Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 01 - Bogey Nights

by Marja McGraw

  I took a good look at her gift before turning back to the office where I could find my purse and cell phone.

  “Come,” I called softly to the dogs. They followed me inside.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  I called Chris first. I wanted to speak to him before calling Janet. I didn’t know why, but I needed Chris by my side when the police arrived. What had started out as a decent day was turning into something just short of a dark and stormy night.

  “You’re joking, right?” Chris sounded perplexed more than upset.

  “No, Chris, the dogs found a bone. And it looks suspiciously human. Remember when they were digging by that tree in their little yard? That’s what they were digging for.”

  Sherlock and Watson sat, one on each side of me, watching my face. It was almost as though they were waiting for reassurance about what they’d dug up.

  “Are you sure it’s a human bone?” Chris asked.

  “I’m pretty sure, although I certainly don’t have a medical degree. And the dogs are acting very odd. I think you should drive over here.”

  “I’m on my way,” Chris said. “Go get Big D and ask him to take a look at the bone. His father is a doctor, so Davey should know something about bones. Don’t call Janet until I get there.” He seemed to feel the need for a united front, too. We weren’t involved in the crimes, but they were going to have a dramatic effect on us and our livelihood. If only our dogs weren’t diggers; our lives would be so much simpler.

  We hung up and I walked through the restaurant, looking for Big D, while the dogs shadowed me so closely that I was afraid they’d trip me. I found him in the front yard talking to a couple of the workmen.

  He smiled at me, leaving his employees to their work and approaching me. “Hey, Pammy, thanks for the burgers. The guys…”

  He took a closer look at my face and glanced behind me at the dogs, his smile still in place, but changing from friendly to concerned.

  “What’s wrong? You look upset and the dogs are acting weirder than usual. They look, well, clingy. Are you okay?”

  “They are clingy. My Labs may have made what some people would call a startling discovery. Davey, do you think you could identify a human bone if you saw one?”

  His smile disappeared in a heartbeat. “Yes, I probably can. My dad is a doctor. I learned a lot from him while I was growing up.”

  “Yeah, Chris told me. Would you come with me please?”

  The guys studied us, sensing something was wrong. They stood up as though to follow us, and Big D waved them off. “I’ll call you if I need you,” he said. They stood back, watching us enter the house and talking quietly to each other. We walked right through and out to the yard, with the dogs following.

  “Can you put the dogs in the car or something?” Big D asked.

  “I’ll close them in the office.” I told them to sit and closed the door behind Davey and myself.

  I watched as he studied the bone the dogs had found – and as his shoulders slumped. I knew he had bad news for me.

  “It’s human,” Davey said. “This is a tibia, or a shin bone. Is this the only bone they found?”

  I nodded. “Chris is on his way.”

  “Good.”

  I surveyed the back yard. “I wonder if there are many more bodies buried here. The count’s up to two now.”

  “Don’t know,” Big D said. “I think I’ll go out front and send the boys home. The police are probably going to dig things up around here. And just so you know, Sharon is on her way over. She wanted to take you by surprise and ask about those letters. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen. You know how she is.”

  “Now would not be a good time for her to try to bully me about the letters,” I said. I began to feel slightly shaky, and I was cold, even though it was a warm day. A second body wasn’t supposed to be in the day’s plans, but I guess things don’t always go the way we want them to.

  “I think it’s too late to call her off,” he said. “I hear her out front talking to a couple of the guys right now.”

  His hearing must have been better than mine. I couldn’t hear a thing except the dogs scratching on the door, wanting out. Every so often they whined, sounding mournful.

  Big D opened the office door and squeezed through without letting the dogs out. As he entered the house, Sharon came walking around the side, looking like a woman with a purpose. I was that purpose, I felt sure. I turned away from her, facing the hole the dogs had dug.

  “Pamela, I want to talk to you. Why didn’t you share those letters with me? You specifically said if I – ”

  I turned on her like a whirlwind. “Not now, Sharon. I’ve got other things to worry about besides you and whether or not I told you about some letters.” I didn’t recognize my own voice – it sounded high and squeaky to me.

  She opened the fence gate and walked up to me. She started to say something, but seeing my face she stopped. “Pamela? What’s wrong? You look like somebody who’s got a bigger problem than a nosey reporter.”

  “You hit that one on the head,” I said.

  She took a step forward and I held my hand out to stop her.

  “Look out or you’ll step on the bone.”

  The look of shocked surprise on her face was priceless. “Bone? What bone?”

  I glanced down at the tibia and her gaze followed mine.

  “Another body?” She had the nerve to sound excited.

  “Don’t know,” I said. “But the dogs did find a bone. I’m waiting for Chris to get here and then I’m calling the police.”

  “Your Labs seem to have a penchant for finding bodies. What is it with those two? Are they cadaver dogs or something?”

  “No.” I really didn’t feel like talking at the moment. One body was one thing, but with the finding of another one, I knew the police were going to rip our restaurant and yard to shreds. Who was the second victim, assuming it was another murder? Of course it was, or why would the body be buried in the yard? Were we looking for a serial killer? Considering the ages of the people who were involved, would the killer still be living?

