by Kathi Daley
I figured there was a good chance the call was either bogus, or worse, a trap of some sort, but I’d always been the curious sort, so against my better judgment, I found myself agreeing to meet the woman at a location we’d both agreed on. She’d wanted me to come alone, and I’d wanted to meet somewhere public, so we’d decided on the bench in front of the gazebo in the park. It seemed like a safe enough place to chat.
Trevor had taken the two older kids down to the beach while the younger two napped, and Mom was still in the kitchen working on her pies, so it was easy enough to slip out with only a vague mention of running into town and being back shortly.
When I arrived at the park, I found a woman wearing a dark blue coat, just as she’d mentioned she would. I sat down next to her.
“I’m Amanda,” I said.
“Gloria.”
“You said you had information for me.”
She nodded. “I live two doors down from the Jenkins family. I work a lot of hours, as do most of the folks who live in the neighborhood, but sometimes I poke my head in and check on the kids if I know they are alone. I don’t know the kid’s parents well. They really aren’t around all that much, but I have chatted with them from time to time, and they seem nice enough. I felt bad when the social worker got involved. I know how hard it is to make a living in this town, and I felt like everyone involved was just doing the best they could. But then I ran into Uncle Milton on one of my visits, and my view on involving social services changed dramatically.”
“Uncle Milton?” I asked.
“He isn’t a real uncle. He seems to be a friend of the children’s father, but based on what I can tell, the father doesn’t actually like the guy. What I do know is that Uncle Milton is a real scary sort. The children are terrified of him and will take off and hide when he comes around. I really couldn’t figure out why the father of these children would let this man come around, but after a bit of observation, it seems that he has some sort of hold over the guy.”
“Hold?”
“I’m not sure what exactly. Maybe the children’s father owes this guy money, or maybe he is linked to him in some other manner. What I do know is that Uncle Milton shows up every now and then even though every member of the family is afraid of him.”
“And you think this man is involved in the shooting of the social worker?”
She nodded. “I think he might be. I’m not sure that Uncle Milton shot the social worker, but I do know the two met. I guess it was maybe a month or so ago. I’d noticed Uncle Milton come by and I knew neither parent was home, so I decided to pop in and check on things. When I’d first arrived, poor Billy was trying to get rid of the guy while Aspen hid in the bedroom with the younger children. Once the social worker showed up and realized what was going on, she somehow got the man to leave. Aspen told me later that Uncle Milton came back to the house after the social worker left and the dad came home. She told me that Uncle Milton was angry about what had happened and threatened to take care of the witch, only she didn’t use the word witch. When I heard that the social worker had been shot, I had to wonder if Uncle Milton hadn’t done exactly what he’d threatened to do.”
I had to admit that if what the woman told me was true, this Uncle Milton fellow did make a good suspect. “So why don’t you want to talk to the police?”
“I have my reasons.”
I supposed she might be wanted for some past crime, or perhaps she was in the country illegally. I supposed that at this point it really didn’t matter, so I decided to move on. “Do you happen to know anything else about this Uncle Milton? Where he lives? Works? Maybe a last name?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know anything more than I told you. I’m taking a risk even meeting with you. I’m hoping you will take the information I have provided and look into things. I also hope you will leave me out of it.”
“Okay, I can do that. And thank you. This does sound like a genuine lead. Before you go, I do need to know how you got my cell number.”
“I told you that I looked it up.”
“It’s unlisted. In fact, you called me on a secure line.”
The woman shuttered her gaze. “Does it really matter how I got the number?”
“Actually, I think it might.”
“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
“If there has been a breach, I really need to know. If someone gave you the number who has been cleared to have it, then we don’t have a problem.”
“It was Aspen. She called me from the house phone. I wanted to be sure to talk to you directly, so I told her to call me from your cell when you weren’t looking. I just hit redial. Don’t be mad at her. She knew I would be worried and wanted to check in with me. She wanted you to know about Uncle Milton, but she didn’t want to get in trouble for being the one to tell. Please don’t be mad at her. She didn’t know you had a secure phone. Neither of us did.”
“I’m not mad. Thank you for telling me how you got my number.”
After Gloria left, I debated what to do. I could go straight to Woody or I could go home and try to get more out of Aspen and Billy. I wondered why neither child had brought up Uncle Milton to Mom or me or at least Trevor. It sounded like they were afraid of him, and it sounded like this man had some sort of hold over their father, so it made sense that the father might have warned the kids never to mention the guy. I wasn’t sure either child would tell us anything even now, but I supposed if I wanted a chance to speak to them about the man, I needed to do so before the transfer of physical custody to the children’s mother’s friend took place, so I headed home.
I pulled Trevor aside and filled him in. We decided that I’d talk to Aspen and he’d talk to Billy, and then we’d share notes. Hopefully, one or both would be willing to share what they knew.
I knew that getting Aspen to talk was going to be tricky, so I decided to take her up to my room where we could chat about things while I fixed her hair. I’d noticed her fussing with it earlier and was pretty sure she was feeling self-conscious about the fact that her pigtails were crooked. I assumed she’d tried to fix them herself, but had limited success.
