“We could? But doesn’t that need to be done by a family member?”
“I’m not sure. But it’s a lot easier to check into where Amelia is. Her sister said she should be coming back, and if she’s not back, then maybe we can get the sister to put in the report.”
Lexy pulled into her parking spot behind the bakery. She had a lot to do at the bakery this morning but was also anxious to investigate Amelia’s whereabouts.
“If we can file a missing persons report, then Jack said the police will have an official reason to go over to the Pendletons’,” Lexy added.
“Brilliant!”
Lexy heard the sounds of Nans covering the mouthpiece of her phone and then her muffled voice. “No, Ida, not missing drone report. A missing persons report. Don’t worry, we’ll find your drone.” Then she came back to the phone. “Ida is getting nervous about her drone.”
“Tell her not to worry. I have a feeling we’ll have this case wrapped up in no time.”
“Perfect. So are you on your way over?” Nans asked.
“I have to go and do some stuff at the bakery first, but what do you say to pick you up at noon?”
“That sounds perfect. Oh, and Lexy…”
“Yes?”
“Don’t forget to bring some of those cupcake tops, and Helen wants a chocolate scone.”
Lexy focused on her morning activities, baking several birthday cakes that had been ordered and the usual assortment of brownies, cookies, and bars for the bakery. When Cassie came to take over at eleven thirty, Lexy was anxious to get to Nans and follow up on the investigation. She boxed up the requested bakery items, bid Cassie a hasty farewell, and headed over to the retirement center.
“I thought you’d never get here,” Nans said as she opened the door and ushered Lexy in. Ida was standing beside the door, eager to relieve her of the bakery box. She placed it on the table and then popped the top off and rummaged for a congo bar, which she wrapped into a big napkin and shoved into her purse.
“Come on, ladies, we don’t have time to waste.” Ida bustled over to the door, opened it, and exited into the hall without waiting for them.
“What’s with her?” Lexy asked.
“Oh, Jason’s been after her about the drone. He said it has a GPS tracker, and she’s put some app on her phone that’s supposed to track it. She’s hoping she can home in on its exact location, so don’t be surprised if she wants to go to the Pendletons’ today,” Helen said as she shoved a napkin-wrapped blueberry muffin into her purse.
“But first, we’re going to Amelia Little’s house.” Nans took Lexy’s elbow and ushered her toward the door.
They piled into the VW Beetle, and Lexy drove over to Amelia’s while the ladies munched happily on their baked goods.
“On the way back, maybe we could swing by the Pendletons’,” Ida hinted.
“That depends on what we find out. If we get a lead from Amelia’s sister, we may have to go wherever that takes us,” Nans said.
“And we need to swing by Susan’s, too.” Ruth patted her purse. “I glued the flap of her bank statement back so no one would know we tampered with it, and we really should get that back into her mailbox.”
“I have to be back at the bakery at four,” Lexy added. “You know, I do have a business to run—unless you ladies want to pay me for chauffeuring you around.”
She peeked at them in the rearview mirror to see three furrowed brows.
“I can drive,” Ruth said.
“Yeah, but we like to get there in one piece,” Helen added as Lexy pulled up in front of Amelia’s apartment building.
They hopped out of the car and marched up to the door. Nans knocked the same as she had the day before. The sister answered, her face softening as she recognized them.
“Oh, did you guys come back to talk to Amelia already?” the sister said.
“Yes. Is she back from her trip? How was it? I hear the weather was lovely,” Ruth said.
The sister shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. She got in late last night when I was asleep and had to go to work early this morning. She texted me that she had a good time, but she had early cleaning, so I haven’t seen her.”
The ladies exchanged raised-brow glances.
“But her luggage is here, right?” Nans asked.
“Yeah. Well, I think so.” The sister looked at Nans funny. “You know you ladies are a little odd. What are you really after?”
“Like we said, we are from the paper and we’re here to do an article,” Ida huffed. Nans jabbed her in the ribs as the sister’s frown deepened.
