The Noding Field Mystery

by Christine Husom

  “I thought of that, too. My guess is that he got the evidence Ashland needed in a couple of days, and that was that.” Smoke reached over and cleared the information from the computer.

  “In Gosser’s letter, she said Leder liked young girls, but he must have also liked women. Why would he go after both and have both types of porn?” I wondered.

  “Gosser said they were addicted to each other. And you said it yourself—Leder had a Casanova Complex. It was all in the chase and the capture. No real intimacy. But it also seems to me he couldn’t quite get past his first sexual experience, if he continued to find pubescent girls arousing.”

  “You’ll have to ask Marcella Fischer for her take on that.”

  “I’ll do that. Another thing to remember, he liked young girls but he needed women to support him and his habit.”

  “Good point. And we still have the big question—who captured him, let him die, and then staked him out in Noding’s field.”

  “If it’s someone outside our radar, we’re screwed. Leanne Gosser’s phone records should have Gage Leder’s latest phone number. Each person of interest said they hadn’t had any recent contact with him. We’ll find out if any of them are lying.

  “Meantime, let’s stop by the Nodings’ and the Ashlands’ to tell them about the snowshoes, see what they have to say.”

  We pulled into the Ashlands’ driveway and got another surprise. Willie Noding was standing with Chip Ashland by his barn. They faced each other and both had their arms crossed, locked tightly against their chests, like that would prevent them from hitting the other. They turned slightly, watched us, and held their poses while we got out of the car.

  “Afternoon, men,” Smoke said. “Social call, Willie?”

  Willie looked down at the ground and shook his head. Chip raised his eyebrows. “Donna was asking about some things Gage had taken years back. Family items she’d like to get back from Tonya.”

  “Can we back up a minute here? You both indicated you didn’t know each other. Is that true?” I said.

  Willie and Chip both said, “Yes.”

  “I’m here because Donna called Tonya, asking about the few things Gage had that she’d like back. Nothing valuable, just sentimental. Tonya started crying and hung up. Since we knew about her cousin here from all that’s gone down, Donna thought I should talk to him. See if he could help.”

  “What kind of things?” Smoke asked.

  “Donna’s grandfather had a painted trunk, an old toboggan, some antique ice skates, and snowshoes. She knows her grandfather brought the trunk and skates and snowshoes over from Norway when he immigrated here as a kid, with his family. And his father made the toboggan shortly after they arrived here. We got pictures,” Willie explained.

  Chip shook his head. “It’s not up to me to get those things from Tonya, even if they are at her place.” He looked at Smoke and me. “You guys took two pair of snowshoes. Maybe they’re the ones they’re looking for.”

  Willie screwed up his face. “You took Gage’s snowshoes? Why?”

  “We don’t know if they’re the ones you’re looking for or not. But if we saw the pictures, we could compare them to the ones we have in evidence,” I said.

  “Evidence?”

  Smoke cleared his throat. “Whoever took Gage’s body to your field was wearing snowshoes.”

  “That’s crazy. Why?”

  “To cover their own footprints, most likely,” Smoke said.

  “Where are the pictures, Willie?” I asked.

  “At home.”

  I nodded. “And you also mentioned a toboggan.” I turned to Ashland. “Chip, have you seen one at Tonya’s?”

  Ashland shrugged. “Nope. But I can’t say it’s not there, either.”

  “Don’t tell me they used a toboggan, too,” Noding said.

  Smoke lifted a shoulder. “Why don’t the four of us take a trip over to Miss Tonya’s place, check on some things.”

  “I’ll be right with you. I can’t resist a closer look at the horse,” I said, mostly to Smoke.

  It took him a second. “Sure.”

  The Mustang stallion was tied to a wooden fence by the barn. I petted his long neck then snapped a photo of the knot with my cell phone. When I joined Smoke at the squad car, he said Ashland had gone inside to tell his wife he was leaving. I noticed Willie Noding was climbing into his truck.

  “Think Ashland will call Tonya to alert her?” I asked.

