See Also Deadline

by Larry D. Sweazy

  “Doris said the dentist takes his wife to Arizona a couple of times each winter. The only thing she thought was unusual was the suddenness of the decision to go, but she wasn’t real concerned.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that, all things considered.”

  “Why, what’d you find out, Marjorie?” Guy stiffened in the chair, sat up straight at the sound of my tone. I was sure the look on my face was one of concern.

  I told Guy everything that I’d read in the reports and that Anke Welton had told me about Tina, then about Joey. But I stopped after that, hesitated and looked away.

  “So Nils and Darlys had a son like Tina Rinkerman?”

  “Yes.”

  “Boy, I woulda never thought that in a million years.”

  “Me either.” I was talking to the wall. I couldn’t look Guy in the eye.

  “What’s the matter, Marjorie?”

  “I was stuck in the snow for a while, Guy. I wasn’t sure that I was going to survive.”

  “George told me about that. I feel real bad that happened, Marjorie.”

  “I did something I shouldn’t have done, Guy. I’m sorry, but I looked at the reports. I was afraid something might happen to them, to me. I wanted more than anything to help you out. I’m sorry. I know I’m not a policeman, that they were for official business. I only wanted to help.”

  Guy sighed. “I don’t think there’s anything in there to help us.”

  “You sound like you’ve given up.”

  “No. I can’t . . .”

  I grabbed Joey’s envelope and pulled out the sheets of paper. I handed him the last report, the visitation report. “Look, I’m not sure that Henrik Oddsdatter knew about Joey before Christmas, but somehow he found out. He went to the State School one day, and then Nils was murdered the next. I’m not sure that all of this means anything, either, but you need to question him, see why he was there, and we need to find Darlys. She might be in danger. She might be in danger like Tina Rinkerman is in danger. We have to find them, Guy. You can’t give up. If I’m right, something might happen to them that you’ll regret for a long time to come.”

  “You really think Henrik Oddsdatter killed Nils?”

  “I do,” I said. “Yes, I really do.”

  CHAPTER 35

  I stood staring at Guy, tempted to put my hands on my hips so he could see that I was serious, but I knew that really wasn’t necessary. I had driven to Grafton and back, skirting a major blizzard. Nothing stopped me. Here I stood. If my presence didn’t convince him that I was serious, nothing would.

  “So,” Guy said, “you think that Henrik found out about Joey and that sent him over the edge? Everybody’s got a past, Marjorie. The dentist sure doesn’t seem the type to go off the deep end to me.”

  “I don’t agree. Darlys told me he was the jealous type. Controlling is what she called it. And I talked to him on the phone. He wanted to know if I knew anything about all of this. He was asking me about Darlys and her whereabouts. He was checking up on her.”

  “I can see that. Darlys Oddsdatter is a looker.”

  “She’s a good woman, Guy.”

  “I didn’t say that she wasn’t. Just that men notice her, that’s all.”

  He was right. I had seen it myself. George Lardner had looked Darlys up and down in a way that had made me uncomfortable. Henrik had probably seen that a million times since they’d been married. I was sure something like that could wear on a man. Especially if that man was predisposed to jealously.

  “I think there’s more to the story than just the jealousy, Guy. After Darlys gave birth to Joey and gave him up, she was sterilized. The paper said she was mentally insufficient, but we both know that Darlys Oddsdatter has never been insufficient at anything. I think her parents were horrified by Joey’s birth, his condition, and made sure something like that couldn’t happen again. I don’t know that for sure. I don’t know anything for sure. But she could never have another child. After that, she changed, got her life back together, kept herself busy with different kinds of causes, and married the town’s most successful dentist. Darlys became the socialite she was destined to be from the beginning. I wonder if that put her back in good graces with her parents? That must have taken some effort and skill. She coordinated the Ladies Aid, among other things, and was friends with Anna Jacobsen.

