by Tonya Kappes
Those friends left rather quickly after the FBI raid.
“Rather acquaintances.” I changed my words.
“Yes. I’ve been looking for different words to call those same people. Funny how when you’ve got money, people adore you.” She took the words out of my mouth, so I finished her thought.
“And run when you’re broke.” I smiled.
“Exactly.” She leaned her hip against the counter and folded her arms. “I don’t hold ill feelings towards you and I know he took you for everything too, but how are you going to live with yourself knowing how many lives he’s ruined?”
“That’s why I’m here.” I sucked in a deep breath. “The only thing the FBI didn’t take was a small campground in Normal.”
“Normal?” She bent back, pressing her lips together. “Grandy lived in Normal one summer while we were in college.”
“Do you know where?” I asked.
“Yes. I think it was a campground. He did things for the camper’s children. Like a summer camp for the vacationers,” she said.
That was a great idea. Camp for the camper’s kiddos. I put that back in my memory for later use.
“That’s how he got the idea that he wanted us to have scads of children, but I wasn’t able to conceive after Jr.” She blinked a few times and turned away as though she didn’t want me to see her getting upset. “Anyways, that was a long time ago.”
“Interesting because Paul had a college bet with someone and that’s how he got ownership of the campground. I can’t help but wonder if Grady owned the campground somehow.” There were incomplete thoughts rolling through my head.
“No, he didn’t own it, but Paul did come visit him a lot. I do remember that.” She nodded and tapped the counter with her fingernail. “There were some rumblings about a poker game, but Grady always blew me off when I asked him about it. Since it didn’t involve me or him, I just dropped it and never thought about it until now.”
“You can’t remember any particulars about the poker game?” I asked. “I’ve never known Paul to even gamble.”
“There appears to be a lot you didn’t know about your husband,” she gave me a little dig, which I let slide.
Apparently, those made her feel better about the situation and I wasn’t going to take that away from her. My skin had really thickened up over the past couple of months, especially in the last few days.
“Anyways, I’m living in a camper in Normal.” I rolled my eyes and gave a little laugh. “Far cry from Fifth Avenue.”
“At least you have a roof over your head and know that your husband is dead,” there was no sympathy coming from her.
“Ex,” I said with an exhausted sigh.
“You know what I mean.” She pushed the sleeves up on her shirt. She looked like she was just getting started with me and I wanted to shut that down.
“Do you have any other questions?” I wanted to get them out of the way.
“How exactly do you plan on helping people out?” She asked a great question that I’d not entirely figured out.
“One at a time,” I pulled that out of nowhere. “Paul hadn’t been paying the manager of the campground. Said she could live there for free.” I rolled my eyes. “She’s had been spending any extra money she had to pay for the lot fees of the residential campers so they weren’t evicted. She has a kind heart and Paul took advantage of her. She happens to be a suspect since she let Paul invest her savings.”
I left out the part on how Dottie had gotten the savings, from losing her husband and child.
“I didn’t give back all her money, but I will continue to pay her and let her live for free on the property. I’ve got plans to bring the campground back to what it use to be.” I dug in my purse for the brochure. I slide it across the island for her too check out.
“You live here?” She unfolded it.
“On the land,” I let out a snort. “Paul had let the campground go to ruins. I’m going to bring it back to what the brochure says it is. I’ve got a fundraiser planned and a few good hearted people in Normal have stepped up to the plate to help and donate a lot of things.”
“That’s just one woman,” she eagerly pointed out.
“Normal used to be a vibrant community that families would flock to on vacation, just like your husband did the during summer camp. Normal still has all of that to offer, it’s the campground that needs to be fixed up so I can bring income back to the town. Give people jobs. That surely has to help.” It sounded so powerful to say those words out loud.
I’d never really given my business plan a purpose and this was exactly why I needed to bring the campground back.
“One at a time, huh?” She stared at me. “When’s it going to be my time?”
“Well, for starters, I need to know where Grady is.” I put the brochure back into my purse.
“You’re guess is as good as mine.” She looked down, unfolded her arms and brushed her hand along the marble island top. “That morning we had just packed up the last of the kitchen items. We were having a cup of coffee on the deck. We started to talk about how we’d made all of our college plans come true.” She sniffed. I could tell she was fighting back tears. “I used my law degree to get him great business deals as he used his business degree to make those deals happen. We were a match made in horse business as the Herald Leader pointed out in an article they’d done on our marriage. Jr. was a whiz at all things computer, so we’d made sure we’d had a fully funded 529 college fund plus all the extra money he was going to need in case he didn’t get a full scholarship. He dreamed of going to Harvard to major in business and IT.”
“That’s great.” I was happy to see Jr’s dreams come true.
“Great?” Her brows furrowed. “He didn’t get a full ride this year.” She looked away. “And I found out that Grady had given all of Jr’s money to Paul,” her voice trailed off.
“Oh.” My gut dropped.
“Jr. didn’t deserve this. He worked so hard in school and we worked hard to put that money into the account. When I found out that a couple of months ago that Paul had talked Grady into giving him the money around a year ago, I almost divorced him it. This fall, Jr. will be attending community college and working at the BBQ diner to pay it.” She pinched her lips together, and began to rub them together like she was rubbing in lipstick.
