by Beth Byers
We wove our way through the maze of RVs and finally found a little side road that had larger spaces with mobile homes on cinderblocks. Many of the homes had little patios off of the front doors and even fences that kept dogs and kids. At the very back of the park, there was a blue mobile home with a nice wooden fence and a riot of flowers in the yard. Someone had put up a pergola over the parking spot and it was covered with greenery that looked like it would blossom eventually.
“This place is lovely,” Zee said.
“I had jumped to a terrible conclusion when I heard they lived here. I…I’m a snob.”
Zee snorted meanly at me and then said, “Yeah you are.”
In the little yard area, I could see that someone had put together a hutch for the skunk with a smaller yard area, some toys, and a bowl for water. The skunk wasn’t in there though. We knocked on the door and Shane opened it.
Her jaw tightened. I suspected if she didn’t work for me, she’d have shut the door in my face. Her desire to keep her job was fighting with her need to protect her sister and nieces.
“We’re on your side,” I told her when she didn’t open the door any further.
“That waitress of yours ended up in jail,” Shane told me.
“She was guilty and admitted to killing her ex-boyfriend. Did you kill Jordy?”
Shane shook her head.
“Well then, we’re on your side. The best thing we can do is bring this investigation to an end and move on.”
It seemed that Shane would have left us on the porch but Zee pushed her way into the house. The living room was small and covered in toys, but the little girls were at school and things had been tucked into baskets. You could tell that kids lived there, but you could also tell that their mom worked hard to make her place nice.
A woman who looked just like Shane only softer was curled up on the couch. There were bags under her eyes from crying and her eyes were bloodshot. She was wearing pajamas and her hair looked like she’d slept in that bun. I’d been in a similar position more than once. The polite, human part of me wanted to leave, but I didn’t. Instead, I crossed and sat next to her.
“I’m Rose,” I said, and then because I was more on Jane’s side than Shane’s, I added, “Shane’s boss.”
Slowly Addison sat up, her gaze darted to her sister, and it seemed to be pleading. To be honest, I wasn’t feeling all that generous. Jordy had been a terrible human being. But he had been a human being. Someone had taken his life. It was wrong. All too often I could see why a murderer had done what they had done. That never made me fully empathize with the killer.
I said, “You made a bad choice in baby daddy.”
Shane choked behind me, Zee snorted, but Addison said, “Yeah, I did.”
“Our friend Jane did too.”
Addison turned to me, searching my face all the while totally frozen.
“Did Jordy leave you pregnant?”
Addison nodded.
“Well, it seems he was pretty fertile then because he left Jane Murdock, the doctor at the clinic pregnant too. They had a drunken series of one-night stands.”
Addison set her feet on the ground and said, “I don’t know why that makes me so angry. I knew he was a…” She rubbed her hands over her face.
“On the positive side, you’ll like Jane and J.J. Your girls will like J.J. if you let them get to know each other. He’d be a good brother to all of them.”
“I…can’t think about that right now.”
“Fair enough. In my opinion, both you and Jane have pretty big motives for killing Jordy in your kids.”
Her eyes filled with tears and she said, “I didn’t though. I couldn’t have. I…he was my first love. He was all I had for a long time.”
“You had Shane,” I said.
Addy nodded.
“And Hilary,” I said just to see how she’d react.
She froze again. I was starting to feel like a snake playing with a bird. I wouldn’t be surprised if she keeled over dead from terror after talking to me.
Addy explained in a trembling voice. “I abandoned Hilary and her mom. They were a home to me and I dumped them after Jordy dumped me. I didn’t even go to Phyllis’s funeral.”
“She never dumped you in her heart,” I said. “Hilary knew you needed to make a break from everything to clean up, and she didn’t want to mess that up for you. She loves you still.”
Addy was crying as she said,“I loved her as much as I loved Shane.”
“The you should reach out to her. She loves you still, and she loves your daughters. She’s alone except for her boyfriend.”
