Sticks and Stones

by Michael Hiebert

  “Crabtree? Who’s Crabtree?”

  “Sorry,” Leah said. “He’s our ME. And I just realized he probably wasn’t the medical examiner back then.”

  While Dan spoke, he went through the process of setting up the coffee machine to start brewing. As usual, Ethan never bothered to make coffee. He’d drink it, but he wouldn’t ever make it. “So, what about these witnesses?” Dan asked. “Something seem fishy in their statements?”

  “No, it’s not that. The statements are pretty clear. Detailed. I just think it might do some good to talk to them again. See if they remember anything they may have glossed over during their interview.”

  “You want to interview them now? Like, again? Fifteen years later?” Dan asked.

  “Yeah. I really think it’s important to get a fresh take on what they claim to have seen.”

  “Leah, you do realize it’s been fifteen years, right? Nothin’ these ‘eyewitnesses’ say will be very reliable anymore. Even if anything they tell you does happen to differ from what they said back then.”

  Leah held up her palm. “I realize that, Dan. I do. But I need to do this for me. Because I really need to see all the evidence pointin’ to Harry Stork for myself.”

  “You mean evidence to support your pa taking the shot he took.”

  She glared up into his eyes. “I mean whatever the hell I want it to mean. This is my case, and if you don’t want to come along for the ride, you’re damn welcome to stay here and do a crossword puzzle. Just pretend you’re Chris.”

  Leah could tell her sudden burst of anger caught Dan off guard. He threw up both his hands. “No, no, I’m not sayin’ anything. You want to go and give folks another interview based on what they saw fifteen years ago, that’s fine with me. I won’t say another word.”

  The coffeepot began to sputter. A thin line of black liquid streamed into the waiting pot. Leah stared up into Dan’s eyes. After a second, she said, “You’re so full of shit.” In a low ape of his voice, she went on, “‘No, I won’t say another word, Leah’.” Her voice changed back to normal. “Like you’re even capable of goin’ even five minutes without saying something. That’s just laughable.”

  Dan smiled. “I do not talk like that. You sounded like some gorilla. I mean, some gorilla who could talk.”

  She shook her head. “You’re such an idiot,” she said and went back to looking through her files.

  * * *

  After several coffees and a brief conversation with Ethan, who wanted to know where the hell Chris was, Leah searched the phone books and her online database for a current address and phone number for the two eyewitnesses. All she had were the reports taken fifteen years ago to go on, and when she called one of the numbers, she got a “no longer in service” message and the other one belonged to someone who’d never heard of the woman Leah asked about.

  Around two o’clock, Leah had amassed about as much information as she was going to get and had read all the applicable stuff from the files to the point she pretty near had it all memorized. She decided it was time to go and see what new facts she could discover. Tossing Dan a quick glance, she said, “Okay, I think we can head out.”

  “You’re not still plannin’ on visiting those witnesses, are you?”

  “What the hell you think I’ve been doing since we got here?”

  “I was hoping perhaps you were getting a little smarter.”

  “You really don’t need to come with me,” she said. “Go watch baseball with Ethan. I’m sure he’d love the company. I’ll be back ’fore long.”

  Dan glanced to Ethan’s closed office door. “Nah, I think he prefers bein’ alone—somethin’ I can certainly relate to. Besides, I can’t stand baseball.”

  “It was my pa’s favorite sport.”

  “I’ll try not to let that taint my respect for him.”

  So, after another ten minutes of making sure she had everything she needed, Leah dragged Dan back out to her car. He made it no secret how he felt on the matter, and kept repeating the same thing over and over.

  “You sound like a GD mockingbird,” Leah quipped as they got into her Bonneville.

  “There’s just gotta be a better way to spend our time,” he said.

  “Think of one.”

  He shrugged. “Play naked Twister?”

  She didn’t answer that, just cut him a sideways look to let him know she wasn’t amused.

  “So, who are these two eyewitnesses, anyway?” Dan asked, his voice now filled with resignation. “And which one are we goin’ to first?”

