by Tonya Kappes
“I have a little money that I want to help others, but that doesn’t concern you. It appears that we only have about fifteen seconds.” I pushed the hundreds towards Ann. “If you don’t mind.”
Ann slide a look over to Alvin who gave her a nod. I stood there waiting for the transaction to be completed and took the teller receipt.
“Thank you, Ann.” I forced a grin and twirled around on my toes as I mentally prepared myself for the walking journey I was about to embark on.
Not that I didn’t like walking, I did. I didn’t like the fact that I didn’t have transportation, other than the camper. I felt good and happy that I’d given Dottie some money. It definitely wasn’t enough, but it was a start. The sun was shining down on my face. I wasn’t in my ideal living situation but I couldn’t complain. I had a roof over my head, a few new friends, and food. I wasn’t going to let a little thing like not having all the cash I needed to fix up the campground, or the fact that I was going to have to walk miles and miles out of town get me down. After all, I had a purpose since coming to Normal. I had to fix the campground up and also help get Dottie off the hook.
I was careful to hug the pavement at the edge of the road. I’d heard awful tales and seen terrible news reports about people getting hit and that was something I didn’t want to do, so when I heard a car coming, I took a step off the pavement and into the grass to wait for it to pass.
Only the car didn’t pass, it pulled over. I’d recognize that black car anywhere. Instead of giving Hank Sharp the time, I walked right past him.
“You don’t want a ride?” I heard him holler out the window. “I’m going to the campground.”
My continued walking apparently didn’t give him the hint, because he drove his car slowly next to me, giving me that charming southern smile with the passenger side window rolled down.
“I know you’re upset with me.” He appeared to be enjoying this.
“What gave you that impression?” I asked.
“I don’t know, your lack of stopping and keeping walking when I could give you a ride or maybe because you didn’t answer me. Just a guess though.” He stopped and put his car in park.
When I heard his door shut, I stopped walking and turned around to find him jogging up to me.
“If you aren’t going to stop, I’ll just come to you.” He picked up the pace when I picked up the pace.
“I’m taking a walk.” I shrugged and continued to look forward. “You know, exercise.”
“Funny because I hear that you’ve been snooping around the diner.” He was relentless.
“I think it’s funny that you feel like you need to keep tabs on me.” I stopped and looked at him. “Is that legal?” I pointed to his car. “Because I don’t think so and I can call a citizens arrest.”
“Been watching Andy Griffin?” He laughed.
“Who?” I questioned.
“You don’t know what the Andy Griffin Show is?” His brows furrowed.
“Listen, I just want to do my walk, so if you don’t mind.” I turned and started to walk.
“I think I’ve got the killer of your husband.” His words brought me to a screeching halt. I turned back around. “I thought that’d get your attention.” This time his smile was like the cat that caught the canary. “Now can I drive you back to the trailer park?”
“RV park,” I corrected him and walked back towards him and then past him. “Only because I’m curious.”
“Curiosity always got the cat.” He laughed, and I could hear his footsteps behind me.
“You love this little cat and mouse game between us, don’t you?” I glared at him from the passenger side and over the hood.
“Technically, I don’t know who killed your husband.” he said once he got into the car. “I just wanted to get you in the car, so you’d not walk on this road. It can be dangerous.”
“Ex.” I grabbed the door handle to jump out. His hand was much quicker on the lock. I jerked myself back in the seat.
“I’m pretty quick. You should see me draw my gun.” He laughed and put the car in drive.
“This is kidnapping,” I informed him and put the seatbelt on.
“No. it’s saving your life. People drive on those curvy roads like the Indy 500. You do know what that is right?” He sped up.
“Of course, I do.” I folded my arms. I might be stuck in his car for a few minutes, but I certainly didn’t have to talk to him.
“I checked out Grandy Cox and I can’t seem to find him.” He kept his eyes and hands on the wheel. “I went to his house today. His wife said that she filed a missing persons report. You know when that day was?”
“How would I know?” I asked and took out my phone.
“Take a guess,” he teased.
“I don’t want to take a guess.” I rolled down the window to get a bit of air. The thought that Grandy had called me while he was missing made my stomach nauseas.
“The same day your husband was killed.” He flipped the blinker on to turn into the campgrounds and the tick was like a gong in my ear.
“He called me today.” I held my phone out. “He didn’t leave a message.”
“When did he call you?” Hank asked and stopped his car in front of Dottie’s camper.
“He called me less than an hour ago. I’d gone to the bank to try and get a line of credit to help fix this place up but didn’t realize Alvin Deters was also the bank manager.” I shook my head and started to laugh. “I’m beginning to think that luck just isn’t with me.”
“Are you sure he didn’t leave a message?” he asked.
“Here.” I held it out to him again. “Look for yourself.”
“He’s not been at home according to his wife. She did file a report because I went over to their police department.” He turned the car off and the door locks popped up.
“Maybe she’s lying and he killed Paul. She knew it and filed a report to show that he was missing, when in reality he isn’t.” I thought it sounded good, then he blew it out of the water.
