Hanging Falls

by Margaret Mizushima

  Isaac rubbed one side of his beard along his jaw, his face creased with sadness. “I can tell you that Luke became unhappy staying with us shortly after we moved here. He wanted to experience the world, and I think that’s why he decided to come with us in the first place. His parents are good people and had instilled strong values in the young man, but once I got to know him, I could tell he wanted something different than a religious life. I counseled with him and tried to show him the right path, but he seemed determined to stray. I wish I could have done better at showing him the way.”

  That was all well and good, but Mattie wanted names. “Can you think of anyone specifically who befriended Luke?”

  He took a breath and straightened as if shoring himself up. “I don’t want to point a finger at anyone, but I do think you should talk to Quinn Randolph, our farrier. He befriended Luke, and quite possibly … Well, I’ll just say he’s the one you should talk to.”

  Stella leaned forward. “What were you going to say, Mr. King? And quite possibly …”

  “Well, I try not to judge others, but it’s a weakness of mine. I started to say that he quite possibly played a role in leading Luke astray, but it isn’t my place to judge. Only God can pass judgment.”

  If he’s guilty of murder, the court system can too. Mattie kept her thought to herself, since it might be too cheeky to say aloud. Stella might appreciate the statement, but not Isaac. “Was there anyone from Luke’s past that he might have been afraid of? Someone who could have followed him here from his hometown?”

  Isaac shook his head. “Not that I know of. If there was, he never mentioned it to me.”

  “Does the name Tracy Lee Brown mean anything to you?” Mattie studied Isaac as he thought it over.

  “That’s a name I would remember … sounds southern,” Isaac said, stroking the beard on his chin. “But I’ve not heard it before. I know of no one by that name.”

  “Did Luke ever mention the name to you?”

  “I can tell you that he definitely did not. Like I said, I would remember it if he did.”

  “Do you have any idea as to what the word pay would mean in relationship to Luke’s death? P-A-Y?” Stella asked.

  “Why do you ask that?” A puzzled frown creased Isaac’s brow. “Was there a note found or something?”

  “I can’t say,” Stella said, her eyes pinned on his face. “Does it mean anything to you?”

  “Maybe he owed someone money? Perhaps another question for Mr. Randolph.”

  “All right, Mr. King.” Stella turned toward the door. “I appreciate the information you’ve given us, and that’s all I have for you now. But if you think of anything else that might help with our investigation, please call me.”

  Isaac extended a handshake to Stella. “I will. This is a terrible thing. Our people will be crushed.”

  Mattie thought Isaac looked sincere as he spoke.

  He started to leave but turned back to ask, “Who else will you want to speak with?”

  “We’ll speak with Hannah now and decide who we want to talk to next after her,” Stella told him.

  Isaac nodded, and Stella watched him stride through the doorway and out of the barn before turning to Mattie and speaking in a low voice. “No reason we should tell him our lineup.”

  They’d decided on the way out that they should speak with Abel, Ephraim, and possibly the teenage girl Mattie had seen at the Grayson house. Rachel and her sister Naomi were also on the list. “Do you have reason to suspect Isaac or Solomon?” Mattie asked.

  “Not yet, but both of them pointing a finger at the farrier makes me question if they might have discussed this prior to our arrival. But let’s see what the others say.” Stella started walking to the doorway.

  Mattie took her cell phone from her pocket. “Wait a second. Let me get a picture of this whip and those medications on the shelf. I want to see if Cole sees anything there that’s similar to xylazine.”

  Stella waited for Mattie to finish. “C’mon, let’s go around by the side of the barn and get some photos of the truck and trailer tires. Then we’ll head over to the Vaughn house.”

  “Can you remember what kind of boots the men had on yesterday?” Mattie asked. “They have on dress shoes today.”

  “They were wearing a leather-topped work boot, with leather lace ties and a shallow waffle tread. Not the slick sole we’re looking for.”

  Mattie gave her a thin smile. “Good job, Detective.”

  Stella shrugged, an uneasy look on her face. “And now I’m certain we’ve got a group of polygamists that have settled out here. How’s that for detecting?”

