***
The trio by-passed going through Gracie’s house and went straight to the back yard. The new fifty-foot garden hose was attached to the tap.
“Don’t turn the water on!” Tracy yelled as she looked for a bucket. Gracie opened her garden shed and let Tracy look around.
“This is exactly the same one Grandpa had!”
It was a large orange bucket Gracie had bought from the hardware store. Tracy put the coiled hose inside the bucket and directed Gracie to turn the water on.
The hose rapidly expanded and filled up the bucket.
“It looks like it’s alive!” said Maureen.
“It’s going to tip the bucket over, watch out!” said Gracie, stepping out of the way.
Tracy didn’t move. “Nope, it won’t.”
The bucket didn’t tip over.
“See!” the tween said victoriously. “Even if the water was on and the hose was in the bucket, it wouldn’t tip over. Now, let’s look at how Grandpa always did things. Watch.”
Tracy took the bucket and dumped the expanded hose out on the sidewalk. “Let’s pretend I’m going to water your garden, so I’ll drag this way out here.”
Gracie could see the girl struggling to gather up the water laden loops of the hose.
“Now, turn the tap off please Mom. Okay, thanks. You’re set-up is different, but this is what Grandpa would do. Can I just water this grass?”
“Oh sure,” said Gracie. She watched as Tracy started to drain the hose. The hose started to shrink so Tracy walked closer and closer to Gracie and Maureen.
Tracy easily picked up the contracted hose and plopped it in the bucket.
“Grandpa always did it this way. Do you understand now?” she asked.
Gracie nodded. “Even if he, for some unknown reason, suddenly turned the hose back on after he had drained it, the bucket wouldn’t tip over and break the window. If he had left the water turned on, the hose would already be in great loops on the ground so it wouldn’t suddenly move and break a window.”
Tracy was nodding but then stopped and snapped her fingers. “Here’s something I never thought of before.” She went over to the hose, picked up the nozzle and pointed it at Gracie. “Why did the hose stay on?”
“Oh that’s easy,” said Maureen. “You just flick that little metal thing over and it will stay on and keep spraying so your hand doesn’t cramp up.”
“No kidding Mom, but the police said the basement was flooded with water after the window broke. So what did Grandpa do in the meantime? Just stand there watching the basement fill up? It would have taken some time.”
Maureen looked at Gracie. “Dad had all his marbles. It doesn’t make any sense that he would just stand around for what, five hours or more?” She stopped talking and looked at her daughter in amazement.
“You’re right honey. We have to go to the police!”
***
Ted and Gracie were enjoying a perogy dinner at his place.
“I looked into Sheree Smiley. She’s a piece of work, that one. Do you know she sued her personal trainer for ‘failure to comply with the terms of the contract’ or some such nonsense? The small claims court transcript made for some interesting reading.”
Gracie put a huge dollop of sour cream to her mound of perogies and onions. She then dumped even more grated cheese and green onions on top. After a satisfying mouthful, she said, “What was his defense? She asked me to have an affair with her instead?”
“Yup. He also said he was just supposed to keep billing her so her husband wouldn’t get suspicious. But onto this garden hose business; that Tracy Smiley is a right smart little girl to have figured it all out!”
“And why didn’t you?”
“Heah, it wasn’t even my case! Although I shouldn’t talk against my brothers in blue, they really should have caught the discrepancy in the time it would take to fill up the basement with water.”
“I guess you could calculate that. Let’s see the square footage of the flooded basement multiplied by the depth of the water would give you the cubic feet. So let’s say his house was 1400 square feet and the report said there was about four inches of water?”
“Oh my goodness Gracie, are you going to do math at dinner? I am impressed. Actually, what is really impressing me is the amount of food you can eat and still stay so slim.”
Gracie laughed. “No I could only get part way with that calculation. Forget the math. Let’s think of a pool. It takes hours to fill a pool with a garden hose. Wouldn’t an entire basement with four inches of water be somewhat comparable to a residential pool full of water?”
