52 Steps to Murder (8 page)

“Cy, Frank here. I guess I woke you. Luck is with us. I have the results from the autopsy and figured you’d want them as soon as possible, but I knew you had a rough day yesterday, so I didn’t want to wake you too early.”

“And I thank you for that. So, what’s the news? Were we right?”

“Have you ever known us to be wrong, Cy? Okay, don’t answer that. Anyway, it was poison, all right. Codeine to be exact.”

“Codeine. So the pharmacist did it?”

“The who is your job, Cy. The how is mine.”

“How was it administered?”

“It was added to a glass of grape juice.”

“Turn up any other evidence?”

“Sure did. Somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour before the poison was ingested, someone gave her a heavy dose of painkillers and sleeping pills. I’m not talking a whole bottle or anything like that, but it was double what she needed.”

“Any idea why someone would do that?”

“Not unless they didn’t want her to holler while she was being poisoned. I don’t understand why someone would give her a sleeping pill and then codeine. Codeine makes people drowsy, and then go into a coma before death. There’s no need for a sleeping pill.”

“Would the sleeping pill make her begin to get sleepy a little at a time, or fall asleep all at once?”

“She would probably start to yawn a few times after a few minutes. She would appear to be somewhat sleepy to anyone who saw her.”

“What else do you have?”

“The lab boys got a few prints, but I imagine after we find out who all of them belong to it won’t lead us anywhere. From what I can see, there were four sets of prints, but none of them were on the glass.”

“What about outside the house?”

“A few smudged fingerprints, which are quite normal. No footprints or ladder marks in the back yard.”

“Any idea as to the time of the murder, Frank?”

“Well, other than to say it was sometime yesterday morning, no.”

“So, no one could have given it to her Friday night?”

“Well, they could have, but only if they’d put gloves on her, told her to hold it in her hand until Saturday morning, and then came back and removed the gloves before we got there.”

“So, Frank, what’s your best guess as to how long it took the poison to kill her?”

“Fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“Are you saying one minute is not enough?”

“It would be if it was injected, but this time it was administered orally, so instant death is out of the question.”

“Officer Davis told me that Angela Nelson arrived at her grandmother’s side thirty seconds to a minute before he did. You say that there was no way she could have killed her grandmother in that short of a time.”

“Absolutely, no way, Cy. Codeine comes in both liquid and a white powder form. This time the powder was added to a glass of grape juice. Judging from the amount in her system, I’d say that she died fifteen or twenty minutes after it was ingested.”

“White powder? Don’t you mean cocaine, Frank?”

“No, and I don’t mean flour or powdered sugar. It was definitely codeine.”

“Officer Davis also said that he and Miss Nelson had probably been in the house three to five minutes when they discovered the body. So, you’re saying that Miss Nelson could not have murdered her grandmother during that time?”

“The murderer needed to be alone in the house for at least fifteen minutes, and probably a little longer. Actually, a lot longer if our murderer gave her the medications, too. My guess is the babysitter did it.”

“She didn’t have a babysitter, Frank.”

“Well, then, you’re on your own, Cy.”

“No, I’ve still got Lou. Anyway, thanks, Frank. I appreciate you being so prompt about this. Let me know if anything else comes up.”

“Sure thing, Cy. Oh, by the way, did the doctor tell you whether you’ll ever be able to walk again?”

I laughed a painful laugh, hung up the phone, and turned over for a few more minutes of rest.

+++

“Lou, did I wake you?”

“You know me. I’ve been up for hours.”

“Well, I’m impressed. What kind of miracle cure did you come up with?”

“Oh, didn’t you hear? They say that M&Ms have proved to be superior to a Hershey Almond bar in healing a person from excessive walkitis.”

I chuckled into the phone before continuing.

“I’m glad to hear that, Lou. You can carry me up those steps today.”

“Please don’t mention those steps. I counted them all night long.”

“Listen, Lou, Frank just called. It’s just like we thought. The old lady was poisoned. Codeine. Plus, someone gave her some medication to help it go down easier. I’m going to call her granddaughter and tell her and then take a shower. After that, I’ll do my devotional reading and reflection. So, I’ll probably be over to pick you up in an hour.”

