I drove to the dentist’s office a block off Cottonwood Avenue and spotted Diana emerging. Perfect timing.
As I pulled over to pick her up, two women emerged from opposite sides of a little silver car parked four spots down the street.
Recognizing the older one, I did something I never would have done in most places I’ve lived. I jumped out of my SUV, leaving the door open and the engine running.
“Odessa Vincennes, how wonderful to run into you this way.”
She recoiled momentarily.
The younger woman with her slowed, then looked back, surprised when she realized Odessa had fallen behind.
“I left a message, apologizing for cutting short our interview so abruptly yesterday. And—”
“Yes. No problem. No problem at all. Excuse me.”
She’d restarted at higher speed, clearly intending to walk past me.
With the double benefit of plenty of experience at walking-and-talking with interview subjects and significantly longer legs than Odessa, I pivoted and moved along with her, catching a look between her and the younger woman.
Warning?
“Hi, I’m Elizabeth Margaret Danniher,” I said to the pretty, younger woman while I kept up with the elder and we all came together on the broad sidewalk. “I was interviewing your…”
“Mother.” She returned my smile tentatively. She was medium height, which made her taller than her mother. Slender, with enough curves to avoid boyishness. Hair streaked to be a bit blonder than nature had established, fair skin, and blue eyes. Concerned at the moment.
“Of course. Your mother. It’s a pleasure to meet you…”
“Asheleigh,” she supplied. Unlike her mother, she was almost too easy to nudge into answers.
Her name registered in the next fraction of a second. “Asheleigh?” Could it be? The Asheleigh with an ‘e’ described by the Stendahl kids? Also the girlfriend of Gable Lukasik? The dating possibilities for their age group couldn’t be expansive in Cottonwood County, which certainly made it possible. “Are you a teacher?”
“I am. How—?”
“I met your boyfriend, Gable Lukasik, this morning.” If that led her to think Gable had been my source, that didn’t worry me.
“Oh.” Her face glowed at the mention of his name, adding credence to Jessica Stendahl’s report that they were really serious.
“It was actually the news about the Lukasiks’ foreman being shot that interrupted my interview with your mother.”
Just call me Elizabeth the Glow Killer.
Asheleigh paled. This look from daughter to mother carried nervousness. I gave her a break.
“Odessa, I’d like to schedule a time to finish our conversation, so we can get the information about the program out to our listeners.”
“I’ll call you about that. Soon.”
“As long as we’re both here now—”
“Can’t. Sorry. We have to get to the dentist. We have appointments. Right now.”
She cut across behind me, hooked her daughter’s arm, and steered her to the dentist’s office.
“We’ll talk soon,” I said brightly, the last word spoken to the closing door.
Diana watched me circle around the front of the SUV.
She climbed in and closed the passenger door. “That was interesting. You sure know how to make friends. Nothing like making someone eager to see the dentist.”
I did something else I wouldn’t do in many places I’d lived — I made a U-turn. “You recognized her?”
“Oh, yeah. Her face and her voice. Also caught the bit about Gable Lukasik being her daughter’s boyfriend. Interesting. Could that explain her reaction? The connection to her daughter’s boyfriend? If she misunderstood…?”
“You heard it.” I turned west on Yellowstone Street. “Mike was clear about the name. Never mentioned Lukasik or Gable. Even if she knew Furman York was the foreman of the ranch of her daughter’s boyfriend’s father, would you expect that reaction?”
“No. Think she’ll call you?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“O’Hara Hill. Hope to talk to Ernie and Dorrie.”
“Hope? They’ll be there. They’re always there. Whether they’ll talk is another matter. Did you call ahead?”
“That’s why I didn’t call ahead. Didn’t want to give them a chance—”
My phone rang. ID said it was Jennifer.
“—to say no or plan their responses.” I answered, “Hi Jennifer, what’ve you got for us?”
“Us?”
“Diana’s here.”
“How’d you get away?” Jennifer asked Diana. After the explanation, Jennifer added, “Sheesh, Mike and I are the only ones stuck working.”
“Tom—” Diana started.
“No, he told Mike that he and Elizabeth were out to the Lukasik Ranch earlier.”
Diana cut me a look. I returned it with limpid innocence, saying to both her and Jennifer, “We’ll tell you all about it when we’re all together. But there’s nothing earth-shattering. Certainly nothing that changes the direction or order of what we’re doing.”
“What direction and order?” Jennifer asked.
“Gathering information, focusing on the victim.”
“Well, there’s plenty of information on him, like I said last night. I’m still pulling it. There’s so much from the trial it’s going to take some organizing. Not doing as well with that Odessa woman. Found lots about the group she’s part of.”
“What group?” Diana asked.
“They print warnings about scams, especially those preying on seniors and distribute them to groups doing home visits or delivering meals.”
“What a great idea.”
“It will be if they get funding,” I said. “They did a trial run, but the county’s budget to help seniors is strapped. That’s why I wanted to have her on, hoping it would raise their profile and get more funding or donations.”
“The station should sponsor it. In connection with ‘Helping Out’,” said Diana.
“Can’t you just see Haeburn agreeing a.) to spend money on helping people and b.) having it possibly reflect well on ‘Helping Out’ or me.”
“Go over his head. Go to—”
“Hey.” Jennifer’s sternness stopped us. “Do you want to talk about this group and ‘Helping Out’ or the murder?”
“The murder,” Diana and I said meekly.
“Actually, there isn’t much to tell. As I said, lots on the group. Not much on her. She moved here in February. She and her daughter have an apartment. I have the address and phone number if you want those.”
“Send those to me. And that’s a good start, Jennifer.”
“Nothing before here, though.”
“We have something more about her daughter.” I told her about Asheleigh Vincennes being Gable Lukasik’s girlfriend.
“I’ll try the daughter and see if that will open up things.”
“What about Odessa’s vehicle?” Diana asked. “Any luck with that.”
“Oh, yeah. A two-door Toyota. Bright blue.”
“That’s it. That’s the one I saw in the station’s parking lot, then at the grazing association. Seemed odd. Not getting out of the vehicle. Just sitting there. I was pretty sure it was the same woman when Jerry showed us that footage. The vehicle clinches it.”
“So what she went out there? So did everybody else in the county,” Jennifer said. “By the time Walt and I got there we had to walk forever to reach the scene.”
“That’s a valid point. Suppose it would be natural to be curious.” Diana deflated a bit.
“Not everybody who was curious had the Lady of Shalott look,” I said.
Diana rebounded. “Yeah. And now we know she was out there. Though that’s not the vehicle she was in at the dentist.”
“You saw her, too, Diana?” Jennifer’s voice rose in accusation. “You two arranged to talk to—”
“Hold on,” I said. “We just happened to see her going into the dentist’s office with her daughter. I’d called Odessa, she didn’t return my call, and seemed to prefer the dentist to me.”
“True.” Diana chuckled. “Anyway, the car we just saw could be her daughter’s. She was driving.”
“I’ll check,” Jennifer said, only partially mollified.
Diana described the car.
To prevent future bad feelings, I told Jennifer we were going to O’Hara Hill to try to see Ernie and Dorrie before they got busy.
“That’s okay. That’ll be about all that old stuff.”
I couldn’t entirely disagree with Jennifer’s priorities.
Odessa Vincennes’ reaction to Mike’s news of Furman York’s death had made her worth looking into. Discovering her daughter was Gable Lukasik’s serious girlfriend either made it understandable — if you didn’t agree with Diana — or even stranger.
For now, I voted for stranger.
“Keep on checking on Odessa Vincennes’ background, too.”
“Will do.”