Blood began leaking through the fingers of the hand over his chest. He gasped, then staggered backward into the storage room. I heard him collapse a second later. I didn’t follow; I didn’t try to get another shot off.
Guy appeared in the beam of light with his weapon in his hand again. He rushed inside the room, yelling, “Drop the weapon! Everybody down!” But there was no answer this time.
Somehow, I made my way to the door as Guy flipped on the lights inside the storage room.
Henrik lay on his back, staring upward. He was dead. I had killed him.
I had killed a man.
Darlys and Tina Rinkerman were hunkered down in the corner, almost hidden in a pile of cardboard boxes, both of them very much alive. Frightened, but alive.
They held onto each other for dear life. They were shaken and afraid. Tears rolled down Tina’s chubby cheeks. She understood what was going on, what had happened. I could see intelligence in her eyes. The same narrow eyes I had glimpsed on a dark, snowy night, floating by me on Villard Street. I wondered who had been driving, Darlys or Henrik, where they were coming from? I think I knew where they’d been going. Here, to the basement. To hide? Or to be safe? I would know soon enough, once the dust settled. All that mattered was that they were alive. The Rinkermans and Anke Welton would be relieved, but Darlys, oh, Darlys. She had joined the same club as Anna and me. The widow’s club. At my hand. I had killed her husband.
I could find no joy in finding out that I was right about who had killed Nils Jacobsen or why.
CHAPTER 38
A few weeks later, the three women from the Ladies Aid showed up at my house right on schedule. I had bowed out, all things considered. Pastor John Mark still visited weekly, as well, and encouraged me to get out more, to get on with living, but winter still had hold of the land, all covered in a blank white sheet, and I had plenty of indexing work to keep me busy until spring. The farm would have plenty of demands once the thaw came. I would have little time for the business of town life then. My seven hundred and twenty acres, and my indexing work, would be demanding enough. Besides, I wasn’t ready to face the world, to listen to the whispers. She killed a man. I wasn’t sure that I would ever be ready for that.
Shep didn’t get nearly as excited as he used to when the Ladies Aid came for a visit. Darlys had given up her directorship and had chosen her own seclusion. No one had seen her since the funeral.
Theda Parsons had taken Darlys’s place, and I got the distinct feeling that Theda, like Lene and Anna, felt that the inside of the house was no place for a dog. Shep, ever keen with his sense of people, only roused a bit when the three women made their way inside the house. The dog lay by the Franklin stove the whole visit.
February’s weather could be as bad as January’s, but on this day there was no fresh snow on the ground, and the wind was only a slight breeze.
“Nice and warm in here, Marjorie,” Anna said, as she kicked the snow off her boots on the mat inside the door. Once she took off her coat, I could tell her stomach had grown a bit since I’d seen her last. She was a little under three months along.
Anna handed me her bowl of Jell-O salad, then gave me a hug. “It’s so good to see you,” she said.
I smiled. “You, too.”
Anna had picked herself back up after the funeral and decided to keep herself busy with the Ladies Aid for as long as she could. Everything would change once the baby came.
“Did I tell you that my mother’s moving down from Stanley?” Anna said.
I followed her over to the table, leaving Theda and Lene to themselves for the moment. The seed catalogs were gone from the table, replaced by a big manila envelope that held the index to the Central Flyway book. I was done with that project and on to the next one, a book about growing and processing tea in China.
I sat the salad down. “That’s good news,” I said.
“Mother will be a big help,” Anna answered, as Lene walked up to me and gave me a hug, too. Theda Parsons held back, her coat off, eyeing Shep nervously.
“I’m out of strawberry jam, so I didn’t bring any sandkakes. I know they’re your favorites,” Lene said. She’d brought an apple kuchen, a German cake. I could smell cinnamon and cloves.
“That’s okay. I’m just happy to see all of you.”
After our hellos, we sat down and ate our treats, drank our coffee, and smoked our cigarettes. Anna was trying to quit, but she sneaked a puff of Lene’s cigarette when I was in the kitchen.