+++

I hung up from talking to Sgt. Murdock and phoned Angela Nelson.

“Hello.”

“Miss Nelson, this is Lt. Dekker.”

“Oh, hi, Lieutenant. What can I do for you?”

“I was just calling to let you know that they’ve finished the autopsy on your grandmother. The department will be finished with her this afternoon, so you can call the mortuary and make funeral arrangements.”

“Thanks for calling, Lieutenant.”

“Well, don’t you want to know the results?”

“Yeah, sure, but I just assumed she had a heart attack.”

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, so I used my most comforting voice to tell the young woman what caused her grandmother’s death.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Miss Nelson, but your grandmother was poisoned.”

“Poisoned?”

“That’s right, Miss Nelson.”

“Are you sure? Well, could it have been an accident?”

“No.”

“But, I don’t understand. Everyone loved my grandmother.”

“Everyone?”

“Well, maybe everyone didn’t love her, but I can’t see anyone poisoning her.”

“Not even Mrs. Reynolds.”

“She’s mean, but not that mean.”

“What about Mr. Silverman?”

“He’s a snoop, but not a murderer.”

“Didn’t his mother die suddenly?”

“I’m not sure. But he was devoted to his mother. I don’t think he killed her.”

“Who would be at the top of your list, Miss Nelson?”

“I can’t see anyone who knew my grandmother doing this, and I can’t see how anyone else could have gotten into the house.”

“Well, someone did, Miss Nelson. You didn’t happen to notice a glass on the floor when you found your grandmother, did you?”

“No. You mean you found the murder weapon, so to speak?”

“So to speak. By the way, is there anything you might have forgotten to tell me yesterday?”

“Not that I can think of. Oh, when I got home there were three calls on my answering machine from Irene Penrod. The first time she called was a few days after I left, and she informed me that my grandmother had fallen, broken some bones, and was pretty bruised up. From what I can tell, she called the second time a couple of days later. She phoned to see if I got her message about my grandmother. The third call was Friday night. She said that when she didn’t hear from me she  called  my  employer  and  my employer told her that I was out of town and that I would be back yesterday morning. Normally, my boss wouldn’t do that, but Miss Penrod explained that she was my grandmother’s next-door neighbor, and I had mentioned her name to my boss.

“Anyway, on Friday, Miss Penrod called to ask me to look in on my grandmother, because she was leaving town Saturday for a week. I guess that’s why she wasn’t home when I knocked Saturday morning. She’d already left.”

“Speaking of leaving town, Miss Nelson, will you be leaving on another buying trip anytime soon?”

“Even if I was, I’d cancel it for my grandmother’s funeral, but as it turns out I won’t be leaving again for a least at week, and maybe two.”

“Well, thanks for your time, Miss Nelson. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Call me if you need anything or if you think of anything else.”

“I will, Lieutenant. By the way, do you have any idea when my grandmother was poisoned, or is that confidential information?”

“We’re still working on that, Miss Nelson. I’ll call you if I have any questions or answers.”

“Thanks, Lieutenant.”

10

Even though Lou and I attack each case like a hungry Doberman mauls a piece of raw steak, both of us spend some time with God before we begin each day. Each month, I pick up a devotional booklet from my church, and each morning I spend time reading a devotional and the comments that accompany it. I also take time to reflect upon it and spend a few moments in prayer before I head off to pick up Lou.

Lou, who requires less sleep than I do, rises early and spends time in a more-involved Bible study, which includes a booklet with spaces to write answers to the questions that accompany what he reads. He too spends time in prayer before I pick him up each day. This helps both of us get through the trying times that confront us.

+++

Before I left the house on Sunday morning, I reached into the refrigerator and selected three Hershey bars. As far as I’m concerned, nothing else removes stress as well. I took three because I didn’t want to run out. I secured the candy bars in my coat pocket and stepped out onto my front porch, which is much smaller and sets much closer to the street level than the porches on Hilltop Place. I noticed that the sun was a little higher in the sky than when I usually leave for work, and then turned to close and lock the door.

