by Teresa Trent
Nora turned her head in surprise. Doug outweighed Izzy by seventy pounds. Surely, he couldn’t be frightened of the little librarian. He took in Nora’s expression.
“I know it seems silly, but I’m just concerned for Evangeline. I don’t know how equipped she really is to deal with a person like that. To be honest with you, when that woman went after Alan Shaw and then we found him dead, I guess I put two and two together. Maybe it’s an assumption on my part.”
Nora was touched by Doug’s show of kindness toward the mystery writer. Maybe with whatever Alan Shaw had dug up about her past in the sixties, having someone like Doug around couldn’t hurt.
“You’re a good man, Doug Lindstrom.”
He blushed at her compliment and then straightened his tie. “Thank you and good night.”
After a polite handshake, Nora expected him to leave through the lobby but instead he turned and stepped into the elevator. Old fashioned politeness aside, Doug was finally spending the night in Evangeline’s room and Nora highly approved.
One by one the kitchen staff departed. As Wiley pulled on a jacket and headed for the door, Nora called out to him. “Bye Uncle Wiley. Good job tonight.”
He simply nodded and headed out. Nora could see he was doing everything he had in his power to survive against this battle he was waging with alcohol. Keeping his emotions in check seemed to be a part of it and for that reason, she let him walk out with barely a word. She just had to hope they would find their way back to each other. If he could go against his grain reaching out to Corey, then maybe he would once again reach out to her.
Nora was alone in the lobby. The lights in the banquet room and dining room were off and she spent some time in the office finishing off bookwork generated by the convention guests and their array of payment options.
She kept the door open, so she could keep an eye on the front desk. She had to hope she’d made enough noise at the party to alert whoever might be desperate enough to take the thumb drive. One thing she hadn’t revealed was if the article Alan Shaw had been writing about Evangeline was indeed on the memory stick. The thumb drive had been substituted with another empty drive. After a little more research on the internet, Nora figured Alan Shaw had been tracking members of the Sunshine Brigade who had all gone underground after a bombing that killed a man in Oakland, California. None of the members had surfaced in forty years and finding even one of them would have been quite the scoop. Pulitzer Prize material for sure. Alan was sure he had found one of the members of the brigade in Evangeline but with the name Francine Howard of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Looking at the picture Shaw had produced of Francine, Evangeline could be the same person, but age changes a person’s face and body so much, it wasn’t a solid identification. It was similar enough that if the police looked into it, Evangeline might have some explaining to do. Francine had been running with a group of young people numbering from ten to twenty participants. Even if she was a part of the group, they would have a time proving she was the one who set off the bomb who killed the poor janitor who lived in the basement.
Nora ran the sweeper through the lobby one more time, as she cleaned after the day’s festivities. Even though the conference goers did not bring their cats they still had cat dander on their clothes. She had forgotten to take an allergy pill in all her rush to get ready and she felt her eyes watering and her nose began to run. After Nora finished her bookwork, she moved to the couch in the office, still watching the locked drawer. It was more comfortable than the office chair and almost impossible to see from the front desk. The quietness of the hotel reminded her of the first nights she ever worked there. She was sure then that the ghost of old Mr. Tunie, a dapper gent who wore a bow tie and loved to host dances in the banquet room, seemed to be with her during those quiet times. Right now, she felt alone and unsure of the trap she had tried to set. The thousands of steps, decisions, and endless effort that was her day started to set in and she found herself agreeing with Max about the comfort of the couch growing with the hour. She started to drift off when she heard the rustle of feet in the lobby. The lighting was low, but there was a figure behind the front desk, working hard to open the locked drawer. Surprisingly, after less than a minute the drawer opened. Nora jumped up and entered the lobby. If she could get a picture with her phone, then she would have the proof the police needed to nail Alan Shaw’s killer. Just as she stepped quietly to the lobby and raised her phone, an all-powerful sneeze overtook her.
The person behind the counter jumped back, but then a tall form could be seen clearly from across the lobby.
“Doug?” Nora said through a sniff. Doug Lindstrom stood holding the substitute flash drive. There was no mistaking he was there for any other reason. He had to be the person who pushed Alan Shaw down the elevator shaft. Nora had suspected it was him, especially after she found a piece of white fluff by the elevator. It was nothing like the cat hair that now was being vacuumed up all over the hotel. It was coarse poodle hair. The same fur that Doug had pulled off his jacket the first night he dined at the Tunie with Evangeline.
“Nora. I was wondering if you had any …”
“Skip it. I was really hoping it wasn’t you, but it just had to be.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do. One of the things I admired about you was the devotion you showed to Evangeline. It was an example for the rest of us. You wouldn’t let any harm come to her, so much so that when Alan Shaw threatened exposing her as a member of the Sunshine Brigade, you pushed him down the elevator shaft. That is how it happened, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about? Sunshine Brigade?” He answered innocently. So much so, Nora had to hope she was right.
