by Destiny Ford
The girl with the strawberry blonde hair from the high school office stood up, her legs visibly shaking as she walked to the podium with the microphone. The tears formed pools in her eyes, threatening to overflow any second. I didn’t know how she was going to make it through her comments. She held a paper in her hands as she adjusted the microphone. She looked at the paper for several seconds before she cleared her throat and started to talk. “Chelsea was a good friend of mine. She was always happy no matter how bad the things in her life seemed to be.” She paused, looking down at the Bradford family in the front row with a hard expression. Hawke and I both noticed and glanced at each other. This information was a lead we needed to follow.
“Chelsea kept to herself about a lot of things. She didn’t want to burden other people with her problems. Now I wonder if that was a mistake.” The girl looked specifically at Brian and Julia Bradford. I glanced around the room, but other people didn’t seem to notice the deliberate words, pauses, and stares. To everyone else, the girl’s words were just a way to deal with the pain, but Hawke and I saw them as an accusation.
“Emerald Lake was Chelsea’s favorite place in Branson Falls. I know she was happy she got to spend her last time on earth there.” A tear slid down the girl’s cheek. She looked up toward the ceiling as she whispered, “I’ll miss you.” A few more people stood up to give their remarks before the Bradfords’ Mormon bishop concluded the service telling everyone the burial would only be open to family members.
Hawke and I watched as people slowly started to file out of the chapel. When most people had left, we stood and followed the group of mourners. Some people stayed in the foyer, talking, others scattered to their cars. Hawke walked me to my Jeep as a shock-heavy black truck with tinted windows almost ran us over. The truck driver spun out of the parking lot, obviously eager to leave. Something about the truck was familiar. As I tried to remember what it was, Hawke broke me from my thoughts, saying, “That girl knows something.”
I nodded in agreement. “I’ll talk to her. I met her before when I was asking around about Chelsea’s disappearance.”
“Are you going to talk to her today?”
I shook my head. “No. She’s pretty shaken up. She works in the main office at the high school. I’ll stop by tomorrow and offer to take her to lunch. I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Let me know.”
“I will,” I said. “What are you going to do?”
He grinned, twisting his key ring around his finger in a circle. “Use my resources.”
“Do those resources have anything to do with the police?” I asked. I’d told him about the police ruling on Chelsea’s death quickly.
Hawke gave me a level stare. “I’m pretty sure we’re on our own with this investigation.”
I wrinkled my brow. “Why do you think that?”
“Chelsea’s case is closed as far as the police are concerned.”
Damn. I was hoping Hawke would be able to use his resources to get them to re-open the case. I knew people too, though. Maybe I could help the police department change their minds. “I could talk to them about it,” I offered.
Hawke’s smile seemed to indicate I was extremely naïve. “If you want to give it a try, Kitty Kate, go ahead. Just don’t be disappointed when I’m right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As I drove back to the Tribune office, I hit some traffic. This was odd, because I live in Branson Falls. The only time there’s “traffic” is when cows are being moved from one field to another. I didn’t see any livestock, so something else was going on.
The commotion seemed to be centered around the crumbling ruins of the old sheet metal plant. The plant was on the industrial side of town and blocked off by a fence. For years, people had used it to write welcome home signs for Mormon missionaries coming back from their two-year church service missions. The signs were Branson’s version of graffiti, but acceptable because they were church related. The plant was the only place in town that ever got vandalized, and people only did it after first asking for permission from the former plant owner.
Being a good reporter, I decided I better pull over to find out what all the fuss was about. When I got out, I saw the side of the building had been painted with huge, bright red letters.
She had it coming.
People were mumbling their theories about the note, and everyone had an opinion about who the note referred to. My first thought was that the note referenced Chelsea; but as I listened to the people around me who weren’t suspicious of her death, I realized the note was so ambiguous, it could be any female in town. Even me. The thought gave me pause.
As I eavesdropped on various conversations, most of the speculation seemed to refer to someone cheating on someone else. Other people were incensed that the welcome home sign for soon-to-return missionary, Andrew Davies, had been covered up. However, I did hear a few whispers that maybe the note was about Chelsea. There was even a suggestion that she might not have drowned. I was glad Hawke and I weren’t the only ones on that thought path.
I grabbed my camera from my bag, snapping a few photos as I continued to listen to the gossip. “When did the note appear?” a woman asked.
“Don’t know,” another woman answered. “Paint looks fresh though.”
I looked closer, noticing the paint brush streaks gleaming in the sunlight. The person who wrote it had used an actual paint brush with a high glossy finish. The note hadn’t been there long. I assumed it was painted last night. I doubted the person who wrote the note had gotten permission for their graffiti, and they would have wanted the cover of darkness to do it. I was surprised I didn’t hear about the sign at the funeral, but then again, the sheet metal plant wasn’t something people passed every day unless they were trying to get to the freeway. I’d only come this way because the stoplight I needed to go through despised me and I didn’t want to wait five minutes for it to take a Pamprin.
