Chapter 8 Trouble Could Follow
TROUBLE COULD FOLLOW
“There is my only daughter,” Brooke Ridgeway said the minute Gale walked in the back door of her parents’ home.
“And there is my only mother,” she said, causing her mother to laugh. “Anything I can help you with?”
“Nope, I’ve got it all. Ford and Reenie should be here soon, and Clay and Meredith will walk down.”
She loved her two future sisters-in-law. Reenie had gone to school with Ford for one year and been in the house during that time, then she’d moved away until she came back here on the run.
Ford freed Reenie from her past and now their future was bright, happy, and cheerful with their wedding less than two months away, right here on the property in the refurbished barn.
Her childhood best friend, Meredith Banks, was marrying her oldest brother. Never thought she’d see the day.
First, that Clay would find anyone to put up with him, but least of all Meredith.
Guess things happened for a reason, and their wedding was in three months. Again, right here on the farm with Meredith, who was a part time wedding planner, doing all the work.
Did she find it odd that both of her older brothers had their future wives drop into their laps running from trouble? She did.
And now she had a stranger who might be looking for trouble.
More like answers, but in a small town like this, trouble could follow.
And because she felt a connection to the case he was looking into, she was going to help guide him the best she could.
That meant talking to her family about it.
“I don’t suppose there are any donuts left from today, are there?”
“No,” her mother said. “We always sell out on the weekends. You got a dozen earlier in the week.”
“They weren’t for me,” she said.
“You didn’t tell me that,” her mother said.
“I use them as bribery.”
“Gale,” her mother said, rolling her eyes. “You’re never going to change.”
“And we wouldn’t want her to,” her father said when he came into the kitchen.
A few minutes later, Ford and Reenie entered with Clay and Meredith, and her mother was setting the table after pushing everyone out.
Gale got her independent nature from her mother, her stubbornness from her father. And her father was right: she wouldn’t change a thing about it.
Once they were seated at the table, she filled her family in.
“So, remember the Rene Connors murder?”
“Hard to forget it,” her father said. “Cooper seems to be doing well. I haven’t talked to him in months, but the last time I did, life was going as smoothly as could be.”
She hadn’t realized her father still talked to his old friend. “When did you two get back in touch?”
“After your father broke his back,” her mother said. “Abbie reached out and we reconnected some. Not much more than on social media, but you know Dad does nothing with that.”
“I’m glad things are good. So, here is the thing.
I’ll just cut into it fast. Last week I was in the courthouse and there was this guy in there asking for copies of the court records from the trial.
I was standing back and listening. He said he’s an author and is writing a book and would like to base some of it on that. ”
“Interesting,” her mother said. “But not unheard of. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more media on it. It seems like every time you turn around there is some documentary or quick show up to see if they can help solve the case.”
“I thought that too. I helped get him the records. Or he’ll get them on Monday. The next day I brought Barb the donuts and got the guy’s name. I had handed my card to him and said I grew up here and wouldn’t mind helping.”
“Of course you did,” Clay said. “Always have to get your mouth in everyone’s pie.”
“There isn’t anything wrong with that. I’ve got a sweet tooth.”
Her mother shook her head. “So what’s his name?”
“His pen name is Rory Rene, but I found out quickly that it’s Rory Connors, Rene’s older brother.”
“And he’s back in town looking for the court records,” Ford asked. She knew that would get her older brother’s attention.
“Yes. He was a cop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for about five years and left to pursue his writing career. A great career. He’s not here to research his next book—he’s been trying to solve this case for years.
I joked he spent some of his career on one side of the law, and now his imagination is in the mind of a killer as if he were trying to see what could make someone do that. ”
“What did he say?” Clay asked.
“That he never thought of it that way, but it made sense. He and his mother have never let this rest.”
“I couldn’t,” her father said. “I don’t think anyone at this table could.”
She looked around, and everyone was shaking their heads.
“Agreed. His parents are divorced. His mother and he think alike, but his father put his head in the sand. We didn’t get into that too much.
But he’s got lists of clues, thoughts, and leads he’s discovered over the years, worked every angle he could, then crossed it off.
But he has a new lead. I should say clue. ”
“He should talk to the detective on the case,” Ford said. “Not chase ghosts.”
“I know. I told him maybe he could talk to you or get the records he needs from you, but he said when he’s ready he’ll call the detective.”
“I don’t like people doing their own police work,” Ford said. “That’s how mistakes happen and people’s lives get in jeopardy. Not to mention messing up cases.”
