Murder Between the Covers

by Maddie Cochere

  “And he made a map,” I said.

  She smiled and nodded. “When I asked Horace where it was, he told me to go see Scotty. He said Scotty would know. I asked him what he wanted me to do with the map when I found it.”

  I was hanging on her every word now. I had definitely morphed into Pepper. “What did he say?”

  “He told me to dig it up and donate it to that new American history museum when it opened.”

  “How can you do that? Dig it up, I mean. Surely, it’s on someone’s private property now. Who does the gold actually belong to?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me.”

  “I can understand why Daniel Schneider didn’t take possession of the gold, but why didn’t any of your ancestors dig it up after his death?”

  “They didn’t know about it. These deathbed confessions went to the oldest son with strict orders to leave the gold alone or destruction would rain down on the family.”

  I smiled. “Your brother didn’t believe that?”

  “Heavens, no. Horace said he never dug it up, because he didn’t want any part of it.”

  “But if he didn’t believe the warning of his forefathers, why did he confess to you?”

  “Who knows? He could have taken the secret with him and no one would have been the wiser. Maybe he thought it was time to put the legend to rest, and I just happened to be the only one there.”

  “What did Scotty tell you when you went to see him?”

  I already knew most of what he had said, but I wanted to hear it from her.

  “I asked him if he remembered a map at his uncle’s house. He said it was in an old copy of Treasure Island.”

  “I know one of the other inmates overheard the two of you talking at the jail. That man has a relative looking for the map. Do you know of anyone else who might be looking for it?”

  “It’s hard to say. By now, Scotty’s probably told several people. He wigged out when I told him the map led to the Confederate gold he used to dig for as a child.” Her eyes lit up. “As a matter of fact, I think he did mention he had a guy, but I didn’t know what he meant. He could have someone looking for the map.”

  “Did you try to find the book?”

  “When I got back into town that day, I drove right away to my sister’s house and asked her what happened to Horace’s books when she helped clean out his house. She said she didn’t remember. She doesn’t have the mind I do. She was never a drinker or a smoker, but she craved sweets her whole life, and they dulled her. The best she could recall was the books went to the thrift shop or the landfill. They had a couple of local handymen hauling things away.”

  I had one more question for her. “Did your brother have any idea where the gold is today?”

  She blew a few smoke rings in the air and smiled. “Horace said it’s under one of the buildings on Main Street.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Holy macaroni, Batman!

  My eyes bugged out so far, the muscles behind them nearly snapped.

  I looked at the maps from the courthouse and compared them to the map from the Treasure Island book again. Based on the landmarks and the winding of the creeks on all maps, there was no mistaking the location Daniel Schneider had chosen to bury the gold.

  I grabbed my swivel chair, pulled it over to me, and plopped down. There was no way this could get out. Glenn and I couldn’t give the map to Sergeant Rorski tomorrow. I pulled my cell phone from my bag and called Pepper.

  She answered on the first ring. “I’m leaving for the flea market to help Mama and Roger. Can I call you later?”

  I was in the basement in my murder room space, and Glenn was asleep upstairs, so there was no reason to whisper, but I did. “Code red. Swing by my house first. I’m in the basement.”

  I didn’t give her a chance to respond. I hung up and dialed Jackie. I knew she was busy when she answered with a curt, “Ryder.”

  “I’m calling an emergency meeting of Two Sisters and a Journalist. You have to come to my place right now.”

  “I can’t. The dipshit mayor is holding a press conference in a few minutes. He’s announcing his clean water initiative. He wants to dig up the old water lines up and down Main Street and replace them with new. Jo, I swear he’s trying to bankrupt this town, or raise everyone’s taxes so high, no one will be able to afford to live here. And did you hear what happened to Bill Winnie this morning? A car hit him on his bike. He’s all right, but he has a broken arm.”

  Frustration oozed from her voice. The mayor brought out the worst in her. It did alarm me to hear about Bill though.