“Have you tried braiding your hair?” I asked, after taking out the bands and brushing out her long hair.
“I like braids, but I don’t know how to do them. Sometimes my mom does my hair, and sometimes our neighbor comes over and does it.”
“I met Gloria this morning. She seems like a very nice person.”
Aspen smiled. “She is. She comes over sometimes to look in on us. She has a little dog who is named Taco. He is really cute.”
“She mentioned that there was someone else who stopped by your house from time to time. A man you call Uncle Milton.”
Aspen looked down at her hands which were folded in her lap. She didn’t respond, so I continued.
“Gloria didn’t seem to like Uncle Milton very much. She said that it seemed you kids didn’t like him either.”
“He is my dad’s friend. Daddy said we need to be nice to him, but whenever he comes over, me and Billy take Willow and Henry to our secret hideout.”
“Did you tell your parents that you didn’t like this man?”
She shrugged. “It won’t matter. I heard Mommy and Daddy talking. They don’t like him either, but they still let him come around. I think my daddy has known him since he was my age. They aren’t really related, but I guess they might have been friends.”
“Gloria told me that Ms. Rosewood met him and didn’t like him either.”
“She didn’t. She told my daddy that he had to tell his friend not to come over, but that only made him mad. I know they argued about it, and that made Mommy cry.”
“Do you think Uncle Milton would hurt Ms. Rosewood if she tried to keep him from coming over to your house?”
Aspen drew her brows together. “I don’t know. Maybe. I heard my daddy tell my mommy that Uncle Milton was not one to be trifled with. I don’t know what trifled means, but I think it means that he m
ight hurt you if you don’t do what he says.”
“I think that is exactly what it means. Do you know if Uncle Milton has a last name?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. He only started coming around last summer. I heard my mommy tell my daddy that she wished he’d never gotten out of the slammer.”
“So he was in prison.”
She shrugged. “I guess. Maybe. I think he did something bad, and I think my daddy did something bad too, but no one other than Uncle Milton knows about it. I think my daddy is scared of him telling the police what he knows, so he does what Uncle Milton tells him to do. He even gives him money. That is why he and Mommy have to have two jobs. That is why we can’t all be together.”
Okay, suddenly it seemed as if everything was beginning to fall into place. Aspen asked if she could go and watch my mom do the baking. She looked totally stressed out, so I told her sure. I waited for Trevor to come up to my room which was the arrangement we’d made. If what Aspen told me was true, maybe it was not only time to have another chat with Woody, but maybe it was time to have a chat with the children’s mother as well.
Chapter 13
Woody wasn’t in when I’d called, so I’d left a message. Trevor and I agreed that Uncle Milton sounded like a solid suspect and deserved a look. If the children’s father had done something in the past that had the potential to land him in trouble with the law or someone else, that could explain why he allowed Uncle Milton to come around and do as he pleased. And if Uncle Milton was squeezing the family for money, that explained why both parents were working so many hours.
In addition to that, if Trinity had found out that Uncle Milton was the lowlife he appeared to be, that might lend a clue as to who might have shot her. It sounded as if Trinity knew her shooter, and it also sounded as if the shooter was someone she was not expecting to see, and not happy about seeing. Based on what we’d been told, it seemed as if Uncle Milton fit both bills.
“I don’t think we should seek out Uncle Milton on our own,” Trevor said. “It seems like a man with a badge and a gun would be better suited for that. But I do think we might want to try to talk to the children’s mother. She might be more apt to talk about what she knows if the cops aren’t around than if they showed up and started questioning her.”
“If her husband did something bad, something really bad that would land him in prison if it is revealed, she might not be willing to talk to anyone.”
“Not even if the safety of her children is at stake?”
“I suppose in that case, she might be persuaded to tell us what she knows.” I had to believe that this woman loved her kids, and while she might love her husband as well, I hoped that if forced to choose, she would choose the happiness and safety of her children over everything else. Of course, I’d never met the woman, so I supposed I couldn’t say what she would do. But the bond between a mother and her children was usually pretty strong, so I needed to put my faith in that.
Of course, I had no idea how to get ahold of the mother, so I supposed I’d have to wait for Woody to return my call before I could take any sort of action.
Luckily, Woody called back a short time later. After I’d explained everything to him, he agreed to set up a meeting between the children’s mother and me and to look into the identity of Uncle Milton. Wanting to keep my promise to Gloria, I hadn’t revealed my source for this information, and Woody had decided to let it go and not push the matter.
“I don’t want you going to speak to the mother alone,” Trevor said. “I’ll go with you. I’ll stay in the background if you want me to, but I want to be there.”
I raised a brow. “Do you think the children’s mother is a danger to me?”
“No, but it does look as if someone associated with her might pose a danger, and since we don’t know if she has been in contact with Uncle Milton, I’m coming along.”
“Okay. Hopefully, Woody can track her down. If she has two jobs, she’s probably at one of them.”
As it turned out, she was at one of her jobs. Trevor and I headed toward Mini’s diner.
“Mrs. Jenkins?” I asked, after entering the diner and taking a seat in one of the empty booths in the back.
