Leighann Dobbs - Lexy Baker 10 - Mummified Meringues

by Leighann Dobbs

  “But a lot of the other neighbors did,” Lexy suggested.

  Nans straightened the napkin in her lap primly. “I guess so, I don’t really remember exactly.”

  “Jack said the police talked to his landlady and she said they found holes all over his yard after he disappeared. Did you notice those?”

  Nans looked up startled. “Holes? No I never did. To tell you the truth, I never actually looked in his yard … it was too messy. I always averted my eyes. I didn’t even know he was ‘missing’ really, I just hoped he’d moved out.”

  Lexy nodded. She could certainly understand that with the way Earl acted. “Did you see this stranger that everyone keeps talking about?”

  Nans looked down at the swirly coffee in her cup. “Yes, of course. Well… I saw a shadowy figure in the back yard. Right near the McDonalds’ house. I remember being worried because they were in Europe, you know.”

  “Yes, I know. Which makes me wonder, if they were in Europe, how did someone get the body into their basement?”

  Nans’ purse chimed, interrupting her from answering. She looked around, spotted the purse in the living room and grabbed it, pulling out her smartphone.

  She squinted, then held the phone at arm’s-length, heaving a big sigh.

  “It’s a text, but I can’t make out what it says.” She handed the phone to Lexy. “Can you read it?”

  “Sure.” Lexy looked at the screen. “It’s Ida. They’re on their way over.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” Lexy handed the phone back. She fidgeted in her chair as she asked the question she didn’t really want to hear the answer to. “Why didn’t you just pull out your reading glasses, though?”

  Nans looked around the room distractedly “I would, but I seem to have misplaced them and, try as I might, I just can’t find them in the house anywhere.”

  ***

  Lexy didn’t have time to tell Nans she knew exactly were the glasses were, because just then the door burst open and Ida, Ruth and Helen bustled in.

  “Oh, Lexy, good thing you’re here. We wanted to go to Nesbaum’s today.”

  “Don’t bother, I already talked to him.” A voice boomed from the doorway and they all swiveled to see Watson Davies leaning against the doorframe.

  “Did he confess?” Ida asked hopefully.

  “Hardly,” Davies snorted. “He wasn’t very enlightening. I think he was fed up after talking to the Feds. Anyway, naturally he denied being involved and said the McDonalds called and told him to stop working on the basement when he was half finished.”

  “Really?” Lexy turned to Nans. “Do you think that’s true?”

  “I … well … gosh, that was a long time ago.”

  Davies came into the room and pushed the door shut. “He showed me the old bill and it reflects him doing only half the job. According to the bill, the last date he was there was August thirteenth—the very day the medical examiner thinks Earl died.”

  “What? That’s strange,” Lexy said. “Could he have made that bill up? The mummy case has been in the news and he had to have known you’d be coming to ask sooner or later.

  “Possibly,” Davies replied. “But I have to say, it does cast suspicion on the McDonalds.”

  “But they were in Europe,” Lexy said. “The Sullivan’s have proof!”

  “Proof?”

  “A postcard from Europe postmarked the day you all say Earl died.”

  Davies crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, something funny is going on, and I don’t know who is involved.”

  “That’s right,” Ruth said. “And we intend to get to the bottom of it.”

  “I don’t think you’ll get there with Nesbaum.”

  “You leave that to us.” Ida leveled her steely blue eyes on Davies. “We old ladies have ways of making people talk that you police folk can’t tap into. He might open up to us more, seeing as we’re not officials.”

  “Well, I guess it can’t hurt.” Davies walked into Nans kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, then turned to regard them over the rim. “Have you guys found out anything new since we last talked?”

  Lexy recounted her conversation with the Sullivan’s, leaving out the part about Nans’ glasses.

  “Do you think this Paddy Sullivan character could have killed Earl?” Davies asked Nans.

  “No, of course not,” Nans answered. “He’s no killer, just a man protecting his wife.”

  “There may be more to this than jealousy or even this supposed insurance scam.” Davies turned her baby blues on Nans. “Mona, I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about the insurance scam. Did you know anything about it? Your old neighbor, Mr. Johnston, claims Earl had duped a bunch of the neighbors out of money.”

