Below the Tree Line Read online

  “I should get back to the farm and call the police. Get them onto Lance right away, before he can disappear.”

  Frank leaned over her, his face contorted by worry. “He’s obsessed, Felicity. You should hurry. He murdered three people. Get to Chief Algren as fast as you can.”

  “Yes, it was three people, wasn’t it?” she said. His eyebrows came together and his brown eyes glistened. She wondered if he even saw her anymore, or if she was just one more person in his way. “Listen, Frank, why don’t you come back with me?”

  “Not necessary, really.” He began to walk backward up the hill, shaking his head and waving his right hand as though a fly were buzzing around his fingers and he was leading the creature on a loopy ride.

  “But you heard what Lance had to say. It’d be good for me to have a witness.” She’d managed to position herself so she was facing him, standing about ten feet away, her shotgun firmly in her hands.

  “It’s not necessary, but I’ll go in to see the police later if you want. I’m glad to help.” He continued to walk uphill, quickly recovering from a stumble, looking to left and right as though he’d lost something.

  “I guess you were just out for a walk, is that right?” She held the shotgun a little higher, the barrel pointed at his feet. Frank Gentile listened, but she could see in his eyes the effort of calculating what his next move had to be.

  “I’m sure I told Marilyn I enjoy being out in the forest, being in the clean air.” He took a step backward, his arms stretched out at his sides to keep his balance. She could see the dirt-encrusted knees of his heavy green work pants.

  Felicity lifted the shotgun a fraction. “Let’s go back to my place, Frank. I want the police chief to hear what happened. Don’t you want to make sure Lance is caught?”

  “You seemed pretty sure he would be.”

  “Yes, but I don’t yet know what all the digging is about. I thought maybe you could help me with that.” She stepped back, lifting the shotgun another fraction of an inch. “Frank?”

  “I can’t tell you what those folks were up to, all those holes over there.” He nodded in the direction of Sasha’s plot.

  “So you saw them? You know about that. I suppose it was your footprints I saw in the snow a few days ago, after that freak snowstorm. The night Kyle died in that car accident.”

  He began to breathe heavily, as though he’d been running through the woods. He watched her with assessing eyes, his hands falling to his sides and his pockets. Before she could say anything else, he withdrew his hand and the light sparkled on a knife.

  “Frank, I’m not afraid to shoot.”

  “No? You’ve had plenty of chances and you haven’t yet.”

  “That was you all those nights out back of my house?”

  “Did you really think someone was trying to get into your cellar through the foundation? I saw the repair work you did. Why would anyone be trying to get into your cellar from the back?”

  “Okay. You tell me.”

  “You don’t deserve what you have.” He spit out the words, little sprays of saliva collecting light. “You have all these trees, old growth, and you didn’t even know it. You’re trampling rare plants under your laundry line. All over your farm you’re letting these plants die. They’re being crushed by people like Lance and those Saturday painters.” His face twisted in contempt. His finger arched on the knife. A blade swung out so fast she only saw it after it happened, glittering in his hand. “You’re destroying what is worth ten of you.” She heard a sound like a growl low in his throat, but he wasn’t looking at her now. He was staring at something behind her. Rage contorted his face. She turned to see what had taken over his sanity.

  Minnie trudged over a pile of twigs, her muzzle shifting little piles of dead leaves as she snuffled her way over the ground. She pushed her snout into a balsa wood container half-hidden under a pile of leaves and began nibbling at the plants it held.

  “Oh no! She must have followed me.”

  Frank spun on the leaves as he tried to get his footing, his hand outstretched and the blade pointed at the animal. He lunged.

  Felicity lifted the shotgun and fired.

  Shadow leapt into the clearing, jumping up and down like he had springs on his feet and yapping hysterically. But over the din she heard someone calling her name, and a moment later Kevin and Jeremy and Lance came thrashing up the hill.