  “I don’t care if he’s announcing he’s going to burn the town down at dusk. This is more important. And I need a favor.”

  “What do you need?”

  “There’s an inmate up at the medium-security prison in Gary, Indiana. His name is Scott Eberley or Scotty Eberley. Could you use one of your contacts and get me the names of all his cellmates since he’s been there?”

  “Probably. What do you want me to do first? Cellmates or come over?”

  “Both. Set the cellmates in motion, and then get over here. The front door is open. Come downstairs. Glenn’s sleeping.”

  I hung up and went upstairs. I wanted to double check to be sure the front door was unlocked, and I wanted to peek in on Glenn to be sure I hadn’t disturbed him.

  The front door was unlocked, but Glenn wasn’t in the unmade bed or in the bathroom. I went to the kitchen to check for a note, but the notepad was blank. Something felt off. Glenn would never leave the house without making the bed.

  I went back to my cell phone in the basement and called the station. The desk officer hadn’t heard from him, but he was on the schedule to work this evening.

  I heard the front door open and rushed upstairs. Pepper was tiptoeing down the short hallway to the kitchen.

  “I don’t want to wake Glenn, and your floors squeak,” she whispered.

  I spoke in a normal voice. “He’s not here.” She continued to tiptoe. “Stop that. Our floors don’t squeak. A few of the stairs do, but the floors don’t.”

  “What was so important that I had to rush right over?”

  Glenn’s kitchen was small, but there was room for a table with two chairs. I sat at one and motioned for Pepper to take the other. “Jackie’s on her way over. Let’s wait here for her.”

  “Where’s Glenn? Isn’t he supposed to be sleeping?”

  “I have no idea where he is. He didn’t leave a note. Maybe someone gave him a ride to pick up his car. It only needed an alternator, and it should be done by now.”

  The toilet began to run. This time, not only did the pipes groan with the water sounds, they seemed to have added a faint moan to their repertoire.

  Pepper laughed. “Cheese and crackers! You have to get that fixed. I could never stay here by myself with all that going on.”

  “I haven’t told Glenn yet, but I’m all for ditching the kitchen remodeling to put in new plumbing and get a new furnace.”

  Pepper got up and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “Ok, what’s going on? I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “I’ll fill you in when Jackie gets here, but I visited Matilda Schneider this morning. I thought she could give me some information about the map.”

  “Did she?”

  “Yes, but she also told me a story about Mama and our father. Did Mama ever tell you anything about their relationship?”

  “No, but I got the story from Aunt Bee.”

  “You know about Maria?”

  “Yep. I knew Mama wouldn’t talk about him, and she wouldn’t ever allow us to ask Grandma and Grandpa Frasier about him, so shortly after I married Buck, I asked Aunt Bee about Dad. She told me what happened between him and Mama.”

  “I can’t believe you’ve known for so many years. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You always had the same attitude as Mama. You never wanted to talk about him, so I never brought him up. I figured if you
wanted to know, you’d ask.”

  “Does Hank know?”

  “I doubt it. We’ve never talked about Dad, and Hank’s not really the curious type.”

  I was a little surprised, but not really. I suppose I had been tight-lipped about the subject. I didn’t feel any anger toward Pepper, but I was definitely surprised she had actually kept the secret.

  Jackie came through the front door and into the kitchen.

  “Which one of you has been smoking cigars, and I thought we were meeting in the basement.”

  I sniffed my sweater and my hair. Both reeked of Matilda’s cigars.

  “Is that you?” Pepper asked. “I thought it was a leftover smell from Glenn’s grandfather.

  “I picked it up from Matilda Schneider this morning. She’s ninety-two, smokes cigars, and drinks whiskey.” I stood from the table. “And we are meeting in the basement,” I said. “Come on down.”

  The girls hadn’t yet seen my murder room space, and I was looking forward to their reaction.

  “Wow,” Pepper said. “This is really nice. It’s not as pretty as the murder room in your house, but it’s kind of cozy down here.”

