Canyons, Caravans, & Cadavers

by Tonya Kappes

  “Yep. Unless I missed an entire floor.”

  “Usually there’s a lot more than this. But I’m generally here late on a weekend.” She crawled back over to finish the baseboards around the room. “I’ll be finished in about ten minutes if you want to throw that in the dumpster behind the building with her suite number on it.”

  “Sounds good.” I picked up the bag and flung it over my shoulder before I headed out the door.

  I decided to take the elevator this time since I had some time to kill and it took longer to take the elevator than run down the stairs. There were a few dumpsters lined up next to each other in the back of the building. Alena’s was the second one. There was a sliding door on the front and a big black plastic flap on top where the dump truck would lift its the mechanical arms to pick up the dumpsters, flinging them back to empty.

  I slid the door open and an open bag fell out. Shredded pieces of paper tumbled all over the pavement.

  “Crap on a cracker,” I groaned and threw my garbage bag in.

  The bag that fell out was full of shredded paper, which I assumed wasn’t unusual in a doctor’s office due to the HIPPA laws and the requirement to keep patient information secure. As I was shoving the paper back in the bad, I noticed some of the pieces were looked like a page for a planner dated yesterday. There was something blacked out. I held it up to the sun but could only see the indents of what appeared to be an ink pen.

  Like some sort of puzzle, I tried to gather all the pieces, putting this one particular piece in my pocket and threw the rest back in the bag.

  “You’re going with me.” I tied a quick knot in the top of the bag and headed back to the front of the building where Betts was already waiting for me with her bucket of cleaning supplies and vacuum.

  “Did you not find the dumpster?” She gave me an odd look and handed me a Lypsnk ink pen. “Found it in the waiting room underneath the chair.”

  “I did and more.” I dragged the bag around my shoulder and wondered why there was a Lypsnk pen in her office. “Shredded papers.”

  “She’s always got a bunch of shredded papers.” It didn’t seem to surprise Betts.

  “Did she always rip the daily page out of her planner and mark things out?” I pulled the torn up planner sheet from my pocket and showed her.

  That surprised her.

  “I’m worried.” I licked my lips. “Every person that’s been killed has had a Lypsnk pen at the crime scene.”

  “What are you thinking?” She slightly turned her head and looked at me out of the corner of her eyes.

  “Do you think Alena is next?” I gulped. I held the pen in the air. “Like a calling card?”

  FOURTEEN

  “Hank,” I gasped into the Bluetooth of my car phone when he answered. “There was a Lypsnk pen at Alena’s office.”

  “What does that mean?” He asked.

  “I think it’s the killer’s calling card. Think about it.” I pushed the pedal down so my car would go faster. “I found one underneath the bed in the camper where Scott died. There was one on the ground in the janitor’s closet where Orlando died, and now there’s one in the school counselor’s private office.”

  “She’s at the memorial. I’ll get there right now.” There was some shuffling in the back ground, and I heard some keys rattle. “You meeting me there?”

  “On my way.” I pushed the button to hang up the phone and concentrate on the road. Was there really a serial killer at the school? Was it over grades or scholarships?

  It all seemed so far-fetched and yet it didn’t. Was the killer going to each administrator in the school? Did Orlando tell the killer what he knew, and the killer is going to shoot them one by one?

  There were two things I knew for sure. The killer had access to the school’s archery equipment, and they were linked to Lypsnk. Who were the woman and man the hostess there referred to?

  “Call Queenie,” I spoke into the Bluetooth and kept my hands on the wheel. The closer I got to Normal, the more they sweat.

  “Hey, this is Queenie and I’m at Jazzercise getting my groove on and you should be too!” She did a little hooting and hollering over the background club thumping music. “Come on down to the Normal Baptist Church! Follow the sound of the tunes and you’ll find me! Tata!”