  “Now, I don’t know what happened between Nils and Darlys, but they didn’t seem to carry on their relationship after Joey was born. My guess is they went their separate ways. She saw Nils go on to have a productive married life, have three children of his own. Normal children. Darlys had Joey, who, if you look at the reports, she never gave up on. She visited the boy as often as she could.” I took a breath and stared at Guy. His face was stoic, taking in everything I said. “Remember,” I continued, “I speculated that Anna was pregnant? You didn’t know. When I said something to Darlys, she said, ‘That would be a tragedy, wouldn’t it?’ Maybe that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Nils having another child. Another reminder of something Darlys couldn’t have.”

  “But what’s that got to do with her husband?” Guy said.

  “Maybe she finally broke down and told Henrik about Joey. Maybe she said she wanted to bring Joey home. No one would have to know Joey was her son. He could be one of her projects. We all would have believed that. We know Darlys. Or we thought we did. She would do something like that. She would take in a boy like Joey Jacobsen out of the goodness of her heart.”

  “I still don’t see what you’re gettin’ at, Marjorie. I still don’t think that would cause Henrik to snap. I think he would welcome the boy into his house. I think he would give Darlys whatever she wanted. He always has. A new car, a nice house, fashionable clothes, trips to Arizona in the winter. Darlys Oddsdatter didn’t do without anything.”

  I stared at Guy. He was right. Henrik had given Darlys everything she ever wanted. “What if,” I said cautiously, “Darlys had to have Nils’s permission to bring Joey home, and Nils refused to give her his approval? Anke Welton’s letter says that’s all they were waiting on for Joey to leave the school. Legal permissions.” I stopped and dug through the pile of papers, found the letter, and handed it to Guy so he could see for himself.

  Then I kept on talking. “What if the only way to bring Joey home was to get Nils out of the way so Darlys could have what she wanted? What if Nils said no to bringing the boy home. Do you think Henrik might kill him then? Wait for him in a hunting stand and ambush him? Nobody would know, and in the end Darlys could bring Joey home because she was the only surviving parent, his only legal guardian.”

  Guy sat back in his chair. The springs squeaked as he sighed. “Why would Nils go out there?”

  “Nils and Anna got into a fight the night before he was murdered. I thought the argument was because Anna was pregnant again. Now I think they fought because of Joey. Nils told Anna about Joey because he had no choice, and they got into a fight. This was a bad fight, bad enough for Nils to stay the night in the Red Owl, away from his pregnant wife. He’d done that before, so she wasn’t too worried at first. Maybe Nils called Darlys to clear things up, to tell her once and for all that he wasn’t giving her his permission for her to have custody of Joey, I’m not sure. Henrik must have intervened, set up a meeting between the two of them. Henrik assured Nils they could solve the problem, come to terms of some kind. Why wouldn’t Nils go? Henrik was a respected businessman, a respected member of society. Everybody’s reputation was at stake. You know how this town is. Nils and Darlys had gone to great lengths to keep Joey a secret. Maybe he wanted to keep Joey a secret forever.”

  Guy sighed again. “This is all speculation, Marjorie.”

  “I don’t have any proof that Henrik killed Nils. But my theory speaks to motive, and maybe opportunity if everything checks out, if Henrik can’t account for his time, if he doesn’t have an alibi. So, to answer your question, yes, I think Henrik killed Nils.”

  I stopped talking and stood there
and stared at Guy while he considered everything I had said. As he did, I started to run through everything I knew about Henrik Oddsdatter to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important. Henrik became a main entry in my personal index:

  Oddsdatter, Henrik

  controlling

  jealous

  local dentist

  married to Darlys

  no children

  obsessed with perfection

  “I don’t know, Marjorie. I don’t think a man would kill another man so his wife could have what she wanted,” Guy said.

  I took a deep breath and had to consider that he might be right. I was going down the wrong track. “Darlys told me I was going to be good at being a member of the Ladies Aid. I think you’re going to be a really good sheriff, Guy.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “You ask the right questions, and you stand your ground when your gut tells you something’s not right. You’ve got good instincts,” I said.

  Guy smiled. He had perfect white teeth.

