Cheney put out immediate calls to the California Highway Patrol, the Arizona Highway Patrol, and the Nevada Highway Patrol. He also notified the Santa Teresa PD and the Santa Teresa County Sheriff’s Department to be on the lookout. The Argosy, with its FOTO BIZ license plate, was not only highly visible, but a notorious gas-guzzler. The expectation was that the vehicle would be spotted the first time he was forced to stop and refuel. It didn’t happen that way.
Two weeks after Ned Lowe left the area, the Argosy was discovered in a remote area of the Mojave, gutted by fire, its chassis warped by heat, its flammable components reduced to ash. The vehicle identification number on the front of the engine block had been obliterated, but a second VIN in the rear wheel well was still legible, having been shielded by the tire.
There was no sign of Ned. The assumption was that he’d fled the area on foot, and had perhaps hitched a ride with a passing stranger when he reached the nearest highway.
He’s now been linked to a number of disappearances, all young girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. Twenty-three photographs were developed from negatives he left behind in his darkroom. Those pictures were published in newspapers across the country, flashed on television newscasts, along with appeals to the public for their cooperation in identifying the subjects.
Family members were quick to spot their missing loved ones. A few young women even recognized themselves and stepped forward, not appreciating until that moment how close they’d come to disaster. There was no way to determine why some had survived the encounter with Ned Lowe and some had died. I number myself among those spared for reasons I can’t fathom.
In the good news department, Edna and Joseph Shallenbarger were arraigned in Perdido Superior Court on April 12, 1989. She was charged with felony grand theft, forgery, and failure to appear. He was charged with forgery as well, along with aiding and abetting the embezzlement and failure to appear. There were a few additional charges thrown in just to sweeten the pot. I’m not sure what happened to all the money Edna stole, but she claimed indigence. The pair requested and were assigned a public defender, who asked for a continuance to allow him time to prepare his case.
I wasn’t present, but I heard about their brief appearance from an attorney friend who was in the courtroom for a hearing later the same morning. Joseph was once again confined to a wheelchair, claiming an injury suffered at the time of his arrest. I could have told him he was too out of shape to make a run for it. His new chair is electric, equipped with a sip-and-puff delivery system. According to my friend, Joseph sat slumped to one side, his head atilt, his right hand clawlike and immobile in his lap. It was all fake, of course, but he did a good job maintaining the fiction.
I can only imagine the conversation that took place in the judge’s chambers, the assistant district attorney dreading the inevitable courtroom contretemps. Who wants to be the heartless bastard who prosecutes an eighty-one-year-old woman whose only concern is the welfare of the husband she’s been married to for sixty years, who’s now having to puff and sip his way through life, barely able to lift his head?
Also by way of good news, as I was closing up the office one afternoon during that same period, I received a call from Ari and Teddy Xanakis, who were happily ensconced at Claridge’s in London, having the time of their lives while waiting to hear what the Turner experts had to say about their painting. They were feeling optimistic and, sure enough, by the time they returned to California on the fifteenth of April, its authenticity had been confirmed.
Months later, after Ari’s marriage to Stella Morgan was dissolved, Ari and Teddy married for a second time in a civil ceremony at the Santa Teresa courthouse. Stella was not invited, but I was. I’d have insisted on my role as the oldest living flower girl on record, but it would have looked silly under the circumstances.
There’s a commonly accepted assumption that the rich are greedy and uncaring and the elderly are frail and ineffectual. This isn’t always the case, of course. Sometimes it’s old people who lie, cheat, and steal. Ari and Teddy are supporting all the local charities again, and their generosity is legendary.
The more I see of the world, the more I understand that justice isn’t cut-and-dried. There are more compromises than you’d imagine, and rightly so. Law and order, punishment and fair play, are all on a continuum where there are far more gray stretches than there are black and white. I’m making my peace with this. In the main, I believe people are good. In the main, I believe the judicial system works.
Ned Lowe will be caught eventually. I’ve seen law enforcement at work, and their patience and competence tend to net the right results in the end. That’s what I’m counting on, at any rate. In the meantime, both Henry and I have had our locks changed.
As for Pete Wolinsky, I acknowledge that I misjudged him and I hope he may rest in peace, wherever he may be.
Respectfully submitted,
Kinsey Millhone