Thicker than Water (21 page)

“Like something they planned?”

“Oh, I've no doubt. But when you told them to go get their own toys, they panicked. And thus they had to kick up the threat,” he said and pointed to the rocks on the table. “I'm not so sure it was ever meant to go this far.”

“It's like high school,” I said.

“Yeah, well, some people's mental age never gets beyond fourteen.”

“Oh, that's comforting,” I said.

“At any rate, you guys should stay here until we figure out who's behind this,” he said. “I can't even imagine they'd try anything here.”

“What about the Gaheimer House?” I asked.

The phone rang, and my mother answered it.

“What about it?” Colin asked.

“Is it safe to go there?”

“Why?” he asked.

“Torie, I don't know—” Rudy said.

“Because I think the answer to this might be in some of the records we have,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“Obviously, whoever is doing this thinks they were entitled to what I got,” I said. “Maybe I can find a record of it. I should probably go to the courthouse as well and see if Sylvia was ever sued by anybody.”

“Good point,” Colin said.

“You're supposed to be on my side,” Rudy said to Colin.

“She's right, though. If Sylvia was ever sued, that could be a big lead. It's obvious Sylvia was worried that somebody would try something once she was gone, or she wouldn't have been so nervous about her will being contested,” Colin said.

“True,” I said.

Mom hung up the phone and turned back to the conversation. “It was Stephanie,” she said. “She wanted to know if she should come in to work today. She couldn't reach you at your house or your cell phone, so she thought to try here. I just filled her in on everything that happened.”

“Oh, what if the person had thrown rocks into the Gaheimer House when Stephanie was there?” I said. “She's pregnant. She could have been hurt.”

“Whoever it is doesn't want the Gaheimer House hurt,” Colin said.

“So it would seem,” I said. “Mom, what did you tell Steph?”

“I told her not to come in until you had spoken with her,” she said.

“Good. I'm going to the courthouse,” I said.

“I'll go with you,” Rudy said.

“The kids can stay with me,” Mom said. “I think they should stay home from school today, anyway.”

“All right,” I said. Suddenly, a thought struck me. “Oh, and while we're here, I want to go by Wisteria General and see Leigh Duran.”

“Right,” Rudy said.

“Oh, jeez.”

“What?” Rudy asked.

“Tomorrow is Saturday. The second weekend in the Strawberry Festival. I have so much to do.”

“I'll have Tobias call everybody and make sure everything is ready to go,” Colin said. “He can be in charge for a day.”

“All right,” I said. “I'm off to the courthouse.”

“Eat your apricot bar,” Mom said. “You're losing weight.”

Twenty-Seven

Believe it or not, there were some records I did not have at the Gaheimer House, namely, all of the civil court records and the more recent marriage and probate records. Rudy and I pulled into the parking lot of the courthouse in Wisteria, and I glanced around nervously. It was difficult for me to drive around and not wonder if somebody was watching from the shadows. “Thanks for coming along,” I said.

“Hey, you went fishing with me in Minnesota. This is the least I could do.”

“That's right, I did,” I said. “Well, this is a lot more fun than fishing.”

He rolled his eyes.

Two hours later he was rubbing his eyes. And sneezing. “I cannot believe you'd rather be in here with all of these musty old books than out on a lake or a riverbank.”

“Oh, if I could find court records out on a lake, I'd be in heaven. But they don't have filing cabinets on lakes.”

“Find anything?” he asked.

“Nothing so far,” I said.

“Well, I think I did,” he said and pulled out a book.
“Pershing vs. Burgermeister.”

“What?”

“Looks like Sylvia had a restraining order against Virgie and Harold Burgermeister back in the sixties.”

“Oh, let's request the original on this,” I said. We put in our request for the original file with a file clerk named Bernadine Shankmeyer, who not only knew me by name but asked how my sister was doing. Rudy just shook his head. I kept looking through the indexes. By the time the original came back on the restraining order, I had found two other records that I wanted to look at.

