Sunday morning dawned with a graying sky, fast moving clouds, and high humidity. The gabbling of the crows again greeted Perri as she woke. She dressed and sat down to organize her notes while Nina got ready for the day.
After another excellent breakfast, provided by the incomparable Alice, Perri and Nina were relaxing in the gazebo next to the pond, drinking some coffee and enjoying the outdoors before it got too hot. Nina was curled into a wicker chair reading a book on her iPad and Perri was typing away, making notes on her laptop. The border around the gazebo was planted with chives, mint, and other herbs. There was a steady buzzing of bees from the blooms. The koi in the pond frequently came to the surface and made bubbles, then swished their tail, slapping the water as they retreated to the bottom.
“If I had some crumbs, I’d feed the koi,” said Perri lazily. She stared at the pond for several minutes. Her face showed an expression of concentration. “Hey.”
Nina looked up from her book. “Hey what?”
“I was making notes and writing down everything that happened yesterday. Something doesn’t make sense.”
“Ok, what doesn’t make sense?” Nina unfolded her legs and stretched.
“Remember when Officer Harper was telling us that they talked to Mr. Freighley?”
“Yes.”
“And Mr. Freighley said he didn’t know what had gotten into Milton?”
“Ye-es.” Nina leaned forward in her chair.
“Well. Mr. Freighley also commented, apparently, that he didn’t know if Milton had ‘something going on’ by the property line or not because he hadn’t been there since last summer. He hasn’t been well since winter. He hasn’t been out on his property.”
“Yes, I remember that, but I’m not sure why that matters?”
“Because…if Mr. Freighley hasn’t been down that path since last year, then he couldn’t have made the tire tracks going in to the stone barn. Those were deep and fresh. So, who did? We assumed it was from farm equipment or a vehicle belonging to the farm. But it can’t have been.”
“You’re right, I didn’t even think about that. The tracks were made at least in the last couple of weeks when the ground was sodden from all the rain.”
“The Sauer’s lease out the pasture, but the pasture is clear on the other side of the farm. They’d have no reason to be running a tractor or anything.”
Perri closed her eyes and tipped her head back for a moment, thinking. She raised her head and opened her eyes to see Alice hurrying across the yard to the gazebo.
Alice seemed uncomfortable. “Sorry to bother you, but Sarah Vines is here.” Alice paused and said, awkwardly, “She’s from the police. Is there a problem?”
Perri sighed. “Oh. Not really, I mean, not here or with us exactly.” Alice’s forehead wrinkled in dismay. Perri told Alice, briefly, what had happened the previous day as they shut off their electronics and followed her back to the house. Alice tsked and tutted, “Those Sauers have been a thorn in everyone’s side for a hundred years! Even my grandmother had a low opinion of that bunch. They are always causing trouble. If there’s a big stink around town, there’s usually a Sauer involved. Now they’re shooting at people?”
“He didn’t shoot at us, just into the air.”
“That’s bad enough. Because what’s next then?”
They reached the kitchen door and Perri and Nina went through to the parlor. Sarah Vines was standing by the large front window, looking out over the hills across the road. She turned when she heard their footsteps approaching.
“Hi, I’m Sarah Vines, we met yesterday at the police station when you were there to make a report about Milton Sauer.”
“Sure, I remember. What can we help you with?”
Sarah said, “I’m sorry to bother you with this, but I just have to make sure.” Perri and Nina nodded. “You told me yesterday you had come here to do some family research, including visiting several cemeteries in the area. You also mentioned you had been to Whippoorwill, while we were inspecting the scene.”
“Yes,” Perri and Nina both looked at Sarah with worried faces. Nina felt her palms starting to sweat.
“No, don’t worry, there isn’t anything wrong with that. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Since you have been in other cemeteries this weekend, some of which are not visited often, I wanted to know if you saw anything in any of them that was unusual.”
“Unusual. Not really, no. I mean, most of the cemeteries we went to were fairly untended with few visitors. We mostly saw bugs, tall grass, and lots of brambles.”
Sarah nodded and made a note. “My other question concerns Whippoorwill Cemetery. Had you been to the cemetery prior to yesterday morning, when you told me you went by?”
“No. It wasn’t on my list to visit, and I hadn’t even heard of it before Friday evening, when the story about Amy Barrow was being told.” Sarah looked at her. “We heard about it when we were out for supper in town, at the Arrogant Rogue Tavern. Well, the first we heard of it was in the Clerk’s office that afternoon. We were curious, so we did drive by it before we started on the cemeteries on our list.”
“Ah, ok.” She bobbed her head up and down as she made more notes.
“Can I mention something to you?” asked Perri.
“Absolutely.”
Perri and Nina looked at each other and nodded. “You asked if we saw anything unusual, and we haven’t, but I heard something that seemed unusual. After Rodney Sauer came into the tavern last night and made a big ruckus, Nina and I, and Nick the bartender, were telling Officer Harper what happened. After we finished telling him about the incident that had just happened, he brought Nina and I up to date on their interview with Milton Sauer as well as Mr. Freighley.
Sarah was listening intently, “Go on.”
