Middle River Murders

by Ann Mullen

  “We need a checkin time,” Sarah suggested. “I don’t want to sit around for hours and worry.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Chief Sam said. “It’s four o’clock now. At seven, everybody needs to call here. If someone doesn’t checkin by then, I’ll start calling the rest of you and let you know.”

  “What about dinner?” Geneva asked. “Shall we cook something and refrigerate it until everyone returns?”

  “That sounds good to me,” I said. “But don’t wait on us to eat. Y’all go ahead and eat.”

  “Yeah, go ahead and eat,” Billy agreed. “There’s no telling when we’ll be back.”

  Athena and Thor howled as we walked out onto the front porch, and by the time we’d gathered by the cars for one last briefing, their barking had begun to get outrageous.

  “If I didn’t think they’d give us away at the most inopportune time, I’d say we bring them with us,” I stated.

  “That might not be a bad idea,” Jonathan said. “I think Thor and I could work well together. Athena doesn’t quite trust me yet.”

  “That’s because she’s a girl and she knows better,” Daniel joked.

  Jonathan laughed. “You might be right. I think Thor and I have a lot in common because we have that alpha dog thing going on.”

  “You might have something there,” I said. “Thor wants to be the lead dog and he seems to have a natural instinct for the hunt, but Athena has the killer instinct. She appears gentle, but was anything but gentle when she came down those stairs in attack mode that time the Westovers busted down the door and tried to kill us. She distracted that guy just long enough for me to get a shot off. She helped save our lives.”

  We looked at each other.

  “Let’s take them,” Billy said. “If anyone can sniff out Jesse’s mother, it’s those two.”

  Jonathan turned around and went back up on the porch and then opened the front door. As soon as he opened the door, both dogs came running out. Thor immediately went over to Jonathan’s truck and peed on the tire, while Athena came over to me and sat by my feet.

  “I guess that settles it,” I said. “Athena goes with us and Thor goes with Jonathan.”

  Chief Sam, Eli, Sarah and Geneva stood at the front door and watched as we crawled into our trucks and headed down the driveway.

  We were barely out to the main road when Athena started panting.

  “Oh, no!” I said. “I forgot that she hates to ride in cars. She’ll probably get sick and throw up all over the seat.”

  “She’ll be fine,” Billy said as he reached over and rubbed her head.

  Athena jumped across my lap and took up residence between us. She sat up tall, leaned over to lick Billy’s face and then stopped panting.

  “See,” Billy said. “She’s going to be fine.”

  Much to my amazement, Athena didn’t get sick. We made it all the way from Charlottesville to Middle River Road in Stanardsville, a forty-five minute ride, and not once did she even gag. I rubbed her head as we pulled up into Gabe and Daisy’s driveway.

  “I hope we’re at the right house,” I said as we crawled out of the truck. “I’ve never been here before. Check the address again. I don’t want to get shot for trespassing.”

  “It’s the right house,” Billy said. “Gabe said they were the only ones who have a water fountain in the front yard.”

  “It’s terrific,” I said. “I feel like I could jump in and go for a swim.”

  The words were barely out of my mouth when Athena did just that. Before we had a chance to stop her, Athena was in the fountain up to her neck in water. When she started to drink the water, Billy grabbed her collar and commanded her to jump out.

  “You can’t drink the water, girl. It’s probably got some kind of chemical in it.”

  She obeyed. With Billy’s help, she jumped out of the fountain. She shook the water from her thick coat, spraying both of us.

  “Well, that was fun,” I said, trying to dodge her spray.

  All Billy did was laugh.

  The house was a split-level, old style Colonial. The black shutters stood out boldly against the painted white exterior. A large black top driveway with a separate entrance and exit curved around the water fountain. Well-maintained flower beds lined the front of the house. The lawn was perfectly manicured.

  We slipped around to the back of the house, and found the key under the doormat. Billy picked it up and stuck it into the lock. When the door opened, a gush of cool air swept across our faces.

