Hitches, Hideouts, & Homicides

by Tonya Kappes

  “I hear you found my father.” She spoke in a soft voice and moved her hand in a gesture for me to sit down. “I’d like to repay you for that.” She took the napkin from her lap and dabbed the edges of her eyes. “If you’d not come along, I’m not sure how long he’d have laid there with who knows what trying to eat him like they’ve done poor Rosa.”

  “Rosa is dead?” I eased down in the chair.

  “We don’t know that.” Coke patted Glenda’s back. “I’ll be right back with your coffee,” Coke said to me.

  “I’d like a refill, please.” Glenda smiled at Coke, then turned her attention back to me. “How did you know my father?” Glenda asked me.

  “I didn’t. I just met him a couple mornings ago when he was chasing that guy out of the barn.” I moved my hand out of the way for Coke to place the mug down. The steam rolled off the top of the mug. It smelled so good.

  “Guy? Chasing my father?” She looked at Coke for an answer.

  “I didn’t bother telling you about the squatters he’s been running off. They get in the barn and do God knows what, and it bothers the horses.” Coke stood over the table.

  “Can you please leave me and Mae to talk?” Glenda kindly asked Coke to leave.

  By the look on Coke’s face, she was a bit shocked and reluctantly gave in.

  “I don’t know you, but I’m a lawyer, and I read people pretty well.” The expression and tone of Glenda’s body language changed. “I can see that you’re either hiding something or dying to tell me something. Which one is it?”

  “Both.” I chewed on my lip, trying to figure out what I was going to tell her first.

  “Go on. I’m all ears if it’s going to help solve my father’s murder.” Glenda Russel was no way brought up in Normal. Not that the people here were backwards, but we had a way about us, and you could tell when someone wasn’t from here, and she was that.

  Maybe all sophisticated. The lines around her eyes were a little deeper for her to be my age, but she held it well. She was like the girls I used to hang out with in New York City. Her perfectly lined lips, makeup, two-piece modern jumpsuit, and strappy sandals were enough for me to miss the life Paul had given me. Only for a second. I sure didn’t miss him or his conniving ways.

  “Creamer?” She pushed the small cup my way.

  “No. I’m good.” I did take a sip of the courage-inducing liquid before I told her my thoughts. “I know your dad was fighting with squatters like Coke said, but I also know that when he was younger…”

  “He robbed a bank.” She cackled. “I see Paulette has gotten in your ear. Where is she? Where’s she staying? I figured she’d come running as soon as the police found her. Wanting her half of the money my father supposedly stole.” She leaned in and whispered, “Don’t believe her. She’s crazy.”

  “What about this property? I mean, his family couldn’t afford it until the Fawn’s had to claim bankruptcy due to the bank robbery. Did they have the money to buy the place? Where did that money come from?” I asked. “Lee? What about him?”

  She continued to smile and ran her long fancy painted fingernail around the rim of her mug like I was entertaining her. “Mae, he’s my father’s best friend. You are a storyteller. You fit right on in around here with all those tall tales.” She let off an air of conceit that made my insides growl.

  “He is already trying to take clients, and your dad’s body isn’t even cold yet.” I knew it was a harsh statement, but the facts were facts. “The man is dead because of something. You keep dismissing anything I’m telling you.”

  “So you’re saying that someone killed my father for the money he stole during the bank robbery. Or Lee because he wanted my father’s clients?” Glenda asked. Coke walked up and Glenda pointed to her. “What about Coke? She’s got a great motive.”

  “Motive for what?” Coke’s jaw dropped.

  “Killing my dad,” Glenda said with a straight face. Coke turned all shades of color. “According to my mother, you’ve always wanted to get your claws into him.” She laughed. Coke didn’t. “I’m kidding. Relax.” Glenda patted Coke’s arm. “Mae is giving me all sorts of reasons for someone to have killed my father.” Glenda sat back and put her arm across the chair next to her. “Tell her your tall tales, Mae.”

