by Misty Simon
She harrumphed. Yeah, this was going to be a fun contract all the way around.
“I’m still deciding between two properties. You may start first thing tomorrow, and I will tell you which one I’ve decided on. Both are three stories and need a thorough cleaning. I reserve the right to refuse to let you clean the mansion if your first property is not done to my satisfaction and within the time frame I requested.”
Think about the crew, I told myself as I bit my tongue. “Of course, and we do an excellent and exemplary job every time, Mrs. Petrovski. Shall I pick up the keys tomorrow, once you decide which house you want done first?” Apparently, I also got formal when I was biting my tongue.
“Where are you now? We can meet so I can give both sets of keys to you.”
Should I tell her I was at the mansion, waiting for Burton to get here, so that I could go through the house again? If he hadn’t told her yet, then I should keep it to myself.
“I have an appointment in five minutes. I can call you as soon as I’m done. Then we can set a time and a place.”
“That will be fine, though I do want to note that you’re already not fitting into the schedule I have set out.”
I barely kept myself from harrumphing. “Duly noted. I’ll call you in an hour.”
The phone went dead without a good-bye, but that was absolutely okay with me.
I’d call Letty and ask her to meet me in an hour and a half. That way I could have some time with Burton before I pulled her and the girls in for cleaning duty. I’d be cutting it close in terms of the meet-up night with Max and my friends, but there wasn’t much I could do about that at this point.
After leaving Letty a message, which I hoped she would get, I headed to the front door, though I still hadn’t decided what to do about entering the house. Or at least not consciously, as I slid the key into the lock. Squealing tires behind me for the second time in one day stopped my hand.
What now?
I should never ask myself that question.
I turned to find Burton striding up the driveway, hand on his gun belt. It wasn’t like I was a threat or anything. Or was there a threat inside that I didn’t know about? Had he gotten a call about the mansion, and was he trying to save me?
I doubted it.
“You’re early,” he grumbled. I forced myself not to look at my phone for the time, because I knew that wasn’t true.
“I haven’t gone in yet, even though I have a key. I’d like brownie points for that.”
That got me a gruff laugh that could have been equal parts disbelief and actual mirth. “Fine. Brownie points for you. It doesn’t quite offset the fact that you’re in the negative as far as brownie points go so anything you earn now is only going to maybe get you to zero instead of negative seventeen, but I guess it’s something.”
Laughing and joking. Be still, my heart. “You wanted me out here, and I’m out here. What’s the deal? Am I cleaning? I didn’t see any death stuff to clean up when I went through the house before. Or did I miss something, and do I have to clean that up too?” I’d never had to do that. With Darla’s murder, the house had already been cleaned; with Waldo, I hadn’t had to touch a thing. The other crime scenes I’d found had been cleaned also. From the little I knew, I didn’t believe there was blood to be cleaned up here, but since most everything was being held close to the vest, I guessed that anything was possible.
A brief thought flitted through my head that maybe I should start offering to do the cleanup for the police department. With my new crew, it could be one more service we offered. It could also be advantageous to be on the scene if another murder happened in town. Then I thought about how gross that would probably be, and immediately dismissed the thought. My true calling would show up. I knew it. I just had to wait.
“All you have to clean is the house itself and nothing related to the crime. There was no blood to speak of, due to the fact that, we believe, she was strangled. I’m just waiting for the confirmation from the coroner on that point, so don’t worry your pretty little head over it. Now, any evidence as far as the aftermath is going to be in that carpet.” He paced and then paced some more. From previous experience, I knew to wait him out. He had something on his mind, and my probing would not net me anything more than he was willing to say in his own sweet time.
But my time was going to run out before I had to talk to Mrs. Petrovski, and I wanted to find that secret wall before I even mentioned the thing to Burton. I’d learned my lesson on bringing things to him without a solid backing of information to support my theories.
Finally, he stopped in front of me and pulled on his bottom lip. I waited as he stared at me, wanting to look away, but not wanting to seem like I couldn’t maintain eye contact.
“There’s something fishy going on here, Tallie, and I don’t know what it is. Something feels wrong about this whole thing, and I just can’t put my finger on it.”
Okay, then. What did he expect me to say to that? If I offered to listen to his theory, I knew the chances were good that he might tell me no and shove me back into my car. But if I didn’t say anything, then I might miss an opportunity to legitimately help find my friend’s killer, instead of sneaking around behind Burton’s back, like I usually did.
So I went for the truth. “I’m not sure what to tell you. I think there’s something fishy, too, and it just feels like there’s more going on here than we know about. I was planning on looking around inside the house, but I don’t know what I thought I would find. Have you done a background check on Audra? On Caleb? I don’t even know who her friends are or her family.”
He sighed, and I understood. The previous times I’d looked into a suspicious death in the area, someone shady had appeared on my radar right at the start of my investigation, so that by this stage, I’d already made significant headway toward determining who the perpetrator was. This case just seemed to have stalled, and it had been only hours since Audra’s body had been found in the Dumpster.
“Where is the Dumpster?” I asked. “Did you guys have to take that to the crime lab to go over it more thoroughly?”
