by Ann Mullen
I walked away with my questions answered and a newfound admiration for a man I once thought of as my enemy.
Epilogue
After the story about the Middle River murders broke, the members in the Stanardsville Social Club disbanded. It seems that no one wanted to be associated with someone who was connected to a psychopath, so in a small way, Naomi Kent got her way.
Daisy Clark’s reputation was left in tatters and the only friend she could lay claim to besides her husband was my mother. And of course, my mom would never abandon a friend.
Mom, Daisy and Gabe recovered from their physical injuries, but the emotional ones will take a little longer to heal.
Right from the beginning, Mom didn’t want to believe that Daisy was a killer. At times, she might’ve had her doubts, but when all was said and done, and the truth finally came out, she was relieved to discover that the woman she had formed a bond with wasn’t the killer everyone thought her to be. This proved to Mom that her first instincts about someone were still right on the mark. Her inner compassion and faith in others had not let her down.
It wasn’t long before Mom and her friend, Eddie, became companions with Daisy and Gabe. This surprised all of us, but as I see it, if that’s what it takes to help my mother get her life back together, then so be it.
It took a while for all of us to be able to openly discuss what happened with Kansas Moon. It hurt everyone involved to do so.
Finally, Daisy told Mom and me that she didn’t blame us for her brother’s death. According to the pills found in his house, he had long ago gone off his medication, which made him an easy target for someone as cunning as Naomi Kent.
It was Daisy’s assumption that Naomi convinced her brother to break into Mom’s house by telling him that Mom posed a danger to his sister.
Naomi knew that Kansas adored Daisy and if he thought that anyone had plans to cause her harm, he’d fight to the death to prevent that from happening.
And that’s exactly what he did.
Daisy said that without his medication, Kansas had the mentality of a child and didn’t know right from wrong. He was like a babe in the woods. Manipulating him would be an easy task for anyone.
Sheriff Hudson said that when the Charlottesville Police Department started questioning Naomi Kent, at first she refused to talk. Then, for no apparent reason, she started talking, and wouldn’t stop.
She spilled her guts. She blamed Daisy for her daughter’s death. She said Daisy approached her and told her that she wanted her to keep Sophie away from Kansas.
According to Naomi, Daisy made it perfectly clear that Sophie wasn’t good enough to date Kansas, let alone marry him. She said that Sophie would only hold him back and drag him down. Daisy had big plans for her brother’s career, and there was no place in it for someone with Sophie’s background.
Since Daisy couldn’t convince Naomi to step in and intervene, Daisy did it herself. She convinced her brother to break up with Sophie.
Naomi knew this was going to happen, because Daisy called her and told her, and then when her daughter said Kansas was taking her out on the lake, she knew it wasn’t for a romantic evening. When Sophie didn’t come home, Naomi suspected the worst.
The police couldn’t prove that Kansas murdered her daughter, but when Sophie’s body was later found floating in the lake, she knew the truth. She surmised that Kansas and Sophie had argued, he killed her and then dumped her body overboard.
All she wanted was for him to admit it. Unfortunately, when she went to his house to talk about the incident, he told her the same story he had told the police. He swore that they had argued and Sophie accidentally fell overboard. He searched and searched, but couldn’t find her. He was so sorry about Sophie. He missed her so much.
Naomi knew he would lie to her about what happened, but all she cared about was getting into his house, spiking his drink and making him pay for what he had done.
She expected him to be hospitable and anticipated that he would offer her a drink while they talked. She was served a gin and tonic while he made a fresh cup of coffee for himself. Once the drinks were made, she asked him for a straw, claiming that cold drinks hurt her sensitive teeth.
When he left the room to fetch the straw, she poured the finely crushed up powder of several Percodan tablets into his cup of hot coffee. The powder dissolved instantly.
She had gotten lucky.
If his drink had been a cold one, the powder probably wouldn’t have dissolved so quickly. She hadn’t thought about that earlier, but now it didn’t matter.
If the Percodan had changed the taste of his coffee, he never said a word. He drank the whole cup.
When he passed out on the floor, she went to her car, got out a rope and brought it back inside. She slung it over the ceiling beam, and then tugged on it, pulling him upward until his feet no longer touched the floor. She said that it was the most physically challenging thing she’d ever done. He was a big man. She complained that her back hurt for weeks afterward.
She was angry that Daisy found him. She had hoped he would die. If he had, her revenge would be sweet. But instead of dying, he was left brain-damaged. He was a vegetable. That she could laugh at, but it still didn’t satisfy her appetite for revenge.
