by Paty Jager
“I’m sure if she knows the people, she’ll be able to help you.” The rustling of pages filtered through the phone. “You couldn’t find her phone number because she is listed under her second husband’s name. But she reverted back to her first husband’s name after the second one was found dead after driving drunk and hitting a tree.”
Shandra picked up a pen and tapped it quietly on the pad of paper on the table.
“Here it is. Five, five, five, seven, nine, six, three. When you see her, tell her I said hello.”
“Thank you, Martha, I will.” Shandra pushed the off button and stared at the number. This was her first clue to find out about Lil’s past since the stubborn woman wasn’t going to share. She dialed the number and listened to the phone ring.
“Hello?” The voice warbled a little and sounded like a pack-a-day smoker.
“Mrs. Albright?” Shandra asked.
“Yes. Who’s calling?”
“I’m Shandra Higheagle. I own the Whitmire ranch. I think Lil’s in trouble and I need to ask you some questions about her past.”
The woman wheezed. “What kind of trouble is Lil in? I promised her mother I’d look after her, but those grandparents didn’t approve of me taking over as her mother.”
“Could I come visit you? I don’t want to talk about her problems over the phone.”
“Yes. I haven’t talked to Lil for a while. I don’t know what kind of help I’d be.”
“I need to know about her past. Specifically, Johnny Clark.”
“That louse. Has he shown up after all these years?” The vehemence in the woman’s words led Shandra to believe the woman thought Johnny had run out on Lil too.
“Yes, he has, and not in a good way. Please, would you give me directions to your place? I can be there in an hour.”
Mrs. Albright rattled off her address. It was on the east side of Huckleberry. Shandra knew the location.
“Thank you. I’ll see you in an hour.”
She tossed a note pad in her purse and whistled for Sheba. She loved to ride in the Jeep.
Lil appeared out of the barn. “Where you headed to? I thought you wanted to work on those coasters today.”
“I have an errand I need to run. I’ll be back before dark. We’ll work on the souvenir items tomorrow.” Shandra climbed into the driver’s seat of the Jeep and headed down the mountain. She’d just lied again. She hated it, but little white lies sometimes were needed to help people. And Lil needed help. She was Ryan’s main suspect.
The drive to town rushed by as Shandra visualized the woman she was about to speak to. From the photo she’d seen in Lil’s room she was expecting a well-aged woman who took pride in her looks.
Pulling up in front of a small rundown house with the fence in dire need of repair, that illusion flew out of her head. The type of woman she’d been envisioning wouldn’t let the outside world see this decay of the place she lived.
“Sheba stay.” She said, closing the door quickly before the dog squeezed between the front seats to leap out. The windows in the back seat were down half way to allow cross ventilation. She never locked her doors with Sheba riding. The huge dog was enough to deter anyone thinking of stealing something. While her bark was ferocious sounding, she would lick any thief to death and help him take whatever he wanted.
Shandra stepped through the gate hanging by one hinge and up the weed-gnarled sidewalk. At the porch she played hopscotch with the holes in the old boards and tapped on the door.
“Come in, the door’s unlocked,” called the voice she’d heard on the phone.
Shandra turned the knob expecting it to fall into her hand. But it stayed attached to the door and the door swung open. The inside of the house was neat and tidy. Various knick-knacks she was sure were collector items gleamed from cleaning.
A wizened replica of the women in the photo walked out of a room to the side of the living room. She pulled a small cart carrying an oxygen bottle and balanced a small tray with a teapot and cups.
Hurrying forward, Shandra relieved the woman of the tray. “Let me help. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble for me.”
“Honey, I figured if you wanted information on Lil and Johnny it was going to take a while and would parch my old throat.” She motioned to the coffee table in front of a matching set of Louis the XV arm chairs.
Shandra set the tray down and took the chair opposite Sally. The woman parked the oxygen tank next to her chair and slowly sat. The clear tubing supplying Sally with her life-giving air was unobtrusive.
