by Kathi Daley
“And did you give him the key and the code?”
She nodded. “I had a spare key, so I gave it to him.”
“Did he come back by while you were here?”
“No, I never saw him again until now.”
“You know,” I said, “the murder weapon was a pipe wrench. It seems that it may have been a pipe wrench left by the plumber.”
“Yes, I know. You said as much on the night of the murder, and the fact has been repeated in the newspaper a couple times.”
“I’m not sure why this never occurred to me, but I wonder how it was that the plumber left his pipe wrench behind in the first place. Tools are expensive. And, like the guy just pointed out, plumbers need their tools every day. The plumber needed to get parts, but it still seems he would have taken his tools with him when he left.”
“Maybe. But perhaps he thought he’d be right back, and didn’t want to haul everything out to his truck.”
“Did he have his toolbox in his hand when he asked you for the key and alarm code?”
Lacy paused. I supposed she was trying to remember. “Yes, I think he did have his toolbox with him. But maybe he just forgot to grab his pipe wrench.”
“Maybe. And to be honest, when I saw the bloody pipe wrench near the body, I just assumed a plumber left it behind, but what if he didn’t?”
“What if he didn’t?” Lacy asked, obviously confused.
“What if the plumber is the killer? What if he snuck in Monday evening and killed Hollander, but somehow his pipe wrench was left behind after the murder? It was found in the trap-room. Maybe he dropped it when he fled.”
“Why would the plumber kill Hollander?” Lacy asked.
“I don’t know. What do you know about the guy?”
“Not a thing,” Lacy said. “I’m not even sure what he was here to fix. Like I said, he just showed up saying he was here to fix a leak. I said, okay. He went toward the back of the building, and then he came back out, telling me he needed parts and would have to come back.” Her eyes widened. “You’re thinking there never was a leak. You’re thinking the guy just wanted a key and the alarm code so he could come in whenever he wanted, and no one would be the wiser.”
“Maybe.” I paused to think things through. “The thing is, why is he here today? The cops have the murder weapon. He must know that since it has been all over the news. If he’s not here to retrieve the pipe wrench, why is he here?”
“Maybe he left something else behind,” Lacy said.
“Maybe.” I paused to think about it. “Or maybe he’s here for something else altogether.”
Lacy closed the cabinet where she’d been working and looked directly at me. “Like what?”
“The item from the safe,” I said. “Hollander stopped at home and took something from his home safe before arriving at the theater the night he was murdered. I’ve been wondering what that item was, and what became of it. Maybe he had it on him in the rehearsal room the night he was murdered. Maybe the plumber did show up that night, and Hollander struggled with him. During the struggle, the item might have fallen into the trap-room, or maybe it ended up behind all those props and boxes stacked around the stage.” I paused. “What’s up with all those boxes, anyway? I don’t remember them being there before.”
“They were delivered Monday.”
“Delivered from where?” I asked.
“Las Vegas, I think.”
“Las Vegas?”
Lacy nodded. “This guy pulled up in a delivery truck while I was working on the props. He said that he had a bunch of stuff that had been shipped from Las Vegas. I guess some magic show that had been there is coming here next, and they shipped all their props and costumes ahead of time. I didn’t want them in the way, so I told the delivery guy to just put them in the rehearsal room since we weren’t using it.”
“And what time was that?”
“Around two-fifteen. I remember that because they showed up just as I was getting ready to leave to get the kids. Jimmy Barton had come by to help me with the sets and was still here, so I told the delivery guy I really needed to leave to pick my kids up, but Jimmy would lock up after he left.”
I glanced at the door. “I have a weird feeling about things. Call Colt and tell him to come over. I’m going to see if I can get a peek at what the plumber is doing.” With that, I was out the door without even waiting for a reply.
As I suspected, the plumber was in the rehearsal room, looking through the boxes that had been delivered the Monday that Hollander was murdered. He’d closed the door, but I’d jimmied it open just a bit, so I could watch him as he looked for whatever it was he was looking for.
