Текст книги "Shattered Secrets"
Автор книги: Karen Harper
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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 19 страниц)
25
The Community Church bells rang out twelve times. Gabe spotted Mayor Owens shaking the hands of the congregation as they streamed out after the morning worship service. Reese seemed to be greeting as many people as the pastor he was upstaging. Always a politician, and, sadly, they weren’t to be trusted, Gabe thought. At least he didn’t see his wife with him as the mayor finally headed toward the parking lot. Lillian Montgomery Owens reeked wealth, social class and self-appointed power more than her husband.
Gabe cut through a line of cars and fell into step beside Reese, who spoke first. “So, you heard I wanted to see you. You’ll be doing security at the Kenton service and procession tonight?”
“I, and my deputy, and Agent Reingold, will be there. Are you expecting trouble?”
“Avoiding it. I called you yesterday to find out the details about Dane’s death. A shame. And more unwanted notoriety for Cold Creek.”
It annoyed Gabe that the mayor kept waving and calling out to others while they were talking. Did the man never stop campaigning? Gabe knew how to get his attention fast, but he didn’t want to spring everything on him in public.
“I need to talk to you too,” Gabe told him. “Let’s walk down to my office, where it’s private.”
“I’ll drive. Lily’s staying here to oversee the ladies planning dinner for the Kenton family before the service this evening. You want to ride with me?”
“Sure. Fine,” Gabe said, not wanting to let him get away.
“So, shoot,” Reese said once they were settled in the black Mercedes. Gabe saw Reese could hardly get the seat belt around his girth. “Oops, shouldn’t have used the word shoot when we’re talking about Dane’s death. I hear he left a note. Confessing, I hope, to the kidnappings. You’re pursuing Marva for information? I heard she lawyered up.”
“Word travels fast.”
“When did it not around here?” Reese said with a little laugh. “I’d hate to think they were both involved in these abductions, but it would be a relief to have everything solved. At least I hear we got Marian Bell off our backs with her good news. But tell me about the investigation of Dane.”
“He left a vague note, but there’s evidence he might have been shot, not shot himself.”
Reese pounded the steering wheel as he pulled into the police station. “What? You and those fancy BCI boys been sitting on that? You should have told me at once. It’s a miracle outside reporters aren’t swarming in here over that. That’s all I need! A high-profile man murdered in my town and still no definitive answer about who took those girls!”
“Let’s continue this in the conference room,” Gabe said. He got out fast enough to go around and open the mayor’s door for him. Why a man allowed himself to get so heavy he had trouble getting out of his car was beyond Gabe. He walked ahead and opened the police station door for the mayor. The office was deserted. Tess was going to help fill Ann’s daytime shift tomorrow until he could hire someone else, but that was the last thing on his list of things to do right now.
At least the fact that Jonas had fingered Hank McGuffey and his crew meant Tess didn’t have to spend her time going through mug shots, though she would eventually have to testify against McGuffey for trying to kill her and against the others as accessories. But that meant he’d see her then—if she really was moving back to Michigan when this was all over.
In the smaller conference room, which didn’t have all the kidnapping information on the walls, Gabe pulled out a chair for Reese.
“This is terrible, just terrible, about Dane,” the mayor said, wiping sweat off his brow. He’d gone red in the face. Surely not just from the effort of walking in here, Gabe thought. “It opens the door to the kidnapper being someone other than him, or at least someone he was working with, namely Marva. Poor dead George Green—at least for the first two kidnappings, he could be guilty too. Nothing’s been solved or going right around here, and I blame you.”
“Mr. Mayor, the blame game won’t help here. Jonas Simons has been arrested for working with a local meth drug ring, who were picked up this morning by the State Highway Patrol since they live over by Athens. But I provided them with all the information to make the arrests. Sorry to say that Ann Simons was also aiding and abetting the meth gang by passing on info she overheard from me. She’s written a statement, been released on her own recognizance and hired a lawyer for herself and Jonas. Oh, by the way, the so-called gas explosion at the old Green place was really a meth explosion. The gang I just mentioned tried to kill Tess Lockwood, who had stumbled on them. So, how about you do your job and I’ll do mine?”
“Tried to kill her? Then maybe they’re the ones you and your father failed to find.”
“You don’t let up, do you? They’re young. They’ve been cooking meth all over the county, not abducting little girls.”
