Merry Wrath Mysteries Boxed Set Volume III (Books 7-9)

by Leslie Langtry

  "Since it's Saturday and I'm free," Rex said with a smile, "I thought we'd nose around Mad Mimi's murder a little more."

  "That's a great idea! What are we doing?"

  "You mentioned that Edna Lou had the original axe at the Historical Society. Why don't we have a look?"

  I got dressed in record time while Rex called Edna Lou and set things up. Twenty minutes later we were in the log cabin, huddled over a long, stained cardboard box that held an axe. The metal head was chipped and starting to rust. The wooden handle looked like it had been worn smooth over more than a century. It seemed solidly connected to the axe-head, and had a little hole at the other end.

  "They used to put holes in all the tools to hang them up in barns and such." Edna Lou beamed at the gruesome weapon.

  I looked closely at the handle. A few stray fibers were stuck to the hole. That must have been hung up with rope. Other than that, the weapon was clean as a whistle.

  "It's been in this box since the murder," Edna said. "It was donated to the Historical Society after the funeral. Someone cleaned off the axe-head. They didn't have forensics back then, but it was pretty obvious that there were traces of blood."

  "How did you come by it?" Rex asked. "We found some photos of the crime scene. But you don't need to see them."

  The elderly woman answered. "Eustace donated it and a lot of other things after the case was closed. There's nothing else directly connected to the murder."

  "I'm so sorry," I said.

  Rex got up and patted her shoulder, visibly chastened. "I wasn't thinking."

  "No, no." Edna blew her nose. "It's okay. Ike and I always wanted to solve this. He would've been excited to see the photos."

  Rex picked up his keys. "I'll go get some coffee for everyone."

  "Good idea," I mumbled and sat down beside the woman.

  "Ike was a good man." She sniffed. "And the only family I had. We were very close."

  A thought occurred. "Did he have anyone else in his life? Like a girlfriend or a buddy?"

  She shook her head. "No. He kept to himself. Well, he had that neighbor, Nels Larson, who looked in on him from time to time. But Ike wasn't terribly social."

  I guess Edna Lou didn't know her cousin as well as she thought she did. How could I tell her about Penny without giving too much away?

  An idea popped into my head. "Rex said when they talked to Ike's neighbor, Nels, he said Ike had a girlfriend."

  Edna Lou looked at me curiously. I should've waited until Rex was here to spring that on her. Now when Rex came back, I'd have to find a way to update him without tipping her off.

  "Ike never dated. Not even in school." She looked around to see if anyone was listening. Which was weird because we were in a cabin made of two-foot-wide logs. "He was, well, delicate."

  "Delicate?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

  The woman sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter now. It was a family secret. But Ike liked to dress as a woman."

  That explained the wigs and women's clothing.

  "He had another house—over by the zoo—where he kept everything. He was very afraid of his secret getting out."

  I put my hand on her arm. "That's not so unusual. I mean, it probably was then, but now it's just a lifestyle choice."

  Edna nodded. "I know. But he thought it was a secret. He didn't even realize that I knew. Poor dear."

  I pressed the issue. "But that doesn't mean he didn't have a girlfriend."

  Rex walked in, and Edna excused herself to the bathroom. Which gave me a chance to fill him in on the conversation so far.

  "Merry," he said quietly, "you aren't supposed to be investigating Ike's murder. We're here about Mad Mimi."

  "I know that. Can I help it if she brought all of this up?" Okay, that was a lie. Still, he didn't need to know that. Okay, he probably guessed.

  "I'm so sorry about that," Edna returned, looking a little less fragile. "Can we talk about Mehitable? I'm really not ready to talk about…about my cousin."

  "Absolutely," Rex said quickly.

  "May I see that photos you mentioned?" she asked. "I'm alright, really."

  She really was a trooper.

  This case was a passion for her. What would she do once it was solved? I thought about the museum idea. I'd have to find a place for her. Maybe the old Peters lumber mill? It was empty. Up until recently it was a hall you could reserve for special occasions, but it went out of business. Yes. That would be better than evicting Randi and Ronni.

