Chattering Blue Jay

by Paty Jager

  “I’d guess that would be why.” Mathews leaned back. “Here’s his file.”

  Hawke drew his chair up beside Mathews and started reading.

  Childress had amassed several honors.

  The deputy put Herman Childress, Boise Idaho into an internet search engine and many articles and photos popped up. “Looks like he has his fingers in just about everything that has to do with police work. Head of the SAR organization in Idaho, Retired Police Officers, and on the Ada County Planning and Zoning Commission.”

  “That would be a conflict of interest,” Tonya piped up.

  “That it would.” Hawke skimmed the articles as Mathews scrolled slowly down. “Wait, look at that.” The name of the officer who had forged all the police reports was linked to Childress. It was his brother-in-law. “I think we have a clue as to how to find the officer who forged the arrest reports.”

  He wrote the man’s name down. “Find out if the man is married to Childress’s sister or is his wife’s brother.”

  Hawke wrote all that they’d discovered so far onto the sheet of printer paper he’d pulled out of his mom’s printer. It would have to do until he had a logbook. He’d left the one he’d been using in the glovebox of his pickup.

  “It is his wife’s brother.” Mathews looked up. “We could have a trooper go to their house tomorrow and ask Mrs. Childress for her brother’s information.”

  Hawke shook his head. “She’d tell her husband, and he’d contact the brother to get lost.” He studied Tonya. “See if you can come up with anything on the wife or the brother-in-law that Tonya could call and do an over the phone interview. While interviewing, she could ask for a way to contact her brother to get a quote from him.”

  Mathews and Tonya both smiled.

  “That’s a great plan.” Tonya sat on the arm of the chair where Mathews was clicking away on the laptop keyboard.

  They were reading through the files together when Mimi walked into the room. Hawke smiled at his mom. She hadn’t changed much the last twenty years other than more gray hair and a few more wrinkles. She’d been seventeen when she’d become pregnant and had him. A young mother, but she’d been a fierce mother. Protecting him and finally giving his father the ultimatum to bring them here. She didn’t want to be a widow to a man that was alive. They’d divorced, he’d brought her to the Umatilla Reservation, and they never saw him again.

  She walked across the room and put a hand on his shoulder. “Where will Scott sleep?” she asked.

  “I’m fine on the couch,” Mathews answered. “I have a sleeping bag in my car.”

  “Will you three be up much longer? I’m going to take my tired body to bed. I have children arriving by seven in the morning.”

  “We’ll be quiet and go to bed soon, too.” Hawke gave his mom a one-armed hug. “Sweet dreams.”

  She peered at him. “It’s been a long time since I heard that phrase around here.”

  “You said it to me and Miriam every night until we moved out.” He started to smile then stopped. She’d always made sure to come say that to them after her second husband had drank too much and been physically abusive. It was as if she wanted them to forget what they’d heard.

  “The last few years I knew I didn’t need to say it anymore, but it had become a way I could see you before the lights were turned out for the night. Make sure you were okay.” She kissed the top of his head. “Good night,” she said to the other two and walked out of the room and down the hall.

  Tonya cleared her throat. Hawke pulled his attention from his mom’s departure.

  The woman studied him with interest. “What made you become a State Trooper?”

  She wanted to understand his past after his mom’s comments. “Because I wanted to help women and children like my family.” He stood. “Did you come up with a way to interview Mrs. Childress and her brother?”

  “It seems their father worked on the restoration for the capital building. There are several archived stories about him being one of the few people in the area who knew how to restore decorative plaster and oversaw the work in nineteen-ninety-eight.” Tonya glanced up. “I could easily work that angle. He’s dead. I could contact his daughter and his son to see what they remember about their father’s work on the building.” She plucked a piece of paper from the printer and started jotting down questions. “Scott, pull up a phone number for Mrs. Childress.”

  “I’ll leave you two to finish up.” He walked to the hallway and stopped. “I’ll lock the back door. You do the same to the front after you get your sleeping bag.”