“I don’t have the words.” I looked down at my fingers and fidgeted nervously. It wasn’t just one generation of lives Paul had ruined, it was the entire legacy of that generation. “I don’t know how I’m ever to going repay everyone, but I’ll come up with something.”
“What about giving him a job?” She looked me square in the face. “He can do both jobs this summer.”
“Well,” I wasn’t sure how that was going to work. “Let me get the fundraiser over and I’ll see what I can come up with. The car he’s driving?”
“Yep. His other was re-poed.” She made me nervous with her stare.
“Do you have any idea where your husband could’ve gone?” I asked.
“The detectives asked me the same thing. I have no clue. He didn’t take a wallet, his cell or even his car. That too was re-poed.” Her jaw clenched. “It makes him look like the killer now that I remembered the summer camp thing.”
“Do you think he’d heard from Paul from prison and he planned to meet Paul there with the intent to kill him? Seek revenge?” I asked.
“Grady was very angry at Paul, but he’d never hurt a fly.” She wasn’t going to hear of any ideas I might’ve had as to what happened to her husband.
“Then where do you think he went?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It’s no secret that after what he’d done with Jr’s college fund, we didn’t fully recover our marriage. He’d been living his life and I’d been living mine. They only times they’d cross was when we had to do something in public.” She looked back at the door when the doorbell rang. “I’m sorry, Mae, but I’ve got some paintings to try to sell so I can get a roof
over me and my son’s head. We don’t have the comforts of a camper to go home to after tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry,” I made sure I told her again. “I’m not sure how I’m going to make it up to you and Jr, but I’m going to. I’ll get back to you on a job.”
“Mmmhmmm,” she blew me off and went to the door.
I ended up showing myself out of their house when she didn’t come back after I waited a few minutes. I grabbed another piece of the coffee cake for the road.
FIFTEEN
Since my visit with Ava was cut short and I wasn’t able to get an answer to where to look for Grady Cox, I decided to move down my list of suspects. The only name left was Ty Randal.
If ever there was a motive, Ty would have one. He’d gone off to make a career out being a chef since I wouldn’t classify Normal Diner as fine dining, though it was pretty good from what I had yesterday.
Who wouldn’t be a little upset that your dreams were cut short because your father had a heart attack, almost died and had no one but you to raise the other two kids at home because your mom had an early death from cancer? If that didn’t sound like motive to kill someone, say Paul, out of anger, then I didn’t know what was.
And the fact that Ty lived at Happy Trails where Paul was discovered dead? That was just too coincidental to me.
All the possibilities of Ty being the killer started to take form in my head and I’d practically all but called Detective Hank on him to tell say that Ty Randal was the killer. I’d restrained myself after I googled the words nursing home and rehabilitation center in Normal and found that there was only one. From the gossip I’d heard about how Ty had to move back from his dream life as a chef back to Normal because my ex put his dad almost in the poor house and might be root of his heart condition, that sounded like a good motive to me.
The call to Detective Hank could wait until I checked out Mr. Randal and see exactly what I could find out there.
On my forty-minute drive back, I’d even convinced myself that Ty had a great motive and with good legal counsel he might have a far shot. After all, his father and brothers needed him. Why else would he be so nasty to me when all the others in Normal had been somewhat forgiving? A little leery, but still forgiving.
Just as I was turning into the dual facility, my phone rang.
“Hi, Dottie,” I answered after I’d seen it was her name.
“Hey, doll.” The big inhale from the other end of the phone was indication she was smoking her cancer stick. “Listen, Hank Sharp was here lookin’ for ya. Apparently, some lady called him and told him that you came to see her and he’s all a flutter about it.”
“Is that right?” I slammed the shift into parking and stewed a little. “And to think I was going to give Jr. a job.”
“Jr? Who’s Jr? Job? If you can pay someone, you need to pay me. Which brings me to the next thing.” Another audible suck of the cigarette came through the phone. “He also wanted to know if you gave me some bribe money because a mysterious deposit made it into my bank account. When he pressed Alvin about it, Alvin folded like a deck chair.”
“I guess I should’ve just given you the cash.” That’s what I get for trying to be sly.
“Doll, the problems of your husband doesn’t mean you have to make good. It’s all his fault. So stop trying so hard and just come back to the campground so we can just start over. Or if you’ve got a guilty conscience about something, I’m all ears.” The sweet Dottie on the phone wasn’t the Dottie that I’d gotten to know over the last few days.
All that Doll stuff. What was going on? I had an idea.
“Is Detective Hank there with you? Am I on speaker phone?” I asked. “You know what, Dottie. You don’t have to answer that. Let me tell you something Detective,” I was spitting mad, “Dottie Swaggert and I didn’t kill Paul. I’ve dedicated my life to repaying all the people back that Paul wronged and the only way I can think to do that for the good folks in Normal is to bring back some sort of tourist spot like Happy Trails to boost the economy. If you’ve got a better idea, then I’m open to suggestion. Other than that, leave me alone!” I hung the phone up.
