Morningstar: Chapter 16: The Evidence

 

Chapter 16: The Evidence

 

          I drug myself out of bed just before noon.  Amanda was already up; but then she had gotten a lot more sleep than me the night before.  I could just barely hear her, and my dad talking in another room.  I wondered how long this had been going on and hoped my dad wasn’t boring her to death.

          Still yawning I entered the living room in my PJ’s, carrying my clothing for the day.  I noticed Amanda fully dressed and wearing something different from what she had worn last night.

          “What’s going on?”

          “Oh, your dad and I have been chatting for a while.”  Amanda seemed both refreshed and happy.

          “Anna, do you know why your brother’s so mad?  He kept muttering something about your grandmother’s doll,” interjected my dad.

          “Oh, I let him touch it last night and let him have it on his shelf for a while.  I’ll talk to him when he gets home. … So Amanda,… where did you get the clothes?”  I continued to yawn and stretch as I walked through the living room towards the bathroom.

          “My dad brought them over.  I’ve been up since about nine and have lots to talk to you about.  Your dad and I had breakfast together and now we’ve been talking.  By the way, I’d like to stay through the weekend if that’s ok.”

          “Sure, I’d love it.” I replied as I walked out of sight in the kitchen.  After my shower, I could hear my dad working in one of the rooms upstairs.  Amanda was sitting at the kitchen table with a sandwich on a plate and a glass of milk laying opposite her on the table.  An obvious invitation for me to sit down and eat lunch.

          “Your dad says you like tuna fish sandwiches with pickles, peanut butter and miracle whip… and a glass of milk for lunch.  At least sometimes.”

          “That’s great, thanks.  You sure seem happy.”  I sat down at the table as we were talking.  I was starving and wondering why Amanda seemed in such a good mood this morning.   This was such a stark contrast from yesterday and even last night.  I started eating and kind of mumbled; “well… tell me everything.”

          “Like you know, I’ve been really worried about my parents.  Right after I got up I called and talked to my dad for a long time.  Mom went to work this morning and my dad will go back this afternoon. …”

          “So how are they?  How did it go last night?  Did your mom blow up?”

          “They’re pretty good, and no my mom didn’t blow up.  They talked until about one or two this morning.  They had a really good talk.  A lot of it is because of your mom and Beth’s mom.  It really turned out good that I spent the night here.  They probably wouldn’t have been able to talk as much if I’d been home.  That’s why I‘m staying through the weekend so they can have more time.”

          “MY MOM?  What did my mom do?”  Worried like almost every teenager about what embarrassing thing one of my parents might have done.

          “Well, lunch kind of turned out to be a sort of marriage talk.  Your mom talked a lot about the importance of respecting each other and really listening and talking things out; but probably the thing that made the biggest difference was something Beth’s mom said.”

          “What did Sarah say?”

          “I don’t know exactly, but it was something about forgiveness.  She talked about all the times she had to forgive Max, and I guess admitting that sometimes Max had to forgive her; but something she said really struck home for both my parents.  I guess they’ve got a lot of things they need to let go of.  Neither one has been very good at forgiving.  My aunt Mary said a few things about forgiving too.  She and my mom actually hugged when my dad dropped Mary off.”

          “That’s incredible Amanda.  I’m so happy for you. …  and by the way, thanks, the sandwich is perfect.”

          Amanda beamed even more and said, “Why thank you; but that’s not the only reason I’m so excited.”

          Intrigued and starting to feel the excitement I asked; “so what else?”

          “I found another clue to your mystery.”

          I practically jumped out of my chair.  “You what???”

          “I found something you’ll be very interested in.”

          “How… what… where?” I kind of jumbled and stuttered.

          Amanda then pulled out a laminated piece of paper with a handwritten note scrawled on one side.

          “Well…” she grinned and kind of drawing this out to raise my anticipation.

          “Well, WHAT?”  I almost shouted.

          Still smiling, she continued with her explanation; “I wasn’t totally asleep last night when you were talking.  I remembered you telling me where T.J. had found the book.  So… I walked outside and looked.  It was kind of hard to see the stone wall because of the bushes and ivy, but you know, there are two of those doctor symbols etched on stones on the outside of your house.  You can barely see them.  They sort of look like a really old tombstone that you can’t read any more.  Anyway, the one on the right was loose and behind it was this laminated piece of paper.  The problem is, I don’t think it’s what you were looking for, but maybe it’s a clue!  Why would those doctor symbols be on your house?”  Amanda handed me the piece of paper with the writing and I read it out loud.

          “Under the Johnson’s step,” was all it said.

          “I looked at your porch.  It looks pretty old.  It’s solid cement, and I couldn’t find anything that moved.  I wondered if your dad saw me out there pushing and pulling on your step, wondering if I was strange or something.”

