Foreclosed: A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery (A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery, a Cozy Christian Collection)

by Traci Tyne Hilton

  It was small comfort. She didn’t let her guard down, but spoke in a kind voice. “Then the four of us can chat—you all and my brother and I—next time you have any questions.”

  The officers got the hint, tipped their hats and left.

  Sabrina looked at Mitzy.

  Mitzy looked at Sabrina.

  Sabrina nodded almost imperceptibly. She grabbed her laptop bag.

  “Don’t forget that smart phone thing,” Mitzy said.

  As the door swung shut behind them Ben looked up. “Hey, where are you guys…oh never mind.” He turned his head back to his computer.

  The Miata squealed into the parking lot of the museum. It was quiet outside, but the lines of school buses indicated inside the museum was a different story.

  “Perfect,” Mitzy said. “I’m going to distract Aerin. If I know her she is cranky and upset and will talk and talk. The staff is overrun with children who want to pick at the paintings so no one will notice you. Sneak off to use the ladies’ room, but really visit the office. In fact, we will both be in the office chatting up Aerin and you just slip off to use the private bath. But try and get near the janitorial office, or whatever it is. Maybe security.”

  “Really? Can’t I be the one to talk to Aerin?” Sabrina gave a pathetic doe eyes look to her friend.

  “Sure, why not?” Mitzy grinned.

  “Well…okay, maybe I don’t want to.”

  Mitzy knew that Sabrina had been grilled by Aerin before about art and had no wish to repeat the experience. Especially while Aerin was upset.

  “When you find the security room, talk to the guys at the desk, if there are any. Probably there will be since the kids are there. Ask about security tapes from the break-in. If they will show them to you, try and get some pictures. I want to know who busted into the museum.”

  “Do you really think the security guys will show me their tapes?” Sabrina asked.

  Mitzy chewed on her cheek. She wanted them to show Sabrina the tapes, but that wasn’t quite the same. “No. So maybe spill your coffee on the keyboard and cause a ruckus. You’ll figure it out.”

  Mitzy brought a tray of coffee with her to the admin offices.

  “Is Aerin in?” Mitzy handed a coffee to the receptionist.

  The receptionist put the coffee on her desk like it was dirty

  “Let me see.” She wrinkled her nose at Mitzy. “May I ask who is here to see her?”

  “Mitzy.” She smiled her biggest smile and scanned the room for security devices.

  The receptionist picked up the phone and spoke in almost inaudible tones.

  “She’s just leaving the building, but she’ll be back shortly. You can wait in her office.”

  Aerin must have slipped away as soon as she hung up the phone. Her office was completely deserted when Mitzy and Sabrina entered it.

  Mitzy went straight to the file cabinet and started rifling through.

  “Mitzy!” Sabrina gaped at Mitzy. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m looking for the gala files. I’m sure she has a ton of them in paper. I want to know who stole the jewelry.”

  “I know you want to know who stole the jewelry, but this can’t be legal.”

  “Sure it’s not. Here.” She pulled out a fat blue file folder and laid it gently on the desk. She opened it and began to turn pages. Sabrina leaned over her shoulder for a better look.

  “Buckingham Tea pulled out as their sponsor,” Mitzy read.

  “Really? They are huge. I wonder why they pulled out?”

  “Me too.” On the other hand, Buckingham Tea was too big to steal a few pieces of jewelry. She needed to find an individual, not a corporation.

  “Do you think it’s important?” Sabrina’s voice was hushed and anxious.

  “No.”

  “Oh.”

  They kept turning pages.

  “Here’s a whole stack of auction notes. Pages of history on the jewelry. Get out your phone.”

  Sabrina fumbled for her phone, but got it out.

  “Hurry and take a picture of each page as I turn them.”

  There were about twenty pages and they got them all on the phone. “I hope we can read those later,” Mitzy said, eyeing the little phone suspiciously.