She went crazy when she found out that Daisy and her family had up and moved. She spent many, many months planning her revenge while she tracked them down. All that planning went out the window when she did find them. Instead, she devised a better plan—one that would destroy Daisy and her precious reputation, and then eventually, bring about her demise.
Naomi confessed to shooting Jonathan, saying that was an added bonus. She caught him spying on one of Daisy’s neighbors and decided he would get in her way, so he had to go.
But that didn’t go so well either. She told herself that the next time she stole a gun; she’d steal a bigger one.
Once Naomi Kent killed the first victim, Alice Aikens, her thirst was quenched only temporarily. She enjoyed the feel of watching the life drain out of her victim’s bodies, and the need to kill grew stronger.
She decided to kill as many people around Daisy as she could, and then she’d kill Daisy.
She never planned to kill Gabe, but when the opportunity presented itself, she tried to take advantage of it. She was angered when her attempt failed.
Pouring arsenic down the throat of a struggling victim proved to be a little more difficult than she had expected, so she hit Harriett Shifflett over the head, but not before she had almost emptied the bottle. Once Harriett had swallowed the vile poison and was losing consciousness from the blow to her head, out of meanness, she kicked the woman.
June Robinson had to be eliminated because she was always looking through her binoculars at Daisy’s house. If she had caught sight of Naomi sneaking around, she would’ve called the cops.
So Naomi got adventurous when the opportunity presented itself, and stole a police car. Then she kidnapped June Robinson and locked her in the trunk. She thought that would be a fitting death. Naomi abandoned the cop car in a parking lot, and no one was the wiser... for a little while.
Later, when the police discovered the stolen car, they were furious and embarrassed. They wanted to keep that information under wraps.
Naomi bragged about stealing the car right out of the cop’s driveway. She was so proud of herself. She had just dumped the last car she had stolen and was on foot, hiding in the woods when the officer came home. He parked his car, got out and walked to the back of the house. He went up the steps to the screened-in porch and then walked over and sat down on a wicker chair. He tossed his keys on the table, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. A few minutes later, he got up and walked inside, leaving his keys where they lay.
Naomi waited. When all the lights in the house went out, she silently snuck up on the porch, took the keys and then stole the car.
I’m sure glad that I wasn’t that officer. You know he’ll never live it down. He probably lost hi
s job over the incident.
“People are so stupid,” Naomi Kent had told the police. “They’ll open their doors to anyone. That nosey busybody was an easy target. She didn’t have the strength to fight me. She was such a wimp.”
She had trouble with Daisy’s friend, Minnie. The more she hurt Minnie, the more the woman tried to be nice to her. For some reason, she couldn’t kill her, so she decided to dump her at Kansas’ house, figuring that by the time she was found, it’d be too late.
She was disturbed to find out that her victim had been rescued.
Toward the end, all she wanted to do was to kill Daisy. She made one last effort to accomplish that, but it had been her downfall. She had gotten caught.
She was obsessed and rambled on about how she would pull it off if she ever got a chance. Clearly, Naomi Kent was not redeemable. She was a danger to society and had to be eliminated.
The D.A. is going to seek the death penalty. Naomi Kent shows no signs of remorse. The only thing she felt sorry about was that she didn’t get away with killing Daisy.
Shortly after the incident with the Kent woman, I convinced Mom, Daisy and Gabe to seek help. All three of them go to the same psychologist to help them deal with the trauma they endured.
I rely on my family to help me get through mine.
Mom traded in her minivan for a brand new Ford Explorer the color of the sun. She said she’d always wanted a bright yellow car. Now she has her yellow car in the form of a monstrous SUV.
She said that she had to have something to haul her grandkids in that could handle the snow. She knows what’s important.
I love that woman.
Before the winter set in, there was a new addition to the Blackhawk compound. Sarah and Chief Sam sold five acres of land on the back side of their sprawling property to Eli and Geneva.
The two reconciled for the sake of their granddaughter (so they said, but I still believe it was because they still loved each other) and was welcomed with open arms by the family.
Billy and his brothers helped build their house, and before long, Maisy had more grandparents than she knew what to do with.
Ethan’s just like his dad. He looks so much like Billy, it’s amazing, and Billy can’t seem to get enough of him. I love to watch the two of them together.
The sparkle in Billy’s eyes makes me want to smother him with love… and I do.
