Erin nodded. “I’m amazed at how Mrs. Foster can handle that little brood. So many young ones to keep in order. And she must be exhausted with a new baby.”
“There seems to be a whole new crop of little ones popping up,” Mary Lou observed. “Like we’re having a mini baby boom in Bald Eagle Falls.”
Erin thought about the Fosters, Jenny Ryder, and the two other homeless women who had new babies. She nodded her agreement. “Yes, there do seem to be a lot of them around.”
“It seems like just yesterday that I had little ones. It’s hard to believe they’re already older teenagers.” Mary Lou shook her head. “You’ll be amazed at how fast the time goes, Erin. I know you’ve probably heard it before. But it really is true. Time just keeps going faster and faster. I remember when I was a child, it seemed like a summer day lasted forever. And the school break over the summer felt like a year off. Now… it seems like I barely get a chance to sleep, and it’s a new month. Don’t put things off until you are older, because before you know it, you will be older, and it will be too late.”
Erin thought about all of the plans she had been writing down in her new paper planner. Writing down her dreams and plans for the future made them seem that much more real. But Mary Lou was right; she couldn’t afford to put them off and act like she had as much time as she would need in the future. She needed to be working on them now.
Chapter 29
Erin left Mary Lou and Joshua with some cookies and headed over to the Fosters. She had a box of various baked goods for them, although Mrs. Foster was back on her feet and making occasional trips to the bakery now. Erin wanted her to know that someone was looking out for her and doing what she could do ease her burden. It wasn’t really much, but Erin did what she could.
The little girls were playing outside. Erin didn’t see Peter, which was odd. He was usually helping to supervise the younger children. Jody ran up to her.
“Miss Erin! You come to visit?”
Erin nodded. “I came to visit. How is everybody doing?”
“I hurt my knee.” The little girl bent over to pull up the shorts that reached over her kneecaps to show Erin a skinned knee.
Erin winced at the red, raw patch. “Ow! That must have really hurt. Did you fall down?”
“Yes. I was running, playing,” Jody turned around and was gesturing, telling Erin all about what she had been doing when she had taken a spill. She spoke quickly, and with her face turned away from Erin. Erin could no longer make out what she was saying.
Erin made attentive noises and, when Jody got to the part where she had fallen down and hurt herself, Erin shook her head. “Ouch. Well, you try to be careful. We don’t want you hurting anything else.”
“Yeah!” she agreed with feeling.
Grinning, Erin walked up to the house and reached out to ring the doorbell. The door was opened before she reached it. Mrs. Foster stood inside the door and motioned her in.
“Come in, come in.”
Erin entered the house. She took the box of baked goods into the kitchen and put it down on the counter. Mrs. Foster could put things away where she wanted them. Or she could have Peter or one of the others help out.
“I’m trying to keep an eye on them,” Mrs. Foster said, nodding to the window as they sat down in the living room.
Erin looked out at them. “They are lucky to have somewhere safe to play outside. Burn off some steam.”
“I wouldn’t want to keep them cooped up all day. Even on a school day, I try to let them have as much outside time as possible. The skillset they develop when they can move around and experiment and do things for themselves is very different from a kid who just sits in front of screens all day. I want my children to be strong and self-sufficient. Not afraid to try things or tied to a box all day.”
“Well, you must be doing something right. They are all such good kids. And I know I can’t pick favorites, but… Peter is such a bright little guy. I think you’ve done very well with all of them.”
“He should be home in a few minutes. I asked him to pick up a couple of things for me at the store.”
Erin looked out the window anxiously. She had thought he might be doing homework in his bedroom. She didn’t like the idea of his going out all by himself to the store. Mrs. Foster followed her eyes.
“He’s old enough. He walks to school by himself.”
“Oh, of course. It’s just that… with Joshua being kidnapped, I guess I’m more nervous…”
“We can’t let ourselves be ruled by fear. Joshua didn’t get snatched off of the street, and it wasn’t some random kidnapper. And they caught the person who did it. If he was taken from his room at night… what good will it do us to keep our children inside all the time? Being inside did not help Josh.”
“I guess,” Erin admitted. “I’m sorry. I’m not saying you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just a gut reaction. I think Bald Eagle Falls is a pretty safe place for kids.”
Mrs. Foster nodded. “It is,” she agreed. “And Peter has been drilled over and over again on what he is and isn’t allowed to do.”
If he chose to obey. Erin knew that he had stopped to talk and visit with her on the way home from school and told her he wasn’t supposed to stop to talk to anyone. But then, all kids were like that. They chose what to obey and what they didn’t think was worth obeying.
So did adults, for that matter.
They talked about the weather and things going on around town. Erin did not bring up the remains found in the cave. The baby started to cry in another room, and Mrs. Foster sat there for a moment to see if he would stop on his own before getting up to get him.
“Here is Allan,” she told Erin, as she brought the snuggling baby back into the room. She tilted him toward Erin so she could get a good view of him.
“Wow, he’s already growing. He’s definitely bigger than he was last time I saw him.”
