by Laina Turner
I thanked her and went back to my car. I pulled out and was soon in the middle of nowhere with just farmland as far as I could see. I didn’t even see many houses.
I drove in silence; not even turning the radio on. I finally reached state road 141 where I turned left as instructed. A few hundred yards up the road I could see buildings, so I thought it had to be the Wickham place. I hadn’t seen anything else since I passed a farm a few miles back. The houses were few and far between out here apparently. So were cell towers as I glanced at my phone and saw it said no service, which made me a little nervous, but it’s not like I was going to get out of my car or anything.
As I approached it looked like a normal farm, much like the others I’d passed on the way here. There was an old white farmhouse I assumed was the main structure and then several small trailers over in one area and two huge barns. There was a fenced in area with horses and cows and I saw chickens over on the other side. It seemed to have all the trappings of a normal farm. It wasn’t what I’d pictured in my head. I expected something more sinister looking. It didn’t look that scary. Even the barb wire fence and the keep out - trespassers will be shot signs, were common place out here. I’d passed several already on the fences of other farms.
I slowed to a stop and sat there staring at the compound, the car just idling. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting or even wanted from this trip out here. I almost felt foolish. I knew the longer I sat out here the more chance there was someone would notice me and, if they didn’t want trespassers on their property, they wouldn’t like people sitting outside it staring either.
I put the car back in drive and started to back out onto the highway, not wanting to press my luck. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone staring at me. So much for going unnoticed.
It looked like the Harley guy from the restaurant, so I wasn’t too worried, but it was time to go back home before anyone else spotted me.
When I turned down the street to my rental house there was a red Toyota in the driveway. I pulled in and shut off the car. As I got out of my car, a man who looked to be about my age got out of his. He was quite attractive with his dark hair and blue eyes, which I could clearly see even behind the Buddy Holly style glasses that seemed to be the in thing for men these days. The first few times I’d seen that style I hadn’t been a fan, but they were growing on me and they looked good on him. He started walking toward me. He seemed friendly enough, but I kept my keys in my hand in case I needed to make a quick getaway. Living in Chicago had taught me to be aware.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
The man smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Sheldon Grant. I’m a reporter and I heard you were the one who found the dead body yesterday.”
I wasn’t shocked that a reporter was here asking questions. I was more surprised it had taken this long.
I took his hand and shook it and relaxed a little. I didn’t get the vibe he was a crazy serial killer or anything.
“I’m sorry you came all the way out here, but there’s not much to tell,” I said.
“Did you see anyone else out on the beach when you found him?” he persisted, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Mind if I record you?”
I shook my head no. “But there’s nothing much to say. No one else was on the beach. I thought it was just me. Until I saw him,” I said with a shudder at the memory.
“How did you find him?”
I recounted the same story I’d told the police. Sheriff Travis hadn’t said not to talk about it and it’s not like I knew much anyways. This reporter probably had more knowledge of it than I did.
“Did you recognize him? Had you seen him around before?”
“No, I’m just here on vacation. I don’t know anything about what happened. It was strictly a case of wrong place, wrong time. Probably for the both of us.”
“If you think of anything else, call me,” he said, pressing his card into my hand and walking back to his car.
I stuck the card in my pocket and watched him walk away, quickly putting him out of my mind with thoughts of the beach.
This is the life, I thought, as I leaned back in one of the lounge chairs I’d dragged down to the beach and rubbed sunscreen on my arms. Finally, out enjoying the sunshine. It was so beautiful looking out to the vast blue water of Lake Michigan. If only I hadn’t found a body last night. Every time I looked at the water I thought of the body lying there, pale and lifeless and it did dampen my fun just a little.
I dozed a bit and read my book, but I soon grew antsy and decided to take a stroll down the beach, heading in the direction I’d seen the men go last night. I walked down to the water’s edge where the ground was a little firmer and started heading down the shoreline.
A short distance away I saw a couple holding hands as they too walked at the water’s edge. They looked to be about my age, mid-thirties, maybe they were also on vacation.
The couple stopped walking and appeared to be looking for shells in the sand, so I quickly caught up to them.
“Finding anything pretty?” I asked.
“A few,” the woman answered and held out her hand to show me what she’d found.
“That’s a beautiful shell,” I said, picking one up and turning it around. “The colors are amazing.”
‘Thank you. I’m Allison and this is my fiancé, Paul.”
“I’m Presley, nice to meet you. Are you guys visiting or do you live here? I’m here for the week up at that house back there with the dark green shutters,” I said pointing down the beach the way I’d come.
“We’re here for a wedding. Our wedding. We’re renting that house for the month,” and she pointed behind them to a huge house that was easily four times the size of the house I was staying in and my house wasn’t small by any means. In fact, I wouldn’t call theirs a house. I’d call it a mansion; it was so grand looking.
“Oh my God, that is gorgeous.”
“It sure is. Built the early 1900’s by a shipping baron for his family. You should come up and see it. It’s magnificent, especially when you think that just one family lived there,” Paul spoke this time. He seemed a little timid, but I could tell he loved the house. He was beaming when he talked about it.