“This isn’t what I thought you’d be saying,” Addy said. “Where are my manners? Can I get you some water or something else to drink?”
I nodded and let her even though we were the ones without manners. I had deliberately walked around the questions we were going to ask because I knew that if I started with the big things in the beginning, I’d put her on the defensive. I needed her chatty.
After seeing Addy, I didn’t think she’d killed her ex-boyfriend. I only wished I could say the same of Shane. She was made of sterner things.
Of the two sisters, Shane was the stronger one. That much was clear.
“What did you do after you left the diner yesterday?”
“I came here, of course,” Shane said. “Addy needed to know about Jordy. I needed to vent about…well about you.”
I grinned at her and Zee winked. “Rose is kind until there’s a body or she’s helping a friend.”
“Who were you helping?” Shane demanded. “You said I could count on your guys at the diner. You said I wasn’t alone. But the second that things got weird, you didn’t have my back.”
“We had Jane’s,” I agreed. “We care about you. Zee and I both do. Jane is family. You care about us, but Addy is your family. And, at that point, Jordy wasn’t dead. Our friend was facing the same problem you were. Jordy was back and messing with the kids. Both your nieces and J.J.”
“He said he wanted custody or money,” Addy said as she sat back down after handing me and Zee our water.
“Addy!” Shane hissed.
Zee cut in, “He tried the same thing with Jane, but we threatened him with a lawyer.”
“We can’t afford a lawyer,” Addison said. She sounded exhausted. “Obviously if we could we wouldn’t be living in a two-bedroom single-wide. We do our best to make it nice, but…Geoff and I don’t have money for anything like a lawyer.”
“We’d have helped you when we helped Jane.”
My biggest suspects were right here in this room. Hilary had an alibi and the people most likely to kill you were the ones that were supposed to love you. Spouses, siblings, children. Those were the people you needed to look out for.
I continued, “All we knew when we talked was that you hated Jordy enough to attack him, and we needed to know why. If it was bad enough, it might have helped Jane keep Jordy away from her son.”
Addison’s laugh was bitter. “She and I should have a few beers. She’s lucky if Jordy was just a one-night stand. He ruined my life for a long time.”
I didn’t think luck had all that much to do with it. Sometimes you loved someone and were toxic together. That was when you left and made a new life. If you didn’t leave…well…you were kind of choosing that toxic.
I knew intellectually it was crazy hard to leave someone abusive or so many women wouldn’t stay in those relationships. But it wasn’t something I’d faced before. I needed to remember that I had no idea what it had been like for Addison.
“Tell me about Jordy back then?” I suggested.
Shane and Addison exchanged speaking glance, but I wasn’t asking for an alibi. They didn’t realize I didn’t have to do that. Simon and Carver would. It was way harder to sidestep the police and the boys would be here sooner or later verifying the basics.
“He was into all kinds of bad stuff,” Shane said. “He stole from everyone. His own mom. That isn’t s
ome sort of joke to explain how bad he was, he really did steal from her. She didn’t have much and more than once Hilary and Phyllis went hungry because of him.”
I crossed my fingers in my lap, keeping my thoughts to myself because I needed Addison and Shane’s thoughts to get an understanding of Jordy.
Shane looked down, playing with her fingers before she continued, “It was a huge blessing when he took off. Addy was heartbroken for a while, but she was pregnant.”
“After he left and I realized how bad things were…” Addy pulled her legs into her chest and wrapped her arms around them, “I left Jordyn with Shane. I had to go to rehab to get clean.”
Shane moved, taking her sister’s hand and finished, “When Addy got out…he was still gone, she was clean, she had these two perfect little babies. She had so much reason to stay clean. So she went to those addict support groups and she met Geoff and the two of them were…they were just perfect together. He had been clean for a long time. She was clean. They could take each other’s pasts without judgment. They’d both been in some bad places.”
“It sounds like you did just what you should have done. I’ve always maintained that people could change,” Zee told Addy, “Good job.”
