Murder in Hillsboro Read online

  The bride and groom waited to greet their guests as they left the church. When Brooke and Molly approached them, Brad smiled at Brooke, “I’m so happy you came; you must be Molly, I’m happy to meet you. Darling this is Brooke and her friend Molly, my wife, Elizabeth.”

  “Brooke, I’ve heard so much about you, Brad sings your praises all the time. I’m happy to meet you, Molly. You look familiar, haven’t we met before?”

  “I don’t believe so, Elizabeth, it is a pleasure to be at your wedding.”

  Elizabeth turned to Brad, “I know I’ve seen her before, Brad, do you know who she is?”

  Brad shook his head, “Brooke said she is new in town; she wanted her to get to know new people. I’m sure she was talking about guys,” he laughed.

  Brooke was unusually quiet on the ride to the hotel where the reception was being held. “I feel like a monster, I didn’t know Elizabeth has a disability. Brad never mentioned it.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t see it as a disability and sees her as a person.”

  “Molly, I have been such a fool, I purposely dressed in this outfit to outshine the bride today. I don’t know what I was thinking, no one could ever outshine that brave woman. I can see why Brad loves her. I wonder if I was always a self-centered, shallow person or if it’s a new disgusting trait I have developed.”

  “Brooke don’t be so hard on yourself, you were attracted to a guy who is attracted to someone else. No harm has been done except to your ego.”

  “You’re right, it could have been worse. I’m glad I didn’t follow my instinct and run up to that altar confessing my love to him before his bride came down the aisle. If I’d done that, I’m sure I’d have been tarred and feathered and run out-of-town back to Podunk Hollow.”

  “You are recovering already. Let’s go shopping for new love interests for both of us.” Molly had no intention of looking for a new man but wanted to urge her friend to do so.

  The reception was underway when Molly and Brooke arrived. Seating in the church was limited and folks attended the reception only.

  “I wouldn’t have as many people at my wedding if I invited every person in Newberry,” said Molly.

  They had been there less than an hour when Brooke learned that Elizabeth Carpenter had a spinal injury from an automobile accident. In talking more with Elizabeth at the reception, Brooke realized what Brad saw in her and was truly happy they’d found each other. She had her eye on Elizabeth’s brother who was attending the reception alone.

  Molly met Brooke’s friends from work and many strangers. She was having a good time when a lady asked her why she changed clothes.

  “I beg your pardon?” Molly responded.

  “Your dress is lovely but the green one was pretty too. I wonder why you changed outfits?”

  “I’m wearing the same dress as I had on when I walked in here today.”

  “Mildred,” the lady turned to her friend, “do you remember her dress? It was green and now she is wearing lavender. Both colors look lovely with your dark hair, dear.”

  “What are those old biddies talking about?” asked Brooke when they walked away.

  “I have no clue, maybe they’ve had too many glasses of champagne,” Molly laughed but felt uncomfortable. Elizabeth thought she’d met me before and now this. I must have a double.

  Molly was asked to dance several times. She was having more fun than she’d had in a long time. She was dancing with a fellow named Cliff when a slow tune played. A stranger came up behind them and tap Cliff on the shoulder.

  “Do you mind if I dance with my date?” he asked.

  “Sure Phil, sorry I didn’t know she was your girl.”

  Molly was stunned when he took her in his arms and held her tight.

  “You came with me and you’re dancing with every guy in the place, I don’t like that, Stephanie.”

  Molly pulled away from his embrace. “I don’t know who you are, cowboy but I’m not Stephanie and if this is the way you behave toward her, I’m glad I’m not.”

  Phil looked at her skeptically, “What are you trying to pull? Why did you agree to come with me?”

  “Look, mister, I don’t want trouble. I’m going to my table now.”

  He watched as she walked away, wait a minute, Stephanie had on a green dress, I remember picturing myself ripping it off after this stupid wedding ends. She must have a twin.

