“We?” She gave a nervous laugh. “I wasn’t going to say anything because I don’t know you well, but Mae, you need to let Hank Sharp do his job.”
“If I let Hank Sharp do his job, he’d have Dottie Swaggert down at the country jail behind bars and I’m not going to let that happen. Say,” I stopped her as she was on her way to her van. “I meant to ask you about the thing you and the church women do with the prisoners.”
“We have some openings, I’d love for you to join us.” She got excited with her bright eyes and big smile.
I hated to let her down, but that was the last thing I wanted to volunteer for.
“That’s very admirable of you and the ladies. In fact, everything you do is admirable, but I understand that you go to the prison where Paul had been sent.” There was such a fine line between talking about Paul and not talking about him. He was definitely the elephant in the room wherever I went.
“I don’t think we ever had him or I’d remember.” Her expression stilled. “You know that they keep records of who goes in and out of the prison. There’s a list of visitors per inmates because we have to list the prisoners we visit.”
“I got a list from the prison website that listed the groups that went to the prison and I wanted to contact those groups to see if they had lists of the people they’d bring because someone had to have gotten in there and somehow gotten Paul out.” There had to be some connection.
“I know that when we went the other day, they were very strict on the places they let us go. We were able to go to a few of the buildings, but this time, they made us meet with the inmates outside.” She put her hand on her chest. “As the preacher’s wife I shouldn’t be gossiping, but I am a young woman who doesn’t mind a tale or two.”
“What does that mean?” I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to learn their lingo.
“I did overhear a couple of the inmates talking about a prison escape. They didn’t call Paul by his name, they called him by his inmate number, but I know they were talking about him.” Her brows lifted. “They said that it had to have been an inside job because the day he escaped, they didn’t go outside because it came a Georgia flood there.”
“Really? When I got here, the dirt was dry.” I recalled how disappointed I was not having the beautiful Kentucky Bluegrass and that terrible lake.
“Just because it didn’t rain here, doesn’t mean it didn’t rain in Lexington,” she said. “They also said that the FBI had been going through all the cells and interviewing everyone. I had to giggle when one said that he had to put away his extra cigs because he’d won them in a poker game. The guards don’t like them gambling and he’d been questioned.”
“Is the prison like a real prison?” I asked and suddenly felt sorry for Paul.
There was no way I couldn’t. He was human like the rest of us. Was he trying to get to me when he came back to Happy Trails? Surely, he knew that it was the first place the police would look for him.
“It’s a prison, but they aren’t hard time criminals, more white collar, like Paul.” She shrugged. “I know that you want to help everyone in Normal, but I think you just need to be you and let all this play out with Paul. You can only do what you have control over and that’s Happy Trails.”
“Thanks, Betts. You are very kind and you’ve gone above and beyond to help me.” I smiled over at her while I got the car keys out of my pocket. “One day I’ll pay you back.”
“That day will be Sunday,” she reminded me with a little skip in her step. “Sometimes I need someone to help me clean. I’ll let you know.”
SIXTEEN
“I guess we can strike the Randal’s off the list,” I told Dottie.
“Is that so?” She held onto the base of the ladder while I used Henry’s staple gun to staple the party lights Betts had given me to use around the Tiki bar. “I didn’t think Ty did it anyways, but Mae, I’m finding that you’re one of them people who has to try it for themselves to believe it.”
“He was with his daddy around the time Hank said Paul had been shot.” I ignored her complimentary comment of me and continued to tell her what I’d learned. “I’m still so worried that he’s going to try and pin it on you.”
“Didn’t I tell you that I found me an alibi?” She took a step back, letting go of the ladder and looked up at me.
“No.” I handed her the nail gun before I climbed down. “That’s wonderful news. Who was it?”
Alvin Deters and his crew was putting the finishing touches on what he called the irrigation system in the middle of the lake, which looked like a pineapple fountain to me. The sound of the water feature was actually soothing and relaxing.
“I got to thinkin’.” She tapped her temple. “I was having me some trouble with the satellite dish up on the roof of my camper. I had placed a call to them and was fussin’ with them around the times Paul was killed. It wasn’t until I got my bill in the mail this mornin’ that I remembered. I was as happy as a peacock as I took my bill right on down to the station and handed it to Hank. He did whatever magic they do with phone records and calling people and confirmed they had me on hold several different times, adding up to almost two hours on the phone with them.” She stuck up two fingers in the air. “That means two hours I won’t get back in my life. Can you believe that?”
“I’m so glad. Not about the wasted life thing but the fact you have an alibi.” There was a relief that swept over me that made me feel like I wasn’t in a huge hurry to find out who killed Paul now. Though my curiosity was still up, the only people on my list and that I’d started to care about had solid alibis. “I still think that Grady Cox did it. I mean, he disappears the day of and they’ve not heard or seen from him?”
“Now you need to stop snooping now that I’m not a suspect and we can finish up with the decorations for this fundraiser.” She jerked her head to the side. “Come on, I need to show you something.”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s a sir-prise,” she said in a slow southern twang. “So you’re gonna have to come with me to find out.”
“I do love a good surprise.” I looked around the campground as I followed her towards the building I thought would make a great office one day instead of her camper.
The campground was coming along. The sod had started to take, the muck from the lake was gone, and all the camp sites had been cleaned up, weeded, and ready for RV’s. There was a fear of getting too excited and the expectation that we were going to be able to get some reservations.
“Do you think people are going to come?” I asked Dottie and followed her into the building.
“With all of Abby’s social media and the ads you put out in the paper, I think we will have a handful of people.” She flipped on the light. “Well?” She rocked back on the heels of her shoes. “Whatcha’ think?”
“Dottie,” I gasped and looked at the desk, filing cabinet and computer. “Is this the new office?”
“Yes, ma’am. You said we needed a real office space and I figured we’d clear out this building. That sign over there,” she pointed to several metal signs, “it says office. Henry is going to hang that later today. Those are some signs I thought he could hang in the recreation center.”
“That reminds me. I need to call someone I met the other day to come and get the video games in the recreation center up and running.” I made a mental note to call Jr. It could be his first job for me.
“Here we got the files from my camper all in order of the lot numbers. The computer isn’t all working yet, but I thought you could do that.” As she talked, I had an idea I’d have Jr. do that too. “The phone is hooked up and ready for reservations.”
“This is great, Dottie.” My eyes filled with tears of joy.
“Don’t be going and getting all soft,” Dottie warned. “You said we need to run like a business and we do. I’ll be working here during the day and you can work at night.”
“I think we can work something out. Thank you.” I gave her hug.
“Yep, you’re going soft on me,” she joked.