“Did she tell you where she heard of it?”
“Nope. As a matter of fact, she hurried off the phone right quick like. I wondered at the time if she was trying to avoid answering my questions.”
“And you can’t ask her now.” Was that the whole reason she died? She knew too much about an illegal fertilizer operation? Could it be enough to kill someone over?
“No, I can’t, and I feel just terrible about it.”
“If I turn up anything, I’ll be sure to let you know.” And I had a couple of decent bets where to start.
• • •
I was grabbing my car keys almost before I had hung up the phone. Lowell needed to hear there might be something to lead the investigation away from Greener Pastures, the sooner the better. I promised Grandma I would be back within an hour or so to help with more pie baking and set off for town.
The police station is just one block off Sugar Grove’s main street. It sits tucked back behind a shady clump of rhododendrons that are unique in the fact they are being used in a commercial setting and don’t look like they are suffering because of it. I sometimes think petty thieves and IRS auditors get reincarnated as rhododendrons. I can’t think of anything more miserable than being one of those plants that get a reputation as an easy-care, hardy evergreen.
I rolled up to the corner of the station and parked the MG near the back so as not to take up any spaces needed for actual emergencies. I was sure Lowell would want to hear what I had to say, but I was not sure it justified plopping down in front of the building like I was a mayor on crutches or something. The door swung silently on its hinges and I walked in past the reception desk without spotting Myra. She ought to be at her desk fielding calls about police emergencies as well as the kind involving turkeys that were still frozen the day before they were scheduled to be the main event. The door to Lowell’s office was halfway open, and I could hear him talking to someone. I didn’t want to interrupt or disturb him so I stepped up quietly.
He was speaking softly, and at first I had a hard time making out his actual words. I was about a foot from the door when the forced hot air heating system shut off and the building suddenly became much quieter.
“How about if I call Mitch in a little early and we go over to my place for a little bit? He’s always looking to pick up a few more hours and I never take my vacation time.” Lowell’s voice had a softness to it combined with a rumbling sultry quality I had never heard him use before. I heard a woman giggle just a bit. Lowell has never had a girlfriend I have ever met as long as he has been my godfather. Sure, I’ve heard my father and grandparents asking him about dates he had been on, but there was never anybody he brought out to the house for a family dinner or even anyone whose name he brought up in conversation. I was intrigued and felt like he was headed into new territory that would do him a world of good. I crept just slightly closer to the doorway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman who caused him to behave so recklessly.
Her back was to me and her face was obscured by Lowell’s but I would know her anywhere. After all, it’s hard not to recognize your own mother.
I backed away from the door so quickly I bumped into a chair and fell to the floor. Myra came out of the small room at the end of the hall, where they kept the microwave and the extra paper goods. She was holding one of those frozen diet entrées in her red beefy hands, a startled look on her face.
“Dani, are you all right?” She moved toward me like she was going to help me up. I jumped to my feet and continued on without a word. I heard her calling after me in tones a lumberjack would use to alert the others a tree was on its way to the ground. I had gotten to the car, shut the door, and had even turned the engine over before Lowell and my mother appeared in the doorway of the police station. The look on my mother’s face in the rearview mirror was one I had not seen since my father’s funeral. She looked stricken and small. The last thing I saw before I rounded the corner was her turning in toward Lowell’s chest and him wrapping his long arms around her shoulders.
Fourteen
The only place to go was Piper’s. Even if she wasn’t home, her place was never locked. Her parents used to scold her about it until she pointed out that if anyone wanted to steal her stuff, they could easily take it all by hitching her RV to a truck and towing the whole thing away. Once she promised to lock it at night when she was inside, they stopped nagging. They did buy a surveillance service for the campground, but they argued it was a business expense and for the campground so it wasn’t really about her anyway.