The Road to Wrinkle Ranch

by Nick Russell

  The real estate broker thought for a minute and said, “Roger Bentley."

  “Over at Somerton County Land and Homes? Why would he have a problem with Audrey?"

  "I know he tried to hire her to come to work for him a couple of times and she said no, and to be honest with you, I think he's the kind of guy that would look at a woman like her and not only see dollar signs, but maybe think he could get something else going besides a working relationship."

  "Why would you say that about him? Has he ever given you any indication about something like that before?"

  "The man’s a pig, okay? I wouldn't put anything past him.”

  "I don't know much about the real estate business," John Lee said. "Is there a reason why Audrey and Lonnie would have been in his car together before the accident?"

  “No. No way. Those two, they were like… how can I say it? They were both super achievers, they were both focused on the dollars, there was no love lost between them whatsoever."

  “Besides the closing she had yesterday, has Audrey talked about anything else going on? Any problems she was having with anybody?"

  "She was unhappy in her marriage. I know that for a fact."

  “Any idea what the problem was there?”

  “Let's face it, Sonny Rittenhouse is a nice guy. Salt of the earth. No question about that. I'm sure when they first got together, right out of high school, they loved each other. But Audrey outgrew him, as terrible as that is to say. She was moving forward in her life and he was content to drive a truck and come home and work on old cars. Audrey wanted the finer things in life, and she deserved them, not some good old boy with grease under his fingernails. She wanted to make her mark in the world and he was an anchor holding her back. He knew she was so much better than him and he resented that."

  “When we talked to him, he seemed very proud of his wife and her accomplishments," Maddy said.

  "If he said that and you believed it, he needs to be here in this office working for me," Alice said. “Because if he could sell you on that story, he's probably as good or better than Audrey would have ever been."

  Chapter 11

  John Lee and Maddy went to lunch at the Fry Basket, one of their favorites. He ordered a bacon cheeseburger and waffle fries, while Maddy chose the shrimp and scallop combo. Seated at the table waiting for their order to be delivered, Maddy asked, "What do you think about that story about Sonny Rittenhouse and Audrey not getting along?"

  "I don't know what to say," John Lee said. “The guy certainly seemed broken up to me. How about you?"

  "Yeah, he did," Maddy agreed. "But we both know that people lie all the time and some can be pretty damn good actors."

  “I think we need to go back to the office and do some background checking on Sonny and Audrey, and on Lonnie and his wife,” John Lee said.

  "What are we going to be looking for, John Lee?"

  "First of all, for any kind of domestic disturbance calls to either house. Maybe there is something to what Audrey’s boss said about them not getting along. And it sounds like Darci and Lonnie didn't get along all that well at times."

  “I guess it’s worth a shot, and if Darci McBride believed that her husband was stepping out on her, maybe there's something there. And what about Darci saying Vince would kill Lonnie if he found out he was cheating on her?"

  “To be honest with you, I think he's all talk and no action," John Lee said. “He's a blowhard and he wants everybody to think he’s something special, but I'm not convinced. Still, I’d like to know more about the guy if I could.”

  "By the way, I saw you eyeing his wife when we were there today," Maddy teased. “Just how much of her did you see when she was sunbathing, John Lee?"

  “Enough to know that she’s way out of my league. At least that's what her husband told me. He said it takes money to have a woman like that."

  "High maintenance?"

  “I don't think those boobs and nose are factory equipment,” John Lee said.

  “With a woman like that right down the road, why in the world would you settle for me and all of my baggage? Don’t you think you deserve a trophy wife, too?”

  “Every trophy I ever saw was just plated to make it look good,” John Lee replied. “You’re the real thing.”

  “You know, it’s that kind of talk that’s going to get you laid in ways you can’t even imagine in just a few more days,” she said.

  “Really? Because I have a pretty good imagination.”

  “Oh, trust me, you have no idea,” she said. “I learned things working vice over in Jacksonville that would make your hair stand on end.” She looked around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear, then added, “And it wouldn’t only be your hair standing up if you get my drift.”

  The waitress brought their orders before John Lee could respond and made a point of telling Maddy how good it was to see her back and said, "I just know you're gonna pick up right where you left off and set the world on fire, Maddy Westfall."

  "Well, Brenda, I will do my best," Maddy assured her. The waitress patted her on the shoulder and said, “You make me proud to be your friend, Maddy."

  She moved away and Maddy shook her head, saying, "Everybody thinks I did something special, John Lee."

  "You did do something special," he told her. "You survived, Maddy."

  “You know, sometimes it bothers me that everybody in town knows what happened."

  “Maddy, you were a victim," John Lee told her. “Don't start thinking you’re supposed to be wearing a scarlet letter or some nonsense like that, okay?"

  “You make it a lot easier for me," she told him. “There was a time when I didn't know if I was ever going to get out of the darkness."

  "I know,” he told her, “and I've got to admit, I wondered myself a few times."

  There were tears in her eyes when she looked at him and said, “I couldn’t have done it without you and Beth Ann and Dixie, and my counselor. If I didn't have the support of all of you, I don't know what I would have done.” She paused for a moment and said, "Just knowing what I almost did scares the hell out of me."

