by Kathi Daley
She furrowed her brow. “I can’t say I know for certain, but I do remember him telling me that shortly after they arrived in White Eagle, he and his mom went out hiking and found a tunnel leading to an open area behind a water fall.”
“Whispering Falls?”
She nodded. “I think so. He only mentioned it once, when he was in a particularly sentimental mood, but that sounds right. He also mentioned a lake that was special to him and his mother, but I can’t remember the name. I had a feeling it was a place they visited when he was a child, so it might not be anywhere around here.”
“Did Chip ever talk about a relative he was close to?”
She shook her head. “He didn’t talk about family.”
“I understand his mother had a brother. Did he ever mention an uncle?”
She sat back and looked up at the sky. “Not an uncle specifically, but I remember him talking about someone who was around when he was a kid. Another adult besides his parents he spent time with. Georgie, I think. He said Georgie taught him to shoot a gun, and he wished he had his gun with him when he found out what his father had done.” She lowered her eyes. “Being a teenager is tough anyway, but being a teenager and having to deal with that must have been unbearable.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I was sure it was.
She needed to get back to work, so Connie Payton said her good-byes just before our food was delivered. The sandwiches were fantastic, piled high with homemade bread and fresh ingredients. If the restaurant wasn’t so far away, this would definitely be a place I’d come back to.
After we finished, we loaded up the dogs and drove back toward White Eagle.
“It’s still early,” I said as we sped north, “and it’s light late into the day now. I bet we’d have time to hike up to Whispering Falls to look around.”
“Have you ever been there?” Tony asked.
“A few times when I was a kid. I didn’t know about the secret passage, but I remember where the trailhead is. It’s been a while, but I think it’s only a mile or two from the parking area.”
“I wouldn’t mind a hike. I bet the dogs would like to stretch their legs too. We’ll need to skip the farmers market, though.”
I shrugged. “We can catch it next weekend.”
“Do you have everything you need?” Tony asked. He looked at my feet. “Other shoes?”
I nodded. “In my pack. I have a change of clothes and a jacket as well.”
The parking area was littered with cars here and there. During the summer, you had to arrive early to even get a spot, but the tourist season had yet to kick in and a lot of the locals were busy with spring-cleaning and outdoor projects at this time of the year. I changed into my tennis shoes, added water and granola bars and the dogs’ leashes to a small day pack Tony had stashed under his seat, and headed down the well-marked trail with Tony at my side and Tilly and Titan trotting before us.
“Look at the flowers!” I gasped in delight as we passed a large meadow with green grass crowded with red, yellow, and purple flowers. It was kept damp by a rambling brook, so I imagined it was lush and green most of the year.
“Beautiful,” Tony agreed. “Maybe I’ll come back with my camera. My real camera,” he specified. “Not just my phone.”
“I’d love to take a photo of the meadow and blow it up for that big wall next to the fireplace in my cabin. I’d put it in one of those rustic wooden frames, stained dark to bring out the colors. The textures.”
“Any particular angle you’d choose?”
I stopped walking and scanned the meadow, looking for the perfect perspective. The snow on the mountains beyond seemed to magnify the green of the grass and the colors of the wildflowers. “There.” I pointed to the remnants of an old log cabin.
“That would make a good shot, all right.” Tony looked up the trail. “I think we’d better keep going. We’ll need to hurry if we want to have time to look around when we get to the falls.”
The trail was well marked but narrow and rocky. It was steep in places, with switchbacks as it wound its way up the mountain. Small seasonal creeks trickled across the hard-packed dirt in places, requiring detours through the brush if we didn’t want to deal with making the rest of the hike with wet shoes.
We paused only twice, once to take a sip from our water bottles and once to watch a deer family as they made their way toward the river, which sounded as if it was off to our right. Even with our steady pace, it took almost ninety minutes to reach the base of the falls.
“It’s farther than I remembered,” I said when we paused to consider the raging flow of water from the seasonal runoff.
“And the trail wasn’t an easy one, even for seasoned hikers like us,” Tony added.
I took a swig of my water, then wiped my mouth with the back of my arm. “You’re thinking there’s no way Chip would ask his mother, who had to have been in her late sixties when she died, to meet him all the way up here.”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Tony acknowledged. “Even if, like you, Chip hadn’t remembered the distance, if he came here often, he’d have remembered the steep incline. He also would have realized the falls would be full in the spring. If there’s a way to sneak behind them, I suspect that access is only available in late summer and fall.”
I let my eyes take in the scene before me. The gushing water flowing over the edge of the mountain into the lake below was beautiful, but at this time of year, it was also loud and dangerous.
“You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. Even if Chip didn’t know about Edna’s health issues, he would have no reason to believe she was in good enough shape to make the climb. He must be referring to a different special place. Somewhere accessible.” I groaned. “In other words, we’re back to square one.”
“Seems like it.”
I tilted my head up to the sky. It had taken us a lot longer than I’d anticipated to make it this far. “We should start back. I don’t want to get caught out here once the sun goes down.”
