by Paty Jager
Shandra latched onto the last statement. “Quiet? What do you mean?”
“He and Aunt May started up again about how I tried to burn down the barn and brought up dumb stuff I did as a kid but made it sound like I was doing that stuff as an adult. You know, trying to make me sound crazy. Then Marti going around calling me Crazy Lil all the time got others saying the same. At first I stayed away from town and people as much as I could. Then this place sold, again, and I tried to come back and work for them. But word got to them I was called Crazy Lil and I had a heck of a time trying to get work anywhere. The money I’d kept was used up, and I took to sleeping on the mountain.”
Shandra rose, crossed the short span between them, and hugged Lil. How could anyone turn on family? Her uncle sounded like the black sheep of the family.
“I’m sorry you’ve led such a solitary life. And I’m glad you were here when I bought the ranch. You have been a good worker and I hope from here on out a good friend.”
Lil’s eyes filled with tears. “You are the first person besides Sally to want to be my friend since Johnny died. I appreciated when you hired me and I appreciate your friendship.”
Shandra hugged the woman tighter then released. “I need to head to town. I’m meeting Ryan for lunch.” She stood and walked to the door.
“I saw him leave last night. He was in a hurry. Thought maybe you two had a falling out.”
The question in Lil’s voice made Shandra smile. Why he left in a hurry was between Ryan and herself.
“Yeah, he had a call and had to leave.” A little white lie, considering the reason for his departure, seemed just.
Shandra patted Sheba on the head as she walked out into the summer sunshine. It would be a beautiful day. One she should have spent working on her art, but finding the person who had ruined Lil’s life was top priority.
~*~
Ryan sat across the desk from Rodney Yenks, the third generation to work at the law firm of Yenks and Jarvis.
“You don’t look old enough to have handled the estate of Ralph and Virginia Whitmire,” said Ryan, watching the man across from him lean back in his chair to show off his fancy vest under the equally expensive suit coat.
“No, they were my grandfather’s clients and were passed down to my father. I believe he was the executor of their estate.” Yenks peered at him through Clark Kent glasses. But the wispy, fair-haired man was far from the iconic image of Superman.
“Would your firm happen to have their wills and any preceding wills on record?” Ryan didn’t like the way the man’s hands couldn’t seem to light in one place.
“We would if the building we were previously in hadn’t burned down ten years ago. I’m afraid that information hadn’t been scanned into a database before the fire.”
Damn! The only upside to the information was a road trip with Shandra.
“Was the fire accidental or ruled arson?” He didn’t see a person setting fire to the records before Johnny Clark’s body had been found, but the cop in him was curious.
“Wiring. The building was one of the first built in Huckleberry and the one least updated.” Mr. Yenks leaned forward. “Why all these questions about the Whitmire estate? Does it have anything to do with the body found on the ranch? I’ve heard that crazy granddaughter of theirs got everything and she knew the cowboy whose bones were found.”
Ryan couldn’t stop his answer, even if it was unwarranted. “Right now everyone in Huckleberry is a suspect. Including you.” Ryan stood, extended his hand, and shook. “Thank you for the information.”
He left the law firm and headed to Sally Albright’s. He didn’t see any reason he couldn’t join Shandra when she questioned the woman.
Chapter Twenty-five
Shandra pulled up to Sally’s house and found Ryan sitting in his SUV. By the time she stopped and exited her vehicle, Ryan waited for her at the sidewalk leading up to Sally’s house.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, not even trying to keep the joy from showing on her face.
“The law firm’s building burned down ten years ago. Nothing was scanned in. So, no luck there. I figured we could talk with Sally together.” He waved her up the walkway.
“Watch your step on the porch. This place hasn’t seen repairs in a long time.” Shandra picked her way across the precarious cracking boards and gaps and knocked on the door.
Ryan was so close behind her she could feel his heat.
“You’re a bit close don’t you think?” she said over her shoulder.
