Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

I’m Lieutenant Deviled Yeggs.  I work homicide in the big city of Tracy.  Working for me are my old partners: Detective Sgt. Jim Wednesday and Detective Poached Yeggs, my nephew who is slowly becoming a good detective.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Well done is better than well said.”  Funny, he said it, so he was admitting that others might do better than he did.  But in the case of the missing Golden Delicious Apple, it was not well done or well said.

A month ago, Jonagold Apple boldly walked into our precinct to report her grandfather missing, one each, Golden Delicious Apple.  She was crying, but it seemed fake.  The tears were real, but maybe she was palming a bottle of artificial tears.  Maybe she had onion juice on her fingertips.  She gave us a story about how his mental sharpness was getting dull.  Sometimes he wandered into the woods behind the house.  But no one had seen him for a few days.

We checked the woods.  We found nothing.  Their house bordered the forested area on either side of Twain Lane.  Twain Lane was a wide trail through the woods.  The foundations of a few old houses were on either side of the lane that had once been a rail line.  The rails to trails movement had turned it into a park.  But the ruins of the 150-year-old houses had wells for well water.  They were supposed to be filled in for safety reasons, but not all were.  We checked all the known wells, including the half-filled well that Sophie fell into a few years ago.  Nothing suspicious.  All were covered with something and nothing seemed disturbed, like indentations where the cover had been removed and then replaced.  Really not that much evidence of foot traffic, vegetation broken as people passed.

Red Delicious and his cousin Golden Delicious had wrestled for control of the Rotten Apple gang in their youth, and obviously Red Delicious came out on top.  That did not mean that Golden Delicious went away quietly.  Red Delicious allowed Golden Delicious certain aspects of the business.  Golden Delicious was not the king pin, but he made a lot of money for his family.  But then the family went to work for their cousin that lived in the big house at the Orchard.  Now, Red Delicious lives in the Big House, courtesy of the state, and the Orchard is run, as a legitimate business, by Honeycrisp and Ambrosia Apple.

After a couple of days, we called off the search.  Golden Delicious was either buried deep, had made an escape for one reason or another, or someone would smell a body soon.

But for a little over a month, we have not gotten any call of that nature, until now.  Someone called in having hiked down Twain Lane; something was smelling really bad.

I dispatched Jim and Poached to “sniff” it out.  Unknown to me, Sophie tagged along.

With the help of a few officers, they formed a grid.  Of all the official people on the scene, Sophie raised the alarm.  “Everyone, it seems stronger over here and there is a well with an old cover over it.”

Jim told everyone else to not abandon their grid if this was a false alarm.  Only Jim and Poached ran toward Sophie’s voice.

When they reached Sophie, she pointed to the well cover.  “I got down on my knees and sniffed.  That has got to be it.  Should we tear the cover off?”

Jim said, “I don’t think so.  We may ruin evidence.  This cover looks thirty years old or more.  Weathered wood, rusty nails.  Sophie, is your tetanus shot up-to-date?”  She shrugged.  “Then step back.”  Jim took pictures from every angle while Poached studied the cover.  “I think I have enough pictures.  Where do we start prying?”

Poached said, “We don’t.  This cover is a trick.”

Jim and Sophie asked, “What?!”

Poached started pointing.  “The nail holes are missing nails in a very strange pattern.  This is not a cover that is meant to stay covered.”

Jim said, “Wait!  This is the well.”

Poached scratched his head. “I think you are right.  The vegetation has grown up around it.  The trees are a little more mature.”

Sophie asked, “What well?”

Jim said, “If we have our bearings right, this is the well where Ashmead, Pink Lady’s father, dumped the body of Scott Winter Apple.  That is the murder case that sent him to prison.  He was hurried; he never said why.  He weighed down the body and dropped it into this well. It was night, there was a lot of noise in the area, parties in the nearby neighborhoods.  Ashmead had an ear infection, clogged ears, did not hear a splash, but thought it was his poor hearing at the moment.  The well was dry that winter, a little ice at the bottom.  The snow melt and spring rains filled it, and it has been filled ever since, as far as we know.  Captain Hart was a lieutenant at the time.  A patrolman walking down Twain Lane smelled something and found the body.  Ashmead only left evidence on the body, but it was supposed to be several feet below the surface in an abandoned well.  Lt. Hart swooped in and solved the case.  They gave him the captain job soon after Ashmead went to prison.  Red Delicious did not trust anyone else to be the enforcer.  He took matters into his own hands about ten years later.  He left key evidence behind.  That evidence became your Dad’s first big break as a detective.  It would be for anyone, sending the crime boss to prison for murder.  And it all started with this well.  But Poached, what are you thinking?”

