Middle River Murders (10 page)

“That’s pretty creepy!” I said under my breath.

“What’s creepy?” Mom asked as she walked back into the
kitchen, dressed up in one of her nice black dresses and matching heels.

I looked up from the flyers and said, “My, you look nice.”

“Thank you. I try to dress for the occasion.” She looked me
up and down.

“Don’t look at me like that. Billy said I looked good.”

“He would. He’s your husband. A skirt would’ve been more
suitable.”

“Forget it, Mom.” I ignored her remark. “Look here. I found
something interesting. Did you read all the details about these missing
animals?”

As soon as I said that, the doorbell rang.

“I guess we’ll have to talk about this later,” Mom said as
she went to answer the door.

“I didn’t hear anyone come up, Mom. Look through the side
panel before you open the door.”

Mom did as I asked and then said, “There’s nothing to be
afraid of. It’s Daisy. We’re safe from the dognappers.”

“I’m not so sure about...”

“Come on in,” Mom said to her guest. “We were just talking
about you. I hope you don’t mind, but I asked Jesse to go to the funeral with
me. I felt as if I needed her support, and it would give her an opportunity to
get to know you. She’s been dying to meet you. I’ve told her about how much fun
we have when we’re together.”

I got up from the kitchen table and walked into the living
room, extending my hand as I came face-to-face with a real life serial killer
disguised as a nice, old lady.

“It’s so good to meet you. How are you doing?” I asked,
sizing her up in my own inconspicuous way.

Daisy was barely five feet tall and was the tiniest thing.
She looked to weigh about a hundred pounds soaking wet. Her hair was dyed a
light shade of brown—I say dyed because I saw a couple of gray hairs poking
through. She had more diamonds on her fingers than I’ve ever seen one person
wear, except my new friend in D.C., Abigail Morgan. Abby likes to dress well
and so does this woman. I’m not a fashion bug, but I know fine clothing, and
Daisy was definitely dressed in the best. She wore a black fitted skirt and
jacket with a white silk blouse. I tried to count the diamonds in her broach
without being obvious. Yes, this woman knew how to dress well and clearly had
the money to do it.

“I’ve heard so much about you from Mom. It’s just such a
shame we had to meet under these terrible circumstances. I’m so sorry about
Alice Aikens. Mom said y’all were such good friends.” I looked around. “Where’s
your husband?”

“He’s waiting in the car. He doesn’t want to go, so he’s
being difficult. You’ll have to excuse him today. He’s been acting rather
strangely ever since
Alice
died.”

A red flag went up. “Did he know her well?” I asked.

“No, he hardly knew her at all. He’s a kind man and a thing
like this bothers him so.”

I bet.

“It’s so sad,” Daisy said, a tear coming to her eye. “She had
become a terrific friend in such a short time. I only knew her for a few
months, but in those months, we’d become very close. This is just so sad... so
hard.”

Mom coughed and her face turned red. “Excuse me, but I need a
glass of water.” She turned and walked quickly to the kitchen.

I leaned forward and said, “You’ll have to excuse my mother.
She’s been very upset since she found out about
Alice
. She’s also angry that someone would run
Alice
off the road. She was murdered, you know.”

“What?” Daisy asked, stunned. She seemed genuinely surprised
at what I had said.

“Didn’t you know? The police have an eyewitness who swears
Alice
was run off the road. She even gave them a
description of the car.”

Mom coughed louder.

I looked across the bar that divides the living room from the
kitchen and asked, “Are you all right, Mom?”

“I’m going to be fine.” She gave me one of her looks as if
she wanted me to shut up. She probably thought I’d given out too much
information, but I thought it best to lay the cards on the table.

As we walked to the car, Mom pinched me lightly on the arm.
“Stop telling her everything. You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Not if we don’t eat her food or ride in separate cars,” I
joked.

“I mean it, Jesse. Watch what you say. You’re making me
nervous.”

“Come on, ladies,” Daisy called out to us. “We need to hurry
or we’re going to be late.”

I was introduced to Gabe, and during the fifteen minute ride
to the Stanardsville Funeral Home, he didn’t say two words after he greeted us.
I found his attitude and his silence to be suspicious. It made me wonder if he
may have had a thing for
Alice
during her short relationship with
Daisy. If that was the case, he’d better not let Daisy find out, or his days
would be numbered. Or, could his aloofness be due to the fact that he suspected
his wife, or even knew she had done some pretty horrible things. Did he know
Daisy killed
Alice
, and if he did, did he also know
something about the deaths of Pat Johnson and Harriett Shifflett? I wondered.