  “Even if he does, we’ll be at her house in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Actually, it might be a good thing—give her a minute to think about it, prepare her for our grand entrance.”

  Ashland walked out of the house, got into his own truck, and led the way to Tonya’s house. Tonya was sitting on the grass in the backyard, petting a cat that sat on her lap. She stood and looked alarmed that three vehicles had pulled into her driveway.

  Chip Ashland got out first, walked over, put an arm around her shoulder, and said something. She nodded and looked from Willie Noding to Smoke to me as we got out of our vehicles.

  “Hi, Tonya,” I said.

  “Hi, Sergeant. And everyone.”

  After Chip, I seemed to have the next best rapport with Tonya and explained about the items were looking for. I didn’t mention the evidence component.

  “Umm. Gage didn’t have ice skates, that I know of. And no trunk or toboggan, for sure. Just some snowshoes. Some are in the garage, and some you took already.” Tonya directed that at Smoke. “He mostly just brought clothes when he moved here.”

  “Easier to move on when you travel light,” Ashland said.

  Tonya’s mouth formed a pout. “That’s not nice. Gage died.”

  Chip moved his head back and forth. “I shouldn’t have said that, Tonya.”

  “So there’s no trunk or toboggan. Tonya, is it okay if we take a look at those snowshoes? Are they still in the garage?”

  She nodded then headed that way. “I keep it locked now, you know, since someone was here that time.” She lifted a medium-size rock and withdrew a key from under it. Apparently she trusted the four of us. She unlocked the door and we followed her inside. The three single windows, each on a side of the garage, offered little light. Chip flipped on the light switch. It wasn’t the junkiest garage I’d been in, nor was it the neatest. It smelled of must and old wood. I scanned the space, figuring a trunk or two could easily be hidden among the items.

  Tonya looked around. “Mostly it’s Mama and Papa’s things that Chip helped me move out of the basement when water got down there,”

  “Her washer got plugged up and overflowed,” Chip explained.

  “Where are the snowshoes?” I asked.

  She pointed to a side wall. Chip and Tonya held back while Willie, Smoke, and I checked them out. “They don’t look like the ones we’re looking for,” Willie said.

  “Newer models,” Smoke said.

  “Donna may never get them back, but that’s the way it is.” Willie shrugged.

  “Willie, we’d like to stop by your house, talk to you and Donna about a couple of things. Is she home now?”

  “Yeah. Okay. That should work.”

  We said our thanks and goodbyes to Tonya and her cousin.

  CHAPTER 24

  Donna Noding looked a little less put together each time I’d seen her. Her tan was fading, and her hair was pulled back into a less-than-flattering tight ponytail. She nodded at Smoke and I, and lifted her eyebrows when she caught her husband’s eyes.

  “No luck on the heirlooms at Tonya’s house,” Willie said.

  She nodded like she figured as much then looked at me. “I didn’t think it’d be this hard—losing Gage for good—but it is. I’m not sure why.”

  “And there are a few more things you should know about, unfortunately,” I said.

  Donna’s whole body tensed. “What things?”

  “Do you remember Gage’s first girlfriend, a girl from school named Leanne Gosser?”

  “Um, not really. Wa
it. Yeah, I can sort of picture her. I didn’t know she was his girlfriend.”

  “So he kept secrets about his women even back then?” Smoke put in.

  “Sheila Walker knew about her. We thought you would, too.” I said.

  Donna shrugged.

  “In any case, your brother has been seeing her for some years. They had an extensive collection of pornography videos, and visited porn websites.”

  She looked at the floor. “Oh. Well, that’s disgusting, but it doesn’t surprise me. Too much. Either the old girlfriend or the porn.”

  “Gage also liked child porn,” I said.

  All color drained from her face. “What?” Willie put an arm around her waist to steady her.

  “Leanne Gosser was apparently distraught over Gage’s death and took her own life. She said in a letter that Gage liked young girls,” I told them.

  “I don’t believe it,” she whispered.

