by Misty Simon
I wished I’d been able to go into the room before heading out, but after being told off by Hammond and with Roy waiting for me to get a ride, I hadn’t had a chance. Maybe I could squeeze in a visit tomorrow under the guise of making sure Rhoda and Arthur were okay. That was a phenomenal idea! And I would have to pick up my car. An even better excuse!
“You’re not even watching,” Gina said, breaking into my thoughts. “You always laugh at the ‘mawwage’ part, and there wasn’t even a snicker. What in the world is going on?”
Not only did I not snicker, I hadn’t even realized she’d turned the movie off and was staring at me.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie. Remember we don’t lie to each other. Ever.”
Well, she had me there. And I didn’t want to lie to her. I didn’t want to do this by myself, either. Not completely, anyway. The last two times I’d had Max to bounce ideas off of, but with him across the country, I might be able to call, but it wouldn’t be the same as having someone right here with me.
Confess or lie anyway?
I chose confess.
“There’s no way that guy died of a heart attack. It was murder.”
“I knew it! I knew you weren’t going to be able to let this go.”
So good to know my friend knew me so well.
“It’s not that I can’t let it go.”
She snorted, but I went on regardless. “It’s that I know what I saw. That was not a heart attack only. Something more is going on. I don’t have a stake in this, but I don’t like being told I’m wrong. Something is wrong with this Hammond guy and I want to know what. Why is he so sure it’s a natural death?”
“Maybe you thought you saw more or imagined it after your fall?” She turned with her knee bent on the couch and a pillow tucked against her stomach.
“No, his neck was wrong. You don’t break your neck falling on a bed after a heart attack.” At least I didn’t think so.
My cell rang on the end table. I checked the display before answering. It was a number I didn’t recognize. That meant it wasn’t Burton. Even if it was a telemarketer, I’d rather talk to them than continue listening to Gina telling me that maybe the doctor was right, or having Burton ream me out for chasing after something that hadn’t happened.
“Hello?”
“I know I threatened to call the cops earlier, and I’m sorry.”
It was the happy woman from St. James’s office who had turned suspicious, though I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t introduced myself and was asking some pointed questions about her employer. The kind that maybe someone from a bail bondsman’s office might ask.
“Okay.” What else was I supposed to say?
“I just wanted to tell you that I tried calling him several times and I can’t find him anywhere. I did end up having to call the police and they said that I can’t file a missing person report until someone finds his car in a wrong place or after three days.”
“That is the law from what I understand.” But why hadn’t they told her he was dead? Unless I had imagined his face and it was someone else . . .
“But I’m supposed to get paid tomorrow!” she wailed through the phone, loud enough that Gina crept in closer and stuck her head against mine. “If I don’t get paid, I can’t pay my rent. And if I don’t pay my rent I’m going to get kicked out and then what will I do with my baby dog? She can’t live in a car! I can’t live in a car!”
“No one is going to live in a car.” Why on earth did I make that promise? I couldn’t keep it, and if her landlord was going to throw her out on the first of the month for not paying her rent then he was either a jerk or she was way behind and he had just cause.
“It’s not me I’m worried about, it’s Peanut. She is a delicate flower and I can’t do this to her.”
“Okay, calm down.”
Gina made a cutting motion at her throat. I knew what she was trying to tell me—no more promises, and I promised I wouldn’t make any. “Where was the last place you remember your boss going?” I asked.
“Lunch. He was going to bring me back something because he wouldn’t let me leave my desk in case an important call came in. But then he called to say he had an appointment and wouldn’t be coming back after. I never did get lunch. I guess that’s a good thing since I have no money to pay him anyway.”
I had three quarters of a pizza left and maybe a chance to get some answers. Gina shook her head at me. I very deliberately ignored her.
“I can bring you some food if you think you might have somewhere to start looking for your boss. I’m not an investigator or anything but I’m pretty good at finding people.” Usually they were dead, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. And it was possible this one was dead, too. I couldn’t reconcile why the police wouldn’t have told her that he was deceased instead of telling her they couldn’t file a missing persons report.
With previous bodies, I’d been involved because I had something at stake: life the first time, my own; the second, Gina’s. This time it was about justice. I might not be the best person, or even the most qualified person, to figure out what had happened. But at this point I felt like I might be the only person who cared that something bad had happened, especially since Hammond seemed determined to sweep it under the proverbial rug.
Something about the whole thing rubbed me wrong and I did not like being rubbed wrong—much like Mr. Fleefers, but with bigger stakes.
“Oh, would you? I live by the park. I’ll be there in just a minute. I have to walk my little Peanut, and then I’ll tell you anything you need to know. I tried to talk to the police, like I said, but they’re telling me there’s nothing they can do.”
Maybe they couldn’t do anything. I, however, could certainly try.
I got her address and hung up, then waited a minute to look at Gina. She wasn’t going to be happy. The clanking of the dishes in the sink did not disabuse me of that notion.
When I looked up though, she was smiling. I’d mistaken the sound for anger when apparently it was excitement to get out the door.
