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“Andy had like a thirty-day infatuation with Pim when they were freshmen.” Coop cringed. “Being the big brother, I had to listen to him and give advice.”
Shandra found this information interesting. “What did Pim do when Andy called it off?”
Coop shrugged. “I don’t think she did anything. I think she was using Andy to make Tripp jealous.”
“And Tripp? Did he do Pim’s bidding? Did he change his ways?” Shandra asked.
Sandy laughed. “Tripp was a junior. He had his pick of girls. We told you his reputation. He didn’t change for Pim.”
“Did she stay his girlfriend even though he didn’t change?” Shandra had a feeling she knew the answer.
“She didn’t go to the parties, so she didn’t know he was.” Coop put an arm around Sandy’s shoulders. “On the weekends he’d party with Nelly and then during the week walk around school with Pim.”
“Who had the longer relationship with Tripp? Pim or Nelly?”
“Nelly,” Sandy and Coop said in unison.
“And Wendy? Has she been with Tripp longer than Pim?” Shandra had a feeling the knife had been meant for Wendy.
“Wendy has been going out with Tripp longer than Pim ever did.” Sandy nodded her head. “I think other than Tripp hanging out with Nelly at parties, Wendy has been the longest steady girlfriend Tripp has ever had.”
“Yeah, now that you mention it,” Coop added.
Ryan pulled into Nespelem. “Where am I going?”
Coop gave him directions to Ruby’s house. Shandra remembered Sandy’s cousin fondly. She had been helpful when they were proving Coop’s innocence.
Ryan parked.
“I’ll only be a minute,” Sandy said, opening her door.
“I’ll come with you. I haven’t seen some of your relatives in a while.” Coop slid out behind her and the two walked up to the door hand in hand.
Shandra smiled. “I like seeing them together. There was a time when I thought Coop’s affection was one-sided.”
“I remember,” Ryan said, grasping her hand. “All this talk about high school drama has made me thankful I’m an adult.”
Shandra laughed. “I didn’t have any drama like that in my life as a high school student, but I watched a lot of scenes like they were talking about play out.” She sobered and asked, “Do you think Pim killed Nelly and tonight was trying for Wendy and missed?”
Ryan played with her fingers and didn’t say anything for a long time. “I’m not sure what to think. There are several scenarios, I can think of. Logan found out Tripp showed that knife off at services on Sunday. He didn’t say how many people or who they were. But it was at the Community Center.”
“That means we still have a lot of suspects, even if we rule out who we’ve been questioning.” She sighed. “I keep thinking there is something we’re missing. Some small detail that will make things clear.”
Ryan nodded. “That’s usually the way it is.”
Coop and Sandy exited the house, a suitcase in Coop’s hand.
“I’m ready to get back to your aunt’s and get some sleep,” Ryan said, as the two entered the pickup.
“That sounds good to us,” Coop said, closing the door.
~*~
The dancers swirled, mixing colors. Drums boomed and voices wailed. In the middle of the dancers stood what appeared to be a family. A child, man, and woman. Their faces were painted, making it hard to see who they were. Dancers grabbed the child. Shandra couldn’t tell if the child was a boy or a girl. The child cried and reached back to the adults. The mother stretched her arms and another group of dancers drew her away. Soon the child and woman had been swallowed up in the dancers. All that remained was the man on his knees in the open circle, his face in his hands as if he were crying.
Shandra woke. Her heart heavy. The man had appeared to be in complete despair. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 3 A.M.
Her mind kept conjuring up the vision of the man. It was evident she wasn’t going to get any more sleep. Shandra slipped out of bed, grabbed her purse, and tried to descend the old creaky stairs without waking anyone.
In the kitchen, she filled the tea kettle and set it to heating, before sitting at the table and pulling out the small notebook and pen in her purse. The woman and child in her dream had to be Nelly and Fawn. She didn’t know of anyone else with a child who was involved in the case. Who was the man? If Fawn’s father hadn’t come forward by now to claim her, why would he be feeling despair over her loss and Nelly’s death?
The kettle started to whistle.
Shandra jumped up to stop the sound and bumped into Ryan, reaching for the whistling kettle.
“Did I wake you?” she asked, grabbing cups.
