Chapter Four #2
Picking up her backpack, Clancy shrugged off the blanket and opened her door to step back out into the rain.
She couldn’t help worrying what she’d gotten herself into, given the son’s reaction to her.
John and Tanner had moved away from the truck.
She could see the rancher admonishing his son, but couldn’t hear what was being said as she walked around the front of the pickup toward the house.
All she could think about was getting inside some place warm and dry.
It was just for one night, she kept telling herself.
Anyway, she couldn’t blame Tanner. Not even his father knew who he’d picked up off the highway and brought into his home or what she was running from.
She hoped to keep it that way until she could get out of here in the morning.
* * *
VERNON GATHERED EVERYONE in the recreation area that was filled with tables and chairs, love seats, couches and recliners. Once they were all seated, Max brought out the box. The moment he opened it and dumped everything out on the table, an uproar came from the residents.
“I knew it!” Myrna cried. “I told you Esther Mason was a thief!” Most sat up in their chairs, anxious to see what all Esther had swiped from the other residents as well as see if their treasures were in the box.
As each trinket was returned, Vernon wrote down what had been stolen next to the resident’s name.
It appeared everyone had been a victim of Esther’s kleptomania.
None of the knickknacks or baubles looked to be worth much, except perhaps the antique watch that had belonged to Hazel Brockman’s father.
But even that was probably valuable only to Hazel.
When the box was empty, the sheriff checked the names on the list against the missing items that had been returned.
Only one name had no items written next to it.
He looked at the name and room number and realized it was the one closest to the front door, where he’d seen someone watching from the window.
“Alice Chambers?” he called, anxious to meet her.
When he’d come into the rest home, all the other residents had been gathered in the lobby.
Except Alice? “Alice Chambers?” He heard murmurs as the residents also became aware that Alice hadn’t had anything stolen from her.
Hazel Brockman was voicing her thoughts on it to Myrna Larson.
It sounded as if they found it suspicious, too.
Vernon had said that all the residents had been instructed to come to the rec room, but it appeared Alice wasn’t in the room. Maybe the woman was hard of hearing. Or maybe she hadn’t complied, the sheriff thought.
“Why don’t I go get her,” Vernon said, but the sheriff stopped him.
“I’ll check her room,” Max said and headed down the hall. He could hear the murmur of agitated voices back in the recreation room. Had Esther still been alive, a mob of elderly residents might have gone after her now that they had proof of her thievery.
But as he approached Alice Chambers’s apartment, the voices dimmed behind him, and then everything seemed to go very quiet. At her door, he hesitated, afraid of what he was going to find. He tapped at the door. “Alice?”
He was relieved to hear movement inside.
And then the door opened. Max hadn’t known what he expected, but the woman who answered was a surprise.
Alice leaned against the doorjamb, giving him a sultry look she’d no doubt perfected in her youth.
She appeared to be younger than her counterparts, maybe in her early sixties.
Her hair was dyed red, her nails painted the same color.
She wore a bright-colored lounge set and fur-trimmed slippers.
The sheriff met a pair twinkling of hazel eyes. “Alice?” She gave a slight nod. “You missed the little get-together in the rec room.”
Her laugh said she hadn’t missed anything. “I never go to any of those,” she said, waving him in. “There’s nothing wrong with my mind or my hearing, if that’s what you’re worried about. Come sit and talk to me.”
“I’m investigating Esther Mason’s murder,” he said, wondering how she couldn’t have heard about it. But she’d seen him come into the home earlier from her window. Wouldn’t she have been curious what the sheriff was doing here?
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer woman,” Alice said, confirming that she knew.
“I understand you had trouble with her. Can you tell me about that?”
“Nothing really to tell. I stood up to her. She didn’t like it and started harassing me.”
“What did you do about it?”
Alice studied one of her freshly manicured fingernails for a moment before she said, “I could have harassed her back.” She shook her head. “I just stayed away from her.”
“What did you argue about originally?”
“She was stealing from everyone here. I told her what would happen if she ever took something of mine.” Alice shrugged. “She never did.”
That might explain why she was the only resident who hadn’t had anything go missing.
“What did you plan to do to her if she did steal something from you?” he asked.
Alice smiled. “Fortunately, it never came up. I take it you haven’t found her killer yet. Too many people with a motive, huh?”
He wanted to ask what she was doing in a place like this. She didn’t appear to have a lot in common with the other residents. Nor, he thought, did she play by any of Vernon’s rules apparently.
“Do you like living here?” he asked. The look she gave him was priceless. “So, why do you?”
She shook her head. “Not a lot of options in Grass Range, you might have noticed.”
He had, since he was staying in a small cabin at the edge of town until his investigation was complete.
As he thanked her and rose to leave, he still felt it odd that out of all the residents, Esther hadn’t stolen from Alice.
Yet they had a contentious relationship.
He would have thought Esther would have robbed her just out of spite.
Esther must have been quite adept at pilfering the residents’ belongings, given all that she’d taken.
He couldn’t believe Esther wouldn’t have seen it as a challenge. Or maybe she hadn’t gotten the chance, or she actually feared Alice. Then again, Alice could have taken back whatever Esther had stolen from her after killing her.
Max reminded himself that Esther’s murder might not have anything to do with her felonious behavior. It was possible that whoever had killed Esther had other reasons for wanting the woman dead.
The sheriff could hear the residents still complaining about Esther as he approached the rec room. She might be dead, but she definitely wasn’t forgotten. He thought it interesting that at first they had been reticent to say anything negative about Esther as if afraid of her—even dead.
Now, apparently, they no longer feared her retribution and spoke openly and loudly and without filters.
They’d found Esther rude, greedy, selfish, abusive, loud and obnoxious, condescending, verbally assaulting and untidy.
The latter seemed to be the most egregious of her offenses, making him think of her cluttered apartment.
Now that the residents had proof that Esther was the thief, they sounded like an angry mob. Glancing around the room as he entered it, he could see that any one of them had reason to kill Esther. Even the frailest and most confused had joined in roasting the dead woman.
But only one had taken the knife from the kitchen and done the deed.
Even the one woman who wasn’t here voicing her anger. Alice Chambers might not have had anything stolen, but she still had contempt for Esther.