by Jack Parker
Both girls continued pulling items out of the bag, while Meredith finished smoothing her fingernails. There were a lot of photographs, a stack of certificates from professional and civic organizations, and a box of men's jewelry that Meredith couldn't identify as belonging to her brother. None of it was expensive. There was also a large envelope of film negatives that would have to be gone through.
"That'll cost a fortune to develop," Meredith said with a sigh. She shook the bottle of nail polish vigorously, the mixing beads rattling as she shook. "But I don't know any other way to figure out what the pictures are."
"Why don't you ask Cheryl if she knows how to do it on the computer?" Shawna suggested.
"Thanks, I'll do that!," Meredith replied, brightening at the idea. She began painting her left pinkie nail, brushing on a deep burgundy color. As she dipped the brush back into the bottle the plastic cap made a kewp sound.
Gracie added the negatives to the pile of photo envelopes while Shawna reached into the bag to find it empty. She tossed it on the floor and hauled the second bag into place on the table. "One down, one to go," she commented.
A small photo album fell out; Gracie picked it up and looked through it. "Lots of older folks in this one." She pulled a picture out of the plastic pocket and read the back out loud. "Cousin Johnny at the family reunion, 1985."
"I don't recognize that name," Meredith said as she painted another nail. Kewp.
Gracie removed a couple more pictures until she found one with a last name. "Elsie Bonner," she announced. "Does that ring a bell?"
Kewp. "Yes, that was my grandmother's maiden name! Let me see the handwriting, please." Meredith waved her hand vigorously to help dry the nail polish as she inspected the back of the photo in Gracie's hand. "That's Granny's writing, so that must be one of her albums. John probably got it when she died. Turn it my way and flip through a few pages for me, please."
Gracie complied, glad to see Meredith happy at this find. Upon request she read off the name on another photo. "Victoria Bonner."
"Aunt Vickie," Meredith almost whispered, obviously awed at the find. "My great aunt, really. She died when I was just a child. I don't know if I ever met her, but I think I would've liked her."
"Why's that?" Shawna inquired.
Meredith smiled warmly. "One of Granny's brothers went off to serve in World War I, and he brought a bride with him when he came home."
"From another country." Shawna assumed.
"No, just from another part of this country," Meredith said. "All the women in Granny's family were down-to-earth types, hard-working with no frills. Aunt Vickie was more worldly – she wore makeup, and she smoked, drank and cussed."
"How sinful!" Gracie laughed.
"Positively shocking," Meredith agreed happily. "Not that I approve of all her vices, but there was a funny story about Vickie. She asked to ride along with some family member to an out of town funeral, evidently a long trip, as they would be gone all day. 'Vickie', they said, 'You know you can't smoke in our car.' 'I promise I won't smoke,' says Vickie, and she was as good as her word. But as they got close to home that evening she sighed deeply and remarked 'Geez kids, I need a drink and a cigarette this long.'" Meredith held her hands about two feet apart in demonstration.
The girls laughed heartily. "Awww, she'd had all she could take of being good," Shawna said.
"John didn't tell me that story until long after she was gone. I always admired her spunk in standing up to my rather straight-laced family, she didn't let 'em change her. And speaking of drink, Gracie could I ask you to bring me a beer from the fridge? I can't open it myself, just now." She waggled her drying nails in explanation.
Gracie duly brought in a can of beer, pulling the pop-top and handing it to Meredith.
"To Vickie," Meredith said, raising her can.
The girls toasted with their water and everyone laughed.
"I'm really glad to have a picture of Aunt Vickie," Meredith mused. "What else is in that bag?"
They took turns pulling out more photo envelopes, a stack of letters written to John by his mother, and a box of the kind of odds and ends that are often found in a desk drawer: coins, keys, a small screwdriver meant to hang from a key chain, and a couple of pretty rocks. Removal of the box dislodged a stack of tri-folded papers that had been slipped down the side of the bag.
"These are all printouts of the same letter," Shawna said as she leafed through the stack. "And listen to what it says!"
