by Marja McGraw
“Yeah.” Stanley didn’t seem to want to be left out. “We’ll take care of things. Don’t you worry your little self about stranger danger.”
I turned my gaze on Pete. “Did you find anything around the house? I mean, are there any clues about who was here last night?”
“No.”
“But we’ll figure it out,” Sam said.
“Yes, indeed.” Stanley nodded his head.
I mentally rolled my eyes. As silly as it sounds, they made me feel like I was listening to teenagers talking about getting even with someone. But they weren’t teenagers, and they weren’t looking for revenge.
“Okay. While you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing, Felicity and I are going to talk to Bradley Singleton. We’ll be back later.”
Stanley narrowed his eyes, looking somewhat suspicious. “Singleton? Is he any relation to Bonnie Singleton?”
“No, Stan, he’s not related to her. It’s just a coincidence that they have the same surname.”
“You’re sure?”
“That’s what everyone tells me.”
I turned and headed back toward the house, shaking my head. Taking a look over my shoulder, I could see that the men were in a huddle again. I couldn’t help but wonder what their plan would be. How did they think they could figure out who’d shoved me in the rain? I had a feeling they’d have to figure out the why before the who.
Felicity was standing by the Jeep. “Ready for the library?”
“Nope. First we’re going to visit Bradley Singleton, and before you ask, he’s no relation to Bonnie. However, he does know a lot about the history of this town.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
While I drove to Bradley’s house, I explained that he was an older man. We needed to take our time with him. “He doesn’t hear well, either. We’ve got to speak loudly and clearly.”
“I can do that. My father was hard of hearing. I got used to it.”
I knew Felicity had been adopted, but she still thought of the man who’d raised her as her father. Well, in essence, he was. Actually, that’s how she’d met Stanley. She’d come to the office asking for help to find her real parents. It hadn’t happened, and I didn’t know if she’d want to try again one day or not.
Kimberly was right. We reached Bradley’s house in less than five minutes.
Just as he’d said, he was watching out the front window, waiting for me to show up. I could see him shuffle to the front door where he waited for us.
“Come in. Come right in.”
He held a screen door open for us.
“Well, ain’t she the little bitty one?” He smiled, watching Felicity pass him. “I thought all the ladies were built bigger these days.”
He showed us to the living room and pointed to the couch. “Have a seat, ladies.”
I held out my hand before sitting. “I’m Sandi Webster, the one you spoke to on the phone.” I found myself using a robust voice, hoping he could hear me.
He turned his head slightly to the left, so his right side faced me. “I ain’t deaf, little lady. I just need to have my good side pointing in your direction. Speak up, but no need to yell.”
I nodded and pointed to Felicity. “Okay, and this is my friend, Felicity Hawks. She’s working on this case with me.”
“What about her face?”
I smiled at him and repeated myself, using a tone somewhere between loud and louder. “Case. She’s working on the case with me.”
He took hold of my hand, which I still held out, and shook it. His hand was cool and delicate. By delicate, I mean that his skin had thinned and the bones in his hand were prominent. The veins stood out like ropes.
We sat and I studied him while he got comfortable. He still had hair, but it was wispy and fine. He was thin with a bit of a belly on him, and he wore a long-sleeved shirt with pants that were worn rather high on his body – above the waist – with a belt holding them up. He was stoop-shouldered.
“I have a feeling you might be wondering about me. I’m ninety-eight and fit as a fiddle. Sharp of mind, too. You can take any stories I tell you to the bank, and that’s a promise. I’ve seen people come into this world and I’ve seen ‘em leave. Sometimes I don’t think it was their time, just like with Bonnie.”
“You remember her?” Felicity asked, speaking in a strong voice.
“I do. I used to go with papa to deliver milk to her house and we’d jaw sometimes. I musta been around eleven or twelve at the time. She was a nice lady and always had time for talkin’.” He shook his head and made a clucking noise. “Such a dirty shame about her. I don’t believe it was her time.”
“What were things like here in the nineteen-thirties?” I asked. “I heard it was mostly farms.”
“Yes, it was. It was mostly dairy farms. Papa owned one of the farms. Sometimes I hitch a ride into town and walk around, rememberin’ the old days.” His eyes had a faraway look to them and they were filmy. Cataracts?
I sat quietly and let him contemplate his memories.
His eyes turned to me. “But you want to know about Bonnie, don’t you?”
“Yes, Bradley. Anything you can remember might help.”
“Call me Brad. Well, let’s see now. How far back do you want me to go?”
“What do you remember about the time before she died?” I asked.
“Before she lied? Miss Bonnie never lied about nothin’. She was a lady you could trust.”
“No, sir.” I turned my personal volume up a notch. “What do you remember about the time before she died?”
“Oh. You know, she went away for a while. Mama figgered she might be with child, but I didn’t believe it. That nice lady? But, as I got older and became part of the adult world, I realized Mama might have been right.”
He made a tsking noise.
Again, I waited patiently, giving him time to gather his thoughts.
