by Anne Hagan
I put everything back in the file and laid it aside. It was helpful and yet it wasn’t. Either sloppy police work abounded under Sweeney or someone had cleansed the file of anything truly incriminating over the years since Tanner’s murder.
Chapter 14
10:35 AM, Sunday Morning, November 8th
I had Boo on a leash and Jef in the stroller, ready for a Sunday morning spin around the block while the weather was still dry and holding at a decent temperature. We were held up in the driveway though because Jef threw a little bit of a hissy fit when he spied Mel loading Beth’s dirt bike into the back of her pickup truck but I was pushing him on past. He was fascinated by anything with wheels and the bike was of interest to him whenever it was out, moving or not.
While we were watching Mel and Beth strap it down, a car slowed out on the State Route and then turned ever so slowly into the driveway. The young woman driving swerved to my side when she saw the truck being loaded but she stopped well short of Jef, me and the dog. As she got out of the car, Beth jumped down from the bed of the truck and hustled over to meet her.
“Hi, I’m Beth,” she gushed. “You must be Morgan. Hannah said you were coming. She’s inside. You can go right on in, if you like.”
I chuckled at Beth jumping in and taking charge, as usual, but Morgan seemed confused.
“Are you her sister?” Morgan asked.
“Me? No. Well, sort of. More like her cousin. I live next door. These are my aunts.”
Morgan looked from me to Mel and back again. Her eyes grew wide.
Beth didn’t catch it. “And that’s Jef,” she said, pointing at the stroller.
Hannah stepped out onto the porch.
Mel, seemingly oblivious to most of the exchange, sketched a wave at Morgan and called to Beth, “Come on, shake a leg. The sooner we get there the sooner we can get you qualified for the series next season and get out to the farm.”
“It’s nice to meet you Morgan,” I said and nodded toward her.
Turning to Mel and Beth, I called out, “Please be careful. I’ll see you both later.” With that, I maneuvered the stroller around Morgan’s car, along the driveway and out to the sidewalk. I really wanted to be a fly on the wall while the the two budding chefs were getting to know each other and laying out their plans but I knew better. They needed a little space.
We wheeled up the street at a pretty good clip until Boo jerked to a stop to give a tree a particularly long sniff. No amount of prodding on my part would back her off so I just let her go. Still holding the leash, I stooped down and cooed at Jef to keep him occupied while Boo did whatever it was she was doing.
She lasted about 30 more seconds at her sniffing until she realized we were doing something that didn’t involve her and then she scampered back to me allowing the extendible leash to retract. I scratched her behind the ear then got up from my crouch.
As I stood, I glanced across the street toward the store and nearly did a double take. My mother’s car was parked outside.
“Wonder what Grandma’s up to Jef? It’s Sunday.”
We went up to the corner and crossed. I tried the front door but it was locked. Scooting a couple of feet to my left, I peered through the window at the area behind the counter inside. Nobody was there but I could see lights on toward the back of the shop. Maybe Mama was in the office working on the books or something but I couldn’t think why she might be.
I caught a flicker of movement toward the back but then it dropped out of my line of vision toward the right. Leaving the stroller for just a minute, I stepped around it and past the door so I could look through the windows on the left.
My dad had a freezer cooler turned sideways away from the wall, the back, lower covering off of it. He was on his hands and knees on the floor peering into the opening.
Not wanting to startle him, instead of rapping on the glass, I collected the stroller and took Jef and my dog around to the side entrance my parents usually used, just past where Mama’s car was parked. To my relief, it was unlocked. I walked Boo a few more yards down and looped her leash around the hitching rail that was there for the Amish to tie their horses to then Jef and I went inside.
“Hello?” I called out as I stepped into the delivery entrance to the storeroom. It’s just me.”
The door to the store about 20 feet to my left was closed but, as we moved toward it, it opened and Mama poked her head around. “What are you two doing here?” she asked, smiling all the while at Jef.
“Just out for a walk but we could ask the same of you. I thought you’d be at church.”
“Me too but we have a cooler that didn’t handle the transition from generator power back to regular power very well. Your dad thinks it probably took a surge that shorted something.” She stepped aside but held the door so we could get through.
“I’ve just been handing off tools but otherwise trying to stay out of his way. You know me and electrical stuff...”
I just nodded.
“Sucker,” Jef demanded.
“You don’t need a sucker,” I said.
Mama was of a different opinion and went right to the bowl by the register to get him one.
“What do you say,” I prodded.
Jef hissed something in response.
“He’s nowhere near having the ‘th’ sound down yet.”
“That’s okay baby boy,” Mama said as she helped him unwrap his treat. I just rolled my eyes.
“Marco, if you need me Ill be right up here.” Dad just grunted in response. Mama tipped pointed at him and then at Jef. “He’s no better sometimes than this one right here,” she stage whispered.
I looked over at Dad but he was intent on his work and paying her no mind.
“Come, let’s sit.” Mama took a seat on the bench Dad usually occupied when the store was open but it was quiet and patted the place next to her. “I want to hear what you’ve been up to. How’s your local hidden history project coming?”
