“They’ve charged him, but I think it was someone else.”
“Shouldn’t the Sheriff be following up on this?” Mabel gave Consuela a look that caused her to laugh. “Okay. I guess not, now that I think of it. Sheriff Dan is not the most investigative type. But,” she countered. “The State Police interviewed our manager and some of the staff. The investigation lasted for a few days. The mill had to shut down some of its operations until it was over.”
“Did they ask you about a black truck?”
“I wasn’t interviewed. I don’t know.”
“Did they ask to see license plates?”
“No, no one asked, and only I take care of that.”
Mabel nodded. “I think I’m onto something then. You have ten black trucks out of… how many employees?”
“153.”
“Okay, so out of those ten, I have ruled out seven, which leaves three more.”
“Who?”
Mabel hesitated. “You sure you want to know?”
Consuela leaned closer. “Of course.”
Mabel relaxed as she pulled out her list and showed her, only a little embarrassed. “I was planning to follow them all to their homes as I don’t know where they live.”
Consuela tsked and shook her head. “No need, dear. I can find this out for you.” She put on reading glasses and peered at the list. “We have a few bad characters at the mill. White supremacists. Abusers. Men that scare me. I agree with most of the names you’ve crossed out. I don’t think it could be them. But wait… I see you crossed out Wade Concella?”
“I know the boy’s mother. She cleans my motel sometimes. She does great work.”
Consuela frowned. “Well, I wouldn’t cross him off just yet. Put him as a maybe. And yep, this Lee Wallach feller works the cutter. He’s one of Larson’s boys for sure. White power tattoos on his arms. I don’t like him. Now this other one. This Don Sigmundson. Yes. His girlfriend showed up at last summer’s barbecue with a black eye. He is a Larson man and none of the office girls like him. He comes in and flirts with Annabelle, but she hates it. I don’t like him at all. The last one, this Cole Smithson, is a casual.”
“Do you know where they live?”
“Sure. I can get that for you.”
“Isn’t that against office rules?” Mabel asked, not wanting Consuela to get into trouble for disclosing confidential information.
“Oh shush. What you’re doing is more important. Besides, without me, their office won’t run half as good, and they know it. They need me. And now that I think of it, Don’s girlfriend works down at the grocer.” Consuela’s excitement turned into a squeal. “Oh, we got lots to talk about, girl!”
The two women leaned in over cups of honey-flavored herbal tea and whispered a plan of action.
CHAPTER 23
Monday, October 13
Two days later, Mabel was waitressing the lunch shift when Consuela called. She’d been thinking about Mabel’s list of subjects and couldn’t get Wade Concella out of her mind. “Acting really funny lately, darling,” she said. “And seemed kind of shifty at work these past few weeks.” Then Consuela related how Wade had been late several times, and Bob, the foreman, had been upset with him. Then this morning they’d had a big shouting match. With Wade being only eighteen, fresh out of high school, Bob had told her that he thought the kid was just getting used to the realities of work, but Consuela wasn’t so sure. She had whispered into the phone, “It could be guilt. From murder.”
Wade had been given a forced day off to think about things and was likely at home now — he lived in a roadside trailer park owned by his parents, Sarah and Pete. Sarah was one of Mabel’s casual motel cleaners, but Mabel didn’t know her husband well. Pete hauled seed for the farms around the region and apparently was one of the main delivery men for Larson as well.
After hanging up, Mabel took off her apron and beckoned Sally over, and with the lunch rush almost over told her she’d need to step out for a bit. Then she was off driving the highway to visit Wade to ask him questions.
When she got close, a car aggressively tailgated her for a moment and then sped past. The driver, his head shaved like one of Larson’s young recruits, slammed on the brakes like he’d missed his turn, forcing Mabel to do the same, and then sped up briefly before turning into Sarah and Pete’s trailer park and parking in front of Wade’s trailer, the last spot available, so Mabel had to park at the far end of the complex in a gravel turnabout.