“What does it say?” Rudy asked.

“Basically, it reads that Harold and Virgie were not allowed within two hundred feet of Sylvia—hard to manage considering they lived in a small town. Anyway, looks like Harold had physically attacked Sylvia at a picnic. Oh, this is interesting. Make a note for me to go by and talk to Virgie and Harold.”

I pulled out my cell phone and called Colin. “Brooke,” he said.

“Colin, it's Torie. I found a record for a restraining order Sylvia had against the Burgermeisters.”

“Charity?”

“No, her in-laws. Harold and Virgie. What have you found?”

“Well, I talked to Eleanore,” he said. “She said she only told one person about there being a private detective at the Gaheimer House.”

“Who did she tell?”

“Danny Eisenbach.”

“Colin, he was one of the people who showed some discontent with my leadership at the meeting the other night.”

“Well, I'm pulling into his driveway now. But remember, he could have told ten people by this time. It doesn't mean he's our man.”

“I know. Anything else?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I asked her why she had taken the stand against you at the meeting.”

“And her answer was?”

“That a group of townspeople had been talking at the last box social and the subject of you came up, and she said before you knew it, there was a consensus that you should be removed from power.”

“Gee, wonder what would happen if I ran for mayor?”

“Oh, don't even go there,” he said. “Besides, I'm running.”

“What? Get out of here.”

“No, really, I've decided I'm running against Bill next term.”

“But … can you be sheriff and mayor at the same time?”

Rudy shot me a look with his eyebrows raised.

“No,” Colin said.

“But … you can't seriously not be sheriff.”

“We'll talk about it later,” he said.

“Did Eleanore happen to say who all was at this box social?”

“I don't know,” he said, “but it was at the Methodist church, so I guess you could just see who attends the church and narrow it down from there. More than likely, you're looking at one or two people doing the talking and everybody else falling into place.”

“Well, it's possible there were people in attendance that aren't necessarily members of the church, too.”

“Right.”

“How'd it go on the alibis of Sylvia's family?”

“Everybody's checking out except David, but even he had an alibi for most of the times in question,” he said. “Charlie was out of town all week. The Franklins, both Julie and Steve, were at some sort of retreat the day of the Strawberry Festival. Toni was at work. And then, oh, who's the other sister?”

I scanned my mind. He'd mentioned David and Charlie. He'd mentioned Julie and Toni. That left … oh, who was the other grand niece of Sylvia's? “Susan!”

“That's right. Susan was at a competition.”

“A what?”

“She's a champion horse rider. English style.”

“Oh.” Learn something new every day. “All right,” I said. “I'll get back to you if I find anything else.”

“Hey, Torie. Elmer goes to the Methodist church,” he said. “Why don't you call him and see if he remembers anything funny going on at the last box social. If he even attended.”

“I will,” I said. I felt uneasy suddenly.
Maybe they've got a puppet
. What if Elmer was the one wanting me out of office and he was just pretending to be on my side? The mastermind behind the whole thing could be pretending to support me all along and be pushing somebody else's buttons.

“What's the matter?” Rudy asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “I'm just getting paranoid.”

Rudy grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Don't,” he said. “Plenty of people love you in this town.”

“But it only takes one crazy one to bring it all down.”

“You'll be fine. Crazy people never win.”

“I just can't believe this is happening.”

“Whoever it is is seriously messed up in the head,” he said. “People who would actually act out against somebody because they were jealous … well, they're just not whole people. There's something missing in them. Unless they're like sixteen, because teenagers are just weird.”

“What's missing in them?”

“A soul, for one thing,” he said. “They're not complete.”

“All right,” I said and sighed. “I want to see these other two records, and then I'm heading back to the Gaheimer House. I want to make sure everything is all right.”

“You heard Colin,” he said. “Whoever it is doesn't want to harm the Gaheimer House.”

