“Sounds reasonable,” agreed Jake. “Did she have any family?”
“A brother in Great Falls, Montana. He had us ship her body up there for burial when we located him.” Jake nodded. He was somehow comforted by the thought that this woman had at least one person in the world that would miss her.
“Well, I’ll let Emma know you’ve identified the woman. She hasn’t mentioned it but I know she’s been thinking about her.”
“No need,” replied Sheriff Newsome. “I stopped at her office before I came here.”
“I’d love to be able to help you find the guy who threw that poor woman out like yesterday’s garbage, Reggie.” Jake walked the Sheriff to the door, “But I have to be honest. For Emma’s sake, I’m glad she had no connection to us.”
“I hear you were on the scene of that murder at Fort Caspar.” Jake nodded. “I was there myself earlier in the evening. Shame this had to happen at the Fort.”
Jake agreed. “Unfortunately, this time I did know the victim.”
“Yes I heard,” mused Reggie, “Father of that Carver kid you represented. What was it, eight years ago?”
“That’s right,” said Jake. “You were on the force then, weren’t you?” Reggie agreed that he was. “Sad case, that one.”
Reggie put his hat back on. “I’m not surprised the police haven’t located the kid yet. If I were him, I’d have hit the road after taking out my old man and I’d never look back.”
He shook hands with Jake and left him standing in his office door. “I don’t like it,” Jake mused aloud. As a defense attorney, he was used to crime being at a comfortable distance. He didn’t like it coming so close to home.
He shook his head and walked back to his desk. He pulled out the juvenile’s case file and tried to focus his attention on it but his mind kept traveling back to Sherry Thorne. “There’s something we’re not seeing.”
8
“Let’s go for a drive.” Emma looked up from her crossword puzzle at Jake, who had been reading the sports section and had just thrown it down.
“Did you have someplace in mind?” she asked.
Jake looked sheepish. “I was thinking about going up to Gillette.” Emma raised her eyebrows and tilted her head questioningly at her husband. “I know it’s a long drive but I just can’t get Sherry Thorne out of my head.”
“What good will it do to go to Gillette? The Sheriff said no one there was aware of her drug use.”
“I’m not sure,” Jake admitted. “I don’t know what it is, Em, but something about her death just doesn’t feel right. I thought if we went up there, talked to some of the people she knew…”
Emma smiled. “If you want to play Sherlock Holmes, I’m game to be your Doctor Watson. Besides we’ve been meaning to go up and try out Rick and Judy’s bed and breakfast.”
“Perfect, I’ll give them a call and see if they have room for us,” said Jake, picking up his cell phone and looking up the number. He nodded at Emma as he chatted on the phone with Rick and she went into the bedroom to pack an overnight bag.
She couldn’t see that going all the way to Gillette was going to answer whatever nagging question Jake had about the realtor, but she was glad for the chance to see Rick and Judy again and take a look at their new venture. Judy was a social worker at the hospital when a horrible crash occurred on the interstate. The emergency room had filled with casualties and Judy had spent hours sitting with family after family, helping them cope.
After that incident, Judy, along with many of the first responders and caregivers had needed counseling to deal with the secondary trauma. Emma was on the mental health team that volunteered to provide that counseling.
During her sessions, Judy had come to the conclusion that she needed a break from social work. Her husband, Rick, was general manager at a large hotel and had dreamed of someday owning his own place. Together they decided to open the bed and breakfast. This would be Jake and Emma’s first stay.
Jake came in as Emma was zipping the suitcase. “I called Kristen,” he said, referring to the teenager who usually took care of their animals when Jake and Emma traveled. “She asked if she could just stay here overnight.”
“Big party?” asked Emma, amused.
“Big paper due,” responded Jake. “I talked with her dad and he said it would be doing Kristen a favor to give her some peace and quiet.”
Kristen was the oldest girl in a family of eight children. Her house was a happy, boisterous one but not conducive to study. Kristen hoped to win a scholarship to major in veterinary medicine so she was working hard at her studies this year.
“Sounds like a win-win,” agreed Emma. “I packed you something a bit special for when we get there.”
Jake grinned, picturing Emma wearing something black and lacy. Emma giggled, “Not that kind of special.” She handed him the toiletries bag and Jake opened it with a disappointed look on his face. Then he laughed. Emma had packed a magnifying glass. “Sherlock Holmes would never leave home without it!”
Three hours later they passed the “Welcome to Gillette” sign and started looking for the bed and breakfast. They found it, a large rambling old home on two acres just outside of town. Tourists would stay at the inn on their way to and from Devil’s Tower, 61 miles to the east.
Rick waited for them on the porch as they pulled into the small parking area. Jake fished out the overnight bag while Emma threw her arms around Rick. “It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed. “It’s just perfect.”
Rick smiled. “Wait until you see the inside,” he told her. He shook Jake’s hand and took the bag from him over Jake’s protests. “You’re my guests here, you get the royal treatment.”
They walked into a spacious foyer. A desk in a sitting room on the left served as both office and check in area. A large living area opened up on the right, with a friendly blaze crackling in the fireplace.
“It’s still perfect,” pronounced Emma. “Where’s Judy?”
