Friday morning, Sarah checked her email while eating a bowl of cereal in the kitchen. Her stomach soured a little when she read the reply from the Blackwell tree creator, a woman named Laura Wyatt. The information from the tree was consistent with the idea Sarah had been forming the day before. She was eager to figure out the mystery and solve the murders, but she didn’t like the direction it was going. In reality though, no direction was going to be good. No point in wishing it was different.
According to Laura Wyatt, the first unnamed ‘Living’ person in the online tree, the one born in 1941, was Joseph Blackwell. This significantly bolstered Sarah’s newly hatched idea. The other ‘Living’ person was his son, Jason, born in 1977. The creator of the tree was not a Blackwell, but a relative of the maternal side of Joseph’s wife, Blanche Wyatt. Laura was a once or twice removed something or other. She couldn’t tell Sarah anything about their personal lives since she didn’t live in the same area and was not in contact with them. She said she only knew them through her family and hadn’t met them in person before. However, she had been able to verify enough information about them that Sarah could confirm the Joseph Blackwell in the tree was the Joseph Blackwell who owned the oil company in Oklahoma, and it seemed certain that he was the descendent of the Jonathan Blackwell from Logan County, Kentucky. Laura had been instructed not to notify anyone in the Blackwell family that she had been contacted. Sarah shot a quick email to Perri to let her know who the two Living members of the tree were, and to thank her for checking.
As she was getting dressed after her shower, she took a call from the Guthrie police department. According to Officer Simms, they had been unable to interview Joseph Blackwell. He was not in his office and when officers had gone to his home and asked to speak briefly to Mr. Blackwell, his wife had refused, saying her husband was too ill to talk. Officer Simms had asked what illness Mr. Blackwell was suffering from, but she had also declined to comment on this. Officer Simms asked if Jason Blackwell was available for an interview, but Mrs. Blackwell had insisted the police mind their own business unless they had a warrant or planned to arrest her. The officer had been obliged to leave without obtaining any information, since, at that point, there was no firm information with which to secure a warrant.
Lacking any progress with the family, he had spoken with the neighbors on each side of the Blackwell home. The neighbors gave benign summations of Joseph, but their estimations of Blanche were not as harmless. Joseph was described as being a rather quiet man who was polite when they encountered him, but that it wasn’t very often. The picture painted of Mrs. Blackwell was of an aloof, snooty woman who only cared to talk to people outside her social circle if she could be giving them instructions on mowing the lawn, caring for the gardens, or cleaning the pool. The neighbors hadn’t seen Joseph for some time, but it wasn’t all that unusual since the houses were situated on large lots and the Blackwells drove into their garage and closed the door without walking around outside where someone might speak to them. Jason was not an unfamiliar visitor to his parents’ house, but the neighbors had not noticed him lately either.
Sarah guttered out a sigh of exasperation and finished getting dressed.
***
Perri hadn’t slept very well Thursday night in anticipation of seeing Nick the next day. Contributing to her restlessness was that Nick had called her in the evening to say hello and, as he said, make sure she hadn’t changed her mind about coming back to Russellville. She had known she was going to have difficulty getting to sleep, but she hadn’t wanted to take something for fear she’d sleep like a corpse as well as feel like she had a hangover the next day. Instead, she drank two cups of chamomile tea which mainly caused her to get up to go to the bathroom during the night.
After what seemed like sixteen hours of fighting the covers, flipping the pillow over a couple dozen times to get to the cold side, and tossing like a jumping bean, Perri got up as soon as light peeped around the blinds. Her bag was already packed and the clothes she wanted to wear that day were laid out. She was eager to get on the road, figuring the tense apprehension she felt would get better if she could get the day started.
She was ready to go by 8:30 which was way too soon because she didn’t want to get there so early that she looked like a stalker. Nick would be working the day shift anyway. He had asked her to come in to the Arrogant Rogue when she got to town, but she figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to sit on a stool and ogle him for most of the day. She spent as much time as she could by watering her flower beds, putting away the folded laundry, and anything else she could find to do to keep her busy.
Nina called close to noon to catch up and see if there were any developments. “No, I haven’t heard from Sarah.”
“No, you dope, I mean Nick. Have you talked to him?”
“Oh, yeah, I have. He called last night.”
“Good. Spill!”
“He just called to make sure I was still coming, and to ask me to come by the tavern when I got into town.”
“See, this is why I ask. I didn’t know that and it’s important for me to know. You know that I am living through you on this. Keep me in the loop.” Nina laughed, then asked in a conspiratorial tone, “Soooo, where are you staying, hmm?”
“I did get a hotel room, come on now. It’s just one of those generic places, right as you get into town. I was glad to be able to get a room at all. I’m not going down there without a place to stay. That would be pretty bold, wouldn’t it? And what would Nick think then?”
“Yeah, I get it. I wouldn’t do that either. I’m just a bit overzealous. I’m hoping you have a really great time.”
“And that you will have a really great time by me telling you about it?” Perri laughed.
“You got it.”
“Thanks, Nina, I think I will have a wonderful time. I’m nervous though. It’s been a while since I was all nervous like this.”
“Once you get there and get the ball rolling, you’ll be fine.” Nina’s tone shifted gears, “Alright, I gotta go. I grabbed a break to call and see what was going on.”
“Oh, sorry, that’s right, you’re at work. How’s it going?” asked Perri.
“Same as usual, the case I would have been in on right now cancelled though, blood sugar sky high, too high for surgery. I had a few minutes before starting the prep for the next one.”
“I’ll call or text you when I can this weekend, ok?” said Perri.
“You bet! Have a good time, catch you later girl.” Nina sung into the phone, and hung up.
Perri looked around the house. Everything was done, put away, or taken care of. “I’ll make lunch and eat, then I’ll go.” Which is what she did.