Say, an order about changing his mind and not letting the media depart.
We opted to do our departing while the departing was good, ensuring we’d be able to pull together a story, even if it didn’t have the perfect set-up.
“With those lights in the cave,” she continued, “I saw a skull among the rock. Pieces of a skull. Looked like there was a good-sized hole, but the missing chunk could have been out of sight.”
I called the station while Diana drove with her usual disregard for the physics of staying in one piece. At least telling Audrey the news distracted me.
After Audrey made the first slash and burn through the scheduled story blocks, she called back to fill me in. I heard Thurston bellowing in the background.
A sweet sound that warmed my heart.
“Start working the sheriff’s department desk officer for an ID on the first victim — first victim we found today,” I told Audrey.
“Will do.” She ended the call.
There was something niggling at me…
“You’re doing the story, right?” Diana asked.
That brought my attention back to the matter at hand.
“Uh-huh. Thurston can’t claim it when he refused to go out there or have anything to do with the event.”
“Oh, he can try.”
“He won’t succeed.”
We quickly outlined the story, as well as tactics to keep Thurston’s hands off it. Then we looked beyond tonight’s newscasts.
“We need to figure out if these two deaths are related. And to do that, we need to know who the victims are,” I said.
“Could either one be natural?”
I chewed on that a moment. “It would really stretch my imagination for the first guy to be natural causes. No way to know about the guy in the cave at this point. But, for sure, the sheriff’s department will treat both as suspicious at the very least. And we will, too.”
“You don’t think the guy in the cave is from way, way back?”
“I thought I thought that, but Shelton changed my thinking, or at least opened up the possibilities. If he wasn’t kidding about the wallet—”
“Shelton’s so well known as a big kidder.”
“—and the jeans being from Sears, that makes our mystery man far more recent than I was originally thinking.”
“Why are you grimacing?”
“Shelton. Sure wish he’d looked in that wallet. No, what I really wish is we had. We’d be a lot farther—” My phone rang. “—along.”
I checked caller ID.
It was Mike.
“Hello. I have you on speaker with Diana in the Newsmobile.”
“You found a body while I wasn’t there?”
Correction. It was Jennifer.
“While we weren’t there.”
And Mike.
“You have no claim to expect to be involved in investigations anymore because you moved away,” Jennifer said. “But I still live there.”
“Well, you’re not there now, so—”
“You two don’t need Diana or me for this dispute and we can use the time to put together a Thurston-proof package, so I’ll hang up and—”
“No, no, don’t hang up,” Jennifer said. “I got your message. The video’s backed up multiple places, including with some buddies Sergeant Shelton would never find. But who is the dead guy? How did you find him? What’s going on?”
I explained, with a few contributions from Diana, starting with the body they knew about … before expanding to the one they didn’t.
Chapter Eighteen
“…and then I realized it was a belt that was still on a body, though from what we could tell there wasn’t a whole lot left. It—”
“Another one and totally by accident?” Jennifer’s voice climbed.
“You tripped over two dead bodies in one day?” Mike demanded at the same time. “I said to give the coverage the E.M. Danniher treatment, but I didn’t mean that.”
“Very funny. I didn’t trip over anything. You could say the horses did with the first body, but not me. And the second one was found thanks to thorough and careful examination of my surroundings.”
“She was looking for coyotes,” Diana said for the benefit of the speaker. “Lloyd Sampson put the thought in her head.”
“I wasn’t—” The challenge of her look changed my verbal course. Not from guilt but from self-preservation. At the speeds she maintained, a blink took her attention from the road too long for me. Keeping her pacified was essential to self-preservation. “—only looking for coyotes. Also bats.”
Mike spluttered over a chuckle. “Only you would be looking for coyotes and bats and find a dead body from who knows when. I can’t believe you found two bodies. Shelton must be apoplectic.”
“You don’t have to make it sound like I’m going for a high-volume discount, Paycik.”
“Well, when you start finding them in pairs again—”
“Again?” Jennifer interrupted.
“Red Sail Ditch,” Mike said.
“This is different,” Diana said. “The other time they were contemporaneous. These two are from different times.”
“Technicality,” Mike argued.
“Plus, she didn’t find the first one then,” Jennifer said.
“Thank you, Jennifer. And it wasn’t like I wanted to find any of them — coyotes, bats, or a dead body — this time. Although, now that the body in the cave’s been found, we obviously have to look into it.”
“Why? If the second one you found’s from way back, what possible connection could they have?”
“See, that’s what I thought, too. You hear a body was found in a cave and you think ancient.” Maybe, just maybe I was still smarting from Shelton’s riff off my thoughts on IDing the body through anthropology. “But there was the belt.”
Mike kept going, “Native American from way back? Or someone from early arrival of the pan-European type? Someone else from history?”
“Has to be from when someone would be wearing jeans from Sears and with a wallet in his back pocket,” Diana said.
“The body had a wallet? What was in it?”
“We don’t know yet. Shelton doesn’t, either. He’s having the experts deal with it. Listen, guys, we need to go. We can talk tonight, after the Ten if you want.”
