Skating Under the Wire

by Joelle Charbonneau

  I was about to put my key in the ignition and clear out when a loud whistle pierced the air. The dogs stopped barking. A second whistle had them bounding up to the porch, where Seth Kurtz was waiting. One by one they sedately padded through the front door.

  Impressive.

  Not impressive enough for me to get out of the car. Pop and Stan didn’t feel the same. As soon as the dogs were out of sight, they climbed out of my Civic and headed up the walk. Crap. Unless I wanted to look like a total wimp, I had to follow.

  “I don’t believe you’ve talked to my granddaughter, Rebecca, since she came back to town,” Pop said as I cautiously stepped onto the porch.

  Seth shook my hand but didn’t invite us inside. I didn’t mind. Being outside was nice. Warmth was highly overrated.

  Pop didn’t agree. “Julie Johnson hired Rebecca to look into the Thanksgiving Day thefts. Since you were the first victim, Rebecca needs to ask you some questions. Can we come inside?”

  Instead of answering the question, Seth folded his arms over his chest and nodded toward Stan. “What’s he doing here?”

  “I’m just along for the ride,” my father answered. “I’d be happy to wait in the car if it’d make you feel better.” He rubbed his hands together and stamped his feet in an effort to keep warm and gave Seth a tremulous smile.

  “Seth, where are your manners?” a pleasant but firm voice said from behind Seth. “Invite them into the house. You’re letting out the heat.”

  My grandfather didn’t need to be asked twice. He gave Seth a big smile and marched into the house. Stan followed. I paused at the door and cocked my head, listening for the sounds of Cujo’s second cousins.

  “I put the dogs in the basement, dear.” Mrs. Kurtz smiled her understanding. “They wouldn’t hurt you. My boys aren’t biters, but they do get a bit overenthusiastic when visitors drop by. Come in from the cold. I have hot tea and sugar cookies waiting in the kitchen.”

  A gust of wind and the promise of cookies chased me inside. After hearing so much about Seth being protective of his home, I expected something … different. Flashier. More expensive. Not that the house wasn’t lovely. It was. The honey-colored wood floors were polished. The walls of the living room we passed as Jan led us down to the back of the house were painted a warm, muted yellow that complemented the comfortable-looking deep blue sofa and chairs. The pale green-and-white kitchen was stylistically dated, but inviting. If it hadn’t been for the scratching and whining coming from a door on the other side of the room, I would have felt very much at home.

  As it was, I took the chair closest to the exit, just in case the dogs managed to gnaw their way through the processed wood. Not the most heroic gesture, but I figured Pop had a full plate of turkey-shaped cookies in front of him that could be used to distract the dogs.

  Seth took the seat closest to the scratching door, while my father helped Jan set milk, sugar, and a pretty blue-and-white flowered teapot on the center of the table.

  “I can’t thank you enough for dropping by.” Jan smiled at me as she passed me a cup. “The entire center is talking about your investigation into the thefts. Ours happened so long ago, I doubt there’s any chance we’ll get any of our things returned, but I’d sleep better knowing the person responsible has been punished. Right, Seth?”

  Seth shrugged and grabbed a cookie. “I sleep plenty good, and it’s not like anyone’s going to rob our house again.”

  “Because of the dogs?” I asked.

  “Those damn dogs didn’t stop the thief the first time.” Seth frowned as his wife took the cookie out of his hand and replaced it with a cup of tea.

  “Doc Truman said you’ve been eating too many sweets and fatty foods.” She patted his hand and took a seat. Turning to me, she said, “We always thought owning so many large dogs would be a deterrent for thieves. Once we learned our mistake, we had an alarm system installed.”

  “Makes sense.” Pop nodded. “You can’t be too careful these days. I’ve been thinking about installing a security system at my place. Music equipment is expensive, and it never hurts to have additional protection against enthusiastic fans.”

  I wasn’t sure Pop’s secondhand amplifiers and microphones would fetch much of a price on eBay. True, Pop owned lots of gold chains and impressive-looking watches, but they were made of materials that tinted skin green. If a thief broke into Pop’s place, the best he could do was lift a couple of cases of fake silk scarves and three black pompadour wigs.