“It’s either stand on the same boards you are, or stand on the sidewalk.”
She giggled.
The door opened.
“Now you’re bringing guests?” Sally asked, with a slight smile before retreating into the house, dragging her oxygen behind her.
Shandra led the way into the small living room. What had once been neat and tidy was now littered with half-packed boxes.
“You’re moving?” Shandra asked, taking in the carefully wrapped knick-knacks nestled in the boxes.
“Yes, my niece has been after me to move closer to her. Now that Lil has you, I feel I can move away.” Tears glistened in the old woman’s eyes.
“I’m happy you trust me to be her friend.” Shandra sat on her usual chair. Ryan pulled a straight-backed chair from the kitchen and sat beside her. “Mrs. Albright—,”
“Sally, please,” the woman offered.
“Sally, this is Detective Ryan Greer with the Sheriff’s Department. We have some more questions about Lil’s family.” Shandra introduced the two.
“Ma’am, pleased to meet you,” Ryan said, tipping his head.
“You aren’t anything like the deputy I called years ago to help me with my drunk husband.” The older woman’s cheeks blushed. “He was as round as he was tall and not especially easy to look at or talk to.”
Shandra ducked her head so neither one could see the smile on her lips. She cleared her throat to ask the first question. “Did you know about the Whitmires’ wills giving Lil the ranch?”
The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Yes, I told Lil she was being too generous to those old people when she talked them into selling her inheritance. The way they treated her like a slave instead of a grandchild, I thought she should have put them in a nursing home and let Jerome pay for their care.”
“Jerome had money to do that?” The way Lil had talked, Shandra thought Jerome sounded desperate for money.
Sally nodded her head. “He married well. His wife had the purse strings. She thought the world of Ralph and Virginia until they took in Lil.” She tipped her head coquettishly. “She didn’t want the world to know, but she told Jerome if he brought Lil into their home she’d leave him.”
“Jerome’s wife? Why didn’t she want Lil? She was just a child when her parents died.” Everything Shandra was learning about Jerome and his wife wasn’t painting them to be a very nice couple.
“May, Jerome’s wife, was a cousin to Lil’s mom. She was ticked off that she didn’t get the brother who was to inherit the ranch.” Sally coughed and sucked on her oxygen.
Shandra studied the woman and glanced at Ryan. She could see he was trying to puzzle things together as well.
“But I would think she’d take in the child who would inherit,” Ryan said.
Sally turned her fading gaze on Ryan. “After the accident, Jerome believed he was next in line for the ranch. When Ralph announced the ranch was going to Lil, she was around twenty.”
“What happened then? When Jerome and May discovered the ranch was going to Lil?” Shandra had a feeling she knew the answer.
“That’s when Jerome cut off his ties with Ralph and Virginia. From what I’ve gleaned over the years, May and Janine, her daughter, put the chasm between Lil and her grandparents, and Jerome.”
“You said Janine, her daughter. Don’t you mean their daughter?” Ryan asked.
“No, Janine is May’s daughter from a previous marriage.” Sally stared at Ryan
as if he was a particularly slow student.
“Where is the first husband?” Ryan asked.
“She was a widow when Jerome met her,” Sally said, straightening her clear oxygen tubes.
Shandra was losing track of her thoughts with all the new information. “How did they meet?”
“Lil’s mom invited May to stay with them at the ranch for a weekend. Jerome fell hard for May, and they were married in less than a year.” Sally fiddled with her oxygen tube.
“They never had children—May and Jerome?” Shandra asked.
“No. Lil’s mom told me she felt responsible for Jerome not having a family of his own.” Sally picked up a photo. She handed it to Shandra. “This is a photo of the whole family the weekend before the crash that killed Lucy and Paul.”
Shandra closely examined the faces of the people in the photo. Ryan leaned closer and studied the photograph.