“We want,” Mike said firmly. “Call when you’re home and can talk.”
As soon as the call ended, Diana asked, “Why give them the bum’s rush? We aren’t at the station yet.”
“Couple things to work out before we get there. It’s bothering me that Shelton told me about the wallet and didn’t even try to tell me not to use it.”
“He wants you to put it on-air. Are you going to?”
Her question clarified my thinking. “As much as I’m tempted to thwart Shelton, hell, yes, we’ll put the wallet on-air. But … not the belt. Let’s hold that back, at least for a while. We’ll give Shelton what he wants on the wallet — not that he’ll appreciate it. But it’s great detail. It might help someone identify the body before the experts do. If it tells someone their dirty laundry has been found and is about to be spread out for all to see, that doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s what Shelton’s after,” she muttered.
“Yep. But the owner of the dirty laundry might come to us before him.”
“Ever the optimist.”
“Yeah, but…” I added a sharp, “Darn.”
Or words to that effect.
“What?”
“Jennifer asked it straight out and I rolled past it. Got so tied up in the second victim — well, probably the first one killed, but the one we found second — that I haven’t focused on the identity of that first victim, the one who was—”
“I know. Found first. Let’s keep them in the order we found them. Until we have names. But you did tell Audrey to work the sheriff’s department for the ID.”
“Yeah. Knew something was off when I told her to do it and didn’t listen to my own
conscience. Shame on me. A total Thurston move on my part. Wait for the news release. And there was something…” I ran back the events from when Paytah Everett led me to the first body.
“Something from Shelton?”
“Nope. It was Mrs. P. She said, It would be exceedingly difficult to identify anyone under these circumstances. Not that she didn’t know who it was, not that she couldn’t identify him, but that the circumstances made it difficult. And I let that slide right by.”
I had my phone out and hit speed dial.
“You think you can get her to tell you when she chose not to earlier?” Diana wasn’t only asking, she was warning that I was setting myself up for major disappointment.
“No.” A voice answered on the other end. “Hi, Aunt Gee. I have a quick question for you. Two, actually.”
I’d bet all the leftover sea salt caramel pie that she knew up-to-the-minute details on the sheriff’s department investigation.
“Just a minute.”
I heard an identifiable voice in the background, then a door opening and closing, followed by birds chirping, and a solitary car passing.
The voice belonged to Ferrante, the desk deputy at the sheriff’s department. The rest of the sounds matched Gee getting up from a waiting room seat and walking out to the patch of grass in front of the building.
My questions might be quick — once I got to ask them.
Because first she told me how she should have been on the scene, as someone involved in organizing the event and associated with law enforcement. She never should have opted to remain at the main site when it became clear something was wrong at the starting point for the Native American reenactors.
“You were in the right place,” I told her. “You kept people calm at the main site and made sure they stayed until they could be asked if they’d seen anything. Did anyone?”
“Not a thing. But now Emmaline is at the sheriff’s department, giving a statement, acting downright peculiar, and I can’t do anything useful or—”
“I know, Aunt Gee, but you couldn’t be two places at once and what you did was vital. My second question’s about the spelling of the victim’s name. I want to be sure to get it right. That’s B as in boy?”
There was a long pause.
A long uncomfortable pause while I tried to prepare an answer for when she asked me what the heck I thought I was doing trying to get her to divulge department business with such a weak ploy.
“Did I mention that Emmaline has been acting peculiar?” she asked slowly.
Feeling my way, I said, “You did. A crime scene can have that effect—”
“Before today. Wound up. That report about Russell Teague being ill … Wouldn’t talk about it, but definitely something there. But you’re right. Worse since the body… Sorry. What was that you were asking? Oh, if the spelling of the victim’s name starts with a B as in boy. No. It’s P, as in Paul, A-L-M-E-R.”
I repeated the name for Diana’s benefit. She frowned. A voice in my head jumped up and down screaming to forget that was a common last name and leap to the conclusion it was the first name I’d heard multiple times recently. Trouble was, was the voice in my head an angel or a devil?
“And the last name, is that T as in Tom— tomorrow?”
Diana shot me a look. I ignored it.
“No, no, no. R like renter, not T like tenant. R-E-N-N-A-N-T.” I followed her connections — Rennant, which rhymed with tenant and segued to renter.
Palmer Rennant.
That went a long way to confirming Mrs. P had dodged with her It would be exceedingly difficult to identify anyone under these circumstances.
Another of her answers floated back into my memory. I cannot claim any expertise at identifying watches.
She’d tangled with Palmer Rennant over permission to continue the events on his land. She’d met him. She’d, no doubt, seen that watch.
And Aunt Gee said she’d been acting peculiarly…
“Thanks, Aunt Gee. The body in the cave—?”
“No idea.”
That was the crisp Gisella Decker I knew.
“Understand. Can’t believe I had the first and last names spelled wrong on the other one.” My self-disgusted sigh was a prize-winner, especially considering how distracted I was. “You saved me. May I take you and Mrs. Parens out for lunch tomorrow? I know you usually cook, but—”
“Not cooking tomorrow. I’m working the middle shift, so, yes, I’d like that. I’m sure Emmaline will join us.”
