Motorhomes, Maps, & Murder

by Tonya Kappes

  “I wasn’t a juror.” She looked at me. There was fear in her eyes.

  “I know, but he clearly hurt you for a reason then let you live.” I could tell by her fidgeting she was hiding a secret.

  “I met him at the library.” She looked down at her hands. “He was actually really nice. When he noticed it was me in the outfit, he told me that I needed to keep my mouth shut about helping him with the maps. If he found out I said anything, he’d come back to finish the job.” Tears filled her eyes. “That’s when he stabbed me. If it weren’t for you. . .” She lifted her hand and wiped her face.

  “Did you tell Hank this?” I asked her.

  “No, because when I woke up, nobody told me Greaser was dead. My daughter is the one who told me. Greaser is dead and that’s what matters.” She rolled away from me.

  “Did you kill him?” I asked.

  “No. I didn’t have the strength.” Her jaw clenched. “I’m not sure if my pants that I wore are over there.” She lifted her chin in the air towards the hospital room closet. “If you look in the pocket of my pants, what’s in there will lead you to who was helping him.”

  I hurried over to closet and rummaged through her bloody clothes. I searched the pockets and finally found a folded up piece of paper.

  “Why do you think someone was helping him?” I asked her and noticed it was a map.

  “I want you to know that I thought I was helping him research geography. I didn’t realize he was planning an escape.” She sniffed and her eyes welled with tears. “He had other maps at the library that I didn’t help him with. After my daughter told me Greaser was dead, I thought about the research he was doing on geography and remembered the map that fell from his clothes on the battlefield that I reached for and picked up with the last bit of energy that I had. It was like my memories came flooding back. I knew I didn’t help him with those maps, and I was the only one at the library helping the prisoners because it gave Abby time to apply for new grants and do office work.”

  “Do you care if I tell Hank all of this?” I asked and looked down at the map. I couldn’t understand a bit of it. It was too bad Julip had left town or I would have taken it to her. “I’m not sure if anything will be done since the FBI insists that the case is closed, but it’s still good information.”

  “Of course you can.” She looked past me when the nurse came in with a small clear plastic cup with a few pills in them. “I was planning on giving the map to the police, but now that you told me the case is closed, I just want to put this behind me.”

  The nurse handed Flora Jean the cup. Flora’s hand was shaky, and I could see on her face that she was exhausted.

  “I’ll keep you posted.” I hugged her goodbye after she took the pills.

  “Thank you for saving me.” The sincerity was not only in her tone but written all over her face.

  I hurried out of the hospital, replaying everything in my head that Flora Jean had told me so when I did call Hank on the way back, I would remember it all.

  “Mae West!” The shrill voice called out to me when I walked through the sliding doors at the hospital entrance. “Violet Rhinehammer, Channel 2 news and the new editor in chief of the National Parks Magazine.”

  My heart stopped along with my feet and I could feel the shock on my face as I watched her chipper little self running towards me with a microphone extended toward me and a cameraman following closely behind.

  “Would you like to give a statement to our Channel 2 viewers about the lawsuit filed against you at the Normal County Courthouse this morning where the defendants want the deed to Happy Trails Campground? Your home that you’ve really gone to great efforts to make a very well known vacation destination to people who want to visit the Daniel Boone National Forest,” she talked so fast. I was watching her mouth, but her words ran together.

  I wanted to punch her in her perfect little mouth and knock out those bright white teeth.

  “Did you say you were the editor in chief of the National Parks Magazine?” I asked since the most recent editor had succumbed to an untimely demise.

  In fact, I found her and then had to use my own sleuthing skills to help solve the murder. Hank forgot all that when I told him I could help.

  “Ava Cox is my lawyer and she’ll be producing a statement later this afternoon.” I caught myself in a lie before I even realized exactly what I was saying.

  Violet had replaced the notebook stuck up under her armpit with the microphone.

