by Linnea West
"I have a few questions to ask you about the night of Earl's murder," I blurted out. I hadn't even really thought through my questions, but it was now or never thanks to my big mouth.
Ralph set his can down on the end table and turned to look at me. His eyes searched my face, looking for something. I wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he must have found it.
"You know, I would tell anyone else no," he said. "But you were the one who helped get me out of a bind. So yes, I will answer a few questions for you."
I took a sip of lemonade to stall for a moment while I figured out exactly how I wanted to proceed with questioning. I mean, I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask him, but I couldn't just sit here all afternoon peppering him with annoying, dumb questions.
"I guess my first question would be if you saw Ronald out at the field at all that day," I said. I needed to make sure I focused on questions about Ronald because I knew most of the other details. What was important right now was to clear Ronald's name.
"Sure, we saw him out there," Ralph said. "When we pulled up, Ronald was just getting in his car. He had just put the tractor away and was locking up when we came by and told him not to bother. He wasn't very happy about it, but technically it is Earl's land and stuff so he did as Earl said."
"Was he upset?" I asked.
"I haven't known Ronald long at all, at least compared to all of you town people," Ralph said. "But he seemed as mad as he ever gets. He was more flustered and his face turned red. He was huffing and puffing about not letting Earl get away with ruining the Hayride."
"Was he threatening Earl?" I asked. I really hoped the answer was no.
Ralph took a long drink of pop and together we watched a bird eat a few sunflower seeds before flying away. Birds were amazing to watch sometimes. They were beautiful creatures and if everyone would just take a few moments out of their day to watch them, I think it would solve a lot of stress problems in this world. A love of bird watching was yet another thing I got from my father.
"I want to say that he wasn't threatening Earl," Ralph finally said. "But he definitely was. He wasn't like outright telling him to watch his back, but in his Ronald way, he was letting Earl know that there was no way he would let Earl destroy a town tradition like the Hayride."
I sipped my lemonade a little bit more. That definitely made it trickier to prove Ronald wasn't the killer if he had been threatening the victim mere hours before the murder along with all of the other evidence they had already collected.
"Did you tell all of this to the police?" I asked.
Ralph nodded slowly with a grimace on his face. I had expected that. He had no reason to withhold that information, of course, but it would have made my life a lot easier if he had.
"I have one more question, if that is alright," I said. Ralph looked at me for a moment and then nodded once.
"Did you see anyone else around?" I asked. "Anyone at all? Any cars or anything at all?"
Ralph thought for a moment.
"I know the police probably asked you this question and that it might be very obvious," I said.
"Actually, they did ask me, but they only asked if I saw anyone," Ralph said. "They didn't seem to care if I saw any vehicles or anything. I did see a car in my rearview mirror as I drove away from the field. But I can't quite remember what kind of car it was."
I sat up straighter as he talked. This was the kind of lead I needed, even if it was extremely vague. Someone had shown up just after Ralph left. Susy had mentioned trying to follow them that night. Had Ralph just implicated her?
"Was the car you saw Susy's SUV?" I asked.
"What? No," Ralph said, looking genuinely confused. "I would know if it were Susy's car. Why would you think it was her?"
"She previously mentioned being out there that night," I said. "I just wondered if maybe you saw her car."
Ralph shook his head a few times before taking a long drink of his pop. He could be lying, I guess, but he seemed genuinely befuddled by my suggestion.
"No, I would have definitely known her car," Ralph said. "And if I saw her car, I would have gone back. I wouldn't have let her face Earl alone."
"I'm going to give you my phone number," I said. "If you remember absolutely anything about the car, I want you to let me know."
I ran to the desk and jotted my phone number as legibly as possible on a piece of scrap paper. I handed it to Ralph, who glanced at it and put it in his old, cracked leather wallet.
"I will let you know it I think of anything," Ralph said as he slipped his wallet back into his pocket.
I smiled at him and grabbed our empty glasses to bring back to the kitchen. When I reached the kitchen door, I looked back over my shoulder. The large man was still sitting on the couch, staring out the window at the bird feeders, his large hands folded in his lap.
As I squeezed some dish soap onto our glasses and started washing them in the sink, a voice came from the breakfast nook.
"You just can't leave well enough alone, can you?" my father said. He was sitting at the table looking at the Shady Lake Tribune, seemingly frozen in place from where I left him that morning. The only difference was that now he was eating a sandwich instead of scrambled eggs.
"Somebody has to help poor Ronald," I said. "Everyone is just acting like it is totally normal for Ronald to be a murder suspect and no one is doing anything to help him."
"That doesn't mean you should involve yourself in a murder investigation Tessa," he said. He stood up and walked over until he was directly in front of me. "Look, we are all feeling bad about Ronald. Most of the town believes he couldn't have done it. But what are we supposed to do?"
I didn't want to go round and round with him. I really didn't have the time to add "argue endlessly with my father" to my to do list. My dad gave me a big hug and kissed the top of my head. I squeezed him back.
"I'm still going to try to help," I said as I stepped out of his hug.
