Fear at First Glance

by Dave Balcom

  We parted at the steps, he went up, I entered the house through the patio and found coffee in the kitchen. I took two cups to our room and let the aroma bring Jan to life while I showered.

  She took a turn in the shower, and I had her second cup waiting for her when she came out. “Thank you, lover. What’s on the agenda for today?”

  “First, I think we see if Miles has an assignment for us; if not, I want to go to Stoney and look up Angela and Mrs. Ricky.”

  “What for?”

  “I want to know more about the Ralphs’ time in town.”

  “Whatever for?”

  “Did you see all the photos on the wall in the living room?”

  “I did; someone took great care in putting that collage together.”

  “Did you notice anything odd about it?”

  “No, why? Did you?”

  “When you’re dressed, let’s go up and look at it together.”

  We found Betty Ralph at the kitchen table with Maria. They were sharing toast and tea. Maria started to rise as we entered, but Jan put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Please, stay here. We don’t need anything other than some more of that wonderful coffee, and we’ll pour it ourselves.”

  “Did you sleep well?” Betty asked politely.

  “I did,” I answered; “Jan went out like a light. How about you?”

  “I went to sleep quickly; pretty tired, I guess. But I didn’t stay asleep long, and it was a toss-and-turn night.”

  My phone went off at that moment, and I excused myself and answered it as I walked out of the room. “Stanton here.”

  “Jim? It’s Miles; you up and about?”

  “We are. Where are you?”

  “Just pulling into B’laire,” he said, pronouncing the county seat as the locals most often do. “I’m meeting with the sheriff and his deputies in 10 minutes, then I’m coming over there.”

  “You want me here when you arrive?”

  “Why? You thinking about going somewhere?”

  “Unless you have a job for us, I thought we’d go to Stoney and re-interview a few people from before.”

  “I’ll want to go over that report with you guys, and we can figure out a role for you from that. I expect to be there by nine-thirty or so...”

  “We’ll be here, boss.”

  But he’d already hung up. I shook my head.

  “He hung up on you, didn’t he?” Jan said as I returned to the kitchen.

  I just rolled my eyes, and she spoke to Betty and Maria, “I told you. All of Jim’s police friends flunked the course on telephone etiquette.”

  I ignored her joke and poured myself another coffee. “He wants to go over the report when he arrives,” I said. “Betty, you’re going to appreciate him when you meet. You’ll understand that when he’s on a case he may not have room for telephone courtesies, but he has one single purpose, and that’s to solve the mystery.

  “He’ll find Paul if anyone can.”

  She smiled and I could see tears filling her eyes, but she blinked them back.

  We went to the living room, and she followed us. I stood looking out at the lake. The sunrise that had been so promising was losing out to low scudding clouds that were streaming from the northwest. Whitecaps were flickering out on the water.

  “I love this room,” Jan said to her.

  “Me too. This room is why we wanted to build a house on this point. We have spent more than thirty years watching that view. The colors – from the water to the sky to the trees – they’re just all so vivid.

  “We spent a fortune on these windows, but Paul was adamant that we have the best glass for this view, and we have it.”

  “Is that why all the family photos have been rendered into black and white?” I asked.

  “They’re beautiful, don’t you think?”

  “It’s quite a contrast in this light; I didn’t really appreciate it last night when we were in here.”

  Jan was looking closely at each photo, working her way from the early pictures showing the family at work and play in Stoney. The display appeared to be a chronological pictorial history of their life. She turned to Betty and said gently, “Betty? These pictures all start with Stoney; what was your life like before that? Tony was eleven when you moved up here, but there are no pictures of him or any of you from before, what, 1972?”

  I watched Betty’s eyes as Jan asked the question. It was only there for a second, but I saw it. It wasn’t really fear, I thought to myself. No, it was something else.

  CHAPTER 33

  Tears were trickling down her cheeks, but Betty refused to be flustered at Jan’s question. She simply turned her chair around and wheeled out of the room.

