Middle River Murders (17 page)

They were relentless. Their questions turned cruel and then
slanderous when we refused to answer them.

“Are you going to be charged with murder?” one of them asked,
directing their question at Mom.

She turned and yelled at the reporter with her remark.
“Kansas Moon broke into my house and tried to kill us. What do you think? I
guess you people aren’t as smart as I thought, because that was a pretty stupid
question. Now please excuse us.” Mom turned and walked inside.

Billy slammed the door behind us. Outraged by the presence of
the press, he started going off in his native tongue when Sarah and the chief
met us at the door.

“
Tla-o-s-da u-lv-no-ti-s-gi ga-na-tla-is! Hi `ya-gal tso
`de aqua `tse `li!
”

“Calm down, son,” the chief said. “You’re right. This is your
house and they are animals, but who cares? Let the mosquitoes feast on them!
They don’t bother us, do they, Sarah? We will ignore them.”

“I have to disagree, Sam,” Sarah replied. “It’s been a little
nerve-racking.” She looked at Billy. “They congregated in the yard right after
you left.”

Sarah is a tiny, little woman in her late sixties. She has
guts and won’t hesitate to speak her mind, but I think the press was wearing
her down. She looked distraught.

“I showed them who was boss,” Chief Sam said. “I met them at
the door with your shotgun and told them if they stepped one foot on the porch,
I’d shoot every one of them!”

“You threatened them?” I asked as I headed toward the kid’s
room.

“They’re fine,” Sarah said as she took me by the arm. “Let’s
go to the kitchen and sit down. I’ll fix a hot toddy for everyone, and the
chief will fix you one of his special brews.”

“I think I’ll have one of those toddies,” Mom said, following
us. “It’s been a long day, and I think matters are going to get worse by
morning.”

“Do not fear,” Chief Sam said. He took Billy by the arm and
led him to the kitchen. “My son will handle those who seek to cause us trouble.
He is a Blackhawk! He is strong and smart! He is a fine Cherokee warrior!”

I walked over to Billy and put my arm around his waist. “Yes,
he is,” I said. “He will take care of us.”

We sat down at the table while the chief and Sarah fixed us
something to drink. Both of them were right at home in our kitchen.

I leaned over and whispered into Billy’s ear, “How are we
going to sneak back out with all those reporters around? You know I’m not going
to let you go without me, so don’t think you’re going to wait for us to go to
sleep and then sneak out by yourself. I’m on to you, pal. I know you like the
back of my hand.”

We smiled at each other as he sipped his hot toddy and I
sipped the alcohol-free concoction the chief had made just for me.

“Oh, don’t you worry, `ge ya,” he whispered back. “We’ll find
a way.”

We decided to call the Charlottesville Police Department to
complain about the press being on our property, since we couldn’t actually go
outside and shoot them as suggested by the chief.

The CPD sent out two patrol cars, and upon their arrival, the
press immediately started to move back.

The officers got out of their cars and made the hoard of
local newspaper and television reporters leave the property.

They were told they could park on the state road, but they
couldn’t remain on private property without facing the risk of being arrested
for trespassing.

The reporters got into their automobiles and proceeded to
leave.

The officers told us to call again if we had any more
problems. They said they could throw the reporters off our property, but they
couldn’t force them to leave the area. They were allowed to use public roads.

“They’ll probably get tired of waiting and eventually leave,”
one of the officers had said just before they got into their cruisers and headed
out.

Ten minutes after the police left, Billy walked to the end of
our driveway and discovered the reporters parked alongside the road. He turned
and walked back to the house with a disgusted smirk on his face.

“They’re parked on the main road and there’s not a thing we
can do about it. We might as well call it a night. We won’t get past them.”

Our plans had been foiled by the media. They wouldn’t give up
their quest for a story, so Billy and I weren’t able to sneak out of the house
as planned.

An hour later, Mom was in bed, and Sarah and Chief Sam were
safely at home, having managed to slip away unseen by the press.

Billy and I decided it was time for us to go to bed.

“I can’t believe there isn’t a way for us to give the press
the slip. Are you sure you can’t think of something?” I asked one last time.

“Forget it, Jesse, and go to sleep.”

Billy rolled over and kissed me on the forehead.

“You’re going to need your rest. We still have Daisy Clark to
contend with. When she finds out how her brother died and then she gets out of
the hospital, she’ll be coming here to pay us a visit.”