The gossip would spread now that people had seen the sign though. I listened to the chatter for a few more minutes while I walked around the area, and then went back to my Jeep. As I drove away, I wondered if the message meant the police would take Chelsea’s death more seriously.
The next day I went to the high school during lunch. I hoped the offer of free food would entice Chelsea’s friend from the funeral to chat with me. The front desk in the office was empty. I was worried the girl hadn’t come into work today. I decided to sit in the chair across from the desk and wait. I was flipping through my notes when the girl with strawberry blonde hair came down the office hallway. She gave a nervous smile when she saw me. “Oh, hi,” she said, recognizing me from my previous visit. “Is there something else you need?”
I looked around, trying to find a paper or tag with her name on it. “I’m sorry, last time I was here I didn’t get your name.”
“I’m Piper Adams.”
“Piper,” I smiled widely. “I was hoping I could talk to you.”
Her expression quickly changed from surprised to confused. “I . . . I’m not sure why you would want to talk to me.”
I gave her a reassuring glance. “I saw you yesterday at the funeral,” I said. “I know you were a friend of Chelsea’s. I thought you might be able to help me learn more about her.”
Her nose scrunched up and I could tell she was uncomfortable. “I’m just doing a story about Chelsea for the newspaper,” I said. “It would be nice to get the perspective of a friend who knew her well.” Piper looked at me like she didn’t know what to say. “Why don’t I take you to lunch? If you feel like talking while we eat, that’s great, if not,” I shrugged, “you get a free lunch.”
Her defenses seemed to go down a little. “Okay, I guess.” That’s another thing I like about Branson Falls, everyone is so trusting.
I smiled again. “Can you leave now?”
She looked around and nodded. “I just need to tell the other office assistant I’ll be gone. Hold on.”
Piper disappeared down the hall f
or a minute before coming back with her purse. “How about Sticks and Pie? We can get a few breadsticks and some slices of pizza to go, and eat at the library park?”
Piper nodded in agreement and we left to get our lunch.
We sat across from each other, arranging our food and drinks on the picnic table. I opened my take-out box, the scent of garlic and fresh bread floating through the air. There’s nothing on earth like the Sticks and Pie breadsticks, twisted with layers of garlic flavoring, butter, dough, and gooey mozzarella cheese. Add in some ranch dressing dipping sauce and it’s a heart attack waiting to happen—but it’s worth it.
“You and Chelsea must have been good friends,” I said between bites of cheese and zesty tomato sauce.
She kept her head down as she ate instead of answering. Huh. I didn’t think it would be this difficult to get her to talk to me, but then again, she didn’t really know me.
“Piper, you know I’m the editor of The Branson Tribune, right?”
It took a minute for her to answer. “Yeah, I know.”
I stared at her across the table, willing her to look up at me. “If I tell you something, do you think you can keep it just between the two of us?”
Piper looked up at me. I could tell she was surprised I was willing to trust her. I hoped it would make her trust me back. “I won’t tell anyone,” she said, nodding her head.
“The police ruled Chelsea’s death an accidental drowning, but I don’t think it was. There are some things that seem suspicious. If you know anything about what was going on with Chelsea before she disappeared, the information could help me figure out what happened to her.”
Piper shifted uncomfortably on the splintered wood picnic table and didn’t say anything. I decided to continue eating and wait until she was ready to talk. After two breadsticks and the rest of my pizza slice, Piper said, “I’m afraid people would find out I told.”
I shook my head to reassure her. “You don’t have to worry about that at all. If a source—like you—doesn’t want to be revealed, a reporter can keep that person a secret.”
Piper twisted a napkin into submission before she responded. “Do you promise?”
“I promise. I know you were Chelsea’s friend. If it turns out someone was responsible for her death, I know you wouldn’t want them to get away with her murder.”
She looked down at the table for a long pause before meeting my eyes. “Chelsea was like a sister to me.”
I gave a sympathetic look. “I know, Piper. I’m so sorry she’s gone.”
“She was going through a lot before she left. She wasn’t getting along with her parents, and she was upset they were making her leave school.”
I shook my head, confused. Everything I’d heard so far indicated Chelsea had wanted to leave and travel. “Chelsea didn’t want to travel with her friends?”
Piper shook her head slowly, staring at me. “I don’t think she was traveling.”
I bit the corner of my lip as I tried to understand. “Then why did her parents take her out of school?”
She locked eyes with me, holding the stare. “Because Chelsea was pregnant.”
My jaw dropped. I couldn’t help it. Looking back on the clues, Chelsea’s sudden disappearance from Branson made perfect sense if she’d been pregnant. Her parents probably didn’t want to deal with the scandal of a teen pregnancy and had tried to keep it a secret. Maybe they should have tried teaching her about birth control instead.
