Middle River Murders (31 page)

Sheriff Hudson held out his hand and said, “You have a good
day, Mrs. Blackhawk.”

I shook his hand and replied, “You have a good day, too,
Sheriff Wake Hudson. I just want you to know that I am thankful to you for
saving my mother’s life. I owe you.”

I walked away with my questions answered and a newfound
admiration for a man I once thought of as my enemy.

After the story about the
Middle River
murders broke, the members in the Stanardsville Social Club disbanded. It seems
that no one wanted to be associated with someone who was connected to a
psychopath, so in a small way, Naomi Kent got her way.

Daisy
Clark
’s reputation was left in tatters and
the only friend she could lay claim to besides her husband was my mother. And
of course, my mom would never abandon a friend.

Mom, Daisy and Gabe recovered from their physical injuries,
but the emotional ones will take a little longer to heal.

Right from the beginning, Mom didn’t want to believe that
Daisy was a killer. At times, she might’ve had her doubts, but when all was
said and done, and the truth finally came out, she was relieved to discover
that the woman she had formed a bond with wasn’t the killer everyone thought
her to be. This proved to Mom that her first instincts about someone were still
right on the mark. Her inner compassion and faith in others had not let her
down.

It wasn’t long before Mom and her friend, Eddie, became
companions with Daisy and Gabe. This surprised all of us, but as I see it, if
that’s what it takes to help my mother get her life back together, then so be
it.

It took a while for all of us to be able to openly discuss
what happened with Kansas Moon. It hurt everyone involved to do so.

Finally, Daisy told Mom and me that she didn’t blame us for
her brother’s death. According to the pills found in his house, he had long ago
gone off his medication, which made him an easy target for someone as cunning
as Naomi Kent.

It was Daisy’s assumption that Naomi convinced her brother to
break into Mom’s house by telling him that Mom posed a danger to his sister.

Naomi knew that
Kansas
adored Daisy and if he thought that anyone had plans to cause her harm, he’d
fight to the death to prevent that from happening.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Daisy said that without his medication,
Kansas
had the mentality of a child and
didn’t know right from wrong. He was like a babe in the woods. Manipulating him
would be an easy task for anyone.

Sheriff Hudson said that when the Charlottesville Police
Department started questioning Naomi Kent, at first she refused to talk. Then,
for no apparent reason, she started talking, and wouldn’t stop.

She spilled her guts. She blamed Daisy for her daughter’s
death. She said Daisy approached her and told her that she wanted her to keep
Sophie away from
Kansas
.

According to Naomi, Daisy made it perfectly clear that Sophie
wasn’t good enough to date
Kansas
, let alone marry him. She said that
Sophie would only hold him back and drag him down. Daisy had big plans for her
brother’s career, and there was no place in it for someone with Sophie’s
background.

Since Daisy couldn’t convince Naomi to step in and intervene,
Daisy did it herself. She convinced her brother to break up with Sophie.

Naomi knew this was going to happen, because Daisy called her
and told her, and then when her daughter said
Kansas
was taking her out on the lake, she knew it wasn’t for a
romantic evening. When Sophie didn’t come home, Naomi suspected the worst.

The police couldn’t prove that
Kansas
murdered her daughter, but when Sophie’s body was later
found floating in the lake, she knew the truth. She surmised that
Kansas
and Sophie had argued, he killed her
and then dumped her body overboard.

All she wanted was for him to admit it. Unfortunately, when
she went to his house to talk about the incident, he told her the same story he
had told the police. He swore that they had argued and Sophie accidentally fell
overboard. He searched and searched, but couldn’t find her. He was so sorry
about Sophie. He missed her so much.

Naomi knew he would lie to her about what happened, but all
she cared about was getting into his house, spiking his drink and making him
pay for what he had done.

She expected him to be hospitable and anticipated that he
would offer her a drink while they talked. She was served a gin and tonic while
he made a fresh cup of coffee for himself. Once the drinks were made, she asked
him for a straw, claiming that cold drinks hurt her sensitive teeth.

When he left the room to fetch the straw, she poured the
finely crushed up powder of several Percodan tablets into his cup of hot
coffee. The powder dissolved instantly.

She had gotten lucky.

If his drink had been a cold one, the powder probably
wouldn’t have dissolved so quickly. She hadn’t thought about that earlier, but
now it didn’t matter.

If the Percodan had changed the taste of his coffee, he never
said a word. He drank the whole cup.

When he passed out on the floor, she went to her car, got out
a rope and brought it back inside. She slung it over the ceiling beam, and then
tugged on it, pulling him upward until his feet no longer touched the floor.
She said that it was the most physically challenging thing she’d ever done. He
was a big man. She complained that her back hurt for weeks afterward.

She was angry that Daisy found him. She had hoped he would
die. If he had, her revenge would be sweet. But instead of dying, he was left
brain-damaged. He was a vegetable. That she could laugh at, but it still didn’t
satisfy her appetite for revenge.

She went crazy when she found out that Daisy and her family
had up and moved. She spent many, many months planning her revenge while she
tracked them down. All that planning went out the window when she did find
them. Instead, she devised a better plan—one that would destroy Daisy and her
precious reputation, and then eventually, bring about her demise.

Naomi confessed to shooting Jonathan, saying that was an
added bonus. She caught him spying on one of Daisy’s neighbors and decided he
would get in her way, so he had to go.

But that didn’t go so well either. She told herself that the
next time she stole a gun; she’d steal a bigger one.