“Miss Bonnie left for about six months, as I recall. Some of those movie people came lookin’ for her, but we didn’t know where she’d gone. I recall as how they said she’d never work again because she was supposed to be workin’ in a movie when she disappeared. Little did they know how right they were about her not workin’ again.”
“She came back here after six months?” Felicity asked.
“Beer? I’m not sure why you’d ask about beer, but Miss Bonnie believed in the Prohibition. She didn’t think it should ever end. I don’t think moonshine ever passed her lips. She wasn’t a wild woman. Well, maybe…” His voice trailed off.
I had a feeling he was thinking about the possibility of her pregnancy.
Felicity smiled patiently and raised her voice. “Did Bonnie return here after being gone for six months or did she go back to the movies?”
“She came back here. She’d been pinin’ for Marty Cook, but he’d joined the armed services. She passed on before he came home, and when he heard about it, he moved on. I don’t know if they wrote letters to each other or not. I never heard.” He looked thoughtful. “I thought at one time that he might be the father.”
He cleared his throat.
“I mean, if she was in that way.”
“Can you tell us anything about the night she was murdered?” I asked.
“Oh, yes. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I’m the one who found her.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You found her? You were just a kid. That must have been a shock.” I was beginning to think Brad had been more involved in Bonnie’s life than I realized.
“I was, oh, about thirteen or fourteen by that time. I was visiting with a group of friends across the street when we heard Bonnie scream. I had a crush on Sara Franklin, my friend’s sister. So did half the other boys in town.”
He stopped talking, apparently thinking about Sara for a moment, and then he continued with his story.
“She was terrified when we heard the sound, and being the oldest boy there, I ran across the street to see what was going on. I banged and banged o
n the front door, yelling Bonnie’s name, but she didn’t answer. I was scared, but I didn’t want to let the others know that, so I opened the door and called her name again. She didn’t answer, so I stepped inside.”
I wanted to know if he’d heard or seen anything or anyone else, but I didn’t want to interrupt his story.
“I looked through all the downstairs rooms, but she wasn’t there. Then I saw where somebody had tracked blood down the stairs. Yes, indeedy, I was mighty scared by that time, but I heard Harold outside, asking if everything was okay. So I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and climbed those stairs. It felt like the longest walk of my life.
“I found Bonnie lying in a pool of blood in the first bedroom. I think it was her bedroom.” He chuckled to himself. “I don’t think I ever moved so fast in my whole life as I did when I ran down them stairs. I ran all the way to Sara’s house and told her parents what I’d found.”
“What happened next?” I asked.
“Sara’s father ran across the street to see if he could help Bonnie, but it was too late. She was dead. So he called the Marshal from Bonnie’s phone.”
“Did you see or hear anything while you were in the house?” I hoped he had a good memory.
“That’s the same thing the Marshal asked me. I thought I heard the back door slam while I was running up to the house, but I couldn’t say for sure. The only other thing was the bloody footprints on the stairs. By the time the killer got to the bottom, his shoes had been wiped clean. There wasn’t no more footprints.”
“I understand Bonnie had been stabbed.” Felicity leaned forward and watched Brad while he talked.
“That poor baby had more done to her than that. She’d been punched in the face a few times, and she’d been stabbed, too. She never had a chance. I remember the Marshal saying she’d put up a good fight, though. A lamp was knocked over and so was a chair. And she had cuts on her hands, like as if she’d swung at the killer.”
Brad’s face had the saddest expression. I felt bad for making him relive that night.
“Bonnie Singleton was a good woman. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did. She was my friend. Sometimes when I wasn’t sure how to talk to a girl, Bonnie would give me advice. ‘Be yourself,’ she always said. ‘Don’t put on airs. The girls will like you just the way you are.’ And she was right. I had a few girlfriends over the years, but in the end I married Sara, just like I wanted. She passed away ten years ago, God rest her soul.”
I decided to change the subject. Between the loss of his wife and Bonnie, I was afraid he’d sink into the depths of depression.
“What were things like in the thirties?” I wanted a feel for the town and its people.
Brad grinned and his face turned into a roadmap of wrinkles. Surprisingly, he still had a mouth full of straight, white teeth.
“Oh, those were the days. I heard that Merton Graham had a still in his barn, but the law hushed that up. I guess they took it away from him. Wait! Now I remember. His still caught his barn on fire and burned it down. After Prohibition, he kept on makin’ his spirits at home.”
“What about the town?” Felicity asked. “What was it like?”
“We were just a small town with small town people. Not much ever happened around here. We worked and went to church and had picnics. We spent time in town, talkin’ and walkin’.”
“That actually sounds kind of nice,” she said. “Peaceful.”
“It was. Now as I recall, there was a bank robbery in Yacolt, but they caught the fellas who done it.” He rubbed his knees, thinking. “There was a bank robbery in Little Creek, too, but they never caught the thieves who done that one. They never got the money back, neither. Both of those robberies were around 1900, long before Bonnie moved here. She probably hadn’t even been born yet.”
Felicity and I glanced at each other. Was this a Bingo! moment? I’d have to mention it to Kimberly, if she hadn’t already found that information. Of course, we hadn’t found a fortune in gold or silver, but maybe we hadn’t found it all yet. I’d mention it to Sasha and Sam, too.