  She closed the folder and put it back in the drawer. What else could she dig into while she waited for Aerin? Unlimited access to this office was a much better opportunity than sending Sabrina to the security office, if only she knew how to use it. She looked around the room, but couldn’t tell what was important to her case.

  Sabrina was helping herself to the computer. “Look! I can access the security cameras from Aerin’s desktop! Cool. I wonder why she left it all logged on?”

  “Probably because she didn’t expect we were coming to spy.” Mitzy leaned in over Sabrina’s shoulder this time, her heart beating in her ears. This was a good thing, she hoped.

  Sabrina navigated the system pretty well and got images from the night of the break-in up. Mitzy held the smart phone and snapped pictures.

  The door to the office opened.

  Mitzy stood up, smooth as butter. “Good morning,” she said warmly.

  It wasn’t her sister at the door.

  “Can I help you?” Mitzy asked. She stood, shoulders back, and a tight smile on her face. She wanted to look like she had every right to be there. And it seemed to her she did have as much right to be in her sister-in-law’s office as this janitor did.

  Sabrina had quietly returned the computer screen to the desktop and leaned back in her chair, smiling.

  Mitzy held the phone against her hip but didn’t hide it.

  “This is Ms. Flint-Neuhaus’ office,” the man said with a soft voice. He had a thick blond mustache and a service station style hat, pulled low over his eyes.

  “Yes. She asked us to wait for her here.”

  He cleared his throat and looked around, somewhat nervously. “I’ll come back and clean later.” He kept his eyes on the floor and slipped back out the door.

  Mitzy had clicked a picture of him, but got him as his head was turning. It seemed odd to have a janitor pop in mid-morning to clean an office.

  Sabrina and Mitzy were edgy now. They were anxious to get back to the privacy of the Miata so they could review their information. They waited five more minutes in silence.

  “I don’t think she’s coming back,” Sabrina said.

  “Neither do I.” Mitzy let out a breath she had been holding. Her stomach was twisted. Aerin would be horrified if she knew they had violated her privacy.

  She left a mocha on Aerin’s desk with a note of sympathy hastily scribbled on some Neuhaus New Homes notepaper from her purse and they left. She told herself that spying was a small wrong compared to the thief whose acts had put her in the eye of the police for something she hadn’t done.

  After reading the auction files, Mitzy knew more about the jewelry than most of the people who used to own it had known.

  She had also studied and studied the screen shots of the robbery, but it was no use. A lot of blurry pictures of blurry film of a person of slight build in some kind of mask and hat—probably a ski mask—busting into the safe. They were still shots, so she didn’t even know if he had broken the lock or picked it.

  She processed what she knew and drew a few small conclusions. Her new ideas just left her with more questions.

  The thief knew where to find the jewels. The thief knew his time to get the jewels away from the museum was limited. Did he know when the items were going to be transferred to their new owners? Did he know who those new owners were? Had he been present at the auction?

  She spent that evening at her parents’ house. She had been on her own for thirteen long years, but she still went home and put her head on her mom’s shoulder when she needed comfort. She even left work early. It seemed like the world was just spinning out of her control.

  They sat on the overstuffed sofa, a warm afghan thrown over them and had a mommy and daughter snuggle i
n front of the television.

  “Do you think it was right for me to start in on this house thing?”

  Susan turned her eyes from the TV. “Hmmm? What’s that, honey? What do you mean, ‘this house thing’?” She was reclining on the arm of the sofa, while Mitzy snuggled down with her. Susan’s arm was thrown over her daughter casually and she rubbed her back, mothering her, while they watched the show.

  “I got so mad when I saw someone had been stealing improvements from the Victorian. At the time it seemed like getting the house some attention, and getting it sold would be a good project. It would keep everyone busy and solve a little problem. But the problems have escalated far beyond an unpaid bill at the stoneworks.”

  Gilbert the puppy had Susan’s lap. She scratched him behind his ears absently. “Things have gotten pretty hectic for you, honey, but I don’t see how the puppy or the robbery are related to the old house. Or even each other. I think you worry too much.”

