"And we have a couple of dilemmas here. Was he drinking coffee that night, or did Cartwright tell us that to muddy the waters? There have been some things that only his lawyer or Cartwright told us about, and yet we have accepted them as gospel. Should we continue to assume they're true, or do we question them?"
"At this point I have no idea. Of course he could have had some coffee that night, but maybe the poison wasn't in the coffee. Maybe it was in something he had at breakfast or lunch, or something he snacked on at the book fair. And we seem to have forgotten about the reception, where someone might have had more of an opportunity to slip something in his drink without anyone seeing it."
"I don't even want to think about that reception. It would take us the rest of our lives to question all those authors."
"Maybe we should go ahead and pin it on someone and make them come up with an alibi for the thirty or so hours in which Portwood might have been poisoned."
"The way our case has been going so far maybe we will have to go that route. But let's look at a couple of other scenarios. Let's assume that Portwood did leave with a to-go cup of coffee and someone put poison in it. Who could have done it? Of course it could have been Cartwright, who told us about it knowing that we wouldn't be able to prove he did it. It could have been this mystery woman Portwood was talking to when Cartwright left, provided there really was such a person. Or it could have been one of Portwood's neighbors, when he got home, provided he hadn't already drank all of the coffee."
"And with a mysterious woman being involved, that means it could be anyone on our list, or someone we haven't thought of yet."
"Since no one had access to Portwood's vehicle before he left Gibby's it sounds like our murderer has to be either Cartwright, Portwood's sister, or the mysterious woman, provided she wasn't Portwood's sister. Or maybe Portwood's brother and sister were involved together. Maybe his sister occupied him on the passenger side of the van, while her brother sneaked around to the driver's side, where the door was already open, and dumped poison into the coffee. But remember when we talked to them they said they were at a cookout at the next-door neighbor's house at that time."
"But who cooks out in November?"
"Maybe we should run by the next-door neighbor's house and see if anyone's at home. We're not that far from there."
I sat there, silent for a minute, mulling over what both of us had said, and Lou knew that meant I was thinking and he needed to be quiet. After a few seconds I slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead, which to Lou meant that I had either discovered something or I needed mental help. He waited a moment to see which.
"Lou, let's assume that Portwood did get a to-go cup of coffee and poured it in his Thermos. Where's the Thermos? A dead man doesn't dispose of his Thermos after he is finished with it. That means that either there was no Thermos and no coffee, or someone took the Thermos."
"Maybe it was whoever turned off the ignition."
"Which, more than likely, would narrow it down to one of his two neighbors."
"Which more than likely means that the two people who were most likely to dispose of a Thermos are the same two people who seem least likely to have added poison to Portwood's coffee."
"It's beginning to sound like he was poisoned in one place while a co-conspirator got rid of the evidence somewhere else."
"Or that the coffee had nothing to do with his murder. Or there was no coffee."
I wanted to know if there was a Thermos. I was hoping a call to Herb would tell me that the police had it, had checked it out, and found no poison inside. But then that would mean that we had another wasted clue.
I had to find out. I picked up the phone and called Herb. It took me only a few seconds to learn that none of his men removed anything from the van, other than what he sent to me.
"Herb, it still bothers me that we haven't found the $50,000 a year Portwood was giving someone. Now, someone tells me that Portwood had a Thermos full of coffee when he left Frankfort to go home. Would you be willing to search a couple of homes to see if you can find a large sum of money and a Thermos?"
"Cy, I don't think either of his two neighbors killed him."
"Herb, don't be like your coroner. If you want us to find his murderer, then we need to know everything we can to see who is guilty and who isn't."
"I guess you're right, Cy. I'll get a search warrant."
"Thanks, Herb, and I hope you're right. And I don't think I have to tell you to call me as soon as you complete your search."
"I'll get right on it. I'll call you as soon as I know something."
I thanked him and hung up.
"Well, Lou, we might as well be working here while Herb and his guys are working up on the river."
"We're working on the river too, Cy."
"But it's a different river."
"Let's check Google Maps to see if it's possible that the Thermos floated down the river from Frankfort and ended up in the Ohio River near Westport."
The two of us laughed. It was either that or go completely crazy. I was sure we were both well on our way.
+++
"Lou, let's drop by the Portwood Estate, the one here in Frankfort, and see if we can find out if either neighbor is home and will admit to hosting the brother and sister on Saturday."
It took us only a few minutes to pull up a house a couple of doors away from Portwood's brother and sister's home. We got out of the van as quietly as possible, hoping not to arouse the possible guilty party. I walked up to the house to the right and rang the doorbell, which would be less likely to be heard by the Portwoods. A few seconds later a woman came to the door. I introduced Lou and myself.
"Oh, you must be the ones that bothered the Portwoods the other day."
At that point I realized that if the Portwoods needed an alibi for any day during the last year the neighbor was willing to provide one. Still, I asked my questions, and the neighbor agreed with everything Archie Portwood had said. I had no way of proving that the story was a lie. If Portwood's murderers lived in the house next door, I would have to catch them some other way.
