She poured two cups of coffee, grabbed a cinnamon roll and started making her way to the stage. She had volunteered to take computer duty today. Beryl would take the camera, Andy would tell them all how to make sure things were organized and Sylvie and Lydia would work.
"Good morning, Stu," she said to the guard. "Would you like some coffee and a cinnamon roll? It occurred to me that no one probably brought you anything."
"Thank you, Polly," he replied as he took both from her. "So are you and the girls back at it today?"
"As soon as they get here. It's going to be the whole crew. You know what that means, don't you?" she laughed.
"Oh, I'm afraid I do. Sheriff Merritt has his hands full with that team." He chuckled and took a bite of the roll. "Oh, that's good! Thank you. My wife isn't much for baking. She loves to cook and can make a mean lasagna, but she says we don't need dessert in the house. I think she doesn't like spending any more time in the kitchen than she has to. One of these days maybe I'll talk my boys into trying some recipes. Then, things will get better." He winked and smiled at her.
Polly knew he had three little boys. They were all much too young to be in the kitchen yet. "So, maybe an Easy Bake oven for them? You could at least get a miserable looking chocolate cake."
"Hey, that's a good idea! I just wish there wasn't so much pink,” he laughed.
Polly snorted. "Oh, that's hilarious. There were even some of us girls who didn't like all that pink, but no one seems to have ever figured that out. I spent more time in the dirt and in jeans than I did in little pink, frilly dresses, but I loved being in the kitchen with Mary."
"What is that wonderful aroma? It smells like someone baked this morning!" Sylvie walked into the auditorium followed by Andy.
"Good morning girls. There are fresh cinnamon rolls by the coffee. I ended up making six dozen this morning." Polly said.
"Six dozen what?" Beryl had arrived on the scene. "Wait, let me see if I can tell." She wrinkled her nose up and down and turned to face toward the kitchen as if being led by that same nose. "Girl, you baked a little heaven this morning, didn't you!"
She actually skipped across the floor to the stage, dropped her bag at Polly's feet and said, "I think I'm going to bury my face in something with frosting. Should I bring any back for the rest of you? Deputy Stu will you eat another one if I bring it?"
He looked sideways at Polly, then smiled. "Absolutely. Everyone is already jealous that I'm here, thinking I have the easy assignment this week. They're not going to believe this."
"So, my skinny little friends,” Beryl said, “Can I bring one for you or will you reject this amazing gift Polly has offered us?"
"Wow," said Andy. "If you put it like that, how can I refuse? Even if I did just have breakfast with the Queen of England."
"Oh, that's your answer for everything,” Beryl said. “You spend way too much time with that woman, but we’re glad you’ve come back down to play us common folk. How about you, Sylvie?"
"I'm starving. It was a scramble to get two boys out the door this morning. For some reason they decided to sleep late and hate everything I offered for breakfast. It was joyous." Sylvie grumbled.
Beryl skipped through the door and was back in a few minutes with napkins and a plate of rolls.
"I suppose we ought to stay down here and eat these, then wash our hands, eh?" Andy said.
"Of course we should, Andy. Wouldn't want to get any sugar on the loot." Beryl sounded a little sarcastic and Andy reacted.
"That would be awful, Beryl! Who knows what we're going to find and we don't want to contaminate it with sticky fingers," she said.
Beryl rolled her eyes at her friend. "Andy?"
"Yes, brat?"
"Okay, just so we're clear who is the brat and who is the insane person,” Beryl said.
"I'm clear. Sorry," Andy said.
Lydia and Aaron walked in to the auditorium together holding hands.
Beryl spoke first, "Good morning, you two! Don't tell me you are just getting started on your day. Did you have a late night?" The tone of her voice implied something fun might have occurred last night.
Aaron shook his head. "Your friends are going to give me a heart attack someday, Lydia."
"Not if I can help it," she replied. "I intend to keep that heart well-oiled and exercised."
"It's not right," he protested. "It's just not right. I get no respect from any of you."
Lydia reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, we all respect you and love you. We simply aren't afraid of you!"