Lil was about ten, her face was glowing. The smile on her face sparkled in her eyes. A woman with her hand on Lil’s shoulder could have been taken out of the photos of Lil at that age. The man with his arm around the woman’s shoulders must have been Lil’s father. The older couple in the middle would be Virginia and Ralph Whitmire. The three to their left looked uncomfortable. The girl, the same size and age as Lil was frowning, her arms crossed. The woman was stately and held herself straight-rigid. The man, who must be Jerome, leaned as if he wanted to put an arm around the woman but feared rejection.
From the photo she didn’t think Jerome led a very happy life. Had he gone to the ranch that night to try and mend fences with his parents?
“But Jerome was at the ranch the night Lil went back after being with you for a week.” Shandra wondered if the call Janine made had been to her father or her mother. But what would either care that Lil was getting married?
“Thank you, Sally. You’ve been a valuable source of knowledge about Lil and her family.” Ryan stood. “Good luck with the move.”
He held out his hand to help Shandra to her feet. She peered into his eyes. Something that was said had triggered his hasty departure. What had she missed? She had more questions.
“Sally, I’ll let Lil know you’re moving, so she can come see you before you leave.” Shandra leaned down and gave the woman a hug.
“Thank you, I’d like to say good-bye to her. Let yourselves out.”
Shandra followed Ryan’s long strides out of the house and out to their cars. “What did you hear that has you in a hurry?”
“Hop in my vehicle. We’ll grab burgers at the drive-thru and head to Hafersville. It’s what she didn’t say. Something in the will has to be the clue to why Johnny was murdered and not Lil.” Ryan held the passenger door open for her.
Shandra climbed in and waited for Ryan to get behind the steering wheel. Once he was settled she said, “It did sound like greed and jealousy could be the reasons behind the murder.”
She sat rewinding the conversation with Sally as Ryan ordered burgers and shakes. When they were on the road to Hafersville, she asked, “Do you think they were also the ones behind spreading the rumors? The ones about Lil being crazy? If they locked Lil up, that would leave them as the soul beneficiaries.”
“The only thing I know for sure. This case revolves around Lil, even though she wasn’t the murder victim.”
~*~
Ryan parked in the visitor section of the Hafersville retirement home. He escorted Shandra into the building. At the front desk, they asked for Mr. Jeffery Langley.
“He’s in room twenty-four but don’t be surprised if he throws you out,” the nurse said, hurrying off to answer a light blinking on the console from room fifty-one.
Ryan glanced at Shandra. Her eyes were focused down the hall and her lips were set in a line of determination. He had an inkling they wouldn’t leave here until they’d learned something from Mr. Langley.
At the door of room twenty-four, Shandra put a hand on his arm. “Why don’t you let me go in first? Kind of break the ice.”
He didn’t want to send her in alone given the nurse’s comment, but it made more sense than him barging in and possibly setting the man off. “Ok, but I’ll be listening at the door in case he gets violent.”
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “My hero.”
Before Ryan’s ego had time to deflate, Shandra disappeared into the room. He stood at the door listening.
“Mr. Langley? I’m Shandra Higheagle. I’m here with a friend. We’d like to ask you questions about Ralph and Virginia Whitmire.”
“What? Who are you? What do you want?” bellowed a voice.
Great. The man didn’t even remember his best friend. Ryan took a step inside the door.
“Speak up, I didn’t feel like shoving a hearing aid in my ear this morning,” the man bellowed. He didn’t seem to know how to use a normal voice.
“I’m Shandra. My friend, Detective Greer, would like to come in and visit with you, too. Is that all right?” She’d elevated her voice to just lower than a yell.
Great. The whole nursing home would hear their conversation. It wasn’t the way Ryan liked to handle an investigation. But they didn’t have a choice if the old man was hard of hearing. He wondered how Shandra managed to make her voice sound calm and soothing while speaking so loudly. The man bellowed like she was a mile away.
“I guess.” A pause. “You said he was a detective?”
