“Hey, forget about it. Thanks for lunch. It was great to get out of that office.”
After Holly paid the check, they got up and walked out to the parking lot. As Teresa hit the remote door opener, she turned to Holly and said, “Listen. I’m gonna check on a few things and if I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”
“I don’t want you to do anything that might get you into trouble.”
“Puh-leez! I know how to take care of myself. Don’t worry about me.”
“Thanks, Teresa.” Holly gave her a hug. “It really was great to see you and remember the good old days.”
“Yep,” Teresa replied, getting into her white Lincoln Continental that had “Wash me” printed in grime on the back bumper. “We’ll always have the Sheraton Sports Bar,” she said, clicking her tongue, waving as she drove away.
20 THE BOATHOUSE CAFE
Ivy screamed, dropping her trowel.
“I’m sorry,” Holly said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You really did though,” Ivy said sitting down on the grass in front of the flower bed she’d been weeding. “I didn’t hear you come out the back door.” She got up and grabbed her knee pad and tool bucket. “So what did you find out?”
Holly sighed. “Not much. Did you eat?”
“Yeah, I had a late lunch.”
“What do you say we skip dinner and go down to the Boathouse Café for some ice cream? I’ll tell you all about my conversation with Teresa.”
“Sounds good to me. Let me wash my hands.”
Holly looked Ivy up and down. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?” Ivy’s eyes widened. “I didn’t do anything.”
“What I meant was I don’t know how you manage to work in the garden and not get a speck of dirt on you.”
“Oh, that. I dunno,” Ivy said, not making eye contact, as she headed inside.
*********************
At the Boathouse Café, Holly ordered vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce. Ivy selected a hot fudge sundae. They went out the back door and selected a spot on the patio deck facing the duck pond. From where they sat they could see Mrs. Hagel’s house.
“It was great to see Teresa,” Holly began. “But she said she doesn’t believe the guys she works for would commit murder, and I trust Teresa’s judgment. Looks like we’re back to square one. I think it’s time to pull the plug and tell Elena there’s nothing more we can do.”
“Probably,” Ivy remarked, digging into her sundae.
“But, you know, there is one thing I wondered about. On the drive home I remembered the police report and the fact that the neighbors to the west of Mrs. Hagel left town the morning the body was discovered. It may be nothing, but doesn’t that strike you as a little odd?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we just want it to mean something.”
“Look,” Holly nodded her head in the direction of the Hagel house. “See how close that house is to Mrs. Hagel’s. I bet they did see or hear something and just didn’t want to get involved.”
“Maybe the police will find out when they question them. They have to come home sooner or later.”
“I wonder…” Holly ignored her sundae, and continued staring across the pond.
“Your ice cream is melting.”
“You’re right.” Holly took a big spoonful, closing her eyes and savoring the taste. “This is really delicious. How’s yours?”
“Yummy,” Ivy replied, grinning the same way she did when they were little girls.
“Hey, when we were in Mrs. Hagel’s backyard, did you notice what the side of the house facing Mrs. Hagel’s was like?” Holly asked.
Ivy furrowed her brow, hesitated, then answered. “There was a bay window on the ground floor and two casement windows on the second floor.”
“How do you remember that?”
“Because I was thinking I would have planted a privacy hedge to block the view from the downstairs window onto Mrs. Hagel’s patio. I also thought a nice pergola would block the view from the second floor windows.”
“I’m beginning to think my lawyer friend is right. With your powers of observation, you’d make a great hire for a law firm.”
“Not me. You,” Ivy laughed. “I may notice things, but you put two and two together.”
“That’s just great. How many old ladies does it take to make one good investigator?”
They laughed and then got quiet as they finished their sundaes, watching the Canadian geese glide by overhead.
“Uh-oh,” Holly said as she put her plastic spoon inside the empty ice cream cup.
“What?”
“Don’t look now, but Denise Archer is coming this way.”
“Who’s she?” Ivy asked.
