A Puzzle in Paxton Park

by J A Whiting

  “Is that what you wanted to tell us?” Jay asked.

  Linden took another glance at the door. “No. I’m babbling. You were talking to Steve?”

  “We did, yes.” Shelly gave a nod.

  “I just want you to know, I’m not accusing anyone of anything,” Linden said softly.

  Shelly and Jay gave the woman time to say what she needed to.

  “The day Emma died.” Linden took a deep breath. “It was early evening. I was out to dinner with my boyfriend. We were in Paxton Park, near Linville. We had a table on the outside patio. They had those tall metal heaters going. It was nice. I saw Emma’s car drive past. I knew it was her car because she has that little ball of the world on top of her antenna. A few minutes later, I saw Steve Carlton drive by.”

  “You know his car?” Jay asked.

  “I do. It’s a convertible. Blue. It has a sticker on the window for parking in the lot here. It’s orange with a triangle. It was Steve.”

  “Could you see if he was alone?” Shelly asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I think so. The top was up, but I’m pretty sure there wasn’t anyone in the passenger seat. I thought maybe Emma and Steve were heading somewhere together, with Steve following her, but I know Emma didn’t like him so I was confused.”

  “Did Emma have someone in the car with her?”

  “Yes. Another woman. She had dark hair.” Linden stared down at the table. “When I heard what happened to Emma, I…. well, I … I’m not accusing Steve. I just thought … I thought I should tell someone what I saw.” The young woman stood up abruptly. “I need to get back to my desk now. Sorry to take up your time.”

  As soon as Linden was gone, Shelly and Jay exchanged worried looks.

  “So Steve Carlton was in Paxton Park shortly before Emma was shot,” Jay said.

  A sinking feeling filled Shelly’s chest.

  13

  Shelly rode in the front passenger seat of Jack’s SUV. Every once in a while, she gripped the console or the grab-bar on the door. Jack was used to his girlfriend’s dramatic reaction to twists and turns on the winding country roads and knowing her behavior was due to lingering anxiety over the car accident, he never called attention to it.

  Jack was driving the roads Emma would have taken on the night she was murdered so that they could get a sense of where she was, and when she was there.

  “The automotive garage should be up ahead on the left,” Jack said. “The road we took from town is the most likely way Emma took to drop off her friend, Leena, at the garage. It wouldn’t make any sense to pick up Leena in town and then drive a different route. This was the most direct way to go.”

  “This is the way Leena told us she went with Emma.” When Shelly grasped the dashboard with both hands as Jack turned into the garage’s parking lot, she gave the man a sheepish look. “Sorry. It’s not your driving.”

  Jack gave her a reassuring smile. “I know what it is. It’s okay.” He joked with her when he added, “I’ve learned it’s best to ignore you when you’re riding in the car.”

  “Smart man.” Shelly nodded. “So this is the place where Leena gets her car serviced and where Emma dropped her off that evening. I assume Emma left here and went to her mother’s house a couple of miles down the road.”

  “Want to drive there?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, let’s see how long it takes.” Shelly gave Jack the address and he punched it into the GPS for directions.

  When he was about to turn right, Shelly asked him to stop. “Wait a minute.” She leaned forward to better see the lit-up map on the dash. “The directions are telling you to go right, but I distinctly recall Leena telling me she watched Emma leave the lot and turn to the left.”

  “The directions aren’t always perfect. Does it look like we should turn left?”

  “No, it doesn’t. Turning right is the way to Emma’s mother’s house.” Shelly lifted her eyes from the map to look at Jack. “Why did she go left?”

  “Let’s follow the road and have a look.”

  They drove along the quiet roads with the forest on both sides.

  “If we keep going, this will take us to the other side of the mountain. What time did Emma’s mother say she got to her house?” Jack asked.

  “Emma got to her mom’s place around 7pm. Leena said she got dropped off around 6:30pm.”

