Ghost of a Gamble (Granny Apples Mystery) (14 page)

“That’s Edgar,” Claudine told Emma, indicating the man with the cane. “Pay him no mind, he thinks he’s talking to his dead wife. Poor thing.”

Emma glanced over at Quinn, who was watching her with raised brows. Having no doubt he was asking about the presence of ghosts, Emma gave him a nod confirming his suspicions.

The spirit coming into focus near them was that of an older man, but not as old as Claudine. He didn’t say anything, but hovered a hazy hand above Claudine’s shoulder.

“You don’t believe in ghosts?” Quinn asked Claudine.

She pursed her lips before answering. “Time was I would have given you a sound no to that question, but lately I’ve been feeling like my late husband, Bert, is close by.” She chuckled. It sounded like the squeak of a baby mouse. “Maybe that’s because I’m getting closer to the grave myself.” She looked over at Edgar, still chatting away to his unseen wife. “I know thinking he’s talking to Helen brings Edgar a lot of comfort. I almost envy him.” The ghost by Claudine tried to squeeze her shoulder but she couldn’t feel it and the ghost’s hand slipped through her.

“I’m sure Bert is very close by,” Emma said to Claudine. Claudine smiled at her and so did the ghost.

“Getting back to Nemo Morehouse,” said Quinn. “Did you actually know him years ago?”

“Why yes, I did,” answered Claudine. “Both Bert and I worked for the Lucky Buck, and Nemo was in there all the time. The Lucky Buck was a hotel and casino, but nothing grand like you see nowadays. It’s gone now. It’s been gone for many years.”

Quinn and Emma exchanged looks. Emma turned to Burt’s ghost and questioned him with her eyes.

The ghost confirmed the information with a nod of his head.

Quinn scooted a bit closer to Claudine. “I’d read somewhere that Nemo had something to do with a robbery at the Lucky Buck.”

“He sure did,” Claudine said, “although no one could pin it on him. Everyone thinks it was that other man, the one who disappeared. But sure as I’m sitting here, Nemo was behind it. For a short time they even suspected my Bert since he worked in accounting, but he was cleared.”

“Do you remember who that other man was?” asked Emma.

“Speidel,” answered the ghost of Bert Houser. “His name was Lenny Speidel.”

Claudine, unable to hear the ghost, knit her brows as she gave thought to the question. “Oh dear, my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”

Emma glanced up at the ghost then said to Claudine, “Was it maybe Lenny or Leonard Speidel?”

Claudine brightened and pointed a gnarled finger at Emma. “Yes. Yes. I think that was it. Speidel, like the watch company. He used to come into the casino with Nemo all the time, then after the robbery we never saw him again. Everyone was sure he disappeared with the money.” She looked around, then leaned forward, indicating for Quinn and Emma to come closer. “I’ve always thought Nemo was behind it, though, and killed Lenny so he could have all the money.”

Emma took out the photo of Dolly and held it out to Claudine. “Have you ever seen this woman?”

She peered at it, then brought it up closer to her face. Over her shoulder, Bert looked at the photo. “No. I don’t think so,” Claudine answered. “Why?”

“She was here last night visiting Nemo shortly before he died.”

Claudine shook her head. “I don’t remember her, but I wasn’t feeling that well last night. I went to bed right after supper so I’d have enough energy for today.”

“Did Nemo have a lot of visitors?” asked Emma.

After careful thought, Claudine answered, “No. I don’t recall him having any.”

The ghost of Bert Houser came close to Emma. “That woman was here last night. I saw her.”

Emma cast her eyes quickly up at Bert.

Quinn watched her. “Any luck with Frankie Varga?”

She shook her head and gave him her attention. “No. He’s not in today.”

“Humpf,” snorted Claudine. “With any luck, Frankie won’t be back now that his pet is gone.”

Emma looked at the old woman with interest. “You don’t like Frankie?”

“Not one bit. And not many others here do either, including the staff. The only resident he cared about or did anything for was Nemo Morehouse. He waited on him hand and foot like he was royalty.”

“Do you know why?” asked Quinn.

“Not for sure, but it was rumored that he was being paid under the table to give Nemo special attention. He shirked a lot of his other duties, leaving them for the other aides and the nurses.”

Quinn looked puzzled. “Did anyone complain?”

