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“Yes.” Julia grabbed the front half of the folders, Paul grabbed the back half, and they sat down on the floor with their respective piles and got busy.
“Yes, I see that, too.”
Paul shifted over and read the flyer. “Interesting. Any mention of Shoemaker? I found nothing on him.”
“Me, neither. Shoemaker may or may not be involved.” Julia thought it over.
“So this is the critical time period, and if Shoemaker was there, he would have signed a waiver. So would McKenna have. I want to see those waivers.” Julia set the papers aside, then they both got up, went together to the file cabinet, and opened the second drawer.
“So this is a waiver form.” Paul pulled out a blank from the front, and they both read it:
FULL WAIVER AND COMPLETE RELEASE
I __________________________ assume the risk of any and all activities I engage in during any tactical, reenactment, or any other activities I take part in during today’s reenactment and/or tactical.
I am fully aware of the risks of harm by accident, firearms, explosive device, and any other hazard.
I agree to hold harmless the Regiment and any of its officers, my fellow reenactors, or anyone else associated therewith.
I have accepted no money in return for this full waiver and release.
Signature and Date __________________________
Name and Address __________________________
Julia blinked, surprised. “Explosive device? I thought they used blank guns.”
“It’s probably for fake bombs. I know they have them from my cousin. It’s just legalese, trying to cover everything.”
“Probably.” Julia started at 1999 looking for a waiver from McKenna or Shoemaker, then hit paydirt. She found McKenna’s waiver from March 4, 1999, which had his signature and his address at 75 Crowley Road.
“One down, one to go.” Paul thumbed through the other waivers, then stopped. “Here’s one from Shoemaker, so he was there, too.”
“Really?” Julia read the waiver, which was signed James Shoemaker, and the address was 75 Crowley Rd., Buckley. “Shoemaker lists McKenna’s address. He had to be staying or living with him.”
“So Shoemaker came up from Tallahassee, stayed with McKenna, and did the reenactment.” Paul frowned. “What does that tell us? Anything?”
“A little, right?” Julia took the waiver and was about to set it aside when she noticed another waiver underneath, which also had a 75 Crowley Road address.
Her astonished gaze dropped down to the signature, which read Patrick Novak.
She showed it to Paul. “Look. Who’s Patrick Novak and why was he staying at McKenna’s, too? ”
“I wonder if he’s also from Tallahassee. Let me see.” Paul got out his phone and started scrolling.
Julia thought aloud. “So Shoemaker and Novak were both staying at McKenna’s when Shoemaker was murdered. What’s up with that? Where’s Novak now?”
“Don’t know.” Paul looked up from his phone. “I think this search is better done on the laptop later. There’s a lot of Patrick Novaks in Tallahassee.”
Julia tried to put it together. “So they’re here for an event that they signed the waiver for. What’s special about that event? Or maybe it’s not?”
“Let’s keep going.” They continued going through the waiver files, and Julia was surprised there was no other waiver signed by either Shoemaker or Novak, though there were others signed by McKenna.
“So Novak and Shoemaker came for only one event.”
Paul nodded. “Looks that way.”
“Okay, let’s move on to the last drawer, the photographs.
” Julia put the files back in the second drawer, then went to the third drawer.
It was a yearly collection of photographs, going backward in time.
“Let’s start with 1999, since it’s the only year we know for sure that McKenna, Shoemaker, and Novak are involved. ”
“Agree.”
Julia reached for the 1999 folder and opened it to find it was stuffed with old photographs, some black-and-white and others in color. “Whoa, this is a lot.”
“Keep going.”
Julia started going through the photos with Paul, and there were about a hundred.
They were random, some color and others black-and-white, showing men in costume, tricornered hats, navy blue jackets, and britches, and the bright red coats of the British.
She didn’t see McKenna, who she’d know from the newspaper photo, or Shoemaker, who she’d know from his mugshot.
She had no idea what Novak looked like. Then she flipped to a photo near the bottom.
“Finally.” Julia found a photo of McKenna in his regimental uniform, standing between two other men in T-shirts and jeans. The man on the left was James Shoemaker, and he looked skinny with a narrow face, his eyes set close-together, and large front teeth.
“That’s Shoemaker.”
“Correct, and do you think this is Novak, on the other side of McKenna?” Julia took a second look at maybe-Novak, who was much younger than the others, possibly in his teens.