  Mathews waved as he rattled off numbers to Tonya.

  Hawke had a feeling the three of them would get to the bottom of all of this. And hopefully without anyone, including innocent people like his mom, getting hurt.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The sun was in his eyes as Hawke drove from Mission, over the tollgate pass to Elgin and on into Wallowa County. Mathews was right, the new Mustang drove like a dream, but it was uncomfortable for his six-foot frame.

  He’d left his mom’s house as she’d wandered into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. Entering Winslow, he’d planned to go straight to the office, but his growling stomach wouldn’t allow his foot to let up on the throttle. He drove by the station, headed to the Rusty Nail for breakfast.

  Hawke parked behind the café so no one would see him get out of the fancy Mustang. He didn’t need rumors spreading he was on the take because he’d pulled up in a car that was ineffective six months of the year in this county.

  The door jingled as he walked in. The farmers around a table to his left, raised their cups of coffee in a salute. He nodded. The group of businessmen shoveling food in and talking at the same time, raised a hand, some holding a triangle of toast. His usual spot at the counter was empty. He wondered if anyone ever sat on the stool.

  “Morning stranger,” Justine said, pouring coffee in the cup on the counter in front of him.

  “Morning,” He sipped the coffee as she waited for his order. He should have stayed at home and breakfasted on his mom’s mouth-watering pancakes, but he wanted to get his clothes, update Spruel, and get back as soon as he could.

  “What are you eating this morning? The usual?” Justine asked.

  “No, I’ll have French toast and bacon.” He smiled. That was one thing his mom never made right. It was either too soggy or too dry. He’d taste her pancakes tomorrow morning.

  Justine relayed his order to the cook at the same time Merrilee, the seventy-something owner of the Rusty Nail, walked out of the kitchen.

  “Hawke, there’s been a guy in here twice looking for you.” Her watery, faded blue eyes peered at him. “I thought you were on vacation?”

  “I am.” He wondered who could be looking for him. “Did the guy give you a name?”

  She shook her head. Her orange tinted hair, that had been teased into a beehive-looking pile on her head, swayed. “He said he’d prefer to surprise you.”

  Hawke didn’t like surprises. Especially, when he was a target for knowing too much. “Did you tell him to look for me at the Trembleys?” He didn’t want trouble to end up on his landlord’s door step.

  “Nope. Told him to ask over at the State Police building down the road.” She smiled. “He didn’t take too kindly to that suggestion.”

  He grinned. “Thanks, Merrilee. I don’t think it was an old friend.”

  The meal arrived. Hawke ate it as fast as was polite, paid, and headed to the Mustang. Someone was looking for him. He had a feeling it had to do with the fact he and Tonya might possibly know something about the deaths of White and Sheridan, not to mention the Goodwins and Shoat.

  He slipped into the Mustang and turned onto the highway running through Winslow. He followed the highway to the State Police office and parked behind with the official vehicles. Once he was inside the building, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had to figure out how to get clothing from his apartment without being seen. Just in case the person
knew he lived at the Trembleys.

  “Hawke, I didn’t expect to see you.” Spruel put a hand on his shoulder. “Come in my office.”

  He knew his superior wanted privacy for their discussion.

  Inside, the sergeant closed his office door and said in a low voice. “Is the woman safe?”

  “She’s being watched by Deputy Mathews. We think we’ve figured out what started all of the murders.” Hawke went on to tell Spruel about the subdivision, the water contamination, and the fact White had written a paper on it and was getting ready to share it with more than his professor when he was put in jail for assault.

  “Tonya, Ms. Cox, believes the proof he had was hidden at the homestead. He’d gone there to get it when he found the bodies and hadn’t had time to grab it when Sheridan arrived at the cabin.” Hawke studied his boss. “I’d like to go back to the homestead and go through the rubble and see if I can find the information, but I just learned there’s someone in the county trying to find me. From Merrilee’s description, he isn’t anyone I know, and he wouldn’t give his name.”