          “Well thank you my dear.  This is all quite perfect actually.  First, Mrs. Johnson was Dr. Johnson.  She planned to add an examination room on to the house, which is probably the reason for the caduceus’.  Second, our front porch is not the Johnson’s step.  The Johnson’s front door faced east, not south.  Let me get dressed and we’ll go look.”

          “I can go while you’re getting dressed.”

          “No way girl.  Come talk to me while I get dressed.  I want in on some of the excitement.”

          After getting behind the leafless lilac bushes and ivy, it was easy to see where the door had been.  Directly in front this spot and under some leaves was a large stone step.  Unfortunately, it was way too big for even the two of us to move and I wasn’t ready to share this part of the mystery with my dad.

          “Let me get a crowbar from the garage.  I think we can squeeze it under the rock.  If we both push down, maybe we can move this thing.”

          Just a couple minutes later we were putting all our combined weight (which wasn’t much) on a large crowbar.  Slowly the stone began to move.  We had to reposition the bar a few times but were able to move it enough to pull a heavy metal box out of a hole under the stone.  It took both of us to lift the box.

          While we rested for a few minutes, Amanda briskly rubbed her upper arms.  “This is really weird.  I’m covered with goose bumps and I’m even a little nervous.  I think I’ve been anxious and fidgety all morning.  I imagined some weird guy was watching me when I was out here earlier.  Isn’t that crazy.  There’s an old car down the road and I thought for sure some man was staring at me.”

          “Which car?  Is it still there?”

          Amanda stepped back from behind the bushes and said, “yeah, just a couple houses down across the street.  See that old gold car.  Probably just belongs to a neighbor.  I don’t see anybody in it now.”

          “No, it’s not the neighbor’s.  I saw it yesterday when we came back from the service.  You were mostly asleep when we drove up.  I figured someone was visiting.  They probably spent the night.  Maybe he was just getting something out of his car when you saw him or looking at a map getting ready to go someplace.  That’s where Mrs. Pearson lives.  She’s kind of a strange old lady, but she’s ok.  She knows everybody in the neighborhood.  She has two of the ugliest pugs you’ve ever seen.  They have these bright yellow and blue matching sweaters she puts on them and takes them out for walks two or three times a day.  If she catches you when you’re coming or going, she’ll try to talk your ear off.  Doesn’t matter how cold it is.  She’s probably lonely.  My mom’s asked her in a couple of times, but she doesn’t want to bring Molly and Jack in the house.  Says they’ll mess things up.  So, you end up talking with her half the day in the cold.  But she’s ok.  Maybe it’s her brother or something.”

          “I was probably just being paranoid because of this whole Ling mystery thing and thinking Uncle Charlie might have been murdered; it’s just got me going.”

          “Me too, especially about Carl.  Now if it was Carl, I’d be freaking out.  That’s definitely NOT Carl’s car.  Let’s get this stone back and see if we can drag this box in the house.  My dad’s got a box of tools in the kitchen and I think they’ll be something we can open this with.  I’ll put the crowbar away later.”

          With some more effort we managed to get the stone back in basically the same position.  Looking back, it is amazing how I had never really looked at this part of the house before then.

          “Ok, let’s see if we can drag this thing into the house and get it in my room without ruining the new carpet in the living room.”

          “That looks heavy.  Can I help you ladies?”

          We both jumped at the low gritty voice behind us.  It sounded more like a demand than a statement as the older man reached for the box.

          “N n no!” I stammered.  “We’re fine.”

          “NO, I insist!  That’s too much for two frail young girls to carry.”

          “Oh, HI Anna, who’s your friend.  How’s T.J. doing?  He’s such a sweet boy.  How’s your folks?”  Mrs. Pearson was walking towards us with Molly and Jack.  For once, she was a relief.  The man who had insisted on helping seemed to jump a little himself when Mrs. Pearson and the Pugs showed up.  Both Molly and Jack started growling and barking.  Very uncharacteristic of them.  The man just turned and walked away without saying another word.  The pugs stopped growling and just let out an occasional bark watching the man as he walked away.

          “We’re fine.  How are you doing?  How’s Molly and Jack?”

          “Oh, I’m fine and my babies are wonderful.  I don’t know what just got into them.  They’re usually so friendly and so happy to be outside talking to people.”  Even with their sweaters, I didn’t think Molly and Jack were all that happy to be outside in the cold; but Mrs. Pearson was.

          “Who’s your friend?  What are you two up to?”  I had learned from experience that her questions were less nosy and more of an attempt to elicit a conversation.

          “This is my best friend Amanda.  We found an old box and are taking it into my house.  Sorry, we can’t stay and chat with you.”

           She took Amanda’s hand to shake it and still holding Molly and Jack’s leashes, kind of patted Amanda’s hand and said; “nice to meet you Amanda, you look like such a darling girl.  You two please come by and visit me some time.  I’ve got homemade chocolate cookies and I’ll make some cocoa for us.  Who was that man you were talking to?”

