Page 38 of The Girl from Devil's Lake
“Absolutely,” Walt replied. “My lips are sealed.”
By the spring of 1976, Cynthia Hawkins’s medical situation had worsened to the point that Steve knew it was time to make his move. After reading theBisbee Bee, he learned that a number of local teachers, unhappy with the current superintendent of schools as well as the school board, were pulling up stakes and leaving town. Shortly after reading the article, Steve placed a long-distance call tothe superintendent’s office, asking if there were any teacher openings expected for the upcoming year.
Eager to reassure parents and students alike that there would be no educational disruptions, the superintendent wanted to fill those previously unanticipated vacancies as soon as possible. He allowed as how there were indeed several openings, and having someone who could teach both English and chemistry was just what the doctor ordered.
A job application from the Bisbee School District and addressed to Steve Roper arrived by mail four days later, along with his latest supply of Arizona-based newspapers. Fortunately that day’s mail all fit in the P.O. box, so Steve didn’t have to pick it up from the window and deal with Walt Whipple’s nosiness.
At that point, Steve was finally forced to come clean about his intentions with Mr. Donner because he needed a reference from his current principal as part of the job application. By then, however, his mother’s death was imminent, and she never had any reason to suspect he was leaving. She died two days after the job application arrived. Two weeks after her funeral, Steve received a special delivery letter containing both the job offer and a contract in need of signing.
He did so and sent it back by return mail. Then, after writing a formal letter of resignation to the Fertile School Board, Steve was left with a month and a half to close up his life in Minnesota. By the first of May, he had informed all his students he was leaving. By the end of May he had unloaded his mother’s house and goods and sorted out her final affairs. Years earlier, he had bought Coach Nielson’s house fully furnished, and he sold it the same way, with much of the Nielsons’ original but now well-used furniture still in place.
Having decided that when he left town for good he’d only be taking whatever fit in his car, Steve went to visit Gus Elkins’s car dealership one last time. This time he passed on a Camaro in favor of an Impala. Camaros were for younger hotshot types. It was time forSteve Roper to graduate into respectable middle age, and his new Chevy Impala filled that bill perfectly. Flush with his inheritance, he was able to pay cash. Unsurprisingly, Gus Elkins was very sorry to see him go.
When it came time to pack up and leave, the first item Steve loaded into the trunk was the large suitcase holding his work clothing—the suits, ties, and dress shirts that teachers were expected to wear—as well as his most prized possession, Gramps’s cigar box.
Steve left Fertile bright and early on the morning of June 5, 1976. He felt no regret as he put his hometown in his shiny new rearview mirror. In actual fact, he felt lighter than air. He was giddy at the idea of being off on a brand-new adventure, and the voices in his head, awakening from years of enforced slumber, felt exactly the same way.
Chapter 19
Bisbee, Arizona
Friday, December 1, 2023
On her way to the Board of Supervisors meetingthe next morning, Joanna checked in with Tom Hadlock to make sure everything with the construction team was on track. Fortunately, it was.
“What’s up with the big meeting this afternoon?” he asked. “Is something going on that I should know about?”
“There is, and you’ll know about it when everybody else does,” Joanna told him, “and that includes me, by the way. Just be there.”
The Board of Supervisors meeting kicked off promptly at ten at the Cochise County Complex on Melody Lane south of Huachuca Terraces. As per usual, it was both boring and interminable. Since Joanna’s spot on the agenda was at the very end, she had to sit through all of it. Admittedly, she let her mind wander. Today was already December first. Jenny’s wedding was only twenty-two short days away, but other than settling on a date and a dress, as far as Joanna knew, no other arrangements were in place.
Then, once she tired of stewing about wedding issues, Joanna’s thoughts meandered over to the homicide investigation. She was tempted to send Casey a text asking for a preview of what would be coming in this afternoon’s meeting, but in the end, she didn’t. She’ddo just as she expected Tom Hadlock to do and find out the details at the same time everyone else did.
As the minutes ticked by, though, she couldn’t help but worry that she might be making a huge error. Steve Roper had been part of the Bisbee community for decades. It was likely the whole town would be in an uproar if they heard so much as a hint that he was being investigated in conjunction with Xavier Delgado’s homicide. Of course people alreadywerein an uproar about that. Even though the Department of Public Safety had not yet provided the final DNA results giving them a positive identification on their victim, Marliss Shackleford had somehow gotten wind of the boy’s name and had posted it on her website.
Damn her hide anyway, Joanna thought.Where the hell is she gettingher information?
“Sheriff Brady,” Claire Newmark said. “Hello, are you there?”
The sharp summons yanked Joanna out of her reverie. Claire was president of the Board of Supervisors, and the impatience in her voice suggested this wasn’t the first time she’d spoken. “Do you or do you not have a report for us this morning?”
“Sorry,” Joanna said, quickly rising to her feet. Walking up to where the board members were seated, Joanna handed out printed copies of the report she had written the day before. Then she sat down again, allowing the board members time to read through the information.
Once they had done so, a discussion followed. Naturally they voiced concerns about the added expense of rehousing prisoners and asked questions about the time it would take to complete the remodel now that it was finally underway. Joanna bit back the urge to tell them that most of the delays had been due to stalling from the county’s planning and zoning department and that the project’s completion date would be entirely dependent on when the building department got around to signing off on inspections.
Once Joanna’s grilling was over and the meeting let out, she headed for Daisy’s. Each Friday, as an antidote to her usually challengingmeetings with the Board of Supervisors, she and Reverend Marianne Maculyea got together for lunch. Marianne had her own set of problems, mostly due to testy meetings with the church council, exacerbated over challenges created by ever-rising costs along with an ever-shrinking church membership. Their weekly luncheons gave both women a private place to vent their frustrations.
They’d been friends for so long that they could read each other’s mood at a moment’s notice. “Why the long face?” Marianne asked as Joanna slipped into their customary booth.
“The usual,” Joanna said. “The supervisors are all in a twitter because the jail remodeling project is taking so long. The problem is, most of the delays are coming from red-tape issues with county-run departments.”
“What about that awful homicide?” Marianne asked. “Are you making any headway on that?”
As the department’s official chaplain, it came as no surprise that Marianne knew a good deal about the Xavier Delgado case. In fact, it would have been odd if she hadn’t. In addition, Marianne was the only civilian with whom Joanna was free to actually discuss active investigations. Still, with regard to the Stephen Roper situation, she held herself to the same no-comment standard she had required of her CSIs.
“Maybe,” she said. “We have some suspicions, but that’s all, nothing concrete as far as physical evidence is concerned and zip when it comes to probable cause.”
“All right then,” Marianne said, “let me give you some good news. I’ll be going to Tucson tomorrow for a three o’clock appointment with Jenny and Nick. That meeting will take the first of the premarital counseling sessions off the list. There’s not much time to squeeze in all three.”