  “Stop it. Stop that animal! It’s eating the orchids,” Frank yelled as soon as he got his wind back. He crawled on his stomach, dragging his bloody leg, throwing rocks and sticks and anything else he could get his hands on at Minnie. Felicity handed off her shotgun to Jeremy and used treats meant for Shadow to tempt Minnie away from the box of plants. Shadow remained hysterical.

  Kevin hoisted Frank to his feet and arrested him. Lance stumbled from one grouping to the other. He babbled incoherently about having nothing to do with digging holes or killing people. It was only about the trees.

  Thirty-One

  “Orchids? He was digging up orchids?” Felicity stood in the middle of the kitchen while Kevin stood by the table reading a message on his cell. Through the kitchen window she could see the state police vehicles backing down the drive and then speeding away on the old road.

  “That’s what he was doing,” the chief grumbled, then punched off his cell. “I feel like I’m turning into a pin cushion.” He glanced at Jeremy. “Three doctors’ appointments next week,” he said before turning away.

  Felicity took two glasses from the cupboard and put them on the kitchen table. Jeremy pulled a bottle of Johnny Walker out of a cupboard and held it up.

  “None for me. Doctor’s orders.” Kevin looked longingly at the bottle and turned away.

  Felicity poured hot water over a tea bag and took her mug to the table. Jeremy added a splash of Scotch in her mug and poured a glass for himself. “I don’t get it. Orchids?” she asked again.

  “And a bunch of plants I never heard of.” Kevin wiped a hand over his face. Felicity noticed his complexion seemed to have returned to normal, the violent pink receding to his more familiar ruddy look.

  “Frank Gentile isn’t his real name,” Kevin added. He rested his regulation hat on an empty chair and looked surprisingly pleased with himself. “He’s a Mr. Ralph Parr.”

  “How did you figure that out?” Felicity asked.

  “It was the fingerprints from that coffee mug Mr. Parr used yesterday at Jeremy’s place.” He nodded to Jeremy.

  “It was your friends at the state lab and the state police barracks who helped put it all together,” Jeremy said.

  Felicity listened to this exchange as the two men went back and forth arguing over who should get the credit. When she couldn’t stand it a moment longer, she interrupted. “Why was he digging up my plants?”

  “That’s simple, Felicity. They’re valuable.” Kevin leaned back in the wooden chair. It creaked, and the sound felt like a gentle reminder of the Sunday afternoon when a farmer could look around at his week’s work and feel all was well. And at least now that it was quiet, Felicity could too. Shadow slept on the floor nearby, Minnie was back with her flock, Miss Anthropy slept in her chair, and no one was running any machinery.

  “Is this what Kyle was after?”

  “Only Kyle knows what he thought he was digging up, more likely some kind of valuable artifact. Not plants. Maybe old coins. He had a literal mind.”

  “Are you telling me this man, Parr or Gentile, killed three people to get at some plants?”

  “That’s exactly what he did,” Jeremy said. “Mr. Parr scouts for rare and valuable plants. He either buys up land and depletes it, or he does what he did with yours. He buys a piece nearby, scouts your property, and takes everything he can get.”

  “And no one ever knows?”

  “No one ever knows,” Jeremy said.

  “That�
��s why he bought Zeke Bodrun’s cabin a few years ago,” Kevin said.

  “Zeke became some sort of legend, this old guy traveling around looking at old-growth forests and talking about how important they were. He went to so many places and talked so openly that people remembered him and he entered into local folklore. Parr heard the stories about this guy from the Pioneer Valley and it got him thinking there might be something up here,” Jeremy said. “Old growth and rare plants often go together.”

  “Zeke was long dead and only his reputation remained, but Parr came up here to check it out,” Kevin said. “He’s been in this area a lot longer than we knew about.”

  “He sure kept a low profile,” Jeremy said. “At least until recently. The business with Marilyn was just a ruse, like we thought. He wasn’t going to buy anything.”

  “But why kill three people?” Felicity asked. “Why kill Clarissa and Sasha and Kyle?”