  “Yeah … it’s pretty clear, isn’t it?”

  “I know polygamy doesn’t necessarily mean the presence of more violent crimes, but keep an eye open for signs of abuse, child brides, that sort of thing. Otherwise, let’s stay in our lane and focus on the investigation.”

  Mattie had already thought of all this and had planned to keep an eye out. “Got it.”

  They left the barn to go take their pictures.

  SEVENTEEN

  As Mattie led Stella toward the Vaughns’ home, she checked in on Robo. The sun had climbed higher in the cloudless, brilliant-blue sky. She’d left the air conditioner in his compartment turned on, but she wanted to make certain he was comfortable. When their feet scraped the gravel next to her unit, his face popped up in the window, ears pricked, blinking sleep from his eyes.

  No panting; he’s fine. “Good boy,” she told him through the glass. “You wait here.”

  He plopped his rear end down and watched them pass by. Mattie figured he would be asleep again soon.

  “You’ve got a good partner there,” Stella said with a half smile. “I wish I’d had even one partner who was that obedient. I might still be working patrol.”

  “You like being in charge.”

  In acknowledgment, Stella turned the full wattage of her smile on Mattie briefly before settling into professional mode as they approached the Vaughn home. “Why don’t you take the lead on this one? You can read kids this age better than I can.”

  “You do all right,” Mattie conceded, thinking Stella had gained more experience with interviewing kids since joining the Timber Creek team. “But okay, I’ll start.”

  As they reached the wooden platform that served as a porch, the door opened. Solomon stepped out and spoke quietly. “Hannah is very upset. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to talk to her just now.”

  Mattie didn’t want to pressure the girl, but she didn’t want to miss this opportunity to interview Hannah before she talked about Luke’s death with the others. And Mattie felt certain that Isaac was already breaking the news to the other children.

  “I think Hannah’s comfortable with me, Mr. Vaughn,” Mattie said. “It’s important that I speak with her now. We won’t take long.”

  “Let me see,” he said, looking doubtful. “Perhaps if you wait here, she’ll be able to come out for a few minutes.”

  “Could we come inside?” Mattie asked, not letting him close the door on them. “It would be much better for Hannah if we talked to her in her own home. In her bedroom or perhaps at your kitchen table. And of course, with you and your wife present.”

  Solomon hesitated before giving a reluctant nod and holding open the door for them to enter. “Hannah’s in her room with Ruth. Please wait here in the kitchen.”

  A pot of something that smelled delicious simmered on the stove. After Solomon left, the woman Ruth had introduced as her sister Mary bustled through the living room beyond the half wall that divided the two spaces. She was wringing her hands as Mattie introduced her to Stella but pulled them apart long enough to offer a handshake as she murmured, “How do you do?”

  “We’re distressed over this news about Luke,” Mary went on. “But please, please take a seat at the table. May I offer you something to drink? Water? Lemonade?”

  Both Stella and Mattie declined.

  Beyond the half wall, Mat
tie could see another woman sitting in a rocking chair knitting, a small square of work hanging from her needles and brushing against her pregnant belly. Her blue eyes met Mattie’s briefly before her gaze dropped back to her work. Like the others, she was dressed in blue with a white pinafore, a white cap covering the crown of her blond hair. She looked like a younger image of Mary, perhaps in her twenties.

  Mary evidently noticed Mattie looking. “This is my sister Elizabeth,” Mary said. “Perhaps you should go to the other room, please, Bess. The officers are going to talk to Hannah here in our kitchen.”

  Setting her knitting aside, Elizabeth scooted to the edge of the chair and braced herself against both arms of the rocker, pushing herself up to stand. She looked to be at least eight months pregnant, her enlarged midsection pushing against the fabric of her pinafore. She turned to disappear down a narrow hallway, and Mattie noticed three Siamese cats of various shades lounging on the sofa and blinking their blue eyes at her. One of them lay draped along the back cushion and presented a bulging belly that promised a large litter of kittens.

  Mary scurried around the kitchen like a nervous little hen, stirring the simmering pot on the stove, washing a few dishes, and wiping counters while they waited. At her insistence, Mattie and Stella took seats at a long, narrow table with a great many chairs around it that sat next to the wall.