“So that’s small potatoes compared to the kidnappings. You need to concentrate on that.”
“As a matter of fact, Agent Reingold and I have worked together to run down a very vocal, very involved local man who has a criminal record of child molestation. The man didn’t live here at the time he committed that crime, but there was a large, ongoing attempt to cover it up.”
The mayor’s eyes narrowed and his upper lip went slick with sweat. “Such as Jack Lockwood, Tess’s father?”
“He was thoroughly checked out years ago and was clean, although I understand you’ve been keeping him under your thumb. No, it’s a man with a past criminal record, Mr. Mayor, although most of the information on that was expunged. But we have one record of it left and at least one Chillicothe civilian who remembers the details and the ensuing cover-up, including bribes.”
Despite his satisfaction in seeing this man cornered and speechless, Gabe hoped Reese wasn’t going to have a heart attack right in front of him.
“You can’t be serious about that—that wrongful, old charge. A b-b-boyhood indiscretion. You—you’re b-blackmailing me?”
“Hardly. I’m keeping you informed, just the way you like. And don’t try to pull Jack Lockwood out of the hat again. Now,” he said, trying not to revel in the moment and wondering if this long shot would ever lead to something useful about the abductions, “although we have a court record, I’d appreciate it if you’d just write out your recollection of the incident between you and the minor named Ginger Pickett, so we can clear you of—”
“Damn you, boy!” he cried, banging his fist on the table between them. “I don’t have anything to do with this, and it’s a big mistake for you to be dragging up erroneous information from another place and time! These kidnappings are a whole different bag from that boyhood infraction. And Tess wasn’t sexually molested, was she? So I bet the others weren’t either, just taken for some other sick, warped reason. But since you’re grasping at straws and you and your daddy never managed to solve this terrible case, I’m going to get a lawyer, one from Columbus, not these parts! You want to read me my rights?”
“You’re not under arrest. You’ve merely been asked to help clear up a possibility, which an innocent man and the longtime leader of his constituency should want to do.”
“Nice try. I’m getting a lawyer. One who will help me have your head for this outrage.”
“Good idea to retain a well-known and well-connected Columbus lawyer,” Gabe said, trying to keep from losing his temper too. “Marva, Jonas and Ann have already retained Lake Azure attorneys. Besides, a lawyer from the state capital will be within better reach of the national media you’ll want to use for interviews. Nice working with you, sir,” Gabe said as Reese rolled out of his chair and, pulling himself up by the table edge, rose to his feet. “I’ll see you at the church service this evening.”
“And you just keep your mouth shut. A couple of words from me and you’ll get thrown right out of office!” Reese shouted.
“It could happen to the best of us up for election next month,” Gabe countered. “I know you’ve been rubber-stamped as mayor for years, but I’ll bet I can find someone to oppose you, especially if you run on your record—your real record.”
He didn’t open the door for Reese this time as the man stormed out of the room. Gabe kept thinking about how those pit bulls at Jonas’s place had rattled their cages. He was like a pit bull now. And he was going to sink his teeth into whoever had hurt those little girls.
* * *
The town turned out in droves for the church service that evening. Sitting in the second row, Tess stared at the big, hand-painted banner with the words Sandy Kenton: Bring Her Home hanging below the screen with projected photos of the girl. She had now been missing for five days. Tess studied the images, memorizing Sandy’s face, but it almost blended with her own early photos, despite their slightly different coloring. Sandy had blond hair and brown eyes. A wide space between her two front teeth made them look even larger in her small mouth. A shy smile, pert nose. There were pictures of her with her family, at a picnic, at a wedding, at a petting zoo with a fawn, being read to by her mother, playing in a princess costume with a magic wand.
Jill Stillwell’s family sat in the front row along with Pastor Snell and his wife, Jeanie. Tess had spoken with them briefly. And she’d spent a lot of time on the phone with Lindell Kenton, Sandy’s mother. Lindell had asked Tess to say a few words this evening, but they’d compromised that she would do a Bible reading instead. She had to admit she was a bit nervous about it, but she wanted to help—anything to help!
She’d read in one of Miss Etta’s library books that Freud, no less, had defined mental health as the ability “to love and to work.” Tess figured she was doing both, not just in longing to have her own preschool where she could care for kids, but in working on the investigation. She was going to help Gabe by answering his dispatch and office phone during the day for a while. And as fast as everything had happened here in Cold Creek, she was very sure she was falling in love with him.
