"Lou, I'm going to put all of my cards into the pot that says Portwood had a Thermos. As to who put poison in his Thermos, I have no idea, but it looks like it was either Cartwright, the mysterious woman, Bob Barney, or Millie Longacre."
"Cy, don't forget the mysterious person who volunteered at the book fair without going through training."
"Thanks a lot, Partner. For now, since I have no idea who this person was, I'll forget about him."
Lou and I grew more frustrated by the minute, so we agreed to part ways for the night and hope the next day's clue would help us solve the murder.
41
I woke the next morning and reached for my phone to call Lou. Lou is always up before I am, so I didn't think I would wake him.
"Did I wake you?"
"No, I was just lying here waiting for today's clue."
"You mean God always gives you the clue when you're in bed?"
"No, it means I'm trying to be lazy like you are."
"Does it also mean that God hasn't given you today's clue yet?"
"It does. I mean God and I don't have a written contract that says I will receive a clue each day we're working on a case."
"I wouldn't think God would need your help on a case."
"I meant you and me, Cy. Maybe God is put out with us because we haven't figured out some of the other clues."
"I don't believe that's happened before."
"Yeah, it has. Remember that time He gave us the same clue two days in a row."
"I don't think that will happen this time. I think we've already figured out the coffee clue. It's a couple of those others than have us befuddled."
"Well, you go back to being lazy. I'll take a shower and do my Bible study and then check and see if you are ready to eat."
+++
Lou and I decided to eat in the hotel dining room just in case he got our clue of the day and we had to rush to my new ride and get to work. We were almost back to our rooms when Lou turned to me looking like Gunther Toody minus the "ooo ooo". Lou smiled.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm not laughing. I'm smiling."
"What are you so happy about?"
"I have today's clue, Cy."
"You mean you had it all this time and were just messing with me?"
"No, I mean God just gave it to me. Remember, God is never late, but He's always on time."
"You mean now, as we were walking down the hall God gave you today's clue."
"That's right."
"While we were walking."
"Well, God is capable of doing that no matter where or when."
"I wasn't thinking about God being incapable."
"Well, I'll have you know I can walk and receive clues at the same time."
We got to my room. I checked to make sure that the maid wasn't inside, then motioned for Lou to come in with me and tell me the clue.
"Well, out with it."
"The perfect hiding place."
"That's one thing that bothered me when I was young. By the time I was interested in girls we were no longer playing hide and seek. There were some good places in our neighborhood where two people could have hidden."
"Cy, I don't think today's clue has anything to do with playing hide and seek or hormones."
"Me, either. I think it has to do with a missing Thermos. And you know what that means?"
"Too well. It means we have to go back to Elmer's neighborhood."
"I think we'll be okay there as long as we keep moving. We need to look on the positive side of things. It looks like we're going to have more time to listen to some music."
"Except when we were up there last time those trees blocked out the sound."
The road that led to the road where Portwood lived was narrow and was tree-lined most of the way. The road Portwood lived on had trees on the first part of it, but not a lot of trees once we had passed the first two houses. I was going back where I didn't want to go. I hoped that no storms loomed large in that county. I had no plans to stop and erect a memorial where Lightning had died. And I had no interest in deja vuing with Elmer.
+++
Before we left Frankfort, we stopped and did a little shopping. We bought a cooler, a Maglite, ice for the cooler, food that needed to spend time in the cooler, water, and enough snacks that didn't need to be in the cooler to last us a couple of days in case we had an early snowstorm. Then Lou and I bought a couple of rain slickers in case it was too warm to snow, but too wet to be comfortable.
I looked at my watch. If we timed it just right we would be able to stop at that place we found in LaGrange and have lunch. But did I want Herb to know what we were doing? I mean he was the one who gave us this gig, but I figured we were better off on our own for the time being, so we stopped and picked up some fast food to go with our other food and headed on our way to the river.
I was in a good mood by the time we got to Portwood's place. A lengthy ride listening to 60s on 6 has a way of doing that to a person.
42
I pulled into the driveway and was sure that we hadn't arrived undetected. If one of them was guilty he or she needed to get a little nervous. I stepped down from the van and checked the inside. Neither Lou nor I made a mess on the floor. Maybe our luck was improving.
I walked around to the back of the house and hunted for the key. Someone had moved it. One or both of the neighbors knew that I was on to them. It was a good thing that someone had given me some picks for Christmas. It took me a couple of minutes, but I was able to open Portwood's front door.
I walked inside and looked around. Everything pretty much looked the same way it had the last time we were there. I darted toward the door to the garage, and Lou and I stepped out to confirm what we already knew. There was no Thermos in either vehicle. I was pretty sure there wasn't, but then a guilty person who lives in the area and has access to the house is capable of rearranging things.
We left there and made a dash for the kitchen. The second most obvious place to find a Thermos. We checked out the countertops and looked in the cabinets. No Thermos. It was time to stop and evaluate the situation.
