The Road to Wrinkle Ranch

by Nick Russell

  "Good question, Deputy Mayhew. The railroad industry is aware of the need for more cameras on more trains and in more places," Lehman said. “There is no requirement for them at this time, but it’s in everyone's best interest, including theirs because of lawsuits, to have every bit of evidence they can to show how any crash happens."

  There were no other questions for him, so Lehman thanked them again for their time, thanked the deputies who had worked with him, and left the room.

  “Okay, as for the rest of it, we know that the vehicle that pushed that Corvette was large and had dual wheels," Schroeder said. “A guesstimate is that it was somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty feet long. But like I said, that’s a guesstimate. It could have been shorter, but probably not much longer."

  “Dick, do we know…?"

  Schroeder held his hand up and said, “I'll take questions in a minute, let me go through what I've got here so far. We have not found anybody who reported seeing a vehicle that size near the crossing around that time, but that doesn't mean there wasn't. There’s a lot of construction going on in certain places out there, farm trucks going back and forth, all kinds of things like that. What we need to do is figure out what that vehicle was. Sheriff Swindle will be making a public announcement in just a little bit, stating that it was a homicide and asking for the public's assistance in telling us anything about who might have been involved in this. Meanwhile, there are all kinds of rumors floating around town and we need to make sure that we don't get caught up in them, folks. I know that all of you have probably had someone telling you that they heard someone say somebody told someone else, who overheard something, and all that is bullshit. Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one, folks. We need to deal with facts. Deputies Quarrels and Westfall have been doing a lot of field investigation, talking to the families of the victims and their employers and things like that. Deputy Streeter has been amazing, working behind the scenes, pinging phones and doing all kinds of background investigations. I appreciate all three of your work, and everybody else out there, too," Schroeder added. “We are going to figure out who did this, people, it’s only a matter of time. Now, questions?"

  “Dick, has the husband been cleared?"

  “The husband? I assume you mean Sonny Rittenhouse. Yes, we've confirmed that he was on his milk route that day. He left Florida Sun Dairy at 6:10 in the morning and didn't get home until after 2 p.m. There was no way he was behind the wheel of whatever pushed the car into the train."

  "Then what about Lonnie McBride’s wife? Everybody knows the two of them were screwing around,” Bob Patterson said. “Could it be a jealous wife instead of a jealous husband?"

  Schroeder shook his head and said, "John Lee and Maddy established a solid alibi for her. She was over in Lake City at the time of the incident."

  “Do we have any suspects at this time?"

  “No, we don't," Schroeder said. “This is top priority and we’re working it from every angle we can, and I appreciate any input someone has. If there's something you think might have happened, if there's something that we’re overlooking, don't hesitate to speak up." He looked around the room and said, “moving on, we’ve had some problems with kids getting into mischief at night around the high school. A couple of broken windows, some graffiti, things like that. The city only has one officer on duty at night and he can't be everywhere, so we need to kind of take a run by there when we can. Also, there was an incident at the McBride house yesterday. A fellow by the name of Vince Agosti, who is the brother-in-law of Lonnie McBride, showed up there causing a disturbance and giving his wife a bunch of crap. Deputy Glickman had to take him down and put handcuffs on him. He was released, but this obviously left Mrs. McBride pretty scared and we need to keep an eye on her place. What is it that Agosti drives, Herb?"

  “A black Mercedes SUV," Herb said, reading off the license plate number from his notes.

  “Mr. Agosti has been trespassed from the property, so if you see him there, lock him up. I believe Mrs. McBride is also in the process of getting, or has already obtained, an order of protection. I've never met the man, but from what I've heard about him, he's kind of belligerent and you can expect to get a lot of mouth if you stop him. Do not take any bullshit from this guy, people. If you see him violating the restraining order or the trespass order, lock him up and we’ll deal with it later."

  "Is he a suspect in the murders, Dick?"

  "At this point, he's a person of interest. I really can't say if he’s behind them or not, but we are taking a long hard look at him. Okay, anything else? All right, folks, let's get to work. Be careful out there, will you?"

