Murderous Secrets: A Shandra Higheagle Mystery #4

by Paty Jager

  Velma didn’t wait for her daughter’s reply before heading out of the room with the two older women in her wake.

  Chapter Five

  Shandra spent the next hour trying to keep up a conversation with Wendy and the other young women while her mind was categorizing the things she needed to do next in her investigation.

  During that time, old and young men and women, and all ages of children, started shuffling through the front door. Before long the living room was full of people standing and sitting. The noise level made it hard to talk to anyone. Shandra stood and headed to the door into the kitchen. Wendy had introduced her to each person who arrived, but her mind was spinning with names and how they were related. The older men were the ones she wanted to talk with. They, however, kept their distance, sending furtive glances her way until she’d make eye contact. Then they’d become engrossed in visiting with one another.

  In the kitchen Jo, Velma, and Clarice were lining pots, pans, and casserole dishes up on the counter with a pile of paper plates and plastic utensils on the counter at the end near the kitchen entrance.

  “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble because I’m visiting,” Shandra said.

  All three women turned and stared at her.

  “You buzzed in and out so fast after Mother’s funeral we didn’t have a chance to bring everyone together to meet you,” Aunt Jo said, waving a large serving spoon.

  The guilt twisted Shandra’s insides. “I hope all of you can forgive my staying away. I’d spent so many years without extended family that I didn’t see a need to perhaps stir up trouble.”

  “Trouble? What kind of trouble?” Velma asked, ramming a potato masher up and down in a large pot.

  Shandra wasn’t sure how to say it. “Not being brought up as the rest of you were, I didn’t want to be stereotyped.”

  Clarice stared at her. “Just because you were raised by that snooty mother of yours who looked at all of us like we were going to scalp her, doesn’t mean we believed you’d turn your back on your heritage.”

  “That step you made when you were thirteen showed us you’d be back. You’d want to know more.” Jo spread out her arms. “And here you are.”

  “Yes, here I am.” Shandra motioned to a salad that looked like it needed tossed. “Would you like me to stir that up?”

  Aunt Jo smiled. “That would be nice.”

  They finished up the last of the meal preparations and Clarice headed into the other room to let people know the food was ready.

  Shandra took this time to sidle up to Velma. Keeping her voice low, so Aunt Jo couldn’t hear, she asked, “I would like to talk with you privately tomorrow.”

  Velma nodded. “Come by any time. I’m home all day.”

  Nodding, Shandra moved to the plates and picked one up. After filling her plate with salad, a noodle casserole, and meatballs, she glanced at the long line of people starting along the counter adding food to their plates.

  Aunt Jo touched her arm. Her plate was full as well. “Come on. There’s tables set up in the barn.”

  They didn’t put their coats on, but after the heat of the kitchen, the crisp evening air was welcome. Shandra followed her aunt into the barn. There were sheets of wood on wooden saw horses and bales of hay along the make-shift tables like benches.

  “The boys set this up this afternoon,” Aunt Jo said, sliding onto a bale.

  Shandra sat on the other end of the bale. When the first person entered the barn she realized Jo had seated them to not miss a single person entering.

  Jo started telling her names, how they were related, and what they did. “That’s Bud,” she said when Clarice’s husband stepped through the door. “Bud! Bud, over here!” her aunt called out.

  The man was in his early sixties. His long, graying hair hung in two braids down his chest. He was average height, stocky, with a long, wide nose, and dark eyes. Bud nodded to Shandra and sat at the table across from Jo.

  “Bud, this is my niece, Shandra Higheagle.” Jo nodded to Shandra.

  “I’m pleased to meet you,” Shandra said, holding out her hand to shake.

  He grasped her hand and shook once. “You’re Edward’s daughter. The potter.”

  Shandra nodded and smiled. “Yes. I didn’t realize you knew that much about me.”

  Bud picked up his fork and chewed on some lettuce. He set the fork down and nodded. “We like to keep tabs on those outside the reservation who promote the old ways.”

