by Marja McGraw
Joe took over. “Eighteen ninety-eight.”
My mind was spinning.
Kimberly stood apart from us and I motioned her over. “Did you ever find out when the bank robbery in Little Creek took place?”
She glanced at Joe, looking very shy. “Eighteen ninety-eight,” she said softly.
Instinct took over and I looked at his ring hand. No wedding ring.
I looked at his face and he was watching Kimberly intently. “What’s this about a bank robbery?”
“Uh, we found the loot and we think it’s from the Little Creek robbery.” Kimberly still spoke softly, which was out of character for her.
I understood and smiled. She was interested in Joe.
“We were going to call you, but Auntie Bea wanted to talk to her lawyer first.”
Sasha looked Joe in the eyes. “And she did. It’s hers.”
Joe laughed. “Yeah, unless it turns out to be evidence in a murder. That skeleton looks like her head was bashed in.”
Someone gasped. It was Gloria. “I told you there’s a ghost here, and it’s got to be Sally, not Bonnie. Digging her up set her loose.”
Joe looked from her to Pete. “Ghost? Here?”
“Don’t pay her any attention, Officer. She’s been hoping to see a ghost since she and her husband got here.” Pete glanced at me and winked.
Phil surprised me when he stuck up for his wife. “Maybe she’s right. There’s sure something going on here. Gold? Dead bodies? Huh!”
He took Gloria’s arm to walk her into the house, but she pulled loose. “Not on your life, Phil. I want to hear what goes on here. Don’t forget that I heard crying.”
He shrugged and sat down on a porch step. He’d done his duty and stuck up for his wife.
Joe looked at each of us, in turn. “Okay, I have to admit this is confusing. Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?”
It was my turn. I needed to sort things out anyway, and relating the story to the cop would help me. “I’ll try to make a long story fairly short. Pete and I are here on a belated honeymoon. We’re private investigators and Bea asked us to try to solve Bonnie Singleton’s murder.”
I pointed at Stanley and Felicity.
“Our friends joined us to help out. I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to find information about Bonnie and what happened.
“Anyway, we started looking for the murder weapon, using metal detectors. We eventually found what we think might be the weapon, but first we found paper money, gold and silver buried in various locations. Oh, and I found a wooden box at a local antique store that held Bonnie’s personal papers.”
Felicity interrupted me. “That six months when she disappeared? She was pregnant and had a little boy. Martin Cook was the father, but he’d already left for the Army.”
Joe closed his eyes and took a deep breath while holding up his hand to silence us.
He pointed at Pete. “You. You tell me the rest of the story. I have a feeling you’ll keep it simple.”
Pete smiled and nodded. “The gist of it is that the men have been searching and the women have been researching. We found gold and silver which we think was hidden here after the Little Creek bank robbery. Sandi and Felicity have been doing what little research they could, and they’ve met with Bradley Singleton.”
“No relation to Bonnie Singleton,” Joe said.
“Right. Sasha and Kimberly have been researching the bank robbery and we’re pretty sure this is the haul from that robbery. From what we could find out, the robbers were never caught. For some reason they never came back for the money. Or, as things look now, if they did then they may be killers as well as robbers.”
“Oh, and someone left a threatening note on my car,” I added. “Someone was here in the rain the other night and shoved me down, too.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Joe shook his head. “How long have you people been in town?”
“Almost a week,” I replied.
“And look at what you’ve stirred up.”
“Blame my mother,” I said, somewhat sullenly.
“I beg your pardon? Your mother?” He looked around, but no one looked old enough to be my mother except for Bea.
“Long story. She’s in Arizona and I hope she stays there.”
He glanced at Gloria. “And you have some cockamamie story about a ghost crying?”
Gloria nodded and pinned Joe with a stare that would turn anyone’s blood cold, almost daring him to contradict her. Somehow I don’t think she liked him using the word cockamamie.
He turned his eyes to Bea. “What do you have to say about all of this?”
She shrugged and smiled uncertainly at him, with maybe a tinge of guilt on her face.
I glanced toward the house and saw Bob and Greg watching our sideshow, both looking quite amused. I was glad we could entertain them.
Not really.
It started to rain and the wind picked up.
“Let’s go inside and talk while we wait for the Major Crimes team to get here.” Joe started toward the house and we followed behind him like sheep.
Do you want to know the difference between a large city and a small town? The cop had no compunction about discussing what had been found with whoever would listen or talk.
“About this alleged murder weapon, where is it?” Joe was ready to get down to business. “I’ll want to take that with me and check it out.”
Pete climbed the stairs to our room and brought back the knife, which he’d wrapped in a towel.
Joe took it from him and set it on the coffee table. “Huh.” He opened the towel and studied the knife. “It doesn’t look like we’ll get any prints off this knife, but then we wouldn’t have anything to compare them with anyway.”
“No, but you can have it examined to see if that’s dried blood on the blade,” I said. “Or it could be rust.”
“We’ll do that. We won’t have anything to compare DNA with though.” His look made me think he felt I should have known the testing would be done.
