Skeleton Key

by Jeff LaFerney

Mind control did have its occasional benefits and there before him was a prime example. Jasper settled right down, and Clay removed his foot from the little person’s chest. “How about we have a talk, Jasper? I’m actually here to do you a favor.”

  “You’re the guy who broke my bike, aren’t you?”

  “I’m ashamed to admit it, Jasper, but yes.”

  “You have a good arm.”

  Clay smiled. “My name’s Clay. Nice to meet you. And you, by the way, you’re the guy who broke my car window and dented my door and tried to hurt someone who’s very important to me. Why are you always trying to scare her like that?” They both sat down on the porch steps.

  Jasper hesitated a minute then said, “The first time I ran into her—I literally ran into her—I was a teenager. She knocked me off my bike and bent my handle bars. She looked down at me and screamed and said something like, ‘Oh, no, I’ve killed a midget.’ Do you know how offensive that word is?” He waited a second for a response. “Obviously not—anyway I lost my temper. I know; it’s hard to believe, but true. I don’t recall any other confrontations for years, but I could tell she was afraid of me. Then one day while doing some legal documents for Adrian, he gave me some extra money and asked for a favor. Said he’d keep me as his attorney as long as I kept terrifying his wife. He thought it’d be a hilarious practical joke. I’ve been doin’ it ever since.”

  “Adrian Payne was a bigger creep than you—no offense, Jasper.”

  “None taken, Clay.”

  “You know that Adrian’s dead, don’t you? You certainly don’t have to worry about losing his business now. I can tell in just a minute of conversation you’re an intelligent guy. Why are you still scaring Erika?”

  “Didn’t know he was dead until just recently. He’s my last real client. Last time we met was a couple months before he disappeared. I’ve been holding his documents ever since. I’ve learned to be a little bitter about life, and I know I can be a real nasty creep at times, but I’m actually still his attorney, and I made him a promise. I went overboard with that rock, though, didn’t I? Sorry, Clay.”

  Clay got up from the porch steps. He walked to his car and popped open the trunk. As Jasper walked to the car in curiosity, Clay pulled a small, new mountain bike out and set it on the ground. “This is for you. When you jumped me like a wild animal, I had second thoughts, but I’ve changed my mind again.”

  “Why would you do this for me?” Jasper actually had tears in his eyes. From Clay’s perspective, a look of shame seemed to cross his face. “I’m not a nice person, and I threw the first rock.”

  “You know, Jasper, I’m still learning how to live my life effectively, but one thing I’ve learned recently is that if I’m not helping other people, I’m not only being disobedient to God who loves me, but I’m missing out on some tremendous blessings in life. I’m trying to help Erika and her son find out what happened to Adrian Payne. Erika helped me to renew my faith, and I’m trying to renew her peace. She’s lived long enough without answers. And her son’s a troubled kid who really needs a break in life. In the meantime, I saw an opportunity to do something nice for you too…I didn’t realize I’d be risking life and limb, but here I am.”

  A train whistle sounded in the distance just as Jasper reached out in a sincere gesture to shake hands with Clay. Clay grabbed and shook his tiny hand while at the same time realizing where he was standing.

  “Clay, how ’bout I make another promise to you? How ’bout I promise to stop scaring your girlfriend.”

  “I’d like that, Jasper, but I just thought of another way you might be able to help me too. You’re just a stone’s throw from the South Oak Street crossing, aren’t you? What can you tell me about the accident seven years ago?”

  ***

  Erika walked back into her office and closed the door. She saw the note that Clay had left on her desk and called him immediately. When Clay answered, she didn’t even wait to say hello. “Morty’s got two skeleton keys that he carries around all the time. I saw them again today, and I think maybe that’s what Adrian was talking about. One of them is for the attic door. Maybe Adrian wants you to look for something in the attic.”