With the driver being a Larson skinhead, Mabel stayed in her car, watching. The man banged on Wade’s trailer door. After a few moments, Wade appeared, looking disheveled, though he had left his shift only an hour before. He was obviously expecting the man, as they exchanged something, which Mabel couldn’t see. It was small enough to fit in one hand. Then the skinhead turned with a smile and headed down the steps and into his car to drive off.
Mabel watched the car leave and hoped Sarah’s child wasn’t involved in crime but seeing a skinhead here didn’t help his cause. After a minute, she got out and walked up the porch steps. She knocked on the door politely. No response. She knocked again, this time harder, and still no response. Then she banged the door like the skinhead had until, finally, Wade opened it.
“Oh, hi!” Mabel exclaimed, shocked by his appearance. His pupils were wide as saucers, and he had trouble focusing on her. “My name is Mabel. I know your mother.”
Wade tried focusing his gaze on her, but he swayed slightly. “M-y-y mother?” He slurred.
“Yes. Sarah — your mother.” Mabel waited for a reaction. When he didn’t say anything, she asked, “Are you all right?”
“All right?” he echoed, then smiled languorously and slumped against the doorframe, holding it with two hands like he was propping it up.
“Dear, are you sick? Do you need a doctor?”
He shook his head and giggled, and when Mabel tried to touch his arm, he cowered back, afraid.
Mabel took charge, guessing what this was. “Okay. I’m coming in. I’m here to help. What happened?” She scanned the room and spotted crumpled tin foil scarred with black burn marks in an ashtray on a table. She went over and sniffed it, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and then touched the tin foil, still hot. Oh my God, she thought, this is crack cocaine! Nightline had had a story on it, but she never thought she’d ever meet someone on it.
Wade, back leaning against the doorframe, was scratching his arms blissfully until Mabel came close, and he cowered again.
“I’m going to take you to your mother’s right this instant.”
Taking his arm, she marched him down the porch, but Wade kept slipping and nearly falling, and she struggled to hold him up. She shouted towards the other trailers for help, but no one came out, so Mabel half-carried him to her car, which he collapsed against. After struggling to right him, she opened the door and guided him into the seat. He groaned intensely, holding his stomach with his eyes closed, and did nothing to help her. Concerned he was experiencing some sort of overdose, Mabel rushed over and into the driver’s seat and drove off. She held onto his arm to soothe him until Wade whooped in delight with a sudden burst of energy that nearly scared the wits out of her. He started to beat the dash like it were drums, bobbing his head up and down and giggling.
Mabel raced to Sarah’s farmhouse at the end of the property, noticing Pete’s hauling truck at the side — so he was home too.
After pulling to a stop, Mabel told Wade to stay in the car, so Wade leaned back, sweaty and smiling, and started air-drumming against the roof. Mabel ran up the porch and pounded on the door.
After the door opened, Sarah exclaimed, surprised and a little concerned, “Mabel?! What brings you here? Are you okay?”
“Sarah! It’s your boy. I think he’s sick.”
Sarah hesitated, her concern for Mabel shifting to deep embarrassment. She asked in a quiet voice, “Where is he?”
“My car. Come quick.”
Pete showed up behind Sarah and said
, “What’s going on?”
Sarah half-turned, and said in a whisper, “Wade again. In Mabel’s car.”
Pete scowled and pushed past Sarah. “Let me get him.”
Mabel hung back as Pete stomped off. She turned to Sarah, who wouldn’t look her in the eye. “Sarah, is he all right? He looks quite sick, and I think he needs to see a doctor.”
Sarah just shook her head, ashamed.
A car door shutting caused Mabel to glance back. Pete had pulled Wade out none too gently and was hauling him back towards the house. Wade whelped in fear and pain as Pete pulled him up the porch steps, and then Pete pushed him on past Sarah and Mabel. Mabel wanted to stop Pete but didn’t feel it was her place. She looked at Sarah to see what she should do, but Sarah simply let them pass and then pulled Mabel aside.
Sarah said, “I’m so sorry you saw this.”
Mabel wasn’t sure what to say. She was more upset about how Pete was treating his son. “You sure he’s all right? He might need a doctor.”
