by Tonya Kappes
I gulped. The stinging pain of tears crept up in the back of my nose and rested in my tear ducts as I tried to keep them from coming out.
“Kenni!” I jerked around when I heard Finn’s voice. He hurried towards me. Poppa disappeared. “Why didn’t you call me? I had to find out from Toots Buford at Dixon’s when she came in for her shift. She asked me what happened because she heard it on police scanner.”
“That’s exactly how they all found out.” I gestured to all the cars that were showing up and parking along the outskirts of the Chimney Rock boat dock.
“Doesn’t take long around here.” Finn’s brows rose when he looked over at Scott and Sean. “Is it the Graves’s girl car?”
“Afraid so.” I put my finger up and clicked the walkie-talkie.
“Go ahead, Sheriff,” Betty’s voice rang out in the quiet and echoed off the cliffs that surrounded the river. I rolled the volume down.
“Betty, can you call S&S Auto in Clay’s Ferry to come here?” It wasn’t necessarily a question, but she agreed and clicked off. “I had no clue it was her when I asked Sean to come pull it out. I figured it would be good for him to work and get Leighann off his mind.”
“Let’s hope she’s not in there.” Finn looked at me through some very optimistic eyes. “What? You look funny. You think she’s in there, don’t you?”
“It doesn’t look good. That’s all,” I stated. “No one has seen her. She’s not tried to get to her phone.”
Over the next twenty minutes as we waited on the tow company to get there, more and more citizens showed up. Most of them were out of their cars and had gathered at the top of the ramp. Sean had gotten out of the car and joined them. I left it up to him to give them any updates he found necessary.
Finn and I both got out the police tape and began to mark off the property where we felt was enough to preserve any sort of evidence. I made sure it was far away from the view of the car because I didn’t want the public to see us tow it out.
We still needed to scour the ground. I was praying for us to find something, but I didn’t know what. I’d gotten the camera out of my bag and took photos of the ramp, though Doolittle Bowman’s pull out had brought a lot of the lake water with it, washing away any evidence left from Leighann’s car.
The wind had picked up and I zipped up my coat.
“Looks like it’s moving in.” Poppa bounced on his toes and looked up to the sky. “Wee-doggie it’s gonna be a good one.”
“Do you see something?” Finn asked.
In a normal relationship, I’d been thrilled my boyfriend was watching my every move, but with my Poppa’s ghost here, I had to be more diligent of my reaction to him.
“Nothing.” I stuck my hands in my pockets. “It’s getting windy.” I glared at Poppa, giving him the unspoken gesture to skit out of here. “I’m not sure if it’s the cold chill sending shivers up my legs or what we might find in that car.”
“Sheriff, do you have a statement for the Cottonwood Chronicle?” Edna Easterly asked with her handheld tape recorder held over the police tape.
The brown fedora was perched on top of her head. The feather waving in the gust of wind. The index card that had REPORTER written in Sharpie was barely dangling on the hat. She had on her fishing vest with all the pockets over top of her winter coat. She filled the pockets with all her reporter stuff.
“People want to know if it’s Leighann Graves and if it is, is it foul play?” She yelled out questions. “Is her own dad going to pull out her car? I heard from an unnamed source that she and Manuel Liberty were in a fight last night. Do you think he did something to her? You were seen at the Liberty house this morning, why were you there?”
“Hi, Edna.” I could feel the tension starting to build above my brows. I rubbed my forehead on my way over to talk to her. “There’s no comment because we know nothing. When there is something to tell, I’ll give you the information. But for now, you need to move along.”
The yellow lights of the tow truck from S&S Auto were seen well before the truck. There was a big wreath on the front of the truck grill and a small light up Christmas tree dangling from the rear-view mirror. The sharp reality that life and holidays still continued even in the depth of pain and sorrow hit my gut and I suddenly felt sick just thinking about what was going to take place in a few short minutes after the SUV was pulled from the river. Finn helped direct the driver after he’d talked to him about where the car was.