  “Well, there’s a slight problem with that question,” Leah said, doing up her seat belt. She almost said something when Dan didn’t follow suit, but decided just to leave it. Daredevil Dan. She might as well get used to it. Some things weren’t going to change.

  And again she thought of all that Jim Beam. All those empty bottles in the black bag she’d tucked away in the kitchen closet.

  “Oh yeah?” he asked. “What problem is that?”

  “Well, after I came up with the great idea to interview them this afternoon, I checked the phone book to make sure they hadn’t moved in the past fifteen years.”

  “Great,” Dan said, sarcastically. “And I’m guessin’ they have? Where are we headed to? Mobile? Do you honestly think that folk stay in one place over fifteen years? I’ve probably moved three times in the past dozen.”

  “Yes, but Dan, I wouldn’t be goin’ out on a limb and saying you’re the ‘average’ . . . well, anything. You are about the most un-average person I’ve ever met.”

  He stared straight out the windshield as she pulled out onto the street. “Thank you,” Dan said. “I appreciate that.”

  She cut him a sideways glance. “I wasn’t meaning it to be a compliment.”

  “Still,” he said. “I will take it as one.”

  With a frustrated smile, she went back to the subject at hand. “See, it turns out one of them witnesses, a Betty-Lou Panders, still does live in Alvin. At least I hope it’s her. I found one listing for Panders in the phone book and the first initial was B.”

  “Sounds promising,” Dan said, that sarcastic edge still annoyingly brushing his voice. “And the second witness? What’s their name? And where do they live? Should I have packed for snow? Are we headed to Colorado?”

  Leah ignored him, which, on days like today, was hard. Even when he pissed her off, he managed to be funny. Stopping at the intersection, she checked the papers in the file she’d placed down beside her before fastening her belt. She brought the second page from the top up and held it over her steering wheel so she could read and drive at the same time.

  “Andrea Reinhardt,” she said, checking her rearview mirror.

  “Okay, so where’s Andrea livin’ these days?” Dan asked. “I’m still waiting for you to drop the Colorado bomb on me.”

  “That’s the problem, she could rightly be there. Fact is, I have no idea where she is now. I would’ve got Chris to track her down for me, but I didn’t feel like puttin’ this off a few more days.”

  “Great, he’ll love that, I’m sure. So, she wasn’t in the phone book, I take it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then how the hell’s Chris goin’ to be able to find her? He’s not some sort of directory assistance wizard or Rolodex mage of voodoo or anything?” When Leah hadn’t responded after a second, Dan added, “Is he? I mean, really.”

  “Watch,” she said and unclipped the microphone for her radio, then called in to the station. “Hey, Chris? You in yet?”

  Almost an entire minute went by before she got an answer. “Yeah,” Chris said, coming on to the other line out of breath. “Just got here.”

  “Good. I’m with Dan. Listen, we need you to find somebody for me. As quick as a jackrabbit if possible.”

  Dan looked up at her. “We?” he asked. “I don’t think we require any such thing.” Leah ignored him.

  “What do you mean?” Chris asked Leah.

  “Means if you can g
et me her address within the next hour or two, I owe you lunch.”

  “All right, what do you have for me?”

  “Her name’s Andrea Reinhardt,” she said and then spelled the name out.

  Silence followed.

  “Chris?” Leah asked. “You still there?”

  “Yeah,” he said back, the squelch squeaking a bit in the speaker. “I’m waiting for the rest.”

  “Rest of what?”

  “Rest of whatever you’ve got for me to track her down with.”

  “That’s it. That’s all I got. Fifteen years ago she lived in Alvin.”

  There was a long stretch of silence, and Leah thought she’d lost him. “You really think I’m magic, don’t you?” he finally asked.

  In the passenger seat, Dan laughed quietly to himself. Not as quiet as he should be, though, Leah thought.

  “Is there even a Mrs., Ms., or Miss that goes before that name?” Chris asked.

  “No, it’s been fifteen years. She could very easily be married now and still living here in Alvin.”

  “Nothing like asking for the impossible.”

  Another spurt of laughter, this one louder, came from Dan’s lips.

  “Are you two in cahoots?” Leah asked him.