  “Wait,” I said, recalling my conversations with Henrik. “What if Henrik was appalled when he found out about Joey?”

  Guy put Anke Welton’s letter on top of the pile, and sat forward in his chair. “Go on,” he said.

  “He went to see Joey for himself, to see if he could deal with it. Darlys could have been with him. He could have made her wait in the car. And he couldn’t deal with what he saw. Maybe I was wrong about the permission. Maybe Nils was willing to give Darlys custody of Joey. Maybe Nils was tired of carrying a secret with him everywhere he went. Maybe he wanted to do the right thing, no matter the cost.”

  “That would mean Darlys could bring Joey home,” Guy said.

  “Yes, and Henrik’s perfect wife wouldn’t be so perfect anymore. Word would get out that Joey was Nils and Darlys’s son. Henrik would have to share that story, have to share Darlys with a boy that was truly hers and not his. There would be a division between them. Maybe he couldn’t handle it. Maybe he would be embarrassed by Joey. He said he and I were alike because we liked to put everything in its place, that we both pursued perfection in our careers. Maybe Henrik saw Joey as a defective, a feebleminded boy. Most people would. That’s one of the reasons why the State School exists, so people don’t have to see the flaws of the human race.”

  “So if he killed Nils, then the boy would have to stay in Grafton, out of sight.”

  “Yes, he knew he could control Darlys. He could refuse to give her his permission to bring Joey home. And,” I said, “he wouldn’t have to deal with seeing the man who had slept with his wife so long ago every time he went into the Red Owl. Maybe he couldn’t bear the thought of Nils and Darlys together at any point in their life. Maybe he thought he was the only man in her life.”

  Guy sat back in his chair, sighed, and nodded. “I can see that, Marjorie. Especially if Henrik was as controlling as you say.”

  “Darlys said it herself.”

  Guy nodded. “I’ve seen how jealousy can destroy a marriage.”

  I didn’t know what he was referring to. Guy had never talked to me about his marriages or why they didn’t work, but I had to assume that he was talking out of personal experience. I wasn’t going to pry. “There’s something else,” I said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Henrik was at the Jacobsens’ house after the murder. He was talking with Pastor when I came in and went over to say hello. He said something to me that I thought was odd at first. He said it was terrible that Anna would have to raise four children on her own, or something like that. I corrected him and told him that Nils and Anna only had three children. He cleared it up by saying that he couldn’t keep up with all of the families that came to his office. What if he was testing me to see if I knew about Joey? What if he was there to find out who knew about the boy?”

  “It’s not exactly the killer revisiting the scene of the crime,” Guy said.

  “No, it’s worse. It’s arrogant and psychopathic.”

  “Or he’s innocent, and he was at the Jacobsens’ paying his respects.”

  “Don’t you think you need proof of that?”

  Guy sighed and nodded at the same time. “Okay, the motive makes sense to me. More sense than anything anyone of us has come up with since this whole thing started. But I have one more question.”

  “Sure,” I said, “what’s that?”

  “Does your theory have anything to do with Tina Rinkerman?”

  “Yes, of course. If Darlys felt like Tina was in danger, then she would have done anything to protect her. Darlys knew Tina. She visited Joey too often not to. Joey and Tina had a close relationship. They were friends. There’s no way Darlys couldn’t have had a decent relationship with Tina. There’s a link there, a reference that’s connected. If Darlys loved Joey, maybe she loved Tina, too. No matter what anybody did to Darlys, they couldn’t sterilize the mothering instinct out of her. She took care of everything, of everyone. She would protect Tina if she thought she was in danger.”

  “Who would want to do Tina harm?” Guy said.

  “There’s only one other person in Dickinson who knows about Joey Jacobsen.”

  “Tina Rinkerman, as far as we know,” Guy said. “She knows about Joey.”

  “She was in danger from Henrik, Guy. He was looking for anyone who knew about Joey. Darlys knew she had to protect Tina or he would kill her, too. If we find Darlys, I think we’ll find Tina.”

