Diane Greenwood Muir - Bellingwood 05 - Life Between the Lines

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  “Would you all like to come up to my apartment? I can call Ben and ask him to join us there.”

  Aaron nodded, “That might be best.”

  “Come on up. I’ll put a pot of coffee on.”

  They followed Polly to her apartment. As had become her habit lately, she glanced back at Grey Linder’s room while she unlocked her front door. He was peeking out again. She could have sworn she saw shock on his face before he quietly pressed the door shut.

  “Please make yourself comfortable. I’ll call Ben and make the coffee. Aaron, could I see you in the kitchen?”

  He followed her and filled the coffee pot with water while she dialed Ben’s number.

  “Good morning, Miss Giller! I’ve just returned from a wonderful breakfast at your diner and a brisk walk around this lovely town. What do you have for me?”

  “I have Genie and Kevin Campbell in my apartment and they would like to meet you. Do you have time?”

  “That would be wonderful! I will be right there.”

  “The door is unlocked. Come on in, you don’t need to knock,” she said. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

  Then she turned to Aaron and quietly said, “I don’t know what is going on with Grey Linder in the back room, but he has been watching everything I do. He peeks through the door and just now I am certain he was shocked when he saw the Campbells.”

  “I’m not sure what you want me to do, Polly. I have no reason to bother him. Curiosity isn’t an offense yet.”

  “I know, but I think there is something weird about him. Can I talk you into checking on him to make sure he’s okay? He’s gotten thinner and his face is starting to match his first name. I don’t know if he’s drinking or dying or what.”

  Aaron took a deep breath. “I don’t suppose a friendly check in would hurt. I will knock on his door.”

  “Thank you.”

  He left the apartment and she finished making coffee. “Do either of you like cream or sugar in your coffee?” she asked.

  “Yes please,” Genie Campbell said. “Can I help you?”

  “No, I have it, but thank you,” Polly replied.

  Ben Seafold walked in the front door and his presence immediately filled the room. Before Polly could make her way to them, he approached the Campbell’s with his hand out.

  “Hello!” He took Kevin Campbell’s hand. “Son, even if I didn’t know you were Thomas Zeller’s boy, I would have recognized him in you. You have his eyes and my goodness, you have your beautiful mother’s cheekbones. You must be Nelly.”

  “Once upon a time I was Thomas’s Nelly, but today I am Genie Campbell,” she said, standing to greet him.

  “I’m sorry. Miss Polly told me that was your name now. I’m awfully glad to meet the two of you. I only wish Thomas were here to join us. He loved you very much.”

  “I wish he were here as well,” she said. “Until Miss Giller showed us the code in his books, I assumed he no longer cared.”

  “He never stopped thinking about you or looking for you. Polly, do you have that last set of pictures?”

  “Yes!” she said, “I forgot that you hadn’t seen them yet.” She brought a tray over and set it down on the coffee table in front of them, then went back for her laptop. She quickly logged on and brought up the files they had found the other day. Polly sat on the floor on the other side of the table and showed the Campbells the photographs Thomas had taken of them in Jewell.

  “He found us.” Genie Campbell breathed through her words. “Why didn’t he say something?”

  “If I know my friend, he was trying to come up with a good plan to meet you. He wouldn’t have wanted to surprise you on the street or make you feel as if he was threatening you.”

  Polly heard sirens coming through town toward Sycamore House. She jumped up when they stopped outside her home. “What in the world?”

  Both she and Ben arrived at her front door at the same time. Grey Linder’s door was open and Aaron was bent over a body on the floor. She ran across the hall to see Aaron doing chest compressions.

  “What did you do to him?” she asked.

  “He took one look at me and had a heart attack.” Aaron nodded around the room. “I think he’s been drinking himself into a stupor for quite a while.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Just move out of the way so Sarah can take over for me here.”

  Polly jumped back when she realized the EMTs were coming across the large open hallway. Sarah smiled at her. “Really, Polly. An elevator, please!”

  “I’m going to tell Jeff that we can only put young, healthy people up on this floor. Anyone that looks like they might need you will be in the addition. I promise!”

