Death at the Door (14 page)

May 31—Al Johnson's Restaurant,
Sister Bay, Wisconsin

John, Ann, and Lark pulled into Al Johnson's parking lot right at 6:30
P.M
. They followed two other couples around to the front entrance of the large, dark brown, cedar-chalet-style building. Their walk was slowed because Ann insisted on studying the grass growing on the roof of the restaurant. She was looking for the goats that were usually up there keeping the grass trimmed to the proper length. She was unable to locate a single goat. She asked the first person she saw in the restaurant where they were, only to find out that they didn't go up on the roof until the first of June.

They were ushered through a crowd of people to a round table already occupied by Lacey, Joel, and Russ. The waitress gave them their menus and explained how the meals were served. They decided to order full dinners. The waitress immediately brought them large relish and bread trays for starters.

Al Johnson's had been an institution in Door County for years. The menu served the usual American fare as well as the traditional Scandinavian food that most people opted for. The waitresses walking around in black dirndl skirts with embroidered aprons, red vests, and clogs heightened the feeling of being in an authentic Scandinavian restaurant. The six of them had a jovial time trying out the different dishes they all ordered. When the meal was finished, the men waited patiently while Ann and Lacey shopped in the Scandinavian store on the premises. While they were shopping, the women decided that it was a good night to go dancing. Lark silently wondered if there were any bad nights for dancing, but he went with the group to the Railhouse.

The Railhouse was packed. Lark couldn't figure out what the theme of the evening was. He had groaned when they walked in and heard the twang of country music and saw people line dancing. But, by the time they got seated the DJ was playing a techno dance number from the eighties. The next number was “Twist and Shout” and people his age were out on the dance floor rubbing elbows with people in their twenties. They were all doing their best to imitate Chubby Checker. Lark and Joel were the only people left at their table. They moved into chairs beside each other so they could talk. Lark gave Joel the disc with his database of Door County business owners.

“I pity the person who has to investigate all these people. There are a couple hundred people on this list and that's just business owners. It doesn't include their employees.”

“I'll see if we can get it narrowed down,” Joel said as he slid the disc into his pants pocket. “Maybe we'll get lucky. We've got a guy who lied to us about where he was on Sunday morning when Paul Larsen was killed. He said he was at church but we can't find anyone there who saw him.” Joel waved his bottle at the harried waitress and she nodded.

“Have you interviewed him?”

“Once. Skewski and I went looking for him today but he wasn't home. Skewski has one of his deputies checking out his house every hour so we can re-interview him.”

“What did you think of him?”

“He's an arrogant son of a bitch.” The waitress brought another bottle of Leinenkugel's for each of them. Joel dropped some bills on her tray and told Lark about Rassmussen.

“It would be nice if he was your man, but since he says he's never set foot on a golf course, do you think it's likely?”

“Good question,” Joel said, watching the dance floor. “Do you see what I see?”

Lark twisted around and studied the crowd. He groaned when his eyes settled on Sophie Martinelli dancing with Gene Boskirk. She was wearing the white outfit she'd worn to the Shoreline Restaurant.

“This can't be anything but trouble,” Lark said as he watched them fade back into the crowd. “Maybe she won't notice us and Lacey won't notice her.” He looked at Joel for support.

“Yeah, right.” Joel frowned at him. “I'm starting to worry about you. I think you've completely lost your senses where women are concerned. You know as well as I do that those two babes have already scoped each other out.”

Ann and John came back to the table as soon as the song was over. They had stopped at the bar to get a beer and a glass of wine before they'd threaded their way through the crowd to their table.

“Guess who's here?” Ann said, grinning across the table at Lark like the cat that ate the canary.

“Gene and Sophie,” he replied, unable to stop himself from bursting her bubble.

“You saw them too?” She leaned back in her chair. “Do you want to leave?”

“Not because of those two.”

“Think we should get Lacey out of here?”

“She can take care of herself,” Joel said as his cell phone rang. Joel passed Lacey and Russ coming back to the table. He waved his cell phone at Lacey as he went to take his call in a place where he had some chance of hearing the person on the other end of the line.

He returned to the table, a look of concern on his face. “We've got a report of another burglary. Rose and Daisy's sister, Lily, just got to her cabin over on Washington Island. The place has been broken into and a bunch of plates were stolen.” He looked down at his notebook. “Twenty-four plates from some place called Majolica. She's hysterical thinking that the person who shot her sister has been in her house.”

“I think it was majolica plates not plates from Majolica,” Ann said.

“What's the difference?”

“Majolica is a type of brightly colored clay pottery. It's covered with a tin glaze. Tin-glazed pottery is made all over the world, but the most collectible majolica was made in England in the 1800s.”

Lacey glanced at her watch. “The last ferry has already gone for the night. We can check it out first thing in the morning. Where was it on Washington Island?” she asked as she waved the waitress down.

“Old West Harbor Road, the cottage just north of the Horizon Resort,” Joel read from his notebook.

“What?” Lark and Lacey said in unison.

Joel looked at their stunned faces. “What's up?” He waited for one of them to say something.

Lark glanced over at Lacey. “Uh, we stayed at the Horizon Resort the night we were stranded on the island.”

“Okay, so you should be able to find the house pretty easily,” Joel replied.

“We slept out on the beach the night we were there,” Lacey said. Even in the dim light everyone at the table could tell she was blushing.

“There's a little more to it.” Lark closed his eyes and shook his head, obviously disgusted with himself.

“Let's hear it.” Joel rolled his hand in a get-on-with-it move.

“We may have seen the robbery,” Lacey blurted out.

“You what?” Joel got up from the table and ran right into Sophie.

“I'm so glad I ran into you guys.” Sophie entwined her arm though Joel's. “I've decided to do a series of reports for WKZ about the robberies and the two attacks.”