  As the meeting broke up, Schroeder asked Kimberly, John Lee, and Maddy to stay behind.

  “Kimberly is going to be checking with the state register of contractors and the licensing folks to see if we can find out anything more about this AVA properties," Schroeder told them. “John Lee and Maddy, while you're out doing your thing, we need to find out who among our possible suspects might have access to a vehicle with dual wheels the size of the one that pushed that Corvette into the train."

  "Well, the obvious one is Sonny Rittenhouse," Maddy said. “The description Lehman gave of the vehicle size fits a milk truck right to the T. But we know Sonny was out on his route. Kimberly confirmed that with phone pings and she's talked to several people at different stores where he made drop-offs. There is no question he was on the job and not even in the county for most of Monday."

  "All right, keep at it. Someone did this and we need to find out who."

  “I’ve got a couple of things to run by you," John Lee said.

  "I'm listening."

  “This is only secondhand information, so take it with a grain of salt, Dick. But it comes from a person I trust completely.” He told the chief deputy and the sheriff the information Twila Sharp had given them, that there might be more than just a working relationship between Alice Shaw and Audrey Rittenhouse.

  "Boy, talk about something from out of left field," Schroeder said. "What do you guys think?"

  “There's no question that Mrs. Shaw was really broken up about all this," Maddy told him. “We tried to talk to her yesterday but she was just about incoherent. We couldn't get anything out of her, and then we walked down the street and talked to Twila Sharp, who told us about what she overheard at the office. When we went back to talk to Mrs. Shaw, she was gone and the place was locked up."

  “What do we know about Alice Shaw?"

  "She's born and raised here," D.W. said. “She married Lenny Shaw right out of high school, and far as I know, they had a pretty good marriage until he died five or six years ago. Heart just gave out and he keeled over dead."

  "I see her at church all the time," Kimberly said. “Seems like a nice lady, but I don't know her more than to say hello to."

  “A spurned lover is darn sure someone we've got to look at," Schroeder said. “Anybody know if she's got access to a big vehicle?"

  “Not that I know of,” John Lee said, “but we’ll look around.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yeah, something came to me last night," Maddy said. "I don't know if there's anything to be gained by it, but do we need to have a talk with the Effin sisters?"

  "The Effin sisters. Why?"

  "They were Audrey's aunts," Maddy said. “I'm just wondering if she might have told them something about any problems she was having."

  “Like?"

  "Like Alice Shaw saying that Audrey was unhappy in her marriage. Maybe she shared something like that with them, too. I just figured it might be worth a shot."

  "Anything’s worth a shot," Schroeder said. “Go have a talk with them and see what you can find out."

  Chapter 39

  "This ought to be fun," John Lee said as they got in the Charger in the parking lot in the back of the courthouse. "I don’t know why we didn't think about talking to them before."

  "To be honest with you, I never gave it a thought until last night,"
Maddy told him. “Beth Ann was telling some story about hoop earrings and a guy in a pickup truck. Don't even ask. She mentioned hoop earrings and all of a sudden I remembered one of the Effin sisters and the big hoop earrings she wears sometimes. Which one is that, do you know?"

  John Lee shook his head and said, "I can't tell them apart. Can you?"

  "No, I can't. I don't think any man who’s been with any of the three of them can either."

  The Effin sisters got their nickname from their initials, F and N. There had been four of them – Faith, Flo, Fran, and Faye Norton. Two of them were twins, nobody could remember which, and Faith, the oldest, had been Audrey Rittenhouse's mother. She had died of uterine cancer when her daughter was fifteen. The three surviving sisters lived on some property a few miles outside of town in a trio of mobile homes, sometimes together, sometimes in one or the other of the mobile homes, sometimes with a man and sometimes without. All were in their late 50s or early 60s, but the sisters dressed and acted like teenagers, with tight jeans, and sweaters, short skirts, and big hair that had gone out of style in the 1980s everywhere but in the deep South. They liked to drink, they liked to party with men, and they liked to have fun. If you ran into one or more of the Effin sisters, life was going to get very interesting very quickly.