Addy nodded and said, “Jordy was the question though. You wanted to know about him back then, not me. He was into all kinds of bad stuff. You think in a place like Silver Falls that those kind of things don’t happen around here.”
Shane and Zee snorted together, and Addy stopped glancing at them.
“Go on,” I said, shooting the others a nasty look.
“Anyhow, Jordy worked hard on making a criminal life here. I’m sure he left just to have more opportunity for crime. Everyone knew he was terrible. No one would hire him. The only people who didn’t avoid him were other addicts and criminals. And when he took off, a lot of scary people dropped by my place looking for him.”
Addy leaned forward to impress her comment on me. She wanted it to be very, very clear that he had terrible enemies and that they’d scared her.
I wanted to believe that was the case. But…why after all this time?
“Do you have any names?”
Addy paused and then shook her head. “Not that would lead you anywhere. Little John. Big D. Stupid names like that.”
“Give them to me anyway,” Zee said. She wrote them down, and they were all nonsense. Maybe Carver would know. Or someone like Aaron Welsh who had worked in Silver Falls forever. It wasn’t something I would pursue anyway. I couldn’t when I’d promised Simon to be careful.
“What about his cousin? He has a cousin and an aunt still around here, right? Not just Hilary?”
Addy nodded. “Mitchell is the cousin. He was as dirty was Jordy. The mom is Carol. They have a place over by Neskowin. I don’t know what they do. Hilary and Phyllis avoided them. Jordy never did. Mitchell has never stopped trying to find Jordy, but I don’t know why.”
Chapter 10
I didn’t even ask Shane and Addy about their alibis. Not beyond where Shane had gone after the diner. I just messaged Simon what we’d found out and my thoughts and then turned and asked Zee. “Do you think we should visit with Jane or with the aunt?”
“I think we should get food,” Zee said. “Is your stomach still upset?”
I shook my head. The second she’d mentioned food, I was hungry. It was nearly 2:00pm, so we headed down to the diner before they closed. My green smoothie hadn’t lasted all that long, and I was ready to eat a side of beef. Instead, I ordered the chicken fried steak and then helped Az with the kitchen while we waited for Simon and Carver to arrive.
“How you doing, Rosie luv?” Az asked.
I shrugged and then said, “I haven’t even thank you-ed for taking care of the dogs.”
“You paid me. Those extra jobs you’ve been sliding my way along with overtime have helped me pay off my property. Simon and Carver are going to help me build my house this summer. Because of you, Rosie luv, I’ll be a part owner in a business, have a house, and my own property. I’ll watch your dogs whenever you need.”
“That’s good,” I told him as I cut fries for a to-go order. “Because I plan on hitting most of the major tropical beaches in the coming years.”
Az’s laugh rolled across the kitchen like deep thunder. He’d cut off his dreads a few months ago, after he’d started dating Mattie, and I was pretty sure it was because she liked to play with hair. I suspected she ran her fingers over his close cut scalp often enough that he didn’t miss them.
“So…” I grinned at him and threw the fries into the basket, placing it into the oil. “What’s going on with you and Mattie?”
He blushed. He actually blushed and I cackled rubbing my hands together. “Are we going to be planning another wedding?”
His blush deepened and he stammered a little.
“Azzzzzzieeeeeee,” I begged. “Tellll meeee.”
He scowled at me.
“Have you talked about it?”
“The big M?”
“Yeah,” I said, bouncing on my toes.
“Maybe. Maybe a little. But in Canada. Since I want my brother to be there.”
“The Northern half of Niagara Falls?”
He shrugged and then admitted, “I’d marry her anywhere. I’d like my brother to be there and he can’t really come back to the U.S. after living here illegally so long.”
I wrapped him up in a hug and said, “She’s a lucky woman. I’m sure Mattie will be happy to marry you wherever your brother can come. Maybe somewhere tropical?” I rubbed my hands and then said, “I’ll go wherever, but I’m cool with you picking a place off of my tropical bucket list.”
