The Body in the Attic

by Judi Lynn

  “And he was all right with that?”

  “He wasn’t happy, but he agreed to it. My mom told me that it bothered him so much, he left River Bluffs before Lynda did. He was going to travel across Europe on business trips until Lynda was supposed to come back.”

  “So he wasn’t in the house. For a year? That makes sense. It would stink to high heavens for a long time.” Gaff scratched his head, confused. “Okay, let’s start at the beginning. Can you tell me what you know about your aunt?”

  Jerod and Jazzi exchanged glances.

  “That could take a while,” Jazzi said.

  Gaff raised salt-and-pepper eyebrows. The man was built like a tank, maybe five-ten and stocky, looked to be in his early fifties. “Want to go somewhere to talk?”

  “On the back patio?” Jazzi asked. “There are chairs out there.”

  Gaff gladly accepted a soda when Jazzi got beers for her and Jerod, and then he leaned back in the lawn chair, his pen and pad at the ready. “Go for it.”

  Jazzi started. “As far as I can tell, my aunt had a wild side, and she loved expensive things. The problem was, she couldn’t afford them.”

  Gaff rubbed his chin. “The man who owned this house and property, Cal Juniper, had money. I met him a few times. He was active in the community and well liked. Lots of people attended his funeral. He didn’t flaunt it, but he had deep pockets.”

  “Every man Lynda dated did.”

  “How many were there?”

  Jazzi pursed her lips, trying to remember what her mom had told her. “Maury was the first—he owns the deli on State Street.”

  “She was engaged to him, too?”

  “No, but they talked about getting married. They were high school sweethearts. When they graduated and Maury got too serious, Lynda got cold feet and ran off to New York for a year.”

  Mom was a junior then, and none of her friends had anything good to say about her sister. Mom swore they were just jealous. Some of them even spread ugly rumors that Lynda was pregnant, but Lynda wrote to Mom every Sunday, telling her about plays and restaurants. She never mentioned a job, so rumors spread that she was some rich man’s mistress.

  Gaff made his notes, then looked satisfied. “So your aunt ran off because she didn’t want to marry Maury, then came home and met Thomas Sorrell.”

  “She got a job as a receptionist at the Chamber of Commerce and met lots of men, but I only remember the ones who asked to marry her. Mom doesn’t like to talk about it.” Jazzi sighed. “You’re going to have to question her, aren’t you? Do you mind if I tell her about the trunk first? Make it a little easier for her?”

  Gaff finished his soda and handed her the empty can. “You can tell her, but I want to be there when you do, in case it jogs a memory or she realizes that something back then was important and she hadn’t realized it. First, though, I have a few things to finish up here, but I won’t be long.”

  Jerod cleared his throat. “Is the house a crime scene? Can we still work on it?”

  “Might as well, but give us until tomorrow. It’s not like this is breaking news. After twenty-six years, I don’t think we’re going to find much evidence, especially after the renter lived here and you started to work on it, but the crime scene crew will go through every room before they pack up. We’ll leave the body in the chest to take it away.”

  Relieved, Jerod motioned to Jazzi. “We can’t do anything more today. Let’s go. We can stop by your folks’ and tell Cyn the news after Gaff gets there.”

  Cal’s house was on the north side of town. Jazzi’s mom lived southwest of the city. Jazzi took Union Chapel Road to Hillegas to avoid heavy five o’clock traffic. She thought Mom would take the news better from her, but she dreaded how it would affect her. Mom had so many conflicted feelings about her sister, they usually avoided the subject.

  Jerod followed her in his pickup. He lived ten minutes farther south from her parents. River Bluffs didn’t have the massive commuting snarls of Indianapolis or Chicago, but the more it expanded, the longer the lines of cars to make lights. Mom complained about traffic all the time.

  “I used to be able to drive from one end of River Bluff to the other in twenty minutes,” she’d tell them. At this time of day, it took Jazzi forty minutes to reach her parents’ house. Thankfully, Dad’s car was in the driveway.

