by Tonya Kappes
“I was getting your Diet Coke.” She flung the door of the refrigerator open and stuck her head inside, pulling out a can. “Didn’t you want one?”
“Yes. But did you come by the campground the other day?” I asked.
“I came to the campground a lot.” She handed me the can and I followed her back inside.
I slipped my phone back into my pocket because Adrienne didn’t seem to think anything of me seeing her car.
“He was my husband. We were trying to work things out.” She shrugged and poured the hot water from the kettle over the tea bag in her mug. “Just because we needed space didn’t mean we weren’t trying.”
“Were you at the school this morning?” I asked.
“Yeah. You saw that?” she frowned and brought her mug over to the table. “Sit down. I like the company even though I know you’re here because you think I killed Scott.”
“I’m I that obvious?” I asked.
“At first, no.” The steam from her cup curled up into the air. “But your questions tell me yes.”
“Honestly, I stuck my nose into it because after word got out about his death at my campground, we have had so many cancellations. It’s not that I don’t trust Hank to get the job done, but they take their time and if I want to stay in business, time isn’t on my side.” The fizzy noise came out of the can when I popped the tab open. “Why did you speed away from the school this morning? And why did you come back?”
“Gosh. You see everything. Maybe you should be the detective.” She circled her finger around her mug.
“Listen. I know you don’t know me, but I can see all the makeup piled on your cheek. I know Scott knocked you around and I’m sure if there was a reason for you to kill him, it would be that, but if not, I’m trying to figure this out and any help you have would be great.” I paused to give her a moment to digest what I was saying to her.
“Scott had a way of sticking his nose into other people’s business. He always claimed he was doing it for the good of society.” She scoffed. “I went to the campground to tell him to come home, but he couldn’t stop talking about that darn Patterson kid.”
“I overheard them fighting.” I wanted her to trust me, so I gave her little bits of information to encourage her to tell me more.
“It wasn’t the first time. Their son isn’t the best at anything. He’s a good kid, don’t get me wrong, but all of these parents think their children are the best. They live in illusion dream world and Scott told the Pattersons that their son wasn’t going to get a passing grade during parent and teacher conference. The dad went nuts. I told Detective Sharp about it too.” She rolled her wedding band around on her finger. “That’s the type of person who killed my husband.”
“The bruise?” I asked.
“I accused him of cheating again when he said he wasn’t ready to come home. We’d had a great session with the counselor, and I had time to think about it. When I went to the campground, all he did was talk about the students and how he wanted to go back and get his rank one.”
“Again?” I asked and realized the bruise had only gotten bigger as we’d sat there.
“Scott Goodman wasn’t the most faithful husband and we moved here to get away from it all.” She lifted her hand to her face. “This was the first time he hit me in a few months.”
“What happened a few months ago?” I asked.
“He was passed over for a job.” She shook her head.
“At the school?” I asked, figuring it’d be easy to find out which one.
“No. In Swamp Canal where we’re from.” She said the name of the town where Alena had her private practice. “We go to counseling there too, so no one around here would know.”
“Did you say rank one?” I asked going back to her previous statement. “I didn’t know Scott was in the military.”
“Oh, gosh, he’s not.” She laughed. “That’s what you get when you’re a teacher and want to move up. It comes with a pay increase and since...” She stopped and looked down, placing her hand on her belly.
“Are you?” I didn’t have to ask if she was pregnant because when she looked up at me with big tears in her eyes, I knew.
“That’s why all the boxes are here.” She had a far off look in her eyes as the tears rolled down her face. “I can’t raise a baby alone now that Scott’s not here.”
“I’m sorry. I really am.” Her story was a tragic one all the way around. It broke my heart to look at her face and know he’d hit her when she was pregnant. It made me wonder if the world was a better place without Scott Goodman in it.
“It’s fine. Nothing new around these parts.” She patted her stomach. “Just another statistic. Beaten woman, goes back to husband again and again, stuck because he knocked her up. But now he’s dead. Looks like I’ll be living in a double wide the rest of my life.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” I winked and she laughed when she realized I lived in my RV. “I’ve got to get going, but can I ask you another question?”
“If you’re looking for an alibi, I left the campground and headed straight to Alena’s house for a shoulder to cry on. Detective Sharp already checked it out.” She leaned back in her chair.
“No. It has to do with Orlando Banks. I saw you with him a couple of times at the school,” I said.
The tensing of her jaw didn’t go unnoticed.
“Orlando knew something, but I don’t know what. Scott kept mumbling about it at the campground when he was fussing about the Patterson kid. After Scott was killed, I figured I had to help, so I went to the school to talk to Orlando. This morning he told me to come back with five hundred dollars and he’d give me some information. I went back with two hundred and fifty because I pawned our old TV. He laughed and said that I was short on cash and told me to go sell my car.” She gnawed on the edge of her lip. “I don’t have anything else to sell. But he wouldn’t tell me what he knew.”
“Did you tell Hank this after Scott was killed?” I asked.
