J. Margos - Shattered Image

“That whittles down our suspect list,” I said.

“It has to be Dody, or else it’s just some psycho who randomly killed them all. That last scenario doesn’t fit what the crime scenes say, but Dody as killer does.”

“Okay, so how do we tie him to any or all of these crime scenes? He lives outside of Austin, and I don’t know of any connection he has to Hempstead, and no one there recognized Addie. If Doug and Addie weren’t involved with each other, how and why were they in Hempstead. Did Dody follow them there, or take them there?”

Leo nodded. Then I thought about everything Leo had said previously about the burial site, about a connection between Gunther or Burkhardt and the killings, about what Addie and Doug would have been doing in Hempstead, and then I thought about something Dad had said.

“Hey, kid, want to go get the best pie you ever had?”

“Huh?”

“Let’s take a little ride up to Viola and see my new friend, Doris.”

Leo agreed reluctantly. I think she only agreed because she knew I must have a reason. We were dazed after the visit to Jimmy, and we had nothing else to go on. I cranked up the Fastback and we took off.

On the way up, I gave Leo the lowdown on Doris. I wheeled the Mustang off of the state highway and onto the farm-to-market road that led to Viola. Leo and I arrived at the Main Street Café in less than an hour. It was lunchtime and the place was full of all the locals. Leo and I had decided on the way up that we would do the whole lunch thing. Doris greeted us at the door.

“Toni!” she exclaimed. “Hon, it is so good to see you again. Who’s your little friend here?”

“Doris, this is Lieutenant Leonie Driskill from the Austin Fire Department.”

“You’re a fireman, hon?”

“Yes and no. I was a firefighter in active combat, but now I’m a fire investigator.”

“An investigator-well, now, that sounds real interesting. So, do y’all work together sometimes?”

“Yes, we do,” Leo replied.

“Y’all want a booth?”

“Yes, Doris, that would be nice,” I said.

“Good, because I have one right over here that would be perfect for you two ladies. Now y’all look at those menus and I’ll be right back to take your orders.”

We made our decisions and took our time enjoying our lunches while Doris took care of her lunch crowd and got them all fed and cleared out. I think the whole town must have been there that day. Doris definitely had a full house. When she was finally done with all that, Leo and I had finished our meals.

“Y’all want pie?” she asked, winking at me.

“You know I do,” I said. “And you know what kind.”

“Alrighty, apple for you with no ice cream. What about you, hon?” She looked at Leo.

“What’s my other choice besides apple?”

“The other choice is my homemade chocolate-cream pie. It’s icebox pie, hon. Know what I mean?”

“Yep. Load me up with chocolate cream,” Leo said.

“Don’t tell her to load you up until you’ve seen the size of the normal pieces,” I advised.

“Okay then, don’t load me up, but bring me your normal slice.”

Doris chuckled as she walked off. She returned in short order with two plates, and slid the pieces of pie in front of Leo and me. I thought Leo’s eyes would pop out of her head when she saw the size of that slice.

“Wow!” she exclaimed.

“Save your ‘wow’ until you’ve tasted it,” I told her. “You’re going to exhaust your superlatives too soon.”

She put a forkful of that pie in her mouth and within a millisecond the blue eyes began to roll.

“Oh man!”

“Told you,” I said with a mouthful of apple.

Doris was delighted, of course. She lived for those moments of extreme praise.

“You ladies make me feel good. I’ll go and get you some coffee to wash it down with.”

Doris made her way to the coffeepot and brought back two cups and set them down for us.

“Doris, can you sit with us for just a bit? I have some questions to ask again.”

“Hon, I was wondering when you were going to get around to that. I would love to sit down for a bit. I’ve been on my feet since six this morning.”

Doris sat next to Leo. I told her about Brian and his friends from Hempstead. I told her all about Doug being found in Hempstead on some farmland and that it looked like the original burial site.

“I just want to go over this again and make sure that you can’t think of any connection that might have existed between Addie and Hempstead, because I never asked you that question.”

“No, hon, you did not,” Doris said. “And you didn’t tell me that boy Brian was from Hempstead, you said Houston-and it said Houston on the news.”

My heart skipped a beat. I was hoping for all I was worth that I was onto something.

“His mother lives in Houston and that’s where he grew up,” I said, “but he moved to Hempstead and lived there at the time of his disappearance.”

“Well, Addie don’t have no connection to Hempstead, hon, but Dody sure did.”

Leo nearly choked on her pie. My eyes were wide as saucers.

“Well, go on, Doris.”

“Well, Dody’s family is originally from there. His granddaddy lived there. Of course, his mama and daddy are both dead, so they don’t have no ties there anymore, but back in the day they sure did.”

“Did Dody or Addie ever live there?” I asked.

“Oh no, hon. Dody’s granddaddy lived there and then he died. I think Dody had an aunt and uncle who lived there for a while, but I think they’re gone now, too.”

“Whereabouts did Dody’s family live in Hempstead?” I asked.

“Near Angler’s Point.”

My heart came up into my throat I was so excited. I almost held my breath.

“What was their name, Doris. Do you know?”

“Well, of course I know, hon.” She looked at me suspiciously. “Why does that matter?”

“Doris!”

“Well, all right, then. It was Gunther. Does that mean anything?”

I exhaled and put my head into my hands, and then ran my hands all the way through my hair and looked up at Leo.

“Oh man,” Leo exclaimed. “You have done it!”

“Done what? She’s done what?” Doris asked.

“I found the one missing link we needed, Doris-the one missing link.”

“How did you know? How did you think of it?” Leo asked.

“It was something Daddy said about how the killer wouldn’t have picked that site by throwing darts on a map. There had to be a reason they were there. You said something one time on another case about killers being in their comfort zone. And earlier today you were confused by the burial place where Doug was found being called the old Gunther place when Gunther doesn’t live there anymore. You were trying to link it to Burkhardt. The names were different.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, I thought about how the names were different, and about how that was confusing. Then I thought of another reason names are sometimes confusing, and I thought about me and Daddy and how my name is Sullivan and his is Kennedy…”

Doris said, “The Gunthers are Dody’s mama’s kin!”

“Right.” I nodded.

“They’re his maternal relatives, so the names are different,” Leo said, shaking her head.

“Right. So we never made the connection to the name of the place and to Dody.”

“I’ll be! You mean to tell me that evil little man buried her and Doug and that other boy up there on his granddaddy’s place?” Doris exclaimed.

“Yep. Only it isn’t his granddaddy’s place anymore. It belongs to a cranky old coot named Burkhardt.”

“That wicked little man killed them and that boy Brian?” Doris asked. “Why did he kill that poor Brian boy? Oh my!” she said, slapping her hand over her mouth in realization.