Middle River Murders (25 page)

“I think we found what we were looking for, Billy. Daisy has
a list of every woman who has been or still is a member of her club. There’re
dates beside their names, obviously indicating when they joined and a couple
have dates that indicate they no longer belong to the club. Maybe we should
check those out first. There might be some hard feelings still lingering over
their exit from the club.”

I looked up and noticed a table top copier on the right side
of the room.

“We couldn’t get much luckier,” I said as I pointed to the
copier.

I got up and walked over to the copier and started making
copies of the book. When I finished, I had a stack of twenty-two pages. I
walked back to the desk and laid the ledger down on top of it. I sat down and
started looking through the pages.

I looked up and said, “I don’t think this is a book she’d
want anyone to see. It has very personal stuff written in it.”

“Is that so?” Billy asked as he continued his search.

“She’s written some pretty nasty comments by some of these
women’s names. Wow! Listen to this, Billy. ‘
Pat needs to keep her mouth
shut. She should’ve listened to me when I said I wanted to keep my personal
life private. How dare she tell everyone about my brother. He can’t help it
that he’s the way he is. She called him retarded in front of my friends. I know
she had too much wine, but that doesn’t give her the right to talk bad about
Kansas
. She’s going to regret that mistake
for a long time to come.’
Boy,
she’s out for blood!”

“I guess she got what she wanted,” Billy replied. “The
woman’s dead.”

We continued our search, hoping to find something a little
more incriminating, but the best we’d come up with so far was Daisy’s little
book.

“There’s nothing in Gabe’s desk,” Billy said. “All I found
was receipts, statements, and a bunch of junk that didn’t mean anything.”

“Look at this,” I said, pointing to the page.

Billy walked over to me and stared down at the paper. After
reading the notation next to Alice Aikens’ name, he looked up at me and smiled.

“Daisy was a bit jealous, wouldn’t you say?” I asked.

“I sure would.”

“She thought
Alice
was too prissy and didn’t belong in
their
special
club for
special
people.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“She won’t last long. My friends will see right through that
woman. I’ll give her a month and then she’ll be history.”
I read, mocking the words on the
page.

“When Daisy doesn’t like someone, she can be right harsh,”
Billy said. “I sure don’t want her mad at me.”

“Oh, here’s what she wrote about Mom:
‘Minnie is a
terrific person. She has such a good heart. I’m sure we’re going to be good
friends
.
’
”

“Everyone who meets your mother likes her.”

“That makes me feel better. At least, she didn’t hate my
mom.”

Billy didn’t respond, so I looked up to see if he had walked
back over to the other desk. When I didn’t see him, I stood and walked out from
behind the desk, still holding the copies in my hand.

“Oh, there you are,” I said, looking down at him. “What did
you find?”

He was crouched in the corner going through a stack of
magazines. He looked up and answered, “Some of these magazines are ten years
old. I wonder why someone would keep a magazine that long.”

“There could be something written about Gabe in them. That
might be why he’s kept them...”

“I see why he kept them now,” Billy said. “Gabe Clark was the
editor of Walloon Lake Boating up until two years ago.”

“That’s just about...”

“... the same time
Kansas
had his accident.” Billy replied, finishing my sentence. He continued to scan
the pages.

“Accident is a nice word for what happened to
Kansas
.”

“We don’t really know the whole story, yet.”

“We know he tried to kill himself.”

“I’ve found something of interest,” Billy said, looking up at
me. He stood and showed me the magazine. “The most recent magazine is dated
September, 2004. That’s the same year Sophie died.”

“After such a terrible ordeal, I imagine they packed up and
left
Michigan
. Daisy told Mom they moved here to
be close to her daughter, but the truth is they probably left because of all
the hoopla that surrounded Sophie’s death.”

“I think I’d leave, too,” Billy said. “There’s an article in
this one about the boating accident that left Sophie dead. It goes into great
detail. I’m sure Gabe was probably forced to resign after something like this
came out. A scandal like this could ruin him.”

