Late Tuesday afternoon Sheriff Ericsson sits at
his desk pondering plans to trick Jolene into confessing. He sees Sue getting
ready to leave for the day when Erin O’Shea comes in. Erin asks if she can see
the sheriff. Sheriff Ericsson comes out of his office, greets Erin and asks,
“What can I do for you, Erin?”
“It’s what I can do for you, Sheriff. I can tell
you how to prove whether Jolene is innocent or still a suspect.”
“I’m all ears. Tell me.”
“Jolene’s house has a fancy security system that
tells exactly what time she arms and disarms it. We all know from Mary Jane
Bloom’s article in the Weekly Journal that Jolene left the library at 8:11. The
time your deputies included in the report on the meeting the night of Carson
Crenshaw murder. Jolene’s house security system will tell you exactly what time
she disarmed it when she got home after night’s meeting. You can have a deputy
drive from the library straight to Jolene’s house to see if his time matches
Jolene’s. If it does there’s no way she had time to go to the harbor and kill
her husband before going home.”
“How do you know about Jolene’s security
system?”
“Sheriff, you should know that anything that’s
of local interest gets talked about at my salon. Rachael Villmere, who designed
Jolene’s kitchen, saw the security system, which is like hers. She thought of
checking the security system to see if Jolene’s alibi is true. Jolene should
have been able to tell you but she was so upset with your accusations she
didn’t think of it.”
“Sounds reasonable, I’ll have a deputy check it
first thing tomorrow. I’ll call Jolene and ask her to stay home in the morning
to show the deputy how to check the time she got home Saturday night. Is it
alright with you if she’s late for work tomorrow?”
“Yes, it’ll be worth it to get you off her back
so she can focus on haircuts again.”
The next morning the sheriff is finishing his second
cup of coffee when Sue tells him the deputy is calling in. “Ask him if he was
able to tell if Jolene had time to kill Carson or not, Sue.”
“He says Jolene’s alibi is solid; no way could she
have gone to the harbor before going home that night.”
“Okay, tell him to tell Jolene she’s no longer a
suspect and can go to work.”
“I already did, Sir. That clears Jolene. Now
you're left with Violet, her activists and David Wellborne.”
“You’re right, Sue. I’m going to follow your
suggestion for handling Violet. Please call the salon and ask Violet if
she will come to see me right after her work today. Tell her I need her help.
That’ll get her here pronto.”
“Yes, Sheriff, I’ll take care of it.”
A few minutes later Sue comes back into the
sheriff’s office. She says, “I talked to Violet. She said she’s willing to help
you if it can wait until Wednesday afternoon. That’s her regular time off. She
said she has a customer coming in late today for a perm and she doesn’t want to
cancel the appointment.”
“Fine, I can wait until tomorrow afternoon. I
bet she made up the story about the late perm to show me she’s in charge.”
“I think from the way she said it you’re right,
Sir. Knowing Violet, she’ll cooperate better if we play along with her games.”
“I know, it’s just frustrating.”
At 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon Violet is shown
into the sheriff’s office. She says cheerily, “How can I help with the investigation,
Sheriff?”
“Violet, you are the only one who can establish
alibis for the out of town activists that were here for Carson’s meeting the
night he was killed. Will you help with that?”
“Of course, Sheriff. I would have earlier if you
had asked politely instead of accusing us of murder.”
“I apologize, Violet. Now, do they have alibis?”
“Yes, when David Wellborne told us Carson might
cut those beautiful trees on the Wellborne beach property we got doubly upset.
After we stopped screaming about it we decided we needed a bigger protest to
put a stop to any trees being cut down. All of the activists from out of town
jumped into the two vans they drove up here. They left for Detroit right then.
They planned to start recruiting more protestors first thing the next morning.
When I checked on them the next evening I learned they got stopped for speeding
in the next county. It took some time for them to get back on their way to
Detroit. If you check with that county sheriff’s office you can find out
exactly what time they were stopped. I’ll bet it will prove they didn’t have
time to go to the harbor before they left.”