“So, does this mean I get to be in on this one? Last time I was the one under suspicion, so I couldn’t do much. The time before that you didn’t have any idea what was going on. This time I want in.”
Whether or not it was my best idea, I was stuck with her. I filled her in on what little I remembered as we went to the apartment complex behind the park on the outskirts of town.
“And this Hammond didn’t tell you who it was? It seems like a really big coincidence to me that the same guy you think is dead is also missing.”
I didn’t like coincidences. I shrugged and told Gina to flip on her turn signal to alert the jerk behind her that she’d be turning and he’d better slow down and get off our butt. Though her car was older, it was still worth a pretty penny if he rear-ended her.
She tapped her brakes a few times and he finally got the message, backing off just as she made the turn.
The address the woman had given us didn’t actually show up in the apartments where I had assumed she lived. It hadn’t sounded familiar. I directed Gina to drive behind the apartments and ended up on a small street with tiny one-bedroom houses. They used to be military housing for the inland naval base half a mile from us. And now they were all owned by my uncle on my dad’s side. This woman wasn’t going anywhere. If she could help me find my dead guy and prove Hammond was deliberately hiding something, I might even be able to talk my uncle into letting her skip the back rent.
When I knocked on the door, I did not hear the yapping of a small dog. I very clearly heard the ferocious deep-chested bark of something much, much bigger.
I was a cat fan, witness Mr. Fleefers, and had met several dogs I liked, but they were always smaller, something I could tackle if necessary. I had thought about dog sitting or dog walking before the idea of cleaning came to me, but then I remembered that not all dogs were under ten pounds and decided I’d rather risk dishpan hands and squeaky shoes then get saddled
with a dog who could literally drag me down the street.
The barking continued for another moment and then I heard the woman tell the dog to stop. Fortunately, it did. I only hoped she would give the down command before she opened the door.
She didn’t.
Over one hundred pounds of brown and white dog came charging through the door as soon as she opened it just a wedge. Paws were on my shoulders and breath that stank of bacon treats hit my nose before I could hold my nose. Thank goodness it hadn’t hit my wrist.
“Down, down!” the woman yelled. The dog paid her no mind and tried to lick my face over and over again. I turned my head back and forth to avoid the thing’s tongue but it was no use. Gina stepped in at that point and scratched the dog’s chest. It sat right down like she’d given it a command. How did she do that?
I wouldn’t question the results. At least the furry beast had sat his or her rump down on the floor and now maybe we could get to the reason we were here at all. My missing man who the police hadn’t confirmed was dead.
“How long have you lived here?” I glanced around at the vast array of knickknacks and doodads, decorative dishes and crystal bells, china animals and an entire bookcase of tea sets. She hadn’t moved in a month or so ago. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust that my inner cleaning professional wanted to swipe away with a good feather duster if not actually take each piece down and douse it in soapy water. There was not a single piece of wall that wasn’t covered by decorative plates emblazoned with Shirley Temple, Winnie-the-Pooh, and a variety of movie scenes from back in the day.
She was a collector. I hesitated to use the word “hoarder” because other than the dust, nothing was messy. There wasn’t trash on the floor, no teetering stacks of old newspapers or magazines from decades ago. But she did have a lot of things. How did she keep them all with a dog this size in a house this small?
Again, that didn’t have anything to do with the current situation. I needed info about her boss and then I needed to talk to my uncle and find out her situation and if he’d be willing to help her out.
First, though, I needed to find out her name. “I don’t want to be rude, and I’m sorry if you told me already, but what’s your name?”
She giggled, a high-pitched sound that set the dog off again. At least it stayed seated this time.
“I’m sorry I was so worried about my money, and my boss, of course, that I totally forgot to introduce myself.”
She giggled some more while I waited for her to actually spit out her name. Gina and I looked at each other, Gina lifting her eyebrow and one side of her mouth. Should I ask again? Would it not do me any good?
“And?” I asked after more giggling and more barking. I had to yell and that seemed to scare the dog enough to silence it. Peanut stopped before the owner.
“Oh, right. It’s Marianne. Marianne Flotts. I moved here a few months ago from West Fairview to help out with Eli’s business. I didn’t like all the traffic and he found me this little house. I love it.”
She’d only lived here a few months and yet she was already behind on her rent? That struck me as strange. I’d check with Uncle Barry, anyway, about the back rent.
“Maybe I can ask the landlord to give you a few days to come up with the money if you want. I know a lot of people in town and think I know the guy who owns these.” I could have practically guaranteed that I could get a break on the rent, but I didn’t want her to know it was my uncle. And how had she gotten so much dust in such a short time, unless she hadn’t lifted a finger to clean since the day she’d moved in? Not my business. Well it was my business in that I cleaned, but I highly doubted she could afford my services, and I definitely wouldn’t want to have to clean around a dog this big even once a month.
You could literally see the fur standing up off the couch. I’d hate to see what was under the 1970s waterwheel furniture. Probably more fur and maybe a few dust bunnies the size of Kansas from the dog I was pretty sure was a Saint Bernard. It was the same kind of dog that they used to put in cartoons as the rescue dog with a barrel of whiskey around its neck.
