by Marja McGraw
“Like hooch?” Eloise chewed on her lower lip, thinking. “Stuff like that would need to be protected from the elements, right? And they’d want to keep the law out of there, right?”
“Could be,” Pete said. “I’ve got a crowbar out in the car. I’ll go get it.”
He left and returned shortly, bearing said crowbar. After grunting and groaning, and working on the door, it finally budged a fraction of an inch. He studied what little he could see of the opening, his gaze moving from the bottom to the top.
“Oh! There is a lock.” He pulled something at the top of the wall, and before long he had the door open.
“What was it?” Stanley asked.
“Kind of a rope pull, but it was buried high in the wall so you couldn’t see it. We’re lucky the rope hadn’t rotted away.”
Eloise was excited. “Let’s see what’s in there. Sandi, hand me the flashlight.”
I did. I wasn’t sure what she hoped to find.
I followed her into a room filled with shelves which happened to hold bottles of liquor. Some had fallen from the shelves and broken.
There was an old suitcase at the back of the room.
“I wonder what’s in here,” Stanley said, pointing at the case.
Everyone had managed to squeeze into the room. It wasn’t huge, but we all fit in single file along an aisle.
He knelt down beside the luggage, groaning as he rubbed his shoulder, and tried to open the case. “It’s locked. Doesn’t it just figure?”
Pete joined him after retrieving some of his tools. “I’ll get this open.”
Nothing seemed to work so he finally grabbed one of the hammers and beat the poor case half to death – but it finally opened.
There was a group intake of breath.
“Look at all that money,” Eloise said. “I wonder if money that old is still worth anything today.”
“Of course, it is,” Felicity said. “It has to be. It’s legal tender, even if it is old. We’ll check with the bank.”
While they were fondling the cash, I slipped past them and walked past the shelving to find more space. “Hold the boat, everyone. There’s more to this room than meets the eye.”
“Like what?” Pete asked, following my voice. He tracked my gaze. “Oh. Uh oh. I guess I’d better call Rick again.”
Another body, but not mummified this time. It was a skeleton.
“Three murders?” Stanley asked, joining us.
“Looks like it,” Pete said. “Somebody went knife crazy. This person’s been stabbed, too.” The knife was sitting near the body and was either rusty or covered with dried blood.
“At least we can figure it wasn’t a robbery,” I said. “The money is still here. What the heck is going on? What did we get involved in? These are starting to look like crimes of passion.”
“This one is a woman,” Pete said.
“What makes you say that?” Stanley asked.
Pete lowered his head and raised it again before replying. “Look at the clothes on the skeleton; a dress and high heels. And there’s a purse sticking out from under the body.”
Eloise had joined us. “A woman? I’ll have to look through Archie’s notes. I don’t recall anything about a woman disappearing. Maybe… Wait. I think I do remember something. It’ll come to me. I had no idea I’d be opening this can of worms when I hired you.”
“Do you want us off the case?” I wasn’t sure how she was feeling at the moment.
“No. Absolutely not. I’m more convinced than ever that this needs to be solved. I just wasn’t expecting to find Harley’s body – or that of an unknown woman, God rest her soul.”
Stanley shook his head. “I can’t believe it. Another vintage person bites the dust.” He made a tsking sound and left the room. “I don’t want to be in here if you find a fourth body,” he said over his shoulder.
Vintage person? That was an interesting way to put it.
Pete left the room and went outside to call Rick.
“I’m shocked,” Felicity said.
“I’m stumped,” I said.
“I’m amazed,” Eloise said. “Less than twenty-four hours and you’ve found two dead bodies.” She glanced at her watch and shrugged. “Time for lunch.”
“Doesn’t any of this bother you?” I asked.
She started to roll her eyes, but caught herself. “I’m retired. Did I mention where I used to work?”
“Not that I remember, but this should be interesting,” Felicity said.
“When I was young I worked at a mortuary as a secretary. I saw a lot. Then I got a job as a secretary at the coroner’s office, and I saw a lot more. No, there’s not much that bothers me. I guess I’ve seen just about everything. Harley wasn’t my first mummy, either. Go call Pete and tell him to come eat.” She lifted a basket onto the bar and started pulling out sandwiches.
That explained a lot. I’d thought she was being too cavalier about all the bodies that were turning up, but she’d probably seen it all.
We sat at the bar and ate while we waited for Rick, and talked about possibilities. There were all kinds of plausible explanations for what we were finding, but we didn’t have enough information. My initial reaction had been that these were crimes of passion since the killer hadn’t taken the money.
Rick arrived about an hour later and Pete showed him the body. The technicians arrived soon after. They waved at us, remembering us from Eloise’s house.
Eloise offered Rick a sandwich, which he gratefully accepted. “It’s been another busy day. I wish that weren’t the case.” He looked tired.
“Did you learn anything about Harley?” Eloise asked.
“Not much. Claude, the coroner, happens to have a fascination with cold cases. Kind of macabre, if you ask me, but that’s life. Anyway, it turns out that Harley was stabbed multiple times, just like his brother. He’d been stabbed in the back seven times, and apparently shoved onto the chair where he was stabbed one last time.”