  Her parents lived in a tri-level in a small addition off Aboite Road, convenient to stores and restaurants. The yards here tended to be large. Most were fenced for pets. Jazzi and Jerod walked to the front door and rang the bell. Nerves jangled inside her. She swallowed down worry. How would Mom take this? She tried to think of the best way to tell the news.

  “It’s open!” her dad called. “We’re in the back.”

  Mom’s two labradoodles raced to greet them, yipping with excitement. Jazzi bent to pet Lady, and Jerod stooped for Ebbie before they followed Dad’s voice. They found him in the family room off the kitchen, watching the evening news. Mom was heating food she’d bought at Fresh Market for supper. She didn’t like to cook. Neither did Jazzi’s sister, Olivia. Jazzi had learned her love of cooking from her grandma.

  Mom looked up. “What brings you two here?”

  They couldn’t tell her until Gaff came. Jazzi tried to think of a way to lead into it. “Jerod and I bought Cal Juniper’s house to restore and flip. It made me think of you.”

  Mom stopped fussing with the food. “You know, when Lynda moved in with Cal and invited us to his house for the first time, I was jealous. Your dad and I were renting a two-bedroom apartment that was nothing to brag about. Cal’s house was so spacious, so charming. Lynda loved it, couldn’t wait to live there.”

  Jazzi nodded. “It’s a beautiful house.”

  Tires crunched in the driveway, and she felt relief. Her mom walked to the doorway to look out the window and frowned. “A strange man’s coming to our house.”

  “Detective Gaff. Jerod and I wanted to be here when he talked to you.”

  Mom and Dad both turned to frown at her. Jerod went to let Gaff in. He led him to the family room and introduced him. Gaff looked at Jazzi. “Have you told them?”

  “No, I waited for you.” Her mouth went dry. Her throat pinched. She took a deep breath. “I told you that we bought Cal’s house, and we started cleaning it. When we got to the attic . . .” She couldn’t think of any good way to say it. “You know how you never believed Lynda ran off and forgot you? Well, she didn’t. We opened a cedar chest and found her skeleton inside it.”

  “You what?” The color drained from Mom’s face. She was still dressed in the black slacks and button-down shirt she’d worn to work today. She and Olivia never saw clients until their hair and makeup were perfect. They were sharp professionals, but Mom’s blush and lipstick looked painted on right now, she was so pale.

  Dad turned off the TV and went to stand next to her. He put an arm around her waist.

  “Lynda never left town. Someone carefully laid her body in a wooden trunk and put a pillow under her head.”

  Dad asked, “How do you know it was Aunt Lynda?”

  Jazzi dug her fingernails into her palms, sorry she had to tell her mom this part—the locket was such a personal touch. “The locket you gave her was around her neck, and her engagement ring was still on her finger.”

  Mom put out a hand to grip the kitchen island and steady herself. Jerod helped her into the family room where she sank onto a recliner. “I never believed she’d run away and never write me, but . . .” She put her hands over her face.

  Dad came to sit on the arm of her chair. “Are you going to be okay?”

  Mom turned and glared at him. “It all started with your brother . . .”

  “Not fair. He was only the first of many, Cyn.”

  Mom’s full name was Cynthia, but everyone called her Cyn. Come to think of it, her dad’s name was Douglas, but ev
eryone called him Doogie.

  Gaff poised his pen over his notepad. “Did your brother have a thing for Lynda?”

  Dad pinched the bridge of his nose. “He was obsessed with her. Every time she broke up with someone, he drove to River Bluffs to take up where they left off. He always thought eventually they’d end up together.”

  “Lynda had that effect on men.” Mom glanced at her wedding ring. “Arnold came to town for our wedding, took one look at my sister, and was hooked.”

  “He didn’t live here then?” Jazzi asked. She hadn’t heard much about Mom and Dad’s early years. Lynda’s disappearance had tainted it all.

  Her father put his arm around Mom’s shoulders. “Arnie moved to Chicago when he finished college. He started a business there, and it did really well. When I graduated, I started the hardware store here.”