  “It would take ten minutes to drive from the garage to the mother’s house,” Jack said. “Where did Emma go? There haven’t been any roads leading off of this one. If she drove too far in this direction, Emma wouldn’t have had the time to get back to her mother’s home by 7pm. The longest she could have driven in this direction would have been ten minutes.”

  Shelly said, “Ten minutes along this road, ten minutes back to the garage, and then ten minutes to get to her mom’s.”

  “We’ve already gone ten minutes in this direction and there haven’t been any stores or restaurants or anything for Emma to stop at,” Jack said pulling his vehicle to the side of the road. “What do you think?”

  “Did Emma notice that Steve Carlton was following her?” Shelly asked. “Did she spot him and drive out of the garage lot to the left? Maybe she didn’t want him following her to her mom’s house. Maybe she drove a little way up the road and when she saw he was still tailing her, she pulled over to tell Steve to get lost.”

  “That could very well be what happened.” Jack shifted in his seat to face Shelly. “Emma probably didn’t want Steve to get anywhere near her mother’s place. I’ll bet she didn’t want the guy to know where her mother lived.”

  A frown pulled at Shelly’s mouth. “Now what? Where did Emma go after she left her mom’s house? Her mother told us Emma left about fifteen minutes after arriving, so around 7:15pm. The medical examiner said Emma could have driven from Linville, Rollingwood, or West Rollingwood after being shot and still could have made it to the center of Paxton Park.” Shelly rubbed at her chin. “But, I think that’s an ambitious idea.”

  Jack gave his girlfriend a questioning look.

  “If I got shot, I would be panicked. Maybe I would try to drive back to town to get help. Maybe I wouldn’t want to stop to call for help because the shooter was following after me. I’m losing blood. I’m getting weaker. How far could I really go under those conditions without crashing the car? I’d be driving fast at first, but I bet I’d start to slow the car because I was getting dizzy and weak. Maybe it would be possible for someone to drive from those three towns based solely on the science of how long it would take for the blood loss to cause you to blackout, but there are other considerations, like panic, becoming woozy, maybe getting disoriented, definitely weakening. Could Emma have really been that far away from where she crashed?” Shaking her head, Shelly said, “I don’t think so.”

  Jack drove back the way they’d come and pulled into a restaurant’s parking lot so they could get some dinner.

  “This must be the restaurant that the woman from Windsor Manufacturing was having dinner when she noticed Emma and Steve Carlton drive by.” Shelly got out of the car, headed to the heated patio area of tables, and turned around to look to the road. “It’s a clear view of the passing cars.”

  Shelly and Jack were seated inside near a lit fireplace and the warmth lent the place a cozy atmosphere.

  After the waiter took their orders and brought over the drinks, Jack said, “So this Steve Carlton should be on the suspect list. He harassed Emma with suggestive texts and made calls to her when she wasn’t working at Windsor. The young woman from Windsor claims to have seen Steve driving a few minutes behind Emma when she was bringing Leena to the automotive place.”

  Shelly took a sip of her drink and set it down, alarm washing over her face. “Did Emma confront Steve after she dropped off Leena? Did she and Steve argue? Did Steve become angry? Did he continue to follow Emma after arguing with her?” Shelly took in a deep breath. “Is Steve the shooter?”

  “It makes sense. It’s possible.” Jack moved his
chair closer to Shelly and took her hand. “What about the husband, Charlie? He drank, gambled, went out with other women. When he was in the hospital, Dwayne from the orchard claims he heard Charlie say he wanted out of the marriage.”

  Shelly said, “And Charlie drove an hour to the mall to buy cowboy boots that were available in town at the same price.”

  “It seems we have two people on the suspect list,” Jack said. “Is there anyone else?”

  Shelly thought about the interviews she’d sat in on trying to recall the details of what was said at the meetings and how the interviewees behaved. Some small things tried to surface in her mind, but before she could grasp their importance they flickered away.

