Chapter 14

 

“Why should we call the police?” asked Sunny.

“You little dumbbell,” said Star, giving her sister a withering look. “This means that Mom was here, after that morning. It’s the first thing anybody’s ever found of hers.”

“She wouldn’t go for a walk way over here. That doesn’t make sense.”

“You just don’t get it!” Star shook her head. “No, you’re too young. She was here with someone, or they brought her here. Don’t you see? Mom’s dead, and Paddy just found her body.”

Sunny said, “Oh,” in a flat voice and shrank into a tight little ball beside me.

“Come on, let’s go inside,” I pulled the girls to their feet. “We don’t know that for certain, but we have to report what we do know.” However, I was pretty sure Star was right.

Once we were in the house, Star asked if I had any decaf tea and if she could fix some. I knew that giving her something to do would be calming, so I told her where to find my stash of herbal teas, and she and Sunny took over the kitchen.

I decided to call the Sheriff first, and Len second. It seemed important to get things moving. I wanted to call Tracy Jarvi, the young female Chief of Police in Cherry Hill. I got along well with Tracy, especially since she had helped me, more than once. I wanted her support, but I couldn’t think of a way that Paddy’s find could be part of her official duties since I live outside the village limits, and I didn’t feel close enough to just call her as a friend.

I dialed the Forest County Sheriff’s Department and was transferred to a Detective Dennis Milford, someone I did not know at all. He sounded bored. It took several minutes to explain how the bracelet we had found would be of interest to the police, but he finally agreed to send a squad car out to my place.

Next I called Corliss Leonard. This conversation was much more difficult for the opposite reason. Len understood immediately how significant the events of the afternoon were. I asked if he would like me to come get him, although I wondered how I could do that, stay with the girls, and be here when the police arrived, all at the same time. But he said he’d drive himself to my place, if I didn’t mind. I assured him I’d be glad to have him come, and told him the girls would need his support. A guilty image of Len torturing himself into an upright position in order to drive intruded on my sympathies, but I knew we all needed him to be here. I told him we’d be watching for him.

These calls took so long that the girls had not only made tea but had each finished off a mug by the time I was able to talk with them again. They both seemed less upset, but still on edge.

“Your grandfather is coming here,” I began. “The police will have lots of questions, and I know he wants to be with you.”

Star still seemed stunned, and just nodded. Sunny looked confused and sat at the kitchen table with Paddy at her side. Just then we heard a car coming toward the house. It was good to have something to divert our attention. I looked out and saw a Sheriff’s car slowing to a stop. A young African-American man in uniform and a solid older man in a gray suit got out and approached the house. I opened the front door before they reached it, and invited them inside.

The uniformed man introduced himself as Deputy Brown, and the other as Detective Dennis Milford. The deputy looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him. I led them into the kitchen. Milford took charge and asked for the bracelet. Sunny still clutched it, but she held it out reluctantly. The younger man captured it in a plastic evidence bag he produced from somewhere and asked me to explain again how we had found the item.

I couldn’t imagine there would be any useful fingerprints or clues on the bracelet, given years in the ground, a soggy trip in a dog’s mouth, and then being wiped and held by three other people. However, I covered the basics of the afternoon’s events once again.

Star tried to tell him that they were just playing with the dog when he ran off, almost out of their sight among the trees, started digging in the dirt and then began to bark.

“How are you related to these girls?” Milford interrupted.

“I’m not,” I answered. “Their grandfather is on his way. He’s their guardian. And Angelica’s father.”

“OK, we’ll wait until he gets here.”

Milford pulled Brown aside and said something to him, after which the deputy went out to the car, and the detective sat down heavily at the kitchen table and clamped his jaw shut. We sat there in uncomfortable silence.

The girls became tense and increasingly frightened at the man’s gruff demeanor as the minutes ticked by. I was more than relieved when I heard another car approach. As soon as I said, “It’s your grandfather,” both girls jumped up and ran toward the front door.

After that, things began to get a little bit crazy. Len came inside with a girl hanging on each arm. He looked tired. He sat on the couch, still flanked by the girls, while they both talked at once, telling him about the afternoon. Detective Milford came into the living room and began to ask Len questions about Angelica that the girls had already answered. But he needed to hear the answers from an adult.

Meanwhile, I heard more vehicles outside, and stepped out on the porch. Another Sheriff’s car pulled up, with two more deputies, followed by the Cherry Hill Police SUV. I was more than pleased to see Chief Tracy Jarvi, with Tom Baker, whom she sometimes deputized when extra help was needed. I went out to meet them. Tracy has a rugged Scandinavian build, coupled with a gentle manner that inspires confidence, making anyone who needs help feel safe.

“Tom, Tracy! I’m certainly glad to see you,” I said. “But I thought you didn’t have jurisdiction here.”

“Remember, the law-enforcement services help each other out on big cases,” said the Chief.

“So far, it doesn’t seem as if the detective even believes this means anything at all,” I blurted out.

“Oh, he does. Did Milford come, himself?”

“He’s inside.”

“Don’t worry. He’s not very personable, but he’s competent.”

“That’s good to know.”

“I guess we’re gonna be lookin’ for a body,” Tom chimed in. Tom is my friend Cora’s son. His English isn’t good, and he always speaks too loudly because he is partially deaf.

Tracy put her hand on his arm and motioned for him to tone it down. “The girls are here. They’re probably upset enough.”

We went inside and quickly learned that Milford was getting people organized for a search of the swamp. He wasn’t happy that he needed the girls to show him where they had been, and he wasn’t happy at all that the dog might be the only one who really knew exactly where the bracelet had come from. Thankfully, he realized that Len would never be able to walk into the woods, but Len assured him that he would trust me to accompany his granddaughters. I wasn’t sure this was an honor I wanted to accept for such a potentially gruesome job, but I knew it was something I would have to do.

By the time everyone was organized for a search, it was late afternoon. But summer evenings are long here, and I knew we might be facing several hours of walking through the edges of Dead Mule Swamp. Detective Milford asked me to put Paddy on a short leash. When he found out that Sunny, a ten-year-old, had been closest to the dog when the bracelet was found, he was even less pleased. He didn’t seem to have much confidence in any of the resources he had been provided. He sent Star back to the house to stay with her grandfather and Deputy Brown, and she didn’t seem sorry at being left out.

The ground was firm near the yard, so there was no chance of finding footprints there. We had to either trust that Sunny might recognize where she had gone, or hope that an untrained puppy would figure out that he was supposed to lead us to something he had found.

Nevertheless, within a few more minutes, Sunny, Milford, Paddy and I were walking into the woods to the northeast of my house, with two officers, plus Tracy and Tom, following like ducklings in a row.