"I know," my dad said with a smile. "I knew you wouldn't stop, but I wouldn't be doing my job as a dad if I didn't tell you to stop."
We both laughed. Out of the entire family, I was the child that was the most like my dad. We were both stubborn as all get out, but also understood each other. Somehow, that meant that instead of fighting ourselves into a deadlock, we just let situations like this happen. We both knew how the other felt and that we weren't going to come to an agreement, so we agreed to disagree.
I turned and started to push open the door to the dining room. I need to get back to work. I wasn't sure where to start, but I had a million different things that needed to get done.
"Hey kid," my dad said.
I turned and looked at him.
"If you insist on staying involved, at least promise me that you will get Ronald out of jail," he said.
I smiled at him and nodded.
"I'll try my hardest," I said.
Chapter 29
I sat on the floor of the shed, surrounded by piles of pumpkins, lawn games, and wooden set ups that we were painting for all sorts of carnival games I'd dreamed up to keep the kids busy and raise more money at the Halloween Hayride. After I left my dad in the kitchen earlier today, I had decided that while I couldn't quit investigating, I needed to take a break from it. I especially needed a break since I had a mile-long list of things to do for the Halloween Hayride which was only two days away and I hadn't done a single one of them. That is when I had decided to call in reinforcements.
Mandy was painting a Halloween themed "go fish" booth where kids could throw their fishing lines over and someone behind would attach a piece of candy or a little Halloween tattoo. She was almost done painting a spooky underwater scene with skeleton fish. I giggled to myself when I spotted a streak of blue paint in her hair.
Clark and Max were actually working together to put the finishing touches on a wheel kids could spin to see what kind of candy they would win. I remembered this kind of stall always being very popular at school fun nights. Hope
fully it would be popular for us also.
My parents were both organizing old Halloween accessories into a big plastic tote that we could use for a photo booth. With five kids and enough space that keeping stuff didn't mean a hoarding problem, they had tons of old Halloween costumes. Their job was to go through them all plus some stuff I had picked up at the second hand store and figure out what would make good props for a picture booth. They were finding some real gems like a plastic mask that had fake blood inside of it and a long hippie wig that badly needed brushing. I was thinking of throwing together a large display of pumpkins and maybe a sign that said "Happy Halloween" that people could pose in front of.
Tank and my other brother Teddy were packing the back of my station wagon with pumpkins that I was planning on driving out to the field the next day. My sisters would have been here if they could, but Trina was away at college and Tilly had to look after her kids while her husband was at work.
I looked around and realized how blessed I was. But in the next beat, I couldn't help but think of poor Ronald sitting in jail, probably wondering if I was keeping my word about the Halloween Hayride. I made a mental note to figure out if I was allowed to visit him or not. If I couldn't get him out, at least I could put his mind to rest about it.
"I think we're about done here," my dad said as he put the top on the plastic tote of dress up clothes. "Besides, it is getting late. If you need any more help, we can help you tomorrow."
"I will definitely need you to help me tomorrow," I said, standing up from the cross-legged position I had been sitting in for too long. I shook the pins and needles out of my feet. "We will need to get everything all set up out at the site."
"Why don't I meet you here around 5 tomorrow and we can drive our loads of stuff out to the field together," Clark suggested. His pick-up truck had already been commandeered as the other major transport vehicle for all of the Hayride stuff.
"That's a great plan," my dad said. "Anyone who can should meet here some time after work, around 5. We will transport as much as we can in one load and then most of us can stay out at the field and get stuff set up."
Mandy drifted out of the shed yawning while she waved at me and Tank and Teddy headed into the house along with my parents so that Tank could show Teddy the new guitar he had bought earlier in the week. I walked Clark and Max to their cars. Each one took their turn to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before hopping in their cars and driving off down the driveway.
I still had a few things I wanted to do, so I walked back into the shed to survey anything else that was left to do. I grabbed my to-do list and started checking off all of the things we had accomplished that night. We had actually managed to get most of the things done and I realized that all of the things left were things I either couldn't do until I was out at the field the next day or needed to be done when it was closer to Hayride time.
I started putting things away when a knock at the shed door made me jump.
"I'm sorry," Ralph said as he poked his head in the open door. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"Oh that's alright," I said. "It really wasn't you that scared me. I was just deep in thought over this Halloween Hayride stuff and I didn't expect anyone else to be here."
Ralph walked inside. He started to walk slowly around, looking at all of the different things we had been working on. I wasn't quite sure why he was in the shed with me, but the thought crossed my mind that he was a very large man who had recently been the suspect in a murder and I was a somewhat petite female. I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind, telling myself that I had to stop listening to so many true crime podcasts.
"I'm not sure you realize how lucky you are to live in Shady Lake," Ralph finally said as he stopped in front of the fishing booth Mandy had been working on. He smiled to himself as he studied all of the details Mandy had included. There was even a little starfish skeleton that managed to be cute and make me laugh. "I grew up in a suburb of the Cities. It was a poor area and while many of the parents tried to do what they could to make out neighborhood welcoming, the reality was that they were busy trying to keep a roof over our heads and the city we were in didn't care about providing us with fun activities like this."