“No. I wanted to know for myself what he knew.” She eyeballed me. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“No.” I confirmed. “I’m from Kentucky, but not here.”
“Well, around here, you don’t tell the cops nothing. As you can see, two people are dead now and there’s something bigger going on than an angry parent.” Her words confirmed exactly how I’d felt earlier.
An angry and protective parent might have a good motive to harm someone, but to kill them?
ELEVEN
“How much further?” I asked Hank, who was at least ten steps in front of me. Fifi and Chester, Hank’s dog, had long ago ran ahead of us on the trail.
“It’s just a little more.” Hank didn’t bother turning around to see if I was okay. “You’re going to love it, trust me.”
“Trust me,” I groaned. “I’ve heard those words before.”
This trail started on his parents’ property that just on the outskirts of the part of the Daniel Boone National Park that the government owned. He’d talked about his trail all winter long and how he made it as a kid. He talked about the most spectacular view in all of Normal. Now that it was spring, he wanted to show me. If I had to pinpoint why he wanted to go tonight, it was that the cases were on his mind and he wanted to walk and think. It was how he processed things. It was fine. A good hike with the dogs was good for the soul.
The sticks underneath my footsteps started to echo. I knew we were getting closer to a clearing when that happened. It was part of learning how to survive in a wooded climate. Sound was very important. The trickling of water was off in the distance and as I made the bend around the trail, I saw that I was right.
I stood there with my mouth wide open. Not only were we at the end of the trail, we were at the edge of the most beautiful rock formation overlooking a big canyon with a waterfall that was surrounded by lush Kentucky ferns, moss, and limestone. There were a few sprigs of spring on the trees, just enough to make them green. I could on
ly imagine how gorgeous it was in full bloom.
“I told you.” Hank turned around with a huge smile on his face. The setting sun hit him just right, showing off the five o-clock shadow that’d crept up around his jaw line. He put the small cooler on the ground next to his feet and stuck his arms out to the side. He lifted his face up to the sky and inhaled so deeply I could see his back rise. “Take it in, Mae. That fresh air smell.”
Fifi and Chester were still running around the end of the trail trying to sniff every creature that had crossed its path.
“It’s amazing.” I took a few steps up to him and barely looked over the ledge, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach. “I’ll look from back here.”
I had never been a big fan of heights.
“How about a beer?” He sat down, his legs hanging over the edge, making me nervous.
“Why not have that back here?” I asked and took one of the bottles from him.
“Do I have anything to worry about with that teacher?” Hank asked. “When the officer interviewed him, he said that Mathew seemed intrigued by you and that most of his statement was about checking on you.”
“Absolutely not.” It was a ridiculous question, but oddly flattering. “He’s a nice person. But I’m no way interested and if I gave him that impression, I’ll be sure to fix that tomorrow.”
“Now that we got that out of the way.” He took a big swig of beer. “What did you find out this afternoon? I’m sure you went to the Laundry Club and told the gals everything.”
“I went to see Adrienne.” I took a drink and watched as the sun made its last appearance for the night behind a few of the park’s mountains. “Did you know she was pregnant?”
“Yes. It’s part of her alibi. I thought maybe she killed him because of his abuse, but she didn’t.” He put the beer down and leaned back on the palms of his hands, still facing the canyon.
“She has a red Mustang too. I’ve seen that car three different times.” I told him about the school incidents, and he didn’t seem to know about those. I also told him about Orlando sorta blackmailing her into giving him money in exchange for information.
“I’ll have to check on that, not that I think she killed Orlando but, you know, all the Is and Ts.” He was very thorough, a good thing given his job, but I preferred the shorthand version myself. “We did find a wad of cash on him, but I have to check the evidence sheet to see how much because I can’t recall the exact amount off the top of my head.”
“She said she’d been to pawn shops to get that money, so I’m guessing you can check their security footage to see if she was there at Scott’s estimated time of death.” I was surprising myself by how much I sounded like one of those TV investigators. “What did you find out about the Pattersons?”
“I looked into the boy first. He wasn’t even at the campground when Scott was murdered. He and another student, Beth something...”
I interrupted him.
“Beth Lambert?” I asked, knowing that she too was on my list to talk to again.
“Yeah. Those two kids are supposed to be the best and neither do well in school. Apparently, they’re transferring to another school for the rest of the school year.” This was news to me. “They were taking some sort of entrance exam.”
“They are? They were?” I tried to remember what all Beth had told me and then I remember she got cut off when we were in the class. “They don’t have to with Scott dead.”
Fifi and Chester finally joined us. Fifi curled up in my crisscrossed legs while Chester went to sit by Hank near the edge, also unaffected by the drop into the canyon.
“Huh?” He bent his elbows and twisted around to look at me.
“Rumor has it, if a teacher dies during the school year, the students in the class get an automatic A.” As bizarre as it sounded, you never knew about Kentucky education laws. They were all over the place.
