Carol gave a slight nod and faint smile. “She’s only thirteen so I’m pretty careful about where she babysits and for how long. She was supposed to be home for supper, but neither of the parents came home by then so I didn’t actually pick her up until around nine. Of course, she was happy for the extra money but Mrs. Santos seemed upset. Her husband was supposed to be there to make the kids supper and he wasn’t. It all worked out alright though. Lizzy made them Kraft dinner and they were happy.”
The meaning finally hit me in the head like she’d swung a 2 x 4. Dr. Santos wasn’t being arrested because he had an alibi. Where was he if he wasn’t at home? Murdering Utta Podeski? “You say you picked her up at nine?”
“About then. Pretty late for a school night.”
I gulped my coffee and gathered my things to leave. “I’m really not good company right now, Carol. I’m sorry. Can we try this again? Say next week?”
“Anytime,” Carol answered as I stood up. Using a paper napkin, she scribbled her telephone number. “Call me when you’re ready. No rush.”
6
I cupped Su-Jitzu’s throat gently as I stroked a brush along his sleek back. I was having tremendous trouble assimilating what had just happened. Nancy, busy wiping the display counter, was watching me with concern.
“What did his lawyer say again?”
“Something about being in court today but not to worry and that if he couldn’t make it today he’d been down here tomorrow to straighten things out. He wasn’t sure if there’d be a judge here to let Barney out.”
“They’ll figure it all out fast enough,” Nancy reassured me. “There’s no way that Barney could do anything like that.”
“In the meantime, he’s in jail under suspicion of murder!” I put Su-Jitzu to the floor and gathered up a small pile of fluffy hairs from his brush. “I’m worried. Uncle Barney could be in jail for days before his lawyer gets him out.”
Nancy skirted the display case and sat with me at the table. She held her hands out to me palms up. “He’ll be okay.” She stared at my face and tried to smile. “Your aura is bright red and it’s usually green. That can only mean you’re angry and upset. You have to relax. Things will work out. Honest.”
“How did she end up into the freezer? Is it possible to fall into a deep freeze? Don’t you think that sounds fishy?”
“It is kind of weird, I have to admit, but she wasn’t that tall. Probably had to use a stool and maybe she slipped,” said Nancy. “But it’s more likely someone hit her over the head and then stuffed her inside.”
“But why put her in the freezer? What kind of way is that to dispose of a body?”
“I know. It doesn’t make any sense,” Nancy admitted.
“Well, I can’t let Uncle Barney stew in jail. I’ve got to do something.”
“You said his lawyer is coming.”
“But I can’t sit here and do nothing until then! I have to help him somehow.”
Nancy squeezed my hand. “It’s the police’s job. Not yours. Let them find out what’s happened.”
I pulled away and flipped hair from my face. It floated in long strands over my back. “I’ve got to do something. Anything.”
Nancy squinted. “I see this guy every once and a while,” she said, trying to calm me. “His name is Ron and he works at the hospital. That’s where they’d have inspected her body. Maybe he’ll tell me about what they found. Do you think that will help?”
“Could you? It would help to know if someone broke into her place and attacked her or if there were some signs she was having an argument with someone.” I frowned. “I don’t mean an argument like Uncle Barney had with her. I mean something worse. A fight maybe.”
Nancy nodded and gave me a weak smile. “I’ll give Ronnie a call. I’ll use my feminine wiles to grill him.”
I gave her a fatalistic nod. “Don’t go overboard.”
We shared a short laugh and then I rubbed my face with both hands in frustration. “I don’t know what to do, Nancy. How can I help Barney?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. You can’t do anything. You have to let the police do their job.”
I gusted a heavy sigh. “I’ve got to. I’ve got to do something.” Staring across the room at Bookmarks, I folded my arms and pouted. I remembered The Murder in the Rue Morgue, one of the first mysteries I’d ever read.
“The Paris police work hard and often get good results, but there is no real method in what they do.” I recited the quote out loud.