“I’m the lucky man,” he countered, and I hugged him before loading up the tray of food for Carver, Simon, Zee, and I. “It’s weird that I’ve known her so long and never realized my best friend and love was wrapped up in her perfect package.”
The diner was closing, but it took a bit to stock up for the next day and do the prep cooking. Zee and I worked together at the baked goods, to keep the time spent to a minimum with simple cakes, cookies, and muffins, the dough for cinnamon rolls.
“We didn’t even ask Shane and Addy for an alibi,” I told them.
“I don’t like you two butting your noses in,” Carver grumped.
I shrugged at him.
“They might lie to us,” Simon said, ignoring Carver, “But if they do, it would be stupid on their parts, and we can make them regret it.”
Zee handed Carver the list of criminal names that Addy had recalled. He glanced it over and then said, “Most of these guys are gone or in jail.”
“Then we need to think about the guy who was arguing with Jordy in the street and the cousin and aunt.”
“And Jane and Hank and Addison and Geoff,” Carver said.
“You talk to Jane,” Simon said. “We’ll handle Geoff.”
Carver wasn’t very happy with that statement, but he said, “Better to stick your nose in with Jane than this list of criminals.”
I rolled my eyes at him and messaged Jane to find out where she was.
“You guys should consider Fiji,” Simon told them after I rolled my eyes at his boss.
Carver didn’t lighten up much while we had lunch, but I didn’t care and Zee seemed to think his irritation was funny.
We finished lunch, leaving Carver while he was still telling us what to do. A few minutes after we left, we met Jane and walked down to the beach together. It was mostly empty with a couple of kids with a parent way down the beach. The seagulls were flying and calling, and I spotted a seal in the water. We’d all seen seals often enough, but I loved it all the same. It felt a little like seeing a lion on safari since I was seeing it in the wild.
“Where were you after you left the diner?”
Jane frowned and then said, “It doesn’t help you to know. I don’t have an alibi. Hank yelled at me. I went home. The boys were at school, so I drank some wine and laid down. I cried. I eventuall
y fell asleep. I was there when the boys got home from school, but…I think they just plugged right into their Xbox and probably didn’t even check to see if I was there. If they woke me up, I might have made them do their homework.”
It was about what I expected, so we explained about the little girls and telling Addy about J.J. Jane wasn’t upset about finding out about the half-sisters.
“I figured it would be a miracle if J.J. didn’t have some siblings with Jordy being the way he was.”
I was coming more and more to the conclusion that secrets were what got people killed and if you were just bluntly honest and open, you might survive to old age. That and refusing to give into shame and secrets, there would be less murders.Though maybe that was just naive. Maybe I should just accept that some people got so angry that they were willing to kill another person?
“Next time you’re a murder suspect,” I told her, “If you could work on having a better alibi that’d be great.”
“We didn’t really expect anything that would help since you’d have told us, but at least we can fill in the blanks of where you were.”
“Then, let’s go find a real suspect.” Zee scowled and said, “I’ve got the address for the aunt. Let’s go check her out. I guess her son mooches off her still.”
“Lovely,” Jane said. “I know J.J. isn’t like them at all, but the fact that those are his genetics makes me ill.”
I gave Jane a tight hug and said, “You’re a good mom. He has Hank. You guys have given him more than can be counted.”
Zee let me drive since I refused to get in her car. I didn’t want to be ‘horking’ into the bushes again. The way to Neskowin was lovely with the ocean in the distance and the trees on the east side of the road towering over with beauty. We spied a couple of deer as we moved along and a plethora of seagulls. I’d never really enjoyed seagulls until I lived at the beach, but now it just made me feel at home.
The address was one of the ones that led into the forest and away from the beach, so we took a spooky looking side road and I said, “Did you tell Carver we were coming here?”
She shook her head, so I messaged Simon and then we pulled onto the graveled, pitted path that supposedly led to where someone lived. It was traveled often enough that the car wasn’t scraped by the undergrowth but that was all that could be said for it.