“They said they thought the robbery had been planned pretty good, and the robbers got clean away. Yep. They got away with some cash and a whole lotta gold and silver. They picked a day when they knew the coffers would be full at the bank. Why, I haven’t thought about that for years. I wonder how those rascals spent their ill-gotten gains.”
“Maybe they never got the chance,” I said.
“I’m sure you’re right. They musta danced their feet off over their success.”
Uh oh. I was speaking too softly again. “Never got the chance,” I repeated.
“This was a farming town. Other than Bonnie, nothing big ever happened here. Sara and me had a passel of kids and they kept us pretty busy.”
“How many kids is a passel?” Felicity seemed genuinely interested, as was I.
“We had five and lost two.” He glanced down at his hands. “Heartbreaking. Sara was sad for a long time. She had a soft heart. Now I’ve got grandkids and great-grandkids comin’ outta my ears.” He smiled. “They’re good kids, too.”
“I’m sure they are.” I could hear the pride in his voice. “So Bonnie was the big story around here.”
“Yes, ma’am. Oh, just like anyplace, there were tussles between people now and again, but this was a great place to grow up. ‘Course, the rain was an issue for some, but most of us just ignored it.”
“Yes, that was quite a storm we had last night.” Felicity seemed to be enjoying talking to the old man.
“Last night? I musta slept right through it.”
I smiled. Maybe he hadn’t heard the thunder and lightning.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us?” I asked.
He scratched his arm. “Well, I hear tell there’s a new fella in town that looks an awful lot like Marty Cook. You might wanna talk to him, just in case.”
“How did you know about him?”
“Oh, us old-timers know just about everything.” He chuckled, again. “I guess I’m the only real old-timer left in these parts. If this new fella is blood kin to Bonnie or Marty, I’d like to meet him one day. Some of my days are sharper than others. You happened to pick a sharper day.”
I didn’t want to give away anything Jack Fisher had told me, so I tried to play it cagey. “If I talk to this man, I’ll mention you to him. Maybe you can fill in some of the blanks for him.”
Brad yawned and leaned back in his chair. “I’m afraid it’s about my nap time, ladies. I’ve sure enjoyed your company though. I hope you’ll come again.”
“We’ll be going home soon, but if we have the time, we’ll be back.” I sincerely hoped we’d have the time.
We let ourselves out, and I could have sworn I heard soft snoring before we even reached the door.
Felicity and I discussed the information we’d received during the five-minute drive home.
“We’ll have to tell the guys to keep looking for buried money.” Felicity rubbed her hands together. “Wouldn’t that be something? You’ve already found one treasure. Not only are you a body magnet, but you’re a treasure magnet.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be the one finding this treasure. This is on Bea’s property. It’s her treasure. It might make a tidy little retirement fund for her.”
“If Brad is right, it might make a rather large retirement fund for her. Then she could either quit or run the B&B for fun.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she shared the find with her nieces. She says they’re like daughters to her.”
We pulled onto the property but no one was around, so I drove right back out and we headed for the coffee house in town.
Even Greg’s truck was gone.
“Where’re you going?” Felicity glanced back at the house.
“Let’s go have some coffee and a good lunch. You’ll love the coffee house. It’s in an old church. I want to ask the owner about the history of the building.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Pete’s thinking about buying a second house here,” I said.
“Really? You’ve only been here for a few days.”
“And we’re already in love with Battle Ground. It’s quiet and it would be a good place to get away from life and mysteries.”
“You think of murders as mere mysteries?” Felicity looked surprised.
“If I didn’t, I couldn’t live with all the death and destruction I’ve seen in my lifetime. Ask Rick how he feels about it sometime.”
Rick is Pete’s longtime friend and a homicide detective down in Los Angeles, and it was the second time I’d thought of him during our stay in Washington.
“I will. I must say, Sandi, that you have a pretty good attitude considering the types of cases you’ve handled.”
“It’s what I do.”
Chapter Nineteen
I was right. It’s what I do. I’ve thought about getting out of the private investigating business on numerous occasions, but I love my lifestyle. Not all of my cases involve murder. Most of them have to do with insurance fraud, missing people and philandering men and women, but it seems like murders follow me around and won’t let go. In the process of doing my job, I’ve met some very interesting people. Some good, some not so good, but all interesting.
My interfering mother had led me to two cold cases; one was a murder in the late eighteen hundreds, and one had taken place in the house that now served as my parents’ bed and breakfast.
I smiled to myself. I had to admit that my life hadn’t been boring over the past few years. It was definitely better than the government job I’d had before striking out on my own.
“You manage to find the humorous side of things, even in the worst of situations.” Felicity seemed to want to talk about my life.
“I have to. There’s nothing funny about murder, but humor sometimes keeps us sane. You know the old saying about laughter being the best medicine. It’s true. I have to tell you, though, I like the cold cases the best. At least with those it’s like the tragedy took place ‘off stage’ somewhere – out of my sight. Like this case. I don’t have to see Bonnie Singleton’s body and the horrible things that happened to her.”