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Just a quote,” I said, biting my lip. “What’s the first thing a murder mystery heroine does in a situation like this?” I looked at Nancy but she merely shrugged. “She goes to the crime scene and looks for clues, that’s what.” I reached down and picked up Su-Jitzu, staring into his tiny face. “We have to look at the crime scene, don’t we? What do you say?”
Su-Jitzu cocked his head to the side and barked his approval. “Alright then, let’s go.”
Nancy stood and tried to block my way. “You’re going to get into trouble. The police won’t like you to nosing around the crime scene.”
“They need another set of eyes. I’ll be quick. Chances are I won’t get near it anyway.”
With Su-Jitzu on his leash, I wandered from the road where I’d parked Beauty above the long driveway to Mrs. Podeski’s house. Luckily Nancy was willing to tell me how to get there. The home was modest, cedar sided and with a wrap-around porch from the front door to the back.
Behind it there was a small barn with Dutch roof and sagging logs, and in the front yard several pieces of small farm equipment were haphazardly parked. I saw the chief with one of his deputies wrapping police tape across the driveway from a rusty tractor to a wagon missing one wheel.
Chief McCaffrey saw me immediately. He left the deputy to finish the wrapping and came my way. “What are you doing here? You can’t be here,” he said in an officious way. “You can’t get in.”
“Why would I want to get in? I want to see where she lived. I’m just curious.”
The chief eyed me with mild suspicion. “Mrs. Olson across the road saw your uncle leaving the other night around eight o’clock.” He pointed towards a home across the street. It had a clear view of the Podeski house. Then he flicked his hand. “We’re roping off the crime scene. No one is allowed inside. Even Pavel and Allan are staying at the Lee Hotel for a few days while we investigate.”
“So, you think it was murder? Not an accident of some kind?” My face changed from hopeful to worried.
“It’s all pretty odd. I’ve called for a CSI team from Eugene to help. This is over my head. I usually write tickets and break up bar fights.”
“I appreciate you’re not too experienced with mysterious deaths,” I answered.
“We’re protecting things now until they get here. I think you should go.”
I pulled Su-Jitzu to my ankles, tightening the leash. “When you said Barney was seeing Mrs. Podeski romantically, it came as a shock. I just want to see where she lived, to understand it all a little better, you know?” I reached forward and took the chief’s elbow in one hand. “Do you really think my uncle Barney had something to do with her death?”
“Look, Ms. Willoughby,” the chief answered in a gentle but formal tone. “It’s all strange. You got to admit that. It could’ve been an accident. If it wasn’t, we have to find out who was responsible and, right now, Barney is a prime suspect. It’s best to let the CSI guys come up with the theories.”
“You know it couldn’t have been Barney!” I snapped. “If it wasn’t an accident, someone besides him must have hurt her. Have you asked yourself who else had a reason? What about Dr. Santos?”
The chief scowled. “I can’t tell you anything about the investigation, Miss Willoughby. You know that.”
“Do you have him in jail?”
He shook his head. “I figure you know I don’t. He has an alibi for the night in question.” The chief laid a hand on my
shoulder. “If anyone else was here, that would make a difference. That’s the million dollar question.”
“What’s his alibi, Chief?” I was about to dispute it with what Carol had told me, but swallowed my words. Not yet! I put my own hand over his on my shoulder and squeezed. “What about her son? Isn’t he a suspect?”
“Alibi,” the chief answered with one word.
I released him and slumped. My legs felt like Jell-O. It was as if all my energy was slipping away into the dirt. I scanned about and noticed the tape line stopped at the corner of the building. “Would it be okay if I wandered around? I just want to settle things in my mind.”
The chief stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. “Ms. Willoughby, you’re getting yourself all worked up and it won’t make a difference to anything. Your uncle and Utta have been seeing each other for years. He was paying a visit like he always did. Everybody in town knows he came by behind her husband’s back.” He shook his head with a slow wag. “Everybody except her husband it seems. Maybe the chickens came home to roost the other night.”
“But you said her husband wasn’t in town.”
