by Tonya Kappes
“She didn’t find it?” I asked. “The money?” I asked again in case she didn’t know what I meant.
“Nope. Just the gun. She tried to take Rosa.” Dottie laughed. “Paulette jumped up bare back on that horse. Rosa bucked her off, leaving Paulette on the ground with a bruised butt bone. Funniest thing I ever saw.”
“Why did you tell Paulette that we have a problem?” I asked bringing it all back around to my original question.
“He found us in there. I stuck the gun in my waistband.” Her face stiffened. Her eyes set. “He told us that if he did have the money, she’d have to get it over his dead body.”
“Dead body?” I gulped. “She isn’t in town. How long will it take her to get here?”
About that time the door of the office flew open.
“I’m back.” A woman with a big smile on her face stood in the threshold of the office.
ELEVEN
I sat there frozen as the woman with stick straight black hair down to her belly button, wearing a pair of cotton paisley-printed bell-bottoms, a white tank top, wooden beads around her neck, and brown leather sandals, walked in. She pulled a knit cap off her head. I’d never seen a fifty-something-year-old hippy.
“Long time no see, doll. I love what you’ve done to the place. The campground is in tip-top shape.” She smiled, winked at Dottie, giving her the peace sign. “Excuse us, hon.” She walked past me and gestured me out the door. “We’ve got private business to discuss. If you don’t mind hitting the gravel.” Paulette moseyed across the office.
“Paulette Russel, meet Mae West.” Dottie stood up from her chair and gave Paulette a hug.
“Mae West? Right.” Paulette scoffed. “I’m Marilyn Monroe.” She elbowed Dottie. “I’ve smoked a lot of that wacky tobacky over the past twenty years, but I still know who I am.” She talked out of the side of her mouth as if it made her quieter. “You still get those nut job hikers around here, huh?” She was obviously referring to me.
“Paulette, this is Mae West, the owner of Happy Trails.” Dottie’s face was stone cold serious. “Mae’s married last name is West. As in Paul West.”
“Good ole Paul West.” Paulette looked at me with a disgust. “Yep. That man is why we are probably standing here right now.” She pointed to me but turned her attention to Dottie. “You told her.”
“She can help us.” Dottie gestured a cup of coffee to Paulette, but she waved it off.
“Not good for the innards. You should really try some juicing.” She gave Dottie a look. “I can see you’re still smoking.”
“You smoke.” Dottie threw it back at her.
“Only the good stuff, babe.” She winked. “Gonna be legal soon.”
“Nah. Not in Kentucky.” Dottie and Paulette had some sort of secret language between them that I’d seen in good friends before.
“How’s Mae West going to help us?” she asked. “I recall Jay telling me about how Paul West was going to help him. That’s when he leveraged the land. She gonna help us like that?”
“Oh, come on.” I threw my hands up in the air. “I’ve spent the better part of two years getting this community to forgive me. In fact, I’ve done so much work that I got a key to the city.” I stalked over to the wall where the key plaque was hanging.
“Babe, he’s why Jay had to put the old train station up for sale,” she told me again.
“I heard it the first time you said it,” I muttered under my breath.
“Paulette, Mae has really done well in Normal. We’ve forgotten about Paul and what he did. Well, forgot might be strong, but we have forgiven.” Dottie gave Paulette a side look with a theatrical wink, sending me into an internal rage that I was sure going to question her about when we were alone. “She has a knack for figuring things out. Like crime.” Dottie said without telling Paulette all the things I’d sleuthed on my own. “She can help us get to the bottom of what happened to Jay.”
Now Dottie seemed to be trying to stoke my ego. Cautiously, I sat there listening to the two old buddies banter back and forth.
“I know he’s dead, but he’s got that money somewhere in that stable, and we are going to find it.” Paulette’s greed started to show, surprising me a little.
“He already sold the property to Coke Ogden.” I mentioned the small tidbit that was the biggest bite.