“Alright, Violet, I’ll check with Sheriff
Williams there. If you’re not giving me a line we’ll know if their alibi holds
water. I’ll take your word they all left at the same time. Thank you for your
cooperation. The two local activists have a solid alibi. If the out of town
group’s alibi holds up it still leaves you as a suspect. You weren’t willing to
tell me what you did after the meeting before. Are you ready to tell me now?”
“I suppose I have to. Otherwise you won’t leave
me alone about it.”
“I’ll be happy to leave you alone if you have an
alibi.”
“Okay, okay. I went straight to Jack’s bar on
the highway south of town. I called Ed, my ex and asked him to meet me there.
We can’t live together without fighting, but when I’m upset Ed’s the only one
who listens to me and calms me down. We got to the bar at nearly the same time
and went in together. I kept screaming about Carson cutting the trees. I got
too loud and the bartender told me to be quiet or get out. He was watching a
hockey game on TV. He should remember what time we came in because he told us
it was a thrilling tie game and almost over when he asked us what we wanted to
drink. Talk to him. He’ll remember me because he said he couldn’t hear the game
over my screaming. That’s why he told me to be quiet or leave.”
“That’s good, Violet. I wish you had told me
when I first brought you in. It would have saved you that time in jail and made
my job easier.”
“You started accusing me and the other activists
without asking if any of us had an alibi. I wasn’t going to help you after
that, no matter if I did have to spend a few days in your jail. If you need any
more help, Sheriff, just ask.”
“Thank you for coming in and helping with the
investigation, Violet. I appreciate it.”
Violet leaves the sheriff’s office and Sue hears
him muttering loudly to himself. She comes into the office and asks, “Was
Violet helpful?”
“Yes, but I had to grovel to get her cooperation.
It kills me to have to kowtow to that woman to get her to cooperate. She could
have helped from the start instead of costing me a lot of time and aggravation.
She spent all that time in jail just to spite me. If the alibi she finally gave
me checks out I hope I never have to deal with her again.”
“What alibi did she give you, Sir?”
“She said she went straight to Jack’s bar and
met her ex-husband Ed there. She’s convinced the bartender will remember her
screaming and what time she came in. She claims she disrupted his hearing a
good hockey game.”
“I’d put money on that being true. From what I
hear, when Violet gets in one of her real tizzies she goes to Ed. She does my
hair and she’s told me a dozen times Ed’s the only one who can calm her.”
“I hope she alibis out. I don’t want to deal
with her.”
“Yes, Sir, you said that. Shall I tell Deputy
Wilson to check out Violet’s story with the bartender at Jack’s?”
“Yes, and ask him to do it quickly. I have to
call Sheriff Williams and see if he can back up Violet’s story about an alibi
for the other activists.”
By the end of Wednesday the alibis for Violet
and her activists from Detroit have checked out. Neither Violet nor any of the
activists could have killed Carson. Sheriff Ericsson sits down and thinks, ‘what
a day, now I have only David Wellborne as a prime suspect. He’s due back from
China by the end of the week. I have until Monday to figure out how to approach
him’.
Thursday afternoon when Jolene meets Jake at the
cabin she immediately says, “The sheriff knows I’m innocent. Pam Lafave figured
out how to prove it. It’s a big relief not having Sheriff Ericsson hounding me.
Even better, you can come to my house now. We don’t have to sneak around
meeting in this old cabin any longer.”
‘’Won’t people talk if we’re seen together so
soon after Carson’s death?”
“I don’t care what people say now. I don’t want
to wait any longer to see you more. Mary Jane Bloom won’t be able to resist
reporting my innocence. I think she enjoys writing things that aggravate the
Sheriff or make it look like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. If people know I
didn’t kill my husband I don’t care if they don’t approve of how long I act
like the grieving widow. If you come home with me later this afternoon I’ll
cook dinner for you and you can spend the night. How does that sound?”
“It sounds great, but my truck isn’t running and
it’ll take me most of the morning tomorrow to get it running again.”
“Then leave it here and go home with me. You can
take Carson’s BMW. The sheriff had it brought to the house and it’s sitting in
the garage. It has a stick shift and I don’t like driving it. No reason you
can’t drive it now.”
“Okay, if you don’t care what people will say.”
“I don’t care, now let’s go to bed. I want to
celebrate being proved innocent.”