  Stella tried to gain information from her. “We’re asking everyone if they know anything that might be useful in our investigation of Luke Ferguson’s death. Do you have any information that might help us, Mary?”

  Mary darted a glance toward the hallway before shaking her head. She opened the lid on the pot and stirred its contents again as she answered. “I saw Luke only at Sunday luncheon, so I know very little about him. He liked to play ball with the kids, and Solomon said he knew a lot about the horses. There’s nothing more that I know.”

  “Do you know anyone who might have wanted to do him harm?”

  Mary still faced the stove, but her shoulder muscles stiffened beneath her blue dress. “Absolutely not. He was a good boy.”

  “Only twenty-one years old,” Stella said. “Had his whole life ahead of him.”

  Mary tapped the wooden spoon she was using against the rim of the pot, replaced the lid, and turned to face them. The rims of her eyes were red and brimmed with unshed tears. “I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt him in any way. The world can be a wicked place sometimes.”

  In the back of her mind, Mattie had been pondering the fact that Ruth had introduced Mary as her sister and now Mary had introduced Elizabeth the same way. She wanted to ask whether they were actually sisters by blood or simply sister wives, but the question wasn’t relevant to their investigation, so she held her tongue. But she couldn’t help but wonder if polygamy had somehow been a motive for Luke’s death. How did jealousy play out in these intermingled relationships?

  Mary darted a glance toward the hallway. “Let me go check on Hannah and see if she’ll be joining us.”

  She scurried away as if being chased, while Stella and Mattie traded glances with each other. Mattie had noticed a framed picture on the far living room wall, and she rose from her chair to get a closer look.

  It was an eleven-by-fourteen photograph of Solomon, Ruth, Mary, and Elizabeth standing left to right with a group of eight children clustered at their feet, Hannah included. Solomon and the boys were all dressed in their Sunday best, black suits and white shirts with black buttons fastened up to their stiff white collars. The women and girls were attired in white shirtwaist dresses that came to midcalf and had high-collared necklines and long sleeves.

  Had she seen this picture under other circumstances, Mattie would have interpreted it as a wedding photo, but in her gut she knew this was a family picture taken prior to Elizabeth’s pregnancy. She was turning away to go back to her seat in the kitchen when Solomon led the way through the doorway with Hannah and then Ruth behind him.

  Solomon narrowed his eyes slightly at her when he spotted her in front of the photo, but Mattie stood her ground. “I was admiring your family picture, Mr. Vaughn.”

  “Thank you.” Solomon gestured toward his daughter, who was trailed by Sassy. “Hannah wants to talk with you now. Shall we go sit in the kitchen?”

  Stella had stood when the Vaughns entered the room. Solomon pulled the table away from the wall, and Hannah slipped into a seat at the back. Sassy squeezed in beside her, sat on the floor next to her feet, and nestled her head in Hannah’s lap. Ruth took a seat beside Hannah while Solomon sat at the head.

  “Thank you for talking to us, Hannah,” Mattie said, using a soft tone that she hoped would be soothing. “As you know, we’re investigating Luke’s case, and we need to gain as much information as we can from the people who knew him. Was he your friend?”

  Looking down at the table, Hannah nodded, her eyes reddened and filled with tears.

  “I’m so very sorry for your loss.” Mattie paused, striving to impart all the sympathy she held for the girl in her gaze. She waited until Hannah glanced up from the table to look at her. “I know you’ll miss his friendship.”

  Hannah nodded again before lowering her face to observe the tabletop.

  “Do you know of anyone who might have harmed Luke?” Mattie asked quietly, feeling like she needed to use direct questions if she hoped to spark any kind of responsiveness.

  Hannah shook her head, gathering a shaky breath. “I don’t really know, but maybe … maybe the man who comes to shoe the horses?”

  Mattie had to wonder if the girl had been coached while she was in the bedroom, and if so, she couldn’t help but wonder why. Why would everyone point a finger at Randolph unless they themselves had something to hide about Luke Ferguson’s death? “Why do you think that, Hannah? Why do you think the farrier might have meant him harm?”