She sat between Deputy Miller’s wife, Carolyn, and Miss Etta. Mayor Owens and his wife sat with the families of the kidnapped girls. Although Vic was to be her bodyguard this evening, he and Gabe sat at the back to keep an eye on everything.
Lindell Kenton had given Tess a Bible with the short passage to be read clearly marked. Tess held it in her lap, stroking the pebbled leather cover.
“That’s a book people don’t read enough anymore,” Miss Etta whispered to her, reaching over to tap the Bible. Her hand smelled of that sanitizer she always used. “They think the Good Book is in an old, hard language, but there are plenty of modern versions.”
“I thought you might bring your mother tonight,” Tess said.
Miss Etta looked surprised at first, then said with a smile, “Speaking of old versions, you mean? No, I used to bring her to church but not anymore. It’s too hard to get her around. By the way, Sheriff McCord said he wanted to talk to me tomorrow about my antique gun collection. I’m going to look up the very gun that Dane must have used to do himself in. Also, I have a library book for Gabe to read.”
“He’s pretty busy.”
“Yes, of course he is, and should be. But a book about stress on the job, that’s what I’ll recommend to him.”
The muted buzz in the church quieted as Pastor Snell rose and went to the podium. He spoke a few opening words, said a lovely prayer, and then the organ led them, standing, through the hymn “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.”
How well Tess recalled going to Sunday school downstairs and sometimes coming up to “big church” with Mom and Dad. How had everything gone so bad?
“O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.”
Tess knew Sandy Kenton must be thinking about home, longing for home, feeling frightened and abandoned right now. Thank God the child had not been hidden where Tess had been kept, which she was convinced had burned to the ground last night. The firemen and a BCI arson consultant were still sifting through the debris for bones, but Tess was sure there was some other place Dane and Marva—or someone—had been keeping Sandy.
During the next prayer, she thanked God for letting her escape her captor or captors and asked for more memories, however terrible, to help Gabe arrest the monster.
When her turn came, Pastor Snell introduced her as “our ray of hope for both Sandy and Jill.” He explained that Amanda Bell had been found alive in South America and that was an answer to prayer. “And now the greatest gift in all this grief,” he announced from the pulpit, “our own Teresa Lockwood, who now goes by Tess, who came home to us years ago and is back with us again. Though she still bears the mental scars of her captivity, she is here with us today to read words to encourage our hearts. Tess.”
As she walked up the three steps to the elevated platform, she was amazed that the audience broke into applause. It was too much. She teared up and sniffed hard. Even Vic was clapping. Gabe too, standing by the back door—her Gabe, who had been there at the time and was now her guard while these troubles lasted. She was surprised to see Sam Jeffers and John Hillman sitting together in the back left corner. It was wrong of her to judge them, of course, but she hadn’t expected them to be in church.
She put the open Bible down on the podium and held up a hand to still the applause. When it quieted, though she’d meant to say nothing personal, she shared her thoughts. “It means a lot to me to be home. We have to face and recall the past to face the present and the future. And I’m trying, getting better and stronger. Now, Mrs. Kenton has asked me to read to you from Luke 15:4 about a lost sheep who was found.”
Her voice caught several times as she read the passage. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he comes home, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’”
As soon as she sat down, Win Kenton got up behind the podium and explained that tomorrow at noon they were going to have another search for Sandy, through bare fields and even those still filled with corn. He explained that Aaron Kurtz needed prayers while bedridden with a dangerous blood clot and that others would soon be cutting his cornfields for him, but that they wanted to search them now.
“Also,” he said, his voice breaking, “we need to search the cornfields now so that when the big reapers come through, no one is in the way, no evidence Sheriff McCord or his assistants need to trace—to find Sandy...”
He meant, of course, her body could be out there. He choked up, just standing mute for a moment. “We need to find traces of her, not have them destroyed. Our family thanks you for your help and prayers.” He hurried back to his seat beside his wife.
