When she walked around the desk, she stopped.
"What the …" Polly took a step back. "He isn't going to believe it. He just isn't going to believe it. If that boy doesn't absolutely adore those apartments, trust me, he'll never buy this building." The leather desk chair and drafting table lay atop the body of a man. She couldn’t see his face, but knelt down and felt his ankle for a pulse. The cool temperature of the body told her all she needed to know.
She stepped back out, shut the door, walked beyond the counter to the big front windows and took her phone out of her back pocket. With a sigh, she placed the call.
"Fredric March," the voice said.
"Aaron? Is that you?" She checked the face of her phone. Yes, she had dialed Aaron's cell number.
"You don't know who Fredric March is?"
"Uhh, no. Should I?"
"Actor in the movie, Death Takes a Holiday. I've been saving this one. When will you take a holiday?"
"You are a very weird man."
"I blame you. If you called me for any reason other than finding a dead body, I wouldn't have to come up with odd things to say to you."
"I've placed other calls to you."
"I apologize. I made a generalization based on anecdotal evidence."
Polly laughed. "This conversation is getting stranger and stranger."
"But you did find a body."
"Yes."
"Where are you? I thought surely that finding bodies would be relegated to evenings and weekends now that you're back working at Sycamore House every day."
"It never stopped me before."
"You got me there. Now, where are you?"
"In Bellingwood."
"But not at Sycamore House."
"I was, but I'm not right now." Polly couldn't help herself. He'd started this. She heard the scuff of feet coming down the hallway.
Jeff, Adam, and Inez Martin walked into the reception area and looked at her.
"Why are you on the phone and why do you look so guilty?" Jeff asked.
She put her finger up. This was going to get awkward.
"What's going on, Polly?" Aaron asked.
"I'm at the old newspaper office downtown," she said. "With Jeff and Adam. They're thinking of buying the building."
"Bet'cha he doesn't buy it now. Who's the realtor?"
"Inez Martin."
Aaron chuckled. "You might not want to let her near the body."
"Why not?"
"Because she'll run out of there screaming like a banshee."
"Now, how do you know that?"
"She's a little dramatic. We had some kids dump several days’ worth of dog poop in the kitchen of a house she was showing last year. She was still screeching when we arrived on the scene, fifteen minutes after she'd called us at the top of her lungs."
"I see. I'll do my best."
"What are you doing with them?"
"Looking at the equipment left here by the last owner. Well, the owner before the last owner. Jeff is trying to talk me into buying the newspaper."
"That's interesting."
"My thoughts exactly. Henry and I still have to come to a decision on that."
"You have to," Jeff said, his voice edging on a whine. "It would be the best thing for Bellingwood."
"Do you like the building?" Polly asked him, still holding the phone to her ear.
"We love it," Adam said. "And for the price, it's a steal."
"Bet they can drive the price further down, now," Aaron said in her ear. "I'm sending Tab to you. Back or front?"
"Ummm."
"You don't want to say anything out loud, do you?"
"Not really."
"Back?"
"Yes, please."
"We're on our way."
Polly put the phone back in her pocket after he ended the call. "Let's head outside and talk about this. It’s a little stuffy in here, don't you think?"
Inez put her hand on the office door handle. "Did you look in here? I understand the records of the business are all here."
"I did. Let's go on out back," Polly said again. She sidled up to the door and put her hand over Inez's on the handle. "I think I've seen all I need to see. I have enough information."
Jeff scowled at her. "You're in a hurry to get out of here."
"I have little kids coming to my office when they're finished with school." Polly couldn't believe that she'd managed to come up with a good reason to get them moving. "Do you really like it?"
He nodded, slowing his pace down the hall. At least she'd moved them past the office. "Would you like to go upstairs and see the apartments?"
"I'll bet you took a ton of pictures. That will be enough for me. I'm excited for you."
Jeff peered at her again. "Is something going on?"
Polly pushed through the glass doors and held one open as the rest of them walked through into the back foyer. She opened the back door and took a breath. "There. Isn't that better? Fresh air."
"It was a bit stale in there," Inez said in agreement. "I don't remember it smelling before."
At that comment, Jeff snapped his head to Polly. "A smell?"
She gave him a small smirk.
"In there?"
That got a shrug from her.
"What?" Adam and Inez asked at the same time.
Jeff turned on Adam. "She just did her thing again."
"No way."
"What is her thing?" Inez asked.
"Well, that does it. I'm not buying this building. There isn't a price low enough," Jeff said, stalking over to Adam's truck.
"What do you mean? It's a terrific price. I can line up three other buyers in five minutes." Inez paddled after him and stood in front of the truck door so he couldn't get in.
Adam looked at Polly. "You aren't kidding us."
"No. There's a man in the office. I called the sheriff and he's sending Deputy Hudson. Apparently, Inez is well-known as a screamer, so I needed to get her out of the building before she saw anything. And, Jeff? Well, he's been through this a couple of times with me and doesn't handle it very well."
"Oh, I know. I've heard those stories over and over." He chuckled. "And over and over. We are never going to find a place to live in Bellingwood. I'm going to live alone until I die."