My theory, which I’d developed as I watched the man, was that the plumber had shown up Monday to retrieve something from the boxes that had been shipped from Las Vegas. Since the boxes hadn’t been delivered yet, he’d made up the lie about needing parts so he’d have a reason to ask for the key and alarm code to allow him to get back in later. For reasons unbeknownst to me, he must not have made it back until that evening, and when he snuck into the rehearsal room to retrieve whatever he was there to retrieve, he ran into Hollander, who was there for a different reason, and the two struggled. Hollander ended up dead, and the plumber fled.
I stood perfectly still as I watched the man being careful not to make any noise. I was having a hard time seeing what he was doing, so I slowly and quietly made my way forward. I was actually doing okay until a sneeze that would not be suppressed alerted the man to my presence.
He stopped what he was doing and looked around. “Someone there?” he called out.
I stood perfectly still, hoping he’d just go back to what he was doing.
He hesitated, and then he headed toward the door, which led to the hallway. My mistake was leaving it open when he probably remembered that he’d closed it.
“Who’s there?” he called out.
I stood perfectly still in the dark room, hoping he’d give up and move on. When he finally returned to his task, I let out a slow breath. As quietly as I snuck in, I snuck back out. The door creaked a bit when I opened it wider to flee.
“I know I hear something. Who’s there?” the man demanded.
I quickly slipped into the hallway and then into the prop room, which was the closest room to the rehearsal room. I stepped behind a rack of costumes and held my breath. The man opened the door, turned the light on, took a few steps inside the room, looked around, and then left. I was tempted to stay hidden, but then I remembered Lacy, so I snuck out of the room and made my way back toward her.
I was halfway down the hallway when I heard a crash. The sound came from the rehearsal room. Almost against my will, I found myself changing direction and heading back down the hallway. When I poked my head inside this time, the trap-room door was open. I wondered if the man was inside the sub-ground level room. I didn’t see anyone on the stage, so I assumed that to be true. I slowly crept into the room to have a look inside the trap-room when someone grabbed me from behind. I didn’t have time to think and simply reacted. I twisted and rolled to the floor, taking the unprepared plumber with me. That was enough of a diversion to allow me to get away, but the man was faster than I was, and the next thing I knew, he’d grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me toward the opening in the floor. I could feel myself falling onto the hardwood of the floor in the small room where I landed with a thud. I’d just managed to roll over when the door overhead slammed closed, and the small room was thrust into darkness. I waited to see what would happen next. There was a lot of rustling around at first. I had to assume the guy was still looking for whatever he’d come here to find. Eventually, the room fell silent. I assumed the guy had left. It entered my mind that the man had left me there to die, although I also knew that would never happen since Lacy knew I was in the theater and would eventually look for me. I just hoped the plumber didn’t hurt her on his way out.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lacy asked me about twenty minutes la
ter after Colt had arrived, and the two of them had come looking for me.
“I’m fine.” I rubbed my bottom. “I might have a bruise in an unfortunate place, but I’m fine.”
“I should have come looking for you sooner, but when I spoke to Colt, he told me to wait in my car, lock myself in, and not to go back into the theater until he arrived. I was just doing what he told me to do.”
“Which was the right thing to do,” I said. “Who knows what the guy might have done if he’d seen you in the cast room on his way out.”
“Probably nothing,” she said. “The guy could have killed you, but he didn’t. He just trapped you to get you out of the way while he looked for whatever he was after. If he wanted to hurt either of us, he would have.”
“You’re probably right, but I am glad you were safely tucked away in your car.”
Colt had asked Lacy and me to wait in her car while he checked things out, so we’d headed toward the parking lot and settled in. While we were waiting, two more county cars showed up. I could see that Colt was on his radio and then his phone. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but there seemed to be a certain amount of excitement amongst the officers who’d responded. After another half hour, Colt came out to the car and told us we could leave. He assured me that he’d call me later, but suspected that he’d be at the theater for a while.
