by H L Bur
About ten minutes later, Quinn opened the passenger side door and hopped in.
“Any luck?” I asked impatiently.
She thought for a moment and finally nodded her head. “Yes, I would say so.”
“Okaaayyy, so spill already!”
“First, I need you to take me to the library.”
“The library? You do realize we own a bookstore?”
“Yes, I’m aware,” she replied sarcastically. “I need to look up a newspaper article.”
“Okay,” I said as I put my car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. “But I’m going to need a little more from you than that. You’re being awfully mysterious.”
“Just trust me.”
“Ugh, fine.” I drove on. Thankfully, the library was less than a five-minute drive from the police station.
“I had some luck myself while you were inside.”
“You did? How?”
“I had a visitor.”
Quinn eyed me, clearly puzzled. “I was gone for like fifteen minutes! Who?” she asked, as she picked up her water bottle to take a sip.
“Fletcher Collins.”
“What?” She nearly choked.
“Yup, walked right up and invited himself into my car for a little chat.”
“Shut the front door. What did he say?”
“Oh, you know, that he was sorry and couldn’t stop thinking about me and wants to take me out on a date.” I turned my blinker on to make a right.
“Wow! Talk about your turn of events.”
“I know, right? But that’s not all.”
“Did he talk to you about the case?”
“Maybe.”
“Tell me now or you die.”
“Geez-o-Pete! Calm down. They still haven’t found Rose, they already knew about Rhodes being the property owner and he said Brent alibied out of both murders.” I quickly caught her up to speed.
She nodded and I assumed she must have gotten that much out of the chief.
“And they have an alias for Mystery Man, but not his real identity.”
She waited for me to keep going.
“Drachen Noire.”
“Pfff, you’ve got to be kidding me? Black dragon? What kind of alias is that?”
“I don’t know, but it definitely fits his motif. Black SUV, black clothes, black sunglasses.”
“True. But do they have any idea who he really is yet?”
“Nope.”
I pulled into the library parking lot. This was one of my favorite buildings in all of Riverton and I suddenly wished I came here more often. It was located in a residential area, right next to an elementary school. The street was lined with tall maple trees on either sides, their bright green leaves slowly fading to orange. The fall colors were going to be spectacular this year, I could already tell. Large cement blocks went about a quarter way up the building and were then met by small burgundy bricks that rose the rest of the way up the exterior, with a few scattered cement blocks worked into the façade at the corners making a nice pattern up the side of the building. The library boasted large casement windows trimmed in white. Pristinely maintained flowerbeds and shrubbery surrounded the exterior of the building. There was even a small gazebo tucked back into the large side yard that was lined with a short white picket fence sectioning off an area that was used to display local art exhibits.
Quinn took the lead and we walked through the front double doors. We were greeted with a warm smile from Mrs. Donovan. She had been the librarian here in Riverton for as long as I could remember. Her husband was also very involved in the library and hosted a kid’s story time every week. When we were in grade school, our classes would take trips to the library. In fact, I think Mr. and Mrs. Donovan had as much to do with our love of books as our grandparents owning a bookstore did.
I returned Mrs. Donovan’s wave, but continued to follow Quinn to the archives room. It was here that digital copies of the Riverton Daily Tribune were available as far back as the 1940s.
Quinn selected a computer near the corner of the room and I took the one next to hers. “Okay, so what are we looking for?” I asked as I clicked open the archives tab.
“The chief didn’t tell me much besides that he had cleared Brent of the murders, but that he wouldn’t recommend me going on any dates with him.”
I smiled at the chief’s good sense.
“But Lois made a remark that triggered something in my mind. I asked her if she knew why Rhodes would have wanted to buy the old sawmill property from the state and she started talking about Daniel Roberson and his family. She talked about how heartbreaking it was for Daniel when he had to sell the property.”
“You got Lois to talk to you? I can barely get her to look at me!”
“Yeah, well what can I say, I’m a people person.”
I rolled my eyes and let the fact go that she was not in fact, a people person. “Did she say why he had to sell?”
“She did. He and his wife, Laura, had three children. The youngest one, a girl, had become sick with a type of leukemia. Apparently her cancer was pretty bad, but there was a new treatment approach being tried at the children’s hospital down in Grand Rapids. Unfortunately, they needed cash to pay for it, because it wasn’t covered by their insurance. Mr. Roberson had recently made a risky investment, so most of his money was tied up. He was forced to sell the property and the state quickly bought it up. Mr. Roberson didn’t think he had any other choice but to sell the land.”
“That’s devastating.”
“Yes, it’s horrible. Anyway, she said the girl made a full recovery. The family moved back up here, but the two older sons felt robbed of their inheritance. The cost of the treatments took all of their money and Daniel ended up in a lot of debt. Lois said he didn’t care because he was just happy to have saved his daughter’s life, but the older brothers always felt slighted after that.”
“Okay, that’s good back story, but again, what the heck are we looking for?”