"You aren't living with him in Ames?"
"His apartment is barely big enough for him. And when we move in together, we both want it to be ours, not his and not mine. This does not bode well."
"You don't mean that."
"No, not us living together. Just finding a place that we both like in town. I was hoping this was it."
"Do you believe he'll reject it …"
"Because you found a body on the main floor? Absolutely."
"I'm sorry."
Inez was still babbling at Jeff. He hadn't said anything, just kept shaking his head. Finally, he snapped. "Polly found a dead body inside, Inez. There's no damned way I'm buying this building now."
The woman slowly turned toward Polly and Adam. The color drained out of her face and she put her hand out to grab something. She missed the truck and sank to the ground, her feet splaying out on either side of her.
Adam took off at a trot and stopped to bend over the poor woman. Polly came up beside him and Inez looked up at them, her eyes glazed over.
"Dead body?" she whispered.
CHAPTER TEN
Keeping Inez Martin upright was proving to be a problem. The woman whimpered and kept trying to fall to the ground. When Tab Hudson pulled up beside Adam's pickup truck, she got out and took in the scene on the ground beside Adam’s truck.
"What happened here?"
"Mrs. Martin reacted to the fact that there was a dead body inside," Polly said.
"Inez Martin?" Tab asked, under her breath. She took a closer look. "Of course it is. Hello, Mrs. Martin. If you'll just sit up here on the stoop and lean over so your head is between your knees, you'll start to feel better."
"Dead body." The woman slowly lifted her arm and it wave
red as she pointed to the back door. "Dead body inside. What new hell will the rest of the day bring me?"
"I'm sure that you will be just fine, Mrs. Martin," Tab said patiently. She slipped her arm under the woman's right arm, while Adam took the other side.
Mrs. Martin stumbled, dragging her feet as they tried to help her to the stoop.
Polly glanced at Jeff, who had a look of confusion on his face. She grinned and walked over to stand beside him.
"Is that how I act?" he asked.
"No," she said with great exaggeration. "That isn't you at all. You're more of an 'oh no, oh no, oh no, get it away from me’ kind of a guy."
"I don't think you understand just how horrifying this is to some of us."
"You're right," Polly said. "I don't. Death is part of life. It's like saying you're horrified by hair growth or leaves falling in the autumn."
"It's a little more than that." He flattened his lips. "Just because you’re okay with it doesn't mean the rest of us are."
"Jeff. What exactly do you think will happen if you encounter a dead body? Zombies? Do you think you'll catch their death? Maybe you should worry about vampires or werewolves."
"It's just that it's so … I don't know … gross."
"You've never been to a funeral?"
"Yes, and I don't much like those either. Please don't ever parade me in front of an open casket."
"Now tell me why you won't buy this building since I found a dead person inside."
"Because it's been tainted."
"By death," Polly said, nodding slowly. "That means you can never walk into a hospital or in most churches where they've held funerals, or …"
"Stop it," he said, still watching Inez Martin, who wasn't giving up on her drama any time soon. "I didn't say it made sense. How am I supposed to feel, knowing that I live over a room where someone died? With my luck and the fact that you found him there, he was murdered."
"He was," Polly said.
"How do you know that?"
"Because of the bloody tire iron lying next to the body."
"Then tell me."
"Tell you what?"
"How would you feel knowing that someone had been killed in the room right beneath your dining room? Or whatever room is above that one."
"What if we discovered that a woman had been raped in that room or that children had been held hostage there by a terrible person?"
"Why would you even ask that? None of that happened. Polly, you're sick."
"Would you be able to live upstairs knowing that? I think those things are just as heinous as murder, don't you?"
"Yes." He dropped his head. "You’re telling me that I have to get past this."
"You really do. Before you heard what had happened, you told me that the building was perfect. This doesn't change how much you liked the apartment. I can tell you right now that the poor man who was murdered hasn't been in that room very long."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. It would have smelled much worse. I get it. Do you know who it was?"
"I've never seen him before."
"You and I have been friends for six years. It's about time that I get over being squeamish about this."
"You are entertaining." Polly glanced behind her at Inez Martin. "Though, I have to say, that is masterful work right there."
"You don't think she's faking it, do you?"
"I doubt it, but she has turned getting attention into an art form."
The sirens of the approaching emergency vehicles wound down as they came to a stop. The two paramedics were both out of their truck and standing in front of Mrs. Martin in a heartbeat.
Adam came over to Polly and Jeff. "How are you?" he asked Jeff.
"I'm okay. Polly gave me a stern talking-to."
"No way. Did you need it?"
"You know I did. Sorry. I overreacted."
"It's okay." Adam put an arm around Jeff's shoulders and tugged him close. "Are we still going to let this place go?"
"No. We can talk about it. I'm not a fool."
"Polly?" Tab called out. "Tell me what you found."
"I'll be back. If she lets the two of you leave, I can walk back to Sycamore House," Polly said. "I might be late. Sweet Beans is right down the street."
Jeff nodded. "I want to hear what you think about the newspaper."