“Officer Harper said that Mr. Freighley stated that he had not been down to that part of his property since last year. When we were there yesterday, there were deep tracks coming from the area of the road, across the path we were on, and into the stone barn that is just below the hill where the cemetery is located. The tracks were pretty fresh, and they were deep because of the recent rain. We had to pick our way over them so we didn’t sink in the mud or trip on the clods thrown up around them.”
“I see. That is something unusual if Mr. Freighley truly hasn’t been down there, and hasn’t hired someone to do the work he can’t do right now. He may have though, since he’s been sick or ailing for several months. I’ll check that out with him. Thank you.”
Nina asked, “Have you any idea who killed Amy Barrow?”
“We haven’t made an arrest.”
Nina smiled, “I understand, you can’t say anything.”
Sarah hesitated. “I can’t give you any information about what we may or may not have found out, but I can ask for any information that might concern a motive for this crime.” She looked from Perri to Nina and back.
“Since we don’t live here, we didn’t know Amy and have no inkling why someone wanted to kill her. We definitely will pass on any information we might come across.”
Sarah pressed her lips together, nodding. She started to rise from her chair, but sat back down. She sat quietly, thinking, and appeared to make a decision. “One other thing.”
Nina and Perri looked at each other and back at Sarah, “Of course, what else would you like to ask?” said Perri.
“We have talked to everyone who knew Amy, even only casually. We’ve gone through her apartment, including all her paperwork.” Sarah hesitated, looking uncomfortable.
“I’m sure you have been very thorough,” offered Nina.
“Right. Let me back up a little bit. I take it that you were aware that Amy was visiting the grave of a school friend of hers when she was killed?”
“Yes, we did hear that.”
“Patricia died almost two weeks ago, and it isn’t far-fetched that Amy would visit her grave. What’s niggling at me about this is that, while Amy and Patricia hadn’t associated much, if at all, for the last few years, over the last six months or so, Amy appears to have been helping Patricia with some sort of document search.”
“Document search? What sort of documents do you mean?” asked Perri.
“Old documents, documents that are from the late 1800s, as well as a few from the early and mid 1900s. “
“Oh, do you know what Amy was trying to find out?”
“See, that’s the thing, I don’t know. It could be she suddenly became interested in family history; some of the documents are about her family, back several generations. But some of the documents don’t seem to have any relation to anyone in Amy’s family. I just can’t see a connection.”
“What kind of documents are they, the ones that seem unrelated?” Perri asked.
“Aside from the papers that related to her family, birth certificates, marriage records and such, there were stock market reports, partial printouts of what looked like a website about the history of the western expansion, that kind of stuff.
“Maybe they are unrelated and just got mixed together,” suggested Nina.
“Maybe, but they were together in a snapped folder in a desk drawer with rubber bands around the folder. And whatever Patricia was working on, it was important enough to her to ask Amy for help.” Sarah sighed and raised her left hand palm up. “I had heard you were here doing just this type of research; Emily from dispatch told us when we interviewed her, since she was the one who took the call in from Will Parker. I don’t know what your immediate agenda is, and I can’t bring you in on all the details of this case, but I am wondering if you would be able to review the documents we found and see if you can see a pattern. We’ll supply you with a list of Amy’s known relatives and their whereabouts to help find any connections.”
“I’d be more than happy to help you with that. I only hope I can glean something from Patricia’s paperwork.”
“Thank you. We will make any other documents you need available to you and get you set up over at the Clerk’s office, if that’s alright?”
“Absolutely, not a problem. Will it be ok if Nina is with me, she can help read through documents? Two sets of eyes are better than one.”
Nina spoke softly, agreeing, “Definitely, I’d love to help.”
“Yes, yes, that will be fine.”
“Perfect. I’ll let you get back to your morning. I’ll work on getting this set up. Can you come to the Clerk’s office tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
Sarah gave one firm nod, “Here’s my card, call me if you have any questions. Otherwise, I’ll see you both tomorrow morning.”
Sarah let herself out, the screen door banging back into place.
“That’s exciting!” squealed Nina.
“It is. And it is definitely a twist to our trip. Are you going to be able to stay another day? Tom expects you home tonight. I kind of volunteered you, but you said you aren’t scheduled to work again until Thursday, right?”
“Are you kidding, like I’d miss this? I’ll call Tom and explain. If he wants help with Aaron, he can call my sister.”
“Ok, but only if it doesn’t cause any problems, I don’t want to cause a rift over you staying away longer than expected. I wouldn’t want any future trips to be a problem either.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s made lots of business trips to exotic, fabulous places over the last couple of years – he owes me.”
“Akron, Ohio is exotic?”
“It is when you don’t get to go anywhere at all.”
“Alright then, as long as you are sure. See what Tom says. If he objects, I can take you home and come back here.”
“I’ll tell him, but you’ll see, he’ll be ok with it,” said Nina assuredly. “Tom’s pretty good about that sort of thing and I haven’t done anything but work at work and work at home for two years and more.”
“I hope so.” They sat quietly, each thinking their own thoughts for a few minutes when Perri spoke up, “Ooh, we’d better check with Alice to make sure we can stay another night, or two, if needed.” Perri looked sideways at Nina.
“Let’s do that now, before I call Tom.” They got up from their comfy chairs. “I wonder if they’ll go check out the barn,” said Nina.
“I bet they do, if they aren’t already there.