Lilliput Bar Mystery

by Curry, Edna

  Martha nodded. She opened her purse that was sitting on the counter and got them out. “Call the 800 number on the back and report the card as stolen,” Chance directed. And then let me talk to the customer service person.”

  “Okay, I’ll put it on speaker phone.” She did and gave the customer service person the numbers of both cards.

  “I’ll send you the forms to fill out so we can open a fraud file on this,” the customer service gal said.

  “Thanks. Also, a police detective is here and wants to talk to you about this,” Martha said.

  “I’ll need your permission to discuss this with him, even if it is a police matter,” the person said.

  “Yes, of course,” Martha said. “You have my permission.”

  “Do you have a fax number?” Chance asked Martha.

  Martha shook her head.

  Chance asked the customer service person to fax him a copy of all the past week’s charges so he could check them out. “And why don’t you just fax the fraud forms for her to fill out, too? That’ll save us some time.” He gave her the sheriff’s department’s fax number and again had to get permission from Martha for the person to do this. Thanking the woman, Martha ended the call.

  “I’ll need you to go through the bills and tell me which charges are legitimate and which ones aren’t,” Chance said. “I’ll stop back here when I get them.”

  “Sure. But you’d better call first, because I’ll be in and out of the house. My mother is supposed to pick me up to go meet with her pastor to make arrangements for Frank’s funeral,” Martha said.

  “Then would you rather just stop at my office and look at them in an hour or so? I should have them by then.”

  “Sure.”

  Next they went through the same routine with the local bank. But that was easier, since the bank was used to working with the sheriff’s department and knew Chance. They agreed to close that account and transfer Martha’s balance to a new account. She needed to stop by to sign for them to do this.

  “I’ll be down yet today to do that,” Martha said. She sighed and looked at me and Chance. “Thanks for helping me with this. I had no idea how to go about it and thought I’d be stuck with paying the bills for stuff I didn’t even buy.”

  “Don’t worry,” Chance said. “You don’t have to pay any fraudulent charges. Once I get a copy of the bill, I’ll be able to track down where things were charged. Maybe we’ll even get lucky and get a picture of the person who charged them. Most stores have video cameras now, you know.”

  Martha shuddered. “I sure hope you catch whoever did this. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

  “It may have been a simple robbery,” Chance said. “We’ll do our best to find out.”

  ***

  Two hours later, Martha dropped into Chance’s office.

  “Did you get everything squared away at the bank?” he asked.

  She nodded. “My balance was still there and it’s enough to cover next month’s rent, so at least we’re good for now. Thank goodness no fraudulent checks have come in yet, so if the robber wrote any, the bank will bounce them when they come in. Frank never let me write checks, although luckily, he did have my name on the account too, so I could do this without the hassle of waiting to get a death certificate.”

  “Good,” Chance said, handing her several sheets of paper. “Here’s the list of charges made in the past week on your credit cards. Mark the ones you made or that you are pretty sure Frank made. We’ll list all the others as fraudulent and I’ll get started on trying to track them down.”

  Martha stared at the papers he’d given her. “Oh, my God. How could anyone buy that much that fast? They charged thousands of dollars worth of stuff already! Mostly at Maplewood Mall.”

  “Good,” Chance said. “The larger stores all have good cameras. Be sure to list everything on the fraud forms and I’ll fax them back to the credit card company.”

  She nodded and began checking things off, then filling out the fraud forms for the credit card company.

  ***

  Later, Chance went to Sheriff Ben’s office to update him. “Did you examine those pictures of the accident scene I sent you this morning?”

  Ben leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Yes, I did. And I see what you mean about something fishy. The empty gas gauge, and pile of snow behind the car is what you saw, right?”

  “Yeah,” Chance said. “Why would he hit a patch of ice just when he was out of gas? And did you see that big scrape along the side of the car? I think he was forced off the road into that steep ditch. There’s no sign that he got out of the car. I think he was probably knocked out by hitting his head into the windshield and died right there behind the wheel. And not of injuries.”