“Next time you see Claude, tell him Eloise says hi.”
Rick raised his eyebrows in question.
“I used to work there. We talked about old cases while he worked on new ones.”
“Uh, oh. Okay. Anyway, I’m thinking a crime of passion, at this point. Between using a knife and multiple wounds, it makes sense. Someone was extremely angry. Sorry, but for now this case is still going to have to sit on the back burner.”
Great minds…, I thought. Rick and I were on the same page as far as motive.
“We’ll keep digging,” Pete said.
“Thank you. I never thought I’d say this, but I can really use your help.”
He turned to me.
“I still can’t believe how easily dead bodies turn up in your life.”
I shrugged. I couldn’t believe it either. It bothered me that, in my own way, I was getting used to it. That shouldn’t be the case. Maybe skeletal remains simply didn’t affect me the way fresh bodies did. Pete and I had seen our share of, as Stanley put it, vintage bodies.
One of the techs walked out of the room carrying the suitcase.
“Excuse me,” Eloise said, “but will that money be returned to me? Or will it be kept as evidence?”
“Don’t know and don’t care,” the tech said. He pointed at Rick. “Talk to him.” He left with the suitcase.
“Well! How rude.”
Rick looked her in the eyes. “He’s had a rough day, too.”
She looked like she felt guilty. “He’s forgiven.”
“Any more bodies while I’m here?”
“I sure hope not,” I said.
Chapter Nine
“Pete,” I said, “doesn’t it seem a little coincidental that you found the door that fast? That it was right behind where you broke down the outer wall?”
We were driving home, ready to call it a day. We told Eloise we’d meet her back at the Gin Mill Grill the next morning to do more searching. Unlike some of our other cases, there was no rush to solve this o
ne. Thankfully.
“It wasn’t that much of a coincidence,” Pete replied. “I figured anything of interest would be near the bar, and I was right. Booze is generally kept in a convenient location.”
I patted his arm and let my hand rest there. “You’re so smart.”
He grinned. “I have my moments, not to mention experience.”
Of course. He’d been with the police department for several years and had probably done a number of searches. Besides, men love to hear how smart we think they are. I grinned to myself.
As soon as we arrived home I hurried next door to Dolly’s house to pick up the dogs. Dolly, who’s in her eighties, is like a grandmother to me, and when Pete and I are on a case, she often takes care of the dogs for us. Unfortunately her cat, Miss Kitty, isn’t too happy about the arrangement. I’d heard Miss Kitty (whose name sounds so silly to me) hiss at Bubba on more than one occasion. He ignores her, for the most part, although I’d seen him tease her a few times.
“Dolly, how has Miss Kitty taken to Clem?”
She smiled. “Oh, they’re a hoot. Clem wants to lick the cat’s face, and Miss Kitty acts like she’s insulted and leaves the room. Thanks to Bubba, at least she’s used to having a dog in the house. I have to admit that the licking gets to me once in a while, but it’s not that big of a deal.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Dolly looked flustered. “Oh, dear, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s okay. I just push her away.” She laughed. “It’s just that she turns around and comes right back. Eventually she licks Bubba instead of me or Miss Kitty. It’s fine.”
As I knew she would, she changed the subject.
“Why don’t you come in and tell me about your latest case?”
We spent about half an hour talking about Eloise, Horace, Harley and the unidentified woman. I told her about the secret doors, which fascinated her.
“I hope one day I can meet Eloise,” Dolly said. “She sounds like a no-nonsense woman, someone I’d like.”
“Maybe one of these days,” I said, standing.
It was time to go home and feed the dogs.
After I fed Clem and Bubba, I found Pete on the computer, researching Prohibition. “I don’t know if the times had anything to do with the murders or not, but it never hurts to stay informed.” He glanced up at me. “I wonder if Stan has found anything on Edgar.”
“I’ll call him after dinner. I want to talk to Felicity anyway,” I said.
We had leftover spaghetti, one of Pete’s favorites. I fixed garlic bread and salad to go with it.
We discussed the case at the dinner table. The only conclusion we could come to, at the moment, was that we had no idea where this would lead us.
I twirled some spaghetti strands on my fork, but before putting it in my mouth I said, “I can hardly believe we found two bodies in two days. We need so much more information. I mean, Pete, I feel like we’re working in the dark.”
“We are. I wish one of the twins had kept a diary or something. We need some direction. I can’t figure out how that woman fit into the situation. I can’t even figure out what the situation is, for crying out loud.” He sounded frustrated.
“Okay,” I said, “we’ve got one brother who was brutally murdered in his home. Everyone knew about his death, but it was never solved. The police assumed his brother killed him, but now we’ve found the body of the brother, who was also brutally murdered. And now we’ve got a vintage dead woman.”
“Vintage?”
“I picked that up from Stanley. He was talking about vintage bodies.”
Pete nodded and took a bite of garlic bread.
“I don’t know how we’re going to figure this one out. We don’t have anything to go on.”
