A Sinister Spring in Edgemont: Village of Edgemont, #3

Chapter One

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

My life has changed and become so much better this past year, muses Barbie Nichols, getting out of the tub to apply moisturizing lotion. Her reminiscing occurs, as it usually does, while she’s admiring her roomy, luxurious bathroom. They’ve only been in this house for a month and everything about it is still new and delightful to her. Winding down before bedtime she continues thinking back, and feeling grateful for this grand life.

On this day last year Greg injured his wrist at work and I was so worried about losing his income. I only made minimum wage hairdressing and we were already dodging calls from bill collectors. Then two weeks later I won the lottery. Well, I didn’t win it all, but a 3-way split on $52 million worked out to be more than 17 million dollars. 17 MILLION DOLLARS! What a windfall, I still can’t believe it.

According to the news this Covid-19 pandemic is changing the whole world, but the lottery money is protecting me from that too. It doesn’t matter that the salon and the trucking company and the school all had to close, we’re financially secure.  Barbie savours that phrase, repeating it a couple of times, before settling into bed enjoying her thankfulness and wearing a satisfied smile.

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John Seely likes living in Edgemont Village but feels Margaret, his daughter, will have a better chance if they move far away from the area. Edgemont is too small since the family’s dirty laundry has become common knowledge. And it’s quite a bit more than just dirty laundry, he reminds himself.

Properties here never stay on the market for long but even so he is surprised and pleased at how quickly he is able to conclude the sale. A cash offer makes all the difference: no conditions and no financing. The new owner is a local hairdresser who won the lottery.

Barbie Nichols never dreamed that someday she’d live in Edgemont’s Executive Estates. Her goal has been moving up from renting the main floor of a bungalow to a mobile home in the Edgemont Trailer Park. Even that dream seemed impossibly out of reach. The lottery win makes such a difference. Everyone knows a win will change their lives but until it happens it’s beyond imagination.

Too bad it’s caused so much trouble in the family. 

News about a lottery winner’s tragic end is always featured as a top story. Whether it’s because the public suffers from envy or schadenfreude the item gets plenty of attention, focusing on the downside of winning. The news anchors seem to gloat over rags-to-riches-to-rags tales, suicides, divorces, and even murders.

For most people winning the lottery is good luck, but although Barbie Nichols herself enjoyed every minute of her new-found wealth it turned out to be a curse. At least she died quickly enough  not to have any regrets.

Chapter Two

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Grant has come over to Judith’s apartment but not for long, he’s waiting on the call to handle the investigation into Barbie Nichols’ death. Meanwhile she’s made coffee and they’re drinking it while nibbling on cookies.

Who, and how, is your new partner? Judith asks and Grant tells her all he knows about the man, and also gives her his impressions.

Detective First Class Reginald call me Reg Osborne, a recent transfer in from the Maritimes, is close to retirement. His age is the only concern Grant feels about his new partner.

Reg is a knowledgeable, even-tempered, affable man. He doesn’t smoke, vape, or chew tobacco, and if he drinks there is never a whiff of alcohol sweating out of his system. His wardrobe is unexciting, but he always appears neat and professional-looking. His social life seems to revolve around family get-togethers with his four adult children and their families. He is divorced, and a widower, and a grandfather.

He isn’t much of a talker, and doesn’t volunteer personal information, but answers fully when asked. Grant and Reg have been partnered for three weeks now and are getting along fine. Reg is comfortable to be around, and he’s a steady, easy-going driver which suits Grant who often gets impatient behind the wheel.

Reg explains that he’s been learning his way around Edgemont and the surrounding villages adding:

I like driving, I find it relaxing. And I’m starting to get my bearings. Someone once told me it takes three months to feel at home in a new place but I can tell already that I’m going to like living here.

Grant hasn’t discussed retirement with Reg and he tries to sound the man out to get an idea about his plans.

I’ve never been to any of the Atlantic provinces but I heard it’s beautiful there, a popular destination for tourists and retirees.

It is, especially tourism. I have no idea how folks will manage now they’ve closed the provinces down because of this virus.

