by Joyce Lavene
Peggy was baffled by that information. She continued smiling and thanking her audience. It didn’t make any sense that someone would say that Ray was somewhere other than the hospital parking lot knocking her around, and stealing Ann Fletcher’s file.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I was hoping taking him in from the Kozy Kettle would be an end to it, but he’s out on the street again. Do you want me to ask Al for police protection?”
“No. Besides, how could he do that when Ray has an alibi? He’d have to have a good of reason to spend money that way.”
“I wish there was something else I could do.”
She leaned her head close to his. “Arnie called me. He said everything is back in the storage unit. I think that’s enough for you to do in one day.”
Paul smiled, and Steve walked up, wondering what was going on. “Paul. Is anything up?”
“You might as well tell him,” Peggy said.
Paul related his news about Ray. Steve shook his head. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
“They might be working with him,” Paul said. “But we couldn’t hold him.”
Steve took a deep breath but didn’t have time to say anything before Millie and Norris joined them.
Millie Sanford smiled at Peggy as she congratulated her on a great lecture. “I’m going home to throw away all of my evil plants tonight. I’ll never look at them as being helpless and harmless again.”
Norris was less enthusiastic. “We learned most of that stuff in training. It was a very good lecture—from a layman’s point of view.”
“Thanks, Millie.” Peggy glanced at her partner. “Norris.”
“We have to get going,” Millie told Steve. “There’s been another robbery. This one is on Sharon Road. Same old story. The burglars knew the couple was out of town and took some expensive antique jewelry.”
“Okay.” Steve kissed Peggy, but spoke to Paul. “Are you on duty? Can you go with her today?”
“I’d like to, but Mai has a doctor’s appointment. It takes forever because the doctor keeps rushing out to deliver babies as we’re waiting. I could call someone.”
“You don’t need to call anyone,” Peggy assured them. “I’m going to meet Arnie at the mini- storage, and then either to the shop or the ME’s office, depending on who I hear from first.”
Steve and Paul traded uncomfortable glances.
“I’d be honored to tag along with Peggy,” Walter volunteered. “Excellent lecture, as always, my dear.”
“Good idea.” Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks.”
“I have to go.” Paul looked at his watch. “Mai gets hyper if we’re not there on time, even if the doctor is never on time for our appointment. I hope this is the last one.”
Steve dropped Peggy and Walter off at the house. He and Peggy argued all the way home from the university. Steve wanted her to take the day off and stay inside to avoid meeting up with Ray Quick again—at least until Al could figure out what was going on.
It was a losing battle for Steve, as he was fairly sure it would be. “But I had to try.” He kissed her goodbye and asked her to be careful.
“She’s in good hands, my man.” Walter held up his umbrella like a sword. “I’ll see to it that she stays safe.”
Peggy let out a sigh of relief when Steve was gone. She turned to Walter and assured him that he didn’t need to come to the mini-storage with her.
“I’d be letting down a friend and going back on my word if I don’t accompany you, my dear. Steve knows what he’s talking about since this is his line of business, as surely as you or I might know the difference between a daffodil and a jonquil.”
Peggy understood the difference between being thankful to have someone who cared about her, and being obnoxious about trying to get rid of him. She insisted on driving her own car, though. At least that would make her feel somewhat in control.
Arnie was still waiting at the mini-storage. Peggy called him to come and open the gate.
He was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone. The two men shook hands as they introduced themselves. The three of them drove from the parking lot to Unit 34.
“You can imagine how surprised I was to see everything back here again.” Arnie used his key to unlock the door.
“What do you think happened?” Walter asked. “It seems to me that it must be someone who works here.”
Arnie agreed. “The manager acted as surprised as I felt when I brought him down here. I thought he may have put all of my things into a different storage unit by accident, and when he realized what he’d done, he put it all back.”
The two men congratulated each other on their theories. Peggy went inside the storage unit, thankful that they had no idea what had really happened. She hoped they never found out.
“Whoever was responsible did a bang-up job of putting everything back.” Arnie chuckled. “It’s much neater and better organized than Harry had it.”
“Where are the files?” Peggy thought she should act enthusiastic about finding them, even though she knew there was nothing of any great importance in them.
“Of course.” Arnie used his inhaler before picking out the two boxes that contained information about John. “I hope there’s something in here that will help you find out what happened to your husband.”
Walter looked around at the boxes filled with papers and other more tangible items. He picked up one of Ann Fletcher’s herb books. “It looks like there was a garden enthusiast here.”
Peggy joined him, and perused some of the books that contained deadly herbs and plants—including lily of the valley. “I’m afraid she may have been too enthusiastic about her reading material. It may have caused her death.”
She thought about the woman who was on the slab at the morgue. As soon as the tissue samples came back, they’d know if she died from convallatoxin. Peggy wondered if the two women were close.
“Here is the information about my sister that Harry gathered together through the years.” Arnie put two more boxes at her feet. “Have you found anything out of the ordinary by exhuming her?”