I screwed up my face and gave her a look. “Hidden history?”
“Oh, Faye mentioned something about you writing up about oil wells and moon-shining and such in the area.”
“When was this?”
“A couple, three days ago, maybe.”
Jef was already drooling down his chin from the effects of working on his lollipop. I jumped up to grab a paper towel from behind the counter and dampened it then mopped his little face while I framed my reply.
“Actually, that’s not quite it...what I’m doing, I mean. I’ve sort of got myself stuck in a rut right now over an old, unsolved murder case the coffee klatch ladies that meet sometimes at the bakery turned me onto.”
“Oh honey, no. Please don’t go getting mixed up in any more crime stuff.”
“It’s an old case Mama, from the early seventies and...it involved Faye’s family. I kind of surprised she mentioned anything but then didn’t tell you that. I’m working on it for her.”
“Someone in her family was killed and they never caught the guy?”
“No, not that. A, uh, guy was killed in the house she grew up in that wasn’t related to them. He was a business partner of her father’s. There was concern that one of her relatives or a friend of the family killed him.”
“What was he doing in their house and who was there when he died?”
“That’s just it; it’s a long story but the gist is that they were having a big to do and there were any number of people who could have done it who apparently had motive.”
Mama looked shocked but she recovered quickly. “Well, I’m not surprised then that Faye didn’t mentioned that part of it”
Frankly, I cautioned, “it seems it’s always been a source of embarrassment to her because it happened in their old family home and her father had been implicated even though most people in town never believed he was guilty. She was all about impressing Jesse back then. She was only 16 at the time and they were high school sweethearts.”
Mama folded her arms and shook her head
. “No good is going to come of this. You need to tread very softly if you’re going to keep pursuing it Dana. If things start to look bad for the Cranes’, back off”
“It’s not the Cranes’ though,” I told her again. Her and Jesse didn’t marry for another four years or so. She was a Lafferty then and the whole thing has passed into village lore now. I don’t know that it is any more solvable now than it was back then.”
“Mmm, I’m not so sure,” Mama said. “Things like that have a way of coming back and biting you again and again.”
We rolled on home while I thought about what Mama said. I knew she was right and, given that I now ad more questions than I started with, I was starting to see that the case might never be solved.
As I pulled Jef out of the stroller and folded it up, I decided that I’d talk to Faye later at Sunday dinner and see what she thought I should do. I took Boo off her leash and ordered her up to the porch then I picked Jef up in one arm and hoisted the stroller with the other and walked up myself.
I stowed the stroller in the corner of the side porch, up under the eave, where we usually kept it then I opened the door.
Boo bounded inside and ran right to Hannah and Morgan who were sitting at the kitchen table, papers spread everywhere. Hannah was facing us. Morgan turned around to look at us just as Jef managed his way over the low step of the threshold and started toddling toward Hannah calling ‘Mama, mama!’.
Morgan’s eyes grew wide again as Hannah scooped him up and kissed his cheek, avoiding the sticky remnants of the lollipop that were noticeable on his lips.
“Who did you go see?” Hannah asked him then quirked an eyebrow at me.
“Mama and my dad were up at the store working on a freezer that’s got issues. We stopped in. He only had one,” I added.
“So,” Morgan began, recovering, “he’s your son?”
“Yes; I adopted him. His mother was a good friend who is no longer with us.”
Morgan didn’t seem to know what to say and, at first, just nodded.
“I’ll take him and we’ll go upstairs, if you want,” I said to Hannah. “I intended for us to walk a bit more but Boo wasn’t cooperating on the leash. It was hard to deal with her and push the stroller too.”
“Doesn’t he walk?” Morgan asked.
Hannah and I both tried to answer. I stopped talking when I heard her speak up.
“He does but he’s only just learning. He’s not very fast...or very good at it yet.”
Morgan half turned in her seat and looked at me. “I’m sorry, when I saw you with him, I thought he was your baby.”
I laughed. “I don’t have any children of my own but Jef here is sort of a community effort.”
Hannah bounced him on her knee and he giggled. “He really is,” she said. “Mel and Dana help the most, of course, since we live here with them but so do Mel’s parents, her sister, Beth who you met, Dana’s parents...” She waved her free hand in the air. “Lot’s of people.”
“His biological mother’s parents,” I added and Hannah nodded.
“So,” Morgan said to me, her eyes filled with curiosity, “you and Mel are a couple. Is that right?”
“We’re married, yes. Does that bother you?” I was sure I already knew the answer but I threw it out there.
“No.” She shook her head, “but, can I ask you another question?”
“Sure.”
“Is it...I mean, living out here, in a place like this...you guys...does anybody give you a hard time?”
Hannah chuckled at that.
“What?” Morgan asked. “What did I say?”
“Mel’s the county Sheriff,” Hannah said. “Nobody really messes with her.”
“Oh.”
“Now that’s probably part of it...maybe even a lot of it,” I said, “but that’s not all of it. Our families are accepting or coming they’re around and that’s the biggest part of it. Yes, there are people who don’t approve of our ‘lifestyle’ but Mel and her family have been here for a very long time. The people that disagree mostly keep their opinions to themselves.”
