by Tonya Kappes
“Yeah. A wig. There was a hand drawn map sewed into the inside of it. How did he get the wig? And was the map already sewn in?” Hank stood up and did that pacing thing. “Did he get the wig from the person who picked him up?” He put his hands in his pockets and looked out the bay window that overlooked the street. “The map doesn’t even make sense.”
“Maybe I can help. Well, not me, but Julip Knox. She’s the big map girl in town and I bet she can read the map for you.”
“I talked to her today when she was at the station. I forgot she was a cartographer,” he said.
“I thought she was the store clerk for Buck at the Thrifty Nickel.” I was all sorts of confused.
“She is, but she went to school for cartography and when they couldn’t use her skills after the shutdown of the national parks, she went to work for Buck.” He snapped his fingers. “That’s a great idea, Mae.”
He walked over to the coat tree and got his thin jacket.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m going to find her and show her the map.” He was as serious as could be.
“No, you’re not.” I put the photo album on the couch and got up to stop him. “Agnes has gone through the trouble of making us a meatloaf. We are going to eat it. Do you understand me?” I jerked the jacket out of his hands.
“Mae West, this is the side I really liked about you when we first met.” He tugged me into him and gave me a kiss exactly like our first kiss.
It was passionate and longing. It was when I first realized I was smitten with him and this just reinforced that I was right.
“You can’t have dessert before supper,” Agnes warned with a laugh when she walked back into the room, catching us in the act. She was now wearing a cute apron around her waist with little apples along the scalloped edges.
We jumped apart like two high school kids getting caught necking. My face reddened and to avoid looking at Agnes, I hurried over to Fifi to make sure she was okay, even though there was no reason for me to think that she wasn’t.
The cuckoo bird popped its head out of the door of the clock and let out a few chirps. That would get on my nerves.
“Is the meatloaf ready?” Hank asked in a voice I knew too well.
It was his hurry up and let’s get this over with so he could move on to bigger and better things voice. He’d done this several times when he’d come see me at the campground before he had to go to work. And when I wanted to go hiking and he’d walk a million times faster than me to get it over with faster.
“Yes, it is because the cuckoo said it was time.” Agnes looked over at the clock with a big smile on her face. “Now go wash up and meet me in the dining room.” Agnes rubbed her hands down the apron.
Agnes’s meatloaf was no ordinary meatloaf. There was something different about it and it was very tasty. It wasn’t like Mary Elizabeth’s. Hers had a little grease around the edges, and there was no sign of grease on this one.
“What kind of meat do you use?” I asked Agnes, praying she didn’t say venison.
“It’s good isn’t it.” Hank had already gotten a second helping along with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes and corn mixed in.
“It is very good.” I parted another piece of the slice of meat with my fork and looked at it to see if I could figure out what was in it.
“It’s a secret family recipe.” Agnes winked and continued to eat without giving me a single hint about the ingredients.
We chitchatted about my family and how much Mary Elizabeth and I had really been trying to repair our relationship.
“I guess you’re looking forward to meeting Bev.” Agnes got up from the table and took her plate over to the sink.
“Who’s Bev?” I asked and looked over at Hank, giving him a little shrug.
“My mom.” Hank had no expression on his face. “She and my dad are moving back.” He leaned back and pushed his plate to the side.
“They are?” My jaw dropped. “When did this happen?”
Hank and I had talked about his parents a handful of times, but only about memories he had around Normal. He said they’d lived in Florida the last ten years, after he graduated high school, and that was it.
“It’s been in the works for a better part of a year.” Agnes moseyed over and picked up Hank’s plate. The sideway glance she gave him didn’t go unnoticed. “Granny, I got my plate.”
“Nonsense.” She shooed his hand away when he tried to take his plate back from her. “Don’t you know by now that I know you better than you know you? I can see you have ants in your pants and want to get somewhere, only you’re trying to be nice in front of Mae.”
Agnes sure didn’t miss a beat and I loved that about her.
“Mae is so dang nice that she’s pretended not to notice.” Agnes put Hank’s plate down and came back to get mine.
“Seriously, the least I can do is help.” I pushed back from the table to get up.
“No. You two go on and get out of here. Do whatever it is on your mind. Or is it that map?” she asked.
“Granny, you know we don’t talk official business outside of the office.” Hank was very adamant about that.
“Do you think Greaser’s accomplice has bugged my house?” She cackled, making me smile. “Does he think he can just tell me what I can and can’t say in my own home?” she asked me. “He’s a paranoid one.”
“Not so much paranoid as knowing just how nosy people are around here.” He used his napkin to wipe off his mouth before he set it on the table and got up. “You never know who’s listening.”
“Chester,” Agnes said to the dog that was eyeballing Agnes’s feet at the sink, as though he were waiting for scarps. “Don’t be going and telling no tales about Greaser having an accomplice who gave him a wig with a map sewn in it. You hear me?”
“I get it.” Hank walked over and hugged his granny.
