Chapter 5

Friday, June 19, 1987

During her lunch break on Friday, Trixie went to the clerk’s office to look up copies of the issued permits as well as information and minutes from the planning commission meetings. As she exited the building, she noticed Mr. Murphy heading her way. He glared at her. Trixie shivered but she didn’t break eye contact with him until she passed him. She resisted the urge to turn around and see where he was going. Instead, she quickly walked back to the library.

She couldn’t wait to review the information she had obtained from the clerk’s office but she had to wait until the end of the day. The afternoon really seemed to drag. It didn’t help that the software started to act up again. Instead of working on the conversion, she spent the afternoon re-shelving books. It was a job that took concentration. Her mind kept wandering back to Mr. Lytell and she had to work hard to keep her mind on the task at hand. She was relieved when it was four o’clock and she could go home.

No one was home when she got there. She knew that Hallie had an early date with Dan. Bobby had plans to spend the night at Larry and Terry’s and her parents were taking advantage by going out to dinner and a movie.

Jim was going to come down later so she decided to take some time and summarize everything she had found out from her research. She sat down and started to write.

“Mr. Lytell came to Sleepyside from California to help build an A&P grocery store. It appeared that all of the proper channels were used and the permits were approved.”

She pulled out the copies of the information she had made this afternoon and began to read through them. She had found the original application and building permit as well as the minutes from the planning commission and zoning board meetings where the plan was approved. The minutes showed there had been no objections to the application and it passed unanimously at both meetings. The original application appeared to have all of the needed documents. There was even an affidavit from a professor of archaeology at NYU stating there were no archeological concerns with the property.

“It appears Mr. Lytell did his homework. So what happened to change all of that?” Trixie said to herself. She rifled through the information she had gotten earlier in the day and pulled up the zoning board minutes from the next meeting. Her eyes widened as she read the minutes. “This is interesting,” she continued to herself. She took the previous month’s minutes and began to read them again, only this time she read the entire minutes, not just the part that pertained to Mr. Lytell.

She jotted down a few notes and then stood up to pace, talking to herself as she did so. “So Mr. Fred Murphy was on the zoning board during that time but he wasn’t present at the September meeting when the vote was taken on the A&P project. The next month he tries to convince the rest of the board that they should reconsider the change. The minutes show that the board denied Fred Murphy’s request.” Trixie thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers and pulled out the articles she had copied at the library earlier in the week.

The original article she found announcing the groundbreaking of the A&P was dated three days after the October zoning board meeting. So far, everything looked in order. Then she pulled the next set of meeting minutes. There was a special planning commission meeting that was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968, to discuss the proposal. The minutes indicated that John Manydeeds, a Native American, claimed that the land the A&P was to be built on was sacred land. It also showed that Fred Murphy, as well as a Jake Welty, strongly supported Manydeeds’s accusations.

“Jake Welty,” Trixie said, letting the name flow over her tongue. “Why does that name sound familiar? I’ll have to ask Honey. Maybe she will remember.”

In the Sleepyside Sun the next week, David Trent had written an article. There were veiled accusations that Mr. Lytell had bought off several of the local officials. That, along with John Manydeed’s accusations, had several planning commission members questioning the project. Also in that week’s paper was the story saying the groundbreaking would be postponed.

Trixie looked through the rest of the articles she had. There were several letters to the editor that lambasted Mr. Lytell and the corporation that was trying to build the A&P. There was a particularly scathing one written by Jake Welty. “There’s that name again,” she said to herself. She still couldn’t place where she’d heard it before.

She found several articles from a span of about three weeks. All of them were written by David Trent. Finally, she came to a very short article that she remembered had been on the back page of the paper. It stated Mr. Lytell had announced the project had been withdrawn.

Trixie glanced at the clock and was surprised to see it was almost six o’clock. She needed to get cleaned up and make something for dinner before Jim came down.

As she put away all of her papers, she thought about what she knew about Mr. Lytell. “He chose to stay in Sleepyside and bought the general store on Glen Road,” Trixie said. “I wonder why he didn’t go back to California.”