39
I figured Sam had had enough time to find out the entire life history of all the people involved in the case, so I gave him a call.
"Sam, do you have information on those people I called you about?"
"Cy, is that you? That was days ago. Usually you call me back within minutes, so I thought you weren't interested anymore. I got the information, but I forgot all of it."
"Out with it, Sam."
"Well, I didn't get much. Where do you want me to start?"
"How about with the brother and sister?"
"Well, it's obvious they hated him, and both of them were struggling to get by, but I don't know any more than that. I didn't find out anything on anyone that might be a motive, except that the rumor I heard is that Bob Barney is secretly in love with Millie Longacre."
"Does she know it?"
"I'm not sure. I know she planned to marry Cyril Portwood, but I'm not sure if that was because she loved him or his money. If anyone is telling you they didn't know he was loaded, my guess is they are lying."
"What about the will? Any idea who knew they were in it?"
"I think Portwood's brother and sister suspected that they might get something, but not the bulk of his estate. I think Millie Longacre has a pretty good idea how much he had, and that she will be getting some of it. I think Barney suspects that, too. I tried to find some dirt on the lawyer and that book promoter, but I can't find anywhere that the lawyer has been shady, or that the book promoter knew Portwood any better than he said he did. And I think you can dismiss those two women authors as suspects, if you ever considered them. I can find nothing that says they knew Portwood before the book fair."
"What about Jake Cartwright?"
"I never could find anything that told me whether he and Portwood were good friends or merely competitors. I didn't find anything that showed he has more money than he should, but
then I've checked all the banks anywhere near where each person lives and I haven't found anyone with an unexplained lump sum."
"So, really all that you've been able to come up with is I can eliminate those two women authors, and Bob Barney has a thing for Millie Longacre."
"Sorry, that's the best I can do without giving each of them a lie detector test, and as you know, those things aren't admissible in court."
"Well, thanks, Sam. I'll call you the next time I don't need anything."
"I thought you are supposed to be retired."
"I am, but can I help it if people recognize my talent?"
"I'll let you go, Cy, before you break your arm patting yourself on the back."
We both laughed at his comment, and I said goodbye and we ended the call.
"So, Lou, where does this leave us?"
"In Frankfort."
"That's about it, too. I'm trying to decide if we have a reason to stay here any longer. I'm in a quandary as to what to do. Can you think of anything we might be working on while we wait on Herb to call us with the results of those home searches?"
"It depends upon whether or not you brought any of your mysteries with you."
+++
We went back to the hotel to rest and wait on Herb to call us with the results of the home searches. I was about to call Lou to ask him if he was ready to go eat supper when Herb called.
"Well, Cy, I've got a little bit, but I don't know if it amounts to anything."
"Tell me about it and I'll see what I think."
"Well, we found something at both places which could mean something. At Millie Longacre's house we found $13,000 in small bills hidden underneath her silverware tray in a kitchen drawer. She says that it's money that she has been saving for many years. It was all in smaller bills. I called the bank to see how Cyril withdrew the $50,000 each year, and it too was in small bills, but they didn't write down the serial numbers, so I have no way of knowing whether this was his money or Millie is telling the truth, which she might be. Thirteen thousand dollars is a lot less than several years of $50,000 per year."
"Yeah, it doesn't sound like you have enough to prove anything. I don't assume you found any more money anywhere else."
"No. That was it."
"What did you find at Barney's house?"
"A Thermos. Barney says it's his, which it could be. While we didn't take Millie's money, we did take the Thermos to analyze it. They're about to get to it now, so I should have something for you later. If we don't find anything I'll probably give it back to Bob Barney. Maybe it's his Thermos and he uses it when he goes somewhere."
"But where does he ever go?"
"Well, sometimes he goes fishing if the weather isn't too bad, but other than that Bob is pretty much a stay at home person."
"How well do you know him?"
"Not too well. Why?"
"Do you have any idea if he has a thing for Millie Longacre?"
"Well, it wouldn't surprise me. But I don't have any information that says that's so. I just know that they're about the same age, and they're neighbors who have known each other for a while. Of course, if he is smitten with her, I'm sure he would probably keep it hush hush because she was expecting to marry Cyril."
"Do you know if she loved Portwood, or was she in love with his money?"
"That I can't tell you. This has been my first experience with those people out in that part of the county. Nothing bad has happened there before, so the only time I've seen any of them is when they've come to LaGrange. I don't know them like I do the people here."
"Well, thanks. And call me as soon as you get the toxicology tests on that Thermos."
"Will do. You figure that if it tests clean that there's another Thermos out there somewhere."
"Either that or the guy who told me the Thermos story is lying. How often do those people out there have garbage pickup?"
"They don't. Most people who live in places like that burn their trash and take their garbage to the dump once every week or two."
"Since you can't burn a Thermos, I might send you to the dump to check out everyone's garbage."