  John Lee knew she was referring to the night when she put her 40 caliber Glock pistol to her temple and was getting ready to pull the trigger, thinking it was the only way to escape the demons that plagued her.

  Maddy shivered when she said, “It's terrifying to think of what might have happened if Dixie and Beth Ann hadn’t shown up when they did.”

  He reached across the table and took her hand.

  “That was then, and this is now, Maddy. You’ll be fine. And don’t forget that I’m beside you every step of the way."

  "I need that, John Lee," she said. “You have no idea how much I need you to be there."

  “Always," he promised her.

  ***

  Two hours later John Lee looked up from his computer’s screen and asked, “Did you find anything?"

  Maddy shook her head and said, "I got the license plate number for Audrey’s car. Other than that, not a thing. Nothing out of line at either the McBride or the Rittenhouse homes. No calls about any disturbances, no complaints from the neighbors about fighting, nothing at all."

  “Except for some puff pieces in the newspaper about their sales, I couldn't find anything either. So what does that mean?"

  "I guess it means either Audrey's boss was wrong about there being problems in the marriage, or if there were, they kept them to themselves."

  "I’m not sure about that," John Lee said. “If they kept it to themselves, how would Audrey’s boss know about it? She must have confided in her somehow for her to say that. And she was very specific about what the problems were. That Audrey had moved on and was going places with her life that Sonny was never going to go."

  "Or fit in, maybe?"

  “What do you mean, Maddy?"

  “Let's say that all of a sudden things were skyrocketing for Audrey. And Sonny, he's like he said, happy to be a truck driver. What if she wanted to move up in th
e world and saw him as a liability? Something holding her back?"

  "I guess that's a possibility. But how do we find that out?"

  "Same way we find anything out, John Lee. We ask a lot of people a lot of questions."

  “Well, I guess we better get back at it," he said.

  They were on their way out the door when Chief Deputy Dick Schroeder stopped them. "You guys found anything yet?"

  “A couple of things, but I don't know how helpful they are at this point," John Lee said.

  "Give me the Reader's Digest condensed version," Schroeder said.

  "Darci McBride believed her husband was cheating on her," John Lee said. "We don’t know if that's true or not, but she believed it was. She said something about her never telling her brother-in-law, Vince Agosti, about it because, and these are her words, Dick, ‘he would kill Lonnie.’"

  "That's interesting. What do we know about this Agosti guy?"

  “He's a loudmouth with a bad attitude, but I don't think he's a killer," Maddy said. “That is, not based on what I've seen in his record so far."

  “What have you found out about him?"

  “He owned a bunch of car washes and laundromats up in New Jersey, and he had his hand in several shopping centers and things like that. He and his wife moved down here a couple of years ago. I guess they were dividing their time between Jersey and here until he got the house built. I can't find any record of him being involved in anything illegal. He’s had two traffic tickets in the last five years. One for speeding and one for passing a stopped school bus with its light flashing. Showed up in court, paid his fines and that was it.”

  “All right, let’s not close that line of thinking yet," Schroeder said. “When someone makes an accusation like that, and then somebody turns up dead under these circumstances, we can't just ignore it. Anything else?"

  “We talked to McBride’s and Audrey Rittenhouse's bosses at their real estate companies. No one knew why the two of them would be together, and there were some indications that they were very competitive and didn't really care much for each other."

  “Okay, that it?"

  “Not completely," John Lee said, “according to her boss, Audrey was unhappy in her marriage and may have wanted out."

  "Really? Do you think her husband was involved in any way?"

  “To be honest, I just don't see it," Maddy said. "I've seen a lot of people going through hard times and handling bad news, and this guy was broken hearted. If he was faking it, he needs to be out in Hollywood, not here in Somerton County driving a milk truck."

  "Well, keep at both avenues, and anything else you can come up with," Schroeder said. “Take a long look at the two victims. Maybe there’s someone else who might have had a problem with one or both of them.”

  "We're on it," John Lee said.

  “I appreciate it. There’s a lot of talk and a lot of speculation going on around the county. We need to get somewhere with this as fast as we can, okay?"

  Another hour of searching records on their computers got them nothing at all. Neither Lonnie McBride nor Audrey Rittenhouse had any criminal contact with the law, there were no reports of problems with customers or coworkers, no arguments with neighbors. Nothing. Nothing that would help them find out why they wound up ground under the wheels of a freight train.

  “It's almost 4 o'clock," Maddy said. “Any ideas what else we can do today, John Lee?"

  "I'm not sure. I guess we can take a run at this Wanda Coleman and see if she and Lonnie actually had anything going on or if that was just speculation."

  Maddy pushed back her chair and stood up, saying as she stretched, "Let's give it a shot. What do we have to lose?"

  Chapter 12

  Wanda Coleman lived in a two-story, wood-frame house on Wendover Drive, a quiet back street in Somerton with nice middle-class houses set on large, well-trimmed yards. As they got out of the car a floppy eared Springer Spaniel ran up to them barking and wagging its stump of a tail, its whole body wiggling with excitement.

