mercer’s, we’ve got him,” said Henry.

  On the way to his room, they ran into Megan.

  “Did he give a statement? Mercer’s guilty, right?”

  Megan sighed. “Unfortunately, Chauncey’s memory is sketchy right now. The doctor said that’s normal.”

  “Yeah, but maybe you can show him a picture of Mercer’s car. That’ll jog his memory.”

  “His doctor said to let him rest and try again later. We don’t want him to regress. Besides, his wife is in there with him. I’d keep it short if I were you.”

  “What about the blood on the oar?”

  “We’re working on it. At least Robby is home now. If Mercer’s the one, we’ll get him. Trust me.”

  Henry and Emily walked into Chauncey’s room, which again smelled of lavender. His wife was holding his hand and catching him up on all the news that he’d missed.

  “I’m so glad he’s turned the corner,” said Emily. “How are you feeling, Chauncey?”

  His wife held up a cup and brought the straw to his lips. His voice was raspy and it seemed to be an effort to speak.

  “I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck!” He started to laugh, then started coughing. His wife gave him more water.

  “The detective says you can’t remember what the truck looked like.”

  “My head is so fuzzy. I ain’t thinking straight.”

  Henry pressed on. “Do you remember a guy named Sean Mercer? His son was killed in a snowmobile accident. Dan Fisher stood trial for causing the accident, but he was acquitted.”

  “Sort of remember.”

  “Did you treat the Mercer boy when he arrived at the hospital? Or did you give a statement?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Why?”

  The police think Mercer may be responsible for both Damari Cooper and Dan Fischer’s deaths.”

  His wife said, “That was last winter, right? We’d gone to visit my sister over the holidays and heard about it when we got back. Chauncey wasn’t even here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Course I’m sure. I’m not the one with a head injury.” She looked at her husband. “My Chauncey’s real tired. He needs to sleep now.”

  “Of course. Good to see you’re doing better. Get some rest. Doctor’s orders.”

  Henry closed the door softly behind them.

  “That’s a dead end,” said Emily.

  “Not necessarily. I want to hear it from Chauncey himself when he’s feeling better. I know the three attacks are related.”

  “Four,” said Emily. “You mean four.” She pointed to his eye and patted her cast.

  “Let me drop you off at home. I’m supposed to put in a couple of hours this afternoon.”

  On the way home, Emily suggested finding out more about Henry’s grandfather and the missing Charles Rivers. “Why don’t we stop by Rebecca and Abby’s on the way?” She called ahead and Rebecca said she’d found some news.

  “Okay, but I can’t stay long.”

  Henry knocked and immediately heard Milo bark. “That’s what we need. A dog for protection.”

  “Try telling that to Chester.”

  Rebecca came to the door in basketball shorts and a Yale t-shirt. “How’s Maddy doing?”

  “Much better. She should
be home in a few days,” said Emily.

  “Come, see what I found.” She opened her laptop. “Charles Rivers had lots of enemies. One theory is that he ran off with investor’s money to some tropical island, escaping the lawsuits piling up against him. He’d drained his bank account the day he disappeared, over a million dollars. Back then, imagine how much money that was.”

  “So he fled before he got arrested and had to pay back his investors. But why did he leave the lumber mill? We found a contract in with Henry’s grandfather’s things. The contract transferring ownership was dated the day before he disappeared.”

  “And the money was never recovered, I assume.”

  “Nope. He also owed lots of back taxes. And he had gambling debts. Maybe it was worth it to cut his losses and leave the mill behind.”

  “Wasn’t murder a theory?”

  “Yeah, they looked into several leads, but the body was never found, and there were witnesses who thought they saw him at the train station, the airport, the general store…you get the picture.”

  “Eyewitness reports are notoriously flawed,” said Emily. “I’m going to spend the afternoon going through the papers and bible we found once again.”

