Perri was dressed in the same clothes she had worn from the hotel and hoped she could get the rest of her belongings soon. It not, she would have to make a trip to the store. She showered and did the best she could just drying her hair, which meant it was straight as a stick and kept falling in front of her eyes. She didn’t have anything to cover the bruising with, so she pretended it wasn’t there.
It was ironic that she had been overly concerned with planning her wardrobe for this weekend and ended up spending it wet and wrapped naked in a plastic sheet or wet blanket, bruised, wearing Nick’s robe, and then having to wear the same clothes two days in a row. It didn’t seem to bother Nick at all and that meant something to her.
Nick had asked her if she felt like walking around downtown, driving somewhere, or just staying in the house. She wanted to get out into the sunshine and be around other people before she started to get weird. She knew it was best to get back to normal as much as possible after a crisis like the one yesterday.
While Nick was getting showered and dressed, she called Nina, wanting to get that hurricane over with. And it had been a hurricane. Nina exploded with fury at the shooter, at Perri for being alone, and everyone in the world for not preventing it, but mostly at herself for not being there. Then she calmed down, as Perri knew she would, and was sympathetic and worrying and clucking like a hen. That was the eye of the hurricane. It was followed by the opposing wall of the storm where Nina got mad again at the police for not having caught the culprit before he nearly drowned Perri.
Perri reassured Nina repeatedly that the man was not only shot and beaten, but had been arrested and that Nick was serving as her protector while she was there. She swore a solemn oath that she would definitely call before she left Russellville to come home on Sunday and would check in halfway through the trip. Satisfied for the time being, Nina had reminded Perri that she required details of her time spent with Nick and finally hung up. Perri puffed out her cheeks and blew out a long breath.
***
Nick and Perri walked around the central square of Russellville, amidst crowds of people, Nick holding on to Perri’s hand. The food booths lined both sides of the street of the square and continued down one of the side streets. So far, Perri had consumed a bowl of Kentucky Burgoo, a funnel cake, fried pickles, and was finishing up some fried ice cream. “Oh, my gosh, I’m full, but I don’t regret my actions. It was really good. Grease and salt are too of my favorites.”
Nick was polishing off a plate of fried mac n’ cheese, he nodded and agreed with an “umph,” through a full mouth.
Perri’s phone rang. She tossed her napkin in a trash barrel, and answered. “Hello?” It was Sarah.
“Perri? How are you doing today?”
“I’m good, Sarah. I slept great last night and I’ve already eaten enough today to last me a week. Nick and I are walking around the square.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Since you are close to the station, would you mind stopping in for a little while? I have your purse and duffel bag and thought you might want to hear the explanation for this whole mess.”
“You bet I would. Thank you, we’ll head right over there.” Perri hung up and stuck the phone back in her pocket.
***
Sarah was in the lobby waiting for them. She walked them back to the same combo kitchen / conference room where Perri and Nina had reviewed documents with Sarah last week.
“Have a seat, would you like anything to drink? I can make coffee if you like.”
“Lord no, I’m full as a tick.” Perri said, Nick laughed.
Sarah gathered her thoughts while she took a chair at the end of the table and placed an accordion file in front of her. “Our prisoner agreed to fill in some of the blanks for the sake of cooperation; he is hoping it will help him in the end. I’ll try to summarize this and not make it too lengthy, but I will start from the beginning.”
“I don’t mind if it is lengthy or not. I can’t wait to find out what happened.”
Nick added, “And I don’t mind, because I don’t know most of it.”
“As we knew, Patricia had been working on her family tree. I don’t know motivated her to start, probably never will know now. She dug around enough to find evidence that her 3X Grandfather, that’s how you say it right, had run off and left his family, and that he had not died somewhere out there but, instead, started a new life and family.”
“As you found out, Jonathan cornered the water market during the Oklahoma land rush and got rich. He switched from water to oil, added other products, and so on. His second wife, Prudence Noble, came from an immensely wealthy and influential family from Boston, which is probably why he zeroed in on her. They married and had children. The Blackwell family company continued to grow, with a few bumps here and there. The position of head of the company was traditionally passed from father to son, all the way from Edward down to Joseph Blackwell, the current CEO.”
Perri nodded, knowing this much already. Nick said, “Ok, I’m following you.”
“I tried to talk to Joseph Blackwell. I called the company and was told he was not there. Finally, the receptionist admitted he was ill and had been out for quite some time. The local PD sent an officer to the Blackwell home to talk to Joseph, to make sure he was really in town. Mrs. Blackwell refused the officer admittance or to talk to Joseph at all. She wouldn’t any information about her husband’s illness and told him to come back with a warrant if he had questions. The neighbors hadn’t seen him in a while either.”