"We'll talk later." Polly stepped past Mrs. Martin. One of the paramedics had gone to get a gurney and was rolling it over.
"Are you kidding me?" she whispered to Tab as they went in the back door.
"It's just easier," Tab said. "We’ve experienced her dramatic overreactions more times than I can count."
"Aaron told me about the poop in the kitchen."
"That was one of mine. I couldn't get her to settle down. Sam, out there, finally gave her a tranquilizer. It was poop."
"The room with the body is toward the front," Polly said, pointing ahead. "What do you think happened to her to make her fall apart like that at the slightest thing?"
"She probably doesn't get enough attention and when she discovered that falling apart around emergency services would get her all the attention she needed, it became second nature. She's been this way for years. Her husband left her … wow … about ten years ago, from what I hear. She lives by herself. No pets, no children, not many friends. She isn't in any clubs; she doesn't go to church. The only thing she has is selling real estate. Are Adam and Jeff thinking about buying this building?"
Polly nodded and stopped in front of the office door. "He's in here. You'll find my prints on the doorway and on the corner of the desk. He surprised me."
"Oh no," Tab said with a pained chuckle. "I might have found you out there pale-faced and near-to-fainting."
"Maybe. Aaron warned me about Inez so I made sure they were all outside before I told anyone what happened."
"You didn't."
"Yeah."
"Thank you, Polly. You saved us so much work. She would have planted her fingerprints everywhere as she caromed back and forth down this hallway."
"I don't believe she touched anything. None of us did." Polly nodded. "Whoops. I lied. I looked into the other rooms and lifted tarps to see what equipment is here. Jeff wants me to bring the newspaper back to life."
Tab looked up from where she'd bent over the body. "Wait. What? You want to run a newspaper?"
"That's not what I said. Jeff wants me to run a newspaper. He owns the building. I own the paper and hire someone to run it."
"That makes a little more sense, but you?"
"Why not me?"
"Because you have a million other things." Tab slipped her hand in the back pocket of the man's pants and pulled out a wallet. "At least identification won't be difficult today. Brad Anderson. Address in Ames. I don't know him."
Polly closed her eyes and shook her head. "I know who he is. He owns this building."
"What do you mean?"
"He and his wife are trying to sell it. Unless Mrs. Martin killed him so she could sell it."
Tab chuckled. "Doubtful. Do you know his wife?"
"Not as well as Henry."
Laughing out loud, Tab peered at Polly. "You don't mean what that sounds like."
"I might," Polly said with a smirk. "No, she and her husband are, or were, building that big house around the corner from us. They showed up in town last year, ready to build a house and re-start the newspaper. They bought this building and the two lots on Madison near us. Henry has been back and forth with them. She tells him to start building, then calls to tell him to stop. It's happened a couple of times. If he thought he was going to start up again with her, this will bring that to a screeching halt."
"Deputy Hudson?" a man's voice called out. "Are you back here?"
Tab slipped past Polly and into the hallway. "Right here, Alan."
"Polly's here again, isn't she?"
Polly poked her head out into the hallway. "Be careful what you say."
"I knew it. At least this one doesn't smell as bad." Pol
ly had met Alan Dressen before, but the last body had been found on a hot day in a closed-up car at the Boone railroad. No one had wanted that job, but he found humor where he could.
"It will if you don't get him out of here," Polly said. "What took you so long?"
Alan glanced at Tab. "Am I late?"
"No," she said with a laugh. "Polly is just kidding. I don't want to go out back if Mrs. Martin is still there."
"Oh, she's still there. Telling everyone who will listen how awful her experience was when she found the dead body. You probably need to get her statement so she can go home."
Tab frowned. "Did she see the body? No, you said she didn't."
Alan looked back and forth between the two of them. "She's your problem, not mine. I get the quiet ones. You know, the ones who don’t talk back. What did you touch, Polly?"
"The corner of the desk and the door handles. Some equipment and tarps in the other rooms. Oh, and up front, too."
"Got it. I'll get my team to work. Do we know who this is?"
"Brad Anderson," Tab said, handing over the bag with the man's wallet in it. "He and his wife were in the process of selling this building."
"He was married. And now you have to inform his wife. You get saddled with all the fun tasks."
Tab nodded. "I'll leave you to this for now, but I'll be around." She led Polly back down the hallway and outside where Inez Martin was sitting up on the edge of the gurney, animatedly discussing the horrific experience she'd had.
Then she caught sight of Polly and said, "Thank you for your help today. I can't express how much I appreciate someone being here to take care of me when things were so awful. I couldn't have made it through such a traumatic experience without you."
Sam, the paramedic, offered his hand to help her stand up from the gurney and she clutched him as if she might never let him go.
"Mrs. Martin," Tab said, eyeing Polly. "Did you want to give me a statement? I understand from Deputy Dressen that you encountered the body?"
"Well, no, I didn't actually see it. If I'd known that poor soul was inside, I would never have taken my clients upstairs or allowed this woman to wander the building without supervision."
"Did you arrive before your clients?" Tab asked.
"Why, of course I did. I am always early."
"And did you go inside since you were early?"
The Sounds of Home Page 10