by Marja McGraw
“Good morning,” I said.
“Hi, honey. How’re you and Prudence getting along?” I could hear a chuckle hiding behind his words.
“Just fine. Her son called and said he’s going to be gone longer than he’d anticipated, so Prudy’s going to stay with Dolly. I talked to Stretch and set up an appointment to meet with him this afternoon. Prudy’s planning on going with me. And I think Dolly wants to be involved in this.”
Pete laughed. “Sounds like you’ve got your hands full.”
“Yeah. So anything new there? Was everything quiet for Stanley while we were gone? Oh, and have you two had a chance to look into Opal’s and Nick’s whereabouts yet?”
“Let me start with Opal. It seems that Nick died in an accident a couple of years ago. You’ve heard of Stanton Construction & Developing? Well, that was Nick Stanton. Opal inherited the business and she’s a wealthy woman.”
I had, in fact, heard of the business. Stanton was one of the most successful developers in Southern California. I just hadn’t made the connection to Nick.
“Have you called Opal yet to see if she’ll meet with us?”
“Not yet. Stan’s been filling me in on a new client, and then we spent time tracking Opal down. Actually, it was pretty easy. Stan entered her name into the search engine, or whatever you call that search thing, and there were several places with information on her. She’s become quite the social butterfly since Daddy died.” Pete was not the quintessential computer geek, but knew just enough to get by.
“Interesting. Are you going to call her this morning?”
“As soon as we hang up. So, wanna hear about our man Stan?”
“Okay. What’s going on?”
“Well, it seems that Stan has met a woman.”
I grinned. Couldn’t help myself. “Stan met a woman? How? Where?”
“She’s a new client.” I knew Pete was smiling, too. I could hear it in his voice.
“New client? What does she want us to do?” I couldn’t imagine Stanley becoming involved with a client.
“She wants us to find her mother. She was adopted as a baby, and now she’s decided she wants to see if her birth mother is still around. Her parents were killed in a car accident about a year ago and she found the adoption papers in a box with their wills. She hadn’t known, until then, that she was adopted.”
“Sounds like something Stanley can handle, but tell me more. I’m assuming he was taken with this woman from the way you said he’d found himself a woman.” Men have such a way with words sometimes.
“You’re going to love this story. She tripped when she came through the door, and Stan had to help her up. Sound familiar?”
“Well, that’s what happened the first time we met Stanley. Maybe I’d better check the doorway to see if there’s something sticking up.”
“No,” Pete said, “there’s more. She was talking to him, explaining the situation, and when she waved her arm to emphasize something, she knocked over the pencil holder.” He stopped, as though that should explain everything.
“So? Is that supposed to mean something?”
He cleared his throat. “She started to pick them up and Stan ran around the desk to help her. They stood up at the same time and clunked heads, almost knocking each other out.”
I was beginning to understand. Our Stanley was, well, accident prone, and we loved him for it.
“And then,” Pete continued, “she socked him in the eye when she reached up to rub her forehead. He’s got a minor shiner.” Pete started to laugh, enjoying what must have been a small fiasco.
“I take it Stanley’s not there, or you wouldn’t be telling me this story.”
“Stan’s right here, listening to every word and grinning like a fool,” Pete replied. “And there’s more.”
“More?”
“Yeah. Stanley started to laugh, and bent over to pick up another pencil. When he stood up, she’d begun to bend over to help and he caught her in the eye with his head. They’ve got matching eyes.”
I could hear Stanley laughing in the background. It was the sound of pure joy. He was a happy man.
“So then what happened?” I asked.
“Stan asked her out to dinner. While they were at the restaurant, he knocked over the flower vase and she accidentally spilled water all over him. When the waiter came with their dinner, Felicity was talking with her hands again and knocked the tray right out of his hand. Is this a perfect match or what?”
“Stanley sounds happy. I can hear him. I guess that’s all that matters.”
