Chapter 29

Martin got back to the Sentinel building about 1-1/2 hours later then he’d told Sam he would. He and Sharla just kept talking, and before he knew it, it was almost 4:20 p.m. He raced back to the Sentinel office and rushed into the building, just in time to run into Shirley leaving for the day. “Gotta get to my mom’s and…”. Shirley stopped mid-sentence. She could see Martin was lost in thought, and checked the front parking lot to see if anyone was coming in with him. “Hey, Martin, are you okay?” She moved closer to him and looked him right in the eyes. He looked back at her with a look that told her he had just gathered an important piece of information. “You’ve found something out about Talbot,” she whispered, urgently. “What’s up?”

He pushed past her gently and said, “Come back to my cube. I want to look at some of the old papers from the early 80s.”

Shirley followed him back to his desk, trying to keep her Swedish clogs from clomping too loudly across the old wooden floors. “Don’t worry, I don’t think anybody here,” Martin reassured her. For 4:30 in the afternoon on a Monday, the place was unusually dead, not a soul in sight. And most of the lights had been turned off. “Jeez,” Martin muttered, “doesn’t anyone work a full eight hours anymore?”

“You should talk, Lover Boy,” Shirley replied. “Where the heck have you been for the past hour and a half? Smooching it up with your honey?”

Martin stopped dead in his tracks, and turned to face Shirley so quickly, she almost ran into him. She leered up at him, a satisfied smirk on her face. “For your information, Shirley, I was not smooching up Sharla Whitefeather…” Shirley’s face changed to one of shock. “Sharla Whitefeather. Hoohoo, Martin, I was just kidding. You were with Sharla Whitefeather?” She said it in such shock and amazement that Martin thought she didn’t think he had a prayer with Sharla. He tried to mask his hurt, and continued through her laugher, “Shirley, knock it off. I went to see Sharla, who is a friend of mine, by the way, to get some information on the Tribal Community.” Shirley stopped laughing, and listened. “I was interviewing Karen Howe today and something about her reaction when I mentioned Talbot made me think she might be one of his victims.”

Martin moved into his cube, sat behind his desk and motioned her to sit down on the folding chair next to his desk. He could see Shirley was confused and getting ready to pooh pooh his idea, but he held up his hand. “Let me finish. I know what you’re going to say, ‘he only preys on Native American girls’. Well, I got to thinking, what if Karen was part Indian? And that’s why I went to Wild Bill’s. I knew Sharla would know.”

Shirley looked at him and squinted her eyes. “Karen Howe? No way…,” she said, and then saw Martin nodding his head. “Karen Howe, an Indian?”

Martin kept nodding. “Yep, on her mother’s side. 50%. An ethnic fact hidden by her father’s money and power in Burnett County.” Martin slapped his hand on his desk. “Now, if I can just find something from around the time he attacked her, something that would prove he made a move on her, a bad one.” He dug through his pile of papers, found a batch from the 1980s and handed half of them to Shirley. “I remember something about Karen’s family in the papers from when we looked before,” Martin said, half to himself. “Something about their family or their kids or something…”

“Martin, I can’t do this right now,” Shirley protested. “I told you, I have to go to my mother’s and make her dinner tonight. Her Meals on Wheels volunteer is on vacation, and I need to make sure she gets something to eat.”

Martin looked up from digging in his pile, and slumped back in his seat. Then, he sat up again and shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, Shirley. I’m going to find something, and will report back.” He smiled at her. “Say, what are you doing for dinner tonight? Are you just fixing dinner for your mom or staying to eat with her?”

Shirley thought a minute. “I was going to stay and eat with her, but what did you have in mind?”
“Sharla and I are having a burger at Risky Dick’s. We’re going to talk over the story and throw some ideas around for how we can trap Frank Talbot.” His eyes looked eager as he talked. “If you join us, it will be one more brain for us to tap into. And Don will be there, too. He knows what’s going on. I figure you can all help me figure out my next steps.”

He stopped and looked satisfied with himself. Shirley looked at him intently, got up and started moving out of the cube. “Martin, you are something,” she said, laughing a little. “Okay, I’ll be there. It will be fun.” She groaned. “What time?”

“7:30 sharp,” Martin replied.

“Okay, 7:30 sharp it is then,” Shirley said as she turned to walk out of the newsroom. “And you can pay for dinner since I’m sure you were planning on treating Ms. Whitefeather to dinner as well?” She looked back at him and winked. “Don’t worry, Martin, the secrets of your love life are safe with me.”