Oh right, I heard something about that. Actually, it was an article about someone in the middle of moving house being told they couldn’t go into New Brunswick from Nova Scotia, or vice versa? I can’t remember the details.

It’s crazy, that whole area is too interconnected to have closed borders.

I guess the Premiers will just have to work it out – or maybe the Federal Government will get involved? The Maritimes has always been a Liberal stronghold so...

That’s true. I make it a rule to never discuss politics at work or socially.

Grant took the hint and changed direction: Whereabouts did you live?

Amherst. Pretty as a picture in summer and popular with artists and craftspeople. Lots of market-garden type farming in the community, and of course, great seafood. It’s great having the ocean nearby although I find the Atlantic to be cold all year round. I really do not like the winters in Nova Scotia.

Grant huffs a laugh and asks: Do you really thing the weather will be better in Alberta?

I do! Go ahead and laugh, but you’d know what I mean if you ever felt the bone-chilling damp that comes off the water in winter. And even though it doesn’t get very cold, I mean -20 is generally the worst, we get huge, really huge, dumps of snow all at once.

Winters here haven’t seemed as cold as when I was a kid, but maybe everybody thinks that? however we usually stay in the high minus-twenties with a couple of weeks of -35 or so every year. February is our coldest month, March is our snowiest, and we have green Christmases fairly often, maybe that’s climate change?

Minus mid-thirties sure does sound cold but they say it’s a dry cold and that makes a difference.

Yeah, expect to have badly chapped lips your first winter here. But on most days we have beautiful blue skies with tons of sunshine. Our weather always seems to be better than Edmonton’s, probably because we’re so close to the Rockies.

Once I get settled in here I plan to do plenty of exploring in the mountains and all these Provincial Parks. I plan to end my days living as an Albertan, but not for some time yet! Reg chuckles.

After Grant relates that conversation he’d had with Reg Judith comments: He sounds like a nice man. I never thought Suzanne was a nice woman so I hope you and Reg will work well together.

"I think we will. He’s got many years of experience but there’s much more to it than time served. There’s the intelligence necessary to process all the insights picked up along the way. One good thing, though, is that despite his age he doesn’t discriminate."

Oh, now you’re discriminating, Grant. I believe that’s called ageism–

Judith doesn’t get to finish her gibe before Grant half-wrestles her into a hug saying:

You know what I mean. Lots of the older cops tell racist and sexist jokes or make assumptions that perpetuate systemic discrimination within the police force.

Like profiling?

No, profiling is different, it’s based on facts and statistics. Like insurance companies use when they charge young male drivers higher rates than females.

Um, just because the insurance companies do the same thing doesn’t make it right. Their self-interest is evident and they’re all about the bottom line.

And that’s why profiling is only one tool in the policeman’s tool-box, and it’s fluid because the stats from six or seven years ago no longer apply. Don’t get me started on the fairness of that argument, it’s based on sound logic and it is flexible when it should be.

Sitting back up straight on the couch and finger-combing her hair back in place Judith announces:

We’ll shelve that discussion for now, then. So what’s happening with Barbie Nichols?

What have people been saying? and did you know her? What can you tell me about her?

"Her three daughters attend our school, they were subsidized but now well, now Barbie is the one offering financial help with her lottery winnings which is so nice. Well, it was. There is a fourth daughter, Brenda’s twin, but there’s something wrong, behavioural problems I think, and she’s home-schooled.

There’s also a son of Greg Nichols’ from his first marriage, so he’s Barbie’s stepson, but I don’t know anything about it except that he’s older than the girls."

Well, yeah, Grant says with a smile.

Oh! I see what you mean. No, the twins are from Barbie’s first... well, not a marriage and I’m not even sure if they were together long enough to qualify as common-law? Hmm, anyhow he’s not in the picture. He’s dead.

So both Barbie and Greg Nichols brought children into their marriage and then had two daughters themselves?

Yes, that’s right. Brenda is in her final year with us so she must be about seventeen. I believe her half-sisters are eight and eleven.

"You get a lot of mixed or I guess the right word is extended families nowadays, don’t you?"

