Charlie and I filled up our coffee cups and headed outside to the patio. We gathered everything we had on the case. We sat down and went over and over everything. We kept coming up with the same thing. Why would anyone want to kill Emily Burkhart? Why would anyone want to take or hurt Bob Burkhart? As far as we could tell, the answer to either of those questions was no one. They weren’t by any means a perfect couple, but who is? They had their problems like everyone else, but nothing that couldn’t be worked out. Usually the next step would be to find out who would benefit from the death of either of the victims. In this case, the beneficiary is actually dying. Which happens to be her alibi. According to the police reports, she was receiving her treatments at the time of the incident. We were missing something. Everyone was missing something.
Mrs. Houtz poked her head out and said we would need to start wrapping things up. Today was the day they started to make the food for Edwardsville Days. That meant I would go over and help Mrs. Ruby bring over all of her things. That was fine; Charlie went and helped Mrs. Bartley bring over all of her things. By the time we had gotten everything unloaded, we could have opened a grocery store right there in our kitchen. Now that the E-Mafia was together and had everything they needed, Charlie and I were politely notified that we could go.
Charlie said he was going to go back home and rest his leg. I decided I was going to take a ride and see if I could find Tweddle. Tweddle is an old hobo from when I was a kid. He used to ride the trains and come and go with the seasons. Now that he’s older he pretty much stays around here. In the winter, he stays at the shelter. He picks up odd jobs here and there but has never been able to hold down a full-time job. My Mom always said it was because he was an alcoholic. He’s getting on in years now and I worry about him. I stopped at the store and bought some groceries for him. I bought some canned goods, a loaf of bread, and a big treat; a T-bone steak. I even got him a cooler, put some ice in there to keep the steak cool until he wanted to cook it. Everybody deserves a treat every now and again.
Since it’s nice out I thought I would head down towards the river. The river has been low, so there’s been a beach for some time now. He may have his tent up on the banks. I parked my car and walked down the ramp and saw his tent about thirty yards away. He had a small campfire going. As I got closer, I could tell time, weather and alcohol had taken its toll on Tweddle. I mean he had always looked old to me, I thought he was in his seventies when I was a kid. Charlie told me he was actually only in his late twenties when I was ten. Apparently he had gone gray very early in life. That happens. So as far as I can figure he should be somewhere in his late sixties. He looked like he would be in his early eighties.
At first, when I walked up he looked at me like, “Great, here comes someone else that’s going to save my life.” When he realized it was me, a nice smile came across his face. “Sid! It’s good to see you!” and with that I got a hug. He had a nice little set up going on. He had a coffee pot, two cups, a stew pot, two plates, and two spoons. In the tent, he had a cot and a sleeping bag. He had a small lantern that ran on batteries. Someone had given him two chairs that fold out. Not the old kind, the new kind that has the cup holder built into the arm. He invited me to sit and have some coffee. He thanked me for everything I had brought him. He couldn’t believe I had gotten him a steak. He was going on about how good he was going to be eating tonight.
We sat and chatted for a bit. He said the winters were starting to really get hard on him. He was thinking he was going to have to move down South. I told him I didn’t blame him one bit. I asked him how long he had been staying down on the river. He said he had been at his current “location” since the end of May he thought. It had been so long since it had rained he was having trouble remembering.
I asked if he had heard about the Burkhart’s. He said “Oh yeah! It’s all the talk. Even among the hobos. Those poor people, who would want to go and do something like that to such nice people? You know, they never once made me feel like I was less than them. Bob even gave me this here lantern. He’d even stop by every now and again and give me new batteries, and Mrs. Burkhart is the one that gave me these chairs. She said she was getting Bob some new ones, so she wanted me to have these. Couldn’t have been two nicer people in the world.” I asked him when the last time he saw either one of them was. He said he thought it was probably right before he moved down to the river. He remembered because they were talking about the lack of rain and Bob had told him about the new island that had popped up down the river a little ways. I told him I had seen the island on my way to the store the other day. I also said I had seen a little row boat out there. He said it was probably some of those goofball kids that gone out there. “You know, I told them they better stay off those pop-up islands. They get filled up with nuttin’ but snakes and garbage that has settled on the bottom of the river. If they’re not careful, they could get out there and get hurt. But I knew that wasn’t gonna keep’em from goin’. So I told em’ a little ghost story to try and keep’em from rowin’ out there.” Now you know I love a ghost story Mary! I said, “What did you tell them?” He could tell I was as excited as a kid and got the biggest smile on his face. I think he thought I was going to believe whatever story he was about to tell me. Let’s face it I’m a sucker for stories. As he started to tell the story, he poured us both some more coffee, “Well I said, y’all know how dangerous the river is with its undertows and whirlpools and whatnots. Well, now legend has it that way back in the late 1700’s there was this young couple madly in love. The only problem was they lived on opposite sides of the river. Now the girl’s daddy had a lot of money and they lived on our side of the river. He owned some sort of milling business. The boy was from the other side of the river and wasn’t as rich as the girl. He wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t as rich. Now back in those days you DID NOT date someone that didn’t have as much money as you, especially if