The funeral home was packed with important people of the
community as Daisy put it—
high-end people
. She whispered to Mom and
daintily pointed to people whom she said were of importance. These people were
held in high regard, according to her and many of them were close friends of
Alice
. I think I was probably the only one who noticed the
sneer on Daisy’s face when she said everybody liked
Alice
.

After the service, we stood and mulled around, taking the
opportunity to mingle, shake hands and talk about the awful way
Alice
had met her fate. I had a chance to talk with Gabe
briefly and came to the conclusion that he was not only a well-dressed man with
plenty of money, but he was also a very nice man. How he ended up with someone
like Daisy was beyond me. They were as different as night and day.

I no longer suspected Gabe of carrying a torch for
Alice
; he was hiding Daisy’s secret.

Eventually, we followed other cars in procession to the
cemetery. My breasts were about to explode and I was so glad when we finally made
it back to Mom’s house. I waved to Daisy and her husband as they pulled out of
the driveway and then ran to the bathroom. Again, Mom was right. I was so glad
I had brought my breast pump. I put the toilet seat down, sat down and then
went to work.

“Do you want me to call Billy?” Mom asked through the
bathroom door.

I could hardly hear her over the hum of the electric breast
pump, so I leaned forward and opened the door a crack. “What did you say?”

Mom appeared embarrassed as she stood at the door, looking at
my breasts. She turned her back and asked me again, “Do you want me to call
Billy?”

“You don’t have to be embarrassed, Mom,” I said.

“What will they come up with next?” She turned around and
looked at me. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that gadget.”

“It works wonders, Mom. It’s much better than one of those
hand things I’ve seen. With one of those, I’d be here all day.”

“I’ll go call Billy and let him know we’re still alive.”

“Tell him I’m not coming home. It’d be crazy for me to go all
the way home and then come back when we only have a couple hours before we meet
Crazy Daisy and Gabe for dinner.”

“I was thinking the same thing. It would take almost that
long for you to get there and back, and with the price of gas being what it
is…”

“Yeah, call Billy and tell him I’ll be home after we have
dinner with the
Middle
River
killer.”

“Hey… the
Middle
River
murders.” Mom let
out a sigh. “That would almost be funny if it wasn’t true.” She turned and
walked away, leaving me to my task.

I was putting the two small bottles of milk in the built-in
ice chest compartment when I heard a loud explosion. It sounded as if a tree
had fallen on the house. I closed up the bag, buttoned up my blouse and hurried
to the kitchen.

I heard Mom scream as soon as I rounded the corner. I looked
around and saw that the back door to the utility room was open and splinters of
broken wood were scattered everywhere. When I saw the man, I temporally froze
as if someone had hit the pause button on the remote, but it didn’t take me long
to assess the situation. Within seconds, I reacted. I looked around the living
room and picked up the first heavy object I could find—one of Dad’s bowling
trophies.

The intruder looked as if he were a rabid dog. He drooled and
made grunting sounds that would frighten even the hardest of die-hard fans of
scary movies. I could smell the odor of death on him… and he was chasing Mom
around the kitchen table.

Mom stopped running when she got around to the phone on the
wall, grabbed up the receiver and slammed it across the man’s head, repeatedly
hitting him, until finally, she dropped the bloody thing and ran to the kitchen
counter.

The intruder tripped over the cord and was temporarily
entangled just long enough for Mom to get away. Once he regained his footing,
he went after her, jumped her from behind and pinned her against the kitchen
counter. He had his arm around Mom’s throat in a stranglehold. She reached out,
fumbled to grab a butcher knife from the holder, and then finally pulled one
from the slot. She managed to turn around to face him.

I ran up behind the man, raised my weapon high above his head
and then brought it down with all my strength just as Mom swung around with the
butcher knife and stabbed him in the neck.

Blood squirted everywhere. It was as if someone had turned on
a garden hose, covered the hole with a thumb and then let up on the thumb just
enough to release a burst of water. Except this wasn’t water; it was his blood.
The intruder fell to the floor. The bloody tip of the blade poked through on
the opposite side of his neck. Blood poured from his wounds, until finally, the
flow stopped.

Mom and I stared at each other in disbelief and disgust, our
arms hanging to our sides. We were covered in his blood.

I still had the trophy in my hand as I looked down and saw
his blood drip from Mom’s fingertips.