  Jan looked shocked at the response, and I could see her own eyes welling up as she turned to me. Her hand was at her mouth as I reached her and took her into my arms.

  “I never meant to hurt her,” she was fighting off sobs, and I shushed her, holding her tightly to me. I could feel her tears soaking through my thin shirt, but I just stood with her in my arms, waiting for her to regain her composure.

  “Did you see the look in her eyes?” She whispered into my chest.

  “I did, but she didn’t hold it long. What do you think it was? Not fear, I didn’t think.”

  “No, it wasn’t fear,” she said as she pushed herself away so she could look into my eyes. “It was realization, pure and simple.”

  We sat in that room and watched a storm sweep in from Lake Superior, across Lake Michigan and slam into Torch Lake with a vengeance.

  Miles didn’t arrive until just after 10 o’clock. H

  e found us alone in the living room. Maria showed him in and beat a hasty retreat, but not before sharing a scowl with each of us.

  “Something wrong?” Miles asked, looking at the retreating housekeeper. “She’s certainly not happy.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around this house right now, Miles.”

  “Tony, too?”

  “I’m guessing he’s down in the study, probably working with his office.”

  Jan rose, “I’ll go find him, then I’m going to try to find Betty. Jim can fill you in, Miles.”

  The investigator started to say something, then visibly changed his mind. “Sure, Jan.”

  Twenty seconds later, Tony came into the room visibly concerned, “Some news?”

  “No,” Miles said, looking a question at me.

  I stood up and walked to the photos, “Jan was looking at these this morning. I had really noticed them last night when Sheriff Bromwell was here, but it wasn’t until after our walk that I made sense out of something that had been niggling at me. I brought Jan up here to have a look to see if it hit her as well, and it did, just as your mom came in...”

  Miles joined me for a closer look at the photos and Tony stepped over as well, “So what’s the big deal?” He asked.

  I let the question hang for a few minutes and then I saw Miles recognize my point.

  Tony noticed it too, “Something missing?”

  Miles caught my eye as if to give me the nod to talk, but I kept quiet. He then turned to Tony, “There are no pictures of you or your family before you moved to Stoney. Are they somewhere else in the house?”

  Tony pulled his head back in surprise, and then he studied the photos for a minute, “You’re right. There are pictures of my wedding, even Decker’s wedding; but not my mom and dad’s wedding... That’s a bit strange. I’ll have to ask Mom.”

  “That’s what Jan did,” I said.

  “What’d she say?” Tony asked.

  “Nothing. She just wheeled herself out of the room, but she was crying.”

  Tony was stunned. “Really crying?”

  “Sobbing.”

  “Holy Christ!” He blurted and headed out of the room.

  “Tony!” I called to him, and he stopped at the door. “There’s something else, and you need to hear it before you go running to her.”

  He turned back to us, but sta
yed by the door, his head turned, but his body still ready to hurry away. “What?”

  I described the look that had passed across Betty’s face just before the tears started. I told him that Jan had described the look as one of realization, and that she had gone to find his mother to console her.

  “I think you should settle down here with us until Jan comes for you.”

  I watched him deflate and then he walked to the couch and let himself fall into its cushions. “How did I not notice that?”

  “Have you ever seen earlier photos?” Miles asked, pulling a notebook out of his jacket pocket.

  “Sure, but it’s been years and years. I can’t remember exactly, but it may have been before we moved to Stoney...” he was shaking his head slowly.

  CHAPTER 34

  Miles and Tony went looking for his mother, and after a few minutes, Jan came back to the living room.

  “She’s pretty broken up, but she’s certain that the reason they moved to Stoney so many years ago has finally caught up with them. She just said over and over, ‘They never forget; they never forgive.’ Over and over again, then she’d just cry.

  “She’s explaining what she can to Tony for the first time; he’s as broken up as you might imagine.”

