Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments: Rose Gardner Mystery #7 (23 page)

Gloria continued, too involved in the story to take much notice of how we were reacting to it. “I’d just married Jessica’s father a few months earlier.” She fluffed her hair with her hand. “Otherwise I would have been tossed out on my keister too.”

Looking at her now, I wasn’t so sure about that.

“So Dora didn’t come back after that?” Neely Kate asked.

“Shoot no. The factory burned down three days later, and then
none
of us worked there. Henry decided not to reopen. Dora died in a car accident a week later and Henry hung himself a few days after that. We figured he realized he loved her and felt guilty about turning her away.”

I tried my best to keep my measly breakfast down, but it was all too much. “Excuse me,” I mumbled as I stood, my chair scraping the floor with a loud screech. I ran to the bathroom and locked the door behind me, losing what little I’d eaten in the toilet. Tears burned my eyes, but I fought them back. Mason had warned me that finding out about Dora might destroy my fantasies of her. I just hadn’t expected to hear whispers about anything of this magnitude. Did he know this part? Had he been trying to spare me the seedy underbelly of the past until he could gather all the facts?

A few minutes later I heard a knock on the door and Neely Kate’s voice. “Rose? Are you okay?”

I wiped my tears and took a deep breath. Neely Kate was going through something ten times worse than me, and here I was hiding in the bathroom like a baby. Besides, all of this had happened twenty-five years ago to people I didn’t even know. Water under the bridge. I opened the door and forced a smile. “I’m fine.”

She studied me with a frown. “You don’t look fine.”

“It was just a shock is all.” My smile widened. “I’m good now.”

Neely Kate didn’t look convinced, but she glanced back out into the dining area. “Jessica and her mother left. Gloria said she needed to get to her dentist appointment. She talked so cotton pickin’ long, she almost missed it.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“I’ve already paid for breakfast. Let’s go over to the office and figure out what to do next.”

I took another deep breath and pushed it out. “Okay.”

We walked across the street, both of us silent. What Gloria had said was tumbling around in my head and sending me into a panic. What if Daddy wasn’t my father after all? Then Violet and I weren’t even half-sisters. Aunt Bessie and Uncle Earl wouldn’t be related to me. It would mean I was truly an orphan.

Neely Kate unlocked the door and led the way into the office. Bruce Wayne had already headed over to the nursery. He’d left a note saying he had to come back later for some paperwork and would take Muffy to the nursery if I didn’t have plans for her. I fought my growing anxiety and texted him to say it was fine. As Muffy jumped up on my legs with excitement, I couldn’t help thinking he’d be much better company for her than I would be today. “My daddy’s not my father.”

“Now Rose,” Neely Kate said in a firm voice as she unbuttoned her coat. “Don’t freak out. Gloria Gunner is the biggest gossip I’ve ever encountered and that’s sayin’ something. Besides, your daddy worked at the factory too.”

I nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.”

She pointed to the back table. “Sit.”

I did as she said, unfastening my coat on autopilot.

“Get out your notebook and let’s sort through what she just said.”

“Good idea.” I dug out the notebook and journal, then set them on the table. Muffy put her front paws on my legs, desperate for attention, so I absently rubbed her head.

A trill erupted from the brown messenger bag Neely Kate was using as a purse today. She groaned and pulled out her walkie-talkie, then gave me an ornery look as she pressed the button. “Yes, White Gopher?”

“That’s White
Tiger
. Over,” Miss Mildred boomed. “Have you talked to the suspect?”

“You mean Dick Cumberband?” Neely Kate winked and covered her mouth as her shoulders shook with silent laughter.

“It’s Dirk
Picklebie
.” Miss Mildred’s voice screeched over the two-way radio. “And don’t be saying his name over the air. Over.”

Neely Kate rolled her eyes and pushed her button. “We were talking to Gloria Gunner. Dirk McGuirk is next on our list.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “Over.”

“
Picklebie.
You’re a bunch of fumbling incompetents.”

My friend burst out laughing, then composed herself enough to say, “You forgot to say
over
. Over.”

“Over!” Miss Mildred screeched.

Neely Kate was still grinning when she opened the notebook and turned to the last page I’d used for notes. “Gloria said she and her coworker first started noticing Henry and Dora together months before she quit, which was in late September. Months…that’s probably May or June at the earliest.”

“Okay.”

“Dora had you in early November, so she would have gotten pregnant in January. She wasn’t slipping into his office until the summer.”

We were talking about pregnancies again, and I searched Neely Kate’s face for any sign of distress, surprised when I found none. “They could have just hidden their affair in the beginning. In fact, they probably
would
have been more careful in the beginning.”

“True… But wasn’t your daddy living with her when you were born? And you have photos of the three of you together.”

“Daddy and Dora must have met at Atchison. I guess he didn’t know about her affair with Henry.”

Neely Kate leaned forward, her forehead wrinkled with irritation. “The only evidence we have that there was an affair between them is the testimony of a gossip. We need more evidence.”

“Neely Kate, she walked out of Henry Buchanan’s office asking, ‘What about our baby, Henry?’”

She let out a sigh. “Well, that does sound bad, but that’s just how she remembers it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were embellishing things.” We were silent for a moment, then Neely Kate said, “So Dora goes to see Henry. Days later there’s a fire. Dora dies a week later and Henry kills himself days after that. The timing of it all is pretty odd.”

“Agreed.”

She looked up at me. “Rose, I’d bet my Fire Engine Red OPI nail polish that your momma didn’t have anything to do with Dora’s death.”

“You think it was an accident?”

“Shoot, no. I still think she was murdered.”

I frowned. “Well, she did have a gun hidden under her bed.”

Neely Kate nodded. “Wouldn’t you if you thought someone was out to kill you?”