“I woke up and saw you were gone. I figured you either had a dream or you were obsessing over the murder.” He poured hot water in the two cups and placed the kettle on a cold burner.
Shandra dropped tea bags in each cup. “Both. I did have a dream and couldn’t go back to sleep. Now I’m trying to make sense of what we know and what the dream meant.”
They sat sipping the hot tea as she told Ryan about the dream. “But no one has seemed to care that Aunt Jo and Uncle Martin took in Fawn.” She stared into Ryan’s dark eyes. “I’m beginning to think this doesn’t have anything to do with Fawn’s father. It’s someone else’s.”
Ryan nodded once. “I’m curious to find out who stabbed Tripp. From what we’ve discovered from Coop and Sandy, Nelly and Tripp were a couple where people partied. Could someone have thought they were more of a couple than they were and tried to get revenge on Tripp by killing Nelly, then found out he didn’t care?”
Shandra shook her head. “The love on Pim’s face when she looked at Tripp tonight after the stabbing, and the way she and Wendy acted toward each other...I think Tripp wasn’t the victim. I think Pim is getting rid of her competition.” The vision of the man in despair flickered in her mind. “But that doesn’t work with the dream I had.”
Ryan drained his tea cup. “We can go round and round all night with what ifs. Let’s get a couple more hours of sleep and get the facts from Logan in the morning.” He picked up her cup and placed them both in the sink.
Shandra stood. It made sense. Hopefully, she could fall back to sleep.
~*~
Ryan went for a walk while Shandra and her aunt made breakfast. He wandered to the area where the celebration dance had happened. He retraced the path he’d witnessed Duke take. The drug dealer’s appearance may have been legit, but Duke had no reason to come to the celebration. Unless it was to see what had been found out about Nelly’s killer and see if he was on the top of the suspect list. Or to meet one of his runners. Why had he been near Tripp and Wendy? Was Tripp a dealer? Was he also trying to quit like Nelly had tried? Ryan pulled out his phone and scrolled through the new emails his friend in the FBI had sent him.
It appeared the knife Logan confiscated last night had Nelly’s blood on it and had been identified as the weapon that killed Nelly. The only partial prints matched Tripp and Wendy. Which made sense since Wendy made the knife and Tripp owned it. But for there to be only their fingerprints, the assailant had worn gloves.
He thought back. It was warm last night. Anyone with gloves on would have been noticed. Duke hadn’t worn any. His fancy ring had glinted in the firelight. Ryan headed back to the house to ask if anyone had seen someone with gloves on.
Andy wandered out of the barn, rubbing his eyes and blinking at the sun.
“You’re getting up a bit late for a farm boy,” Ryan joked.
Andy blinked and peered at him. “I had a few too many with some of my friends last night after we cleaned up.”
Ryan nodded. “Coffee, and I’m sure breakfast, is ready by now.” They’d walked several steps when he asked, “Did you see anyone wearing gloves last night?”
Andy stopped and stared at him. “All of us who were handling the wood.”
“Was there anyone besides you, me, and Coop?”
“Old Moses and our cousins, Jared and Willie.” Andy swiped a hand across his forehead. “That’s all I remember. But I didn’t help load up the leftover wood when we cleaned up.”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t find my gloves and decided to join my friends.” Andy shrugged.
That left one pair of gloves that someone, like the assailant, could have grabbed and used. But how would they have known there would be gloves available?
“Do the people who handle the wood always wear gloves?”
Andy looked at him as if he’d asked something silly. “Yeah, why?”
“Nothing.” He didn’t want to go into all of it with the young man. He resumed walking.
Jo opened the screen. “Good. I was going to send Martin to get the two of you if I didn’t see you.”
Ryan entered the kitchen, inhaling the smells of ham and biscuits he remembered as a child. His mother always made large breakfasts to feed her hungry family and hardworking husband.
Shandra motioned to a chair next to her. The table was laden with ham, biscuits, scrambled eggs, and fruit.
They sat elbow to elbow. Sandy was on Shandra’s right with Coop to her right at the end of
the table. Martin sat at the head of the table with Andy to his left, then Fawn and Jo.
Ryan waited until everyone had dug in and were just picking at the bits left on their plates to ask, “Did you see anyone besides the men who handled the wood last night wearing gloves?”