Chapter 37
Penelope went to the sheriff’s office first thing the next morning and filed a report for her missing jewelry.
“Never a dull moment,” the sheriff said.
Penelope sighed and rose to leave after he assured her he’d keep an eye out for her things.
“Well, I don’t have a lot of hope of seeing them again, but thank you,” Penelope said. “I wanted to ask you…”
The sheriff looked at her with his familiar wary gaze.
“How well did you know your predecessor, Sheriff Helmsley?”
Sheriff Bryson’s face fell. “Not at all. I never met the man. I came on board after he…passed away. I was a forest ranger, reported to Quincy, didn’t have a lot of contact with the sheriff’s office.”
“I read that his son is in jail. And that he used to run with Bailey.”
“I read the papers too,” he said, not offering any further information or encouraging the conversation.
Penelope looked at him expectantly.
“Helmsley won’t be back for a long time, if ever,” Sheriff Bryson said. “Now, if there’s nothing else...”
When she stepped back onto the sidewalk, she almost ran into Edie on her way into the station.
“What are you doing here?” Edie asked casually. Penelope thought she still looked at her suspiciously.
“There was an incident at the inn. Someone broke into my room, stole some things,” Penelope said.
Edie’s expression softened. “Sorry to hear that.” She hitched her purse strap higher on her shoulder after it slipped down her coat sleeve.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you...you knew Kellie Foster, one of the missing Forrestville Five?”
“Yeah, I knew her,” Edie said. “Whole reason I became a cop in the first place.”
“Really? So you guys were friends?”
“Are friends,” Edie said. “I still think we’ll find her somewhere.”
“What do you think happened to her? Or to any of them?” Penelope asked.
Edie looked down at Penelope, considering. “Something happened, I think, something that made her want to disappear.”
“Like something at school or at home?” Penelope asked. “Was she being bullied?”
Edie shook her head. “No, she comes from a good family—her folks are the best. I was over there all the time and still see them. She never said what it was, but that last year, when we got back from spring break...she was different somehow. Then she skipped practice, didn’t come to school. Then she was gone.” Edie swiped at her cheek and hardened her stare at Penelope.
“Did you know all the files from back then are missing?” Penelope asked.
Edie paused, allowing a man to pass by before responding. “How do you know that?”
“I found out,” Penelope said. “Why is that?”
Edie pulled her away from the front of the police station. “Walk with me.”
They walked slowly, stopping in front of the diner. “This is where she worked after school,” Edie said. “She was saving up for her first car. She had dreams of playing ball at IU; she practiced all the time.” Edie paused. “Those files are somewhere.”
“Is there an archive somewhere?” Penelope asked.
“That’s the thing. The computer copies were wiped, and the paper files in police storage are gone. Someone tried to erase the cases, get rid of the Forrestville Five.”
“I want to help,” Penelope said.
Edie put a hand on Penelope’s shoulder and smiled weakly. “I can see that. I’ve been trying to figure this case out ever since I passed the police test. I’ll get there eventually.”
“I hope you do,” Penelope said. “I really do.”
Chapter 38
Penelope stood next to Sybil the next afternoon on the set. She was armed with correctly made smoothies for Dakota and Jackson for when they wrapped up their scene.
Jackson seemed out of sorts that day, and had more than the usual number of missed cues and forgotten lines. Dakota played happily outside of camera range like she always did, spinning herself around or using her fingers as pretend puppets to talk to each other.
“Cut!” Jennifer yelled, then looked guiltily at Janie, who gazed at the set from a director’s chair. “Let’s take twenty and reset.”
The crew members wandered away for their short break, heading to the craft-service table for a snack or stepping outside for air.
Janie waved Jennifer over to her chair and pointed to something on her copy of the script. Jackson and Dakota hurried over to Penelope and she gave them their smoothies. She watched their cheeks sink in as they sucked the strawberry and almond milk concoctions through the wide straws.
“Jackson,” Sybil asked when he took a break from his drink, “what’s going on today? Are you feeling all right?”
Jackson rolled his eyes at his mom, which caused her to put her hand to her throat. “Excuse me, young man, but you will not roll your eyes at your mother.”
Penelope took a step backwards, not wanting to intrude on the private mother-son moment. Just then Randall strolled onto the set, making his way to Arlena and giving her a quick hug. Jackson rolled his eyes again and stalked away, sucking harder on his straw.
“Thanks, Miss Penelope,” Dakota said, keeping an eye on her brother.
“You’re welcome, sweetie,” Penelope said, giving Sybil a sympathetic glance.
“He’s upset I went out last night,” Sybil said, waving it off. “He’ll get over it.”
Penelope nodded silently. She couldn’t pretend to know what it was like to be a single mother, or to even have children for that matter.
“Sybil,” Penelope said, “remember that thing you said last night about an investment opportunity?”
Sybil nodded as she tightened Dakota’s pigtails, tugging gently on them until the girl protested and scurried away. “Yes, it’s restaurant shares or something. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. Ava pitched me after a few glasses of wine at the bar, then dropped off some paperwork at the inn. To be honest, I haven’t looked at it. Like I said, I was just being polite.”