The chief frowned. “That’s his alibi and it’s solid. He had a receipt from the motel he stayed at, and he was seen arriving back into town the morning after she died.”
“Then he couldn’t have caught them, could he?”
“Look! I know you aren’t a cop and that this is probably all pretty confusing. But I have to think of all the angles. Maybe he came home early and caught them. Maybe Barney took off. Maybe it was so upsetting for Barney that he went to the Long Branch to settle his nerves, like he says. Maybe there was a fight of some sort between Pavel and his wife after Barney left. Maybe Pavel sneaked out of town and then came back in the morning.” He shrugged his shoulders, leaned towards me and whispered, “Or maybe Barney and Utta had a fight.” He gave a heavy sigh. “I shouldn’t be talking to you about this. You should leave.”
I stood my ground. “Just a walk around the yard? I won’t go in. I want to get a feel for the place. I really need to understand.”
He squinted but finally nodded. “Make sure you don’t go near the house and don’t step in the tire marks. The CSI boys will be here soon and then we’ll all get a better idea of what happened.”
I left the chief and his deputy to their taping job and wandered across the farmyard, skirting a hay rake half buried in a clump of lilac saplings. Su-Jitzu devoted himself to sniffing everything as he always did but when we rounded the yard towards the back door he froze and stared. With a strong tug on his leash, Su-Jitzu pulled me towards the house and at the corner, stopped. His hackles flared and he began to growl. I felt a sudden chill. Su-Jitzu’s fangs were showing so it was obvious he sensed danger.
“What’s up, Su?” I whispered. I kneeled down and patted him. From around the house I heard the clink of keys. With the determined terrier leading the way,, the two of us reached the corner of the house and I peeked at the back door. A young man I thought I recognized was at the door fiddling with his keys. When I stepped closer, I was certain he was Allan Podeski.
“The police tape means you can’t go in,” I warned. Allan turned and took a step towards me. Su-Jitzu immediately began to growl. It was all alarming. I wrapped Su-Jitzu’s leash around my hand more tightly. If I hadn’t, I suspected the tiny terrier, who thought he was a Rottweiler, might jump at the man on the stairs. “You better stay out,” I warned.
“It’s my house. I can go in if I want.”
“The chief has special investigators coming. They don’t want anything disturbed.”
“I won’t touch any stuff. I have to get something.” Allan turned back to the door and inserted his key. As he did that, I unclipped Su-Jitzu’s leash. “Go get Chief, Su! Chief!” As if he understood, the terrier backed away and then ran towards the front of the house on his mission.
“You should wait,” I coaxed.
“I told you. I need to get something. Only take a second.”
Allan unlocked the door and slipped under the tape across the sill. I watched him enter, waiting for the chief to appear. When he didn’t, I decided to run towards the front door. “Chief McCaffrey,” I shouted. “Allan Podeski is going into the house.”
“Is that what your dog was on about?” The chief ran towards me but we were too late. We both caught a glimpse of Allan disappearing across the yard behind the house with a scruffy briefcase swinging in one hand.
“Well, he’s not there anymore.” The chief checked his watch and scrawled in his notebook. “I’ll find out what he was doing in there.”
“He said he had to get something.” I reattached the leash to Su-Jitzu’s collar. “I told him he couldn’t go in but he said it was his house and he had every right.”
“Just like him,” the chief grumbled. “He always thought the law didn’t apply to him.”
I turned away, dispiritedly wandering back to Beauty with the sunshine on my shoulders. A murder of crows flapped past and disappeared behind towering spruces. The breeze filled my nose with their resinous evergreen scent.
With a sigh, I opened the driver’s door and climbed in. I didn’t accomplish anything to help Uncle Barney. And I’ve never even had a chance to let him know that I appreciate the care he gave me ten years ago. All I seem to do with him is fail.
7
I stirred two spoons of sugar into my coffee. It wasn’t my regular way of drinking it. Nancy had chosen Costa Rican beans for her version of the ‘coffee of the day’. While I liked the Tres Rios coffee from Costa Rica, this bean had a more powerful, robust flavor. I topped the heaps of sugar with extra cream to further weaken its taste.
