HIGHWAY HOMICIDE (16 page)

Chapter Twenty Four

The murderer of Forrest Appleyard realized he’d been very fortunate in his encounter with his potential blackmailer. He’d been extremely lucky to have been able to find an alternative weapon when Forrest had knocked the tire iron from his hand.

If the old axe hadn’t been close at hand, Forrest would have gotten clean away. And Forrest had seen his face before he’d turned to run.

After the murders, the killer had watched the CBS TV station on
Burlington’s Channel 3. He’d also read the newspapers and had listened to the radio stations.

Maria Caspar’s death had been the lead story, followed by the report of the killing of the blackmailer. The stories gave his name as Forrest Appleyard, a resident of Cooper’s Corners in
Lamoille County.

As the days passed he continued to scan the news media but there wasn’t a word about David Gates. No frozen body found alongside Maria Caspar’s out on the highway. There was no hunt for him as a fugitive suspected of murder either, nothing at all.

All of which pointed to one inescapable conclusion and one only. David Gates was still alive and still at large somewhere. Just because the media hadn’t mentioned his name, didn’t necessarily mean the police weren’t actively searching for him.

However, if he’d been found dead, then he’d have been named along with Maria. He thought about that for a moment and smiled. Even if he’d been found dead, the police wouldn’t have been able to identify him right away, would they? The killer had personally made sure that David’s wallet had been burned in the destruction of his home. It had been doused with gasoline and had been placed at the source of the fire.

He hadn’t actually checked the contents of Gates’ wallet, not even for banknotes. He’d assumed that Gates’ driving license and other pertinent identity documents would be in it. Why carry a wallet if you didn’t have your important documents in it?

The murderer realized he still had two possible loose ends here. One was the loss of his watch, which could possibly be buried under several inches of snow by now. If it was, chances were it wouldn’t be found until the April or May, if at all, and any fingerprints on it would be long gone by then.

The second loose end was Gates himself. Even though he’d thought at the time Gates had passed out before seeing him, now he wasn’t quite so sure. And to save his own skin, he had to sure. More than just sure, he had to be absolutely certain.

In fact there was only one way to be totallycertain and that was to track him down to find out if, in fact, he was still alive. Then, if he was, the killer had to make damned sure he didn’t stay that way much longer.

He would have to return to Cooper’s Corners under some sort of suitable and believable guise. He didn’t actually have to
dis
guise himself, since no one there had actually seen him yet. Except the Appleyard guy of course and he was no longer a threat now. He had to enter the community as though he had a natural and perfectly good reason for being there.

In these smaller communities, he knew strangers stood out as though they had a neon sign on them. A sign that said ‘
Hey, look at me. I’m a stranger. I don’t belong here’.
But if that was the case, and Gates was also still in the area, surely he’d stand out just as much as well, wouldn’t he?

He knew he’d have to destroy David Gates and soon, but he wouldn’t be foolhardy enough to go after him with another tire iron. No, sir, he wouldn’t! A gun of some sort was the answer and although
Vermont still upheld its citizens’ right to bear arms, the killer had never actually possessed one of his own.

But as of today all that was about to change. He wasn’t about to purchase one, but he did intend to
possess
one, even if he had to steal it.

The killer hadn’t really harbored any real grudges or jealousy against Gates in the past either. Envy perhaps, because he’d wanted Maria Caspar exclusively for himself. David Gates had just been unfortunate enough to have come home unexpectedly at the wrong time.

His killing of Maria had been in a fit of passion and rage at being rejected again by her. On the other hand, his killing of his potential blackmailer, he’d considered to be purely a matter of self defense. It was premeditated self defense certainly, but defense against an almost certain death sentence. By his own words, the man had indicated , if the killer didn’t pay up, then the caller’s testimony could put him easily on Death Row.

So, if
that
wasn’t self defense, the killer didn’t know what the hell was. And Gates would fit nicely into the same category if he’d actually seen Maria’s killer in his home.

He now had two things in mind, first to somehow obtain a gun, any gun, and then to somehow also kill David Gates with it. Until he was able to do both of those things, there was no way he could feel safe.

With those thoughts in mind, he started to make a plan.

Chapter Twenty Five

“Something on your mind, Bud?” Carl asked David. “Anything wrong?”