It was a tender moment that made my heart long for the grandparent figure I never had. By the time I’d gotten into Mary Elizabeth’s family, her people were already dead, leaving just me, her, and Bobby Ray.
Speaking of Bobby Ray. I wondered how he was doing holding down the fort at Grassel’s Gas Station since Darnell’s death. One of the things I wanted to talk to the Laundry Club girls about was the food chain.
It was customary to bake or cook your best food when someone died and take it to the family so they didn’t have to worry about cooking. I had never been one to do this, but since I started hanging around the Laundry Club, I had sort of adopted their ways.
It was usually Betts who had us help the Bible thumpers but she’d yet to send out a text, so I wondered if her mind was too cluttered to worry about it. This was one more thing I could take off her plate.
“Where are you?” Hank waved his hand in front of my face on our way over to see Julip.
Chester and Fifi were in the back, both looking out the window in the dark night as if they could see. I couldn’t see a thing, and I knew they couldn’t either.
The stars looked like twinkle lights in the sky and I’d still not gotten used to how gorgeous it was here at night. After you live in a big city like New York City, where all the city lights make the stars disappear, you forget the peace and calm a starry night sky can give your soul.
“I was thinking about Joel and how he was doing.” I glanced over, barely making out Hank’s profile in the light from the dashboard.
“He’s only holding up because Greaser is dead. He’s insistent that it was Darnell who killed him. I guess it gives him some vindication.” He turned down old country roads that I never knew existed in Normal.
“You are certain he didn’t?” I asked as I saw a few lights in the distance.
“We have some video footage from Queenie, but she didn’t use a professional and they cut off the end of the battle.” Hank smirked. “Queenie is off the charts mad about that too. Luckily, we have footage of Greaser killing Darnell and Burt.”
This was new information, and
it made me so sad to think about Hank watching it.
“The weird thing is that the look on Greaser’s face was shock when he noticed it was Darnell. It was like he wasn’t expecting to see him. This doesn’t line up with what he said to Darnell at his sentencing.”
The closer we drove towards the lights, I could see a faint shadow of a house coming into view.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” I reached over and patted his leg. “I can’t imagine watching, knowing you’re seeing a person’s last breath.”
“Part of the job,” he paused for a few seconds. “The weird thing is that after Greaser stabbed Darnell with the bayonet, he started to look around the battleground like he was looking for more people. Like he realized this might be where he could make good on his promise before he disappeared. The phone died and didn’t get all of the reenactment, so I didn’t see who sent the final blow to Greaser’s head.”
“You mean it was like he had just realized these people were part of the jury?” I asked a very disturbing question about what Greaser could’ve been thinking, not even questioning how he finally had been killed. A blow to the head.
“Yeah. Exactly.” The lights of the car made a spotlight on the cutest log cabin. “It was like a light bulb went off in his head. We know from you and Queenie that he didn’t go up to Queenie and ask her for the uniform. You both said she just handed it to him, thinking he was the Bass kid.”
“You can’t possibly think. . .” I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was about to say because it seemed like something from a movie. “You think he just stumbled upon the reenactment, Queenie assumed he was Lester’s fill-in, and then he went along with it. But when he saw Darnell, he realized it was Darnell and killed him. And then he went on a mission to see if he could find other members of the jury?”
“Yes, Mae.” He stopped the car a little ways from the front of the cabin like he wanted to finish the conversation before we went inside Julip’s home to talk to her about the map. “I think that’s exactly what happened. Darnell was on same side of the battle as Greaser. I could see it in Greaser’s face that he was shocked to see Darnell. I watched as he went from soldier to soldier, letting everyone live except Darnell, Burt, and Flora Jean.”
“We know he stayed at the Milkery the night before, but where was he the rest of the time?” It was a good question.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Greaser might’ve killed the two men and Flora Jean is in a coma, but I know he didn’t do this alone now that I found that map in the wig. If I can find his accomplice, I’ll bring murder charges against him.” His words lingered between us as he finished the drive up to the cabin.
“What is she doing?” I asked when I noticed Julip was putting what appeared to be a suitcase in the back of her wagon.
“Let’s find out.” He cut the engine and got out, grabbing the bag that was on the floorboard between us.
I turned the key on just enough and reached over to put down the windows for the dogs.
“Poor you, Chester.” I reached around the seat to pet him and Fifi on the head. “He’s a man. He doesn’t think of rolling down the windows for you yet.”
There were things I was going to have to go over with Hank as a new dog owner.
Chester must’ve really enjoyed what I did because he stuck his nose out the window and howled so loud that both Hank and Julip turned around.
Fifi wasn’t going to let Chester outdo her. Her high-pitched yip carried from one side of the car to the other, as she ran across the back seat and stuck her nose through the small crack in the window.
Chester had planted his paws on the arm of the passenger side door. He sniffed, he howled, he sniffed more, and he howled louder.
“Sorry about that,” Hank apologized to Julip. “You going on a trip?”
“Yes. I’m out of here until you figure out who killed that crazy serial killer.” She threw the suitcase in the back with one big hoist. “Mae and I talked about it.”
