Chapter 18
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W ondering about this Clive guy still, Doreen drove slowly toward her house, her mind occupied, as she considered all the potential scenarios that could be going on. To think that someone here potentially took out that poor woman who was involved in a heartfelt search for her long-missing father was very disturbing. As Doreen pulled up to her home, she hopped out and released the animals, all converging on the front steps.
Richard stepped out of his house at the same time, as if to go shopping.
In all the time that she’d been living next door to him, she had yet to meet his wife, but she’d heard voices, just fairly strange voices. Doreen looked over at him and asked, “Hey, you were here twenty to thirty years ago, weren’t you, Richard?” When he stopped and glared at her, she shrugged. “Do you remember any of the missing persons from back then?”
His brows drew together. “You’ve got another case?” he asked in astonishment.
“Maybe, we’ve got a couple people missing, plus a bloody garden bed where a third person may have been killed. I’m looking into all three, but clues are hard to find, as they go back as far as fifty years, twenty-five years, and then twenty-or-so years. I was thinking that I could potentially help bring some closure to the families.”
He nodded, yet frowned. “I’ve got to admit that it felt good for my brother to get that closure.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, “and he wasn’t alone in that. Other people are still suffering.”
“ Hmm .” Richard came closer, still staying on his side of the property line. “Who went missing?”
“We’ve got Jack Mahoney from twenty-or-so years ago,” she replied. “And you heard about the woman who was recently shot in Glenmore?”
He nodded. “I heard briefly, but what about it?”
“That was Lynda, Lynda Mahoney, daughter to Jack. She was here looking for her father again. She last saw him in Merritt some twenty-odd years ago.”
Richard stared at her. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” Doreen sighed. “Apparently Lynda had seen him there, but he’d left and went on his way. She thought he went missing from Kelowna, but it could also be as far up as Kamloops.”
“That would be good if it was Kamloops,” Richard muttered, frowning at her. “The last thing we need is more bad press about people going missing from here.”
“Oh, I agree,” she replied. “You’ll get absolutely no argument from me on that.”
He snorted at that. “You’re just happy to have another case.”
“No, not necessarily. The oldest one of the three I’m focusing on was Bartlet Jones, who went missing fifty years ago. Both Mahoney and Jones were referenced in Solomon’s files.”
“Oh,” Richard said, as if that changed things completely. He shook his head. “Solomon was a good man,” he stated.
Just something about that change in his tone made her realize how much validity Richard felt because the information came from Solomon. Doreen agreed. “He was, indeed, and I consider it such an honor that he gave me his files.”
“He must have trusted you,” Richard noted, sounding grumpy now. He glanced at her. “I do remember something about Bartlet. He went to work one day and disappeared. Or was that the other case you just did?”
“Yeah, you’re right about both. One of my previous cold cases had a married man going to work and never returning. Plus, I heard the same thing said about Bartlet Jones, although he didn’t seem to be married.”
“Maybe it ended the same way too.”
“That’s possible—deep-sixed by a family member. I need to figure out exactly where Jack Mahoney’s home was. I understand he did live here, did have a residence way back when, even though he must have stayed long periods of time at his ranch too.”
“Wasn’t that local address in the files?” he asked.
“It was, but the street no longer exists, or I can’t read Solomon’s handwriting enough to understand where the street was.”
Richard snickered at that. “I’m not surprised. He probably had his own form of shorthand. He was really something. He used to cover all the trials and everything and kept us all in the loop. And then he got older, and it was just hard for everybody to keep up with the brand-new technology, and it took over everything,” he muttered.
“Yeah, that’s what happens in life,” she agreed. “Change comes, and either we move forward or we fight it and fall behind.”
“I’m all about fighting it and falling behind,” Richard teased.
“But, if you do that, you get lost in the process,” she replied, with half a smile. “So, do you remember anything else about Bartlet Jones?”
“Other than he was a womanizer? Maybe,” he added, “I’ll have to think about it.” And, with that, he got into his vehicle and drove away.