"What were the exact words of today's clue?"
"The perfect hiding place."
"That's what I thought."
I left the room and left Lou wondering what I was up to, or if I had gone off the deep end. He followed me to the bathroom and watched as I put the commode seat down, took the top off the tank, and looked down in the tank.
"I guess people only leave money in plastic bags in these things. Any ideas, Lou?"
"Maybe we should go and ask the neighbors where they put it."
"I knew I was working alone again."
I went into the living room and sat down. I was trying to figure out if the perfect hiding place was where people are most likely to put a Thermos or somewhere where a person is least likely to hide one. I wasn't sure. I walked from room to room, opened closets and drawers. I found nothing out of place in any of those places. I went back and plopped down on the couch.
"Okay, Lou. Help me here. If you had poisoned someone by adding poison to a Thermos of coffee, what would you do to eliminate that evidence?"
"If I were here I'd either take the Thermos and throw it in the river, or I'd go to the kitchen sink and wash it out and put it up."
"Well, we're not dragging the river for a Thermos bottle, and no one washed it and put it away."
"Maybe they didn't wash it."
"Maybe they did or didn't. Regardless, they didn't put it away, and what I'm looking for is a Thermos, and I'd be a lot happier if it still contained poison than if someone had washed it."
"Have you checked the dishwasher?"
I didn't want to admit that I hadn't thought of that possibility. I hurried over to the dishwasher and opened the door. It was Thermos free.
Dejected again, with no clues leading to a solution, I turned away.
"Well, Lou, the only other thing I can think of is that someone put it in the garbage."<
br />
I turned and saw a tall, plastic container, which when it was serving its purpose was full of garbage. I walked over to it and lifted the lid. There was a plastic bag inside, full of garbage. As carefully as possible I lifted the bag from the receptacle.
"Evidently whoever took the garbage to the dump over the weekend didn't take Portwood's garbage, because he left on Thursday and garbage day is Friday."
"Maybe this bunch goes to the dump on a different day."
The bulging bag was definitely full of garbage, not trash. The smell reminded me of the garbage truck that came by my house when I was kid, and the garbage men who put the garbage in metal tubs, which they carried to the truck on their head.
"Lou, I think we have something here. This isn't Portwood's garbage."
"How do you know, Cy? Is it personalized?"
"In a way. I'm sure the Thermos we are looking for is in here somewhere, because someone dumped coffee grounds in here. Portwood didn't have a coffee maker."
I didn't want to reach down into the bag until I found a Thermos, but I didn't mind as much feeling around the outside of the bag until I found something round and hard. I started at the bottom, because that was where I expected to find it. And find it I did. I still wasn't going to put my hand all the way down in the garbage bag, so I had a dilemma. I needed to take the whole bag with me. I was sure the bag would leak. I needed to find something to put the bag in, because I didn't want to get my brand new van dirty. I looked around for something to hold the bag.
"What are you doing, Cy?"
"We need to take this garbage with us, and I need to find something to put the garbage in so it won't get my van dirty."
"I was afraid that's what you were going to say."
"Well, you wouldn't want to get your car dirty, either."
"That's not my point, Cy. My point is why don't you put it back in the container where you found it and take the container. Portwood won't need it while we're gone."
I hit my head for my mental lapse and then had Lou help me carry the container out and put it in the back of the van.
We went back inside and washed up. I left the door unlocked in case we came back. A few seconds later I started to back out of the drive. As I got to the road I heard a thump. I was pretty sure what caused the thump. I pulled the van back into the driveway and got out to access the damage. The trash receptacle had turned over, but luckily nothing had oozed out in the process. I stood it up, and this time I wedged in it. I went back into the house and washed my hands again. On my second try I managed to back out of the driveway without incident.
43
I drove back to Frankfort as quickly and safely as I could. We would have to pay for our rooms for a night we wouldn't be using them, but I wanted to get home and have my people analyze the contents of the garbage bag.
It was 4:40 when we got back to Hilldale. I hurried to the police department, where Lou and I used to work, and handed the garbage over to a competent person that I knew well. I told them that I suspected there was a Thermos bottle at the bottom of that bag, and I wanted it analyzed. Unless the bottle had been sterilized I told my former co-worker I suspected there could be traces of poison in it. I was told I would have my answer by noon the next day.
Then, tired as I was, I took a drive, stopped in front of a house I barely recognized, and went up and knocked on the door. I love it when women grin and jump up and down at the sight of me. I'd only known one woman to do that recently, but it was the woman who stood in front of me. Well, I vaguely remembered that Heather had done the same thing a couple of times.
When the kiss had lasted more minutes than Lou had patience he blew the horn, which told me he wanted to go somewhere and do the same thing. But with Thelma Lou instead of Jennifer. Jennifer joined us, and as soon as a surprised Thelma Lou planted her lips on Lou's I sat on the horn. He refrained from doing anything our pastor would not have approved of.