  "Hello there, girl," John Lee said, bending down to pat the dog's head. It promptly rolled over onto its back to get its belly rubbed, too.

  "Well aren't you the friendly little one?"

  The dog followed them up onto the wide front porch with a wrought iron rack of flowerpots and a wooden porch swing. John Lee pressed the doorbell. They could hear a television playing from inside, and a moment later, footsteps coming toward the door. The woman who opened it was not what either of them had expected. The photographs they had seen of Lonnie McBride and Audrey Rittenhouse were of two thirtyish, good-looking people. People obviously on their way up. Wanda Coleman looked exactly like Roger Bentley had described her. A mother dealing with empty nest syndrome who just wanted a reason to get out of the house and have something to do. She was probably in her mid-30s, not overweight but not slender by any means either, with frizzy brown hair, no makeup, and a worried expression on her face when she saw the police car and both of them in uniforms.

  "Did something happen to one of my kids?"

  Seeing the anxious look on her face, Maddy quickly put her at ease, "No, ma'am, nothing like that at all. Are you Wanda Coleman?"

  "Yeah, that's me. My kids are okay? What about George?"

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. George is…?"

  “My husband, George Coleman. Has something happened to him?"

  “No. Nobody is in trouble or in danger or anything like that," Maddy told her. “But could we come in and talk for a moment or two?"

  The woman still looked anxious, not sure what was going on, but she nodded her head and stepped back, waving them in.

  "I'm sorry, I just… I'm not used to the police showing up at my door."

  "I understand," Maddy told her, “and we didn't mean to scare you about anything. We just wanted to know if you could tell us anything about a gentleman by the name of Lonnie McBride?"

  Wanda looked at them and the worried expression on her face turned sour. “What about Lonnie?"

  "We understand you two worked together at Somerton County Land and Homes?"

  "Yeah, I worked there for a while. I don't anymore."

  “What are you doing now?"

  "Just staying home, taking care of the house and waiting for George and the kids to get home every day."

  "Did you enjoy the real estate business?"

  Wanda shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess so. It was all right. But I wasn't making any money at it. It just got to the point where it wasn't worth getting up in the morning, getting dressed and going to the office and doing nothing. I could have made more money working the drive-in window at a fast food place."

  "I'm sorry to hear that," Maddy told her. "I guess it's not for everybody."

  "I guess not. I know it wasn't for me."

  She didn't offer them seats, so they were still standing inside the door talking.

  “Mrs. Coleman, you worked with Lonnie McBride at the real estate company, right?"

  “Yeah, I worked with Lonnie."

  "And how did you two get along?"

  “What do you mean, how did we get along?"

  "Just that. Did you guys get along well when you were working together?"

  Wanda's eyes moved from side to side and she said, "I guess so. Yeah, we got along okay."

  John Lee and Maddy had both been police officers long enough to know when someone was hesitant and hedging their answers.

  "I'm assuming you heard about the accident yesterday," Maddy said.

  "Yeah, I heard about it. Has it been confirmed that it was Lonnie?"

  "Not yet," Maddy told her. "We’re going to have to use DNA to make positive identifications. We’re waiting for the results of that now."

  Wanda shivered at the thought of what must have happened to the victims of the crash if that was the only way to identify them. "That's terrible to have something like that happen."

  "Yes, it is," Maddy told her. "How did you feel, knowing that Lonnie was probably one of the vict
ims?"

  "How did I feel? I don't know. How was I supposed to feel?"

  "Well, were you sad?"

  "Not really, I guess." She looked at them and quickly added, "I know that must sound heartless, answering like that, but I really didn't know Lonnie all that well. He was just a guy sitting at a desk next to me."

  "What about Audrey Rittenhouse? Do you know her?"

  "I knew her when she was a kid. Her and my sister were friends when they were in fifth or sixth grade, something like that."

  “When was the last time you talked to Audrey or Lonnie?"

  Wanda's eyes narrowed and she asked "What's this all about? You can’t think I had anything to do with their accident?"

  "Oh, no, ma'am," John Lee assured her. “We’re just doing a background check on everything about them, and your name came up in association with Lonnie."

  "My name came up? Why would my name come up?"

  "I guess because you two worked together," John Lee said.

  "That's what we were, co-workers. I don't know why you're asking me all these questions."

  Both John Lee and Maddy could tell that the woman had something to hide based upon her body language and the defensive tone of her voice.

  "So, getting back to Lonnie, have you seen him since you left the real estate company?"

  "No. Why would I see him? I don't know why you're asking me these questions."

  "Like Deputy Quarrels said, we’re just following up."

  "Well, that's all I know. I worked with the guy for a while. Now, I've got some baking to do if you don't mind."

  Wanda started to pull the door open and Maddy interrupted her, saying, "Actually, your name came up in kind of a strange way in this investigation."

  "A strange way? What are you talking about?"

  "Let's cut to the chase, Mrs. Coleman. Did you have any kind of a relationship with Lonnie McBride outside of the office?"

  “Relationship? Why would you ask me that?"

  "His wife seems to think that you and Lonnie might have had some kind of a physical relationship going on."