“Yes, he is.” Mrs. Foster stroked the baby’s shock of hair. “And already losing his hair, too. It’s funny how sometimes they come out looking like they’re wearing a toupee, there’s so much of it, and then it all falls out.”
She sat back down and unbuttoned a few buttons in order to nurse him.
He looked so much healthier than Adrienne’s baby. His cheeks were rosy and round. He nursed contently, rather than moving around and pulling at the nipple as if he weren’t getting enough. Erin had a pain in her chest, thinking about Adrienne’s baby, and Jenny’s, and the baby or child she’d heard crying in the tent in the settlement beside Jenny’s. So many hungry mouths to feed.
A few minutes later, Erin spotted Peter walking down the street, swinging a grocery bag at his side. “There he is.”
Mrs. Foster smiled. “Safe and sound.”
“Of course.”
Peter stopped to talk to the girls outside for a few minutes, then entered the house. He smiled and held the bag up for his mother. “I got everything. Hi, Miss Erin!”
Erin smiled at him.
“Good,” Mrs. Foster said. “Put it away in the kitchen, please?”
He nodded and did as he was asked. Erin thought she heard him rustling through the box of baked goods while he was in there, and he was definitely chewing something when he exited the kitchen.
“Miss Erin brought pizza shells. Can we have pizza for supper?”
“I suppose so. Do you and the girls want to make your own?”
Peter nodded his head vigorously. “And I get a whole one, not a half.”
“Yes, you can have a whole one. The girls are too small to eat a full one, so I’ll cut theirs in half and they can each put their own toppings on.”
Peter nodded his agreement. He paused. “That will make an extra half, though.”
“We can put it in the freezer for next time.”
“I could eat the extra half,” he offered.
“No. You could not.”
Peter shrugged and rolled his eyes at Erin, giving her a roguish grin. He might not be a teenag
er yet, but he was clearly working on a teenage appetite.
“How have you been, Peter? Helping your mom lots with the younger kids?”
“I always do,” he told her earnestly. “I’m a good big brother. I help with a lot of stuff, don’t I, Mom?”
“Yes, you do. It’s good to have you around here.”
Peter sat gingerly down on the edge of a chair, looking as if he weren’t sure whether he was allowed to join them. Maybe now that he was home, he was supposed to go outside to play with the girls.
“I saw the sign in the bakery window,” Peter confided in Erin. “The one about people going there to get food if they don’t have enough to eat? I think that’s a really good idea.”
“Do you? I’m glad.” Erin glanced at Mrs. Foster to make sure it was okay to talk about it with Peter. She’d been criticized before for talking with him about things that she shouldn’t and for getting him involved in criminal investigations. Not because she intentionally involved him in her mystery-solving, but because he was observant and she had picked up on things he’d said casually. She didn’t want to end up in trouble again. “I don’t like to think about people in our neighborhood going hungry.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that,” Mrs. Foster said. “There’s a lunch program at the school, so parents don’t even need to feed their children three times a day. We don’t have unemployed bums around here who don’t contribute. And I think anyone willing to put in an honest day’s work can buy their family food.”
“A lot of jobs don’t pay a living wage, though,” Erin said. “And if there is only one parent who can work and take care of the kids, how are they supposed to choose between putting money on the table or looking after their children?”
“We don’t have those kinds of problems here. There are enough jobs to go around, even during these times. And if there aren’t, you can go into the city and find something there. It’s not such a terrible commute. You can still live in Bald Eagle Falls, where housing is cheaper.”
Erin bit her lip. She didn’t want to argue the point, but she knew it wasn’t that simple.
“I’ve run into some families in pretty desperate situations the last few days,” she explained. “Not everyone has cars or the money for gas to commute to the city and, even if they do, unemployment is worse there than it is here. And a mom with young children doesn’t always have someone she can leave them with while she goes to work. Especially not if she’s making minimum wage, which doesn’t give her enough to raise a family on, let alone provide for babysitting.”
Mrs. Foster raised her eyebrows. “Some people will use any excuse. Those of us who want to can find a way to make things work. It’s never been easy for us, but we manage to get along.”
Erin nodded. “That’s good. I hate to see anyone on the skids.”
Mrs. Foster wasn’t sure what to say to that.
“I think it’s sad when people don’t have enough to eat,” Peter said. “I saw some kids at the playground. They don’t go to school. I don’t know if they’re too young or maybe homeschooled.” He gave a shrug. “They were all real skinny, and their clothes were…” he searched for the right word. “I guess they were hand-me-downs.”
“You’re lucky to be the oldest, so you don’t have to wear hand-me-downs,” Mrs. Foster said. “But there’s nothing wrong with it. It just makes economic sense when you have more than one child. Get things that the next one in line can wear. Or the next two or three.” She laughed.
Peter nodded seriously. “But even the oldest one was wearing hand-me-downs. That’s what it looked like.”
“Maybe they were from a cousin or a friend. It’s nice when families can help each other out.”
“Like Miss Erin is doing with the food,” Peter said triumphantly. “She is making sure that the people who are hungry can eat hand-me-down food.”