  Huh. As Seth went into detail about his alarm, I glanced at Jan. She was wearing a faded pink sweatshirt advertising her awesomeness as a grandmother. Jeans. A pair of small gold hoops decorated her ears, and a simple wedding band adorned her left hand. Nothing that suggested she and Seth had a stash of artwork or cash to protect. From what I’d seen of the house, they weren’t interested in priceless antiques or other expensive knickknacks either. Yet the system Seth had installed included motion sensors and cameras. I understood being nervous after the breakin, but having every sniffle and sneeze caught on camera seemed like overkill.

  When the boys took a moment to savor their tea, I asked, “Did anyone know you weren’t spending Thanksgiving at home?”

  “I did,” Pop said through a mouthful of cookie. “Jan announced it at Friday night bingo.”

  Jan’s shoulders drooped. “I won the final game of the night. The prize was two hundred and fifty dollars. I was so excited. I’d never won before, and I told everyone how I was going to splurge and buy every flavor of DiBelka pie to take to my son’s house for Thanksgiving.”

  Great. The entire senior citizen population of Indian Falls knew the Kurtzes were going to be MIA for the holiday. Which meant the rest of the town probably knew about the promised pie purchase by the end of church services on Sunday. So much for pinpointing a suspect.

  “Was this the first time you went away for Thanksgiving dinner?”

  “Goodness, no.” Jan smiled. “We have four grown children with families of their own. All of them live less than an hour’s drive away. So for the past twenty years we’ve celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas at one of their houses.”

  Which meant there was a good chance the thief knew the Kurtzes’ house would be vacant long before the bingo bucks bonanza.

  “When did you report the breakin to the police?”

  “Saturday morning.” Seth leaned back in his chair with a frown. “Neither of us noticed anything funny when we got home Thursday night. We let the dogs out for a crap, put the leftovers in the fridge, and went to bed. The next day, I noticed a couple of things weren’t where they were supposed to be, but I just thought it was those senior moments everyone harps about.”

  Pop sighed. “I hate those moments. Just last week I misplaced my teeth and found them sitting on a shelf in the refrigerator.”

  I glanced at my father, who had suddenly developed an avid interest in the linoleum. Making a mental note to address that later, I asked, “When did you realize someone had broken into the house?”

  “Friday afternoon,” Jan explained. “When I saw my mother’s silver candy dish was missing.”

  “Good riddance. The thing was ugly as sin.”

  Jan shot her husband a stern look. “It was a wedding present.”

  “That doesn’t make it less ugly,” Seth said. “It just makes it impossible to get rid of.”

  Wait. “If you noticed the candy dish was missing on Friday, why did you wait until Saturday to call the sheriff?”

  Seth shrugged. “Didn’t seem much point in talking to Sheriff Jackson until we knew what exactly was missing. Wasn’t like the crook was still lurking around, waiting to get caught. Right, Jan?”

  “That’s absolutely right.”

  Although the reasoning made sense, I wasn’t buying it. Both Seth and Jan were trying to act casual, but the furious pace at which Seth was tapping his foot made me question his calm expression, and if Jan twisted that wedding ring any harder she’d do permanent damage to her ha
nd. If they ever came to Lionel’s weekly poker game, they’d lose their shirts. Unfortunately, while I was certain the two were hiding the real reason for their delay in reporting the incident, I had no idea what that reason was.

  “Could you tell me what went missing from the house?” I asked, pulling the notebook from my purse. “The sheriff’s department is in the middle of reorganizing their records. Otherwise, I’d ask Sheriff Jackson for his report.”

  “Well, there was my mother’s silver candy dish.” Jan sent her husband a look that, if directed at me, would have made me squirm. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the recipient of the look was wiping tea off his pants. “My jewelry box, all the watches our kids have given Seth over the years, a silver clock we kept on the mantel, his mother’s gold-plated flatware, and my entire collection of the new United States quarters. I still haven’t been able to replace Maine and Mississippi.”