  I decided not to take her up on her offer, but I needed a burning question answered.

  “How’s your room here?” I asked Glenda.

  “It’s amazing.” She gave Coke another smile. “Coke has done an amazing job with the place.”

  “I thought you said the motel was booked. How did she get a room?” I addressed Coke.

  “I’ve had my reservation since the day she told me she was opening it.” Glenda really got my interest up. “I love what she did with the barn for the hoedown, don’t you?”

  “I’m so glad you got to visit with your dad before…” I stopped talking.

  “I didn’t see my dad,” she said, giving me another little ping to the gut.

  “You’ve been here since the opening, and you didn’t visit with your dad?” I found that to be super odd. She found it offensive.

  “Ahem.” Coke cleared her throat. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave if you’re going to antagonize my customers.”

  “Excuse me? You invited me here.” I picked up my mug and drank the last sip. “I certainly don’t want to be where I’m not wanted.” I got up.

  Once I was outside of the Caboose Diner and into the courtyard, I turned back and looked into the window. “There’s something fishy going on,” I said to myself while I watched Coke and Glenda huddled together, discussing something important. At least, the intense look on their faces told me I’d struck a nerve.

  What did I say?

  FIFTEEN

  “Where are you?” Hank asked after I answered his call on my way back into town to meet up with the Laundry Club. “Wait, let me guess. Bugging Lee.”

  “Bugging Lee?” I laughed. “He’s the one who came up to me. I didn’t seek him out. Though I did find out he is working with Sarah Kaskle. If that’s not motive enough for him to be a suspect in Jay’s murder, I don’t know what is. Well,” I continued to ramble, “besides the fact that Jay’s daughter has been in town for a couple of days before the murder. She said that she didn’t visit with her dad, which makes me think there was some sort of problem between them, and she certainly doesn’t care for her mother either.”

  “Are you finished?” He asked.

  I slowed the car when I noticed a doe and a couple babies were about to cross the road. Deer were everywhere, and it was always good to keep an eye out.

  “You know. In every other species, the mom really does take care of her babies.” My thoughts were filled with Paulette and why she’d leave her only child. “Anyways, I’m telling you that you need to go interview her too.”

  “Now are you finished?” he asked in an annoyed tone.

  “I think so.” I wasn’t good at committing to something like that because I generally said things that popped into my head. By the way he was talking, I could tell that I was going to have to put that filter in place and really think about what I was saying to him.

  “Thank you for all the information.” He didn’t sound too appreciative. “We already talked to Lee. We know all about the clients. We also knew Glenda was in town because when I called her to tell her about her dad, she told me she was at the Old Train Station Motel. It’s not strange to me because she and Coke are really close.”

  “Their relationship might not be strange, but for her not to talk to her dad? What’s that about?” I looked over at the grassy median on my way down Main Street to the Laundry Club.

  Hikers with huge backpacks, food, and cups of coffee were sitting at the picnic tables. The cups had the Cookie Crumble logo on them. I wondered if Christine Watson had been visited by the hiker who Jay had chased.

  “What about the guy hiding out in the barn? Did you get any leads on him? Do you think it was really the same guy
from the campground that night?” My mind was going a million miles a minute. I wanted to get all the information I could from Abby and Christine. Plus it didn’t help that I’d not gotten all the answers I wanted from Paulette.

  “Mae,” Hank said my name a few times to interject.

  But I continued. “I just don’t understand how Jay had to sell the property. I think we need to look into that too.” I was about to tell him about the land and the mention the robbery. I pulled into the parking space in front of the laundromat.

  “Mae! Stop!” I pulled the phone away from my ear when he yelled so loud.

  There was dead silence.

  “Mae, I called really for two things. Now, I’ve decided there’s three. First, my parents want to have us over for supper. Can you do that?” he asked.

  “Tonight?” I searched my mind, giving me some time to think if I was going to have to do anything about this murder or see anyone.

