Hot on the Trail Mix

by P. D. Workman

  Erin went to the door and looked out the peephole. It was dark out, but she got a good view of the woman’s silhouette, and it was one that she recognized. She let Adele in.

  “Hi, come on in.”

  Adele stepped in and took a quick glance at the room. The tall, slim redhead would know from the lack of Terry’s truck in front of the house that he was out, but Vic was also a frequent visitor and Adele wouldn’t be able to tell if Vic were there unless she saw her through the window or there were some other clue. While Vic didn’t harbor any bad feelings toward Adele for what her ex-husband had done in the past, Adele was still uncomfortable spending time with her.

  “Just you and me,” Erin confirmed.

  “We haven’t talked for a while, so I thought I would stop in for a visit, since Officer Piper is out.”

  “Do you want some tea?” Erin didn’t wait for an answer. She and Adele always had tea together. She went into the kitchen to start the kettle boiling. Adele followed her, more comfortable in the kitchen than anywhere else in the house. Her own little cottage in the woods behind Erin’s house was a tiny one-room affair, where the stove, table, and bed all shared the same space. It was a warm, homey place, and Erin didn’t get there as often as she probably should. But she wanted to give Adele her space and a sense of privacy, even though the cottage was part of the property left to Erin by Clementine.

  She puttered around in the kitchen. Adele arranged the rest of the tea things and sat down at the table.

  “Anything new?” she asked.

  Erin wondered how much Adele had heard about Rip. Adele was a solitary person, yet she often knew about things going on in Bald Eagle Falls before Erin did.

  “I guess… you know about Rip Ryder…?”

  Adele nodded her head once. “Yes. Are you… involved in that case?”

  “Well, no…” Erin laughed. “It’s nothing to do with me. But…”

  “But you like solving puzzles.”

  “I guess so, yes,” Erin admitted.

  Erin poured the boiling water into their cups.

  “So what is it about this case that interests you so much?” Adele asked. “Just because it was Vic who found him?”

  “Partly, yes. I feel like if it’s something to do with my family here in Bald Eagle Falls, that… I should do what I can to sort it out, make sure that the wrong people don’t get saddled with the blame.”

  “Why would they blame Vic?”

  “Well… with her being the one to find the body, and her family being in the clan, it’s just where they go. What if she did it and… I don’t know, returned to the scene of the crime. Same with Willie, except it’s worse for him, since he had a fight with Mr. Ryder.”

  Adele look at Erin blankly for a moment. Then she nodded, and amended, “Or two or three.”

  Erin dipped and lifted her tea bag a few times and looked at Adele. “Two or three? How do you know that?”

  “I hear things.”

  “Who did you hear that from? I didn’t think it was common knowledge.”

  Adele just smiled and didn’t answer.

  Erin was again left wondering how Adele came by her information. She imagined Skye, Adele’s crow, flying back and forth over Bald Eagle Falls and bringing back all of the juicy tidbits he’d heard back to his mistress. She smiled at the thought.

  Adele knew people who knew things, that was all. She was quiet and discreet, so Erin didn’t know all of the people that she knew or was friends with. But she clearly knew people who heard the gossip around Bald Eagle Falls. Not just the Baptist women who came to the bakery to share the gossip they had heard, but other, less visible people in Bald Eagle Falls as well.

  “Well, I guess you’re not the only one who knows that Rip and Willie didn’t get along together. So the police know and they think, maybe they got into another fight, and it turned physical, and Willie killed him.”

  Adele raised her brows.

  “And put him in that pool and then came back later with Vic to find him,” Erin said, pointing out the obvious flaw in this theory.

  “Why would he do that?”

  “You would have to ask the police department. I don’t know the answer. If Willie did kill him by accident or in a moment of anger—and I don’t believe he ever would—then why would he do that? Leave the body in the cave there, and then go back later to let Vic find it? Or else bring her in on the secret and ‘discover’ it together? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Adele sipped her tea. “People don’t always make sense.”

  “I guess. But that doesn’t mean you think Willie did it, do you?”

  “I don’t suspect Willie Andrews or anyone else. I will leave that to the universe—and our esteemed police department—to sort out.”

  “I hope they do. And soon. And I’m sure it’s not Willie. It couldn’t be anything to do with Willie or Vic. It wouldn’t make any sense, however much people try to force them into the mold. They don’t have any motive.”

  “Other than Mr. Ryder disagreeing with him about the legitimacy of Willie’s mineral claim.”

  Erin frowned. She stirred her tea, then forced herself to set the spoon aside to stop fiddling. “The legitimacy of Willie’s claim? What do you mean by that? It’s his claim.”

  “Is it?”

  “Well, yes. He said…”

  “He said it was his. But have you seen proof of his ownership? Or did he just lay claim to it and hope to keep everybody else off of it?”

  “I don’t know. He said it was his. I didn’t question…”

  “And that’s exactly what he intended. He told Rip that it was his claim and he had to take himself and his family somewhere else. He didn’t want Rip anywhere near that cave and, even after he moved off of the property, Willie still wasn’t satisfied. He was still ‘too close.’”

