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But did that mess include murder?
****
Jennifer sent messages asking for a group call ASAP.
We had to slot it in between Mike’s broadcasts and after the Five.
I was home, had let out and fed both dogs, and had fifteen minutes to spare when attachments started coming in from Jennifer.
It took a while to sort them, then decide printing out would help with comprehension.
When the call came in, I had the eight-by-ten sheets spread out on the counter, some of them sideways because it wasn’t big enough.
“Jennifer! You did it!” I’d like to think I said it, but it probably qualified as a squeal.
“I only got to look at a couple, but, is this what I think it is?” Mike asked.
“It is,” Diana said firmly. “Amazing.”
Jennifer tried not to grin.
She had blown up the individual photos we’d taken of the newspaper article Keefe found and enhanced it so we could read two-thirds of the words.
“It’s got to be the article that secondary source cited, don’t you think?” she asked. “The one with the guy who’d been in the posse chasing Oscar Virtanen years before.”
“Definitely,” Diana said. “And in case you didn’t see it, Mike, among the reasons the old guy said he felt so sorry for the mourning widow, even though she’d been reputed to be involved in robberies, was because she was heavy with child.”
“You guys were right,” he said. “That’s why Oscar did the robbery solo. She was too pregnant to join him. And probably his motive — to grab enough money to get far away, settle down, and have their family.”
“And,” I said, “the guy being interviewed said he heard later that she had the baby. If so, that makes Keefe being Oscar and Pearl’s descendent possible, since they actually had a descendent.”
“My question is why she didn’t remain where she was in Montana? Because it says she started traveling south before the robbery, much less hearing Oscar was shot and being chased,” Diana said. “Had they prearranged a meeting place?”
“Which could indicate they’d also prearranged a drop spot for the loot if necessary,” Mike said. “And if this guy’s right, she could have had the baby, waited a bit, then collected the money never to be heard from again.”
“That never to be heard from again agrees with the dissertation by Mrs. P’s mentor, though no mention of a baby, drop spot, or retrieval of the loot.”
“This makes it less likely the treasure’s out there waiting to be picked up,” Mike noted. “You two going to tell Sam McCracken?”
I looked at Diana on the screen. “Feels like we’re all on hold, pending whether Randall’s charged with murder or not. Once that’s settled...”
“I say we tell him. After we know about Randall,” Diana said.
“That’s the thing about this article,” Jennifer said. “Even if it’s one-hundred-percent accurate, it doesn’t advance us on the murder, does it.”
The answer to her non-question was No.
We fought back from that downer realization to celebrate her achievement in making this find mostly readable to the extent it deserved before wrapping up.
DAY SEVEN
MONDAY
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Every member of the news staff who was in the building, crammed into the news Director’s office for a video call with Mike.
Leona being among the attendees at an earlier time than she’d usually report was the first hint she knew what was coming. The second was that, while she wasn’t beaming smiles at anybody, her level of hate had dropped.