Edna Easterly didn’t give two hoots about space or even what I’d said. She was snapping photos and asking the tow-truck driver all sorts of questions. Finn backed Edna away.
The big burly man with a curly mullet that I’d dealt with before got out of the tow truck after he drove down to where I was waiting for him. He wore a pair of blue mechanic overalls that were exactly what I’d seen him in before.
“Sheriff,” He eyed me, not making the same mistake he’d done when he met me a year ago by brushing me off since I was a girl. “Looks like we got us an SUV to pull out.”
“It appears that way.” I wasn’t one for small talk. I just wanted to get the car out of the river and get on with this investigation of the homicide.
“He’s so country he thinks a seven-course meal is a possum and a six-pack.” Poppa joked about the truck driver but I didn’t laugh like I normally would. All eyes were on me and my every single move, facial movement and breath. “Kenni-Bug,” Poppa noticed my solemn attitude. “Honey, this is going to be hard, but it’s part of your job. You’ve got to spit-shine that star these citizens voted you in to wear and get a stiff upper lip. They need your strength. The strength you innately have in you.”
I gulped, holding back the tears, and rubbed my finger over my five-point star. I drew on my inner guidance to get the energy and courage I needed when I heard the tow truck start to rev up to get a little closer to the edge of the water. I made sure my face was stern as I watched the man pull on a pair of waders and boots. He got into the water with big chains over his shoulder. He hooked them up to the hitch of Leighann’s car.
When he got out, he took off the waders and boots and flipped the switch on the truck. The buzz of the chains clinking together made my heart beat faster and faster as they jerked up the end of Leighann’s car up and out of the water. The water-logged SUV was dragged up to the ramp, spewing out water.
Sean Graves took a few steps forward, only to be greeted by the stiff arm of Scott. I couldn’t help but notice Finn’s face when Scott did something that normally Finn would do. There was a sense that Finn was glad he wasn’t the one trying to stop Sean Graves.
“Let’s take a look inside,” I whispered to Finn and took the first step forward with him following behind me.
There was mud so thick that it covered the hood and the doors. I slipped on a pair of gloves and so did Finn. It was crucial to preserve anything we could. Though Finn didn’t realize how crucial.
I ran my finger down along the creases of the driver’s side door before I opened it.
“Empty.” My brows furrowed.
“Thank, God,” Finn’s breath he’d been holding let out a long audible sigh.
The windows of the SUV were also covered in mud and though the sun had come out, it was still dark in the SUV. I unsnapped the flashlight from my holster and shined in the back. My heart fell to my feet when I saw Leighann in the very back. It was her beautiful red hair with the shimmery flecks of the silver tinsel that I’d noticed in her hair at the dance that told me it was her.
I pulled out of the SUV and handed Finn my flashlight.
“What is it, Kenni?” I heard Sean scream out my name from behind me. “Is she in there? God don’t tell me she’s in there!”
There was something about facing a father to tell him that his daughter was dead that didn’t make me like my job.
When I turned around to look at him, it only too
k a split-second eye contact to take the man to his knees.
Chapter Six
“Do you promise you’re going to find out what happened? How am I going to tell Jilly?” Sean ran his hands through his hair and wiped them over his mouth. Sean Graves begged and pleaded with me, “Promise me, Sheriff.”
“I promise I’m going to try and figure out what happened.” I knew it was going to be hard and any crime was a lot like a puzzle. There were pieces that fit here and there, it was trying to figure out where those pieces went that took the longest.
“I can’t understand it. She was such a good driver.” His nostrils rose and fell with each hard breath he took. “How am I going to tell Jilly?” His face crunched together, his lips rolled underneath his teeth, his jaw set and tears welled up in his eyes. He dragged the sleeve of his jacket across his eyes, blinking several times to keep the tears at bay.