“She doesn’t know where we live.”

“It won’t take her long to find out. It’s only a matter of
time.”

I kissed Billy and cuddled up to him. I needed a rest. I
dozed off and was immersed in a vivid, pleasant dream about him when all of a
sudden, I awoke to the creak of a door being opened and closed.

My heart started to pound as I opened my eyes and glanced
over at the clock on the nightstand. The time on the digital readout was
3:35
. I reached over with my hand and discovered the other side
of the bed was empty.

My fear subsided when I realized that the noise I’d heard
must’ve been Billy. Maybe he couldn’t sleep and had gotten up to go see if the
press was still at the end of the driveway.

I crawled out of bed and called out as I got to the hallway,
“Is that you, Billy?”

“Yes, it’s me,” he said as he put his finger to his mouth,
signaling me to be quiet.

“Where were you? It’s almost four in the morning.”

“I know,” he responded as he slipped out of his shoes.

He took me by the hand and walked over to the bed.

“Let’s sit down. I need to tell you something.”

I sat down on the bed and said, “You’re starting to scare me.
What have you been doing?”

Billy sat down next to me and said, “You have to promise me
you won’t go off when I tell you where I’ve been.”

“I don’t like this game already,” I said, looking into his
eyes for a clue about what he was going to say.

Then it dawned on me—he’d been back over to Kansas Moon’s
house—without me!

“I don’t believe it. You went back. How did you get by the
media without being seen?”

“After you fell asleep, I slipped out through the back door
and into the woods behind our house. I called Jonathan on my cell phone and had
him meet me on the south end of the property. He picked me up and the two of us
went to Moon’s house.”

“I don’t believe…” I started to rant.

Billy stopped me.

“Just listen. You can get mad later.”

“Tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out like you did
that time you knocked Carl around and then left prints and blood at the scene.
Remember that little incident? Tell me you didn’t carve up anybody.”

“Don’t be silly,” he said, smiling.

I just sat on the bed. I didn’t smile.

“When Jonathan and I got to Kansas Moon’s house, it was
deserted. The sheriff and all his men were gone, and he didn’t even leave a
lookout behind. I was surprised. I thought for sure he knew I’d be back, but I
guess he thought his earlier warning would suffice in keeping me away.”

“I don’t believe it! How could you go without me? We’re a
team!”

“Let me finish,” Billy said as he handed me a tattered
photograph. “Look at this and then read the back.”

I took the photo and held it up to the dim light shinning
through the bedroom window, but couldn’t see in the dark, so I got up and
walked over to the nightstand and turned on the lamp. I sat on the edge of the
bed, leaned over and held the snapshot up to the light.

“It’s a photo of Daisy,
Gabe
,
Kansas
and some other woman sitting in a
boat on a lake.” I flipped the photo over and read what was written on the
back. “It says:
Kansas
and Sophie, Daisy and Gabe.
Walloon Lake
,
Michigan
, 2004. Who is Sophie?”

“I also found this,” Billy said. He got up and walked over to
the side of the bed and sat down. He handed me a clipping from a newspaper.

The paper had yellowed from age and was starting to come
apart at the seams from being folded and unfolded so many times. The headline
read: Woman Missing After Falling From Boat. Police Suspect Foul Play. The
woman in the article was the woman in the other photo. Her name was Sophie
Kent.

“What do you make of that?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”

Billy stretched out on the bed and said, “I’m beat.”

“You better not go to sleep on me now! I want to know what
else you found in that house. Were there any…”

“The place was loaded from floor to ceiling with everything
imaginable. I don’t think
Kansas
ever threw anything away and he
never cleaned.”

“Was it nasty and gross?”

“That’s an understatement. The place was a wreck.”

“So what was it like?”

“There was a box in a corner filled with candy wrappers, and
another box contained empty cardboard toilet paper rolls. I couldn’t tell where
the furniture started and the clutter stopped.”

“That sounds pretty bad.”

“It gets worse. There was so much junk scattered about, I had
to follow a path through the house. I’ve never seen anything like it. Empty
food containers were everywhere. Plates crusted with leftover food overflowed
in the kitchen sink, along the counter and all over the stove.”

“It sounds to me like the guy had an obsessive/compulsive
disorder.”

“I’d say so,” Billy continued. “You couldn’t see the kitchen
table. I did notice that there was a plastic tray on the table filled with
prescription medicines and they all had his name on the containers. I’m telling
you, Jesse, it was a housekeeper’s nightmare.”

