Sarah smiled and said, “Ok, Mr. Sauer. Would you please let us know when he does return, or if you find out where he is?”
“Yeah, I suppose. But I won’t do it where Rodney will know.”
“I understand.” Sarah reached out to shake Milton’s hand. Milton looked at her hand uncomfortably and finally shook it with a little softening of his features.
“You won’t hurt my boy, will you? I mean, you are just going to talk to him, right?” Milton asked tentatively.
“At this point, that is all we need to do.” Milton turned away and went into the house and shut the door.
As Brett started the car, Sarah said, “We have got to locate Rodney Sauer. It sounds like he may have taken payment from the person who murdered Amy Barrow to get rid of the car that was used. We have to find out what he knows.” Brett eased the police car to a stop next to where Sarah’s car was parked on the verge. Sarah pondered for a moment, then said, “I wonder why the guy went to the trouble, and the exposure, of hiring someone to get rid of the Chrysler? It gives me a little hope that maybe we can trace the car, that somehow there will be something leading to the killer. Otherwise, why risk it?”
“You’re right, there has to be some reason for it.” Brett nodded, thinking.
Sarah opened her door, “I have to make some arrangements for a document search at the Clerk’s office tomorrow morning. Can you get started asking around, try to find out if anyone has seen Rodney since Saturday night?”
“I’m on it.” Once Sarah had started her car, Brett headed back to town.
Chapter 21
Sarah woke at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning, thirty minutes before her alarm would beckon her with its nerve-grating beep. She turned over to go back to sleep but couldn’t. She knew it was futile to try. Once the thoughts and plans started swirling through every sleepy corner of her brain, she couldn’t shut them off. They started by poking their noses through the gray fog of sleep, like seeds sprouting. If she wasn’t able to force them back down right away, they grew faster and faster, like vines spreading and covering everything until they filled her mind and demanded she pay attention.
She threw back the sheet and sat on the side of the bed, the daylight trying to pry back the edges of her blackout curtains to stretch their greedy beams into the room. “Oh gawd,” Sarah exhaled. She felt like she had dreamt all night long, and she knew Daniel figured in at least some of them. “I don’t have time for this,” and she marched into the bathroom to get her shower and start her very busy day.
***
When Sarah arrived at the Clerk’s office at 7:30, Cora and Jennifer were already there and had the document room opened and lit, with a legal pad, pencils, and a lighted magnifying glass in the middle of the table. Jennifer was making coffee in the small kitchen and had set out several mismatched coffee cups on a tea towel. Cora’s voice came from the rear where the file storage was located. “Be with you in a minute.”
“It’s just me…Sarah. Take your time. And thanks for coming in early to get this set up, I appreciate it.”
“Nooo problem. I’m pulling the files you asked for, just about done,” came the muffled reply.
Sarah had felt guilty about having Cora and Jennifer come in early, but as she looked around at the preparations, she realized that for them this was an event, something exciting and out of the ordinary routine of the office. She greeted Jennifer as she walked into the kitchen. “That coffee smells great, Jennifer, mind if I get a cup?”
“You go right ahead, that’s what it’s for.” Jennifer finished washing her hands and wiped them on a dishtowel. “Holler if you need anything, I’ll be at my desk.”
“Thanks, Jennifer.”
Sarah took a seat at the table outside the boxlike document room and sat drinking her coffee, going over what she did know. She pulled her phone out to make some calls while she waited. “Morning Joe, this is Sarah, can you check on the license plate from that Chrysler we located yesterday?”
“Sure thing, hang on.” The sound of the stool scraping against the wooden floor was audible as Joe left the counter. He returned a couple minutes later, “Sarah, the plate was stolen from a Cutlass Ciera in Fayetteville, Arkansas on August 16.”
Sarah was irritated and replied briskly, “I was supposed to get a call about this as soon as they got something.”
“I know, and they were going to call you this morning but were trying to get hold of the owner first. Do you want to contact the owner?” asked Joe.
“I do, but I need to get things moving here at the Clerk’s office now. Can you put the information on my desk? As soon as I’m finished here, I’ll come back to the station and contact the owner. Thanks.”
Her second call was to Ted in the small lab at the station to see if he’d discovered anything in the Chrysler found in the barn. “Ted Baker,” came the response when the call was answered.
“Hi Ted, this is Sarah. I’m wondering if you found anything on the Chrysler?”
“A lot, I just don’t know how much of it will be pertinent.”
“Go on.”
“The car is a 1975 Cordoba. It’s like examining a forty-year-old vacuum cleaner that hasn’t been emptied. There were more than a dozen different samples of hair, fingerprints on nearly every surface, body fluid traces, some of which were blood but it was so old it was oxidized and useless. I got a large bin full of trash, most of which was fast food wrappers. If you are in the market for some vintage Farmer’s Daughter and Burger Chef bags, I’m your man.”
“Thanks Ted, but no thanks. What about the prints?”
“I am running several sets of them, nothing so far, which is what I expected. Most of the prints from the steering wheel and handle were smudged and older. Whoever was driving wore gloves which smeared the prints in the most common hand positions on the wheel, but not otherwise, which means the person driving didn’t wipe the steering wheel. I suspect the prints are all old. I say that because it doesn’t look like the car was driven for quite some time, for years. It appears to have been made road worthy perhaps just long enough to fulfill its use.”