I wasn’t so sure. I was resisting carrying a Taser. But while I’d always suspected Dora had been murdered, I’d thought it was a domestic dispute. “You think Ima Jean killed her?”

“No.” Her eyes widened. “Think bigger.”

“Henry?”

She waved off my answer. “The more I think on it, the more certain I am she wasn’t having an affair with Henry Buchanan. Think about it. She was the bookkeeper. She knew about everything to do with the factory’s money. What if she saw something funny and went to her boss about it?”

“In her journal she mentioned something about money being missing. But that doesn’t explain them meeting at night.”

“It might if it was something illegal.”

“Maybe she discovered the extortion.”

Neely Kate shook her head. “But if Henry was extorting someone, he wouldn’t be dumb enough to run it through the company.” Her eyes lit up. “It’s much more likely that he was being extorted and she’s the one who figured it out since she noticed the missing money.”

“Miss Mildred said the company was up for a government job. What if it had something to do with that?”

“We really need to talk to that foreman. Dirk Picklebie,” Neely Kate said. “And we need to go through Dora’s journal together to see if you missed anything.”

I wanted to protest that I’d already garnered anything of importance from the diary, but it was obvious I’d missed a ton—whether it was actually in the book or not.

Suddenly the question of my history involved more than what happened to my birth mother. Now I was questioning everything.

Neely Kate covered my hand with her own. “Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe some things are better left in the dark. What happened twenty-five years ago doesn’t have a lick to do with who you are right now.”

I shook my head. “My entire life has been a lie, Neely Kate. Maybe if Momma had been kind and loving, I’d be content to let things lie, but we both know she wasn’t.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I just have to know.”

She patted my hand. “Then we’ll find the truth. Because I’m convinced the two of us can solve any mystery.”

“Thank you.”

She slid the journal between us and flipped through the pages. “Where do you think we should begin?”

I reached for it and turned the pages. “She started talking about the man she was seeing here.” I pointed to the first entry. “See?” I said. “In December, she writes that she started seeing the married man she met at work. And she says they ignored each other as much as possible to avoid suspicion.”

Neely Kate groaned. “That doesn’t mean she was seeing Henry. She could very well have been talking about your father.”

The front door creaked open and I jumped in my seat. I almost jumped again when Joe walked in, looking official. I was struck again by how handsome he was in his uniform, but more noticeable was the change in his demeanor. He seemed so much more at home with himself than he’d been while we were dating…or even back in November when he and Violet sprung the news of his investment on me. But it was there now and it made me happy for him. Maybe he was finding peace.

He grinned as his gaze landed on me. “Do you want to explain why you’re wearing a guilty look, Ms. Gardner?” he asked, but there was a teasing glint in his eyes.

I shrugged and grinned back. “Habit.”

Muffy raced to him, barking with excitement, and he bent down to rub her head. “Hey, girl. I’m happy to see you too.” He glanced at the journal, then back up at my face. “You’re not going to hide what you’re doin’?”

I gave him a haughty look. “I don’t see any reason to. Last I heard there’s nothin’ illegal about reading your birth mother’s journal.”

Joe stood, then grabbed the office chair from Neely Kate’s desk. He rolled it back over to the table and sat down. “I hope you’re finding the answers you’re looking for, Rose,” he said softly.

I let out a sigh. “More questions than answers, honestly.”

“Oh?”

I cast Neely Kate a glance, then turned back to him. I was tired of secrets. Mason had the right to know first, but Joe was sitting in front of me and might be able to offer some advice. “Dora worked at Atchison Manufacturing here in Henryetta as a bookkeeper until about a month before I was born. Then the factory burned down at the beginning of December. Dora died in the car accident a week later and her boss hung himself days later.”

Joe sat up straight in his chair, shifting from concerned friend to chief deputy sheriff. “That’s a little too coincidental.”

“This morning we had breakfast with Jessica Gunner and her mother. Gloria was a secretary at the factory. She knew Dora.”

Joe gave me a guarded look. “What does she remember?”

“She painted it to look like Dora was having an affair with the boss,” Neely Kate interjected, anger in her voice. “She said she used to go into Henry’s office and shut the door…and it happened a lot more often up until the day she quit. But I don’t think it means a thing. She could have been talkin’ about the books.”

I looked into Joe’s face. “But there’s more. Gloria went into the office one Wednesday night about a week before Dora quit. She saw Dora coming out of her boss’s closed office, crying. He followed, calling after her.”

“Did this Gloria have anything else to say?” Joe asked.

“After I was born, Dora went back to the office and demanded to see Henry. I guess she raised a fuss, saying she wouldn’t leave until he saw her. She had me with her. Henry took her into his office and when she came out she was cryin’ again and askin’, ‘What about our baby, Henry?’” I took a breath. “She said ‘our baby’, Joe. As in hers and Henry’s.”

“Gloria Gunner is a gossip,” Neely Kate said in disgust. “She’ll sensationalize anything to make it more excitin’ than it really is.”

Joe studied Neely Kate for a moment before turning back to me. “So who else thought they were havin’ an affair?”

“The office staff,” I said. “I don’t know about the factory workers. And I guess Henry’s wife thought it was true too. After Dora came in with baby me, Ima Jean steamrolled on into the office and fired the other office worker because she was single and pretty like Dora.”

“So Henry’s wife could have held a grudge against Dora. Probably would have if she believed it was true.” He looked away in thought. “The fact her boss killed himself days after her death could support the affair theory. He might have felt guilty if his wife killed her or maybe he was upset he didn’t leave his wife for her.”

Neely Kate jumped out of her chair. “Why are you both believin’ a flat-out liar?”

Joe’s mouth dropped open, but he said softly, “I’m just gatherin’ the facts, Neely Kate. That’s all.”