“Thanks,” Penelope said. “See you at dinner later?”
“Maybe,” Sybil said, throwing a glance in Randall’s direction. Arlena gave Sybil a tight smile. Penelope got the impression Arlena wasn’t thrilled at the idea of sharing her father either, even though she was twenty years older than Jackson. Penelope figured some things between parents and children never changed.
“Herring – Steele,” Penelope mumbled, swiping open her iPad in the cab of her truck and searching up the company’s website. She was curious why Ava had never mentioned anything about an investment group to her at the restaurant, considering they had been working so closely the past few weeks.
Penelope searched the company name again, this time adding on “restaurant” to the keywords. No official website appeared, but a link to a PDF on the state of Indiana’s property registry caught her eye. A deed inched open on the screen listing Herring – Steele Inc. as the seller and Jacob Pears as the buyer of the address 227 Main Street in Forrestville. Penelope tried to picture which building that was. Not able to place it, she searched it and found it was the diner.
“Jacob Pears,” Penelope said out loud in the truck. “The owner of the newspaper owns the diner too?” She wasn’t sure what that meant, if anything, but it certainly was interesting that the man who had the only competing eatery in town had attempted to tarnish Festa’s reputation. “At the very least that’s a conflict of interest. At most he was intentionally trying to damage Jordan’s business.”
She thought back to Ava in the kitchen telling her that she and Jordan bought the diner before Festa was renovated and opened.
“Maybe they made a bad deal,” Penelope pondered out loud. “Or he just really doesn’t like Fest
a’s food.” Penelope tried to imagine which scenario made more sense and failed to come up with a logical reason for either. She hopped down from the cab and locked up, then walked over to Festa to ask Ava herself.
As she crossed the courtyard, Penelope’s phone buzzed in her back pocket. “Sheriff Bryson,” Penelope said. “What can I do for you?”
“I was wondering if you could come down to the station,” he said. “I’ve got some paperwork for you. Some new information has come to light regarding the restaurant break-in.”
“You should talk to Ava,” Penelope said, happy to have washed her hands of all things Festa.
“Well, I could,” the sheriff answered cagily. “But I prefer speaking with you. Would you mind heading over?”
Penelope sighed. “Sure, I’ll let my team know I’ll be off-site for a bit.”
Sheriff Bryson hung up without saying goodbye. Penelope turned and walked to the parking lot.
Chapter 39
Penelope was surprised to see Regina sitting in Sheriff Bryson’s office, a sweatshirt hood pulled up over her dark red hair. Her magenta lipstick was freshly applied, but the rest of her face looked oily and unwashed, her usual dark eyeliner faded. She still sported her standard bored sneer. Penelope sat down in the chair next to her in front of the sheriff’s desk.
“Regina,” Penelope said. “What are you doing here? Everyone’s been looking for you.”
“I don’t know what for.” Regina sniffed, rolling her eyes. “I’m allowed to go off if I want to.”
“Your mother was worried. You still live under her roof,” Sheriff Bryson said. “The right thing to do is to call.”
“So you weren’t missing, just…hiding?” Penelope asked.
“She was up at Bailey’s campsite.”
Penelope leaned forward in her chair. “I told you I saw someone else.”
“Yes, you did,” the sheriff said. “The forensic investigators from Quincy came across a lot of interesting things up there, Regina included.”
“What else did they find?” Penelope asked.
“Food, a couple of bottles of liquor from the restaurant. At least that’s where I assume they’re from.”
“I’m glad you found Regina,” Penelope said. “But why are you telling me? I’m not involved with the restaurant anymore.”
He pulled a small manila envelope from his desk drawer and handed it to Penelope.
She pulled open the flap and slid one of her necklaces out, rubbing her thumb over the pendant and her etched initials. A wave of emotion passed over her and she decided then to make a trip down to Florida to see her parents the next time she had a break. Getting her necklace back reminded her how much she missed them.
“You made the first complaint, brought all of this to my attention,” Sheriff Bryson said.
Penelope nodded, keeping her emotions in check. “Why did you break into my room?” she asked the girl.
Regina shrugged, but Penelope saw what looked like regret behind her defiant mask. “I know where they keep the room keys. I used to be one of the part-time maids, before I finally got a better position at the restaurant. At least I thought it was better. I was just getting back at you for firing me. I only wanted to scare you, but…”
“Old habits kicked in,” Sheriff Bryson said.
“Old habits?” Penelope asked.
He nodded. “Regina here has a knack for palming personal items. This isn’t her first arrest for theft. Her mother is on the way to get her, sign her out.” He ducked his head and looked up at the girl, his fingers interlaced on the desk in front of him. Regina stared back and slid down in her seat, her hands stuffed firmly in her sweatshirt pockets.
“Tell her what you told me earlier,” he said sternly.
Regina sighed dramatically. “Fine. I never should have opened my mouth. If I’d known I’d be stuck here all day, I never would have.”
