Whatever Happened to Kelly Kilcher?
Part 5: Sweet Promises
Eloise Fairbanks gave me new information about Kelly Kilcher, but nothing that’s easy to follow up on. It all happened so long ago. Todd, the poor sack, is still convinced that Kelly was a hundred percent faithful. Asking him to recall anything to the contrary was pointless. He had ninety-nine reasons for how Kelly got that wad of cash, but an affair with a married man wasn’t one of them. I could ask Sheila if she remembers any specific names, but getting information out of her is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Three lies for every truth. She did, however, mention Josh Pennyworth at Daphne’s cookout and he would be a good person to talk to. He was close to Kelly. If anybody knows where she ended up—or what she was doing with a married man—it would be him.
I look Josh up and give him a call. Turns out he’s still at the Sterling Hotel up in Hartley, having worked his way from banquet server to general manager of the entire hotel. Tall and lanky, he was always kind of a clown. I can’t really see him as the general manager type. To me, he’ll always be the guy who proudly announced to the entire breakroom that he spooched himself in the eye the night before.
“Zombie,” by the Cranberries, plays as I make the three-hour drive to Hartley. It takes me back to that hotel breakroom where the radio on top of the microwave was always tuned to the local grunge station. All of us servers would be hunched over stolen bowls of soup and dinner rolls, one of us standing guard for the supervisor as we chattered, made bad jokes, and gossiped about whoever wasn’t there that day. I almost expect to look over and see Kelly standing in the corner, laughing, telling Josh he should have massaged it into his face because it’s better than any cream you can buy. She was always saying weird shit like that.
My phone suddenly rings, jarring me back to the present.
It’s Nathan, my husband. He’s not exactly thrilled that I’m spending another weekend up in Hartley, chasing after this woman I barely knew.
“I don’t know why you insist on drudging up the past,” he says.
“You know why,” I tell him—and he does. I tell him everything.
“I don’t understand why it has to be now.”
“It just does,” I say. Nathan’s story is different than mine. He came out in high school. He doesn’t have thirty years of life he wishes he’d lived differently.
“You can’t change the past,” he replies, his voice tense. “Finding her won’t change a thing.”
“I know, but…” I’m going to keep trying anyway.
“Be safe,” he says. I can hear his smile through the line. “I’ll see you tonight.”
At the hotel, Josh leads me to a booth at the back of the restaurant where we won’t be disturbed. He looks so different I barely recognize him. He’s puffy and bloated, like a giant teddy bear. Hair in all the wrong places. And he’s married—with grandchildren. He immediately orders a gin and tonic. It’s not even ten in the morning.
“Sheila Petersen is a skank,” he says, tucking his napkin into his collar. He also ordered eggs Benedict with French toast and a side of bacon. “Don’t believe a word she says. We never fucked.”
“She never said you did,” I tell him. “And she doesn’t know much about Kelly anyway, aside from the fact that she was from northern Wisconsin and had a quickie marriage when she was seventeen.”
Josh scoffs. “All lies. Kelly was never married. We couldn’t figure out how that rumor got started. And she was from Pennsylvania.”
“Pennsylvania?”
“Yup.” Josh smiles. “Rural Pennsylvania. She wasn’t Amish, per se, but her mother’s family was, so she grew up in a very conservative household. Like, crazy conservative. They kicked her out when she was sixteen for sneaking a pair of jeans in her knapsack to wear at school. Said she was a bad seed.”
“No wonder they wouldn’t help Todd find her.”
Josh raises his eyebrows.
“Never even filed a missing person report.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. The only family she was close with was her grandmother on her father’s side, but she died when Kelly was fifteen. Remember that green ring she always wore?”
“I do.” I smile. “That gaudy emerald?”
“That’s the one. It was her grandmother’s. It’s the only thing Kelly took when she left home.” I remember Eloise Fairbanks saying that the only thing Kelly wanted was to be loved. It hits harder now, knowing that she never got any from her family.