  Smoke focused on Donna. “Don’t you? We have two young women who have come forward with their stories of how your brother had sex with them when they were very young.”

  Willie made a face like he had eaten something disgusting. “How could he do that?”

  I took a step toward them. “We’d like to talk to your daughter—”

  “You don’t think—” Willie’s eyebrows shot up.

  “No. I just want to rule that out.”

  “That’s sick. Even for Gage—” Donna shook her head.

  “With your permission,” I said.

  Willie and Donna studied each other’s faces for a while. Donna nodded and Willie spoke. “All right. Should we be in on it?”

  “If something happened and your daughter didn’t tell you about it, it may be better if I talk to her alone,” I said.

  “And if he did hurt her, then what? We can’t have him arrested, or kill him,” Willie said.

  “Willie,” Donna frowned.

  “Your daughter will need professional help,” I said.

  Willie looked down, seemingly to process it all. “Oh. Right.”

  Donna went upstairs and returned with her sixteen-year-old daughter Melinda. She favored her father in looks and coloring, and was very pretty and poised.

  I held my hand out and Melinda shook it. “I’m Sergeant Aleckson, but a lot of my young friends call me Sergeant Corky.”

  She gave a slight nod. “Okay.”

  “Melinda, let’s you and I go into the living room. I’d like to ask you a few things.”

  She hesitated, looked at her parents, and then led the way into the next room. We sat down on the couch, and I pulled out my memo book and pen. “It’s about your uncle.”

  “About his death, you mean?”

  “No. Some things are coming to light about him, and I thought it was important to talk to you.”

  “What kind of things? I mean, I hardly knew him really.”

  I kept my voice low and steady. “We’ve learned he molested some young teenage girls, and we’re checking with the daughters of his friends and family to see if he hurt them in any way.”

  “Icky. But I’m his niece.”

  “I know, but it even happens to nieces sometimes.”

  She straightened her arms by her sides. “That’s just awful! Well, I didn’t like my uncle, but not for that reason, at least. No, he didn’t like touch me in that way, or like, try anything. I would have told my mom. He probably knew I would, too.”

  I could believe that. “Good. I’m very relieved to hear that. Well, that’s all I needed to ask you about.” I closed my memo pad.

  “Okay. Well, it was kinda different being interviewed by a sergeant and all.”

  I smiled. “Thank you for your help, Melinda.”

  “We can eliminate that particular motive from the Nodings’ list, anyway,” Smoke said as we drove away.

  “Yes. One more thing crossed off the list.”

  “Show me the photo of the knot from Ashland’s farm.”

  I passed my phone over. “Think you can navigate my phone to find it?”

  “I’ll let you know.” He fiddled with the buttons and found the photo on my phone, then compared it with the ones on his camera. “Huh. Well, Ashland’s is similar to the slipknot at the scene, except double. Like it was looped again.”

  “That makes sense for tying a horse. It’s more secure, and all you have to do is pull the one end to release it.”

  “Right. I don’t know about you, but Noding and Ashland aren’t completely erased from my book yet.”

  “I agree. We’ll keep probing.”

  Smoke pulled his memo book and pen from his breast pocket. “It’s time to have another chat with Rennie Leder.” He tried her cell and home phone numbers and they both went to voicemail. He called the hospital and was told she wasn’t there. “I wish she wasn’t so damn far away, so we could cruise by her house, see if she’s home and why she’s not picking up.”

  “That reminds me. We should touch base with Morgan Leder and Lea Regan, find out how it went telling their mothers their secrets. If they did, that is.”

  “Good idea. You want to make the calls, being you’re female, and it’s a sensitive area for them?”

  “Sure.” I had their numbers programmed in my phone and tried first Morgan, then Lea. Neither answered. I left brief messages. “Where is everyone today?”

  “Monday afternoon? My guess is the girls are not ready to talk to us. Maybe they didn’t work up the nerve to talk to their mothers.”

  “Maybe not.”

  We found Bob Edberg in the conference room where he was wrapping up the phone record work. “Seems we’re locating some important pieces of our puzzle,” Edberg said.