“I thought you were from the ladies’ auxiliary, looking for a cleaner,” the sister said.
“Yes, we are.” Nans shot Ida a warning glare then leaned toward the sister. “Don’t mind my friend here. She’s got memory issues.”
The sister’s face turned sympathetic. “Oh, right. Well I don’t know where Amelia is cleaning today, but you might come back later tonight. She had the early shift, so she should be out around four.”
“Okay. We’ll do that. Thank you very much.” Nans turned away and walked down the porch.
“Early cleaning job my patootie,” Ida said. “And I don’t have memory issues.”
“Are you sure, Ida?” Ruth said. “Because when we were here before, Mona told her we were from the ladies’ auxiliary, looking for a cleaner. You almost blew our cover by saying we were from the paper.”
Ida’s cheeks reddened. “I’m sorry about that. I guess I’m just focused on finding this stupid drone.”
“Don’t worry, Ida, we’ll find it. We know there’s nothing wrong with your memory,” Nans consoled her.
“So, do you think Amelia really had an early cleaning job, or did Rupert text the message to her sister?” Ruth opened the passenger door and slid into Lexy’s back seat.
“If he killed her, he would probably have her phone. He could easily be sending texts to the sister, making it appear as if Amelia is alive,” Helen said. “He might have even texted her about the trip in the first place.”
“The sister said she left a note,” Ruth said.
“Text. Note.” Helen shrugged. “It’s all the same to the young people these days.”
“I wonder if we could contact the cleaning company and find out where she is or if she even came in today,” Helen said.
“Maybe we could call up and pretend to be her sister looking for her.” Ruth ventured a sly glance at Lexy. “One of us has a youthful voice.”
“Yeah, but first can we swing by the Pendletons’?” Ida’s eyes were glued to her smartphone, which was making pinging noises. “Jason put the screws to me about his drone, and I had to admit that I’d lost it. He sent me this GPS app, and I think I got it working. I think we can pinpoint the exact location.”
“Really?” Ruth leaned across Helen to look at Ida’s phone. “Is it that granular, though? How precise an area can it pinpoint?”
“I’m not sure. But at least we should give it a try. If we find the drone and the video, then we can hand this whole nasty business over to the police.”
“Good point. That would sure be some solid evidence. But first, let’s get this letter back into Susan’s mailbox,” Ruth said. “If the police start looking into things, it should be in there so they can find it.”
“Good thinking. We’ll go there first,” Nans said. Lexy turned in the direction of Susan’s house and parked in the empty driveway.
“She’s not home,” Helen said.
“Big surprise. She’s probably still at the Pendletons’ with Rupert,” Ruth said.
“You’d think Olive would notice,” Lexy said. “I mean, I’d notice if Jack was having an affair with someone that happened to be at our house all the time.”
“Maybe they’re really sneaky.” Ida opened the mailbox for Ruth, who shoved the bank statement inside like it was a hot potato.
“Well, I’m glad to get rid of that.” Ruth brushed her hands together and looked at Ida out of the c
orner of her eye. “We really shouldn’t be tampering with the mail. If the police find out we did, they won’t be able to use this as evidence.”
Ida looked contrite. “I suppose you’re right, but if I hadn’t taken it, we wouldn’t know that Susan was also being blackmailed.”
“While we’re here, we might as well take another look around,” Helen said.
They scoured the perimeter of the house, looking into the garage, which was empty, and all the windows. Everything seemed pretty much the same as it had been the last time they were there.
“I don’t know what we’re looking to find,” Nans said as they looked in Susan’s bedroom window.
“Me either. Maybe some evidence of Rupert being here or the baseball bat or something…hey, her closet door is open. Was it like that before?” Helen asked.
“I think it was,” Lexy said. “There’s the shirt she wore in the photo that Rupert showed us from Paris. I distinctly remember that cute shirt with the daisies on it.”
“So she has been back here since she came back from Europe.” Nans' voice turned wistful. “I had half hoped she really was still in Europe, as she told her son.”