  Aaron stood up and moved into the hall with Polly.

  “Did he say anything before he passed out?” Polly asked.

  “He did.”

  She waited a beat and when she realized that he wasn’t going to tell her anything more, she pushed at him with her shoulder, “Well what did he say?”

  Aaron rolled his eyes at her, “He pointed at your apartment and told me she was innocent. Then, down he went. Thankfully I have the reflexes of a fox and caught him before he hit his head on anything or broke something while falling.”

  She chuckled, “I’ll be sure to tell Lydia that you are her fox. What do you suppose he meant by that?”

  “I have an idea or two.”

  Polly hated it when he withheld information, so she pressed him. “Do you think he killed that policeman in San Francisco?”

  “Now don’t be putting words in my mouth, Polly Giller. I didn’t say that at all.”

  “Why do you suppose he was here in Bellingwood at the same time as Thomas Zeller? And why didn’t Thomas recognize him?”

  Aaron glanced down at the man as the EMTs pushed the gurney past them. “Look at him. That was forty-five years ago. I would bet that he looks nothing like his younger self.”

  “So you do think that’s him.”

  The Sheriff grinned at her. “I don’t think anything until I have more information. Now, I’m going to leave you with the Campbells. I have phone calls to make. Some of us are working on a Friday morning,” he taunted as he started to walk away.

  “Hey,” she followed him and took his arm. “This is your fault.”

  Aaron stopped at the stairway and grinned back at her. “You are an easy target, Polly Giller. I’ll talk to you later.”

  She went back into her apartment and was glad to see that Ben, Kevin and Genie were talking.

  “What happened?” Genie asked.

  “The man across the hall had a heart attack. Did you ever hear of a man named Grey Linder?”

  Ben Seafold turned back to Genie, waiting to see if she recognized the name.

  “He’s a poet, isn’t he?” Kevin asked. “He wrote some dark stuff back in the nineties, but I haven’t heard anything about him since then. It wasn’t very good, but people bought his book because it fed their angst.”

  Ben laughed, “I can’t believe you remember that, son.”

  “I was going through a poetry phase of my own and thought I ought to pay attention to my contemporaries.”

  Polly sat back down on the floor and browsed the internet. When she found what she wanted, she turned it toward Genie Campbell. “Do you recognize him?”

  The woman’s face lost all of its color and she reached out and grabbed her son’s hand.

  “What is it mom? That’s Grey Linder. Do you know him?”

  “That’s Douglas Winters,” she gasped.

  Polly sighed, “I thought so. How did you recognize him when Thomas didn’t?”

  “Thomas didn’t spend any time with Doug. He and I were together before Thomas got to San Francisco and Doug didn’t like Thomas very much. Said he was a punk and a hack. I did my best to keep them apart, so I doubt that they spent more than a few hours in the same room.”

  “How did you end up in the same place with him that day?”

  “Thomas
and I had a fight that morning. It was all my fault. I had just found out I was pregnant and I wanted him to leave the Haight with me. I was ready to get clean so the baby would have a good life. Thomas was still young and enamored with the Bohemian lifestyle. He wasn’t ready to clean up and still needed to sow his wild oats. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was carrying his baby, so I went to Douglas. He owed me enough money for a bus ticket out of there.”

  She dropped her head. “Then, we also had a terrible fight. I just couldn’t win. He didn’t have the money. He told me that all he had to do was get out on the street and sell some of the weed he’d been growing. I was so mad. Then all of a sudden the world erupted. A cop broke down the front door, screaming and waving his gun around. I was already out the back door when I heard the shot. I hadn’t gotten two houses away and they were talking about a cop being killed. Everyone knew I was there, so I kept running.”

  “You didn’t run with Douglas Winters?”

  “Oh no. I wanted nothing to do with him. I hitched a couple of rides out of town and decided to re-start my life.”

  Polly looked at Genie and asked, “Do you think he would have killed Thomas?”

