I wanted to believe him. I did. But between Max’s bumbling and Gibbon having to go to a meeting rather than tracking down clues, I didn’t know if I should.
But at least he hadn’t yelled at me.
CHAPTER 9
I FILLED out the paperwork Nan gave me as quickly as I could and left the police station. Back at my vehicle, I checked on Dash, then eyed the Hotel California. Sure enough, Odell Radcliffe was still reclining in a chair out front, his feet propped on a stool. His face was partially obstructed by the copy of the Poppyville Picayune he was reading. Leaving Dash in the Wrangler again, I took a deep breath and hurried down the block.
“Hello, Dr. Radcliffe,” I said from the top step of the wide veranda.
He’d watched me walk up the sidewalk, and now stood. “Hello, dear. I know we met at the museum opening, but I’m afraid I don’t recall your name.” His jacket lacked the patches on the sleeves, but his half-glasses, Beethoven hair, and the rich smell of pipe tobacco all screamed “academic.”
“Ellie Allbright.” I closed the distance between us and took his outstretched hand. “I saw you sitting here and wanted to extend my sympathies. I got the impression you and Dr. Sanford were old friends.”
He blinked.
For a moment I had the horrible thought that no one had told him Eureka was dead. Then he passed his hand over his eyes and took a deep breath before gesturing to the settee across from his chair. We both sat down.
“Poor Eureka,” he said.
“She was very well liked here in Poppyville. I wish I could have gotten to know her better,” I said.
He nodded, looking into a distance I suspected had more to do with his own memories than the view across the street.
“There you are, Daddy.”
I looked up to see his daughter had joined us. She wore a midcalf skirt and turtleneck, and clutched a misshapen cardigan around her, though the afternoon was pleasantly warm. Her hair was pulled back with a headband, and the sun flashed off the thick lenses of her glasses. I caught the scents of baby powder and maple syrup.
She was in her twenties, and I was no fashion maven, but I itched to give her a makeover for no other reason than to boost her confidence.
“Haley, my dear. Please join us. This is Ellie Allbright. She was a friend of Eureka’s.”
“Hello,” she said with a tentative smile, and sat on the other end of the settee. “I remember you from the museum yesterday.”
“Hi,” I said with an answering smile. “I remember you, too.”
She looked momentarily surprised, as if people didn’t often remember her.
“I was just telling your father how sorry I am about what happened to Eureka Sanford.”
Haley nodded. “Dreadful. Just dreadful.”
“Did you know her well?” I asked her.
“I should say so,” Odell answered for her. “Eureka and I were, well, old flames, I guess you might say. For a time there, Haley and I both saw a lot of her.”
Haley had been watching her father and nodded before turning to me. “Yes, Daddy and Dr. Sanford were quite the item when I was eleven and twelve. Mama had been gone for what? Five years by then, Daddy? Even as young as I was, I remembered thinking that it was good for you to have a girlfriend.”
Odell flushed and cleared his throat. “Girlfriend, indeed.”
“I liked Eureka. It’s too bad it didn’t last,” she said regretfully. “But that’s how these things go, I suppose.”
Looking wistful, he said, “We continued to be quite good friends.”
“In the subsequent years,” Haley said with a nod.
“After all, our offices in the history department were right—”
“Across the hall from each other,” she finished. “I often chatted with her when I stopped by to see Daddy.” She leaned forward. “I’m in another building on campus. Psychology department.”
“And you must have stayed in touch after Eureka retired,” I said to Odell.
“Oh, yes,” Haley answered.
They were like an old married couple, one answering for the other and finishing each other’s sentences.
It sounded as though her mother must have died when Haley was just six or seven years old. My own mother had died when I was four, but my grandmother had stepped in as a mother figure until she passed when I was eleven. By then my father had married my vivacious yet very maternal stepmother.
“Eureka invited me to come to Poppyville to see the opening of the time capsule,” Odell said. “She did love this little town. I can see why. Haley decided we could both use a little vacation and tagged along.” He smiled at her over his half-glasses.
I heard a buzzing sound, and she took her phone out of her pocket. “Excuse me,” she said, and began typing with her thumbs.
Irritated, I reminded myself that such behavior was becoming the norm, and turned back to her father. “So you must have known Eureka for a long time, Dr. Radcliffe.”
“Odell, please. For nearly twenty-five years, I’d say. She was an amazing woman.”
Something about the way he said it made me wonder if he’d still carried a torch for his “old flame.”
“Do you have any idea if she had any enemies?” I asked.
“Eureka? Good heavens, no. I mean, she could rub a person the wrong way, that’s for sure. A bit prickly at times, you know. Didn’t suffer fools gladly. Disliked authority. Could be a bit caustic. Irritated the powers that be because she couldn’t have cared less about the politics of the university. But enemies? I don’t think she made anyone angry enough to be considered an enemy.”
Haley gave a tiny snort, and I looked over at her.
“Oh, Daddy. You just described someone who has lots of enemies.” She tipped her head toward me in a conspiratorial gesture. “My father is not a connoisseur of social relationships.”