  “Stay here, Athena,” Billy commanded.

  “If she runs off, I’m going to be pi…”

  “She won’t,” he promised.

  “Oh, my goodness,” I said as I stepped inside and looked around. “They sure have the air-conditioner cool enough. Wow, this sure is a nice kitchen.”

  “It’s like an icebox in here,” Billy agreed. “Perhaps Gabe forgot to change the settings. I doubt very seriously they would want it to be this cold in the house.”

  “Who knows, maybe they like it like this. I’ve heard that when you get older, your body changes and you are either hot or cold all the time. Perhaps they’re in their hot stage.”

  “I can believe it. The body goes through many changes in a lifetime.”

  Billy’s words faded into the background as I became more and more consumed with the house. The room we were in was a very large kitchen and dining room combined. Through a cased opening we could see another room which I figured was obviously their den. The room looked comfortable and well-used.

  When I walked through the dining room to the den, I noticed a hallway on the left leading to the rest of the house. In the den, newspapers were piled off to the side of an overstuffed chair and a sewing kit sat next to the coffee table. The furniture was lightly worn, but still in good condition. An old-fashioned console television sat in front of the double window. On top of the TV were several framed pictures.

  I walked up closer and looked at the pictures, picking them up one at a time. They were photos of Gabe and Daisy together, and then one of the two of them with Kansas. Another photo showed a woman and a man with two children. I guessed the people in the photo to be their daughter and her family. I remembered that Mom said they moved here to be close to their daughter.

  I turned and looked at Billy. He was going through the drawers of the end tables when I said, “There doesn’t seem to be anything here. Let’s go check the other rooms.”

  We walked down the hall. Billy went off to the left to look through a bedroom as I went to the right and searched the formal living room. We both came up empty-handed.

  After searching two other bedrooms, we went downstairs to the basement. The room was tidy, but had so much stuff in it, I thought for sure it would take us hours to do a thorough search.

  “This room reminds me of Kansas’ house, except that it’s not messy,” Billy said as he searched through a large, mahogany desk.

  I searched the smaller desk. I was sure this was Daisy’s because of the size and the fact that there was a stack of Good Housekeeping magazines on the top off to the side. I pulled open the drawer and came across a ledger with Stanardsville Social Club written on the front. I sat down in the chair and started going through the book.

  “I think we found what we were looking for, Billy. Daisy has a list of every woman who has been or still is a member of her club. There’re dates beside their names, obviously indicating when they joined and a couple have dates that indicate they no longer belong to the club. Maybe we should check those out first. There might be some hard feelings still lingering over their exit from the club.”

  I looked up and noticed a table top copier on the right side of the room.

  “We couldn’t get much luckier,” I said as I pointed to the copier.

  I got up and walked over to the copier and started making copies of the book. When I finished, I had a stack of twenty-two pages. I walked back to the desk and laid the ledger down on top of it. I sat down and starte
d looking through the pages.

  I looked up and said, “I don’t think this is a book she’d want anyone to see. It has very personal stuff written in it.”

  “Is that so?” Billy asked as he continued his search.

  “She’s written some pretty nasty comments by some of these women’s names. Wow! Listen to this, Billy. ‘Pat needs to keep her mouth shut. She should’ve listened to me when I said I wanted to keep my personal life private. How dare she tell everyone about my brother. He can’t help it that he’s the way he is. She called him retarded in front of my friends. I know she had too much wine, but that doesn’t give her the right to talk bad about Kansas. She’s going to regret that mistake for a long time to come.’ Boy, she’s out for blood!”

  “I guess she got what she wanted,” Billy replied. “The woman’s dead.”

  Chapter 25

  We continued our search, hoping to find something a little more incriminating, but the best we’d come up with so far was Daisy’s little book.

  “There’s nothing in Gabe’s desk,” Billy said. “All I found was receipts, statements, and a bunch of junk that didn’t mean anything.”