“I don’t think that’s true.” He had a smug look on his face. “But I stopped by to see the Pattersons and they are the ones who told me that. I also stopped by to see the Lambert family, but they weren’t home.” He pushed off the palms of his hands and brushed them together. “I’ll stop by there tomorrow.” He picked up his bottle and took a drink. “In the meantime, do you think you could snoop around about Orlando? I’m not finding anything about him. He’s not married. No cell phone. I’ve got the phone records from school being subpoenaed, but I have no idea if any of the calls on there will be from him. His apartment has a couch, bed, and TV. That’s it.”
That’s not it. I ran my hand along my pants, feeling the Lypsnk pen still tucked in the back pocket.
“Yeah. I’ll snoop around.”
Only it wasn’t going to be only at school. but he didn’t need to know that.
We spent a few more minutes there talking about nothing, really. I didn’t want to ask about his parents because when I’d done that earlier, he’d mumbled something and it put him in an instant bad mood. Plus, I had no need to ask about Ellis. Those conversations left me thinking about Natalie and I really had no patience to hear about her. Now that I knew Hank was a little on edge about Mathew, I knew he had no interest in Natalie or he wouldn’t have asked me if he should be worried.
By the time we made it back to Hank’s trailer, the sun had set, and I knew the Laundry Club gals were probably already at the campground, ready for our fireside chat.
Dottie, Queenie, Abby, and Betts were sitting around the main firepit nearest the lake that was pretty much always lit. It was like an eternal campfire because I realized when one was going, people gathered. Having a place to gather built community, and I wanted to make Happy Trails a community for people who were tourists or lived in town.
In Scott Goodman’s case, he needed a place to live.
I beeped and waved as I drove past them to let them know I would join them soon. Fifi was worn out from the hike and trying to keep up with Chester. Competitive like her mama. She was happy to have some fresh kibble along with a stuffed toy and her cozy bed to settle in before I even finished changing out of my clothes and into sweats.
“Any news from anyone?” I sat down next to Abby with the notebook and got right to the point.
“Scott Goodman was definitely not in the military.” Abby started us off.
“Yes. I know.” I used the glow of the fire to see what I was writing in the notebook under Scott’s name in the victim column we’d already made. “I stopped by and saw his wife.”
“You did?” Betts gasped. “What did she say?”
“Let’s go around and see what everyone found out before I get into that.” There was so much to say that I didn’t want to miss anything now that Hank had truly given me full investigation privileges.
“I got all his belongings together and I can get those to Adrienne.” Dottie had stayed behind and worked in the Happy Trails office for me.
“Thank you. That’d be great.” Just another thing off my plate of to-dos.
“I went to Lypsnk and I really think we should go there.” Queenie jumped up from her chair and did a grapevine move in front of us. “Y’all sing and I dance. Plus, you won’t believe how they serve drinks.”
“Did you find out anything about Scott or Orlando?” I asked the most important question.
“They did know Orlando Banks because he’s a nightly regular. But didn’t recognize Scott Goodman’s photo that I had from the school Archery and Rifle Club calendar I’d bought for a fundraiser last year.” She sat back down.
“Betts?” I asked. “Anything about Alena?”
“Yes. She’d like me to clean tomorrow during the memorial service they’re having in the cafeteria.” She wiggled her brows. “I’m assuming you’re going to the memorial? There’s a luncheon the day after. I’m on the Bible thumpers telephone list still.”
The Bible thumpers were a group of women from the Normal Baptist Church who were involved in a lot of different things in and around Normal. Cooking food for families in a time of need was o
ne of their tasks. Betts was on the telephone chain. Apparently, she’d gotten a call to make something.
“No. I’m going to go with you to Alena’s and I’ll definitely be going to the reception.” I gave a hard nod and continued to write down everything they were saying because I didn’t want to miss a thing.
My stomach growled thinking about the good homemade food.
“Adrienne is pregnant and moving back home to Swamp Canal. She and Scott were in counseling. He was going to start working on his Rank One license as a teacher. That’s what you overhead them talking about.” I pointed to Betts. “She didn’t say why they were arguing, but she did say that he’d cheated on her once before and that’s why they moved here. To get a fresh start.”
“Just because the scenery changes doesn’t mean he’d change. Scenery here is a lot more attractive than Swamp Canal.” Dottie pulled a cigarette from her pouch and put it in her mouth. “Why was he here?” She flicked the metal roller on the lighter. Her face glowed as she puffed the cigarette to life.
“They were trying to work out their problems. Apparently, he was obsessed with kids getting good grades and the crazy parents they have who want the teachers to fudge all the test scores so their kids will get scholarships.” It truly boggled my mind how these parents’ moral compasses were all out of whack. “When she came here during the party after my key to the city ceremony, she was going to ask him move back in, but he was so mad about the Pattersons that they got into another fight. That’s when he hit her.”
“He sure didn’t seem the type.” Dottie put her chin in the air and formed an O with her lips, pushing out smoke circles into the night air.
“She’s moving home so her parents can help with the baby.” I continued to write down everything in the notebook. “Hank told me that they are baffled about the two cases. There was no forced entry into the janitor closest and no fingerprints. It’s like the person knew to clean up everything or knew exactly where to stand and do the job without being discovered.”