Sarah shook her head. “It’s… He’s been like this before. We don’t know what to do.”
“How long has he been on drugs?”
Sarah winced. “We don’t know for sure, months most likely. It’s this crack thing. He smoked weed before, but this… is different.”
“I saw one of Larson’s skinheads give him something at his trailer door, and I bet it was the drugs. It’s a good thing I showed up, or I don’t know how he’d be doing.”
Pete’s harsh yell inside the house caused Sarah to flinch, and she glanced at Mabel, crestfallen. Mabel could only imagine how hard this was for her.
“How… how did you find him?” Sarah asked.
Mabel paused, not sure how to answer that — that she suspected her son of murder. She picked her words carefully. “I wanted to find out where your son was the night that poor girl was killed up in the Sawmill.”
“Why?” Sarah asked, looking terrified by the question.
Mabel, startled by such a reaction, tripped over her words. “I just… need to find out.”
Sarah started to blink away tears but failed and hung her head, defeated, and said, without looking up, “How did you know? I’m ashamed he did those things.”
Mabel’s eyes widened in shock. “You knew about it?!”
Sarah nodded, crestfallen, and rubbed her arm, ashamed. “I couldn’t believe what he did. I know it’s not right.”
“It’s horrible!”
Sarah just wilted under Mabel’s withering gaze.
Mabel added, wanting to expose this terrible crime once and for all, “We need to talk to the Sheriff about this.”
Sarah looked up, surprised, and said, “The Sheriff knows.”
“Dan knows?!” Mabel was floored. Dan knew who the real murderer was! And he pinned it on Winston instead?! How could he have kept it from her?
Sarah explained. “It was Dan who found him that day.”
“At the murder scene!?” Mabel cried, clearly thrown, and feeling faint now, suspecting they were all involved in a cover-up.
Sarah blinked, surprised, and then explained, “What? No. On the beach. In town. Wade had overdosed that morning and tried to set the beach house on fire. The Sheriff was the one who brought him to us. That’s when we first learned that Wade was… into drugs.”
Mabel shook her head, confused. “Wait. What? Wade overdosed? During the day, not after the murder?”
Sarah looked confused. “What? No. We were in a Seattle treatment center that night. That’s why I remembered it. We’d taken him in, and he was getting treated.” She paused for a moment and then reached out to touch Mabel’s arm. “Dan was good to us. He searched the trailer and threw out all of Wade’s drugs. He didn’t report us.” She started to cry. “I’m so ashamed, Mabel. He’s my son, a drug addict. It’s terrible.”
Mabel’s emotions shifted from rage to relief to complete embarrassment that she’d suspected Sarah of a cover-up. As Sarah cried on, Mabel came out of her reverie and threw her remaining questions to the wind. She reached out and pulled Sarah in for a hug.
Sarah sobbed into Mabel’s shoulder as tears now came to Mabel’s eyes.
After a long cry, Sarah pulled away and said, wiping tears away, “I’m so ashamed, Mabel. I’ll understand if you don’t want me helping at your motel.”
“Oh, no, dear,” Mabel said. “It’s me who’s at fault. I thought, well… it really doesn’t matter what I thought. Look, of course I want you to keep working at the motel. Don’t worry. I understand what’s happened here. My son gets into trouble too, and Dan is there for me as well. I understand. I do.”
“Is he into drugs too?” Sarah asked, surprised.
“No. God no. But my oldest gets into trouble too, Luv, for breaking things.”
“Drugs are so terrible,” Sarah said, falling back into her sadness. “Make sure it never happens to your boys.”
Mabel touched her arm. “I didn’t know you were going through all of this.”
Sarah shrugged, downcast.
“Is Dan doing anything more about it?” Mabel asked. “I saw the man who sold your son drugs. He’s a skinhead. That’s something.”
Sarah flinched. “No. That’s Bobby. He works with Larson. Pete knows him too.”
“You know him? Well then, let’s report him!”
“No!” Sarah said, pulling back from Mabel, surprising her. “No. It’s… complicated.”
“Why is it complicated? The man’s dealing drugs. He should go to prison.”