Sarah asked, “What makes you think that?”
Ted replied, “Several reasons. It was extremely dirty, inside and out, coated with a thick layer of greasy dust, like it had been parked near trees that release sap which combined with dust from roads or fields. This layer of grime on the back-seat area and passenger sides wasn’t even disturbed. Of the trash inside the car and trunk, none of it could be dated later than 2003, and I am taking that date from a rolled-up newspaper from Elkton that had never been taken out of the rubber band. The rubber band was broken and had adhered to the newspaper.”
There was a pause and Sarah could hear Ted take a drink and swallow, then continue, “And…under the hood were the remains of what was obviously a pretty massive rat’s nest.”
“Did you say rats? A rat’s nest?”
“Yep. It had been cleared away, but there were bits and pieces of straw, fabric scraps, fiberglass left stuck to oily surfaces and in crevices as well as plenty of rat droppings throughout the engine compartment. There were some new parts: some of the wiring which had either corroded or been chewed away by the rats was replaced, a battery, oil and air filters, some hoses, which indicates someone replaced enough parts to get it running.”
“In the trunk, there was an old wool blanket that was dry rotted, a jack and tire iron, more trash.
“Thanks Ted. Let me know if you get any hits. Bye.”
Sarah dropped the phone back into her purse. She was startled from her thoughts by the sound of several pairs of footsteps coming toward the room. She jumped up, sloshing a little of the remaining coffee on her blouse. “Oh for…” she stepped out and put the cup on the table.
Cora had a couple of manila folders in her hands and was escorting Perri and Nina through the labyrinth of partitions. As they came into view, Sarah greeted them, “Good morning, ladies, thank you for coming.”
“You’re wel
come.” “We’re happy to help out,” from both of them.
“Come on in and have a seat. Cora has a couple of files I wanted you to start with.” Cora set the files on the table and exited the room. “I have some information for you regarding Patricia’s family as well. Hopefully, between the two, you can find something, any indication of a connection.”
Perri and Nina put their purses on the table outside the room and went in. “We’ll give it our best shot.” Perri and Nina seated themselves at the viewing table. Perri sat with only her toes on the floor, joggling her legs up and down in anticipation. “You’re jiggling the table, sweetie,” pointed out Nina.
“Sorry,” Perri gave a sheepish smile and sat still.
Sarah pulled a third chair into the room and sat down on the opposite side of the table. “As I mentioned to you yesterday, Amy had been helping, or working with, Patricia in a document search of some sort. Cora has pulled the files that Patricia asked for on all her previous visits. Requests are logged into the system when they are made and include the name of the person requesting it. So, it was possible to do a query on Patricia’s name to find what she had asked for. One folder, this one,” she held one up and placed it in front of Perri, “has the birth and death certificates she requested to view and for which she requested copies. She did not ask for copies of all documents she requested. The other folder contains other types of legal documents: court records, payment slips, and guardianship documents. Most of these people are Patricia’s relatives, or rather, she is descended directly from them. They lived in this area and this is where she was born. It wasn’t hard to see the relationship of these people to Patricia herself, but the significance of those relationships escapes me right now. That’s what I’m hoping you can help me see.”
Perri asked, “I’m still wondering if it could be a red herring and not related to Amy’s murder? Was Patricia maybe just putting together her family tree and needed some help from Amy because Amy was accustomed to looking at these types of old documents?”
“That could be, but we don’t know that and we don’t have anything else.” She paused, “As they say, I don’t enjoy speaking negatively about someone who has passed on, but truthfully, this is not something I would ever have expected Patricia to spend her time on. She just wasn’t the studious type.” Sarah slid her own file folder across the table. “These are Patricia’s notes, found at her apartment. There is a lot more information about her immediate family members because she knew them all, and you will see that she started with herself and worked backward. According to this, her line seems to have died out with her. We don’t know if she was possibly trying to find out if there were more family members that she didn’t know about, or if she had another purpose. After the death of her mother, she didn’t have anyone. Maybe it prompted her to look for an unknown relative.”
Perri pulled the folders toward her and Nina. Sarah continued, “Besides her notes and a few copies of documents she got here, there are some photos, most of them stapled to notebook paper with a short description of the picture. Some of the photos are older, thirty to forty years old and some look like she printed them on an ink jet printer. Maybe from the internet. I guess someone could have emailed photos to her if she made contact with them. The lab guys have her computer.” Sarah looked at Perri and Nina, and back to Perri. “Go ahead and have a look through everything. Make notes, ask for whatever you need. I’ll be back later to check in with you, or if you need me sooner, have Cora give me a call or call my cell phone.”
“We’ll do the best we can.” Perri was already removing the certificates from the folder. Nina had started a heading on the legal pad and was sorting through Patricia’s notes.
***
As soon as Sarah sat down at her desk, she picked up the police report from Fayetteville which was made on the Arkansas plate that had been on the Chrysler. The license plate had been taken from a 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. The report stated the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley Monroe, had been at church at the time and their car had been in the church’s parking lot. Sarah picked up the desk phone and dialed the number.
