by Ann Mullen
He smiled back.
“The family who snoops together, stays together,” Mom said. “I love it. We’re a team!”
“Heaven help us all!” Billy said as he shook his head.
“But wait a minute. According to Rupert, everyone thinks Kansas was murdered. I can’t have them thinking that. They’ll think I’m a killer.”
“It’ll all come out once the media gets a hold of the story, Mom. Don’t worry. We’ll be vindicated with the residents of Dogwood Valley.”
“You say that now. Just wait until people start looking at us funny. They’ll think we’re killers. People will treat us differently when they find out we killed a poor, retarded man. Isn’t that what Rupert implied, that Kansas was retarded? We’ll never live this down.”
“Why haven’t we heard anything on the news about his death?” I looked at Billy.
“This is a small town,” Billy answered. “The process moves slowly, unlike rumors. They spread quickly. By tomorrow the truth will come out. Our phone will be ringing off the hook. The press will surround us like a snake in the grass, if they aren’t already at our house. Maybe we should call home.”
“I’ll call and check,” Mom said as she pulled out her cell phone. She punched in the numbers for the house and waited.
A thought occurred to me as we rode. Now I know why the medical examiner had called the sheriff, Spider—because like a spider’s legs, the sheriff has arms stretched out in every direction. He snared us like a rabbit in a trap. We never saw it coming. I also came to the conclusion that the M.E. was probably called Snake, because his presence was like the bite of a poisonous snake—death was his business. The next time I had a chance, I’d ask the sheriff about it.
Mom closed up the phone and said, “I’m worried, Billy. No one’s answering.”
“Try again,” he said.
Mom opened up the phone and tried again. She frowned as she closed the phone a second time. “Something fishy is going on. You know your mama would answer the phone if she could. Maybe we should pack it in for the night and go home. I’m worried.”
“I am, too,” I added, looking at Billy.
“Okay,” he said. “We’ll go home and see what’s happening, but I think everything’s fine. You’re both upset and your imagination is getting the best of you. If anything was wrong, someone would’ve called.”
“That might well be, but I’m worried. I have a funny feeling.”
“Me, too,” Mom added. “We can always come back tomorrow night.”
I looked at Billy and he looked at me.
I didn’t tell Mom, but I knew Billy and I wouldn’t sleep until we had satisfied our curiosity about Kansas Moon. We’d never let this wait another day. If evidence was to be found, the first twenty-four hours were critical. We might find something the police missed. It is possible. I’d tell her that later for future reference, but for now, she needed to know that everyone at home is safe. She also needed some rest. She was beginning to look haggard. We all did.
Mom must’ve called the house twenty times before we turned onto Bear Mountain Road. By then, all of us had a case of the nerves. We knew something was amiss.
Sure enough, as soon as we turned onto the road to our house, up in the distance, we could see a yard full of vans with their antennas extended, and other cars with the local television station’s logos on the side. The press had surrounded the house. The minute we pulled up and parked, the media assaulted us. They hurled questions at us as Billy tried to keep them at bay long enough for us to get inside.
They were relentless. Their questions turned cruel and then slanderous when we refused to answer them.
“Are you going to be charged with murder?” one of them asked, directing their question at Mom.
She turned and yelled at the reporter with her remark. “Kansas Moon broke into my house and tried to kill us. What do you think? I guess you people aren’t as smart as I thought, because that was a pretty stupid question. Now please excuse us.” Mom turned and walked inside.
Billy slammed the door behind us. Outraged by the presence of the press, he started going off in his native tongue when Sarah and the chief met us at the door.
“Tla-o-s-da u-lv-no-ti-s-gi ga-na-tla-is! Hi `ya-gal tso `de aqua `tse `li!”
“Calm down, son,” the chief said. “You’re right. This is your house and they are animals, but who cares? Let the mosquitoes feast on them! They don’t bother us, do they, Sarah? We will ignore them.”
“I have to disagree, Sam,” Sarah replied. “It’s been a little nerve-racking.” She looked at Billy. “They congregated in the yard right after you left.”
Sarah is a tiny, little woman in her late sixties. She has guts and won’t hesitate to speak her mind, but I think the press was wearing her down. She looked distraught.
“I showed them who was boss,” Chief Sam said. “I met them at the door with your shotgun and told them if they stepped one foot on the porch, I’d shoot every one of them!”
“You threatened them?” I asked as I headed toward the kid’s room.
“They’re fine,” Sarah said as she took me by the arm. “Let’s go to the kitchen and sit down. I’ll fix a hot toddy for everyone, and the chief will fix you one of his special brews.”
“I think I’ll have one of those toddies,” Mom said, following us. “It’s been a long day, and I think matters are going to get worse by morning.”
“Do not fear,” Chief Sam said. He took Billy by the arm and led him to the kitchen. “My son will handle those who seek to cause us trouble. He is a Blackhawk! He is strong and smart! He is a fine Cherokee warrior!”
I walked over to Billy and put my arm around his waist. “Yes, he is,” I said. “He will take care of us.”