  “I don’t like it,” Jackie said. “Don’t you have spiders down here?”

  I smiled. “I haven’t seen any yet. I didn’t know you were afraid of spiders.”

  She shook her head. “Deathly. I can wrap a snake around my neck for a human interest piece in the paper, but show me a little spider, and I’ll faint.” She looked around and up into the corners of the room. “Let’s hurry up. What did you want to talk to us about?”

  I held up the map. “I guess I didn’t really have to talk with Matilda Schneider this morning, but she did tell me her brother made a deathbed confession about the gold. Daniel Schneider found Randolph Buxley’s gold and moved it off his property. He buried it somewhere on what is now Main Street.”

  Pepper’s eyes went wide. She was excited like a child and held her hand out for the map. “Let me see.”

  I handed the map to her. “You can’t tell by looking at the map Daniel Schneider drew, but when you compare it to the maps showing the town’s growth, it’s pretty easy to see where he buried the gold.”

  I stepped back while Jackie and Pepper leaned over my desk to look at the comparisons.

  “No way!” Pepper yelled when she realized what she was looking at. “That freaking gold is buried under Mama’s new flea market!”

  Jackie let out a low whistle under her breath. “Estelle’s going to be one rich woman.”

  “No,” I said firmly. “That’s why I wanted to talk with you. We can’t let Mama and Roger know the gold is buried under their building. Mama will go nuts and tear the place down. And what if Arnie’s dad was right? He said Randolph Buxley made the rumor up to entice more people to settle here. What if there’s nothing there? What if someone burns the place down and Mama and Roger are inside? I don’t see how we can tell them. I think we should burn the map and take this to our graves. No deathbed confessions.”

  Jackie grabbed her phone out of her purse and began snapping pictures of all the maps.

  Pepper’s mouth was hanging open, and she was staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Are you nuts? Of course, we’re telling them. If Mama is worth a couple of million, I can stop worrying about the money for college for the kids. We can take our vacation and go to Hawaii instead of Virginia Beach. We can get new cars. You can get a house that doesn’t scare the crap out of you.”

  As if on cue, we heard a moan.

  “What was that?” Jackie asked. She was already creeped out by the thought of spiders, and the sound startled her.

  I couldn’t help smiling. “The toilet is getting ready to run, and the pipes are warming up to tell us to get out.” Of course, I said the words get out with dramatic effect.

  Not only did the toilet and pipes emit the best noises yet, the furnace came on at the same time. It was like being in a horror movie.

  Jackie did some hard-core swearing under her breath. She didn’t hear her phone buzz, but she felt it in her hand. She looked at the text.

  “The FBI just raided the laundromat. I have to go. Jo, I have an idea about the gold. Hide the map again and wait for me to get back to you. Pepper, don’t you dare tell Estelle or anyone else about the map or the gold. You could put them in danger. If my idea pans out, we won’t have to worry about anything.”

  I let the two of them walk out together. I folded the map, put it back in the plastic bag, and waited for the furnace to quit running before going into the creepy room to hide the map in the crack behind the water pipe again.

  A loud groan from the pipe gave me the shivers and sent me running from the room. I grabbed my bag and phone from my desk and ran up the stairs so fast, I tripped and cracked my shin on the edge of a stair. I let out a loud wail and had it answered by a moan from the water pipe.

  That was the last straw. Clay was going to have to trade houses with us, because we were moving back to my house.

  I bolted out the front door and ran to my truck. I wanted to get to the office right away and find out if Arnie had the details on the FBI raid. I hadn’t been in the office since Wednesday, so it was a good idea to check in anyway.

  When I pulled into the parking lot, my phone buzzed in my purse. The text was from Jackie indicating she had forwarded a message from a reporter at the Toledo Blade. Before I could open it, Arnie came out of the office and headed across the parking lot toward the laundromat.

  I hopped out of the truck and yelled, “Hey, Arnie. Wait up.”