“Yes, we’re investigating a murder that occurred on the Whitmire Ranch on Huckleberry Mountain,” Shandra said sweetly and motioned with her hand for him to enter.
Ryan stepped into the room. The man’s gaze flew off of Shandra and zeroed in on him.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Detective Greer with the Weippe County Sheriff’s Department.” When the man started to tilt his head as if he couldn’t hear, Ryan raised his voice. “We would like to ask you questions about the Whitmire family. We were told you were friends with Ralph.” Ryan walked slowly over to where Shandra stood about six feet from a recliner. In the chair sat a man who had once been a hulk of a man. His stooped shoulders were as wide as the chair back. He was neither fat nor too thin. Whether his muscles now failed him as much as his hearing they could soon find out if he became riled.
“Whitmire you say?” He appeared to be searching the recesses of his mind.
Ryan scanned the room and found a photograph of the man in the chair with Ralph Whitmire on what looked to be a fishing trip. He crossed the room and tapped the photo. “This man. Ralph Whitmire.”
“Why didn’t you say Jackass and Ginny? Jackass and I’ve been friends since grade school.”
Shandra sputtered and giggled. “Jackass? How did he get that name?”
Ryan had trouble keeping a straight face, too. He wanted to hear how this man got his nickname and why it was the one the old coot in the chair remembered.
“When we were kids, Jackass could fool people into thinking there was a jackass in their garden or garage, or wherever they wouldn’t want one, by braying. We all thought it was great fun, but when he married Ginny…well the name fit even better.”
“That is a good story,” Shandra said, settling on the straight-backed chair not too far from Jeffery. “But Jenny is the name of a female donkey not Ginny.”
“Jenny, Ginny, close enough,” The old man said and smiled, showing off missing teeth and adding a gleam to his eyes.
“Do you remember Jackass and Ginny’s granddaughter?” Shandra asked.
“Little Lil? Yeah. She was a sparkler until her mom and dad died. Jackass was too strict with her. He should have let the girl out more.” The man’s expression softened as he talked about Lil.
“We wondered if Jackass ever talked to you about his will,” Ryan offered, standing beside Shandra.
“Hell, we talked about everything. The girls we nailed, the price of cigarettes, and whether or not that piece-of-shit son of his would ever think of something besides easy money.”
“You’re talking abo
ut Jerome and not Lil’s father?” Shandra asked.
“Yeah, Jerome was always trying to make money and losing more than his wife was willing to shell out to save him.”
“Is that why they left him out of the will?” Shandra leaned forward.
“The ranch was going to the oldest, Paul, until he died. Then they put together a trust and named their lawyer as executor. If Lil married before her thirty-fifth birthday, she received the ranch. If she didn’t marry, she got it when Jackass and Ginny died.” He shook his head. “Fool girl talked them into selling to pay for their growing medical expenses. I doubt she ended up with much by the time Jackass, and then Ginny was buried.”
“Actually, when Jerome started rumors about Lil, she gave him most of the money to shut him up,” Shandra stated.
Ryan stared at Shandra. “Why did she do that? A blackmailer never stops.”
“She gave it all to him, there was no more to give and he knew it.” Shandra’s eyes glinted with anger.
Ryan studied her. He’d not witnessed this level of outrage from her before. “Did Lil know about the trust?” he asked, waiting for the two in the room to respond.
Shandra shook her head. “I don’t think so. She didn’t mention it. Only that she was to get the ranch when her grandparents died. I think she believed there was only a will.”
Langley nodded his head. “Jackass didn’t tell Lil about the trust. He didn’t want her running off and marrying the first guy that looked her way just to get the ranch. Even though I told him Lil wasn’t like Jerome. She would have seen to their needs and kept that ranch for her children.”
Shandra nodded. “She loves that ranch. I own the ranch now and Lil works for me.”
“That’s good. Real good,” Langley said. “She was a good kid. Didn’t deserve being treated like a prisoner.”