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Shandra had opted to ride home with Ryan from the party the night before, which left her Jeep sitting in the Porter’s driveway overnight. Ryan pulled up to the old Victorian house at eight to let her out.
The front yard looked like a derelict graveyard in the light of day. She wondered if Miranda would have to clean it all up by herself or if she’d hired someone to help.
“Don’t go asking questions that will get you in trouble,” Ryan said, kissing her before she reached for the door handle.
She smiled. “I’ll try not to. I hope you get a lead on what was going on between Orin and Chea last night.”
“Me too. If you’re still in town at noon, call me.”
Shandra slipped out of his work vehicle. “I will.”
She decided to see if Miranda needed help before heading over to the diner. Before she was able to knock on the door it opened.
She and Alex both startled at the sight of one another.
“I’m headed to work,” he said.
“I thought I’d see if Miranda needed help.” She stepped aside to let him out.
“She probably does. While she gets excited and has a lot of energy to have a party, she’s not nearly as excited about cleaning up afterwards.” He strode down the steps to his car.
“Miranda!” Shandra called, peeking in the parlor and cringing at the mess.
“I’m in the dining room!”
She found her friend hunched over a cup of coffee and a scone.
“I thought I’d see if you needed help cleaning up.” Shandra went to the table by the dumbwaiter and pumped hot water from the dispenser left from the night before and added some of the apple cider from a punch bowl. She sat down next to her friend.
“That was some party.”
Miranda smiled. “It was fun.” She patted Shandra’s arm. “Thank you for coming and bringing that hot leprechaun with you.”
Shandra laughed. “You’re welcome. If I had known so many women would take notice of Ryan in that costume, I would have given him something else.”
“The problem was, you made everything form fitting. Which, in his case, accentuates all his best qualities.” Miranda fluttered her fingers up and down at Shandra. “You were also stealing men’s attention in your get-up. If I wasn’t your best friend and happily married, I’d be jealous.”
“But you aren’t because we are friends and if I had known that was happening I would have left earlier.” Shandra meant it. She didn’t like catching anyone’s attention except Ryan’s.
Miranda sipped her coffee and smiled. “Chandler left with Jannis.”
“I wondered the way they were glancing at one another. Did you see anyone else talking that was interesting?” She didn’t know if Chea and Orin had spoken after the performance.
“I saw Maisie talking with Ted in the corner for a long time while Naomi was visiting with Mrs. Aducci. But Ted wouldn’t stray from Naomi...would he?”
Shandra shook her head. “I don’t think so, and I saw all three of them in a deep conversation in the dining room when Ryan went in there to get something to eat.”
“That’s interesting. You know Maisie only works three days a week here and two over in Missoula with a fertility doctor.”
Shandra’s interest piqued. “A fertility doctor? I wonder...” Her friends had been trying for years to have children. Could it be they were resorting to a medical procedure?
Miranda perked up. “Do you think they are going to go that route to have a baby?”
“Could be.” A thought came to her. “Have you ever heard why Chea and her husband haven’t had children?” Ryan had told her about his conversation with Nattie and how the man liked it just the two of them. But as teachers, she would have thought they would like children.
Miranda worried her lips and finally said, “I overheard a conversation between her and Nattie at the restaurant when I first started waitressing in the evenings. Chea was crying and saying how she couldn’t have children because of some procedure she’d had. Nattie wasn’t sympathetic. She said something like, we took in Ruthie, no one would have thought anything of taking in another child.”
Shandra sat up and stared at her friend. “Do you know if that was before or after Donald Kerby left?”
“I’m not sure. If Ruthie was living with them it had to have been after.” Miranda peered at her. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing. I’m just trying to piece together facts that will lead to who killed Ruthie’s father.” Shandra finished her drink. “Let’s get this place cleaned up. I need to meet Ryan for lunch.”
~*~
Ryan sat at the desk he’d been given in the Huckleberry Police Station because he seemed to be working more cases out of here than at his desk in the Sheriff’s Office in Warner. He scrolled through the information Cathleen had found on who to contact at the prison where Orin was incarcerated to find out about his visitors and mail. His cell phone rang as he picked up the land line on the desk. A glance at the screen showed Shandra. He replaced the landline and swiped the screen.
“Hello. Is it noon?” he asked.
She laughed. “Not yet. I had an interesting conversation with Miranda this morning while helping her clean up. Chea might have had an abortion after Donald left. One that left her incapable of having children.”
Ryan chewed on this for only a second. “That could make a woman angry enough to kill the man responsible the next time she saw him.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too.”
“I’ll get her medical records pulled. See you at Maxie’s at noon?”
“I’ll be there.”
Ryan texted the dispatcher at the Sherriff’s Office to get a warrant for Chea Small’s medical records. He picked the landline back up and dialed the number of the prison.