  The woman was shocked, then said, “I suppose he could have, but I’d be surprised. Douglas wasn’t a killer. He had a gun in the house to protect his weed. He kept it in the stupid pocket of that reclining chair he sat in all the time. I think the shooting was purely reflex that day and he’s been hiding ever since.”

  “Well, if he thought Thomas was going to rat him out, would he have killed to save his skin?

  Genie thought about it before she spoke. “I don’t know anything for sure, but I wonder if he realized that Thomas was looking for me. He wouldn’t have killed him before Thomas found me.”

  Polly excused herself and went out into the hallway and called Aaron.

  “I’m tired of hauling people out of Sycamore House, Polly,” he laughed.

  “Hopefully the last one isn’t dead.”

  There was no response.

  “Oh Aaron, tell me he’s not dead.”

  “I’m just messing with you. They’re working on him. But he hasn’t died yet. What’s up?”

  “I showed his picture to Genie Campbell and she identified him as Douglas Winters. I thought you might want to know that. And she doesn’t think that he killed Thomas Zeller.”

  “I don’t either,” Aaron replied. “Grey Linder is frail and was very drunk that night. That kind of drunk doesn’t happen in an hour and we didn’t find any blood in his room either. Thanks for asking, though. It makes my next phone calls easier.”

  “Next phone calls?”

  “I’m calling San Francisco. With Winters in the hospital and Eleanor Farber, or whatever she calls herself here in Iowa, they might want to send someone out to get this cleaned up. But don’t say anything yet, okay?”

  “I won’t.”

  “Do you promise?”

  “I won’t,” she growled. “You know I have no problem siccing your wife on you, don’t you?”

  “That’s why I have to get my licks in when I can. I’ll talk to you later, Polly. And thanks.”

  She went back into her apartment and Ben stood up with Genie and Kevin Campbell. “Polly, we’re going to get out of your hair. I have a few things of Thomas’s that I would like his son to have and they’ve invited me to their home for the afternoon. I look forward to meeting his granddaughters.”

  He stepped over and gave her a quick hug. “Thank you for bringing us together. I lost a very good friend when Thomas was killed, but I look forward to getting to know his family better.”

  Polly walked them to the door. Genie stopped and took her hand. “I had no idea that my life was going to become the center of a strange vortex of events. Thank you for making it easier for us to deal with all of this and thank you for trusting us. I do wish that I’d known long ago that Thomas was looking for me, because I was ready to stop running. What a foolish woman I’ve been.”

  “Come on, mother,” Kevin said, taking her arm. “No more talk of foolishness. You did the best you could with what you knew. We’ll not have any regrets today.”

  She smiled at him and shrugged, “He doesn’t let me get too morose. I’m thankful to have him.”

  “We’ll be here tomorrow night,” Kevin said. “My daughters have been helping my wife sew costumes for the Masquerade Ball. I guess one benefit of having a drama department and a family of seamstresses is access to things that most others don’t have.”

  “I look forward to seeing you!” Polly said and watched as they walked down the front steps.

  What a morning. She looked at the door to Grey Linder’s room. The thought of the filth in there bothered her, but she knew she didn’t have permission to go in yet. He was paid up until … huh. She should ask Jeff about that.

  Polly ran down the steps and into the auditorium. The transformation was gorgeous. Jeff and Henry had begun in the center. They had hung a large, glittering chandelier of crystals which reflected the strings of white lights that were strung out in a circle to the walls. Henry was on a ladder with a six foot silver mask, working to affix it to a chain coming down from the ceiling while Jeff stood below him, watching the action.

  “Jeff?” she asked as she approached.

  “Hi Polly, what do you think?”

  “I think it’s amazing. But I have a question.”

  “Sure, what do you want to know?”

  “Has Grey Linder paid for his room beyond today?”

  He bit his lower lip and then said, “No. In fact he was behind. But I don’t suppose he really thought about paying me while he was being rushed out of here on a stretcher.”

  “So, I could get in there and clean the place up and not be crossing any boundaries?”

  “Well, that’s kind of an iffy boundary. Why?”