  “Kyle is easy to figure out,” Kevin said. “He was digging all over the place, and very determined. Parr was worried he’d destroy the plants he was after. In the beginning, Parr got engaged to Clarissa thinking he’d be able to use her land to come and go as he pleased, and get what he wanted from your land without anyone noticing.”

  “But Clarissa gave the land to Sasha,” Felicity said.

  “Exactly. Clarissa and Parr were engaged, but something went wrong. We’re not sure, but we think Clarissa figured out he wasn’t on the up and up. Maybe the question of a marriage license came up, or he refused to have his photograph taken, or something small like that, but she heard the warning bells. He tampered with her brakes while her car was at Bruce’s. And she was coming to see you, perhaps to tell you there was something about your land you should figure out.”

  “And Sasha?”

  “He approached Sasha, trying to get her to sell him the piece of land, but she and Clarissa were close and she knew she shouldn’t.” Kevin paused to look at the bare trees outside the window. “It seems Parr met her at the cabin and poisoned her when he realized she wasn’t going to sell. That was right after she talked to you. Anyway, it must have started to hit her outside Zeke’s cabin. Maybe she caught on to what was happening and ran into the woods. She may have been trying to get to you. We’ll never know. She vomited in the woods and Parr tried to clean her up. You’re right about that. Good guess, Felicity. We don’t know all the details yet. It’s early days.”

  “Three people dead, and all for a few plants. What was he going to do with them?” Felicity asked.

  “He sells them. He’s got big money behind him. His backers want rare plants. Collectors can be real fanatics, Felicity. And those plants he was digging up? Rare and endangered.”

  “My plants? I knew we had one or two unusual ones but so what? I mean, I like orchids too, but still … ”

  “There are all kinds of orchids,” Jeremy said. “And you have some unusual ones, endangered too. You have some that only grow in old-growth forests.”

  “He had a lot of containers there,” Felicity said. “I saw something by an uprooted tree but it didn’t register just then. Was he planning on taking everything and cleaning out the area?”

  “He wanted all he could get,” Kevin said.

  “And that’s why all the pressure on Marilyn to get us to sell, or at least let him walk through our property.” Jeremy looked disgusted.

  “Was he in my back yard looking for plants?” Felicity asked.

  “Yup,” Kevin said. “I got a look at his list and it included a kind of purple clematis.”

  “That’s on the list?” Felicity looked at Kevin. “Then I won’t tell you how I trample it whenever I hang out laundry, or the time I tried to rip it out.”

  “No, Felicity, don’t tell me that.” Kevin cast another look at the Johnny Walker.

  “I don’t see how he could expect to find the plants now,” she said. “None of them are in bloom.”

  “He marked the spots from earlier visits,” Kevin said, “and when Lance started timbering, Frank must have figured he had to move fast before the area was destroyed.”

  “And Lance was so scared at the idea of being accused of murder that he came flying down the road looking for Kevin.” Jeremy began to laugh. “What a confession!”

  “I wasn’t sure Lance would take the hint,” Felicity said. “I’d thought he was in on it with Parr, but then I heard them arguing and they didn’t seem to even know each other.”

  “Lance said he never saw the guy before,” Kevin said.

  “When he took off, I prayed he would go straight to find you.”

  “Good one, Lissie.” Jeremy nodded approvingly.

  “Without Lance, we wouldn’t have known where you were,” Kevin said. “But we would have heard you. Tell me you won’t load up that thing again.”

  “He told me I would never shoot.” Felicity shook her head. “He practically dared me. I had no choice. I was defending my sheep.”

  “That’s not the right answer, Lissie.” Jeremy groaned. “The correct answer is self-defense. He was coming at you with a knife. Fortunately, his leg’s going to be okay.”

  “Oh that.” Felicity waved away the comment. “Right now I’m more worried about the timbering. I have to find a new logger. I can never trust Lance again.”

  Felicity and Jeremy watched Kevin reach the end of the driveway, turn onto the road, and drive out of sight, but it was a while before either one spoke.

  “Do you think there’s anything left of that potluck you invited me to?” Felicity asked.