We sat down at the table while the chief and Sarah fixed us something to drink. Both of them were right at home in our kitchen.
I leaned over and whispered into Billy’s ear, “How are we going to sneak back out with all those reporters around? You know I’m not going to let you go without me, so don’t think you’re going to wait for us to go to sleep and then sneak out by yourself. I’m on to you, pal. I know you like the back of my hand.”
We smiled at each other as he sipped his hot toddy and I sipped the alcohol-free concoction the chief had made just for me.
“Oh, don’t you worry, `ge ya,” he whispered back. “We’ll find a way.”
Chapter 17
We decided to call the Charlottesville Police Department to complain about the press being on our property, since we couldn’t actually go outside and shoot them as suggested by the chief.
The CPD sent out two patrol cars, and upon their arrival, the press immediately started to move back.
The officers got out of their cars and made the hoard of local newspaper and television reporters leave the property.
They were told they could park on the state road, but they couldn’t remain on private property without facing the risk of being arrested for trespassing.
The reporters got into their automobiles and proceeded to leave.
The officers told us to call again if we had any more problems. They said they could throw the reporters off our property, but they couldn’t force them to leave the area. They were allowed to use public roads.
“They’ll probably get tired of waiting and eventually leave,” one of the officers had said just before they got into their cruisers and headed out.
Ten minutes after the police left, Billy walked to the end of our driveway and discovered the reporters parked alongside the road. He turned and walked back to the house with a disgusted smirk on his face.
“They’re parked on the main road and there’s not a thing we can do about it. We might as well call it a night. We won’t get past them.”
Our plans had been foiled by the media. They wouldn’t give up their quest for a story, so Billy and I weren’t able to sneak out of the house as planned.
An hour later, Mom was in bed, and Sarah an
d Chief Sam were safely at home, having managed to slip away unseen by the press.
Billy and I decided it was time for us to go to bed.
“I can’t believe there isn’t a way for us to give the press the slip. Are you sure you can’t think of something?” I asked one last time.
“Forget it, Jesse, and go to sleep.”
Billy rolled over and kissed me on the forehead.
“You’re going to need your rest. We still have Daisy Clark to contend with. When she finds out how her brother died and then she gets out of the hospital, she’ll be coming here to pay us a visit.”
“She doesn’t know where we live.”
“It won’t take her long to find out. It’s only a matter of time.”
I kissed Billy and cuddled up to him. I needed a rest. I dozed off and was immersed in a vivid, pleasant dream about him when all of a sudden, I awoke to the creak of a door being opened and closed.
My heart started to pound as I opened my eyes and glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. The time on the digital readout was 3:35. I reached over with my hand and discovered the other side of the bed was empty.
My fear subsided when I realized that the noise I’d heard must’ve been Billy. Maybe he couldn’t sleep and had gotten up to go see if the press was still at the end of the driveway.
I crawled out of bed and called out as I got to the hallway, “Is that you, Billy?”
“Yes, it’s me,” he said as he put his finger to his mouth, signaling me to be quiet.
“Where were you? It’s almost four in the morning.”
“I know,” he responded as he slipped out of his shoes.
He took me by the hand and walked over to the bed.
“Let’s sit down. I need to tell you something.”
I sat down on the bed and said, “You’re starting to scare me. What have you been doing?”
Billy sat down next to me and said, “You have to promise me you won’t go off when I tell you where I’ve been.”
“I don’t like this game already,” I said, looking into his eyes for a clue about what he was going to say.
Then it dawned on me—he’d been back over to Kansas Moon’s house—without me!
“I don’t believe it. You went back. How did you get by the media without being seen?”
“After you fell asleep, I slipped out through the back door and into the woods behind our house. I called Jonathan on my cell phone and had him meet me on the south end of the property. He picked me up and the two of us went to Moon’s house.”
“I don’t believe…” I started to rant.
Billy stopped me.
“Just listen. You can get mad later.”
“Tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out like you did that time you knocked Carl around and then left prints and blood at the scene. Remember that little incident? Tell me you didn’t carve up anybody.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said, smiling.
I just sat on the bed. I didn’t smile.
“When Jonathan and I got to Kansas Moon’s house, it was deserted. The sheriff and all his men were gone, and he didn’t even leave a lookout behind. I was surprised. I thought for sure he knew I’d be back, but I guess he thought his earlier warning would suffice in keeping me away.”
“I don’t believe it! How could you go without me? We’re a team!”
“Let me finish,” Billy said as he handed me a tattered photograph. “Look at this and then read the back.”
I took the photo and held it up to the dim light shinning through the bedroom window, but couldn’t see in the dark, so I got up and walked over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp. I sat on the edge of the bed, leaned over and held the snapshot up to the light.
“It’s a photo of Daisy, Gabe, Kansas and some other woman sitting in a boat on a lake.” I flipped the photo over and read what was written on the back. “It says: Kansas and Sophie, Daisy and Gabe. Walloon Lake, Michigan, 2004. Who is Sophie?”