  “Queenie, it’s Mae. Can you please do me a favor after you get out of Jazzercise? I need you to go to Lypsnk to see if you can find that waitress that knew Orlando. We really need descriptions of the woman and man that she’d seen with him on a couple of occasions.” I talked so fast, I felt like I was running out of breath and time. “Also, if you can take that yearbook you found and whatever online photos you have of the staff at Normal High School and show her Alena Russell’s photo, the school counselor. Thanks! You’re the best.”

  I didn’t know what it was inside me, but there was a feeling of urgency that I couldn’t put my finger on.

  There were flashing lights in the parking lot of the school, and mourners there to pay their respects for Orlando and Scott were filling out the side of the school instead of the front where the parking lot was located.

  When I scanned the lot, I noticed Hank was standing over a car with a big white tarp over it. I slammed on the brake and threw the gear into park. The sun beat down on me and the wind whipped through my hair as I ran across the lot.

  “Hank, Hank,” I gasped and froze when he looked up at me, giving me one long blink. You know, the kind where the eyes were closed a second too long and it indicated something wasn’t right. “No,” I whispered, my shoulders slumped when my theory about Alena Russell came true.

  “Mae! Mae West! We had an agreement.” I could hear Violet Rhinehammer screaming my name in the distance. Without looking to confirm, I was sure she was being held behind the police line. I didn’t turn around either. “Mae!”

  “Right through the heart.” He jabbed his finger in his chest and glanced over my shoulder at the screaming lunatic. “I’ve got to get this case solved.” He looked down at me and ran his hand through his hair.

  Both of us turned when we heard a car approaching. It was Colonel Holz and Natalie. Both had on business suits and looked very put together, unlike me in my cat burglar suit.

  “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later?” He asked without really asking before he gave me a kiss on the cheek and took off towards the coroner’s car.

  I sauntered back to my car and glanced one last time over my shoulder at the car with the tarp over it. My heart sank. Not only for Alena Russell, Orlando Banks, and Scott Goodman, but for Hank. He looked a little defeated.

  I didn’t like that.

  There was only one thing I could do. Ramp up the sleuthing. And calling the Laundry Club in for an emergency meeting was exactly what we needed.

  And food. We definitely needed food. Good, greasy Normal Diner food to be exact. When I drove the couple blocks over to the Main Street, there was a spot in front of Normal Diner. I’d just texted all the gals and told Dottie to leave the campground with a sign on the door with our phone numbers and Henry’s, the campground handyman, in case someone needed something, before I went into the diner.

  “Fancy seeing you here,” Ty Randal greeted me with that big beautiful smile of his.

  If you looked up southern gentleman in the Webster’s Dictionary, Mr. Webster would have a photo of Ty Randal. Not only did his southern drawl mesmerize you, his blue eyes hypnotize you, and those shaggy blond curls of his beg you to run your fingers through his hair, the kindness in his heart that shined across his face and lit up a room made you want to be around him.

  When I moved to Normal, I thought I wanted all those qualities in a man and had even dated Ty for a brief moment, but it was bad boy Hank and his hard ways that made my gears turn.

  “I figured you were too big to come to our little hole in the wall now that you got the key to the city.” He ran the wet rag along the countertops.

  “Never too fancy for some good homecooked meals.” I win
ked and sat down on one of the bar stools. My phone chirped a few messages, one after the other, with confirmation that everyone would be at the laundromat within the next twenty minutes. “I’m gonna need five of your greasiest burgers and fries.”

  “The Laundry Club gals?” He winked at me.

  “You know it.” I swiveled in the seat.

  “Violet Rhinehammer has been in here looking for you.” He had a look that said he wanted me to elaborate.

  “Yeah. I agreed to give her some clues about the cases if I found any out if she’d help with the bad publicity the campground has been getting from Scott’s murder. But I’ve not had time to catch up with her.” And I didn’t plan to, just yet.

  “You’ve not changed.” He grinned. “I like it.” There was a time or two that he’d actually helped me with a couple of sticky situations when we’d dated. To say that Ty Randal knew me was an understatement, he really knew and understood me. He was the first guy in Normal to do so and that’s what made our friendship so special.

