Murder in the Winter (24 page)

31

Lou had a smile on his face when he opened the car
door on Monday morning. I looked at him, raised my eyebrows. His look turned
serious, funeral serious.

“Okay, Lou. What’s up?”

“The end is near,” he said in a most serious voice.

“What end? The end of the case, or the end of the
world?”

“Since Jesus told us we will not know the time when he
returns, I’ll guess that the case is almost over.”

“Great! Who did it?”

“I’m leaning toward Professor Plum, but I haven’t
ruled out Mr. Green.”

“Don’t overlook Miss Scarlet.”

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t think she did it.”

“If you my dear me again, you’re going to drive your
own car.”

“Just quoting Shakespeare.”

“I believe it was Margaret Mitchell.”

“I thought she was Dennis the Menace’s mother.”

“Just buckle up and keep your hands to yourself.”

+++

We did our best to feed the hungry, and keep the Blue
Moon in business, then took off to contact the twelve remaining names on our
list. We found only two of them at home.

“So much for being almost to the end.”

“We’ve got nothing else to do. Why don’t we go back to
those we didn’t find at home over the weekend?”

“Might as well.”

Our first few stops were fruitless. Then, I pulled up
in front of the duplex we visited on Saturday.

“I thought we found someone home here, Cy.”

“We did, but the SUV belongs to her grandson. He’s supposed
to be back from out of town. We might as well check and see if he’s here, so we
can cross another one off our list.”

“But if he was out of town, how could he be the guy
we’re looking for?”

“He couldn’t, but maybe he loaned his gas-guzzler to
the Welcome Wagon.”

We got out and approached the door. This time the little
old lady didn’t intercept us. I approached the door on the left and rang the
bell. I didn’t want to talk to the old lady again, and I figured she would be
less likely to hear the bell than if I knocked. But then I had no idea how
thick the walls were.

A few seconds later, a young man answered the door.

“Jon Edwards?”

“He’s not in from class yet. I’m his cousin and roommate,
Tom Singletary. Maybe I can help you?”

“I’m Lt. Dekker, and this Sgt. Murdock.”

“Maybe I’m the guy you’re looking for. Did you catch
those guys yet?”

“Which guys are you talking about?”

“The guys in that RV that was blocking me, keeping me
from getting out of that drive over on Linden the other day? The ones who were
about to shoot me with a laser?”

I had to think quickly. Evidently this guy was on the
up-and-up and had reported us to the department.

“Oh, those guys. You mean no one at the department
called you?”

“No. Could you excuse me for a minute? I have my girlfriend
on the phone. I’ll tell her I’ll call her back when I’m finished.”

As soon as I was sure Tom couldn’t hear me, I whispered
to Lou.

“Not a word of this to anyone. Now we have to find out
why he’s spent so much time on Linden.”

Just as I finished, Tom returned to the door.

“So, how come you’re looking for Jon?”

“Actually, I guess we’re looking for you. Are you the
guy who’s made several trips over to Linden in Jon’s SUV during the last week
or two?”

“I wouldn’t say several. I think it’s been four times
now. When it’s not snowing I drive my own car, but it doesn’t do well in the
snow. Since I finish my paper route before John has to leave for school, he
lets me drive his SUV on days when I need the extra traction.”

I had dismissed the paperboy, when the lady in the
apartment building next door told me he didn’t drive an SUV. I guess I
shouldn’t have.

“So, tell me Tom, why don’t you use the front door at
Oppenheimer Arms?”

“They lock the front door each night, and don’t open
it in the morning until after I’ve delivered the papers. I don’t mind driving
around back. Since it’s about the halfway point on my route, I usually sit
there for a few minutes and fold a bunch of papers before I move on.”

“While you’re sitting there folding papers, have you
seen anyone else around the building?”

“Other than that RV the other night?”

“Yes, other than those two guys.”

“So, there were two of them.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to worry about them anymore.
Have you seen anyone else there?”

“Aw, so they had a break-in?”

“Just answer the question. I’m particularly interested
in a little over a week ago, the night it snowed so much.”

“Come to think of it, I did see some guy. I was
sitting there when this other SUV came flying down the driveway, going too fast
for the weather, if you ask me. He had barely stopped the vehicle when he
sprang from it and ran as fast as he could to the back door. It was as if the
police were after him, but if so, no one came near the place when I was there,
other than that RV that blocked the driveway. Do you think whoever was in that
RV was after this guy instead of me?”

 “I don’t think they were after you. They could’ve
been after this guy, but I wouldn’t worry about it. I don’t think you’ll see
them again. Now, back to the matter at hand. I don’t guess you have any idea
where this guy went.”

“As a matter of fact, I do. See, I fold my papers
before I deliver to that building, and this guy came storming in while I was
folding them. I was leery of him from the start, because of the way he was
driving. So, I hunched down in the seat the best I could, so he couldn’t see
me, but the way he looked, I doubt if he’d seen me if he’d looked right at me.
Anyway, I waited a few minutes, then entered the building. He went to apartment
seven. I know because that’s where the trail of melting snow led. I heard him
bump against something when I passed the door as I was dropping papers. I
wanted to get out of there before he opened the door.”

I recalled that apartment seven was Tony McArthur’s
apartment, then resumed my questioning.

“So, did you recognize the man? Could you identify
him?”

“No. He was bundled up. Not only did he have on a
heavy coat with the hood up, but a knitted cap that covers everything except
the eyes and the mouth. Besides, I never see any of those people. Only four of
them take the paper, and all of them mail their checks. And other than that
night and the night I saw that RV, no one is ever up when I get there. See,
it’s usually a little after 5:00 when I get there. I’m always through and home
before 7:00.” 

