Chapter 21 #2
One of them glanced at him, smiled, and hopped up. With a grace that he really respected for her age, she walked over to him and announced, “Hi, I’m Melanie. I hear you wanted to talk to me.”
He nodded and smiled back at her. “Nice to meet you. Could we sit somewhere more private?”
“Absolutely.” She led the way to the far side. As he sat down, she asked, “You are here to ask me about Wendy Herschel, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “I was just trying to get a feel for what she was like.”
“Crazy as a loon in many ways,” she declared, “but happy-go-lucky in others. Even with that husband of hers, she was a good person.”
“That’s what I’ve heard.”
“Yes, she did a lot with tarot and that kind of stuff, and I don’t know if that had anything to do with why she was killed. A lot of people believed what she would say. And she … was just really a nice person. She sure as hell didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
“Of course not. I don’t think anybody ever deserves that. I was wondering what her state of mind was prior to the crime, whether any strife was going on. Did she have a problem with anybody? Do you know?”
“She’d been going back-and-forth with one of her daughters.
She was dating at the time but not really telling them who she was seeing.
Wendy was trying to keep it from her husband because Leonard Sr. would lose it.
But she … was worried that her daughter would come home pregnant.
” She added with a shrug, “Particularly since, fifty years ago, that was considered one of the worst things. She had four girls, and that was always one of her biggest concerns. So, she was particularly strict on the eldest one to make sure she set a good example for the others.”
“And do you think the girl had a boyfriend?”
“Oh, I think she probably did, but I don’t think it was necessarily serious or anything like that. And we certainly didn’t hear about a boyfriend afterward. So, if there was one, he kept his mouth shut and grieved privately. … Teenagers weren’t willing to do that in public.”
Camden didn’t say anything to that.
“As far as I know, Wendy was in happy spirits, outside of strife with the one daughter, which is to be expected to a degree in any household.”
“And she was okay with her husband?”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t aware of any particular issues between them. She was always of the opinion that he was going through a tough time and believed that things would turn around soon and that it would all be fine. And she married him for better or for worse.”
“Right,” Camden noted. “So, even if there were a problem, she wasn’t of a mind to do anything about it.”
“Oh, goodness, no. She would be the last person to be thinking about a divorce and moving on,” she exclaimed.
“That was not part of who she was. She was a homemaker and a wife and was heavily involved in the children’s schools.
She was involved in all the children’s activities.
That was her first and foremost responsibility, she would say. And she lived by that.”
Melanie continued, “If anybody needed a hand with something at the schools, she was there. If somebody was needed for a bake sale, she was there. If anybody was needed to help out with refreshments at soccer practice, she was there. It’s just who she was.
She lived for that life, and she was the epitome of a happy person doing it,” she shared.
“And what about her tarot and all that stuff?”
She laughed. “She used to say that she was psychic. She always declared that the tarot cards would never lie to her. But definitely a couple times when she was working with the tarot cards, she got a funny feeling or a funny look on her face.”
Melanie shook her head. “I used to laugh at her and say that she couldn’t just take the good news and avoid the bad.
She would tell me that she would be happy to take the bad news as long as it was something she could change.
But if it was information that she couldn’t do anything about, then she didn’t really want to know.
I just laughed at her at the time, but it always bothered me that she ended up getting murdered and didn’t see it coming. ”
“Or she did see it coming,” he pointed out, “and didn’t tell you.”
She stared at him, then raised both eyebrows, acknowledging the point.
“That is quite possible,” she conceded. “As I told you, a couple times she got information from the cards that she didn’t like.
She was not happy and would try to get different readings.
But it kept giving her the wrong answer, at least as far as she was concerned.
I called her out once, saying, I thought there were no wrong answers.
She just laughed, then added, Operator error. ”
Camden took in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, as he thought about what she had shared. “In other words, she was asking a question and kept getting the same answer, … one that she didn’t want.”
“Yes, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it had something to do with her daughter. Yet I don’t know for sure. And who doesn’t have challenges with their teenage daughters at times, particularly back then,” she noted. “So, it was certainly no shade on her that she struggled with it.”
“No, of course not,” he agreed. “And let’s face it. Daughters dating and the worries of their exploring sex at that age, well, that was an issue for all parents.”
“Absolutely, and, as far as Wendy was concerned, there was not to be any of that, you know, messing around. So, if she thought her daughter had gone that route, it would have been quite a conflict for her. However, she never got a chance to sort it out, as neither of them got the chance to live out their lives. So that’s hardly an issue for today. ”
“No, unless the boyfriend had anything to do with this nightmare.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she added, with a smile.
“I mean, one, it wouldn’t have been going on for very long at all.
And, two, I think Wendy would have told me if the girl was pregnant because she would have been pretty traumatized over it.
I don’t think she would have held that one in.
I could be wrong, of course, but I don’t think so. ”
Camden frowned. “Right, so, even if the girl did have a boyfriend, there’s no guarantee that there was anything wrong with that relationship. And, if there was, you think Wendy would have mentioned something?”
“Yes, I do. Honestly, I do. Wendy wasn’t …
she really wasn’t the kind to hold in things like that.
She would have wanted to meet him but wouldn’t have been trying to chase him away or anything.
It would be more a case of having the talk about making smart decisions and understanding that choices have consequences, so don’t make any foolish mistakes, you know? ”
“Right,” Camden noted. “So, all the girls appeared to be pretty normal at that stage.”
“As far as I knew, yes,” Melanie replied, with a shrug.
“I mean, it was life, and there were definite ups and downs. You know, girls were doing more with their lives back then, but there wasn’t necessarily a whole lot more available.
Everybody was like, oh, you can be a secretary or a nurse.
You can try for other things, but it would be a battle. ”
“And did they have any plans?”