I was itching to see the results. I was so sure that I had found where Lonny was killed but having the paperwork to back me up would really put the theory over the top.
“That all sounds good,” he shrugged.
What I had just revealed was a pretty big revelation, but Cooter wasn’t that thrilled. Not that I expected anything more. I was happy he was talking to me though.
“It is, but a lot of the footwork could have been avoided or lessened if you had told me you and Lonny were in a dance class together.”
Cooter made a face.
“Why?” he demanded indignantly. “Why do you need to know every dang thing about my life? How does knowing I was in a dance class do anything to get me out of here?”
Cooter really was that daft. How could he not see the obvious?
“It would have helped because I’m doing this all on my own on my time for a friend. And that friend is you, in case you can’t figure it out. It doesn’t help that I keep going down these rabbit holes. The trip to the dance class did bear some fruit, but I could have gotten to it a lot faster if I didn’t have to stumble up on a random ad in your mail.”
It was literally luck of the draw. I didn’t think I would have gotten to that point – or maybe I would have once I got the police report – but it still would have taken way too much time to get to that point.
I could see Cooter felt bad.
“I’m sorry,” he said. The apology caught me off-guard because I didn’t think he was one to do that. “I didn’t mean to make this… harder for you. I’m just not used to people digging through my life and I got a little defensive.”
That made sense. Coot was a pretty private person and everything had been turned upside down for him.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
Oh, this would have been a golden opportunity. If only –
“Oh, Coot.” I started laughing because the irony got to me. “Why didn’t you ask me this on a different day? I literally can’t think of anything to ask you right now.”
He shook his head and shrugged. “When you think of something, you know where to find me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Monday & Tuesday
After I left the station, I went straight home. When I got inside, I closed the door like any normal person would and, as I did that, Ash came bounding towards Shortbread and me, causing the two of us to jump a little.
“Dear god, Ashley! Are you okay?”
Her eyes were wide with excitement and I could tell she very much wanted to tell me something.
“I’m fine, I’m great, I’m amazing! And I’ve got some good news for you!”
“What is it?” I was very intrigued.
Ash motioned with her head for me to follow her, and I did after unleashing Shorty. He ran into the house, content to do his own thing, and I eagerly opened up my ears to hear what Ash had to say.
“So, I started doing some investigating of my own because I love being helpful and I wanted to be helpful.” Ash was talking like she had had way too many cups of coffee, but I wasn’t about to tell her to slow down. “I was at the most recent Butler family reunion and I had asked my niece – she’s like sixteen, very internet savvy – how one could go about looking into someone on the interwebs. She passed along all her secrets about internet stalking and catfishing and finding every last bit of info anyone has ever posted and I feel like I should talk to her about something, but I’m not sure what. Just some of the things she taught me did concern me a small bit and, also, remember that the internet is not a void, and nothing can ever truly be deleted, but back to you and your thing. So, after we met this Gustavo character and his suspicious French accent, I thought I could use my newly learned skills to see if this guy was for real. And guess what?”
“What?”
“He isn’t. He’s the fakest fake to ever fake. Or at least in the top ten.”
Ashley led me all the way to her computer, and she sat down in front of it. I eagerly waited for her to show me what she had found.
She started point things out as she explained her findings.
“Look! Gustavo French is really Gus Franco from Akron, Ohio.” Gus Franco? “Gus was also a dance instructor. In fact, he was one there for many years. But his Yelp rating, oh, it is remarkably dismal. I mean, look at some of these reviews.”
I skimmed a few, but the prevailing theme was that no one liked Gus and his rating was as low as physically possible on Yelp.
Ashley moved to another tab.
“Now look at the ratings for Gustavo. It’s almost all five-star ratings from the suburbs of Charlotte to Jasperville. And look at the glowing review from ‘G.G.’ I’d wager a guess that it’s Gladys.”
I’d be a part of that bet. Gladys seemed to really love Gustavo.
“So, did you come up with a plan while doing all this digging?”
Ashley smirked and went to a third tab.
“Well, you know how we have dog training tomorrow? Well, Gustavo has a late class at the high school, so we can swing by after our thing ends and confront him. I think with a two-woman front, he’ll have to confess.”
I liked it. “Let’s do it.”
Tuesday came around and Ash and I found ourselves at our second dog training session. It was fun learning with Shortbread and Biscotti, but Ash and I were itching to catch Gustavo after his class. It honestly couldn’t end soon enough.
After our class, Ash and I were out the door and on our way to the Appleton High School gym. We got there before they let the class out and lingered around with the puppies. It was just like when we waited for Gustavo outside the church, but this time we had a lot more information. I wasn’t going to let him talk his way out it.
Students started to file out and we knew we could go inside and find Gustavo right where we wanted him. Ashley and I hadn’t really discussed a plan of action, but I knew we were on the same page.
Ash and I entered the gym and found Gustavo cleaning up a few things after class. He heard the two of us entering and turned around.
“Ah, bonjour mademoiselles! You two are the ones who have no grace, non?”