  “I should say not!” Nans said indignantly. “Mr. Johnston says a lot of things that aren’t true. He sits on his porch and makes things up—he’s a busybody. I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in what he says.”

  Lexy frowned. “Funny thing, he’s the only one who didn’t see a stranger that summer. You’d think he would have, being on the porch all the time, but maybe he didn’t sit out there back then. Anyway, I suspect Paddy Sullivan knew about the insurance scam … I got a vibe when I talked to him even though he denied it. I think he didn’t want the wife to know he got conned out of the money.”

  Davies tapped a sparkly blue fingernail on her pursed lips. “Yeah, this insurance scam could be one angle. I think Earl was into something even worse, though. The Feds aren’t letting a lot of info out, but I heard from a friend of a friend that someone cut off Earl’s big toe.”

  Nans gasped, her eyes wide. “What? That can’t be right.”

  Ruth said, “Blech, that’s gross!”

  Helen countered with a simple “Ewww …”

  Ida screwed up her face and looked at Davies. “What? You mean someone cut off his toe and then killed him?”

  “Yes, except it was the other way around. Someone killed him and then cut off his toe. It was removed post-mortem … with a pair of curly pinking shears.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Who removes a toe with pinking shears?” Ida asked later on when they were in the car on the way to the Nesbaums’ house.

  Helen scrunched up her face. “You’d have to squeeze really hard to cut through bone with those. It seems impossible.”

  “I think it could be done with the industrial shears,” Ruth said. “It would be similar to using poultry shears to cut chicken bone.”

  Lexy’s stomach churned. “Gross.”

  “Now, that is interesting,” Ida pointed out. “Because, the pinking shears point to a woman, just like the sachets.”

  “But why cut off his toe?” Ruth asked.

  “Who knows? Why did someone kill him in the first place? We’ll have to wait until we get to the bottom of it and then I’m sure we’ll get our answers.” Ida poked her head into the front seat. “Got any ideas, Mona?”

  Lexy glanced over at the passenger seat where Nans had been silent, apparently deep in thought during the whole trip.

  “None at all,” Nans said. “It’s quite baffling.”

  “Oh, this is the road right here,” Ruth shouted from the backseat, her iPad with MapQuest up on the screen clutched in her hand.

  Lexy turned down a side street. The road, although paved, was barely better than a dirt road. It looked like the town had neglected to maintain it for some time and it was pitted with divots and bumps. The ladies lurched in their seats as Lexy drove slowly down it.

  “It should be right … here.” Ruth stabbed her finger out the window at an older brick home. A white-haired man was getting into a zephyr station wagon in the driveway.

  “That’s him!” Ida yelled, ripping the door open and lurching out before Lexy came to a full stop.

  “Yoo-hoo!” she yelled as she sprinted across the yard.

  The man turned to look at her, his bushy, gray eyebrows drawn over suspicious eyes.

  “A
re you Bobby Nesbaum?” Ida asked breathlessly.

  “Yes.” His eyes traveled warily from Ida to the rest of them, who had exited the car and were marching toward him.

  “Hi, I’m Ida, and these are my friends.” Ida grabbed Lexy’s arm and pulled her in front of Nesbaum. “And this poor thing is the woman that owns the McDonalds’ old house … the one they found the mummy in.”

  Nesbaum’s eyes shifted from Ida to Lexy and Lexy saw them soften. “Well, I’m sorry about that. I don’t see what that has to do with me, though.”

  “Oh, I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with you. We know you didn’t have anything to do with it,” Ida said slyly. “But you were refinishing the basement at the time and I was just wondering if you could help this poor girl. Why, she could lose everything and any little bit of information would be ever so helpful.”

  Lexy batted her eyelashes and tried to play the part of the maiden in need. She only succeeded in getting an eyelash in her eye, which caused her to have to blink profusely and then poke at her eye to get the lash out.

  Nesbaum looked at Lexy with sympathy, but his voice was brisk. “I told the police everything I know.”

