No Regrets

blood.
    Rolf was prepared to leave Ruth if he could, but first he had to get his money back. A confrontation was as inevitable as the collision of the
Chavez
and the West Seattle Bridge. Once the elements of disaster were in motion, there was no going back.
    Rolf was afraid his wife was poisoning him, putting something in his coffee, and he was careful not to drink it or, for that matter, eat what Ruth cooked.
    He didn’t know that something infinitely more dangerous was sneaking up behind him.

Fourteen
    Almost from the first time Rolf Neslund’s disappearance made headlines in the Seattle papers, the investigators had heard about peculiar stories, stories purportedly originating with Ruth Neslund’s relatives. But even followed back to the source, the information was diluted by Ruth’s tendency to embroider the truth— if not outright lie. That, combined with the things she said when she was intoxicated, meant rumors had to be substantiated with solid physical evidence and believable eyewitnesses.
    Ray Clever and Bob Keppel, the criminal investigator from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, realized that a trip to the Midwest to talk to other members of Ruth Neslund’s family was essential.
    Keppel and Clever met with Sheriff Carl Wubker at the Cass County seat in Virginia, Illinois. Wubker said that many of Ruth’s nine siblings and their offspring still lived in the area. A lot of the Illinois branch of the Myers clan resided in nearby Beardstown. In their younger days, Ruth’s brother Robert was rumored to have had dealings with Al Capone in Chicago. But that was a long time back and whether it had to do with Prohibition and rum-running or something darker, Wubker wasn’t sure.
    Keeping in mind the stories that there were bodies of old-time “Revenooers” (now called Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents) buried down in the swampland near the river, Wubker warned the two lawmen from Washington State. He said they should be careful with the Myers boys because it was rumored that they had “planted” more than one Revenuer in the mud flats. He insisted on sending a captain from his staff to accompany them when they headed out to talk to Ruth’s male kinfolk.
    Keppel and Clever wanted to talk to Robert Myers, Ruth’s brother who had been living with the Neslunds when Rolf disappeared. Like his sister and brother, Robert was also short and round as a turnip, an old man so bow-legged that he walked as if he was on the pitching deck of a ship. He had huge arms, but he didn’t seem like much of a threat any longer.
    As they attempted to ask Robert about his missing brother-in-law, they immediately observed that Robert’s mind was cloudy. He appeared to be either senile or mentally ill. He might even be suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease. Robert was nearing eighty now, and his recall of his last visit to Lopez Island was worse than hazy. Moreover, he didn’t want to talk about his sister Ruth or his visits to Washington. Any questioning was a fruitless effort. It was clear that Robert Myers wouldn’t make a competent witness for either the state or the defense.
    Robert’s son, Carl, was eminently competent, but he wouldn’t talk to Clever and Keppel at all, and he grew more belligerent with each question. Whatever either man knew about Ruth and Rolf Neslund’s relationship and what might have happened more than two years earlier, Robert couldn’t remember and Carl refused to say.
    Frustrated, Keppel and Clever headed back to Washington.They had certainly added to their belief that there were dark secrets in the Myers family. They also suspected that Ruth had been sending checks to be sure that none of them talked to the police about her.
    Mamie, Ruth’s oldest sister, was fiercely loyal to her. Long after Rolf left, Mamie continued sending her concerned letters.
    “I want you to know, my dear sister,” she wrote, “I love you very much. My heart goes out to you and I think of you most of the time... I am appalled at the things you have had to go through. I love you and pray for you and can only think of the good things you have done. You take care of yourself and remember ‘I love you.’”
    It wasn’t surprising that Ray Clever’s phone calls to Mamie’s Ohio home elicited the same stony silence that he and Bob Keppel had encountered in Illinois. Mamie said she didn’t know anything at all about Rolf’s disappearance. She refused to answer any questions.
    Ray Clever