  He didn’t wait. I had to run to catch up with him, and I slipped on the fresh snow in the lot. I almost swore, but I held it back as I regained my balance. The snow was beautiful today, but the thought of another winter filled with ice and me constantly falling on my butt wasn’t a pleasant thought.

  I caught up to him. “What’s happening? Did you know the raid was going to happen today?”

  He looked frustrated. “Agent Roberts just called from Cleveland. His men say there’s nothing in the laundromat other than soap and water. They’re blaming us for tipping the guys off and giving them time to clear out.”

  “That’s BS and they know it. What did they do with the license plate of the Escalade? Did they track down the driver?”

  Arnie didn’t even stop to watch for traffic when we reached the street. He barreled across. A few drivers honked their horns, but because I didn’t know if they were mad honks or hello honks, I threw my arm up in the air as an apology or a hello. Take your pick.

  “They already had the number. They’re going to have to start from scratch and wait for noise on the street that shop has been set up somewhere else.”

  Jackie was fuming when we reached her on the sidewalk. “I can’t get inside to find out what’s going on.”

  She knew Sergeant Rorski was exceptionally accommodating when he allowed her total access to crime scenes. The FBI didn’t see it that way. Arnie filled her in on what happened and that it was a non-story for her.

  The mayor was quick to work his way down the sidewalk to where we were standing.

  “There’s quite a lot of excitement in this town, isn’t there?” he asked with a smile.

  “No thanks to you,” Jackie said.

  The mayor’s smile faded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means your moronic safety measures cause some of the excitement around here, Bubba. Officer Winnie’s broken arm is entirely your fault. Police on bicycles was a bonehead idea.”

  I almost laughed at her use of the word bonehead. Bubba Bones should have run for mayor with that name – Bubba Bonehead.

  His face turned white with anger. I had never seen him show anger like this. I could tell he was fighting back a retort to her. He looked at me and asked, “Where’s your boyfriend? Shouldn’t he be here?”

  I didn’t know if he was being combative or trying to change the subject. “He should be sleeping, but I don’t know where he is at
the moment.”

  He snapped his fingers and said, “Oh, yeah. I forgot. I saw him a short while ago, and he said if I saw you, I should tell you he was going back home to catch a few more zees.”

  The mayor was an idiot, and I didn’t believe him. Glenn would never leave a message for me with him, and he certainly wouldn’t say zees.

  Arnie pushed his way past the FBI agent stationed at the door of the laundromat. I didn’t hear what he said to the man, but I did hear him use Agent Roberts’ name as he plowed past him. Jackie attempted to follow, but the man was firm in holding her back. Rather than walk back to me and the mayor, she headed down the street and ducked into the bakery.

  Not wanting to stay in the company of the mayor a second longer, I turned and headed back to the office. He called out after me, “Hey! Don’t forget. Glenn went home.”

  The man just liked to hear himself talk.

  When I walked into the office, Nancy was putting on her coat.

  “Your messages are on your desk, and Arnie won’t be back. Everyone in the family is up at the flea market taking care of last minute preparations. I’m running next door to get pizzas. Are you coming up to help?”

  I only felt a small pang of guilt. I hadn’t helped Mama and Roger at all with their new business, but in all fairness, they hadn’t asked me to help either.

  “Let me check my messages and clear my desk, and then I want to swing by the house to talk with Glenn, but I can help. Tell Mama I’ll be there in about an hour.”

  “Ok. Don’t forget to lock up when you leave,” she said as she dashed out the door.

  I slipped into my chair and began going through the messages Nancy had placed on my desk. Nothing was pressing, but one of the messages stood out. Chummy at Chummy Burgers and More was leaving the country in February for six months. He planned to hire an operations manager to run his restaurant and a general supervisor to oversee his employees. He wanted to be certain I’d be available in January to do background checks on everyone he interviewed. I knew Chummy ran every aspect of his restaurant himself, so handing the reins over for several months was a big deal for him. I had a feeling I’d be running a ton of profiles before he made his hiring decisions.