  Stephanie Anderson was hiding in the ladies’ room. She had only been in town for a couple months and didn’t know anyone except the people she worked with at the accounting office. Phillip Fleishman had been after her to go out with him since her second day. She finally gave in when he invited her to the wedding of a friend he’d known in college. He told her the wedding would be entertaining. She didn’t realize his idea of entertainment was watching the bride in a wheelchair. She was sorry she didn’t follow her instincts and turn him down once again. She sat in the pew in church and teared up like everyone else when she saw the effort Elizabeth put into walking to her groom. Phil snickered the entire time. Stephanie was disgusted with him and disgusted with herself for accepting the invitation.

  A guest who sat at the table with her and Phillip came into the room.

  “Hi Stephanie, Phillip is looking all over for you. I’d hide from that clod too. Do you want Roger and me to drive you home, we’ll tell Phil you aren’t feeling well? The man has one thing on his mind and a sick date won’t figure in his plan.”

  “I won’t lie to him, Diana, I appreciate the offer, but I will take a cab. I knew he was a jerk but thought a wedding would be a safe place. He’s still a sleaze.”

  Stephanie walked out of the ladies’ room as Brooke was walking in.

  “Molly! Where did you get a change of clothes and what happened to your other dress?”

  “You have me mistaken for someone else, my name is Stephanie, not Molly.”

  “Okay, Molly, what’s up? Do you have a split personality that I didn’t know about?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, if you will excuse me, I must tell my date to go to Hell.”

  “Your date, that’s me, what did I do?”

  "Is this a joke? Did Phillip put you up to this? I don’t know what his game is but I’m leaving.”

  “Wait, are you saying you’re not Molly Ryan?”

  “I’ve been saying it all along, I don’t know a Molly Ryan and I don’t know you, please let me by.”

  “Wait, you’ve got to meet Molly. She is your double, please let me introduce you.”

  “I don’t know why I’m letting you talk me into this, it’s been a lousy evening and it can’t get any worse. Take me to this Molly person and she’d better not be a hag.”

  “Trust me, she’s not a hag. There she is, she’s trying to get away from a sleazeball.”

  “I recognize that sleazeball, he’s my date, he’s chasing her.”

  “Molly!” Brooke called out in a booming voice.

  Molly turned around and slid by Phillip. She walked to Brooke without noticing her companion.

  Stephanie looked at Molly in astonishment. “That’s Molly? It’s like looking in the mirror.”

  “Molly,” said Brooke, “come meet your double.”

  Molly glanced at Brooke’s new friend and her mouth fell open at the resemblance.

  Phillip walked over to the three girls. “Well, well, two for the price of one. You can join us too,” he said looking at Brooke.

  “Phillip, leave us alone; our date is over go pick on someone who can bear to be in your company.”

  “I’m sorry, I hope he wasn’t annoying you, he was annoying me, that’s why I hid in the bathroom.”

  “You must be Stephanie; he mistook me for you and broke in on a dance I was enjoying with a nice guy.”

  “Ugh, sorry, he’s a creep. Anyway, we seem to look alike, I wonder if we could be second cousins or maybe first cousins although you would know all your cousins.”

  “I was adopted as a baby and know n
othing about my birth family,” said Molly.

  “You were adopted? I was too; maybe we should talk about this. That table over there is empty, what do you say?”

  “I say, I’d like to get to know you even if we aren’t related.”

  “I’ll leave you to figure it out,” said Brooke, “I have unfinished business in the ladies’ room.”

  They sat at the vacant table. Molly told Stephanie what she’d been told about being abandoned in the cradle at church that Christmas almost twenty-five years before.

  “When is your birthday?”

  “It was December eighteenth when I was found. The doctor guessed I was four days old so my birthday is celebrated on December fourteenth.”

  “I was abandoned too, not in a church but at the fire station door. My dad, Jack Anderson, was on duty that day. He told me something made him open the door of the fire station and when he did, I was there in a basket. He brought me inside out of the cold and left me by the fire while he and his friends looked for the person who left me alone.

