Chapter 36

THIRTY-SIX

What Lucas told me of the kidnap/murder disturbs me. I won't tell Ronnie's family. There's no need to frighten them. Yet.

But I can't help but see parallels between that poor woman from Ohio and Victoria's disappearance. Jack denied he and Victoria were having bad marital issues, but it was the first thing that came to mind for both Ronnie and Rebecca. And Jack didn't want to involve the police. He was pissed Rebecca had called Ronnie. And then I show up. Surprise! He's making all kinds of excuses for her absence, but they all fall short of being remotely believable. I make a mental note to have Ronnie check Jack's personal finances. See if he's moving large sums of money around to hide it from a divorce attorney.

A road sign announces we've arrived in Custer. It's a wide spot in the road kind of place. The kind of place you leave if you walk outside. I look behind at the sign and say, "The other side of the sign says, ‘LEAVING CUSTER.'"

Lucas slows and watches for our destination. "Custer's only claim to fame is Loretta Lynn. The country singer, may she rest in peace."

I'm young but I know who Loretta Lynn is.

He feels the need to continue. "Loretta lived here when she started her career."

"Wow!" I can see why she left.

The houses we pass coming into town are newer ranch-style brick and stucco with swimming pools, but as we get closer to the center of town all the houses are trailers or wood cabins. It is a shanty town. More shanty than town. One or two homes have rusted and tireless cars or trucks on cinder blocks in front of the house. The wealthy ones have both a car and a truck on blocks. Another has lawnmower parts strewn across the lawn and front porch. A sign on one mower advertises "Mowr and Small Ingne Repare." I want to tell Lucas to stop and let me correct the spelling. But I'm being unkind. These people are probably happier than those that measure happiness by possessions. Take Jack for example.

The address Lucas is looking for turns out to be a tavern on a corner that boasts the only stop sign we've come across. There's no signage on the place but I'm sure it's a tavern because of all the pickup trucks parked outside and the neon beer mug sign in the window. I imagine this place to be too small to have a police presence, but I'm wrong.

We park outside the tavern among the work trucks and go inside. It's only 8 p.m. but every person inside looks as though they've been there for a while. Five men inside and a middle-aged woman bartender, who is bigger than any of the men, turn and look at the newcomers. I'm expecting someone to say, Ya' ain't from around here, are ya'? I only hope they don't say, You sure got a pretty mouth . But the bartender says to the men, "Make room for the paying customers. I've got a business to run and don't have time for all this chatter." The men grumble but it's friendly and they make way for us newcomers.

"What would you like?" she asks. "Wait. Let me guess. The lady wants Scotch, no ice. The gentleman wants Jack Daniels with ice on the side."

She doesn't wait for our answer to pour our drinks, drops some ice cubes into a glass and puts our drinks in front of us. One of the men down the bar says, "Tammy's a mind reader. She tells fortunes too. She told me not to marry my wife and, boy, I should 'a listened."

After the guffaw dies down, another man says, "I thought you was widowed, Hank?"

"I am." He holds up four fingers. "Three times now."

Someone can't count or he's already stupid drunk. All of them are grinning so I sip my Scotch and watch the show.

"What happened to 'em, Hank?"

"First two died from mushroom poisoning."

They all fake a shocked expression. "No! What happened to the last one?"

Hank looks around with a wicked grin splitting his face and says, "She wouldn't eat the mushrooms so I took her and her cat out in the country and left them. She never came back." Even Tammy is laughing so hard I think she'll spit her false teeth on the bar.

I smile. Lucas downs his drink. Tammy goes to fill it again, and he puts a hand over it. "We're hoping one of you can help us find someone."

The jovial atmosphere is sucked out of the room like losing pressure in outer space. Tammy puts the liquor back on the shelf and turns with her arms crossed below her ample breasts.

I say, "We're looking for Vincent Lombardi." They look at each other like they genuinely don't know the name. I say, "Vinnie." This animates them.

Tammy smiles and takes the Jack from the shelf again and sets it in front of Lucas. "You should 'a led with that." The rest of the men laugh like I've told a joke.

"Does he live here in Custer?" I ask.

Hank says, "You mean Vacuum Vinnie."

"Vacuum Vinnie?" I ask.

Hank looks around at his audience. "We call him that cause he sucks liquor down like a vacuum. He gets the half-empty drinks and pours 'em into a beer bottle and takes it back to the camper when he's out 'a money."

The man next to him says, "And he's always out of money." They all agree.

"The camper?" I ask.

"What's he done now?" Tammy asks.

Lucas says, "We're not at liberty to say."

Hank says, "It's an ongoing investigation, then?"

Lucas nods, and a man at the end of the bar comes over to us, reaches in his back pocket and pulls out a leather wallet with a gold badge inside. "Thomas Tittle. I'm the town constable."

The men all snicker, and Hank stands, puts his thumbs in his belt and mimics the constable. "Town Constable Tommy Tittle. You got a problem, it better be little." Tammy hides a smile behind her hand. Hank says, "Go get 'em, deputy dawg."

Tammy holds a hand up. "Be nice, Hank. Tom did get us a stop sign."

Tittle says, "We had speeders coming through town and I got the county government to pay for a stop sign to slow 'em down."

Hank says, "You mean Tammy convinced her friend on the town board to get it. She hoped it would divert some traffic to her tavern. How'd that work out, Tammy?"