  Dan shook his head, unable to talk he thought this was so funny. “No, it’s just like . . . it’s like you have no clue.”

  “Chris,” she said back in the microphone, “just see what you can do, all right?”

  “Ten-four.”

  Leah hung the microphone back on the radio. “I swear, one day I’m gonna up and shoot the both of you,” she said and turned off of Main Street, heading toward the address she did manage to find in the phone book for Betty-Lou Panders.

  * * *

  Panders lived in one of only a half-dozen houses sitting along a short street south of Main Street called Linda Lane. The houses looked remarkably similar: They were mostly white with sparse decorative trim, had nicely tended yards, and had absolutely no driveway, so there were far more cars parked along either side of the street than there were houses. Leah had to actually park on the cross street, Sweetwater Drive, on account of there being no empty spaces along Linda Lane. The house Betty-Lou Panders hopefully lived in had bright red window boxes overflowing with a variety of colored flowers, mostly purple, yellow, and red.

  Leah assumed the sporty, silver two-door Honda parked out front of the house was probably hers, and she was happy that it appeared the woman might actually be home. Hopefully, the B Panders from the phone book was indeed the same B Panders Leah wanted to see.

  She and Dan walked down the edge of the Kentucky sage grass covering the front yard like a blue-green carpet and approached the door, both warily eyeing the BEWARE OF DOG sign staked into the lawn.

  “Great,” Dan said, the sarcasm still not gone. “I can think of so many ways this might go bad. The vicious dog sign only adds about a dozen more.”

  “You could always shoot it,” Leah said without even looking at him or slowing her gait.

  “Wow, was that a shot at humor?”

  Leah walked up the wooden steps that rose to a small porch and the front door, without any indication of a dog so far. Opening the screen door, she knocked on the red wooden door behind it.

  “Maybe he’s inside,” Dan said.

  “Who?”

  “The killer dog. Or maybe he’s sneaky. He could be out here right now, only wearing some sort of camouflage so we don’t know it.”

  Leah just shook her head. “Don’t ruin this interview for me.”

  “I’m not certain it’s goin’ to be possible for this interview to go any worse than it’s headed.” He kept glancing behind him and to the sides of the house.

  “What’re you doin’?” Leah asked.

  “Watchin’ out for the dog. I hate dogs. Especially ones with teeth.”

  From inside the house a singsong voice called out, “Coming. Just one moment!”

  Leah guessed the woman who answered the door was probably in her early thirties. She had radiant blue eyes—nothing like Strident’s, but almost as intense—and short black hair with red highlights. Her bangs were longer and completely red, the same shade as her lipstick. Her black eye makeup along with the hair color made her appear younger than she was, but Leah could see the pinches on the corner of her eyes and the foundation on her face trying to cover the effects of time. She clutched a small gold-colored purse in her left hand. The wide-eyed expression on her face and the fact that she looked ready to go out on a date convinced Leah the woman had been expecting someone else.

  “Hello, Miss Panders?” Leah asked.

  She gave the slightest of nods as her eyes went from Leah to Dan and back again.

  “Betty-Lou Panders?” Dan asked.

  “Yeah.”

  Dan glanced at Leah. “I’m impressed.”

  Leah almost socked him in the eye. Instead, she just ignored him and spoke to the woman. “I’m sorry,” she said. “You look like you’re on your way out. We’re with the Alvin Police Department.”

  “Well,” Dan added. “She is. I’m really just here for the ride.”

  The woman looked quizzically at Dan. Far more than he was worth looking at.

  “Do you have ten minutes, Miss Panders?” Leah asked.

  “Um, yeah. Sure. I’m just . . . My boyfriend’s picking me up any time. I thought you were him.”

  “Well, we just need to ask you a few questions about a testimony you gave to one of our officers a while back,” Leah said.

  Panders’s head began to slowly shake. “No, I—”

  “It was a long while back,” Dan said with a stupid grin.

  She looked back to Leah. “No, I’m afraid I—”

  “It was like fifteen years back,” Dan said, cutting her off. If his smug smile didn’t go away soon, Leah really would punch him.

