The Legend of Peg Powler
(A Sewing Box Mystery)
Chapter 1: Friday, November 1, 1991, 1:51 am
Chapter 2: Saturday October 29, 2011, 11:37 am
Chapter 3: Sunday October 30, 2011, 10:30 am
Chapter 4, Monday, October 31, 2012, 8:01 am, Halloween
Chapter 13: Monday, October 31, 2011, 11:02 am
Chapter 17 - Monday, October 31, 2011, 12:43 pm
Chapter 21 - Monday, October 31, 2011, 2:47 pm
Dorie, who was two yards ahead of Jeanette and Missy, froze in place. After a moment, her head turned slowly to look back at her sister and daughter. She was at a loss for words and could only manage, “What…?”
Jeanette began to move forward, towards the three pairs of shoes on the river bank, but Missy grabbed her aunt by the arm to stop her. “No. Don’t.”
Removing her arm from Missy’s grasp, Jeanette asked, “Why?”
“Mom,” Missy called, her voice calm and controlled. “Step back. Try to find your own footprints as you do.”
Dorie, confused, again, could only manage, “What?” But this time with a sharp note of annoyance.
“This is a crime scene. Just do as I say. We need to let Sheriff Paul handle this.”
Dorie looked to the river, scanning it’s surface. “But what about the kids? What if they’re still out there? We could…”
Missy shook her head. “They’re not. And if they are in the water, they’re long gone. We can’t help them now.” She then looked at her aunt, “But we can get Sheriff Paul down here A.S.A. P. We need to get back to the car.” When she looked back to the shoes, her mother hadn’t moved. “Mom!”
“What?”
“Step back, now. If they’re in the water, we can’t help them. The current is too strong. We have to go get the Sheriff.”
Her mother turned around and began stomping back toward where Missy and Jeanette stood, with no mind for where she was stepping. “Alright. Alright. Missy? Happy now? Why are you shouting?”
Good question. Missy felt a familiar panic. They’d stepped in it. It was happening all over, again. Right in the middle of things, that’s where they were. Right at the crux. She felt an overwhelming anxiety moving up from her heels, through her spine to her throat. How were they ever going explain this to Sheriff Paul?
Jeanette, sensing something wrong, asked in the softest of voices… “Missy?”
It was the wrong thing to do.
Like gasoline thrown on a pilot light.
“I don’t know what to do,” Missy was now shouting, even screaming a bit. She suddenly sounded desperate.. “Why does this keep happening? It’s me. It’s me. I keep inviting this into my life. Like I need it? I need this pain? This is going to be such a mess. What are we going to do? We need to… we have to…”
“Ha, ha, ha…” Behind them, gleeful laughter worked it’s way into the mix. “Gotcha! Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha!” The three women turned in unison to face the source of the voice. It was a man, in his mid-fifties, guessed Missy, based on his slight belly paunch and thinning, pale peach hair. His skin was overly sun-kissed and tan, Dressed in a pristine sky-blue polo shirt complete with tiny alligator and a pair of khakis, he looked like he would be much more at at home on the back nine at his local country club. He was half bent over, his chipmunk face gone red from laughter, which had now died down to a choked chortle.
Missy hated him.
“Happy Halloween!” he managed, after placing his hands on his hips and taking a deep breath. His eyes were alight with the merriment of a skilled prankster. “Boy, you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for someone to find those damn shoes. Usually, there would have been scores of people checking out this site today, but, so far, you’re the only ones. When you marched off in the opposite direction, I thought you’d never see it… but you came back. Ha, ha… you came back.” He then moved toward the women, who had not so much as blinked, with an outstretched hand. “Hi. I’m Ray… Ray Tollefson, CEO of B&T Baked Goods.”
Missy and Jeanette looked at his hand as if it was a blanket full of malaria. Only Dorie, upon hearing the magic title, CEO, minced coquettishly forward, taking the offered palm in hers. With something else lighting up her eyes, she batted her lashes and merely purred, “Charmed.”