He was good-looking, with brown eyes, brown hair, and a nice smile that seemed oddly familiar.
“This young guy must be Novak, right? We don’t know the date of the photo, but from the waivers we know there was one time when the three of them did an event together, and it’s the March event, which is the one we care about.
So it’s a fair assumption this teenager is Novak, do you agree? ”
“Agree.”
“And we know from the waivers that they lived together at the time, or stayed together, at McKenna’s house.” Julia flipped the photo, hoping for a notation or identification, but there wasn’t one. “Damn.”
“Most likely it’s Novak.”
“Let’s go with that assumption, then.”
“We’re getting somewhere.” Paul smiled. “We’ll tell Bennie when we get back.”
“I know, right?” Julia took a second look at Novak, and something tingled at the edges of her memory. Suddenly she realized, with a startled shock, that she recognized him. “Oh my God, I know Novak!”
“What? How? Who is he?”
“I met him at college, in the library with Courtney. He told us his name was Matt Winger, and Courtney gave him a fake number for me.” Julia felt her words rush out as the memory came back, astonishing her.
“Then I saw him at a party, and it turned out that he assaulted a redhead at the same party. If not for Courtney, it could’ve been me that night. ”
Paul’s lips parted. “Wait, I know that story. Courtney told me. You guys had a fight over it.”
“Right, she warned me off, and I was so mad at her, but she was right. She knew he was a creep, but I couldn’t see it. I gave a statement to the campus police and South Bend detectives. I don’t know if they ever arrested him.”
“So is Pat Novak his real name, or Matt Winger?”
“Matt Winger’s an alias, that’s all I know.”
“Do you think he’s here on purpose, for some reason? Like he traced you or Courtney here? Or is it just a coincidence?”
“I think it’s a coincidence, but it’s not that crazy.
” Julia’s thoughts raced, and details came back to her.
“He told me he’s from Philly and he mentioned an Eagles shirt I had on.
He had a history of violence, so I’m not completely surprised he’d hang with thugs like Shoemaker, and McKenna.
” Julia was beginning to formulate a theory, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, just yet.
“Something about the fact that I know Novak, or whatever his real name is, makes me think that he matters, like it has to do with my gift. Maybe this is the reason I had to come here. Maybe it wasn’t only about Courtney, maybe it was about Novak, too.
” Julia found herself closing her eyes, trying to remember her vision of Kay’s fight for her life.
“When I saw Kay’s killer in my vision at the funeral home, I didn’t see his face or any of his features, only shards of black and white.
Courtney said that I had a blind spot for Novak, and I still have that blind spot.
” Julia felt her own words resonate as she heard herself saying them.
“What if I’m here for a reason, and the reason is staring me in the face? What if Novak killed Grandma Kay?”
“Whoa.” Paul’s eyes flared, and Julia gathered her thoughts, which were all over the place.
“But I still have questions. Where does Novak fit in, if the cops are in a conspiracy with McKenna and Chief Glushenko? Maybe the murder of Shoemaker is okay with Glushenko and McKenna, but what about Novak? If he lived at the same address, where was he the night that Shoemaker was killed? Did he help kill Shoemaker, then disappear like McKenna?”
Paul shook his head, mystified. “I don’t know, but this is good stuff. We’ll learn something if we keep going, but even if we don’t, we can give it to Bennie for her investigator.”
“Right.” Julia dived back in, going through the rest of the photos a few years back, but none showed Shoemaker or Novak.
There were more of McKenna, but they told her nothing new.
“I have a working theory that McKenna was permanently here, maybe Shoemaker off and on, and I get the sense that Novak was kind of a Johnny-come-lately. He’s so much younger than them.
He’s a teenager, and they’re like in their forties. ”
“That makes sense.” Paul checked his watch. “I think we’re done, don’t you? I think we’ve gone through everything.”
“Yes. Let’s clean up and go.” Julia got out her phone and took a picture of the 1999 officers list, the waiver forms for McKenna, Shoemaker, and Novak, and the photo of the three of them, just in case.
They picked up the photographs, straightened the folders, and returned them to the drawer, then went downstairs, where only two women were left in the sewing circle, Kimberly and Mean Jean.
Kimberly looked up with a smile, her face illuminated from below by the harsh magnifying light. “Have any luck?”
“Yes, we found a nice photo of Bill McKenna.” Julia didn’t elaborate because Jean was eyeing her, hard.