Erin smiled. It sounded better than charity.
“I suppose,” Mrs. Foster said grudgingly. “If you have leftovers anyway, you might as well use them instead of throwing them out.”
“I always have to make more than I need,” Erin explained. “I can’t be out of food when people come to pick something up at the end of the day. It’s okay if one or two things run out, but I always have to have bread and rolls, and some kind of dessert. So I always have something left over at the end of the day.”
“You could just sell it the next day,” Peter pointed out.
“I can, but I have to mark it as ‘day old,’ and not everybody wants to buy day old. And I have to mark it down, put it on sale. And if it’s any more than that, I really can’t keep putting it out for sale, because it will get dry and stale. Then Auntie Clem’s would get a reputation for having stale bread, and people would stop coming.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “I guess so. So it’s good that you can give it to the poor people, like the kids I saw in the playground.”
“That’s what I’m hoping. I usually freeze as much as I can and then take it into the city, because they have shelters and soup kitchens there that will take it.”
“But then what would the kids here eat?” Peter sounded affronted at the idea. “They can’t go all the way into the city.”
“You’re right,” Erin agreed. “They can’t.”
Chapter 30
That night, Erin and Terry ate at the Chinese restaurant with Vic and Willie. It felt a little too decadent to Erin after seeing the homeless people around Bald Eagle Falls and worrying whether they were getting enough to eat. The four of them would probably order enough for three families with young children.
She tried to push these thoughts to the side to enjoy her time with her Bald Eagle Falls family.
“So… how did things go when you went out to give the death notification to Mrs. Ryder?” Vic asked as they sipped their drinks and waited for the food to arrive. “Did you manage to find her?”
“I got her,” Terry admitted after a moment, apparently deciding that it was not confidential information. Now that the police had notified the next of kin, the paper would be able to publish Rip’s name and details. “Kudos to you guys for tracking her down. Even though… you know I would prefer you would leave the sleuthing to the police.”
“Well, yeah.” Vic shrugged. “But sometimes pure dumb luck overrules.”
“I doubt if it was dumb luck,” Willie said. “The two of you are pretty bright. It just so happened that you went about it in a different way than the police did.”
That was a good way to praise the women without bashing the police for not finding the Ryders.
“I thought she was the woman here in town,” Erin confessed. “But that was Adrienne.”
“I wouldn’t even have known that we had anyone homeless right in town,” Vic said. “I wouldn’t have thought it.”
“I don’t know if they actually live in town,” Terry said. “They might have just stopped in for a day or two to pick things up or visit a relative.”
“I don’t think they were taking any pleasure trips,” Erin countered, “They wouldn’t be able to afford that. I don’t know if she’s married, she didn’t say. But she has a new baby, so hopefully, that means she isn’t trying to take care of her family all on her own.”
“Then they’re probably staying with family,” Willie suggested. “Or they have an RV or van they park somewhere.”
“Maybe,” Erin agreed.
“You don’t think so?” Terry asked, sensing her hesitance.
“It crossed my mind that they might be in the woods. Back behind the house.”
“Really?” Terry’s brows climbed his forehead.
The waitress arrived with their order, and everyone leaned back while she filled the table with the various dishes. They began to dish up.
“I would think that Adele would let us know if there was any trouble back there,” Terry said. “It’s her job as your groundskeeper to make sure that people aren’t trespassing on your property.”
Erin nodded.
“Yes… but I just got the feeling… she knows more than she says. She always does. She keeps her own counsel. But I wondered the other night whether she knows that someone is camping out back there. And maybe she doesn’t want to tell anyone.”
“Why not? If someone is squatting on your property, you need to get them off. You don’t want to be liable for anything that happens to them while they’re living on your land. If one of the kids has an accident or eats poisonous berries… you don’t want to have to deal with that.”
“But it wouldn’t be my fault.”
“You want to get sued and find out?”
Erin frowned and ate her Chinese food slowly. While she didn’t want to kick someone who was in need off of her property, she also didn’t want to be held responsible for something just because it was done on her property. She tried to balance the two against each other.
“And there’s adverse possession, too,” Willie put in.
“What’s adverse possession?”
“It means that if someone squats on your land, and you allow them to, then they can claim that the land has become theirs.”
“They can claim a property just by squatting on it?”
“What do you think all of those people out there are trying to do? They can’t afford to buy land, but if they can squat on it for long enough, they can take it over.”
“So when you kicked Ryder off, is that why? Because you didn’t want them to be able to take it over?”
“I don’t like people crowding me or trying to jump my mineral claims. They can start pulling ore out of one of my mines long before they can claim adverse possession.” Willie sliced the meat off of a chicken wing with sharp, decisive strokes of his knife. “And no one is taking ore out of my mines but me.”
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, eating their own meals and considering the conversation. Erin caught Terry looking at Willie, his eyes sharp and discerning. Erin was sure that he still considered Willie a suspect. He was happy to sit there listening to Willie talking about adverse possession and his mines, stacking up the motives that Willie had to get Ryder off of his property permanently.
Hot on the Trail Mix Page 15