"'Dear Ms. Canardi: I am writing to you today to ask that you contact me as soon as possible about my late husband's Trust. I must've called you a dozen times, but you're not returning them. I'm not getting his Social Security checks anymore, and I am in bad need of money. I have bills to pay and the doctors want money and I can't live on what little I get. His greedy sister has tied up the Estate in the courts so you see I really need money from the Trust, which he meant me to have. Call me when you get this and tell me when I can get what's rightfully mine.' Signed, Roberta Redmond."
"They all say the same thing?" Meredith asked.
"Yes, they're just copies of the same letter. Umm, there's no date, so I guess she'd write that in and sign it when she sent it," Shawna replied.
"I'd bet those unopened letters in Canardi's office are the same thing," Gracie said. "What a whiner! But I still can't figure out why she'd be trying to contact her husband's Trustee. Robbie probably knew Canardi wasn't practicing anymore and she'd supposedly been told she had to wait for the probate to get finished."
Shawna reached into the bag and pulled out a cassette tape, turning it over to see if it was labeled. "Nothing's written on either side. Should we play it?"
Meredith scrunched up her face in thought. "I think I have a cassette player somewhere; I used to record lessons for a girl who'd been in a bad car wreck, and she couldn't attend class for several weeks." She pointed to a cabinet in the living room. "Shawna, why don't you see if it's there?"
Shawna found the player and brought it into the dining room where she and Gracie fiddled with it for a few minutes, figuring out how to plug it in and insert the tape. Meanwhile Meredith began shaking her bottle of nail polish preparatory to adding a second coat.
Gracie pushed the 'play' button, amazed at how clunky the mechanical key felt. Kewp, as Meredith stuck the brush in the bottle. The tape began with a noticeable hiss, then they heard a muffled voice.
"Turn it up!" Shawna urged.
That helped, but the sound was still indistinct, with a lot of background noise.
Kewp. "That sounds like Robbie's voice," Meredith commented.
"I think it started in the middle, let me rewind it and try again," Gracie said.
They all listened closely as it was difficult to understand everything that was said, sometimes asking aloud for clarification. But after a couple of minutes complete silence reigned, broken only by the soft kewp from the teacher's place. A single drop of blood-red nail polish fell to the table unnoticed as she listened intently. Then they played the tape through again just to be sure.
"Well, well," Meredith said. "Now we know who killed Robbie, and why, but we don't know how.
CHAPTER 82
Wednesday
Ken listened to the cassette tape once again. Gracie, Shawna and Meredith Rodgers had brought it in late yesterday afternoon, and he'd played it through with them there. Ms. Rodgers had insisted that one of the voices was that of her late aunt Robbie Redmond and indeed the other voice verified that, calling her by name several times. And Robbie used a name too. It was obvious that the tape had been recorded with an open microphone, and from the conversation, that it had been done surreptitiously. The second person surely wouldn't have said what they had if they'd known they were being taped. There was a great deal of background noise; papers being shuffled, keyboard clicks, the faint hum of the air conditioner running, shoes scuffing on carpet and chairs creaking as one or the other person shifted their weight. It was a tense conversation and that made it
seem like it lasted a long time, though in reality it was only a few minutes long.
Long enough, Ken thought. It told him almost everything he needed to know. Everything but how the murder had actually been committed, though not surprisingly Gracie had that figured out. Had the other speaker known that Mrs. Redmond had captured the conversation on tape, that alone would be enough motive to kill her. Had they found out? Or had they merely become suspicious because of what was said? Robbie was attempting blackmail, and blackmailers had ended up dead often enough simply because they'd made the overture. The interesting thing was the old woman's proof of wrongdoing. She'd admitted to destroying the original document because it was dangerous to her as well, but she'd been clever enough to realize that a copy wouldn't harm her and would be just as threatening to her target.