“Hello,” came the voice of an elderly man.
“Hello, this is Sarah Vines, I’m a detective in the Russellville Police Department, in Kentucky. Is this Mr. Monroe?”
“Yes, it is. What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to go over with you the incident of your vehicle plate being stolen, if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind. Did it turn up?” asked Mr. Monroe.
“It did. Had you noticed anyone around your vehicle or notice anything out of place?”
“No, no I didn’t see anyone. My wife and I were in church, it was Sunday you know, and I parked right about where I always do in the lot after I let Diane out at the door. After church we came out, got in the car, and left to go to a restaurant like we always do. Some of us go out to eat after church every week. We look forward to that.”
“Did you notice at that time that the plate was missing?”
“No, we were talking with other people from the congregation and didn’t look at it. We just got in and left.”
“When did you notice it missing?” asked Sarah.
“Why, when the policeman pulled me over!” exclaimed Mr. Monroe.
“Ok, can you tell me about that?”
“I was driving down the main drag, so I pulled onto another street and stopped. The policeman asked me for my license and registration, like they do. I gave them to him and he asked me why I didn’t have a plate on the car. First I heard of it and I told him so. He said hold on a minute while he went back to his car. He said he checked and it showed I had paid for my tags. He wanted to take a report. Said I had to get some more plates. That upset Diane and me both, I’m telling you. I didn’t appreciate having to pay for another plate, you know? That’s not cheap.”
“No, sir, I’m certain that it wasn’t, I’m sorry you had to do that. You didn’t see anyone hanging around the parking lot, maybe as you arrived at church or were walking in to the building?” Sarah asked hopefully.
“No. Wish I had though.”
Sarah’s mind was working through the details. Amy Barrow had been killed by someone in the Chrysler with that plate on August 27, at least a full eleven days after it was stolen. Since the plate had been reported in Arkansas on Sunday, August 16, Sarah had been wondering if the person who stole the plate put it on the Chrysler and drove through several states managing to avoid being pulled over for a stolen plate for that length of time, or if they had simply taken the plate and brought it with them in another vehicle until they arrived at their destination, and then switched plates.
Mr. Monroe expanded further on his displeasure in having to purchase a new license plate. “I don’t like spending more money on something I already bought. We didn’t like being late to our lunch either. Everybody made a big to-do over me and Diane getting pulled over by the police right in front of everybody. I had to tell about it a couple of times.”
“Yes, sir, I…”
He was picking up steam on his complaint, “I’m glad you got that plate back, but that doesn’t do me much good now, does it? I already shelled out the money for a new one.” He paused, and before Sarah could speak again, said, “You get the lousy thief who took it?”
“Not yet, but I believe we will, Mr. Monroe.”
“Good! Now listen to me, you get $74.61 out of that guy when you do, and send it to me, you hear me?
“Mr. Monroe, I…” but he had hung up already.
“Ok then.” Sarah put the report aside.
Chapter 22
Perri ran her fingers through her hair and stretched, her shoulders were pinched and aching from hunching over the table. Nina’s stomach growled and she said, “My breakfast has run out. I’m hungry, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but I hate to stop. Maybe we can get something sent over and eat it out in the lobby or in the car and then get back to work. It will take a couple more hours
to get through the court records. It isn’t that there are so many of them, but they are time-consuming to read. I know paper was at a premium, but this is like the clerk was having to pay for paper himself,” she chuckled. “I’ve not seen many examples of handwriting as tiny and crabbed as these. I’m just glad the clerk didn’t decide to start writing along the margins when he reached the bottom of the page or turn it upside down and write the opposite way between the lines.”
“Me too.” Nina stood up, bent, and touched her toes, there was a popping noise. “I’m falling apart. You hear that pop? My hip. Working on my feet all the time is going to kill me. I’m going to go find someplace to order some food, just some sandwiches maybe. Bathroom break too. I’ll be back.”
“I’d better take a break too. I will go ahead and ask Cora to look for these other items to see if they are here and I’ll get online to search for census records. As Nina went outside to order take out, Perri spoke with Cora at the desk and handed her a piece of paper with a few items scrawled on it. Cora disappeared into the back. After the short trip to the court house and back, Perri returned to the table, bending her head to peer through the magnifying glass at the flowery, swirling script that covered most of the page.
***
Perri deposited a folder on top of the stack. “That’s the last document. What time is it?” They had rapidly eaten a couple of greasy burgers while sitting in Perri’s car before starting in again.
“Two thirty.” Nina yawned.
“I have to stand up. Let’s review some of this while I walk around a little.” Perri walked to the opposite end of the room. “We have each generation in Patricia’s line, starting with her, going back to her great-great-grandfather, Jonathon Blackwell. He was born in 1856, married Susannah Martin in 1882 in Russellville. They moved to a farm just south of Russellville very shortly after they married. They had two children; Seth was born in 1883 and Naomi in 1885.”
“Right. Both Jonathon Blackwell and Susannah Martin appear on the 1880 census, two years before they married, living with their respective families,” Nina read from her notes.
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