          “I have no idea Mrs. Pearson.  I’ve never seen him before in my life.  We thought he might be a relative of yours because he’s been parking in front of your house.”  I pointed to the gold car Amanda had showed me earlier.

          “Oh dear, I always worry about strangers.  I’ll have to tell Mr. Kendall; he’s the neighborhood watch captain.  I’ll go over there right now.  He should be home.  He’s retired you know.”

          “That’s a good idea Mrs. Pearson.”

          “Well good-bye girls.  Nice to meet you Amanda.”

          “Nice to meet you too Mrs. Pearson.” 

          “Come on Molly and Jack, let’s go talk to Mr. Kendall.”  Mrs. Pearson continued down the street in the direction the strange man had gone.

          “That man, the one who was insisting on helping us.  He’s the same man I thought was watching me earlier.  Obviously, he’s not staying with Mrs. Pearson.”

          “Obviously not, let’s see if we can carry this and get it in the house quick.”  I must admit I was scared, and I could tell Amanda was too.  Together we were just barely able to lift the metal box.  We had to set it down a couple times on the steps, but we managed to get it into the house and on into my room.  I made sure the front and back doors were both locked.  For the first time in my life, I wished we had a dog.

          The box was rusted, but quickly yielded its contents with the help of a much smaller crowbar I found in my dad’s toolbox.

          Inside was a plastic container with laminated pictures and newspaper articles inside; plus, rolls of old film negatives.  We both read in amazement about tree spiking.  Something I had never heard of.  There was one article about a man who died in a lumber mill because of a tree that had been spiked.  One of the articles described spiking as a form of domestic terrorism that makes logging and mill work extremely dangerous.  Then there were the pictures.  Pictures of Carl Stuki, pounding spikes in trees.  There were a bunch of them. 

          “How did Bobby take all these pictures without being seen?  Do you think he had any help?” asked Amanda.

          “I don’t know.  I wonder if maybe he was seen.  Maybe that’s why he was murdered.  I don’t think Charlie helped him because if he had, he would have known not to give the package to Carl.  I bet Bobby did it on his own.  He must have followed Carl to get all these pictures.”

          “Why do you think Bobby was following Carl in the first place?”

          “I don’t know,” I was puzzled myself.  “Maybe we’ll find some answers when we look at the journal.”

          Some of the pictures were so clear that Carl was unmistakable.  There were even pictures of Carl standing next to a car; however, the license plate was covered by mud, except we could see they were California plates.  Carl was laying spikes out on his hood as he was getting everything ready.  It was absolutely clear from the articles that the person/people responsible would be prosecuted and would likely spend time, maybe even life, in prison.  Not only did we think this was enough to get Carl arrested; but probably motive for murder.

          “Anna, do you have a magnifying glass?”

          “Sure, why?”

          “I want to look closely at a couple of the pictures.”

          I grabbed a big magnifying glass my mom kept in the living room.  She sometimes used it to read the fine print.  Amanda closely examined three of the pictures.

          “Look, here at this one.  Look past the tree right behind Carl.  What do you see?”

          I took the picture and magnifying glass and looked closely.

          “There’s another man there.  He’s shorter and a little stockier than Carl.  I can’t make out the picture very well, but it looks like he had curly brown hair.”  I shuddered and knew immediately what Amanda was getting at.

          “The man outside just now.  He had curly white hair.  Looked like he’s in his late 50’s or early 60’s.  It’s the same man.”

          “I, I think you’re right,” I stammered

          “Now look at this.”  Amanda handed me another picture.  “I didn’t see a car at first; but look, parked behind some bushes you can see part of the outline of a gold car. … And look at this picture.  There’s the same man crouching down, pounding a spike in another tree.”

          “We’ve got to get my dad and get this to the police.”

          “ANNA, AMANDA, I’M GOING TO GET T.J. FROM SCHOOL.  YOU TWO ALL RIGHT?”

          “NO! WAIT DAD.”  I ran to the living room before my dad could walk out the door.

          “We want to go with you, we’ve found something and need to take it to the police.  We don’t want to be alone.  Would you take us to get T.J. and then take us over to the police station?  We’ve found some more evidence on Carl, and somebody else.”

          My dad, looking justifiably concerned answered; “sure Anna. What else do you need?”

          “No, we’ve got it.  We’ll tell you all about it in the car.”  We left the heavy box in my room and just carried the plastic container with all the contents and walked out.  Locking the door behind us, we got into the car with my dad.  The man with the curly white hair was standing about a house away.   Amanda and I were both sitting in the back seat and turned to watch.  With a grimaced face, the man with the white curly hair stomped his foot while shaking a clenched fist just in front of his chest as he stared at us driving away.