by Tonya Kappes
“Hi there,” I greeted him personally.
“Sheriff Kenni Lowry, State Reserve Office Scott Lee.” Betty Murphy tugged one of her pink curlers out of her hair.
“Sheriff?” Scott looked funny at me. It was the whole girl sheriff thing that threw men off.
“Nice to meet you Officer Lee. We are grateful you’re here.” I shook his hand. “I’m really excited to get some much-needed time off.”
“I’m happy to be here.” He pulled off his big round State Reserve hat that looked a little like the Boris Badenov, in Rocky and Bullwinkle. “I’m ready to serve the people of Cottonwood, which I hear is about to be under a few feet of snow.”
“Shhhh,” Betty looked at him and slowly shook her head. “Don’t mention snow in front of her,” Betty warned him.
“Right!” I snapped my fingers at Betty. “You know why? There’s not going to be any snow.” I assured him. “If there was any chance of that, then I wouldn’t need you because I’d be snowed in from my trip and that’s not going to happen.” I looked at Betty. Her lips were tucked in between her teeth. “Right, Betty?”
“Right, Sheriff.” She smiled and nodded. The remaining curlers flipped and flopped with each nod.
“What did you find out about Leighann Graves?” Betty asked.
“I found out that she didn’t come home, and Juanita Liberty hates her as much as the Graves hate her boy.” I sat my bag on my desk and took a long drink of coffee before I walked over to the closet next to our only cell in the room. “What size are you, Scott?”
“Medium shirt, size thirty-one thirty-two pants,” he said and walked over to me.
“I’m sure she’s mad. We can put an APB out on her car. I got her license plate number written down on my notepad.” I handed Scott his Cottonwood Sheriff’s uniform to use while he was there. “I know it’s not as flattering as your reserve blues, but brown is all we got and stands for a lot around here.”
“No problem.” He looked around. “The restroom to change?”
“Right on through the door.” I gestured towards the restaurant. “We use the same bathroom as the restaurant.”
There was a perplexed look on his face. He didn’t say a word.
“Give me the juice on Leighann Graves,” Betty begged and jumped right on in after the door shut behind Scott. “Don’t leave a single thing out.”
She rested the back end of her house dress on the edge of her desk. Heaven help us if Betty Murphy ever came to the office in the sheriff uniforms we’ve given her.
“There’s nothing more than I told you. The people that Leighann hangs around haven’t heard from her. I did get her cell phone and I’m going to sit down here and go through it. In the meantime,” I unzipped my bag and took out my notebook. “Take this license number and run it. Put out an APB. See if she’s been stopped by any neighboring towns and go ahead and put out a statewide Amber alert on her. Call the hospitals. You know the drill.” I scribbled the number down.
“You do think she’s missing?” Betty took the sticky note from me.
“Why do you think that?” I asked.
“This is against your twenty-four-hour rule.” She stared at me from over top of her glasses.
“I just want to make sure everything is nice and tidy before I head out of town next week. That means Leighann Graves at home in her bed when Santa comes to town,” I assured her.
Not that Leighann was a child. She was eighteen and she could do whatever darn well she pleased, but this wasn’t normal circumstances. I was going to Chicago. A rare occasion for a sheriff in a department of three employees to take off and I’d been planning it for months. A snippy, mad teenager in love wasn’t going to ruin my plans.
“Sheriff’s department.” I grabbed the phone before Betty could because I wanted her to get that alert out. “This is the sheriff,” I assured the person on the other end of the line.
“Kenni, it’s Doolittle Bowman. I was pulling my boat out of the river because you know that big storm is about to hit and it’s not good for a boat to be in frozen water and under snow,” she said.
Doolittle Bowman was head of the town council.
If there was a complaint in town or a business mishap, people called and filed those complaints with Doolittle. She also led the town meetings in Luke’s basement. She took pride in banging her gavel.
“What is it that you called about, Doolittle?” I asked, trying to figure out what she wanted.
“I was pulling out my boat and saw what looks like one of them Toyota four-doors sticking ass-end out of the water. I think that’s strange.” She wasn’t one to worry about how she said things or even offended people.
“That is odd.” I grabbed a pen and the sticky note. “Where was this?” I asked.
“Down at the Chimney Rock boat dock right where you put in and pull out.” She referred to the public boat ramp that local boaters used to put their boats in the Kentucky River, which bordered Cottonwood.
“I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone. “What did I write down about Leighann’s make and model of the car?” I held my breath hoping it wasn’t Leighann’s car.
“Nissan or something.” After those words left her mouth, my heart went back to beating since Doolittle said it was a Toyota. “Who was that?”
“It was Doolittle. She said that there’s a car submerged in the river.” I grabbed my cell phone. “Do you mind giving Scott a tour of the place?”
“What’s there to tour?” She pointed. “That’s your desk.” She patted her desk. “This is mine.” She pointed again. “That over there is Finn’s desk.”
“You know what I mean.” I glared at her. “All the papers he’ll need if he gets called out and how to work the fax. The schedule we keep. Like check the messages in the morning. Call to see if there were any dispatches overnight.”