That’s exactly what Millicent had told her as well, that she needed to think on it some more, which wasn’t helpful. On the other hand, it made sense that some people couldn’t dredge up the information that easily, not when it called for fifty-year-old memories. Doreen had also planned on going to the library and seeing if she could come up with any information there.
For now, she went inside her home, back to Solomon’s files, and pulled the records in question on Bartlet Jones. With that in front of her, she put on the teakettle and sat down to read. It was just cold enough outside that she wanted to warm up before she dashed off again. Besides, the library wasn’t exactly a place where she could bring the animals. Unfortunately they still prohibited having animals in there. As she went through the Bartlet Jones file, she jotted down a few notes. There was an address, but it was up in the Joe Rich area and basically a P.O. Box on Highway 97, along with some weird numbers.
She frowned at that and wondered how she was supposed to figure out an address from that. Way back then they didn’t exactly have house numbers or even street names. It was just a turn here type thing. And maybe he had a sign on the highway where you were supposed to know the turnoff. Back then, people talked to each other instead of the typical leave me alone message that she had to deal with most of the time now.
As soon as her tea was done and she had written up her notes, she got up and decided there was no time like the present. She might as well go deal with whatever was available at the library. She had two names of the three possibly missing persons, so that should at least help save her time and get to whatever information there was to go forward with—or not. If she didn’t come up with more than what she had at the moment, it was clearly a case of not when it came to Bartlet Jones.
Leaving the animals at home, Doreen headed to the library. As soon as she walked in, the librarian looked up and smiled.
“ Uh-oh , this must mean that Doreen has a new case,” she teased.
“Does not,” Doreen protested.
“It does too,” she corrected. “You only ever come here when you’re on the hunt.”
Doreen winced at the phrase. “I guess that’s what it seems like to everybody, doesn’t it?”
“Yep. When Doreen’s off on a hunt, them criminals had better go dark ,” she quoted, laughing.
Doreen smiled. “I guess there are worse things for people to see me as.”
“There are, indeed,” the librarian agreed. “Now, what can I help you with?”
“I’m a little confused,” Doreen began. “I’ve got an old address in the Joe Rich area from one of Solomon’s files, but it doesn’t really match an address, not per my Google Maps online search.”
“That’s probably off the highway,” the librarian suggested. “It will just have a number that corresponds to where the highway markers are. Who are you talking about?”
“Bartlet Jones,” she replied.
The librarian raised both eyebrows. “Oh, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a very long time.”
“Did you know Bartlet?”
“No, I’m not old enough, but my dad used to know Bartlet.”
“Any idea what happened to the man?”
She frowned at Doreen and nodded. “Oh, that’s right. I had forgotten all about that,” she murmured, staring off in the distance. “My dad used to say that no good would come of him.”
“And why is that?”
She winced. “I hate to tell tales about the dead—or the missing—but he was a womanizer and not always too careful about whose woman he chose to womanize with.”
“Meaning, married women?”
“Yes. Apparently, in his mind, married women were even better because they couldn’t lock him into marriage.”
“But that just makes him a marriage breaker,” Doreen murmured.
“Exactly, and my father used to tell Bartlet all the time how he would get in trouble, but that was a long time ago. I only ever heard about him after somebody tried to bring up the cold case file,” the librarian added, turning to look at Doreen. “And that might have been Solomon.”
“And it could have been,” Doreen agreed. “He has it down as a cold case still to be solved, and it looks as if he opened it several times and never really managed to get any answers for it.”
“I’m not surprised,” the librarian murmured. “There was just nothing to go on. Bartlet just up and disappeared one day.”
“And yet,” Doreen asked, “where on earth would he go?”
“That’s the thing. He ran the town in many ways. He was one of those guys who was all over the place. Everybody knew him, and he was friendly to everyone, too friendly to some.” She hesitated. “Honestly, chances are he got a little bit too frisky with the wrong wife, and some husband probably popped him and left him where he lay.”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Doreen admitted, with a nod. “We’ve certainly seen that happen.”
