“Do you know where?” I asked.
“Yes. I think it was a campground. He did things for the camper’s children. Like a summer camp for the vacationers,” she said.
That was a great idea. Camp for the camper’s kiddos. I put that back in my memory for later use.
“That’s how he got the idea that he wanted us to have scads of children, but I wasn’t able to conceive after Jr.” She blinked a few times and turned away as though she didn’t want me to see her getting upset. “Anyways, that was a long time ago.”
“Interesting because Paul had a college bet with someone and that’s how he got ownership of the campground. I can’t help but wonder if Grady owned the campground somehow.” There were incomplete thoughts rolling through my head.
“No, he didn’t own it, but Paul did come visit him a lot. I do remember that.” She nodded and tapped the counter with her fingernail. “There were some rumblings about a poker game, but Grady always blew me off when I asked him about it. Since it didn’t involve me or him, I just dropped it and never thought about it until now.”
“You can’t remember any particulars about the poker game?” I asked. “I’ve never known Paul to even gamble.”
“There appears to be a lot you didn’t know about your husband,” she gave me a little dig, which I let slide.
Apparently, those made her feel better about the situation and I wasn’t going to take that away from her. My skin had really thickened up over the past couple of months, especially in the last few days.
“Anyways, I’m living in a camper in Normal.” I rolled my eyes and gave a little laugh. “Far cry from Fifth Avenue.”
“At least you have a roof over your head and know that your husband is dead,” there was no sympathy coming from her.
“Ex,” I said with an exhausted sigh.
“You know what I mean.” She pushed the sleeves up on her shirt. She looked like she was just getting started with me and I wanted to shut that down.
“Do you have any other questions?” I wanted to get them out of the way.
“How exactly do you plan on helping people out?” She asked a great question that I’d not entirely figured out.
“One at a time,” I pulled that out of nowhere. “Paul hadn’t been paying the manager of the campground. Said she could live there for free.” I rolled my eyes. “She’s had been spending any extra money she had to pay for the lot fees of the residential campers so they weren’t evicted. She has a kind heart and Paul took advantage of her. She happens to be a suspect since she let Paul invest her savings.”
I left out the part on how Dottie had gotten the savings, from losing her husband and child.
“I didn’t give back all her money, but I will continue to pay her and let her live for free on the property. I’ve got plans to bring the campground back to what it use to be.” I dug in my purse for the brochure. I slide it across the island for her too check out.
“You live here?” She unfolded it.
“On the land,” I let out a snort. “Paul had let the campground go to ruins. I’m going to bring it back to what the brochure says it is. I’ve got a fundraiser planned and a few good hearted people in Normal have stepped up to the plate to help and donate a lot of things.”
“That’s just one woman,” she eagerly pointed out.
“Normal used to be a vibrant community that families would flock to on vacation, just like your husband did the during summer camp. Normal still has all of that to offer, it’s the campground that needs to be fixed up so I can bring income back to the town. Give people jobs. That surely has to help.” It sounded so powerful to say those words out loud.
I’d never really given my business plan a purpose and this was exactly why I needed to bring the campground back.
“One at a time, huh?” She stared at me. “When’s it going to be my time?”
“Well, for starters, I need to know where Grady is.” I put the brochure back into my purse.
“You’re guess is as good as mine.” She looked down, unfolded her arms and brushed her hand along the marble island top. “That morning we had just packed up the last of the kitchen items. We were having a cup of coffee on the deck. We started to talk about how we’d made all of our college plans come true.” She sniffed. I could tell she was fighting back tears. “I used my law degree to get him great business deals as he used his business degree to make those deals happen. We were a match made in horse business as the Herald Leader pointed out in an article they’d done on our marriage. Jr. was a whiz at all things computer, so we’d made sure we’d had a fully funded 529 college fund plus all the extra money he was going to need in case he didn’t get a full scholarship. He dreamed of going to Harvard to major in business and IT.”
“That’s great.” I was happy to see Jr’s dreams come true.
“Great?” Her brows furrowed. “He didn’t get a full ride this year.” She looked away. “And I found out that Grady had given all of Jr’s money to Paul,” her voice trailed off.
“Oh.” My gut dropped.
“Jr. didn’t deserve this. He worked so hard in school and we worked hard to put that money into the account. When I found out that a couple of months ago that Paul had talked Grady into giving him the money around a year ago, I almost divorced him it. This fall, Jr. will be attending community college and working at the BBQ diner to pay it.” She pinched her lips together, and began to rub them together like she was rubbing in lipstick.
“I don’t have the words.” I looked down at my fingers and fidgeted nervously. It wasn’t just one generation of lives Paul had ruined, it was the entire legacy of that generation. “I don’t know how I’m ever to going repay everyone, but I’ll come up with something.”
“What about giving him a job?” She looked me square in the face. “He can do both jobs this summer.”
“Well,” I wasn’t sure how that was going to work. “Let me get the fundraiser over and I’ll see what I can come up with. The car he’s driving?”
“Yep. His other was re-poed.” She made me nervous with her stare.
“Do you have any idea where your husband could’ve gone?” I asked.
“The detectives asked me the same thing. I have no clue. He didn’t take a wallet, his cell or even his car. That too was re-poed.” Her jaw clenched. “It makes him look like the killer now that I remembered the summer camp thing.”
“Do you think he’d heard from Paul from prison and he planned to meet Paul there with the intent to kill him? Seek revenge?” I asked.
“Grady was very angry at Paul, but he’d never hurt a fly.” She wasn’t going to hear of any ideas I might’ve had as to what happened to her husband.
“Then where do you think he went?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It’s no secret that after what he’d done with Jr’s college fund, we didn’t fully recover our marriage. He’d been living his life and I’d been living mine. They only times they’d cross was when we had to do something in public.” She looked back at the door when the doorbell rang. “I’m sorry, Mae, but I’ve got some paintings to try to sell so I can get a roof over me and my son’s head. We don’t have the comforts of a camper to go home to after tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry,” I made sure I told her again. “I’m not sure how I’m going to make it up to you and Jr, but I’m going to. I’ll get back to you on a job.”
“Mmmhmmm,” she blew me off and went to the door.
I ended up showing myself out of their house when she didn’t come back after I waited a few minutes. I grabbed another piece of the coffee cake for the road.
FIFTEEN
Since my visit with Ava was cut short and I wasn’t able to get an answer to where to look for Grady Cox, I decided to move down my list of suspects. The only name left was Ty Randal.