Since it was a two man...errr...one man, one woman’s office, and Betty on dispatch during the day, we didn’t have a night dispatch. Unless you counted all the residents calling my cell phone, we used Clay’s Ferry, the neighboring town’s, dispatch service.
Clay’s Ferry was a little bigger than Cottonwood, so they had a much larger department. We traded off favors every once in a while, and I offered my services where I could. It was the neighborly thing to do.
“Take care of Duke for me,” I called out on my way back through the restaurant where Duke was still sitting patiently next to Bartleby while he cooked over the hot grill.
Once I got into the Jeep and headed east of town on Sulphur Well Road towards the river, I grabbed my cell and told my phone to call Sean Graves. I was going to need a tow truck and maybe some work would be something he needed to get out of his house.
“Did you find her?” Sean answered the phone without even saying hello.
“I was hoping I’d call and she was home.” I was having an inner struggle on whether to ask him to come or get the tow company from Clay’s Ferry to meet me there. I pulled to a stop at the four-way stop sign where I needed to take a right on the curvy country road leading me straight to the boat dock. Cell service was spotty.
“No. Not a word.” His voice faded off. “I’m trying to work, but I just can’t concentrate. Did you talk to Manuel?”
“Yes. He hasn’t seen her nor has his family,” I said. “I’ve got a job if you’re up to it. Might be good for you to get out of the house.”
I would let him to decide. When he gave me the go-ahead, I proceeded and told him to meet me at Chimney Rock put in. He said he was on his way and it’d be a much-needed distraction for him.
“Chimney Rock?” He questioned with a nervous tone. “Do you think?”
“Doolittle didn’t describe Leighann’s car,” I said and tried to give him some peace of mind. “I just thought maybe I’d call you and get you out of the house.”
“I forgot how cold the
se winter storms make these doors stick.” My Poppa’s ghost sat in the passenger seat, vigorously rubbing his hands together.
I slammed the breaks of the Wagoneer, bringing it to a screeching halt.
Chapter Five
“I’m guessing you aren’t here to tell me that you’ve taken care of my little request about the storm of the century?” I asked and tried to hide my fear I was feeling inside my gut.
Seeing Poppa’s ghost was no big deal, I’d gotten used to it. The reason I was nervous about seeing his ghost was the fear. The only time the ghost of my Poppa came to see me was when there was a murder in Cottonwood. Something I’d come to realize after the first murder that’d happened in Cottonwood during my second year of my elected four-year term.
Long story short, my Poppa and I figured out that he was my ghost deputy during a major crime. All the years before, his ghost was running around scaring off any would-be criminals which made Cottonwood crime free under my watch, until there just so happened to be two crimes going on at once. Ghost or not, he couldn’t be in two places at once. Here he was.
“Nope. Not here for the weather.” Slowly he shook his head. “Trust me when I’m going to tell you that it got on my nerves listening to you beg me to change Mother Nature’s mind. She’s just like any other woman. When her mind is set, it’s set.”
His words or presences didn’t bring me any comfort at this particular time.
I gulped. I shook my hands in the air to keep them from tremoring before I grabbed the steering wheel. I wasn’t sure how long I was there, but I know it was long enough for Sean Graves to pull up to the four-way stop, beep, and startle me.
I glanced in the rear-view and saw his face, then I slid my gaze over to Poppa. His chin drew an imaginary line up and then down. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reminded myself that I had a job to do and remain calm.
I jumped when there was a knock on my driver’s side window.
“You okay? Do I need to tow you?” Sean tried to joke, though I knew his heart was worried, and soon to be broken.
I manually rolled the window down.
“Actually,” I was taken off guard with the sudden puffs of air smoke coming from my mouth as the air mingled with my words. “I don’t need you after all. False alarm. No car.”
No way was I going to take the chance that the car was Leighann’s and Doolittle didn’t know what she was talking about. Who didn’t know the Toyota symbol verses a Nissan?
Sean looked at me. His jaw tensed. It was as if he could read my mind. He stormed back to his tow truck. I jumped out of the Jeep and put my hands out in front of me as he barreled the big truck around my Jeep and towards me.
“Sean. Don’t go. Sean. Do not go.” I begged him as he went around me, not giving two-cents if he was going to hit me.
When I realized he wasn’t going to stop, I jumped back into the Wagoneer.
“Damn, damn, damn.” I reached under the seat and pulled out the old red police beacon. I licked the suction cup and stuck my hand out the window, sticking the siren on top of the roof. My finger glided over the switch and turned on the siren.
The red siren circled in the air, giving its shadow to the empty-leaved trees that lined the old road. I passed the tow truck once I’d caught up with him. There was no way I was going to let him get there before me.
“Tell me,” I urged my Poppa. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I think you already know why I’m here. I done told you it wasn’t about the weather.” He wasn’t one to mix words when it came to official sheriff business. When I glanced over at him as I drove on the straightaway before I took the sharp curve, his eyes were dark, struck with fear. “I hate to see the demise of any young person.”
My eyes filled with tears as I tried to focus back on the road. I reached up to my walkie-talkie and pushed in the button.
