Authors: Susan Rogers Cooper
Milt Kovak – Monday
It took a minute before my wife’s recitation of an old medical school book finally registered. ‘You mean,’ I said, ‘that because Rene’s mystery baby has a cleft chin, and David Bollinger has a cleft chin, that David has to be the father?’
‘Exactly!’ Jean declared.
I sighed. ‘Honey, how many men do you think there are in Longbranch alone with cleft chins?’
‘Three,’ she said automatically.
That surprised me. ‘Three?’
‘Just a ballpark figure. But by national norms and the population of Longbranch, one could conjecture—’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘You got me. There are three. So who are the other two?’
‘How in the hell would I know?’ my wife answered with a touch of pissiness to her voice.
‘Well, you said—’
‘Whoever they are,
they
are not the ones I saw sneak into Rene’s house less than five minutes ago.’
‘Where are you?’ I demanded.
‘Standing in Mary Hudson’s front yard,’ Jean said.
‘Jesus! Get in the goddamn house! Bollinger could very easily be the killer! Damn, Jean!’
‘I’m going! I’m going!’ she said and I could hear her open and close the front door.
‘OK, good. Now stay there! Lock the doors! Both of you stay inside! I’ll be there ASAP!’
‘Don’t hurt yourself,’ my wife said.
I was heading out the door when Dalton stopped me. ‘Hey, Milt, I think I got an ID on that dead body we found behind Vern’s Auto Repair.’
‘I can’t now, Dalton, I gotta—’
‘But, Milt, you need to look at this . . .’
‘Damn it, Dalton! When I get back!’ I shouted at him and hightailed it out of the shop.
Jean Mcdonnell – Monday
I came back inside Carol Anne’s house. She was standing in the foyer. ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded.
‘Come sit down,’ I started.
‘No! You tell me now!’
I gave her a look. ‘If you don’t mind, I’d rather sit down. I may look terribly comfortable to you, standing her on these crutches, but the truth is they aren’t as comfy as they look.’
Carol Anne turned red and her hands flew to her mouth. ‘Oh, dear Lord! Jean, I’m so sorry! Please come in the den!’
Baby Michael, he of the cleft chin, was in his baby swing and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself batting at the toys hanging from the bar above the swing.
‘That was so rude of me . . .’
I shook my head. ‘It was rude of me, too,’ I said. I touched her hand again. ‘Carol Anne, I have something I have to tell you.’
Carol Anne closed her eyes, her lips moving slightly, I think in prayer. I waited. Finally, she opened her eyes and said, ‘OK.’
‘You know that dimple in baby Michael’s chin?’
She nodded her head, a skeptical look on her face.
‘He can only have that if one of his parents has one,’ I said.
‘But Rene doesn’t . . .’ Her eyes got huge. ‘David Bollinger!’ she said. ‘He does, doesn’t he? I didn’t know! Oh my God! He’s Michael’s father?’
‘It seems likely,’ I said.
‘Oh my God!’ Carol Anne jumped up. ‘Then he’s the one who killed Mary!’
Carol Anne ran for the door. I was trying to get my crutches to rush after her when the other two babies woke up screaming.
Dalton Pettigrew – Monday
Dalton stood there staring after the closed door as Milt ran out.
Holly came up behind him. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked.
Dalton turned around, a sheet of paper from the fax machine in his hand. ‘I needed to show him this, but he wouldn’t look,’ Dalton said, a sad note to his voice. ‘It’s one of those missing persons’ reports you asked for. I really think maybe Milt needs to see it. Like real bad.’
‘What is it?’ Holly asked.
Dalton handed Holly the paper. It was a missing person’s report, with a picture of the man Dalton had found behind the dumpster at Vern’s. ‘Oh, you found him!’ she said, smiling up at Dalton.
‘Read that part,’ he said, pointing at a paragraph under the picture.
Holly read aloud, ‘Herman Nelson Walker, DOB 12/29/53, Caucasian, male, brown/brown, five foot five, 126 lbs. Reported missing by wife, Deborah Walker. Last seen leaving Brighton, Oregon, for Oklahoma (city unknown) to visit daughter, Rene Walker Hudson. Has not been heard from since 10/14/11.’
‘Rene Walker Hudson?’ Holly repeated. ‘But that’s the other Mrs Hudson, right? The youngest one?’
‘Yeah, that’s why I thought Milt should know, you know? Like there could be a connection?’ Dalton surmised.
‘Oh, Jesus!’ Holly said, running for the radio. ‘I think he’s headed over there to the cul-de-sac now!’ she said, as she grabbed the radio handset and began to call out.
Milt Kovak – Monday
‘The DB’s who?’ I shouted into the radio.
