Mystery, Snow, and Mistletoe

by Wendy Meadows

  “Did you know that the apartment building Patrick lived in was appraised at a million dollars after Lady Pendleton bought it?”

  The librarian’s face registered shock at first and then she laughed. “Someone has been giving you information that’s not true. There is no way that building was worth that much back then. I’m sure it’s worth that much and more today, but back then properties simply didn’t command those kinds of prices. In fact, as far as I know, back then there was no property in town valued like that, unless you count the Pendleton estate. I suppose with all the acreage around it, plus the mansion, it’s very possible it was worth over a million, even back then.”

  “I’m going to go to the city tax collector’s office and see what is on file there.” Brenda thanked Mrs. Perch and turned to leave.

  “You can do that, but I don’t think you will find any papers that assessed that building in the millions, or anywhere near it. Besides, Patrick Lindsey would have been charged a horrendous rent amount in a building assessed with that kind of value.”

  Brenda turned to smile at her. “I’m sure you are right about that. Thank you again.”

  She walked out of the library into the sunshine and the crisp air. In the distance, clouds formed and she was sure Sweetfern Harbor was in for another snowstorm by nightfall. She decided to walk to the police station so she could think things through.

  Maybe Patrick suspected Lady Pendleton of falsifying the building’s value and threatened to call her on it publicly in court. That was a possible motive for Lady Pendleton to want Patrick to disappear. But all of this was pure speculation. Brenda needed proof. Once inside the police station, she first saw Bryce and Chief Bob Ingram. They both greeted her.

  “If you can spare a few minutes, Chief, I’d like to see the case file regarding Patrick Lindsey’s disappearance.”

  Chief Ingram told Bryce to go ahead and find a suspect they were looking to question on a matter. Together, the Chief and Brenda walked downstairs and he unlocked the metal door that led to the file storage room. Brenda stood and looked at the rows of shelves that held boxes and boxes of individual files.

  “Don’t worry. Everything is alphabetized, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find what you’re looking for. We are slowly getting it all onto the computers but we still keep hard copies for back-up as well.” He gestured down the aisle that held Patrick’s case. “Also, we have some cold case files in here and you can’t scan physical evidence into a computer.” He laughed at his own joke and Brenda chuckled.

  When they got to the end of the aisle, the Chief stopped. The section where Patrick’s file should have been was virtually empty. A few loose papers and items were there, but no box.

  “Who has access to this area?” Brenda looked around her.

  “All of us on the police force who work inside the building. Lawyers sometimes come down here, because it often helps their case in court, but they sign in and out and they can’t take any files with them. Even the officers have to sign for files they take out. No files are allowed to leave the premises.”

  “I suppose that includes Edward Graham,” Brenda stated.

  “Yes, he often is down here.” The Chief peered again into the empty spot. “It is unusual that anything from here is kept out overnight. It would have to go directly through me in that rare case. I’ll check to see who came for the file.”

  They went back upstairs and Chief Ingram asked his clerk for the ledger. Edward Graham had not been in the file storage room since two months earlier. He signed in to view evidence for another case, not Patrick Lindsey’s. No one was noted as viewing the Lindsey file since Patrick’s disappearance.

  “I think it may be a good idea to dust for fingerprints in the empty spot,” Brenda said, her gut telling her something more was going on here.

  The Chief raised his eyebrows and then agreed. She told him of the visit she and Mac had made to Edward Graham. “I hate to say it, Chief, but there was something just not right about Edward’s demeanor. I’ve never seen him that way.”

  “I’ll get the kit and we can go back down,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were taking an interest in Patrick’s vanishing act.”

  “I don’t think it was an act…but you could be right. There is more to do but some of what I’ve found lately sheds more light on it.”

  She watched as the Chief dusted for prints. Then Brenda took a second look. There was Lady Pendleton’s appointment book in the back of the shelf, almost invisible in the gloom. Perhaps whoever took the files mistakenly left it behind, along with the few other scattered papers on the shelf that held nothing of interest. Brenda recognized the appointment book because when Lady Pendleton died in front of the bed and breakfast, slumped over the steering wheel of her car, it was Brenda who first saw that she was dead. This appointment book was on the passenger seat of the car and Brenda recalled seeing it placed into an evidence bag. The book was not in any bag now.

  “If you put this into an evidence bag for me, do you mind if I take it with me to Mac’s office and thumb through it? I’ll wear gloves. I know we looked at it when she died, but it may be important to look for any appointments that had to do with Patrick Lindsey. Whoever took Patrick’s file was clearly interested in her appointment book, but left it behind accidentally.”

  Chief Bob Ingram trusted Brenda implicitly. She had worked on more than one case with his department and he knew her expertise. He did as she suggested, but not before both of them searched the shelves again to make sure nothing else was amiss.

  “Edward Graham is planning to leave soon for his Christmas vacation. I feel strongly that he is somehow involved in Patrick’s disappearance.” She waited for the Chief to respond, but he seemed to be thinking hard about it. It was no small thing to suspect the town’s well-respected lawyer of something like this. “He may be someone to keep an eye on until we can go through this appointment book with a fine-toothed comb again. I think there is something in the book that will lead us forward.” They climbed the stairs back to the main floor.