“I was asked to leave,” Gabe said as he walked into the room.
“What happened to my family was an embarrassment to the company. They couldn’t
have a killer’s father working at such a prestigious magazine.”

I was so startled that I dropped the pages I was holding.

Billy walked toward Gabe and said, “I’m so sorry to hear
that. It must’ve been pretty awful for you.”

“My family was destroyed. Daisy almost fell apart.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Billy said as he looked at the
magazine in his hand. “You gave us permission to search…”

“Don’t worry,” Gabe responded. “I’m not angry. I have nothing
to hide. Search all you want. But if you want to save time, why don’t you just
ask me what you want to know.”

I stooped down and gathered up the pages off the floor.

“How’s Daisy doing?”

“She was asleep when I left. She wanted me to come home and
get her makeup. It seems she might have to stay a while at the hospital. The
doctors found an abnormality in her
CAT
scan. They want to run some more tests.”

“What does a
CAT
scan have to do with her foot?” I
asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Daisy started having severe headaches
this morning, so they did a
CAT
scan.”

“What do they think is wrong?” Billy asked.

“They’re not saying, but I’m worried she might have an
aneurysm. Her mother died of one, so she’s really panicky about her headaches.
They stopped for a few hours, but after someone tried to suffocate her with a
pillow, they came back again.”

“I can understand that.”

“They started to subside about an hour ago, so Daisy insisted
that I come home and get her makeup.” He looked at me and then back to Billy.
“Women can’t live without their makeup. Why, even the thought of someone coming
to visit her and catching her without her makeup on, drives her nuts. She’d
drive me batty if I refused her.”

Billy looked at me and then back to Gabe. He smiled and said,
“I’m lucky that my wife doesn’t wear any makeup.”

“Ha! That’s what you think,” I sneered. “I have to have my
mascara, if nothing else. Without it, I’d look like little Orphan Annie.”

A smile came to Gabe’s face.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you smile since I
met you the day of
Alice
’s funeral. You seemed very distant.
I figured that you were just upset over her death.”

A frown replaced his smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to stir up sad
memories.”

“So much has happened in the last few days. I can’t seem to
get it all out of my mind, not even for a minute.” Gabe stared back at us and
then added, “Why don’t we go sit at the kitchen table and I’ll fix us a cold
drink? Then we can talk about things. Hopefully, I might hold a clue that will
aid in the search for Minnie.”

“How…”

“It’s on the news,” Gabe answered. “I guess the police
couldn’t keep the reporters at bay once someone publicly tried to kill my wife.
Come on, let’s go have a talk.” He turned and motioned for us to follow.

I held onto the papers as Billy and I walked out of the room,
following Gabe to the kitchen. We sat down as Gabe opened the refrigerator door
and pulled out three beers. He held them up as if to ask if we wanted one.
Billy nodded his head in agreement, but I refused his offer.

“I’d rather have a soda or a glass of water, if you don’t
mind.”

“I have Coke. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine, thanks.”

Billy and Gabe twisted the cap off their beers as I popped
the tab on the soda can.

After a long sip, all three of us set our drinks down on the
table and let out a quiet sigh.

“It’s been a long day,” Gabe said. “And it’s probably going
to get longer.” He looked back and forth at both of us. “What do you want to
know? I’ll tell you anything that I can, but I really know very little.”

“You might be surprised at how much you do know,” I said.

Billy’s cell phone went off. He excused himself, got up and
walked into the other room.

I wanted to hurry up and get out of Daisy’s house. My mother
was missing and I was beginning to fear the worst. The longer we sat here and
talked, the less time we’d have to look for my mother. So being who I am, I got
right to the point.

“I have a question, Gabe. Why would
Kansas
try to kill himself unless he blamed
himself for Sophie’s death? The police said they suspected foul play and then
Kansas
tries to kill himself. Was he
guilt-ridden? Did they have a fight?”