  Ben chewed his lip. “That pile of snow didn’t look like the wind blew it there, did it? It didn’t look like any snowdrift I’ve ever seen. Too lumpy, no sharp, smooth swirl on top as the wind would normally make.”

  “Right. It looked more like someone shoveled it there to block the tailpipe, then the wind smoothed it a bit later and maybe dropped another inch or so on top, too. I called the coroner. He says you’re right. Frank died of carbon monoxide poisoning.”

  Ben nodded. “I did the same and got the same answer. So, now, we find out who wanted Frank dead, right?”

  Chance nodded. “I can think of several people, right off the bat. But it may be quicker to just track down who made all those charges on his credit cards. I’ll head to the cities and talk to security at those stores. I’m hoping to get copies of their video tapes.”

  “And you’ll just look for someone you know on the tapes? That could take hours and hours.”

  “I think we can narrow it down a bit,” Chance said. “We know what the person charged and that it was probably a woman because she passed herself off as Martha and signed her name to the charges.”

  “So you look for the items?” Ben said.

  “Yeah,” Chance said. “Big ticket items, the kind with extra security devices around them. They should be easy to spot, since they’re usually quite large or require an employee’s help to take them out to the car. Several television sets, two computers and a couple of exercise bikes and treadmills.”

  Ben said, “First, you may want to stop by the bank here. They called me and said they made you a copy of the video they have of a person trying to take money out of Martha’s account late last night. Apparently they didn’t have a pin number, so they didn’t succeed, though.”

  “Whoa, that sounds promising. I’ll do that. See you when I get back.”

  At the bank, Chance viewed the video with the manager and found it disappointing. “I’m afraid it’ll be very hard to identify the person from this,” he said. “It may be a woman, or it could be a small man. Hard to tell, other than that she’s medium height and slim. The full mask stocking cap covers her face almost entirely. Eyes are just shadows.”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that. But I thought you’d want a copy anyway,” the manager said. “And want to know that someone did attempt to get cash with her credit cards.”

  “Thanks,” Chance said. “I appreciate your help.”

  He drove on down to Maplewood Mall and went to the first store on his list.

  After he showed the head of security the list of charges made in his store that were fraudulent and would be charged back to the store by the credit card company, the man was very cooperative. “I certainly hope you catch them and can get our merchandise back,” he said. “The problem is that it’s so close to Thanksgiving so big ticket items like the ones on your list are common purchases. Many people have already started their Christmas shopping, now that a lot of stores are promising cash back if they find the item at a lower price before Christmas. The things on your fraud list are often bought as Christmas presents.”

  They watched the videos and found several women buying the items on his list, but none looked familiar to Chance. He was almost ready to give up when the last section of t
he night’s tapes yielded a familiar face. “There. That’s her. Sue Muller,” Chance said. At the security man’s questioning look, he added, “She’s the girlfriend of one of my murder suspects.”

  Chapter 9

  Chance called the sheriff. “Ben,” he said, “I lucked out at the mall. I found Bob’s girlfriend, Sue Muller, on tapes at a couple different stores, swiping credit cards with a cartful of merchandise. I got copies of the tapes and the detail about her purchases, too. They time-stamp both their tapes and their cash register tapes, so they can track the purchases.”

  “Great,” Ben said. “And you’re sure it’s her?”

  “Yes, it’s her. I got a similar tape at another store, but taken by an outside camera, of Sue wheeling a television out to a car. The car matched Bob’s rental car, though the picture wasn’t clear enough to get the car’s license number.”

  “Very good. Did you get copies of the tapes?”

  “Yep. Knew we’d need them for evidence.”

  “Perfect. Then we’ll go ahead and pick up both Bob and Sue. If you come straight to the office when you get back, you can do the interviews. In the meantime, I’ll ask the judge for a search warrant to see if they’ve stored any of the fraudulent purchases at Mildred’s house.”