"Stuart Decker?" Aaron commanded.
"Yes, sir." Decker came to attention.
"You've neither seen nor heard any of this. Got it?"
"Umm, sir?"
"Yes, Deputy Decker?"
"That actually doesn't work for me."
"Why is that, Deputy Decker?"
"Because," and the deputy dropped out of his attention stance, "they do this to you all the time."
"I know," Aaron sighed. "I know. It's a good thing they don't spend any time at the office or on the road with me. I'd be toast."
“Yes sir,” Decker agreed.
"How are things going here?" Aaron asked around the room.
Lydia responded, "We're going to have a full day ahead of us. We'll see how far we get into it. I'm sorry we took a couple of days off. There were so many things that needed to be done. Beryl has a show coming up in Kansas City and Sylvie had to work."
"Whoa, baby." Aaron said. "No worries. I was only asking if anything had popped up yet."
Everyone else laughed and Lydia said, "Well, excuse me for feeling guilty for not doing the work you asked me to do!"
"Whatever," Aaron responded. “I’m heading down to Boone. If you need me, call." He bent over to kiss his wife and she turned so he got her full on the lips. She threw her arms up around him and kissed him until Beryl had to say, "Alright, already! Give it a rest, girl. You'll see him tonight. Sheesh!"
Lydia pulled away and smiled sweetly up at her husband. "Have a good day, dear."
"Yeah. I'll do that." He spun around and Polly heard him sputtering as he left the room.
"You torment him, don't you?" Polly asked Lydia.
"Every chance I get. I have fun!" she said, then looked at Beryl. "Well, where's my cinnamon roll?"
"Umm," Beryl looked around at everyone else. "Are you all as distracted as I am at the moment? Ah hell, I seem to have lost my mind." Then she looked at the plate still in her hands.
"Here," she said. "Here is your cinnamon roll. Get your own coffee." She looked at Andy, "Whew. I think I need to splash some cold water. How about you?"
"Cold water is a great idea," Andy replied. "It's too early for that stuff, Lydia. You can't do that to us."
Lydia just smiled. "I'll be right back with coffee. You girls settle for a moment."
She came back into the auditorium with coffee and they sat on the edge of the stage drinking and eating. Polly gathered up the waste and took it to the kitchen. She was in the middle of washing her hands as the others came in and followed suit. It was time to get to work. They pulled plastic gloves out of a box and started digging into crates.
Each item received a number and tag; it was photographed from several angles and then entered into the database, bagged and returned to the original crate. They worked for a couple of hours while chattering away about their week when Andy said, "Guys, stop. I think I found something."
Beryl was photographing a TEEN magazine from 1969. Polly entered the tag number and details and slid it into an evidence bag, handing it to Sylvie who dropped it back in its original crate.
"What is it, Andy?" Polly asked.
"This doesn't fit at all. I'm looking at a crate of things from the early seventies. Maybe 1971 or 1972 and this shirt and coat are in here. She held up a t-shirt with Pearl Jam on the front. The coat was blue wool and had Members Only on the side pocket. Neither item had existed in the seventies.”
Stu walked ove
r and looked at the items. He snapped on a pair of gloves and took the items out of Andy's hands. Looking closely, he ran his thumb over a stain on the coat.
"Andy, I don't know what you've found, but I'm glad you did. Other than this, are things in the other crates pretty much in a logical order?"
Andy nodded. "So far it is. We haven't gotten deep enough for me to say that with one hundred percent certainty, but yeah, that's probably right."
"Thank you. I'll take custody of this. Let me fill out the tag and get it photographed. Beryl, are you ready for me?"
"Oh, baby," Beryl said. "That was a loaded question. But yes," she got serious. "I'm ready any time."
She shot pictures of each item with their respective tags. Polly entered the information into the database, then Stu placed them into large evidence bags and made a quick phone call. He picked up two more evidence bags, asking Beryl to pull the memory card out of the computer and Polly to unmount the external hard drive.
"I've got replacements in the car," he said, "but I'm waiting for someone to show up and take charge of these things. Can you all keep yourselves busy until then?"