Everyone knows Utah’s sex education system is not very educational. Even when I’d gone to high school, Utah had claimed one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation. Parents wanted the freedom to tell their kids about sex instead of letting a teacher do it. I respected that, but the problem was a lot of parents refused to educate their kids about sex at all. At least with a class at school, they’d get more accurate information than a Google search. I had a fleeting thought that I should talk to Drake about it. I was pretty sure he agreed with me on sex education since he’d given it to so many girls on his own.
Piper’s revelation added a whole new layer to Chelsea’s story. Piper watched me pick my chin up off the table. “How do you know?”
Piper shrugged. “She was my best friend. We told each other everything.”
“When did you find out she was pregnant?”
“Last November. She was about six weeks along when she took a test.”
“Who else knew about the pregnancy?”
“I don’t think anyone at school knew. Her parents didn’t even know she told me. They didn’t want anyone to find out about it. Everyone in Branson is so religious and they were worried about what Chelsea’s pregnancy would do to their family name and how it would hurt the reputations of her younger brother and sister.”
The thought of how much reputations mattered in Branson Falls made me want to roll my eyes. I fought the urge and asked, “How were they going to keep it a secret?”
“They let her stay in school until she started gaining enough weight to show. She stayed really small through the pregnancy, so her parents didn’t have to pull her out of school until she was five months along.”
“Then what happened? Did she really go away somewhere?”
Piper lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. They told everyone she was traveling with friends, but maybe she didn’t go anywhere at all? Her parents could have been keeping her locked in her bedroom for all I know.” Piper took another sip of her drink. “I tried to email Chelsea but the emails came back as undeliverable, like her account had been closed. I talked to Mrs. Bradford a few times and asked for an address to reach Chelsea. Mrs. Bradford said Chelsea’s travel schedule was flexible so she couldn’t give me an address, but told me I could give the letters to her and she would get them to Chelsea. I thought it was weird because if she could get letters to Chelsea, why not just give me the same address to send stuff to?”
“Yeah, that’s strange.” I tapped my fingernails on the table top, a nervous habit I always fall back into when I’m thinking. Chelsea’s parents were looking more and more suspicious. “Is there anything else?”
Piper wiped her hands on a napkin. “Not that I can think of.”
“What about her boyfriend? Do you know who got her pregnant?”
Piper looked away as she answered, “She dated a lot of guys. I’m not sure who it was. I tried to get her to tell me about the father of the baby, but she wouldn’t. She was pretty protective of the information.”
I took Piper’s hand. “Thank you so much for telling me this. Now that I know about the pregnancy, it gives me a new round of leads to investigate. I’m going to find out what happened to Chelsea, I promise.” I squeezed her hand as I lifted my lips in a soft smile to reassure her.
She gave me a tight smile in return. I could see the pain still lingering in her eyes. “I need to get back to the office.”
“Okay,” I said. We gathered our trash and put it in the garbage can. I drove Piper back to the school and walked her to the front door.
“Here’s my number.” I handed her a business card. “Call me anytime if you need to talk. And please let me know if you remember anything else.”
“Thanks.” She took the card and swiveled around to walk into the building. She stopped and looked over her shoulder. “No one will find out that I told you, right?”
I nodded. “No one will ever know.”
I walked back to my SUV, thinking instead of paying attention to anything else, so it was no surprise that I almost peed my pants when I opened the Jeep door and Hawke was sitting in my passenger seat. “Hey there, Kitty Kate. How’s your day going?”
I put my profanity training to good use before I took a few deep breaths, trying to get my heart rate back to normal. “Where did you come from? You’re like a stalker!”
“Thank you,” he smiled.
“It wasn’t a compliment! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“I just thought I’d save some time.”
“Because crouching like a panther in the passenger seat of my car saves so much more time than just leaning against the door.” I folded my arms across my chest. “How did you get in anyway?”
He cocked his head and the corner of his mouth hitched. “Not much can stop me when I want something. I told you that the other day.”
I refused to acknowledge the insinuation. “Fine, what do you want? Other than to sit in my Jeep?”
“I want to know what you found out from the girl.”
“The girl’s name is Piper.”
“Fine, what did you find out from Piper?”
“A lot.” I paused, remembering my promise to Piper. “But she doesn’t want anyone to know she gave me information. So the fact that she’s my source stays between you and me.”
Hawke smiled slowly. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets.”
I stared at him for a few long seconds. I had no doubt about that. I was sure enigmatic Hawke had a castle full of skeletons, not a closet. Knowing he’d keep Piper’s name confidential I said, “You’re not going to believe this—” at that moment, my cell phone started to ring. Since I was already holding it, I was able to answer the phone before Hawke figured out Neil Diamond was coming from the speaker. I held up my index finger letting Hawke know I’d be a minute.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked.
“I need you to get to the bank right away,” Spence said.
“I’m kind of in the middle of something.”
“Trust me, if the scanner is any indication, you’ll want to see this for yourself.”
Heaven help me. “What did my mom do this time?”
“Your mom’s not involved—at least, I don’t think she is.” He paused. “Actually, it sounds like something that would happen to her so you better go check.”
“Okay, I’m about two minutes away.”