  “I agree with you after all you’ve told me so far. Mac isn’t in the office today. He went down to New York to look into a case. You can use his office to go through it and take as long as you need. We can even make photocopies if you want to.”

  “That would be helpful,” Brenda said. She stood back while the Chief unlocked Mac’s office door. Bryce greeted them and told the Chief he had a report to give him on their latest suspect in a case of theft, so they left her to her work.

  Brenda sat at Mac’s desk and donned a pair of gloves from the box she knew Mac kept in a drawer, then opened the appointment book. Everything looked normal. She hardly expected her to list “Blackmail at 3pm” alongside salon appointments and other usual things. She flipped to the back of the book and realized it also contained a ledger of rent collected. She kept thumbing through and leaned forward to read the tiny, neat handwriting. She realized there was only one renter listed, and that was Patrick Lindsey.

  Bryce appeared at the door. “If you want help, I can help you with whatever you are looking for.”

  “I could use someone to play devil’s advocate with me.”

  “I’m good at that.” The young detective sat across from Brenda and waited.

  “There is something suspicious about the fact Lady Pendleton only listed one renter in the back of her appointment book. It was Patrick Lindsey.”

  “That’s not so unusual. She probably had another, more detailed ledger at home to keep everything in.”

  Brenda’s look told him it was a lame explanation. He snapped on a pair of gloves himself, took the book and looked for himself. At that moment, a business card fell from the pages. It was Patrick’s card. He had his own business card from the time he worked for the lawyer, evidently.

  Everything was about Patrick in the back of this book, thought Brenda. No one else is listed despite her many, many rental properties around town. What made Patrick’s rent different?

 
Brenda and Bryce were silent as they looked at the business card with Patrick’s name on it. Brenda handed it to the detective.

  “Why did Patrick have business cards made up?” Bryce asked.

  “He worked for Edward Graham. I suppose it was Edward’s idea to give his position a sort of prestige. According to Phyllis, her brother liked the work in the lawyer’s office.” Still, it wasn’t enough. Brenda hoped that the more they kept going, the more they would find.

  Chapter Six

  Suspects

  Brenda flipped the pages back to Lady Pendleton’s appointments immediately before her death. There were blank pages every three or four pages for her notes. Lady Pendleton was meticulous in noting personal information concerning Patrick. His full address was listed, along with phone number. When she looked closer, she realized that there were also details of delivery dates and times listed over a span of many weeks. Brenda guessed that Patrick often took legal materials to the Courthouse or to the Police Department on behalf of Edward. Lady Pendleton had listed each day and the time of day he left the office for this purpose and when he returned.

  “My initial conclusion after reading this is that Lady Pendleton kept track of Patrick’s every move because of his lawsuit against her,” Bryce said.

  “I have another hunch,” Brenda said. “Just after Patrick left, I think there’s a reason it was Pete Graham who moved right into that same apartment. Maybe Lady Pendleton paid him off to gossip against Patrick around town. He probably lived there rent-free in exchange for that job. We all know what a gossip Pete Graham is. He takes advantage of his mail route to spread word about everyone around town.”

  “And people listen to him, too,” Bryce said.

  Brenda leaned back in Mac’s comfortable desk chair. “I sometimes doubt that Edward Graham resented Lady Pendleton as much as he claims, though he clearly wanted Mac and me to believe that. What if Pete was easy to acquire because Edward is his father and Edward was her lawyer?”

  “So you’re saying Lady Pendleton and Edward Graham were partners in the rent raises?”

  Brenda nodded. “They were conspiring together, as in partners.” Brenda told Bryce about the value set on the apartment building Pete lived in. Bryce’s eyes popped open.

  “That place was valued at a million dollars back then?” Again, Brenda nodded.

  Both of them looked up quickly when the door opened.

  “You two look comfortable in here,” Mac said. He came around his desk and kissed Brenda. She explained that the Chief told her to use his office. “I already heard that,” Mac said. Brenda started to get up and give him his chair. “Sit back down and bring me up to date on everything.”

  Brenda told Mac everything she had discovered so far. “We have a motive that places Edward, Pete and Lady Pendleton in the middle of Patrick’s disappearance.”

  “Edward told us he’s leaving town. Do you recall if he said when?” Mac asked.

  “I don’t know for sure, but I believe tonight or tomorrow. He was in a hurry to get rid of us, don’t you think? He kept saying he had to pack up.”

  Without another word, Mac rushed from his office and approached the Chief. After a quick consultation, Bob Ingram called over several more officers. He directed them to look for Pete Graham and bring him in for questioning. Next, the Chief told Bryce to go with Mac and bring Edward Graham to the police station.

  “If he’s not at home or in his office, then go to the airport. He’ll have to get the shuttle to New York if he’s going to fly commercial to the Islands. I’ll get the airport alerted as well as the bus and train stations, just in case.”

  The three men looked at Brenda and expectantly. She told them she would wait until the men were brought in for questioning. She wanted to spend more time alone going through the appointment book. Brenda believed in getting every detail ready to present to the Chief and his detectives before any interrogations. They hurried out and she returned to Mac’s office.