He opened the case folder and went through the first few pages just to be sure he had all his ducks in a row. The top one was from Cookie's Cookies, a list of clients that took regular delivery of cookies. The suspect had been a customer for the past three years, receiving two dozen cookies each morning but leaving the variety up to the bakery. That necessitated that staff keep track of what had been sent to avoid duplication, and chocolate chip had been the flavor of choice on the day of Mrs. Redmond's murder.
That fact alone would be considered circumstantial evidence; there were several other customers that had ordered chocolate chippers that day. Ken had spent the morning talking to each and every one of them looking for any connection with the dead woman. Not content with their denials, he had also checked their bank and credit card statements for the past year. He had found no connection whatsoever. Again, circumstantial. Anyone could've walked in off the street and bought the cookies that were later used to kill Mrs. Redmond.
So Ken had ordered tests run on the white paper bag found in Robbie's kitchen trash. The results of those tests were written up on the next page, and showed exactly what Gracie had predicted. The substance found would indeed cause an anaphylactic reaction in anyone highly allergic to nuts. Interestingly, only one of the greasy spots had tested positive for that product. Considering it had been the biggest blob and roughly in the center of one side of the bag, he felt certain that only one cookie had been dosed and that one placed on top of a pile of innocuous cookies. The killer would have had to know about the woman's allergy as well as knowing that one would do the trick, and nothing was said about cookies or allergies on the tape. Really rather neat, he thought. The victim eats the murder weapon, leaving no trace.
Well, not exactly no trace. Ken had called the coroner's office to see if they'd received a report of stomach contents yet. After a brief search Dr. Franks found it amongst the morning's mail and yes, the substance had been present in sufficient quantity to trigger the allergy and cause death. Said report had been faxed to Ken and added one more indication of guilt.
The circumstantial evidence was piling up, but now it remained for Ken to put the murder weapon into the suspect's hands. Without that link the D.A. wouldn't touch the case with the proverbial ten-foot pole. Fortunately, it had been surprisingly easy. The product was available for purchase in any number of stores, nor was its purchase limited in any way or tracked. Not as such. However one of the big-box hardware stores kept track of everything its customers bought. Their intention was to be able to refresh the customer's memory so the same item could be bought again but this time it backfired on the suspect, proving possession.
There was only one thing left – to prove that Mrs. Redmond had seen her killer sometime on that Thursday. That one was easy; the Redmond woman didn't like to drive, and Yellow Cab (the first company he'd called) confirmed fares to and from the killer's lair.
Ken closed the folder and patted it lightly in satisfaction. There was enough in there to get a search warrant from the judge and he felt sure he'd be making an arrest not long afterward. Then he could talk to Gracie without worrying about conflict of interest. He picked up the folder and headed to the courthouse.
* * * *
Kelly stood at the bottom of the school steps, shooting Cheryl a highly disgusted look. "But you went shopping yesterday," he said, trying to use logic to dissuade her.
Cheryl shrugged. "And I discovered that they're having a sale today."
"It might be nice to walk around the mall for awhile," Gracie mused.
"What?" Kelly asked in surprise. "I didn't think that was your kind of fun."
"It's the murder," Gracie replied as if that made perfect sense.
"But you turned the evidence over to Ken," he reminded her, knowing what she'd meant. "There's nothing left for you to do now, you're out of it. You're not even a suspect anymore."
"She hasn't heard anything from Ken since then," Shawna said. "She's worried that he's not gonna arrest the killer."
"Or can't, because he can't prove the case," Gracie said glumly.
"See? Gracie needs a little retail therapy to cheer her up," Cheryl suggested with a big grin.
"Guys, let's not fight about this," Gracie told them. She turned to face her boyfriend. "Kelly, I'd love for you to come but I'll understand perfectly if you don't want to go shopping with us. I don't know that I need to buy anything, but I think the looking would help take my mind off of this. We can meet up somewhere later, if you'd like."
Kelly looked skeptical, clearly trying to decide what he wanted to do.
As they stood there looking at each other Meredith Rodgers ran down the steps toward them. "Oh good, I found you! Ken just called."