“Good ole Coke. She always wanted to get her claws into Jay, and when he turned her down, she’d had it out for him ever since.” Paulette seemed a little bitter, but it was still some information that peeked some interest in my gut.
The scene of Coke and Jay fighting in the café the morning Betts and I had cleaned for her was one that I couldn’t forget. Especially the yelling between the two. The door of the office flew open again. All of us jerked around.
“There’s been news.” Hank stood at the door with his hand still curled around the door knob. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I thought Dottie and Mae were alone.”
“Hank, let me introduce you to Paulette Russel.” I looked at his face studying her. “She’s Jay’s ex-wife.”
He swallowed hard. “I’ve been trying to find you. We found your daughter.” He took a step forward.
“Hmm. She won’t have nothing to do with me.” Paulette snarled and looked at Dottie.
“I hate to meet you like this, but I do think you need to know that your ex-husband’s death has been turned into a homicide.” The words spilled out of Hank’s mouth. My mind went blank.
Homicide? I gulped. “Homicide?” I questioned again in disbelief.
“Yes. The gunshot knocked him into the electric fence.” He slid his gaze to me. “The bullet pulled from his body wasn’t from the gun next to his body. But it was from a gun model he does have registered to his name. A gun he’d reported stolen to the police about five years ago.”
Dottie stumbled backward and fell into her chair.
TWELVE
“She’s not eaten this morning,” Paulette told me. We were huddled over Dottie.
I looked at Paulette, wondering what on earth she was talking about. She’d not been here long and had no idea what Dottie had eaten or not eaten.
“Shhh.” Paulette’s glare at me made me a little nervous. “Shush,” she said through her gritted teeth.
“Stop fussing over me.” Dottie shoved her hands in our faces. “I need air.”
“You need to stop smoking.” Hank leaned his head to get a look at her. “Really, Dottie.”
“You get out of here and go find out who killed Jay.” She shooed him.
I walked over to him, leaving Paulette with Dottie. She wasted no time whispering into Dottie’s ear. Hank’s radar must’ve gone up because his eyes focused on the two of them and not me when I stood up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss.
“Hey,” I said and put my hand on his chin, turning it to face me. “Any suspects?”
“From what you said about Coke Ogden and him having a fight, I’m going to ask her what happened. Everyone he’s had a disagreement with is a suspect. Then,” he let out a heavy sigh, “I need to find the person using the stables. It could be as simple as the person getting back at him for continuing to kick him out and fighting him.”
“Maybe he was looking for—” I started to say.
“Shelter.” Paulette left Dottie and hurried over. She stood behind me and put a hand on each one of my shoulders. Her nails dug into my flesh, giving me a clear signal to shut my mouth. “For years, Jay and I had to run off all sorts of runaways and squatters. They were only looking for shelter on their hike through the national park.”
Hank looked between me and Paulette. “Yeah. Well, I’m sorry.”
There was a flash in his eye. The flash I’d noticed he’d get when he wasn’t fully believing the story he was being told. It was one of his little nuances I’d picked up on when he was not only investigating or interrogating, but also in his daily conversation with people. Hank always had his guard up.
“I’m not going to be catching up on sl
eep. I’m going to be at the station all day,” he said. “I’ll give you a call later.” He turned his attention back to me. He bent down for what I thought was going to be a kiss. He whispered, “Find out what she knows.”
I swallowed.
He gave me a kiss on the cheek and waved goodbye to Dottie.
“You know”—he turned back around at the door—“I’ve heard of hypnotists helping people who smoke. I’m not sure how it works, but I did hear something about they smoked their last cigarette before they went in and didn’t crave any after they went.” He gave a slight shrug. “Maybe you need to check that out.”
He didn’t wait for Dottie’s unfriendly finger gesture before he left the office. Paulette followed Dottie’s lead and did the same thing to Hank’s back. I wished he’d turned around. That would’ve been funny.