That was his label for us? If anything, this man embodied the stereotypical French rudeness if anything.
“Sure,” I answered.
“How can I help you ladies today?”
Ashley and I approached him, and I started us off.
“We actually wanted to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay?”
“Mais oui. Go ahead, I am an open book.” Ashley and I gave one another a quick look.
“Well, the first thing I wanted to ask you was why did you chose to come to Appleton. It’s such a long way from France and what part of France did you say you were from?”
Ashley went right in for the hardball which was much appreciated. She did not play around.
“Oh, I am from a small town in the South, you probably do not know. And I do not really know how I found Appleton. One could say it found moi. It is just one of those… je ne sais pas.”
He wasn’t going to make this easy, so, I thought, why not just go for it? I didn’t feel like playing games.
“Why did you change your name from Gustavo to Gus and move from Ohio to North Carolina and what’s with the phony French accent and what’s the point of your entire thing?”
I hadn’t meant to ask so many questions at once, but it kind of just happened.
“I do not know why you say these things! These lies!”
He was continuing with the fake French for whatever reason.
“We’re saying them because they’re true. We looked you up online and found clear evidence they you aren’t who you say you are. Just tell us the truth. It isn’t that hard, Gus. I mean, that accent! You sound like the candelabra from Beauty and the Beast. Have you even met a French person? French Canadian? Watched a French movie? I mean, something?”
Ashley said all of that very matter-of-factually. She was very caught up in how bad his ac
cent was. I had to agree with the Lumiere comparison. His accent was that bad.
“I don’t – you can’t – that’s not very…” He kept saying that for a few more seconds before just letting out a big sigh. “Why are you hassling me?”
Well, that was a change. He dropped the accent. He sounded like a real Midwesterner. It looked like we frustrated him enough to just give up. One point for us.
“Well, to start, you were with Lonny Krump, someone’s who’s dead, and Cooter Prescott, the one who’s been accused of killing him the night of the murder. Sure, there’s no crime there, but now we know you’re pretending to be someone else, which I’m pretty sure is identity fraud. Right, Ashley?”
I turned to my friend and nodded.
“I’m pretty sure it is. So is false advertising. I mean, Gus Franco has exclusively one-star ratings on Yelp, but Gustavo French? I feel like those five-star reviews are highly misrepresentative. I mean, what would the great people of Appleton do if they found out they’ve been duped?”
It was then when Gus put up his hands.
“Hold on one second! I earned all of those reviews. I’ve done a great job teaching dance here in North Carolina. I’m an excellent teacher and no one can tell me otherwise.”
There was nothing I had to directly contradict that statement, but there was something he needed to explain.
“Well, I mean that’s not totally true,” Ashley responded. “A whole lot of people in Akron would beg to differ. What’s with all those terrible reviews back in Ohio? It doesn’t make sense why everyone back in Akron hated you so much and a change in name plus a fake accent suddenly makes you popular? Really?”
Ashley, bringing the sass.
“It wasn’t like that. I was actually a really good dance instructor in Akron. Actually, I wasn’t just good, I was the best. Do you have any idea how cutthroat the community of ballroom dance is? It’s life or death out on the dancefloor and, I guess, I got a little too comfortable at the top. My rivals had those reviews posted as a part of a smear campaign. I was driven from Akron because they were all threatened, because I was so very great. They couldn’t stand trailing in my wake and so they ruined my reputation. So, I find myself here, forced to change my identity and adopt this crazy persona, so those deceitful Yelp reviews wouldn’t follow me. It worked and, once again, I’m thriving as I should be.”
I felt like Gus was maybe being a little dramatic, but I also didn’t feel like he was lying.
“I guess that makes some kind of sense, but it still feels a little shady. You can’t just go around lying to people like that.”
I wasn’t sure what Ashley was trying to do, but I was liking it. It looked like maybe she wanted him to keep talking. He was already in a vulnerable position which meant he was a lot more likely to reveal something. What that something was could be interesting.
“Look, I really like my job here and the life I’ve made for myself. So, maybe I haven’t gone about creating it in the most conventional way, but I’m not hurting anyone okay?” Ashley gave him a look. “What would you guys say to free dance lessons for life if you promised to keep my secret?” Gus offered.
Free dance classes? For life? That was a pretty big bribe.
“Yes, we accept!” Ashley agreed heartily, and I echoed the sentiment.
Gus was kind of right. He didn’t appear to be scamming anyone. His classes seemed legit and, once again, it was free dance classes for life. At that moment, I didn’t feel like it would have been such a bad thing to go along with Gus’s little lie.
I wasn’t ready for the conversation to end, though. “Could we ask you a few more questions?”
Gus looked bothered, but he shrugged. “Sure.”
I was sure he just wanted us to leave, but we did have him in a spot. I was going to take advantage of the opportunity and see what else I could get him to reveal.
“Do any of the students smoke?” Gus took a few seconds to think.