  Clay explained that he would be a while before he could make it back to the Depot, so Erika impatiently hung up and stepped back into the hallway. Marshall and Toni Nickel were still in the office, but just as she looked in, Toni got out of her seat and shook Marshall’s hand. Erika quickly scampered toward the stairs and headed down to the first floor. She stepped back into a doorway until Toni exited the building and then she carefully proceeded back up the steps. She actually giggled as she considered how she was sneaking around, trying not to be seen, but as she reached the top of the stairs and looked down the hallway, she cut her quiet laughter short. She saw Mortonson with his ledger books, taking a peek into Erika’s office. When he saw that she wasn’t there, he did his own sneaking down the hallway, stopping at the attic door. The decorative wooden door was never locked, so he pulled it open and then took out a skeleton key to open the second, vault door.

  While Erika watched, he slipped inside, where he disappeared for barely more than a minute before peaking his head back outside the door. Erika ducked back and made a second trip down the stairs. She waited a minute or two and then walked as casually as she could back up the steps. When she reached the hallway, she saw that the wooden door was closed again, and as she passed Marshall’s office, she saw he was busy at his computer on his desk. Then she went into her own office and closed the door to wait anxiously for Clay.

  ***

  The train was chugging by no more than sixty yards from Jasper’s house. The noise was a bit too loud, so Jasper suggested that Clay step inside. On the wall on the left was his legal degree from Kaplan University. Jasper was an estate attorney, and based on Clay’s prior knowledge, it appeared that Jasper had earned his law degree on-line. Jasper saw him looking at the degree. “Estate attorney. I studied to do wills, living trusts, estate planning, etc. Passed the bar and everything. I also have a real estate license. But people don’t take dwarves too seriously, and I’ve never made a decent living from either thing. Turns one a little bitter—I’m sorry to admit—because living a life of selfishness and bitterness is not an enjoyable way to live.” Again, Clay saw shame and guilt written on the man’s face.

  On the wall to the right was a blown-up, poster-sized picture of the Wallace Train Wreck of 1903. There were pictures of circus performers and circus animals, and there was a picture of Jasper with Red Skelton. “Erika told me that Red Skelton’s father died in that wreck.”

  “He did. Red was known to ride the train into Durand occasionally and visit his father’s gravesite in Vernon. His father and my great-grandfather were close friends, and they both died during that wreck.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” said Clay. He paused, and then asked again. “Jasper, what do you remember about the train wreck seven years ago?”

  “I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a Thursday, just a little after 9:00. You never really hear the train coming. You get used to it and block it out. But the crash is a sound I’ll never forget. I was taking a shower. It took some time to finish up before I got a chance to step out on my porch and look. By then everything was in chaos. Both sides of the street were lined with emergency vehicles and other cars from gawkers. The semi-truck that was hit by the train was on fire and firemen were just starting to put out the blaze. It was pretty clear that two of the train cars were lying on their sides beside the tracks on the right side of Oak Street. I headed to the left because I don’t like being around people that much.”

  “Really? I would’ve never guessed.”

  “You’re so funny, Clay. Do you want me to finish the story?” he said sarcastically. “The two images that I’ll always remember most are seeing the charred remains of the horses when they were pulled from the trailer, and seeing Marshall Mortonson step out of the storage shed near the tracks, covered with blood.”
>
  “You saw Morty do what?” Clay asked in total surprise.

  “They had just finished putting out the fire. A few people were watching from the street, but most were paying attention to all the people near the overturned train cars. I happened to look the opposite direction and saw Mortonson step out of the storage shed just down the tracks a bit. He looked scared, and he looked hurt. There was blood all over his shirt, arms, face, everything. He walked right past me and went to the other side of the street where all the people were. When I looked back at the truck, they were pulling the burned-up horses from the trailer. I’ll never forget that.”

  “What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that it was horrible what happened to the horses. I like horses.”

  “What were you thinking about Marshall Mortonson?”

  “Well, I heard later that he had to jump from the train. I figured when I saw him that night, he was in some sort of shock, wandering around hurt and confused.”

  “Jasper, I’m thinking it was a little more than that.”

  Chapter 21

  As Clay was nearing the Depot, he phoned Luke Hopper. “Luke, I just spent some time with Jasper.”