Odell shrugged and nodded at his daughter. “It’s true. Human interactions can be quite baffling, don’t you think?”
I suppressed a smile. No wonder it didn’t work out between him and Eureka.
“Um, I suppose so,” I said. Resisting the urge to check the time, I pushed on. “Do you remember the manuscript from the time capsule? The one the mayor called Eureka up to look at when he was taking things out of the butter churn?”
“Indeed, I do,” he assured me. “Fascinating thing isn’t it? I saw how it interested you yesterday afternoon.”
“It’s missing,” I said bluntly. “Along with all the other items from the time capsule except the gold nugget, which is at the bank.”
“Ah, of course. They couldn’t keep it at the museum, now could they?” His eyes flashed, and he leaned forward. “But the manuscript is missing?”
“Yes. And, apparently, Eureka was examining the manuscript when she was killed.” Hopefully, I hadn’t just revealed something I wasn’t supposed to. On the other hand, no one had told me to keep any of the details about Eureka’s murder under wraps.
“Is that so?” he said. “And you say all the other items from the time capsule are missing as well?”
“Well, all but one.”
He gripped his knees with both hands. “Thank God there’s at least something left. What is it?”
I frowned, not wanting to go into detail about the photo I’d found. “The police have taken it as evidence,” I hedged. “But back to the strange manuscript. Do you have any ideas about what it might be, or why it was in the butter churn?”
He shook his head. “Such things aren’t exactly my bailiwick. I’m a Civil War guy myself.”
“And I believe Eureka’s focus was on Western US history,” I said.
“Exactly!”
“Nonetheless, she was interested in the Xavier . . . I mean, in that old manuscript,” I pointed out.
He nodded. “Eureka had a lot of interests. Always lo
oking for ideas for her next big book project.”
Haley tore her attention away from her phone. “Oh, Daddy. Her book was on the gold rush, wasn’t it?”
“I know, dear.” He absently patted her arm. “But Eureka told me she had some new ideas—”
“About how to incorporate the time capsule into her research,” Haley finished. “I remember what she said, too, Daddy.”
I hazarded a look at my watch, and when I saw the time I bolted to my feet. “It’s been lovely chatting with you, Odell. You, too, Haley.”
Her smile widened. “I’m afraid I was a bit distracted. I’m trying to set up an interview with someone for my thesis. So sorry if I was rude.”
Suddenly I felt like a heel. “No worries. Master’s thesis?”
“PhD.”
“What’s the subject?” I asked.
“Reality-testing interventions for hindsight bias.”
“Hindsight bias?” I asked.
“Basically, it’s when something happens, and you think you knew it would happen all along, when in reality you didn’t, because you couldn’t.”
I stared at her.
“It’s a trick our memories play on us all the time. Someone wins a sports match or an election, and all of a sudden people start saying they knew it would turn out that way.”
“Oh! Like twenty-twenty hindsight,” I said. “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
She sighed. “Well, yes.”
“Sounds fascinating,” I said.
“Doesn’t it?” Odell said with an indulgent look at his daughter.
Glancing at my watch again. I said good-bye as gracefully as I could manage and returned to the Wrangler.
* * *
• • •
I SPED around town for the next forty-five minutes, frantically loading up supplies in the back of the Jeep. In the parking lot of the Grape Escape, I checked my watch and saw there was barely enough time to swing by 525 Swallow Avenue on my way to the grocery store.
The avenue was wide, with a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees shading the sidewalks and lovely homes. I thought of them as mansions because that was what they had been considered to be by the people who lived in them in the 1800s, but they weren’t that large in terms of square footage compared to what would be considered a mansion now. They were tall and formal looking, though, with lots of red brick and dormer windows. A few smaller homes were scattered among the larger ones, most set farther back from the street. These had once been carriage houses or servants’ quarters, renovated to meet modern standards of comfort and style.
Eureka’s house fit someplace in the middle, size-wise, and had probably been built by a lesser baron than some of the others on her block. It had two stories, a sprawling wraparound porch, a tile roof, and wide windows. A cedar picket fence surrounded the yard, the lawn had been edged recently, and a sprightly mix of spring bulbs brightened the symmetrical garden beds on either side of the porch steps.
A black pickup was parked in the drive that led to an unattached garage in back. As I drove by, I saw the John Deere and Kubota stickers in the back window. Warren Perez sold farm equipment and was sure to have plenty of machinery from those two companies on his lot. Besides, Eureka had driven a maroon Camry, which had probably been towed from where she’d parked it on Corona Street before walking back to Heritage House.
Curious, I pulled to the curb, told Dash to stay, and got out. As I walked up the front sidewalk, a man and a woman suddenly stepped out of the house. He smelled of stale cigar smoke and had unnaturally dark hair, heavy eyebrows, and impressive jowls that jiggled as he turned his head to look up and down the street. She was pretty and delicate, with long highlighted waves, distressed jeans that fit like a glove, and the fake watermelon scent of designer hairspray.
They stopped cold when they saw me.
“You’re not the police,” he said.
