WALKING WITH ACHILLES

Chapter 16

The drive out to Vista Views Golf & Country Club had been pleasant in spite of how the bright sunshine gradually disappeared behind high gray clouds that signaled the approach of an early summer rain storm, weather typical to the area. Even the 'shop talk' that went on between Boo Lanson and Siena Jackson concerning the reason for the visit didn't detract from the brief journey. Intermittent raindrops began to spatter on the windshield as Boo turned off the main road and drove up the long lane between beautifully manicured expanses of green lawns. During the brief trip up that lane, Siena appreciated the view of the tastefully impressive looking clubhouse, understanding why Boo had said, "If you have to ask how much the membership fee is, take it to the bank, you can't afford to join."

Their ensuing conversation with Terry Schimmel, the club manager had lasted only about fifteen minutes, and by the time the manager was walking them back to the front door, chatting amiably, Siena's attitude about Tommie Emerson had recanted a bit. She had just nodded thoughtfully when told, "I'm sorry you drove all the way out here without getting to talk to Derek."

Siena just smiled politely and shook his hand, thanking him for his time. She paused for an instant when, as Terry Schimmel opened the door, a low distant rumble of thunder caused all of them to glance out at the lowering gray skies, noticing how the row of decorative evergreens lining the lane had begun to sway and stir in response to the breeze kicked up by the rainstorm. Yet Siena had barely stepped through the door when she stopped so quickly that Boo, following her, had to sidestep to avoid running into her when she turned back to the manager.

"Just one more thing. Does Mr. Emerson give lessons to any of the members?" she asked.

Terry Schimmel chuckled genially, sparing only a passing glance outward at the soft, steady rainfall then looked to the detectives once more. "Oh, yes," he said with a grin. "Among others, he teaches a class on Saturday mornings for kids between the ages of ten and fifteen."

"What about private lessons?" Siena asked.

"Yes, he does," Terry Schimmel answered, stepping out onto the covered portico and drawing the door closed. "Right now, he's giving private lessons to Gordon Whitestone and Allison Kent."

Boo Lanson hadn't missed his partner's switching tacks, paying close attention to Siena's expression and questions.

"Have you seen either of them today?" Siena queried.

Mr. Schimmel smiled. "Gordon definitely not yet today, and from the looks of it, he'll have to make up today's lesson. Weatherman says this rain is supposed to last well into the evening. Anyway, Gordon's a high school junior. He comes out three afternoons a week after school to work with Derek. Derek believes he may one day have a shot at going pro. I have to say that I agree with him."

Siena nodded. "What about Miss Kent?"

The manager thought a moment then shook his head in a slow, considering manner. "No, I don't think I've seen her since…yesterday." The man's smile broadened as he nodded more firmly. "Yes, she was here in the morning with another club member to play tennis. Actually, Allison comes to the club about three or four times a week."

"How long has she been taking private lessons with Mr. Emerson?" Siena asked.

The club manager frowned lightly. "About…six months, maybe seven."

"How often does she take lessons with Mr. Emerson?"

Terry Schimmel smiled widely. "I think about twice a week." To the detective's immediate follow up question, "You don't know how often?" he replied, "Detective Jackson, Miss Kent signed up for the lessons here, but she also has her own private nine-hole golf course on her estate." Arching his eyebrows significantly, he added, "She prefers her private lessons to be very private."

Siena nodded her understanding, having heard similar inferences many times in the course of investigating other cases before this one. "Just one more question, Mr. Schimmel," she said. "Where is Miss Kent's estate?"

"When you get to the road," the man told them, glancing toward the long drive.

"Turn right and go about five miles. You can't miss it."

Thanking the club manager again for his cooperation, Boo Lanson followed his partner back to their car. A clap of thunder boomed as he opened the door and slid behind the wheel. Putting the key in the ignition, he started the engine then paused, giving his partner a close look. "I'm starting to recognize that look," he said.

The comment snagged Siena's attention, causing her to shift her gaze from the notes she'd jotted in her notebook. "Hmm?" she responded then shook her head slightly as she focused on Boo as he backed the car up then shifted gears and started down the long lane toward the main road. "What are you talking about?"

Boo spared her a glance as he drove. "That look that says something's brewing behind those brown eyes." He paused then verbally nudged, "So?"

Siena stared at her notes another second before looking over at him. "It just seems odd that Mr. Schimmel says that Derek Emerson's has never displayed any sort of anger about anything or toward anyone at the club."

Boo considered the statement as he reached the main road and checked for oncoming traffic before flipping the turn signal on and turning right. "Your point?"

Siena looked at him. "My father loves golf. Plays two or three times a week." She glanced at the passing scenery. "I remember one time, when I was about ten, he tried to get my mom interested it. One Saturday he took her out in our backyard and tried teaching her about putting." She paused. "My Dad is one of the most patient men I've ever known in my life. But, Mom's never been remotely sports-minded." Siena shook her head, a bit of a smile touching her lips. "I'll spare you the details, but after about two hours, both of them were snapping at each other."

Boo just nodded.