  “Ava Cox? Isn’t she the wife of Grandy Cox? Your husband’s partner who killed himself after your husband stole the Coxes’ entire life savings? Her son is the one who. . .” Clearly Violet had done her due diligence.

  “Thank you for thinking of me. I’m so appreciative.” As vivid as if she were standing right next to me, I could see the pride on Mary Elizabeth’s face. She’d be happy all the money she put towards etiquette classes had just come in handy.

  “When you can feel it right here,” the teacher used to say and jam her finger in her chest to make a point of how crucial it was. “You will kill them with kindness, and I mean the bless your heart kindness where you are smiling while serving them a shit sandwich.”

  All the girls in manners class had gasped at the appalling language the teacher had used because in the previous lesson, she had told us that cursing wasn’t a sign of good manners. When a southern girl cursed, it made her southern roots go down on the socialite chain, taking years to climb back up.

  “Manners has nothing to do with money,” she’d say. “It has to do with social grace and dignity.”

  I came from nothing and when I left out on my own, that’s when my taught manners and etiquette came in handy and wow, did I see how right she was now.

  Because if not for that, right now Violet would be submitting a tape of me going nuts right there in front of the hospital to Dr. Phil or one of those other daytime television shows.

  “You heard it right here, folks. Mae West has hired lawyer Ava Cox to represent her in the lawsuit Bassett versus West.” She flung her pretty blonde hair behind her shoulder.

  The camera panned from me to her, but not before she did the posture that was the first lesson taught in etiquette class. Shoulders back, boobs up.

  “This is Violet Rhinehammer, reporting live for Channel 2.”

  Obviously, she went to etiquette class.

  Eighteen

  “Hank, it’s Mae.” This was not the time to be getting his voicemail. “I’ve got something very important to tell you. I talked to Flora Jean. You aren’t going to believe what she told me. Call me back.”

  I wasn’t sure if he was so upset that he was letting go of this case and had turned his phone off., but I knew once he heard me say that Flora Jean told me something, I’d be the first number he’d dialed.

  Bobby Ray texted just as I was hanging up the phone to remind me about the picnic Mary Elizabeth had made for us.

  I looked over at the map in the passenger seat. I really wanted to go on this trail, but I wasn’t entirely sure where it was. I had an inkling, but when you’re going hiking in the Daniel Boone National Park, you needed much more than an inkling. Every year someone died on the trails in the park due to getting lost or not knowing how to read the maps provided by the park.

  I was a tough woman, but I knew my limits. Right now, I didn’t want to be the next statistic who didn’t leave the park alive. Besides, Fifi needed me.

  There was no sense in pulling over and replying to Bobby Ray’s text. I might’s well head back into town and wait for Hank to call me back. It would be nice to visit with Mary Elizabeth and Bobby Ray, but I was still a little sore about her talking me up to the Bassetts. Didn’t they know she was a proud southern mama, that no matter what type of bragging they did on their children, adopted or not, you had to cut it in half to get to the real truth?

  The phone rang. Instead of taking my eyes off the road to see who it was, I knew it had to be Hank.

  “Hey, you won�
�t believe. . .” I started to go on about Flora Jean and the map Greaser had dropped but was rudely interrupted by Ava Cox.

  “Have you lost your mind? Well, having your mind in the first place was questionable, but what little you’ve got left, I’m certain you’ve lost it.” Ava Cox sounded as unhappy to hear my voice as much as I was happy to hear hers. “I spit out my coffee at the BBQ when I saw you on TV telling the world that I was representing you in a lawsuit.”

  “I’m guessing you’re calling because you’re happy to hear it?” I squeaked out the words with a little bit of trepidation, hoping I wouldn’t have to beg her to take my case.

  “Mae, the last time we talked, we made our peace and I helped you out, but that was it. The end of our relationship.” She had mentioned something like that now that I thought about it. “Where did those words get mixed up between now and then?”

  “Did you really mean them? I thought you were kidding.” I laughed.

  “Fine. Last time.” Ava tried to sound matter of fact, but I knew she couldn’t resist a good lawsuit. “Meet me at the Normal Diner in an hour.”