  “You’ve got yourself wrapped up in multiple murders. It’s not a good idea for you to go by yourself to such an isolated area.” Spruel tapped a pen on the papers stacked in the middle of his desk. “Any way we could send someone else to look for the information?”

  “No one knows what we are looking for. Not even Ms. Cox. She said White never told her where or how he’d hidden it.” Hawke knew it was a long shot that they’d even find the evidence since the homestead was buried under the boulders and fallen roof. It would be easier to find all the people who had a part in the murders and question them one by one. “Do we still have the Idaho State Police working with us?”

  “Yes. They are on stand-by for whatever help we need.”

  “Ask if Trooper McCord, and someone she chooses to go with her, can take a hike to the homestead and dig around.” Hawke had a feeling the woman who had stuck her reputation on the line for him would do a thorough job looking for the evidence.

  “That’s the trooper who was watching Ms. Cox?” Spruel narrowed his eyes. “Why did you pick her?”

  “Even though she seems like a by the book officer, she was willing to bend the rules a little to keep Ms. Cox safe and to find the truth. I believe she will dig until she uncovers whatever is there. And if the person responsible for all these murders is looking for me, she should be able to get in and out without anyone knowing she was there. It sounds as if no one but Tonya, and now us, knew about the information White had hidden.”

  Spruel thought on what he said a minute and nodded. “I’ll make the call to the Idaho State Police. What is your next step?”

  “Calling Herb to bring me some clothes since someone is looking for me, they might be watching the Trembley place. I’m in a rental car and don’t want them to follow me back to the reservation.” Hawke pulled out his phone.

  “What are you doing about the investigation?” Spruel studied him.

  “If Ms. Cox gets the number for the officer who falsified the reports on White, I’ll call him, if he doesn’t cooperate, I’ll have you ask for him to be pulled in and questioned in Arizona. We also need all of the people, that I’ll email you a list of, to be brought in and questioned in Idaho. But I think, the person who covered this up by manipulating the police reports is Childress. He seems to have his fingers in a lot of things in Idaho.”

  “Do you want the State Police to bring him in?” Spruel wrote the name on a piece of paper.

  “Not until we have more than circumstantial evidence. But it wouldn’t hurt to have someone keeping an eye on him. He’s going to get nervous when all the people around him are being brought in to be questioned.”

  Spruel nodded. “I’ll contact the Idaho State Police as soon as I get the list of people.”

  Hawke stood. “I’ll keep you updated.” He stepped out of the office and Trooper Sullens glanced up from his desk.

  “For a man on vacation, you sure do pop in here a lot. You really need to get a life.” The trooper studied him. “You don’t look like you’ve been vacationing. You look stressed.”

  Hawke waved him off. “Vacation is more stressful to me than working.” He left the building and sat in the Mustang. Rather than text Herb, he called the man’s cell phone.

  “You’ve reached Herb’s voicemail. Leave a message.”

  Hawke didn’t leave a message. He contemplated and finally called the house phone.

  “Hello?” Darlene answered.

  “Hey, it’s Hawke. I need a favor.” He hated asking her or her husband to bring him clothes, but he really didn’t have any other choice.

  “I thought you were on vacation?” Her voice held a note of worry.

  “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you when you bring me three sets of clothes to Al’s Café in Eagle.” Hawke hoped she hadn’t been getting ready for one of her social group meetings.

  “I can be there in forty-five minutes. And I expect the full story.” The line disconnected.

  He sighed. There was no way he could give his landlord the whole story. It would be flying around Wallowa County and whoever was looking for him would go back to Childress and tell him they were on to him.

  With forty-five minutes to kill, he started up the Mustang and drove just under the speed limit to Eagle. He made a detour by the apartment over a garage where Dani stayed in the winter months, wondering why she didn’t stay there when she flew in during the summer. A rental van sat in the spot where she parked her car and he understood why. The people rented it out during the summer months.