Siena went on. "We both know that, no matter how hard they try or how enthusiastic they are, or how great a teacher they have, there are just some people who just can't get the hang of that sport. Teaching... anybody, anything requires patience…a lot of it…but even the most patient person in the world is going to lose it from time to time." She paused to take a breath then finished her thought. "A big part of Derek Emerson's job is teaching people to play golf, not all of whom, you can bet, are any good at it. Yet in all the time he's been at Vista Views, nobody has ever seen or heard of him losing his temper or even saying a cross word to anyone."

Busy with driving, Boo glanced at Siena again then shifted his attention back to the road. Scanning ahead, he pointed when he saw a large black mailbox with the name "Kent" printed on the side near a high-arching black wrought iron gateway marking the entrance to the Kent property. "There it is." As they drew closer, he said, "Again, what's your point?"

"My point," Siena said. "Is that for a guy who's had several incident calls to his house over the last five years, added to the way Thomasina Emerson looked this morning when I was talking to her, I find it highly unusual that no one at that club has ever heard Derek Emerson say a cross word." She paused a moment before adding, "Even more unusual is that, from what you said back at the station, all those calls to the Emerson house were about Mrs. Emerson, not Derek." Feeling the car slowing Siena shifted her attention forward. Up ahead she saw a white van with a large, bright logo on the side emerge from the arched iron gateway and make a left turn, passing them as it headed back the direction the detectives had come. Siena spared the van an idle glance as it went by, but no sooner had she looked away from it than she shifted sharply in her seat to look backward at the van.

"What's the matter?" Boo asked at his partner's sudden reaction to the van.

"Sparkle & Shine is the company Mrs. Emerson works for," Siena told him, her gaze still riveted on the van retreating down the road behind them. "What were they doing out here?"

Boo glanced at his partner then glanced in the rearview mirror. "It's a cleaning service, so I assume they were out here cleaning Allison Kent's house."

Siena's instincts were starting to clamor at her. "Turn around," she ordered.

"What for?" Boo asked, his own mindset shifting to a higher, more probing level by his partner's reaction.

"When she was leaving, Thomasina told me that she had to get to work," Siena's words were clipped as Boo Lanson executed a sharp U-turn in the road and headed quickly after the van now about a quarter of a mile ahead of them. Glancing at the seasoned detective beside her, she added, "Call it serendipity or what you will, but I just find it…odd that just as we're arriving to talk to a woman connected to Derek Emerson, a van belonging to the company his wife works for is pulling away from her estate."

Since the van wasn't fleeing from them, Boo waited until they had pulled up behind it before flipping the switch on the siren. It sounded twice and they watched the van's brake lights come on as it slowed then pulled off on the shoulder of the road and stopped. Both detectives jumped out of the car, Siena pulling out her ID as she took the lead in approaching the driver's side.

"I'm Detective Jackson," she said crisply, flipping her ID open for the clearly startled woman behind the wheel to get a good look at it. "This is my partner, Detective Lanson."

Getting a good look at the woman's badge number, Lilly Teasdale nodded as she met the detective's level gaze. "Is there a problem, officer?" she said carefully. "I was doing the speed limit..."

Siena put her ID back in her pocket. "There's no problem, ma'am," Siena said quickly. "I'm sorry, we didn't mean to scare you." She gave the driver a second to absorb that then said, "We were just on our way to the Kent estate when we saw you pull out."

Lilly nodded, glancing at Patricia Devlin in the seat beside her. From the corner of her eye she glimpsed Anna Wheaton seated in the backseat behind Patricia then looked back at detective watching her avidly. "Yes, ma'am," she responded politely. "We finished about fifteen minutes ago."

"Do you come out here on a regular basis?" Siena asked.

Lilly gave a vague shrug. "I wouldn't say it's a regular basis," she said. "But whenever Mrs. Corkern calls the agency, she always asks for our team."

"Who's Mrs. Corkern?"

"Oh, she's Miss Kent's housekeeper," Lilly supplied quickly.

Siena ducked reflexively at another clap of thunder, this one seeming like it was directly over them, then glanced at Boo then back to Lilly Teasdale then past her, craning her neck to see the other occupants of the van. "Who are they?" she asked, nodding as the other two women quickly identified themselves. Shifting back to the driver, she asked, "Is this your whole team - the three of you?"

"No," Lilly said. "There's another girl who works with us, but…"

Siena wasn't shy about stepping up to the van and craning her head to get a closer look in the back seat. When she didn't see another person, she demanded, "But what? What's her name?"

Lilly glanced from the female detective to her partner then back to the woman, her pulse starting to beat faster. She'd never had a problem with the police, not so much as a parking ticket, but this was starting to make her wonder. Swallowing quickly, she licked her lips and forced herself to stay calm and speak in the same manner. "Her name is Tommie Emerson…"

"Thomasina Emerson?" Boo said, his own instincts having begun to rise up as he'd listened to Siena questioning the woman behind the wheel.

Lilly darted a look at him, nodding immediately. "Yes, sir, but we call her Tommie."