  “Yes. Tonight.” The long sigh he let out was enough to let me know he’d about reached his limit with me today.

  “I’d love to.” I lied. The last place I wanted to be was with them. They weren’t exactly the most welcoming parents. Plus, he’d mentioned going out to dinner yesterday. What happened to that? “What’s the second and third thing?”

  “Secondly, I was going to tell you to stay away from the motel. There’s no reason for you to be there.”

  “But someone put Jay…” I wanted to tell him how Jay didn’t fall into the electric fence.

  “Please. Stop.” His words were stiff. “I’m telling you to stay away, or they will put a restraining order on you.”

  I clenched my lips so I wouldn’t talk. My nose flared as I sucked in deep breaths to stay calm.

  “Third.” He paused just a second. “Do not continue to look into this. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you in the past to stop snooping.”

  “You’ve also told me to snoop. Remember last time?” What was it with him? “Sure, use me when it’s convenient for you.”

  “Mae, this is going to be a long investigation. We’ve got a lot to do, and you can’t go full force where you shouldn’t be snooping. We’ve got it covered. Understand?” he asked.

  I didn’t respond.

  “Mae, I need you to say you understand.” He left no room to just leave the silence.

  “Fine. I understand.”

  I understood, but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to stop looking into the evidence and clues I’d already gathered that itched my curiosity.

  Little did Hank or anyone else in Normal realize that when I got an itch, I scratched it.

  SIXTEEN

  Betts had the door to the laundromat propped open, which meant all the machines were taken and in use. No matter how low she had the air conditioner thermostat, it was never efficient when all the machines were in use.

  “There you are.” Betts greeted me from the side of the laundromat where she fulfilled personal orders.

  “Do you need some help folding?” I asked, offering to chip in wherever I could.

  “Yeah.” Her brows rose. “Grab that dryer right there.” She pointed to a dryer a couple down from the one she was pulling from. “You look like something is on that mind of yours besides Jay. Is it Abby?”

  “Abby?” I jerked my head and looked at her, a tee-shirt dangling from my grip.

  “The whole Ty thing.” Betts caught me off guard. “I told her it was innocent, but she’s still upset that he told her she was boring. Now she thinks she’s got to be someone like you.”

  “Like me?” Now I was really getting offended.

  “You know. Vibrant. Full of life. Don’t take no.” Betts put the shirt she was folding in the customer’s bag sitting on the counter. “Just like Jay. You found out he was murdered, and you’re determined to get to the bottom of it.”

  “About that.” Betts and I turned to see who was eavesdropping on us. It was Coke. “You must think I’m a whacko. Telling you one minute to look into Jay and the next not.”

  “Coke.” I sighed and turned back to the dryer and folded a couple more pieces of clothing. “Don’t worry. Hank called, and I got your message loud and clear.”

  “But you didn’t.” She appeared to be noodling something in her head. She looked around. “I’m not so sure Glenda didn’t do it.”

  “Kill her own father?” Betts pulled a pair of pants to her chest like a protective blanket.

  “It’s possible.” Coke looked around. None of the laundromat customers were paying a bit of attention to us. “Jay was in financial trouble. That’s why the place was for sale. I wasn’t able to finance all of it myself. Jay had Glenda draw up the paperwork. That’s when she came in as a silent partner. Majority owner really.” Coke sucked in a deep breath. The lines around her eyes deepened. “Jay found out about it when he was in my office, snooping around, and went crazy after he’d seen the contract between me and her. He didn’t understand why Glenda didn’t give him the same deal when he’d gone to her before he’d agree for me to purchase it.”

  I started to come up with all sorts of reasons for Jay and Glenda to have gotten into an argument. “Go on. I’m listening.”

  I pretended not to be as invested as I was and grabbed some more clothing and folded it, hoping she’d continue. I noticed the customers, who were hikers, had left their machines and gathered across the street with their other friends in the median.