“Good morning, Cyrus,” said the voice that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

The all-too-familiar voice sounded like fingernails on a chalk board. I turned to face my next-door neighbor, Heloise Humphert, and her white toy poodle, Twinkle Toes. Surely no one else has a next-door neighbor they despise as much.

“Miss Humphert, if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. It’s not a good idea to sneak up on a cop with a gun. I can see the newspaper headline now. ‘Dog Resembles Owner. Miss Heloise Humphert and her mutt were found with bullet holes in their heads. A gangland slaying is suspected. It was ironic that the bodies were found in front of her police detective next-door neighbor’s house.’”

“Oh, Cyrus. You say the funniest things. Are we on our way to church?”

“I have no idea about we, but one of us is on his way to work.”

“Oh, has someone else been murdered?”

“I’m supposed to keep this quiet, see, but it was a nosy woman with a dog. We suspect the next-door neighbor did it. If so, we’re going to let him go free. Because you answer the description of the dead woman, my suggestion to you would be to become a part of the Witness Protection Program and relocate to Point Barrow, Alaska. You might be safer there.”

I lowered my voice a little with each word until I was whispering at the end. With my last declaration, I turned toward my car and hastened in its direction.

Heloise and her sister Hortense were the unbecoming daughters of the president of the bank, Horatio Humphert. Horatio tried his best to find husbands for his daughters, and let it be known that both daughters would come with a sizable dowry. No man in Hilldale ever got drunk enough to accept Horatio’s offer of either of his double-chinned daughters. Because Horatio found no takers for Heloise, he bought her a house and a bulldog.  When each dog died or ran away, Horatio bought Heloise a new one. Each time, he bought a different breed, hoping that some day he would find a suitable dog for his daughter. Because sisters are usually opposites, I imagine that Hortense joined a convent, even though the family was not Roman Catholic. I just know that she did not buy the house on the other side of mine, and for that I am thankful.

+++

Lou was standing in the front doorway when I pulled up in front of his apartment. The Blue Moon Diner is not open on Sunday, so Dick Tracy Squared, as Rosie at the Blue Moon calls us, or Double Round, as we sometimes refer to ourselves, stopped off at the Rocking Horse Cafe for some much-needed nourishment. I wolfed down a breakfast of steak, eggs over easy, hash browns, and pancakes with maple syrup. Lou ordered bacon, scrambled eggs, and homemade biscuits with gravy. He gobbled his as fast as he could, in order to keep up with me. Both of us were eager to get to work on the case. Neither of us liked an unsolved murder in Hilldale.

+++

As we left the restaurant I thought of Lou’s “message” from the day before. It was, “Today you will rise above.” Boy, did we rise above. I was anxious to find out what Sunday’s message was for us.

“Lou, what’s God message for today?”

“Strange happenings in the night.”

“So, you’re still sleeping with that inflatable doll?”

“I never started. You told me you couldn’t part with it.”

I wondered what strange happenings, and pondered them as I steered the car toward Hilltop Place. Before we arrived, I filled Lou in about the conversations I had with Frank Harris and Angela Nelson. As I turned and headed the car down Hilltop Place, Lou and I noticed Jimmy Reynolds hunched over and running away from the Nelson house. By the time we pulled up in front of the dead woman’s house, Jimmy had started climbing the steps to his sheltering mother.

As soon as I’d climbed out of the car, I heard my name being called. I looked up and saw Stanley Silverman running down his steps. I waited for him.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Silverman. What can I do for you today?”

“Someone’s been here.”

“You mean someone came to see you, or someone’s been on the Nelson property?”

“Not only has someone been on the property, but someone went into the house.”

“Could you tell who it was, Mr. Silverman?” I asked, still not sure if I believed the man.

“Whoever it was was wearing a long yellow raincoat, black galoshes, and a yellow rain hat.”

“And you’re sure they went into the house, Mr. Silverman?”

“I sure am, Lieutenant,” the neighbor answered, nodding as he replied.

“Through the front door?”