Trouble at Mama Jenna's Door

“So that’s it, Ms. Glatzer.” Detective Dan McAllister had just finished telling Jenna the most shocking news of her life. Anthony gripped her hand tightly as she stared at the detective in disbelief. Her friend William was under suspicion for the shocking attack on Sage, accused of murdering his wife and was now determined to be missing with three more of her friends.

“I’d really appreciate any help you could give us, ma’am. Any idea of what his motives might be, where he might have gone, and do you think the others are in danger from him as well?”

“I can’t imagine any of this, detective; not from the William I know. He’s a very loving family man.” Jenna twisted her rings around her fingers as she spoke. “As far as harming the others, I can’t see why he would. He barely knows them to the best of my knowledge. They’re all from the East Coast and William lives in Texas. I can’t imagine they’d have met before the conference.”

“Detective McAllister, can you tell us why you suspect William rather than someone else?” asked Anthony. “Why do you think he’s responsible? Isn’t it more likely a stranger attacked Ms. Sage?”

“We’ve been trying to keep our inquiries discreet as you can imagine, but he was seen arguing with his wife during the Welcome Reception. He was also in the vicinity when Ms. Sage was found. The woman who found her is also one of the missing. I’m as sorry as I can be for the trouble this must be causing you, but you must see why we suspect your friend. It is also our understanding that he is – well, let’s just say he’s know for having an unusual personality and some rather unique views in politics, don’t you agree?”

Jenna looked to Anthony, “Will you please make the detective a copy of our master schedule? I have one printed out and lying on the table in the other room.”

“Of course, Jenna; I’ll take it downstairs and have it copied right now. It won’t take but a few minutes. I’ll bring it right back.”

“Detective McAllister, Anthony is going to bring you a copy of our master schedule of events. It will give you something to work with anyway. It lists the classes and who signed up for what class. The only other thing I can think of is to highlight the names of some of the people I know are his friends. I mean, we’re all his friends, but this is the first time many of us have met in real life. That does sound strange now that I say it, doesn’t it?”

“Believe me, Ms. Glatzer, it isn’t the strangest thing I’ve heard in my career. I’ll try to interrupt your classes as little as possible. I won’t be interviewing anyone in a group setting, just so you know. But your list will help me locate people more quickly; I won’t have to try tracking them down all over the hotel. How long is your group scheduled to be here?”

Classes end Saturday after lunch. I imagine some people will be leaving then. I don’t really know anyone’s specific plans; well, except for Anthony’s and my own – and CC’s.”

“Who is this CC?” the detective asked.

“Oh, Charley C. is my right hand man. He helps me keep things running. He’s on the same flight back to New York with Anthony and me. His connecting flight is out of New York. He lives in Canada.”

“Well, I can’t ask anyone not to leave, but if you think of anyone who might have any information, please call me right away”, he said as he handed her his card. “I have a lot of people to talk to and a very short time to do it. It would help me enormously to be able to weed out people who either don’t know Mr. Haskins or haven’t seen him yet this week.”

“Here you are detective”, said Anthony as he walked back into the suite. Jenna got up and went to her briefcase. She rummaged through the zipper case of pens, pencils, and highlighters she had tucked into one of the side pockets. “Do you have a favorite color?” she asked.

“Yellow is fine ma’am.”As Jenna went over the list with her highlighter, the detective and Anthony made idle conversation. After a few minutes Jenna capped her pen and handed the list to Detective McAllister.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help to you Detective”, she said, “but I’d hate to waste your time by including anyone mistakenly.”

“I understand”, he replied, “but just having a list to work with will help tremendously. We were keeping the incident with Ms. Sage quiet, but with Mr. Haskins now missing it might be best if you discussed this discreetly with some of your fellow writers. You never can tell who may hold a key piece of information.”

We’ll do whatever we can to help, Detective”, Anthony said as he walked him to the door of the suite. “You can count on it. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.”

Anthony closed the door behind the detective and walked back into the suite. Jenna sat on the couch looking forlorn. “We’re missing something obvious, Anthony. I just know it. There’s more to this story than meets the eye and I just can’t see it.”

Anthony reached out his hands and pulled Jenna off the couch into a big hug.
“You’re tired and this has been a harrowing afternoon for you. I think you should take a nice long nap before we go down for dinner this evening.”

“How am I going to fall asleep after all this?” she asked.

“Well, how about I brush your hair while you listen to one of your books on tape?” I know that always puts you to sleep.”

Jenna giggled. “Don’t you ever tell anyone which one that is, Anthony. I’ll never forgive you if you do.”

“Your secrets are safe with me, my princess” he said as he picked up a hairbrush. Jenna pulled back her hair, settled the earphones over her ears and clicked the play button. As Anthony sat brushing her hair, Jenna fell asleep before the end of chapter one.