“I know. Doesn’t seem right, a mother lying to her son like that, does it?” Helen said.
“Well, when the mother is a murderer, lying comes easy,” Ida said.
Nans sighed and turned away from the window. “I suppose so. I guess I was kind of rooting for them to still reconcile.”
Ida snorted. “Well, they’ll have to do that from jail then. Speaking of which, let’s get a move on over to the Pendletons’, and we’ll see if I can locate the drone.”
“Good idea. There’s nothing new to see here,” Helen said.
They were relatively quiet on the way over to Castle Heights, each with her own thoughts. Ida was busy fiddling around with her GPS app on her smartphone.
As Lexy turned onto the Pendletons’ street, Ida blurted out, “We’re getting warmer!”
“No kidding, Ida, we know the drone is on their property,” Ruth said.
“Not necessarily,” Ida said. “The dogs could have dragged it off anywhere.”
“She does have a point.” Nans pointed to a maroon Toyota Corolla that was parked in front of the Pendletons’ house. “I wonder who that is.”
“Maybe it’s those fan club ladies,” Ruth said.
“I don’t know,” Lexy said. “I got the impression they were a little more stealthy than parking right in front of the house.”
Ida had already hopped out of the car and was pointing her phone like a Geiger counter at the front of the house. Sweeping it back and forth, she zoned in on one side and started walking forward.
They jogged up beside her.
“Are you zeroing in on it?” Ruth asked.
Ida pressed her lips together, her eyes flicking from the phone to the Pendletons’ yard. “I’m not sure. It says it’s over in this general direction, but I guess it’s not very precise.”
Ida kept walking toward the shrubbery and into the front yard.
Nans hesitated to follow. “Ida, I don’t think we should just go traipsing through the yard.”
“Why not? I think I got a bead on this thing.” Ida started walking toward the front door. Nans hesitated, looked back at the rest of them, and shrugged.
Should they follow?
But just before they started to follow her, the front door opened.
A young blond woman backed out of the door. “I just wanted to thank you and let you know how much I appreciated the trip, even though I won’t be working here anymore.” The woman yelled as if the other person she was talking to was in another part of the house.
Nans turned to Lexy and mouth the word “Amelia?”
Nans hurried to the door. Amelia backed into her, almost sending the two of them tumbling down the steps.
“Oh, I’m so terribly sorry,” Amelia said.
“Are you Amelia?” Nans asked.
The woman’s brow furrowed. “Yes…”
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you.” Nans stuck her hand out. “I’m Mona. I’ve been looking for a cleaning lady, and I heard you worked here.”
Amelia shot a glance into the house. “Well, I did, but…”
Ida had come up beside them. She glanced into the house too. The door was still open, and Lexy could see the foyer was rather grand, with marble floor and gold wallpaper. It was a little outdated, probably from the seventies, but still looked elegant. A credenza sat beside the door piled with mail. On the top was Olive's notebook. She recognized a robin’s-egg-blue envelope. It was Connie’s mail from the other day.
Ida must have recognized it too. She elbowed Nans out of the way and slipped into the foyer while Nans was talking to Amelia about cleaning.
“I do have next Wednesday in my schedule now, and…” Amelia saw Ida go in and cast a quizzical glance her way. “Hey, I don’t think you should be in there.” She looked back uncertainly at Nans.
“Oh, where are my manners?” Ida ran her fingers along the credenza. “I was just admiring this beautiful antique.” Her slippery fingers grabbed the envelopes, sliding them behind her back and then into her purse.
Amelia must not have noticed Ida’s sleight of hand. Nans had pulled her aside and was whispering in her ear. “I’m sorry. That’s my dear friend Ida. She’s senile.”
Amelia looked sympathetic, and Nans pulled Ida out the door. “Ida, now, come along. We’re not visiting here.”
She pulled Ida down the steps, grabbing the card Amelia was now extending in her hand. “Thank you very much. I’ll give you a call.”