  Shaking her head, Shandra peered into the man’s eyes. “I don’t promote the old ways. In fact, probably far from it.”

  “You form the earth into useable and artistic pots. Pottery is something our forefathers did to help with their survival.” Bud nodded and chewed on another bite. He swallowed. “You did not forget your roots, even when your mother tried to wring them from you.”

  Shandra smiled. Her mother would cringe if she knew Shandra’s passion of making vases from clay was a part of her heritage calling to her. Which brought up another question.

  “Mother has always been anti-Indian and you have all made comments that make me wonder why she married my father.” She studied Aunt Jo and Bud’s faces.

  The two made eye contact. Aunt Jo sighed, making her chest expand and then deflate. “We never wanted to have the truth told to you, but you’re old enough to know.” Jo put down her plastic fork and took Shandra’s hand. “Edward, your father, told me that he was pretty sure your mother only flirted and slept with him to get back at your stepfather.”

  “Adam? He was mother’s boyfriend before my father?” Shandra’s brain started flashbacks. That was why her mother and Adam had never talked about knowing one another before her father’s death. They didn’t want her to know…What?

  “Then why did mother marry father? She could have given me up and married Adam.”

  “Your father told her you would not be put up for adoption or taken from her body.” Jo closed her eyes briefly.

  Shandra understood what she meant. “Was my mother prepared to have an abortion?”

  “She had threatened Edward with that if he didn’t keep quiet about the pregnancy. She knew she couldn’t pass you off as Adam’s if you came out with Indian characteristics.” Aunt Jo smiled. “And you did. You were the prettiest Indian baby.”

  “That still doesn’t explain the marriage.” Shandra turned her attention to Bud. He was fiddling with the food on his plate.

  “Your grandmother told your mother if she didn’t marry Edward, your grandmother would ruin it for Celeste to ever marry another. That they could try marriage and if it didn’t work, she could walk away. But you were to remain with your father.” Aunt Jo shook her head. “Mother should not have forced the two together. I don’t know if she saw something and thought they could make it or she hoped your mother would learn to love our ways and your father.”

  Shandra shoved her plate to the center of the table. The din of many voices, children laughing and crying rose up to roar in her ears. Could Ella’s forcing her parents together have caused her father’s death?

  Chapter Six

  Shandra followed the red taillights of Aunt Jo’s pickup out the dirt road up the Nespelem River to the Higheagle horse ranch. Her great-great-grandfather had received federal trust acres and the family had since added non-trust acres making the Higheagle ranch near a thousand acres. On her visit when she was thirteen, she’d enjoyed learning how to listen to the horses when working with and riding them. On her stepfather’s ranch in Montana, the horses were treated as a machine. A means to get the cattle rounded up out of the mountains or to use at branding. While at the Higheagle ranch, Shandra learned horses were creatures who deserved respect and admiration. The animal had taken care of the Nez Perce for centuries.

  Aunt Jo’s truck drove through the open gate to the house and barnyard.

  She noticed Coop’s fancy truck parked to the side of the lean-to Aunt Jo drove her pickup under. Shandra parked on the far side of Coop’s truck. She
didn’t know if she’d be leaving in the morning before either of them but didn’t want to block their way.

  Shandra stepped out of her Jeep, opened the back door, and grabbed her overnight bag.

  “You travel light,” Aunt Jo said. “Or you were only planning a short trip.”

  “I travel light. There are enough clothes for three days. I figured that was all I’d need to gather enough information to continue my search back at my ranch.” Shandra pulled the overnight bag out of the car and shut the door.

  She fell in step beside her aunt. They walked into the door off the carport.

  Uncle Martin, Jo’s husband, stood with his back to them looking into the refrigerator. “Did you bring me anything, Josie?” he asked without turning around.

  Jo patted her husband on the back. “Sorry. There wasn’t a crumb left when everyone filled their plates.”

  Martin grunted. “Coop and Andy thought there might have been some of your aunt Dottie’s casserole left.” He faced his wife and closed the fridge door.