  Realization came to Panders’s face. “Do you mean that Stickman stuff?”

  “Yeah.” Leah nodded. “You reported seeing a truck parked at the crime scene belonging to Stork Sanitation and Waste Removal. Do you remember this at all?”

  Panders looked unsure, but she nodded. “Yeah. I mean . . . Well, yeah. I remember giving the statement.”

  “What’s wrong?” Dan asked.

  “It’s just . . . Listen. Am I gonna get in trouble if I tell you something? It’s just that . . . Well, back then I was young and I really didn’t . . . I just needed money. I didn’t think . . . Since then I’ve become. . . Well, I attend church a lot. In fact, my boyfriend’s picking me up to take me to Bible study.”

  “What are you saying?” Leah asked, narrowing her eyes.

  “Back then,” Panders said. “I was . . . Well, we were asked . . .”

  “Who’s we?” Dan asked.

  “Me and Andrea. Someone paid us to say that stuff.”

  Leah gasped. “You mean . . . you didn’t actually see Stork’s truck parked at the side of the road?”

  The woman gave a quick head shake that matched the nod she gave earlier. “No. I—we, we didn’t see any truck. Am I in trouble? Because I really don’t want to lie, but I really don’t want to be in trouble, either.”

  “No,” Leah said.

  “Maybe,” Dan said, almost at the same time. He flashed a look at Leah that she didn’t understand in the least. “Who paid you?” Dan asked Panders.

  “I . . . We never got his name. But he gave us each fifty dollars.” She paused and looked from one of them to the other. “He said we wouldn’t get into trouble. Am I in trouble?”

  “Where’s Andrea Reinhardt?” Leah asked.

  The woman gave another quick head shake. “I . . . I have no idea. I haven’t seen her in ten years. Why are you asking me this stuff now?”

  Dan flashed Leah that same look again. Leah let him take the lead. “Just procedure,” Dan said.

  “Well, I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.”

  “So you saw nothin’?” Leah asked.

  Ano
ther fast nod. “Yeah. Listen . . . I really don’t want any trouble.”

  “You’re not in trouble,” Leah said.

  The woman visibly relaxed. “Oh good. For a moment there . . .”

  “You just may have inadvertently killed someone,” Dan said.

  Alarm flooded over the woman’s face. Her grip on the purse clenched. Leah saw her knuckles whiten. “What?”

  Leah frowned. “Ignore him. He hasn’t had lunch yet. Can you describe the man who paid you? Do you think you could give a police sketch artist enough—”

  Dan interrupted her. “Leah, it’s been fifteen years.”

  The woman looked at Leah expectantly. “Yeah, I have no idea what he looked like. He was just this guy. You know? Sort of big. But not so tall. Maybe, I dunno. This high?” She held out a hand about two inches shorter than Leah.

  “So big, but short,” Dan said. Leah rolled her eyes.

  “Yeah.”

  “What was his hair like?” Dan asked. Leah really was starting to want to take a swing at him. He was now obviously just making fun of her.

  “Oh, I dunno. Sort of normal, you know? Like, um . . . normal.”

  “Okay!” Dan said, with fake exuberance. “Big, short, with normal hair.”

  “Yeah. No?” Panders gave another quick head shake and looked from Leah to Dan and back again, searching for understanding.

  From behind Leah, a car honked.

  Panders’s face lit up. She beamed a white smile at the driver of a little red Tercel and gave him a quick wave. “That’s Richard! I gotta go!” She hesitated, her expression falling a bit. “I mean . . . are we finished?”

  Dan let out a big sigh. “Go. Go learn ’bout God.”

  The woman came out of her house and locked her door, pushing through Leah and Dan in the process. Then, without waiting for them to leave, she tiptoed quickly down the steps and raced across her front yard to her boyfriend’s Toyota.

  “Learn ’bout truth!” Dan called after her, his hand to his mouth. “I’m sure there’s somethin’ in that Book ’bout truth!”

  But Panders gave no response. She just closed the passenger door after getting into the seat. Her boyfriend hit the gas, and they screeched onto Linda Lane.

  “I don’t think she heard you,” Leah said to Dan.