by Tonya Kappes
Nineteen
“You have to look at this.” I shoved the maps in Hank’s face when I showed up at his trailer unannounced.
While he looked at them, I couldn’t help but look around. He had never invited me here. I only knew of it because Agnes told me he lived on his parents' property in a trailer. A modest trailer at that. One that was in desperate need of cleaning.
There were no curtains on the windows, and empty coffee cups and a few empty beer bottles were on a coffee table that was wobbly to the touch. There was a couch with a blanket thrown on it like it was his bed. And the clothes. Piles of clothes were strewn all over the place.
“You live here?” I questioned, looking out the window at what appeared to be a small farm house in the distance.
Chester was asleep in the grass with his belly up to the sun. He didn’t want to be in here and neither did I. No wonder Hank had never invited me here.
“Yeah.” That was all Hank said as he continued to concentrate on the maps. “You said Flora Jean gave this one to you?”
“Yes.” I told him everything she’d told me about how she’d helped Greaser do some research and when he dropped this map after so graciously letting her live, she knew it wasn’t the map he’d worked on in the library, which was the one that Hank had found on his body. “We really should turn this over to the FBI.”
It was a suggestion that earned me a grumble and a disgruntled look.
“This is my case and I’m going to solve it.” Hank folded the maps together and grabbed a button- down shirt, buttoning it up over his white tee and then tucking it into his jeans. “I’m not sure where the trail leads, but I’m going to find out.”
He reached over to the table and picked up his gun, pushing it down into the waist of his jeans.
“I’m going too.” I followed behind him, happy to follow him out of the trailer. Chester jumped up and ran over between us.
“Oh, no, you’re not.” He turned around, my nose to his chest. “The accomplice could be there, and I can’t let you get hurt.”
“What about you?” I asked. “You need someone there.”
“I’ve got someone.” He patted his gun. “Why don’t you take Chester to your house and I’ll be over after I check this out.”
“That’s not very exciting.” I looked down at the dog wagging his tail.
“You’re not an officer. You can’t go.” Hank wasn’t backing down.
“You’re not on the case.” I threw it back in his face.
“It’s my case to solve. You don’t understand.” He pulled me to him and kissed me on the forehead before turning me toward my car. “I’ll be fine. I won’t do anything that gets me hurt. I’m only going to check it out. I don’t want to lose my badge.”
“Okay, fine.” I knew the last part he said was true. His job meant everything to him and he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it. “You be careful,” I called after him as he sped off in his car. “Let’s go, Chester.”
Before I could even leave Hank’s parents’ property, my phone was ringing. I stopped at the end of the driveway and answered it when I saw that it was Dottie.
“You aren’t going to believe this” was exactly how what she said before I even said hello. “The Bassetts’ RV, stolen again.”
“What?” My jaw dropped and Chester bolted over the back seat into the front to see what I was yelling about.
I gently pushed him over to the passenger side and put down the window to distract him so I could talk to Dottie.
“The Bassetts’ RV was stolen,” she said at a much slower pace.
“I heard you the first time. I just don’t even know. . .” I blinked with bafflement.
“And Ava Cox is here. She said you ghosted her on a meeting.” Dottie was full of great news.
“Oh, gosh.” I smacked my forehead. “I totally forgot about her after Betts and I figured out the maps.”
“The maps? You figured them out?” Dottie asked.
“Dottie, did you call the police?” I asked.
“Yes. They are putting out an APB and setting up checkpoints in and out of the park like before. You aren’t in their mobile home, are you?” she asked.
“Are you joking?” I didn’t find any humor in her question.
“Well, you were the last time.” She had a great point.
“No.” I swung the steering wheel to the right and headed straight towards Julip Knox’s house. “I bet it’s more kids. You know, a copycat kind of thing.”
If anyone knew of more hiding places for teenagers to party, it’d be Julip. Maybe she hadn’t left town yet. It was worth a shot.
“You could be right. The Bassetts came to talk to Ava in the campground office when the zoom of the RV speeding by caught our attention. That’s how we knew it was stolen again.” Dottie’s words didn’t seem real.
“This day can’t get any worse. I’ll be there soon.” I hung up the phone and headed to Julip’s cabin.
For a split second, I thought about calling Hank to let him know what had happened and where I was going, but there was no way he’d stray from the hunt he was on. There was a look in his eye that told me he wouldn’t stop looking for Greaser’s accomplice no matter what.
From the beginning, I knew Hank loved his job. It was one of the things that turned me away from liking him and toward Ty Randal. But Hank’s tough exterior was just a cover for the good heart that I admired most about him.
I was sure there was a copycat in the stolen RV, and it wouldn’t hurt to check with Julip to see if she had more hiding places up her sleeve before I headed back to the Happy Trails to face the music yet again.
“Look there, Chester,” I said to him, even though his head was stuck out the window and his ears were pinned back, his tail wagging and a deep howl escaping him like he’d done the other night when we were there. “She’s still here. But not for long.” I noticed the trunk of her car was open as if she were still packing. “You stay here,” I warned the dog.
He howled and groaned, hopping around the seats with his eyes on me.