“If by crime lab, you mean the parking lot behind the police station, then yes. I’m not sure where else we could have put it, and it was a bear to get down the alley, but the truck driver managed.”
“Did he say who had called him to pick the thing up in the first place? He seemed pretty adamant that he was expecting no one to be here yesterday afternoon and that he had been told he could pick up even if nobody was around to give the okay. Why would whoever ordered the pickup make a point of telling the driver this? The only thing I can come up with is that the person who ordered the pickup didn’t want anyone to find something in that Dumpster, so he or she wasted no time in sending a driver and chose an hour of the day when nobody would be around to interfere. Also, I was thinking, why would he or she have called to have a half-empty Dumpster picked up? Those things are not inexpensive, and now Mrs. Petrovski’s going to have to pay to have another one dropped off.”
“It’s a little scary that our minds work on a similar track.”
Scary for me, not him, in my opinion. But I kept that to myself and waited for him to continue.
“Do I dare ask if you’ve called the Dumpster company and pretended to be from the police department to find out who called in the pickup?”
“Of course not!” But I should have. Darn it!
“Don’t sound offended. I’m not the chief for nothing. I can see on your face that you wish you had.”
Things were not going to go well if he could read my face now. I’d have to work on my stoic look. I tried it out now, and he just laughed again.
He went on. “Look, this is not going to be an easy one. As far as any background checks, the girl was a peach. She did her homework in school, she was an honor student, and everyone I have talked to loved her. She did no wrong and had no enemies. I have nowhere to start and no idea why someone would have killed her, wrapped her in a carpet, and then, we’re guessi
ng, shoved her out the window. We’ve found no prints on the carpet, but that can be difficult with the fibers. And it’s not like we don’t know where she was before she was killed. As far as we can tell, she never left the mansion.”
Should I mention that the carpet had been too neatly arranged to have fallen in the Dumpster from the second story? Or had it? Maybe the murderer had dropped it out the window and then had gone to arrange it.
And should I tell him about the half wall in the pictures? Should I show him the pictures? I felt like I wanted to keep it to myself, too, until I could say for certain where it was and what it was, but sharing could go a long way toward making him believe I just wanted to help, not steal his sunshine.
Indecision must have shown on my face, because he stared me down. “If you have something to add, please let me know. I don’t want this to become a cold case. Her family is sick with grief, her boyfriend wants justice, and the local population would look far more kindly on my depleted department if I can solve this in as little time as possible.”
“I thought you had the person in custody and that was why we were out here. All wrapped up. Just waiting for me to clean.”
“I lied. Or I didn’t lie at first, but it ended up being a lie. Yolanda told me someone came in and confessed, but when I entered the interrogation room, it was Gerald Sweets.”
I groaned. Gerald came out of the woodwork every once in a while, claiming to have done all manner of things, like he shot Lincoln and was part of a gaggle of geese and was the first to discover coffee. Personally, I thought he was lonely, but he wouldn’t talk to you if you approached him. Just sit with his eyes closed, in the criss-cross-applesauce position, no matter where he was, and hum.
“Yeah, so back to square one again.”
“But you always yell at me for getting involved and tell me that I should go get a hobby. I want to believe that you actually want my help this time, but I’m struggling with the concept.”
Rolling his eyes, he moved his gun back and forth in the holster before crossing his arms over his chest. “It’ll be like any other tip that gets called in to the station. I am not against you helping. I’m against you getting yourself involved where it’s not your business. It’s one thing to hand over information you think will help the investigation. It’s another thing to actively go out and find that information and then act on it yourself and bring me the finished product, instead of letting me do my job.”
Okay, so now I was going to have to show him the pictures and hope he’d invite me along to check out this wall.
I dug into my purse for my phone, and he put his hands on his hips.
“Did you actually listen to what I just said, and now you’re going to be a concerned citizen instead of a vigilante?” He laughed again, but this time his laughter had less disbelief and more mirth. Hey, I could learn.
I thumbed on my phone just as a car came trundling up the driveway. It should have been Letty, whom I’d ask to meet me here to go over the schedule before I called Mrs. Petrovski back. Instead it was Preston. Again.
I put my phone back in my purse. I was not going to show the photos to anyone but Burton. I wanted those brownie points, so I could wait until Preston left before getting them.
“I was hoping I’d find you both here. Burton, how are we doing on the investigation? Is the house ready to be opened?”
“As I told your aunt about an hour ago, we’re wrapping things up.” With his expression completely neutral, Burton looked the nephew over.
“Excellent. I know Aunt Marg must be pleased with that. She just asked me to come out and see if there was anything I could do to help.”
“I don’t think anything needs to be done at this point. We’re opening the house to let Tallie and her crew get to cleaning so your aunt can sell.”
“And that’s it? Did you figure out who did it, then?”
“We’re still in the process of investigating.”
As the two men talked back and forth, I watched them like I would a tennis match. Would Burton take Preston up on his offer to help, and dismiss me? Preston would be able to confirm where the carpet had been and would know if there were any hidden doors or walls, wouldn’t he? But I felt stupid asking, so I kept my mouth shut.
