Poison Branches

by Cynthia Raleigh

  “Oh man, I can’t wait. That smells good” said Perri.

  “You’re not wrong about that. Let’s get started,” Nina said, rubbing her hands together.

  They each took a plate and were loading them up when Alice brought in the fresh, hot scones piled in a basket and covered with a tea towel. “This is a feast, Alice, thank you!” Perri and Nina each took a couple of scones and spooned on some of the strawberry preserves. They sat at the long wooden table. Made from rough-hewn planks, it was a bit uneven, but had been smoothed and polished until it glowed.

  “We saw the crows in the garden this morning. Do you feed them every day?” asked Nina

  “Did they wake you up? I’m sorry if they did.” Alice quickly replied.

  “No, no, they didn’t. We wanted to get up early and get going, but I did want to see them.”

  “I usually give them some of what’s left over from the day before; leftover bread or crackers, scraps of meat, even cooked beans. They hang around in the morning waiting for it.”

  “Smart birds!” said Nina.

  “This is delicious, Alice. Just what we need before heading out today. Going to poke around in cemeteries looking for headstones.” Perri glanced up to see Nina smiling.

  “I’ll let you eat and get going then. I’ll come back and get the dishes when you leave. You have a good day and I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

  Both tried to reply, but with their mouths full, they opted to wave.

  Chapter 11

  Perri steered the Cooper out of the driveway, again with the top down, and accelerated back toward highway 79. “We’re going to Whippoorwill Cemetery first.”

  Nina nodded, “Yep.”

  “We’d better get some gas before I get involved in this and forget. I don’t want to run out of gas out in the boondocks.” Perri drove to the highway and stopped at Rooster’s Filling Station. Perri jumped out of the car and opened the gas cover. As she turned to the pump, a man, roughly 35 years old, came towards her with both hands held up, “Whoa, whoa, little lady.” He laughed deprecatingly. “I think you might be in a bit of a hurry. I pump the gas here.”

  “Oh, ok.” Perri stepped back from the pump a couple of steps. “I didn’t see a sign that this was full-service; I didn’t know there were places left that were full-service.”

  “Um hmm. You want a full tank?” He asked.

  “Yes, please.” Perri leaned back into the car to get her billfold out of her purse. Nina made a questioning face at her. Perri shrugged and backed out of the car.

  “You aren’t from around here. Plate says Indiana. You got family here or something?” smirked the man pumping the gas. His grimy shirt had an oval with the name Rodney in satin stitch.

  “No. I don’t” Perri replied flatly.

  “What are you doing here then?” asked Rodney gruffly.

  “Well, uh Rodney, I’m here to do some research for my family tree.”

  “What kind of research?”

  “Family tree research. Is this a private gas station or something, because I also didn’t see a sign for that? This is on a public road. You seem to object to me being here.”

  “Why would I object to you getting gas here?”

  “I don’t have any idea, but you seem to be irritated.”

  “Just wonderin’. I have to wonder about two women down here from another state, driving around without a man?”

  “I wasn’t aware that I was required to have a man with me? Is there a law in Kentucky that I am not aware of?” snapped Perri.

  Rodney let out an unfriendly laugh. “Women shouldn’t travel alone.”

  “And why is that exactly?” Perri’s eyes were blazing, but she was trying to keep from losing her cool

  Rodney laughed again. “Come on. Travel can be dangerous, and it also takes having a sense of direction and ability to handle things that come up, like a man. Women can’t think about two things at once, so it’s dangerous.”

  Perri’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding, right?” She paused. “You are just kidding?”

  Rodney stopped laughing and frowned, looking directly into Perri’s eyes. “No ma’am, I’m not. Traveling is a man’s job. If a man wants to take a woman along, that’s for him to decide.”

  “You seem to be living back in the days of the cave man.”

  Rodney returned the gas pump to its cradle, screwed the gas cap back on, and shut the cover. “I don’t care what you think. Women on their own are bad news. Look what happened to Amy Barrow.”