  “From what I’m seeing, I’m not entirely convinced he left on his own,” said Rebecca. “It said in one of the articles he had a treasured baseball card collection worth a ton of money. Had a Ty Cobb card and Cy Young, too.”

  “And he left it behind?”

  “Weird, right? He could have tucked them into his pocket. Why leave them behind? And there’s a police report I accessed which says they found a shoe on a road heading out of town. They think it may have belonged to Rivers.”

  “If he was murdered, what happened to the body? Did they check the rivers and lakes?”

  “Yeah. And sent dogs into the woods looking. Nothing turned up. Believe me, all those cheated investors and gamblers he owed—I’m sure they left no stone unturned.”

  “Thanks, Rebecca. We appreciate the info.”

  When they got back to the house, Emily sat with the things they’d found in the crawl space. Why did Theodore Fox keep those articles about Rivers? And why was his involvement with Rivers important enough for Henry’s grandfather to include in the silly clue box? She sifted through the box.

  “Em, I’m going back to the hospital. See you at dinner.”

  “Okay.” She leafed through the family bible. It wasn’t closing right. It had been sitting there for a long time, but yesterday she hadn’t noticed it. She put on her reading glasses, which she should have been using all along rather than straining her eyes. Something about the spine didn’t feel right. After working her fingers into the binding, she made a discovery. A gold chain with the letter C. And it was covered with something. Something that looked a lot like dried blood.

  Chapter 29

  Emily sorted through the newspaper clippings for pictures of Charles Rivers. Scrutinizing each one, she found the confirmation she needed. In one of the photos, Charles Rivers wore the gold chain with the letter C hanging from it.

  She tried Henry, but his phone went to voicemail. What if Theodore Fox killed Charles Rivers? He had a great motive—keeping the family business. The C on the necklace stood for Charles. She planned to bring it right over to the police station. Where would he have buried the body?

  She called Rebecca. “Where exactly was the shoe found? The one they thought belonged to Rivers?”

  “On Mill Road heading out of town.”

  “Thanks, Rebecca.”

  She’d barely hung up when Maddy called.

  “Emily? Robby is here and we just solved the anagram riddle. Robby found the word mill, so we played around with the letters and used the internet to search names of local saw mills and lumber mills. We think it says Tedgar Mill, which is just outside of town on Mill Road.”

  “Mill Road? That’s where they found one of Charles River’s shoes. I’ll check and see if that was the name of the family mill. Good work. Rebecca will be proud.”

  She tried Henry again. “Hey, look. What was the name of the family lumber mill?”

  “Not sure. I think my grandfather said the mill was started by his father and his father’s best friend.”

  “Does Tedgar Mill sound familiar?”

  “They called my grandfather Ted.”

  “And did he have a friend who started with Gar? Gariboldi? Gary?”

  “I don’t know. It could be Gary. Oops, I’ve got to go. They just brought in a new patient. Love ya.”

  Emily headed back to the papers and bible. She looked at a handful of photos, some labeled on the back. She could see the resemblance between Henry and Ted Fox. Henry’s father as a little boy looked just like Henry when he was small. She put aside a picture of Henry with his grandfather that she thought he’d like to have. Here’s a picture in front of what looks like a mill. She turned it over. Ted and Gary opening day. That was it. Now, what did Henry’s grandfather want him to do with that information? Were the clues just leading Henry to finding out his grandfather was a murderer?

  Chester swatted something shiny under the bed. The chain! She’d left it on the dresser. Extricating it from under Chester’s paw, she wrapped it in a handkerchief and stuck it in her pocket. She had forgotten she’d meant to drop it off at the police station.

  She grabbed her keys, went to the driveway, and realized Henry had her car! Now what? It wasn’t like Sugarbury Falls had Uber, so she had to think. Rebecca and Abby? They both worked from home.

