The Passed Prop--The Morelville Cozies--Book 1
Page 3
“Mrs. Crane, have you previously had words with Lawrence Purcell?”
Wincing at the use of his full name, I knew I was had. I decided to come clean. I leaned forward across the table we were sitting on opposite sides of and said, “Let me tell you a little story.”
He nodded at me and signaled for me to continue.
I took a deep breath and plunged in. “Going back a little way, my family has had a long running feud with Purcell that started over a disagreement on property lines. Purcell’s property backed up to my family’s property...the house that my daughter Kris and her family live in now on the main street in town. Quinn’s Creek, a small feeder creek to the Mann’s Fork Salt Creek, runs through there. It was sort of considered the general dividing line between the properties, back in the day.”
Shane was taking notes. “Go on,” he told me.
“We were all so young then, even Purcell. My dad, Robert Ray, was older than him, but not by much, I guess. I was young, maybe ten – we would play in that creek, my brothers and I. We did. that is. until Purcell put a fence right along the creek line on his side. We couldn’t jump in and out on that side then and some of the flatter parts were over there.”
“My father...he’s gone now...was furious. According to him, he actually owned several feet in of the land on the other side of the creek that Purcell claimed was his. He said Purcell’s fence was on his property. He went over there and told him to take it down.”
“Purcell wouldn’t do it. He claimed he was robbed of that property during a county survey and that it was actually he who owned land on our side. My dad took some buddies over there one night and they tore the fence down. Purcell called the law on them.”
“Were they arrested?”
“I don’t think so. He actually ended up suing my father in court after that but he lost because he wasn’t unable to prove his claim.”
“There were no plat survey maps going back before the survey Purcell disputed?”
I shook my head no. “There was a fire at the county building where they’d been stored. Everything from the time around when Purcell acquired his property was gone. The most current survey at the time of their feud listed the land as my dad’s. Really old surveys that were produced at the time of the case, my dad said, showed the entire area involving their two properties as one big farm. The county had several land transfers recorded over the years that had divided that up and muddied the whole mess.”
“So after he lost in court, what happened?”
“Oh, by the time it was all said and done at the courthouse, I was about thirteen. I remember standing out back of our house and hearing Purcell screaming, ‘This isn’t over Ray!’ to my dad. It was bad for years after that. We weren’t allowed in the creek anymore and...well, he really ruined our childhood. From the time my father tore the fence down, we always had to watch when we were outside. He would chase us and say mean things...throw things at us...it was awful.”
“And today?”
“Nothing ever changed detective. My dad was hard headed and Purcell was mean. My father carried a grudge against him for years and he seemed to do the same to him and to all of us kids by association.”
Sheriff Mel Crane
9:10
“The coroner is finishing up Shane. He’s pegged time of death at around 1:30 AM and the stake has been removed and bagged.” She held it up for him to see. “He’s gotten a blood sample off of it so I’m going to give it to the techs for evidence.”
“That’s a pretty rough piece of wood boss. There’s no hope of getting any prints off that.”
“Agreed. It’s heavy though...old oak I think, looking at the grain. It’s very weathered.”
“Do we show it to Stroud or Rich Johnson?”
“For what? They’ve already stipulated that the usual scene in the room involves a mannequin prop with neck bite marks. You use a stake to kill a vampire, not for a vampire to kill his victim.”
“You know way more about this stuff than I would have thought you would. You been keeping up with the whole Twilight thing?”
“Not willingly. My niece is into it and my sister refuses to take her to those movies...That duty falls to me.”
Chapter 4 – Gossip
Faye
9:30 Friday Evening, October 31st, 2014
Crane Family Farm
“Wow, what a day!” Chloe kicked off a shoe and rubbed her foot. “I’m beat. Between furnishing and decorating Barb’s house, and the festival and now all of this with that poor man...I feel like I could sleep for days.”
“You may get to. I imagine the community center board will cancel the whole festival after what’s happened tonight,” I told her.
“You’re probably right about that but I still have to get up in the morning. I’d planned to work with Barb in the late morning, once she’s ready to roll for the day, and get some measurements on her family room. My next trip up here, I’m thinking of going over to Sugar Creek and doing a little more furniture shopping for her since you turned me onto all of the shops there. Do you wanna’ tag along?”
“That depends, when are you planning on coming up again?”
“Not next weekend but the one after. I want to try and get most of the big furniture pieces she needs in before Thanksgiving. Besides, after that, you said the snow starts flying up here.”
“It does. Why don’t we do Sugarcreek tomorrow afternoon? You weren’t planning on leaving until Sunday were you?”
“No, not if you and Jesse will have me, that is. I suppose we could go tomorrow...if they do shut the festival down.”
“Certainly, we’ll have you here. I know it’s a bit of a drive into town to go back and forth to Barb’s but you seem to prefer staying out here over staying in town with Mel and Dana.”