They were all sitting down at Judy’s dining room table for a late dinner, Carl, Almost, Judy and David. Almost had just stopped by to drop David off, after their clothing shopping spree during the afternoon. He should have gone straight home to have the dinner that his wife, Jennie had cooked for him. But there was no way that anyone in their right mind was going to turn down the offer of one or two pieces of Judy’s homemade pineapple pecan cheesecake.

David was now back to
wearing his own clothes Jennie had washed, dried and ironed for him and he felt much more at ease in them.

“Nobody irons
jeans
, Almost,” David had whispered to him.

“My Jennie does, Dave, and you’ll find yourself swimming in some pretty dangerous waters if you want to be foolish enough to tell her that
. I’ll bet I’m the only guy in the whole of the State of Vermont who has his underpants neatly ironed and folded for him too. I wouldn’t dare to tell her that either.”

David now had a com
pletely new wardrobe of clothes he’d just bought but he’d also just realized he’d overlooked something very important.

“I was just thinking
I should have bought a dark suit as well,” he said, “Unless it’s too late now, of course.”

“Too late?” Judy questioned him, then stopped and added, “Oh, right, of course. How insensitive of me, David, I’m so sorry. I was going t
o bring the subject up, but I’d planned to save it until tomorrow.”

“Too late for what?” Almost asked. “Just w
hat’re you saving for tomorrow?”

Carl kicked him hard under the table.

“Put your foot back in your mouth, and shut up for Christ’s sake, Almost,” he growled.

“Why
? What did I say now?” Almost protested.

“No, it’s alright, Carl.
” David said. “They’re both referring to Maria. Her funeral, Almost.”

“Oh,
I’m sorry,” Almost mumbled in embarrassment.

To avoid any further damage, Judy took charge of the conversation by saying. “The State Police are releasing her body for burial on Saturday, David. I’ve bee
n in touch with Erica and she’s made funeral arrangements for next Tuesday.” She looked at David. “She said it’ll be held at Christ the King church on Main Street in Rutland. Do you know where that is?”

David nodded as Judy continued, “The boys here will be on duty of course
but I’ll be happy to run you down there. It’ll be nice to see Erica again too, in spite of the sad circumstances. I really liked her. It’s scheduled for two o’clock, by the way.”

David nodded his thanks to her.

“I’m ashamed to say this, but with everything else that’s been going on, I’d completely forgotten there’d naturally have to be a funeral.”

“Its okay, David,” Judy said gently, “You’ve just been through such a shocking experience, an
d I’m not surprised you forgot. But don’t you worry yourself about a suit right now. It can wait. We’ll have time to see to all that that later. There’s still a lot of time before Tuesday.”

To change the subject Carl asked him, “What about your job, Dave? Where were you working? Was it in
Rutland?”

David nodded.

“Yes, I was working at the General Electric plant but somehow I don’t think I’ll be going back there. I’ve only worked for G.E. for a couple of years and there’s really nothing left down there for me any more. No Maria, no house, no belongings and the job itself wouldn’t be enough to make me want to go back.”

“You’re not planning to stay here in Cooper’s Corners are you, surely,
not after everything that’s happened?” Almost asked.

“You k
now something, Almost, I do believe I am. If I could find a decent enough job here, I think this would be a fine place to live.”

“We all th
ink so,” Judy smiled, “and you’re welcome to stay here with me for as long as you need to.”

“Only if I pay my own way, Judy,” David said.

“We’ll talk about later, young man. Now, who’s for more cheesecake,” Judy said. Almost immediately held his empty plate out to her.

“I’ll ask around,” Carl said. “Maybe you can jot down some kind of a resume. Y
ou know. Things you’re good at, that I can show to folks. Enough to get them talking to you anyway.”

David smiled.

“Do you reckon being a successfully elusive but reformed fugitive from justice would be on anyone’s hiring criteria here then, Carl,” he asked.

“Don’t you worry yourself about that, David. You were barely on our gossip mill’s radar at all.
You did nothing really wrong, just a teeny bit illegal maybe. You didn’t hurt anyone, you weren’t charged with anything and we all think you’re a really nice guy. Why wouldn’t anyone want to hire you?” Judy said. “And once they all know you’re lodging here with me that’ll just about clinch it for you.”