  The phone clicked and went dead without me confirming. There was no way I could go to the picnic and leave in an hour.

  The sidewalks downtown were filled with tourists. It was lunchtime and the warmth of the sun made it feel like a spring day that didn’t have a murder looming over Normal or a lawsuit looming over me.

  The shops had all their side yards open. It was nice to see Alvin Deters had his annual mini campsite display set up next to his shop, Deter’s Feed-N-Seed, where the tourists could try out the latest and greatest camping equipment. The s’more station was always a hit and if I had had some extra time, I would’ve stopped and made myself one.

  Normal Diner looked busy. If I wanted to get a good seat and not sit at the counter when I met with Ava Cox in an hour, I would probably have to get there a half hour early, leaving me with just a half hour to kill. Or to be killed, when I told Mary Elizabeth that I couldn’t make it.

  “Surely, you understand,” I said to her on the phone after I’d parked the car in the only open parking space in front of the Laundry Club. “I’ve got to meet with my lawyer about how we’re going to beat this lawsuit. After all,” I pulled the door of the laundromat open and walked inside. “It was you that told her I was rich.”

  “I didn’t tell her you were rich. I was simply telling her that you were raised with good manners and had taken etiquette classes. That’s how you bagged the most hated investment man in the country. It was simply talking.” Mary Elizabeth’s downfall was talking too much and, in this case, that’s what she’d done. “You have to come to the picnic. The bed and breakfast is still closed, and I have the time now to have lunch with my precious babies.”

  “I simply can’t come to the picnic, but I promise we will all get together soon.” It was an open-ended promise that seemed to make her happy and that’s how we left it.

  The laundromat was actually filled with tourists. All the machines were spinning around, the TV was loud, and all the chairs were taken. I glanced around and didn’t see any of the gals, so I headed into the office where I found Betts.

  “You are swamped,” I said to the top of her head while she was bent over a stack of papers and typing away on a desk calculator. “By the looks of that tape, you’ve been calculating for a while.”

  The white calculator tape cascaded down the desk and into a heap on the floor next to the desk.

  “I’m almost done.” She looked up, dark bags under her eyes. “I swear every year I say that I’m going to get better at keeping the taxes.”

  “You really need to print it out and put it somewhere to remind yourself on a daily basis.” I teased and looked down at the papers. “I have a meeting with Ava Cox in about an hour, but after that I plan on going to see Carol to figure out if she did make any sort of contribution to the church that’s gone missing. Then I’ll be going over to the church to finish up.”

  “Thank you, but you don’t have to go see Carol. Lester said she called and wants to see him.” Betts sighed.

  “She does?” I asked.

  “Yes. He’s going to go see her today.” She blew her bangs out of her eyes. “He said that if she comes clean, he’ll let her pay the church back and not file charges.”

  “That’s awfully nice of him.” I guess he must see the good in all the people as a man of the cloth. Something I clearly didn’t do.

  “He said people make mistakes.” Betts smiled. “That’s one thing I do love about him. He sees the good when I say hang her.” She laughed. “He said that we need a vacation. Get away.”

  “I told you that you should.” Though I didn’t say it, by the looks of things, she did need to get away. “I’m more than happy to open the Laundry Club. All the girls can chip in.”

  “You have a lawsuit on your hands. There’s no way you can even think about helping out around here. Besides,” she said and stopped typing on the calculator, “you could probably use a vacation of your own. I’ve already asked too much of you.”

  “Nah. You and Lester need a vacation. Maybe start that family you’ve always wanted.” It was a shame that their marriage seemed to come after Lester’s job.

  “Changing diapers is the last thing I want to think about right now. I could use a cup of coffee.” When she stood up, she kicked the Lily Pulitzer bag that Mary Elizabeth had brought in the day after Greaser showed up at the Milkery.

  “There’s that bag.” I bent down to pick it up. “Mary Elizabeth has been going crazy looking for this since it has Greaser’s clothes in it. Hank really wants them.”