  “Maybe I do,” she said softly. But she continued to worry about it.

  When Mitzy got home that night she called her brother.

  Brett Neuhaus was tall and lean like Mitzy. He had scant brown hair and a long face. He wore round spectacles and was rather bookish in appearance. His looks completely belied his reputation in the courtroom. He was a tiger on trial and had a record of wins longer than most attorneys with twice the years under their belt.

  “Our home was burgled too. Same night as the museum but I’d say right before. Aerin and I went out for drinks after the event with the other development folks. We’ve got a sort of all-nighter kind of tradition. They are all always completely wiped out, but too excited to sleep.” When we got home, we saw immediately that we had been robbed. They didn’t get anything. They cracked the safe but left everything intact. It was very strange. Our alarm system was activated, but the burglar was gone before the cops arrived. We talked to them that night, around three when we got home. And then they called us the next day to talk about the museum. It’s just ridiculous. That pendant isn’t worth half of what Aerin paid for it. Who would go to all that trouble for one pendant? In fact, we know it was just for one pendant. The auction items hadn’t been distributed yet and were found discarded not a mile from the museum. And of course, the only one missing was the pendant.”

  “That is really crazy. But maybe the piece is worth more than we think. Maybe there is a Russian market for it. I hear the government in Russia is trying to get back certain items that used to be in the royal treasury.” Mitzy was still frazzled by her encounter with the police and found it very disturbing that her brother’s home had been broken into.

  “How do you know things like that, Mitzy?” Brett asked, doubting her sources as a good lawyer should.

  “I saw it on the Antiques Road Show. Someone had a Faberge egg and the expert talked for a long time about the value of keeping track of the history of your piece. A Faberge egg that the Russian government had its sights on might have to be forfeit. So maybe…maybe someone has their mind set on collecting Russian valuables, for the government, or for some kind of big sting or something.”

  “Seems possible. We have a pretty heavy Russian Mafia out here.” Brett picked his fingernails while he talked.

  “Really? That’s so…”

  “It’s not racist, Mitzy. It just is. The Russian community doesn’t like it either. I know the law is trying to knuckle down on them, but we just don’t have any good connections.”

  “What about this house? Some Mikhaylichenko fellow sold it about a year ago. That was the same name as the pendant. I wonder if we could find him and sort of feel him out.”

  “You were all up in arms about the current owner taking away his improvements. Maybe I should try and prosecute him. We’d get the house in the public eye. Who knows what we could drag up?”

  “That sounds risky and not necessarily legal. At least that’s what I keep hearing from the police. Mills has only sort of possibly committed a crime.”

  “Sort of possibly, until there is precedent. I’m going to talk to some people about it. I’d like the State to take Mills on. It’s about time we stop living without law and order.”

  “I like the idea.”

  “Tell you what, sis, hint at it on the radio, okay? We want people to believe in this case. If it is a case. And it might not even have to become a case really. We just have to pursue it. Get the right people interested and it could really take off. What we need is to get the city council excited about it. They make things happen in this town.”

  The idea was an interesting one and Mitzy brought it up on the air immediately the next morning. The town knew right away that that hot shot lawyer Neuhaus was on the case and he wasn’t one to let up.

  “You’ve got your hound dog brother on this guy’s trail now, huh?” Johnny snorted.

  “I don’t ‘have’ anyone on any trail. Brett Neuhaus is as sick as I am of living in the Wild West. This is a land of law and order and it is about time that people figured it out.”

  “Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Salt Lake City?”

  “Portland may be a bit…quirky…but it shouldn’t be a dangerous place. And yet, in the time since I first got all riled up about the property theft situation, The Arts Council of Portland was robbed, my brother’s home was broken into, there was what I think was an attempt at fraud perpetrated in regards to a home I have listed for sale. This is ridiculous. If this is the little circle of crime in just my arena, what is everyone else facing?”

  “Maybe it’s the company you keep, Mitzy,” Johnny said.