  When they pulled onto the property, they parked beside one of the mobile homes, whose door was open. Going up on the deck, they heard talking from inside and knocked. A pair of yappy little dogs of indeterminate breed rushed to the screen, barking furiously. "Come on in," called a voice from inside. "Don’t worry ’bout the dogs, they won’t eat ya’."

  The sisters were gathered around a glass-topped kitchen table, drinking beer out of longneck bottles and playing gin rummy.

  "Oh, shit, it’s the cops! We’re busted."

  John Lee couldn't help smiling, remembering his grandfather and Uncle Billy saying pretty much the same thing when he and Maddy had showed up a few nights ago.

  "Ain’t nothin’ illegal ’bout havin’ a game of rummy," one of the sisters, maybe Flo, said. “Good to see you Maddy and John Lee. What brings ya’ll out here?"

  "First off, we want to express our sympathy over the loss of your niece," Maddy said.

  "Yeah, it kinda broke us up, too,” said Fay, or maybe Flo. It was always hard to tell who was who.

  “Well, like Mama always said, she's in a better place,” another sister said, then added, "Ya’ll want a beer?"

  "No, thank you,” Maddy said. “We’re on duty."

  “How you doin’, Maddy? Sure is good to see you back home where you belong."

  "I'm doing good, ma'am. Thanks for asking."

  “And how about you, John Lee? You sure look handsome!" The woman emphasized her compliment by pinching him on the rear end, causing John Lee to jump and drawing laughter from her sisters. Even Maddy could not hide her smile at his discomfort.

  “Hey, Maddy, if you want to leave him here with us for a little bit while you go play deputy, we got another game we can play with John Lee!"

  All three sisters, who seemed to have started their day with beer, laughed loudly, one slapping the table, and John Lee felt himself blushing.

  "Don't even suggest something like that," he said. "You three scare the hell out of me."

  "Aww, there ain’t nothin’ to be scared of, young man,” one of the sisters said. “We’ll treat you right."

  "As fun as all that sounds, we’ll have to pass on that," Maddy said. “He's kind of tied up at the moment."

  "If he ain’t tied up now, he will be if you leave him with us!"

  There was more laughter and John Lee wasn't sure if they cared at all about the death of their niece, or this was their way of coping with everything in life.

  "The reason we came by, besides to give our sympathies," Maddy said, “is we are wondering if any of you have talked to Audrey lately?"

  "Audrey? No, she was way too good for us. At least she thought she was. She grew up just like everybody else in the family, but when she started making all that money, we didn't matter anymore."

  “Yep, she got downright snooty," one sister agreed, opening the refrigerator and taking out more beers, looking at Maddy and John Lee and asking, “Sure you don’t want one?"

  They declined and she said, "Last time I talked to Audrey was probably a month ago. Maybe more. I bumped into her at the grocery store. Or was it the Dollar Store? I guess it don’t matter."

  “Did she say anything about any problems she was having with anybody?"

  “Problems? What kind of problems?”

  "Anything,” Maddy said. “We’re just trying to determine if anybody had a problem with Audrey or with Lonnie McBride."

  "So is it official? Was it murder? Someone pushed them into that train?"

  Maddy nodded her head and said, "Sheriff Swindle is making the official announcement any moment now. But yeah, it looks like it happened that way."

  "That's just criminal. Pretty girl like Audrey, I just don't know why anybody would do somethin’ like that."

  Her two sisters shook their heads.

  “When you saw her at the store, did she say anything about any problems?"

  "No. I asked how she was doin’ and she said fine, and I asked how Sonny and his mama was doin’ and she said everythin’ was good, but she didn't have time to talk and then she was gone."

  "What do you know about Sonny?"

  One of the sisters looked at him and tilted her head curiously. "You don’t think Sonny had anything to do with this, do you?"