Lydia laughed. "I think we can handle that. Do you want us to stay in here with you or do you care?"
"No, you can do whatever you'd like. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't say anything to anyone, though."
Beryl gave him a scowl. "Really, Stu? After all this time we've been together? You still don't trust me? I haven't told anyone about those quiet moments we spent together."
He shut his eyes and dropped his chin into his chest, "I asked for that. Sometimes I forget you guys are not like the rest of the people," he paused for effect, "in the world!"
"Would you shut the doors? Someone should be here soon and we'll get you set up to go again right away. Thanks, girls."
"Oh, isn't he sweet," Lydia said. "He called us girls. Other than Polly and maybe Sylvie, he's the youngest person in this room. Come on, 'girls,' let's see what damage we can do to Polly's kitchen."
It was nearly noon and the building was starting to get quiet as the workers stopped for lunch. Marv had obviously started one more pot of coffee. Polly turned the hot water on in one of the deep sinks, and then dropped the baking pans in after filling it with hot sudsy water. Lydia filled a smaller sink while Andy gathered the platters. Sylvie sprayed the countertop down and wiped it clean while Beryl pulled out some dish towels. Soon everything was cleaned up and back to normal and Aaron walked in.
"You missed me so much you had to find a reason to bring me back, didn't you," he teased. Sylvie was the closest to him as he walked in the door and giggled. He pulled her into a side hug and said, "I knew you girls couldn't live without me."
He went on, "Well, you're set up to go again on the stage. That was a great catch, Andy. I guess that's why I'm glad you all are doing this. You're making good connections. The things are on their way to the DCI in Ames for testing. We won't know anything for a few days."
Lydia asked, "Why did you come back into town? I thought you had to be in Des Moines this afternoon."
"Oh, any excuse I can get to see you, I will take." He walked over and flicked Lydia's hair, "I just wanted to tell you all that you'd done a great job. And I still have time to get to Des Moines for my meeting." He checked his watch. "But, I had better go now. See you later!" He kissed his wife again and this time she let him get away with a quick kiss. He smiled at the rest of them, and walked out of the kitchen toward the front door.
Two of the men who worked for Henry, Leroy Forster and Ben Bowen, came down the stairs as the sheriff was leaving. They walked back to the kitchen to fill their cups with coffee.
Leroy asked, "What was the sheriff doing here again? Did you guys find something in the crates?"
Polly froze, hoping nothing showed on her face. She wasn't quite sure what to say, but Andy broke in, "We were so busy this morning, we needed a new memory card. I guess they're pretty choosy about what they want us to use, so they brought one up. As for the sheriff, I think he wanted another kiss from his honey!" She chuckled and waited for that little bit of information to embarrass the man.
Ben laughed and poked his friend, "You want a honey to kiss, don't you, Leroy."
"Uh huh. I guess so." Leroy said and turned around to head back up the stairs.
Ben followed him, then turned around. "By the way, Miss Giller. Thanks for the cinnamon rolls. It isn't every day I get to eat homemade treats!"
"You're welcome, Ben." Polly found her voice again.
After they heard the men go up the steps, she wilted a little and said, "Thanks Andy, I had no idea how to respond. The only words I had in my head were Stu telling us not to tell anyone."
Beryl opened up the refrigerator. "Well, what shall we have for lunch today?"
Polly walked over and stood beside her. "I should have lunchmeat in there and I made a fresh loaf of bread last night. Sandwiches?"
"That sounds great!" Sylvie responded. "I have chips here in the cupboard."
Before long, they'd assembled lunch and were sitting at the back table.
Henry walked into the kitchen and grinned. "Of course," he said. "The musketeers are here when the cops show up. I think it is you guys causing all the trouble for Polly. Until you showed up, everything was just fine." He pulled up a chair at the other end of the table, then turned to Polly.
"Don't mind me. I'm about to get myself into huge trouble."
Stricken, her eyes pleaded with him to say nothing, but he ignored her.
"Did she tell you yet who was here this morning when I arrived?" he asked, looking at Lydia.