  My father and Pop dug into their pockets and picked through their change while I added up the value of the items and came up confused. Unless Seth’s other watches weren’t Timexes or the gold-plated forks had originally been used by Henry VIII, the value of the items taken didn’t seem worth the risk of prison or rabies. There had to be another reason why the thief targeted this house and started the Thanksgiving stealing in the first place—and whatever was taken had to have provided enough value or thrill or a combination of both to prompt the robber to strike Barna Donovan’s house the following year.

  “Did you notice if the dogs were behaving any differently, or have a vet check them over?” I asked. “It just seems like the dogs would have scared the robber off or bit him.”

  Jan sighed. “Our dogs are excitable, but very sweet-natured. King, Princess, and Lady were puppies when the robbery happened. The other three we had then passed several years ago, but none of our animals have ever bitten anyone who’s dropped by the house. Not even the mailman. I probably should have had the vet check them over, but other than not being interested in the turkey leftovers I put out, they were perfectly fine.”

  By the time we climbed back into the car, my father had gotten Seth to agree to a photo shoot, Pop had eaten through the entire plate of cookies, and I was no closer to finding the thief. On top of it all, I needed to pee and had been unable to do so at the Kurtzes’, since Seth claimed one bathroom was being renovated and the other had a toilet in need of plunging.

  Right.

  Shifting uncomfortably in my seat, I pointed the car toward town and hit the gas. Further investigation could wait. I needed a bathroom. Now.

  By the time I got close to town, Pop and Stan were also feeling the effects of Jan’s tea and doing the bathroom boogie. Since Pop’s house only had two stalls, I zipped past his place and headed for the rink. Without waiting for Pop and Stan, I hopped out of the car and dashed to the ladies’ room. I heard George yell a greeting as I streaked past.

  Feeling much better, I walked back into the rink and waved as George circled the floor with one of his best artistic skating students. Josie was home from college and working hard to improve in hopes of making it onto the World Artistic Team next year. I watched her execute a flawless triple toe loop/double toe loop combination as my father joined me on the sidelines.

  “I remember standing in this very spot, watching you do that,” he said.

  Josie performed a beautiful spiral, pivoted, and launched herself into a triple lutz.

  “I was never that good,” I said.

  “You could have been. Your mother said you could’ve competed with the top skaters if you’d practiced more.”

  Practicing jumps resulted in lots of falls. With my red hair and fair skin, hitting the ground meant lots of bruises. Even at the age of eight, I understood black-and-blue wasn’t a good look. I’d tried, though, because my mother’s belief in me made me have faith in myself. Too bad our combined belief couldn’t make me more graceful on or off four wheels. Back then I’d shrugged off the disappointment. Now remembering how I’d let my mother down just made me sad.

  “Seth told some lies today,” my father said.

  Thankful for the subject change, I swallowed down the memories and nodded. “I know. He fibbed about the reason they waited to report the crime. Unfortunately, without putting Seth on the rack and torturing the reason out of him, there’s no way for me to learn the truth.”

  “You could if you search the basement.”

  “Why? What am I going to find in the basement?” Other than big angry dogs?

  “Got me.” Stan leaned back against the wall that separated the skating floor from the sidelines. “I just know there’s something more than dog drool lurking down there.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Every time the dogs scratched and whined, Jan flinched and Seth pretended he’d lost his hearing.”

  “Maybe Jan was worried the dogs were making a bad impression and Seth is so used to hearing the commotion he doesn’t even notice.”

  My father shook his head. “Cons can spot another con a hundred feet away, and those two are amateurs. Seth’s hands clenched every time the dogs made a noise, and when your grandfather mistook the basement door for the exit, Jan almost passed out. So on the way out I peeked in one of the window wells. The glass is blacked out.” He smiled. “Trust me. The reason they waited to report the breakin is still in that basement.”

  Wow. Stan’s logic was hard to dispute. Who knew having a crook for a father would finally pay off?

  “Too bad there’s no way to get a look down there.”

  Stan patted my arm. “Sure there is.”