‘Rene Hudson’s father!’ Holly shouted back.
‘You gotta be shitting me!’
‘Radio protocol, Sheriff!’ Holly shouted.
I threw down the radio and picked up my phone and called Jean.
‘Y’all still behind locked doors?’ I asked quickly.
‘I am, but Carol Anne ran over to Rene’s house after Bollinger! I couldn’t stop her, Milt.’
‘Ah, fuck!’ I shouted. ‘It’s not Bollinger! It’s Rene!’
Jean Mcdonnell – Monday
I was yelling, ‘What? What?’ into the phone, when the door opened and Lynnie, Mary’s oldest daughter, came in with her sisters. I could see the boys heading into Carol Anne’s old house. No one, thank God, was going near Rene’s.
‘Lynnie’s here! I’m going over there!’ I yelled into the phone. As I hung up, I could hear Milt screaming, ‘No!’ but ignored it. Turning to the teenager, I said, ‘Lynnie, all three babies are in the den. Please watch them. I’ll be right back.’
‘What’s going on?’ Lynnie asked, alarmed, no doubt, by what she’d heard me say on the phone. ‘Where’s Carol Anne?’
‘Lock the door behind me! Don’t let anyone in except me, Carol Anne, or the sheriff! Do you understand?’
‘What—?’
‘Do you understand?’ I yelled.
‘Yes, I understand!’ she said, coming up behind me as I rushed, as best I could, out the door. I heard her throw home the dead bolt as I made my way into the street of the cul-de-sac.
I can make good time when I really need to. On a straight course I can go as fast as the average jogger, and it only took a few minutes to make it to the front door of Rene’s house. It was the only one-story in the cul-de-sac. A red-brick house with a double front door of glass and hardwood. I tried the front door and it opened. Pushing it forward a crack, I stuck my ear to the door to listen. I could hear voices, but they weren’t near the door. I’d never been in Rene’s house and didn’t know the layout, but I figured they weren’t in the front of the house. I slipped through the front door and found myself in a fairly large foyer. In front of me was a rock wall, with openings on either side that led down a step to a living room. Peeking inside I could see that the rock wall was the back of a large fireplace. No one was in the living room.
Halls led off from the rock wall to the left and to the right. Glancing to my right, it looked like bedrooms; to the left was a kitchen on one side, with a formal dining room next to the sunken living room on the other. The voices were coming from the left, from beyond the kitchen and dining room.
I slowly made my way down the hall to the left, staying close to the living-room side, as I could see that the kitchen opened into a family room beyond, and I wanted to stay hidden until I could see what was going on.
As I moved closer, I began to make out the words.
Carol Anne’s voice: ‘I don’t understand!’
Rene’s voice: ‘I told him! I told him twice – either marry me or I’m telling about Michael! But he kept saying he couldn’t! That I was married to Jerry and he couldn’t do that!’
Carol Anne’s voice: ‘But you shot him!’
Rene’s voice: ‘I didn’t mean to! He pulled out this gun and he said, “Just shoot me.” He said it would be easier than trying to work out him marrying me! He said he’d rather die than marry me!’ I could hear Rene burst into tears. Through her sobs, I heard her say, ‘So I shot him! I didn’t mean to! I just – I dunno – did it!’
I moved around the wall to take in the scene in the family room. Carol Anne was standing in front of Rene, who had a gun in her hand; however, the gun was pointed at the floor. Behind Rene lay David Bollinger, bleeding onto the hardwood floor from a wound in his groin. As it was still oozing blood, I knew he was still alive, but for how long I didn’t know.
‘Rene,’ I said quietly, ‘just put the gun down.’
Both women turned to look at me. The gun came up in Rene’s hand, pointed not at Carol Anne but at me.
‘Go away!’ Rene shouted. ‘Why are you here? Why is everybody ganging up on me?’ she shouted, the gun now being pointed at Carol Anne, then at me, then back at Carol Anne. ‘I’m just trying to do what’s best for my babies! Can’t you people see that? Everybody gets mad at me! I’m the one who should be mad! It’s not my fault! None of it is! But everybody’s gonna blame me! Just like Mary did! It just wasn’t right saying it’s all my fault! ’Cause it’s not!’
‘When did Mary blame you?’ I asked, trying to cover the sound of the front door opening.
‘Just shut up!’ she yelled at me, pointing the gun once again exclusively at me. ‘You don’t have anything to do with this. You’re not family!’ She turned a pleading look to Carol Anne. ‘We’re family, Carol Anne, aren’t we?’
Carol Anne replied with a tentative, ‘Yes.’