  Perri was astonished. “She was murdered while she was visiting the grave of a friend! Are you saying she should have obtained an escort to go to a grave?”

  “She got killed, didn’t she?”

  Perri shook her head as though bringing herself out of a daze. “I’d like to pay now, and go.” She held up her debit card with a questioning look.

  “We’ll have to go inside for that.”

  Perri glanced at Nina, who was scowling and looked ready to get out of the car. Perri made a tiny negative head motion, “Well, let’s go in then and get this over with. Then our lady rear ends can get out of your superior male gas station.”

  Rodney’s thick-featured face crunched up in disapproval. He pivoted his pudgy physique around on his heels and stumped across the cracked pavement to the office of the station. His hair was unruly, but not in a good way. The soiled shirt was partially untucked and the buttons strained across his belly. The knees of his pants were not only dirty, but nearly worn through. It didn’t look like the kind of grime one would get from working on cars, such as grease or oil. It looked like dirt, as though he’d been digging around or his clothes had been on the ground.

  While Rodney was running Perri’s card, she looked around the station. It had been a full-service gas station probably back in the 1950s or 1960s. The angled fluorescent lights were still standing over the newer gas pumps. The now filthy office was crammed with old furniture; the chairs upholstered in cracked yellow plastic and a small Danish style end table with the finish nearly rubbed off and sporting scattered cigarette burns. There was an ashtray on the table that looked as though it had begun overflowing sometime in the ‘80s and had never been emptied, and it smelled like it too. The floor was tile, but Perri couldn’t identify the original color through the scuffs and debris. The shelves behind the desk held dozens of old Chilton manuals for various models of vehicle, some that probably hadn’t driven into this garage in a couple of decades. There was a glass door from the tiny office to the garage area which had probably been bustling with oil changes and repairs in its better days. It was nearly empty now and looked sad and neglected. Even the hydraulic lift had been removed from each bay, leaving only the metal framework standing next to the gaping pit in the floor.

  The bell on the door rang again and Perri turned to see Nina cautiously entering the office. She widened her eyes at Nina and stood by the door. “Looks like you have a little help to finish; that’s probably a good idea.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” snapped Perri.

  “Well, maybe you aren’t used to doing these business transactions by yourself,” and he snickered again.

  “Sign here. Here is a pen. Sign on that line right there.” Rodney slapped the receipt down on the counter and tapped the bottom, leaving a black thumbprint on the corner. Perri said nothing, just wanting to get out of the office, and signed. She held her hand out for her card and receipt. Rodney took his time and finally handed them back to her. When Perri took the card, Rodney held on to it, “Watch yourself out there.”

  “I can definitely do that, thank you.” Rodney let go of the card and Perri’s hand recoiled back toward her with the release of the pressure. She turned and quickly left the office.

  “What was with that guy?” asked Nina once the door had closed behind them.

  “He’s a cretin, that’s what. He’s the kind of goon who likes to have a submissive little wife at home that he enjoys belittling.”
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  Nina said, “You don’t think that guy is married, do you?”

  Perri replied, “I certainly hope not.”

  “So, is that guy ‘Rooster’? Oh, my gosh, does he think he’s some kind of catch? Got a harem of little hens pecking around his yard? Gag!”

  Perri giggled, just a bit, “Yeah, he probably thinks he’s a stud; a gallant ladies’ man, taking care of the little brainless women.”

  “The little brainless women who can’t think about more than one thing at a time, right?”

  “I’m sorry,” Perri said, with an exaggerated look of puzzlement on her face, “I can’t follow your thought. I already have a thought, so your thought makes more than one thought, and that’s too much at once.” They both laughed loudly and peeked back over their shoulder as they reached the car. They could see Rodney skulking in the doorway. He was watching them, hands in his pockets.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Nina hopped into the passenger seat.

  Once they were belted back into the car, Perri said, “I feel like I need to wash my hands after being in that nasty office and using that greasy grunt’s pen!”

  Nina dug in her purse, “Here, hand sanitizer.”