“We have, haven’t we?” she replied, with a headshake. “Let’s go see if we can find anything in the archives.”
Doreen asked, “Would your father be interested in speaking to me about Bartlet?”
The librarian gave her a sad smile. “My father passed on about five years ago.”
Doreen put her hand to her heart. “I’m so sorry.”
The librarian nodded. “He had been fighting heart disease for many years, and we were told to expect it, but you’re never ready for it regardless.”
“How true,” Doreen muttered. “Did you know anything about Lynda Mahoney, who was just murdered?”
“No, what about her?” The librarian turned to her.
“She was here looking for her father, who went missing twenty-odd years ago. She met him for lunch in Merritt back then, and he was on his way to Kelowna. She did speak to him when he called from Kelowna, so she knows he arrived at least that far, and then she never heard from him again. Her father was forty-something years old back then.”
The librarian looked at her and shook her head. “I don’t think I even heard about his daughter.”
“Lynda came here just after he first went missing, and, when she came back up just days ago, she was shot in front of her friend’s house, where she was staying.”
“Good God, that’s terrible.”
“I know, and then, of course, I had yet another case.”
The librarian stopped and frowned. “ Another case? So you have three cold cases of different missing people?”
“Yeah, but this is the opposite though, although maybe it ties together somehow. I don’t know. However, many years ago, maybe twenty-five, somebody found a significant quantity of what they believed or assumed to be human blood out in their zucchini patch.”
“Zucchini patch,” she repeated, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re making that up.”
“Nope, I’m not making it up, and, in this case, we’re talking about the Joe Rich area.”
“Right,” the librarian noted. “Maybe that was Jack Mahoney’s blood. Maybe someone hit him over the head and got rid of him. Lord knows he never showed up again.”
“And that’s possible,” Doreen noted. “It happened on Milford’s farm out there. Milford’s wife passed away about a year ago. One of the things that she wanted Milford to do was to get that sorted out, so that they could find peace about the whole issue before Milford died. The police had been called all those years ago, but nobody opened up a file because they had no proof it was human blood.”
“Right,” the librarian muttered, “and honestly, you can’t really blame them. What looks like blood in that corner could really be almost anything.”
“That’s what Milford told the police too. That blood could be a dear or coyote or whatever. So, nobody made a big deal about it.”
The librarian nodded. “Oh, the things we get ourselves into. So, now what? Milford’s called you?”
“Yeah, exactly,” she confirmed, with a wry look at the librarian. “He called me, asking me to solve it.”
“Good Lord,” she muttered. “Good luck with these because you’ll need it. If nobody has found any answers so far, it seems unlikely that you’ll find anything now.”
“I know. Believe me that I know. It’s troublesome with these super old cases, especially since I have absolutely no idea what is going on with them. I very much want to solve the missing father case that cost this poor woman her life. Lynda Mahoney died trying to get answers about her father’s disappearance, which is so sad.”
“Agreed.” The librarian sat down at the microfiche and started clicking through dates and years. When she found something, she pointed. “Here you go. I wish I could stay and help but…”
“It’s all right, go,” Doreen said. “I know you’re busy, and you have other people to deal with.”
“Sure do,” she agreed cheerfully. And she took off to the front counter, where a line already had formed.
As soon as Doreen got into the files, she completely lost track of time, as she went down the newspaper articles rabbit hole, tracing every mention of Jack Mahoney or Bartlet Jones. It was amazing how much information was to be found in these old articles. Not necessarily helpful information, but fascinating nonetheless. When a tap on her shoulder interrupted her focus, she jumped and looked up to see Mack, gazing down at her. She beamed up at him. “Hi,” she said.
“What’re you looking for?” he asked, as he sat down beside her.
“Any information I can come across on the three missing persons cases.”
He looked at her, puzzled. “Three?” She quickly reiterated the three of them—Bartlet Jones, Jack Mahoney and the one unnamed man. “Who knows? One of these may lead me to the body that bled out in Milford’s garden bed.”