  "I can't believe I'm looking at the murder scene," Edna gasped. She squinted at the picture and then got up and grabbed a huge lamp with a magnifying glass on it.

  "I use this when I need a closer look," she said as she plugged it in and turned it on. After a few minutes, she looked up. "There's another picture stuck to this one."

  Another photo? How had we missed that? We watched in awe, as Edna Lou carefully peeled one photo off of the back of the other. This one was a close-up of Mehitable.

  "This wasn't taken at the same time as the other one." Edna tapped the picture.

  Rex and I looked at each other.

  "See?" She pointed at the close-up and the long shot. "This one was taken during daylight." She pointed at the long shot. "But this was in the evening. Notice the shadows?"

  She was right. "How did we not notice this?"

  Rex just shook his head. "And I'm a detective."

  "Where did you find these?" Edna asked.

  I wasn't ready to tell her about my connection to the twins, so I blurted out the only thing I could think of. "Sheriff Carnack found them in some old case files."

  That seemed to work.

  "Mehitable was fascinated by photography. Did you know she took the picture of herself in the clown suit? As fragile as her mind was, she was very mechanical. Rigged up a camera and took it herself." Edna nodded as if we already knew this.

  I was going to have to talk to the woman about leaving info like this out. But then at her age, she probably thought she'd told us already.

  She looked around her and finally pulled out a notebook. "I'll have to find the record, but Eustace told the police that she'd become quite paranoid in her last years. Rigged cameras up in every room on the ground floor, using tripwires so she could document any burglaries." She frowned. "Not that there were any back then. Not in this town."

  All of this was new information. Information I wished she'd told us earlier.

  "Of course, he dismantled all of her booby traps when he took possession of the house," she said, as if that explained it.

  Rex and I stared meaningfully at each other. I wasn't sure what we were saying, but I was convinced the words forgetful and bizarre were part of that conversation. While Edna examined the close-up photo, I decided that as a couple, we were going to have to come up with a secret, silent way of communicating with each other.

  Riley and I had done that, I thought with a wince. If one of us was in danger, even at something seemingly benign like a gala at an embassy, we scratched our right ear. If I thought it was time to leave, I tapped my left foot. If he wanted to leave with that hot blonde from reception, he bit his lower lip. Why on earth did I think we'd had a future together?

  "I think I'm seeing things." She waved us over. "It looks like there's a reflection in that spoon."

  Rex and I crowded around her. Sure enough, Mehitable had a spoon she wore on a string around her neck. And to our shock, it looked like the shadow of a person's reflection in the bowl of the spoon!

  I cried out, "That could be her killer!"

  Rex stared at the image. "It's definitely a person, but really just a shadow. I might be able to take this to a friend at the Iowa State Police though…for enhancement."

  Edna's jaw dropped. "We've solved it? We've solved Mehitable's murder?"

  She threw her arms around me. This was exciting. We were so close to finding out who killed Mad Mimi.

  "Now we just have to find the fortune and create the museum!"

&n
bsp; I stopped jumping. "I have an idea for that. How about the old Peters lumber mill?"

  Edna's face fell, and it was devastating. "Oh no, dear. It has to be the house. In Villisca, they give tours in the house. We need to do that to put Who's There on the map!"

  I turned very slowly to look at Rex. It was hard to read his face.

  "Besides," Edna continued, oblivious to the strange silence in the room. "Now that you've made that generous donation, I can hire a lawyer to get the house."

  An awkward silence hung heavy in the air like a wet wool blanket over your head in July. Only this wet wool blanket had embroidery on it that told my fiancé I was financing the future eviction of his sisters. I hoped he didn't notice. And if he did, it wasn't like I was funding state-sponsored terrorists. Oh, wait. I did once. But it wasn't my fault. How was I supposed to know that little Siobhan O'Reilly was collecting for the IRA? She told me it was to save baby loggerhead turtles in Belfast.

  Edna busied herself with a notepad, jotting things down. The look on Rex's face was interesting. Bad interesting.