Pete started to say something but stopped abruptly. I could hear him saying hello to someone. Then I heard the Nice to meet you phrase come out of his mouth.
“I gotta go. Felicity is here.”
“Oh,” I said to dead airspace.
He’d hung up, and I wanted to ask him if they’d found out anything else about Opal and who Felicity was. The sooner we could talk to all of these people, the better it would be for us. I didn’t want them to start contacting each other and comparing notes. I needed to hear their off-the-cuff remembrances.
So, Dr. Framer, I’ll start with you and work my way through the neighborhood. Somehow I had a feeling that Stretch was going to be the hardest nut to crack. Especially when he saw I’d brought Prudy with me.
Twelve
“What time are we leaving to see Stretch?” Prudy walked into the house with Dolly in tow.
“We’ll leave around two-thirty,” I replied, adopting Resignation as my middle name. “I’m sorry, Dolly, but you won’t be able to go with us this time.”
“Oh, I wasn’t planning on joining you two.” Dolly sounded perfectly content to be left out. It frightened me. Could she and Prudy be up to something?
“I’m going to get Prudy’s room ready for her while you two are gone.” Dolly’s words set my mind at ease. She was looking forward to having a houseguest, and that was as sinister as it got.
“I have an idea,” I said. “How about I take you two ladies out to lunch before our appointment?”
They both began talking at the same time and I knew I’d come up with a winning idea.
“Okay, why don’t you two head back over to Dolly’s so I can get some work done, and we’ll leave around eleven-thirty. You two can decide where to eat, as long as it’s fairly close to home.” Glancing at my watch, I noticed that gave me about an hour.
Bubba opted to stay with me when they left. Guess he needed a rest after listening to all the reminiscing. He plopped himself down on the carpet in front of the couch and closed his eyes, a weary spectator.
I sat down and started mentally going over all the questions I wanted to ask our aged suspects. Maybe I could make one of them slip and give me a confession. Yeah, like that would happen. Although, stranger things have been known to occur.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot to ask them except what they remembered. And if one of them was the killer, then I knew I wouldn’t be hearing the truth. I was honestly at a loss in the idea department and wasn’t sure how to proceed.
I called Dolly’s house and asked Prudy where the old police reports were. She said they were in the smaller of the two cartons and to help myself to whatever I needed, and added that she’d be back in a few minutes in case I had any questions.
I found a folder neatly marked Police Reports. It contained several sheets of old yellowed paper, but as I began reading I realized that the police had very little to go on. The reports were mostly a review of what Prudy had already told me, with a bit more detail, and included personal notes written by a Sgt. Balesmon. He had written down, verbatim, snippets of conversations with each of the suspects. That helped. If, or more like when, the suspects said they couldn’t remember things, I could refer to their statements as quoted by Sgt. Balesmon. I wondered if he might still be among the living. I’d ask Stanley to check into that. Balesmon might remember something he hadn’t included in his notes.
I called the office again to speak to Pete.
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“Have you been able to reach Opal?” I asked.
“Yeah, but she’s not being very cooperative. She says she doesn’t want to think about that time in her life.”
“Really? Well, I have to admit it doesn’t sound like she had a particularly happy childhood. So she wouldn’t agree to meet with us?”
“It took some fast talking, but she finally said she’d see us this evening. Uh, I think we’d be better off if we take Prudy with us. Opal seems to have some fond memories of Prudy.”
“That kind of surprises me.” I wondered what might make Prudy special to Opal. Prudy hadn’t said anything to make me think they’d even had a relationship. I’d ask her about it. “What time are we supposed to meet with her?”
“Eight o’clock at her place. She lives in Sierra Madre, up on a hill. I think I know the area, and there are some nice homes up there.”
“Okay. Prudy and I are meeting with Stretch this afternoon, and I have an appointment with Slim tomorrow morning. So here we go. Things are going to move along now.”
“That’s my Sandi. Always the optimist.”