  “Good idea,” Chance said. “Check out Bob’s rental car too, to see if it has any damage that matches the scrapes along Frank’s car. If so, we need to get paint samples.” He got into his car and began the drive home, then remembered Bob had rented his car. He stopped at the rental agency whose sticker he’d seen on Bob’s car to get a copy of the paperwork.

  The temperature had warmed into the forties through the day, and much of the snow had melted, although there were still drifts in the ditches and snow along the road that had been pushed there by the snowplows.

  Chance stopped for a hamburger along the way, sure he’d be working late tonight.

  ***

  At the office, Ben grinned a welcome. “I put Bob and Sue in separate rooms. I didn’t want them to give them a chance to coordinate their stories,” he said. “Both screamed that they were innocent and had done nothing I should arrest them for. I told them you’d explain it to them when you got here.”

  “Did you check Bob’s car for damage?”

  The sheriff nodded. “The paint scrapes look like a match to me, but we’ll send samples to the lab to be sure. We found a snow shovel in his trunk, too.”

  Chance and Ben went in to talk to Bob first. As tired as he was after a long day and having gotten little sleep the night before, Chance now felt wide awake. Adrenaline heightened his senses at the possibility of getting to the bottom of this case at last.

  Bob immediately stormed at them, “What is the meaning of this? I’ll sue you for false arrest. You small-town hicks think you can get away with anything, don’t you? I’ve just lost my mother and my brother, for Pete’s sake. And then you pile on having to defend myself on top of all that.”

  “I’m sure you can explain everything, Bob, and then your lawyer can have you out of here in no time,” Chance said. “Do you want to call your lawyer? Ben read you your rights, didn’t he?”

  Bob looked surprised and quieted a bit. “Well, sure. I’ll see if I need to call my lawyer later. What do I need to explain?”

  “How did your car get those scrapes along the side?”

  “What scrapes?” Bob asked, his face going pale. “I just rented that car in Minneapolis after we flew in from Las Vegas. Whatever damage it has, must have been there before we got it. You’ll have to take that up with the rental company.”

  Chance nodded. “I’m sure the rental company made you sign a form listing all the details about the car, odometer reading, any chips in the windshield, stuff like that, right? That’s pretty much standard procedure.”

  “Well, sure, I guess,” Bob blustered.

  “So, those scrapes were listed on that form?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. I don’t read the stuff, I just sign the paperwork, grab the keys and drive off. It’s all a formality, anyway.”

  “Perhaps it is,” Chance said. “But it’s not always unimportant. Here’s a copy of that form. Why don’t you point out where those scrapes are listed?”

  Bob grabbed the form and stared at it, then shrugged. “So they missed it. That doesn’t mean anything except that they’re incompetent.”

  “Why does a guy who lives in Las Vegas buy a snow shovel and carry it in his trunk?”

  Bob shrugged. “I lived in Chicago long enough to know you have to be prepared this time of the year. I couldn’t find one at Mildred’s house. So I bought one.”

  “Have you used it yet?” Chance asked.

  “Yeah. Got stuck in Mildred’s driveway coming home the other night.”

  “Oh? Coming home from where?”

  “Various places down in the Twin Cities. Sue and I went out to dinner and did a bit of shopping.”

  “I see. And if you got stuck in the snow, it must have been the night of the storm?”

  “Sure. First snow we’ve had since we came up here,” Bob agreed. “No, wait, we went to the Twin Cities shopping the following day. I wanted to wait, said the roads might still be slippery, but Sue wanted to go, so we went.”

  “So you only went out to dinner on Thursday night?”

  “Yeah. In Forest Lake. Met some friends I used to know in Chicago that live here now.”

  “Give me their names and phone numbers.”

  Bob shrugged and complied, checking his cell phone for their numbers and writing them on the paper Chance gave him.

  “What time did you get there to meet your friends for dinner?” Chance asked, frowning.

  Ben sent him a questioning look, but Chance ignored him.