I had never really thought about it like that. When I moved to the big city, I had been an adult and fully enveloped in the brunch, fancy club, dinner at 9 sort of scene and never paid attention to any of the families that had been living around me.
But I understood the appeal of a small town to raise children. Shady Lake had been an amazing place to grow up. There were always programs for children during days off from school and the summer. The city was dotted all around with playgrounds and the streets were lined with sidewalks where families and children walked or rode their bikes.
"I would love to stay in a small town like this," he said. "Especially now that Susy and I have a baby on the way. But I don't think I'd be welcome in this one. Not after I was the first suspect in a murder."
"I don't think that's true," I said. "I would like to think we would welcome you with open arms. It might take some people a while to adjust, but over time I think it would be forgotten."
"It's a nice thought, but one I don't believe. Not after I've seen how no one is sticking up for Ronald."
I sighed and dropped my eyes to the floor. I knew he was right, even if I was trying to do something about it.
"But I know that you want to help," Ralph said. "That's why I'm here. I remembered something from the night of the murder."
My head snapped up to look at Ralph. He was shifting from foot to foot, looking down at the floor.
"What did you remember?" I asked. I couldn't stop my voice from shaking a little bit, but I tried to make it as level as possible. I wanted to seem somewhat professional.
"Well, it isn't much," he said. "I remembered that the car I saw in my rearview mirror was a lighter color and that when it turned into the field, the passenger's side door was smashed in like it had been in an accident sometime."
I repeated what he said in my head several times. It wasn't much to go on, but I decided to add it to my list of clues. Maybe I could start checking the body shops around here to see if any light colored cars came in with damage on the driver's side. But that would take a lot of time that I did not have. And I was on a timeline, if I wanted Ronald to be able to attend the Halloween Hayride.
"I hope that helps," Ralph said.
"I hope it does too," I said. "I'll definitely add it to my list of clues. Thank you for telling me."
Ralph nodded one curt nod of his head and walked out of the shed, leaving me surrounded by the Halloween spirit. I wandered over to a bench and sat down for a moment. In the next two days, I had to find the mysterious, light colored, damaged car, figure out who drives it, turn them in to the police, get Ronald released, all on top of setting up and running the Halloween Hayride. I may be in over my head a little bit.
Chapter 30
I opened my eyes the next morning not to my alarm, but to a text message on my phone. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 6:15. Outside of my window it was pitch black still. The tree that was outside of my bedroom window had already lost a lot of leaves, so it stood eerie and looming. I hadn't seen it look so spooky for a while. Breakfast at the B&B wasn't served until closer to 8, so I usually didn't get up until shortly before that.
I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes, trying to wake up a little bit. I had been up too late last night because I simply had too much on my mind to fall asleep until long past my bedtime. I had been running through the clues in my head and when that became too much, I ran through my to-do list of things that needed to get done for the Hayride.
After a few moments, I realized that I should probably check the message that had woken my up. If it was either Max or Clark, I was not going to be happy with them. They both knew I liked my sleep. I flipped open the phone to see.
I'm sorry to bother you so early, but I haven't been able to sleep. I have
a huge favor to ask you. Please text me later.
I sleepily read the message over and over a few times, trying to figure out what it meant. I read it five times before I realized I had no idea who had sent me this message. I checked the sender and saw it came from Candy. I blinked a few times, wondering what in the world was going on.
I didn't mind helping Candy. I mean, she was going through a lot in her life and I had known her for a long time. She still seemed to be the same Candy as she had been in high school. I had felt bad for her then and I felt bad for her now. I just didn't understand why she had to ask for help so early in the morning. I typed out a short message.
Let me know what you need. I have to help serve breakfast at 8, but can help you for a short time after that.
It wasn't really great timing for Candy to need help. I hoped that whatever she needed would be short enough to fit in between all of the other things that I needed to get done today. I vowed that would say no if she wanted me to do anything too big. I needed to set my priorities straight. I shut my eyes just as my phone buzzed one more time. I groaned as I flipped it open to read the message.
Thank you. I'll text you later this morning.
I kind of wondered how Candy could take so much time away from work, especially considering her boss was currently in jail. I would think that would make her busier than ever before, but maybe everyone was cutting her slack seeing as how she was still grieving. I know that after Peter died, I was pretty much allowed to do whatever I wanted to. Well, I realize that in hindsight at least. When I was in the thick of it, I just tried to do everything I normally did how I normally did it and didn't realize until later how much everyone had been helping me pick up the slack.
After reading the last text from Candy, I realized there was no possible way I'd be able to go back to sleep now. So I rolled myself out of bed and got dressed in some casual, comfortable clothes because I knew I was going to be spending the entire day working on things. After I slipped on my most comfortable jeans, a shirt, and a nice sweatshirt I owned that didn't look too "sweatshirty," I stumbled my way downstairs to find a cup of coffee. This was the sort of morning where I really just wanted to set up a caffeine drip.