  “Arnie was my sister’s type.” Mom leaned against Dad for support. “He didn’t play by the rules and got his wrists slapped by the law a few times. Whenever he came to town to visit, he took Lynda to some fancy restaurant or took her shopping. My sister could never say no to a good time.”

  Dad nodded. “They both liked to party, but Arnie liked Lynda more than she liked him. He was a little too reckless for her, and then she met Thomas Sorrell.”

  Mom went to one of the built-in bookshelves and took down a photo album. She flipped to a page and pointed. “My sister was beautiful.”

  Jazzi, Jerod, and Gaff bent to study the picture. Jazzi bit her bottom lip. Lynda was wearing the same dress she wore in the trunk. Her aunt had Mom’s cascade of blond hair, but large, gray eyes and full lips. She had a look about her—independent, headstrong.

  Mom blinked and wiped at her eyes. “Thomas had money and liked to spend it. He swept Lynda off her feet. The ring he bought her was the biggest I’d ever seen.”

  “How old was Lynda when she got engaged?” Jazzi thought she looked to be in her early twenties in the picture.

  Mom looked to Dad for the answer.

  He started counting on his fingers. “She was eighteen when she was with Maury, and then she left for a year. She dated a string of guys after that until she met my brother at our wedding. She strung him along for two years before she met Thomas.”

  Mom’s eyes narrowed. “She didn’t string him along.”

  “She never turned down a date when he came to town to see her.”

  “She thought of him as a friend.”

  “She knew he wanted more.”

  Jazzi interrupted. There was a reason she never brought up Lynda. It always caused friction. “How old was she when she met Thomas?”

  Dad pursed his lips. “I’m guessing she was twenty-four or twenty-five when that picture was taken.”

  “Did all the men have money?” Gaff asked.

  Mom’s expression changed, now defensive. “Those were the type of men she met at the Chamber of Commerce.”

  Jazzi couldn’t keep track of Lynda’s suitors. “Why did she leave Thomas?”

  “Everything was about him, wasn’t it?” Mom shrugged. “He had to leave River Bluffs to close a few deals before the wedding. He said he’d be gone a few months, but there was always something that needed his attention. Lynda finally realized his business would always come first, and she’d always come second, so she broke it off with him.”

  Jerod snorted. “And that big, freaking ring . . . ?”

  Mom gave a tight smile. “He asked for it back. Lynda decided to keep it. She said it was his fault they broke up and she’d earned it.”

  Gaff nodded, finishing adding the last thing to his notes. “So, I’m guessing she lay low for a while, right? Worked and let herself regain her balance?”

  Mom looked uncomfortable. “People started seeing her around town on Cal Juniper’s arm.”

  “Your sister didn’t waste any time, did she?” Jerod’s blue eyes twinkled. He was getting a kick out of Lynda’s scandals.

  Mom scowled. “I talked to Lynda about not rushing into things, but she never listened to anyone, especially Mom and Dad. She told them they were too middle class, too conservative. Cal’s family had always had money. He’d traveled a lot and built his house in the country to look like houses he’d seen in England.”

  Jazzi could see the European influence. It added to its charm. “What happened to Thomas? Did he just disappear?”

  “He returns to River Bluffs only when he’s doing business here, but we never saw him again.” River Bluffs was the second largest city in Indiana. If people wanted to avoid each other, it was easy to do.

  Jerod scrubbed a hand through his thick brown hair. “What happened with Cal? Did she find someone richer?”

  Mom raised an eyebrow, irritated, then turned a few more pages in the album and stopped at one with a photo of a tall, lean man with soft blue eyes and a gentle smile. “She really loved Cal. I’m sure she did. I don’t know why she left him. He was devastated when he came home a year later and she’d disappeared. She sent me one postcard from New York when she got settled there with X’s and O’s on it, but that’s all we heard from her. A year later, Cal and I each got a postcard from Florida. It was typed, just like the letters she’d sent me. Lynda said she’d met someone new and was happy. Then we never heard from her again.”

  “Do you still have the postcards?” Gaff asked.