  “I don’t know, late,” Bob said. “Maybe eight or so? Why?”

  “Weren’t you and Sue at the Dalles House earlier?”

  “Yeah, but we just had a drink there. How do you know that?”

  Chance glanced at Ben and said, “Jody and Sue had a scuffle in the parking lot as Cassie and I were leaving after dinner.”

  “Oh, yeah. But we made up after that and I told her my friends had invited us out for dinner, so we went to Forest Lake.”

  “Even though it was snowing hard?”

  “So what? It snows all the time in the winter. If I paid attention to that, I’d have to stay home all the time,” Bob said with a shrug.

  “Did you return from Forest Lake on highway thirty-seven?”

  Bob thought a minute, fidgeting now and chewing his lip. “No, I think we stayed on highway eight. Sue drove, ‘cause I’d had a few beers with my friends. You’ll have to ask her. I fell asleep part of the way home. What are you asking me all these questions for, anyway?”

  “Where did you go shopping?”

  “I don’t know. Different stores at Maplewood Mall, I think. Ask her. You know women. Can’t ever please them.”

  “How about this one?” Chance played the video of Sue checking out.

  “I suppose. It looks like Sue. Kind of fuzzy video, though.”

  “And this one?” Chance played another video, then another.

  “I think so. Hey, what’s this all about?” Bob asked, sweating now, his face very pale. “Why do you have videos of Sue shopping?”

  “You see her swiping a credit card here? Which card did you use?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. I don’t have one right now, so she must have used hers. You’ll have to ask her.”

  “What did you do with all the stuff she bought?” Ben put in.

  “I didn’t buy anything,” Bob said, shifting in his chair. “I’m too broke right now, until we sell the house and bar. I’ve just been using the food Ma had at her house and Sue’s credit card when we go out.”

  “So, didn’t you think it was odd that she bought all this stuff when you were short of money?”

  Bob shrugged. “She said she was shopping for a friend. She said she took stuff to the friend’s apartment
in the cities before we came home. The man gave her cash for it, I think.”

  “A fence?” Chance asked.

  “Huh? No, she was just doing a favor for her friend, she said.”

  “Didn’t it strike you as strange to buy all this expensive stuff for a friend?”

  Bob lifted his shoulder again. “Expensive stuff?”

  “Yeah, you can see it in her cart in the video. A couple TVs, a computer and printer, see?”

  “I dunno. Sue does weird stuff all the time. I don’t pay much attention to it. Women can be strange, you know?”

  “Oh, yeah? You aren’t in any of these videos. Where were you while she was doing all this shopping?”

  Bob flushed. “She dropped me at a bar. I met my friends there for a few beers to kill the time while she shopped.”

  “The same friends on this list?”

  “Yeah. She picked me up again when she was done.”

  “Did she have a lot of stuff in your car when she picked you up?”

  “Some clothes and groceries, that’s all. Not a lot of stuff, no.”

  Ben and Chance exchanged looks. “We’ll talk to Sue, then.” Ben pressed an intercom button.

  “So, am I free to go, now?” Bob asked.

  “Not so fast. We’ll let you know later. In the meantime, the deputy will take you back to your cell.”

  Bob sent them a nasty look and left the room with the deputy.

  ***

  “What do you think?” Chance asked.

  “I have no idea. But I think it’s probably likely that he spent time drinking with his buddies and that she drove home,” Ben said.

  “Or, he could be claiming she drove, so he wouldn’t admit to driving drunk. Think he could have hit Frank’s car by accident? That Frank had run out of gas and pulled to the side of the road and Bob just didn’t see him there, because of the blowing snow, until he hit him?”

  Ben shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible. But how would we prove it?”

  “I have no idea. The storm covered any tracks we could have used for evidence. But let’s see what Sue has to say.”

  The door opened and the deputy brought Sue in. Like Bob, she was angry and belligerent. “What’s the meaning of this outrage? I’m going to sue you hicks ‘til the cows come home.”