  Hannah lifted her gaze and looked Mattie in the eye. “Because Luke told me to stay away from him?”

  Huh … now this was different. Perhaps the girl hadn’t been coached after all. “Why did Luke tell you to stay away from Quinn Randolph?”

  “Luke said he was a bad person, and that he said a lot of rude things to women and didn’t treat them with respect.” Hannah seemed to gain more confidence in her answers as she spoke, no longer turning them into questions. “Luke told me he didn’t trust the guy and to stay away from the barn whenever he came.”

  A glance at Solomon told Mattie that this was probably the first time he’d heard this information as well. Anger infused his face. “Why didn’t you tell me this, Hannah? There are other farriers we could use.”

  Hannah looked down at the table again, her face flushed. “It’s embarrassing, Father.”

  “It’s good to let your parents know these things,” Mattie said, steering the conversation away from Solomon. “We’ll follow up and talk to Mr. Randolph. And you don’t need to worry that we’ll mention your name, because we won’t. Anything you tell us today will be kept confidential.” Unless they needed the girl’s testimony, but the reassurance would suffice for now. “Is there anything else Luke told you about him?”

  Hannah shook her head. “But there was someone else that Luke didn’t like. A man who gave the farrier drugs to use on the horses.”

  Adrenaline flooded Mattie’s system. “Did he tell you the person’s name?”

  “Parker somebody. He said I wasn’t likely to ever meet him, though.” Hannah swiped at the wetness on her cheek, and Solomon handed her a folded handkerchief that he took from his shirt pocket. She raised her eyes briefly to meet his before looking back down at the table. “Thank you, Father.”

  The drug rep was named Parker Tate, and this bit of info connected him with the farrier. This had to be the guy who was supplying the xylazine, although Mattie didn’t have proof of that yet. “Did Luke seem to be afraid of either of these men?”

  Again, Hannah shook her head, and tears brimmed in her eyes. “I don’t think anything frightened Luke. He was good and he was brave.�
�

  And Mattie would bet her next paycheck that the girl had been enamored with him. “So you knew Luke well?”

  Hannah glanced at her father before nodding, her face lowered. “He liked to help me groom and train Sassy.”

  “Sounds like he loved dogs, like us,” Mattie said, trying to establish mutual ground with the girl.

  “He loved all kinds of animals, even the cats.”

  Ruth withdrew a feminine white hankie with a tatted edge from a pocket hidden somewhere within her skirt and used it to wipe her eyes daintily.

  “Did Luke spend time in your home with the cats, Mrs. Vaughn?”

  Ruth’s face was drawn with sorrow. “On occasion. Especially right after we moved here. He seemed to miss his mother at first and hung around us women in the early days. But then he became busy with horse training and he liked to drive into town in the evening, so we didn’t see much of him.”

  This seemed a bit off compared to Mary’s comment that she’d seen Luke only at Sunday luncheon, but perhaps Mary and Luke hadn’t been inside the trailer home at the same time. “So did you know him well, Mrs. Vaughn?”

  “Some. He and the children played with the cats while I cooked, that sort of thing. He took his meals with the Graysons.”

  “Do you have information that might help us with his case?” Stella asked.

  “No, no, not at all. I don’t know anything more than what Hannah has told you.”

  Mattie directed the questioning back toward the girl. “Hannah, did you and Luke happen to share a friendship necklace?”

  Hannah’s eyes darted to her father before looking into Mattie’s. “It’s against our ways to wear jewelry.”

  Mattie had no doubt that she’d found the owner of the other half of the heart-shaped pendant, and the girl had kept it secret from her parents—and she also didn’t want to lie about having it. It was valuable information that could raise serious problems between Hannah and her parents, so Mattie decided not to force her into a confession of ownership. It was enough to know she’d discovered their victim’s best friend, and the subject needed to be handled with care. She met Stella’s gaze, and the detective gave her a slight nod as if acknowledging some type of agreement. Perhaps she’d interpreted the delicacy of the situation the same as Mattie.