Jeanette,with a look of distrust still clearly on display, began to introduce herself, but was cut off at the pass. “I’m…”
“Oh, you don’t have to introduce yourselves. I know who you two are. You’re the women who changed my life forever!”
Missy and Jeanette looked at each other and then back to Ray, who continued, “My sister? Kathleen. Kathleen Tollefson. You are the two who helped put her away in the nuthouse, where, quite frankly, she should‘ve been years and years before. Yep, thanks to you two and those high-priced lawyers I hired, who were working more for me than for her, she ended up in that St. Peter home for the criminally insane, which meant I finally got to run the business the way I wanted to without interference from old anal Kathleen.”
Missy didn’t care for the man’s gleeful tone. What happened to his sister was a tragedy.
“Anyhoo,” he continued. “Man, I got you good. All three of you!” His triumphant smile revealed of mouthful of highly-polished dental work. “I couldn’t see the look on your faces, but I bet it was priceless. I got you. Got you good.”
“You certainly did,” breathed Dorie. “You know them, Ray, but you certainly don’t know me.” She moved in front of Missy and Jeanette, placing herself between them and Ray. “I’m Dorie. Visiting from Bueno Aries. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Ray’s face lit up like a man about to devour his favorite meal, “More like A-Dorie-Bell. In fact I think that’s what I’m gonna call you. A-Dorie-Belle!
“A Door Bell?” Exasperated, Missy practically spit out the words. “What about my mother makes you think she’s a door bell?”
“No,” cried Ray, now all put out. “No, A-Dorie-Bell, as in adorable. She is, your mother is adorable.” His tone softened as he checked out Dorie like he was doing inventory.
“I had her when I was very young.”
“Ha!” scoffed Jeanette. “Not that young.”
Dorie rushed in to change the subject. “Tell me more about this… this company you run. I mean, I’m sure most of it will go right over my head,” she added, with a skilled flip of her hair, “but I find it all so fascinating.”
“We went public in ‘92. Stock has risen every year since the day we’ve been on the board. That’s thanks to me. My leadership. The board of directors has total faith in me. Which is why were going to be building a plant in Mexico, starting next year. New markets to conquer.”
“Goodness. So ambitious. I do admire a man of ambition. And so young, to have accomplished so much.”
Missy stole a glance at Jeanette, who was busy rolling her eyes. Missy did not like the look in her mother’s eyes. What was she up to?
“I suppose your wife must complain about all the endless hours you have to put in at the office.”
“Ha. No ring on these fingers.”
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Well, I find that hard to believe, a man of your caliber and stature. I mean, what is this town without you and your company? What percentage of its citizens do you employee?”
Ray stepped closer to Dorie. “Well, adorable, you know… if you’re thirsty, I could tell you all about it over a drink, or two.”
Dorie tapped his chest playfully with a manicured finger, “Oh, I don’t know… it’s awfully early in the day, isn’t it?”
“Eh, anyplace I go it’s ‘happy hour’, if you know what I mean. My truck’s right over there? What do you say?” And sure enough, hidden behind the line where the sparse vegetation turned into woods, sat one of those big, tall, stupid trucks, bright red and tricked out to the nines, all shiny and pristine, looking like it had never hauled anything larger than Ray’s executive ass a day in its life. There must have been a turn-off just ahead of where Missy had stopped her vehicle, with a road which led directly to the river bank.
Dorie glanced over her shoulder and shot a beaming smile Jeanette and Missy’s direction. “Why, I think that sounds like a good time, Ray. That’s what I say. And if there is one thing I do adore… it’s a good time. Let’s go.”
“Mom!” Missy could not believe her ears.
Ignoring, Missy, for the moment, Dorie continued, “Why don’t you start up that monster truck of yours, Ray. I’ll be right with you. I need to talk to my gal pals for just a moment.”