“Oh, that would be wonderful! I really need him to be found. Really. I have things due, along with bills and back rent, and he’s the only one who can write the checks. I tried to get him to hire an accounting firm to do it or do direct deposit, but since it’s just the two of us in the office, he didn’t want to spend the money.”
It made sense. I had thought about doing that for Letty but it was ridiculous if you have less than twenty-five employees.
“Is he usually good about signing the checks?”
She tilted her head and patted her hair. “For the most part, at least mine. Although not always everyone else’s.” She seemed to catch herself telling something she shouldn’t have and clamped her lips together as she petted Peanut.
“Do you have anywhere that we might be able to start?” I asked to change the subject. This was why we were here, not for me to gauge how much it would cost for her to have me come in and clean, or to figure out why she owed back rent in just a few months of being here.
“The last place I remember him going to was the grocery store down the road. He was supposed to get subs and then come back. He called after an hour and said he had an appointment he had forgotten to tell me about.”
“What kind of appointment? Doesn’t Eli cover quite a few different aspects of the business world?”
She shrugged “Not that I know of. He pretty much only does the code inspections. He’s so busy with those that he wouldn’t have time for anything else.”
I wasn’t so sure I believed that. And why would she have thought I was hunting him down for something earlier?
“When you and I talked on the phone you said something about people harassing him. Do you think someone could have kidnapped him?” I wasn’t going all the way to the killing thing just yet because I didn’t want her to freak out even more about the money and stop thinking altogether.
I saw Gina open her mouth out of the corner of my eye and elbowed her. She got the hint and closed her lips, pressing them tightly together. I had a feeling I was going to hear about that later.
“I really don’t know. He just seemed paranoid lately and a few callers really set him on edge. I heard him yelling at someone in his office telling them that they couldn’t threaten him like that so I guess I thought someone was out for him.”
“So, you never actually heard anyone threaten him? No one came in to the office as a threat?”
She shook her head and petted Peanut.
Well, there went that avenue, but it didn’t mean it was a dead end. Pun not intended.
“Is there any way we could look in his office and maybe see if there was anything on his calendar or a note about where he went today?” I wondered if I was venturing into possibly bad territory but tried not to think about it. I’d be careful.
My hip had started hurting from standing in the doorway, and I refused to ask to sit down and possibly knock over any number of delicate things perched all over the place. I would ice the hip later when I was sitting down using any info Marianne gave me to find her boss.
“Oh, I don’t know if I should do that.” She bit her lip.
“It would be very helpful.” Gina finally spoke up. “We could stop by my store, Bean There Done That, after to get a cup of coffee and talk about what you think might have happened.”
The woman’s eyes brightened. “I love that place. Best cinnamon buns ever. How do you make them?”
“Trade secret.” Gina winked. “But maybe I could rustle one up for you after we visit the office.”
Bribery, nicely done. I’d tell Gina that in the car. I had never really thought to do that myself, since you can’t exactly bribe someone with a thorough housecleaning and come out on top, at least not moneywise.
Peanut was taken into the back bedroom of the house and shut in. That must have been how the woman kept the house from being destroyed. I’d noticed when she o
pened the bedroom door that it was almost bare, like no-one-lived-there bare.
But then we were in the car. Marianne had decided to ride with us to save gas. It was about a mile to the office so I didn’t know how much that saved her. Since I was getting access to the office without having to sneak in or manufacture an excuse, like offering up my cleaning services, I didn’t mind her riding in the backseat. Although she did keep trying to lean forward between the seats, and that drove me crazy.
“Seatbelt,” I said as we came to a stop sign. “We’re not moving until you put it on.”
“I can’t. I don’t like them. I feel trapped. What if we get into an accident and I’m locked into a burning car?”
I did everything I could not to roll my eyes. “Put it on or we’re turning around and taking you back to your car.”
I felt like a mom telling the kids I’m turning around if they don’t knock it off. But Gina knew better and turned on the next street when Marianne sat back with her arms crossed over her chest and no seat belt on.
I fully intended to have Gina drop her off at her car in her driveway and wait for her to get in and follow us. Or we’d follow her. I was taking a gamble, but someone in the car without a seatbelt could get Gina a ticket. And if this woman wanted us to help her with her rent, she was not going to drive off in the wrong direction.
She huffed and puffed but finally gave in. We waited while she clicked her seatbelt into place with one final huff. Fine by me as long as it got done.
And then we were off. Who knew if we’d find anything, but I wasn’t going to let anything slip past me. Not on my watch.
Chapter Five
Pulling up in front of the office of Eli St. James, I took a moment to run all the things I wanted to look for through my mind. There were of course secret journals, hidden doors, things taped to the bottom of drawers, safes, hidden pockets in books or shelves. I could be here for hours. But I was determined to do a thorough job. If Gina and I were truly the only ones looking, then I couldn’t rely on luck.