Tammy gives him the bird and everyone chuckles again and pats Hank on the back.

Comedy night in Custer!

I finish my Scotch to be polite while Tammy tells us about the camper Vinnie crashes in when he's on the run. The camper is gone and so is Vinnie.

"Your friend should be here by now," Lucas says.

"Do you mean Detective Marsh?" I correct him. "Let's go see."

We step outside, and Ronnie is waiting for me with the windows up and the engine running to keep the air conditioning going.

"I've got some things to do," Lucas says, waves to Ronnie, gets in his pimp car, and leaves.

"Find anything," Ronnie asks as I get into my Explorer. I let her drive so she quits fidgeting.

"He's not here, Ronnie. That's something eliminated."

"Yeah. I guess. What was Lucas like?"

"Lucas is an encyclopedia on the Marsh and Lombardi families."

Ronnie raises an eyebrow. "I barely knew who Lucas was."

"Well, he knows you. At least all he wants to know about you. I don't guess I merited more than a cursory look."

"So, what's Lucas doing now?"

"I told him about Rebecca's call. We promised to share information now." Not. "He'd done some digging and the address Vinnie gave on his arrests was an empty lot in Custer, but it turned out to be a camper parked behind the tavern. He doesn't live there. The owner let him stay in an old VW Bus camper. He did some work around the place but drank more than he was paid and took off. He came back the day after he was bailed out by your mom and paid cash for the VW. It's gone now and he hasn't been heard from. No one here knows where he might have gone."

"Can we trace the VW?" she asks.

"Tammy said it's a '68 or '69 and gave me a description. Primer red paint with a cartoon wizard painted on both sides, and a florescent green grill. She unsurprisingly didn't have paperwork on it and it didn't have license plates. I asked her who she bought it from and she said she didn't have a name. She'd let some guy park it behind her tavern to sleep in. He was gone the next day and left it behind, so she owns it. Finders keepers."

"Sounds like it's stolen," Ronnie says.

Sounds like a circus vehicle. "I'm more interested in where Vinnie got the cash to buy it. She said she sold it to Vinnie for two thousand cash."

The road is straight and the scenery passing by is making my eyes heavy. Too much Scotch.

"So my uncle is in the wind," Ronnie says.

"Yep. Anything new at the house?"

"I left Rebecca with Dad. He said there was nothing new."

It's starting to get dark. I'm tired and the Scotch has taken its toll. "I know you want to keep at this, Ronnie, but we need to eat and get some rest. Let's start early in the morning if you don't mind?"

"You're right. I guess we need to get a fresh start."

I can tell she's thinking about her mom being out there somewhere. Victoria's scared out of her mind. Maybe hurt. Ronnie and Rebecca are frightened out of their wits. I can relate to that feeling. I was out of my mind with worry when I was looking for my own mother. Every minute spent sleeping or eating felt like I was betraying her. But I'm relieved I don't have to try to talk to anyone else tonight. My stomach is talking trash to me. I'm worn out from my session with my mother yesterday morning and worrying about what poison she's put and is putting in my brother's head. I feel guilty about not pursuing my first thoughts about telling Hayden everything when he first got home from Afghanistan. Well, almost everything.

And I get a chill thinking about the story Lucas told about the Ohio kidnap victim. Maybe I'm making similarities up. I'm tired and a tired mind does what it wants.

I debate whether to tell Ronnie about the Ohio woman that was murdered, body dumped here, and what was done to her. It would only cause Ronnie and her family more distress than they are already going through. I'll tell Ronnie in the morning and let her decide what to tell Rebecca and Jack. There's no reason we both lose sleep.

We're in our own heads until we get to Cougar Point. We say goodnight and go to our rooms. I strip and put my blazer and khaki pants under the mattress. Rebecca has laid out a toothbrush, toothpaste, water glass, thick luxurious towels and hair dryer. It was very thoughtful of her. The fancy high dollar shower is a treat. The water is hot unlike my sometimes-working water heater. The multiple shower heads can be set as a rain shower or can strip the skin right off your body. I like it hot and blasting. I get out, dry off, comb the tangles out of my hair, and brush my teeth before getting in bed.

The bed is just right. The pillows are soft and fluffy and numerous. The lights across the bay twinkle artfully.

My mind drifts back to the Ohio case. I haven't had time to process what Lucas told me yet. I take out my phone and Google "Cincinnati," "Greenwood," and "Whatcom". There's only one news story on the case, in the Cincinnati Enquirer . I'm guessing there aren't follow-up articles because there was no trial. The Enquirer piece relates some of the details Lucas relayed to me earlier: that a woman identified as Olivia Greenwood was found dead in a creek thousands of miles from her home. There's a line at the end requesting that anyone with information contacts Detective MacDonald at Cincinnati PD. I make a mental note to call tomorrow, if I have time. Maybe MacDonald will be able to tell me why they couldn't charge the husband.

In the meantime, I'm hungry and too wired to sleep so I rummage in my bag for the candy bars and chips. It's been a long couple of days, and I've accomplished very little. Some hotshot investigator I am.

I put the wrappers back in my bag. This place is too nice for my tastes. My father was a killer. Ronnie's dad is an asshole. We have some things in common. However she has a sister that loves her. I have a brother that hated me, but he's warming. In another twenty years maybe he'll forgive me. Ronnie just discovered her mom has quite a few secrets. I discovered my mother had been lying to me all my life.