  Brenda went to the front of the book and read each page slowly and carefully. Lady Pendleton’s handwriting was distinct and easy to read where she made notes in the ensuing pages. She had listed the times Patrick left and returned to the lawyer’s office, down to the minute. Brenda felt sure Lady Pendleton wasn’t following him herself. Someone reported to her and that someone was most likely either Pete or his father, or both.

  She recalled Edward’s remark regarding the case that Patrick won against the most powerful woman in town. He said the missing persons case had gone cold after Patrick had vanished without word. But why didn’t Lady Pendleton sue for missing rent payments? That could only go unnoticed if someone knew Patrick was no longer alive. She rested her head in her hands and hoped Phyllis’ brother wasn’t dead. Above all, she wanted to bring him to her friend’s wedding alive and well. What if she dug further into this case only to find out that he had been dead all this time?

  The police station was quiet for the most part. Brenda heard a cop bring someone in who apparently had too much to drink. She heard the officer tell him to sleep it off as he closed the cell door and they would talk later. The more she read the appointment notes, the more her curiosity grew. There was nothing new to discover but going over it again planted new energy into her speculations. Mac’s voice reached her.

  “You’ll go in this room, Edward,” he was saying out in the corridor.

  Brenda left the office and joined the group of officers. Edward and Pete were separated into two different interrogation rooms. She opted to stand behind the one-way glass and listen. No amount of persuasion made Edward admit to having anything to do with Patrick Lindsey’s disappearance. Mac told him they had evidence he was involved. Edward simply shook his head and stated there was no evidence that existed. He played it cool the entire session. She knew that he likely knew the process so well that he would call for his own lawyer if they dared ask him one question too many. He was probably just biding his time. Brenda moved to the window in front of the interrogation room where Pete Graham sat. He answered questions in the same manner as his father had. It struck Brenda as odd. Pete was certainly not a practiced lawyer, but he was cool as a cucumber. It was as if they had practiced this scenario more than once.

  She finally left the police station. She had to get more information than she had found so far and knew who to talk to. Molly Lindsey and Pete Graham had been an item for months. Everyone in Sweetfern Harbor expected them to marry any day. After that long a courtship, even with the recent strange switch of partners, surely Pete would have told Molly something pertinent about her uncle. Maybe Molly heard something that involved Patrick’s disappearance but simply hadn’t put it together yet. Brenda walked to Morning Sun Coffee. Molly greeted her and brought a cup of coffee to her. The shop was sparsely occupied and when Brenda asked Molly if she had time for a chat, she agreed.

  “I have some questions about Pete. What kind of a man is he really?”

  Molly laughed at the question. “He is what most people see. He’s very nice and courteous to everyone. He loves the mail route and how everyone expects him to bring news along with their mail.” She chuckled. “His one flaw is possibly that he is quite the gossip around town. But I don’t mind that. He knows things before anything gets printed in the newspaper.”

  “Does he ever show a…quirky side? I mean, does he ever appear to be hiding something?” Brenda explained her question. “Certainly he has a flaw besides gossiping. Everyone has more than one.”

  “He is as I told you. He has a few health problems, but nothing serious. His knee gives him trouble sometimes but that’s probably because he’s been walking that mail route for the last several years. I’ve heard many postal workers who have routes have knee or hip problems. He has asthma, too. I know he has prescriptions for pain and for his asthma.”

  “I’m like a lot of people around here,” Brenda said, “wondering why you and Pete were waiting to get married. And then I saw you and Bryce are interested in one another lately. It’
s all a mystery to me.”

  Molly cast her eyes down momentarily, fiddling with her fingernails. “Just after my mother became engaged to William, I brought up the subject of marriage with Pete. I was ready to move in with him. At first he seemed okay with it all and then a couple of days later he told me that Bryce came to him with an unusual idea. That had to do with us switching couples. He thought we should at least try it. I liked Bryce, and Jenny seemed to like Pete, so the four of us decided to give it a try.” She glanced at Brenda and her carefree tone faded a little. “I didn’t like the idea at first. I loved Pete but I got the distinct impression he was nowhere near ready for marriage. I thought it might be a good thing to date someone else, at least temporarily. I made sure Jenny was agreeable to it all.”

  To Brenda this was the craziest explanation yet. She reminded herself that even if she wouldn’t have gone for it, the four involved must have each had their own reasons.

  “So you are telling me that Bryce suggested the idea, not Pete.”

  “That’s what Pete told me. It was set up to be a trial period. I think Jenny wasn’t all that happy with the idea at first, like me, but she agreed. She and I thought it was meant to be a diversion…you know, to allow all of us to get to know one another better. Jenny is a very good friend of mine. I went along with it once she agreed.”

  “Did Pete and your uncle get along well?”

  “As far as I know they did. Uncle Patrick came in here regularly and often Pete joined him at the table on his break. The only odd thing that ever crossed my mind was that right after my uncle left town with no word, Pete decided to move into that apartment. I don’t think my mother ever went there after he disappeared. She was told he had taken all of his belongings with him so there was no reason. Besides, it upset her a lot.”