“I can prove it, you know. I was quite impressed by your old-fashioned ways in that you never went above this floor when you visited Evangeline. She might have been a part of the free love sixties, but you were always the gentleman. That’s why, in the middle of a cat convention, I was shocked to find a small white piece of poodle hair, under an end table by the elevator. That would have to mean that you had been up on that floor prior to tonight. You were up there the night Alan died, and I think you were the one who pushed him. The only thing I can’t figure is why? It’s one thing to protect your favorite writer, but you had to have a pretty strong reason to want to kill him.”
Doug gulped. “You don’t have anything on me. What if I was protective of Evangeline? There is no way you could ever understand.”
“Try me.”
“She was a part of something big. What the Sunshine Brigade did was in the name of peace. Nobody was supposed to die. We didn’t know there was an old man in the basement. Killing was against our principles.”
Nora bit her bottom lip. “Are you saying that you, too, were part of the Sunshine Brigade?”
He stopped suddenly. Nora realized he thought she already knew this fact about him. She pushed on. “You were a part of the same protest group? You’ve been underground here in Piney Woods all these years? What was your name back then? I already know Evangeline used to be Francine Howard, and if I don’t know who you are now, it shouldn’t take long for me to figure out who you were.”
“What the hell.” Doug Lindstrom’s kindly face took on a hard edge. “My real name is Duncan. Duncan Leach. Of the Boston Leach’s as if that mattered to anyone anymore. I came from a family that had houses in Boston, New Rochelle and an apartment in New York. Establishment, upper class snobs who had no idea what the real world was like. They didn’t know about the pain and killing the war was causing. People were out there suffering man, but they didn’t care, especially if it interfered with cocktail hour. I had to tell my story, that’s all.”
“And it killed three men. One in the sixties and two right here.”
“Like I said, you don’t understand. If that article had been published, then Evangeline would have been outed, and i
t wouldn’t take police long to figure out where I was. Duncan Leach is wanted for murder. Doug Lindstrom is not. I couldn’t have either of those two bottom-feeder reporters finding out. It had to be done.”
Why was he telling her so much information about his past crimes? Was he planning on killing her the way he ended the life of Alan Shaw? According to Janice Joplin freedom was just another word for nothing else to lose. He was looking at the possibility of losing his.
Somehow, when she planned this giant “catch the killer” trap, she didn’t account for the fact that the killer might not come along willingly. A possible fatal error on her part. She had to think and think fast.
“You know, I’ve been recording this whole conversation.” She eyed the lobby door. She was closer to it than he was. She could run out of the hotel and straight into the police station.
“Have you?” He pocketed the thumb drive. “What a waste of data. Good luck trying to get video from a smashed phone. That’s right! You’re dating the police fellow. What’s his name? Huck?”
“Tuck,” said a voice from the darkness. Was somebody else here? Had somebody else been listening to this whole conversation. Nora was somewhere between scrambling for her own self-preservation and relief. He could smash her phone but killing two people was a pretty tall order.
Wiley stepped out of the darkness. “I loved the sixties man, but I sure as hell didn’t blow anything up like you did. What you’re saying to Nora is right. We don’t understand, but I never have understood people who are crazy enough to justify murder.”
Doug twitched as he looked from Wiley to Nora. Finally, he said, “What do I need to do to make you forget all of this? Do you want money? I have a little saved up …”
“We don’t want your money. This isn’t the kind of thing you can negotiate out of. What about Evangeline? Is she involved in this too?”
“No. Evangeline’s innocent. Evangeline was always innocent. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the Sunshine Brigade, but I pulled her into it. She wasn’t around the night that building blew up. Don’t drag her into this. It’s all me.” Doug Lindstrom then reached in his pocket one more time. Nora was sure he would turn over the flash drive and give himself up at this point. Instead he pulled a gun from his pocket and pointed it directly at Nora.
Wiley put both hands up. “Now you don’t need to haul off and shoot anybody. We could maybe take a check or something.”
“Drop the gun!” Tuck shouted from the doorway.
“You know, you were worried about Nora’s phone data, but I have to admit I used mine all up texting ol’ Tucker here about your big confession. Not sure if I spelled brigade right though. Never was too good in school. I have been told I can fry the hell out of a chicken though.”
“Drop the gun!” Tuck repeated.
Doug Lindstrom leveled his gun on Tuck intending to shoot, but before he could pull the trigger, Tuck’s bullet buzzed through the air hitting Doug squarely in the chest. His cause, his love, and his protests were finally over.
Chapter 36
W
“Oh, Nora you did such a beautiful job for our anniversary party,” Tatty said as she rested her tired feet on a chair. “Even with the fire, and then the thing that happened with Mr. Lindstrom, this was the finest party we’ve ever had. Thank you so much.”
“Glad to do it.” Nora blushed. Marty put an arm around her.
“This lady right here is amazing. She brought us our first convention …”
Max butted in, “and our first murder …” As Max spoke, Nora couldn’t help but notice that he was holding Marty’s hand. Had something happened between them? From the sparkle in Max’s eyes, she had to assume that it had.
Marty bit her bottom lip and then let out a contagious smile. That little action confirmed to Nora that two old friends were on their way to becoming more. Marty continued, “That too, but then she managed this wonderful anniversary party right after. I don’t know if I said this before, but I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Val came in drying her hands on a dish towel. “I thought I’d give Wiley a hand in there. Being the newbie here, I feel like I have to prove myself. Nora’s shadow can be pretty overwhelming sometimes.”