  “Say, what’s going on with you and Abby?” I asked, changing the subject. After all, it was me who suggested the two started to date.

  “Aww, just taking my time.” He pushed through the swinging door between the diner and the kitchen. “Last time I jumped in a relationship, my heart got broken.”

  “Brutal. You deserve better,” I said, knowing he was talking about me.

  “I’ll have your food up in a few.” He put his head in the pass through window and stared at me. I could still see a little hurt in his eyes from what I’d done to him, but it would’ve never lasted. That I knew.

  I opened my bag and pulled out the notebook. I had time to write down what I’d found in Alena’s office and now with her dead, there were clues that were tied to all three murders that I wanted to write down. Not that I was going to forget them, but when I looked at them on paper, maybe I’d see something my brain wasn’t putting together yet.

  Underneath the Victim category, I wrote Alena’s name along with arrow through the heart, school counselor, counselor to Adrienne and Scoot Goodman, and tried to shred the page from her planner that had something marked out.

  I took the paper from my pocket and smoothed it out on the counter. Holding it up to the sun that was coming in through the wall of windows, I tried to see if I could see what was written underneath the scribble.

  “Mae West.” Ellis Sharp stood in front of me, making a shadow on the paper. “You know, you could probably get a lot of acting gigs with that name alone. If you put a little relaxer on those curls, you’d be really pretty.”

  “I’m sorry you don’t think I am up to standards for women today, but I don’t feel the need to conform to what your industry says I need to look like.” I wasn’t a big fan of my hair and sometimes I did straighten it, but it was exactly like my mother’s hair. That I was proud of.

  “Two coffees.” She told Ty when he came out from the kitchen to take our order. “Ty Randal, I don’t see a ring on that finger, yet?” She winked at him.

  “That’s because Mae West broke my heart.” He put his hands up to his chest. “By dumping me for your brother.”

  She sat down on the stool with her jaw wide open. I couldn’t tell if she was acting or for real.

  “Mae, Mae, Mae,” she tsked. “Why don’t you go back to Ty and let Natalie have Hank? They are meant for each other. Both work crazy shifts. Both love that wild side of life. You can be right here looking into the big blue eyes and don’t get me started on his hair.”

  “She made her choice. Now she has to lay in the bed she unmade,” Ty joked, putting two mugs of coffee in front of us. “I know Mae likes cream and sugar. What about you?”

  “A little bit of honey,” she licked her lips, making me half sick.

  “Yeah, yeah.” He walked down the counter and slung the plastic bear bottle of honey down the counter. “Ellis Sharp, you were always a troublemaker. When you leaving?”

  “That’s exactly what I want to know,” I muttered when I picked up the coffee mug.

  “I’m not sure when. Mom and Dad had this crazy notion to move back. I’m a little worried they aren’t going to help me anymore with my career. Now that Hank seems to be serious with little miss Hollywood over here, Mom thinks she’s gonna be planning a wedding.” She wagged her finger. “Hanky is not getting any of my money for a wedding the bride is supposed to pay for. But from my understanding, you don’t have a dime to your name.” She twirled the stool around, her knees touching my leg.

  “Rest assured, Hank and I’ve never talked about marriage or a wedding. Your mom is using that as an excuse to get you off their payroll and shame you for letting them pay your way.” I had about had it with her privileged attitude. “And if Hank did ask me to marry him, I’d have to think long and hard about it because I’m not sure I would want you for a sister-in-law.”

  Ty’s blue eyes went from the shape of a pond to as big as the deep blue sea.

  “My, my. You do have a little southern sass to you.” She used her tiptoes to twirl herself back to facing the counter where she rested her elbows on the edge, her coffee in her fingertips.

  “Why do you want him to date Natalie so bad?” I asked.

  “She knows someone in the industry that might be able to get me an agent that does big gigs. I don’t want to stay on my parents’ payroll. But I have no choice,” she griped.