  “Because when I looked in there the room was totally trashed. We haven’t been in for a while to change sheets and the room is littered with empty bottles of alcohol. I can hardly stand it, knowing that it’s that filthy.”

  “Oh. Well, then, I’d say you have every right to go in. I can’t imagine he’s going to get back here in time to do pay us. Honestly, if he’s in the hospital, I doubt he’ll come back at all.”

  Eliseo had come up behind them while she was talking and said, “Let me bring a trash can. We’ll haul the empty bottles out first so I can recycle them. Then, we’ll work on the trash.”

  “Are you okay leaving all of this?” she asked, looking around the room.

  “I’m good for now. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

  “Thanks.” Polly went back upstairs and swiped open Grey Linder’s room, stepped in and then stepped right back out. The room reeked of sweat and booze and she didn’t know what else. The first thing she did was strip the bed. Everything came off and landed in a pile in the hallway. There were quite a few bottles that were nearly empty, so she took those into the bathroom, poured the last little bits down the drain, and rinsed them out.

  She heard Eliseo gathering up bottles and went out to find him standing over the trash bin. “How much was this man drinking?” she asked. “It’s like he had a huge frat party all by himself.”

  “It wasn’t this bad when he first arrived,” Eliseo said. “I cleaned the room several times and there were wine bottles and an empty whiskey bottle every once in a while, but nothing like this.”

  “When did you quit cleaning?”

  “It was just after Thomas Zeller died, so I guess it’s been about two weeks. He told me that he didn’t want me in the room. I knocked every day and asked for his dirty dishes and if I could change his sheets. I usually got the dishes, but no sheets.”

  “Poor old guy lost his mind,” she muttered and sat down at the desk. It was a beautiful secretary and she pulled the top down to see if he’d stowed anything in there. “Are there any empty boxes downstairs, Eliseo? We’re going to have to pack this stuff up.”

  “I�
�ll take the bottles downstairs and bring some up.” He opened the shoe closet and pulled out a couple of suitcases. “I think we can start with these.”

  “His clothes must be in awful shape. Why don’t we wash those as well. I can’t send filthy things out of here.”

  She turned around in the chair and Eliseo glared at her. “You should just buy the man new clothes. This is disgusting.”

  “Bring me a box and I’ll do it,” she laughed. “Once hot water hits them, everything will be better.”

  He left and Polly turned back to the papers in the desk. There was a legal pad with writing on it and none of it made any sense. It was as if the man had written random words, hoping they would turn into something important. She flipped through the pages and found more of the same. He was losing his mind.

  There were two more legal pads with the same types of things written on them. Was this what he had been doing for the last month? She couldn’t imagine knowing that words were no longer coming out in a coherent manner. Eliseo came back with two boxes and the pair of work gloves she’d been wearing earlier.

  “If you’re touching his clothes, at least protect yourself,” he shuddered, handing them over. “I’m going to open the windows to air the room out. I’ll make sure to close them later on.”

  “Thank you. That’s a good idea.” Polly opened dresser drawers and found dirty and clean clothing all mixed in together, so she pulled it all out and dumped it in a box. Eliseo had already taken shoes and other things off shelves and dropped them into one of the suitcases. She placed the notepads on top and fished out the man’s extra pens, pencils and blank paper, filling the case.

  “No computer?” she asked.

  “I never saw one. He just sat at the desk and wrote.”

  “That makes it easier.” They opened the drawers and cupboard doors to make sure there was nothing left. “Do you think I need to buy another mattress?” she asked. “This was pretty horrible.”

  Eliseo didn’t respond.

  “That does it. I’ll call this afternoon and have them deliver one on Monday.”

  “That’s going to get expensive if you have to do it very often.”

  “I don’t generally have old drunks who are losing their mind rent my rooms. This was a lesson I needed to learn.” Polly started to pull the door shut and saw something move. There was a robe hanging on the hook. Using just the tip of her finger and her thumb to pick it up, she spied a piece of yellow legal paper in the pocket. “What’s this?” She let the robe fall into the box, then gingerly pulled the folded sheet of paper out.