“ Huh ,” he replied. “I still don’t remember hearing about Bartlet Jones, but you say it was one from Solomon’s files?”
“So you didn’t have time to check your database yet?”
“Not yet.”
Doreen sighed. “That’s the thing. If the locals don’t have any information on them, what can I do?” she pointed out. “It just becomes another cold case, gathering dust.”
“It’s not as if we aren’t looking at the cold cases too,” he told her, “but we’re a little limited on manpower, particularly when we got so busy all of a sudden.” He gave her a pointed look specifically.
She winced. “I know, and I’m more than happy to have you guys take all the credit,” she muttered. “But we also need to know that, if more cases need to be solved, they get the same amount of attention.”
He sighed. “You just have to be a pain about all this, don’t you?”
“I’m not being a pain,” she argued. “I just want to know that everybody gets the same treatment, the same care they deserve.”
“We aren’t trying to ignore them, honey.”
“I know,” she muttered, teary-eyed, as she looked over at him. “But even thinking about that zucchini patch is keeping me quite distracted.”
“Ah.” An odd expression came on his face.
“What?” she asked, turning to look at him. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he said.
She shook her head. “No, no, no, you don’t get to say that.”
He sighed. “I heard back from forensics.”
“Yeah?” she asked, staring at him expectantly. “And?” she pushed on.
Reluctantly he replied, “They said the sample is too degraded. So nothing definite that it’s blood.’
She sagged back into her chair and stared at him. It’s what she’d half expected but still there’d been a little sliver of hope.
“Considering that and assuming there was a lot of blood, what we don’t know is whether someone died, whether someone was taken to the hospital with a severe injury, if a large animal died there, or,” he hesitated, then added, “if old man Milford is lying.”
She winced at that. “Got to love how that automatically becomes a possibility, doesn’t it?”
“We have to use common sense about this,” Mack pointed out. “And, if that much blood was there, and some evidence that somebody was killed there,” he explained, “the only two people living there were that couple, Milford and his wife, Rose.”
She frowned, not liking where he was going with this. “And what is your theory as to why he would have called out of the blue on something like that?”
“I don’t know why he called, but what I can tell you is that sample was definitely human blood.”
“What will the captain do about it?”
“That’s under discussion right now,” he shared, with a smile. “But it’s definitely not a case of Hey, thanks, Doreen, for bringing this to our attention . I would say his position is more like Oh, good heavens, another one? ”
She chuckled at that. “I’m sure that’s exactly how it is for him, but, if I can do anything to help, I’m in,” she offered. “Oh, and this Clive character is very dodgy.”
Mack looked at her and blinked several times. “I hate to ask,” he replied, “but what Clive character ?”
She looked at him expectantly. “Remember? I told you about him, the one at the corner store.”
“Right,” he muttered and gave her a headshake. “How could I have forgotten?”
“Exactly. How could you have forgotten?” Then she went off in peals of laughter. “We do seem to be coming up with cases fairly quickly. This one’s definitely a bit more bizarre than some of the others.”
“No,” he countered, “it’s not more bizarre at all. It’s just amazing that still this many cold cases need to be dealt with in town. I had no clue about this one, until you told me about Milford,” Mack admitted, as he stared around. “To think somebody was possibly murdered on that property and nobody knew is pretty amazing.”
“And that’s why I’m looking into that death myself,” she muttered.
“Are you’re thinking the husband did it or not?”
“I’m not thinking anything,” she acknowledged, “at least not yet. I just don’t know why Milford would have called and brought us there if he was the killer, you know? That makes no sense to me,” she noted. Her phone vibrated, and she’d just missed a call from the vet. She gasped. “Oh no, those poor boys.”
He jumped up at her alarm and asked, “What boys? What are you even talking about?”
She winced. “I guess I didn’t have a chance to tell you about that.”
“Tell me about what?” he asked, looking at her with a narrowed gaze.
