Tyler said, “Abducted? Held? Don’t leave it like that.”
“I’ll fill you in but I have to check something out upstairs.”
“Check what?” Gram said.
“A clue. Please just give me a minute, and I think I can explain everything.”
Not everything, of course. There was still the business of Uncle Kev following me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell Tyler he was here, not until I found out what he was up to. Tyler was still a cop, after all. And a Kelly is a Kelly, i.e. usually up to no good.
* * *
IN THE LARGE front bedroom with Tyler standing behind me breathing hard, I looked up from the photos in the box.
He said, “What is going on, Jordan? Why are you pawing through photos at a time like this? It doesn’t make—”
“We need to find out a little more about your new step-relatives. Something very weird is going on.”
He practically crackled with impatience. “I know that. Tell me what you’re talking about and stop being vague.”
“I think they’re behind what’s been going on.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No. But I just need a bit of proof.”
“Yeah, you do. That’s a serious allegation.”
“So it’s worth a couple more minutes for me to sort it out. You wouldn’t want me to make a mistake.”
“Do it fast. This is making me buggy. I’m calling Martinez to tell her you’re alive.”
“Yeah, that’s good.”
Sure enough, in the photos I found some familiar features if not faces. I tried to calm myself long enough to think clearly. Sure enough, that tall fair man looked familiar although he was probably long gone. William’s brother, Howard, his name on the back. There was enough of a resemblance to the photo of Gram’s husband. I plucked that photo and the one with the toddlers and put them on top of the box. I checked the writing on the back of some the loose photos, but didn’t find the name I was looking for.
When Smiley finished leaving a message for Martinez, I said, “Bear with me just a bit longer. We need to talk to Gram again.”
Back in the sunroom, there was much partying going on with Asta being alternately cuddled and fed treats. Gram was fussing as much as Zoya. The birds chirped their disapproval. Smiley plunked the photo box on the ottoman closest to Gram.
I said, “We need a bit of help with names, Gram.”
“Of course, my dear,” she said, dropping a liver crisp into Asta’s open mouth.
“These children,” I said, pointing to the picture of the two toddlers. “Who are they?”
“My late husband’s great-niece and -nephew,” she said. “They were so cute. The children of his nieces.”
“So their name would not be Huddy.”
“No, my dear. There aren’t any Huddys left except me.”
She shook her pale curls and closed her eyes. “Oh, I really can’t remember. They were the children of William’s nieces. The nieces were Clara and Janet Huddy, pretty girls, good-looking like Howard. I remember their husbands before they divorced, but just now I can’t recall their married names. They were grown up and married before I even met William.”
I said, “Okay. And this man?” I pointed to a tall, slender, fair-haired man.
“That was my husband’s older brother, Howard. Wasn’t he handsome? A lovely man too. He’s long gone, dear.”
“Was he the father of the nieces?”
“He was. Once William and I married and came out here, they visited a couple of times and then we drifted apart after Howard died, except for the odd letter and card. I think they might have been a bit miffed about something. Probably money, if my family is anything to go by.”
Cards? Cards meant envelopes. “Would you have any cards or envelopes?”
“No dear. I got rid of a lot of that when William passed. I didn’t get around to clearing out the photos. He was sentimental about them. He would have kept any envelopes. I’m not really keen on that kind of, well, junk. William wrote names on the backs of lots of photos. Why is this important?”
Tyler gave me a suspicious look.
I didn’t answer but instead asked, “So you haven’t heard from them in years?”
“It’s funny you should ask. I hadn’t heard from any of them for ages, then a few months ago, I got a call from Clara. Or maybe it was Janet. No, it was Clara. She’s the friendlier of the two. One of the kids—can’t remember which one—was thinking of a vacation in California in the fall and wondered if they could visit me. We had a nice long chat. It was very pleasant. I’d like to see them. But not as much as I’m enjoying your visit. You know, now that you’re back and the sun is definitely over the yardarm, I think a G and T would be just the ticket.”
Zoya said glumly, “I vill fix.”
“The kids’ names?”
“Oh. Good question. But silly me, I’d need to think, my dear. You can’t believe what doesn’t stick in your brain once you pass a certain age. Oh, thank you, Zoya. Tyler and Jordan, I’m so sorry. I should have offered you one. Anything you want. Zoya will be happy to mix you a cocktail.”
Tyler and I glanced at Zoya’s thunderous expression and then both looked away. I made sure not to make eye contact with him in case we both laughed our heads off. Neither Gram nor Zoya would appreciate that.
“Thanks, but I need a clear head for a bit,” I said.
Smiley grinned. “Maybe later, Gram.”
* * *
TYLER AND I left Gram and Zoya and Asta with the birds and went off to talk again. I had been holding back on him and he was running out of patience. I hadn’t figured out a way to tell him about Uncle Kev. And I preferred not to mention that I’d made what the boys in blue call an “unauthorized entry” into the Himmelfarb house.
I smiled and changed the subject. “I always wanted cousins.”