“Agreed.” Tony took my hand in his and we started back down the trail we’d just climbed. “After that big lunch I didn’t think I’d even want dinner, but with all this exercise, I’m starving.”
“We can stop to pick something up on our way back through town. Maybe open a bottle of wine and eat our takeout on my deck. Watch the sunset.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s try that new Chinese place. I hear it’s good.”
“I like Chinese.”
We walked silently for the next twenty minutes or so. It was a beautiful day, and even if we hadn’t found the special spot Chip had referred to in his card, I wasn’t unhappy that we’d come. I felt like we were making progress, though any time I really thought about things, I realized we were no further along than when we started. If we wanted to find Chip before Mother’s Day, we were running out of time, and that frustrated me. I wasn’t the sort to tolerate being frustrated. I let out a breath and then changed my line of thought by bringing up another frustrating subject. “Do you have any news on my mom’s Italian lover?”
“Not really. I spoke to my contact and hope to hear from him in a week or two.”
“A week or two?”
“I figured there wasn’t any urgency, because, as we discussed, your mom is here and Romero is in Italy. My friend is a busy man; I didn’t want to push for something faster if I didn’t have to.”
I supposed that made sense. “And my dad? Any news about him?”
Tony shook his head. “After that first couple of hits there hasn’t been anything. It’s possible we just got lucky with what we found in December and February, and the expectation of continued hits was unrealistic. It’s more likely, though, that someone found out I was looking into things and tightened security.”
“We keep talking about someone doing this and someone doing that. Who’s this someone?” I asked, a hint of frustration in my voice.
“I don’t know. I wish I did. Knowing who’s behind this would make the search
for answers easier. At this point, I’m just taking stabs in the dark with the hope of hitting something.”
I ran my hands through my hair. “This whole thing is so absurd. My dad was a regular guy. He went to work, came home, watched television, drank beer, and, two or three times a year, went fishing. Sure, he was away from home a lot given the nature of his job, but it never felt like he was sneaking around. The idea that he could be a spy or involved with some covert group is beginning to seem more and more ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“And the hardest part is not knowing if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. Even if he’s a spy, who is he spying for? And if he’s part of some black ops group, is he working for Uncle Sam or someone else? And why the ruse? If he had a job like that, why on earth did he get married and have children? Based on what we’ve found, it seems he would have to have been involved long before he married my mom or had Mike and me.”
Tony laced his fingers with mine and faced me. “I don’t have answers to your questions. All I can say is that I’ll continue to look until you have them.”
I leaned forward and laid my head on his chest.
Tony tightened his arm around me and held me tight. Then he stepped back. “Okay?”
I nodded.
“Let’s go get that takeout. My stomach hasn’t stopped rumbling since we talked about food.”
Chapter 10
Monday, May 7
“Mornin’, Hap,” I greeted Hap Hollister as Tilly and I entered his home and hardware store to drop off his mail. He’d lived in White Eagle for as long as anyone could remember and had a relaxed way about him that eased any tension I was carrying around on any given day.
“Tess; Tilly. Looks like we’re in for another beautiful day.”
“It should be gorgeous all week,” I said as I placed his stack of mail on the counter. “This wonderful weather has me in the mood to dive into an outdoor project or two. Do you still have paint on sale?”
Hap nodded. “Clear through Memorial Day. You thinking of painting something?”
I grinned. “Planter boxes. I was at Tony’s this weekend, and he made some for his deck. He stained his a natural wood color, which looks nice, and I thought I might stain mine as well, but I stopped by the secondhand store this morning and stumbled onto a rocker exactly like the one I’d been dreaming of for my deck. I had the clerk hold it for me because I couldn’t very well take it while I was in the middle of my route, but all morning I’ve been wondering how that rocker would look painted a pretty blue. It occurred to me if I painted my rocker blue, I might want to paint my planter boxes blue as well.”
“I have some swatches you can take if you want to pick out a shade. Or, if you have a specific color in mind, I can mix pretty much anything you want.”
I took one of the hard candies Hap kept on the counter, unwrapped it, and popped it in my mouth. “Thanks. I’ll just take some swatches for now. I’m supposed to meet Brady at the lake after work, so I shouldn’t dawdle.”
“Heard he was trying to train a couple of pups for Jimmy Early.”
I nodded. “Brothers Brady wants to place together. Jimmy seems interested in taking them, but he needs them to be able to swim.”
“Makes sense. Jimmy spends a good part of his life on the water.” Hap picked up his mail and began tossing the flyers in the garbage. “Spoke to Hattie over the weekend. She said you and Bree are trying to find Chip Townsend.”
I adjusted my mailbag on my shoulder. “We are. Do you know anything that might help?”
“I might.” Hap set the mail back on the counter. “He used to work for me when he lived here. Sweeping up, mostly. He was always looking to make a few bucks, and I was happy to have the help.”
“I didn’t realize that. Hattie didn’t mention it.”
“Don’t think she knew. It was an informal arrangement. He’d come by when he needed money, and if I had chores, I’d let him do them.”