  “What about Anna?” Guy asked. “Wouldn’t she know?”

  “I don’t think she does. She never mentioned any indiscretion that Nils committed. As raw as she is, and as honest as she’s been with me, I think she would have at least insinuated something about Joey, and she didn’t.”

  “Okay, I can buy that. I hate to keeping playing devil’s advocate, but Henrik and Darlys are in Arizona.”

  “Maybe that’s a ruse. Maybe Henrik thought you were getting close to figuring out what had happened, and he felt like he needed to disappear.”

  “Or he thought you were going to put all of the pieces together, Marjorie. Maybe he was the one that ran you off the road.”

  “I thought that, too, at first, but he never came back. Wouldn’t he have tried to kill me? Still, it might be the truth, but, Lord, I hope not. Henrik might be right here in Dickinson,” I said. “I think you should check the house and his office again. Go inside instead of knocking on the door.”

  “I’ll have to convince the judge of probable cause.”

  “You can do this, Guy. At the worst, I’m wrong, and they are in Arizona.”

  “And I’ll have one angry judge on my hands for waking him up in the middle of the night.”

  “Or,” I continued, ignoring the negative tone in Guy’s voice, “we’re right. Henrik is the killer, and Darlys and Tina are in big trouble.”

  He picked up the phone, and said, “I’m going to have to get a search warrant for the house and the office.”

  I stirred awake two hours later when Guy came back into his office. He had tried to convince me to go home, but I wasn’t leaving. I’d told him that I would wait, that I needed to know if Darlys and Tina were all right.

  Guy tried to be as quiet as he could. I was exhausted from the day, but my ears were tuned to hear any sound, even in what seemed like a sound sleep. I’d had plenty of training listening for Hank to have trouble breathing, or for him to call for me while I slept. Sleeping light was a skill I had acquired out of necessity, not desire.

  I was huddled in an orange vinyl chair with my coat thrown over me for a cover. “Did you get the warrant?”

  Guy stopped. He looked like a hungry boy sneaking to the Frigidaire in the middle of the night. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you, Marjorie.”

  I sat up, noticed the papers in his hand. “Is Duke going with you?”

  “He’s working an accident on I-94. Semi jackknifed. Three more cars slid off the road trying to miss the wreck. He’ll be there a while working cleanup.”

/>   Harald Crane was heading toward Fargo and not Montana. I didn’t have to worry that it was him in the accident.

  “You’re not going by yourself,” I said. I regretted the words as soon as I said them. The innocent boy turned into an angry sheriff unaccustomed to being told what to do.

  Guy froze, stiffened. “I can’t call in reinforcements at this late hour based on your theory, Marjorie.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” I took a deep breath. “I’ll go with you, if that’s all right.”

  “Marjorie, this is police business.”

  “I’ve been with you on police business before, Guy.”

  “You have . . .” Guy exhaled, relaxed a bit, stared at me like Hank used to when he knew he was in the middle of a losing argument. “If you’re right, this could be dangerous.”

  “You’re going to need backup. I’m all you have unless you want to trust George Lardner with a gun.”

  A smile flickered across Guy’s face. “He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.”

  “I can.”

  “I know you can.”

  “Backup, Guy. That’s all. I promise. I’ll do exactly as you tell me.”

  “If this was anybody but you, Marjorie, I’d send them packing.”

  “I’m not just anybody,” I said.

  “No, you’re not.” Guy hesitated, then reached down and strapped on his gun belt. “I’m assuming you have that peashooter of Hank’s in the truck?”

  “The .22?”

  “Yeah, his Revelation. My dad bought me one from Western Auto when I was a boy.”

  “I wasn’t going to leave home without protection.”

  “Too bad you don’t have his shotgun with you.”

  “I haven’t touched that gun since the day . . .”

  Guy’s face flushed red. He obviously felt like a fool for saying something about Hank’s death. He was going to have to get over that.

  “I’m sorry, Marjorie,” Guy said.

  “Don’t be. I’ll get the .22 out of the truck.”