Once Naomi Kent killed the first victim, Alice Aikens, her
thirst was quenched only temporarily. She enjoyed the feel of watching the life
drain out of her victim’s bodies, and the need to kill grew stronger.

She decided to kill as many people around Daisy as she could,
and then she’d kill Daisy.

She never planned to kill Gabe, but when the opportunity
presented itself, she tried to take advantage of it. She was angered when her
attempt failed.

Pouring arsenic down the throat of a struggling victim proved
to be a little more difficult than she had expected, so she hit Harriett
Shifflett over the head, but not before she had almost emptied the bottle. Once
Harriett had swallowed the vile poison and was losing consciousness from the
blow to her head, out of meanness, she kicked the woman.

June Robinson had to be eliminated because she was always
looking through her binoculars at Daisy’s house. If she had caught sight of
Naomi sneaking around, she would’ve called the cops.

So Naomi got adventurous when the opportunity presented
itself, and stole a police car. Then she kidnapped June Robinson and locked her
in the trunk. She thought that would be a fitting death. Naomi abandoned the
cop car in a parking lot, and no one was the wiser... for a little while.

Later, when the police discovered the stolen car, they were
furious and embarrassed. They wanted to keep that information under wraps.

Naomi bragged about stealing the car right out of the cop’s
driveway. She was so proud of herself. She had just dumped the last car she had
stolen and was on foot, hiding in the woods when the officer came home. He
parked his car, got out and walked to the back of the house. He went up the
steps to the screened-in porch and then walked over and sat down on a wicker
chair. He tossed his keys on the table, pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit
one. A few minutes later, he got up and walked inside, leaving his keys where
they lay.

Naomi waited. When all the lights in the house went out, she
silently snuck up on the porch, took the keys and then stole the car.

I’m sure glad that I wasn’t that officer. You know he’ll
never live it down. He probably lost his job over the incident.

“People are so stupid,” Naomi Kent had told the police.
“They’ll open their doors to anyone. That nosey busybody was an easy target.
She didn’t have the strength to fight me. She was such a wimp.”

She had trouble with Daisy’s friend, Minnie. The more she
hurt Minnie, the more the woman tried to be nice to her. For some reason, she
couldn’t kill her, so she decided to dump her at
Kansas
’ house, figuring that by the time she was found, it’d be too
late.

She was disturbed to find out that her victim had been rescued.

Toward the end, all she wanted to do was to kill Daisy. She
made one last effort to accomplish that, but it had been her downfall. She had
gotten caught.

She was obsessed and rambled on about how she would pull it
off if she ever got a chance. Clearly, Naomi Kent was not redeemable. She was a
danger to society and had to be eliminated.

The D.A. is going to seek the death penalty. Naomi Kent shows
no signs of remorse. The only thing she felt sorry about was that she didn’t
get away with killing Daisy.

Shortly after the incident with the
Kent
woman, I convinced Mom, Daisy and Gabe to seek help.
All three of them go to the same psychologist to help them deal with the trauma
they endured.

I rely on my family to help me get through mine.

Mom traded in her minivan for a brand new Ford Explorer the
color of the sun. She said she’d always wanted a bright yellow car. Now she has
her yellow car in the form of a monstrous SUV.

She said that she had to have something to haul her grandkids
in that could handle the snow. She knows what’s important.

I love that woman.

Before the winter set in, there was a new addition to the
Blackhawk compound. Sarah and Chief Sam sold five acres of land on the back
side of their sprawling property to Eli and
Geneva
.

The two reconciled for the sake of their granddaughter (so
they said, but I still believe it was because they still loved each other) and
was welcomed with open arms by the family.

Billy and his brothers helped build their house, and before
long, Maisy had more grandparents than she knew what to do with.

Ethan’s just like his dad. He looks so much like Billy, it’s
amazing, and Billy can’t seem to get enough of him. I love to watch the two of
them together.

The sparkle in Billy’s eyes makes me want to smother him with
love… and I do.

Claire and Randy plan to have a spring wedding.

Abby and Pete Morgan are delighted that their son will
finally get to marry the woman he’s carried a torch for all these years. They
plan to throw a big party to celebrate the happy occasion. We’re all invited.

Isabel, Randy’s aunt, told him to take his woman and run far
away from his smothering mother.

Needless to say, Abby and Isabel live in the same house, but
aren’t speaking to each other right now. That won’t last long. It never does.

Early next summer, Billy’s sister, Beth, and her husband,
Adam expects their first child. This will be the first grandchild born to a
non-Cherokee father in Chief Sam and Sarah Blackhawk’s family. That ought to
make for interesting fodder at the Blackhawk Sunday dinner table.

Frank Trainum gave the diamond ring to his nurse girlfriend,
Alexandra, and from the looks of things, a wedding will be in their near
future.

Billy and I offered to have the ceremony at our house, but
Frank said he’d have to think about that. He says he’s afraid I’ll pull one of
my stunts and all of us will wind up in jail before his woman has a chance to
say I do.

Now I wonder where he got that idea.

Cole and Billy are working on salvaging their friendship, but
as long as I’m around, that’s going to be a tough row to hoe.

Such is life. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can.

I have a special spot in my heart for Cole, but my life is
with Billy. He’s the one I was destined to find.

Sheriff Wake Hudson is another hero I can add to my short
list. I respect him, and I owe him.

As fall came to a close, we gathered at the table for dinner
one evening and were discussing the cold winter months ahead when the phone
rang.

Billy got up from the table and went to answer it. He was
gone for a while, so I excused myself and went down the hall to see what was
happening.

He was finished with his conversation and was walking toward
me when I reached him.

“Who was on the phone?”