  “Yeah?” Smoke said.

  “We got Rennie Leder’s cell and home phone records—the ones we were missing. Turns out she had two cell phones.”

  “Really?”

  “One with a local area code and one in Kentucky. The local one she’s had for years. Same network as Morgan Leder. Probably cheaper that way—if you’re talking as much as they do.”

  “Yeah, the minutes aren’t counted against you,” I said.

  “We also got Leanne Gosser’s home phone records.” Bob held up the printouts and pointed to a few places. “I’d say this has got to be the latest number for Gage Leder.” He handed the paper to Smoke who took a look, and then handed it to me.

  “We’ll get the number to communications, see if they can trace where Leder may have been the last few days of his life,” Smoke said.

  I sat down and studied the records. “Rennie Leder, Nora Leder, and Bridget Reagan all have some explaining to do. Rennie was calling from her local cell phone, and since we didn’t have that number, we didn’t flag it.”

  “Yeah, for three women who say they don’t have much to do with each other, they still managed a bunch of phone conversations,” Edberg said.

  We all studied the papers a while. “A few calls from Nora to Rennie and vice versa back in March—must have been during spring break week,” I said.

  “Bingo! I’m thinkin’ Rennie didn’t keep her promise to Morgan after all, to keep what her father did to her a secret.”

  I checked the dates of the calls. “Yeah, Rennie called Nora first. They spoke many times, back and forth. Then Nora called Bridget, and they had a number of calls, back and forth. It has to be connected to Morgan’s confession.”

  “Any of them call Gage Leder? Or did Leder call one of them?” Smoke asked.

  “Let’s each take one, it’ll be faster.” Edberg suggested.

  We went through them, but didn’t find one. I picked up Leanne Gosser’s records and scanned from the bottom up. “Guess who called Gosser on May nineteenth? Nora Leder. From her cell phone.”

  Smoke and Bob both leaned in closer to me. I handed the sheet to Smoke.

  “The plot thickens. For a friendly chat, or looking for Leder?”

  “Gee, I wonder,” I said.

  Smoke glanced at his watch. “Four-eleven. Nora sho
uld still be at work. How about I head over to her office. Corky, you take these numbers to communications. And Bob, if you wouldn’t mind, gather up the records, take some photos of the white board, and then erase it.”

  Edberg and I agreed to our assignments and Smoke left. I gathered the papers I needed then left Bob to finish up. I found Sergeant Hastings in his office in the communications department.

  “Checking to see if we have any more cemetery action?” he asked when he saw me.

  “No, but is there?”

  “Nothing specific to Leder’s grave.”

  “Oh well.” I handed the phone records to Hastings. “We have a few things to check when you—or one of your officers—have time.”

  “I got the time right now. Whadaya need?”

  “Here is the most recent number we have for Gage Leder.” I jotted it on a memo page. “In case it’s lying in a ditch somewhere, and we can still trace it. And if we can check to see where Nora Leder was when she called this number. If it bounced off a tower here.” I wrote out the two numbers and handed them over.

  “Let’s go check it out now.”

  There were four stations where communications officers fielded calls and dispatched deputies and ambulances for any number of emergencies. Each sat in front of five screens to assist them in giving the callers the best supportive help and the fastest response time possible. They were still learning the intricacies of the newly upgraded system.

  Officers occupied three of the stations, so the fourth one was open. Hastings slid onto a chair that not only swiveled, but also raised and lowered at the push of a button. I stood a couple of feet behind him. “Okay. Let’s check to see if there’s anything on Leder’s number.” He punched the number into the global positioning system and waited while any number of towers searched. “Huh. Nothing. No GPS in the disposable, or it’s dead. I’ll check the computer, see where it pinged from. Was it the nineteenth?”

  “Yeah, why don’t you check from the twelfth, or so, on.”

  Smoke joined us when Hastings was searching. “Nora’d already left for the day, and she’s not answering her home or cell phone.”