  Miles came back to the living room just before noon. His notebook was still in his hands, and a look of sadness was all over him.

  “That’s quite a story, all right,” he said as he lowered himself into a chair. “I’m going to go back to the Sheriff’s office and type this all up. Then I’ll come back here and have her read it and sign it, and Tony as a witness; but Jesus!”

  He gave us the Cliff Notes version of the Ralphs’ story: Paul had been an attorney with a firm that had specialized in criminal defense. He had gotten involved with a gangland murder trial, and it had gone badly for the defendants; they decided it was because members of their defense team had been talking with the prosecutors. “The firm tried to protect their people, but when it came right down to it, the only thing they could do without violating their clients’ privacy was to fire Paul with a hefty severance. They also dismissed Paul’s assistant who had worked on the trial with him.

  “It was that severance money that gave them the store and careful financial management that bought this house.”

  “So Betty thinks someone from that past showed up yesterday morning and completed a contract issued more than forty years ago?” I asked with a certain amount of awe, and as he nodded, I whistled and added, “That’s some vengeance, that is.”

  I could see the interview had drained him. “You need anything from us?”

  “Yeah, I still need to go over Jan’s notes from last week with you; perhaps put them into some perspective with this new information. That can wait a bit, however. You said something about going to Stoney and revisiting with some people... could you stop by the Sheriff’s office in B’laire on your way back here?”

  “That’s hardly on the way,” Jan said with a faint smile. She turned to me, “What do you want to revisit?”

  “I want to talk with Angela and Mrs. Ricky about those early years when the Ralphs first arrived.”

  Miles stood up, “I think that’s a good idea, and then you can stop by the Sheriff’s before five and go over this stuff before I come back for the signatures.”

  So that was the plan, and by one o’clock we were at the bank. Angela had just returned from her lunch, and was surprised to see us.

  “I thought you’d be back in Oregon by now.”

  Jan gave her a bit of a hug, “We were on our way when we heard about Paul Ralph’s disappearance.”

  “Oh, I heard. I left a message at Tony’s office. They said they would pass it on when he returns.”

  “He’s with his mom,” Jan said.

  “Angie,” I interrupted, “can you tell us anything about the early years of the Ralphs’ running the store?”

  “No, just what I remember from the newspaper files. They did a decent write-up about the new owners, but the only picture was of Mrs. Ralph; nothing of Mr. Ralph. I thought that was strange.”

  I had read that clipping, and had thought nothing about the photo that went with it.

  “Can you think of anything else we should be looking at regarding the Ralphs?” Jan asked.

  Angie made a show of thinking about it, lips pursed as she trolled her memory. “No, I can’t think of anything.”

  We thanked her and walked over to the Ricky house and rang the bell.

  Mrs. Ricky answered through the intercom, and Jan announced us. The door lock snapped open and I could imagine her bright smile as she called out, “The Stantons! “How nice. I was just sitting here thinking about you two. Come in.”

  We walked into the dimness of her front room, and followed the long hall into the relative brightness of her kitchen. She was sitting at her table, and the smile I’d imagined was plastered on her face. She seemed more animated than I had remembered, “Wasn’t that a real nice event last weekend?” she said in way of a greeting. “Everything but that game, that is. Those boys took a shellackin,’ didn’t they?

  “You want anything? Coffee? You can make a pot real quick.”

  “That would be lovely if you’re having some,” Jan said.

  “Oh, I have coffee all the time. It’s that decaf stuff, but it tastes pretty much like coffee to me after all these years.”

  I joined Bernice at her kitchen table and Jan busied herself with the coffee makings while the old woman directed her.

  When she came to the table, she was carrying cups, a creamer and a sugar bowl. “It’ll be just a few minutes now.”

  Bernice reached out to touch Jan’s hand, “I’m a bit surprised you’re here, but then I thought you might have heard about Paul Ralph and decided to stay around a bit. That was pretty sad news, wasn’t it?