“There you go then, Dave, you just got yourself the Cooper’s Corners Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. And believe me, no one around here would dare argue with our Jude, not for one second,” Carl said with a grin.

“I know
we
sure as hell wouldn’t,” Almost said in an exaggerated stage whisper.

“I heard that, you cheeky monkey,” Judy told him, “I don’t
know why I even bother to feed you guys.”

“It’s because you love us so much,” Almost replied airily.

Judy gave a faint smile. She knew Almost was making fun of her, but he’d hit the nail right on the head. She did love these guys. They were both more like sons to her than work associates, or bosses even. They were like the sons she and Mel had never had.

She and Mel hadn’t been blessed with any children at all. Consequently, she reveled in her mother hen role, no matter how much she pretended to complain about it. These were
her
boys, her family, since Mel was now long gone, and it looked as though she’d just adopted another one.

Judy piled more cheesecake on to all of their plates.

“You’d have gotten more of that, Almost, if you hadn’t been such a smart ass.”

Almost looked down at his practically overflowing plate and grinned at her.

“You know something, Jude, if this is the worst punishment you can think of for me being cheeky to you, it’s never gonna stop happening. You know that, don’t you.”

I sure as hell hope not, Judy said to herself with a secret smile, as she gave him a mock glare. 

Chapter Twenty Six

Right after his conversation with Errol Cook, Carl was feeling very pleased with himself. So pleased, in fact, he thought he’d take a run out to Lisa’s for a lunchtime hoagie.

Thanks to Err
ol’s confession, he believed he’d now solved the oldest of the murders. He knew for sure that Errol was responsible and Carl was prepared to sit on it for as long as was necessary.

Jack Finlay had now been dead for over five years. Whether Carl uncovered his murderer today or even a year from now, wouldn’t make one iota of difference. Putting Errol in jail for the last few weeks of his life wouldn’t make a scrap of difference to anyone either, except to Errol. All it would do would be to make the poor old bastard feel
even worse than he did already.

Carl knew
Errol would be good to his word and would leave him a letter just as he’d promised. When Carl had taken away Errol’s driving license in exchange for not arresting him, Errol had complied with all the rules Carl had set. And never once in all those years had he violated Carl’s trust. Carl knew Errol wouldn’t let him down on this either. If Errol’s wife, Dolly, had also been dead for over five years, then there was no urgency to look into that either, was there?

But
something else was niggling away at the back of Carl’s mind since he’d talked to Errol.

He knew now
Errol had killed Finlay. That was now a fact, since Errol had confessed to it. He also felt sure, from what Errol had said, Dolly Cook was dead as well. At this point though, it was merely a supposition, not a fact.

It would become a fact when Carl finally discovered the b
ody. But Errol had insisted he hadn’t touched her. What was it he’d said? He’d worded it in a peculiar way. ‘Not while she was alive’, he’d said. That was it, wasn’t it?

So, that told Carl a couple of t
hings. First of all, since he’d quite freely admitted shooting Finlay, why wouldn’t he also admit to killing Dolly, if he’d done it. Because
he
hadn’t done it, that’s why. But when he’d said, ‘Not while she was alive’, he was admitting he’d
seen
her dead.

Carl felt
if Errol had known who was responsible for her death, he would’ve told him. Maybe it was something else that would be in Errol’s letter. The letter would tell Carl where she was, he knew that. And if she was dead, as Errol was suggesting, then he’d be telling Carl in the letter where she was buried. He would just have to wait a while to find out, that was all.

As Carl sat at a booth in Lisa’s diner, he looked down at the pa
per napkin he’d been doodling on. He hadn’t even been aware he’d been doing it, but he’d drawn a series of interlocking triangles, like a necklace.

Triangles
? Carl thought. What would be the significance of triangles? A side road yield sign, maybe? No, that made no sense. But was his subconscious mind trying to trigger his brain into a particular line of thought, he wondered? Triangles? But why triangles, he thought in frustration?

At that point, Rosetta arrived with his lunch.

“Triangles, Carl?” she teased him. “I thought it was circles you guys always ran around in. That’s what Lisa says anyway.”

Carl gave her an exasperated look.

“Anyway, Carl, what happened to that nice looking guy you took away? Is he in jail?”