"And?" Shawna prompted.
"He's made the arrest!" Meredith practically crowed. "We're no longer suspects."
Gracie heaved a sigh of relief that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"Gracie, that's great!" Kelly cried. He took her hand between both of his, squeezing it warmly. "You don't have to worry anymore. Hey, let's go celebrate. It's a little cool for ice cream…"
"Never!" Gracie said, laughing. "Would you like to come with us Ms. Rodgers?"
Meredith shook her head, then stopped and smiled. "Sure, why not? Kelly's right, it's time to celebrate. Mr. Allison called this morning to tell me Ashley's agreed to let me have John's ashes."
"That's wonderful!" Shawna said.
"I'll bet she just doesn't want to bury them next to her step-mother," Cheryl said sarcastically.
Meredith pointed at her, grinning hugely. "You got it. Which suits me just fine. Tell me where you're going and I'll go gather up my stuff and meet you there."
Thirty-some minutes later they were sitting at the table in the ice cream parlor, their treats finished but still happily chatting about various things. No one had brought up the subject of the murder, having already heard Gracie's theory and content that an arrest had been made.
"Hey, Cheryl, did you figure out a way for Ms. Rodgers to use a computer to look at all those negatives?" Shawna asked.
"First she had to figure out what a negative is," Meredith chuckled. "They're ancient tech to her; and pretty much to me anymore too."
"I did," Cheryl replied happily. I took the bunch you loaned me and tried just scanning one in, but it came out too dark to see anything. So I did some research on-line and found out that negatives have to be back-lit to see the image. There's all kinds of fancy light-boxes you can buy, but they're not cheap. So just for fun I tried scanning it with the copier lid open – and it worked!"
"Fabulous!" Meredith said. "I can see what the pictures are without having to print them all. I'm pretty sure I don't want copies of everything, and this way I can print just the ones I want. That'll save me a ton of money. Thanks, Cheryl!"
"Well, it's a little more complicated than that," Cheryl hedged. "Once you scan it into the computer you have to pull the scan up in a paint program. Click on the 'negative image' button, so now you have a positive image. Then I had to fiddle with the brightness and contrast, and rotate it to get the picture the right way up. It's surprising how hard it is to make sense of a picture that's upside down."
"Why don't we come over this weekend, and Cheryl can show you," Gracie suggested. "We can make a party out of it."
Just then Meredith's phone rang and she got up to walk to a quieter spot to take the call. She had a funny look on her face when she came back.
"That was Loretta," she said as she took her seat again. "We're all invited to her house at 5:30 this evening."
"What for?" Kelly asked dubiously.
Meredith shook her head in confusion. "I'm not entirely sure. She acted like she just wanted to extend the hand of friendship to me now that all the hoopla has died down, but she got real excited when I said I was with the four of you and positively insisted that I drag you along. She did say she'd feed us."
"She's got some scheme in mind, I'm sure," Cheryl remarked. "I'm not sure I want anything to do with it – or her."
"Me, either," Kelly stated. "I know I haven't met her, but from all I've heard I don't want to."
"Trust me, you don't," Cheryl told him acidly.
"I don't know, it sounds like fun in an odd way," Shawna said. The others merely stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. She shrugged. "I haven't met her either, but maybe we could kinda play with her, see what nutty things we can get her to say."
"Ooh, and then we could record it and threaten to play it back for her siblings," Cheryl said, suddenly seeing a way to get back at the woman's rude comment.
"You wouldn't!" Shawna said.
Cheryl grinned wickedly. "No, but she doesn't need to know that. I could use my laptop."
"I think we should get Robbie's Will and take it this time," Gracie said.
"I don't want any part of any of this," Kelly declared staunchly.
"Well, I for one want to get John's photo albums, so I'll be going," Meredith told them. "I'd like it if you'd all come along, except for Kelly who's already said 'no', but you don't have to."
Cheryl glanced at her phone to check the time. "If we hurry I can get that blouse for 30% off before we have to be there," she said hopefully.