“Crazy dog,” I whispered, noticing that the bag in the trunk of her car looked familiar.
I glanced over my shoulder when I heard voices and noticed Julip talking to someone next to a car that was pulled up to the far side of her cabin. She jerked her head up and stared at me.
An image of the bags Lester used for the prison ministry popped into my head. I swung my head around to look in her trunk again, then looked over at Chester. He was gnashing his teeth and growling.
“What are you doing here?” Julip asked and started to walk over.
The person in the other car got out and it was Blanche Davis, the security guard from the prison.
“I. . .” My lips smacked together. I swallowed hard. Something wasn’t right here. I looked between the two women and back at the bag.
“Can you get that dog to shut up?” Blanche asked through her gritted teeth. “Or I’ll shut him up for you,” she warned.
“He’s a hunting dog and he acted like this the other day when Hank and I stopped by.” I started to put more of the missing pieces of the puzzle together. “Greaser was here. Chester smelled him.”
“What are you talking about?” Julip laughed, but Blanche did not.
“She’s a busybody. I heard she was a busybody.” Blanche nudged Julip and pulled the hem of her shirt up, exposing the Billy club that Greaser had supposedly taken from her the day of his prison break.
The screech of tires and the sound of gravel hitting metal caught our attention. All of us looked towards the road where the Bassetts’ RV was barreling up to the cabin.
“Lester?” I gasped when I saw the tall, lanky preacher in the driver’s seat of the stolen recreational vehicle.
Before I could wrap my head around what I was seeing, Blanche had already taken hold of my arm. I winced from her nubby fingernails digging into my skin.
“What’s she doing here?” Lester looked at Julip and Bla
nche.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him back but met with a quick jerk from Blanche to shut me up.
“This is getting to be too much.” Julip shook like a leaf. “Greaser and I didn’t want this. We just wanted to live a quiet life.”
“That’s not working out for you, now is it?” Blanche pushed me in the direction of the trunk.
As I tried to catch myself from falling, my hand hooked one of the bags. I dropped it on the ground and money tumbled out of it.
The church’s money, I thought, and looked up at Lester. I couldn’t describe the shock I was feeling. It reached from the tip of my toes to the hairs on my head.
“You’re never going to understand.” Lester’s tone was calm, like he was giving one of his Sunday sermons. “It’s hard being a preacher. Always got to be good. Always listening to people’s problems. Who listens to mine?”
“I do, honey.” Blanche put a reassuring hand on his back and a heavy foot on top of my foot, not letting me move. “What are we going to do with her?” She dragged the Billy club out of her waistband and knocked it in her open palm a few times.
Making her point very clear.
Lester and Blanche were having an affair, but what did that have to do with Greaser and Julip?
“You and Greaser?” I looked over at Julip to get some answers before Blanche took her shot and knocked me out.
“Cuff her until I can think a little clearer.” Lester instructed Blanche and pointed to me.
She had the strength of an ox as she twirled me around and had me cuffed before I could even think about trying to get free.
“We were in love. They weren’t going to let him out. Like ever!” Julip yelled at me. “These two couldn’t keep their hands off of each other in the prison and Greaser caught them.”
“Shut up!” Lester screamed at Julip over Chester’s barking
“No! I’m going to tell her everything!” Julip yelled back at him. “Shut up!” she screamed towards Chester as she reached down to grab the money off the ground. “This is my money. Greaser and I deserve it.”
“You deserve nothing.” Lester reached over to Julip and tried to jerk the handle of the bag from her. “He wasn’t supposed to kill anyone. He was going to escape and use the maps to find you.”
“The maps lead to here?” I looked around with a little hope that maybe, just maybe, Hank was hot on the trail and would find me. Alive would be good, but if I were dead, that’d be fine too. Just as long as someone found me.
“Of course. He didn’t know where I lived, so we made the maps. Two. Just in case we got caught.” Julip shook her head. “That stupid reenactment.”
“That’s where your boyfriend messed up.” Blanche yanked the cuffs good to make sure they were tight.
“Ouch!” I yelled. Chester continued to howl even louder. “Ouch!” I screamed as loud as I could. The louder I was, the more Chester howled. Maybe Hank was out there and would hear us.
“You didn’t have to kill him!” Julip screamed at Lester and yanked the bag out of his hands.
“I did. He was going around killing people. I had to stop him.” Lester started to pace back and forth. “I agreed to give him ten thousand dollars to keep his mouth shut about me and Blanche and to help stage his escape. I never said I’d go along with him killing people.”
“He didn’t know the reenactment was that day.” Julip’s anger was starting to turn more emotional. Tears streamed down her face. “He saw those people’s faces again. The ones who convicted him. And he went crazy.”
“He killed two innocent people.” Lester ran a hand through his hair.
“Now what do we do?” Blanche asked him.
“Julip is going to take the money and the RV.” He looked over at me. “We are going to have to get rid of her.”
“How are you going to do that?” I asked.
Blanche swung her arm and gave me a swift backhand, knocking me down, and everything went black.
Twenty
“Julip was the only one who had checked out the maps from the library.” Abby leaned over the hospital bed with a grin on her face.