  “I was worried about that. You didn’t hurt him did you? I shouldn’t have given you that address. I had a bad feeling.”

  “No, no, it was nothing like that.”

  “He hurt you, didn’t he?”

  “No, Luke. Stop! We had a nice chat. You need to get right over to his house and take an official statement. And then I have a feeling you’re gonna want a search warrant to search one of Mortonson’s storage buildings. Jasper saw Morty exiting the building after the train wreck. He was bloody and looking awfully suspicious. I think we may have discovered who hid and buried the body.”

  “I’ll get right on it, Clay. What are you doing next?”

  “Erika has a lead on the ‘skeleton key.’ I’m going to check it out.”

  “I know you think she’s innocent, Clay, but use good judgment. She may be involved in all of this.”

  “You’re dead wrong, but I’ll watch myself anyway. I think we may be on the verge of breaking this open.”

  Clay pulled into the parking lot of the Depot as Marshall Mortonson was driving away. They nodded at each other. Clay tried not to glare in disapproval. He headed right up to Erika’s office. She jumped up in relief when he showed up. “Is there something wrong?” he asked as she gave him a hug.

  “No. Well, yes and no. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m just nervous about finding something that could help Logan and maybe end all of this.”

  “So tell me what’s going on.”

  “I had a meeting with Morty and his attorney. Now that I own half the company, he wants to continue running the business as it is with me as his new partner. He wants me to take a payment for the earnings of the company the last seven years. He says he can’t buy me out if I want to sell, so he’d have to sell too, and he doesn’t want to do that. I had a gut feeling that he was hiding something, though, so I watched him when his attorney left, and he snuck to the attic with his account ledgers and used the skeleton keys to lock them away. Only Morty has keys to the attic, but we need to get in there somehow and look around for his books.”

  “I saw him leave just as I got here. Do you have a way to get in there?”

  “Actually, no. But maybe we can break in. You know? Pick the lock.”

  “You think you can just stick a Bobbie pin in the keyhole and wiggle it around until it unlocks?”

  “Or maybe you can use a credit card.”

  Clay laughed. Erika laughed. She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “Come on. Let’s take a look,” said Clay. “You own the building…at least fifty percent of it. And those books are as much yours as they are Morty’s. We have every right to enter that room.”

  Erika pulled open the wooden door, exposing the vault door. She tugged on it, but it was definitely locked. Clay began looking at the hinges, then at the door edge, wondering if he actually could use a credit card to unlock it. He looked through the keyhole, but it was dark on the other side of the door, so all he could see was shadows. “Too bad it’s not a person. I could tell it to open and it wouldn’t have a choice.” Both people laughed more out of nervousness than anything else, but Clay’s comment made him think of something. “What if I used telekinesis? Maybe I can manipulate the lock mechanism.”

  He didn’t have any idea what he was doing, but he began to use his mind to twist, turn, and manipulate whatever would move, hoping that there was something in the locking mechanism or some sort of switch inside the lock. What he didn’t know was that there was a toggle that resembled a light switch inside the mechanism. All he had to do was to flip the toggle up and the door would unlock, and eventually he did just that. He heard the toggle sort of click, so he tried the door and it popped right open—they were inside the attic.

  Erika flipped on a light switch, and she and Clay began to wander around the attic looking for Marshall’s financial records. It was basically just a storage facility. There were a couple of windows that were mostly blocked by storage supplies. There were shelves and boxes haphazardly stocked and stacked all around the room, but they didn’t know what they were looking for—at least not until, tucked in a corner just steps from the attic door, Clay saw a gray, metal cabinet, about the size of a two-drawer file cabinet. It was exactly what Tanner had described in his vision. It had a drawer and a door with a metal handle. There was a keypad, dangling loose from the door. Upon closer scrutiny, Clay was sure that it was a safe, and the keypad was no longer in working order. Behind the hanging keypad was a slot for a skeleton key. That would explain the second of Morty’s two keys.