  Ida leaned in and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “We don’t trust them. Do you? We just want to make sure all bases are covered.”

  Nesbaum slid his eyes to Lexy again, then sighed and leaned against his car. “I don’t think I have anything that will shed any light on the matter. Like I told the police, I only redid half the basement and I sure as heck didn’t make any secret room or hide a body in there.”

  “Which half?” Ruth asked.

  “The front and the side walls.” Bobby shrugged. “Okay more like three quarters. Anyway, Mrs. McDonald called before I even finished and had me stop work rather abruptly.”

  “And that was in August of nineteen-fifty-five?” Helen asked.

  “Yes. The thirteenth, to be exact. The police made me dig in my records for that date. Luckily, I keep all my invoices.”

  “That must be a lot of paper.” Lexy jammed her finger into her eye to try get it to stop twitching.

  Nesbaum straightened with pride. “My basement is pretty full of file cabinets, but I can find what I need quickly. I keep them in chronological order.”

  “Why, that’s very organized of you,” Ida said. She knew just how to butter someone up and Lexy could see it was working on Nesbaum. She was actually rather impressed with Ida—normally, Nans did most of the talking, but since Nans had been mostly missing … or silent … Ida had taken over the investigation and Lexy noticed she was doing just as well as Nans would have.

  “So, I guess you must have known Earl,” Ida continued. “The mummy? He hung around The Elms Pub, same as you.”

  To Lexy’s disappointment, Nesbaum didn’t even flinch at the question. Surely, if he were the killer he would have reacted.

  “Yeah, I knew him a little. Didn’t like him much.” Nesbaum crossed his arms over his chest. “I know how it looks, what with him being found in the wall and it covered up with the same type of plastering I do, but I didn’t have any beef with Earl. Even though I thought he was a bum, I didn’t kill him.”

  Ida nodded sympathetically. “Of course not. Do you have any idea who did?”

  Nesbaum chuckled. “I wish I did, but I really didn’t know him or the McDonalds that well. I mean, I assume they must have had something to do with it, otherwise why would she call me and tell me to stop?”

  “Good question.” Ruth slid her eyes over to Nans, who was busy inspecting the buds on a pink rose bush.

  “I’m not convinced it was the McDonalds, but maybe you can help us find the killer and get the police off your back,” Ida said. “Think hard. Do you remember anything or anyone that seemed odd when you were working on the house? A stranger, or maybe something strange Earl did?”

  Nesbaum pressed his lips together and cocked his head to the side. “Well, let me think. It was a long time ago, but it does stick out, as it was just so odd for them to make me stop in the middle of working. They said they didn’t have the funds to pay me to finish. I didn’t notice anything funny other than that … other than the neighbor who was yelling at Earl.”

  Ida’s brows shot up. “A neighbor was yelling at Earl? Did you tell the police?”

  Nesbaum grimaced. “No. I don’t really know as it has anything to do with Earl’s death. Wouldn’t want to get an innocent person in trouble with the police. I didn’t want it to look like I was trying to cast suspicion on someone else to take the heat off myself.”

  “Do you know which neighbor it was and what they were yelling about?” Ida asked.

  Nesbaum hesitated a second, then plunged in. “Well, as you can imagine, I was in and out of the house all day, so I saw a lot of goings on in the neighborhood. There was this one neighbor that seemed mighty peeved with Earl. Can’t say as I blame him—Earl could really get under your skin. Anyway, I heard them yellin’ and screamin’ something fierce the last day I was there.”

  “What about?”

  “Well, I couldn’t hear everything, but I think it was something about that life insurance Earl was trying to sell to everyone.”

  “Oh, really?” Ida’s white brows shot up. “And who was the neighbor?”

  “I don’t know the name but he lived right at the end of the street, near the drainage culvert … thing is, I thought I heard one of them say something about how he hadn’t heard the last of ‘it‘, but I don’t know what happened after that because I never went back.”

  Ida looked at Nans. “Who lived on the end of the street back then?”

  “The end near the culvert?” Nans chewed her bottom lip. “Wel,l I think that was Ron and Esther Witt.”