“Yes. Who’s asking?”
“My name is Amanda Parker. Your children are staying with me.”
Her face softened. She lowered the pad and pencil she held and sat down on the edge of the bench across from me. “How are they? Are they scared? Henry tends to have nightmares, and Aspen is prone to sleepwalking if she gets overly stressed.”
“The kids are fine. They seem happy to be together, and my mother is spoiling them rotten. Aspen loves to cook with her, and Billy has been playing video games with my friend, Trevor. They are safe and happy for now, but I do want to talk to you about a few things we need to straighten out so that they can go and stay with your friend in Salem.”
“Of course. I’m happy to help. I only want what is best for my children.”
“Do you think you could take a short break?”
She looked around. The place was practically empty. “Yeah. A short one. I’ll let my boss know what I’m doing. Just wait here.”
I waited as she asked. A few minutes later, she returned and slipped into the booth across from me. “So how are things going with Silvia’s request to have the kids stay with her for a while?”
“Things are moving along, and we are trying to accomplish the transfer in the next few days. Of course, there is a holiday this week, so it is hard to know when we’ll get the details worked out. I understand that you plan to go to Salem with the children when they make the move.”
“Of course. They are my children.”
“And your husband? Will he join you when he gets his legal issues worked out?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that is up to him. He doesn’t like Silvia, so I don’t think he will want to come.”
“That may be for the best.”
She nodded slightly. “I suppose it might be.”
“I understand that there is a friend of your husbands who comes and visits. Uncle Milton.”
The woman’s face hardened. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
“I’m afraid you are going to have to. Probably to the police as well. The children are afraid of Uncle Milton. I doubt custody will be returned to you as long as he is in the picture.”
“Milton is my husband’s friend. Not mine. As far as I am concerned, the world would be a better place if he fell off the edge into oblivion.”
I supposed that much was true. “Based on what I’ve heard, it seems as if this man has information he is holding over your husband. Something that will cause him harm if revealed, so, in exchange for his silence, your husband has been giving him money and allowing him to come around the house.”
The woman looked down at the table.
“If you want custody of your children returned to you, at some point you are going to have to cooperate with the police. They are going to want to know everything you know about Milton. Are you willing to provide that for the children?”
She hesitated. She took several deep breaths and let them out slowly. “I’ll do anything I need to in order to have my children back in my life. What do I need to do?”
“I’m going to call Officer Baker. He will probably want us to go to his office. I know you are working, but I’ll explain what is going on to your boss. It isn’t busy, so they should be fine without you. Will you come with me willingly?”
She nodded.
“Okay. I’ll make the call.”
As it turned out, Milton was actually Joey Milton Winston. He’d recently been released from prison after doing twenty years for armed robbery. A man had died during the robbery, but according to witnesses, Winston had not been the gunman. The gunman had gotten away and had never been identified. Winston refused to give up his partner in spite of the fact it would have resulted in a lighter sentence for him, which I suppose at least spoke to his loyalty.
During the twenty years Milton was in prison, his partner, Jake Jenkins, met and married the mother of his children. He stopped drinking, got a job, and became a model citizen. He tried to leave his old life behind, and most likely would have, had Uncle Milton not been released from prison the previous summer after having served his time.
When he got out, Milton looked up his old buddy, expecting payback for his silence. The children’s parents had both been working two jobs ever since. Mrs. Jenkins didn’t know if Milton killed the social worker, but she did say that she wouldn’t be surprised if he had. She shared that Milton was not happy that the woman was snooping around and sticking her nose in his business.
Woody felt that the set of circumstances leading up to Trinity being shot made Milton a good suspect and shared that he planned to bring him in. He suspected that the children’s mother and possibly the children themselves could be in danger if Milton realized she’d talked, so he made a few calls and arranged to have both the mother and the children taken to the friend in Salem before the end of the day. Trevor and I agreed to accompany the woman home and help her pack for her trip while Woody tracked down Uncle Milton.
“I wonder if I’ll ever come back to this house,” the woman said, as she packed clothes for herself and the children.
“Would you mind if you didn’t?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I love my husband, but he should pay for what he did. I’m sure he will go to prison for killing the man in the liquor store. I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.”
“It’s hard to say. I’m sure that if you want to see him, arrangements can be made. Did you know what he’d done all this time?”
“No. Not until Milton came into our lives. When I met my husband, he was such a sweet man. He was a responsible, hard worker. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. I never suspected for a minute that he had a dark past. Then this summer, Milton showed up, and I hated him on sight. I could see the kids were afraid of him, and I didn’t want to give him all our hard-earned money. It was then that my husband told me what’d happened long before I’d met him. Of course, I was devastated. But I also knew that Jake was no longer the same man who’d killed a liquor store clerk. I thought if we could pay Milton off, he would leave, but he just kept hanging around and asking for more and more. I felt trapped. I didn’t know what to do. I eventually confided in Ms. Rosewood. I told her that Milton was not only harassing us but that he was also squeezing us for money. She told me that she would take care of everything. Now she might die because I didn’t have the courage to go directly to the police.”