I stood there in silence, facing the door with my back to Dottie and Paulette, unsure how to address Paulette’s little finger signal.
“Hank is your boyfriend?” I heard disgust in Paulette’s voice. “You want me to trust her?”
“What is our other option?” Dottie questioned.
I jerked around. “Other option?” A nervous laugh escaped me. “What? You gonna kill me too?”
“Too?” Paulette’s little free-spirit act had flown out the window and completely left the park. She stalked over. “I didn’t kill my husband.”
“I’m sorry.” My smart aleck side took over. “Last I heard, he was your ex, and you left him and your daughter years ago. Leaving them both sad.”
“You have no idea what I went through, so before you judge me…” Paulette slowly walked closer and closer, making me dig my feet down like I was planting myself. Spit came out of her mouth as she spoke each word.
“Alrighty! This is getting us nowhere.” Dottie’s senses must’ve been coming back to her because she jumped up, knocking the chair to the ground, to put her body in between me and Paulette. “We’ve got a bigger problem than not finding the money.”
“Your big problem was not finding the money?” I asked about the original big problem Dottie had said to Paulette this morning on the phone.
“It was. Now the fact that he was murdered is our new problem because I think it was with that gun. The gun.” Dottie’s eyes grew big, referring to the gun that was stolen from her camper. “We find out who broke into my place, we find the killer.”
“That’s where we can use your little romance.” I didn’t like the direction Paulette was taking this conversation. “You need to make sure you question your little detective buddy all about suspects and everything else that goes along with finding out who killed Jay. Report back to us all while keeping your mouth shut about the money and the gun. Got it, doll?”
“Dottie,” I shifted my hips to the right and put my hands on my hips, “you know I can’t deceive Hank.”
“You don’t have an option, Mae. Got it?” Paulette’s tone was a little demented and actually scared me.
“Lay off her. Deep down Mae is one of us.” Dottie took her arm and put some room between me and Paulette. “Mae will do it.” Dottie looked at me and smiled. “Right, Mae? You’ll help me out for a few days. We’ve been through so much, and we are friends.”
“We are business partners.” Paulette told Dottie. “This business deal better not go wrong. Or else.”
“Or else what?” Dottie snarled.
“I’ve got people,” Paulette warned, sending chills along my arm. “You understand, Mae?”
“Yeah. I understand.” My eyes narrowed as I took in the fifty-year-old hippy. “But if I find out that either of you killed him, I’m going directly to Hank.” I jabbed Paulette in the chest with my finger. “Do you got it?”
Everyone putting me in a pickle. It soured my mood.
THIRTEEN
It was Dottie’s day to open and work at the campground. On check in days, we both worked, but since the guests who’d already made reservations were all checked in, we were back to our regular work schedule.
After I’d left Dottie and Paulette, I had to regroup and that meant getting ready for the day and getting Fifi all settled with her food and potty. I grabbed my crossbody and took my notebook out of the drawer, sticking it in the bag. It was where I’d put notes and thoughts from the previous little sleuthing cases I’d stuck myself on. Maybe it would come in handy for Jay.
Not that I didn’t want to help Dottie find the person who broke into her camper, but it was hard to help out Paulette. She didn’t care who killed Jay. She only wanted the money he had supposedly stolen.
The only way to find out if her story about the bank robbery was true was to head to the Normal Library and pay Abby Fawn a visit. Exactly what I had planned after I finished getting ready, which gave time for the sun to fully come up, and the library to open.
The drive over to the library gave me a couple of minutes to think about Paulette and Jay’s relationship. Why on earth would Paulette leave Glenda here with Jay? Why would Paulette leave? Why not stay in Normal and raise her daughter?
“One little duck went out to play.” The little voices to the preschool tune sounded so happy and cheerful, not to mention out of tune and loud, when I walked into the sliding doors of the library.