  She laughed. “You hate that.”

  “But I’m hungry enough I could eat it now.” He winked at Shandra.

  Uncle Martin and Aunt Jo had lived at the ranch with Ella. At thirteen she hadn’t found the way they joked with one another and the children as endearing as she did as an adult.

  “I see the guest of honor is here.” He stepped forward, pulling Shandra into a bear hug.

  “It’s good to see you again, Uncle Martin.” Shandra couldn’t hug him back because she had her overnight bag in one hand and her purse in the other. She stepped out of his embrace. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Coop? Coop!” Aunt Jo called into the other room.

  Pounding steps on the stairs, brought Coop ducking into the kitchen. “Yeah?”

  “Show Shandra to your room,” Aunt Jo said.

  “I don’t need to put anyone out of their bed,” Shandra protested.

  “It’s okay. Andy has bunks in his room. I’ll just hang my feet over the end and make him smell them all night. Ays.” Coop winked and looked a lot like his father, before he spun to the door and waved for her to follow.

  “Good night,” Shandra said, following her cousin out of the kitchen, through the large living room, which looked much as she remembered it, and up the stairs. To her surprise and pleasure, Coop’s room was the guest room she’d slept in that summer she’d ran away to her heritage.

  “Thank you. I am sorry to put you out of your room,” she said, stepping through the threshold and finding the room neat and tidy. A double bed took up the length of the far wall that had a window. The wall to her right held a desk with one of the newest computers on the market.

  “You can hop on the internet if you want,” Coop said, obviously reading her interest in his computer as her wanting to get online.

  “If I can’t get a good signal with my tablet, I will borrow it if you don’t mind.” She set her bag on the floor next to the bed.

  “Andy has one in his room I can use if I need to check something out.” Coop headed to the door. He stopped and faced the room. “Mom is real excited about your visit.” His gaze dropped to the floor. “If this is a one-time thing, don’t stay too long.” He stepped backward, ducked into the hall, and closed the door.

  Shandra stared at the door. He was worried his mother would be hurt. His concern endeared him to Shandra. I don’t have plans to hurt anyone. I just need the truth.

  Jazz tunes tinkled from her phone. Pulling it out of her side pocket, she noticed she’d missed one call from Lil and two from Ryan.

  The screen showed Ryan’s name. She slid her finger across the screen.

  “Hello.”

  “I got your text, but wanted to hear how your visit is going,” Ryan said.

  She smiled. He was concerned about her being accepted. She’d told him about the separation from her father’s side of the family.

  “Aunt Jo and Uncle Martin have always been good to me. Jo and my cousin Velma had a dinner in my honor tonight. There were so many relatives, I’ll never be able to remember their names.”

  Ryan smiled at the phone. He’d been afraid she’d run into resistance at the reservation and come back frustrated. Even though he’d told her many times her father’s death was decades old and would be hard to find information about.

  “You visit a time or two and you’ll keep them straight.” He had been against her trip to the reservation only because she would dredge up the past and if a murder had been committed, could become a target.

  “I’m not as confident as you.” She paused. “I discovered there was another Indian who was rodeoing the same time as father and the two didn’t get along.”

  “Shandra, you know whatever you find out, I can’t do a thing about until there is solid proof.” This was the frustrating part. Hearing all the information she dug up and worrying about her safety.

  “I know. I was hoping you could do a little checking on him?”

  He heard what sounded like bed springs squeak. Shandra must have sat on a bed. “You have to be tired from the trip and meeting all those people. How about I call you back tomorrow?”

  “That’s fine. Then you can tell me what you find out about Charlie Frank. He is Colville, rodeoed, and has a ranch up by Omak.”

  His instincts kicked in. “You aren’t heading to Omak by yourself.”

  “I can’t ask anyone to go with me. They have their own lives to lead.”

  Ryan wouldn’t let this slide. “If you decide to go to Omak, take someone with you. There has to be a cousin or someone who would like to get to know you better or need a ride that direction.”