“Oh, I like staying with them well enough but you and I seem to hit it off very well Faye and, well, Mel works all the time and I always feel like I’m bothering Dana. She really is trying to write like she said she was going to do.” Chloe let out a little sigh, “I don’t know how it’s going for her...she won’t let me see anything she’s working on but she does seem to be working at it pretty diligently.”
“Give it time. She’ll eventually produce something she’ll want opinions on.” I got up from my seat in my favorite rocker, “More coffee?”
“No thank you. I probably shouldn’t have had what I did. With my luck, even as tired as I am, it will keep me up half the night.”
I chuckled and stepped into the kitchen to pour myself another half cup. Lightweights, her and my Jesse both...
“When do you suppose they’ll make a decision on the festival?” Chloe called out.
Coming back into the sitting room, I took a small sip from my cup as I gave that some thought. “Good question. Not all of the board was present, on site, yet tonight when everything happened. Mel’s crew was keeping anyone out that didn’t work last night while they questioned everybody. A few of them weren’t there last night. They’ll probably all meet somewhere in the morning or they’ll just do a phone round-robin for a vote. But, I’m sure they’ll call it. The police may need to get back in there yet, and then there’s just the heebie jeebies of it all, you know what I mean?”
Chloe shuddered visibly but then she asked, “What about Old Man Purcell; does he have any family in the area? Will there be a funeral?”
“I imagine the Coroner has him right now. I don’t know what will happen after that. He was kind of alone here in Morelville.”
“He wasn’t married?”
“Oh no. Well, he was a long time ago, but he never remarried.”
“Kids?”
“He has...er had...I don’t know how to put it, two children. He was abusive to their mother and to them years and years ago. She divorced him back in the late seventies, took the kids and left the area. To my knowledge, they’ve never been back to see him and I doubt he’s gone anywhere to see them.”
“That’s just so sad.”
“Why? He’d been doing the job already. I don’t get it.”
“Two reasons: one, he’d already been doing it for free and no one thought he should be paid for work he’d volunteered to do with no guarantee that it would ever be paid work and two, he was becoming more and more of a nuisance around town and people didn’t think he should be rewarded.”
“A nuisance how?”
I related my own story to her as I had to Mel’s young detective earlier then I proceeded to tell her about the other bad traits of Old Man Purcell. “Chloe, the guy would sit on his front porch in broad daylight with a loaded pistol and shoot at dogs that wandered onto or even came near his property. He had no regard for anyone’s family pet and he wasn’t a good shot, to boot. He could have easily hit a child, one of his neighbors, you name it. The man wasn’t right in the head.”
“There are any number of people in Morelville that won’t be sad to see him gone but don’t you worry about him having no family and friends. The funny thing is, the community here will rally around and throw him a big send off because he was all alone. That’s just the way things are out here.”
Chloe changed the subject, “Did you get questioned tonight about your personal issues with Purcell, Faye?”
“Yes. It didn’t help that I also got into an argument with him last night.”
“You did? When?” Chloe sounded shocked.
“Right after you left. It was no big deal but I’m sure that’s why Mel had a detective interview me rather than doing it herself.”
“You don’t think they suspect you of...of...”
“Noooo. No. Oh...fudge...I don’t know.”
“Faye...don’t you think you should call Mel and ask?”
“Sweetie, Mel will be tied up for hours yet. I’d rather just forget the whole thing. I didn’t kill him and anybody that knows me would never think that. My girl’s smart. She’ll figure out who did.”
Chapter 5 – Funeral?
8:10 AM Saturday Morning, November 1st, 2014
“Faye? It’s Mary Sue Brietland.”
“Hi Mary Sue. I bet I know why you’re calling, I just didn’t expect it so early.”
“I’m sure you do dear; at least part of the reason anyway.”
“The board is canceling the rest of the festival.” I felt a little smug in my perception.
“Yes. Given the circumstances, it’s just not in the community’s best interest to try and continue, even with just the outside part. You understand; I’m sure.”
“Perfectly.”
“We met early Faye so we could decide and then get the word out on the radio and such. I’m sure a lot of people were planning on joining us this evening. The weatherman predicted a nice fall evening.”
“I won’t keep you Mary Sue. I’m sure you have other people to call.” I could hear Chloe coming down the stairs with her giant Chihuahua, Little Lady.
“There’s one more thing Faye, if you could possibly do me a little favor?”
“What’s that?”
“The board is planning on taking over the funeral arrangements for Purcell since he has no known family in the area but we want to try to reach out and get in touch with his children. I thought maybe you might know how to get ahold of them.”
“Me? Mary Sue, I haven’t seen his kids in years. They’ve got to be into their early to mid-fifties or so by now...heavens, they could be anywhere.”