“Be patient,” she scolded me. “Lois said that, eventually, the kids grew up and went off in their own directions and all was forgiven. She talked about how they used to have family reunions up here every summer. Daniel would take all the grandkids and they would go out to the lighthouse pier and then to the old sawmill and have picnics and he would tell them about the history of what was once his property.”
“That is truly so sad.”
“The last thing Lois said was that Daniel’s granddaughter was the spitting image of her mother with long arrow-straight jet black hair and pale porcelain doll skin.”
I looked at her blankly for a moment, trying to grasp what she was implying. Suddenly it clicked. “You don’t think?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what we need to find out.”
“Okay, let’s do this.” I turned to my computer and punched in ‘Roberson’ into the search bar while I could hear Quinn typing away on her own computer.
The Robersons had been a prominent family in Riverton and a ton of articles popped up, which would take hours to sort through. I clicked on the filter bar and chose ‘articles with images only’ and refreshed my screen. There were still about 50 articles, but this was much more manageable. I slowly clicked through the articles, hoping to stumble across a family picture of the Robersons.
About ten minutes later, Quinn suddenly sat straight up in her chair. “Hey, check this out!”
I leaned over and looked at the picture she had pulled up. It was of a young girl, about ten years old. The article was dated 1974 and discussed an upcoming benefit dinner to raise donations for treatments needed for Nancy Roberson.
“Wow, they look exactly alike,” I whispered.
“They do, but keep searching, I want to find a picture of Rose with the Robersons to be sure.”
After about another five minutes of scrolling, I yelled out. “Got it!” I quickly glanced around to make sure I hadn’t disturbed anyone, but we were alone in the archives room.
; Quinn quickly leaned over to look at the picture. It was a family photo taken at the lighthouse pier. The subtitle read: The Roberson family celebrating their 10th annual reunion. Pictured left to right: Back row - father, Daniel Roberson; son, Davy Roberson; son, Darryl Roberson; daughter, Nancy Kingsley; mother, Laura Roberson; Front row - grandson, Joseph Roberson; grandson, Jacob Roberson; granddaughter Katherine Roberson; granddaughter Dawn Roberson; granddaughter Rose Kingsley.
There staring back at us were two young girls, their faces so familiar it felt as if I’d known them forever. One platinum blonde and one jet-black…even in the old black and white photo, you could tell that Dawn had olive toned skin, while Rose’s was as pale as porcelain.
“They were cousins!” I said aloud what I knew both of us were thinking.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ξ
We printed the article and then quickly deleted our search, just to be on the safe side. We exited the library without being noticed and quickly made our way back to my SUV. I turned the key and glanced at the time. Three-thirty.
“We have so much to do and not enough time,” I groaned as I pretended to slam my head against the steering wheel.
“What do you think our next step should be?” Quinn asked, unfazed by my outburst.
“Do you think we should cancel on my mom?”
“Are you kidding?” she snapped at me, and then quickly composed herself. “We need to eat, after all.”
“True.” My mom was an amazing cook. “But I’ve been thinking we should meet with Beverly Mayfield tonight, just to see what she has to say.”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. Gosh, that feels like it was days ago. It’s hard to believe we met her just this morning.”
“Yeah, what a trip she is. We just need to make sure we leave my mom’s in time to make it back here to meet her.”
“Well, should we head to the shop first or head straight for your mom’s?”
“Do you think Sam is okay to close by herself with everything that’s been going on?”
“Kyle said he was going to head there after work and keep her company for the rest of the night.”
“Is it weird that that doesn’t sound weird to me? I mean we just trust our store whole-heartedly over to the Marek family?”
“Um…” Quinn thought for a second. “Nope, not weird to me either.”
“Okay, perfect! We’ll head to my mom’s early then, that way we can leave with plenty of time to meet up with Beverly.” I pulled out of the library parking lot and headed west toward the expressway. Riverton was a little way off the beaten path, so it was a good fifteen-minute drive before we reached the interstate.
On the way down to my mom’s house in Wolfpine, we once again recapped everything we knew so far in order to get our thoughts organized.
“Did Fletcher mention who gave them the name Drachen Noire?”
“No, he didn’t. I guess I assumed Brent had told them his name, but I honestly don’t know.”
Quinn nodded her head. “I wonder if Sofie’s body is still in Riverton or if her parents have already had her returned to Grand Rapids?”
“I know an autopsy was scheduled for yesterday, so I would assume she was still here. I’m hoping there will be a memorial for her. I’d like to attend.”
“We should’ve asked Ellen at the Tribune. She probably knows of any funeral arrangements that were made by the family.”
“True. We could call and ask her tomorrow.”
This investigation had quickly taken over our lives. It had consumed me and it was all I could think about. I was ready for it to be over, but I refused to give up until Sofie and Dawn’s killer was brought to justice.
I turned my blinker on and began to slow down. The thirty-minute drive had flown by talking about the investigation. I turned right into the driveway. My mother and Kurt’s house was set way back in the woods and the drive wended its way through some dense trees. We took our time going up the uneven gravel path, eventually coming out into a clearing where their house stood. The forest opened up and there was an expansive view of the valley below. It was a breathtaking view.
