Clandestine Meetings - Part VI

This is based on a true story. Names and some situations have been changed in order to protect the innocent from the guilty, as the guilty walk the streets. The Prequel to this chapter is Parts I, II, III, IV, V.

December 26, 1976 at 7:03am

You have to remember, in a town of less than 20,000, murders just don’t happen.

Police Chief Carl Brown liked his little sleepy town where the most action happened Friday or Saturday night downtown at old Sporty’s. Bar fights and drunk driving.

He saw her body as soon as he came into view of her home. The red Cadillac convertible parked in the drive awkwardly, driver side door open, her right foot still resting on the floorboard with the rest of her body crumpled on the ground next to the vehicle. Blue – Gray – no Blue. She was definitely blue.

First thing he noticed was the lack of blood. There was blood but not pooled the way you’d think if she died there.

What a way to start the week between Christmas and New Years!

One of the officers pointed out the land signs on the side of the house. “Jeanie Thomas” with a phone number and Jo Blue’s logo above it.

Chief Brown had been to Jo Blue’s house down the street two nights before. The Blue Christmas Eve Party was famous complete with booze, food, toys for every child, and Sheriff Blue dressed as Santa to deliver them. Children had the front living room with a hired babysitter and the adults had the kitchen, dining, and back living room.

Jo Blue’s oldest daughter, Koral, and grandchildren had been home from California. Where people described LouLou as fragile, they described Koral as formidable or tough.

Chief Brown sent an officer down the street to go fetch Jo and her husband. Someone would need to confirm the body lying in front of him was Jeanie Thomas.

December 26, 1976 at 10:50am

One resource Chief Brown did have was a photographer and in front of him, he had more than 200 pictures of Jeanie Thomas’ body, car, driveway, house, and of the people who had formed to watch it all. After the hospital sent an ambulance to pick up Jeanie’s body, he had an officer drive the vehicle through the back canyon to the secured part of the police impound. His two detectives had gone into the house and removed an address book from the kitchen drawer and a journal they had found wedged in a desk in the master bedroom. They taped the house up.

December 26, 1976 at 1:27pm

Detective Ridgeway walked into the Chief’s office to brief him:

• $17,000 and a birth certificate for Catherine Mansfield was found in the trunk of the Cadillac sewn into the trunk lining
• The Journal was a daily synopsis of work events for the past six months
• Jeanie Thomas had been afraid of three men
• Jeanie Thomas was seeing an insurance salesman, David Lightwhite, and planning to leave her husband on New Year’s Eve
• Jeanie Thomas had fought with Jo Blue regarding her son-in-law who was one of the three she feared
• Koral Blue had delivered a message two days before at the Christmas Eve Party regarding the same man
• Jeanie Thomas suspected Barbie Ross of illegal practices. Look at Music Mountain Deals had been scrawled in large letters

Chief Brown rubbed his right temple… this was going to be complicated.

"Bring in Ed, Samson, and Billy, Barbie Ross, David Lightwhite, find the husband, and I will go see Jo and Koral Blue. I will need someone to accompany me for the record."