Just then, a tall slender woman in a full apron came in from the back of the house where Emma supposed the kitchen must be. “Did I hear my name mentioned? Emma, Jake how wonderful to see you.” Judy hugged them both. “I was just starting some chili for tonight’s dinner. Can I get you something? You must be starved.”
Emma smiled. She didn’t know how Judy stayed so slim when she loved food so much. She was a famous cook though and she was right, Emma was hungry. “I thought you didn’t serve lunch,” she said.
“Oh, that’s just for the guests. You’re family.” Judy linked arms with Emma and walked with her back to the kitchen. “You boys get them settled in their room then come down and join us.” Jake and Rick headed upstairs while Emma took a seat at the big farmhouse table and watched as Judy made sandwiches.
“Are you sure I can’t help?” she asked. “I feel guilty just sitting here watching you work.”
“Nonsense,” answered Judy. “It’s a pleasure to do for someone who’s done so much for me. Oh, don’t you deny it, missy. I was in the business too and I know when someone is just going through the motions and when they really care.”
Emma blushed, but accepted the compliment with as much grace as she could muster. Like so many who spend their days helping other people, Emma was far more praising than being praised. “I love your place,” she said, hoping to change the subject.
Judy smiled and looked around her kitchen with pride. “You wouldn’t have thought when we bought the place it would fix up so well, but Rick knows his business.”
“You didn’t do all the work yourselves, did you?” Emma asked, impressed. She knew the couple had found the house after scouring the state for a property they could both afford and make profitable. This house had gone back to the bank in payment of a reverse mortgage when the elderly widower who had owned it died. The house had been structurally sound but cosmetically, Emma knew it had needed a lot of work.
“Most of it,” Judy said. “I learned how to lay tile and change out a light fixture. I even
got over my fear of ladders so I could help Rick shingle the roof.”
“Impressive,” said Emma. “I don’t mind going up the ladder but the moment when you take your first foot off the roof and you’re hunting with it for the top rung of the ladder….” Emma shuddered.
“Oh I hate that,” agreed Judy. “I’m always sure I’m going to push the ladder away and either fall off the roof or get myself stuck up there. Thank God this roof has a 30-year lifespan. By the time it needs replacing again, I won’t be the one going up there to help do it!”
“There’s always the roof on the chicken house,” said Rick, coming into the room in time to catch the women’s conversation.
“That’s your job,” said Judy. “I’ll stand at the bottom of the ladder and toss supplies up to you.”
“You have chickens?” asked Jake. “Emma and I have talked about getting chickens but we’re not sure we’re up to all the work.”
“They are some work, that’s for sure,” agreed Judy as she served out soup and sandwiches. “But you will never taste anything better than farm fresh eggs.”
“Emma was all excited about chickens until she made the mistake of reading a book about raising them.” Jake thanked Judy and sat down to the delicious soup. “Never read about anything before you do it. Just dive right in, I always say.”
Rick laughed, “Diving right in cost us two-thirds of our flock. We kept losing birds until we figured out what was getting into the hen house.”
“We did have a bit of a fox problem,” agreed Judy. “And we lost two this winter to the cold but we think we’ve got that problem solved now.”
“Do you eat them?” asked Emma. “I may be a hypocrite, but that’s my big problem with getting chickens or raising a steer or pigs. I don’t want to eat someone I know.”
Rick laughed, “Then don’t get cozy with them. Don’t give them cute little names. When I was growing up, my father raised two pigs a year for household use. He called them Ham and Bacon.”
Conversation subsided while they did justice to Judy’s cooking. After lunch, Emma insisted on doing the dishes to give Judy time to make her amazing home baked bread. Rick took Jake out to show him the chicken house as the two men talked about what it would take to raise a small flock.
“So what brings you to Gillette?” asked Judy, her hands busily kneading dough.
“Well, you know we’ve been wanting to come see your place and visit with you and Rick.” Judy nodded. “But Jake also wanted to find out more about a realtor whose body was dumped on our fence line right before Thanksgiving. She was from Gillette.”
Judy stopped kneading. “Oh my God, I had no idea that happened at your place.”
“Yes, we found her in the morning after a big snowstorm. The police think she died of a drug overdose and the people she was with got scared and dumped the body.”
Judy looked puzzled. “I hadn’t heard that part. Our paper covered her death, of course, but I haven’t seen anything since the discovery of the body. Are the police sure that’s what happened?”
“As sure as they can be. They don’t have any leads on who she may have been with or who took her body up the mountain to our house.” Emma finished drying the last dish, hung up the towel and turned to face Judy. She noticed the older woman’s face had turned pale.
“I’m sorry, Judy,” she said apologetically. “You must have known her and here I am rattling on like this.”
Judy shook her head. “No, it’s not that. We did know her but we didn’t know her well. I’m just surprised, that’s all. She didn’t strike me as the type of person who would do drugs.”
She put her hand up, coated in flour, to stop Emma’s objections. “Yes, I know, anyone can be the type. It’d curl your hair to know how many of our community leaders I saw come through the emergency room with some substance or other in their systems.”