  “They saw nothing and gave up looking. As captain and the only married man on duty that evening, Dad carried me home to my mother. He told me later that he couldn’t get himself to call the authorities. He didn’t see the harm in letting me stay with our family until after Christmas.

  “He and Mom talked to the sheriff the next day, you must understand, Mills Crossing is a small, close-knit community. Sheriff Davis took his time contacting social services. It was spring before a social worker stopped by the house for a visit.

  “Maybe it wasn’t the normal procedure, but my folks were my legal foster parents. Mom said they ran a one-day ad in the classified section of the Hillsboro Press and hoped nobody would respond. They adopted me one year later. I’m not sure the adoption was strictly by the books but it doesn’t matter. They and my brother are the only family I’ve known. My birthday is celebrated on December eighteenth, the day I was left at the doorstep of the firehouse.”

  “This can’t be a coincidence,” said Molly, “I know in my heart we have a connection. I never dreamed I had a sister living a couple hundred miles away.”

  “You’re right, Molly. I don’t know why I accepted Phillip Fleishman’s invitation to this wedding. I don’t know the bride and groom and I don’t like Phillip. It surprised me when I told him I’d go. I almost backed out this morning but couldn’t get myself to make the call.”

  “I don’t know why I’m here either, Stephanie. My friend, Brooke, didn’t want to come alone, I said I’d come with her. I felt awkward because I don’t know the couple and I’ve been eating their food and drinking their champagne and I didn’t give them so much as a congratulations card.”

  Molly and Stephanie talked for another half hour about their lives and found they had many interests in common. Stephanie had a love for flowers and plants, she worked in a florist shop as a teenager. They had the same taste in music and books. It happened they were both reading the latest mystery in the Earl Clapton series.

  “Molly, did you ever wonder about your birth mother, do you think she wanted to keep you but couldn’t?”

  “When I was younger, I didn’t care about another woman being my mother. I only knew one mother, and that was Beverly Ryan. I don’t think I wanted to admit to myself that there was a stranger out there that could take me away from my family. As I grew older, I wondered what made a woman give her child away and forget all about her. Maybe she was young, and had no one to turn to. I know Mom would have been supportive if I’d been in that place as a teenager but there are many families who would not be understanding of their young daughter’s pregnancy.”

  “At least she left you inside a warm church, the woman who gave birth to me, dumped me outside a doorway in the middle of winter. How did she know someone would find me before I froze to death? The only thing I feel for that woman is indifference. My Mom, Margie Anderson, is the only mother I needed. I’m glad Dad found me and gave me a happy home.”

  “Stephanie, I never thought I’d say this but if we are sisters, and I believe we are, I want to know why we were deposited two hundred miles away from each other. Someone didn’t want our births known. If we were found on the same evening, it doesn’t seem logical that a young woman could pull that off alone. She must have had help from someone and I’d like to know who and why, wouldn’t you?”

  “Now you’ve got me wondering too, maybe it’s because we both like mysteries we want to solve one of our own. I don’t have a clue how to start.”

  “First we need evidence we are related. Are you game for a DNA test?”

  “Sure, they swab your cheek, isn’t that it? They don’t stick you with a needle, I hate needles.”

  “I hate them too, I had a panic attack the last time I had blood drawn.”

  “I take a tranquilizer before I get a blood test. Most people think I’m overreacting, it’s nice to have someone who understands my fear. If it turns out we are not sisters, I hope we can be friends. I like you, Molly.”

  “I like you too, Steph. Let me talk to Brooke, she knows everyone in town, I’m sure she can help us arrange the test. I’m excited, I always wanted a sister. Every year at Christmas, I’d watch the cradle in the church carefully for a baby girl my mom could take home for me. I thought that’s where babies came from.” They both laughed.

  Chapter Three

  As Molly expected, Brooke had a friend who worked in a testing lab. Arrangements were made for Molly and Stephanie to be tested with the results being available in a week. The test was only a formality; they knew they were sisters and were determined to discover why their mother separated them at birth.