“You did?” He glanced back at me.
“We didn’t really talk about it.” I looked at her.
“At the church and on the way back to your place.” She wasn’t going to let it die and I really wished she would. “You said there was an accomplice. I live alone.” Her voice got louder as Chester’s howl did the same. It was like they were in competition. She looked Hank in the eye. “I’m not staying here all by myself until you find the other person.”
“I’m sorry you don’t feel safe in your home, but I assure you everyone in Normal is safe.” His jaw clenched. “We’ve not gotten any leads on an accomplice. I like to make sure all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed. Which leads me to why we are here.” Hank unzipped the bag and took out a plastic baggy that had EVIDENCE printed in bold black letters on the it. “We found this in Greaser’s possession.”
“A wig?” Julip looked down at the bag and up at Hank. “What does that have to do with me?”
“Nothing, but I want to ask you about what was sewn into the wig.” He put the plastic bag back into his bag and pulled out another evidence bag with the map in it. “This map.”
“Just because I’m a cartographer doesn’t make me an accomplice,” Julip was acting paranoid.
“Of course we don’t think you are.” I watched as Hank patted her back to calm her.
It was apparent her nerves and fear of Greaser’s accomplice were getting to her.
“I want to know if you can tell me if you know where this leads. We’ve gone over and over it at the station and compared it to the maps we use for rescue and recovery in the park, but this just doesn’t make sense.” He handed her the bag.
She flattened it out on her palm and took a quick look.
“It’s hand drawn.” She didn’t tell us any enlightening new information. She held it back out to him.
“Yes, but do you know where this is?” He asked the same question only a little differently. “Can you take another look? Maybe inside?”
She looked at it again, then looked over at Chester. He’d not given up the howl.
“Can you please make him stop? I can’t concentrate.” Julip was completely unnerved. She seemed so unlike the woman I’d talked with in the car, but I didn’t really know her very well.
“Mae,” Hank said my name like I was the one to Chester’s howling. My eyes narrowed. “Please.”
“It was good seeing you, Julip. Let me know if you want to stay at the campground.” I offered before I gave Hank a mean stare and headed back to his car. “Look what you did,” I told Chester as I reached across the seat to turn the car on and put the windows back up. “Now we can’t have fresh air because of your big mouth.”
That didn’t stop him. He barked and howled so much that the windows steamed.
“Well?” I asked Hank when he returned to the car after ten minutes. “Any luck?”
“She said she didn’t recognize it. She mentioned a couple of the trails where there is a fork, so he had to know those trails intersected. She said that prisoners went to the library and were able to do research. Maybe Greaser was planning his escape, looking up different maps and creating his own.” He put the bag back on the floorboard and turned to look at Chester.
Chester’s nose was wet up against the window and his tail was sticking straight out. His front legs were stiff, and the toenails of his front paws dug into the arm of the passenger window.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think that dog was treeing someone.” Hank started the car and drove us out of there. “I asked her about her nurse duties on the field when she ran over to Darnell. She got a little defensive and said that everyone had fake blood and she just thought he was playing his part well.”
I sat there in silence and thought back to that moment when I too watched Darnell take the fall. I clearly remember thinking just how good it looked when he pretended he was hit, then it knocked me in the head.
“He was about to kill Julip,” I said with a whisper
. “She’s really lucky he didn’t.”
“What?” Hank asked.
“I watched Darnell get killed.” I gulped, trying to swallow the lump that had found its way into my throat as the realization that I saw an actual murder take place dawned on me. “I thought to myself how good of an actor he was, but he wasn’t acting.” My voice trembled as the words left my mouth. “Greaser. He jabbed his gun towards Julip, and she put her hands up. Then it was like he just let her go.”
“She wasn’t a juror.” Hank’s words weren’t what haunted me.
It was the look on Julip’s face and her giggle that sent goosebumps up my legs.
Fifteen
I tossed and turned the entire night. Every little stick breaking outside, probably from some sort of wildlife, and every blowing leaf caught my attention. An unusual nighttime breeze seemed to have picked up overnight. I heard some cans rattling and the windchimes that some of the campers used to fancy up the outside of their homes on wheels jingling all night long.
It didn’t bother Fifi a bit. She was worn out from playing with Chester for another hour after Hank had brought me home after our little visit with Julip.
Last night, instead of going to get my car from Agnes’s house, I told Hank to just take us home and Dottie could drive me to get my car on our way to the Laundry Club in the morning. Of course that was after I’d checked with Dottie to make sure she was okay with it. Some days she was more particular than others, but she agreed.
No amount of Hank’s reassurance made me feel better about the idea there was someone out there that’d helped Greaser. From how Hank was talking, it sure did seem like it was someone in the community and that was even more disturbing.
What Julip said to him about the library and how the prisoners were able to go there for research was stuck in my head. Why hadn’t Abby ever mentioned it? She had many chances to bring it up, like when we discussed how Betts and the Bible thumpers never missed a chance to get over to the prison to minister. Abby helping them out at the library was no different.
Both were educating them in one way or another.