  “How could they be too close? Either they were on his claim or not, you can’t be too close.”

  Adele nodded her agreement. “You see Rip’s argument.”

  “But it is Willie’s, right? He might have been out of line in telling Rip that he was still too close and he wanted him to go farther away, but… it was his claim.”

  “As far as I know, he never showed any deeds to prove it.”

  Erin shook her head, finding it hard to believe that the claim might not be Willie’s. “So he must have thought that the claim was pretty valuable. Potentially.”

  “I’m sure he wouldn’t tell me if it was. Or anyone else, for that matter. He’s worked mines and mineral claims around here long enough to know to keep his mouth shut and not attract attention to any one location. He is very discreet and circulates around from one mine to another. You can’t tell by looking at the outsides which one is producing and which is not.”

  Erin had to admit that was true. “He doesn’t even tell Vic. He’s taken her caving a few different places, but he doesn’t take her to his mines, and he doesn’t tell her which one he’s going to from one day to the next.”

  “But he did take her to this one.”

  Erin sipped her tea as it started to cool. The only way to know what Willie had found inside the cave, and whether he was removing anything from it, would be to go inside.

  “Has he allowed anyone else in there?” Adele prompted.

  “The police, of course. To remove the remains. He couldn’t very well keep them out.” Erin shrugged, raising her hands up. “That takes us right back to the beginning again. If he wanted to keep something about the cave a secret, why would he hide a body there and then bring Vic back to find it? And not to help him take it out and bury it, but then they call the police to come take a look and get it out of there.”

  “That’s an interesting suggestion.”

  Orange Blossom had roused himself from his warm nest on the couch and had just realized that there was someone else in the house. He went over to Adele and started rubbing against her and vocalizing.

  “Is he bothering you? He can be such a pest.”

&nb
sp; “No, I think it’s nice having a cat around. I’m still thinking about getting one myself, though…”

  Though Erin had told her that she would need to keep the cat inside to keep it safe, and Adele wasn’t keen in caging any animal. Skye lived outside and could come and go as he pleased. He just seemed to want to be with Adele sometimes.

  Erin bent over to scratch Blossom’s ears, then sat up again. “What’s an interesting suggestion?”

  “The idea that Willie might have taken Vic to the cave in order to relocate and bury the body.”

  “I didn’t say that’s what happened. It obviously didn’t happen.”

  “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t what Willie intended. Maybe he figured Vic would help him to dispose of it. Only she had other ideas and said they had to call the police. Either before or after he explained his plan.”

  “No, Willie wouldn’t do that.”

  “You have a very… generous view of the world. You realize that, don’t you? You think the best of everyone.”

  “Well… I try to, I guess. I want to believe the best of people.”

  “And not everyone lives up to your expectations, do they?”

  “Most people, if you give them a chance, they’ll do the right thing…”

  “I’m not sure that’s true. I think people’s natures tend to be the opposite. They act in their own interests before anyone else’s. Unless there is sufficient motivation to pursue another direction.”

  “You’re not like that,” Erin pointed out. “You’re a good, giving person.”

  “I have found that to serve me well. It is innately selfish to want to treat others in such a way as to make yourself comfortable. To avoid conflict just because it is an easier path.”

  “You only make good choices because you want the rewards that come from making good choices? Isn’t that sort of… twisted?”

  “Perhaps it is. And perhaps it is what the majority of the world does.”

  Erin massaged her temples. She looked at the clock on the wall. She was getting tired, and the conversation was going in the wrong direction. She didn’t want to have to evaluate her own motives, or Adele’s, or Willie’s. It was too much for her already tired brain.

  “I guess everyone has their own reasons for doing things,” she deflected. Once she said this, she nodded. It was true. It sounded good. And it meant she didn’t have to continue the conversation in that direction.

  “Yes,” Adele agreed. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly as if at some private joke. She took a couple more swallows of her tea and set her cup down. “Well. I should get back to my wanderings. Take care, Miss Erin.”

  Erin nodded and stood at the same time as Adele. Orange Blossom went back and forth between them, demanding to know which of them was going to feed him.

  “You haven’t had any trouble, have you?” Erin asked as she walked Adele to the door. Adele was Erin’s groundskeeper and, although Erin had first given her the title on the spur of the moment, looking for a way to help Adele out, Adele did actually keep a good watch on things that happened in the woods. People who walked through there and who might be looking to cause harm.

  “No trouble,” Adele agreed.

  “You haven’t had any of the squatters come to our woods? They stay far enough out of town…?”

  “Why would they come into our woods?”

  “I don’t know. It would let them live outside, like they seem to want, but still to be close to the amenities. Be able to go to the library during the day or pick something up from the grocery store easily.”

  “I’ll keep my eyes open,” Adele promised.

  Erin saw her out. When she shut and locked the door and reset the burglar alarm, she stopped to ponder Adele’s responses.

  She never had actually said that there were no squatters in Erin’s woods.