“You mean Lisa’s pet felon with the cutest blue eyes? No, he’s free, Rosie. We le
t him go. You can tell Lisa she’s also free to get her claws into him if she’s a mind to,” he said.

“I’ll do no such thing!” Rosetta retorted. “Good
God, man, you’re so dumb, Carl Berger. She’s not interested in
him
! If you really want to know who turns her on, always has and always will, all you have to do is look in a mirror. But Mr. Blue Eyes now, I’d just love the chance to park my moccasins in his wigwam, I can tell you.”

“Really, Rosie, I didn
’t know that,” Carl said, “You’re a brazen little hussy, but he’ll be pleased to hear what you said. I’ll tell him when I get back.”

Rosetta looked shocked.

“You wouldn’t
dare
! Anyway, I was only joking. I didn’t mean it.”

“Come on now. Rosie, sure you me
ant it. Who do you think you’re kidding? And I don’t blame you. For a suspected felon, he actually turned out to be a really nice guy.” Carl told her. “But don’t worry; your little secret is safe enough with me, so long as I don’t tell Almost. If I did, everyone in the whole County would know about it, wouldn’t they?”

Rosetta was blushing furiously. “Thanks, Carl,” she said, “Enjoy your hoagie. I’ll bring coffee over for you in a minute.”

“Thank you too, Rosie, and speaking of bringing things, I’ll make sure I bring Ol’ Blue Eyes in with me next time I’m in. I know you say you’re not interested, but he tells me he plans to stay in Cooper’s Corners now. He’s lodging with Judy at the moment,” Carl said with a grin, “But you didn’t need to know any of that either, did you?”

Carl grinned as Rosetta flounced away, ponytail swinging and still blushing furiously.

“Young love,” he thought, “How sweet it is.” As he thought, his gaze went down to the doodles on the napkin beside his hoagie plate.

Love
! Love
triangles
! It wasn’t just
one
person who’d been in love with Dolly Cook! It was
two
. Errol and somebody else. But who else? Dolly had never been leaving Errol for
Jack Finlay,
for Christ’s sake! She’d just said that to get him all riled up. She was leaving him for somebody else. But
who
?

Carl wracked his brains throughout his meal, but with no success at all. Finally, in frustration, he paid his bill and drove back to the Sheriff’s office.

When he got there, he went inside and plopped himself down heavily into his chair.

“You okay, Carl” Judy asked.

“Yeah, I’m alright, Jude, except the old brain isn’t worked too well today.”

Judy was about to quip ‘only just today’ and had then thought better of it when Carl continued.

“Something is nagging the hell out of me, but I just can’t think of it for the life of me,” he said.

“Want to talk it out, Chief?” Judy asked.

Carl gave a frustrated sigh.

“Yeah, I guess so, Jude. It might just help. Right now it’s driving me crazy.”

“Go for it, then, Carl. Where do you want to start?”

“Not sure, Jude. That’s the trouble.”

“So where were you this morning? I hardly heard from you at all.”

“I just had a word or two with Errol Cook, that’s all,” he said.

“Alright, then, so let’s start there,” she said.

“Right. Here goes then.” He paused and thought for a moment. “How long have you known Errol, Jude?”

“Gee, for years, I guess. You knew he was a good friend of Mel’s, didn’t you? That was before we were married actually. Before Errol was married too, come to that. Mel and I, together with Errol and Connie Bishop, would go to the dances as a foursome.”

“Connie Bishop? What was Errol do
ing with Connie? I thought he was going out with Dolly.”

“Oh, I’m going back a ways here, Carl. Before Errol and Dolly became an item, he was very sweet on Connie.”

“And what was Dolly doing while all this was going on then?”

“Well, Carl, she had, as we used to say in those days, set her cap at the new young doctor in town. He was young, but still a lot older than me or Dolly. We were very impressionable at that age.”

“Young doctor? What young doctor was that?”

“You may not believe this, Carl, we were all young once, even me.”

“Did we have another doctor here at that time then? Before Doc Wayland?” Carl asked.

“Carl, honey, you can be pretty dense sometimes. I’m
talking
about Doc Wayland. He was young and very handsome in those days. Still is, in my opinion.”