It took about thirty minutes for Finn and Scott to clear the scene of the residents that’d come down to see what was going on. It took a whole lot longer to get Sean Graves to let Scott take him home. Took me even longer to gather my wits about me. Leighann Graves was the youngest homicide I’d ever had and I wanted to scream from the top of my lungs. Who on earth ended this young life too soon? Only, I knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t even tell my deputy that she was murdered.
We didn’t touch the body until Max Bogus, the owner of the only funeral home in Cottonwood and our town’s coroner, got there. There were steps that needed to be taken and I was going to make sure this one was by the books.
“How do you know some of these things?” Finn asked with a perplexed look.
“What things?” I asked back and tried not to get lost into his big brown eyes.
“You really thought she was in there, like you knew. You sure you’re not one of them voodoo women?” He joked while we waited for Max to get Leighann’s body on the church cart.
Max wore his typical khakis with a button-down shirt. This time he had on a V-neck sweater, probably due to the cold weather, and a heavy coat. His black rimmed glasses fogged with each breath he took.
“I guess it was just all the lack of contact Leighann had given over the past few hours.” Lines creased in my forehead as my brows dipped. “It was like her to run off from her parents’ house, but not like her to disappear completely.”
I hated myself for lying to him. But I wasn’t sure how he’d take it if I said that my Poppa, the ghost, told me. That’s just something I wasn’t sure even how to go about telling him. Nor did I want him to think I was nuts and dump me. Just not on my Christmas list this year.
Max motioned for us to come over. His round face was tense.
“Well?” I asked wondering what he saw.
“Nothing that’s really apparent. I’m going to take her to the morgue to run some quick tests like drugs and alcohol to see if she was drunk driving or high, but on the outside, she’s in perfect condition.” He pinched his lips together.
“You don’t think it’s a homicide?” Finn asked.
“It’s strange that she was in the back. Though she could’ve floated back there if she didn’t have her seatbelt on, I’m guessing. But how did her keys get in her pocket?” He used the end of his pen to pick up a set of keys that were resting next to her hand on the gurney. “I checked the ignition and there were no keys in it. Plus, the SUV is in park.”
I looked down at the ground so they couldn’t see the relief on my face. The keys in her pocket and car in park was just more evidence it was a homicide and the less I had to prove what I’d been calling my hunch...which was Poppa.
“We are going to be busy this Christmas.” Poppa did a jig. “Selfishly, I was afraid I wouldn’t get to wish you a Merry Christmas, but now I can sing to you!” He was giddy with delight. “Oh, you better watch out.” Poppa’s mouth formed a dramatic “O.” “You better not cry.”
I walked a few steps to get away from him. I knew he was sad about Leighann. There just comes a time after you see so many homicides that you have initial emotions, then you realize it’s part of the job and it’s like your heart gets hard. Or maybe it was the way your body and mind coped with the idea of death. Poppa had told me many times that I’d get used to seeing dead bodies, and the feelings would change over time.
Right now, Poppa wasn’t being insensitive, he was just living what he’d always told me. He loved Christmas and he always made sure it was special for me, his only grandchild. Right now wasn’t the time to discuss it, though I was happy to see him too. Not under these circumstances. Unfortunately, these were the only circumstances under which we were able to see each other.
“That is odd.” Finn shook his head and ran his hand down his head, resting it on the back of his neck. It appeared to him now that some foul play had happened. “And it looks like the right rear panel of the car is gone.”
“By goodness,” I gasped, “You’re right.”
We spent the next hour or so combing the area for that panel or anyplace that appeared the car had hit for the panel to be knocked off. We used the chains from the tow truck to drag the area where he’d pulled the car from the water, but there wasn’t anything in there.
“This is really strange,” I said to my Poppa when I got into the Wagoneer and he was sitting in the passenger seat. I drove up and down the road very slow, scouring each side of the road to see if there was any sort of object she could’ve hit or even if the panel was on the side of the road somewhere. Anything that looked like it could’ve been hit with the car. “What are you thinking?”
