Jac nodded. “Then we keep looking until we find them. I’ll set up some protocols, get the searches started. I need to drive to the airport and pick up Agent Lorcan. She’s bringing a trainee to join us now.”
Miranda nodded. “You want someone to drive with you?”
“I’m good. I remember where it is now. Unlike the first time you made me drive around out here.”
“It’s not my fault you took a left turn and ended up at Derrick Tyler’s.”
“It wasn’t ending up there that was the problem. It was getting out of there still single that was a bit iffy. All those brothers…with…umm…romance…on their minds. And you weren’t exactly helping the situation, you lunatic—giving them dating advice while I was right there.”
Jac was speaking the truth. There were plenty of Tyler brothers in the town—a set of twins had taken a shine to the quietly pretty Jac that day and had dogged her footsteps the entire week they were in town. Miranda had had a blast watching her friend deal with the courting—and competing—Tylers.
“Just be careful.”
“Will do.”
“What do we know about the victim?” Max asked. “I mean, besides the cause of death.”
Miranda nodded. “Good question. I suppose I knew the family—at least, the oldest daughter—the best. Levi Masterson—the sheriff’s brother, who we’ll interview this evening—and a few others knew the oldest son. I’m not sure of the younger children’s friends. Some of the Clary girls, possibly. They were around the same age or so, and were the closest neighbors. The youngest three children were incredibly quiet. Never said anything or did anything that I noticed. But I was a teenager—we didn’t have much to do with Monica’s siblings unless we were watching them. Which was rare. Helen watched all the children. Pauline and Luther were usually at work, especially when we got home from school.”
“What did Luther do?”
“He bounced around quite a bit. A ranch hand and truck driver, mostly,” Clint said as he came into the room. He was in a dress shirt and trousers, and if Miranda wasn’t mistaken, he had a formula stain on his shoulder. He’d mentioned an early court appearance that morning. “Never stayed in one position too long. My interviews turned up that he had some problems with alcohol and mental illness at the time.”
“What about Helen’s daughter?” Max asked. “She’s a bit of a mystery as well.”
“She never had a social media presence that I can find,” Jac stated.
“Pauline worked at one of the only local factories,” Clint took the remaining empty chair in the room and turned to the whiteboard. “It’s closed now, but there are still some of her supervisors in town.”
Miranda made a decision. They could sit inside discussing this case for probably the next six weeks, but if they didn’t get out there and actually do something, they would never have the answers they were seeking.
“Jac, get me some names before you go for Agent Lorcan. Dr. Knight and I are going to go find out what we can about Pauline. She is the one who would be the most affected by what happened to her mother. Let’s see what she had going on back then.”
16
They found two of Pauline Beise’s former supervisors who were more than willing to talk to them. Max and Clint headed to the town just south of Masterson to interview one.
She and Knight took the other.
Colleen Tanner was closing in on eighty, smelled like a chimney, and eyed Knight like he was a piece of filet mignon. One she was ready to dive into. “You’re a tall, delicious one, aren’t you, honey?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Miranda bit back a snicker. His cheeks didn’t even flush. Her gaze met Colleen’s, and Miranda was struck by the intelligence and humor. “Mrs. Tanner, we have a few questions regarding a woman who worked with you fourteen years ago.”
“Honey, I’ll answer any questions y’all have—provided he’s doing the asking. I don’t get much eye candy in here anymore, except for that hottie Doc Lowell. There’s that big, hot stud who runs the hospital now, too, but he married that little redheaded hellion nurse of his and took himself off the market. Has the look of his granddaddy, that one. Had me a go round with that Masterson a good fifty years ago. Those were the days.” She wiggled the wand on her wheelchair and headed toward the alcove near the window of the Terrington Acres retirement home rec center. “Well, come on, you beautiful young people. I’m sure you’ll prove mighty entertaining.”
Miranda laughed outright. “We’ll do our best.”
Knight pulled Miranda’s chair closer to the window as Miranda answered questions about who her people in Masterson were again. Colleen Tanner was sharp as a tack; her body just wasn’t keeping up with the rest of her. “My grandmother runs the Talley Inn and Flo’s Diner.”
“Gerald your daddy, or Arthur, or you Jessi’s girl? You have the look of her, around the eyes. Sorry about her passing.”
It was a question she’d answered many times; her father and his brother were identical twins. “Gerald. I’m his eldest daughter.”
“He always was a handsome one, but always had that stick up his…rear. It was a nice rear end, but he sure did follow the straight and narrow. Unlike that brother of his. No shame when that one took off—those kids of his were far better off, I’ve always said.”
“He is still very regimented. My sister and I absolutely adore him.” Her father was on the autism spectrum and had always preferred life very structured. Much like her youngest sister, Meyra.
“And that city girl he married?”
“She passed away when I was a girl.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. He sure did worship the ground she walked on.”
“That he did.” One thing she would always remember was how much her father had loved her mother. How he—the man she had never seen cry—had wept
