Sex. Murder. Mystery(57)

“I need money,” she announced one morning over coffee in the Whitleys’ sunny kitchen. “We’re behind on our bills and I’ve got to come up with some cash.”

Jim understood. As they talked, Sharon said she was considering selling some of Perry's belongings—his guns, for example.

“I think I’ll look for a buyer for the business, too.”

Jim Whitley did a lot of listening. He thought it was a bit rushed—Perry could still turn up alive—but he didn’t have her bank account or responsibilities.

The next day, Gary Adams, whom Sharon introduced as her neighbor and “Perry's good friend,” showed up at the Whitley residence.

Sharon said Gary would help them gather up Perry's guns for sale. Jim was impressed by the guns the doctor owned. When Gary mentioned a 30-30 Winchester, Jim said he wished he could afford to buy it.

“You can pay me later,” Sharon said.

Jim shook his head. Not only didn’t he want to owe anybody money, he didn’t think it was right to buy something that belonged to Perry.

“He could still be alive,” he reminded her.

Sharon dismissed the possibility. She wasn’t about to cool her heels waiting around for Perry Nelson to come to his senses and return home—if he could do so.

Over the week following the doctor's disappearance, Gary Adams became a regular visitor at the Whitleys. One time he came with the kids and picked up Sharon for an outing. Mostly, though, he came alone. Jim told his wife that he suspected Sharon and Gary had once been lovers, but he felt that part of their relationship was in the past. The way Sharon Nelson acted, it seemed she’d probably had a dozen men since Gary Adams.

“Something didn’t feel right,” Jim said later. “Something from the very start didn’t seem right about those two. It wasn’t

Gary. I liked Gary. He was decent. It was Sharon that gave me the creepy feeling.”

Jim didn’t want to say anything to Sharon at the time, but he told wife Julie it was more than likely that Dr. Nelson was dead.

“There's no way he could have survived in that icy river after a crash like that. That car had been thrown down the creek and smashed up. Imagine what it would do to a man?”

Julie didn’t agree.

“He wasn’t in the car when it crashed,” she said.

Jim didn’t question Julie. He knew her well enough to trust her instincts—or whatever people wanted to call it.

“Hi, how are you?”

The voice on the telephone was her sister Sharon's, calling from a friend's house in Trinidad.

“Fine,” Judy Douglas said.

“Have you talked to Mom?”

“No, I haven’t. Is everything all right?”

“Haven’t you talked with Mom?”

“Sharon, for Christ's sake, is Daddy dead?”

Sharon hesitated for a second. “No, Perry is—at least he's missing.”

Though Sharon seemed oddly calm given the situation, Judy focused on her sister's words, not her demeanor.

Sharon proceeded to tell her how Perry had gone off to the convention in Denver and never returned. His car had been swept into a river near Golden during a flash flood.

“I'm on my way up,” Sharon said. “Please don’t ask any questions about what happened. Misty and Danny have adjusted and we don’t want to stir things up. No questions, Judy. None.”

Judy hung up the phone with a quiet and gentle touch. She blinked back tears as she gathered up her children to inform them Uncle Perry had been in a car accident and was most likely dead. The legacy of growing up in the Douglas clan was a lack of close family members. Perry was as much of an uncle figure as Judy's children had ever known.

“We’ve got to get our crying done now,” she said. “We can’t say anything about this to Aunt Sharon and the kids. We don’t want to upset them.”

When Sharon and her children arrived in Colorado Springs, Judy kept her promise. No one uttered a word about Perry. There were no outbursts. It was a nice, pleasant visit. It was almost as if nothing had happened.

Back in Rocky Ford, everyone knew Dr. Nelson was missing, presumed dead—or, if he had a lick of sense left, had run away from his no-good second wife. When Sharon came to the Watkins Medical Arts Building to tell the tale of Perry's tragic disappearance, she gathered a group of women together in one of the back offices. She sobbed about being left alone, not knowing what happened or what her future held. She cried into a tissue as she professed her love for her missing husband.

Iona Hamilton was among those who saw Sharon that day. Iona, of course, had known Perry long before he got involved with the preacher's wife. She’d never thought much of the marriage in the first place. She remained cool to Sharon, and sensed Dr. Nelson's wife clearly understood that she’d get no sympathy from her.