Nick spoke up, “Wait, you are saying that Joseph Blackwell and Patricia both descend from the same man, this Jonathan guy?”
Sarah explained, “Right, Jonathan was Joseph’s Great Grandfather.” She shifted in her chair, “The problems began when Patricia called Blackwell Oil on August 13 to talk to Joseph. Of course, she didn’t talk to him but she left a message. And she continued to call and leave messages, which were ultimately given to Jason. Evidently, Jason knew enough of the family history to realize this could be true, and he called Patricia back. Patricia demanded money from Jason.”
Perri asked, “But why would Patricia feel she had any leverage to ask for money? It was over a century ago and Susannah had been granted a divorce from Jonathan. He wasn’t married to her anymore when he married Prudence Noble.”
“You and I can see that, but Patricia wasn’t necessarily realistic. She had a history of being delusional and uncontrollable at times. She had a lot of problems, both psychological and chemical. When Jason refused, she became enraged. She spouted off about telling everyone the story about how the Blackwell family patriarch was a loser who abandoned his family and took up with another woman. She had enough details, and she convinced Jason Blackwell that she had proof, which she may have had at the time because she had enlisted Amy Barrow’s help. She may or may not have gloated to Jason about Amy helping her. The Blackwell family values their position in society quite highly and have touted their self-defined old-world values and honor for a very long time, even incorporating it as part of their public company image. They have held Jonathan Blackwell up as a gleaming gem in their crown as a patriarch who helped settle Guthrie, Oklahoma. They didn’t want his reputation to be tarnished and his true actions to be known. They were disturbed enough by Patricia’s threats to want to prevent it.”
“So, what happened then?”
“Oddly enough, Joseph Blackwell already knew about Patricia and her part of the family line.”
“Ahh,” Perri said in realization. “Know thy enemies?”
“Yes. Joseph had known most of his life, was probably told by his father. We didn’t comprehend it at the time, but we both saw a photo of Joseph Blackwell last week…a photo from 1976. Remember the photo that was taken in the cemetery when Patricia’s grandfather died? That was Joseph Blackwell leaning against the door of the same car used in the murder of Patricia and Amy. The car was his at the time, purchased new the year before. It was eventually sold to the renter of the Elkton property in 1997. Joseph may have been in Elkton and seen the obituary for Noah Blackwell in 1976 or someone may have told him about it. We know he came back a couple times a year to check on the property. He showed up at the cemetery, out of curiosity maybe, to have a look at the family.”
Perri nodded at Sarah, “I do remember. You thought you recognized the car but I forgot about it because it seemed unlikely.”
“Right. I’m not sure how Jason missed that when he went through Patricia’s paperwork, but I’m glad he did.”
“Anyway, Joseph was never told about Patricia contacting Jason, and Jason had decided to put a stop to it before his father returned home, if he returns home. Joseph truly has been ill with cancer and isn’t even in Oklahoma. He has been in a treatment hospital in Dallas for a month. The family didn’t want anyone to know he was ill and they didn’t want him to find out about Patricia. I’m not sure if they were afraid Joseph might give in to her or if they thought he was too weak to deal with Jason’s solution to the problem. At any rate, they never told him.”
“Jason left Oklahoma during the middle of the night Friday, August 14-15, in a black SUV was normally driven by his wife. He drove west into Arkansas, stopping in Fayetteville to steal a license plate on Saturday night. It was discovered on Sunday and reported, but it wasn’t spotted because it wasn’t being used yet. Jason then drove to Elkton, bringing the plate with him.”
The direction of the events was now dawning on Perri, but Nick was still out of the loop. “Why did he go to Elkton?”
Sarah proceeded, “Because his family still owned a house there. The house was originally owned by Jonathan’s mother, Judith, and has been passed down every generation since she died in 1901.”
“Good grief, they hold on to things, don’t they?” asked Nick.
“Yes, they do, including their money. Joseph started grooming his successor early, not just in running the company. The house in Elkton isn’t the only rental property they have. Once he was old enough, Joseph took Jason with him on his rounds of the properties they owned. Because of that, Jason had been to the house numerous times. He knew there had always been an old car parked in a carport behind the house and it was still there. It wasn’t in working order but he spent three days and paid a substantial amount of money to a mechanic to get the car in running order and to keep his mouth shut about it.”
“Jason wore gloves when he was in the car, but the mechanic left his prints all over it. Jason didn’t think about that. Mr. Andrew Kratz admitted to being paid very handsomely by Jason Blackwell to expedite repair of the car, although he wasn’t told why. Jason also paid Mr. Kratz to deliver his car to him in Kentucky when, as Jason told him, the Chrysler broke down. The tenants living in the rental house knew the car was gone, but they hadn’t been home when it was removed; they just assumed the owner had it towed off and that it wasn’t really their business.”