“I’m sure it was, from the way you talk. I don’t think I
could stand to be in a place like that... not to mention living there.”

“And the magazines—there were magazines stacked two feet
high, three stacks deep on either side of an overstuffed chair in the living
room.”

“What kind of magazines?”

“There were all kinds, from celebrity rags to
Good
Housekeeping
to
National Geographic
. I scanned some and they all had
labels on them addressed to Daisy Clark. I guess she wanted
Kansas
to keep up on his reading.”

“If
Kansas
was learning-disabled as Rupert
claims, why didn’t Daisy let him live with her and Gabe, instead of making him
stay by himself? He must not have been too messed up if he could live alone.”

“I don’t know, but I can tell you one thing. I’d hate to live
in a place like that.”

“Yeah, I bet he has rats.”

“I’m sure that he does. Nobody can live like that without
having a few rodents as residents.”

“Did you find anything creepy?”

“By creepy, do you mean dog bones?”

“Skeletons—not dog bones like the kind you feed dogs.”

“There was evidence that
Kansas
had a lot of animals in the house. The smell was undeniable. The police took
some of the stuff, but there were pictures crammed in between the stacks of
magazines that clearly proved there had been a lot of cats, dogs and other
creatures in that house.”

“Did you find...”

“We found a picture of Old Gus. Rupert was pretty upset about
that one. He had to go outside and get some fresh air.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Hey, when did you talk to
Rupert?”

“He was already in the house when we got there. He said a
woman was seen with
Kansas
the day he died, and it wasn’t
Daisy.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yep,” Billy said. “By the way, he knows the whole story now
and he said to tell your mother that he was sorry for what he said. Actually,
he was a big help. He explained a few things that helped me to understand
Kansas
a little better.”

“Like what?”

“I’d like to know the answer to that, too,” Mom said as she
appeared at the bedroom door. “I’m sorry to be snooping around in the middle of
the night, but I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I went to the kitchen
and then I saw your light on.” She pointed to the lamp. “I guess I’ve been
around you two for too long. I’ve become a real busybody.”

Spice Cat appeared. He rubbed up against Mom and then walked
over to the bathroom door and flopped down.

“You might as well come on in and have a seat. Billy was just
filling me in on what he found after he snuck out of the house in the middle of
the night and left us behind.”

Athena and Thor walked up to the bedroom doorway and sat at
attention, their ears perked.

A minute later, we heard Ethan cry.

“I guess this will have to wait,” I said. “I’m being
summoned. What a shame. The whole crew’s here and we were having so much fun.”

I looked around at the dogs and the cat, and then chuckled.

“I’ll go with you,” Mom said.

“I think I’m going to lie down and catch forty winks. If you
need me just yell.”

Billy was stretched out, fully-clothed and half-asleep by the
time Mom and I left the room.

I handed her the clipping and the photo to examine while I
changed Ethan’s diaper. I picked him up and held him close as he nursed. Maisy
was still asleep.

Mom walked over and looked down at Maisy. “She’s so
beautiful. Sarah told me that
Geneva
called again. She wants to come over
this weekend.”

I looked up, but didn’t say anything.

Mom changed the subject.

“I wonder if
Kansas
or Daisy had anything to do with
this missing woman. Daisy told me they lived in a small town in
Michigan
before they moved here. Maybe this
is the place she was talking about.
Walloon
Lake
—now that sounds like a nice place.
Sophie—I remember that name. Daisy said she had a friend back home, named
Sophie. She told me her friend drowned in a boating accident.”

Mom looked at the newspaper clipping again.

“Sophie looks younger than Daisy. I wonder if she was
his
girlfriend.”

“That would make sense. They’re paired off in the picture.”

“I wonder if Daisy also killed this woman like she did Alice
and the others.”

“If she did, her murderous rampage started a while back.
According to the article, Sophie died in 2004.”

“That was two years ago.”

“I wonder how many people Daisy has killed since then. Did
the killing start that year, or does it go back even further?”

“I just can’t believe a woman like Daisy is capable of doing
something so terrible. She seems so nice. What makes a person do such horrible
things, Jesse?”

“I don’t know, Mom. But since I’ve been with Billy, I’ve seen
a lot of the ugly side of people. It’s hard to believe there are people walking
around who have no regard for human life.”