Val’s praise served as a balm to Nora’s soul after feeling so threatened by her. Somehow now, her fear of inadequacy had left her. If anything, she was happy to have Val on staff. Val had even offered to train Nora on any areas of management she was lacking.
“Speaking of that,” the Frederick’s sisters came over each with hands flapping their love beads as they walked. Azalea and Violet Fredericks had been regular visitors to the Tunie hotel for their entire lives. They were also principle purveyors of gossip in the city of Piney Woods Texas. “We heard you single handedly apprehended that dear Mr. Lindstrom. Weren’t you frightened?”
“I heard you wrestled him to the ground,” Azalea said.
“No, no. I heard she hit them over the head with a vase,” Violet interrupted.
“I’m afraid you’re both wrong. I may have proved that Doug Lindstrom was the murderer, but the apprehending of the suspect was done by Uncle Wiley and Tuck. I don’t know what I would’ve done if they hadn’t shown up.
Tuck came back to the table carrying two plates with psychedelic anniversary cake and placed one in front of Nora. “I don’t know what you would’ve done either. One thing I’ve learned about this woman here is that she isn’t afraid to let a person know what she thinks. Doug Lindstrom was no different. She told him she knew he was the murderer …”
“And then Uncle Wiley showed up.”
“I never left, technically. You were just too blatant about volunteering to be all alone in the hotel late at night. Tuck is right. You are transparent. Even then, I didn’t do any good.”
“Yes, you did. You texted Tuck, even though he was already here but that is how I got out of that situation alive.”
“With a big ol’ gun. Which was good because Lindstrom’s gun was pointed at Nora.”
“Oh my, I’m getting the vapors,” Miss Azalea said raising her had to her forehead causing her beads to clank.
“I have to know, what’s going to happen to Evangeline?”
Tatty sat up telling what she knew of the investigation. “She’s being investigated, but it seems she really had nothing to do with the bombing that killed the man. When I met her at Woodstock, it was Doug who she had been fighting with that day. They were broken up by then, but she was still tied to the organization.”
“Yes, and from what I hear, Izzy has been in the courtroom every day sitting behind Evangeline,” Tuck said.
“That was what Evangeline did best. She gathered loyal admirers. First Doug, then Izzy,” Nora said.
Tuck agreed with her. “Yeah, but even though Izzy might inflict some bodily harm, I doubt she would kill for her favorite writer. And really Doug killed Alan Shaw because his snooping around would eventually lead to him. Living underground for that many years had to make those times seem like a dream to the two of them. They had moved on with their lives. Made whole new lives even. It was if it had never happened. Still though, when the Meow Meetup was choosing a location, Evangeline told them she wanted to come here.”
“To be near Doug, I’ll bet.” Tatty said.
“You know how hard it is to resist the temptation of a handsome man.” Ed said as he reached out and took Tatty’s hand.
“Oh yes, and if I ever forget, I’m sure you’ll remind me.” Tatty came back. Ed brought her hand up to his mouth. “ Mi Amore.”
To her surprise, Corey Brockwell entered the banquet room and went over to shake Ed’s hand. “Sorry I’m a little late. Congratulations you two. Seeing as you have single-handedly taken on my big sister, I thought you deserved acknowledgment. She could be a handful.” He then turned to Nora and Lucy.
“I think y
ou’ll find the Brockwell industries statements fully up-to-date and in your mailbox tomorrow. My friend Wiley here stressed to me the importance of meeting my commitments. He’s been a real inspiration.”
Nora looked over to Wiley who was sporting a wide grin. “That’s the way to do it son. Mend those fences. I know I have a few to mend.”
After that Corey talked a little longer and then politely excused himself. Nora exchanged looks with Lucy. Nora would believe the statements were in the mail when she found the letter in her mailbox and not a minute sooner. Still though, she appreciated his effort. Maybe with Wiley’s help there was hope for him yet.
Today was going a little better than the day before between the two of them. Time was starting to heal the argument that had occurred between them. “Let me help with the table clearing,” Nora said.
“You don’t have to,” Wiley said rising from his chair.
“I know,” she said softly. “I want to.” As the two of them started loading plates into the dirty dish cart Nora spoke to her uncle.
“I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t know Corey was your sponsor. I should have trusted you. It’s just that the two of you have nothing in common. Nothing.”
“I should have told you. When you spend your whole life sneaking drinks, you forget how important it is to let other people know what you’re doing. If it’s any comfort to you, I’m still sober. I’ve stayed that way, but not without the group and now Corey. He’s staying sober and away from gambling, too. He still has a lot of his old man in him, poor kid, and that will just have to iron out with time, but he’s trying. We’re both trying, and yes, we both have something in common. You. I’m trying to do well because I love you and I’m getting to know the niece who came to me so late in life. Corey is trying to do better because he doesn’t want you breathing down his back about those Brockwell Industry earnings. Either way, it’s all about you, Nora.”