  “Seth wouldn’t allow us to use the bathroom. He’s not going to let me tromp down the stairs and poke around.”

  “Well, of course not. You’ll have to do it when he isn’t home.”

  “When who isn’t home?” My grandfather joined us. “What did I miss? My pipes don’t work on command the way they used to.”

  “Rebecca needs to break into Seth and Jan’s basement.”

  Pop’s eyes brightened. “Do you need a lookout?”

  “I don’t need a lookout because I’m not going into Seth and Jan’s house. Even if breaking and entering wasn’t wrong, they have six German shepherds and a security alarm.” Thus far I’d managed to stay away from dog bites and handcuffs. Two streaks I intended to continue.

  “The alarm is bogus.”

  I blinked at my dad. “They have a sticker on the door and a blinking box on the wall.”

  Stan grinned. “Those things are there because Seth and Jan used to have an alarm. Seth was telling the truth when he said he installed one after the robbery, but I’m betting he got annoyed by the expense and decided it wasn’t worth it. People do that all the time.”

  True enough. “But how can you be so sure Seth and Jan are those people?” Not that I was considering breaking into their house. I was just curious.

  Stan shrugged. “I sold security systems a few years back. The system Seth was bragging about is at least a decade old and has had mandatory updates two or three times since. When I asked Seth if his system ever required updating, he said no.”

  “Maybe he just forgot.” I could never remember if I’d gotten the most recent Windows update for my PC.

  Stan smiled. “Maybe, but I doubt it. The keypads in the kitchen and near the front door are coated in dust. Trust me, Rebecca. No one has set that alarm system in years. If someone wanted to take a peek inside the house, and I’m not saying that someone is you,” he hurried to add, “that person would want to slip into the house while Seth and his lovely wife were busy getting their photographs taken. The photographer might even suggest they bring along their dogs to be in some action shots with Seth for the composite card.”

  “Hot damn. That’s good.” Pop slapped Stan on the back, and the two turned and gave me brilliant smiles in tandem.

  Call me crazy, but my father and grandfather bonding over criminal activity was just plain weird.

  I was about to burst their co
llective bubble when my cell phone rang. Unknown number. I considered letting it go to voice mail but then changed my mind. Being harassed by a telemarketer was preferable to dealing with Indian Falls’ answer to Bonnie and Clyde.

  Hitting TALK, I blinked as I recognized the voice on the other end as Erica the Red.

  “Rebecca, could you drop by the sheriff’s office when you have the chance?” she asked. “Mary, Halle, and I have been arrested.”

  Ten

  Whoever decided to paint the holding cells at the sheriff’s office hot pink must have anticipated the arrival of its current occupants. Aside from the color and the people sitting in the two metal-bar-lined cells, the rest of the room remained unchanged since my last visit. Same narrow cot beds. Same ugly orange plastic visitor chairs. Same fluorescent strip lights. Between the paint choice and the accoutrements, this room didn’t scream comfort. Perhaps that was the point.

  Erica the Red and Typhoon Mary were in the cell closest to the door. Halle graced the one nearest the window. Either Anna was a faster runner or she hadn’t been part of their adventure.

  Halle gave a finger wave. “Hey. Sorry to make you come down here. We normally call George in these situations, but he didn’t answer his phone.”

  I blinked. “You’ve been arrested before?”

  Mary had the decency to blush. Halle and Erica smiled.

  “The after-bout parties can get a little boisterous.” Erica shrugged. “As long as we pay for the tables we break, the owners are willing to drop the charges.”

  Yikes.

  “You didn’t break any tables this time, did you?” They shook their heads, and I took a seat in one of the orange plastic chairs. “So what are you in for?”

  “We were scoping out the over-the-counter sleep aids at the pharmacy to see if any of them could have made a bunch of dogs sleepy,” Erica explained. “If a person didn’t want to get fingered for buying the drug, we figured she’d steal it. I said it wouldn’t be hard for someone to walk out of the store with a box of Unisom. Halle thought a small-town store would be harder to shoplift from than one in a bigger town. To prove who was right, Mary suggested we act like real investigators and run a reenactment.”