As she changed into a clean shirt and shorts, she thought about an article she had found the day before that had been printed about six months after the project had been canceled. The property had gone into foreclosure and was put up for sale. It was sold for considerably less than for what it had been purchased. Sometime after that the bowling alley and restaurant had been built. If the land was sacred how had the developer gotten around it? Things weren’t adding up and Trixie vowed to figure out what had happened.

For now, however, she needed to eat before Jim arrived. It was still rather warm so she decided to make a sandwich and added some veggies and dip for a light meal. She poured herself a tall glass of lemonade and sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy her food. All of a sudden, she felt like someone was watching her. She glanced around, knowing that no one else was in the house.

“You’re just imagining things,” she told herself. “You’ve been alone here plenty of times and nothing has happened to you.” She went back to eating her sandwich. As she did, she continued to mull over her ideas. When she finished her meal she cleaned up her dishes and went into the living room to watch some T.V. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She walked over to the window to see if anyone was standing out there. She thought she saw something moving in the trees heading up to Manor House but decided she was just letting her imagination run away from her.

When she couldn’t stand it any longer she got up and went outside. She stood on the terrace and looked into the orchard, trying to distinguish shadows from a person. She just about jumped out of her skin when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, whipping around to see Jim standing there. She fell into his arms.

“Well, I suspected you missed me but this is a little extreme isn’t it?” Jim teased.

Trixie started to tremble. She stepped out of his embrace before he could suspect anything. “Sorry, I must not have heard you approach,” she said. She crossed her arms over her chest to try to cover her trembling.

“I thought you heard me or I would have made more noise,” he said. He reached to pull her back into his arms but she pulled away. Trying not to take it personally, he asked, “Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

“No, nothing at all,” Trixie lied. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She felt much better knowing that Jim was there and she would no longer be alone. “Let’s go inside before the mosquitoes decide to eat us alive.”

They went inside to the family room. Jim put the video Raiders of the Lost Ark in the VCR and then sat down next to Trixie. He pulled her into his arms and he could still feel her trembling.

“What has gotten you so spooked?” he asked again.

Finally, Trixie replied, “I don’t know what’s gotten into me tonight. I’ve been home alone before but for some reason I felt uncomfortable tonight, like someone was watching me.”

Jim knew not to doubt her feelings or intuition. “Well, I didn’t see anyone when I came down, but that doesn’t mean someone wasn’t around.” They settled down to watch the movie. With Jim’s arms around her, she felt safe and comforted. She almost convinced herself that it must have been a figment of her imagination, but she couldn’t let go of that feeling.

As the movie progressed, Jim placed Trixie on the floor in front of him so he could massage the tension out of her neck. Finally, she was able to relax and enjoy both the company and the movie. Jim pulled her up off of the floor and onto his lap where he wrapped his arms around her again. As he gently kissed her forehead, cheeks, and lips, she felt the last of the tension release her body and with it the sense that someone was watching them.

The movie had just finished when they heard a car pull into the driveway. “I think your parents are home,” he said. “Even though it’s all been innocent, you might want to slide off of my lap.” Both of them remembered her father’s reaction earlier in the spring when Trixie had missed curfew by ten minutes.

Trixie moved off of Jim’s lap and put some space between them. They greeted her parents when they came in and then Trixie walked Jim out the door. They stepped out on to the terrace so they could say their good-byes in private.

“Are you running tomorrow morning?” Jim asked.

“Yeah, I’ll probably run down to the Glen Road Inn and back. I’ve been so busy this week I’ve hardly had any time to even think about running. Would you like to join me?”

“Brian and I told Regan we would take a couple of the horses out tomorrow for some exercise. Maybe we’ll see you when we’re out riding,” he replied, pulling her into his arms. “I suppose I’d better get going. Tomorrow will be here earlier than we think.”

They exchanged one last kiss. Trixie stood and watched as Jim walked up the path to the Manor House. As she turned to go back to the house, the dread she had been feeling earlier in the evening returned. She stopped and whipped her head around, fully expecting to see someone staring at her. She tried to shake off those feelings as she headed back into the house. She locked the door and headed up to bed.