Whether she wanted to or not, judging by Gee’s tone.
“Great. I’ll call you in the morning. Have to go now.”
We were flying into the KWMT-TV parking lot as I ended the call.
“I can’t believe Aunt Gee told you the victim’s name.” Diana sounded half pleased, half not. “Since the changes in the sheriff’s department—”
“In other words, your sweetie Sheriff Conrad taking over.” Her loyalty to Conrad was why she was half not pleased.
“—Gee’s been reticent about sharing with us.”
Us was why she was half pleased.
“Reticent? She’s been darned near a vault. As soon as you land this thing, I’ll share all.”
Only with the Newsmobile engine off did I repeat Aunt Gee’s concerns about Mrs. Parens, along with my own thoughts.
Diana stared at me. “You can’t think— And you can’t possibly think Gee thinks—”
I interrupted her firmly, “I believe Gee and I are of one mind in thinking Emmaline Parens is keeping things from us that connect to the death of Palmer Rennant and those things are making her uneasy and the faster the case is solved, the better for Mrs. Parens. Where Gee and I likely diverge is that she thought giving us the ID couldn’t hurt and I’m certain it can help.”
Chapter Nineteen
With only a few minutes to spare, I supplemented my earlier research on Palmer Rennant, noting his address and phone number had not changed in eight years. I found a number for Willa Rennant, who had previously lived at Palmer’s same address and now had a different one. Must be the ex-wife.
With that first name, I found a photo of her in the Independence.
Diana called me to join her in the second-largest editing bay.
We weren’t using the identification on air — not only wouldn’t I risk exposing Aunt Gee as the source, but it ran far too great a risk of broadcasting it before the family was notified. But knowing it subtly steered the story.
Especially since the dead man was the landowner who’d forced Two Rivers Camp and the Miners’ Camp Fight reenactment to move.
“You’re thinking that’s a motive?” Diana asked as I squeezed in next to her. “But they found someplace better.”
“True. But for there to be no connection…? Anyway, that has to wait. What’ve you got?”
“Before we get to that… First, I sent the footage to Mike and Jennifer. Second, Needham’s putting out a one-page special for tomorrow, going to his home delivery customers and a limited number will be available around town — mostly at restaurants.”
“Darn him for being so smart. Sneaky and smart. All right. That means tonight’s packages have to be even better to take advantage of our lead.”
“I’ve set aside most of what I shot before going up to where the body was,” she said.
“Shame about that.”
“Might be able to use some for advance coverage next time. Also thought I’d slide a release form past Les, to share some with the organizers. Crowd shots, the camp set-up, anticipation, stuff like that.”
“Nice. I bet they’d love that.”
“Not bad for the station, either, if it’s used with a credit.”
“Would you mind not offering right off? It might be a goodwill gesture that gets us in for a conversation at some point.”
“Sure thing. Now, here are a couple establishing shots up to the butte.” They captured the slightly grim grandeur, providing great mood-setters. “Okay, now we start.”
>
As always, she had great footage. Including a shot that caught the profiles of most of the reenactors looking appropriately solemn and mysterious with their painted faces, and a shadowed presence on the ground beyond them that hinted at a body without showing it.
“Body brace did well. Kept it steady. Absorbed a lot of motion.”
I snorted. “You did well.”
She also had a terrific section where she panned down toward the reenactment site and the audience, but my favorite was a moody view of the area from before the official vehicles arrived. Plus, she covered all the bases with views of the authorities at work.
The early footage inside the cave pretty much looked like it had been shot in a cave. There was only so much even Diana and a body brace could do in the dark.
Her shots of the back of the law enforcement figures semi-circled around the site worked great, with the intensity of their interest conveying the mood.
The well-lit, detailed footage she got at the end of the remains amid tumbled and stacked rocks wasn’t good for on-air. But was good for us.
The position of the body and, I suspected, the rocks, held the belt in the position we’d seen, with the shirt and jeans tailing away.
Just below that high point, the outlines of a wallet showed as faded lines in the now-slack fabric of the jeans’ back pocket.
Too bad the lights didn’t let me see right through to the content.
Especially to the name of this victim.
The only compensation was Sergeant Wayne Shelton must be nearly as antsy about getting his hands on that wallet as I was.
“What?” Diana demanded when I abruptly straightened.
“He wasn’t.”
“Who wasn’t what?”
“Shelton wasn’t as antsy about the contents of the wallet as I was — or as he should have been.” I’d wondered earlier, but now I really wondered.
“You think he knows who the body in the cave is?” Her voice skidded up with surprise laced with skepticism. “But he didn’t know it was there until we found it and there wasn’t enough to see to identify without the wallet. Unless you think… You can’t think…”
“That Shelton’s responsible for the body in the cave? No. I might have blown it with thinking he’d need a forensic anthropologist to hit the century of the departed, but I still think it’s old enough to make Shelton being responsible an impossibility.”
Body Brace (Caught Dead in Wyoming, Book 10) Page 9
