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“I’ll ask you not to tell anyone else what I’ll tell you now. I’ll do it in case you might know anything that could help the investigation. First, there were items in Howard’s trailer and car that indicate he was involved in a number of illegal activities. Nothing major, nothing necessarily to do with violent crime, but illegal nonetheless and probably as sources of income. His police record also showed numerous incidents that included instigating fights when he was drunk. The investigation is looking into the possibility that it was either someone involved in the illegal activities who killed him or someone with a personal grudge, perhaps from one of his fights.”
Shambaugh shook her head slowly. “Sorry. I don’t know anything about those aspects of Howard’s life. Our only contact the last years was when he visited with Jeff. Although I must admit that what you describe sounds like the kind of person I was afraid Howard would turn into.”
“Mrs. Shambaugh, just a few other questions. I understand you don’t have any knowledge of Howard’s personal interactions the last few years, but can you think of anything he ever said to indicate he had problems with any particular person?”
“Sorry . . . no.”
“Did Mr. Shambaugh interact with Howard?”
“Sean? No. Only when Howard picked up and dropped off Jeff. Sean was fine with them spending that time together, as soon as we were satisfied it was okay.”
“What about initially?”
“He was uneasy about it, given Howard’s past. To be honest, I was the one who was the most worried. Sean was wonderful with all three of us.”
I think this is all I’m going to get here, Greta thought. A nice, lucky woman.
The thought didn’t quite come to Greta’s consciousness, but she felt a tinge of envy. A young woman who started off with a mistake, toughed through it, and now had a family, stability, and happiness. There were worse summaries of a life.
“Thank you again, Mrs. Shambaugh. Here’s my card, in case anything else occurs to you.”
“I hope you find out who did this. While Howard wasn’t your model citizen, he didn’t deserve to be killed and dumped alongside a road.”
“No, he didn’t, and we’ll do what we can to find who did it.”
Shambaugh was seeing Greta out the door when a thought occurred to her. Greta turned back to the woman.
“One thing I will mention. In Mr. Toompas’s car we found gift-wrapped toys and a Star Wars DVD. Might they have been intended for Jeff?”
“Oh!” Shambaugh exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth. “They almost certainly were for Jeff. His birthday is next week, and Howard never forgot his birthday or Christmas.” A tear ran down her face. “Poor Howard. Not a bad person, just unable to deal with life.”
“If possible, I’ll try to see that the gifts are eventually released to you. I just can’t say when that would be.”
“I appreciate it. Jeff thinks of Sean as his father, but he was okay with Howard as a part-time uncle. If you can get the presents to Jeff, please do, but don’t fret if you can’t.”
“I will. And thanks again.”
Back in her car, Greta rechecked her list of interviewees. Four more planned for today, including Mr. Pit Bulls—again. There was still half a day of her shift left, but she wasn’t in the mood to drive back out to Umstead’s. The new names were in Pacific City and Hebo—a cozy community at the junction of 101 and Route 22 north of Pacific City—and the last person was in Tillamook City. She also checked her messages. Whether assigned to the Toompas case or not, she had other obligations and reports to respond to.
She looked over the list and mentally checked tasks to finish today. See the person on the list in Pacific City; another reported burglary; a smashed pickup window in Cloverdale; a missing dairy cow; and a report of a peeping Tom from a sixtyish woman who regularly called in. After responding the first time and meeting the orange-haired, grossly overweight woman and listening to her rant that some man was staking out her house in preparation for raping her, Greta’s thought was, In your dreams. Nevertheless, she took the report, making a show of writing down careful notes. She told the woman the sheriff’s office would look into it and waited expectantly for the next sighting of the presumptive rapist.
Greta would not be disappointed. Reports came about once a month. Although Wallace and other deputies had told her to stop responding with personal visits, Greta thought the woman was mainly lonely. Greta listened to her over the phone and stopped by for a few minutes about once a month.
She looked at her watch. A quarter to two. No wonder her stomach gnawed at her. She backtracked a mile to the Sunflower Grill on the north end of Lincoln City and had the lunch special of corn chowder soup, a mixed green salad with vinaigrette dressing, and a diet Coke.
When she went into the diner, the sun was out with only patchy cloud cover. When she left, a system had moved in, and the first raindrops began to fall. To the west, a solid gray cloud bank covered the horizon. By this time, she was a seasoned observer of Oregon Coast weather and made the prediction of heavy rain by evening.
She got back on the road with the rest of the day planned—missing cow, burglary, orange-haired lady, and another final person on her list to question.
CHAPTER 8
Days passed. A week. Halloween came and went, and the days moved into November. The list of people to be questioned stabilized and stopped growing. The team interviewed a few persons a second time. None of those people had their status changed to “suspect.” Tomasek spent less time on the case, and Connors became noticeably impatient. Greta foresaw the time coming when the case would be shelved, contingent on new information.
At the last few meetings, only Alex and she had anything to report, much about nothing.
Greta met Bruce for breakfast on a Thursday after three full days of sun without the morning fog. Then everything changed overnight. A Northern Pacific front moved in along the jet stream, a real storm with thirty to forty mph winds and heavy rain.
She entered the almost empty café. Bruce sat at his usual table by the window, and a man she didn’t recognize occupied a booth toward the back. Since the Toompas murder, she found herself noticing things she hadn’t before, such as unfamiliar people.