"I spoke with her earlier today," Siena said. "She said she was going to work. Where is she?"

That question managed to ease a bit of Lilly's nerves as she answered it. "Oh, she worked today, though, we all thought she should have taken the day off the way she looked."

"Where is she?"

Lilly managed a bit of a smile. "Oh, well, her husband came out to meet us," she said. "We were just putting our stuff in the van when he drove up." She divided a look between the detectives. "It was easy to see that he was concerned about her. That's why he came all the way out here to pick her up and take her home." Her smile widened for a moment as she shook her head. "Tommie wasn't going to go with him, but," she nodded her head toward her companions. "I…we all told her to go ahead and go with him. I told her that I would clock her out." Her smile lessened a bit. "Poor dear, she's probably afraid that she might lose her job, but believe me, that's not going to happen. There's no way that Mr. Groves…he owns the company…is going to let her go over going home a little bit early. Tommie is a very good worker."

The longer the woman talked, the more insistently Siena's instincts clamored until, at this moment, inside her head it was like a claxon blaring a warning. Still, she forced herself to keep her tone and manner professional, if a little sharp. "How long ago did Mrs. Emerson leave with her husband?" she asked.

"Oh, they should be right behind us," Lilly said. "I saw Derek helping her into their car as we drove away."

"I saw their car," Patricia supplied, indicating the outside rearview mirror mounted on the passenger side of the van. "I looked at the mirror just when Lilly turned onto the road. They were just a little ways behind us."

As he listened to what the woman was saying, Boo Lanson turned his head to look back the way they had just come. The action was just quick enough to glimpse the edge of something shiny slip beyond the entrance to the Kent property. The hairs on the back of his neck began to bristle as he realized that what he had seen looked like the bumper of a vehicle. Sparing a lightning fast look down the long, straight stretch of road in the opposite direction from where he stood, Boo scanned for but didn't see any sort of vehicle driving away. Turning back to the driver of the van, he interrupted his partner. "You wouldn't happen to know what kind of car Mr. Emerson drives, would you?" he demanded.

"It's a Chevy. A red Chevy," Patricia piped up.

"You sure about that?" Boo asked, ducking his head slightly to look past the driver to Patricia.

"Oh yeah," Patricia nodded vigorously. "My brother's got a green one just like it, only it doesn't look no where near as good as theirs does."

Boo nodded; he didn't need to hear more. "Thanks for your help, ladies," he said firmly, glancing at his partner when she said, "What is it?" Boo's gaze went back to the driver and he smiled at her, saying, "Sorry to have delayed you. You can go," then turned and headed back to the car.

Siena hurried after her partner, sliding into the passenger seat and slamming the door at the same moment the car's engine roared to life. Quickly she braced a hand on the dashboard as Boo Lanson executed another sharp U-turn and sped back toward the entrance to the Kent estate. "What is it?" she demanded.

Boo's focus never wavered as they rapidly approached then reached the high, arched black wrought iron gateway marking the entrance to Allison Kent's estate and turned in.

"While you were talking to that lady," he said, his tone indicating the intensity of his thoughts and focus as he maneuvered the car carefully along the long winding driveway, overarched by huge old oak trees. "I looked back this way just in time to see something that looked like a car bumper disappear inside the gate."

Siena's pulse beat faster. "You saw Emerson's car pull in here?"

Boo shook his head, his eyes scanning up ahead. "I can't swear that it was Emerson's car, but whoever it was, I don't think that car was just pulling in."

"Then what?" Siena demanded, sparing a glance out the windshield. She frowned instantly when she saw that instead of following the blacktop drive up to the front of Allison Kent's home, her partner had turned off onto a narrow graveled road at the edge of the main lawn leading around toward the back of the property. "Where are you going?"

It was as if the weather had sensed and was matching Boo Lanson's thoughts, as he drove along the well maintained golf cart path. He spared a glance at his partner then back to his driving.

"I think that the bumper I saw might have been the front bumper of Emerson's car." He nodded without looking when Siena caught her breath. "You're sure?"

"I'd bet you lunch on it because I didn't see any taillights."

"But why would he follow them out to the gate then back up?" Siena wondered. The words were barely out of her mouth when it clicked. "Wait. Didn't Terry Schimmel say that Allison Kent has her own private golf course on the property?"

"Yep," Boo replied, slowing a bit to negotiate a somewhat sharp turn. "And if my thinking's right, there's a little bayou…the Petit Lis…that runs through this area." He glanced at his partner, seeing that she'd grasped his inference instantly even before he voiced it. "And what better place to dispose of a body than in a bayou, especially if it happens to run through private property that you have free access to as a golf pro giving private lessons to that property's owner?"

Siena's thoughts were running at breakneck speed as she followed her partner's reasoning, agreeing at every point of it. Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Boo braked suddenly, and she put a hand up to brace on the dashboard. "What…" she began then followed his gaze out the windshield, peering through the steady downpour of rain, her dark eyes widening slightly and her pulse increasing at the sight of a red Chevy Caprice stopped in the middle of the narrow golf cart path a couple of hundred yards straight ahead of them.