Tyler said, “And I always wanted answers. This would be a good time to get some.”
“Now I don’t want cousins. I think your cousins are behind the bizarre stuff that’s been going on.”
“Step-cousins. Okay, but why?”
“I’ll look on the backs of the photos for clues to who’s who. If I can get their names, I may be able to find out where they are. Don’t ask me how just yet.”
“Before we do any of that, let’s get the right telephone numbers keyed into this phone.”
“Good thinking. I hope I’m not in that situation again.”
He glowered as he keyed in the numbers. “You won’t be. I’ll be with you the next time. You won’t be off on your own taking your life into your hands. After this, I won’t let you down.”
I put my arms around him. “You didn’t let me down. You were up all night guarding the house so that I could sleep and you stayed here where you were needed.”
“Doesn’t matter. Anything could have happened. I should have been at that hotel with you. I should have found a way to be there.”
“And I should have realized that if I’d been attacked at the hotel once, it could happen again. Maybe we should just give each other a hall pass on this.”
He grinned. “A hall pass. Just this once. And that reminds me, while you are at the hotel, did you have a chance to grab any of the cameras?”
“Everything happened too fast. We’ll have to go back and get them.”
“We’ll go together and we’ll get Officer Martinez to come with us. I don’t know who those two guys were, but they looked like they meant business.”
“They did not intend to leave me alive. I can’t figure out how they can be connected to—”
“They look like professional thugs. A simple thief has no interest in shooting up a hotel room and terrorizing guests. These are seriously dangerous people.”
“I know that.” And they may be more of your new relatives.
“That’s good.”
Tyler said, “We have Howard’s name. I’ll see what I can find out online about him and his relatives. New York State. That will be a start to give us names. And Jordan?”
“Mmm?”
“I hope you’re going to get it off your chest sooner rather than later. Not only about why you think it’s the cousins, but also whatever else it is.”
Of course, he could tell I was keeping something else from him. I just needed a bit more information before I dropped the Uncle Kev bombshell.
I said, “Don’t worry. There is something, but it’s not related to this and I’ll come clean soon. In the meantime, how about I fill you in on everything that happened at the hotel?”
He settled back and folded his arms and I went through the events from the first knock on the door of the suite. I stopped just before I got to the Himmelfarb section. I did put in the part about changing into the shorts, T-shirt and A’s cap in an alley behind a garbage can. I just didn’t mention which alley.
Tyler cracked up at that image of me getting changed outside in broad daylight.
I had to laugh too. “I’m glad you see the humor in my changing in an alley.”
“It’s just that you always look so—I’m sorry I missed you in the chambermaid’s uniform too. You’ll have to model it for me.” It lightened the mood between us a bit.
But I fought back a moment’s panic. Where was that uniform? Did I have it with me when I got to Gram’s? And where was the “evidence” from the Himmelfarb house? “Hang on!”
I headed back to the front door. I found one plastic bag with my orange satchel in it. No uniform. No Starbucks cups and Jolly Rancher wrappers.
“Now that you say that, I seem to have lost it. I stuffed it into one of the plastic bags from the store where I bought my snazzy new outfit.”
The uniform bag was probably sitting behind the Himmelfarb garbage can. Had I left the evidence in the closet?
“Maybe you dropped it when you were ‘changing’?” He made a big deal out of the air quotes.
My mind was still whirling on the location of that bag. Had I dropped one when I surprised Uncle Kev in the alley? That would be the best thing. And easy enough to verify as Uncle Kev was supposed to be watching the Art Deco apartment for signs of Jessica and Josh.
I said, “I’m just going to search the house and see if I can find it. I was pretty stressed and I could have dropped it anywhere.”
I even checked back in the sunroom. “I’m just looking for a plastic shopping bag I misplaced. Did you notice it, Zoya?”
I figured the sniff meant “no.”
Gram sipped her drink and said, “Don’t be long, my dear. Tyler, sit for a minute. We should have a nice dinner tonight. Zoya does a wonderful stroganoff. Don’t you, Zoya?”
Zoya’s wide silver eyes bulged like Asta’s. Oh well.
Gram sipped her drink and twinkled at us. “Oh, I remember! Melski and Kargol.”
Tyler blinked and I’m pretty sure I did too. Zoya’s eyes narrowed like slits, her bright red lips thin and angry.
Gram tapped her forehead and chuckled. “William’s nieces. Those were their married names. I knew they were in there somewhere.”
* * *
JUST ONE TINY piece of information before we could involve the police.
“No luck, Jordie. They haven’t left,” Uncle Kev said when I called.
“Unless they went out the back entrance or left in a car.”
“Why would they do that? They don’t know that we’re following them.”
“They know something’s up. But here’s the good news. Check the names of the occupants for Kargol and Melski.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a good chance that they’re Tyler’s cousins and those are their last names.”
“Oh. Hang on.”
A minute later, Kev said, “Nope.”
“Nope?”
“No one named Melski there.”