“It’s too soon to tell. I’m sorry. As soon as I know something definitive, I’ll let you know.”
“I brought a small cart so we could take these records someplace else to look at them,” Arnie said. “I don’t know what all is in them, but I hope they’ll make a difference.”
“Look at this,” Walter said from the other side of the storage shed, behind an old rocking chair. “There must be a small fortune in jewelry here. What do you think, Peggy?”
Peggy and Arnie went to examine the find. There were several pieces of very good antique jewelry.
“I’m no jewelry appraiser,” Peggy said. “But these stones look like the real thing to me.”
Walter sank his teeth into one of the gold settings around the jewels. “I believe this is real too. As I said—a lot of old jewelry that must be worth a small fortune.”
“I don’t believe Ann ever owned anything like this.” Arnie shook his head. “She and Harry barely got by. They were always borrowing money. I can’t imagine where this came from.”
The three sifted through the rest of the boxes in the storage unit, but there was no other jewelry. The box that had held the jewels was filled with personal items that had once been Ann’s. Nothing of any real worth was there—a hairbrush, some old photos, and a few other trinkets.
“I think we should bring this box too,” Peggy said. “It may have something to do with why Ann was killed.”
It was something in her own thoughts from hearing Steve talk about the antique jewelry thefts around Charlotte. The other items in the box with the jewelry were at least twenty years old. Steve had mentioned that a similar occurrence had happened in the past. She wondered how far past. Was it possible Harry had been involved in that previous ring of thieves, and Ann had paid the price for it?
Between them, they got the five boxes moved to Peggy’s car. The facility manager rode by on his
golf cart, asking if everything was okay, but he didn’t offer to help. Peggy was surprised that Arnie wanted her to take the boxes of files that pertained to Ann’s death as well as the other three.
“I’m staying at a motel,” he said. “You have a permanent place you can keep them, and we can look through them. Seems like the best solution.”
“I don’t mind at all,” she replied. “And I have an alarm system to protect them.”
Walter nodded. “Not to mention a large husband who is in the FBI, and a beast of a dog who would attack first and ask questions later. These items are as safe at her house as they would be in Fort Knox.”
Peggy laughed at that. Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Dorothy. There was new information. “Why don’t you come for dinner, Arnie? We can look through the boxes afterward. I have to meet with the medical examiner.”
He agreed. “Do you need any help with the boxes?”
“No. I have to drop off Walter first anyway. We can get them into the house before I go.”
“All right then. I’ll meet you at your place for dinner.” He smiled. “Except that I don’t know where your place is.”
Peggy took his phone, put in her address and phone number in his contacts. “Let’s say seven, okay? My large, FBI husband will probably be there too. Definitely my dog, Shakespeare, will be. See you then, Arnie.”
Walter and Peggy left the mini-storage. She saw Arnie in his white Cadillac coming up behind them.
“So you think Harry Fletcher was involved in the jewelry heist from years ago?” Walter asked in an excited voice. “That would mean the jewelry has been stored away with no one realizing it all these years. Are you going to tell Steve?”
“Later. When I see him. Right now, I have to deal with whatever Dorothy has found out, and then I have to spend some time at The Potting Shed. We’ll have to be patient and wait for answers.”
“I could email some pictures of the jewelry to my friend at the conspiracy blog and see what he thinks,” Walter offered.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea since it could be involved in a murder and this burglary ring that the FBI is looking into. Not unless you want some unfriendly faces with badges knocking on your door tonight.”
“Oh, heavens no,” Walter retorted. “Not that I’m afraid of the FBI, or your husband. I was just saying that so Arnie would feel safe. May I join you for dinner, and the after party of snooping through those boxes?”
“Absolutely. I’m sure we could use another pair of eyes.” Peggy maneuvered through the light traffic until she reached her house. “Besides, you deserve it after being my babysitter and helping me lug these boxes around.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it!”
Walter had the opportunity to prove his worth on the subject as they struggled to take the boxes into Peggy’s house. The roofers were taking a break from their labors, sitting under a magnolia tree in the shade, watching as they walked back and forth from the kitchen door to the car.
When everything was inside—and Shakespeare had gone for a quick run in the back of the house—Peggy locked up and was ready to go. Walter was sitting in the car, waiting for her.
“You can’t come with me to the ME’s office,” she told him as she got in the car.
“I promised Steve I’d stay with you. Besides, I’d love to hear what the medical examiner has learned in this case of yours.”
“That’s the problem. It’s too hot for you to wait in the car. You can’t come into the building.” She fudged a little on that, but he couldn’t attend the meeting. “I’ll let you know what happens. That’s the best I can do. Steve will understand.”
Walter considered his words. “If you’re certain. I don’t want to get on the FBI’s bad list.”
“I’m certain. The parking lot is right beside the building, and there’s security. I’m not worried about it.” She didn’t mention that this was the parking lot where her car was vandalized.
“Then I’ll see you later, Peggy. If you have any problems at all, please call me. I can be there quickly and roust the ruffians.”