  “You do have a choice. Make your own money by getting a job,” I told her, fed up with her diva ways. “You have no idea what your parents have done for you.” I hadn’t intended to give her a lecture, but it just poured right on out of me. “My entire family was killed in a horrific house fire. I lost everyone and everything in just under an hour. I was placed in state custody because I had no one. Then I went to various foster homes until Mary Elizabeth Moberly wanted me. I was fourteen years old. Fourteen,” I said through gritted teeth, glaring at her. “A fourteen year old needs her mom just like a thirty year old and not take her for granted.”

  It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to say, but Ty had brought the to go bags filled with the burgers and fries over to me. I took them from him, blinking back tears.

  “Don’t bother with her.” Ty hugged me. That familiar smell of his still sent my heart aflutter, though I knew my heart was in love with Hank. “She’s always been a pill.”

  “Charge her double for my coffee.” I smiled and walked out of the diner.

  The sun was beating down. The closer to the summer months we got, the longer and warmer the days would be. It was strange not seeing the sidewalks packed with tourists with backpacks and hiking gear on. Normal had practically become a ghost town. This wasn’t good.

  I didn’t even have to look to the left when I crossed the street to make it to the grassy median where it was usually packed with tourists laying in the grass, enjoying a cup of coffee or a favorite iced latte from The Trails Coffee Shop, or even look to the right when I crossed the street to where the Laundry Club was located.

  The gals were already sitting at the table in the puzzle area of the laundromat. I was glad to see they’d gotten my text about clearing off the puzzles because I had a bigger puzzle for us to work on after we ate and about the run in I’d had with Hank’s sister.

  “You have to take her with a grain of salt.” Dottie bit down into her burger. The mayonnaise dripped down her chin. She used the back of her hand to rub it off.

  “Still, I want my boyfriend’s family to like me.” I handed her a napkin.

  “We’ve got plenty of time to worry about her. We’ve got very little time to get these murders solved.” Abby had a worried look on her face. She was eating with one hand and scrolling through her phone with the other. “The posts about the murders are being shared across all social media platforms. From what I’ve heard at the library, tourists have cancelled reservations for hiking, kayaking, canoeing, and rafting.”

  “Where did you hear that from?” Betts asked, squirting a ketchup packet on her
fries.

  “Violet came in looking for you.” Abby pointed to me. “She said you two were working on something together.”

  “Yeah, well, she wants me to work on the murders with her, but I’m not.” I didn’t go into detail about our little agreement because her story obviously hadn’t worked since there was even more cancelling going on.

  “Betts gave us a quick rundown on what you two found at Alena’s office.” Abby put her phone down and took the notebook from the middle of the table, flipping it open.

  “I heard on the scanner what happened to Alena as I was listening to your text message. I didn’t get over to Lypsnk yet.” Queenie shoved the burger in her mouth. “I’m starving after that Strike class,” she said with a mouthful of food.

  “It’s okay. I pointed out to Hank that I thought there was a connection at Lypsnk, so I’m sure he’s got officers checking it out.” I still wanted to know how they were connected.

  After we finished our food, I cleared the table and dumped the contents of the garbage bag of shredded paper in the middle.

  “This is going to be our puzzle for the next day or so.” We all stood over the paper. Some pieces were smaller than others and some didn’t appear to have been shredded all the way.

  “What on earth are we looking for?” Queenie asked, unzipping her fanny pouch and slipping on a pair of readers. She held up a piece of the shredded paper. “I can’t see a thing on here.”

  “Here.” Dottie ripped the glasses right off Queenie’s face and put them on herself. “It says something about insurance.”

  “We are looking for anything that looks like it would go with this.” I pulled the piece of paper out and smoothed it out on the table. “Alena had an appointment the day Orlando Banks was killed. It’s been scribbled out. Not just crossed out but scribbled out like she didn’t want anyone to see it. Plus, she ripped it out of her planner. Where is her planner? Do counselors usually rip things out of their planner?”

  “It does seem odd.” Queenie had played tag a war with Dottie to get her glasses back.