  “Look at this,” I said, pointing to the page.

  Billy walked over to me and stared down at the paper. After reading the notation next to Alice Aikens’ name, he looked up at me and smiled.

  “Daisy was a bit jealous, wouldn’t you say?” I asked.

  “I sure would.”

  “She thought Alice was too prissy and didn’t belong in their special club for special people.”

  “That’s not very nice.”

  “She won’t last long. My friends will see right through that woman. I’ll give her a month and then she’ll be history.” I read, mocking the words on the page.

  “When Daisy doesn’t like someone, she can be right harsh,” Billy said. “I sure don’t want her mad at me.”

  “Oh, here’s what she wrote about Mom: ‘Minnie is a terrific person. She has such a good heart. I’m sure we’re going to be good friends.’ ”

  “Everyone who meets your mother likes her.”

  “That makes me feel better. At least, she didn’t hate my mom.”

  Billy didn’t respond, so I looked up to see if he had walked back over to the other desk. When I didn’t see him, I stood and walked out from behind the desk, still holding the copies in my hand.

  “Oh, there you are,” I said, looking down at him. “What did you find?”

  He was crouched in the corner going through a stack of magazines. He looked up and answered, “Some of these magazines are ten years old. I wonder why someone would keep a magazine that long.”

  “There could be something written about Gabe in them. That might be why he’s kept them...”

  “I see why he kept them now,” Billy said. “Gabe Clark was the editor of Walloon Lake Boating up until two years ago.”

  “That’s just about...”

  “... the same time Kansas had his accident.” Billy replied, finishing my sentence. He continued to scan the pages.

  “Accident is a nice word for what happened to Kansas.”

  “We don’t really know the whole story, yet.”

  “We know he tried to kill himself.”

  “I’ve found something of interest,” Billy said, looking up at me. He stood and showed me the magazine. “The most recent magazine is dated September, 2004. That’s the same year Sophie died.”

  “After such a terrible ordeal, I imagine they packed up and left Michigan. Daisy told Mom they moved here to be close to her daughter, but the truth is they probably left because of all the hoopla that surrounded Sophie’s death.”

  “I think I’d leave, too,” Billy said. “There’s an article in this one about the boating accident that left Sophie dead. It goes into great detail. I’m sure Gabe was probably forced to resign after something like this came out. A scandal like this could ruin him.”

  “I was asked to leave,” Gabe said as he walked into the room. “What happened to my family was an embarrassment to the company. They couldn’t have a killer’s father working at such a prestigious magazine.”

  I was so startled that I dropped the pages I was holding.

  Billy walked toward Gabe and said, “I’m so sorry to hear that. It must’ve been pretty awful for you.”

  “My family was destroyed. Daisy almost fell apart.”

  “I hope you don’t mind,” Billy said as he looked at the magazine in his hand. “You gave us permission to search…”

  “Don’t worry,” Gabe responded. “I’m not angry. I have nothing to hide. Search all you want. But if you want to save time, why don’t you just ask me what you want to know.”

  I stooped down and gathered up the pages off the floor.

  “How’s Daisy doing?”

  “She was asleep when I left. She wanted me to come home and get her makeup. It seems she might have to stay a while at the hospital. The doctors found an abnormality in her CAT scan. They want to run some more tests.”

  “What does a CAT scan have to do with her foot?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” he said. “Daisy started having severe headaches this morning, so they did a CAT scan.”

  “What do they think is wrong?” Billy asked.

  “They’re not saying, but I’m worried she might have an aneurysm. Her mother died of one, so she’s really panicky about her headaches. They stopped for a few hours, but after someone tried to suffocate her with a pillow, they came back again.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “They started to subside about an hour ago, so Daisy insisted that I come home and get her makeup.” He looked at me and then back to Billy. “Women can’t live without their makeup. Why, even the thought of someone coming to visit her and catching her without her makeup on, drives her nuts. She’d drive me batty if I refused her.”