“Remember Debby Downer from Saturday Night Live? That’s her exactly. She’s coming right over to us.”
“Hi, Holly. Don’t tell me. This is your sister. Holy cow! You look alike.”
“This is my sister, Ivy. Ivy this is Denise Archer.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ivy said.
Denise eyed Ivy without smiling. Her A&R Auto Body t-shirt reached nearly to her knees and her faded denim cutoffs looked as if they might actually date back to the ‘60s.
“Hey, did you hear about my sister? She got in a car accident. Totaled her car.”
“Sorry to hear that, Denise. Was she hurt?” Holly asked.
“She got whiplash. She’s lucky though. She coulda been killed.”
“How awful.”
“What do you think about Mrs. Hagel?” Denise nodded twisting her mouth to the side. “I dunno. This neighborhood is really goin’ to the dogs, isn’t it?”
“It is a shame. She was a lovely person.”
“Oh, yeah. They thought it was the gardener killed her. Now they say it’s the nurse. If you ask me, I think they oughta check out that crazy neighbor of hers.” Denise pointed in the direction of the Hagel house.
Holly exchanged a quick glance with Ivy. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah. He’s as crazy as a jaybird. I been sayin’ that for years. But ya know, he’s got friends in high places.”
“Who are you talking about?” Holly asked in as casual a tone as she could muster.
“Louie Brunetti. Ya know the councilman? That’s his cousin. He lives on Ridge Road directly behind the Hagel House.”
“You want to sit down, Denise?”
“No, no, I can’t sit. My back is botherin’ me. I went to the doctor’s, but he couldn’t find nothin’. They only want your insurance money, ya know what I mean?”
“It seems that way sometimes. So you really think Louie Brunetti killed Mrs. Hagel?”
“Oh, yeah. I bet you dollars to donuts before the summer’s over he’ll put a swimming pool in his backyard. Nothin’ stopping him now. He hated Mrs. Hagel because she wouldn’t sign off on the variance he needed to put a pool in. I seen him throw garbage over his fence into her garden. But you know me. I mind my own business. I dunno what this world is comin’ to.”
“You really don’t want to get in the middle of someone else’s fight,” Holly said.
“No, no. Not me. Look. It was good seein’ ya. I gotta go get my ice cream and get home in time to watch The Bachelorette. You watch it?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Oh, you should. It’s so good.” Denise looked at her watch. “Okay. See yas.”
Denise turned abruptly and entered the boathouse.
“Waddaya think?” Ivy asked, her imitation of Denise spot-on.
“I dunno,” Holly replied.
Both started laughing, covering their mouths, not wanting their laughter to be heard inside the café.
“C’mon,” Holly said, grabbing both empty sundae containers and dropping them in a trash barrel. “Let’s go before we really embarrass ourselves.”
When they reached the front of Holly’s house, Ivy stopped along the fence at the Gertrude Jekyll rose which was now in full bloom. She pulled a blossom tow
ards her. “Ouch!” she exclaimed, looking at her finger, which started to bleed.
“These thorns can really tear your skin,” Holly said.
“No kidding!”
“Here,” Holly carefully pulled a branch close for Ivy to sniff a bloom.
“Now this is what roses are supposed to smell like. Hmm! What a heavenly scent!” Ivy gushed. Reprising her Denise Archer imitation, she said, “But they can kill you, ya know.”
Both Holly and Ivy laughed, quite loudly this time. “C’mon.” Holly grabbed Ivy’s arm and pulled her to the front gate. “The neighbors will think we’re crazy.”
Holly opened the front door and Lucky barely greeted them as she headed directly outside.
“I’m going to just walk around the back with her and close up the shed,” Holly said. “You better go put some alcohol on that scratch.”
Ivy was waiting in the kitchen when Holly and Lucky returned. “You want to watch TV?” Holly asked.
“No, I’m going to bed. But I just wanted to say one thing. I really do think tomorrow we should tell Elena that we can’t do anything more for her.”