“Don’t get your panties all twisted. I’ll tell you what he said to me and it makes sense why he’s looking himself. First, you know as well as I do, the detectives are overworked and have little time for cold cases. Nor do they want interfering family members.”
“She’s got you there,” Clay said.
“Doesn’t change the facts,” Ford argued.
“I’m sure he’d be willing to share his stuff if he felt it made a difference. He had a dream.”
“Seriously?” Clay asked with a pained expression.
She pointed her fork at her brother. “See. Right there. That is why he’s doing it on his own first. If he finds something that makes sense or is reasonable, then he’ll contact the detective. Give him some credit for not wasting anyone’s time but his own.”
“I believe in dreams,” Reenie said.
“Me too,” Meredith said. “Get that frown off your face, Clay.”
“You too, Ford,” Reenie said.
Gale laughed. “I love having women power. The sides are even now. But hear me out. He said he had a dream a month ago about this ankle bracelet on his sister’s leg. There were pictures of it, he showed me. But when he woke up he realized in his dream it wasn’t the same.”
“People can manifest those things,” Ford said. “What’s it been, fifteen years?”
“This summer,” her father said. “I’ll never forget it.”
“I don’t think any of us will that were here. He said the ankle bracelet cut off his sister was different than he remembered it when he saw it on her. As if it had been removed and put back on. The knot he remembered is different and there are fewer threads.”
“Like the killer could have taken it off?” Reenie asked. “Why?”
“For a souvenir,” Clay said.
“Or it fell off and he didn’t want it left where it was and tied it back in haste.”
“Lots of reasons, but it’s something. As an attorney, I’d be all over it. I mean, in your detective’s face asking for DNA on it. I bet that never happened.”
“There was no DNA on her body at all. I know,” Ford said. “I’ve seen the file myself. Don’t think I haven’t in all the years I’ve been there.”
“That’s what I thought. And his asking you to test things might get dismissed without having a reason.”
“Not really,” Ford said. “That’s how cold cases get solved. But we also know the murderer most likely had gloves on. There was a burn mark on her skin as if material had rubbed against her as she was carried.”
Her dinner wasn’t going down so well as she thought of Rene’s murder.
Strangled with her feet hanging off the ground, the guy walked as if she were a limp doll in his hands, her head all but coming off her shoulders as her neck broke, then tossed aside in a bush.
Would the murderer take the time to tie a bracelet back on her ankle if it fell off? She didn’t believe that in her gut.
But would he take a trophy or souvenir? That was another story.
One she hoped wasn’t true because when someone did that, it usually meant there was more than one murder to solve.
The thought that there was a serial killer in this area didn’t sit well with her. Then she had to remind herself there had been no other unsolved murders in the past decade. Nothing even remotely close to what happened to Rene.
“Has anyone ever looked to see if there were any other murders like this in other states?”
“We did,” Ford said. “Nothing came up even close in the databanks.”
“That would have made it too easy.”
“Nothing about this case has ever been easy,” her father said. “Then the rumors and speculation didn’t help.”
“That brings me back. I want to help him. I told him I would. Mom and Dad, would you be willing to talk to Rory? Ford, you too? He’s a nice guy. I mean it. Considering what he went through, he just wants answers. Wouldn’t you do the same if it were me?”
“You don’t need to sell us,” her mother said. “Your father and I will do it if for no other reason than to get Cooper’s name out of people’s mouths.”
“It’s my job to talk to him,” Ford said.
“I don’t want you to do it because it’s your job. I want you to do it for the fifteen-year-old who came here on vacation with her family and never got to return home. For her older brother who blames himself for not going on the walk with his sister, or realizing she hadn’t returned home.”
“We aren’t a jury,” Clay said.
“I know. I’m speaking from the heart. I have one, you know?”
“Sounds to me like you’re already deep into this,” Ford said. “How much conversation did you have with him?”
“We had pizza and cider on Friday night.” She turned her head. “He likes your cranberry ginger cider.”
“You shared your last bottle with him?” Clay asked. “Now I know this is serious.”
“I was celebrating my win on Friday,” she said. It felt like the reason to bring it then, but it turned into something more.
The end of one case, but the start of another.
“You’re always involved in other people’s problems,” her father said. “I know it will fall on deaf ears to tell you to be cautious.”
“Yes, it will,” she said, nudging her father’s arm.
“Then we’ll just tell you to be careful,” her mother said. “Not everyone is happy to be questioned about that time.”
“Which is another thing,” she said. “That never made sense to me.”
“It doesn’t have to make sense,” Ford said. “You just need to be aware.”