“Of course, she’s not, Warren,” she said with a deprecating smile. “For heaven’s sake. You just called them.”
Warren. And that must be Trixie. They sure didn’t waste any time.
“You’re expecting the police?” I asked. “Is everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay,” Warren said. “My aunt has been robbed.”
His wife sniffed. “‘Burgled,’ I believe, is the more correct term.”
My eyes widened. “You’re saying someone broke into Eureka’s house?”
She stepped forward and held out her hand. “I’m Trixie Perez. Eureka was my aunt. Are you one of her friends?”
“Ellie Allbright.” I shook her hand. Her grip was like a vise. “I worked with her on the museum at Heritage House.”
“Of course.” She waved dismissively toward her companion. “This is my husband, Warren.”
A city patrol car pulled to the curb behind my vehicle, and then the unmarked Ford Taurus that Lupe usually drove parked behind that. Both drivers exited their cars at the same time and hurried over to us. Lupe’s eyes widened when she saw me, but she spoke directly to the couple.
“I’m Detective Garcia,” Lupe said. “And this is Officer Danielson.” I recognized the same policeman who had been guarding the gold nugget at the time capsule ceremony.
The couple introduced themselves.
“We got a call there was a break-in,” the patrolman said.
“You’re darn right there was a break-in,” Warren growled. “The lock was gouged right out of the wood, and the door was hanging open when we got here.”
“What about the security system?” I asked.
Lupe raised her eyebrows.
“Maria told me,” I explained.
“Well, I don’t know anything about that,” Eureka’s nephew grumbled.
“We would have been notified by the alarm company if it had gone off,” Officer Danielson said. “It must not have been activated.”
“Ellie,” Lupe said. “Could you come over here for a sec?” Her tone was mild, but the look she gave me was not.
Uh-oh.
“Sure,” I said as lightly as I could, and followed her to the edge of the yard.
CHAPTER 10
WHAT are you doing here?” she hissed when we were out of earshot.
“I was driving by and saw the truck in the driveway with the John Deere decal,” I said. “I knew it wasn’t Eureka’s, and Maria told me she’d had problems with her nephew, who happens to deal in farm equipment. It seemed a little suspicious, so I stopped. Then those two”—I gestured with my chin—“came running out of the front door. You know the rest.”
Lupe frowned. “They were inside the house?”
“Yup.”
She turned around and marched over to where Warren, Trixie, and Officer Danielson were still standing in the yard. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman come out on her porch across the street to watch the proceedings. Her arms were folded disapprovingly.
“Mr. and Mrs. Perez,” Lupe said. “Would you mind showing me your key to this house?”
Warren looked down at the ground, but Trixie straightened her shoulders and answered. “We don’t have a key.”
Surprise, surprise.
“Then why are you here?” Lupe sounded genuinely curious.
They exchanged a look, then Trixie took a deep breath and let it out with a huff. “We thought someone might be here. A friend, or . . . well, even you guys. The police. Because of the murder, you know.”
That actually made sense. My eyes cut to Lupe. Had the police already come and gone? If they had, they would have already known about the break-in. Unless, of course, it had happened after they’d left.
Like right before I’d driven up.
“We were hoping you’d let us in,” Trixie said.
“I see.” Lupe waited for more. “And why would you need to go inside Professor Sanford’s house?”
Trixie licked her lips, then seemed to make a decision. “We wanted to look for a copy of Eureka’s will. She told us she was going to leave us this house, and we wanted to see if she kept her word.”
Officer Danielson turned from where he’d gone to inspect the damaged door lock and stared at them. I didn’t blame him.
Lupe had her poker face firmly in place. Her words belied it, though. “Well, you sure didn’t waste any time.”
Trixie grimaced. “You’re right. We should have waited.”
“I imagine it’s hard to think straight in the middle of your grief and all,” Lupe said.
The barbed remark appeared to be lost on the other woman, who shook her head. “Hardly. There was no love lost between Eureka and us.”
Warren’s head came up. “Eureka and you, Trix. Everyone got along just fine until you started fighting with my mother.”
She silenced him with a look.
“Can you tell me where you were last night between nine o’clock and midnight?” Lupe asked.
The couple looked confused, and then Warren’s face cleared. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m deadly serious.”
“You think one of us killed Eureka?” Trixie sounded indignant.
Her husband had turned a sickly pale. “We were, um . . .” He glanced at his wife, who narrowed her eyes at him. “At home,” he finished.
“Both of you?” Lupe asked.
“Yes, both of us. Together.” Trixie glared.
Lupe folded her arms. “I take it you didn’t find it.”
“Find what?” Warren asked.
“Dr. Sanford’s will.”
“We didn’t have a chance to go—” Then Trixie realized I was standing right there, and I’d seen them come out of the house. “We didn’t have a chance to look,” she amended. “As soon as we realized the house had been broken into, we checked to see if anyone was hurt inside and called you guys.”
That sounded fishy to me. Who would be inside besides Eureka? The person who broke the lock?
Lupe turned to me. “Would you be able to tell if anything was missing?”
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