“Duke says to tell you hello,” Theda said.
“How’s he doing?” I shifted uncomfortably on the davenport.
“Okay. The healing’s comin’ along slow. The doctors thought he might lose his arm at first, but that’s not going to happen, thank goodness.”
“What about his job?” I said, before I thought.
Theda didn’t seem to mind. “Sheriff said Duke would always have a job, even if that meant tradin’ places with George Lardner, don’t ya know.”
I smiled. “I bet George might have something to say about that.”
“George will do as he’s told.” Theda stiffened, then took a drink from her coffee cup. “The sheriff’s wound was minor, you know. He was back at work the next day.”
I sat there stone-faced. Guy and I had only spoken once since the night in the basement, and that was when I’d made a formal statement at the station. The killing was ruled as self-defense. I wasn’t going to face any charges.
Anna cleared her throat. “Come spring, I’m going up to Grafton, Marjorie. Me and Darlys are going to go see Joey and Tina. You’re more than welcome to come with us.”
I didn’t know what to say. Darlys and I had little to say to each other. Time, I hoped, would take the sting out of seeing of me. I’d learned at Nils’s funeral that Tina had gone back to the State School, and that Joey was going to stay for the time being, maybe for a long time to come, until Darlys got herself back together.
“Well, we’ll have to see, won’t we,” I said. I hesitated. I had a question but couldn’t bring myself to ask her. Anna knew me well enough to know something was bothering me.
“What’s the matter, Marjorie?” she said, putting her hand on mine.
There’s something I don’t understand.”
“What?”
“About Tina, but I don’t want to talk about something that will bother you.”
“I’m okay, really. I’m not over this, not by any means,” Anna said, “but I know that Nils didn’t do anything wrong. He was a good man. He made a mistake as a boy, and in a way he paid for his mistake all his life. Maybe he could have handled the situation differently, but we all keep a lot of things to ourselves, don’t we? Nils loved me and the children. I know that.”
“Good,” I said. “But what I don’t know is how Darlys ended up being with Tina?”
“I can answer that,” Theda said. “Duke told me. Darlys knew Tina from her visits with that boy. Once Henrik found out about Joey, Darlys got worried about his state of mind. He was madder than she’d ever seen him. She was afraid for Tina, so she called out to the Rinkermans, something she did regularly to keep in touch with Tina. Tina answered the phone. Toren and Adaline didn’t know Tina had spoken to Darlys; they were out in the shop. Darlys figured she could hide Tina for a few days until things cooled down, but they never did. Things got worse. Darlys didn’t mean to cause the Rinkermans any sufferin’, she was worried about Tina. That’s why she put her in the basement.”
“I thought maybe that was what happened, but I wasn’t sure. Toren and his wife must be relieved,” I said.
“I think they are,” Theda said. “They’re not going to make any trouble for Darlys. They figure she’s been through enough.”
We talked about the spring bazaar, the weather, anything we could until the ladies decided to leave.
We all stood, and I said, “Can you wait a moment?” I went to the bedroom without waiting for their approval and headed straight for the closet. I stared at th
e box of clothes for a long second.
“Marjorie,” Anna said, soft as a mouse, “can I come in?”
She’d startled me. I looked up to find Anna at the door, hanging onto the jamb for fear of falling. Her face was ashen and her eyes pleading. She had let me into her bedroom in her darkest hour. I saw no reason not to let her into mine.
“Sure, is something the matter?” I said.
Anna stopped inches from me and spoke in a voice meant only for me to hear. “There’s more to this if you want to know.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” I said.
“I do. This was all my fault. I knew about Darlys and Nils, you see, but I didn’t let on like I did. The past was the past. But I was jealous of her. She was so beautiful, how could I blame Nils for wanting to be with her? I didn’t know about Joey, though, not until Christmas. I was starting to have morning sickness, and I confided in Darlys that I was afraid I was pregnant again. I shouldn’t have done that. I wouldn’t of told her had I known everything.”