  “Jay was having a hard time getting a place to keep up his client’s lessons. Even though he was going to retire after this year, he still wanted to find something for the summer months. That’s when I told him I’d let him use the stable all summer long if he let me keep Rosa at the end,” she said.

  “All summer? I’d heard it was just a few weeks.”

  “You know how it is around here. We say we’ll see you in a minute, and it could be ten minutes or two days.”

  She was right. Life was slow around here and time was just nothing to the locals. Sort of frustrating for a type A personality like myself.

  “You want Rosa?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to make the stable into a wedding venue.”

  “I do. My granddaughter is getting into riding, and I thought Rosa would be a great gal for my granddaughter to be trained on first.” Coke made sense.

  “What did he say?” I asked and pulled out the last piece of clothing from the dryer.

  “He was reluctant about it. After he thought about it for a few minutes, he started laughing out loud, saying how it would kill Glenda if I made that deal since she thought Rosa was always hers.” Coke gulped.

  My jaw dropped. “Do you think Glenda let Rosa out of the stable, and when Jay went to put on the radio, he caught her. They fought, and that’s when she killed him?” I leaned back on the dryer and looked between Betts and Coke.

  “How did she know I had the gun?” Dottie’s voice was overheard between the running machines.

  “Well, well, well. Look who is standing right in front of me.” Paulette stood in the doorway of the Laundry Club with Dottie next to her. Paulette took very precise steps with Coke in her sights. “You just couldn’t live with the fact that Jay was never going to be with you. You finally had enough rejection and killed him.”

  “Don’t you start with me.” The words seethed out of Coke’s mouth. “You’re the one who left. I tried to get you to stay.”

  “Ladies.” I stepped in between them before they could get any closer. “This isn’t helping us figure out what happened to Jay.”

  I was careful with my words because both of them had very good motive to kill him. I wasn’t taking one side over the other. Though, they both seemed adamant the other did it.

  “You think Coke did it, and Coke thinks you did it,” I told Paulette. “Both of you have good reason, but I can say I also think Glenda, Lee, and the mysterious hiker have motives as well.”

  “Glenda?” The hurt in Paulette’s eyes even hurt me. “My baby loves her daddy. That’s why I left
her with him.”

  “Loved him? They fought from the day you rode out of Normal on that high horse of yours. Look at you.” Coke’s nose snarled. “You look ridiculous in those baggy pants. You used to be a pretty woman. You’ve done went and gotten all leathery skin and scraggly.”

  “Look at you.” Paulette shot back. “You think you’re something now that you got that land. The land that’s rightfully the Fawn’s because you and that gang of yours stole that bank money.” Paulette was laying it all out on the table. “If you think for one minute my baby killed her father, you’ve lost your mind.”

  There was definitely animosity between the two that ran so deep that this little interaction at the Laundry Club wasn’t going to solve anything.

  “I didn’t steal any bank money. All that free living you’re doing is messing with your brain.” Coke rolled her eyes so hard, I heard them.

  “Why don’t we look at the facts?” I suggested, hoping we could all take a deep breath.

  Dottie looked around. Betts looked around. Coke and Paulette continued their standoff.

  “Betts put on some coffee. I’ve got my notebook with me.” I sat the customer’s bag on the counter with the receipt slip Betts had given me to put on it.

  “Fine,” Coke muttered.

  “Whatever,” Paulette said with a stiff upper lip.

  “Who is at the office?” I asked Dottie on our way over to the couches.

  “Henry. I checked on all the guests before I left, and everyone had a plan for the day,” she told me and sat down on the couch next to Paulette. “Do you have anything ready for the theme party?”

  “Gosh. I totally forgot about that.” I’d been so engrossed in Jay’s murder, I’d forgotten all about this weekend’s Happy Trails monthly theme party I was throwing.

  The monthly get-together wasn’t just for the guests of the campground. It was also open to the public. It was a great way for everyone in the community to come together. This weekend’s party just might be the thing we needed.