“Aw shit,” Joel said, trying to disengage his arm.

“Now, Joel.” Sophie patted his arm as she clinched it harder to her side. “There are a lot of people from Chicago who vacation in Door County. Daisy and Paul both had high-profile jobs there. This will be important news to Chicagoans planning to come up here this summer. I've also dug up some dirt on a Chicagoan who was having lots of zoning problems with Larsen.”

Joel shrugged her off. “You can deal with the Door County police. Leave me alone. I have work to do.” He strode away from her, and the rest of the table followed behind him.

“Let's get the hell out of here and go somewhere quiet where we can sort this out,” Joel said, once they got outside. Ann and John excused themselves after being assured that Joel would give Lark a ride back to the Edgewater. The rest of the group headed to Lacey's SUV. Lacey climbed into the driver's seat and Joel got in beside her. Lark and Russ took the backseat.

“Tell me what the hell happened,” Joel said as they pulled out of the Railhouse parking lot. He turned sideways in his seat so he could see both Lark and Lacey.

“Around one
A.M
. we saw a boat with a light on it come into the pier about where Lily's cabin is. Someone got out of the boat and walked up to the cabin. They used a flashlight,” Lark said. “We though it was odd that we never saw any lights come on in the house. They left by flashlight about fifteen, twenty minutes later.”

“Did they leave the same way they came?” Joel asked.

“By boat back towards the peninsula with one light on.”

“Why didn't you do something?” Joel asked. “We could have caught this guy red-handed and been done with the robbery investigation.”

“It sounds that way now, but it didn't look quite so sinister when it happened.” Lacey darted a look at Lark's eyes in the rearview mirror. “We even discussed whether we should call the Washington Island police and decided against it thinking it was just the owner of the cabin coming over to get something.” She glanced at Joel's angry face and threw one hand up in the air. “I know it sounds lame now, but it didn't then. The guy used a light on his boat and a flashlight. It wasn't like he was trying to hide what he was doing.”

“Oh, no,” Joel said, his voice dripping sarcasm. “It doesn't sound like he was trying to hide anything. He just took his boat over to the island at one in the morning for shits and giggles. He went into a house with a flashlight and didn't turn on any lights because he's got the vision of a goddamned great horned owl. Then he leaves in the same stealthy way. Why would you ever think there was something wrong?” Fortunately, they had just pulled into the Edgewater parking lot.

Lark opened his passenger door before Lacey had completely pulled into a parking space. “Why don't we talk more about this in the morning,” he said as he got out of the SUV.

“Hold it, Romeo,” Joel said as he opened his car door. “We're going to go upstairs and hash this out right now.” He got out of the car and slammed his door. He brushed past Lark and ran up the wooden stairs, his feet pounding on the treads. He stood by Lark's door tapping his foot until everyone else caught up with him.

Resigned to what was to come, Lark opened the suite door. Joel stormed inside and headed for the refrigerator. He got himself a beer and threw the twist-off cap down on the counter. He took a big swig and paced back and forth in the living room while everyone else sat down. Lark had only seen him this angry one other time. Lacey was trying to think if she'd ever seen the easygoing Joel so stirred up. Russ, just along for the ride, sat down away from the other three at the bar. Joel finally quit pacing and sat down. He pulled a small notebook and a pen out of his jacket pocket and faced Lark and Lacey.

“Okay, let's go through this again. What day was it?” He looked over at Lacey and waved his hand for her to hurry up.

“Tuesday.” She sat in the armchair, her face angry, her arms crossed over her chest. She had crossed her legs and was swinging her top leg back and forth impatiently.

“So, Wednesday around one in the morning you and Lark are out on the beach doing your Kirk Douglas–Lana Turner number when you witness a robbery.”

“No.”

“What?” he snapped, shooting her a look that would have withered most people on the spot.

“It didn't happen like that,” she snapped back.

“Exactly how did it happen?”

“We weren't on the beach, we were in lounge chairs. We weren't screwing around, we were just sleeping out on the beach.”

Russ started laughing.

Joel glared at him. “Shut up or get out.”

Russ held up his hands as if to surrender.

Joel whipped his head back in Lark and Lacey's direction. “You two need to quit screwing around and just get it over with.”

“What we do or don't do in our private life is none of your damn business,” Lacey said.

“It is my business when you're acting like a couple of oversexed teenagers and it starts to affect the job.” Joel shook his pen at them.

Lacey stood up and glared at Joel. “I'm not going to continue this conversation with you until you settle down. You've already heard the gist of it. We can finish the rest in the morning. Do you want a ride back to the White Gull or are you bunking with Lark tonight?” She headed for the door with Russ trailing behind her.

Joel closed his notebook and jammed it and his pen down in his pocket. He glared at Lark as he walked by him. “In all the years I've known you, this is the dumbest damn thing I've ever known you to do. You need to figure out what you're doing here. We'll talk tomorrow.” He slammed the door behind him.

Lark rubbed his face and decided to take a shower. He had just stepped under the water when the telephone rang. “Shit,” he yelled as he stormed over to the nightstand to pick it up.

“What,” he barked into the phone.

“Lark, it's John.”

“Sorry, I thought it was someone else.”

“We heard you all come in and the rest of them leave. I thought the stairs might fall down. Are we on for golf tomorrow or are you working?”

“We're on,” Lark said, deciding that he'd had more than enough of Joel's crap. If he was in Big Oak in charge of these cases, golf would be the last thing on his mind. But he wasn't. He was Joel's hired help, and as of this moment, there was no one higher on Lark's shit list than Joel. They agreed to meet at 8
A.M
. to drive down to Sturgeon Bay for their 9:30 tee time at the Idlewild course.