  “Greaser’s clothes?” Betts’s awkwardly cleared her throat.

  “Yeah. I guess with all that was going on with Lester, we forgot to tell you that Greaser stayed at the Milkery after he escaped.” Or did we tell her, and she just forgot? I tried to recall when we were all here after the big escape. “Anyways, he left the clothes he had on at the Milkery, and she had no idea he was the escaped prisoner, so she brought them here in her Lily Pulitzer bag to clean them just in case he came back for them. Good southern manners and all.” I pointed and laughed, wiggling my brows. “Regardless,” I unzipped it to look inside, “Hank really wants the clothes so he can test for fibers that may lead him to whoever might’ve helped Greaser.”

  “Helped him?” She looked confused.

  “Hank thinks he had an accomplice, but I guess it really doesn’t matter now that he’s been taken off the case and the FBI has all but closed it.” I looked in. “That’s weird.”

  “What?” She asked.

  “There’s nothing in here. Mary Elizabeth said she put his clothes in here.” I twisted around and looked on the floor in case there was a pile of clothes on the ground. “Did you take them out?”

  “I just put the bag in here. I had no idea who it belonged too.” Her eyes grew big when she looked at the bag in my hand. “I’ve got to get back to these taxes.” She sat back down, frazzled.

  “Do you want me to get you a cup of coffee?” I reminded her.

  “No.” She shook her head.

  “Lester and I do need to get this behind us and the whole Greaser thing has gotten Lester all seeing life a little differently. He’s right.” She picked up the stack of papers in front of her. “We probably do need a vacation.” She waved the papers in front of her. “Where are my manners? You didn’t come here to hear my problems. Aren’t you wasting time?”

  Normally, I’d say yes because that’s what we Laundry Club gals did when we had some time to spare.

  “Ava Cox and I are going to grab lunch while we talk about the lawsuit.” I rolled my eyes and stuck my hands into the front pocket of my jeans. “Oh!” I pulled out the map Flora Jean had given me along with the map I’d had from earlier. “I went to see Flora Jean. She gave me this map on the down low. I want to give it to Hank because Flora Jean said Greaser let her live and then he dropped this.”

  “Let me see.”
Betts jumped up from the chair and took both maps from my hand. “I thought you said Hank was off the case.”

  “He is, but I still think there’s someone out there that helped Greaser and they should be brought to justice.” I looked over her shoulder as she looked at the maps. “I can’t make any sense of it, but I’m giving it to Hank anyways. And before I forget, Flora Jean asked for Lester to stop by the hospital to see her.”

  Betts twisted her head left and then right, then left again as if she were looking at it from all angles.

  “Wait.” She put a map in each hand and then moved one over the other. “Look.”

  She did it again.

  “What?” I asked, not really understanding what she was trying to show me.

  “It’s like a puzzle. This map is made of some sort of parchment paper to overlay on this map. If someone were to find just one, they couldn’t read the map. They need both maps to see the real map.” She waved them overtop each other again. “They go together. Isn’t that the battleground?” she asked and pointed to the combined map. “It looks like the battleground and then a trail going through a section of the Sheltowee Trace. That is Rock River. There’s a trail from the road that winds up the ridge and back down to Denny Branch.” Her jaw dropped. “Mae, didn’t you say that the dog lost its scent on Forest Service Road?”

  “You know what,” I gasped as my mind rewound back to the conversation Hank and I had had about Chester losing the scent. “He did.”

  I gulped. The missing pieces of the puzzle were coming together in my mind.

  “What?” Betts hollered at me when I turned around and rushed out the office door. “What is going on?” She screamed after me. “Mae! Stop!”

  “I can’t! I have to see Hank!” I hollered and ran out of the Laundry Club, nearly knocking over Carol Wise on my way out as she was walking in.

  “Carol?” I heard Betts question the older woman, but I had no time to stick around to find out if Carol was there to confess to taking the church’s money.