“Well, Pete, at least we’ve found these people. And Nick is the only one who’s not around anymore. That’s a major plus. If he did it, and anyone knows about it, then no one’s going to care about giving him up. Maybe we’ll finish this case faster than we think. By the way, would you ask Stanley to check on a Sgt. Balesmon? That’s B-a-l-e-s-m-o-n. He was one of the cops on the case. I’d like to know if he’s still living so I can ask him some questions.”
“Uh huh. Sandi, let’s go out to dinner tonight before we drive out there. We haven’t had much time alone lately.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that. But between my meeting with Stretch and driving out to Sierra Madre to see Opal, I don’t think we’re going to have time. How about tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He didn’t sound too happy. “I’ll pick you and Prudy up around seven and we’ll drive out to Opal’s place. But hold tomorrow night open for me. That is, unless you can’t leave Prudy home alone.” Now he sounded sarcastic.
“I told you, she’s going to stay with Dolly until her son comes home. So tomorrow night is wide open.” We could use a little romance in our lives. Pete and I had been so busy for so long that there was very little time for us, as a couple.
“By the way, Stan’s new friend is really something. Felicity reminds me of Stan in drag.”
“Pete!”
“I don’t mean it that way,” he said. “She’s a female version of Stan. Smart, sweet, and klutzy with a bit of nerd mixed in. I swear, they’re a matched set.”
“I can’t wait to meet her. Can we set something up?” I asked.
“Stan wants us to do the double date thing, so not a problem.”
“What does she do for a living?” I couldn’t help wondering. Stanley had written verses for greeting cards. If they were so much alike…
I wasn’t sure if Pete laughed or snorted. It was an odd sound. “She’s a hand model.”
“She’s a what?”
“She has the most beautiful hands you’ve ever seen. She tends to talk with her hands flying, and they’re so graceful. I’ve never seen anything like it. But then she also knocks things over when she talks, and well, you’ll see for yourself.”
The front door opened and the ladies walked in. “I’d better go. Prudy and Dolly are here. I’ll see you around seven.”
“Sounds like the ladies hit it off.”
“You betcha. You’d think they were old friends.”
“Good. They’ll keep each other busy and you and I can have that quality time together we need.” He can be such a dreamer.
“Right.”
We hung up and Prudy sat down to tell me more about the case.
Before she could begin, I had a pertinent question for her. “Prudy, if you had to guess, who would you say killed Matthew?”
“Stretch,” she replied without hesitation. “No, wait. Hector. He wanted the money.” She paused and appeared to be thinking. “I don’t think it was Slim because he was so young, although you never know about these things. It could have been Nick. After all, he did go after Matt when he thought Matt had tried something funny with Opal.”
“Oh, great. So we’re right back where we started. Who was your prime suspect in 1943?” I wanted to know what her first reaction had been.
“I’d have given you the exact same answer in 1943. And therein lies the problem. I pondered it and pondered it, but I never could come up with the perfect suspect. According to each of them, they were home in bed when the killing took place. No one was up that early in the morning, so there were no witnesses to anyone slinking around the neighborhood. We had absolutely nothing to go on.”
Dolly decided to join the question and answer game. “But, Prudy, what was your gut reaction when you found the body? Whose name came to mind?”
“Honestly? No one’s name came up until later. I was so horrified by Matthew’s death that I couldn’t even think of anything else until Brian and I had time to talk.”
“Okay,” I said, “did Brian suspect anyone in particular?”
“He said he had an idea but that he didn’t want to talk about it until he’d done a little more investigating. Then he signed up and shipped out and we didn’t talk about it again. I went through his papers on the case while he was gone. There are some interesting notes, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of where he was going with the investigation.”
“Are those notes in the box?” I asked.
“All of Brian’s papers are in the other carton. I’ll get them for you.”