  Chapter 28

  Erin was restless going to bed, thinking of Adele and how she had deflected Erin’s questions and questioned Vic’s and Willie’s involvement in Rip’s death without actually accusing them. She seemed to know a good amount about the arguments that had gone on between Rip and Willie. More than just someone who had heard about it. How would anyone know that Willie might not actually own the claims he said he did? She would have to be pretty close to the situation.

  Adrienne had been in town. She and her children were there a couple of days in a row. Where were they staying? With a friend? In a car? Or in the woods back behind Erin’s house, pretending that they lived out of town when they were actually right under her nose?

  She was irritated with the thought. She had gone out of her way to help Adrienne, offering help to her and all of those who were indigent or homeless. She had been trying to find Jenny, to be sure that she was okay and that the police would be able to find her to make the official notification of Rip’s death. Closure. People needed to know what had happened to their loved ones.

  Erin had been doing the right thing, so why were people acting as if she was interfering with them or insulting them? She just wanted to help.

  Erin decided to use her Sunday afternoon to do some visiting, something that she didn’t have much time for the rest of the week. There were people she wanted to see that she didn’t have as much opportunity for the rest of the week.

  So she tried Mary Lou first. She knew Mary Lou generally went to the Baptist services, and then to the ladies tea at Auntie Clem’s, but after that, she didn’t know if Mary Lou worked or ran errands or relaxed.

  “Yes, come over, Erin,” Mary Lou agreed. “We’re not going too far from home these days. We’ll be around.”

  We was Mary Lou and her younger son, Joshua, who was recovering from being kidnapped and held hostage for a week with practically no food or water. They had all worried after the first couple of days that they would not find him alive. Joshua had believed the same, knowing that his time was drawing to an end. But they had been able to find him and to rescue him.

  The physical recovery was one thing. Erin could see that his cheeks had filled in and that he looked stronger and more like himself. But he was also different. He was stiff and he watched Erin and the world around him differently from ever before. It wasn’t just hypervigilance, which Erin knew was a common reaction to such a traumatic experience. There was more to it than that. He was wary. Not only of strangers, not just jumping at sudden unexpected noises, but seemingly distrustful of even those he knew. Erin felt him examining her, trying to pick her apart and to predict what she was going to do and say. It wasn’t enough to know that she was a friend of his mother’s, or that she had been instrumental in finding him and bringing him back home. He wanted to disassemble her and see what made her work so that he didn’t have to guess.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked Joshua. “You’re looking better all the time.”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. Doing good. It’s all… everything will be just the way it was before.”

  Maybe he was repeating what Mary Lou or someone else had said to him. Because he certainly didn’t sound like he believed it himself.

  “We’re all changing all the time,” Erin said. “I’m not the same person as I was a year ago. Or ten years ago. That’s why they say you can’t go back… you can never be the same person as you were before. We’re all growing and changing all the time. And something like this… it can really affect you.”

  “It hasn’t changed me,” Josh said flatly.

  Erin nodded. “Okay.” She turned her attention to Mary Lou, hoping that would give Josh a chance to relax. “How about you? And Campbell? I haven’t heard how he is. Staying out of trouble?”

  “I’m sure I wouldn’t know. He’s back in the city now. I wish he had stayed around… but on the other hand, it’s kind of tense when he’s here. His mother expecting him to follow the house rules and him thinking that he’s a full-grown man now and doesn’t need to listen to what anyone else has to tell him.”

  “Yeah. Well, he is an adult.”

  “So I’
ve heard. Multiple times.”

  Erin smiled. “He’s lucky to have you. He might not realize that right now, but someday… he will.”

  Mary Lou thought about that for a minute. “Maybe. But it isn’t as easy for him to see as you. You’ve lived on the other side. On your own as soon as you were eighteen, without any family resources. It must have taken a lot of hard work to get to where you are today. To be able to pull yourself up all by yourself…”

  “It wasn’t exactly all by myself, though. Without Clementine… I wouldn’t be where I am today. That was an opportunity that I could never have made for myself. I didn’t have the money or resources to take a leap and start up my own business without what she had left me.”

  “I’m glad… she would have been happy to see what you have done with it. How you have taken her legacy and… made it your own. Built on it. Become a self-sufficient small business owner. She would have been very proud.” Mary Lou gave an approving nod.

  “Thank you… I hope she would be. I hope that the bakery would be something that she would approve of.”

  “Yes. I’m sure it is.”

  Erin tried to think of other things to discuss. Joshua and Campbell seemed to be off the table. They had their own difficulties, and Erin didn’t want to pry into family business.

  “Have you seen the Fosters lately? I’m going to head over there after this, see if they need anything.”

  “I don’t see much of them,” Mary Lou admitted. “I know they’re just down the way, but I keep to myself too much. I should go see them, but I don’t. With a new baby, I’m not sure they want to have visitors over there all the time.” She hastened to reassure Erin. “Not that they won’t want to see you. That little boy idolizes you. But for me… I’m just the cranky old lady down the street. The children will have to be on their best behavior and that gets very tiresome.”