We parked by the pole barn, where Kurt did his woodworking, and we walked past my mom’s garden. The garden was beautifully maintained in the summer, but now that fall was here all that remained were some pumpkins that were waiting to be picked, some dried up vines, and a compost pile. There was a gentle slope in the backyard with a small pond. My mom loved to feed the wildlife back here and she regularly had foxes, deer, turkeys, and any number of other critters coming in at dinnertime. Don’t worry, I always looked around before getting out of my car to make sure there were no raccoons.
Before we could reach the door, my mom was outside greeting us. She had obviously been waiting for us.
“There’s my girls!” She came up to give each of us a hug.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Aunt Marah.”
“I’m so glad you both could make it. I’ve got the pork chops in the slow cooker and I made cheesy potatoes, sautéed mushrooms, and I’ve got fresh-out-of-the-oven cupcakes and brownies.”
“Wow, you’ve outdone yourself…again.” I cringed on the inside. While everything was sure to be amazing, my mom tended to go overboard on the food. The amount of food my mom made happened to be directly correlated with how much my waistline would grow tonight. I’ve asked her repeatedly to tone it down on the portions, but she’s flat out refused each time. To make matters worse, if you don’t stuff yourself to the point of bursting, she’s been known to take it as a personal insult.
As we walked into the front room, the smell of slow cooked pork chops instantly hit my olfactory senses and my mouth began to water. Okay, maybe I wasn’t mad about the amount of food after all.
“Hi Kurt!” I greeted him as he came over to give us both a quick hug.
“What are you two up to? Staying out of trouble?” He teased.
“Um, trying,” Quinn answered with a slightly guilty look on her face.
“Yeah right. You two never stay out of trouble.” He joked back.
If only you knew how right you were, I thought.
Kurt headed over to the couch and sat down, leaning over to pull on his socks and work boots.
“I need more Liddy socks.”
“Liddy socks?” I questioned.
“Yeah, your Aunt Liddy used to give me thick wool socks every Christmas, so I started calling them Liddy socks. Every year without fail I would get a new pair.”
Quinn and I both laughed.
“Yup, sounds like my mom,” Quinn agreed.
“Yeah, but since we moved down here, we don’t see them as often, so I haven’t been getting my Liddy socks. These are my last pair,” he said as he tied up his boots.
“I’ll have to tell her she’s slacking,” Quinn joked.
“Well, I’ll be back over in a bit. I made the mistake of making Lyle a shelf to put all of his trucks on. I should’ve known better. I can’t give Lyle something and not have one for Wren, so now I’m working on a shelf for Wren’s dolls.”
“Ah, I see.” I smiled as he headed out the door. “How are Wren and Lyle, Mom? I haven’t seen them since July when they were up in Riverton camping with Dad and Jean.”
“Oh, they seem to be doing great. We will have them in a couple of weeks over their fall break from school.”
“Oh fun! I’ll be sure to make it down when they’re here.”
“Yeah, you can give me a break. Don’t get me wrong, I love having my grandkids around, but those two are always on the move. I’ll need a week to recover after they’re gone.”
I laughed, knowing all too well that was true. “Maybe you can introduce them to yoga or meditation,” I offered.
“I’ve already tried that. It was a disaster. My third eye chakra was out of whack for weeks after that. I fully depleted my aragonite crystals trying to get it back in alignment.”
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” I said, s
tifling a laugh.
Quinn shot me a be nice look.
I shot her back an I am look. I’m sorry, I’m all for natural remedies, but with my science background it’s just hard to get on board with crystal healing.
“Cadence, you should really try it. I can see your chakras are all out of whack. I’m telling you, give it a try.” My mom smiled gently at me.
“Okay, okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Please do. For all our sakes,” she muttered under her breath.
“It hasn’t been that long since lunch, but I’m starving,” I said, changing the subject.
“It’s almost ready, dear. Five more minutes.”
“So, Aunt Marah, I’m sure you’ve heard about the recent murders in Riverton,” Quinn said.
I shook my head at her, but it was too late, she had already gotten my mother’s attention.
“Oh, it’s a travesty! Those poor girls…I worry about their mothers.”
“Yes, it’s horrible,” I agreed. “So mom, tell me more about your crystals,” I said, hoping to change the subject once again. I was starting to feel like a juggler who was about to drop all of her balls.
“I hope you two are being careful up there. Have they caught whoever did this?”
“We’re careful, Mom. I promise. So what does the aragonite crystal do exactly?” I feigned interest.
“Did you know that Cady is the one that found the first body?”
“WHAT?” She whirled around and faced me head on.
“It was no big deal, really. I was jogging along a trail and spotted her body off in the woods.”
“No big deal? That is a very big deal! Why haven’t you told your mother about this?” she asked sternly.
“Honestly, I didn’t want to worry you and it was really not a huge deal. The police are handling it. Chief Kowalski has been great and he’s making sure that we’re safe,” I rambled on, trying to do some damage control.
My mother turned to Quinn, seeing if she would corroborate my story. I quickly shot her a death stare and dragged my finger across my throat, threatening her life if she were to say more.