“I also found this,” Billy said. He got up and walked over to the side of the bed and sat down. He handed me a clipping from a newspaper.
The paper had yellowed from age and was starting to come apart at the seams from being folded and unfolded so many times. The headline read: Woman Missing After Falling From Boat. Police Suspect Foul Play. The woman in the article was the woman in the other photo. Her name was Sophie Kent.
“What do you make of that?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
Billy stretched out on the bed and said, “I’m beat.”
“You better not go to sleep on me now! I want to know what else you found in that house. Were there any…”
“The place was loaded from floor to ceiling with everything imaginable. I don’t think Kansas ever threw anything away and he never cleaned.”
“Was it nasty and gross?”
“That’s an understatement. The place was a wreck.”
“So what was it like?”
“There was a box in a corner filled with candy wrappers, and another box contained empty cardboard toilet paper rolls. I couldn’t tell where the furniture started and the clutter stopped.”
“That sounds pretty bad.”
“It gets worse. There was so much junk scattered about, I had to follow a path through the house. I’ve never seen anything like it. Empty food containers were everywhere. Plates crusted with leftover food overflowed in the kitchen sink, along the counter and all over the stove.”
“It sounds to me like the guy had an obsessive/compulsive disorder.”
“I’d say so,” Billy continued. “You couldn’t see the kitchen table. I did notice that there was a plastic tray on the table filled with prescription medicines and they all had his name on the containers. I’m telling you, Jesse, it was a housekeeper’s nightmare.”
“I’m sure it was, from the way you talk. I don’t think I could stand to be in a place like that... not to mention living there.”
“And the magazines—there were magazines stacked two feet high, three stacks deep on either side of an overstuffed chair in the living room.”
“What kind of magazines?”
“There were all kinds, from celebrity rags to Good Housekeeping to National Geographic. I scanned some and they all had labels on them addressed to Daisy Clark. I guess she wanted Kansas to keep up on his reading.”
“If Kansas was learning-disabled as Rupert claims, why didn’t Daisy let him live with her and Gabe, instead of making him stay by himself? He must not have been too messed up if he could live alone.”
“I don’t know, but I can tell you one thing. I’d hate to live in a place like that.”
“Yeah, I bet he has rats.”
“I’m sure that he does. Nobody can live like that without having a few rodents as residents.”
“Did you find anything creepy?”
“By creepy, do you mean dog bones?”
“Skeletons—not dog bones like the kind you feed dogs.”
“There was evidence that Kansas had a lot of animals in the house. The smell was undeniable. The police took some of the stuff, but there were pictures crammed in between the stacks of magazines that clearly proved there had been a lot of cats, dogs and other creatures in that house.”
“Did you find...”
“We found a picture of Old Gus. Rupert was pretty upset about that one. He had to go outside and get some fresh air.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. Hey, when did you talk to Rupert?”
“He was already in the house when we got there. He said a woman was seen with Kansas the day he died, and it wasn’t Daisy.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yep,” Billy said. “By the way, he knows the whole story now and he said to tell your mother that he was sorry for what he said. Actually, he was a big help. He explained a few things that helped me to understand Kansas a little better.”
“Like what?”
“I’d like to know the
answer to that, too,” Mom said as she appeared at the bedroom door. “I’m sorry to be snooping around in the middle of the night, but I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I went to the kitchen and then I saw your light on.” She pointed to the lamp. “I guess I’ve been around you two for too long. I’ve become a real busybody.”
Spice Cat appeared. He rubbed up against Mom and then walked over to the bathroom door and flopped down.
“You might as well come on in and have a seat. Billy was just filling me in on what he found after he snuck out of the house in the middle of the night and left us behind.”
Athena and Thor walked up to the bedroom doorway and sat at attention, their ears perked.
A minute later, we heard Ethan cry.
“I guess this will have to wait,” I said. “I’m being summoned. What a shame. The whole crew’s here and we were having so much fun.”
I looked around at the dogs and the cat, and then chuckled.
“I’ll go with you,” Mom said.
“I think I’m going to lie down and catch forty winks. If you need me just yell.”
Billy was stretched out, fully-clothed and half-asleep by the time Mom and I left the room.
I handed her the clipping and the photo to examine while I changed Ethan’s diaper. I picked him up and held him close as he nursed. Maisy was still asleep.
Mom walked over and looked down at Maisy. “She’s so beautiful. Sarah told me that Geneva called again. She wants to come over this weekend.”
I looked up, but didn’t say anything.
Mom changed the subject.
“I wonder if Kansas or Daisy had anything to do with this missing woman. Daisy told me they lived in a small town in Michigan before they moved here. Maybe this is the place she was talking about. Walloon Lake—now that sounds like a nice place. Sophie—I remember that name. Daisy said she had a friend back home, named Sophie. She told me her friend drowned in a boating accident.”
Mom looked at the newspaper clipping again.
“Sophie looks younger than Daisy. I wonder if she was his girlfriend.”
“That would make sense. They’re paired off in the picture.”