Sarah pulled back even more, scared now. “You can’t tell on a Larson man. It’s not how it’s done.”
“But Sarah, your boy. You have to stop these men from selling drugs to him.”
Sarah grimaced and turned for the door. “I have to go see my son.”
“Sarah!” Mabel said, stopping her from shutting the door all the way. “I’ll report that drug dealer to Dan. I can get him to stop. I can do that for you.”
“No!” Sarah said vehemently. “Don’t!” Then she added more gently, “Pete will talk to them. Please. We’re handling it.”
“But Sarah…,” Mabel pleaded, unable to find the right words.
“Look around you,” Sarah said, distraught. “Pete wouldn’t have a job if it ain’t for Larson. I can’t…” She stopped and corrected herself: “We won’t say anything about this. I hope you don’t either. And I… I don’t think I should do shifts at your motel anymore. I hope you understand.”
“But Sarah! We can stop them from selling drugs to your son.”
Sarah’s resolve hardened into anger, and she turned cold. “You’re lucky, Mabel. You are. You have your diner, and those crews and truckers of yours will support you. My family? We don’t have a choice. We’re not lucky like you. So don’t say anything to anyone. Please, let us take care of our son, our way.” Then she shut the door.
Mabel took a step back in shock and then slowly turned around, holding her arms in tight, and made her way to her car.
One thing was made clear today — Wade was not the killer — and while she was disappointed that her case was no further along, she was more horrified to learn what Sarah was facing at home.
Mabel looked back at the house and wished she could help make things right. Dan was clearly in the know about the drugs, and, if she were honest with herself, so was she.
But if Dan couldn’t do anything to stop Larson, what could she do?
CHAPTER 24
Wednesday, October 15 to Thursday, October 16
The question of what to do about Larson haunted Mabel so much she hadn’t gotten any sleep over the past two days. At least she could do something to help Sarah with her son, she thought. When the motel cleaners had their scheduled shift, Mabel dropped by to check on her. Bernice, a regular, was on and confirmed Sarah had quit.
Mabel felt so awful she headed home, baked Sarah’s favorite pie, and then drove over to her place after lunch. Mabel rang the doorbell, and only Pete answered, and while he too
k the pie thankfully, he didn’t call Sarah to the door. “Can I speak to her?” Mabel asked, but he looked uncomfortable and said she wasn’t feeling well. She asked how Wade was doing, but Pete just thanked her again for the pie and said they were doing their best as a family and not to trouble them again.
Mabel left the porch wishing she could ease their shame somehow and thought about them for the rest of the day. She wrestled with telling Dan about the skinhead. While Sarah had made it clear that Dan already knew Larson’s men were selling crack cocaine, Mabel felt compelled to do something. When Dan showed up at the diner Thursday night to do his paperwork, Mabel brought him some pie and then questioned him about Wade as he was eating. Dan wasn’t in a good mood to begin with and he tried to explain that Larson was primarily into weed and that his boys were only selling crack on the side.
“And besides,” Dan had said, “I’d already told Larson selling crack would lead to jail time, and he promised he would look into it.”
“Yes, but—” Mabel had protested.
“Just stop! I keep telling you you’re sticking your neck into matters that are not your business!” Dan said, glancing around the diner before moderating his tone some, as he had caught some stares. “I mean it.”
“Well, I mean it too,” Mabel said, not lowering her voice. “That Winston boy has got no one else looking out for him. And you know what? You only arrested him after I said those things, and I wish to God I hadn’t. Look what’s it done.”
“It got the right man in jail is what I’m telling you.”
Mabel breathed out, frustrated she wasn’t getting through. “I feel just awful about this. Everyone thinks they got the right person because the man is black.”
Dan gave her a stern look. “You don’t know police work. Nine times out of ten, it’s the boyfriend or husband. You don’t need to be a detective to know that. And besides, you know I’m not like Frank or the boys. I don’t see his color like them.”
Mabel’s mood softened, as did her voice. “No. But most of the town does. I saw that justice system you talked about, and it didn’t seem all that fair to me.”
Heart of a Runaway Girl Page 11