  He drove back into Eagle and parked on the side street next to the café. Bart and Lacie Ramsey had purchased the café several years ago and never changed the name.

  Lacie greeted him as he walked through the door. “Morning, Hawke. Here for breakfast?”

  “Just coffee and a cinnamon roll.” He was still full from breakfast at the Rusty Nail, but he always bought something. He was taking up a seat for a paying customer, and he was using their café for a business meeting of sorts. Since it wasn’t his usual hangout, he didn’t expect the person looking for him to be seated among the half dozen men scattered at the tables and counter.

  “Coming right up.”

  Hawke glanced at his watch. Ten more minutes before Darlene would arrive. He picked up the local paper and scanned the headlines. There was a photo of Charlie’s Hunting Lodge and Dani standing next to the plane she flew to haul patrons of the lodge in and out.

  He was reading the story about how Dani had brought Charlie’s Hunting Lodge to a new group of people when Lacie put the roll and coffee on the table.

  “She is something. I think it’s great a woman pilot is putting the lodge and this county on tourists’ radar,” Lacie said.

  Hawke grunted. He was proud of Dani and this just proved while she might be a friend, it was ludicrous of him to think she would want to be linked to the likes of him. He’d best stamp out his crush on the woman and stay the hell away.

  The door jingled, and he glanced over.

  Darlene and Herb both walked through the door. They greeted Lacie and sat at his table.

  “What’s going on?” Herb asked in a low voice.

  “Too much to tell you at the moment. Just you don’t know where I am other than I went on vacation.” He sipped his coffee and studied the couple who knew him better than anyone else in the county.

  “Why didn’t you take enough clothes when you ‘went on vacation’?” Darlene asked, also in a low tone.

  “Can I get you anything besides coffee?” Lacie asked, walking up to the table.

  “Just coffee,” Darlene said, pushing her cup across the table toward the waitress.

  “I’ll have what he’s having.” Herb pointed to the cinnamon roll.

  Darlene glared at her husband. “You already had breakfast.”

  “It’s wearing off,” Herb shot back.

  Lacie filled the two cups and hurried away.

/>   Hawke set his cup down and sunk a fork into the roll. “I hadn’t planned to be gone this long or have people looking for me.” He glanced at the two people he called friends. “You need to tell anyone who asks about me that I’m on vacation and you don’t know where.”

  “Are you in danger, again?” Darlene asked, her eyes darkening with worry.

  “Not me, but the person I’m with.” He peered into Herb’s eyes. “If you see anything unusual call Sergeant Spruel at the State Police in Winslow. He knows what is going on.”

  His landlord nodded.

  Lacie placed a cinnamon roll in front of Herb. “Will there be anything else?”

  “We’re good,” Hawke said, shoving the bite in his mouth and chewing.

  Darlene picked up the fork rolled up in a napkin at her spot and broke off a corner of Herb’s cinnamon roll.

  Herb stopped his fork halfway to his mouth, watching his wife.

  “What? I can’t taste it to see if mine’s better?” Darlene asked, and popped the bite in her mouth.

  Hawke enjoyed spending time with the married couple. It was the bit of relaxation he needed right now. “How are Dog, Jack, Horse, and Boy doing?”

  “The horses and mule are fine but Dog is getting lonely. He’s been sleeping on the front porch instead of in the stall with Jack,” Herb said.

  “I should have had you bring him, too.”

  Herb grinned. “We did. He’s out in the pickup with your clothes. He wouldn’t let us put the clothing in the vehicle without him.”

  Hawke laughed. “Then I guess he’ll be going with me because you know there will be no way I can get away from him if he sees me.”

  “That’s true,” Darlene said, taking another piece of the cinnamon roll.

  They finished their coffee and Hawke paid the bill.

  At the Trembley’s pickup, Dog started howling when he spotted Hawke.

  Herb unlocked the doors and opened the back door.

  Dog leaped out and straight into Hawke’s arms. “Hey, boy. Did you miss me as much as I missed you?” The mangy mutt wiggled and cried.