  “I am spending a good deal more time here with you,” she rejoined.

  “Ouch, sister. I ain’t no trouble to no one.” Johnny smiled.

  “I’ll let your conscience be the judge of that.”

  They opened the morning for calls and heard tale after tale of people getting cheated—kicked when they were down. A few people hoped that Brett would get his man.

  But there were just as many people begging her to reconsider her stance, that when you were losing it all, it just made sense to try and get as much cash flow as you could. She found their desperation sad.

  It was just sad all around.

  Back at the office, Sabrina was hysterical and Ben was walking around like an insulted rooster.

  “We called and called and called you,” Sabrina sobbed.

  “We thought you’d want to know right away.” Ben stood in the doorway of the office, his arms crossed over his chest.

  The three of them were standing outside of the office building while a couple of young police officers sorted through their livelihood which was strewn across the floor inside.

  “I don’t check my phone while I’m on the air. You knew where I was. Why didn’t you call the station? They’d have gotten hold of me.” The sight of the police had turned her melancholy to fear. She shivered though the morning was bright. She’d seen too much of the police lately.

  “The glass was broken in the door, so I called the cops right away,” Sabrina said. “I came in at ten today, it just seemed right, with not much going on.”

  Mitzy looked at her watch. It was only ten-thirty. Some of her guilt rolled off. She hadn’t left these kids here too long alone. “It’s okay. I’m here now. Have you been inside yet?”

  “No, we were waiting for you. We knew you’d be here.”

  A young, short cop cleared his throat. “You all can come in now and tell us what is missing and make your police report.”

  Their particular office was quite small; the reception area, just a couple of square feet, the common office a nice size, twenty by twenty, two restrooms and the private office. Papers were scattered everywhere but, besides the door, nothing had been destroyed.

  They detailed to the officers the amount of disarray they found everything in and duly reported the break-in. Then they had a pow-wow.

  “Break-ins at the office are no good. I don’t know how to keep us safer than everything I’ve a
lready done.” Mitzy turned her head, taking in the damage. “I don’t understand why the computers are still here.” Mitzy tried to piece together what a boss does after a break-in, but felt at a loss.

  “You don’t?” Ben said giving his aging Mac an indignant look.

  “Oh. Well. No, they aren’t much value. Or they don’t look like it at least. But they’ve got decent upgrades inside.”

  “Barely decent.”

  “We seem like the kind of place that you’d hit for identity theft. Let’s sort out this huge paper mess now and see how bad it is. When the mess is sorted, Ben can do some internet shopping. Find us a new scanner, new crosscut shredder, and a couple of safe deposit boxes at the bank. From now on we will only keep electronic files in the office and will deposit all papers with personal info at the bank after work.”

  “Is that practical?” Sabrina asked.

  “I do have a personal assistant.” Mitzy grinned at Sabrina, but it felt forced, so she shrugged. “We’re a one Realtor firm. We can do better than this to keep our clients’ identities secure.”

  “Yeah. It probably was ID theft. Or at least attempted ID theft. Let’s get this sorted. You’ll probably have to offer all your clients identity protection for a year or something like that.” Ben stared at the paper mess. He shifted from foot to foot, a look of uneasiness passing over his features.

  “That’s probably true.” Mitzy scrunched her face up. Her life seemed to be one long attempt to sweep up messes. “Sabrina, when we are done and know the extent of the exposure, please call our insurance agent and see what we can work out.”

  “Can do.” Sabrina scooped up a pile of papers from the brown indoor-outdoor carpet and dropped them on her desk.

  That afternoon the interested party for the 72nd house contacted them again. The Realtor was beyond apologetic.

  “They had their baby! It was such a surprise. Two weeks early. They didn’t know she’d come that morning and totally, in the excitement, didn’t even think to call me. But you know, they are out of the hospital now and happy and safe and ready to move. Do you think your seller would reconsider? Have a little grace?” She was begging, really begging.