Again, Tess visualized the cornfield, the big reaper. Then someone had leaped at her, put a needle right in her neck—she was sure of it. She jerked at the memory, and Miss Etta put a steadying hand on her arm. At least, Tess thought, she was remembering more and more, like the waterfall of memories. And, strangely, she kept seeing a mounted deer head—a stag—with its glassy eyes looking down at her, as if to say, “Bad things can happen to you if you don’t behave.” She would have Gabe ask Marva if her house had once had a deer head on the wall. But she might lie. And what if Tess was just recalling how creepy John Hillman’s taxidermy shop had been?
After they sang a final hymn and the pastor made an announcement about signing up for the new search, Tess stood to go. It was getting dark; people at each door were passing out pink candles with white paper drip guards. “Are you going to the ceremony at the gift store?” Miss Etta asked.
“Yes. Are you?”
“I think I’d best get home to Mother. She spends enough time alone as is. I just hope everyone’s careful with those candles. The gift store isn’t so far from the library with all those books. I know I’m a worrywart and a perfectionist, but I just hope everyone’s careful.”
“Miss Etta, can I ask you a question?”
She looked surprised. “Why, of course, my dear.”
“Were you ever in Marva and George Green’s house, their living room?”
“I was indeed, delivering books there more than once when George was so ill. Why do you ask?”
“You have such a good mind for everything. Do you recall if they had a big stag head mounted on the wall there? It was over the fireplace, I think.”
Miss Etta frowned, evidently trying to remember. “You know, my dear, I’ve been in and out of so many Cold Creek houses, I can’t rightly recall. Why do you ask?”
“Just that either those books you gave me or just helping Gabe is freeing up my memories a bit.”
“I see. I’m relieved to hear it, and I shall look for more books to help you along. And you tell Sheriff McCord that I expect him promptly at ten when the library opens tomorrow morning to talk about that antique pistol.”
Ever quick and spry, the old woman was out the door before Vic made his way to Tess through the crowd.
26
“I’ll bet you never thought you’d be taking on bodyguard duties when you came here to help solve a kidnapping,” Tess said as she and Vic walked out to his car parked behind Gabe’s house. The wind was up today, and the cornfield was waving as if it was restless, waiting for the big search for Sandy this afternoon. Tess hoped they’d find the girl but not lying in a cornfield. She was proud of herself that the field didn’t frighten her that much anymore. “But,” she added as they got in the car, “I can see why Gabe doesn’t want me sitting at the front desk when Marva and her attorney get there.”
“We don’t need another rant at you, and I’d just upset her too. Man, we need a break on this case. Even though Marva and Dane should be looked at, I’m still trying to track down that housekeeper fired from the mayor’s house. Her sister said she’d be back in town today. But a side trip to the Hear Ye property is right up my alley. You can see your family, and I’d love to have a chat with Brice, aka Bright Star.”
“No, you wouldn’t. He’s weird and he can make anyone feel guilty. That’s what scares me about Lee, Gracie and the kids being there. Bright Star warps minds and lives. Anyhow, I’m glad to have you along. Gabe said he chatted with Lee and Gracie at the farmers’ market, and they seemed as committed as ever. I’d rent them the house cheap again to get them out of there, but they’d never agree.”
Vic drove his unmarked black car the few miles down the road to the cult property and parked in the small lot. As ever, a guard, another tall, muscular man, stood at the gate to the compound to stop free entry.
“Brother Lawrence is my name. How may I help you?”
Like Bright Star himself, he was soft-spoken. “I’m here to see my cousins, the Lockwoods. I recently helped Lee find the location of a well here and would like to know how the project is coming,” Tess said.
“Ah, yes, I know who you are. The well will be dug soon. But Monday means school for the children. Lee and Grace of God are at work.”
“Grace of God?” Tess asked.
“She’s risen from newcomer status to special, so to speak. If you’ll wait here, I’ll inquire. And you, sir?”
“Friend of the family. Victor Reingold.”
“Ah. I do believe everyone is occupied, so perhaps I can get you an appointment for later. Of course, many of our members will be helping with the search for the recently missing girl this afternoon, so perhaps you can catch your family later at that event.”
Vic said, “Not sure you’d know about the search, since you weren’t at the prayer service for her.”
“We had our own here for her—for all who are still lost. And we stay informed.”
When he left them standing there, Vic said, “Nice hospitality here.” He zipped up his jacket and hunched his shoulders in the wind. “Glad it’s not raining or snowing so we could wait out in that weather. And I suppose all of them speak in that strange way that says nothing but seems eerily important.”