“That it would. Like I said, the cops that handled this case last year really dropped the ball. I wonder why? Now with this timeline restructured, the whole report Sheree gave is suspect.”
“Pass the garlic bread please. What did Sheree say happened?”
“As you can imagine, the report was scanty. It read something like, ‘Wife said she was out at the Legion, handling the meat lottery and when she came home, her husband was dead in the basement, she called 911 immediately’. Yes, this is one case I’ll be handling personally. I don’t know how will be able to prove Sheree murdered him though.”
Gracie was thoughtful. “Let me look up something,” she said.
The couple had a rule, no cell phones during meal times. This was an exception. Gracie tapped on her phone.
“Ah ha! Guess what day he died on?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “It was a Wednesday. The meat lottery at the Legion is on Tuesdays. Trudy-Faye is there every Tuesday and usually wins something, you know, ribs or a roast.”
Ted smiled. “This is a good start.”
Gracie started to get into the case. “And check the autopsy for contusions to the back of the head and…”
Ted interrupted. “My dear, can we finish our meal first and then discuss heads being bashed in? I think you’re going to like dessert. It’s green and sounds like pistachio-mint ice-cream with chocolate sauce.”
“Hmm, with such a vague description as that I wonder what it could be?”
***
Zoey was not talking to Gracie. Gracie stared at her little cat and tried not to laugh. Zoey was sitting on the washing machine in her cute little pink tutu and matching pink nail caps; but she was seething with anger. Her eyes were hooded, and she hissed at Gracie.
Her human had been away most of the afternoon and well into the evening and Zoey was having a hissy fit.
Of course, a few minutes before the cats heard the car in the drive, they had been playing a wonderful game of “I’m going to rip your head off if you keep chasing me; no, I’m going to rip your head off if you keep chasing me.”
Gracie knew she was faking it. And she knew how to prove it.
“Boy, I have so many notes to type up!”
Zoey’s eyes got rounder at the word type. She dropped her head and watched as Gracie turned on the computer. Gracie reached in a drawer, pulled out two boxes and set them up to the left of the computer. In a flash, Zoey was on the desk and in one of the boxes.
Frank was busy attempting to climb inside the ankle boots Gracie had kicked off at the door, but when he heard Gracie start to type, he launched himself towards the desk. Speed he had, agility, not so much. He completed an almost perfect somersault then hopped onto the desk and into the box beside Zoey. Both cats sat with their heads angled towards the screen. They loved to watch Gracie’s fingers and to check her typing for spelling mistakes.
“So I’m Robert Smiley. I’ve just finished watering my garden, draining the hose and carefully storing it away, and now what do I do? Do I sit around the house watching baseball and fail to notice my wife creeping outside then breaking out a window and filling up the basement with water?”
Zoey yowled.
“Yea, I’m not fond of that idea either. The timeline just doesn’t work. Robert’s body was found around one in the afternoon.” Gracie decided to make a pot of coffee. The cats followed her into
the kitchen to help and possibly convince her to give them a snack. Gracie needed to fire up her brain cells. With a cup in hand, she returned to the desk and the cats hopped in the boxes again. Inspiration struck immediately.
“How about this, what if Sheree filled up the basement the evening before?”
Frank sat up straighter. His opened his mouth and his lower jaw began quivering. He made an insistent chirping noise.
“I think we have a winner!” Gracie said happily. “So, Robert goes out to water Wednesday morning, he sees the window already broken and the garden hose shoved through it. Says something like, ‘what the hell’ and goes into the basement to investigate. Sheree is waiting with, hmm a blunt instrument, bonks him on the head and leaves him in the water to drown.”
Gracie had been typing this idea under theory as she spoke to the cats. They were fascinated.
“Now what did Sheree do? She wasn’t at the meat lottery. Ted said she doesn’t work, so what would a cold-hearted woman do while her husband was dying? She had to kill time while she was killing her husband.”