“What happened next is something we tragically misinterpreted, until now. Patricia died near midnight on Wednesday, August 19, when she drove over a concrete culvert and down an embankment while intoxicated; her blood alcohol concentration was more than double the legal limit. There were no indications that she had been forced off the road. Jason had spent the first part of the week here, in Russellville, watching Patricia. She wasn’t hard to find since he had her real name and her address was available in the internet directories.”
“Jason had gone through Patricia’s apartment before she died. He saw her in the Rogue. She looked settled in for an evening of drinking, so he went to her apartment. Burglary wasn’t his normal line of work. He was probably afraid of being caught and wasn’t very thorough. He didn’t take all of Patricia’s notes, just the documents he thought were relevant, those that listed his family’s names and relationship to Patricia. We don’t know if she kept the information in separate places or if he simply didn’t realize until after Patricia was dead that Amy Barrow had been helping her. Patricia didn’t report a theft; she probably hadn’t noticed. She had found the information she needed and may not have referred back to it once she began calling the Blackwells. Jason spent a lot of his time here sitting in local bars, that’s where he picked up a stockpile of information. He didn’t talk to people directly, but listened closely.”
Nick sat up quickly in his chair, “I knew I’d seen him before! He was in the Rogue when you came in town yesterday, Perri! Remember, he was sitting a few stools down from you?”
“Oh yeah, he was staring at you and you asked him if he wanted anything else.”
“Right. Oh God…right before I asked you what room you were in? That’s how he found out how to find you!”
Sarah held up both hands, “Before you get all worked up about it, Nick, he would have found out anyway. All he had to do was follow her out of the tavern and back to her hotel. You asking for her room number made no difference. He already knew who she was. He was also in the Rogue the night Rodney came in and made a big scene over Perri and Nina filing a complaint against Milton. So, it wasn’t you.” Nick’s face was twisted with remorse, but he tried to let that go and listen to the rest of what Sarah had to say.
When the car was ready, on Wednesday afternoon, Jason went to Elkton, left his car parked behind the mechanic’s shop, and drove the Chrysler to Russellville with the Arkansas plate on it. There are a lot of older model vehicles around here; no one paid any attention. He never had to make contact with Patricia’s car to run her off the road; we would have caught that. She was impaired enough, and her reactions were probably exaggerated enough, that he was able to force her off the road by intimidation. There were no markings on the car, no skid marks, nothing. And with Patricia’s history, it looked like what it was meant to, an accident.”
Sarah got up to get a glass of water and took a drink. “Now, instead of being able to go home, Jason decides he has to take care of Amy too. It takes him another week, but he kills Amy in the cemetery with one of the guns he brought from home. Jason is a gun lover and has a sizeable collection; both the rifle and the pistol were his own.”
“Amy is now dead, but Jason has wrecked the Chrysler enough that he can’t drive it back to Elkton. The radiator was leaking from the impact, not enough to disable it on the spot, but it wouldn’t have made it back to Elkton. He drives it north for a few miles and ditches it and calls Andrew Kratz to bring his car to him. Andrew was sitting in the passenger seat while Jason worked out the deal with Rodney Sauer. He paid Rodney $1,000.00 to hide the car and tell no one. His choice of Rodney for that job was a major mistake.
“Jason drove Mr. Kratz back to Elkton and returned to Russellville. Because there were a lot of cars from other states in town that weekend because of the car show out at the fairgrounds, he didn’t stand out. He hadn’t counted on Rodney being too lazy to get rid of the car. Instead, Rodney just parked it in Alex Freighley’s old barn right next to the Sauer property. He told his Dad about it, but when Milton got suspicious and wouldn’t stop asking him about the extra money, he told him the real story.”
“That’s where you and Nina come in, Perri. You came into town on Friday and did your own research at the Clerk’s office. You ate at the Rogue Friday night, right?” Perri nodded. “You heard the story about Amy’s death not only while you were in the Clerk’s office, but in the bar from Emily, our dispatcher. On Saturday, you went to several different cemeteries, even stopped by Whippoorwill at the start of the day. By the time you were in the cemetery on Mr. Freighley’s property, Milton knew about the car in the barn. He was all worked up about it and scared Rodney would go to jail. You spooked him and he threatened you with the shotgun.”
“I learned about your experience in doing that type of research when you made the police report about Milton early Saturday evening and it came up again later that night after Rodney threatened you in the bar. I managed to involve you further when I visited you at The Crow’s Rest on Sunday and asked you to help me out by doing research on Patricia’s family at the Clerk’s office on Monday, August 31. You found enough information there to warrant me asking you to continue in Todd County on Tuesday, September 1.”