Claire and Randy plan to have a spring wedding.
Abby and Pete Morgan are delighted that their son will finally get to marry the woman he’s carried a torch for all these years. They plan to throw a big party to celebrate the happy occasion. We’re all invited.
Isabel, Randy’s aunt, told him to take his woman and run far away from his smothering mother.
Needless to say, Abby and Isabel live in the same house, but aren’t speaking to each other right now. That won’t last long. It never does.
Early next summer, Billy’s sister, Beth, and her husband, Adam expects their first child. This will be the first grandchild born to a non-Cherokee father in Chief Sam and Sarah Blackhawk’s family. That ought to make for interesting fodder at the Blackhawk Sunday dinner table.
Frank Trainum gave the diamond ring to his nurse girlfriend, Alexandra, and from the looks of things, a wedding will be in their near future.
Billy and I offered to have the ceremony at our house, but Frank said he’d have to think about that. He says he’s afraid I’ll pull one of my stunts and all of us will wind up in jail before his woman has a chance to say I do.
Now I wonder where he got that idea.
Cole and Billy are working on salvaging their friendship, but as long as I’m around, that’s going to be a tough row to hoe.
Such is life. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can.
I have a special spot in my heart for Cole, but my life is with Billy. He’s the one I was destined to find.
Sheriff Wake Hudson is another hero I can add to my short list. I respect him, and I owe him.
As fall came to a close, we gathered at the table for dinner one evening and were discussing the cold winter months ahead when the phone rang.
Billy got up from the table and went to answer it. He was gone for a while, so I excused myself and went down the hall to see what was happening.
He was finished with his conversation and was walking toward me when I reached him.
“Who was on the phone?”
“Oh, nobody special,” he said.
I gave him one of my looks.
As we headed back to the kitchen, Billy filled me in.
“It was Russ Shank. He wanted to tell me about a case he’s working on. He has a client who needs our help.”
“What kind of case is it?”
“I don’t know all the details, but Russ said something about a killer running around in Greene County.”
“Where in Greene County?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t go into specifics. He was getting ready to walk out the door and I told him I was having dinner. He’s going to call back later tonight.”
“Should we be concerned?”
“We should always be concerned when a killer is on the loose and might be in our vicinity. Russ also wanted to know if your mom was at her home in Dogwood Valley, since Dogwood Valley is in Greene County. I told him she was here with us.”
“Did I hear you say you were talking to Russ?” Mom asked Billy as we walked over to the dining room table.
“Yes, you did,” Billy replied. “Russ has a case he wants to discuss.”
“Oh, good,” Mom said. “You two need more work. You’ve been hanging around the house too long. Maybe I can…”
“Before you say another word, you can forget about it. Your days of playing amateur sleuth are over, Mother Elk,” I demanded. “No more playing private detective for you! You have four grandchildren who need you.”
“But...”
“What would Benny, Carrie, Maisy and Ethan do without their grandma? It is not going to happen! Besides, I’d hate to have to shoot someone dead in the road for messing with my mother… and you know I would do it.”
“Jesse, we have kids in the room! Billy, talk to your wife!” Mom pleaded.
“Billy can’t be worrying about you on a stakeout, Mom. He has enough to worry about with me.”
“How true!” Billy agreed. “No more hiding in the bushes for you, evil Grandma! You’ve lost your private eye badge and can’t play with the big boys anymore. You have been reduced in rank! You are the grandma. No more mystery capers for you!”
Mom laughed. “Billy Blackhawk, you’re a mess!”
“You must stay home and be a slave to us and our children. I will take care of you.”
“You always do,” Mom said with a big grin on her face.
“Yes, you do, heap big warrior!” I gushed. “It is you who makes the sun shine bright in the sky and the stars glow at night. You are…”
Billy smiled as he put his arm around my neck and said, “I’m such a lucky man. I have a loving family and a terrific wife. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
I hugged him and said, “That’s the way it should be. Family is the most important thing in life.”
Acknowledgements
I would like to say a special thank you to all of those who help make my life easier by being there for me. My family will always be number one on the list. Without their love and support, none of my books would have ever made it out the door. Thanks to Jo Ann Peach, Larry Mayhew, Teresa Durrer, Alex Carrier, Katherine Page, Kelley Cleaton, and Sheriff Scott Hass, for all your help in different ways. And thanks to Minnie Crumpler for being my mom.
Look for my next book: Greene County Killer
A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #5
This book is dedicated to Reena Mullen.
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