“How did you know her?” asked Emma. She poured herself a cup of Judy’s good coffee and sat on a barstool where they had eaten lunch to listen.
“She was the realtor representing the bank when we bought this place,” answered Judy.
“What was she like?”
“She was a real barracuda,” said Judy. “I suppose I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but in her case, I’m not saying anything I didn’t say while she was still alive.”
“What did she do?” Emma was surprised at how forceful Judy’s voice was. Judy, who was so calm and cheerful and had a manner that was more soothing than confrontational.
“When you buy a bank owned house, you expect it to be pretty much ‘as is.’ Well, our inspector turned up a couple of things that were real health hazards and we wanted the bank to fix them.” Judy paused, remembering the struggles between their realtor and Sherry Thorne.
“That woman pulled every trick in the book to get the bank out of doing the work even after they’d agreed to it. We almost walked away from the sale because we were afraid of what else might be wrong that the inspector hadn’t found.”
“But if the bank had agreed to the repairs, wouldn’t it be violating the contract for her to keep them from doing them?” Emma wished Jake were there to answer the legal question.
“Oh, I don’t say she did anything illegal,” Judy said begrudgingly. “She just pushed every line she could find.”
“Did the bank end up doing the work?” asked Emma.
Judy smiled. “Yes they did. Our realtor had closed deals with her before so he had her number. She tried like crazy, but she didn’t get anything past him.”
Later that evening, after they had retired to their room, Emma told Jake about her conversation with Judy. He nodded. He’d had pretty much the same conversation with Rick.
“He agreed with Judy though. Our Sherry Thorne was ruthless but she was sharp. He didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to do drugs – especially with the kind of people who would dump her on the side of the road if something went wrong.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” quoted Emma. “So what’s the plan for tomorrow, Sherlock?”
“Tomorrow we’re going to talk to the people at her realty office,” answered Jake. Emma wanted to remind him that the police had already done that, but she was too tired to argue and the bed was too soft and inviting.
She snuggled under the comforter and put her head on Jake’s shoulder. “So did you and Rick come to any conclusions about chickens?” she asked.
Jake smiled in the darkness. “I thought we’d come back when Rick has some hatchlings to show us.”
“How do we keep them from becoming kitty toys?” Emma wondered aloud, but she was asleep before Jake could answer.
9
Breakfast was served in the country kitchen. While the lodging would be full in the spring and summer, few tourists ventured to northeastern Wyoming in the winter. Jake and Emma shared the bed and breakfast with just one other couple and they were not early risers.
They started their inquiries about Sherry Thorne by speaking with Mark Stone, the realtor who had represented Rick and Judy. Rick had called the man the day before and set up an appointment for Jake and Emma.
They would meet Stone at his office, try to catch a few of Thorne’s co-realtors at the afternoon open houses then stop by her realty office to speak with her former assistant, who Judy assured them usually staffed the office on Sunday afternoons.
Mark Stone’s office was in downtown Gillette and Jake was glad they were meeting him on a Sunday when parking was plentiful. His reception area was empty but Stone called out from his office when he heard the door chime, “C’mon back folks, I’m just finishing up a phone call.”
Jake and Emma followed the sound of his voice and found themselves in a pleasant, sunny office. Stone waved at them to seat themselves in his two comfortable visitor chairs. Emma read the real estate certificates on his wall and smiled at the picture of him with what she supposed was his son, both proudly holding up their catch of the day and grinning into the camera.
Stone finishe
d his call and stood to shake hands with Jake, who was watching the sparse traffic on the street. “Rick told me you folks live in the house where Sherry Thorne died down in Casper.”
“We found her body,” clarified Jake. “The police think she overdosed and someone panicked and dumped her body out of town.”
“Rick mentioned that,” said Stone, frowning. “I had to make him say it again. Just didn’t seem real.”
“Did you know Ms. Thorne well?” asked Emma.
“Not on a social basis,” replied Stone. “I don’t remember hearing of her having much of a social life. She didn’t belong to the club anyway. I don’t think I ever saw her there except once or twice at an association of realtors event.”
“You seem surprised at how she died,” noted Emma. “Did you ever suspect she was using drugs?”
“No. That I did not. I guess anybody might be using drugs these days and you wouldn’t necessarily know it, but it did seem out of character for Sherry Thorne.”
“In what way?” asked Jake.
Stone fidgeted in his chair for a moment. He rearranged some papers on his desk then answered, “Sherry Thorne was a hustler. She was a tiger in negotiations and she never stopped pushing for the best deal for her client.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” asked Jake.
“Yes…..and no,” the realtor picked up a pen, clicked it open and shut a few times then looked up at Jake. “She never did anything illegal but she danced mighty close to the line. She just didn’t strike me as the type who would take stupid chances.
“I suppose anyone might get into drugs but everything she did, she did with style.” He shuddered. “This whole scenario strikes me as a little on the seedy side for Sherry Thorne.”
The first two realtors they met at local open houses were new to the firm and had only known Sherry Thorne in passing. At the third house, they found the realty’s senior partner, Cap Westmont, who agreed to talk with them since traffic through the house was light.
Linda Crowder - Jake and Emma 01 - Too Cute to Kill Page 4