“Okay. It’s got a hemi!”
“I am sure it does!” teased Dorie. “Now go on. I won’t be but a minute.” As Ray trotted off towards his truck, Dorie spun about, fixing first Missy and then Jeanette with an all-business gaze, “Don’t mess this up for me.”
“What are you talking about, hissed Jeannette.
“This is a live one, and I need this.”
“Mother!” snapped Missy. “What? You don’t even know this man.”
“No, but you do,” grinned Dorie. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m a big girl. I know my way around a man. Especially someone like him. Oh! Wait a minute.” She opened the clasp on her clutch and produced a folded piece of paper, which she handed to Missy. “Here. I forgot to give you this.”
“What is it?” Missy began unfolding the paper.
“It’s that birth certificate you wanted. The one you set aside. I palmed it before giving Arthur back all those files. I’m sure he won’t miss it.”
Missy was apalled. “Mom. I suspect the man has a very odd way of filing things, as in eidetic. Did you ever stop to think that’s why he was chasing us?”
“Oh, who cares. Water under the bridge. It’s yours now. Return it, if you like. I thought you wanted it.”
“I didn’t mean for you to steal it. I think this is, like, against the law or something.”
“I didn’t steal it. I mean, not if you return it. Then I just borrowed it.” Snapping her purse shut, she smiled and added, “You do what you need to do, hon. Okay. I gotta go.”
“We’re supposed to be heading back to Minneapolis,” interjected Jeanette. “The Halloween party. Remember?” Jeanette was sounding pragmatic, but Missy could tell by the tension in her body that what she really wanted to do was strangle her baby sister.
“Oh, yeah. That’s right,” frowned Dorie. “Oh, well, now you have time to go to the newspaper or back to the library or whatever. Go get something to eat? Or, go back to Minneapolis. I’ll be fine. I think I know where I will be sleeping tonight, if you know what I mean.”
Missy could not believe her ears. “Yes, Mother, we know what you mean.”
“For god’s sake, reign it in woman.” Jeanette couldn’t even bring herself to look at her sister.
Dorie crossed her arms over her breasts and, with her tongue busy exploring the inside of the right side of her mouth, looked as if she was about to lose her temper. She glared at both sister and daughter, “Look,” she rasped, “This is what I do. This what I know. I know you don’t ‘get it’, but I can’t explain it any better. Everything will be fine.” She altered her posture, and, holding her head high, assumed that of a woman in control, “I’ll catch up to you two later.” Turning about, she began to stride toward the waiting truck.
Missy and Jeanette, instinctively, both followed at her heels.
“You can’t do this.”
“Watch me.”
“The Halloween Party.”
“Go. You can still make it.”
“We can’t leave you…”
Dorie stopped dead, whipped around and shot them both with, “Yes. Yes you can. People do it all the time.” After allowing her words a bit of gravity, she softened and looked at her feet. “I’m used to it.” She looked at her two travelling companions, smiled and added, “Go on, now. I’ll be alright. I’ll catch up to you later.” With that, she turned and moved to the opened passenger door of the truck. Taking Ray’s extended hand, she leapt up onto the seat, and with a slam of the door, Ray spun out, whipping the truck around while Dorie waved good-bye through the cab’s back window.
Astounded, Missy and Jeanette gazed helplessly while remaining motionless, though their attention soon moved elsewhere.
As Ray’s truck was moving up the gravel path, a peculiar, old black limo lumbered down to where the women stood. Missy thought it familiar, but couldn’t place where she’d seen it before. It came to a stop in front of them and an older gentlemen wearing a rather stately chauffeur's uniform stepped out of the driver’s side. Approaching the dumbfounded women, he stopped short, clicked his heels while removing his chauffeur's cap, and stated, “The Oswig sisters have requested your presence for tea. I am not to return without you. Will you please accept their kind invitation?”
Open-mouthed, Missy and Jeanette looked to one another.
What in the utter world…?
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