“Right, I know,” the sheriff said. “Now talk.”
“It’s no big secret we’re up in the woods at night,” Regina said. “Everyone knows about it at the restaurant.”
“It’s your hangout. Big deal,” Penelope said, looking at the sheriff.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Regina said, picking at some lint on her sleeve.
“No, there’s more,” the sheriff said.
After a long pause, Regina began again. “Ava knows we take stuff sometimes,” Regina said. “She’ll tell you she doesn’t, but she gives me food, liquor, stuff we can take over to the campsite.”
Penelope looked at the sheriff again, frustration beginning to build. “What does that have to do with anything that’s happened?”
“Because,” Regina said, sitting up straight for the first time. “She’s acting like she didn’t know, trying to make people think Bailey’s the one who killed Jordan.”
Penelope looked at the sheriff. “Can I talk to you alone for a minute?”
Sheriff Bryson escorted Regina to a room across the hall and closed her inside. Leaving his office door open, he sat back down. “She’s saying it wasn’t Bailey.”
“You’re going to take the word of a troubled young girl who spends her time hanging at a campsite in the woods as evidence? And you’re telling me she has a record already?”
“At the very least, I can get Ava for supplying alcohol to a minor,” Sheriff Bryson said.
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Penelope said, standing up. “Ava is an adult, a business owner in your community. What is it with you and Bailey that you need to protect him all the time?”
Sheriff Bryson’s expression faltered. “Bailey hasn’t gotten a fair shake in life. I’ll admit, our department hasn’t been fair to him in the past. He’s easily talked into things, then he gets left behind when his friends run away or think of better stories to get themselves out of trouble.”
“You’ve arrested him before when he shouldn’t have been?” Penelope asked. “If that’s true, then drop the charges or throw out the case.”
“That’s not how it works. Once you go through the system, that stays with you,” he said. For the first time, Penelope sensed real regret from the sheriff.
“The article I read made him out to be the ringleader,” Penelope said. “He didn’t talk those other boys into vandalism, malicious destruction of property?”
“That’s how it was reported, but after getting to know the kid better, I don’t think that’s what actually happened. But all of that is in the past; we can’t undo it. I can, however, not send him up because someone more savvy knows how to position him into the spotlight.”
“That may be true, but you can’t discount evidence because of personal feelings or to make up for some mistake from your past,” Penelope said. She wished there was more room in the cramped office to pace. “Can you separate the two or are you set on protecting him?”
When he didn’t answer right away Penelope said, “I should go. Thanks for finding my things.”
“Wait,” Sheriff Bryson said, standing up from his desk.
Penelope stopped, her hand resting on the doorknob.
“Those kids were going missing around the time Bailey was up to no good with those other boys,” he began. His face turned red and he struggled to find the right words. “Lots of people in town thought he had something to do with the disappearances.”
Penelope pulled out her phone and scrolled to the photos she’d taken of the missing persons flyers. “Which one?”
“The last one to go. The Foster girl. Bailey admitted he’d seen Kellie before she disappeared,” he said, shaking his head. “He told folks she went off on her own into the woods, wasn’t part of the messing around with cars or spray painting trees. She stayed for a while at the camp, then wanted to get back home. But she never made it. No one has seen her again. Still, suspicion has never left him. I know that kid. He wouldn’t hu
rt an innocent girl.”
“What about the other two boys?” Penelope asked.
“Both were seen in town, one at his job,” the sheriff said, deflating. “Bailey was the only one who didn’t have anyone to account for him.”
“Where are the files on these kids?” Penelope asked.
Sheriff Bryson gave her a cold stare. “I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know this?” Penelope asked.
“I’ve talked to Bailey, trying to rebuild the information.”
“Well, that’s not good enough,” Penelope said. “Who were the other officers? What else can you find?”
“It all disappeared with Helmsley,” the sheriff said.
Penelope considered his words. “Your answers lie with him, then.”
“Believe me, I know.”
“Why is Bailey always hanging around up in the forest?” Penelope asked, not sure what to think. A headache was beginning, right behind her eyes.
“His daddy’s been taking him up there since he was a boy. A lot of people around here spend time in the woods. His aunt has a cabin out on the edge.” The sheriff shrugged. “Bailey knows the area well, says he feels at home there. He’s not ready to live on his own, but it’s a place for him to go and be alone.”
“Did you investigate if he was connected to the rest of the Forrestville Five? Or are you giving him a pass on that also?” Penelope asked, slipping her phone back in her pocket.
Sheriff Bryson let her comment slide.
“We looked for the kids, of course we did,” he said. “As far as anyone knows, they just ran off. It happens, small town like this with not many opportunities.”
Penelope thought about the one-hundred-acre park and all the wildlife that lived just beyond the town. “What are the chances, if something did happen to one or more of the missing, they’d be found in those woods? If Bailey knows the area as well as he says, wouldn’t it be easy for him to dispose of a body without anyone ever finding it?”
Murder Is the Main Course Page 19