“Yes, you totally should,” Allison spoke up excitedly. “In fact, we’re having a cocktail reception tomorrow evening for some friends who came in early for the wedding. You should come.”
“I couldn’t impose like that,” I said, feeling a little awkward at being invited by total strangers to something so personal.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I went way overboard with ordering food and alcohol. You’d be doing us a favor by helping us eat and drink it all. Really. Please come. You’ll love our friends. Please?” Alison said again, her blue eyes wide with excitement. She probably wanted to share her happiness with everyone and I couldn’t fault her for that.
“Free food and alcohol? How can I say no?” I said.
Allison clapped with excitement. “Wonderful. It starts at six so just walk over whenever. It’s super casual, so no need to get dressed up. I can’t wait to introduce you to our friends. This is going to be so much fun. I love meeting new people.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said.
“Allison, we need to get back. The decorator will be here any minute,” Paul said, looking nervously at his watch.
“Ok, Paul,” she said sweetly. “See you tomorrow.”
I headed back to the house realizing as I arrived that I’d forgotten to see if I could figure out where the men had disappeared. I’d been distracted with Allison’s invitation. Oh well, I’d be back down there tomorrow. I sat out on the deck with a glass of wine and my book, but I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering enough to remember anything I read and I found myself re-reading the same page over and over. I just couldn’t concentrate. I kept thinking about the body I’d found. Not for the first time, I wondered why this stuff always happened to me. I used to be just an employee of Silk until the owner was mur
dered. I had been the one to find that body too. I had bad luck in this way, come to think about it. Trouble seemed to have a way of finding me.
Finally, I gave up trying to relax and grabbed my laptop from my room the next time I went to refill my wine glass. I sat back down and opened my laptop and did a Google search to see what information I could find about what had happened last night. I was more curious now that the reporter had showed up and I hoped once I got what information was available, I’d be able to relax and get back to vacation.
My search pulled up an article in what I assumed was the local paper, since it was called The Sheboygan Press, by Sheldon Grant, the reporter who’d been to my house earlier. I scanned it, though it didn’t give me much more information that what I already knew. No wonder Sheldon had sought me out.
“Late last night the body of a white male was discovered on the stretch of beach in front of the Carson Mansion. The police have declined to release the victim’s name until family can be notified, but our sources say it looks to be foul play. An investigation is ongoing and Sheriff Travis refused to comment.”
I sighed. That wasn’t helpful. It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. Since that seemed to be a dead end, I changed my search to Militia. I mean I knew vaguely what they were all about, or at least I thought I did. People who didn’t exactly agree with the way the government did things so somewhat removed themselves for participating in normal society, but I hadn’t thought about it before.
I scrolled down through numerous articles, mostly scanning the few sentences that came up in preview. Far right-wingers, anti-tax, anti-immigration, white power, libertarian, believes that there is a tyrannical government on the rise. Ok, about what I thought. I didn’t understand this thought process, even with our country’s faults, our government was better than most and that was largely due to all the things the militia didn’t seem to like. I clicked on an article that was called Modern Day Militia and started reading. It was quite fascinating.
There has been a resurgence of active militia in the US since the Ruby Ridge incident in the early 1990’s and, while many groups are on active watch lists they aren’t viewed as threats because they are more reactive and not proactive, one of the articles said.
After a little more research, I realized I was starving and decided to head back into town for dinner. I made a mental note to get to the grocery store tomorrow. While cooking wasn’t my strong suit I did love to grill, and I looked forward to going out and watching the sunset.
I decided on a family Italian place I’d passed this morning on the way to the diner and, if the food tasted as good as the place smelled when I walked in it was going to be a great meal.
I grabbed a breadstick that was dripping with butter from the basket the waiter sat down. I had the thing gone in two seconds, reaching for another – calories didn’t count while on vacation right – when loud voices behind me drew my attention away from the breadstick.
“Would you lower your voice so everyone in the restaurant can’t hear you?” I heard a man say. He sounded young, but not a teenager young. Maybe early twenties young.
“I’m not going to lower my voice. My therapist tells me it’s healthy to get out my feelings and not suppress them.”
“I don’t think she meant for you to express them in a public place at the top of your lungs, Elle,” the man said softly, probably thinking if he lowered his voice she might lower hers. The place wasn’t that big and I could clearly hear them, as I was sure the other patrons could.
I heard the scrape of chair legs and imagined she was standing up.
“Don’t patronize me, Eric. I won’t stand for it!” the woman said, and I could hear tears in her voice.
“Elle c’mon, I wasn’t trying to. I just want you to calm down and enjoy a nice meal with me. Can we please do that?”
Uh oh. He screwed up now. He said the two little words guaranteed to make a woman go from simply mad to bat-shit crazy in two seconds. Calm down. This boy was toast. Three, two …
“I will not calm down. In fact, I’m leaving and don’t you dare call me until you’re ready to apologize.”