  “I’d bet Loretta and Taylor are still sitting at the table gossiping.”

  “I’m hungry.” Felicity walked toward Jeremy’s pickup, then stopped. “Do sheep get traumatized?”

  Jeremy looked down at her. “You’re joking, right?”

  “I was just wondering how I’d feel if someone came charging at me with a knife.” She rested her hands in her jacket pockets and turned to look at the barn where the sheep had been settled for the night. “I don’t know what Minnie thought she was doing.”

  “If you give her treats, Lissie, she’s going to come looking for you.”

  “You think I’m getting too attached to them, don’t you?” Felicity looked wistfully at the barn. A tree branch lifted in a soft breeze and a spotlight came on, lighting up the front of the yard. “Maybe I am, but it feels right.”

  Jeremy put an arm around her and pulled her closer and Felicity wrapped her arms around his waist.

  “I hope there won’t be any more flora thieves in my life.” She looked up at Jeremy. “Do you realize he could have gotten away with it and I’d never have known? If Lance hadn’t tried to cut all the way through to that section, Parr could have lifted every single rare or endangered or valuable plant, and I would never have guessed anything was missing. Unless he took the lady’s slippers, of course.”

  “The tragedy is, they probably wouldn’t have survived,” Jeremy said.

  “He seemed to think he could do it, since apparently he’s been doing it for years.” Felicity leaned her head against Jeremy’s shoulder. “What a way to make a living.”

  “You mean the farm or the thief?”

  Felicity gave him a gentle poke in the arm. “A botanist stopped by a few years ago to buy vegetables, and he admired the farm, what he could see of it. He said it must be a special place. Dad was working the stand and the guy told him he could see some rare and endangered plants just from the road.” Felicity looked across the field to the marshy area hidden by trees and to the small pond beyond.

  “Did he tell your dad which plants were valuable?”

  “He did, and ever since then I haven’t wanted to know any more.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you remember that bulrush I said was so ugly when we were pulling out old barbed wire last summer? The one I wanted to rip out and use for compost?
”

  “Sure, and it was.”

  “Well, it’s protected, so I couldn’t pull it out. It’s a relict.”

  “Which is?”

  “A relict is a remnant of an otherwise extinct flora, according to our passing botanist.” She frowned. “It looks like I’m stuck with that northeastern bulrush, and I tell you that plant is plug ugly. Beautiful orchids hidden in the forest and that hideous bulrush filling up the marsh.”

  Jeremy opened the passenger-side door of his truck.

  “Before we go, Jeremy, there’s one thing I want to do.” She turned back to the house, picked up a shovel leaning against the porch, and led the way around to the back. Late afternoon light warmed the ground and whitened the straw covering a small garden. “Let’s move the laundry pole and give that rare clematis a chance to survive. I’ve been pretty rough on it all these years.”

  “You’re lucky it’s lasted.” Jeremy reached for the shovel.

  “We’re all lucky we survived. That man could have done a lot of damage.” She stepped back to give him room. He pushed the tip of the shovel into the ground and put his foot on the edge, leaning on it, then turned to look at her.

  “Lissie, I meant what I said when we were waiting for Parr to show up to walk my farm. I’m ready to make a change. We almost lost something more valuable than land. We’ve been drifting along for fifteen years without thinking about it, but it’s time to think about it. You’ve done right by your dad, and I’ve done all I can for my daughter.”

  “Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?”

  “Lissie, I told you I’m ready to turn the whole farm over to Taylor when she’s out of school in a year. For the first time in my life I’ll have nothing holding me. But this is the only place I want to be. I think it’s time for you and me to have our own life.”

  Felicity could feel the heat growing inside her. She knew it wasn’t the sun warming her head to toe. She hadn’t expected this, but it was right; she could feel it. “I suppose you’ll need a place for those cows of yours.” She smiled and unhooked the clothesline. She rolled up the rope, then stepped back while Jeremy dug around the pole, loosening it from the thawing ground.