“She was crushed. She came over and cried for an hour or two after it happened.”
“What happened?” Robert tilted his head in question.
“Oh, Karl walked in on the two boys… uh… um. Anyway, he caught them and ordered them to get dressed and get out of the house.” Maggie’s face flushed.
“I see. That would be disconcerting. Did the boys leave the house?”
Tom answered. “They were already living at James’ apartment but had come back to get some things of Calvin’s. The girls were downstairs playing. That’s what made Karl mad, doing that in his own house.”
“Did Calvin stay away from the house after that?”
“No. Calvin only went back when he was sure his parents weren’t home. He might have had a key, or he only went to the house when Kelly was home.”
“How was his relationship with the girls?” Robert asked. “If he was a homosexual, he must have been a good friend to them?”
“You’d think.” Tom’s voice had a cutting sarcastic edge to it.
“That wasn’t the case?” Robert inserted.
“Would you like some coffee and cake? I made some earlier.” Maggie stood, facing Robert with a smile.
He wasn’t expected to decline, so he nodded. Maggie turned and went to the kitchen. He could hear the sounds of glass and silverware being set out.
Tom remained quiet for a moment then spoke. “I don’t know for sure, but I think Calvin might have done something to Kelly. When we’re all together, Kelly never came anywhere near Calvin. The other girls climbed all over him, and he played with them. Nothing out of the ordinary I could see. I never noticed it until Maggie mentioned it. All the family pictures, Christmas, Easter, picnics, Kelly is on the opposite side of wherever Calvin sat. You saw the family picture in the paper?” Robert nodded. “She’s next to her father, and she’s not smiling.”
“I have a report of someone running from the house early Monday morning. A cab was seen at the curb with the motor running.” Robert added, “We checked and that company didn’t dispatch a cab to that location.”
Tom rubbed his chin. Maggie came into the room with a tray and handed him a plate of cake and a cup of coffee. Tom told Maggie about the cab, and she shook her head. “I never heard anything about that.”
“I hate to bring this up. Could there have been something going on between the boys and Kelly? You say Karl walked in on the boys during an act?” Tom and Maggie both nodded, staring at their cups. “Could one of them—uh—um—had relations with Kelly? Was there a boy she might have been seeing from school?” He tried to stem the questions threatening to spew from his brain to his mouth.
Maggie took a sip from her cup and took a tiny bit of cake. The piece was so small, Robert watched to see if it fell off the fork tines.
Maggie worried her lip a moment. “I don’t know,” she answered staring at her plate.
Robert knew she was hiding something. “I have another question. Had a doctor checked Kelly recently? I saw a doctor’s receipt. Who was her doctor?
“Doctor Mattson,” Maggie answered. “We have the same family doctor.”
“Do you have his number?”
She nodded, set the plate on the coffee table, and reached into the drawer in the end table. She pulled the arrow tab down the side of the metal rectangle, then pressed the bar at the bottom. The lid snapped up, and she ran her finger halfway down the page. He wrote the name and number in his notebook as she read it off.
“I’ve been reading there’s a search for the car near Cascade Locks. How do they think it got all the way in there?” Tom frowned at Robert.
“I can’t talk about the case.” Robert shook his head in sympathy. “You can read what we can release in the papers. Just don’t believe everything you read in there.”
Robert drove back to the station. He looked in the typing pool room, but Barbara wasn’t there. He continued toward his office, but when he saw Jake at his desk, he turned in and sat across from him.
“How are you feeling?”
“No good, that’s for sure.” He cupped his swollen cheek with his hand.
“What are you doing here?”
“Lorene got tired of me and left to go somewhere with her sister. I didn’t want to lie around, so I came in. She doesn’t have any sympathy for my pain.” His eyes moved from Robert to the doorway.
Robert turned to see Barbara standing there, her hands on her hips.
“What are you doing here? How come you aren’t home resting? You’re in pain. I’m sure you think it’s the worst ever.” Barbara shook her head at Jake
Jake cocked his head to one side. “It is. I can feel my heart throbbing in my cheek.” His voice rose a little.
“I’m sure it is. Lorene called me to say she got home, and you weren’t there. She got worried and called me. Pain is subject to the person feeling it. What is excruciating to you might be manageable to someone else. I think, from the looks of your cheek, you need to go home.” She smiled a little, like a mother to a recalcitrant child.
“I’ll take him home,” Robert interjected.
Barbara’s smile changed as her eyes met his. “Thanks.” Her voice softened. She nodded to them and left.
“You’d better hurry and ask her. I’m just telling you.” Jake’s voice sounded like he had cotton in his mouth. “What did you find out from the Bormans?”
Robert repeated the conversation until he mentioned homosexuals and Jake interrupted.
“Homosexuals? What was this all about?” Jake eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline.
“I know. It shocked me, and I had to cover myself. The Bormans seem to think Calvin might have been indiscrete with Kelly. That doesn’t sound like a homosexual.” He showed Jake the pictures.
Jake nodded. “Now that you point it out, that does look a little odd. It could be explained, but if Tom and Maggie noticed it, we’d better make a note of it too.”
“That would give credence to the part where Karl sent Calvin off to a seminary.”
“He did? I thought he went into the service.” Jake put his hand on his forehead.
“We need to get you home.” Robert started to get up.
“Did you ask her yet?” Jake opened one eye to pin Robert to his chair.
“Ask what?” Robert resided in his seat.
“Not what, who. Did you ask Babs to the dance?”
Robert immediately fiddled with the crease on his trousers. “Not yet.”
“When are you going to ask her? The dance is just six weeks away. Women like to plan what they’re going to wear. Are you taking her to dinner before the dance?” Jake pecked away at Robert.
Robert lifted his face; his eyes narrowed to slits.
“If this was a cartoon strip,” Jake remarked, “steam would be rising out of your ears, and a whistle would be blowing out of the top of your head.” A smile spread across Jake’s face.
“What are you laughing about? This isn’t a laughing matter,” Robert ground out between clenched teeth.
“I agree there’s nothing funny about murder, even if we don’t have a body or bodies. This is serious stuff. I think Babs is expecting you to ask her out. I overheard her quizzing one of the other women in the typing pool if they’d heard any news of you going to the dance.”
“Jake, I said I would think about it.” His eyes narrowed on Jake daring him to continue.
Jake pressed on. His voice, light and casual, as if they were talking about the weather. “Do you think at some point the Stevens family met any or all of James’ friends? You know what I mean, a cosmic instance where everything collides and from that something happens?”
“Jake, you’re nuts.” The constant changing of subjects threatened Robert’s sanity. It showed in the erratic way his hands continued over the crease, or lack of it, in his slacks. He forced his hands to stop moving.