Billie had had long, blonde hair when she was younger, when the affair started. Actually, we did have proof of how she’d looked back then, but we hadn’t noticed it. In the file full of Ridgeway articles we found in Reggie’s desk were pictures from as far back as the late eighties. There was one small article, with one small picture of Reggie and Billie together at a tree farmers’ event. They were young, happy, and in love; there wasn’t any other way to describe the two people in the picture. I was still baffled that the affair hadn’t been bigger news, or at least big enough for a reporter or two to dig up the dirty details. I’d never understand how covering those sorts of stories had changed so much over the years.
Since Sam and I still hadn’t figured out what Denny was trying to tell us with the ornaments, he’d made one final gift, a well-crafted one this time. One that he hoped would clearly tell us that we needed to suspect Billie. He’d planned on leaving a note with it in my truck on the day we came to cut down our tree, though he still hadn’t figured out what to say in the note. We didn’t get that ornament.
And, we never did get a tree.
But, we had a pretty poinsettia plant.
“They were just thieves?” I said as I took the cup of hot chocolate from Sam.
He sat next to me on the couch. “Yep. Joel and Patricia Archer had worked for Reggie years earlier, but just by helping with the trees. This year, they also decided to steal some ornaments. They’ve stolen a lot of things. I think we’re going to find lots of criminal behavior as we take a closer look. They’re scam artists, but they aren’t big-time as far as we can tell. They took advantage of Reggie’s death to jump in and earn his money. I think they were trying to figure out how to steal the truck.”
“They wouldn’t have gotten far,” I said.
“Probably not. Oh, Patricia’s the one who faxed the contract back to Allison.”
“Why didn’t she tell you that when we talked to her?”
“After she faxed it, she put it in her jacket pocket, just in case there might be something written into it that she could somehow use against Reggie. And, she never told her husband what Reggie had asked her to do. It seems that Reggie was perfectly aware that Joel and Patricia weren’t completely above board, so he had told them to stay out of the garage, and away from his papers, messy though they were. She wanted to keep the contract to herself, just in case. Apparently, even Joel and Patricia didn’t trust Joel and Patricia.”
“Why did Reggie hire them again?”
Sam shrugged. “Hard to know, but I think he must have been an okay guy. Maybe he wanted to give them a second chance.”
It was Christmas morning, and Hobbit and I were both at Sam’s; we’d been under his watchful eye since my hand had, in fact, needed to be stitched. He still needed to be available for work and his house was closer to the police station, so he’d insisted we stay there. Hobbit and I were both fine with it. We’d spend the afternoon with my family, but the morning was just for us.
“Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that Batman will be well taken care of. Evelyn—Evie—gave Reggie’s house and the farm to Gellie.”
“Wow! That’s quite a gift.”
“Evelyn didn’t want it. Gellie will leave it for her daughters and their families. A good idea, don’t you think?”
“I do. Sam, how’d you get Evelyn to finally tell you everything?” I asked.
Sam had told me that his last visit with Evelyn had been productive almost to the point of too much information, but he hadn’t shared his pressure techniques with me. She told him everything that had happened all those years ago and all the players involved. She shared details of how she found out about the affair, and she told him that she’d suspected Billie had killed Reggie all along, but she, of course, didn’t have any evidence.
Sam took a sip of his coffee and glanced at me over the brim with his amazing eyes. They were particularly stunning this morning and I found it difficult not to just stare into them. He finally said, “I suspected the Ridgeways were somehow involved, though I wasn’t sure how. I knew Evie had taken a liking to you. I told her you were on your way to confront them and she spilled everything.”
“Oh, that was such a good idea,” I said appreciatively.
“It would have been better if Evelyn had come forward with the information sooner, but even after all these years, I think she was ashamed about her husband having an affair. I think your parents were correct; I think the marriage breaking up was more about Evelyn’s ego being bruised than about Reggie’s infidelity.”