I glanced at my watch. “We’d better leave for lunch right now if we’re going to get back and meet with Stretch. We’ll look at your husband’s papers in the morning. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. We’re meeting with Opal tonight. She particularly wants to see you.” I raised my eyebrows and looked at her questioningly. “She seems to have fond memories of you. I thought you didn’t spend time with her because of Nick.”
“Oh, he ran his yap a lot, but I didn’t let him stop me. I frequently took Junior over to the Stanton house when Nick wasn’t home and we helped Opal. And she knew that if she had a problem, she could come talk to me.” Prudy grinned. “In spite of Nick, Opal had at least two friends in the neighborhood. Their names were Prudy and Junior. Junior used to watch out for her at school. She was a grade or two behind him, if I remember right.”
“Why, Prudy Lewis. You’re quite a lady!”
“Yeah, to the best of my recollection, Nick never did find out about us helping Opal. None of the neighbors would have ratted on us because they all felt sorry for that little girl. Even Slim and Stretch. She was the one kid that Stretch never picked on.”
“I’m surprised. It didn’t sound like Stretch had a good side to him.” I couldn’t picture the kid with a chip on his shoulder giving anyone a break.
“The worst of men have some redeeming quality,” Dolly said piously. “Even if it’s just leaving someone in pain alone. And from what Prudy’s told me, that little girl was in emotional pain. She never got to be a child.”
“That’s the truth,” Prudy said.
“Back to Brian’s notes.” I didn’t want to start feeling sorry for Opal until I’d met her and talked to her. After all, she could hold the key to solving this old murder. “You think there might have been a clue in what Brian wrote?”
Prudy folded her arms and nodded. “That’s exactly what I believe.”
Thirteen
“But you couldn’t figure out where Brian was headed in the investigation?” I asked.
“I think that maybe I was too close to the situation. Brian, as a P.I., managed to distance himself when it came to looking at the clues. I didn’t learn to do that until later.”
I’d begun to notice that whenever Prudy mentioned her husband’s name, her eyes looked wistful. After all the years that had passed, she still missed him.
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p; “Well, let’s get going. I don’t know about you ladies, but I’m hungry.”
I loaded the two women into my Crown Victoria, handing Prudy her cane after she was settled, and we headed for a local coffee shop. It was one of Dolly’s favorite places because they gave a good senior discount and all of the waitresses knew her and catered to her. It was the local Senior Citizen Heaven for my neighbor.
While the waitress led us to Dolly’s “usual” table, I observed the two women and smiled to myself. Here was tall, thin Prudy leading the parade with her long white hair pulled into a ponytail, and Dolly Temple. Two opposites. Dolly stood no more than four feet, ten inches tall, had short snow white permed hair and glasses that rested on the end of her nose. She couldn’t weigh more than ninety pounds, tops. It wasn’t lost on me that my grandmotherly neighbor appeared to be the more spry of the two women.
I noticed that the waitress glanced from one to the other as we sat down, and grinned. “Dolly, what can I get for you today? The usual?”
Dolly’s expression was one of pride as she sat up straighter. The waitress knew what her usual order was. “I think my friends might like to see the menu before we make up our minds, Pamela. Although, I’ll probably have my regular sandwich. You know, Sandi is the one who introduced me to it.”
I glanced at Dolly, wondering what she was ordering. Something she’d discovered through me?
Pamela grinned and turned to me. “We make a special sandwich for Dolly. Peanut butter, bacon and tomato on white bread. And I guess we have you to thank for that culinary delight.”
I smiled, sheepishly. “I’ll have the same thing. Crispy bacon.”
“Make it three, but I’d like mine on wheat bread,” Prudy piped up. “I love trying new and weird things.”
“Three PBT’s coming up. Iced tea all around?” We nodded and Pamela walked away shaking her head.
We chatted about inconsequential things for a few minutes, until Prudy said, “Okay, let’s get down to business and talk about the murder.”
Pamela brought our drinks to the table. The waitress’ eyebrows raised a notch at the mention of a murder, but she didn’t say anything.