“It’s a scary situation. I wish I could spirit my family away from here—so to speak.”
Vic walked up to the crest of the hill that overlooked the Hear Ye land. “No wonder they had the best vegetables at the market,” he said as Tess joined him. They gazed at the neatly laid-out fields, mostly harvested, and long rows of white, plastic-domed covers to protect the more tender crops from early frost.
“See how strange that one looks?” Vic asked, pointing.
“Strange how? Everything’s strange around here.”
“I think that plastic in the middle isn’t covering crops. See how it’s low to the ground, kind of clinging to it? See that it’s draped over two small, rectangular plots it outlines but completely covers?”
“Maybe there’s something newly planted, and the ground sank in a bit.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” he said, starting down the hill. “If Brother Lawrence comes back, keep him busy. I’m gonna have a look,” he called over his shoulder.
“Vic, you’ll attract a swarm of people from the compound!”
But he kept going. It was obvious he was limping more than usual, which reminded her of Gabe’s leg injury. She hoped things were going well at the sheriff’s office with Marva and her attorney. If only Marva would answer questions that would help solve this.
When Tess heard the gate creak, she went back up toward Brother Lawrence. “It’s a lovely view from there,” she said, hoping he’d think Vic was enjoying it. But to her dismay, the man ran up the hill, so Tess followed. Vic was peeking under the plastic covering the two sunken areas. As Brother Lawrence hurried down the hill toward Vic, she recognized the voice behind her.
“Abomination!”
Bright Star had materialized from nowhere as usual. No wonder people thought he was more spirit than flesh and blood.
“He just wondered what was growing under that since it is so different from the others,” Tess told him.
“It’s the graves of two blessed infants who have recently passed beyond, and I have county permits allowing us to bury them on our property. Long-established religious groups have their own cemeteries, and we shall too.”
Tess’s mind raced. Two infants? Or two dead girls? Surely not.
Below, Brother Lawrence was arguing with Vic, who ignored him and came limping back up the hill.
“Bright Star says it’s two infant graves,” she called to him before he reached them. “And he has permission from the county to have them buried there.”
“So I see—about the graves, since they have little stones with angels and lambs and names. All on the up-and-up, Mr. Monson?”
“I could report you for trespassing, sir, but that would have to be to Sheriff McCord, and I know you are a confederate of his.”
“That I am. So why hide the graves?”
“I ordered them covered, not hidden. It upset the grieving mothers and others of the flock to look down at them. It’s like an extra cover in the bed of the earth on a cold day or night.”
More like it upsets this man to have to admit babies could die in his supposedly perfect place, so he hides their graves, Tess thought. She wondered if they were born here or in a hospital.
“Miss Lockwood,” Monson said, turning to Tess. “Your family can certainly spend time with you alone tomorrow, at noon, if you’re available.”
Despite the fact that she’d told Gabe she’d try to help by answering the dispatch phone and covering the front desk until he could get some permanent help, she knew he would understand, and who knew what else she might learn about strange goings-on. “Yes,” she said to him. “I’ll be here.”
The man bowed, glared at Vic and walked away, followed by an out-of-breath but now subdued Brother Lawrence.
When they were back in Vic’s car, he said, “If Gabe wasn’t tied up, I’d phone him right now. I don’t like asking for court orders to exhume graves, but it may come to that. That guy’s arrogant, positive he can get away with anything. Like looking at the mayor, it’s a long shot, but desperate times need—”
“Desperate measures,” she finished for him. “Not Shakespeare this time?” she asked, hoping he’d calm down. His face was red and a pulse beat at the side of his forehead.
“‘Thus do all things conspire against us’ will have to do for Shakespeare right now.”
“But I am starting to recall more things about my captivity. You know I’ve recalled a graveyard view—but surely not that one. It’s true Brice Monson lived on this land years ago in a single house, but even a child wouldn’t mistake those long, plastic covers for tombstones. I remember the scarecrow for smackings, of course, and a back staircase in a house—and I’m sure there was a stag’s head over the fireplace.”
“Good for you and for us, Tess. Now all we need you to remember is a name or a face.”