“Well, thanks for your time. By the way, can I have
your phone number in case I think of anything else?”

“Wait a minute. I’ll write it down for you. It’s my
cell, the only phone I have.”

I refrained from telling him I would call him on my ancient,
big, black phone that is chained to the wall. The only phone I have.

+++

Lou and I looked at each other and smiled as we buckled
up, ready to get on with the case. There was no reason to talk to other SUV
owners. We’d found our man. Too bad he wasn’t home the other day. It would have
saved us some time.

Still, I wasn’t sure what to do with our new information.
McArthur was out of town that night. Could someone else have used his SUV?

It was late afternoon. I made a decision to drop Lou
by his place, and head home myself. Both of us would spend a couple of hours
thinking about all the information we had, and try to put it together so that
we could arrest someone. If we hadn’t solved the case by 6:30, I would pick Lou
up and the two of us would get something to eat.

I felt like we were almost at the end. Besides, our
clue of the day said so. It was time for the two of us to look at our case like
a logic problem, decide who fit in, and where. It didn’t matter if we
identified someone right away, or if it meant that we had to eliminate all but
one suspect. We would find our man. Or woman.

+++

I sat down at the dining room table with a legal pad.
I began by listing each of the suspects. By suspects, I meant the people I felt
could’ve done it. Not necessarily everyone we’d met. I began with the staff at
the inn. I really couldn’t make a case for any of them except for Sidney
Longworth, the proprietor, and Antoine Le Blanc, the chef.  I couldn’t see any
reason anyone else there could’ve committed the murder. If I didn’t get
anywhere in the next couple of days, I could always add the others to the mix.
I didn’t include everyone at the apartment building, either. The most likely
suspects were Martin Mulroney, the actor who showed up at the inn as a male and
a female; and Tony McArthur, the late-arriving actor who supposedly was out of
town during the murders. I added one more, even though I had never met the man.
Ray Phelps. Did he fit in somewhere, or was he merely a plumber who came to fix
a leaky faucet that wasn’t leaking? Time would tell.

I would begin by using the snow. Snow couldn’t lie.
But did it? According to the lack of tracks in the snow, no one could’ve left
the inn and delivered the note to me. Also, Mulroney was at the inn when the
note was delivered, thus giving him an alibi, and McArthur was out of town. Was
it time to bring in the lesser-likely suspects? It wouldn’t matter. All of them
were cleared by the same snowfall as the others. That left only Ray Phelps. But
how did he fit in? Unless he had a previous connection to these actors that
we’re not aware of, or was paid by one of our suspects, Phelps didn’t fit in.
Or did he? He left town with a lot of money and didn’t leave a forwarding
address. Would it help if we could locate his rich friend? Or would we be
wasting time hunting for that proverbial needle in a haystack?

I thought again of the trailer. Could it be that
someone had sneaked away from the inn before the snow began to fall and come back
after Lou and I checked in? Someone could have stayed in the trailer, sneaked
to my place, left the note and then gone back to the trailer. After Lou and I
checked in and the driveway had been cleared, this person could have driven
into the garage undetected and reentered the inn through the passageway that
comes out in the garage. Could someone have done that without being missed? I
remembered that we didn’t see a lot of people wandering around the inn on
Friday afternoon.  I wrote down the name of everyone connected with the case.
Okay, I skipped Lou, myself, and anyone else connected with the department. And
in a weak moment, I eliminated my next-door neighbor from my list. One by one I
went through the list to see who had no alibi for Wednesday afternoon, and who
could have sneaked over to my house in the wee hours of Friday morning. I gave
a great deal of thought to each person before moving on to the next. If no one
could have been both places at those times, then someone had to have had an
accomplice, whether it was Ray Phelps or someone else.

I wrote The End Is Near at the top of my paper. It was
meant to inspire me, not to get someone to call me and confess. Besides, none
of the suspects had my phone number. Phone number. Maybe that’s a clue. Inspired
by my new information, I picked up the black monster. I had questions for two
of my suspects. If their answers were what I wanted, it might take only a few
more phone calls until I could solve the case, and get about being lazy again.
Lazy. I liked that. I also liked the fact that I had solved every case put
before me during all my years of working homicide. Every case except one. Maybe
by tomorrow I could move that one from the “in” file to the “out” file.

I hung up from making calls to two of my suspects, one
scared, one not so scared. My ducks were lining up. It would do no good for me
to make more calls that evening. The others could wait until the next morning.
If I received the information I wanted, an arrest would follow. Not only was I
expecting an arrest, but a confession, as well. A confession from someone so
bold he had sneaked down my driveway in the dark of night with an invitation
for me to play his game.

I picked up the phone and dialed Lou.

“You got anyone in handcuffs yet?”

“No, and you’d better not have anyone either, Cy.
You’re supposed to be working on the case.”

“Working? I’ve almost solved it. Just a matter of dotting
some i’s and crossing some t’s. Are you ready to eat? If so, I’ll come on and
we can talk about it on the way.”

Lou, always ready to eat, was excited to hear what I
had to say, and to down a plateful of his favorite foods.

+++

I filled Lou in as I drove. 

“So, what do you think, Lou?”

“I think your theory is sound. If those other things
work out in the morning, I think we’ve got all the information we need. True,
our evidence is circumstantial, but people have been hung on circumstantial
evidence before.”