“How long do these investigations usually take? Will it hold up the sale of the house?”
“Not that I’m aware of, Mr. Prescott. It’s just a matter of an extra day at this point. I understand your aunt has a buyer coming in, and I believe Tallie will be able to do a fine job of cleaning things up with her crew.”
Another compliment. I thought I might have to swoon.
“Okay then.” Preston shot those cuffs of his. This time his outfit was a swirling pattern of watercolor peacocks on a pale yellow background. Where did he get these shirts? “Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I really want to help out my aunt and, honestly, myself. The sale of this house makes so much sense for our family. It’s been vacant for a number of years and seems to just be sitting here, doing nothing but costing us money for taxes. I have a business proposition I’d like my aunt to entertain, but she won’t even listen to me until this monstrosity is off the books.” He finally looked at me. “If you could get this done as soon as possible, I’d really appreciate it. I’m running out of time to buy into an incredible opportunity.”
With that, he got back in his car and zoomed off down the drive. Burton and I looked at each other for a moment.
“A business opportunity that can’t wait? Do you think he’s up to his elbows in something he shouldn’t be?” I asked.
“You have such a vivid imagination. Do you always think everyone is up to something?”
“Well, when we used to run in the same circles, you could always count on Preston to have some kind of scheme up his sleeve. I think he depends on his aunt for a whole lot more than familial niceties. If I remember correctly, she pays a lot of his bills. Or at least she used to.”
I bit my lip, because I could ask Mrs. Petrovski without actually having to have a reason to do so. There would be an opportunity when she handed over the keys. I’d just pretend to make inane conversation with her and subtly slip in a question or two about how involved Preston seemed to be in this project. Or maybe I’d be able to address obliquely the opportunity he had mentioned by asking if it was something that Max might be interested in.
She might not like me a whole lot, but she didn’t really know me. At least not the new me. If I turned on the charm, I might be able to have her eating out of my hand. It wouldn’t be out of the question for me to be in a position where I could ask her, in a subtle way, if Preston was self-sufficient. I could handle that without it seeming like a police matter and without making her think anything of it other than I was being nosy. If Burton asked her such questions, she’d want to know why he was doing so and what it had to do with anything. I’d be gathering information under the guise of looking for gossip, but he’d have to be official.
All that ran through my head in seconds, with Burton still looking at me.
“It’s scary how I can almost see your brain working. I don’t think it has anything to do with the case, but if you want to ask dearest auntie if she pays Preston’s bills, then go for it,” he said.
“It could explain why she has to sell so fast. And I could ask Max to look up any tax records, without it being an official inquiry, too.”
He just shook his head, but he didn’t say no. I was taking that as a yes.
“You were going to show me something on your phone,” he said with some resignation back in his voice.
I took my phone out again and was almost afraid to show him the photos, in case it seemed like I was being too fanciful. He already thought I was suspicious of everyone. What would he think when I showed him a wall that shouldn’t be there?
I had to chance it, though, just in case.
“These came in about an hour ago.” Letty was waiting on me and I didn’t want to leave her hanging for too lo
ng but I really needed to show Burton the pictures. She would understand when I explained the situation to her. She could then at least talk to Mrs. Petrovski enough to find out what she wanted cleaned in the other property while I would hopefully be looking for this wall that had vanished. If Burton let me tag along.
I handed him my phone and stood back while he scrolled.
“What am I looking at?”
“Mostly pictures I asked Bethany to take the night before the murder, when she came out here to look over the job. Mrs. Petrovski did not let anyone in the house before she told us to come try out for the job of cleaning this place up. Then, for whatever reason, she opened up the house for us the night before we competed for the job, but I had won tickets to a play in Hershey. So Bethany offered to drop by the mansion, take pictures, then send me the images before she headed out on vacation with her new boyfriend. She got accepted into college, and they were going to celebrate.”
He studied the pictures and stopped about halfway down. I watched as I stood by his side, and was gratified to see that he had paused on the picture with the extra half wall. Then he scrolled down a little more and stopped at the next picture, the one with the carpet.
“What room is this in?” he asked, pointing at the carpet.
“I’m pretty sure it’s in the upstairs bedroom.”
“Not where we thought she had been killed.” He said it more to himself, but it was information to me, so I stored it in my brain. “Something is wrong with this one.” As he pointed at the wall, I nodded.
“That half wall is not there right now. I’ve been over this house multiple times, and I haven’t seen a half wall anywhere.”
He bit his lip. I so wanted him to invite me in, so I could find out which room this was and where the wall had disappeared to, but we were in a pretty good place right now. I didn’t want to press my luck, in case he sent me home to go get that hobby everyone seemed to bug me about constantly.
“Any idea what room this might be?” he asked.
I shrugged, because I had been racking my brain to figure it out and had had absolutely no luck. “I’m thinking it almost has to be upstairs, near one of the bedrooms. I don’t think Bethany ran from one floor to another, all over the place, taking pictures. She had promised to be methodical, so I would know what we were getting ourselves into.”