She smiled and thanked him. “I’ll do that.” She wasn’t sure he could find the morgue or how long it would take him to get there with the way he drove. “Seven sharp for dinner.”
He bowed slightly. “It shall be my honor.”
* * *
Peggy parked close to the building when she arrived at the medical examiner’s office. She’d had to turn her phone off to get there. Dorothy kept texting and calling her. Peggy didn’t like to talk on her phone when she was driving.
Tom saluted her as she passed through the metal detector. She made small talk with him until her handbag came through the detector, and then she hurried toward Dorothy’s office.
Dorothy wasn’t there, of course. One of the interns told her that Dorothy was waiting in the conference room with a few other visitors. Peggy took off her suit coat and left it at her desk before joining them. She wished she could step out of her shoes too. They were pinching her toes.
She opened the door to the conference room. Al was there, and so was Norris. She wondered where Steve and Millie were. Why were any of them there? They hadn’t heard about the jewelry she’d found as yet.
Dorothy got up nervously from her chair. “Dr. Lee, at last. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Sorry.” Peggy smiled at Al. “I had an errand to run after the lecture this morning.”
“Take a chair,” Dorothy said. “I only want to go over our findings once so I invited a few people who might have an interest in Ann Fletcher’s death.”
Peggy itched to ask why the FBI had an interest. Was it something Dorothy had found out?
“First of all, thank you for coming, Detective McDonald and Agent Rankin. Let’s get down to the case.” Dorothy had put together a slideshow that revealed details about the dead woman and the tests performed on her.
“As you can see, the corpse was in good condition considering the length of time she’s been buried. We immediately tested her for convallatoxin, which at this time could only be found in her tissues. She tested off the charts for the poison, although our tests also revealed that it was not a rapid death, but one that took place over a period of time.”
Peggy’s cell phone rang. She opted to apologize and put it on mute. She could see it was Selena. Whatever it was would have to wait.
Norris glared at her and changed position in his chair. “Not sure why I’m here, Dr. Beck. This seems to be a local problem.”
Dorothy smiled. “I’m getting to that, Agent Rankin.”
“Please proceed,” Al said.
“Thank you.” Dorothy cleared her throat and changed the slide they were looking at. “We learned quickly that this corpse may have been buried as Ann Fletcher, but the body tells us another story. I was able to verify from hospital records that this woman wasn’t Ann Fletcher. I learned an hour ago that her name was Sheila Conway. As you can see from the photos of the two women, they looked a lot alike. But we verified this information with fingerprints and other records.”
Norris sat forward in his chair, a sudden look of anticipation on his face. “I recognize that name.”
Dorothy nodded. “That’s why you’re here, Agent. Miss Conway was a suspect in a series of jewelry thefts that plagued Charlotte for a year. I believe several members of that group were arrested, but a few more were never found.”
“Including the ringmaster,” Norris said. “We know from the work done at that time that the agents involved had reason to believe the leader was a woman.”
“I read that in the files,” Dorothy said. “It appears we may have found the leader of that group.”
Al shuffled through some papers Dorothy had given him on the case. “So you think this Sheila Conway was poisoned by the group and then buried in place of Ann Fletcher. But where is Mrs. Fletcher?”
“I have to go.” Norris sprang to his feet, grabbed his paperwork, and ran out the door.
Do
rothy tapped her pencil on the table. “That was rude.”
Peggy shrugged. “Tell me about it.”
They forgot about Norris as they discussed all the findings they’d had for Sheila Conway’s body.
Al wasn’t sure how the two cases related, except that the wrong woman was in Ann Fletcher’s grave. “We’ll be following up on this, trying to figure out if there was a connection between them or if this was a random mistake.”
Dorothy looked at Al over the top of her glasses. “I hardly think this was random, Al. I think someone did this on purpose.”
Peggy agreed with her. She knew Al liked to be thorough. That was good, but it seemed to her that the evidence was staring them in the face.
She also had the feeling that Norris knew something more that he wasn’t telling them. She didn’t think he left so abruptly for no reason.
When the meeting was over, Peggy went into the hall and called Steve. Normally she wouldn’t call him about something either of them were working on, but she had information to trade that might help her understand Norris’s actions.
“Hi Peggy,” Steve said. “Why am I not surprised to hear from you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Because Norris told you that our cases have suddenly meshed?”
“Very perceptive. What do you need?”
“Actually, I might have something you need. I’m leaving here in a few minutes. Can you meet me at The Potting Shed?”
“I can be there in about thirty minutes.”
“See you then.”
Dorothy was waiting for her when she got off the phone. “You had the same feeling I did, right? Agent Rankin knew something and didn’t want to share.”
Peggy nodded. “It seems to me that if Sheila Conway was somehow implicated in the jewelry thefts twenty years ago, and now we find her in Ann Fletcher’s grave, it’s a good guess that she was there to distract people from Ann Fletcher.”
“That’s what I thought. I wonder why Al didn’t think the same thing?”
“Maybe he did, and he didn’t want to share either.”