  She started toward their cabin and after a few steps, noticed something on the ground. A wallet. She opened the worn leather wallet and pulled out a driver’s license. Dallas Peterkin. How did he not notice he’d dropped this? Then again, with a new baby at home…she knew how she felt when she didn’t get enough sleep. Maybe one of the girls wouldn’t mind swinging by his cabin after the station so she could return it.

  She knocked on the girls’ door. No answer. Then she peeked in through the front window with the shade partially down. The room was dark, but Rebecca was using a black light to examine something. She was writing notes on a small dry erase board and was wearing earphones. She knocked louder and watched Rebecca hide the light and turn over the board before answering the door.

  “Hey, Emily.”

  “Looks like you were busy. May I ask?”

  “It’s on a need to know basis, so better to forget you saw anything,” said Rebecca. “You’re not in danger, I swear.” Rebecca laughed.

  “I need your help if you’re available. Remember Charles Rivers? I found a chain hidden in the family bible that I’m sure belongs to him.” She pulled the handkerchief out of her pocket and unwrapped it. “I think that’s dried blood. I want to bring it to the police station to have them check it out, but we’re down to one car, which Henry has at the moment.”

  “I can tell you right now if it’s blood.” She pulled the shade down all the way, then opened her desk drawer and pulled out a spray bottle. She placed the chain on the desk, sprayed it, and turned out the lights so the interior of the cabin was pitch dark. “Yep. Look, it’s glowing. It’s blood all right.” She flicked the lights back on.

  “You’re just full of surprises, Rebecca. Should I still bring it to the station?”

  “Sure. They’ve got all sorts of new-fangled DNA testing they can do now.”

  “And here’s another thing. I found our handyman’s wallet. Can we drop it off on the way back?”

  “Sure.”

  After swinging by the station, Emily got Dallas’s address from Coralee. She half expected to find Dallas at the inn doing handy work, but Coralee had given him the day off. They followed the dirt road leading toward the lake and found the address.

  “I don’t think he’s home,” said Emily. “I don’t see his van and the lights are off.”

  “Try the door. Around here, I’ve noticed no one locks their doors, which is crazy. We can leave it there with a note.”

  Emily tried the door
and sure enough, it was unlocked. Neither his wife nor the baby were at home either. She moved the single stained placemat over and wrote a note to leave on top of the wallet. “Rebecca, what are you doing?”

  Rebecca closed the refrigerator door. “Can’t help it. Snooping’s in my blood.”

  “Hopefully he took time to enjoy this place with his wife and baby. Seems like all he was doing was working all summer.”

  “Wife and baby? Look around. No highchair or bouncy seat. No bottles in the fridge.” She opened the kitchen cabinets. “No formula or baby food.”

  Emily took a good look. “There’s only one coffee mug in the sink.”

  “And the fridge consisted of a six pack of beer and a half eaten pack of hotdogs. What woman do you know who’d be living on hotdogs and beer?”

  “Do you think we’re in the right place?”

  Rebecca picked up a stack of forwarded mail from the coffee table. “Dallas Peterkin, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re in the right place. Whatever this guy told you about having a wife and baby is a big lie. That’s my professional opinion.”

  Other things Dallas said over the course of the summer didn’t add up now that she thought about it. She didn’t know a lot about babies, but could infants really eat steak and potatoes? And play dress up? Why hadn’t he shown off his new daughter, or at least shown pictures?

  “Can you…”

  “Do some digging? Of course. Let’s go. Abby will be home soon and we have plans.”

  On the way back, Henry called. “Chauncey remembers the car that hit him. It was a white van, not a white SUV.”

  “White van?” Dallas Peterkin drove a white van. Maybe she was being overly suspicious because of what Rebecca just told her. Then again, she’d met Dallas’s pregnant wife last summer. If she wasn’t with him, where was she? Maybe they split up and she took off with the baby. He could be embarrassed to admit that.

  “Emily, are you there?”

  “Yes. Rebecca is driving me home. I have some news about Charles Rivers to share with you when you get home.”