  “Erika, I’m pretty sure I’ve found what we’re looking for. Tanner saw this safe in a vision. It has a slot for another skeleton key, which is probably a backup system to open the safe now that the keypad is inoperable. I’m gonna see if I can get this open too.” Once again his used his mind to manipulate and flip up the toggle that unlocked the lock. He turned the metal handle. The safe popped open and there was a pile of books that were the financial records for the company. Clay and Erika emptied the safe, shut the door again, and exited the attic, relocking and shutting the doors.

  They carried the books back to Erika’s office. It took about three minutes to grasp the obvious fact that Marshall Mortonson had two completely separate sets of ledgers, each detailing records for the same time periods, but in two distinctly different ways. Mortonson was doctoring the books.

  Erika walked straight to Marshall’s office, searched his things for his attorney’s phone number, and called Toni Nickel.

  “Nickel and Sons. May I help you?”

  “Toni Nickel, please.”

  “May I ask who is calling?”

  “Erika Payne.”

  “One moment, please.”

  There was a pause, and then Toni spoke. “Hello, Erika. What can I do for you?”

  “Hi, Toni. Thanks for taking my call. Toni, I’ve discovered Morty’s books. He has two completely different sets. I assume one is accurate and one is completely made up. I’m pretty certain that the made-up ones are the ones he had in our meeting. I think I’d like to hire you to go over the books. I think he’s trying to cheat me.”

  “Erika, I understand your concern, and, off the record, I had my own suspicions, but I cannot be your attorney. It would be a conflict of interest. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to recommend someone else.”

  “Okay. Let me get a pen and paper to write down the name and number.”

  “Oh, that won’t be necessary. It’s my sister. I can transfer you to Andi right now.”

  Erika could sense the smile on Toni’s face, and it made her smile as well. “How about I just come right to your offices?”

  “I think that would be a super idea, Erika. I’ll tell her you’re coming.”

  ***

  Erika hung up the phone and looked at Clay. She said, “Okay, C
lay, I can tell you know something that you’re not telling me.”

  “I’m that transparent?”

  “No, I can read minds too,” she said sarcastically, but she said it with another amazing smile, and Clay was helpless when she smiled that way.

  “Hopper thinks I need to be careful about what I say, but I’m going to tell you what I think. I had a talk with Jasper, your little friend…”

  “The midget?”

  “Little person.”

  “So you’re telling me you’re friends now with the scariest person alive.”

  Clay laughed. “There’s no need to be afraid of him. You’re never going to believe that Adrian was paying him to scare you. Adrian thought it was funny. He was a peach of a guy, Erika.”

  Erika did a three-hundred-sixty-degree turn around the room. “If you can hear me, Adrian, I’d like to say you’re the biggest jerk I’ve ever known.”

  “I’d have to agree. Anyway, Jasper saw Morty coming out of one of his storage sheds, all bloodied. I think he hid Adrian there and buried him after the horses were buried. That would better explain the shovel clue that Adrian kept leaving on Morty’s desk. Hopper’s talking with Jasper right now.”

  Just then Clay’s cell phone rang. It was Hopper. “Hey, Luke.”

  “Clay, I just finished talking with Jasper. He seems to like you. I’m afraid to ask what you did to him. Regardless, you’re right about the warrant. I’m working on that right now. I think we’ll have it within the hour. Do you want to be there when we check out the building?”

  “I’d love to. I’ll be at your office as soon as I can.”

  “See if Erika can supply some DNA evidence. Hairs from a comb or brush or an electric razor, or maybe an old toothbrush. If Adrian’s body was stored in that shed, there may be blood evidence and we can match it up to the hairs or toothbrush.”

  Chapter 22

  While Erika was visiting Andi Nickel’s office, Clay met with Chief Hopper. Clay presented Hopper with three different Ziploc bags, each with separate “evidence” from Adrian Payne’s bathroom drawer. Luke had his search warrant and a crew of two forensics experts in tow, and they departed for the storage shed as soon as Clay arrived. They parked back in the Depot parking lot. Once they ascertained that Mortonson wasn’t in his office, Hopper headed for the maintenance building and found Roberto Gomez.