As it turned out, there had been a major jewel theft in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, and at this point, Colt was pretty sure the props and costumes that had been delivered for the upcoming magic show were really camouflage for the real cargo, which Colt hoped was the stolen jewels. Of course, he hadn’t found the jewels yet and could only assume the plumber found them before he’d made his getaway, but he had men trying to track the guy down, so hopefully, this whole thing would be cleared up by the end of the day.
Lacy needed to unload her car and then pick her kids up from school. She had never gotten around to looking through all the rooms for her personal possessions, so she called the woman in charge of the theater and arranged to keep the keys for one more day.
Chapter 14
“What’s wrong?” Georgia asked after I limped into the inn’s kitchen after showering and changing into clean clothes.
“I’m afraid I had a bit of a mishap. Don’t worry; nothing is broken. I just have some bumps and bruises.”
“Oh, no.” Georgia’s smile fell. “Did you fall?”
“Sort of.” I took a few minutes to explain exactly what happened.
“He pushed you into the trap-room? Why would he do that? If he’s innocent of killing Hollander, there would be no reason to push you, and if he’s guilty of killing Hollander, it seems that by pushing you into the little room, he really tipped his hand.”
I frowned. “I’m not sure why he did what he did, but I suspect the man just wanted me out of the way, so he’d have time to look for the jewels.”
“Jewels? What jewels?”
I carefully slipped onto one of the stools that lined the counter. “I guess there was a delivery to the theater on the Monday afternoon of the day Hollander was murdered. The delivery was from Las Vegas, and according to Colt, there was a major jewel theft in Las Vegas a few weeks before this all went down. Colt thinks the jewels were smuggled out of the area in the boxes that were shipped to our little theater.”
“Why would anyone ship jewels here?” she asked as she dumped walnuts into the batter she was preparing.
“I’m not entirely sure why the jewels would be shipped here, but we do have a port that is really close to international waters, and Canada is only a hop, skip, and jump away. Holiday Bay is a small town off the beaten path. It seems as good a place as any to use as a destination if the jewels had been shipped as Colt suspects.”
“I guess.” Georgia finished stirring her batter and then poured us both a cup of coffee. “So do you think this guy who was disguised as a plumber was really at the theater to fetch the jewels and not to fix a leak?”
“That’s Colt’s theory. I spoke to Colt after I got out of the shower, and he told me that he found out that the man claiming to be the plumber is actually a felon with a long rap sheet, who goes by the name of Lewy. I guess his real name is Lou Jenner. Anyway, Lewy had been staying at one of those weekly motels out by the harbor, but he checked out. It appears that he was on his way out of town when he stopped at the theater today. He may have known the police planned to take the tape down and figured the door might be unlocked for the first time in a week, or he might really have been passing by on his way out of town, noticed the cars, and decided to stop by and fetch whatever he came for. Anyway, the guy is in the wind now, but Colt put out an APB on him and the last vehicle he was seen in.”
“And the jewels?”
“Colt didn’t find them. At this point, the theory that the jewels stolen in Las Vegas had been smuggled out of Las Vegas in the boxes that were shipped to the theater is only that, a theory. I don’t suppose we’ll know for certain one way or another unless Colt is able to track down this guy, and he has the jewels on him.”
Georgia opened the refrigerator and took out some eggs. “So how does Hollander fit into this whole thing?”
“We aren’t sure. At this point, we suspect that Hollander went into the rehearsal room for a reason having nothing to do with the jewels, and when he got in Lewy’s way, he killed him.”
Georgia began breaking eggs into the batter she was working on. “Okay, say that’s true. The murder occurred over a week ago. Why did this man wait to go back and look for the jewels until today?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure, although Colt did change the locks and the alarm code after Hollander’s death, so maybe Lewy just couldn’t get back in until now.”