“Can I ask why you’re asking?” I fished.
Morgan took a deep breath. “I don’t tell people this...I really don’t talk to people much at all.”
I nodded and glanced at Hannah. She was listening but I could tell she wasn’t picking up on the same vibes I was.
“My, uh, mother caught me with another girl when I was 15. I came out as Bi then. She threw me out. I haven’t been home since and now...now I know I’m a lesbian. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. She won’t even talk to me. I...I don’t care. I’ve made it this far on my own.”
Her voice broke a little but her eyes held mine.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that sweetie and at such a young age. Are you okay? You have a place to stay and...?”
“Yes. I’m fine, thank you.” She gave me a tight lipped smile.
I glanced at Hannah again. Her eyes were shimmering with tears but she wasn’t about to let them fall.
“You have a little more in common with Ms. Hannah here than you might think,” I said to Morgan then. “I’m just going to take the boy and let you two talk.”
As I walked out of the room carrying Jef, I had another thought. “Morgan,” I said, as I half turned from the doorway, “are you doing anything for dinner?”
“It’s just me. I cook for myself.”
“We’re all going out to my in-laws farm for Sunday dinner. You’re welcome to come.”
“You’re sure they won’t mind?”
Hannah waved a hand in the air. “The cook enough to feed the whole village, it seems.”
“That would be amazing; thank you!”
Chapter 15
Dana
Late Sunday Afternoon, November 8th
Crane Family Farm
“When do you think Mel and Beth will be here?” Faye asked me.
“They left our house around 10:40 this morning. Mel said it was about an hour and a half drive to the track where they were doing the qualifying. They got a little bit of a late start but she was hoping they’d get there right around the time the gates opened at noon, get her on and off the track and then they were going to pack back up and come straight here. They weren’t going to hang around to watch anybody.”
Faye calculated in her head. “Maybe around 2:30 or 3:00 then if she didn’t get on the track right away.” She seemed satisfied with that. “It’s almost 2:00 now so let’s plan on eating at 4:00.” She looked at those of us seated around the living room for confirmation but went on before any of us could say anything. “That gives them plenty of time and I told Chloe not to rush, to come around 3:00, since we weren’t planning any chores today.”
“Chores?” Morgan asked. “For everyone?”
“They call these Sundays when we all come out here...usually...family fun day,” Hannah informed her.
“There’s nothing fun about family fun day!” Kris, Faye, Cole and I all said, in unison.
“You lucked out for your first time out here,” Faye told Morgan. Keep coming around though and it’ll be different. You can take that to the bank.” She smiled to soften the blow and Morgan smiled back and nodded.
“Dana,” Kris asked, “what if she gets out there and she doesn’t qualify the first time?”
“Way to think positive mom!” Cole jabbed a finger her way. “Ain’t that what you always tell us?”
“Isn’t,” Faye corrected.
Cole ignored his grandmother and went on. “Why didn’t you go with them today? Didn’t you think she’d make it? I wanted to go.”
“Your sister’s a good rider. I’m sure she’ll make it and on the first try too; so how’s that for thinking positive? There wasn’t any point in all of us going on a three hour round trip drive to watch a five minute time trial. When she’s racing on the junior circuit next season, that’ll be different. Besides, it would be way too loud out there for the baby.”
Kri
s smiled over at Jef who was playing on the floor with some old blocks that were probably left over from when Cole was his age.
I got up out of the chair I’d been in for more than half an hour and tried to stretch out my leg but my foot had fallen asleep. When I tried to shake it out, I attracted Jef’s attention. He scooted over to me and reached out to grab my foot.
“No, no, no!” I told him. “You’ll make Aunt Dana fall!”
He just laughed at me and reached out again. After a quick glance over my shoulder, I hobbled backwards toward the old china cabinet Faye had in one corner.
When Cole got down on the floor and distracted Jef, I breathed a small sigh of relief. I turned and hobbled a little further toward the end of the couch by the cabinet where I stopped and held onto the arm while I shook my foot a little more.
I’d never really paid any attention to the cabinet that was now right in front of me. Every square inch of the living room in the old farmhouse that wasn’t given over to seating was packed full of knickknacks, bric-a-brac and other tchotkes that mother-in-law collected. The walls that weren’t blocked by furniture or shelving were covered in framed photos of family members near and distant. There wasn’t an empty patch of space anywhere but the center of the floor.
As I stood there, I peered into the curved glass fronted cabinet. On top of stacks of plates and bowls and in tea cups sat various small dolls and odd little carvings but it was the china I was really looking at. The pattern was a colonial scene and, though it appeared to be in great condition, it looked old. An old aunt of mine growing up had collected china tea cups but I’d never seen anything like these in her collection.
“This dinner service in here Faye, is this a family heirloom?” I looked over at her.
She laughed in response and then said, “That china cabinet sure is. It’s from just after the Civil war but the china is stuff my mother bought a piece at a time at the IGA that used to be in Philo, back in the day. It’s discontinued and has been for years so maybe it’s worth something now but I doubt it. I just like how it looks in the cabinet.”