  Billy looked at me and then back to Gabe. He smiled and said, “I’m lucky that my wife doesn’t wear any makeup.”

  “Ha! That’s what you think,” I sneered. “I have to have my mascara, if nothing else. Without it, I’d look like little Orphan Annie.”

  A smile came to Gabe’s face.

  “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile since I met you the day of Alice’s funeral. You seemed very distant. I figured that you were just upset over her death.”

  A frown replaced his smile.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to stir up sad memories.”

  “So much has happened in the last few days. I can’t seem to get it all out of my mind, not even for a minute.” Gabe stared back at us and then added, “Why don’t we go sit at the kitchen table and I’ll fix us a cold drink? Then we can talk about things. Hopefully, I might hold a clue that will aid in the search for Minnie.”

  “How…”

  “It’s on the news,” Gabe answered. “I guess the police couldn’t keep the reporters at bay once someone publicly tried to kill my wife. Come on, let’s go have a talk.” He turned and motioned for us to follow.

  I held onto the papers as Billy and I walked out of the room, following Gabe to the kitchen. We sat down as Gabe opened the refrigerator door and pulled out three beers. He held them up as if to ask if we wanted one. Billy nodded his head in agreement, but I refused his offer.

  “I’d rather have a soda or a glass of water, if you don’t mind.”

  “I have Coke. Is that okay?”

  “That’s fine, thanks.”

  Billy and Gabe twisted the cap off their beers as I popped the tab on the soda can.

  After a long sip, all three of us set our drinks down on the table and let out a quiet sigh.

  “It’s been a long day,” Gabe said. “And it’s probably going to get longer.” He looked back and forth at both of us. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything that I can, but I really know very little.”

  “You might be surprised at how much you do know,” I said.

  Billy’s cell pho
ne went off. He excused himself, got up and walked into the other room.

  I wanted to hurry up and get out of Daisy’s house. My mother was missing and I was beginning to fear the worst. The longer we sat here and talked, the less time we’d have to look for my mother. So being who I am, I got right to the point.

  “I have a question, Gabe. Why would Kansas try to kill himself unless he blamed himself for Sophie’s death? The police said they suspected foul play and then Kansas tries to kill himself. Was he guilt-ridden? Did they have a fight?”

  Gabe hung his head and after a few seconds began his story.

  “Daisy didn’t think Sophie was good enough for Kansas. Michigan is our home. Daisy and I were born and raised there and we came from good stock.”

  “So you’re saying that your families are rich.”

  Billy walked back into the room and sat down. He gave us the head’s up signal, so Gabe continued.

  “Yes, that’s pretty much the gist of it. Sophie’s side of the family was working class people. Her mother was a hair dresser and her father drove a delivery truck.”

  “I bet Daisy wasn’t too happy about that.”

  “No, she wasn’t,” Gabe said. “They lived in Minnesota until Sophie’s father was killed. Then Sophie’s mother, Naomi, got a sizable amount of money from her husband’s life insurance and from a law suit. The two of them left Minnesota and ended up in Walloon Lake.”

  “And then Sophie and Kansas met.”

  “Kansas met Sophie at the local drug store and, as they say, the rest is history. Everything was going fine until Daisy found out that Sophie and her mother weren’t from real money.”

  “I bet that didn’t make Daisy happy.”

  “Oh, Daisy flipped her lid.”

  “I can just guess what Daisy did when she found that out. She probably blew a gasket.”

  “I wouldn’t have described it in that way, but you hit the nail on the head. Daisy decided that Sophie wasn’t good enough for her brother and went about trying to break them up.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She convinced Kansas that Sophie would only bring him down by standing in his way to success. She said such horrible things about Sophie, it almost made me dislike the girl. But Sophie was a nice person, and I knew how Daisy could be, so I ignored her remarks. I just let her rattle on. She’s my wife; I have to listen to her, if nothing else.”