“Why would she do that if he was guilty? Wouldn’t he just stay and act as if nothing happened, and not have her file a report that would bring attention to him?” He did that smile thing. “Leave the detective work to me and I’ll leave picking up all those weeds around the lake up to you.”
“Funny,” I said with a sarcastic tone.
“I hear that you and Dottie have become friends since you’ve been here.” His southern tone was velvet, yet edged with steel.
“She’s been very kind and helpful.” I shrugged. “Is that against the law around here?”
“No, but she was seen with Paul the afternoon before he floated up to the top of the lake. “The two of you in cahoots? You might not’ve been in town, but she sure was. And the gun we found in the Happy Trails lake was registered to Dottie”
“Really?” The shock of hearing this sent an icy fear through me. I’d generally been a good judge of character in the past and I’d thought Paul had just been that good at fooling me, but apparently my instincts about people were off. Way off.
“Oh, that’s good.” He wagged his finger at me. “Great poker face.”
“She told me she hadn’t seen him in forever.” I gulped and wondered if that old saying about keeping your enemies closer was what she was doing with me. The fact was that I didn’t know her, and it would be easy for her to cover up anything. All these people drip with southern charm, which makes it hard to distinguish anything real. “And no. We aren’t in cahoots. Are you sure it wasn’t just gossip because a lot of that goes on around here.”
“They are on the video of the bank. I’m going to have her bank records subpoenaed and see if there’s any sort of weird transactions on her account.” His words alarmed me.
“I just put money in her account without her knowing.” Nervously, I ran my hands through my hair. “I was just. . .”
“Why? How much?” His brows formed a “V” as he stared at me.
“Just a t
housand to help get her by. She told me that Paul hadn’t paid her well and any money she did have, she used to pay off some of the lots fees that the campers owed. I only wanted to help her,” my voice trailed off.
“You have one thousand dollars to give away, Mae West?” His jaw softened. He shot me a twisted smile. “I thought you were broke. How much more money do you have?”
“I don’t have much and it’s none of your business. I’m not a suspect, so it’s none of your business,” my voice was rough with anxiety.
Now he was making me think Dottie Swaggert did have something to do with Paul’s murder.
“Now that you told me that, it’s possible you knew Dottie before this little act you’ve put on here. After all,” his tone hardened ruthlessly, “You are an actress, right Mae West?”
“Whatever,” I said sarcastically and jerked the car door open.
“What are you two doing?” Dottie asked after both of us had gotten out of the car.
“I’ve come to get an official statement from you or if you want to come to the station, I can take you down and bring you back.” He tapped the top of the car with his hand.
“Nope. I’ve got nothing to hide. You’re more than welcome to come in and I’ll answer anything you want to know.” Dottie waved him in.
It was my cue to go. The weeds that I’d not noticed before he pointed them out were worse than I thought. After I’d gotten my file and purse into the camper, I threw on a pair of shorts and T-shirt. There was no time like the present to pick those weeds because I wasn’t getting any sort of loan to help me hire anyone. I needed the exercise and get what Hank had told me about Dottie and Paul on that tape out of my head for the time being. Maybe all the talk about exercise being good for stress was something I needed to explore, because I was stressed out to say the least.
The lake was still green and murky. I reminded myself to take on one project at a time. The weeds had to be pulled in order for people to stand around the lake. That was where I was going to start. About fifteen minutes into the tedious task, a few more of the campers had come outside and began to pick weeds with me. Before I knew it, the entire campground, minus Dottie Swaggert, was around the lake helping me pull up the weeds.
“See what a little team work can do,” Henry said with a big black bag filled with weeds in his hands.
Both of us stood there looking over the lake at the campers. They were all talking and laughing, getting ready for the nightly supper. I’d never lived in a community where everyone took care of everyone else.
My eyes welled with tears as the joy of kindness flittered inside of my heart. There was no amount of money or the big mansion I had once had that would make me want to go back to the life I’d been living.
“Are you okay?” Henry asked.
“I’m fine. More than fine. I thought I was living the life I wanted.” I gulped. “I was so wrong.”
“Normal ain’t much, but we do have some good folks around these parts.” Henry shook his head and left me with my feelings.
“Normal will be much.” I tugged my shoulders back. If a little bit of weeding made the place look this much better, I could only imagine what a little more elbow grease would do. “I promise you that,” I whispered to myself.
That night, I sat down at the table with a small plate of food from all the firepits that’d gathered around the lake and started to make a list in my RV files about the murder. There were some murmurs about Paul’s death and even a rumor or two about the national news coming to town for some sort of press conference the next day.
Dottie and Henry had both been victims of Paul’s. According to Dottie, Hank said that the FBI thought that someone in the park knew he was there. I wrote their names on a piece of paper as well as Ty Randal.
Under Dottie’s name I wrote the word motive and started to make a list under it.
“She invested and lost her savings to Paul’s scheme. She felt sorry for Paul initially. She wasn’t getting paid. She was paying lot fees for the campers and got angry when she realized she wasn’t going to get that money or her investment back. When Paul showed up,” I hesitated because I was stumped to why they’d be seen in town together. That was something I was going to have to explore further, but for now I finished my list. “she got angry and shot him.”