“You’re sure? You don’t think we should try to learn something about Louie Brunetti? Denise is a little flaky, but she could be on to something.” Holly asked.
“No. Let the police do it.”
“Okay then. Tomorrow we tell Elena we’ve done all we can and we re-start our vacation.”
That night Holly dreamt she was weeding around her rose bushes. As she worked, the rose bushes started to send out giant branches that surrounded her. The thorns were huge and she got stuck no matter which way she turned. She awoke the next morning feeling quite unrested.
21 THE LOUIE BRUNETTI HOUSE
In spite of a restless sleep, Holly was up at 5:30. Lucky jumped up on the bed when she heard her stir. The dog lay down next to Holly and rolled on her back. “You do love your belly rubs, don’t you?” Holly said, stroking the dog’s furry underside. After a few minutes, Holly got up, pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and quietly opened her bedroom door. Sneakers and sox in hand, she tip-toed downstairs, not wanting to wake Ivy. In the kitchen she sat on a chair to put on her sox and Reeboks. Before she finished, she heard Ivy descending the stairs.
“Good morning,” Ivy said. “Trying to sneak out without me?”
“No, but if you were asleep, I didn’t want to wake you. It’s so early.”
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“Off and on.”
“I guess we’ll sleep better after we tell Elena we’re done with this whole affair once and for all.”
Holly just nodded. She grabbed Lucky’s leash and she, Ivy, and Lucky headed out the front door. At this hour, the neighborhood was quiet and peaceful, an unlikely setting for a murder. At the bottom of the street, Lucky turned left and the sisters followed. The Boathouse Café was closed. Only the lights of the reach-in refrigerator that held the sodas glowed from within the glass doors. Two women in spandex and neon sneakers jogged by.
When they rounded the duck pond, Holly headed up Ridge Road instead of continuing around the duck pond on Crescent Drive.
“Why are we going this way?” Ivy asked.
“I thought you liked to look at the houses and gardens on this street.”
“I came this way with Lucky yesterday when you went to lunch.”
“Lucky likes to go this way.”
“You want to pass Louie Brunetti’s house, don’t you?”
“What if I do?”
“We agreed to get un-involved.”
Holly stopped and faced Ivy.
“I don’t get you. You were the one who insisted we help Elena Gomez. Now, suddenly, you want to stop. Why?”
“I don’t get you. That’s what we agreed to do if we felt we reached a dead end.”
“But now we have another lead.”
“A lead? Listen to yourself. You’re talking like you’re a detective. You’re not. Face it. Besides, the ramblings of a neighborhood busybody don’t exactly constitute a lead.”
They continued walking.
“Shh. I think this next house is Louie Brunetti’s,” Holly said. As if she knew Holly wanted to linger, Lucky stopped to sniff the grass directly in front of the house in question. Holly peered into the backyard, but tall trees blocked any view of the neighboring yard beyond.
“If this is the house, you really can’t even see Mrs. Hagel’s,” Ivy whispered.
Holly smiled. Ivy was in observation mode. “C’mon. Let’s see if we can see through the backyard of the next house.”
Stopping in front of the next driveway, Ivy confirmed, “This neighbor’s house has a clear view through to Mrs. Hagel’s.”
The sisters continued walking in silence. Finally, Ivy asked, “We’re going to tell Elena we’re finished, right?”
“Yeah, yeah. Right after I make one phone call.” Holly picked up her pace and Lucky got in step as she started running, leaving Ivy behind.
**************
“One egg or two,” Holly asked as Ivy entered the kitchen. Bacon was already frying in the pan. “With only ice cream sundaes for dinner, I figured we deserved a big breakfast.”
“One,” Ivy answered sinking into a kitchen chair. “Are you going to tell me who you’re going to call or is it a secret?”
“No secret. I’m going to call my friend on the Zoning Commission for the past eight years. He’ll know all about Louie Brunetti’s request for a variance. He might even be able to provide me with an audio tape of the hearing. They tape everything, so absentee commissioners can review the hearing and not have to miss a vote.”