“I’ve heard there were complaints and I complained about him myself. What he did do for the rest of us was sloppy and careless. But nothing was ever done about it.”

Emma glanced over at Gloria. She was watching them from behind her magazine.

“Claudine,” Emma asked, “how do you like Gloria over there at the reception desk?”

Claudine’s lined face lit up. “Gloria is so nice and very professional. She’s been here a long time. But she’s not the receptionist. That’s Maria, who is probably on break right now.” Again she indicated for Emma and Quinn to come closer. “There was a rumor a few months ago that Gloria almost lost her job when she complained about Frankie.”

Quinn was about to ask something else when an older man came through the front door. Claudine started to rise. “There’s my Edward now.” Quinn gently helped her to her feet.

Bert Houser floated over to his son, a smile stretched across his ghostly face at the sight of him. Side by side, Emma could see the strong resemblance.

“Are you ready to go, Mom?” Edward asked.

“Yes, of course I’m ready. These nice people were keeping me company while I waited.”

Emma and Quinn made their way out the front door along with Edward and Claudine. Edward’s car was parked in front. While Edward helped his mother into the front seat, Bert sidled up to Emma.

“We need to talk,” the ghost said to her.

“I
KNEW
it!” Quinn exclaimed as soon as they were back in Emma’s SUV. “I knew there was a ghost there while we were with Claudine.”

“Quinn,” Emma said to him as she buckled up her seat belt. “Meet Bert Houser, Claudine’s dead husband. He’s in the backseat right now.”

Quinn glanced in the rearview mirror but saw nothing. He was getting used to addressing empty space. “You’re the guy who worked at the Lucky Buck, right?”

“Yes, I am,” the ghost answered. He turned to Emma. “Can he hear me?”

“No, and he can’t see you either, but we manage.”

Emma tapped Quinn on the arm. “Drive somewhere, Quinn, before we start talking to him. I don’t want to raise any suspicion by sitting in this parking lot.”

While Quinn maneuvered the vehicle out of the parking lot of Desert Sun and down the street, Emma studied Bert Houser. “Your son is the spitting image of you.”

“He’s a regular chip off the old block.” The ghost grinned. “Takes real good care of his mother, too.”

“So you knew Nemo and Lenny?” Emma asked.

“Sure did. I worked behind the scenes at the Lucky Buck. Claudine tended bar. After work, I’d sit at the bar and unwind a bit before going home. With her odd hours, that was the best time for us to catch up. That’s where I got to know Nemo and Lenny.”

She relayed the conversation to Quinn.

“This is going to be awkward and time-consuming in the car,” noted Quinn. He made a right-hand turn onto a busy street. “Why don’t you question him and catch me up later? I’ll throw out questions as they come to mind.”

“Sounds good,” Emma agreed. She turned back to Bert. “Do you believe they robbed the casino?”

“I don’t believe it, I know it. They approached me to help them.”

“And did you?”

Bert looked away. “Yes, I did.” He turned back. “You have to understand, they were very persuasive, and I don’t mean just with money.”

“They threatened you?”

“They threatened my family. If I didn’t cooperative, Claudine and Eddie would have paid the price. I didn’t have to do much, just make it easy for them to slip into the back office early Sunday morning when we were counting up our biggest take of the week. Hell, of the year.” Bert paused and turned to watch the scenery slide by out the window. “It was a big holiday weekend. There were several conventions in town. And there was a glitch in making our deposit the night before, so our safe had a lot more money than usual.”

“The glitch,” Emma asked, “was that also arranged?”

“Yes. Between the two weekend nights and the extra action, they took just over a million dollars.”

“Lenny and Nemo did?”

“Nemo was behind it but he’d never get his hands dirty. Lenny and a couple other goons came into the back room where we were counting the money from Saturday’s haul and robbed us at gunpoint, taking that money and the money already in the safe from the day before.”

“Claudine said you were a suspect.”

Bert nodded. “Yes, all of us who worked in accounting were, but to steer the attention from me, one of Nemo’s guys plugged me during the heist.”

“You were shot? Is that how you died?”

“No, he shot me in the leg. You see, Claudine and Eddie did end up paying for the robbery, but it was me who dished out the punishment. After what happened at the Lucky Buck, I felt so guilty I started drinking heavily. And I never stopped until I ran my car off the road one night and straight into a wall.”

“Poor Claudine,” Emma said with sadness.