Gracie tapped her chin. The cats were bored because she had stopped typing so they began a boxing match while sitting in their respective boxes. Gracie watched as they batted one another; their little paws paddling away in the air.
“That’s it!” she said. “Sheree loves rotten puns. I think she is the type of woman who would have gone swimming while her husband was drowning!”
Gracie started typing a to do list in earnest. She had to check the day of the regular meat lottery at the local legion; was it really Tuesday? Did the neighbors hear the sound of glass breaking Tuesday night? Did the Smiley’s have an on-line utility account that would show their daily water usage? Did anyone see Sheree at the Huckleberry pool Wednesday morning?
Gracie had a sick thought. Did Sheree take pictures?
“I am going to talk to Ted first thing in the morning; maybe he can get a search warrant for her phone.”
Gracie shut down the computer. “Time for bed kids!” As the cats raced to the bedroom, Gracie collapsed the boxes and filed them away.
That night she dreamed of a large needle. This is going to be easy to thread she thought. The needle turned upside down, grew larger and morphed into a noose. Gracie put the thread through the noose with ease.
“Gotcha!” she said, then rolled over and slept soundly the rest of the night.
***
Tracy had decided to go undercover. Sunday morning she drove her bicycle over to Sheree’s house.
“Well what brings you by so early in the morning munchkin? Come on in, have a cup of coffee.”
“Is anybody else here?” Tracy asked as her eyes darted around the kitchen.
“Like my latest lover? Oh, don’t pretend you haven’t thought that! What do you take in your coffee munchkin? Oh never mind; I’ll make you a special flavored one. You’ll love it.”
Tracy was torn. She didn’t know what to talk about first; the fact that she hated being called munchkin, that she wasn’t even thinking about a lover, um, gross and that she wanted cream and sugar in her coffee. She remembered something she read in a book about how to make friends. She had to show interest in what they were interested in.
“Just came by to hang and um drink coffee. What are you up to these days?”
Sheree looked at Tracy sideways. The older woman shook her head as if to dismiss a thought and smiled at the young girl. “Well you know, with this little bit of money I now have, I’ve been doing stuff I’ve always wanted to do.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“I bought one of those paddle boards and I’m going to start lessons on Tuesday!” Sheree said excitedly.
“What, and miss the meat lottery at the legion?”
“Now how do you know that missy?” Sheree demanded.
Tracy had never lied so fast in her life. “I went on-line and searched the photos for pictures of Grandpa. I just happened to notice under events it had ‘meat lottery’ on Tuesdays.” Tracy shrugged her shoulders. “That’s all.”
Sheree relaxed. “It’s not like I’m on the executive or anything. I just help out collecting tickets and things like that. What are you supposed to be doing, Tracy? Don’t you have homework or something?”
Tracy shrugged again. “Nah. I’m a brain. So what else have you been doing?”
“Well, you know I loved your Grandpa, but I am dating.”
Tracy wanted to puke. Fortunately her cell phone rang.
“Tracy Lisette Smiley, where are you?”
“Hi Mom. I’m over visiting with Sheree.”
“You get home right now. I need you at home right now. Please.”
Tracy was alarmed. Her Mom sounded really worried.
“Bye Sheree, I’ve got to go home. Thanks for the coffee!”
“But you didn’t even drink any of it and I made it special for you; like a fancy coffee shop coffee. Here, just take a sip!”
Without thinking Tracy reached out her hand to take the mug. An adult was telling her to do something, so she was on automatic pilot. Through the window behind Sheree, she could see Grandpa’s huge orange poppies swaying in the slight breeze.
Wait, this woman killed Grandpa, Tracy told herself as her eyes locked with Sheree’s.
Sheree was smiling; her eyes were glittering.
Tracy turned and ran out the door. She hopped on her bike and was pedaling so fast she had to keep changing the gears as she flew along the streets of town. Along the way, she determined that she would never go undercover again!
When she rounded the corner to her home, she saw her Mom standing on the sidewalk.
Maureen hugged her daughter and started crying.