And there it was.
“Elle,” he pleaded.
“Goodbye Eric, don’t contact me until you’re ready to apologize,” she said and I heard steps quickly walking away.
Someone’s in the doghouse, I thought. He’d broken the cardinal rule. Poor kid. She’d called him Eric. Could that be Janet’s grandson? I resisted the urge to turn around and look and noticed the waiter heading over in my direction.
He sat down my food and the garlic scented steam that rolled off my eggplant parmesan almost put me in a food coma it smelled so amazing. Thoughts of the couple vanished as I could only think about eating.
I cut into the eggplant and watched the melted cheese ooze all over my plate. I got down to the serious business of eating without getting sauce on my shirt, always a problem for me when eating Italian and was lost in the deliciousness of the food until I heard conversation start up again behind me. I wish I was facing the other way so I could see who was talking. Eating here was like watching reality TV. The small-town happenings were quite interesting.
“There you are, Eric. Funny running into you here,” I heard someone say.
“Hi, Roger,” Eric said and his voice sounded a little nervous. Poor guy. It seemed like he was getting it from all sides today.
I could hear a chair being pulled out and then a creak. I assumed this Roger guy was sitting down and was somewhat surprised Eric hadn’t left after his girlfriend walked out. Though this was good food, it would be hard to walk away from this and he probably figured since he was already in trouble, he might as well enjoy it, which is what I would have done.
“I get the feeling you’re avoiding me, Eric,” Roger said just above a whisper. I could barely hear him. I leaned a little closer in my seat.
“I’m not avoiding you, Roger. I’ve just been busy.”
“How busy can it be down at your aunt’s diner?”
I perked up at this. I was right. This was Janet’s grandson.
“I’ve just been busy,” Eric repeated. And I could hear the nervousness in his voice this time. There was no mistaking it.
“You didn’t follow through on your commitment and that makes Glen a bit testy.”
“I haven’t had the chance, but I’m going to, I swear. I just need more time if you want it done right.”
“You’ve got a week. One more week and Glen’s patience will be gone as far as you’re concerned and you know what that means.”
“I know,” Eric said so softly I had to strain to hear him.
“Enjoy your meal,” Roger said, and I could hear him get up and couldn’t stop myself this time from turning around. There was a stark contrast between the two men. Where Eric was blond, with fair skin and blue eyes, a boy next door look, the Roger dude was the complete opposite and he didn’t look very friendly. I didn’t blame Eric for being nervous. I would too if I owed him. Roger looked like bad news.
What the heck was that all about?
“Dessert?” The waiter interrupted and I could feel my face flush.
“I couldn’t eat another thing,” I said. “But I will take a cappuccino.”
In the short time, I’d been here it just seemed like there were a lot of odd happenings for such a small town.
Eric left before I finished my cappuccino and I soon went home as well. Not ready for bed, I poured a glass of wine and went out on the back deck to enjoy the cool breeze and sound of the waves coming up on the beach.
It didn’t take long before my mind once again wandered to the dead body. I wasn’t going to be able to let this go. There seemed to be so much going on in this town. A murdered man, disappearing men, the militia, I witnessed a fight. This wasn’t your normal sleepy town.
I went to get my computer and grabbed the bottle of wine from the kitchen counter to bring back out. I topped up my glass with the chilled Riesling and sat d
own and opened my laptop. I thought I’d check again and see if there was any new news.
Typing in the necessary search words, I hit search and took a sip of my wine. There looked to be two new articles. I saw one was by that Sheldon Grant, so I decided to save that one and opened the other first. I scanned it and it didn’t have any information I didn’t already know and it was from a paper in Milwaukee so this was probably a cursory article of happenings in surrounding areas.
I opened the article by Sheldon. I started reading and by the time I got to the second paragraph I was furious. He totally made it sound like I knew something. The opposite of what I’d told him. Which was nothing.
What if the cops thought I was holding back? They might think I was hiding something because I was involved and that’s a headache I certainly didn’t need. I needed to find that reporter and talk to him.
Chapter 4
The next morning, I drove to the diner for breakfast again, hoping to run into Janet and ask her a few questions. See if she knew anything about this Sheldon Grant, but she wasn’t working. The trip was still worth it because I had the most amazing omelet. They must use magic eggs. I’d never had an omelet that light and fluffy.
I drove through town following the directions the GPS on my phone called out to the newspaper office. I was hoping that’s where Sheldon would be since I didn’t know where else to start looking. Sleeping on it hadn’t reduced my anger at all. I was still furious.
Despite my anger, I still could appreciate how beautiful the town was. I passed the post office, which still looked original. They sure didn’t make buildings like that anymore.
“Your destination is 200 feet ahead on your right. 111 W. Main St.,” called out the GPS.
I could see the building and it looked as if there were some empty parking spaces in front that would allow me to pull straight in. Thank god. I hated parallel parking because I was horrible at it. Something I didn’t even attempt in Chicago on the few occasions I took my car out in the city. It was much easier to walk or take a taxi.