  “They still live there!” Lexy said.

  Ida’s blue eyes sparkled and she turned toward the car. “Come on, girls. It looks like we have another suspect to interrogate.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “There are too many suspects now. This is getting confusing,” Helen complained once they were back in the car.

  “Yeah, Mona. Did everyone on the street have a motive to kill Earl?” Ida asked.

  “No. Not everyone. These aren’t real motives anyway … just the usual stuff that happens with neighbors who aren’t respectful,” Nans replied primly. “I mean, no one kills a guy because he puts the moves on your wife or because he keeps a trashy yard.”

  “Or stole your money?” Helen asked.

  “Well, that they do, but not the small amount that I’m sure Earl took for the insurance payments,” Nans turned to face Helen, Ruth and Ida in the back seat. “I’m pretty sure we’re barking up the wrong tree, talking to my old neighbors. None of them are killers.”

  “Well, I just wish something would break in this case. It’s getting redundant,” Ruth pouted.

  “I wish they would let us go back into Jack’s house,” Lexy said as they drove by his house, the yellow crime scene tape still sealing it off.

  “Why won’t they let you in?” Ida asked. “Aren’t they done collecting clues?”

  “Who knows? I can only imagine what we’ll have to do to fix the mess they left,” Lexy answered.

  “Not to mention who’s going to buy it now that a mummy was found inside,” Helen pointed out.

  Lexy’s stomach felt like a heavy rock had sunk to the bottom of it. Helen had a point. Would no one want to buy Jack’s house now? Would they be stuck with it? She didn’t want to have to move into Jack’s house and sell hers—the one she’d bought from Nans—because it had so many childhood memories. Lexy had images of Jack’s house sitting empty and abandoned and her never being able to repay her parents.

  As if by universal connection, her cell phone chirped and she glanced down to see it was her mother. The rock in her stomach grew even heavier, but she’d just pulled into the Witts’ driveway, so talking to her mother would have to wait.

  “I think I’ll take the lead on this one,” Nans said, and Lexy f
elt some of her anxiety ease. Finally, Nans was getting back to her old self.

  They all jumped out of the car and Nans marched up to the door, which opened even before she knocked.

  “Mona! What a surprise!” Ron glanced behind her at the rest of them. “Oh, you brought friends.”

  “You remember my granddaughter, Lexy.” Nans gestured to Lexy, then turned to the other women. “And these are my friends, Ruth, Ida and Helen.”

  They exchanged greetings and then Nans explained, “We’ve been looking into the case of the mummy over at the McDonalds’ place.”

  Ron shifted his weight. “Oh, right. I heard about that and I know you have a detective service now. What can I help you with?”

  “Well.” Nans glanced around the neighborhood uneasily. “We’ve asked around to all the neighbors that lived here back then about Earl and such. We’re just coming to ask you now.”

  “Oh, well, come on in.” Ron pushed the door wide and they all piled into the living room of the small house. It was light and bright inside. White walls, white slip-covered furniture, hardwood floors. Unlike most of the other houses on the street, this one had been nicely redone.

  Ron’s wife, Esther, bustled out from the kitchen with a tray of fresh-baked lemon squares and tea, making Lexy wonder if they’d been expecting company or if they always kept refreshments on hand.

  “Oh, goodie, lemon squares.” Ida peered at the tray. “Those are my favorite.”

  “Take one.” Esther gestured to the sofa and chairs. “Everyone, have a seat.”

  They each took a seat, balancing the lemon squares and coffees precariously on their laps.

  “Now, how can we help?” Ron asked.

  “The other neighbors have all mentioned the stranger. To tell the truth, I’d forgotten about him. Do you remember that?” Nans asked.

  “Oh, yes, quite vividly,” Esther answered. “We saw him over by the culvert a few times. Very odd.”

  Esther gestured out the window and Lexy looked in that direction. The Witts’ house was next to a shallow culvert lined with rocks. She remembered from her childhood that it would fill with water, creating a shallow stream when it rained. A smile tugged the corners of her lips with the memory of how she used to like to play there, despite Nan’s constant warnings not to.