  "Merry," Rex said finally, "can I see you outside for a moment?" He looked at Edna Lou. "Do you mind if I borrow her, Miss Murphy?"

  Edna Lou nodded. "Of course, Detective! I have so much to do! Take your time!"

  Rex and I stepped outside.

  "You're financially supporting her in her bid to evict my sisters?" He didn't sound all that mad. Maybe because he thought the old lady was confused and just wanted clarification.

  "Um…sorta?" I gave him a weak grin. "I just gave her a donation the first time I met her, and later she told me that she was planning to fight your sisters for their house. I had no idea, I swear!"

  He sighed. "I believe you. I really do. But it will be hard to explain to the twins. Especially Ronni."

  I slumped. "I know. That's why I was hoping the lumber mill would work."

  After a beat, he wrapped his arms around me. "Look, I'm going to scan these and email them to my friend in Des Moines. You stay here with Edna and see if you can find anything more out about Mimi. She might remember other things she hasn't told us. I'll be back in an hour, and we can go talk to my sisters together."

  I brightened. "Really?"

  He nodded. "Of course. Besides, Ronni's likely to come after you with a dead animal. It would be good for you to have armed backup." Rex kissed me and fled to his car.

  Great. I went back inside.

  "Edna…" Something was bothering me. "If the two pictures were taken at different times of the day, why do you think the secret photo ended up in the police report with the photo taken at the scene of the crime?"

  The woman stopped writing. "I have no idea. Maybe Eustace found the camera after the marshal left and gave him the film?"

  "Maybe…" I thought.

  Maybe Eustace really had killed his sister. Maybe the marshal didn't want that to get out. I'd been thinking that Peggy McMurtry was the main suspect, but now Mad Mimi's brother was creeping into the picture. Literally.

  "I've been all through her diary." I sat down at the table. "There isn't much in there about her social circle, except for a cousin named Peggy. Do you know about her?"

  Edna nodded, still writing. "Of course. Peggy was her second cousin on her grandmother Euphemia's side."

  Of course. Clearly the elderly lady thought she'd told me this already.

  "What's Peggy's story?"

  Edna paused and looked up. "She was sent to Iowa from New Hampshire to live with the Peters. I've seen something somewhere that she got into trouble, the poor girl."

  "Did that mean she'd gotten pregnant?" I blurted out.

  "That's right. But she didn't bring up the baby. There's no record of him until the 1920s, when it was rumored he moved to town." She went back to work as if this conversation was over.

  "But in the diary, Mehitable said Peggy's father died and her mother was in an asylum—that's why she was here."

  "It's hard to understand," she said, "why that story would be considered a better one than Peggy being in trouble. But there you have it. From what I'd seen in other papers, Peggy's parents were fine. They just didn't want her around."

  That was sad. Poor Peggy! How awful it would be if she couldn't see her baby until he was an adult and moved here.

  Thomas McMurtry! My great-grandfather! Was it possible that he was Peggy's son? That would explain why I looked like Mehitable. It was a long shot. And when I got home, I'd have to check the website.

  This was exciting! I might have a connection to a murder we might have just solved!

  "I've been thinking about your map." Edna put her pen down. "Now that we are on the cusp of figuring out who killed her, we should try to solve the mystery of the hidden treasure."

  "Good idea," I said.

  Personally, I was beginning to think the map was worthless. Found in my yard with very little to go on but some initials and a drawing of a llama, maybe Mimi was just showing how crazy she really was. After all, Ike had found the gold already. Granted, I'd only seen a couple of the bars in person. But that meant the map didn't matter anymore. But how was I going to tell this sweet woman that her cousin had found the money and was going to run off with some woman, leaving her twisting in the wind?

  Penny was the key to this. I needed to find her. And I had no idea how to do that.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Rex returned an hour later. His buddy at the state police had thought he could help but wasn't sure we'd have much more than a shadow in the image when enhanced. Edna and I were going through some old newspaper clippings on the Peters family.

  "I think it's really strange that there are no photos of Eustace and Mehitable's mother." I set some articles aside and rubbed my eyes.