We do, and It’s fine. Our only concern is that no one has access to the girls in our school unless they’re on an approved list. The onus is on the legal guardian to keep us updated but we still send out reminders a few times a year. People change romantic partners quite a bit, Grant.

His smile turns into a grin as pulls her close for a kiss.

You just keep getting dragged into the big, bad, old world, eh? he teases fondly.

Judith’s upbringing was sheltered to protect the secret of her mother’s alcoholism. She never had any close friends until recently, and Grant is her first boyfriend. She thinks the words boyfriend and girlfriend are silly at their age but there’s no way she’ll refer to him as her lover! Meeting his gaze with these thoughts in her head makes her blush. Grant’s eyes sparkle at her but he says:

Never mind distracting me, woman. I’m on call and I’ll have to leave quickly.

Judith just shakes her head but she can’t stop smiling. Bringing herself back to the topic at hand she explains:

You know, some of the parents get quite huffy if we use the wrong names. I’ve found that most of the mothers keep the same surname as their children, at least in their dealings with the school, but not everyone. In fact, Barbie Nichols’ oldest, Brenda, is called Nikovics and her two youngest are called Nichols.

I’m just going to make a note of that, says Grant, typing into his phone. Can you spell it for me?

Judith does so explaining that Nikovics was Barbie Nichols’ maiden name. She has no idea was the father of the girls is, or was, called.

Same initials, that’s convenient.

I don’t imagine the Nikovics ever had much, if any, engraved or monogrammed belongings. Still you’re right when it comes to initialing stuff.

So the family is what.. Eastern European?

Just Barbie’s father. Her mother’s an Irishwoman, Moira, and I’ve met her a few times recently. She’s raised her granddaughters and they’ve now all moved here to live together with Barbie and her second family.

That’s very odd, isn’t it?

Oh I forgot to mention! The father of Barbie’s twins was an abuser. Shortly after the twins were born she dumped them on her mother and disappeared. He became violent with Moira and she had him arrested. He went to jail for awhile but when he came out he did the exact same thing again except he managed to escape custody and disappeared into the Kananaskis backcountry. He was pursued and there was a manhunt. It was on the news.

I remember some of that. The hunt for him turned into a search-and-rescue and then a body retrieval because he was presumed to have drowned. He had a European name as well, but I don’t recall it. I’ll have to get someone to dig up the file for me. They never did find his body, right?

Oh, I don’t know. But that would explain... hmm, that would explain why Moira Nikovics kept the girls instead of returning them to Barbie when she resurfaced.

Where was she?

Apparently working cash jobs in the National Parks. Travelling from Banff to Lake Louise to Yoho, waitressing or housekeeping, stuff like that. She’s a qualified hairdresser too. That’s the work she was doing when her younger girls got enrolled in the school.

And the family qualified for your subsidy?

Yes, because Greg Nichols works in a warehouse and drives a local delivery truck so he doesn’t have a big paycheque, and Barbie just made minimum wage hairdressing. She worked with Dana Lezinsky, do you remember her?

Holly’s mother, of course. I wonder if I’ll be interviewing her again this time.

"What exactly is this time all about, Grant? All I heard is that Barbie Nichols is dead and she was killed while asleep in her own bed.

I don’t know a lot more except that it’s definitely murder. She was smothered with a pillow and died of asphyxiation. The pillow was still over her face, no effort made to hide it.

Suffocated while she slept! That’s horrible. She would have fought back, right?

There’s a lot we don’t know. If someone was pressing down with both hands and their body weight it would take about four minutes to fatally cut off the air supply. If Barbie Nichols was deeply asleep when the attack began she might not have struggled that much, and if she’d taken a sleeping pill or had a couple of drinks before bed, well... That information will all come to light after the autopsy.

The graphic description of Barbie’s death had brought tears to Judith’s eyes. Grant pulled her into a tight embrace and apologized.

"No, no Grant. You can always tell me, in fact I want you to. I want you to know that you can confide in me, or use me as a sounding-board. I’m only crying because Barbie was such a nice