“I was thinking that she was coming down the road and maybe a deer or something crossed in front of her car. She slammed on the breaks, sending her into a tailspin.” Poppa retold stories I’d heard all over Cottonwood as a kid where someone’s car got destroyed by a deer.
“That could be a possibility if her keys weren’t in her pocket and not in the ignition.” When I checked out the back of the car, it wasn’t wet, and it was too cold out for the back to have dried that quickly. “And how does that explain how the car got in park and in the river?”
The thought of it made chills crawl up my spine and down my arm, forcing me to grip the wheel as I turned back towards the boat dock where Finn continued to look into the woods for anything.
“That’s how we know it was a homicide. And we both know that foul play is here.” He gestured between us. “This means that me and you need to play our little game.”
The little game he was referring to was the back and forth we loved to do when I was a little girl and now that I was sheriff. In fact, every time he did ghost himself, we’d play the game and it helped get more clues for me to look into.
I got out of the Jeep and slammed the door.
“You’re right. I’ve got to go see the Graves again. Not to mention Manuel and his mother.” I sighed.
“I hope you’re going to take a look at Juanita Liberty since she wasn’t fond of the girl,” Poppa said with a troubled face.
“She sure didn’t make any bones about it,” I added. “Not that she was going to admit that she killed Leighann.”
There was a history between the Graves’s and the Liberty’s where neither family were happy with their child dating the other. Both claimed they wanted better for their children. Many times over the past year when Leighann was underage, I was called out to the Graves’s house or the Liberty house due to Sean Graves’s claiming Manuel had been trespassing or they were fighting.
“When I’ve been to the Liberty house to talk to Manuel and Juanita was there, she made it clear that she was just as unhappy as Sean Graves with the two dating.” I gnawed on the inside of my cheek and turned the Wagoneer around to head back to the crime scene. “She certainly didn’t say she wanted the girl dead.”
“She didn’t say she didn’t. She just made it apparent she didn’t like her.” Poppa frowned. “Not that Viv would k
ill anyone, but she’s not happy with Finn for taking you away in a few days. Juanita is a Mama bear like Viv.”
“She did say that she wanted better for Manuel than working at a tow company. He did have a future in a football career.” I signed. “If Juanita got rid of Leighann, maybe Manuel would rethink his future.”
“And gives her a motive to kill Leighann.” Poppa’s words made me get a queasy stomach.
“I’ll have Finn bring her into the department. I don’t want to question her at home,” I said and watched Finn walking towards my Jeep as we pulled back into Chimney Rock. “She’s a single mom with those other two young boys.”
Manuel had two younger brothers. One was in high school and the other was much younger and I wanted to say he was in elementary school.
“Who are you talking to?” Finn glanced around the inside of my Jeep.
“I wasn’t talking.” I tried to play it off.
“There was condensation coming from your mouth as you spoke.” His face grew serious, his jaw tensed.
“I guess I was just going over things in my head and didn’t realize I was saying it out loud.” I smiled to hide the crazy I was feeling by trying to keep him and Poppa’s conversations separate.
“You’re going to have to tell him sooner or later. I’d prefer sooner so he’ll high-tail it out of here and leave you alone. You can’t be a good sheriff and be all goo-goo-eyed over this northern.” Poppa snarled, putting up his dukes like he was going to pop Finn in the nose. “Taking you away from your Mama during Christmas. What was he thinking?” Poppa spit. “He wasn’t thinking, that’s what happened. He wasn’t thinking of you and your family like he should be if his intentions are true.”
“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered under my breath.
“Time for what?” Finn’s head jerked up.
“This...murder.” I stomped to cover my slip up. I cozied up to Finn and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “We are getting ready to go to visit your family. Which I can’t wait for.” I gave him an extra little squeeze when I wrapped my arms around him. “The last thing we need is an investigation hanging over our head during Christmas.”