  Edna nodded. "It's almost as if they erased her existence. That wasn't too uncommon. Most Americans don't even know anything about their grandparents. Let me ask you, what do you know about yours?"

  I shrugged. "Very little. Out of my four grandparents, I only knew Grandma Wrath." I decided not to tell Edna about my possible connection to the McMurtrys. My first priority was solving this case.

  "Ms. Murphy," Rex asked.

  "Oh! Edna, please!" She blushed adorably.

  "Edna"—he seemed uncomfortable using her first name—"can I see the axe again?"

  She handed him the box and a pair of cotton gloves. He put these on without question and very gingerly studied the weapon.

  Edna Lou pulled out a laptop and began typing. Maybe it was taking too long to write her notes out in longhand.

  Penny filled my thoughts. Sooner or later I'd have to tell Rex what I knew. That I'd been in Ike's house and had seen the gold bars. He wasn't going to be happy, but I couldn't see how this investigation was going to move forward without this information.

  The risk was that he would be upset with me. But giving him a solid suspect far outweighed that. Didn't it? I was pretty sure Penny was the killer. She'd been talking to someone on the phone the previous night. That was her accomplice.

  Probably a man closer to her age. Why else would a fifty-something woman be dating an eighty-something man. She had to be a grifter. The woman must have met Ike, heard him bragging about looking for the treasure, and worked him like a puppet on a string.

  Was there a way I could have Rex find her with the gold? Preferably without him knowing I had prior knowledge? That was an idea. But I had to find Penny first. And I wasn't even convinced that was her name.

  Nels said Ike had had a cell phone. Was he on social media too? I pulled out my cell and scrolled through Facebook. I doubted he was on anything else. Old people, including my own parents, were on that site these days. Even I had an account. I didn't set it up—the girls did it for me. It took me a week to get around to signing in. That was when I'd discovered that they'd created the page for Merry Christmas Princess Poop Pants. I'd since changed it.

  I wasn't sure what he looked like, so I typed his name and Who's There. Rex was still studying the we
apon, and whatever Edna was doing made her grin from ear to ear. Rex couldn't be angry with me for looking up Ike. And if I found him and pictures of Penny, that was how I could implicate her.

  Eventually I'd have to confess. But I was a bit of a coward. We were having so much fun looking into Mad Mimi's murder and treasure that I didn't want to ruin it.

  There had to be thirty Ike Murphys—fifteen in Iowa alone—and none specifically from Who's There. It took me a few minutes to rule out seven who had full heads of hair…real hair and not wigs.

  Eight Ike Murphys. All of them were old and balding. I'd have to go through their profiles very carefully to rule them out. I knocked out five right away because they had pictures of themselves in front of their town water towers.

  If you want to know where you are in Iowa, look up toward the sky for the water tower. Every town had one. There were no exceptions. Who's There had a tower that looked like a golf ball on a giant tee. I'd seen towers that looked like coffeepots, giant bowls, and even one in the eastern half of the state that resembled a rutabaga.

  The last three Ikes had very few photos and almost no information about themselves. I scoured their timelines but came up empty. And all this time I knew that the one I was looking for might not even have been on social media.

  Rex broke the silence. "Edna, may I take these fibers from the axe handle in to our forensics lab? I have a friend there who might have some time on his hands."

  Another friend. It was good my fiancé was so well-connected that he…

  Friends! Why didn't I think of that before? I barely heard Edna consent. Each of the three Ikes had a few friends listed. The first one didn't have anyone I recognized, but I checked to see if any of them were from Who's There and drew a complete blank.

  I repeated this process with the second Ike, all the while chastising myself for not thinking of this before. Nope, this one must live in the northwest corner of the state. I braced myself to come up empty-handed on the last Ike.

  Bingo! This Ike Murphy had two friends I recognized…Nels Larson and Penny. Only her name wasn't Penny. It was Penelope May. I guess you could derive Penny from Penelope. It was her alright. Skinny old Ike had his arm around the very same frizzy-haired woman I'd "met" the night before. It was her. No doubt about it.