“I know Bill McKenna was a member of the regiment back then,” Kimberly answered, nodding. “He was an officer, I think. He went on reenactments and tacticals from time to time.”
Paul asked, “What’s a tactical?”
“A tactical is when you’re not reenacting a battle, you’re demonstrating battle tactics that the commanders improvise. The officers base it on the military tactics of the time. That’s what we’re doing this weekend at Valley Forge, reenacting the Battle of Monmouth.”
Julia’s thoughts were on McKenna. “Who else was active with Bill McKenna? Who were his friends here?”
“In the regiment? His running buddy was Chief Glushenko.”
Whoa.“Was Chief Glushenko in the regiment?”
“Not strictly, but he hung around the reenactments. They were friends.”
“Did Chief Glushenko know James Shoemaker, too?”
“I don’t know.” Kimberly thought a moment. “This was a long time ago, but I seem to remember Chief Glushenko and Bill used to have buddies they recruited for the reenactments and tacticals. I know because we had to make uniforms for them, quick. Maybe Shoemaker was one of them. I don’t know him.” Kimberly rolled her eyes. “Now it’s coming back to me. I’ll tell you, I don’t miss Bill. He wasn’t very nice.”
Michelle frowned. “I remember him. He made me alter his jacket over and over.”
“He loved being in uniform,” Linda added. “He forgot it was pretend.”
Julia smiled, encouraged. “What about Shoemaker? Did any of you know him?”
“No,” Linda answered, and everyone else shook their heads.
Julia tried again. “Is it possible that Shoemaker was one of the men you were just talking about, the ones you didn’t know where they were from? There has to be a connection between McKenna and Shoemaker because Shoemaker was found murdered in McKenna’s well, then McKenna disappeared.”
Kimberly’s eyes flared. “It was the talk of the town back then. But I don’t know anything about it.”
Julia braced herself. “May I ask, did you ever hear anything about McKenna or Chief Glushenko being a white supremacist?”
Kimberly recoiled, and the others went silent.
Julia didn’t have time to mince words. “I know this is a sensitive topic, but we’re trying to help Courtney. We’re trying to figure out if Kay’s murder is related to Shoemaker’s, even though they’re decades apart.”
Kimberly cleared her throat. “I don’t know anything like that about Chief Glushenko.”
“I don’t know anything about Chief Glushenko, either,” Mary rushed to add. “I just didn’t like Bill, is all.”
“Same here.” Michelle shrugged. “I don’t know anything about that.”
Jean remained silent, her lined mouth sealed and her expression grim.
Julia could see they were afraid and she appealed to Kimberly.“Please, tell me. You were friends with Kay, weren’t you? She would want you to help us.”
Kimberly didn’t reply.
“I’ll say that I think Chief Glushenko is like that,” Linda volunteered, quietly. “I heard that he made a comment about Black—”
“Lin, wait, it’s only gossip,” Kimberly interrupted, turning to Julia. “Listen. We’ll help you, for Kay, but only if you keep it to yourself.”
“We will,” Julia spoke for her and Paul. “So what do you think? Even if it’s gossip, it could help find Kay’s killer.”
Kimberly exhaled, visibly. “Okay. I think Bill McKenna had certain… views and Chief Glushenko did, too. The other men were younger, like teenagers, not from here. One of them, I never knew his name, he collected Nazi pictures and memorabilia.”
“She’s right,” Linda added. “Not everybody who gets into reenactments does it for the right reason. Some are—”
“Stop runnin’ your mouth, Lin!” Jean interjected, raising her voice. “Everybody in our regiment is a patriot.”