In a matter of days the other couple in love joined us in the van and we planned our evening. The girls knew that both Lou and I were tired, so they told us to go home and then come over to Thelma Lou's at 7:00 to eat.
+++
At a little after 11:00 the next morning I received a call confirming what I expected. There were two sets of fingerprints on the Thermos, other than the ones belonging to the deceased, and there was enough coffee and poison in the bottom to confirm what Cartwright had helped us learn. Someone had poisoned Portwood's coffee.
I called Lou and told him what I had learned and that more than likely we were to be on the road again. I called Herb and told him the same things. He was disappointed.
"You know, Cy, this doesn't necessarily mean that the two of them murdered Cyril."
"I know that. But I think it's time we confronted them. I don't mind being the one to do it, but I'd like for you to be there, too."
"I'm sure that's best. Let me know what time you'll be here."
I told him we would call when we got to Shelbyville, then called Lou back and told him to pack a bag again, that I would be there as soon as I could.
+++
It was around 3:00 when we pulled up in front of the sheriff's office in LaGrange. I had called Herb from Shelbyville and he was ready to go with us. He said he would drive his car, and he would lead. The analysis showed that Barney's prints were the last ones on the Thermos, so I wanted to get his take first. After we talked to him, if we needed to, we would go across the road.
Barney saw us coming and met us at the door.
"I knew when you found the Thermos you would be back, but it's not the way it looks. Neither of us killed him."
I took the lead.
"Mr. Barney, maybe you can start by telling us your side of the story."
"Well, Saturday night, like I said, I saw Cyril Portwood pull into his driveway, and I think he pulled on into the garage. Sometime later, I'm not sure how much later, I was outside and I saw Millie shutting his front door and run as quickly as she could to her house. I thought that was odd, but I just figured that she had gone over and welcomed Cyril home.
"Well, Sunday morning she calls me and tells me that she is at Cyril's house and that he's dead. She asked me to come over there. She didn't know what to do. Well, I got there and saw that he was still in his van. I thought that strange, but I could smell the carbon monoxide. At that point I thought Millie had killed him. I didn't know why, because I'd heard they were planning to get married. Then she handed me a Thermos and told me to do something with it. I set in on the kitchen table, but later opened it and sniffed it. I thought there was some kind of poison in it, and that Millie had poisoned Cyril when he got home. I didn't say anything about the poison to Millie, but later I went back over to Cyril's house, got out a new trash bag, dumped the Thermos in it, and then poured in some of my garbage to hide the Thermos. I had planned to take the bag to the dump this Friday when I take my garbage. See, I don't even think that Millie knows this, but I've been in love with her for a while.
"Well, later I was talking to Millie, told her I had seen her leaving Cyril's house on Saturday night, and told her I would protect her if the police suspected something. That was when she told me she hadn't done anything. She had merely gone over and found Cyril dead and figured he must have committed suicide. That's the reason she waited until Sunday morning to report it, hoping the authorities would rule it an accidental death, which the coroner did. Anyway, that's my story, and it's the truth."
I couldn't think of anything to ask. He had answered my questions before I asked them. So I took Herb aside to see what he thought. He said he would like to hear what Millie had to say, which sounded like the thing to do. Lou agreed to stay behind and occupy Barney until after Millie Longacre answered her door, so that Barney couldn't call her and let her know that we were coming right over. We told Barney not to leave the house and not to call anyone, and that he was a person of interest in a murder investigation.
44
I had no idea if Barney was te
lling the truth or not, but I was sure that he and Millie Longacre had rehearsed their story if not. That lasted all the way up until she opened her mouth.
"What are you doing back, and why did you bring the sheriff? I didn't do anything."
"We found your fingerprints on Cyril Portwood's Thermos."
"So? I admit I took it out of the van and handed it to Bob. What's the harm in that?"
"The harm in it was that the Thermos had poison in it, poison that killed Cyril Portwood."
"Bull."
I wasn't going to be caught unaware twice, so I looked around to make sure Elmer wasn't bearing down on me.
"And you told me you didn't find Portwood until Sunday morning."
"That's when I found him."
"Bob Barney says you found him Saturday night."
"Then Bob's lying. But I think you're the one who's lying. I don't think anyone murdered Cyril. I think he fell asleep just after the garage door shut."
"Miss Portwood, we have enough evidence to take you in."
"And I've got enough money to hire a good lawyer."
I didn't know what to do. I decided to consult with Herb, and Lou, who had just walked up.
"I can check with the D.A., but it's just circumstantial. I don't know if he will be willing to prosecute, or not. I'd rather talk to him before I take anyone in for questioning."
I wasn't sure if either one of them did it or not, but I was sure at least one of them was lying. I just wasn't sure which one. The sheriff told her not to leave, and that we might be back with more questions.
Murder at the Book Fair Page 17