“And Kargol?”
“Oh right. I forgot about that part.”
“Are you still there?”
“No, I’m back outside now.”
“Go back in and look.”
I paced and waited.
Uncle Kev said, “I don’t remember that name. Oh. There is it. Kargol, just like we said. Unit 310.”
“Right.”
“Good. Now we know that, I also need you to tell me something without any fibbing—”
You always have to say “need” with Uncle Kev and sometimes that’s not enough.
“Me fib? LOL, Jordie.”
“Just tell me what you are doing in San Francisco.”
“Well, I came out here to help you, ’course. Didn’t I just find those sneaky Kargols?”
I felt my eye begin to twitch. “Indeed. But you didn’t know about the sneaky Kargols or that I might need help when you flew out here, Kev.”
“Oh yeah. Well, you know. Lucky hunch.”
I waited. After a minute I said, “So as you didn’t know that I would need help—”
“But you did need help, Jordie. In a big way.”
“Agree, but you couldn’t have known that when you made your arrangements to come to San Francisco to help me.”
“Exactly.”
“No. Not exactly. Why did you decide to do that?”
Uncle Kev was quiet. “Tell me now,” I said. “And you’ll feel better.”
“Maybe not, Jordie.”
“Oh, hello!” A woman’s voice trilled in the background. Sounded like Uncle Kev’s new friend with the poodle. “Any luck?”
“Not now, Uncle Kev. You have to answer me. What are you doing here?”
Silence. Then, “We need to talk, Jordie.”
“We really do. And before we talk, I need you to go back to that house where you found the dog and check the blue bedroom closet. Don’t get caught.”
“Jordie. As if!”
“No offense, but don’t. You’re looking for a bag with trash, taco tray, coffee cups, that kind of thing. Oh, and of course, Jolly Rancher wrappers. Bring that. Then go behind the garbage can in the side yard and see if there’s another bag with a uniform. Got that?”
“Easy stuff.”
“Right. I need them and I need them soon. Then I need you to call me here and let me know when you have it. I’ll meet you outside by the back deck. Don’t let anybody see you.”
“But—”
“No buts. I need the bags. I need them soon. Call me when you have them or if they’re not there. Meet me by the back deck here, at Tyler’s grandmother’s house. Then you can tell me why you’re in San Francisco. And make it good.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Someone will always believe you.
—The Kelly Rules
I STUCK MY head into the sunroom and beckoned to Tyler. He joined me and we headed back to the parlor, our special place to plot and reveal secrets.
“Fine, Officer. I’m ready to talk. You know I made friends with that woman with the baby? Sierra.”
“So far pretty tame.”
“Yep. Well, I mentioned to her that Asta had disappeared the first time and how upsetting that was.”
“Okay.”
“Well, she and her husband, who I think is actually her brother or cousin in real life, actually abducted Asta and kept her in the house across the street.” I pointed at Mr. Himmelfarb’s place. “They were spying on us and I think they were also behind the home invasion and—”
“And you know this how?”
“Not, um, by exactly legal methods.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Probably better if I d
on’t know.”
“You should really know.” I sighed. I’d been doing way too much sighing lately. “Don’t get too mad until I’m finished.”
He watched, grim-faced, as I went through my unauthorized entry (I may have suggested the door was possibly somewhat open) into Gram’s neighbor’s house, my hiding out in the closet, and then my shadowing of Jessica and Josh to their apartment building.
“Never mind the illegality of it all, these were really dangerous steps, Jordan. Breaking into a house—”
“Not exactly breaking into.”
He held up his hand to silence me and oddly enough it worked for a minute. “The law wouldn’t see it that way. And aside from the law, you could have been hurt. Or killed. Think of all the bizarre and dangerous events that have occurred since we’ve been here. You were alone in a house and none of us had any idea.”
I said, “It’s true. I didn’t think it through. I didn’t know they’d be there. When I found out she wasn’t who she pretended to be, I had to follow up.”
“It was across the street, Jordan.”
“In retrospect, I see I should have found a way to get here. I was worried about being followed to Gram’s.”
“I understand why you were worried, but it was a ridiculous course of action.”
“In a way, it’s like we’ve been hexed by Hammett.”
He glared at me. “That is unfair. You can’t blame Dashiell Hammett for you breaking into a house.”
“Unfair? Of course I can blame him. Those Pinkerton operatives would stop at nothing. Neither did I. Did you not read the books?”
“Can I remind you that you are a book researcher, not a Pinkerton operative?”
“Don’t patronize me. Okay, I know that. But let’s remember that I’m all right and I did get to overhear them and I have their real names.”
“What are they?”
“Jessica and Josh. One of them is a Kargol and the other one will turn out to be a Melski. They were talking about getting us out of the picture. The main point is that we now know what they’re up to.”
“You make my head pound. What exactly are they up to?”
“If I understand their conversation right, they’re trying to alienate you from Gram and to scare us away.”
The Hammett Hex Page 23