Sally leaned forward, extending her hand. “If you’re a friend of Lil’s I’m pleased to meet you.”
“Shandra Higheagle.” She took the old woman’s small hand and squeezed slightly before releasing. “I am Lil’s friend. She works on the ranch with me, and I’ve come to appreciate her uniqueness.” Might as well dive in. “But it’s her stubbornness about talking about the past that could land her in jail.”
Sally inhaled deep then coughed. Once the coughing subsided, she peered at Shandra with watery eyes. “Jail? Why would that girl go to jail?”
“I bought the Whitmire ranch because it has two unique clay pockets that work well for my pottery.”
The woman nodded. “I thought I knew that name. The paper did a big write up on you when you moved here. And I saw some photos of your work at the recent art show.”
Shandra smiled. “Yes, I wasn’t a very willing subject for the article so they pretty much picked stuff up off the internet for the story in the paper.”
Sally huffed. “They use the internet too much. Back when my husband had the paper, he went out and scrounged up the news, then he checked his resources to make sure it was the truth. Now-a-days they print whatever they want and call it poetic license.”
“That’s why I wanted to come to you for the truth about Johnny and Lil. Day before yesterday when I was digging in a pocket of clay, I dug up a cowboy boot attached to a body. I called in the authorities, and so far, no one has confirmed that it wasn’t Johnny Clark.”
Sally’s eyes rounded. “Johnny? Did it just happen?”
“No. It looks like he was there for a long time. We’re guessing thirty years.”
“No…” Sally peered at something over Shandra’s shoulder. “That means he couldn’t come back, not that he didn’t want to.” She leaned forward. “How is Lil taking it?”
“Like Lil. She told me very little other than they had been lovers, quarreled, and he disappeared.” Shandra poured two cups of tea and placed one in front of Sally. “Do you know what they were arguing about?”
Sally picked up the cup and sipped.
She was stalling. Shandra figured the woman’s mind was spinning behind her lowered lashes as she dissected what she’d been told and decided what to tell.
Finally, after she’d sipped half the tea from the bone china cup, her eyes met Shandra’s.
“This is Lil’s story to tell, but you need to know to go easy with her. She has never gotten over Johnny’s hurtful accusations and the feeling he abandoned them.”
Shandra caught the last word. “Them?”
“Lil was pregnant. That’s what they were fighting about. That’s how Johnny got caught in his first marriage. The girl told him she was pregnant with his child. Turns out she’d been sleeping around and didn’t know whose it was. After a quick wedding in Reno, a month later she lost the child. Rumor was she went to a clinic and had it removed fearing it wouldn’t look like Johnny and he’d leave her. Only the regrets of taking a child’s life left her an alcoholic, and Johnny’s depression from his loveless marriage and an accident that shortened his rodeo career made him an alcoholic. He finally shook alcohol and was back on the circuit as an announcer when he and Lil fell in love. Only Lil’s grandparents didn’t like her being with a man ten years older who was divorced. They did everything they could to keep the two apart, which only made Lil more determined to be with the one person she felt loved her.” Sally shook her head. “A
fter her parents died and Lil went to live with her grandparents she shut down. Wasn’t the fun-loving girl she’d been before. Johnny brought that back out in her. As much as I hate to admit it, he was good for her.”
Sally drank the rest of her tea and nodded to the cup. Shandra refilled it and waited.
“The night those two had their fight, I was away at a teaching convention. Lil was sitting on my back porch crying when I came home. Her clothes were filthy and she had blood running down her legs.” Sally’s eyes saddened. “She’d lost the baby.”
Shandra’s heart ached for the reclusive woman who had suffered so much sorrow. Knowing how she took care of all the animals, she knew Lil would have been a terrific mother.
“She had no one to go to. The town talked about her enough, she didn’t need them knowing the cowboy left her and she’d been pregnant. It’s been our secret all these years.”
Shandra reached across the table. Sally placed a hand in hers.
“It’s our secret too. I can’t imagine the pain that Lil has gone through all these years.”