“While you were giving Sophie a history lesson, I figured out this jigsaw puzzle.  I pull up on this board, and there you go.”  Poached pulled up on one board that was interwoven with the boards on the opposite side of the cover.  The cover was constructed in two hinged pieces.  Whoever built it after the Scott Winter murder made it so that things could be disposed into the depths.

Jim looked in to see the floating body of Golden Delicious.  He called the uniformed officers off their search and reassigned them to guard the scene.  The body had been there weeks.  Submerged in water, especially with no scavengers in the water, the decomposition would be retarded, only quickened when the body floated to the surface.  Golden Delicious had a scar that was recognizable from ground level.  Crime Scene would have to bring a diver and a winch with a generator.  It might be too far from Twain Lane for a vehicle to winch out what was down there.

Jim and Poached got Sophie back to the precinct.  The four of us discussed the case.  It had been over a month since Jonagold had said he was missing.  She was guarded, even combative during the interview.  The interview showed every trait of someone that was guilty.  The body had been dumped in a well that was not far from their home, Jonagold and her family living with her father, acting as his caregivers.

The general consensus was that she had killed him or she knew who did the job.  Using the same well that Ashmead had used for his last murder was suspicious.  Having the body dumped in that well shortly after Ashmead was pardoned was suggestive.

I suggested to Jim and Poached that they should follow the leads wherever the leads send them.  Hopefully, the crime lab would come up with something, but they should be careful with Jonagold Apple and her siblings.  I was going to visit family.

Poached asked, “Do you want me to come with you?”

I smiled, “No, Poached, you are our computer and financial trail expert.  Call in Georges and see if he has some reliable snitches on the Golden Delicious side of the family.  And stay close in case the lab hits on something.”

I arrived at Lily the Pink in nearly record time.  I think I stopped at only one red light, and it soon turned green.  That many green lights was amazing, and irritating.  The lack of delays in traffic meant that I had less time to decide how to handle this.

Missy escorted me to Pink’s office.  I was hoping that Ashmead, who answers to PawPaw, might be there playing with Kanok and Joon.  Joon took his first steps yesterday.  Soon Kanok is going to have some competition.

I was in luck.  I asked him to come over and join Pink Lady and me.  Grannie Fannie gladly took care of the three children.  She held Pink Sparkle while the other two played.

Pink Lady said, “Sparkle might drift off the sleep if the other two would be quiet for a few minutes.  I am expecting Kanok to bring you a toy any moment.”

As if knowing what had just been said, Kanok ran over and said, “Unca D, pick me up. Hug!”  I picked her up and hugged her, but not a full bear hug.  Then she said, “Joon can walk!”

Pink suggested that she go back and play.  Then, she turned to me.  “Why are you here during work hours?  And why ask PawPaw over?”

I shrugged, “Can’t a brother-in-law visit?  I just wanted to have a conversation.  I wanted to take a trip down memory lane.  Maybe down Twain Lane.”  That got Ash to flinch, but he said nothing.

Pink said something, “No, Dev, you have a reason to be here, and my advice to my father is to say nothing.”

I held up a hand.  “Pink, I am not here officially.  I just want to ask some questions because some things have come up in a recent case, and the circumstances bring back memories of an old case.  If Ash does not mind, I would like to have a friendly chat.  If I was ready to make an arrest, I would not be here alone.  I am not recording the conversation either, so everyone can speak freely.”

Pink turned to Grannie Fannie, “Fannie, can you put Sparkle down for a nap and take the others on a stroll through the Crystal Mountain or take them to the nursery, please.  If this conversation goes the direction I think it might, I do not want little ears hearing it, especially the little Thai myna bird that tries to repeat everything that she hears.”  Grannie Fannie laughed at that.  She put Pink Sparkle Apple Yeggs in her crib.  Sparkle was asleep by the time Fannie had Joon in the stroller.  Kanok insisted on walking, but it was a twin stroller in case she got tired.

Once they left and the door closed, Pink hit Missy’s speed dial.  “Put the Do Not Disturb signs up and instruct the security staff.”  She put down the phone.  “Now, Dev, you can start the inquisition.”

I cleared my throat, but Ash said, “Pinkie, I will answer his questions.  Since I have been out, I have done nothing wrong.  I have hardly sneezed in the wrong direction.  God has forgiven my sins.  The governor pardoned me for my past crimes.  I have confessed to all that I remember.  A trip down memory lane might be painful.  And in the lieutenant mentioning Twain Lane, he knows all about that one anyway.”

I nodded, “Okay, since you picked up on my hint, you confessed, after the conviction, that you had killed Scott Winter Apple.  You confessed to dumping him in the well that is off Twain Lane.  You said that it was dumb luck that the body that you weighed down went into a dry well at night.  To your memory growing up, that well had only been dry once before.  But as to the reason why you killed him was that you had been told to do so.  You would never admit who told you, but we all knew it was Red Delicious.”