“I’d like to speak with Richard Myers, please. This is Weippe County Detective Ryan Greer calling.” He waited almost five minutes before someone picked up the phone.
“Richard Myers, how can I help you, Detective Greer?”
“I would like to know who visited released inmate, Orin Kerby, and who sent him mail.”
“Orin was an exemplary inmate. Why are you looking into who he had contact with outside the prison?”
“His brother was murdered on Saturday. I overheard him talking with someone who is a suspect. It sounded like they had contact while he was in prison.”
Meyers sighed. “Give me your email and I’ll send you the names of the people who visited him and the names of the people he corresponded with via mail and phone.”
“Thank you.” Ryan rattled off his county email and hung up the phone. There wasn’t anything more he could do until he received the warrant for the medical records and the list of who’d contacted Orin. He left the station and walked toward Maxie’s. He was a little bit early but it had sounded like Maxine had information about Chea and Donald. He’d visit with her until Shandra arrived.
As he strode down the street he caught sight of Nattie driving into the clinic parking lot. Shandra had mentioned the woman had been to the clinic once already for a rash. He wondered if it was from nerves or something else.
With his attention on the woman walking into the clinic, he stepped off the curb and stumbled. Catching his balance, he kept from hitting the pavement. Watch where you’re going Greer, he chided himself. He turned the corner at the post office and headed down First Street to Maxie’s. It was a Wednesday and the day after Halloween.
There were still streamers dangling from the ceiling, along with a broom. Half of the room had Halloween caricatures on the walls.
“Eating alone?” Maxine asked from behind the bar.
“No, Shandra should be arriving shortly.” He took a stool at the bar. “Mind if I keep you company until she shows up?”
Maxine smiled and leaned on the bar, resting her ample breasts on the Formica counter and giving him a view of her cleavage. “I never turn down conversation with a man, darlin’.”
He smiled and kept his eyes on her face and not her attributes. “Shandra said you saw Donald Kerby and Chea Small having a tryst on the mountain back in the day.”
“That’s old news.” She held up a beer mug.
He shook his head. “Iced tea, please.” Ryan picked up a pretzel from a bowl on the bar. “You ever see them anywhere else?”
She poured the beverage and turned back to him slowly, placing the drink on a coaster. “I saw them more than once. They were trying to be discreet, but then, so was I.” She winked.
“You were wild in your teens?” He could imagine a teenage girl with the attributes she had being a prize to any adolescent boy who garnered her attention.
“You might say, my mama taught me early that you could get whatever you wanted from a man if you knew what to do.”
The bitterness in her voice didn’t surprise Ryan. In his job, he ran across a lot of women who spent time on their backs, hoping to better their lot in life or score their next hit.
“Where were these discreet places you saw Kerby and Chea?”
“There used to be a motel on the north side of town that had a blind old man running it with his wife. He never knew more than one person was going into a room together. It was where the high schoolers went to fool around. We’d all pitch in for the room, one person would go and pay for it and we’d all go in.”
He stared at her. “Now why didn’t I know about this when I was in high school?”
She leaned forward, resting her chest against the counter. “Because you were a goody-two-shoes and wouldn’t have been caught dead in that room.”
Ryan nodded. He’d rebelled as a teenager but not to the extent of getting drunk or joining an orgy in a motel room.
“Did Kerby and Chea use that motel?”
“I saw them slipping into a room twice. The second time, I went out to get a smoke and heard them arguing.” The bar door opened and closed. She waved at whoever came in. “It sounded like she was telling him he had to leave his wife.”
“Any idea the date?” He knew it was a long time ago.
“My senior year. Nineteen-ninety-two. Spring. Can’t tell you much closer than that.” The door opened, allowing a rush of brisk clean air. She nodded toward it. “Your date’s here.”
He spun around.
Shandra smiled, closed the door, and strode toward him. “Hi Maxine.”
“Hi Doll. Whenever you want to get rid of this guy let me know. I’ll take him off your hands.”
Shandra laughed. “He’s a pretty good catch. I think I’ll keep him.”
Ryan winked at Maxine and led Shandra to a table. “How was your morning?”
“Busy. I’m glad I stayed and helped Miranda clean up. The whole downstairs was a mess.” Shandra pulled off a stocking cap and placed it and her purse on the chair next to her. “What have you been up to, besides charming Maxine?”
“How else do you think I get information out of beautiful women?” He raised an eyebrow and she laughed.
“What did you learn?”
Maxine brought over an iced tea for Shandra and two menus.
“Thanks,” Shandra said. When the woman left, she leaned forward. “Well? What did you learn?”
“That I ran in the wrong crowds in high school.” His ears burned just thinking what could have happened had he been in the crowd that partied every weekend.
Shandra stared at him her brow wrinkled.
“I’ll tell you later. I discovered that Kerby and Chea frequented a motel that is no longer in existence and Maxine heard them arguing spring of ninety-two.”
“When he went missing.”