The sign at the front of the library had the day’s events on it, and it just so happened to be children’s time. Abby was sitting in the middle of a group of little people with her hands tucked up under her armpits, doing her best wing flapping.
There were a few stray little ones that were flapping around the circle. Abby tried to reel them in but gave up after a couple seconds. Our eyes met. We smiled at each other. I stood there watching her finish up her song. She nodded for one of the library employees to come over and take turns.
Abby slipped away while the other employee began to read the book to all the children. “What on earth are you doing here?” she asked.
I was glad to see she didn’t seem to be out of sorts about me riding with Ty to the hoedown. “Did you hear about Jay Russel?” I asked.
“There’s more news?” she asked and moved toward the reference counter where her office was located behind it.
“Yeah. Apparently, he was murdered.” My mind curled back to the night I found him. “You know, it doesn’t make sense. If he was killed from a gunshot wound…” I let my thoughts stop when I had no good plausible explanation about how he got tangled into the electric fence.
“What?” Abby abruptly stopped. “I know that look of yours. What are you thinking? You’re not going to get involved are you?”
“I think we need to get the Laundry Girls together.” It was code for letting her know that I was planning on putting my nose in it. “But not Dottie. She’s working today.”
Abby gave me a strange look.
“Happy Trails is booked solid, and I have to have someone there at all times.” I played off her curiosity, and that seemed to pacify her.
“Okay.” She looked down at her watch. “I can be there around lunch.”
“Perfect, I’ll text the girls.” I hesitated. “Did you ever hear about a savings and loan or some bank around here getting robbed?”
She walked around the counter. “No. Recently?” she asked and sat down in one of the chairs behind the reference desk. She tapped away.
I put my elbows on the counter, leaning on them.
“It was a long time ago, when Dottie was young. If there was”—I pointed to the computer— “it’d be in your system, right?”
“A bank here in Normal?” she asked. Her eyes scanned the screen. “So sad.”
“Huh?” I wasn’t following.
“I just pulled up the news about Jay.” She sighed with an empathetic look crossing her face. “I took horse riding lessons from him when I was a kid. He was so good at his craft.”
“I had no idea you rode horses.” There were still so many things I didn’t know about the friends I’d made since moving to Normal. “But what about the robbery?” I asked, b
ringing her back to the reason I was here.
“Let me look.” She moved to a different computer and typed away. “Bank robbery.” She spoke as she typed. “There.” She hit enter and sat back in the chair, looking at the screen. “Just waiting to see what the database has. I’ve never heard of any.”
“According to Paulette Russel, Jay was the robber and has hidden the money all these years.” I watched Abby’s face go from being curious to an oh-my-goodness shocked face.
“There was.” She gasped and jerked back to sitting straight. “Like years ago.”
I could see the reflection of the screen in her eyes as she read the monitor.
“I had no idea.” She looked up at me, her mouth forming an O. Abby had always been so proud of her knowledge of Normal. “Normal Bank and Loan went bankrupt, leaving the Fawn family...” Her voice melted away.
“Fawn family?” I questioned.
“My great-grandfather owned the bank.” Her big brown eyes blinked several times. “I’ve never heard of this.”
A look of disbelief flushed her face. She grabbed a water bottle with the Tupperware logo on it. She screwed the lid off and downed the contents.
“I wish this was liquor.” She swallowed. She put her hand up to her mouth as the other hand continued to scroll the information she’d pulled up. “Talk about southern families sweeping stuff under a rug.”
“Why would your family do that? It wasn’t your family’s fault the bank got robbed.” There were so many things running through my head. “What about your property on Fawn Road? Did that have anything to do with the bank?” Betts had mentioned how Abby’s family had owned that, but it was in bankruptcy, which was how the Russel family got it.
She continued to type away, hitting the print button. “From just the little research here, it says that the Old Train Station property had to be sold by auction to the highest bidder after my great-grandfather, Roland Fawn, had to pay back for not having enough insurance through the FDIC to cover all the loss of the robbery.”