I scratched my head. “Now for what I can guess.  Golden and Red had a feud that never fully resolved itself over which Delicious was the better crime boss.  Red Delicious got the job since his father had been the boss before Red Delicious took over.  There was something that Golden did, or maybe Scott Winter did, that set this all in motion.  If it wasn’t murder, the statute of limitations is long since expired.  Why did Scott Winter have to die?”

Ash said, “I like the way you phrased that question.  But let me give a little back story.  It is well known that I am adopted.  The father of Red Delicious adopted me.  My mother was known, but never my father.  And if you are wondering, it was not Honeycrisp.  Ambrosia is my mother, never admitting who my father was, but it was before she started shacking up with Pine Apple.  But Scott Winter had the same type of parentage.  His mother was Cortland Apple, Golden’s sister.  She never admitted the father, just like Ambrosia.  And Scott Winter did for Golden what I did for Red.  Now, before I go further, Scott cannot tell tales, but what about Golden?”

I smiled, “This morning we responded to a smell along Twain Lane.  Sophie went with the officers and pinpointed the smell coming from the same well you dumped Scott Winter into.”

Pink interrupted, “This conversation, this friendly family chat, is over.  This is a frame up.  My father has not left this house except to go to church and a couple of doctor appointments.  You cannot pin this on him, Dev.  You should be ashamed for trying.”

I was about to defend myself, but Ash stepped in.  “I think he sees the obvious frame.  He is looking for others that might know about that well, which means everybody in the Golden Delicious branch of the family.  But maybe who might want to frame me.  I get out in May.  Golden Delicious goes missing in June.  The timing is too suspicious, Pinkie.  Let’s keep this conversation going.  I have nothing to fear.  You told me when you were in prison and the warden allowed you to visit me in solitary.  You said I could trust this man.  I only fully trust God, but I am laying my life before the lieutenant.”

I smiled, “You have not answered the question about what Scott Winter did that was going too far.”

Ash said, “Golden lost the feud with Red, but then he never said the feud was over.  You know how King David would conquer the King of Moab or some other king.  He made the king pay tribute.  Red Delicious made Golden Delicious pay an annual tribute.  Golden could operate within certain limitations. If Golden stepped out of line, he was punished.  But then Scott Winter started withholding part of the annual tribute.  He stole from Red Delicious.  He had to pay the price.  He was dumped in that well where Golden Delicious dumped all his mistakes.  There is no telling what you would have found if you had dug past the silt in the bottom of that well.”

I nodded, “Thanks for the tip.  I’ll tell them to go back, drain the well, and do some digging.  So, if someone wanted to frame you, it is probably from the Golden Delicious side of the Rotten Apples.”  Ash nodded.  “And would the children of Golden Delicious be a bit upset that they’ve been getting the short end of the stick all these years?”

Ash laughed, “Now, we are coming down to the seedy side of Organized Crime.  Then again, it’s like any family.  They have their troubles.  Jonagold was always mouthing about how their portion was too small.  They were rich.  They got rich by being in a family that took advantage of others.  As for Jonagold, I doubt if she ever did an honest day’s work in her life.  I am thinking that they are primed to try a takeover of the Rotten Apples.  I think your Tony Tagliolini might know something that may help you.  In my thinking and not backing it up since I have not visited anyone in the family, Jonagold and Crispin got rid of Daddy to collect the inheritance, but then they were going to make a play for Empire’s empire.  William Shakespeare wrote in Henry the Fourth, “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.”

I asked, “You read Shakespeare?”

Ash chuckled, “I had over thirty years to do something with my time.  If I had not had my ear clogged from an ear infection, I would have known that the body did not sink into the water of that well.  And then, the body would have frozen if the warm front did not keep it warm.  Thus, the smell of death did me in.  I left evidence behind and your Captain Hart was good at chewing on the bone until he got to the truth.  You seem to be good at it too.  If it were not for a few unexpected details, I would have never gone to prison.”

Pink reached over and held his hand.  “Daddy, we cannot look to the past with regret, we must move forward, so that you can be the best PawPaw the little ones could ever have.”

Ash sighed, “I am not regretting what happened.  I think it was God that arranged that ear infection and a well that ran dry and has probably had water in it ever since.  It was God that had a bulldog of a police lieutenant that did not care that it was the crime boss’ enforcer that he was going after.  Sure, Pinkie, I went to prison when you were thirteen, but if I had stayed around, there may have never been a cider operation here.  You may have never met Scrambled Yeggs.  If you did, you would have been so rich you would have never given him the time of day.  You may have never become a Christian.  You may have never met Gwen Quinn.  MacIntosh Red Apple may have run over that guy with a golf cart, but Scrambled might have never been playing golf with him, thus giving evidence against him.  And don’t forget that Big Red Mac led me to Jesus.  The plot line might not be good enough for a dime store novel, but God works through every twist and turn in life.  I regret that I was not here for you for those years, but knowing how God was at work all that time, I would not want today to be any different.”