She rarely left her house, except to go to church or to take
an occasional drive over the mountain to
Skyline Drive
, Elkton or
Harrisonburg
, depending on her mood. The scenic
drive was a distraction to the everyday loneliness that would overcome her
sometimes since her husband had passed away.

A jaunt to the grocery store in town only happened once a
month, because it was a necessity. The minute she got into her car, she would
immediately lock her doors.

The outside world had become a dangerous place.

At her home on the hill, she felt secure and could get much
pleasure just by sitting out on the balcony, looking at her beautiful
surroundings.

When the flowers were in bloom and the trees were filled with
their greenery, it was a wonderful sight to behold.

She had always wondered why some people didn’t seem to
appreciate the great outdoors as much as she did, but most of all, she wondered
why people isolated themselves. They would go to work, come home, and then stay
inside the rest of the day. What a dull life they must have.

She loved spring and summer, but fall was her favorite time
of year. The colorful leaves and cool, crisp nights made for enjoyable
evenings. She would sit and watch as the world continued on its journey.

She had the best things that life could offer and once had a
husband who treated her like a queen. She had been so happy when her husband
was alive. She was still happy, but it wasn’t the same.

Most folks would say that she had lived a privileged life.
She grew up in a good, family environment, married a wonderful man, and had
raised two terrific kids.

She’d had it all, until one day, the Grim Reaper had come and
taken her husband. That was a terrible day; one she would never forget. His
death still haunts her. Could she have saved him? Was there anything else she
could’ve done?

She remembers that day as if it was yesterday.

The two of them had just finished a lovely dinner when her
husband complained of indigestion. He got up from the table, went to the sofa
to lie down for a minute, and then two hours later, he was dead from a heart
attack.

If it hadn’t been for the love and companionship of her
caring children, she surely would’ve died right along with the man she had
loved for over fifty years.

But she managed to persevere. She knew she had to go on with
her life without him. What else could she do?

For two years, her grown children visited her and made sure
that she never spent a holiday alone. But then the grandkids came along and
then her children were too busy for her.

Even though they knew she had a difficult time driving in the
city, they still didn’t seem to have the time to drive out to visit her.

After a while weeks passed into months, until finally their visits
stopped altogether. They would still call her at least once a month, but it
seemed as if they’d forgotten about her.

She spent many lonely days and nights alone.

Sometimes she’d get really angry at her children for
deserting her, but then she’d remember how they had been there for her when she
really needed them, and her anger would subside.

They had a life filled with children and their time was
valuable. They worked all day and wanted to spend their free time with their
kids. She couldn’t possibly hold that against them.

So she reconciled herself to being happy that she was alive,
healthy and living in a nice home.

Unfortunately, she had also become a recluse. She spent most
of the day, every day, out on her balcony watching birds, the weather, and
anything else that struck her fancy.

She had become one of those folks she said she would never
become. She had become a hermit.

After a while, she found out that she’d gotten so used to
being alone that she liked it. She liked having her privacy. She liked the fact
that she had no responsibilities to anyone but herself.

At one time she’d thought about getting a pet, but decided
against the idea. She told herself that a pet would take up too much of her
time.

But she knew that was just an excuse. The fact is, she was
biding her time until she could be reunited with her husband, and she didn’t
want to leave a beloved pet behind. Who would take care of it when she was no
longer around?

Besides, she’d been quite busy lately. There were things
going on around her that caught her attention.

She’d been keeping her eyes on the happenings of her
neighbors down the hill from her.

Cars would come and go at their house all the time. At first
she thought that there might be drug activity, but quickly realized that her imagination
was getting the best of her. These people were her age... too old to be
involved in something like that. No, they were just living their lives.

She had been so busy watching her neighbors that day that
she never suspected that within a matter of minutes, her journey through life
would soon be over. Her time on this earth would be no more.

A knock on the door signaled the end of a life that had once
been lived to the fullest.

She would no longer be able to enjoy the chirping of birds or
the brilliance of the sun as it rose over the mountain peaks.

Snatched from her home, she was thrown into the trunk of a
car and into total darkness. When the lid was slammed shut, she knew she’d
never see another sunrise.

She lay in the trunk and wondered why this woman would do
this to her.

It didn’t matter anymore, because although her body would be
lost, her soul would be in heaven.

She would be with her husband once again.

Her body was discovered locked in the trunk of a police car
at the far end of a grocery store parking lot in Ruckersville.