“Uh, you might be able to do a comparison. I’m speaking out of turn here, but it appears that Jack Fisher could be Bonnie’s grandson, and I think it might be true. The DNA could show a familial connection.”
Joe looked surprised. “You really have done your homework, haven’t you? We’ll look into old police reports, too, about Bonnie’s death.”
I sighed, hoping he wouldn’t think of me as interfering. “I already tried that. No one could find the reports. The woman I spoke to said they’d either been misfiled or lost. She said she’d look some more and get back to me. Then she reminded me that I was talking about reports from the 1930s. I haven’t heard back from her.”
“I’ll see if I can find something,” Joe said. “I know a few people in the Records Division.”
There was a knock at the front door.
Bea excused herself to answer it.
Bob stood at the door shaking water out of his hair. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Not much I can do outside now that it’s raining. Greg said he’ll be back, too. Unless it’s still raining, that is.”
“Thanks, Bob. And I’m glad you’re checking things out so closely. I never would have noticed that old pipe leaking if it wasn’t for you.”
He smiled before turning to leave.
I stood at the window, watching a truck and old car pull out. I needed a minute to think things through.
“Mrs. Goldberg – “
“Please, call me Sandi.”
“Okay, Sandi, do you have anything to add? It sounds like you’re on top of things as much as you can be.” Joe had his notebook out and he’d been taking notes.
I walked to the couch and sat down. “I have a question. You seem to know a lot about local history. Do you remember someone named Charlie? He would have died around twenty years ago.”
“There’ve been plenty of Charlies living in Battle Ground over the years. What’s his last name?”
“That’s what I’m tr
ying to find out. Brad mentioned him. He said instead of driving his car, he’d ride his horse out here and sit and watch Bonnie’s house.”
Joe sighed. “Just what I need; two old murders to try to solve. Yes, I have more than a passing interest in local history, but the name Charlie doesn’t stand out in my mind. I’ll see what I can come up with for you. Cold cases aren’t easy to solve, you know. You’ve got your work cut out for you, and I’ve got current cases to worry about. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”
“I’ve had experience with old cases.” I gave him The Look, cop or not.
Pete’s head whipped around to look at me. Without turning to Joe, he said, “I think you just issued a challenge to Sandi. Now we’ll be here for as long as it takes.”
I glanced at the floor, but I could see everyone waiting to see how I’d react, thanks to my peripheral vision. I rolled my lips together and blew air out, making my cheeks puff up. I scratched my nose and looked up at the ceiling. Lastly, I rested my index finger on my lips. I could put on quite a show when I wanted to, and now was as good a time as any.
Speaking slowly, I said, “Pete, why don’t you go back to L.A. and work on some current cases. Stan and Felicity can go with you. I’ll stay here and keep working on this. I mean, now we have two murders to think about.”
“Not on your life.” Pete scratched his nose, mimicking me. “We’re here to enjoy a relaxing honeymoon and by God that’s what we’re going to do.” He started to laugh. “Yeah, a relaxing honeymoon. Right.”
“We’re staying, too,” Felicity said. “Right, honey bun? We’ll think of it as a second honeymoon.”
“You bet, pumpkin pie.”
I could tell Joe was mentally gagging over the pet names by the look on his face. Little did he know that they did that on purpose, just to try to be humorous.
Before we could discuss anything else, Major Crimes showed up and Joe left us to show them where the body was.
They walked down the path, talking and laughing. Before they got very far a county Sheriff arrived and joined them. I saw Joe and the deputy shake hands before continuing down the path.
“You didn’t really want us to go back to L.A., did you?” Pete sounded a little unsure of himself.
“Of course not. We have at least a few romantic evenings ahead of us.”
He grinned. “I knew you didn’t want to work on this by yourself.”
“But first I want to go back to that antique shop. Pookie, or Binky, or whatever her name is, has some interesting things on display.”
“Yeah, like Bonnie Singleton’s things.” Pete read me like a book.
“Oh, that’s someplace I’d like to visit. I love antiques.” Felicity had a look of anticipation on her face. “And you know Stan likes the past, too.”
“Ah, antiques are just old junk.” Pete used to feel that way, but he’d grown since knowing me, or so I thought. “Okay, let’s get it over with.”
Bea stood and asked, “Are you going to be here for dinner tonight? So I can plan. The other guests will all be here.”
“Sure,” Pete said. “I wouldn’t miss one of your meals on a bet.”
“Let’s wait for a few minutes and see if they bring out Sally’s body,” I suggested. “Maybe Joe will have some news for us.”
While Bea and her nieces excused themselves and went to the kitchen, Sam sat with us, waiting.
“I wonder what happened to Phil and Gloria.” Sam shook his head. “She’s an, uh, interesting woman.”
“If it weren’t for the crying, or whatever it was, I’d figure they were upstairs packing right now.” Pete was probably right. We hadn’t really been that nice to her.
No, Gloria wasn’t happy with Pete, but now she had plenty of reason to stay and watch for her ghost.
“She – “
“Shh!” I said. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Sam asked.
“Shh. Listen.”
Everyone was quiet and we all heard the crying.
Pete stood and hurried up the stairs, looking for a source of the noise. Stanley and Sam followed him.