“Claudine stood by me through everything,” Bert told her. “She’s the best, and in the end I gave her the worst of myself. I’ve never forgiven myself.”

“And the money?”

Bert shrugged. “I never saw any of it. Not even the payment I was promised. Neither did Nemo. Lenny Speidel took off with it.”

“Is it safe to assume from what I’m hearing,” chimed in Quinn, “that Bert here had something to do with the casino robbery?”

“Yes, he did.”

Quinn stopped the SUV for a red light. “This town was run by the Mob back then. Wasn’t Nemo afraid of robbing them? Seems to me that’s a death sentence. I’m surprised he lived so long.”

“Your friend makes a very good point,” Bert said to Emma. “The Lucky Buck was one of the few remaining independent casinos not in bed with organized crime. It was family owned and a stubborn holdout right until the end. By robbing it, Nemo was actually doing his well-connected friends a favor, and they could say with a straight face they had nothing to do with it.”

“What happened to the casino?” Emma asked.

“In time it went under, helped along by the robbery and the competition from the bigger hotels and casinos, not to mention the continued pressure from the Mob. The Foster family sold it for next to nothing and left town. The new owners bulldozed it and put up something fancier. Shame, too, because it was one of the first real casinos in Las Vegas. It opened back when the Boulder Dam was being built and the workers from Boulder City needed someplace to blow off steam and spend their cash on payday.”

Emma sat up straight in her seat as the name pricked her like a pin. “Foster?”

“Yes,” answered Bert. “The Lucky Buck was started by Gerald Foster in the thirties, and his family owned and operated it until it closed in the mid- to late sixties. Both Claudine and I lost our jobs. She managed to get back on her feet. I never did.”

Emma relayed the answer to his question to Quinn.

“Foster?” parroted Quinn. “As in Detective Foster?

“It’s not an unusual name,” Emma pointed out, “but who knows? He did say his family was originally from Las Vegas, and he does have a strong interest in the history of the place. And here’s another surprise for you,” she said to Quinn. “Garby is the last name of the rest home director. Does that ring a bell?”

Quinn glanced over at her, his tongue pushing though the right side of his cheek as he mulled over the implications. “So,” he finally said, “we have one detective possibly related to the guy who runs the home where Nemo died, and the other detective possibly related to the folks who owned the casino Nemo robbed.” 

Emma turned back to Bert. “Do you know what happened to the Fosters? Did they stay in the area after they closed the casino?”

“No, they didn’t,” Bert answered. “I heard they moved back East somewhere, but I’m not sure where. Gerald died of a heart attack before the robbery. I think that’s why Nemo thought it might be a good time to strike. At the time of the robbery the casino was run by his two sons, Edgar and Nicky, who weren’t nearly as savvy as their father. Edgar had a family, Nicky didn’t, but I think they all moved to the East together.”

Emma had a long-shot question on the tip of her tongue. “Was Nicky’s real name Nicholas?” As she asked the question, she saw Quinn glancing at her again.

“Yes, it was, but no one ever called him that.” When Bert answered, Emma nodded to Quinn.

“This is interesting and all,” Quinn said, “but how can we use it to find Dolly and get her back safe?”

“Bert,” Emma said to the ghost. “You said you saw Dolly Meskiel at Desert Sun last night.”

“That the woman in the picture you showed Claudine?”

“Yes. She went missing right after she visited Nemo, possibly about the time Nemo died. The police think she might have had something to do with his death.”

“I don’t know where the lady is,” Bert answered, scratching his head with his right hand, “but I do know when she left Nemo, he was still alive. I was sitting in the lobby with Claudine. She likes to sit on the sofa and watch everyone. And the lady you’re asking about walked right by us and out the door.”

“How did Nemo die? Did you see that?”

“I didn’t see it happen, but I know it was after the lady left. Not long after, but after. Claudine decided to go to bed early. I accompanied her to her room. We passed Nemo’s room just as he was being moved from his wheelchair into his bed. I know he was alive because he was talking to the people with him.”

Emma noticed Bert starting to fade, so she quickened her questioning. “Who was with him?”

“That Frankie, the fellow no one likes, and Mr. Garby, the man who runs the home.”

Emma immediately told Quinn, who shook his head in disbelief. “So who’s lying—the rest home or the police?”