  “Thank you! At the first cemetery, I’ll rub my hands around in the grass and dirt, they’ll be cleaner than that office.”

  “Ok. I’ll go back to highway 79. There is a road that cuts through from 79 over to highway 68, and the cemetery is on that road which does roughly follow Whippoorwill Creek. The cemetery is between the road and the Creek.”

  “That explains the name.”

  Chapter 12

  It didn’t take long to find the turnoff toward the cemetery. The road had many sharp turns, left and right, back and forth, winding around, just like the creek. “This probably was a trail following the creek a long time ago,” said Perri. As they came around a right-hand curve, they could see a stone wall stretching back away from the road. A police car was parked by the central entrance where there was yellow tape looped around two wooden horses blocking the lane. There was also yellow tape blocking off the north and south entrances. A policeman was slowly walking around in front of the car. There was a knot of about ten to twelve people in the gravel between the road and the surrounding stone wall, talking and looking into the cemetery.

  As the Cooper approached, the group turned to look. Perri eased just past the cemetery and pulled into the lot at its north end, which was also gravel. “Plenty of company. That’s a good sign for getting some gossip.” Perri turned off the ignition, stepped out of the car, and tucked the keys in her jeans pocket. Nina came around the car and they both headed across the rocky parking lot with weeds pushing up all over it, toward the group of people.

  “Good thing we women folk have some men here to guide us, keep us from wandering off.” They both laughed.

  Perri could see Jack, from the tavern the night before, included in the onlookers.

  “Hello, Jack. We were on our way out to visit a few cemeteries and, since we’re staying out this way, we thought we’d come by to see what there is to see.”

  Jack had a large styrofoam cup of coffee. “Me too.” He took a sip. “The body’s been taken in, of course, but they haven’t moved Amy’s car yet. They called in some special examiner or investigator from Bowling Green to have a look at it before it was moved. Joe was out here all night watching the place. Leonard over there took over early this morning.” He nodded to the policeman who was now ambling through the ironwork arch over the main entrance to the cemetery. “A couple ladies brought him some coffee and long johns. Not sure how long he’s going to be here.”

  Jack pointed across the cemetery, “You can’t see too much of it with all the people in the way, but the wreck is right over there. If you watch, every now then they move and you can just make out the back end of the car. It’s right up against that wall that you see running kind of down the middle. It’s supposed to be smashed up pretty good, both ends. Somebody was in there and hit her, more than once. But she wasn’t found in the car, so she had to have gotten out. No one knows why she was in the grass, but supposedly they will have information sometime today about what killed her.”

  Nina and Perri watched for the next half hour as the various investigators hovered around the wreck like bees around a hive. They could see a woman, who, according to Jack, was the local detective, in chinos and a short-sleeved shirt. She carried a phone and notebook, which she wrote it occasionally. She frequently spoke with a man in a Tyvek suit who was kneeling down to look under the car, leaning into the open passenger door, and climbing over the wall to view the wreck from the other side. He appeared to be taking samples and handing them off to an assistant. A flat bed wrecker waited in the gravel south of the cemetery, its driver evidently asleep with his chin cradled in his hand.

  “As much as I’d like to stay here and watch them remove this car, it could take a long time and we’d better get going or I won’t get my own research done. Darn it! I’m curious about this,” Perri said. Nina agreed to the part about leaving.

  “You said you are staying around here, where?” asked Jack.

  “At the B&B on 102, the Crow’s Rest.”

  “Oh, ok. I’ve seen that place. If you want to come back by the tavern tonight, some of us will be there again. We might know something by then.”

  “Hey, thanks Jack, we’ll do just that! Can’t wait to hear about it.” Perri and Nina headed back toward the car.

  Back in the car, Perri fired up the engine and put the a/c on full blast. “I’m not going to raise the roof, but I want a bit of coolness. It should be better once we get going. We are probably going to get hot enough today.” Perri turned back the way they had come. They waved at the clutch of people as they drove past.