“You can’t blame yourself for what you didn’t know,” I said, reaching and putting my hand on her shoulder.
Anna touched her belly. “I can. That was only the start of things. I set Darlys off. She hadn’t told Henrik about the boy. I don’t know how she kept her trips to Grafton a secret all those years.”
I’d wondered about that, too. “Darlys kept herself busy. I don’t think he ever knew where she was or what she was doing. She did that on purpose so she could breathe, have something of her own. Henrik was a jealous, controlling man. Her deceit took some effort, but Darlys could have probably driven to Grafton and back in one day, and explained her absence in one way or another. Henrik told me he rarely ever knew where she was.”
“Once we all knew, Darlys wanted to bring Joey home for good,” Anna said.
“I know that.”
Anna’s lip trembled. “But I said no. I didn’t want to deal with that. A new baby was on the way. We would have four children. And him. A boy who would never grow up. I couldn’t handle the thought of that boy being here. I told Nils and Darlys no. Nils wanted to be done with all of the secrets and finally get everything out in the open. He wanted Darlys to have the boy at home if that’s what she wanted. And I said no.” Anna burst into tears. I pulled her to me, into as tight a hug as I could muster. “This was my fault,” she continued. “I told them no, even after Tina disappeared. Darlys stopped in the store on the way out here after Tina went missing. Of course, she knew where Tina was, but she pleaded with Nils to convince me to let Joey come home. She wouldn’t say anything to me with Lene in the car, and I made sure I was never alone with her. Nils said he would talk to me again. I was afraid that Tina’s disappearance had something do with Joey. I said no again after I got home from visiting you, then Nils and me argued. He stormed out and must have called Henrik, or Henrik called him to try and work the disagreement out, or not. I don’t know. I was scared having that boy here would change everything. Make things worse than they already were. What would people think? Nils the father of a retarded boy? He could have lost his job. We could have lost everything . . .”
“This wasn’t your fault, Anna. There was a better solution to this than murder.”
Anna couldn’t talk anymore. I let her cry. I wondered if she’d told Guy all of this? I hoped so. I didn’t know what else to do other than sing her the lullaby that I’d sung to her in her bedroom,
“Rock me a little, mama mine,
And you shall have ribbons on your shirt.
Do you want yellow? Do you want blue?
Do you want shiny ones? I’ll give them to you,
On your shirt,
Mama mine.”
The song calmed her down. Once Anna caught her breath, she looked up at me, and cleared her eyes. “It wasn’t your fault, Marjorie. I wanted you to know that. I wanted you to know that more than anything. It was my fault that you had to shoot Henrik. I would have come around. I would have said yes to Nils. If I would have been a better person, none of this would have ever happened. It was all too much. I’d just found out I was pregnant again. Now I’m left to wonder what would have happened to us all if I had said yes. I’ll never know. That’s the only reason why I came out here today, to tell you to blame me.”
“Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’m not going to blame anyone.” I wasn’t so sure of that, but I wasn’t going to share my guilt and grief with Anna about what happened in that basement. Not right then. If ever. I killed a man. I really didn’t know how I was ever going to be able to live with myself. “Come on, dry those tears. I think the ladies might be getting impatient. Lene was looking at her watch before I came in here.”
Anna stood up, then said, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, really.” I picked up the box of clothes and walked out into the front room and handed it to Lene without any hesitation. “Here,” I said. “Here’s that box of Hank’s clothes I’ve been promising you.”
Lene took the box gingerly. She glanced at Anna, then back at me, and said, “Are you sure?”
“You know, Hank Trumaine’s with me every second of every day. I didn’t lose all of him. He still comforts me when I’m scared and encourages me when I need encouraging. I miss him more than I can tell you, but I can’t keep hanging onto his things forever. Somebody else needs those shirts more than I do.” I glanced over at Anna, who’d followed me. She still looked stricken.
“If you’re sure?” Lene repeated.