Josh pulls a photo from his portfolio and hands it to me. It’s Kelly, blurred, flipping off the camera. Her emerald ring is clearly visible.
“She wasn’t wearing any makeup and didn’t want me taking her picture,” Josh laughs. “But I needed to finish the roll. It’s the only picture I have.”
“I remember this day. Wasn’t there another one? She was on the hood of her car, like she was in a Def Leppard video. You were really proud of the shot.”
“I sold it to Shorty Ruffrines for two hundred and fifty dollars.” Shorty Ruffrines worked in the maintenance department, and he had the biggest crush on Kelly.
“Gross.”
Josh smirks.
“How long did you and Kelly keep in touch?”
Josh frowns. “We didn’t. We were work friends, but I never saw her outside of work. When she stopped showing up, I figured she quit. When I saw her car a few weeks later, I figured she was picking up her last check.”
“A few weeks later?” I say. “When a few weeks later?”
“I don’t know. August maybe? I know it was a Thursday night… because we always went out after work on Thursdays, remember? Before the weekend rush.”
“That tracks with the timeline Eloise gave me.” So Kelly definitely made it back to Wisconsin. “You saw her car, but did you actually see her?”
“No. I looked around the hotel but didn’t find her. This was before cellphones, so I couldn’t just call her. Thought maybe she was with Don again.” Josh shakes his head with disapproval as he breaks a piece of bacon in half, stuffing the larger half into his mouth.
“Who’s Don?”
“He was just this guy who used to stay at the hotel. He worked for some company in Hartley but lived a few hours away. He was in the process of building a house.”
“How’d they meet?”
“When Kelly was doing room service.”
“So the rumors were true. She was hooking up with guests.”
“Didn’t we all?” Josh smiles slyly.
“But she had Todd.”
“I know.” Josh nods. “I told her, but she didn’t want to hear it. Most the time, I don’t think she knew what she wanted or what was good for her. Don kept saying he was gonna leave his wife. A fat shrew, not in love anymore, you know the story. One weekend he promised to take Kelly shopping in Chicago. She had her mind set on a pair of platform boots. But his wife showed up unexpectedly and he blew Kelly off. She was pissed. Keyed the wife’s Mercedes. They got in a huge fight. Next thing I know, Kelly’s walking around with a fat stack of cash.”
“Any chance you remember this guy’s last name?”
“Oh yeah.” Josh smiles, taking the last gulp of his second gin and tonic. “Fable.”
“Fable,” I repeat. “You sure?”
“Positive. I used to joke that his last name was a red flag. Like, his sweet promises were nothing but tired old fables. Kelly would get so mad at me. She thought he was the answer to all her problems. Her prince in shining armor. The bee’s knees.”
“Do you remember seeing Don after Kelly was gone?”
“Yeah, he stayed at the hotel well into the snowy season. I think his wife eventually moved in too.”
The vague memory of repeatedly waiting on some guy and his rude wife filters into my mind. She was blonde. Stick thin. Petulant. They always sat on the same side of the booth. Treated me like their very own personal servant, asking for impossible substitutions and complaining about everything. It always boggled my mind when people treated the person handling their food like shit.
“You have any idea where Kelly might be now?”
“I honestly thought she’s been in California all these years.”
I want to believe that too, but it’s looking less and less likely. According to Eloise, Don gave Kelly a wad of cash to leave him alone. She used it to go to California, but when the money ran out, she had no choice but to return. Kelly was upset, and she was heading back to Wisconsin to deliver an ultimatum. We know she made it because Josh saw her car in the hotel parking lot. She must have gone to see Don that night—but he would not have been pleased to see her, especially after giving her all that money. And after that night, Kelly—and her car—were never seen again.
I google the last name Fable. Don and Jean still live up here in Hartley.
© Scott Thomas Henry, 2025. All rights reserved.