“Um, yeah. Well, former student, Lonny. He did quite a bit actually. Before and after every class without fail and he would go behind the church. He really needed to tone it down, but I guess it doesn’t matter since he’s dead and all. And it’s not even the cigarettes that killed him.”
Yeah, a little late to think about quitting smoking.
“Do you know if he went back there the night he was murdered?”
“Probably. I mean, he went all the time, so I don’t know why he wouldn’t have. I mean, I don’t know for sure since I had to leave in a hurry for a previous engagement.” Vague…
“What engagement?”
Gus grimaced at us, “A ‘none of your business’ engagement. Look, I need to go. We have to leave the gym right when we’re scheduled to or we get charged extra.”
He made a gesture to leave, but I tried once more.
“But, Gus –”
“I have to go! Bonne nuit!”
And with that he left. I was a bit bummed that it ended so abruptly. I felt like we may have been finally getting somewhere.
“I guess he was done answering questions,” Ashley said.
She was right. Maybe I was pushing too far. I didn’t have a right to pull a part everyone’s lives, but I also didn’t want to leave any stone unturned. I couldn’t let Cooter take the blame for this. I couldn’t say that I thought Gus had something to do with the whole horrid business, but I wasn’t totally sold on him being any kind of good guy. Sure, his reasoning for the subterfuge was… acceptable, I still found him to be a bit slippery. Whether or not he was involved, I’d make sure to find that smoking gun.
Chapter Fifteen
Wednesday
It was ‘Walk to Work’ Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I had to get up super early. I couldn’t fathom how I did this as a child or how Ash had done it as a grown adult.
Anyway, every Wednesday Ash and I would walk Shortbread, and that day Bisco for the first time, over to Ted’s café to get the first brew of the morning. Unfortunately, we had to skip last week. We couldn’t figure out what to do with Biscotti. Ashley couldn’t take a puppy with her to the elementary school. First off, it was against school policy and, secondly, her students would get so off track if there was a puppy just sitting in front of them all day. They would not get a single thing done.
But, that week we came to a compromise. I would take Biscotti with Shortbread and me to work. They were fairly well behaved and I believed they wouldn’t cause too much trouble. Well, I hoped they wouldn’t cause too much trouble. I had a bit of faith in the little guys.
I met Ash at the front door. “You ready?”
“We are,” she said, looking down at Bisco. We walked over to the Appleton Café and got that first cup of the day. Ted was already stationed at the front behind the counter. I could see him pouring some of that dark delicious coffee into a cup,
“Good morning Ash, Kari. I’ve got the very first cup of joe of the day ready, just for y’all.”
He handed us the cups and, like I did every time, inhaled the intoxicating scent. Ooh, it just smelled so good. I took my first sip and almost melted.
“How do you do it, Theodore? How do you make such a good cup of coffee? How are you not the most famous café in America?” He shrugged. “Honestly, tell me your secrets,” I whispered.
He smiled at that one, but said, “I don’t know what it is, Kari? I think I just have the magic touch… or is it magic beans?”
I scrunched my nose up at him, but I knew he was playing with me.
“Well, thank you for this cup. I’m going to drink every last drop.”
Ashley and I went to sit down at one of the tables. We sat and drank for a little bit, the puppies resting at our feet. Since it was so early, the café barely had anyone coming in. Ted decided to join us with a cup of coffee of his own.
“What are you two gabbing about?” He looked between the two of us as Ashley and I considered our answers. In the end we both shrugged. “You don’t know what you were just talking about?”
>
He sounded beyond confused.
“We know what we were talking about, it’s just that it wasn’t about anything particularly important,” Ash explained.
“So, what unimportant things do you two talk about?” Ted wasn’t going to drop the subject. He was a very calm, cool, and collected fellow, but he was also quite persistent. I had learned that when he wanted something, he worked pretty hard to get it.
“Well, Ted, if you must know, Kari and I were talking about Biscotti and Shortbread needing to get jobs because if they want to continue living at our house then they’ll need to pull their weight.”
That was not even close to what we had been discussing. What we had really been discussing were some of the interesting things Ashley found cleaning out her classroom.
“You want to charge your dogs rent?” Ted turned to me with the question.
I felt like I had been thrust into Ashley’s weird vortex, but I wasn’t about to ruin the fun.
“I don’t want to, but I feel like I need to. I mean, I personally feel like they’re still a little too young, but we have to at least start talking about so when the day comes, we’re ready.”
I felt like Appleton and the friends I made there brought out a lot of the weird in me – the weird that had laid dormant while I was studying for my degree. But being in a new town gave me the freedom to explore so many facets of my personality.
“Oh, I see,” Ted said while nodding. “I can’t believe I hadn’t even considered this. Of course, you’d come to expect your dogs to pitch in. It’s really the only logical conclusion.”
Bisco and Shorty lifted their heads for a second but got disinterested in us really quickly. Whenever the two of them were close to one another, I always thought that they were whispering their secrets. I had wished to be able to understand their little conversations.
Kari Jacobs Box Set Page 26