you was a girl. Back in them days there was some bridges, but not many, mostly they had ferry systems. These ferries were a series of wood platforms, pulleys, and ropes going across the river. You’d get on the platform and one of the workers would pull on the ropes and pull you across the river. Well, the girl’s daddy had already told her and him to stop seeing one another. Well, they kept seeing one another and try as they might to keep it a secret from her daddy, somehow he found out. He told her one last time that if she continued to see that boy, he was going to cut her out of the family. The two of them decided they were so in love they didn’t need her daddy’s money and they were going to elope. The plan was to meet down at the ferry; he was going to cross over and they would leave from there. Well, the night came and they both were down at the ferry. The fog was so thick they could barely see each other’s lanterns. She tried to yell to him to not get on the ferry, but the next thing she heard was a huge crash. She started screaming out for him and pulled on the rope as hard as she could. It came up into her hand and was frayed at the end, everything else was gone. She was so overcome she jumped into the river to try and save him, but she drowned. They say the pop-up islands is the spirit of those two young’ns coming back to the top of the river trying to join the two sides together so they can go get her father. It’s been said that anyone that has gone onto one of the pop-up islands is doomed to disappear. That’s why when you see a pop-up island, every now and then you’ll see what’s left of an old rowboat. Sometimes you may see a ghost light that was left by the person or people that were foolish enough to go out there while the pop-up was there.” I told him that was a great story and asked if it worked. He said he thought it did at the time but if I had seen a boat out there he guessed not. I told him the only problem with the story was that sometimes the pop-ups stay up. He thought for a second and said, “Oh yeah.”
But it was a good story. I can’t wait to tell Charlie and the ladies at briefing. I stayed a little longer and finished my coffee. I made sure he was ok and gave him a little money. I know, I know. It wasn’t that much but, some of his stuff was start
ing to look a little run down and thought he needed to replace his frying pan and pillow. His sleeping bag looked like it needed to be replaced as well, so I gave him a little extra for that. Listen, everybody in town watches out for Tweddle. Over the years, he’s sort of become our unofficial town mascot. I know it sounds silly, but now that the Burkhart’s are gone who is going to look after him? Bob did the majority of making sure he had what he needed. He would even take him to his “work shed” and let him take a shower so he could go get a hair cut every month. Looks like it’s going to be up to me. Remind me to talk to Charlie about that at briefing.
Speaking of, by the time I got home all the E-Mafia were gone. All of the cooking for Edwardsville days was done. The house smelled wonderful. When I walked in you couldn’t tell there had been half a grocery store in there this morning. I don’t know what the ladies had cooking for supper but whatever it was, it was making my stomach growl. I could tell they had been “testing” some beverages. They weren’t flat-out drunk, but they certainly were happy, and really happy to see me. They wanted me to call Charlie and get him over here for supper. Apparently “testing” makes them happy and hungry.
More in a Bit
Briefing
Dear Mary,
I have to tell you, the ladies were in rare form this evening. Cooking wise and every otherwise. I’m not sure what it was we had for supper. I think by the time they were done making everything for Edwardsville Days they all took whatever leftovers there were, and divided it up between them. They took some of each other’s home. I’m not sure whose we had, but it was very good.
As soon as Charlie walked in he commented on how good the house smelled. He had brought a bottle of wine, but I told him I thought a pot of coffee might be more of what we needed. I started the coffee and got all of us glasses of water as well, and served the ladies for a change. They sat and ate and drank their water. After about twenty minutes, they were back to their old selves. They fessed up and said the day had been a very good investigation day for them and they were sorry about the state they were in when we got home. They had tried so hard to get the ladies talking about the Burkhart’s. But it seemed the only thing the women wanted to talk about were new recipes, and trying out some new cocktails. Trying to swing the conversation back to the Burkhart’s, they weren’t having any luck. This was when they decided they needed to take matters into their own hands. They finished their dishes for Edwardsville Days as quickly as they could, then told they ladies they had a very important errand to run. They jumped into Mrs. Houtz’s car and drove to Herman to do a little investigating of Patty themselves.
So much for not having to worry about them; well it seems they got to town and blended in just fine with all, how shall I put this, the older residents that live there. They decided that Herman couldn’t be all that different from Edwardsville. So they found what looked like to be the “locals” coffee shop and made themselves at home. They said they found the people of Herman to be very nice and very talkative once they got them loosened up. They sat at the counter and started talking to one woman who apparently was not a big fan of Patty Stewart. They both said they weren’t going to use any of these people’s names to protect them. Isn’t that cute, when I told Charlie he laughed. He said, “Who would have ever thought Marple and Fletcher would have their own confidential informants.” Mrs. Edmonds was told that Patty and Rick’s marriage hadn’t been the best. Seems Patty was always comparing Rick to Bob. Everyone in Herman felt so sorry for Rick. It was almost as if he was competing against a dead husband she never had. Nobody in that town understood why on earth he put up with it. This woman said Patty was as nice as she could be to everyone else in town and would do anything to help anyone, but when it came to Rick; that poor man couldn’t do anything right. Everyone thought Rick had a heart attack just to get away from her.