  "We really don't know anything for sure," Maddy said. "All indications were that he was out of town on his milk route. But there's been a rumor that there were some problems in the marriage and that Audrey wanted out."

  "Rumors? Far as I know, they didn’t have no problems. I think Sonny would’a done anything to make Audrey happy, don't you, girls?"

  Both the other two sisters nodded their heads. "Yeah, Sonny’s great. He adored Audrey. And we love him to death. He come over last year and spent three days fixin’ a plumbin’ problem we had."

  "It was the plumbin’ on the trailer, not ours,” one of the other sisters said, then assured them that their own personal plumbing was in excellent shape and got worked out on a regular basis.

  The three women laughed hysterically at that and John Lee rolled his eyes at Maddy. Realizing they weren’t going to get anywhere with these three, they started to take their leave when one of them asked, "Who said Audrey and Sonny were havin’ problems?"

  "It was just something that was mentioned in passing," Maddy said.

  "I know who said it. It was that Alice Shaw, wasn't it?"

  "Alice Shaw? Why would she say something like that, Flo?"

  "I saw her about two or three months ago, I don’t remember where it was now, but she was goin’ on and on about how pretty and how sweet Audrey was, how she was like a skyrocket goin’ up into the sky and bursting with energy, and how Sonny was just a dud that never made it off the launchin’ pad. The way she talked, if she was a man, I would have thought her and Audrey had a thing goin’ on."

  "Well, that ain't all bad, is it?"

  "There's some things that we all do together and some things we keep to ourselves, sister, Let’s leave it there, okay?"

  “Thank you all for your time," Maddy said, eager to get out of there. “Again, we're sorry for your loss."

  Driving away from the property, Maddy said, “Those three are a hoot, aren’t they?"

  "You wouldn't say that if three old men were partying and one of them pinched you on the ass.”

  "Oh, come on, you enjoyed it at least a little bit, didn't you?"

  “You could have defended me," he said.

  "It could have been worse. I could have left you there for them to tie up!"

  "What do you think about what the one said about running into Alice Shaw?"

  "I think we need to have another talk with her," Maddy said. “Don't you?"

  “Let's do it."r />
  Chapter 40

  "I don't know where Mrs. Shaw is," said a worried-looking young woman who sat behind one of the desks at Shaw Realty. “I came in this morning and she wasn't here and the place was all dark. It's not like her. She’s always the first one in the door and the last one out at night."

  "Did you try to call her?"

  “Yeah, three or four times. No answer. I'm worried about her. She's been really broken up since what happened to Audrey."

  “Let me try her number," John Lee said. He dialed and the phone rang five times, then went to a voicemail saying that this was Alice Shaw and she was busy, but please leave your name and number and she would get back to you pronto.

  “She didn't say anything about having a meeting to go to, anything like that?"

  "No, and like I said, she never leaves the office unattended."

  John Lee and Maddy looked at each other, both wondering if there was more to the real estate broker’s unexplained absence than met the eye.

  "Did you all find out anything about Audrey yet? I heard Sheriff Swindle announced today that it was a murder."

  "Unfortunately, it looks like that's the case," Maddy told her.

  The phone rang and the woman held up her finger for a moment and answered it, "Shaw Realty this is Felicity, how can I help you?"

  She listened for a moment, and then said, "Mrs. Shaw is not in at the moment. I'll be happy to take a message.” She wrote something down on a telephone memo pad, saying, "I’ll make sure she gets the message as soon as she comes in, Mr. Eubanks. Thank you, and you have a great day, sir."

  She hung up the phone and looked at John Lee and Maddy and said, “That was strange."

  "What's that?"

  “That was Jerry Eubanks, the electrician. He said that he had an appointment with Mrs. Shaw at 8 o'clock this morning at her house to install some motion lights on the outside and she wasn't there. He said he called her number several times and got her voicemail, and he was calling here because he's waited a while and then went back to his shop, expecting her to call him back, but it's been almost three hours now. Mrs. Shaw never misses an appointment. Never! Could you take a run by her house and see if she's there? I'm worried about her."