  “Al,” said Beverly Ryan when she ended her call with Molly, “you won’t believe this, Molly insists she has a twin sister named Stephanie Anderson,” Bev told Al how the girls met by chance at a wedding. “They are having a DNA test done to be sure. Doesn’t it seem too coincidental? I can’t imagine what this Stephanie person would have to gain by her claim. They are on their way to Newberry now, Molly wants us to meet the girl. I don’t like it; Molly has never been concerned about her birth mother or wondered if she has siblings. Did the woman keep one girl and abandon the other? Al, I’m worried.”

  “Bev, don’t ask for trouble, let’s wait to meet the girl before concluding she will hurt Molly.”

  Beverly made Molly’s favorite chocolate cookies to help pass the time before their arrival.

  Less than two hours later, the familiar voice of their daughter sounded as the front door opened.

  Beverly and Al stepped into the foyer. Beverly felt her knees go weak and Al held her arm.

  “I never thought I wouldn’t recognize my daughter, which one of you is Molly?” he asked.

  “I’m Molly, Dad. This is Stephanie Anderson, I’m glad you can see the resemblance.”

  “Resemblance? You two are identical, I’ve seen nothing like it. Beverly, are you all right?” Al asked his wife with concern in his voice.

  “I’m in shock,” she answered. Beverly hugged her daughter and looked at Stephanie, “may I hug you too?”

  “Mrs. Ryan, I know this is a shock to you. I haven’t told my mom and dad about Molly yet but I’m sure their reaction will be the same.”

  “Do I smell chocolate chip cookies?” asked Molly.

  “Chocolate chip? Those are my favorite,” said Stephanie.

  Al smiled as they walked into the kitchen to eat cookies still warm from the oven. He had no doubt Stephanie was Molly’s twin and was anxious to learn about her life.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Ryan, I’m sure you have questions for me. Molly tells me our birth mother left her in a church. She deposited me at the front door of a firehouse. I lucked out too, my dad, Jack, found me and rescued me from the cold December night. Dad is retired now; he was a firefighter in Mills Crossing. He brought me to his home and it has been my home ever since. Molly and I were lucky to have had such wonderful parents all these years. I know Molly has two older brothers and
I have an older brother, Jeff.”

  “I hope you’re happy about this, Mom, I’ve always wanted a sister and now I have one. It’s not official until we get the results of the DNA. I don’t need a test to tell me what I know is the truth.”

  “I agree,” said Al, “you not only look alike, your mannerisms are the same too. I only wish you’d grown up together, I can’t imagine why you were left two hundred miles apart from each other.”

  “Stephanie and I have wondered too, Dad,” said Molly. “Would you and Mom object if we looked for answers? I know I have never been interested in finding my birth mother but now I would like to know more about her and the reason she abandoned her babies.”

  “I agree with Molly, Mr. Ryan, I admit I have always been curious about the woman who gave birth to me, but never thought seriously about trying to find her. We think others might have helped her dispose of us and wonder if there was something sinister going on. Are we being overly dramatic?”

  “No, girls, I don’t know how you have kept from searching for your birth records before this. I’m surprised we didn’t read about you being left at the fire station. Molly being found in the church made the newspapers as far away as Hillsboro.”

  “I’m sure my dad didn’t report it; you see my brother is seven years older than me. My mother had more than a few miscarriages after Jeff was born. Mom has often said I was an answer to her prayers and Dad was afraid I might be taken away if he reported finding me. Eventually, they went through the courts and legally adopted me. It helped that we lived in a small town and the judge is a friend of the family.”

  “I know how your mother felt,” said Beverly with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I knew the minute I laid eyes on Molly she belonged in our family.”

  Beverly insisted the girls stay the night in Molly’s old room. “It’s a long ride back to Hillsboro, you know I’ll worry about you two on the road in the dark. Wait until morning when the sun is shining?”