“Now you tell me,” I barely got the words out and looked around the hospital room, trying to remember what had happened. My mind was foggy on the details, but the big goose egg on my head was a painful reminder.
I heard sighs of relief from the Laundry Club women surrounding my bed and the beeping of the heart monitor that was hooked up to my chest with those little electrode stickers.
“We were so worried about you.” Mary Elizabeth was sitting next to me with my hand in hers. “If Hank hadn’t gotten there when he did, I’m not sure you’d still be alive.”
“Hank?” I asked and looked around, not seeing him.
“Yes.” Dottie shoved Abby out of the way. “But really it was Chester. He saved your life. And Ava Cox.”
“Chester?” My memory was so foggy, but I tried really hard to remember what happened. “Ava?”
“Yeah, Chester.” I followed Hank’s voice to the end of my bed where he stood holding Chester. “If it weren’t for his howling, I would have never found my way out of the woods and been able to watch what happened. I recorded all of it on my cell phone.”
“Even the part where Blanche knocked you halfway to Mars.” Dottie looked down the hospital bed at Hank and snarled.
“What matters is that he saved you.” Queenie patted my toe from the other side of the bed.
“And Ava, she told the Bassetts everything you’ve been through and how you don’t have a pot to. . .” Dottie’s colorful language was interrupted by Hank clearing his throat. “They dropped the lawsuit.”
“Now that she’s awake, I need to get her statement.” Hank looked around at all the gals. “Why don’t y’all wait outside and after we talk, I’ll let you back in.”
Hank’s suggestion was met with a few grumbles and mumbles.
“It’s police business.” He herded them out, handing Chester to Mary Elizabeth and shutting the door behind them. “You.” He turned back to me with a shaking finger. “You scared me.”
He leaned over my head and brushed a strand of my thick curly hair away from my face. He bent down and kissed my lips. He pulled back, inches from my face.
“This is why I told you to take Chester to the campground. I can’t ever risk you getting hurt. Do you understand?” His breath was hot against my lips.
“I understand.” I smiled and let him give me another soft kiss.
“Is this what you call a police interview?” Betts stood near the door of the hospital room.
“Betts.” I started to sob when I saw her face.
Everything came back to me and my heart ached for Betts. Hank moved out of the way when he noticed Betts was coming towards me.
“Don’t.” She hurried over to my side and bent down, hugging me. “Don’t you know we hug around here,” she said through her own tears.
I lifted a weak arm and put it around her.
“Two arms,” she instructed me, not letting go.
“If it weren’t for Betts calling me while I was in the woods trying to figure out where I was, I’m not sure if I would have believed what was happening at the cabin,” Hank started to tell me what I’d stumbled upon.
“Carol Wise came to see me at the Laundry Club,” Betts said.
I nodded, vaguely remembering literally running into her on my way out.
“She told me about Lester’s affair with Blanche. Apparently, it extended to the church office. She stopped tithing because she said she couldn’t give to a church that had Lester as its preacher.” There was pain on Betts’s face as she told me the sordid tale of Lester and Blanche. “Flora Jean and Carol Wise are best friends. Carol told Flora about it. That’s what Flora Jean wanted to see Lester about when she told you to have him come see her. They were going to tell me about the affair. Then you recognized Mary Elizabeth’s bag. The clothes in the bag were Lester’s and when you told me the clothes in it
were Greaser’s, I knew it was Lester that had let Greaser go. I confronted Lester about it, and he took off. Said something about needing a vacation.”
“That’s when he showed up at the campground to confront you.” Hank jumped in to fill in more blanks. “He stole the Bassetts’ RV to round out his grand plan of getting out of town.”
“So Carol didn’t take the church’s money?” I asked, trying to sort out the details.
“No. Greaser was blackmailing Lester and Blanche. Greaser wouldn’t tell about their affair if Lester helped him escape and gave him ten thousand dollars so he and Julip could run off together. Lester took the cash out of the church tithe over a few months, and he and Blanche let Greaser escape using the maps Julip had made for him.” Hank continued to tell me how it all played out. “Greaser just so happened to come upon the reenactment and Queenie thought he was someone else. That’s when he saw jurors there and decided to make them pay like he said he would.”
“That’s what Lester saw and killed him for it.” I recalled Lester saying he’d killed Greaser.
“But the tape of the reenactment ran out before we saw Lester do it.” Hank reached over and put his hand on Betts’s back.
Betts buried her head in her hands as she cried.
“That’s why I’d seen Julip and Blanche at the church. They were all trying to get things sorted out.” It was all very clear what had happened right under my nose.
“Betts called me while I was in the woods trying to read the darn map and told me everything. It was Chester’s howl that led me to the trail where you were.” Hank’s big green eyes softened. “When I saw you go down, I went nuts. My heart fell.”
“I’m fine.” I glanced over at Betts and put my hand out for her to take. “How is Lester?”
“I don’t know. I don’t care.” She took my hand and squeezed it.
“You don’t care?” I asked, not buying her words. She and I both looked at Hank.
Hank patted my leg. “I was going to get a statement from you, but I think I’m going to let you two talk and I’ll be back.”