"And I might retire about the time you make that suggestion."
We both laughed and I told him goodbye and ended the call.
40
As soon as I hung up from talking to Herb I called Lou to summon him to my room for a powwow. I filled him in on what I had learned from Herb.
"Lou, I have a feeling that the Thermos won't turn up anything. And you know where that leaves us. Either Jake Cartwright is lying, or someone has done something with that Thermos."
"And the only two people I can see having that opportunity are Millie Longacre or Bob Barney."
"We were in the house. Do you remember seeing a Thermos anywhere?"
"Nope."
"I can understand why we didn't see one in the dark, but we were there when the lights were working, and I think we would have noticed a Thermos."
"I'm not sure about you, Cy, but I would have."
"I'll act like I didn't hear that. Where would a Thermos have been? Well, if no one but Portwood touched it, it would have been in the van. There wasn't any Thermos in that van. And I don't think there was one on the kitchen counter or the table, which is where I think an innocent person might have put one."
"Where would a guilty person have put one, Cy?"
"Well, if it was me I would have taken a hike out to the river and tossed it in."
"Does that mean it's time to drag the river?"
"No, because I wasn't the one who hid it."
"Maybe we should call both of his neighbors and ask them where they would have hidden it."
"I just know that if I find out that there wasn't a Thermos, I'm going to shoot Jake Cartwright myself."
"Maybe you should poison his food instead."
"No, I've had poison up to here."
"Well, then, Cy, you need to thank God for keeping you alive with that much poison in your body."
"Lou, do you happen to have Heather's number on you?"
"I do, but she asked me never to give it to you."
+++
Lou and I went to get something to eat and on the way back we got our anticipated call from Herb. Bob Barney's Thermos was clean. There was no trace of poison. I thought of asking him if I could have it long enough to show it to Jake Cartwright, but if there was no Thermos Cartwright might tell me that the one I showed him was the one Portwood was drinking from.
+++
I wanted to be retired again before I had to move to the nursing home, so I told Lou that we would go to my room and discuss the case.
"Any ideas, Lou?"
"Going home sounds good to me."
"Sounds good to me, too, but we can't do that yet, unless you think the murderer is in Hilldale."
"Well, George did look like he had something to hide when we saw him the day he saw your new van for the first time."
"When we get there you'll have to ask him if we can borrow his cuffs to cuff him."
"Maybe we can check out a couple of other people first."
"Any people in particular?"
"Well, I would like to check out Thelma Lou, and I thought you might be interested in Jennifer unless you're still hung up on Heather."
"I've already checked. They both have alibis for the time of the murder. I was thinking we might check out one of the more likely candidates."
"I'm with you, Cy."
"I've noticed that, and I've even sprayed."
"I'll be glad to call Thelma Lou and ask her for a ride home."
"We already did that once."
"No, that was Jennifer. Thelma Lou's different."
"I've got an idea. Sometimes we are able to use the messages God gives us to solve the case. Do you think if you ask Him for tomorrow's clue early He might be willing to give it to you?"
"I doubt it. He might tell us to use the clues He's already given us."
"Well, I've got a list of them here. T
he only two that stump me are 'Who wrote it?' and 'Somebody's lying.'"
"One of those stumps me more than the other. We can narrow the lying part down to three people, provided that the clue has to do with the people we talked to that day instead of the day before."
"Let's stick with that day for the time being. That day we talked to Jake Cartwright, Bob Barney, and Millie Longacre."
"And all of them might have lied to us, but if I'm only allowed one vote I'll cast it for Millie Longacre."
"I would, too, but then maybe Barney did what we think she did."
"You mean minus the marrying part."
"She didn't get married."
"No, but she wanted to."
"But then according to Sam, maybe Barney wanted to get married, too."
"Enough to murder Cyril?"
"That much I'm not sure about."
"So you're not ready to put either of them in the electric chair?"
"No, I'll hold off and take a chance on the power going out again. We can always hang one or both of them if we have to."
"Let's look at the messages we've figured out. The first one told us that Portwood was murdered. We were the first to know that, but Herb suspected it."
"Yeah, and he knew who might have been murdered before we did."
"So should we pick him up for questioning?"
"Let's wait on him, too."
"Okay, we also know that Portwood gave a lot of money to someone several years in a row, and I don't think it was a charity."
"I'll agree there, too, but where's the money."
"Somewhere we haven't been. Either someone has it safely hidden at their home, or in a bank somewhere other than in his or her hometown. And coffee must enter the equation somewhere, because you had a clue about coffee. Now, it's probably the coffee that was in the missing Thermos, but we don't know that for sure. I'm going to make a few calls."
I called Bill Noel, who told me that Portwood didn't have coffee at breakfast. Then I called the two women who shared a table with him at the book fair and neither one remembered Portwood drinking coffee at the table. Only water. I called Susie Hammond to get her take on it, and she didn't remember seeing Portwood drinking any coffee, but she said she couldn't say for sure that he didn't.
Murder at the Book Fair Page 16