Then I wrote down that I needed to know if she had a gun or a license. The only way I knew to do that was to snoop in her camper. When was that going to happen? She was always outside smoking and watching everyone.
I moved on to Henry. His list of motives were that Paul had stolen his two thousand dollars. Henry didn’t seem like the killing type. He was helpful and kind. There just wasn’t a clear motive, but he remained on the list.
Then there was Ty. He seemed to have the biggest motive, to me. I began to wonder where he’d moved back from. According to the local gossip, he had a career and life outside of Normal. It was Paul’s fault that the family diner was going to go under and he blamed Paul for his father’s heart attack. I quickly wrote those things down because those were major life altering things that could make Ty go over the edge. I saw how he reacted when I came into the diner and I hadn’t done a thing to him. I can only imagine what happened when he saw Paul.
I snapped my fingers.
“That’s it.” I quickly wrote, “The diner is across from the bank. He saw Paul talking to Dottie. He followed Paul or maybe talked to Paul. Either way, somehow he got Paul back to the campground and shot him.”
So, all of this was speculation. I knew that I had to get into Dottie’s and Ty’s campers to look for clues. That’s how they did it in the movies. I wouldn’t be considered a burglar since I owned the lots their campers sat on, would I.?
“Nah.” I talked myself into my way of thinking and sat back in the kitchen chair to get a look. “This looks like a good start.” I stretched my arms over my head with a big yawn.
ELEVEN
The next morning, the buzz of a lawn mower woke me earlier than I’d planned to get up. When I pulled back the kitchen window curtain, I saw three people on mowers. One was Henry, another was Dottie, but I didn’t recognize the last one.
While I got ready, I flipped on my Keurig so I could have a nice cup of coffee while I walked over to see who else I needed to thank. I also made a few more cups of coffee and put it in a thermos and grabbed a couple of Styrofoam cups.
The little bit of weeding that had been done around the lake made the campground much tidier and inviting. It was all coming together.
The morning sunrays trickled down into the lake showing off the murky green slush. No matter how much we cut the grass, that slush wasn’t going to go away on its own. I had to remind myself that I was doing one thing at a time and eventually I’d get it back in tiptop shape.
“What little grass we got sure does look better.” Dottie had stopped the lawn mower when she saw me coming.
“Here, it’s still really early.” I gave her a cup and unscrewed the thermos lid,filling it up with coffee. “What did Detective Sharp want yesterday?” I asked.
“Nothin’.” She didn’t make eye contact and that was all she had to say before Henry drove the lawn mower over to us. Her lack of words made me even more suspicious. “Say, some of the campers dropped their money off. I’ve got it in my camper and I’ll get it to you.”
“I’m going back to the library to look some stuff up. Abby didn’t need help today, but I’ll be there for a while if you come looking for me.” I shielded the sun with my hand over my eyes when I heard the lawn mowers coming closer.
Imagine my surprise when I recognized the third person after they drove their lawn mower over.
“Alvin Deters.” I greeted him with a cup of coffee. “Your face isn’t the first thing I thought I’d see this morning.”
“What a fine face it is too,” Henry said. “He called me bright and early saying that he had some free time before he had to open the Feed-N-Seed and wondered if we’d like a hand at mowing befo
re he donates the sod and helps clean up the lake with a fountain irrigation system.”
“I would’ve only brought two lawn mowers if I’d known we were mowing more dirt than grass.” He nodded. There was an understanding that had occurred between us. Sort of a respect. “I told Henry that we just did a big job on a house and they had some extra sod left over. I spoke to the owners last night about what Preacher Hager told me about you revitalizing the community and all. They were more than happy to donate. When I got here, I noticed how bad the lake was and I don’t mind helping out with some donations and a fountain to put in the middle so there’d be some irrigation.”
Dottie had finished up her coffee and had hopped back on the lawn mower and Henry took his coffee with him to finish mowing.
“Thank you.” It was the only thing I could think of because I was so shocked at the turn of events. “Preacher Hager is who I have to thank too?”
“He was the one who tipped the scale,” he said. “What you did for Dottie and the money you had put into her account was what got me to rethinking.”
“It was nothing.” I shook my head. “Mr. Deters,” I held the thermos up as a gesture to refill his cup and he agreed. “Paul West that did all the awful things wasn’t the man I knew. I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve to go to jail, but I’m not so sure I can say he deserved to die.”
“Now what a minute,” he held his hand up. “Paul West was a bad man that ruined a lot of lives.”
“Yes. That’s no excuse, but what I’m going to say might put a bad taste in your mouth about me again, but there’s someone out there that killed him, and I’ve been working with Hank to give the best account I can of people who might’ve enjoyed seeing Paul die.” I stretched the truth about helping Hank, but that didn’t seem to matter around here. “And I was wondering if you’d seen Paul around here after he escaped and who he might’ve been with?”
“Nope. Can’t say I did.” He shook his head.
“Did you watch the security footage from the bank with Hank?” I asked.
“No.” He was a man of many words.