From Here to Paternity

last night, he indicated that Gortner really didn’t have anything to say on his own behalf—that he was only making Mrs. Schmidtheiser’s evidence look silly.“
    “Well, it did look that way to me, too, but there was a lot of talk about baptismal documents, FHC film numbers, something called tafels —God knows what that means I think it’s some kind of list of all your relatives— Oh, here’s Mel.“
    Jane waved and he joined them, looking grim.
    “I got curious,“ he said abruptly as he sat down. “Called the sheriff. Seems they found an empty pill bottle in her purse. The residue in the bottle matched the residue in the coffee cup. Except the dosage in the cup was about twenty times what a person can take.“
    “You were right. It was murder,“ Jane said.
    “I’m not the one who thought that, Jane,“ he reminded her. “And the sheriff told me that proved his theory. Suicide.“
    “Suicide?“ Shelley exclaimed.
    “Right,“ Mel said wryly. “She’d been humiliated in public over her research, so she came home, poured all her remaining heart-medicine pills into a cup of coffee, knocked it back, threw the offending research all over the room, and dropped dead in the one place where none of the papers had landed.“
    “What a dolt!“ Jane said.
    “Aren’t you going to ask me what he said about fingerprints on the medicine bottle?“ Mel flipped open the menu angrily.
    “Okay. I’ll bite,“ Jane said. “What was his response?“
    “Silence! He obviously hadn’t even thought about it. Probably every lab tech in the county handled the damned thing. Now, of course, he has to stick with this suicide thing or his job will go up in flames.“
    Jane considered this for a minute or two while Mel tried to calm down enough to read the menu. When he looked up, she said, “I think we ought to make damned sure that’s exactly what happens.“
    “But I’m on vacation!“ Mel said brokenly.
    “And I hope you’re enjoying it.“
    They all looked up guiltily. Tenny Garner had approached the table without any of them noticing.
    “I—ah, yes. It’s a great place you’ve got here,“ Mel said. “Will you join us?“
    Tenny glanced around the room and said, “Maybe for a minute. I’m looking for Uncle Bill. You haven’t seen him around, have you? He’s disappeared.“

Chapter 10

    Tenny took the chair next to Shelley’s.
    “When did somebody see him last?“ Mel asked.
    “Last night. After that poor woman died. I went to tell him and found him cleaning up the lost-and-found room.“
    “But what about your aunt?“ Jane asked. “Didn’t she see him after that?“
    “No, he never came back to their place.“
    “Oh, dear—“ Shelley said.
    Tenny smiled. “No, no, don’t worry. I didn’t mean to alarm you. I’m certain he’s just gone off to do a little hunting. He’ll turn up in his own good time.“
    “Does he do that? Just go away without telling anyone?“ Mel asked.
    Tenny nodded. “Every once in a while. He’s an old mountain man with only a thin veneer of civilization. Something nicks the veneer deep enough and he takes off. He’ll turn up by lunchtime, muddy and bloody and as cheerful as a chipmunk. Well, maybe that’s going too far. As cheerful as he’s capable of being, I should say.“
    “Tenny, what did he really think about Mrs. Schmidtheiser’s claim that he was the rightful Tsar?“ Shelley asked.
    Tenny thought for a minute. “That’s really two questions and I know the answer to only one of them. The first question is: is he the person she claims he is? And the second question is: does he want to act on it in any way? On the first, I have no idea. On the second, no way! He’s not interested in politics. I don’t believe he’s ever even voted once in his life. Joanna is always telling him it’s his patriotic duty, and he says anybody who wanted to try to run a country or even a county was crazy to begin with, so there was no difference between them.“
    “He could have a point,“ Jane said. “But hasn’t he ever talked about who he is? Or rather, who his father was? Father or grandfather? I’ve forgotten already.“
    “His father,“ Tenny confirmed. “Oh, he talked about him some, but only to Aunt Joanna and me. And then not often. Mainly just things old Gregory had told him about hunting or mountain lore or nature.“
    “So you don’t know anything about Gregory?“ Mel asked.
    “Oh, I know some. But most of it’s from a local history