Bea and her nieces hurried out of the kitchen. “What is that?”
“I don’t know, but Pete’s trying to get to the bottom of it,” I said. “It’s probably the wind.”
“I’ll have Bob check the attic and wherever else it could be blowing in.” Bea glanced at her nieces, as though she wanted them to help her remember.
Gloria came flying down the stairs, figuratively speaking. She wasn’t riding a broom or anything. “See? See? Didn’t I tell you? Now Phil is searching the house with your husband.” She had an accusatory tone in her voice.
“There are no such things as ghosts,” I said.
She stuck her finger in my face, which I pushed away. I had a feeling she wanted to shake that finger at me.
Just then the front door opened and the Ruggles walked in.
The noise stopped as suddenly as it had started.
Chapter Twenty-eight
The rain stopped as suddenly as the crying had ended.
“Felicity, let’s go visit that antique store,” I suggested.
“We’ll go with you.” Stanley glanced at Pete to be sure he’d go with us, too.
Pete nodded resignedly, after looking at his watch. “Yeah, just what I want to do late in the afternoon.”
Before we left, we watched the County Major Crimes people wheel the body out. I wondered if they’d be able to determine anything about the woman. My heart broke a little when I thought about two women being murdered on this property.
I heard Joe say, “What can it hurt? She’s working on two cold cases.”
The officer he spoke to just shook his head.
Felicity seemed to be on the same wavelength and considered the two murders. “I find it interesting that the crying didn’t start until that poor woman’s body was unearthed. Maybe that released her spirit.”
“Okay, now you sound like Gloria. Let it go. There’s no ghost.”
Felicity glanced at me with hurt in her eyes.
“Well? There are no ghosts. Trust me,” I said.
“One of these days you might find yourself in for a rude awakening. You heard the crying, and I don’t believe it was the wind.”
As if on cue, a gust of wind hit us head on.
“Yes, I heard the sound, but I don’t believe it was someone crying.” I didn’t want my little world shaken by something I couldn’t explain. There were always explanations.
Felicity left my side and walked by her husband. She was annoyed with me.
Before the issue could go any farther, Joe joined us. “It looks like it might have actually been Sally Harper in the grave. The Deputy did some research before driving out here, and it appears no one else disappeared around here back in the day. There were some shreds of clothing in the grave and her husband told the Marshal what she’d been wearing the last time he saw her.” He shrugged. “A clue is a clue. Besides, she had on some identifiable jewelry.”
Apparently Stanley had been thinking things over. “I still think the deaths may be related in some odd way, even though they were so many years apart.”
“You could be right, but I don’t know how we’d ever figure it out.” Joe was right. Something unexpected had to reveal itself, and that wasn’t likely to happen. He climbed in his patrol car and left the property.
Pete opened the car door and a piece of paper floated to the ground. He looked disgusted. “I forgot to close the window when it started raining.” He felt the seat to see if it was wet. It wasn’t. “Good thing it was only down a fraction of an inch.” He picked up the paper and handed it to me.
“Well!” I said, reading it. “Someone wants our attention.”
It was a photocopy of an old newspaper article commenting on Sally’s disappearance. What had it been? A couple of hours since we found the skeleton? How could someone come up with this so fast? It had been folded several times and looked a
little worn. Maybe someone had carried it around in their wallet for some reason. It didn’t make one bit of sense.
Felicity took it from me and read it. “I’m not sure if someone is trying to help us or if it’s a warning that the same thing could happen to one of us.”
I shrugged my shoulders. I had no answers, but it bothered me. Someone had slipped it through the open window, certainly for us to find.
I hoped after Joe heard from the county that he’d have some answers for us. He didn’t seem to have a problem with us working on the case. It freed him up to work on current cases.
We drove to the antique store where I immediately made a beeline for Bonnie’s belongings. There was a music box that I’d missed on the first visit to the shop. It was a bird in a small cage, and when it was wound up, the bird swung on his perch and the music played a haunting old-fashioned tune. I couldn’t place it, but I knew I’d heard it before.
Nothing else caught my eye so I joined Felicity.
“I’m sorry for what I said.” I needed to apologize to my friend. Just because I didn’t believe in ghosts didn’t mean she couldn’t. As much as I hated to admit it, I could be wrong.
She linked her arm through mine. “It’s not an issue. Let’s look around.”
She and Stanley found several items they wanted to buy. “I can box them up and Stan can mail them home so we don’t have to try to take them on the plane.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the saleslady said, joining us. “I can put a package together and mail it for you.”
“Oh, thank you so much!” Felicity was delighted that she wouldn’t have to fool with it.
“Where’s Pinky?” I asked.
“Do you mean Binky?” the woman asked, laughing. “She left to run an errand. Do you need to speak to her?”
“No, I was just curious. She was very helpful the last time we were here.”
We paid for our purchases and Felicity gave the woman the mailing information. We then found ourselves back on the sidewalk.
“Let’s look at some of the other antique stores.” Stanley’s old apartment, before he met Felicity, was decorated with 1940s décor. A man after my own heart, he loved old junk, as Pete had called it.