I sat in the car for a few minutes to regain my composure. I had a hard time wrapping my head around why Detective Hank Sharp would continue to think I had anything to do with Paul’s death. So I might’ve said I would kill him, but that was before I knew he was really dead. Dottie Swaggert aside, I was going to find out exactly where Grady Cox had disappeared to and check in on the Randals. One of the two had something to do with Paul’s death, only I didn’t know which one.
There were two wings to the building. The North Wing was the nursing home and the South Wing was the rehabilitation center. In the middle was big open rotunda with a circular desk in the middle. Two women were seated behind the desk just gabbing away about something, abruptly stopping when I came in.
“New PT?” One smiled at me.
“PT?” I started to say you mean PYT, pretty young thing as in the Michael Jackson song, but didn’t think they’d think it was funny.
“Physical therapist?” She questioned. “Or OT?”
“OT?” I asked.
“Can we help you?” The other one said.
“Yes. I’m Mae West. . .erheimer to see Mr. Randal.” I decided to make my name a little longer since West was quit popular around here.
“Ms. Westerheimer, what’s you business with Mr. Randal?” She asked.
“That’s none of your business,” the other woman said, nudging the other. “He’s down the hall in room fifteen. He’d love to have some company.”
“Thank you.” I didn’t stay around in fear of more questioning, but the low-murmurs I heard from them as I walked away, wasn’t all that nice. They had all sorts of ideas who I was, including Mr. Randal’s private nurse when he was to come home.
The rehabilitation center was a place where people who needed more around the clock care came after an illness to help with recovery. It looked like an apartment to me. The hall was long, there were doors on each side. Some of them had a wreath, but number fifteen did not.
If Mr. Randal was my father, I’d had a wreath on the door. But he wasn’t and there was no sense in bringing up memories that I’d stored in the back of my head. That included my parents. They’d been dead a long time now. Maybe that was why I had a soft spot for the Randals. Especially the younger two boys.
“Doors open!” the gruff voice greeted my knock.
“Mr. Randal.” I pushed through the door to find a frail man in a wheel chair. He had the nicest silver hair that I’d never seen on a man and smiled when I pictured Ty with silver hair. In fact, I had to put my hand on my stomach from the flip flop it gave me, making me gulp.
More so, making me disturbed since I’d not had that sort of feeling since I’d met Paul.
“I was wondering when you were coming to stop by here.” Mr. Randal looked at me. “I’d recognize your face from anywhere.”
“I guess using Westerheimmer at the front desk really wasn’t deceiving anyone?” I joked when I didn’t feel too threatened by him.
“You’re face has been all over the news for months.” He grinned and I could definitely see the resemblance between him and Ty. “Plus, my son.” He laughed. “I’ve not seen a girl give him fits in years. You got his goat.”
“His goat? I don’t have his goat. In fact, I’ve not seen a goat at the campground.” I made a mental note to make sure there were no goats.
“Mae West, you’ve got a lot to learn if you’re really going to be sticking around here.” He winked. “Though you and I both know you aren’t sticking around. Are you?”
“I’m sorry.” Was I that transparent?
“Ty told me about the fundraiser and how you’ve gotten stuff donated. I’m not saying you’re like Paul, but you’re a smart gal. Graduated college with an economics degree. Young. Pretty. What does a town like Normal got to offer you?” He put his hand up when I started to protest. “Ty is just like you.
He’s spent half of his life trying to get out of this town. When he finally did and making a good life for himself, I have this stupid heart attack and can’t work.”
“May I?” I pointed to the chair next to him.
“Of course.” He grabbed the remote control and turned the TV off. “Where are my manners?”
“I think your son has them.” I wanted to offer him some comfort that Ty was being some what cordial to me. “You’re right. A couple of days ago, I was going to sell the campground as fast as I could. Then I got here and well, you know what it looks like. So I did get the great idea to fix it up, but I have to admit that your small town has really started to grow on me.”
“Yep. It’ll do that to you. I recon that’s why Paul couldn’t leave well enough alone. I should’ve known years ago when he came into town with his fancy car to visit his college buddy that he was too smart for Normal.” He didn’t have to use words to tell me that it was his campground and bet that Paul had gotten the campground from. I could see it in his eyes.
“What was the bet?” I asked.
“I bet him the campground that he couldn’t get the price down on the diner for me to purchase because I love to cook. The campground was my family’s and I didn’t want to work it anymore. I had a family and like you, had a dream. Only it wasn’t in Normal, but here I was and if I could cook because it’s my passion, I would give that campground away.” He was a straight shooter and I admired that.
“What would Paul have to give up?” I questioned.
“We were looking to replace our city manager in a year. About the time he was graduating. When he came to Normal, he had some big ideas about the town and tourism. We weren’t doing bad, but he was young and had some fresh ideas. If he lost, he was to come back here and be Normal city manager for the four years of the term.” He smiled real big “I know that sounds so childish and I could’ve never made him do it, but drinking makes every one get a little liquid courage. His young ego against my middle-aged ego wasn’t a match for each other. I be darned if he didn’t get me the deal I needed to buy the diner.”