“I am. I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”
We walked outside, and Anna stopped to give me a hug. She started to say she was sorry again, but I stopped her. “We have to walk forward together,” I said. She got in the car with the other two women, and they drove off, leaving Shep and me to ourselves.
Evening was in full swing, the ground white, the sky gray, and Hank’s security light on the garage burned bright.
“Come on, boy, I’ve got some work to do. Let’s go see how they make tea in China. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Shep barked, spun around in a circle, and ran back inside the house. I followed him, closed the door, and locked it.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Dickinson, North Dakota, portrayed in See Also Proof is a fictional Dickinson. For the purposes of storytelling, the author has taken liberties with the history, map, and organizations that appear on these pages. For more information about the town, please visit the Dickinson Museum Center, 188 East Museum Drive, Dickinson, North Dakota, 58601, or visit online at dmc.omeka.net.
The book Marjorie indexes in this book, The Central Flyway: Audubon’s Journey Revisited by Jacob T. Allsworth, is a product of the author’s imagination. Information concerning birds that migrate, breed, and live in the central flyway may be found at http://www.audubon.org/central-flyway. Also, The Life of John James Audubon, The Naturalist (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1868), edited by Lucy Green Bakewell Audubon, can be found online at https://archive.org/details/lifejohnjamesaud00auduiala, or in your local library.
Information concerning indexing and careers in indexing may be found at the American Society for Indexing’s (ASI) website (https://www.asindexing.org/). The USDA correspondence course that Marjorie took to learn indexing is no longer in effect. ASI currently facilitates a training course that offers certification as an indexer.
The North Dakota Institution for the Feebleminded was established in 1901. The name was changed to the Grafton State School in 1933, and it is now known as the State Development Center. The Sterilization Law was passed in North Dakota in 1913 and was law until 1962. There were 1,049 victims of forced sterilization during this period. This novel is by no means a criticism of the Grafton State School and is not meant to take away from the good work that the Development Center does on a daily basis. Words such as defectives, idiots, insane, and retarded were commonly used in this era, including in the law itself. Such words in our modern world are considered hurtful and pejorati
ve. Please note that the author has meant no harm or offense by using these words. The author has only sought to portray the realities of the time in history and the consequences that the law and practice of forced sterilization inflicted on society. The first instance of the use of the term Down Syndrome was found in an issue of the journal Lancet in 1964. The term would not have been in full use during the period portrayed in this story. For more information concerning Down Syndrome, please visit the website of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation (http://www.globaldownsyndrome.org).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thanks goes to Dan Mayer, Steven Mitchell, Jon Kurtz, Jill Maxick, and to the publicity, marketing, and art departments at Seventh Street Books. All of your efforts to bring the Marjorie Trumaine mysteries to readers is greatly appreciated.
I am grateful to Norman Campbell, Matthew Clemens, Stephen King (we’ve never met, but his book On Writing is a continuing source of inspiration and advice), Cheryl Lenser, Erika Millen, Cathleen Snyder Small, and Brenda Stewart for their help and encouragement. This book would be less without their research contributions and suggestions. Any mistakes are my own.
Thanks also to Cherry Weiner, my longtime agent, who has been a champion of my work from the beginning. Thanks for everything that you’ve done, and continue to do, so I can carry on with my dream of telling stories. I couldn’t do what I do without you.
And, finally, thanks to my wife, Rose. These stories have given us a life that we could have never imagined. I can’t thank you enough for the belief, encouragement, love, and conviction you’ve shown me, and the world, over the years. Thank you seems so little for so much.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Larry D. Sweazy (www.larrydsweazy.com) has been a freelance indexer for nineteen years. In that time, he has written over nine hundred back-of-the-book indexes for major trade publishers and university presses such as Addison-Wesley, Berghahn Books, Cengage, American University at Cairo Press, Cisco Press, Pearson Education, Pearson Technology, University of Nebraska Press, Wayne State Press, Weldon Owen, and many more. He continues to work in the indexing field on a daily basis.
See Also Deadline Page 24