Gabe hung his head and after a few seconds began his story.

“Daisy didn’t think Sophie was good enough for
Kansas
.
Michigan
is our home. Daisy and I were born and raised there and we came from good
stock.”

“So you’re saying that your families are rich.”

Billy walked back into the room and sat down. He gave us the
head’s up signal, so Gabe continued.

“Yes, that’s pretty much the gist of it. Sophie’s side of the
family was working class people. Her mother was a hair dresser and her father
drove a delivery truck.”

“I bet Daisy wasn’t too happy about that.”

“No, she wasn’t,” Gabe said. “They lived in
Minnesota
until Sophie’s father was killed.
Then Sophie’s mother, Naomi, got a sizable amount of money from her husband’s
life insurance and from a law suit. The two of them left
Minnesota
and ended up in
Walloon
Lake
.”

“And then Sophie and
Kansas
met.”

“
Kansas
met Sophie at the local drug store
and, as they say, the rest is history. Everything was going fine until Daisy found
out that Sophie and her mother weren’t from
real
money.”

“I bet that didn’t make Daisy happy.”

“Oh, Daisy flipped her lid.”

“I can just guess what Daisy did when she found that out. She
probably blew a gasket.”

“I wouldn’t have described it in that way, but you hit the
nail on the head. Daisy decided that Sophie wasn’t good enough for her brother
and went about trying to break them up.”

“What did she do?”

“She convinced
Kansas
that Sophie would only bring him down by standing in his way to success. She said
such horrible things about Sophie, it almost made me dislike the girl. But
Sophie was a nice person, and I knew how Daisy could be, so I ignored her
remarks. I just let her rattle on. She’s my wife; I have to listen to her, if
nothing else.”

“She probably told
Kansas
that nobody would accept Sophie in their circle of friends,” I said. I held the
pages up and gave them a shake. “I used your copier. I hope you don’t mind.”

Before he had a chance to respond, I continued with my
statement.

“According to what Daisy wrote in these papers about her club
members, I get the feeling that it didn’t take much to get on her bad side.”

“Daisy does have a nasty attitude toward people who don’t
have money. She snubs them in such a demeaning way. Sometimes she can get right
ugly. It’s very annoying.”

“What happened next?” I tried to hurry up the conversation.

“The long and short of the story is—
Kansas
took Sophie out on the lake. He
tried to break up with her gently, but things got out of hand. She stood up in
that tiny boat and started hitting him. She lost her balance and fell
overboard.
Kansas
jumped in, but couldn’t find her.”

“That must have been awful for him.”

“For two days,
Kansas
locked himself up in his house and refused our phone calls. I found out that
the police were going to arrest him, so Daisy and I went to see him. We found
him hanging from a ceiling beam, a rope tied around his neck.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“We got there in time to save his life, but not in time to
prevent brain damage. They gave him CPR, but all that did was keep him from
dying. He was never the same after that.”

“That’s a terrible thing to happen to anyone.”

“Sophie’s body surfaced two days later.
Kansas
didn’t blame himself for her death
anymore. He was in another world.”

“And Sophie’s mother was sure that the body they pulled out
of the lake was her daughter.”

“She positively identified her.”

“Sophie Kent really is dead, huh?”

“Yes, she’s dead. There’s no doubt about that. A mother would
know her child, no matter what condition the body was in. I believe that.”

“So that rules out Sophie,” Billy said. He looked at me and
then back to Gabe. “We’ll concentrate on the women on this list. We don’t have
anything else to go on for the moment.”

“If I can be of any…” Gabe stopped short. “Let me adjust this
air-conditioning. We never keep it this cold.”

“I thought it was a bit cool in here, also,” I added.

“You didn’t adjust the thermostat?”

“No, we didn’t touch a thing. We just assumed...”

Gabe walked over to the thermostat on the wall and fiddled
with it. He stood there and pondered something.

I stood up, grabbed the papers and said, “I think we’d better
go. We need to be out looking for my mother.”