I asked, “You never made those kinds of mistakes, Ash.  You said you were in a hurry that night.  You have never admitted why you were in such a hurry that you would make a mistake that would send you to prison.  Are you willing to admit that reason now?”

Ash looked at the floor.  When he looked back in my direction, his eyes were filled with tears.  He said, “I had a thirteen-year-old playing a mouse in the Nutcracker Suite.  I could not miss that.  It was the last performance that I ever attended.”

Pink now began to cry.  “And soon after, I had just lost my Daddy.  I never went back to ballet practice after that.  If Dev is finished, I have a strong desire to have a family gathering tonight.  Dev, will Poached be free?”

I chuckled, “Make it tomorrow night, and Poached may hopefully be free and in a mood to celebrate.  I think the background PawPaw has given me may help us to get the children of Golden Delicious to incriminate each other, but it may be a long night.”

Pink said, “If you can end this nightmare, I will include your side of the family.  By the way, has Tuesday Wednesday ever gone back to work?”

I laughed, “You will never guess what happened.  Detective Wolfe has put in for partial retirement.  I think he has some medical issues to deal with.  The Sheriff is keeping him on as a consultant when needed.  He offered Tuesday Detective Wolfe’s senior detective position.  They don’t have lieutenants in the Stout County Sheriff’s department, but she is now at a similar paygrade to me, and she is in charge.  Now with Tuesday in a much better mood about work, she might think about another attempt at having that little girl that she wants.  Someone to give Saturday Wednesday some help when the three brothers gang up on them.”

As I excused myself, Pink was suggesting that they get Grannie Fannie to gather her two children and Gwen’s four children and they would throw a little party.  No reason.  Just to celebrate family.

When I got back to the precinct, Poached was talking about how Jonagold, Crispin, and Cameo could each run through money faster than anyone he knew.  Jim had picked up information from Lt. Tagliolini that there were rumors of a rebellion from the Golden Delicious side of the family.  Georges had come over to tag team with Jim and Poached until someone broke.  They had each of the siblings in the three interrogation rooms.  No one was saying anything.

Then, as Jim was getting frustrated with Jonagold’s attitude, Poached walked into the room.  He was holding a rope, still slightly damp.  Poached was snickering, “Jim, you won’t believe this.  They tied the body to the weight and sunk it into the well.  But then, the body floated to the surface because they used a slip knot.  Can you believe they were that stupid?!”

Jonagold then muttered, “That idiot Crispin said he could tie a good knot.”

When the other two heard what Jonagold had said, they quickly begged for a deal.  Jonagold had dreamed up the idea.  Crispin killed their father, and Cameo helped dispose of the body.  Golden Delicious had not had any mental breakdown.  He was simply tired of the criminal game, and he wanted to retire, but the children wanted to increase their involvement, wanting to one day soon shove Empire Apple’s body into the well.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Well done is better than well said.”  Crispin Apple failed at the well done, but they may have gotten away with it until Jonagold Apple failed at the well said.

And the celebration the next evening turned into sorrow.  Soon after getting confessions from the three Apples, Sophie heard that the case was solved and decided to go to Aunt Tensie’s lab.  She went into Aunt Tensie’s apartment to check on her when she did not find her in the lab.  Aunt Tensie was always an early riser.  Aunt Hortense Tesla, PE, founder of “Design by Tensie”, had passed away quietly in her sleep.  While we mourned, I was thinking.  She was probably in Heaven, dancing with the betrothed Army Engineer Captain, one of the posthumous heroes of the Battle of the Bulge.  And not unlike what Ashmead had said the day before, “Design by Tensie” might have never happened if her captain had returned, and they got married.  She would have never needed to succeed on her own.  She might never have been driven to prove that a woman could be a good engineer.  And she might have never come to Lily the Pink and found Jesus to be the answer to her formerly unanswered questions.

Credits

As SS Lieutenant Colonel Peiper was speeding his panzers toward a bridge that could make the difference in winning the Battle of the Bulge or not, in the fog, he thought he saw a squad of infantry guarding the bridge, but as he got closer, smoke appeared and the bridge was gone.  After every bridge was destroyed that could keep the Nazi advance going, the Nazi commander was heard to shout “The damned engineers!  The damned engineers!”  Sorry, the cusswords were “lost in translation.”  Those engineers that thwarted Peiper from cutting off and defeating the 101^st Airborne Division were part of the 291st Engineers, who were the most honored engineers in the fight in Europe, that is after they built the pontoon bridge next to the famous bridge at Remagen, allowing the American forces to pour into the East Bank of the Rhine River.  The unit I was part of, getting four citations while in Belgium, also was at the Battle of the Bulge, getting a citation for the minefield that also thwarted the German advance.