“I don't care,” I said. “I still want to check it.”

“All right.”

“But I want to run by the hospital first. Oh, and then the Methodist church,” I said.

“Why?”

“I want to see Leigh.”

“No, the church,” he said.

“I want a list of their members. You know, I have never paid attention to who goes to what church. I just realized I can't begin to tell you what religion anybody is in our town.”

“Does it matter?”

“Today it does.”

*   *   *

I hate the smell of hospitals, but I think it's psychological. My daughter Mary loves the smell of hospitals. She wants to be a doctor. I told her that she might wait and make up her mind based on, well, if she can pass biology, rather than based on the fact she likes the smell of hospitals. Have I mentioned that she's weird?

Rudy and I stopped outside of Leigh Duran's hospital room. I took a deep breath first and then knocked. I heard the nurse say to come in. We walked in to find Leigh surrounded by a sea of flowers. The room smelled like roses and hyacinths. I said hello to the nurse, who left quietly. I realized the reason I was so apprehensive about seeing Leigh was that I wasn't sure what sort of condition she would be in. That, and I felt sorry for her. I wasn't sure if sympathy would be a good thing to show or not. It might make her feel worse, or it could be the very thing she needed to see from people. I didn't know.

She lay on the bed with her nondescript brown hair plastered on her head and trailing on the pillow. She was pale, her eyes sunken and bruised looking. Then I noticed the white bandages around her wrists. I glanced for a second and then vowed I would only look at her eyes for the rest of the visit.

Leigh is not what I'd call a good friend, but like a lot of people in town, I did know her. She was married to Edwin Duran, and with Colin being my stepfather that meant they were in our social circle more often than not. I suppose my real problem was I wasn't sure I knew her well enough to have a pool of useless chatter to pull from, and awkward silences right now were not what I wanted.

“Leigh,” I said. Should I ask how she was feeling?

“Torie, Rudy,” she said. She tried to straighten herself in the bed. Then she ran a very shaky hand through her lank hair.

“How are you feeling?” Rudy asked.

“Oh, I'm doing all right,” she said. But her eyes said otherwise. Her eyes spoke volumes in pain and despair.

“Edwin just went down to grab a bite to eat,” she said.

“Oh,” I said. “Well, we can't stay long, so if we miss him, tell him we said hello.”

“I will,” she said.

“So,” I said and sighed. “I think my husband is going to make a pig of himself again this weekend.”

“More pie contests for you?” she asked.

Rudy rubbed his belly. “Can't help myself.”

She smiled, but only just.

We talked a little more about the Strawberry Festival. I tried not to mention children in any way, because I didn't want to upset her. So I made a few jokes about my mother winning a year's supply of bagels. In fact, I think Rudy and I sort of overdid it on the bagel jokes, and suddenly there was an awkward silence. That very thing I wanted to avoid.

Leigh's gaze flicked around the room, landing on everything except my face. She turned to Rudy then. “Do you really think that if you commit suicide you don't go to heaven?”

“Oh, Leigh, don't ask me that,” he said, looking for all the world as though he'd just swallowed a frog.

“No, I want to know what you think. Because I thought God would be happy with people who wanted to go home bad enough to take their own lives.”

“I think the point is that only God has the right to give or take life,” Rudy said. “But what do I know, Leigh? I'm just a plumbing salesman.”

“That's what Edwin said,” she said and picked at her bandages, which I'd vowed only moments ago not to look at.

“What, that he's a plumbing salesman?” Rudy asked.

“No, that I wouldn't go to heaven.”

“I…” Rudy said.

I was a little peeved at Duran for telling her such a thing. The woman was obviously unstable; why would he tell her something like that? I reached out to touch her arm, but something in her body language made me stop just short of touching her. I'm not so sure I'd want people touching me, either, if I were in her state.

“You know, it's not that I hate it here or anything,” she said. “I just don't see the point.”