Suddenly, I slipped my bag back off my shoulder again and set it at my feet. It looked like I was going to be there for a while after all. “Did you talk much when he was working for you?”
“Some. Chip wasn’t the sort to overshare, but we’d tip back a cold one from time to time and chat.”
“A cold one? You had a beer with him?”
“Coke.”
“Oh, that makes more sense. Go on. What did you talk about?”
“This and that. Fishing, mostly. Chip didn’t always get on all that well with the other kids in school, but he loved to go fishing.”
I didn’t see how this would help me, but Hap liked to take the long way around when making a point, so I’d play along. “And do you think fishing is important to finding him?”
“Talked to Tony. He came by for some supplies for one of the projects he’s working on. He mentioned you’d been searching databases like the DMV, looking for a record of where Chip might have lived in the past quarter century.”
“That’s true, but what does that have to do with fishing?”
“Nothing. Exactly. But talking about a driver’s license got me thinking of fishing licenses. When Chip lived here, he went fishing as often as he could. Seems to me if he’s going to be in town, he might be looking to visit a few of his old haunts.”
“And he’d need a fishing license.” I finally caught on.
“Exactly. Might look into someone by the name of Greg Townsend applying for one.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Hap. That’s a very good idea.”
I left the store and crossed the street, making a beeline for Mike’s office. I’d wanted to speak to him anyway, but as long as I had Hap’s suggestion fresh in my mind, I figured I may as well do some crisscrossing of my regular route and speak to him now rather than later in the day. When Tilly and I entered the reception area, where Frank normally sat, we found Mike leaning against the counter, talking on the phone. I motioned that I needed to speak to him and he raised a finger, letting me know he’d be a minute. Frank must be off today, or just out on a call, because his desk chair was empty.
I took a seat there while I waited for Mike. Tilly stretched out on the floor next to me, and I reached into my bag and drew out one of the doggy treats I always carried. She politely accepted it and then settled down to enjoy her midmorning snack.
“You’re here early,” Mike said after he got off the phone and turned his attention to me.
“I was at Hap’s and he brought up something I wanted you to check out for me.”
“You know I’m not your private PI, right?”
I shrugged. “I know, but this is important. Hap and I got to chatting about Chip Townsend, and he told me that Chip loved to fish when he lived here. It’s been such great weather, we figured if he planned to be in town for more than just the one day, he might decide to visit some of his old fishing holes. I hoped you could check to see if he’s applied for a fishing license. If not yet, maybe you can keep an eye out to see if he applies for one later in the week, or even next week, if we haven’t found him by then.”
“Seems like a long shot.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, it is. But I’ll take any lead I can get. I don’t suppose you were able to track down either Edna’s emergency contact, Beth Wright, or her next of kin?”
“I did find Beth Wright. She passed away a year ago. As for a next of kin, no one was ever identified. Edna left burial instructions, asking to be cremated and then buried in a small plot in Kalispell, which she’d already paid for. She also asked that any money she had at her time of death be donated to the assisted-living facility where she spent her final days. She didn’t have a lot. A few hundred bucks.”
“Dang. I guess both those leads are dead ends.”
“Maybe, but I found something else. When I called the assisted-living facility to verify that Edna’s final requests were honored, they told me that they had a box of her things. They were personal in nature: receipts, financial records, photos. They didn’t want to simply throw th
em away, but they didn’t know who to send them to. I told the woman I spoke to that I was trying to track down her son and would accept possession of them. Frank’s picking up the box right now. I’m hoping there might be a clue somewhere in the photos. Frank should be back within the half hour, if you want to come back by.”
I looked at the clock. “I need to make up some time with my deliveries, but my lunch is scheduled for an hour from now. I’ll be back then.” I got up and slung my bag over my shoulder. “Thanks, Mike. It means a lot that you’re pitching in the way you have.”
“Like I said before, notifying next of kin of the death of a loved one is part of my job.”
“Maybe, but Edna didn’t die in White Eagle, so technically, it isn’t your job. Either way, I appreciate it.”
I tried to make as many deliveries as possible in the next hour, keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact as I dropped off each merchant’s mail, attempting to avoid any attempt at chitchat. The few people who weren’t busy when I stopped in and tried to start up conversations were quickly and politely shut down with a comment that I was way behind schedule and needed to put the pedal to the metal if I was going to finish all my deliveries by the end of the day. The two businesses where I knew I wouldn’t get away with a drop and run were Bree’s bookstore and Mom and Aunt Ruthie’s café. I wanted to have the full hour with Mike if I needed it, so I bypassed their places with the intention of catching them at the end of the day.
When I returned to the police station, I found Mike talking with Frank. The counter was littered with items they seemed to have separated into piles based, I assumed, on content. “Did you find anything?”
“Maybe,” Mike answered. “Edna’s bank statements indicate she lived from Social Security check to Social Security check, as we’d suspected, and most of the other documents and receipts seem pretty routine. We still need to analyze the photos, but there’s one receipt that might be of interest.”
I set my mailbag on the floor next to where Tilly sat, waiting for an invitation by either Frank or Mike for a proper hello. “And what is that?”