“Betty, can you send Deputy Lee to Chimney Rock.” I knew I couldn’t send for Finn. At least not until his volunteer shift at Dixon’s Foodtown was over. There wasn’t nothing wrong with throwing Scott right on into the frying pan.
“Sure. Is everything alright?” she asked back.
“I don’t think so. I think we’ve found Leighann Graves’s car,” I said. The words left a chilly trail up my spine.
I knew it wasn’t just the car that was found since Poppa was here, but I couldn’t let the cat out of the bag until the facts were presented.
See, only me, Duke and Poppa knew about Poppa. Not even Finn. Though it was getting harder and harder to hide how it was that I knew clues before those clues were even discovered. That didn’t matter now. What mattered now was figuring out who did this to Leighann Graves.
“Oh Gawd, Kenni,” Betty’s voice quivered. “Do you think she’s...um...”
“I don’t know if she’s in there or not.” That wasn’t a lie. The fact was that Poppa was here which meant Leighann had been murdered. The bigger question was where was her body? “I’ll let you know as soon as we get the car pulled out of the water.”
“You don’t sound so confident.” Betty couldn’t have been more correct.
“I called Sean Graves to come pull the car out before I realized who the car belonged to,” my voice trailed off when I saw Doolittle Bowman in the distance next to her big Dually truck and her boat hitched up to the back. “I’ll call you back. Send Max,” I reiterated before I got off the phone.
“Well,” Poppa rubbed his hands together, “Let’s get to it.”
Poppa loved a good crime to solve. He was the reason I went into the academy. I’d spent many days and nights in this same Wagoneer riding around with him on calls. Murders were rare in Cottonwood, so it was mainly neighborly disputes over religion or opinions. Poppa would tell these people the same thing, “opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one. Just respect each other.”
I wish it was as easy as that nowadays.
“Doolittle,” I greeted her when I got out of the car.
“Sheriff,” She pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose. The knit stocking cap was tugged over her short hair. “Right on over there.”
Without me having to even look, I knew Sean had pulled up when I heard a door slam followed up by stomping footsteps.
The gravel from the boat ramp spit up under my brown sheriff shoes with each hurried step. On each side of the ramp was a wooded area with tall trees that were barren of their leaves. The Kentucky Bluegrass had long gone into hibernation and would soon flourish in the spring as the limestone underneath warmed the earth’s surface.
I walked into the wooded area to get down to the river bank a little more. By the looks of the river banks, it appeared the small SUV had drifted to the right once it went into the river and dragged down the banks. It also looked as though it went top heavy as it dragged along the shoreline, getting the nose stuck in the mud underneath the water. The only thing visible was the back window and tail lights and the fact it was red. The license plate was the exact match to Leighann’s that Jilly and Sean had given me earlier.
“Oh my god, my baby!” Sean screamed and ran past me, confirming my worst fears. It was definitely Leighann’s car.
“Sean!” I screamed at the top of my lungs before he could do anything stupid. I grabbed his arm and dug my nails into it. “Don’t!”
“Get my baby out of there,” he seethed through his gritted teeth. His finger jutted towards the river.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Poppa walk down into the water and disappear.
“We don’t know she’s in there. It could just be her car,” I said in a steady voice. I tried to talk to him calmly so he’d settle down a little bit, though I knew it was probably hoping for too much. “If there’s some evidence in the car or on the car and you jump in, I won’t be able to use it to help find her.”
“You think there’s hope?” His eyes burn
ed with tears.
“I think you need to let me do my job.” I let go of him when I felt like he was a little more together. “Now, if you don’t think you can pull...” I stopped and had to keep my composure when Poppa came out of the water. His face said it all. “Listen,” I tried to turn Sean around so he’d stop staring at the backend of the car. “I’m going to call S&S Auto from Clay’s Ferry.”
“Why would you do that when I’m right here and can get it out?” He got unglued and started to pace back and forth.
“Because of this.” I pointed out his behavior. “You are rightfully so upset. I need this to be pulled out with no emotions attached to it whatsoever. That means you need to let me do my job and what I think is best. And.” I gave him a firm look and took a deep breath. “And, if she is in there, I can’t have the scene tainted until it’s processed.”
About that time, Scott pulled up in his car and got out.
“Who the hell is that?” Sean asked with disgust.
“This is Officer Lee, Scott Lee. He’s with the state reserve and will be here during Christmas.” I knew Sean wasn’t comprehending anything I was saying, but I had to go through the motions. “He’s going to talk to you while I make that call to S&S.”
Sean nodded and sat down on the cold earth.
“Why don’t you come sit in my car,” Scott suggested to Sean. “I’ve got a nice hot cup of coffee from Cowboy’s Catfish you can sip on to keep you warm until we get this all straightened out.”
“I’ll be a yellow-bellied-sap-sucker,” Poppa eyeballed Scott and repeated one of his favorite phrases that meant he was in shock. “This here feller is a perfect fit for your department. He knows how to talk to everyone.”
I ignored Poppa until I took a few steps towards the car and away from the other people so I could ask him some questions.
“What did you see in the car?” I asked under my breath.
“She’s in there. Or someone is in there. Long hair floating around the face.” The edges of Poppa’s lips turned down. “I’m figuring it’s the Graves girl.”