  “It’s been on the radio non-stop. Just went outdoors and disappeared... Her face was already animated, but then she gave us a lopsided, toothy grin, “Just another disappearing act, isn’t it?”

  Jan gave her a smile in acknowledgement, “That’s right, Mrs. Ricky; that’s why we came to see you today.”

  “I was wondering if you could tell us anything you remember about when the Ralphs came to town,” I said. “Do you remember that time?”

  “I can hardly forget those years,” she said with a shake of her head. “They came the same year the twins did. We were still adjusting to having those little ones in our life, and they were trying to come to grips with their grief.”

  “That’s right,” Jan said. “I remember now; their parents died in a fire or something, didn’t they?”

  As Jan poured the coffee, Bernice continued talking, “Yes, indeed. My sister, Melanie, and her husband, Mike Deal, were killed in a house fire on June 11, 1972. The twins came home with us after the funeral.

  “The Ralphs bought the store in August, and moved here in time for Tony to go to school in September, right after Labor Day.

  “It was amazing how quickly the twins adapted to this new place and as soon as school started, they made friends right away. Kids can be so adaptable, you know?”

  “I wonder,” Jan mused. “Did you know the Ralphs outside of shopping at the store?”

  “Not really; we saw them at school events and such, of course, but they were real quiet. That store took a lot of work, and they lived it every day. They didn’t make a lot of friends that I knew about. I heard they were in Stoney for Tony’s speech last weekend, and I also heard it was their first visit since they sold the store and moved over to Torch.”

  We sat and chatted for a while, enjoying the coffee. Mrs. Ricky was vitally interested in hearing about Jan’s musical performances on Saturday, and she cackled like a hen when Jan told her that her old friend Annie had bartered her music for a class luncheon on Saturday and another performance for the general Annie’s crowd after the reunion banquet.

  “That gal’s turned out to be a real positive factor in this dyin’ old town,
that Annie has,” she chortled. I was waiting for a thigh slap to go along with the chortle, but she didn’t supply it.

  We left after a second cup, and headed for the Sheriff’s office in Bellaire, with Jan behind the wheel. “I think that was all a waste of time,” she said.

  “You never know. We picked up a detail or two and an investigator just never knows which little detail will be the string that unravels the whole mess,” I said as she took a familiar turn off the highway that leads to Bellaire. “You going to the Inn?” I asked.

  “Just a stray thought; I’m wondering if Fran has turned up or if the place is locked down...”

  Fran was walking from “our” cottage towards the lodge as we pulled into the driveway, and I felt a strange surprise at her reaction. She was pushing a cleaning cart and as she recognized our vehicle, she seemed to just freeze, as if she’d been caught in some act or another.

  Jan noticed it too, and as she parked the Suburban, she seemed hesitant to open the door and greet her old friend.

  I broke the ice, opening my door and walking towards Fran, “Hi!” I called, full of cheer.

  “Hello,” she said, a smile flickering across her face. “I’m surprised to see you.”

  Jan had broken her trance and bounced out of the truck. “Frannie!”

  The innkeeper in her took over, “Did you forget something? I just finally cleaned up your cabin, and I didn’t find anything.”

  “Are you all right?” Jan said, walking up to give her friend a hug. Fran embraced her and held her just a little longer.

  “I’m fine; it’s been a strange few days, but it ended up a tempest in the old tea cup, you know?”

  “Just as long as you’re okay.”

  “Did you come back just to find out? I’m flattered, I guess.”

  “Well, we turned around when we heard about Paul Ralph. He and Betty and their whole family were so nice to us last week; when we heard about his going missing, we just had to stick around, you know?”

  “Your cabin’s all clean and ready for you, at least.”

  “That’s okay, we’re actually staying with Betty and Tony over at Torch. We were in Stoney today and on our way to B’laire, and as I drove up to the corner, I just felt an urge to see if you were okay. I can’t really explain it...”