  “I can’t impose on—”

  “It’s not imposing. It’s for your own safety.” Ryan wasn’t going to hang up until she agreed to take someone with her. He wasn’t convinced her father was murdered, but he’d learned to trust her dreams. If this Frank person did kill her father, she’d be walking into trouble.

  “I’m just going to ask questions about my father, you know ‘a wanting to learn more about him’ stage of my life. I won’t bring up I don’t think it was an accident.” Shandra sighed. “I’m tired. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  The phone went silent. Ryan pulled out the notepad he kept in his shirt pocket and flipped through the pages to Josephine Elwood’s phone number. Shandra may not think she needed company but he would make sure she wasn’t alone.

  Chapter Seven

  Shandra rose early the next day. She felt refreshed and was happy to have a full night of sleep without Ella visiting her dreams. Sitting on the bed, she dialed Lil’s phone.

  Three rings and Lil answered. “Mornin’.”

  “Good morning. How is Sheba this morning?” Shandra asked, starting off with the most important thing on her mind.

  “She likes when you’re gone and she can sleep in here with us,” Lil said.

  Shandra could hear Sheba panting in the background and the purr of Lewis who was most likely draped over Lil’s shoulders.

  “Good. I’m glad she likes having sleepovers. The horses all well?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We had about four more inches dumped on us yesterday, but I got them coasters to the resort and back in time to put them in stalls.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Shandra said, and meant every word of it. The woman was the perfect fit for what she needed in the way of help.

  “Remember that come Christmas,” Lil joked.

  “I will,” Shandra laughed. “Did the kiln turn off last night?” She knew Lil always followed her orders when it came to the pottery, but this was something new. Something she hoped to wow the judges with at the next show. To win a prize at the New Mexico show was a real coup for a potter.

  “I checked it at ten and it was still going, but when I tottered out there about midnight it had just turned off.”

  “That sounds like the right amount of time. Just leave it set in the kiln,” she instructed.

  “I won
’t touch it. You coming back today?”

  “No. I’m headed up to Omak to talk to someone. My plan is to be back tomorrow.” Ryan’s conversation had been running around in her head as she fell asleep last night. She woke with the gnawing feeling she should probably heed his warning.

  “Okay, we’ll be here. I’ll take the tractor and plow out tomorrow morning and clear the road of snow.”

  “That’s a good idea. See you tomorrow.” Shandra hit the off button, tucked the phone in her purse, slung the purse over her shoulder, and headed downstairs.

  The kitchen was full of activity. Jo stood at the stove, flipping pancakes. Martin was washing his hands at the sink. Coop and Andy sat at the table arguing about basketball. This was the type of family Shandra had dreamed of having while growing up an only child in a house that had a housekeeper. Her breakfasts had been eaten in the kitchen while the housekeeper cleaned up the dishes from Adam’s morning meal. Her mother never ate more than toast and coffee for breakfast. And that was usually after Shandra headed to school.

  “You’re up! I was just getting ready to send someone up to see if you were sleeping in,” Aunt Jo said, smiling and placing a large plate of pancakes on the table.

  “I was on the phone with Lil, my help, checking on my dog and horses.” Shandra hung her purse on a vacant chair and sat.

  “What are your plans today?” Martin asked.

  “I want to visit with Velma before I head to Omak and talk to Charlie Frank.” Shandra shook her head when Jo placed a cup of coffee in front of her plate. “I’m not a fan of coffee.”

  “I need to go to Omak. Can I bum a ride? It will save me gas.” Coop peered at her with dark brown eyes.

  “What do you need to do there?” She found it too much of a coincidence he needed to go to Omak when Ryan had been insistent someone go with her.

  “They have a sports store there. I need a new pair of basketball shoes.” He held up a foot that had to be close to a size thirteen.

  “I guess it’s hard to find your size around here.” The thought of getting to know him better overrode the feeling she had been manipulated by Ryan.