A Root Awakening by Kate Collins

Author:Kate Collins [Collins, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780451415516
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 21398039
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Norman Jones is dead?” Goose bumps sprang up on my arms.

“He’d better be. I went to his funeral.”

Then who was the man pretending to be Norman Jones? And where did Sandra fit into the picture? “Do you have Norman’s wife’s address or phone number so I can talk to her?”

“Martha followed Norm about five months later, I’m sad to say. It broke her heart when he died.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Looks like your information is a little out-of-date.”

“It appears that way. So let me ask you this. Do you happen to know a Steve Conroy?”

“Yes, ma’am. I worked with Steve for many years. He passed away about a year before Norm. The cancer got him.”

“Then he was also a janitor?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

My mind was racing trying to figure out what was going on. Why would the man I knew as Norman Jones, a janitor in Maraville previously from Bowling Green, take the name of a deceased janitor? And then use another deceased janitor as his reference?

“This might be a long shot, Mr. Dillon, but is there anyone you worked with maybe a year ago who fits the description of the man I thought was Norman Jones? Large, balding, brown hair, beat-up Chevy van?”

“Well,” he said slowly, “you could be talking about Ed Birchman. He was a tall, heavy guy with brown hair, bald on top. I don’t remember the van, though.”

“Did Ed have a wife named Sandra?”

“That might’ve been her name. He was a real private guy. Didn’t like to socialize with the rest of us.”

“Did he ever talk about his children?”

There was silence for a moment; then he said, “I seem to recall something about a boy.”

“How long did you work with Ed?”

“Maybe a year at the most. He moved around a lot from what I understood.”

“Did he ever say where he came from?”

“Somewhere in Indiana. Mary something.”

“Could it have been Maraville?”

“I suppose that sounds right. It’s been a while, young lady.”

“Did Ed ever mention why he moved to Bowling Green?”

“I think he said he had family here, a brother or something.”

“You’ve been very helpful, Mr. Dillon. If you remember anything else about Ed, would you call me? I’ll give you my number.”

“Hold on while I get a pen.”

For a long time after I hung up, I sat there staring at my notes, pen tapping on the pad, trying to make this new information fit in with Marco’s theory. Would someone in the witness protection program be given the name of a person who’d passed away?

And it bothered me that Norm Jones, or Ed Birchman, had used a retired janitor and a deceased janitor as references. That didn’t sound like a decision that a federal agency would make if they were trying to keep someone’s identity hidden.

I wanted to run it by Marco, but he’d know immediately why I was asking. I couldn’t ask my dad, either—he would worry that I was getting myself into something dangerous. And Reilly would blab to Marco . . . unless I was able to play it as innocently as possible.

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