"That apology?" Polly remarked, "Is off the table. You can't be trusted." She tossed her sandwich on her plate and stood up. "It's no big deal," she said as she walked over to the cooler and pulled out a Diet Mountain Dew.
"Yeah, that no big deal nearly got Doug's head bashed in with a rolling pin as I understand it," Henry said.
"What?" Lydia asked. "What happened?"
"Damn it," Polly cursed and stalked out into the hallway.
"Polly! Come back here." Beryl called after her.
"I did this, I'll take care of it." Henry said.
"Why is she so angry? Who showed up this morning?" Lydia pressed.
"I think it's her old boyfriend from Boston. She sent him away, but he had her pretty worked up and she jumped down my throat when I confronted her about it." Henry responded. He got up and walked out to the hallway where Polly was pacing.
"You couldn't keep your damned mouth shut, could you? When did this become your business and who in the hell do you think you are spreading my business around like manure?" She was furious.
"Polly, they're your friends. Honestly, I couldn't imagine you hadn't already told them. You guys spent most of the morning together."
"Well, what if I wanted to deal with this and get him sent on his way? I don't get to do that now, do I? I'm so glad you have it all figured out for me." She stalked to the other end of the hallway and slammed the side doors open. She stepped out on the back stoop, then spun back to face him. He'd been following pretty closely.
"Now, I have to explain myself to them and for some reason, I feel like you are asking me to explain myself to you and all I want to do is make this go away. If this is what your friendship means, I want nothing to do with it."
"Alright, I get it. I stuck my nose in where it didn’t belong. What can I do?"
"Not a damned thing right now. You're an ass. It might help both of us if you just leave me alone." When he hesitated, she said, "And by leave me alone, I mean get out of my face so I don't have to see you." She fluttered her fingers at the inside hallway. "Go away. I don't want to discuss this any longer with you!"
"Really? We can't talk about this?" he asked.
"Not right now," she hissed. "I'm so angry at you I want to throw a rock at your head. Be gone!" She flicked her fingers again and he looked like he was in pain, but turned around and headed for the steps. After he walked
upstairs, she took a deep breath and then another. Then Polly set her shoulders and shut her eyes. She did not want to listen to her friends press her on this issue, but she knew she couldn't run away, so she gathered herself, pulled the door shut and walked back to the kitchen.
Beryl looked up when she came in. "Damn girl, you got some spitfire in you! I think Henry might feel like he started draining testosterone away after that encounter. I hope he can get the wound closed or he'll be singing with the women come Sunday morning!"
Polly couldn't help it, she laughed uproariously.
"Are you kidding me?" she asked with a snort, "That's what you have to say? You are insane. And thank you."
Lydia came up to her and patted her on the back. "Alright," she said, "Let's get back to work and see if we can crack any more cases wide open."
Chapter Fifteen
Stopping what she was doing, Polly coughed to get everyone’s attention. "You're going to let me get away with not telling you what happened?" she asked.
None of them said a word; they kept moving items around and talking about the pieces they were seeing. Beryl was shooting a picture of a Mickey Mouse Pez dispenser while Sylvie waited to bring it to Polly for input, Lydia was looking at a little pink sweater and Andy was putting away a Newsweek magazine from 1984 which had already been photographed and inventoried. She pulled out a can of hairspray and giggled, "Some little girl didn't have a chance to put her hair back together that day."
Lydia looked up, "You know, there is nothing worth anything in these crates. It's as if the thief deliberately took things that weren't terribly important. That's probably why he or she was able to get away with it. No one paid much attention to what they lost."
Sylvie responded, "And if it was something bigger, we assumed a classmate had taken it. I was annoyed when my jacket was gone, but I couldn't prove anything, so I moved on."
Polly stood up, "Alright. Fine. I get it."
"What dear?" Lydia asked.
"I was mean to Henry. But, he shouldn't have said anything. It wasn't his story to talk about. I would have told you when I was ready. I wasn't ready yet." The slight whine in her voice annoyed Polly, but she couldn't rid herself of it.
All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) Page 15
