“She told me she hadn’t seen him in forever.” I gulped and wondered if that old saying about keeping your enemies closer was what she was doing with me. The fact was that I didn’t know her, and it would be easy for her to cover up anything. All these people drip with southern charm, which makes it hard to distinguish anything real. “And no. We aren’t in cahoots. Are you sure it wasn’t just gossip because a lot of that goes on around here.”
“They are on the video of the bank. I’m going to have her bank records subpoenaed and see if there’s any sort of weird transactions on her account.” His words alarmed me.
“I just put money in her account without her knowing.” Nervously, I ran my hands through my hair. “I was just. . .”
“Why? How much?” His brows formed a “V” as he stared at me.
“Just a thousand to help get her by. She told me that Paul hadn’t paid her well and any money she did have, she used to pay off some of the lots fees that the campers owed. I only wanted to help her,” my voice trailed off.
“You have one thousand dollars to give away, Mae West?” His jaw softened. He shot me a twisted smile. “I thought you were broke. How much more money do you have?”
“I don’t have much and it’s none of your business. I’m not a suspect, so it’s none of your business,” my voice was rough with anxiety.
Now he was making me think Dottie Swaggert did have something to do with Paul’s murder.
“Now that you told me that, it’s possible you knew Dottie before this little act you’ve put on here. After all,” his tone hardened ruthlessly, “You are an actress, right Mae West?”
“Whatever,” I said sarcastically and jerked the car door open.
“What are you two doing?” Dottie asked after both of us had gotten out of the car.
“I’ve come to get an official statement from you or if you want to come to the station, I can take you down and bring you back.” He tapped the top of the car with his hand.
“Nope. I’ve got nothing to hide. You’re more than welcome to come in and I’ll answer anything you want to know.” Dottie waved him in.
It was my cue to go. The weeds that I’d not noticed before he pointed them out were worse than I thought. After I’d gotten my file and purse into the camper, I threw on a pair of shorts and T-shirt. There was no time like the present to pick those weeds because I wasn’t getting any sort of loan to help me hire anyone. I needed the exercise and get what Hank had told me about Dottie and Paul on that tape out of my head for the time being. Maybe all the talk about exercise being good for stress was something I needed to explore, because I was stressed out to say the least.
The lake was still green and murky. I reminded myself to take on one project at a time. The weeds had to be pulled in order for people to stand around the lake. That was where I was going to start. About fifteen minutes into the tedious task, a few more of the campers had come outside and began to pick weeds with me. Before I knew it, the entire campground, minus Dottie Swaggert, was around the lake helping me pull up the weeds.
“See what a little team work can do,” Henry said with a big black bag filled with weeds in his hands.
Both of us stood there looking over the lake at the campers. They were all talking and laughing, getting ready for the nightly supper. I’d never lived in a community where everyone took care of everyone else.
My eyes welled with tears as the joy of kindness flittered inside of my heart. There was no amount of money or the big mansion I had once had that would make me want to go back to the life I’d been living.
“Are you okay?” Henry asked.
“I’m fine. More than fine. I thought I was living the life I wanted.” I gulped. “I was so wrong.”
“Normal ain’t much, but we do have some good folks around these parts.” Henry shook his head and left me with my feelings.
“Normal will be much.” I tugged my shoulders back. If a little bit of weeding made the place look this much better, I could only imagine what a little more elbow grease would do. “I promise you that,” I whispered to myself.
That night, I sat down at the table with a small plate of food from all the firepits that’d gathered around the lake and started to make a list in my RV files about the murder. There were some murmurs about Paul’s death and even a rumor or two about the national news coming to town for some sort of press conference the next day.
Dottie and Henry had both been victims of Paul’s. According to Dottie, Hank said that the FBI thought that someone in the park knew he was there. I wrote their names on a piece of paper as well as Ty Randal.
Under Dottie’s name I wrote the word motive and started to make a list under it.
“She invested and lost her savings to Paul’s scheme. She felt sorry for Paul initially. She wasn’t getting paid. She was paying lot fees for the campers and got angry when she realized she wasn’t going to get that money or her investment back. When Paul showed up,” I hesitated because I was stumped to why they’d be seen in town together. That was something I was going to have to explore further, but for now I finished my list. “she got angry and shot him.”
Then I wrote down that I needed to know if she had a gun or a license. The only way I knew to do that was to snoop in her camper. When was that going to happen? She was always outside smoking and watching everyone.
I moved on to Henry. His list of motives were that Paul had stolen his two thousand dollars. Henry didn’t seem like the killing type. He was helpful and kind. There just wasn’t a clear motive, but he remained on the list.
Then there was Ty. He seemed to have the biggest motive, to me. I began to wonder where he’d moved back from. According to the local gossip, he had a career and life outside of Normal. It was Paul’s fault that the family diner was going to go under and he blamed Paul for his father’s heart attack. I quickly wrote those things down because those were major life altering things that could make Ty go over the edge. I saw how he reacted when I came into the diner and I hadn’t done a thing to him. I can only imagine what happened when he saw Paul.
I snapped my fingers.
“That’s it.” I quickly wrote, “The diner is across from the bank. He saw Paul talking to Dottie. He followed Paul or maybe talked to Paul. Either way, somehow he got Paul back to the campground and shot him.”
So, all of this was speculation. I knew that I had to get into Dottie’s and Ty’s campers to look for clues. That’s how they did it in the movies. I wouldn’t be considered a burglar since I owned the lots their campers sat on, would I.?
“Nah.” I talked myself into my way of thinking and sat back in the kitchen chair to get a look. “This looks like a good start.” I stretched my arms over my head with a big yawn.
ELEVEN
The next morning, the buzz of a lawn mower woke me earlier than I’d planned to get up. When I pulled back the kitchen window curtain, I saw three people on mowers. One was Henry, another was Dottie, but I didn’t recognize the last one.
While I got ready, I flipped on my Keurig so I could have a nice cup of coffee while I walked over to see who else I needed to thank. I also made a few more cups of coffee and put it in a thermos and grabbed a couple of Styrofoam cups.
The little bit of weeding that had been done around the lake made the campground much tidier and inviting. It was all coming together.
The morning sunrays trickled down into the lake showing off the murky green slush. No matter how much we cut the grass, that slush wasn’t going to go away on its own. I had to remind myself that I was doing one thing at a time and eventually I’d get it back in tiptop shape.
“What little grass we got sure does look better.” Dottie had stopped the lawn mower when she saw me coming.
“Here, it’s still really early.” I gave her a cup and unscrewed the thermos lid,filling it up with coffee. “What did Detective Sharp want yesterday?” I asked.