“Or both?” suggested Emma. She turned back to the ghost, who was barely more than a haze. “Before you go, Bert, one last question. By any chance did you see Nemo’s spirit leave his body?”

“No, I didn’t.” And he was gone.

Emma immediately called Milo and Tracy, and brought them up-to-date.

“Unbelievable,” said Milo. “We’d thought we struck out with the local mediums, but finally hit one that was contacted with an odd request that might be what we’re looking for.”

“Only one?” Emma was surprised. “Do you think the others told you the truth, or that Nemo’s people didn’t do much shopping around?”

Milo paused long enough to think about it. “Could be either. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I used my celebrity status to get them to talk to me at all.”

“I made him!” Tracy said over the speaker feature.

“The one that had been contacted,” Milo continued, “had actually been at my presentation yesterday. Tracy and I drove over there and met with her. Her name is Helena and I remembered her in the audience. She said a middle-aged man in a business suit visited her about two weeks ago asking questions about contacting the recently dead and communication between spirits, as well as between the dead and the living. He explained that he had two relatives who were dead that he felt had unresolved issues and he wanted them to iron them out so they could rest in peace.”

“That could fit Lenny and Nemo,” agreed Emma with a short laugh.

“The man asked if she would be available to work for him full-time until the matter was resolved. She said he offered her a nice sum of cash for her time.”

“That must have been tempting,” Quinn commented. “But she didn’t take the offer?”

“No,” Milo said. “Helena kept sensing something off about him, an aura of danger and death surrounding him. She said he called himself Mr. Charles, but she also sensed he was lying about his name. She told me she kept getting an intertwined N and M whenever she looked at him, like a fancy brand. When she asked if those initials had any meaning, he ended the conversation and left.”

“Could stand for Nemo Morehouse,” suggested Emma. “Maybe she was picking up that the spirit he was asking about was Nemo.”

“Anyway, that’s all we uncovered, except that Tracy and I did ask Helena if she knew Lady Laura and my mother. She said she’d heard of Laura and had met my mother a couple of times.”

“Did you tell her Dolly was missing?”

“Yes, and asked her to try and get a bead on where she might be. All she could tell us was that Dolly was alive but in grave danger.”

“Interesting thing, though,” Tracy added. “This Helena also said a spirit was watching over Dolly. The spirit of a woman in a long skirt.”

Emma smiled as she thought of Granny keeping guard over Dolly. “I’d say this Helena is a real and accurate medium.”

“Yes,” agreed Milo. “She seems very talented and apologized that she couldn’t help us more.”

“I want to know more about that Gene Garby,” said Tracy. “If he is related to Detective Garby, do you think he lied to him about how Nemo died or do you think the detectives knew all along that Dolly had nothing to do with it and were using that as leverage to get us to talk?”

“Good theory about the leverage,” Quinn said. He pulled the SUV into the drive-thru line of a fast-food restaurant. “I’m dying for an iced coffee,” he said to Emma. “Do you want anything?”

“That sounds great,” she said, glancing across Quinn at the posted menu. “Make mine a medium without whipped cream.”

“So what’s next?” asked Milo. “Do we go to Detective Garby and cry foul?”

“And tell him what?” asked Quinn after placing their coffee orders and pulling the vehicle forward in line. “That a ghost related to one of the residents told us that Nemo didn’t die by Dolly’s hand. Oh, and by the way, a possible relative of yours was present and are you in on this conspiracy?”

“It’s a start,” said Tracy. “And while we’re at it, maybe we should be questioning John Foster, too. Like maybe talk to them separately.”

“Not a bad idea,” said Quinn. He pulled up to the take-out window, paid for their drinks, and took them from a teenage girl in a uniform. After handing them off to Emma, he pulled the SUV forward into traffic.

Emma unwrapped straws and placed them in the tall, cold drinks. “Claudine said Nemo never had visitors, so how could he communicate with anyone about grabbing and holding Dolly, unless it was set up totally by phone.”

“I think,” said Tracy, “that Nemo is after the money Lenny took in the casino robbery. Didn’t you say it had never turned up?”

“Yes,” answered Emma, handing Quinn his drink. “Even Bert said both Lenny and the money went missing, but it sounded like Bert didn’t know Nemo killed Lenny.”

“If it is the money Nemo’s after,” said Milo, his voice faltering with worry, “then we’ll have to get Lenny to tell us where he hid it. We need to find it and trade it for my mother.”