  I thought about Sherlock and Watson. I’d read about cadaver dogs, and as I recall, they reacted similarly to the way my Labs had. They seemed to almost take finding a body personally, and they were stressed out.

  “Maybe it’s just one bone,” Sharon said, not actually sounding hopeful.

  “Where there’s a tibia, there’s probably a fibula and whole lot of other bones. This is turning into a nightmare.”

  “Any idea who it might be?”

  “I’ve got a few, but I’ll let the police sort it out.” I was sure it was either Shipley or Long. Of course, it could be Alice Frye, although the bone looked rather large for a woman. She’d lived here during the early forties, too. Could we have missed someone else?

  “Come with me, Sharon. Let’s go wait for Chris in the office.”

  She pulled out her cell phone.

  “Sharon! Really? You’re going to call this in before the police have even been here?” She was beginning to get on my nerves – every one of them.

  “No, but I’m going to take a picture of that bone.”

  “Don’t you think that’s kind of gruesome? And tacky?”

  Sharon had the decency to look embarrassed, but she took a picture with her cell phone anyway. “It’s just an old white bone, no skin or tissue. This isn’t gruesome. Somehow an old bone just isn’t the same as a fresh, new body.”

  There was no holding back this time. I rolled my eyes so far back in my head that I figured they’d finally stick in that position, just like my mother had warned me they would. After unrolling them and blinking a couple of times, I glanced at Sharon. She hadn’t even noticed my performance.

  Opening the office door, I told the dogs to sit and stay. Bless their hearts; they obeyed me, although not too willingly.

  Sharon followed me inside. “You don’t have any chairs,” she said, complaining. “Where am I sup
posed to sit?”

  “I’m just starting to bring things in. You can sit on the edge of the desk,” I said. “But if you scratch it, you buy it. Got it?”

  Sharon ignored my threat and threw her purse on the desk, glancing at the dogs as though she thought they might rip it up if they got their paws on it. She hurried over to the window and watched the yard.

  “Are you afraid someone will take the bone?” I asked.

  “No. Being here when you found the first body was coincidental, and I can’t believe my luck to be here right after you found a leg bone. What are the odds?”

  “Okay,” I said, “that’s enough. You do realize that the bone means there’s a body somewhere, right? And a body means that someone’s life has been snuffed out. We’re talking about a second murder here. Have you no compassion, Sharon? What’s the matter with you, for crying out loud?”

  “Of course, I have compassion. But I also have a story to write.” I was surprised that she didn’t rub her hands together with glee. “A talented reporter has to have thick skin. I can’t let things bother me or I won’t get a good story.”

  “Your last story was supposed to be about putting a positive spin on our restaurant. You broke your promise to us. Why would I want to help you with an article now? I think maybe you should leave.”

  “Pamela, I will keep my word; just not now. When the time is right, I’ll do a story that will absolve your restaurant and you of any involvement in this fiasco. I’ll make people want to eat here, no matter what crimes took place. You’ll be the talk of Los Angeles County, and that’s a huge area. Besides, this will be a matter of public record in no time. So I get the details first, and you get a great story later on.”

  Surprisingly, I had a feeling she’d do exactly as she said she would – as long as she got the story she wanted.

  “Well, why don’t you wait here with the dogs while I go outside and watch for Chris? I want him here when I call the police.”

  “Why is that?” Sharon asked.

  “I have no idea. It just seems like he should be here. Is that alright with you?”

  She didn’t respond to my sarcasm, but pulled a pad of paper out of her purse and began writing with one of the pens I’d left on the desk. She wasn’t wasting any time. I grabbed the rest of my office supplies and shoved them in a corner, far from her grabby little hands.

  I said a brief prayer, asking for more patience, and headed for the front of the house. Before I reached the door I heard Chris’s voice and saw him talking to Big D. They appeared totally serious, with none of their regular joking. Chris looked up and waved me over.

  Climbing down the front steps, I said, “Can you believe this, Chris? I can’t believe this is happening. Should I call Janet now?”

  “Yeah, no reason to put it off any longer,” Chris replied. “I don’t want her to have a beef with us because we didn’t call her right away about a second stiff.”

  “Where’s Sharon?” Big D asked.

  “Is that dizzy broad here?” Chris asked.

  This time I ignored his use of the term dizzy broad. “She’s in my office, and she’s already writing a story.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Davey said. “She’s trying very hard to get that reporter’s job. She says she can’t stand doing the fluff stuff anymore.”

  “What reporter’s job?” I asked.

  “There’s an opening at the newspaper. One of the beat reporters is moving out of state. She wants his job and I don’t think she’s going to let anything stop her this time.”

  “I give up,” Chris said. “Let her do her little story. How much harm can she do to us? A second body is definitely going to make the papers, and it might as well be her story.”

  “Very magnanimous, Bogey Man,” I said. “She swears she’ll take care of us with a story when the time is right.”

  Pulling out my cell phone, I entered the phone number for the police department and asked for Janet. I found it interesting that I already had the number memorized. Miracle of miracles, she was in, but I had to wait for a minute because she was on the other line.