But Carl was no longer listening. It all started to make sense now. A love triangle. Errol, Dolly and
Doc
! Why not. What was it Doc had said about jealousy and revenge being two of the prime motives for murder? Unfortunately for Carl, of all the things that Almost normally repeated word for word, he’d forgotten to tell him about Doc and Dolly dating.

“Would you like a coffee, Chief? I’m just about to make one.” Judy asked.

“No thanks, Jude, I’m off to see a Doc about a man,” he grinned.

“Don’t you mean a man about a dog, Carl?” she said curiously.

“No, you wonderful lady,” he said as he planted a kiss in the middle of her forehead. “I meant
exactly
what I said and I love you right now.” He grinned as he hugged her. “Gotta go, Jude. I’ve got important business to attend to, thanks to you.”

“What in the world did I do?” she asked in astonishment.

“I’ll tell you later,” he said as he dashed out of the office.

He droppe
d by Doc’s office and found he’d gone over to Lisa’s for lunch. They must have even passed each other on the way but Carl had been too preoccupied to notice.

He walked back into Lisa’s and waved to her. Rosetta was trying to look around him. “Next time, Rosie, I promise,” he said as he passed her.

“Coffee, Carl?” she called after him as he headed over to where Doc was sitting. Doc nodded as he slid into the booth opposite him.

Without any preamble, Carl
said.

“You know we’
ve identified the skeleton as Jack Finlay, don’t you, Doc?”

Doc looked up from his meal at him.

“Well, and hello to you too, Sheriff. What’s gotten your shorts all in a knot today, Carl?”

“Tell me what you know about Finlay and Dolly Cook, Doc. Please, Doc, its important.” Carl said. “What actually happened? Tell me, please.”

Doc nodded and put his fork down.

“It’s a good job
I’m finished with this because what I have to tell you may take a bit of time,” he said.

Before he could say any more Rosetta came over with Carl’s coffee and also refilled Doc’s. She saw the looks on the two men’s faces and quickly went away again. Usually they were joking with each other, but not today it seemed.

Doc breathed out loudly.

“Okay, Carl,” he said. “First of all, you know what the local gossip had to say about all of it, don’t you?”

Carl just nodded.

“Well, none of it was true. Jack Finlay wasn’t involved, never had been. Not with Dolly anyway. Dolly was planning to go away with her ‘fancy man’, Carl, but the fancy man wasn’t Finlay. It was
me!”

“You!” Carl gasped, feigning surprise, although that was what
he’d expected Doc to tell him. “You’re pulling my leg, Doc, surely.”

“I wish I was, but its true. At the time, Dolly and I had been having an affair for over a year. Quite easy actually, Carl, for a doctor with private offices. Half my patients come to me with imaginary illnesses anyway. Dolly needed to be comforted and I was there to comfort her.”

“So you were having an affair. Then what happened,” Carl asked.

“Dolly and her fancy man, me, were planning to go away together. That part of the gossip was true enough but they had the wrong man and the wrong place. We were planning to go to
Maine, not California. I have a place up there. I was going to sell the practice and then Dolly and I would move there.” He smiled and added, “Two old farts living in sin, Carl, but what the hell, anyway. I don’t know where they got California from, but where do they get any of their gossip from?”

Doc paused for a moment.

“And?” Carl prompted him.

“She changed her mind, Carl.”

“She decided to stay with Errol then, did she?”

“Yes.” Doc said simply.

“And then what did you do?”

“She called me and asked me to meet her outside her place. She didn’t say why, but she sounded very distraught.” Doc said and paused again.

“Go on, Doc,” Carl urged him.

“When I got there, I parked down the street a little way. As I walked towards her house I could see her out in the garden waiting for me. I went to meet her. I wasn’t concerned about being seen. There would be nothing strange about a lady having a casual word with her doctor, would there? But as I approached, she called out for me to stop and I did. I must have been about seven or eight feet away from her
. She said she had something to tell me but she didn’t want me to touch her.”

Carl watched the tears roll down the old man’s cheeks as he continued.

“She told me she had changed her mind and she was going to stay with Errol and try to make it work. She was sorry, she said.” Doc wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “She was sorry, Carl, but I was absolutely devastated. I’d finally got her back after all these years, only to lose her again.”