* * *
Gabe was disheartened and angry. Marva hadn’t given him anything he could use and was insisting he solve “Dane’s dreadful murder.” As if the best defense was a good offense, she’d turned hostile toward him and Tess. Her lawyer had insisted the suicide note had nothing to do with the Cold Creek kidnapper cases. He also continually counseled Marva to “take the Fifth.” The whole situation made Gabe wish he could have a good, stiff belt from a fifth of whiskey, even this early in the morning.
And now he was late heading to the library to hear what Miss Etta had to say about the pistol that killed Dane.
As he headed toward the library, Gabe saw several posters about the search for Sandy he’d help spearhead this afternoon. Jace was at the church helping the civilian organizers lay out grids for the volunteer teams to cover. There was a poster on the library door above an Open sign and one that read Come in and Change Your Life! If only that was true, he thought as he opened the door.
Miss Etta was shelving books from a rolling cart as two women he recognized were browsing the shelves. “Good. You came,” Miss Etta whispered when she saw him. “One can’t expect a busy sheriff to be prompt, and that’s quite all right. Would you like some hand sanitizer?” she asked as she walked over to her desk to use it herself. “One can’t be too careful with flu season coming.”
“Ah, sure,” he said, letting her pump some of the cool gel onto his hands. “Thanks for researching about the antique pistol.”
“First of all, please tell me, how is Tess?” she said, taking a book from her desk over to a long wooden table. “Just let me know if you need help, ladies,” she said to the two patrons.
Gabe sat in the chair beside her. The heavy oak furniture all looked antique, though the overhead lighting was modern and bright. There was an air of solidity about the place. As flighty as she seemed sometimes, this woman suited the place. She seemed unchanged over time, the bedrock of the community in a way Reese Owens would never be. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for his answer about Tess, then added, as if to prompt him, “I recommended some books on childhood trauma she’s been reading. I hope they help.”
“I think they have. Some things are coming back, and she’s a lot more steady.”
“Oh, good. She seemed that way at the church service, and she certainly handled getting up in front of all those people. You know, I hate to speak ill of anyone, but I always thought Dane was highly suspect, so perhaps he has meted out his own justice to himself.” She leaned slightly closer. “He liked true crime and murder mysteries, you know.”
“Not exactly proof, but—”
“But with Marva and George Green’s help in the first two abductions—there you go. Dr. Dane Thompson, guilty as your father always believed. Now, here is a picture of that pistol your BCI friend Agent Reingold described to me on the phone. Have I found the correct one?”
“That’s it,” he said, looking closely at the sketch and then the two photos.
“Well, it’s of the same era as a few I own. They came down through my family who founded this area. Elias Falls, born 1785, was my great-great-great-grandfather, a contemporary of Daniel Boone in these parts. No doubt Daniel wandered through southern Ohio.”
Gabe was exhausted, but he tried not to let his eyes glaze over. No wonder kids recalled taking field trips to Miss Etta’s house for her pioneer-days lectures. He barely remembered her mother, Sybil Falls, who must be up in her eighties now and had been a recluse for years. Sybil had married and outlived a man named Vetter, which was Miss Etta’s actual last name, though both she and her mother had always used the prestigious Falls name. Talk about the mayor’s wife coming from Ohio “royalty.” Etta Falls could take her on any day.
“As far as I know, that gun was Dane’s,” she said, which made him alert again. “He wouldn’t let me include it in the display we had here because it was his favorite. So, if he did kill himself, I can see why he did it with that one.”
“You’ve been very helpful, Miss Etta.”
“And I have just the book for you,” she said as he rose. “It’s on occupational stress and how to cope with it. I’ll just get it from my desk.”
“I’ll remember that when I have time to read, so—”
His cell sounded. He looked at the display. His office phone.
“Excuse me, Miss Etta. I’ve got to take this, and I thank you again. Sheriff McCord here,” he said as he walked out onto the street.
“It’s Vic, Gabe. I’ve got some good info from going with Tess to the Hear Ye sect, but I also finally got a call back from Reese Owens’s former housekeeper, Ruby Purtle.”
“I’m on my way to the office, on foot. Be right there.”
“Yeah, well, be prepared to get your gear and jump in your vehicle because this woman says Reese Owens has a cabin up on a place called Green Mountain that no one knows about, even his wife. And get this—he fired this housekeeper but gave her a big payoff and a good recommendation, she thinks, just because she heard him ordering furniture for it on the phone. Think we can find it?”