  “What’s up, Pamela?”

  “Uh, we have a problem here.”

  “Where? Did someone break into your house again?” She sounded pleasant, like she was having a good day, but concerned at the same time.

  “No. We’re at the restaurant. The dogs dug up a bone and it’s human.”

  Not surprisingly, it was quiet for a moment while she digested what I told her.

  “How do you know it’s a human bone? And where did they find it? Not in the basement, I hope. We didn’t miss something, did we?”

  “As to who looked at the bone, I have an expert here and he took a look at it. And we found it in the back yard. Can you come over here? Now?”

  “I’ll be there as fast as I can. Pamela, you realize that if there’s another body we’re going to have to do a thorough search of that property.”

  I took a deep breath. “I know. I sure am feeling like we made a big mistake when we bought this place.”

  “If you hadn’t, someone would have gotten away with multiple murders.”

  “There is that,” I said.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Janet showed up in record time, and not long after her arrival the technicians pulled up to the curb.

  Big D had convinced Sharon that she should probably stay out of the way. She planted herself in the front yard and wouldn’t budge any farther away than that.

  Once again I called Constance and asked her to pick Mikey up at school.

  “Of course I will, but why?” she asked.

  “We found a bone at the restaurant – out in the yard. It’s human.”

  “Pamela, knowing you is better than watching a soap opera. The darnedest things happen to you and Chris. I’m making that sound light, but I don’t mean it that way.”

  “I know, but I sure wish this would stop. All we want to do is open our restaurant, and instead of that we keep finding bodies.”

  “Are there more than two?” Constance asked, with some kind of awe in her voice. She did watch a lot of crime shows on TV, and now her friend, me, was involved in a real life crime drama.

  “I sure hope not, but you know that this means the coppers are going to tear up the yard here. We were going to hire someone to landscape anyway, but now it’s going to be a major undertaking.”

  “Is that all you’re worried about? I mean, Pamela, you’ve bought a piece of property where people have been murdered. It gives me the willies.”

  “I know, but it’s easier to think about landscaping than deaths. Besides, if it gives you the willies, what do you think it’ll do to our future customers? If we have any.”

  “I see your point.”

  Constance assured me she’d pick Mikey up on time and that she wouldn’t let him know what was going on.

  I thought about that. It would be in the newspapers, and once again the kids at school would have a field day with the news. I’d have to try to figure out a way to do some damage control before I received another call from Mikey’s teacher, Mrs. Stanhope. I decided the best thing to do would be to call her first and let her know what to expect. I wondered if she’d ever called my friend to come talk about what’s it’s like to be a private investigator. I figured she hadn’t since Mikey hadn’t mentioned it.

  “Pamela,” Janet called, breaking me away from my thoughts, “would you come here, please?”

  “Coming,” I replied.

  Sharon started to follow me, but I gave her a look that said don’t you dare. She read my face and stayed in the front yard, moping and mumbling to herself.

  Janet and I walked to the backyard together. Chris was already there, talking to one of the techs, who seemed unable to take her eyes off of my husband. Sometimes I wished that Chris didn’t look like a famous actor. Life would be so much simpler – although I never would have met Chris if it weren’t for the resemblance. I’d met him at a costume party where he
’d shown up, uninvited, as Bogey. At that time he actually wanted to be a P.I., and he’d been following a real private eye in the hopes of learning from her.

  But I digress.

  “Can you tell me exactly what happened?” Janet asked.

  “The dogs dug up the bone and dropped it at my feet, almost like they were giving me a gift. They weren’t excited though; they seemed upset. Whiney, and almost sad.”

  I glanced at the techs and they were carefully digging in the spot where the dogs had found the tibia – the leg bone.

  “Have they found any other bones?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Janet didn’t say more than the one word, and I didn’t ask questions.

  I heard the sound of the dogs scratching on the office door.

  “I found one of the boarders,” Janet said. “I gave the information to Chris.”

  “Already?” I was surprised that she’d run someone down so fast. “Who did you find?”

  “A guy they called Smokey Joe. I’ve already talked to him, briefly, on the phone. He’s expecting you two to contact him.”

  “I thought he lived there after Blakely died.”

  “He did, but it wasn’t long after. I was talking to him when you called about finding the bone. He said he has some information about the boarding house.”

  “Pamela,” Chris said, “I think it might be a good idea to take the dogs home. They’ve had enough for one day, don’t you think?”

  “You’re right. And I can call Constance and tell her that she doesn’t have to pick Mikey up after all.”

  “No, let her pick him up. Ask her if she can keep him entertained for a while. I think we need to get busy and try to find the boarders. I’ll call the guy Janet found, and I think maybe you’d better go talk to Chance. I know I’ve got the guy’s information somewhere.” Chris dug through his pockets, looking for the note Janet had given him.

  “She said she doesn’t want me to come until tomorrow.”

  “So surprise her. She’s got to know more than she’s telling us. She was the landlord, and she has to know something. The stiff count is up to two. That tells me there was a lot more going on than we thought.”