“Good old-fashioned detective work,” my husband said. “If there are clues to be found, we’ll find them. I think the first thing we need to do is find out if anyone who used to frequent the speakeasy is still alive. We need some eye witnesses to what was going on.”
“Right. Don’t hold your breath though, because chances are most of them have already gone to their Maker or they’re not in their right head. That’s not fair. I’m sorry. There are plenty of seniors who are still as sharp as ever. Look at Dolly. She may be in her eighties instead of her nineties, but she’s sharp.”
“You keep thinking positive, Sandi. Maybe Stan will come up with something.”
I glanced up from my plate. “We sure are pinning a lot of hopes on Stanley and his research.”
We finished eating and I began to clear the table.
“No,” Pete said. “I’ll clean up the dishes while you call Stan.”
“Really?”
He smiled. “Really. We need to get moving on this case.”
Rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, I scurried off to my home office to call Stanley.
Felicity answered the phone, and she sounded excited. She must have looked at caller ID because she didn’t even bother with a hello. “Stan has some information for you. He’s been glued to the computer since we got home.”
“What’d he find?” I asked.
“I’ll go get him and let him tell you himself. Hold on.”
I heard a light clunk when she set down the cell phone, and I could hear voices in the background when she spoke to Stanley.
“Sandi?” he said. “I found Edgar Barrow. I called his son and he seemed quite friendly. He added that he’s got all manner of stories that his father told him about the speakeasy. Between him and his father, we may find some valuable information.”
“You found Edgar? Where is he?”
“Well, he’s in an assisted living facility. His son said he’s senile and he can’t remember what happened yesterday, but he loves to talk about the old days. Ollie, that’s the son, said his father really enjoyed his life in those days.”
“Senility. Oh, that poor man.”
“No, his son said he’s a very happy old gentleman. He said sometimes his father forgets who he is – I mean he forgets his son – but much of the time he’s at least semi-lucid. He thinks his father has some secrets about the speakeasy and that we can get him to open up about those days.”
My heart did a little jump. “Did he give you the name and address of the assisted living place?”
“He did. His only stipulation is that he wants to be there when we talk to his father. He said he’s the only one who can get Edgar to open up and talk about the gin mill. He called it the gin mill.”
“Would you talk to him again and set things up?” I asked.
“I’ve already done so. You’re going to meet with Edgar on Thursday.”
“Won’t you be there?”
“No, he’s afraid if there are too many people it may make his father nervous. After all, the man is going on ninety-nine years old.”
“I see.”
“Felicity wants to talk to you. I’ll see you and Pete tomorrow at the Gin Mill Grill, right?”
“Of course. Eloise is excited about us getting back to work on the place. She’s hoping we’ll find… I don’t know what, but she’s hoping we’ll find something.”
Felicity came back on the phone. “So we’re all getting together again tomorrow?”
“Oh, yes. There’s a lot more to research at the old bar. Who knows what else we’ll find?”
“No more bodies, I hope.”
We hung up and I told Pete what Stanley had found out.
“Who’da thunk the old guy would still be around? This could be very interesting.” He looked thoughtful, and I had a feeling he was already thinking of ways to get the old man talking.
“Now what?” I said.
“Why don’t you call Eloise and ask if she’s found any information about the woman? Then let’s take a walk with the dogs.”
I nodded and headed back to the office to make the call. She answered on the first ring.
“I was hoping you’d call,” she said.
“Please feel free to phone
us if you need anything,” I replied.
“Well, I found a reference to a woman in Archie’s notes, but I don’t know if it’s the same woman or not.”
“What did your father say?”
“He wrote about a woman named Loretta Simms. Apparently both of the cousins thought they were in love with her, as did half the men who frequented the speakeasy. He said he talked to someone, although he didn’t include this person’s name, who heard the brothers argue about her. I guess that’s what made the coppers back then think that Harley killed his brother. Like we talked about, it did seem like the murders were a crime of passion.”
“Yes, but who was the passionate killer? It certainly wasn’t Harley. And from the sounds of it, it could have been just about anyone if she had several men interested in her.”
“I don’t know. I sure hope we can find some witnesses to what was going on.”
“Oh, Eloise, I almost forgot to tell you. Stanley found Edgar Barrow. He’s still alive.”
“Well, doesn’t that beat all?”
“We’re going to talk to him on Thursday. Maybe you should come along. Since he knew Archie, he might open up to you.”
I heard a loud crash.
“Eloise?”
“Someone just threw a rock through my front window.” She sounded breathless.
“Call the police and Pete and I will be there as soon as possible.”
Chapter Ten
“Pete,” I called, “come quick. We need to get over to Eloise’s. Someone threw a rock through her window.”
He sauntered into the room. “What does that have to do with us? It could have been some kid with a baseball.”
“At this time of night? Besides, it was a rock, and you know me and my woman’s intuition. Let’s get over there. I have a feeling this has something to do with what we’re working on.”
He shrugged and picked up his keys from the table. “Let’s go. I never thought I’d say this, but I put a lot of stock in your gut feelings.”
I quickly made sure the dogs had plenty of water. We shouldn’t be gone too long, and they could stay in the house for a change instead of going over to Dolly’s place.
