Thinking Mr. Anderson was getting into the realm of the absurd and knowing it was getting dark and colder, Army and Chiara thanked him in excess and made their way from his presence. He was a good and knowledgeable man, but the two had about as much of Mr. Anderson as they could take for one evening. On the way back to Chiara’s place, Army asked her if Mr. Anderson had any direct association with the mine owners. She said he’d apparently been the caretaker for over forty years. Of course it made Army wonder why he gave them no indication that he knew Mrs. Peterson.
After he dropped Chiara off, he called Charley and talked about things at home and in New York. He asked Charley how the Stottlemeyers’ were. Charley said they told him to say hello, he told him about school and about how pretty Mrs. Stottlemeyer looked when she picked him up from school the day before. He suspected Charley was playing cupid again. They talked until Army got sleepy and finally told Charley he loved him and hung up. He went to sleep on his bed without dinner, a shower or covers and woke in the middle of the night from a dream in which he was lost in the snow and cold.
Chiara called about 8:00 a.m. She asked if she could come to the motel for breakfast. Not being stupid, Army did not tell her he’d already eaten. He invited her and she arrived about 8:20 looking and smelling very nice. He could tell immediately she had something on her mind. She ate ham and eggs and Army had most of another egg and cheese omelet and coffee. After she ate and was nursing her coffee, she told him about calling the folks at the home from which she got the directions to Mr. Anderson’s place; their first stop on the way to Truly’s.
She smiled a self-assured smile and said, “I talked to the Swansons’ and found that Truly Anderson has been in and out of mental treatment for years. Folks think he has Alzheimer’s and is perhaps senile altogether. He’s 92 years old, Army. He could be wrong about a lot of things and I don’t think we should take his word about the hill or the mine accidents or anything. It might all be in his mind.”
Carefully choosing his words, Army responded, “I really don’t believe anything I hear and only half of what I see, Chiara. I learned that from Will Rogers I think. In any case I can’t assume anything and deal only in fact during an investigation. We have a few facts so far, but it’s impossible to connect them logically and it may never be possible. I have several unsolved cases on my desk as we speak.”
Chiara looked thoughtfully out the window and responded without looking at Army, “I feel like she’s gone, that’s all. She was so sweet and kind and intelligent and I guess I see some of me in her. When I get old, I’d like to be just like her, with one exception.” She turned to look boldly at Army and continued, “I want to have the one I love next to me until I die. I had that feeling once and lost it through my own avarice. I won’t make the same mistake again if I ever get another chance, but if I don’t, I’ll be satisfied to carry on the way I am now. I’m going to miss her and come to think of it, I might have to find another place to live and work.”
“I think you have a lot of time for both. You’re an intelligent and beautiful woman and frankly I can’t understand why you’re unattached. In addition, Mr. Gilbertson would be genuinely stupid to kick you out before the home is transferred or sold because you’re like a paying caretaker; watching the place nearly full time for him.”
She looked at Army with another question in her eyes, but left it unasked. Instead she asked about Charley. Of course the descriptions overflowed until he stopped abruptly and asked if she had any children. She did not, but wished for them before she left child bearing age behind her. Army said he hoped for more kids someday too and he thought he caught a sparkle in Chiara’s green eyes. If he did, it would certainly have to wait on him. He thought he was entirely too raw and still aching.
Army left Chiara and the mine and the cold and the snow the following day. He carried no regrets with him. His heart was sufficiently full of those. He had everyone’s number, address and name, should he ever need them again. He checked out with the Sheriff of St. Lawrence County and left for the sunny state of California. As he leaned back into his aisle seat to rest, he smiled at the irony. Due to the best of his mental abilities and observation skills, he was certain the car on the hill never backed up.
5.
It was good to see the sun of California again, even though he’d been gone only a short time. He was picked up at the airport by Deputy Don Gilbert and dropped off at the Sheriff’s Office. Since it was mid-day, he started on his report and trip expense records. The report took about an hour and the expense vouchers about twenty minutes. He checked with Les Gilbert’s office regarding any current findings and found they’d been successful in assembling a partial face from Mr. Davis, one of the victims. It fit the photos his daughter provided. Also some singed grey hair found impacted against a tree was consistent with an aged female. That was all the new information available. DNA results were not complete and after welcoming him back, Larry Englestein told him nothing else substantive had been found in the reassembled car parts.
However, Army wanted to see the evidence for himself, so after he finished his reports and had a short talk with the Sheriff, he went to the collection yard where the vehicle parts were waiting under blue tarps. They’d not been thoroughly washed yet, so he could smell the piles before he pulled the tarps back to check. Looking under the first tarp, it was obvious it had been a red Ford Mustang. He was awed at the utter destruction of the frame and plastic parts, but all four tires and wheels were present and accounted for. It gave him hope that he could compare treads on the second car with the photos he took of the tracks in New York.
He pulled back the second tarp and surprisingly no tires were evident. What was obvious; the plastic parts of the auto were melted and most had combined with what was left of the ruptured battery packs and few metal parts. It looked like one big pile of incompletely incinerated automotive trash, and it didn’t smell of rotted flesh, it just smelled of fire and … sulphur, ozone or hot sulphur springs. The implications actually made him shudder.
When he returned to the office he sought out Larry and asked him about the pile of rubble, “Larry, were there any tires in the remains of the second car; the Prius?”
“No siree, there weren’t even any rims left, Army. I can’t figure that one out unless someone took ‘em, and that was impossible unless someone took ‘em at the time they reported the collision.”
“Yeah, I need to talk to the person who reported the wreck. Do they live around here?”
“Hell, you know I don’t know. You’ll probably have to talk with Marlene and pull the 911 recording on that one, Army. I don’t think anyone’s questioned the person yet.”
“Okay, cool, I’ll get with Marlene. I got some photos of tire treads from a Prius in New York and it’d be nice to compare them with tires from the mess that used to be a Prius setting in the assembly yard.”
Somewhat guarded, Larry asked, “Did you catch that smell from that pile?”
“Oh yeah, it smells like sulphur, doesn’t it?”
“It smells to me like it went through hell and then blew up all over the road, or impacted the other car like a rocket. It gives me the creeps.”
“Based on the shit I heard and saw in New York, I really need to find those tires Larry. I’m going to talk to the person that reported it, and then I’m going to cover that area all the way to the hill.”
“What did you find in New York? Some good looking honey?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, and she’d be right up your alley; pretty, intelligent and an artist. Oh, yeah she’s single too.”
“Sounds great, you have her number?”
Army laughed and said, “Screw you Larry. No way would I give you her