“Are you okay Tracy? What did she do to you? Did you eat or drink anything while you were there? Oh my gosh Tracy don’t you ever go near that woman again!”
“No worries, Mom. I’m only twelve so I don’t have womanly intuition yet, but I think she was going to kill me.”
Mother and daughter hugged it out on the sidewalk and then walked slowly back to their house, rolling Tracy’s bike as they went. It was then Tracy noticed Gracie Noseworthy’s car parked by the curb.
“Is Gracie here with news?” Tracy asked her Mom as she locked up her bike.
Gracie was standing in the living room and spontaneously hugged Tracy when she came in the door.
“Are you okay? Did you eat or drink anything at Sheree’s?”
Tracy looked back and forth at her Mom and Gracie.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
Maureen let out a big breath. “I’ve got to sit.”
“Let’s all sit,” Gracie said.
“Okay, we’re all sitting,” Tracy announced with a false bravado. She was still pretty scared. There was something about the smile Sheree had given her and the look in her eyes. Tracy thought she could see some crazy there mixed with evil bitch. At that thought, Tracy started to blush and looked down at her feet.
Gracie tented her fingers, while Tracy and Maureen continued to hold hands as they sat close to one another on the couch.
“Let’s go over this slowly, it’s a bit complicated. Mind you Tracy is the one that figured out the garden hose situation, so I’m sure you’ll be able to follow along. Item one; did you know Tracy, that you were in your Grandpa’s will?”
“He asked me if I would like his garden and I said sure! But I figured once he married Sheree, she would get the garden.”
“There was a will,” Gracie explained, “leaving the house, garden, everything to you, with the inheritance to be managed by your Mom until you reached legal age. Now this will was dated two years before he married Sheree; you would have been about eight I guess?”
Maureen and Tracy nodded.
“Your Grandpa did not change this will, however, the law states a lot of mumbo jumbo, but basically, he could not leave his wife destitute.”
Maureen had talked briefly to Gracie about this, but hearing it again, she was so dis
appointed. Tracy would have loved to work in her Grandpa’s garden. It would help her with her grief. Plus it would have been nice to have their own home rather than renting.
Gracie checked her phone. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m just waiting for a message from Detective Bailey. So you don’t get the house, despite the will. Now then, the Detective I mentioned is a personal friend of mine…” Gracie shook her head and continued, “Oh for heaven’s sake, he’s my boyfriend and when we had dinner last night I told him about this case.”
Tracy wasn’t grossed out to learn that Gracie was dating and was actually pretty happy it was a policeman.
“Unbeknownst to me, he made a lot of phone calls last night and this morning. Last night, he woke up Mr. Carlson owner and agent of Munson Insurance Agency and had a discussion with him. This brings us to item two.”
Tracy tried to get up, but her Mom held onto her.
“I need some water Mom; I rode like a bat out of hell to get away from that woman!”
Maureen was just so pleased her daughter was safe, that she didn’t even chide her for her language. Tracy gulped down a glass of water and then brought in a pitcher of water for her Mom and Gracie.
“Item two is life insurance. Again, Tracy was the beneficiary.”
Tracy frowned. “But Sheree told me this morning that she had come into money; so did Grandpa change the beneficiary?”
“Hold onto your hats, but in a way, Sheree did.”
Maureen said, “I’m confused. I thought only the policy holder could do that?”
Gracie took a sip of water. “So this is where it gets a bit complicated. Sheree talked your Grandpa into raising the amount of the life insurance. Because the beneficiary did not change, Mr. Carlson could receive verbal instructions from your Grandpa to increase the payout.”
Gracie looked at Maureen and Tracy. “Mr. Carlson confirmed that he knew your Grandpa; he knew his voice and indeed, the life insurance policy was increased about one month before your Grandpa died. He told Mr. Carlson on the phone that his wife suggested the increased amount. Only one premium was paid for the new amount. In cases like this, where there is a substantial increase in the life insurance and the policy holder suddenly dies, an investigation is automatically initiated.”
Gore in the Garden Page 12