“Thank you. It means a lot to me that you’ll be around to look after Lil.” Sally’s gaze roamed around the room. “She’s the reason I haven’t left this place. My niece has been after me to move closer to her in a retirement home, but I didn’t want to leave Lil.” She smiled. “I can now knowing she has a friend.”
A lump formed in Shandra’s throat. “I hope I can live up to the friendship you’ve given her.”
Chapter Eleven
Ryan pulled up to Shandra’s house. It was late afternoon and all was quiet. He didn’t see her copper-colored Jeep. Sheba didn’t bound around the side of the house. He stepped out of his SUV and walked up to the door.
He knocked.
No answer.
Scanning the area, he noticed lights on in the studio. She must be working. He really planned to talk with Lil but seeing Shandra was always a pleasure. And having her present when he questioned Lil might make the surly woman more cooperative.
The gravel drive crunched under his boots. At the studio door, he paused. Do I knock or walk in? Thinking it was best to announce his arrival, he rapped on the door and opened it.
Lil stood beside a large round kiln, several square discs projected from between her fingers. “What are you doing here? Shandra went to town.” She walked over to a work bench strewn with the small discs.
“I’m not here to see Shandra. I have some questions for you.” He left the door open and leaned against the jamb, hoping to not look so official. The minute he’d said he had questions for her, Lil’s invisible hackles stood on end.
“What kind of questions would you have for me? I don’t know anything the police would be interested in.” She walked back to the kiln and leaned into the large apparatus. Her head, arms and shoulders disappeared. A moment later, she straightened and had discs between her fingers again.
“Let’s start with there has been a clear identification that the body Shandra found on the mountain is that of Johnny Clark.” He studied Lil.
Her hands trembled a bit as she set the pieces down.
“I knew it was him.” She ran the arm of her purple flannel shirt under her nose and shifted to walk back to the kiln.
He’d let her continue working if she kept talking. “How did you know it was Johnny?”
“By the boot. He wore those boots everywhere. He bought them after his first big pay check.” She dove into the kiln.
“Someone could have stolen the boots.”
She popped out with another load. “Nope. He only took them off to sleep, and then they were under his pillow.”
Ryan cringed at the idea of sleeping on boots that had been through a rodeo arena. “Can you tell me the last time you saw Johnny?”
“Nope.”
She had her back to him making it hard to read her expression.
“You don’t remember the last time you saw Johnny?”
“I remember. I just don’t want to.” She spun back to the kiln and dove in.
Her reaction could be because she’d killed him.
“You can answer my questions here voluntarily or I can get a warrant and haul you in to the police station.”
“Why would you get a warrant?”
The voice came from beside him. He’d concentrated so hard on Lil, he hadn’t heard a vehicle approach. Turning his head, Ryan stared into the angry eyes of Shandra.
“Because she’s being evasive with her answers and admits she doesn’t want to remember the last time she saw him.” Ryan crossed his arms. “I have proof she was with him right before he died.”
“What proof?” Shandra crossed her arms and leaned against the other side of the doorway.
He shot a glance toward Lil who continued to unload the kiln. “A key chain with purple glass-cut beads and the name Lil was found with the remains.”
Lil spun toward them. “He had my key chain?” She started mumbling. “That must be why he came back. But why to our spot?” She wandered to the window and stared out.
Shandra crossed the space between them and put an arm around the older woman’s shoulders. “That’s what we need to determine. What brought him back after your fight?” She glanced at Ryan. “Lil will admit she and Johnny had a fight, but he was alive when he stormed off.” She narrowed her eyes. “You need to look elsewhere for a murderer.”
Ryan didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Shandra. He’d witnessed how ferocious she could be when defending a friend. Right now all clues led to Lil.
“I wish I could, but right now everything is pointing to Lil.” Shifting his gaze to the older woman he asked, “Did you set fire to your grandparent’s barn?”
“Why would I do that? There were always animals in the barn.” Her wide incredulous gaze couldn’t have been faked.