Georgia looked uncertain. “This guy pulls off a high dollar jewel theft in Las Vegas, but can’t break into our little theater to retrieve the jewels until someone opens the door for him?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That does seem unlikely. Maybe he isn’t the person who stole the jewels in the first place. Maybe someone else did the job in Las Vegas, and Lewy found out about the jewels, and decided to come to Holiday Bay to retrieve them before anyone else could get ahold of them.”
Georgia moved a tray of brownies out of the oven and onto the cooling rack. “Maybe, but it seems unlikely. I guess all Colt can do is to catch the guy and try to get the real story.”
“Yeah. That’s the plan.”
“So what now?” she asked as she put sweetbread pans in the oven she’d just emptied. “Does Colt have any idea where to find the guy?”
“No. Like I said, he has an APB out for his car, but if the guy is smart, he’ll have changed vehicles by this point. If I had to guess, the guy either has a boat stashed somewhere, or he has a fake ID and a way to get out of the country.”
“Colt is a good cop. He’ll track him down.”
“Yeah. I think so as well.”
Colt called later that afternoon to let me know that he’d hit a dead end finding Lewy. He indicated that he’d put the word out, and everyone was looking for the guy, so he still hoped to track him down, but as for today, he’d done what he could, and he planned to come by for dinner if I still wanted him to. I’d invited him yesterday, but he’d been held up, so I told him to come on by, and I’d see what I could scrounge up from the kitchen.
“You’re back early today,” I said to Sierra, who was sitting at the kitchen counter talking to Georgia when I came in to scavenge for food.
She nodded. “My sisters and I managed to finish every item on the list, so we decided to have an early night in preparation for our meeting with the attorney tomorrow morning.”
“What did you decide to do about the house?” I asked. The situation had been on my mind all day.
“Surprisingly, both my sisters went along with my plan, mostly I think because they had no choice. If a compromise couldn’t be reached, we’d all be out, and I think they knew it. There was a bit of give and take, but both Sage and Shel
by have agreed to come to Holiday Bay for three weeks between December fourteenth and January fourth. At the end of the three weeks, we’ll discuss the situation and decide what to do with the house. If it’s decided that we will sell the house, I have agreed to pay all commissions and expenses from my share.”
“That seems fair. I can see Shelby going for it, but I’m a little surprised Sage agreed to three weeks in Holiday Bay.”
“Sage wants the money from the sale of the house. If we couldn’t agree to either keep or sell the house, it would be forfeited. She knew that the only way to get at the equity in the house was to agree to a compromise. In exchange for her agreement to spend three weeks in Holiday Bay over Christmas, I have agreed to side with her to sell if that’s still what she wants to do at that point. Shelby isn’t thrilled with the situation, but at least she’ll get one Christmas at the house. If we hadn’t been able to get Sage to agree to the plan, she wouldn’t even have that.” She paused. “I really hope that by the time January fourth comes along, we are really and truly on the same page, whatever page that might be.”
“Me too,” I smiled at the woman. “I think your plan is a good one. And maybe after you’ve all spent three weeks in the house, you’ll have a better feel for what you want to do in the long term.”
“That’s what I’m hoping. And the extra three weeks will give me time to go through the stuff in the attic and the library. In fact, my plan is to go home, grab some stuff, and then come back right away. I don’t have anything else going on right now, and the more time I can have at the house, the better. I have a feeling Shelby might come early as well. I doubt Sage will, but if all we have is three weeks together, I’m going to make that three weeks count.”
“Good for you. And please, if you need anything at all, just give Georgia or me a call. We’ll be happy to help in any way we can.”
By the time I got back to the cottage, Colt was just pulling up. I waved to him and then headed inside to get the dinner I’d managed to assemble into the oven to heat. After coming in through the front door of the cottage, he greeted all three animals and then headed toward the refrigerator for a beer.