She quickly told him about the puppy the two boys had found in the river. “I took it to the vet, but I was supposed to contact the boys and give them an update. I hadn’t even heard back from the vet yet. Of course I put my phone on Silent when I came in the library. Wonder what else I missed.”
“Why don’t we run down to the vet before they close,” Mack suggested quickly.
She smiled at him, then realized how late in the day it had gotten. “Oh my,” she murmured, “how did it get to be so late?”
“It doesn’t take long when you’re having fun,” he noted, with a chuckle. “Come on. Let’s get you home, and we’ll stop at the vet on the way.”
“My vehicle is here,” she pointed out, “so we’ll both have to drive.”
“That’s fine,” he murmured. “Let’s get you moving.” And, with that, he helped her gather her things, and they both moved out to their vehicles, hopped in, and drove to the veterinary clinic. As soon as she got there, the receptionist looked up and smiled.
“Oh good, we were hoping to connect before the end of the day.”
Doreen nodded. “Sorry. I was at the library and got distracted. Plus, I had my phone silenced, of course.”
“Hello,” said the vet, as she came up to the counter. “That pup was very cold and dehydrated and still needs more fluids to get stabilized. Has a couple deep scratches as well. Definitely had a hard time,” she explained, “but sure is adorable.”
“So, what is the plan for the puppy?”
“I want to keep her overnight for sure, and then we’ll see how she’s doing tomorrow,” she murmured. “By the time we’re done, she should go off to a new family, but I just can’t be sure when that’ll be. She’s very thin, so I want to see her fattened up a little bit and to see that everything is working correctly, just to ensure she’s recovered from the hypothermia.”
“Sounds good,” Doreen replied. “I promised the boys who found her that I would follow up with them.”
“Oh good,” the receptionist added, with a smile. “Maybe tomorrow, if she’s better, they could come down and take a look at her.”
“Oh, that would be lovely,” Doreen murmured. “Thank you.” As soon as they got back outside, she turned to Mack. “I wonder what it would take to have Gavin be allowed to keep the puppy.”
“I wouldn’t go there,” Mack suggested. “If the family is already struggling just to look after themselves and to adapt to the loss of the boy’s mother, I don’t imagine looking after a puppy right now would be an easy thing.”
“No, it wouldn’t be easy,” she agreed, “but it might really help that young man.”
“Maybe, but it’s also a responsibility that the uncle or father or whoever it is would have to take on,” he pointed out.
“True.” She thought about it and nodded. “I guess it’s a decision that they would have to make.”
“Absolutely,” he said, with a smile. “Now, let’s get you home.” It was another ten minutes before they were home. No sooner were they inside when a knock came at her back door.
She looked over at Mack. “That’ll be the boys.”
“I want to meet these boys,” he said.
With Mack at her side, she opened the door to see Gavin there. “Hey, Gavin. I just came from the vet. The puppy is still recovering from hypothermia and dehydration, but she’s doing a lot better.”
“Oh good,” he said, with obvious relief on his face.
“They did say that, depending on her condition tomorrow, I could take you down there to see her,” she shared. “If you want to, that is.”
His face lit up. “Do you really think I could see her?” he asked. “That would be great.”
“Let’s see, tomorrow is…” She stopped, as she thought about it.
“Wednesday,” he replied helpfully.
“Okay, so Wednesday it is. But again, it will ultimately be up to the vet, depending on how the puppy’s doing,” she pointed out.
“Right.” He smiled at Doreen. When he looked at Mack, his face fell.
“Mack, this is Gavin. Gavin, this is Mack.”
Gavin just looked at him and nodded. It was obvious that he didn’t trust Mack at all.
“How was school today, Gavin?” Doreen asked him.
“It was okay,” he said solemnly. “I don’t like school much.”
“No, but remember, if you want to be a vet or something and help more puppies, you’ll have to get through school somehow.”
He just nodded and didn’t say anything, but he was starting to back up.
“I’ll see you here after school tomorrow then, okay?”
He looked at her, as if trying to figure out why, and then remembered and nodded. “Okay,” he said, a grin slowly spreading across his face as he took off.