“You were brought in for questioning about that fire right after Johnny stopped coming around.” Ryan flipped open his notebook.
“How do you know when Johnny stopped coming around?” Shandra asked.
“There was a write up in the paper that Johnny missed a rodeo job. A Phil Seeton stepped in.”
Lil moved out of Shandra’s arm. “That drunk only got the job because he was the only available person. He drank so much he wasn’t on the first-hire list. He’d get in a fight with Johnny every time he saw him. Complaining he was taking away all of Phil’s jobs. Once Johnny quit drinking he had rodeos coming to him to be their announcer.”
“I’d think this is a better suspect than Lil.” Shandra walked forward. “Lil had no reason to want harm to come to Johnny.”
Lil’s head spun so fast her ball cap sat askew on her gray hair. He didn’t miss the questioning look on the woman’s face.
“How do you know she didn’t want Johnny harmed?” Ryan moved his gaze from one to the other.
“I’ve been talking to someone who stepped into Lil’s life after her parents were killed. I can vouch that Lil had no reason to want Johnny dead.” Shandra’s gaze leveled on him. “That’s as much as you’ll get. You’ll have to take my word for it.”
Shandra wasn’t about to spill Lil’s pain out to Ryan. He’d have to take her word for the fact Lil had everything to lose with Johnny dead.
He shook his head. “You know I can’t take your word. I have to find proof.”
“Then go find this other rodeo announcer and ask him if he saw Johnny before the rodeo he missed.” Shandra had been surprised to see Ryan’s SUV parked in her driveway when she returned. But she shouldn’t have been. He followed all his leads and from the sound of the key chain, he had ample reason to suspect Lil.
“You might want to talk to Johnny’s ex, Tracy Gilley. She remarried and that husband came up missing several years after the marriage.” Lil moved toward the kiln.
“Why would she have a beef with Johnny if they weren’t married anymore?” Ryan walked over to the kiln.
Shandra had a pretty good idea it was so he could watch Lil for any telltale sig
ns of lying.
“Every time we’d run into her on the circuit, she’d wail and hang on Johnny begging him to come back. The last time she looked at me and said, ‘If I can’t have him no one can.’ There was an unnatural glint to her eyes. Johnny said forget it, she was just drunk.” Lil walked to the bench with several coasters between her fingers.
Shandra bent into the kiln and grabbed more pieces. She placed them on the bench. Ryan’s gaze was locked onto Lil.
“Any idea where I can find Johnny’s ex?” Ryan asked.
“You can try looking her up through the barrel racers’ registry. I think she still trains horses when she’s sober.” Lil returned to the kiln.
Shandra looped an arm through Ryan’s and led him to the door. “You now have two people to investigate. Leave Lil and me alone so we can get our work done.” She walked with Ryan to his SUV. “Do you really think that woman in there killed a man she loved?”
“Passion and personal betrayal are the number one reasons people kill one another.” Ryan stopped at the driver’s side door. “Most of the evidence I have points to Lil.” Ryan placed a palm against Shandra’s face. “Be careful.”
She liked the feel of his hand and the concern in his eyes and voice, but she had nothing to fear.
“Lil didn’t kill Johnny. She was shocked to know he was dead.” She unlocked their linked elbows. “Thank you for your concern.” She backed away. “Go catch the real murderer.”
“I’ll follow the new leads, but it’s hard to consider it solid when the names were given to me by my chief suspect.” Ryan opened the door and sat behind the steering wheel. “Call if you need anything.”
“Don’t worry about me. Ella came to me in my dreams last night. Lil isn’t the murderer, but she does have secrets. Secrets the world doesn’t need to know.” She turned and headed back to the studio. The engine of Ryan’s vehicle revved and the crunch of tires on gravel noted his departure.
Shandra approached the studio door with trepidation. She could tell by the way Lil watched her, she’d figured out who Shandra had visited with and that she knew Lil’s deepest secret. Would the woman be upset Shandra knew all of her sorrow?