Saturday, June 20, 1987

Trixie was making her ritual Saturday morning run out to the Glen Road Inn and back. It was barely seven o’clock in the morning but the sun had already heated up the air. She was wearing a black running bra and red shorts. By the time she had reached Mr. Lytell’s store, she was drenched in sweat. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail but sweat still dripped down her forehead and into her eyes, making it difficult to see. She swore under her breath for forgetting to put on a hat or sweatband.

Once she had gotten into her running rhythm she started to think of Mr. Lytell. She had so many unanswered questions. What had happened with the zoning board? Had Mr. Lytell tried to buy the board so they would build the supermarket in a residential area? Somehow Trixie couldn’t picture Mr. Lytell being so underhanded. Was it a coincidence that Fred Murphy had served on the zoning board and later built the bowling alley on the same location? Then there was the whole cover-up. What other things had occurred? She still couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t moved back to California. Part of her would have loved to just go and ask him for the answers, but she knew that wouldn’t work. He would just tell her it was none of her business. The papers had said some really nasty things about Mr. Lytell. Now that she thought about it, the people along Glen Road thought rather highly of the man, but many people in town held him in contempt.

She recalled being at the bank several years ago when Mr. Lytell was also there. As he walked out, she recalled a teller making some comment about him being a crook. They saw no good in him. Now that she thought about it, she was surprised that he had stuck it out here for so long.

Maybe she should stop by and talk to him. He had been downright nice to her the last time she’d been in the store. Acting on impulse, she slowed down and decided to stop.

As Trixie entered the store, the bells above the door jingled. From the back room she heard Mr. Lytell holler, “I’ll be out in a minute.”

Trixie went over to the water cooler and poured herself a cup of water from it. Then she went to the produce section and picked out a banana. She bent down to get a couple of dollars that she kept in her shoe wallet and walked to the counter. Mr. Lytell had just walked out of the back room.

Trixie pasted a smile on her face and nervously said, “Good morning, Mr. Lytell. How are you today?”

He grumbled under his breath but said, “I suppose I’m doing okay. What brings you here this early on a Saturday morning?”

“Well, I was just taking my morning run and forgot to grab some water before I left. I thought I’d stop here before I continued.”

He rang up her purchase and she handed him the appropriate amount of money. She stood there for a minute.

“Is there something else you wanted?” Mr. Lytell asked.

“Well,” Trixie drew out. “I’m not quite sure how to ask this.”

“Well, just say it, girl,” he insisted.

“You know I’m working at the library this summer,” she started. “A couple of weeks ago I was learning how to use the microfilm machine. I stumbled on an issue from October 1968.” She paused to let the date sink in and to see if he had any reaction. He kept his reaction carefully guarded.

“Well, I read the article about when you came to town to build an A&P store. I just want to say I think you were set up,” Trixie rushed to finish before she lost her nerve.

Mr. Lytell’s shoulders slumped slightly. Much to Trixie’s surprise, he didn’t get mad at her. He was more concerned. “I know you love to solve mysteries,” he said. “But this is one that is best left unsolved. People could get hurt if you start digging up skeletons.”

“But Mr. Lytell, it’s not fair. When you start looking at the big picture, I think there were some underhanded dealings. I didn’t have to look too hard. So far I’ve only looked through old issues of the Sleepyside Sun and gotten some information from City Hall.”

“I know you’re not going to listen to me, but I’ve got to say this anyway,” he said. “I wish you would just leave it alone. It’s all water under the bridge.”

“Don’t you want to know what happened?” Trixie asked. “Don’t you want to clear your good name?”

Mr. Lytell sighed. “I know what I did and I can sleep at night because I did everything above board. No matter what happens, there will always be some people who will think the worst of me. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

Trixie sighed. She wanted to respect his wishes but something told her she needed to pursue this. “I’ll be honest with you. Something is telling me that I need to look into this, but I promise I will be careful.” She threw the banana peel into garbage can and then headed back out to complete her run.

She had just started back down Glen Road when she heard a car approach. She looked up just in the nick of time to see the dirty brown Dodge Charger heading straight at her. She stepped off the pavement and towards the ditch as the car swerved out of the way at the last minute. She could feel the whoosh of air from the car as it went by, catching a shoulder on the rear view mirror. She lost her balance and skidded along the blacktop before she tumbled into the ditch.

 

 

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