When it came to light that Patty had cancer, of course the whole town got behind her and held all kinds of benefits for Patty. This lady even participated in a few events. They showed her a picture of Bob and asked if she had ever seen Patty with him, she said yes he had been at two events with Patty, and they looked very happy together. This woman said it had been at least a month since there had been any benefit for Patty and she hadn’t heard of any coming up. That was all the information Marple and Fletcher had gotten because they had to make the drive back before it got dark.
The more they ate and drank coffee, the more they realized how good supper was. I told them all about running into Tweddle. Of course, they knew I had gone out looking for him. The ladies asked how he was doing, which surprised me. Before, the E-Mafia always had a dim view of him. I guess everyone mellows with age. I told them he was doing fine, but he was thinking of moving down South to get away from the winters here. They sort of nodded their heads in silent agreement. I did get to tell everyone that great story he made up. They all laughed and thought it was pretty funny. Charlie said he would love to have seen the looks on the faces of the kids. He said he had half a mind to get Mark, go out there to one of the pop-up islands, and put a lantern that you can work by remote and an old wreck of a rowboat. Then if they ever see some kids trying to sneak out there they can hit that remote and turn on the lantern. I bet you’d see a rowboat turn into a speedboat pretty fast! We all got the giggles.
Meanwhile in the area of taking care of Tweddle, it sounded like to me the E-Mafia had planned to pick up where Bob had left off. I needed to let Tweddle know. I don’t think he’s going to be happy about this at all Mary. He truly is one of the last old “hobo’s” left. He’s out there because he wants to be out there. That’s one of the things we talked about. He said he never did fit the 9-5 life style and didn’t want to. He couldn’t handle the pressure of having a wife, kids, and a job. So he decided a long time ago he was going to take care of himself, off the land, and that was what he had been doing ever since. I have a feeling as soon as I tell him the E-Mafia is looking into taking care of him he’s going to be heading south sooner than he thought. I’ll go back tomorrow and tell him what I heard the ladies talking about. What with Edwardsville days being this weekend, he’ll be moving his camp down a little farther to the West to stay out of the way.
Charlie said he wanted to go with me. He hadn’t seen Tweddle in a long time and wanted to see how he was doing. He also thought it might be fun for us to take his little row boat out to that pop-up island and set up what was sure to become an urban legend. He thought the best time to start it was Edwardsville days. He knew there would be some local boys that would try to go out there after dark. What with there being so many people in town and the police being busy, it would be the perfect time to go out to the island and explore. He wanted to take a trip first to see where the best place to set the boat and lantern up.
The ladies were so tired from all the cooking and the drive to Herman they actually excused themselves and went to bed! That was a first and probably a last. Charlie and I cleaned the dishes. The only thing they would let us do was to take everything into the kitchen. We knew there was no way they would ever let us wash and put things away; they were sure we would put something in the wrong place. Besides, this gave Charlie and I a chance to talk alone. There were some things with this case that weren’t adding up. He and I both felt that we might be the only two in town that could stand back and look at it without emotional attachment. Everyone else knew them so well they couldn’t help but get emotional when talking about either one of them, or Patty for that matter. I was just a kid and didn’t know them or their son, and Charlie was out of town so much he didn’t know them at all.
With this new information from Marple and Fletcher we had some more to go on. It definitely sounded like something had been or was getting ready to be rekindled between Patty and Bob. Who knows, Emily may have been fine with Bob escorting her to these events, but we will never know now. As far as we can tell Emily didn’t have a best friend here in town. No one is talking about the fact that Bob did take Patty. So was it a sec
ret or common knowledge? But it felt like something was still missing. We needed to step back and away from all the emotion everyone else was putting into the case and look at it purely from a Law Enforcement perspective. I’m starting to put my money on Patty and Bob. There are only two problems with that. Where is Bob and how did they magically get Bob off the property without a trace?
We had taken everything out to the kitchen and decided to get an early start in the morning. Charlie said he would pick me up around 7am. It would be cooler and the boat ride wouldn’t be as bad.
See ya in the morning
Thursday
Dear Mary,
Charlie picked me up at 7am on the dot. His little inflatable boat was in the back of his truck and we headed off down to the river. Tweddle had already moved his camp farther to the West, just as I had thought. He was happy to see Charlie. He wasn’t so happy to hear what the ladies had in store for him. Mary, his eyes rolled so far back in his head I thought we were going to have to hit him with a piece of driftwood to get them to come back to the front.
He saw Charlie had brought his boat with him and asked what in the world we were going to do with that. When Charlie told him he liked his story so much he thought he would turn it into an urban myth, Tweddle laughed, but started to act a little funny. Not in the ha-ha funny way, but the nervous ha-ha way. He started to fidget and then said he needed to get going because he was meeting some of his buddies in town, and they were walking into Bonner. So we said it was nice seeing him again and he was off.
Turns Out I Do Know The Muffin Man (A Dear Mary Mystery) Page 5