“In the meantime, Rodney’s body was discovered, hanged, up at Lake Inola. Rodney was too visible, shooting off his mouth and threatening people in public. Jason realized then he had made a bad choice and had to get rid of Rodney.”
“I let you know about Rodney when I called to ask if you could continue researching in Todd County the next day. It sent Jason over the edge when he saw you heading for Elkton. He could tell where you were headed, but he didn’t know why. He followed you there. He was relieved when you didn’t go to the rental house, but became agitated when you did go to the Clerk’s office there.”
“Damn.” Nick pursed his lips together.
Perri felt a chill run up her spine. “Nina was right to insist we not walk around town or eat out anywhere. She was unnerved after you called to let us know about Rodney being killed.”
Sarah responded, “Well, she was right to be concerned. I’m glad you two were cautious. I certainly had no idea it could lead to this, and I’m sorry for involving you.”
“When you returned from Todd County, you filled me in and that was it, as far as you were concerned. And that probably would have been it. Unfortunately, since Jason did spend a significant amount of time sitting around the Rogue, he heard Nick ask you to return when he called you Tuesday night. He knew when you were returning and that you would stop in at the tavern when you arrived.”
“Me again! I’m an unwitting informant for the criminal and I don’t leave anything out.” Nick shook his head and looked at the floor, exasperated.
“Nick, how would you know that? You were at work when you called her, it was nothing that you would have thought to keep private.” Perri put her hand on Nick’s arm. “It isn’t your fault.”
“Not purposely, but it is my fault.” Nick looked stricken. Perri took his hand and squeezed it.
“You pretty much know how the rest played out, since you were there.”
“What I don’t know is how you knew for sure that it was Jason Blackwell?” Perri asked.
“Honestly, I didn’t know it was Jason until we had him at the hotel. I was a little misled by the fact that Joseph Blackwell hadn’t been seen for a month. Yesterday, I received an image of Joseph and Jason from the PD in Guthrie, so I knew what they looked like. The first time I saw Jason was after he attacked you, and that’s when I knew it was him.
It took time to connect all the pieces of the puzzle. What helped put me on the right track was talking to the last registered owner of the Chrysler. He told me he rented the house in Elkton when he graduated high school in 1996 and purchased the car from the owner of the house at the time. He left the car when he moved to California. I got confirmation that the property belonged to Joseph Blackwell from the property deed information and this was another link from the car to the Blackwells. Jason knew the car had been abandoned there and wanted to use it, thinking it would be untraceable to him since the registration was in someone else’s name and the plate was from a different state.”
“Blanche Blackwell, Jason’s mother, has also been arrested as an accomplice. She knew what Jason came here to do, and he kept her up to date. She encouraged him to get rid of anyone else who might sully their name. They are a cut-throat family; Jason didn’t hesitate to explain her part. Joseph Blackwell’s prognosis is not good. Jason wanted the title of CEO and an unblemished image so badly that he was willing to murder someone to make sure he got it.
Perri said sadly, “All of this killing and general mayhem was for fear of losing their public image. What a mess it turned out to be. In the end, they lose not only their image, but their freedom too. What’s wrong with people?”
Nick answered her question, “Money and social status can make people do some strange things.”
“You’re right. It does.” Sarah agreed. “Well Perri, again I thank you and Nina both for your help with all this. I regret it put you in danger though. Between us, I’m still a little new at being a detective and…I should have known better.”
“Sarah, I will say that while I’d rather not have been wrapped up like a burrito and half drowned, I don’t blame you at all. I’m glad you and Nick popped in when you did,” she smiled.
Sarah gathered her papers and said, “One more thing, I nearly forgot. Alice Wooldridge called me this morning, from the B&B you and Nina stayed in?”
“Oh yeah, Alice.” Perri said.
“She heard about the goings on and wanted to know if you were ok. I told her that you were pretty shaken and banged up, but doing alright. I wanted to let you know she was concerned.”
“Thanks, Sarah, that was nice of Alice.” She and Nick stood up, “I guess we’ll be on our way. We can have our Friday night date tonight maybe.”
“Have fun!” Sarah shook their hands and escorted them to the lobby. They said goodnight and walked out into the sunshine.
Nick and Perri walked back through the downtown area, music was playing and there were more people than before. “I think there is a watermelon seed spitting contest,” Nick laughed, “You wanting to hang around for that?”
“I’ll pass, thank you. What I’d like is to have that date we didn’t have last night.”
“That’s what I was hoping you would say.”