‘Then you know! Mary could be real bitchy, right? She’d get on your case and just hound you until she got what she wanted, huh?’
‘No!’ Carol Anne said which, had she asked me, I would have said was the worst possible answer. ‘She wasn’t like that at all! She knew that you slept with Jerry when you were babysitting and that he got you pregnant—’
Rene began to cry again. ‘But he didn’t. I just told him that. He’s a man, so he was too ignorant to notice that I told him I was pregnant two weeks after we had sex.’
Carol Anne lowered herself into a chair, her mouth hanging open. ‘So Cheyenne is not Jerry’s daughter?’
Rene shook her head.
‘She was your daddy’s daughter, wasn’t she, Rene?’ Milt said as he walked into the foyer.
Milt Kovak – Monday
Rene’s gun quickly turned on me so I raised my arms.
‘Don’t you ever say that!’ Rene shouted. ‘Never ever!’
‘I’m trying to work it out in my head, Rene,’ I said, hands still in the air. ‘I’m thinking your daddy came here looking for you. Maybe to take you and Cheyenne back to Oregon with him?’
Rene didn’t answer, just sniffed.
‘That’s what I think. But he approached Mary first, didn’t he? He thought, and maybe rightly so, that when she found out Cheyenne was his child and not Jerry’s, that she’d gladly send you and your children packing. Is that right?’
Still no answer, just a steady hand on the gun pointed at my chest.
‘Now here’s where I get a little fuzzy. How’d you get in Mary’s kitchen? I figured your daddy got there sneaking in from the country club entrance and just rang Mary’s bell. But did you just come over for a visit, or did Mary call you over after your daddy filled her in? Which was it, Rene?’
Rene took a deep breath and said, ‘Mary called me.’
‘So you’re in the kitchen with your daddy and Mary. Where are your kids?’
‘In the family room, in the playpen with Mark.’
‘OK. So something happens. I’m not sure which happened first. But I think it was your daddy. He had to say something mean and stupid, right?’
Rene’s voice broke on a sob, as she said, ‘He said me and Cheyenne were coming home with him, but that my bastard boy should be put in a paper bag and thrown in a river, like a puppy.’
‘I don’t think I would have liked your daddy,’ I said.
‘Nobody did,’ Rene answered.
‘I bet him saying that surprised Mary,’ I said.
She shrugged. ‘I dunno. I wasn’t paying much attention to her.’
I nodded. ‘No, I guess not. All your attention must have been on your daddy. What did you do? Did you hit him with something first? There was a knot on his forehead.’
Rene nodded slightly. ‘There was a grocery sack, a plastic one, on the counter and I just picked it up and swung it at him. There was a glass bottle in there, juice or something, and he fell down, but he was still talking, still saying ugly hateful things!’
‘You had to stop him,’ I said. ‘What did you do?’
‘I had the plastic bag in my hand after the juice bottle fell out. I just took it and covered his face with it and held it there. He kicked a lot. And Mary was screaming at me, pulling at me. But I held it there! I held it until he quit moving! I held it until he was good and dead!’ Rene said, a slight sound of triumph in her voice.
‘I bet Mary didn’t like that,’ I said.
Rene sighed and lifted up her arms, with gun in hand, in a sigh of resignation. ‘She was going to call the police! She said I
murdered
him! That was justifiable homicide, right, Sheriff? ’Cause if he took me back to Brighton, it would be the same as killing me! And he threatened to kill my baby boy!’
‘So you had to stop Mary from calling the police, right?’ I said.
‘I just grabbed the first thing I saw, which was the meat pounder she was using to fix dinner. I didn’t mean to kill her – that was an accident. I just wanted to stop her long enough for us to talk about it. But I think maybe I just hit her in the wrong place,’ Rene said, sitting down and dropping the gun on the floor. ‘I really didn’t mean to kill her.’
Nita Skitteridge, who’d come in behind me, hustled over to Rene and picked up the gun. I waved for her to back off when it looked like she was going to handcuff Rene.
‘Did you have help getting your daddy out of Mary’s house?’ I asked Rene.
‘Naw, Daddy’s a little man, I weigh more’n him. I just ran and got my car and then dragged him out and put him in the trunk. I knew nobody’d see me, and there wasn’t no blood. Kids were all in school, Jerry and Dennis were at work, it was Carol Anne’s day to be parent helper at one of the kids’ schools, and Mrs Rigsby, she never takes her eyes off the TV during the day. And I waited until late that night when the babies were asleep and I took them out to the car and buckled them in, then drove around looking for a dumpster. I found one and tried to lift Daddy into it, but I couldn’t, and the place was a real mess, so I just kinda shoved him behind the dumpster, between it and the fence.’