“I wonder what Allan was after? I tried to get him stay out of the house, but he was bound and determined to get something.”
Nancy was smoothing clean tablecloths—blue checkered—over the tables around me. “The chief will find out soon enough, don’t you think? You both saw him running away.”
“That’s not the same as catching him inside breaking the law. It’s my word against his that he went inside.”
“Well the chief believes you, I’m sure.”
Nancy dropped the pile of clean cloths onto the nearest table and clapped her hands. “I’ve got some news.” I looked at her hopefully. I needed some good news.
“I called Ron while you were out snooping.” Nancy explained that Ron Dufuss was a radiologist at the hospital. “I asked him to sniff around too.”
“And?”
“Well, he called me back.” She gave a Cheshire Cat grin. “But he really didn’t want to tell me anything until I used a proper incentive. It’s going to cost me a dinner,” she said. “If you come along you’ll have a chance to ask him some more questions.”
I felt my heart beating fast. “What did he tell you?”
“Ron says they examined Mrs. Podeski’s body and they think there was a struggle. She got a clonk of some kind or she might’ve bumped her head when she fell inside the freezer. All Ron could tell was that she was alive when she fell in.”
“How do they know that?”
“They don’t think the bump on the head killed her. She died of asphyxiation. And they found a button clutched in her fist.”
I was stunned by the news. Maybe there was finally some evidence that could save my uncle. I tried desperately to remember the last time I’d seen Barney and if his shirt had been missing a button somewhere. “Do you think Uncle Barney could have gotten so mad they fought and he pushed her into the freezer?”
“That’s ridiculous. Couldn’t have happened.” Nancy clapped her hands again. “So now? In your mystery novels what happens next?”
“The heroine usually puts together a list of suspects, I guess.”
Nancy pulled an order pad from her apron pocket, turned it over and got ready to write. “Okay, so far we’ve got Barney. Supposedly he was the last person see her. Who else might be a suspect?”
I drummed the table with my fingers. “Le
t’s start with the obvious ones. There’s Dr. Santos. He and Mrs. Podeski were always fighting. He came over here looking for her and he was in a rage, right?” I didn’t tell Nancy what I knew about him mysteriously not being at home when he said he was.
Nancy scribbled the dentist’s name on the pad. “Who else?”
“You said Bill Reamer and Mrs. Podeski didn’t get along either. Didn’t you say he had to pay her money every month as a settlement for the accident? Maybe that’s a reason for murder.”
Nancy scribbled again.” Anyone else?”
“Her husband?” I squinted. The thought of Uncle Barney in a love triangle was more than a little distasteful. “The chief said maybe he caught them, killed Mrs. Podeski, and then slipped back out of town so he had an alibi.”
Nancy shook her head. “I think that’s a stretch.” Reluctantly she scribbled Mr. Podeski’s name on the pad. “Anybody else you can think of?”
I shook my head. “Her son? That’s a lot to begin with. If it was Uncle Barney, he’s murdered his lover. Why would he kill Mrs. Podeski? Isn’t it more likely he’d have killed Mr. Podeski? They would have fought, right?”
“I’ve got to think you’re right about that. If Mr. Podeski even cared,” Nancy replied. “Where do you go from here?”
“There has to be something at the crime scene that identifies who killed Mrs. Podeski, if in fact she was killed and it wasn’t just an accident. That button. That’s a clue, right?”
“I guess.” Nancy got up, retrieved her purse from behind the display counter, and then looked at me with apprehension. “Was Barney missing a button?”
“I don’t remember. I didn’t notice.”
“Well, that’s something to find out, right?”
I sighed and nodded.
Nancy stared at me as if she was uncertain about something. “Have you ever heard about using pendulums for answers?”
I had to shake my head. Nancy was cute and friendly, and she claimed she could see colors around people, but this was getting a little too strange for me to bear. Instead of discouraging her though, I waited.
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