She cleared her throat and then said all in a rush, “We met in the building this morning Faye. There was no one to say we couldn’t do that. We found a set of keys hanging on a hook in the janitor’s closet that we assume were his. Would you be willing to pick those up at the center and go into his home and see if you can find an address book or some such thing?”
“Me? You’re asking me to do that?” I looked up to find Chloe standing in the doorway to the kitchen giving me an odd look. I held a hand up in an ‘I don’t know’ sort of gesture while Mary Sue prattled on at the other end of the line.
Chloe shuffled past me to take Little Lady outside to do her morning business. Once I could get a word in edgewise, I began quickly, “Mary Sue, the man was murdered. There’s a police investigation going on. Don’t you think this is a matter best handled by the police?”
“Oh poo,” she said. “No offense to your Mel but she’s busy investigating not getting the man buried. Besides, this is Morelville Faye. Mel knows we take care of our own here. She won’t have a problem with it.”
Not wanting to take the task on but not really knowing how to say no, I beat around the bush a bit. “You know,” I said, “no one that I know of has been inside his place in years. I’ve heard rumors that he was something of a hoarder. I’m not sure I want to find out.”
Playing her role of every busy board member to the hilt, Mary Sue intoned, “Oh dear me, I can’t hear you. These dratted cell phones!”
I know when I’m beat, she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “I’ll go over and get the keys. Where can I find them?”
Funny thing, her phone instantly worked just fine again as she answered my question.
Chloe came back into the house and fed her pooch while I looked on.
Feeling my eyes on her back, she straightened up and looked right back at me. “What’s going on Faye?”
I explained my mission to her then asked, “Are you up for helping?”
“Are you out of your mind? You can’t do that!”
“I know. It’s crazy.”
“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”
“Yes...but just a quick look. If nothing’s immediately obvious, I’m out of there.”
Chloe both shook her head and clucked her tongue at me.
“When are you heading to Barb’s I asked her?”
She thought for a minute and then answered, “Probably right after I bail you out of jail for what you’re about to do. Let’s get it over with.”
Chapter 6 - Entry
I breathed a sigh of relief when I drove by Mel and Dana’s house. Both cars were gone. Things were still quiet next door at Mel’s twin’s house too. Kris and the kids did like to sleep late on weekends. There wasn’t anyone about to wonder what we were up to.
After we picked up the keys at the center, I took a round-about way to Purcell’s house that was right behind Kris’s and parked a couple of houses down in front of a rental house I knew was empty. If Kris or either of the kids got up and, for some reason, wandered into the backyard, I didn’t want them to see me at Purcell’s or to call out to me.
I didn’t think Chloe would actually come in with me but we both reached for the car door handles at the same time. Giving her a little smile, I pointed a couple of houses up, “It’s that one.”
“I figured,” she said.
We moved quickly to his front door. I noticed the lawn looked neatly kept. I was pretty sure he always paid someone to cut it rather than do it himself. That made no sense to me but, I guessed that he probably felt the same way as Jesse did about doing the things at home that you do at work.
One of the keys slipped pretty easily into the front door lock. I knew Purcell usually used a side door but that door was somewhat visible from my daughter’s house and I didn’t want to push my luck. I attempted to swing the unlocked
door inward but it opened less than a foot and stopped dead. Something solid was keeping it from opening further.
I stuck my head through the narrow opening. “Oh my God!”
From behind me, Chloe chastised me, “Faye!”
Pulling back and turning to her, I said, “I can’t do this. It’s a disaster in there.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The rumors I’ve always heard were true Chloe; the man was a hoarder.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No...not at all. I stepped aside and let her look in.” She did so wordlessly and then actually squeezed her way through the slight opening.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, my shock coming through in my tone.
“We’ve come this far, we might as well do a quick check and see if we can find something.”
For a beat, I gave it some thought then I slipped through the door too and shut it behind me.
We were standing in a narrow pathway only a very thin person could walk through without going sideways. All around us were stacks of cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazines, mail, books...you name it. “This man appears to have never met a piece of paper he didn’t like,” I said aloud.
“Have you been in here ever? Do you have any idea where we would even start to look for something useful?”
“Let’s try to look for a desk.”
We shuffled along the pathway and peered over and around stacks of miscellaneous debris. No desk was evident in what appeared to have once been the living room. The next room, probably a dining room at one time judging by the table sagging under a mountain of miscellaneous bric-a-brac, didn’t hold any promise either.
“This is impossible,” I said. Let’s just go.
“Did he have a phone?” Chloe asked me.
“A phone? I don’t know. Probably.”
“Let’s see if we can find that first. They’re usually in the kitchen and bedroom. Besides, we didn’t see anything like it in the living room.”
“I’m not sure I want to see the kitchen,” I told her. Rather than go toward the back of the house, where I knew the kitchen was, I turned Chloe down an even narrower path that wandered left from the dining room.