“And what do you think you’re going to get out of that?”
“Maybe Louie Brunetti made threatening remarks. Wouldn’t that be great?” Holly asked as she sliced two bagels.
“And exactly what are you going to do if you find out he did? Denise Archer said Brunetti had friends in high places.”
“I don’t know,” Holly replied, placing an egg and some bacon on a plate, handing it to Ivy. “Maybe I’ll call Grabnick and push him to call the police. Or maybe I’ll just call Manelli myself.”
Ivy dropped the glass she’d just lifted to her mouth, spilling orange juice all over herself.
Holly grabbed a wad of paper towel and handed it to Ivy.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Are you crying?”
“No--yes,” Ivy sobbed.
“It’s just juice, Ivy. Don’t cry. I’ll pour you another glass,” Holly said, going to the refrigerator.
“It’s not the juice,” Ivy bawled.
“What is it then? Look, if it’s going to upset you this much, I’ll just drop the whole thing. I won’t call anyone. Honest.”
“It’s not that either,” Ivy sniffed. “Not exactly. I have a confession to make. You’re going to be so mad at me.”
“What could you possibly have done to make me mad at you?”
“I called Detective Manelli,” Ivy blurted out.
“Oh?” Holly said dropping into her chair. “And?”
“When you left yesterday, I started to worry about you. I thought that if the developers did kill Mrs. Hagel, you could be in danger just asking questions. You know I wanted to call him with the information from the start.”
“I know,” Holly sighed. “What did Manelli say?”
“He said he appreciated the information, but that we needed to step back from the investigation, and I said we would.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem? As far as he’s concerned, we have stepped away. Can I help it if people keep telling me things?”
“But there’s more.”
“More?”
“He asked to talk to you. I said you were shopping for groceries. I don’t think he believed me.”
“I still don’t see the problem.”
“He told me to have you call him.”
“I’m not calling him. You could have forgotten to give me the message.”
“T
here’s more.”
“Out with it already!”
“Last night when you went to close the shed and I came in there was a message from Manelli, asking you to call. I erased it.”
“Great. Just great.”
22 LYING TO THE POLICE
It took a while, but Holly managed to calm Ivy down and reassure her that she was not angry about her call to Detective Manelli. They finished breakfast and went out to sit on the patio, Holly with a mug of coffee and the crossword puzzle, Ivy with an orange cut in quarters and the latest issues of Instyle and Martha Stewart Living.
As she filled in the last word of the puzzle, Holly looked over at Ivy, who had fallen fast asleep on the chaise. She felt that guilty, remorseful ache she got whenever she was the cause of Ivy’s distress. Maybe she shouldn’t call Ira. Maybe she should just phone Elena and tell her there wasn’t any more they could do.
Immediately, she remembered Jonathan Grabnick’s swollen, self-righteous face. How could she abandon Leonelle Gomez to his incompetence? Why did Juan have to bring Elena to her for help? If she and Ivy and had never met Elena, they’d right now be getting ready for a day trip to some historic home on the Hudson River, instead of recovering from a sleepless night, worried about having to call the police. She couldn’t just sit around. She had to do something.
Holly got up from her chair as quietly as she could and went inside. Upstairs she closed the door to her room, sat on the bed, reached for the phone and punched in Ira’s number.
“Hi, Ira. It’s Holly.”
“Hi, Holly. Calling to apply for that job I told you about?”
“Not funny. But I am calling to ask you about a zoning variance case you probably heard about a year ago.”
“Really? Which one?”
“Louie Brunetti’s.”
“Wow. I remember that one.”
“Why is that?”
“Mr. Brunetti’s brother-in-law is a city councilman. He sort of expected us to just rubber-stamp his application, but you know that’s not how it works. Of course, one of the neighbors objected to the variance. Hey, wait a minute. I forgot that it was Mrs. Hagel. She was the lone neighbor who objected to the variance. Are you suggesting Brunetti killed her?”
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