  The two recent dreams she’d had where Lauren was present came to the forefront of her thoughts. Was her sister attempting to point her towards something? The situation in the dream was fairly mundane, some friends in a restaurant enjoying a meal and some drinks together. Except for the strange part where the money drifted down from the ceiling and then swirled together, shot up, and disappeared, the rest of the interaction in the dream was nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Would you like another glass of wine?” Jack asked.

  “No, thank you,” Shelly said. The question about more wine made her remember that in the second dream, Lauren took Shelly’s wine glass, drank the liquid, and then turned the glass upside down on the table. Odd. Why would she do that? Lauren’s expression was sad when she took the glass away. Why? What did it have to do with Emma Pinkley? Maybe it had nothing to do with the dead woman.

  “Shelly?”

  Shelly blinked and came out of her thoughts. “I was thinking over the conversations and the meetings I’ve had recently. I don’t know. Charlie and Steve have to be considered suspects, but who else is there? It might have been someone Emma didn’t know. She could have crossed paths with someone who was waiting for a victim. The shooting might have been random.”

  “It may have been someone random,” Jack agreed, “but aren’t most crimes against women committed by someone the victim knows?”

  “I think that’s right,” Shelly nodded. “I feel like I’m missing things that are right under my nose and then I feel like I don’t have access to all the puzzle pieces.”

  “This case is definitely a puzzle,” Jack said. “A well-liked, respected woman from town is killed and no one can believe that the kind, caring Emma was shot by someone … except there are two people to consider as possible suspects. Could there be others?”

  The dreams … Lauren … friends around a table… the overturned glass. What are the clues trying to tell me?

  What do you do when you’re putting together a puzzle and you don’t have all the pieces?

  You go and look for them.

  14

  Shelly?” Melody called into the back workroom from the doorway to the front of the diner. “Monica is here.”

  “Thanks. I’m coming.” Shelly hurried and slipped four loaves of bread into the ovens to bake and asked Henry to take them out if she wasn’t back in time. She wanted to speak to Emma’s friend, the park ranger, but Monica hadn’t come into the diner for a few days.

  Wiping her hands on her apron, Shelly went out front and found Monica sitting in the same booth where she’d talked with her previously. “Can I sit with you for a few minutes?”

  Monica didn’t look particularly happy about it, but she gave a curt nod.

  “You haven’t been in for a few days,” Shelly started off the conversation.

  “I’m feeling awful about Emma,” Monica said rubbing at her eyes with her hand. “I haven’t been sleeping. I miss her.”

  “I’m very sorry.”

  “I’m not good company right now. It isn’t you. I’m sorry about seeming so unfriendly. I’m a mess over Emma’s death.”

  Shelly murmured that she understood completely. “Would you mind if I run some things by you?”

  “Like what?” Monica picked at the eggs on her plate.

  “Sometimes, I work with the police on a part time basis. I go to interviews, take notes, do some research for them.” Shelly didn’t give the real reason she was present at meetings or interviews. Talking about her strong intuition seemed like a good way to scare people off so she didn’t bring it up.

  Monica raised her eyes to Shelly, wanting to hear more.

  “Did Emma talk to you about a guy at Windsor Manufacturing? His name is Steve Carlton.”

  Monica’s eyes darkened and her jaw tightened before she spoke. “I’ve heard all about Steve.”

  “Nothing good, I assume,” Shelly said.

  With a sigh, Monica said, “You’d assume correctly. Steve fell for Emma. He couldn’t stand hearing the word no. It seemed to make him frantic … frantic in his attempts to win over Emma.” She shook her head. “I don’t think Steve is … normal. Emma was married, Steve is married, it didn’t matter. His eye landed on Emma and he couldn’t see anything else. He called her all the time. He texted her. It creeped me out.”

  “How did Emma handle it?”

  “She wouldn’t answer his calls. She ignored his texts. She made sure people were around when he wanted to talk to her at work. She wouldn’t go to a conference room with him alone.”

  “Was Emma falling apart over what was happening?”

