A Maggie Anderson Mystery
THE CHARACTERS
THE INVESTIGATION TEAM
MAGGIE ANDERSON, Former Prosecutor, Lead Investigator
Maggie, an attractive, tall, and athletic woman of seventy-five years, formerly head of
the sex crimes unit in the DA’s office in Washington, DC, retires to Salt Lake City and surreptitiously meets Ben Stillman, the suspect in Buried Bones, in a country diner in the small Utah town of Medford in Madison County.
Her hard-won career was the focus of her life and she gladly took on challenges. She approached crimes with a strong intuition and compassion for her victims. However, in therapy after the traumatic vigilante death of an innocent suspect, she questioned her skills, and her therapist uncovered a lifetime of over-achieving in order to please her difficult parents. She hesitated to become involved as the lead investigator in Ben’s case because she no longer trusted her abilities and must recapture her confidence with Robert’s help.
She was in three unsuccessful marriages and had many doubts about her ability to be
in a successful romantic relationship until she met Robert Parsons.
ROBERT PARSONS, Retired Architect, Maggie’s Sidekick on the Investigation
Robert, tall and handsome, with twinkling eyes and a gentle demeanor, is the boy
whose mentor, Carl Stevenson, saved him from going bad. He is from Medford,
and becomes a successful big city architect with the support of the Stevenson family.
His life was forever changed when his wife died of cancer and he becomes the single parent of four teenagers. With his children grown and scattered, his friends have
become his family and he longs for a new love.
He is mesmerized by the worldly Maggie and seeks a way into her heart. He becomes
the shoulder she leans on, the sage giver of good advice, and the one who opens doors
to those who can solve the murder case she has taken on.
His hometown connection becomes too close and his emotional loyalty to Carl Stevenson becomes so strong that he is forced to choose between his past and his future.
GWEN SIMONS, Former Trauma Nurse, now a Private Duty Nurse, Maggie’s friend who joins the Investigative Team
Gwen is the prototype of the Energizer Bunny. She is short, roundish, and keeps going, and going, and going…with a perceptive smile.
In her career, she was a trauma nurse in Chicago and handily dealt with gang shootouts. She lives with her sister in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has a clientele of older women that she cares for as a private nurse. She never married or had children, so she gently ‘mothers’ her clients and her friends when she isn’t advocating for a social cause.
She becomes an embedded ‘spy’ nurse in the Stevenson family and listens unobtrusively. Her forte is quietly sorting out the truth for the investigation team.
PETER MATTHIEU, Former Medical Research Doctor, is Maggie’s other friend who joins the Investigative Team
Peter is the tall, thin, quiet man of wisdom who now considers the greatest pleasure in his life to be a solitary ski run down a tall mountainside, spraying thin lines of powdered snow in his wake. He was a medical research doctor who always asked the questions and dug for the answers until he was absolutely satisfied with the results.
He becomes the collector of clues and the interpreter of facts for the investigation. He provides the knowledge and skill to interpret the evidence that breaks open the case.
THE MAIN TOWNSPEOPLE
AUDREY STILLMAN, the Victim. Her body was secretly buried for four years.
Audrey’s life was marked by traditions. She was born in Medford, went to the local schools, and married her high school sweetheart, Ben Stillman, in 2001. As an only child, she wanted a big family, and they agreed on three children. They lived in a log cabin in the woods and she developed a business growing herbs and packaging them into teas and herbal remedies. After fifteen years of marriage, and countless medical tests, she never became pregnant.
When Ben asked for a divorce, Audrey’s life crumbled. She poured her troubles into a secret diary and her heart went to a new boyfriend. She sensed trouble, and hid the diary shortly before she was murdered.
BEN STILLMAN, the Suspect, accused of his wife’s murder.
Ben wanted to be part of the fabric of Medford when he grew up. He wanted to have children and raise them with Audrey, but eventually a nagging voice convinced him he was gay and Medford is not ready to accept his choice. He does the only thing he knows he should do…he divorces Audrey and moves to the city.
Four years later, the sheriff calls and asks him to identify a body found in a shallow grave behind the cabin where they had lived. Dental records prove the body to be Audrey. Because he is openly gay, the town assumes he wanted out of the marriage and wants him to stand trial for her murder. No one in town believes him when he says he is innocent.
LOGAN HARRIS, longtime DA for Madison County, a country lawyer who is part of the political machine that runs the county.
Logan is the aging misogynist gatekeeper on the charges against Ben Stillman. He badly wants a win the case against Ben Stillman as his last big success before retiring. Going into it, he thought he had a slam-dunk case until Maggie shows up.
He still practices western frontier law where you do your best to follow the rules, but when the man with the biggest gun wants to enforce his own rules, you slowly back
down and hope that the problem goes away.
He meets his match in the big city female prosecutor who isn’t afraid of anything.
RANDY STEVENSON, Grandson to Grammy Stevenson, friend to Audrey Stillman
Randy was raised to be the son and heir of a rich man and he won’t let you forget it. Charismatic? Well, sorta. Assertive? In a bullying kind of way. Thinks he can do no wrong? Absolutely. In need of a comedown? Just ask Maggie Anderson.
Randy was friendly with Audrey after her divorce from Ben and had a schoolboy crush on her even though she was ten years older.
In the end, Randy knew too much and keeping his secrets was too much for him.
“GRAMMY” STEVENSON, Matriarch of the Stevenson dynasty family, and widow of Carl Stevenson who was the patriarch of the whole town.
Grammy was raised in a remote polygamist community in southern Utah where the men made the decisions and the women did what they were told. She was disowned when she left for a different life in the city and became the only wife of a man from Madison County.
She was active in her community as Carl’s wife; she was obedient and never asserted herself; and she raised six children. Her years of public respectability were filled with secrets and lies.
One lie, in particular, ate at her heart for more than forty years. When it surfaced, she could not bear the shame.