From inside the house, they heard Rupert yell, “Amelia, are you talking to someone out there?”
“It’s just these ladies from the…”
But they didn’t stick around to find out. They hightailed it across the street to Lexy’s car and got out of there as fast as they could, Ida’s search for the drone all but forgotten.
23
“Now I guess we know who the victim is,” Nans said when they were seated at her dining room table twenty minutes later.
“It sure wasn’t Amelia.” Ruth took a bite of her chocolate-frosted brownie. “She looked pretty much alive to me.”
“That’s right. Rupert must have sent her off on vacation so that she wouldn’t be around when he murdered Connie,” Nans said.
“But why get rid of her now?” Lexy asked.
“He probably doesn’t want anyone poking around in the house that could find any evidence as to what he’s done.”
Ida picked at her ham-and-cheese scone. “But that would mean that he doesn’t intend to hire a new cleaning lady.”
“Maybe he does, but just not yet.” Ruth looked at them over the rim of her coffee cup. “Because maybe he’s not done doing things that he doesn’t want someone to see.”
“You mean he’s planning to do away with Olive?” Ida asked.
Ruth shrugged. “Well, her car is still missing. I took the liberty of peeking in the garage when you guys were fooling around at the front door and stealing mail. The red Cadillac isn’t in there, only Rupert’s truck and the sister’s white Fiat.”
“So the sister is still there? I wonder why Olive doesn’t think it’s odd that her sister’s hanging around?” Lexy asked.
“Maybe her sister hangs around there a lot normally. Her son did say she spent a lot of time with Olive and Rupert. We don’t know what the norm is for these people. Plus, we know the sister did go home at some point, since she mailed the letter, and we saw the shirt she wore on the trip to Paris in her closet,” Nans said. “All we know for sure is that the sister went to Europe with Olive, she doesn’t want to reconcile with the son, and she likes dogs. In fact, I think the little black dog we keep seeing at the Pendletons’ is hers. Kingsley said she had a black one.”
“The one we saw on the roof,” Lexy said.
“Yeah. Imagine she put her own dog on the roof to lure Connie out,” Ida tsked. “She can’t b
e that much of an animal lover if she put the dog in jeopardy that way. Not like her sister.”
Nans went to the whiteboard and crossed off Amelia’s name from under the “victims” category. “So now we know the victim wasn’t Amelia.”
“Which means it must have been Connie,” Ruth said. “She was the blackmailer, and that’s why they killed her.”
“Makes sense. She would have been at the house a lot if she was Olive’s assistant, so she might’ve seen some shenanigans,” Helen said.
Ida opened her purse. “And I’ve got the proof right here.” She produced the envelopes she’d taken from the credenza at the Pendletons’ and fanned them out on the table in front of her.
Nans leaned over Lexy’s shoulder to look at them. “Good work. One of those is Connie’s bank statement.”
Helen pushed up from her chair. “And I know just how to open it. I don’t condone this type of behavior, but…” She snatched the envelope and hurried toward the kitchen.
“This is great, but how are we going to get Jack to investigate? We can’t use the bank statement as evidence. We stole it from the Pendletons’ house,” Lexy said.
“We could pretend we got it out of Connie’s mailbox,” Ida suggested.
“That won’t work either, because we shouldn’t have taken it from there, much less steamed it open. Both of those acts would make it inadmissible,” Lexy said.
“Well, we’re just gonna have to find another way,” Nans said. “Maybe we should focus on proving that Connie is missing.”
“Olive will probably notice that pretty soon,” Lexy said. “If she’s her assistant, they probably talk quite frequently.”
Ruth pursed her lips. “I’m not so sure about that. I once dated a writer, and after he’d finish a book, he would take a month-long break. Olive is releasing a new book next week. She may not have any duties for Connie to perform. She might not have occasion to talk to her for several weeks.”
Nans picked a cupcake off the tray. “I wonder if that was all part of Rupert’s plan. Why he chose this week to kill her. Knowing that Olive wouldn’t even notice she was missing.”
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