  “At first, she was shocked. She couldn’t believe it. This was stuff you read about or see in a movie, it doesn’t happen to you,” Monica said. “Emma behaved as a complete professional. She didn’t smile, laugh, or joke around with Steve. She wouldn’t even converse casually with him. It was all business, all the time. She was pretty bothered by Steve initially, but she wouldn’t let it drive her out of Windsor. It was the best paying job she could get part time and she wanted the money to pay off those terrible gambling debts. She wouldn’t quit.”

  “Emma must have talked to you a lot about the situation.”

  “She did.”

  “Did she tell anyone else what was happening?”

  “No, just me. Well, I think she mentioned it to her mother, but she downplayed it. Emma needed someone to talk it out with. Really? She should have gone to the police about Steve’s harassment.”

  “Did you give Emma advice?” Shelly asked.

  “I sure did. I told her to quit the stupid job and get as far away from that creep as possible.”

  “What did Emma say to that?”

  “She didn’t agree with me. Emma got pepper spray to use on Steve if he happened to get any ideas.” Monica took a swallow of her coffee. “Emma said that it didn’t matter if she worked there or if she left the job. Steve would keep calling and texting. She even saw him driving around her neighborhood once. Emma told me he was obsessed with her and it wouldn’t matter if she quit or not. So she didn’t quit. She stuck it out for the money so she could get her family out of debt.”

  “Did Emma sway you to her side of it? Did she convince you that staying at the job was an okay idea?”

  “No. I kept telling her to get out of that job. I thought Steve would give up on her sooner if he wasn’t seeing her in the office every day,” Monica said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Steve before?” Shelly asked.

  “You aren’t a police officer or a detective.” Monica gave a shrug. “What would be the point of me telling you this stuff. There isn’t anything you can do about it. There wasn’t any use in telling you.”

  “Did you ever meet Steve?”

  “Thankfully, no.”

  Shelly leaned forward and kept her voice soft. “Do you think Steve could have had something to do with Emma getting shot?”

  Monica’s expression turned hard. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”

  Shelly looked out the window at the lake and the mountains rising above the forest. She could almost smell the pine trees even though the windows were closed. How she wished she was outside in the sunshine hiking or biking on the mountain trails, far away from crime and murder and loss.

  Tur
ning back to Monica with a sigh, Shelly said, “Emma’s daughter, Aubrey, talked with me not long ago. She mentioned that Emma went out for dinner with some friends to celebrate leaving Windsor. Did you go?”

  “I was supposed to go. It started out as a dinner with Emma, me, and Peggy going out together, but other people heard about it and sort of invited themselves.”

  “You didn’t go?” Shelly asked.

  “No. At the last minute, I was asked to take someone’s place and attend a conference in Stockbridge so I couldn’t make the dinner. Peggy couldn’t go either. She has a four-month-old son and he came down with a bad cold and she couldn’t leave him.”

  “Who ended up going to the dinner? Do you know?”

  “Leena Tate went. Two people from the resort accounting department went. Dawn Barry went along, too. It started with only the three of us planning to go out, but it ended up for Emma being dinner with acquaintances, not with her two best friends.”

  Something about what Monica said picked at Shelly. “I heard Emma came home feeling sick with the flu.”

  “Yeah, she was in bad shape for two days. All she did was sleep. It was a fast thing. She needed a third day to rest, but Emma was herself the day after that.”

  “This was a few weeks ago?”

  “It was about two weeks before she died,” Monica said.

  “Did Emma enjoy the night out? Did she talk about it with you?” Shelly asked.

  “I guess she enjoyed it, but she’d wanted Peggy and me to be there. She didn’t say much to me about the get-together because she got so sick right after and was out of commission for a few days.”

  Shelly gave a nod. “Are you friends with Dawn Barry? I met her once at the leather shop in town.”

  Monica shook her head. “Dawn’s a bit of a dip. She likes to drink, party. She’s kind of loud and dramatic. She’s not really someone I’d spend a lot of time with.”