  Chapter 13

  “This is the last one,” Perri said as she turned from the paved road onto one of mixed rough gravel and dirt. It snaked between corn fields. The corn was high and was all that was visible. “We should come to a bridge over a small creek. Once we do that, we can park on the side of the road. The farmer said the creek is always dry at this time of year. We can follow it back to the tree line rather than walk through the corn.”

  “Ok. How far of a hike is it back to the cemetery?” asked Nina.

  “It looked like it was about a half mile after we reach the tree line, maybe a bit less, but we aren’t going to be on flat ground. We have to go through some trees first. After the trees, there is a path that goes to some old outbuildings. It’s just past that.”

  “It’s the most secluded one we’ve been to. I wonder what shape it will be in. Even some of the ones right by the road are awfully overgrown and neglected. I hope we can even get to the stones.”

  “I do have some pruning shears in my duffle bag. If the overgrowth is too much for that, we’re out of luck.”

  “I don’t do sticker bushes. If it is covered with blackberries or those nettle things, you’re on your own, unless you have some gasoline and a match.”

  “Yeah, Nina, I don’t think the owner would appreciate us torching his property. Besides, it would damage the stones. Otherwise, it is a tempting idea.”

  “Now I know why you wear jeans to do this. I’m glad you mentioned it because my legs would be scratched up if I had worn shorts.”

  “Here’s the bridge. It’s more like a paving over a culvert than a bridge, but I think this is it,” Nina said as she craned her neck to look over the side. “He’s right, the owner I mean, there’s just a small trickle of water down the center. It still might be a little tough, some of those rocks are pretty chunky.”

  Perri slowed almost to a stop and leaned forward to look for a place to park the car. “Where are we going to pull over? There is a shoulder, but it’s narrow and mostly loose dirt and gravel.”

  Nina looked down over her door and said, “I think if you just get past the creek a couple dozen yards, you should be able to squeeze over enough to park and still leave room for a car to pass.”<
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  “Ok.” Perri drove forward a short distance and slowly eased onto the shoulder. “How about here?”

  “Looks good.”

  Perri put up the roof, and when they were both out, locked the car. She opened the trunk and took out the duffle bag with her cemetery kit, shutting the trunk lid. “Let’s go!”

  They walked back toward the creek and carefully walked down the bank onto the larger rocks lining the edges of the creek. The stony creek bed was fairly clear of weeds but they had to watch their footing to avoid wedging their feet between the rocks. The creek curved away to the left, and they followed it toward the tree line.

  Several minutes later, the end of the rows of corn was visible. They were soon walking out into a grassy area under the trees. Perri had looked at the map so many times, she had it memorized. “We just need to angle to the right a little, through the trees and over the low ridge. Once we get to the top, we should be able to find the path. It should cut crossways from the direction we come out of the woods, since it goes from the house to the outbuildings.

  There was a breeze here and it was cooler beneath the trees, but they were soon on top of the ridge and looking down on the other side. The trees gave way to a fallow field covered with some kind of sparse scrubby growth. To the left was more field. To the right, Perri could see a couple of ramshackle stone buildings. The path was just visible about twenty feet from the edge of the trees. “This is it. We go right. The cemetery is supposed to be just past those buildings.”

  Perri and Nina crossed the area of grass, plantain, dandelions, and a few stems of Queen Anne’s lace to get to the path. As they started downhill, Nina asked, “You said one of the stones we are looking for here is for Perlina Evans?”

  “Yes. She’s from my Dad’s side and is my namesake. I know Mom and Dad meant well naming me after her, but it does sound out of date today. I go by Perri. She married my 3x grandfather’s brother when his wife died. He’d been married for a long time and had numerous children. Only a few years after she married Francis, many people got sick with ‘winter fever’ and started dying. All but a couple of Francis’s children were grown and gone, but Perlina found herself with the responsibility to bury her husband and his oldest daughter who was still at home. And Perlina and Francis had two children of their own who were both under four years old at the time. Can you imagine? The only reason we know that is from the receipts she kept and stuck between the pages of the family Bible.”