  Mom flipped to the back of the album and took them out. She handed them to him. Jazzi glanced at the Tampa postmark on the Florida one. Not a bad place to settle, but she’d expected Lynda to end up in Miami on the beach in an expensive condo with some rich husband.

  “That’s the last I heard from her.” Mom’s voice quavered.

  Gaff frowned. “So, everyone thought she’d left town?”

  Mom shook her head, confused. “She did leave. Maury saw her get on the bus with her suitcases. No one saw her again.”

  “But how did she write postcards when she was dead in a cedar chest?” Gaff persisted.

  Mom’s eyes went wide. “I don’t know.”

  Jazzi bent her attention to the photo album again. Lots of pictures of Aunt Lynda in one beautiful dress after another. Men sure loved to dote on her. And if she’d actually gone to the train station to go to New York, how did she end up in Cal Juniper’s attic when the man wasn’t even home?

  Chapter 3

  Mom closed the album and handed it to Jazzi to put away, then glanced at Detective Gaff.

  He kept a tight grip on his notes. “Do you mind if I ask you a few more questions?”

  Jerod reached for his cell phone. “I’ll tell Franny I’m going to be late, so she and the kids can go ahead and eat supper.”

  “Good idea. This might take a while.” When Jazzi motioned for Gaff to change places with her, he sank onto the couch opposite Mom.

  While Jerod called Franny, Gaff explained about going through Cal’s house. “We didn’t find anything interesting. The last tenant took whatever he thought was valuable. We could see where things had hung in the basement that are gone now.”

  Jazzi frowned. “Why do you think he didn’t bother with the attic?”

  “Too much work. The steps are too narrow.”

  Thank heavens, or he might have sold Lynda’s trunk.

  While Mom and Dad answered questions about Lynda’s last few months in town, Jazzi sat back and listened. Her heart hurt while Mom told how happy Grandma and Grandpa were when Cal had invited their family to his house for a fancy engagement party. Grandma, who usually pinched pennies, had bought herself a new dress with matching shoes. She’d gotten her hair done at an upscale parlor. Grandpa bought a new suit and even had it tailored. Cal had served shrimp cocktail, small crab cakes, and slices of beef tenderloin on toast points. It had been a beautiful evening with gorgeous place settings and gold-rimmed flutes of champagne.

  By the time Mom finished talking, Jazzi had li
ved through her mom’s and grandparents’ disappointment and misery when Lynda told them she was putting her engagement on hold and leaving River Bluffs.

  “Did Lynda say why?” Gaff asked.

  Mom shook her head. “She told us she wasn’t ready to get married yet, that she needed time to sort things out, but there was something she wasn’t telling us. I could sense that. Mom and Lynda hadn’t gotten along since Lynda left for New York the first time. They didn’t even speak to each other when she left the last time.”

  “Were you and your sister close?” Gaff asked.

  “We played together when we were little, but once Lynda started high school and guys asked her out on dates, she was done with me.”

  Gaff frowned. “Then why did she write you once a week when she went to New York?”

  “I don’t know. She’d walk past me when she was home, even if I was upset and wanted to talk to her. But I think she missed me when she left. That made me feel better.”

  A pizza box sat on the counter and Jerod glanced at it.

  “There’s a piece left if you’re hungry,” Dad told him.

  Jerod was always hungry. He got up and stood at the kitchen island to eat. Mom’s dogs begged, but when he slipped each of them a slice of pepperoni, Mom raised an eyebrow.

  Her tone was crisp. “Girls!”

  Lady and Ebbie grabbed their one cheat and slunk away.

  Gaff looked up from his notes. “What happened when Lynda returned? Were you two close then?”

  Mom looked sad. “No, she came back and got a job at the Chamber of Commerce. Found a small apartment. Met men and ignored me. I guess when I was there, in the flesh, I was boring again.”

  Gaff took a minute to think about that. “It sounds like she didn’t meet a guy in New York.”

  “That’s what I decided. When she was with a man, he was what she focused on.” Mom crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Gaff. “Will someone be able to tell how Lynda died? It would help if I knew what happened to her.”