That did not sound very exciting to me.
As soon as the clock hit five on the nose, Nathan was inside the door. I had watched as he bounced across the street. Even though it was getting dusk, I could see the beam in his eyes from twenty feet away.
“Mabel,” he said. “You won’t believe what I found out. Get your computer out and I’ll show you.”
I had tucked my computer into the carrying case I’d bought especially for it and hated to pull it out again but it looked as if I had no choice. My young friend could barely compose himself.
I guess I was moving too slowly for him. He grabbed it out of my hand, finished removing it, took it over to the counter, and turned it on.
In a matter of seconds, I was looking at Harry Cooper’s mug shot, only a younger version.
“It looks like this was taken a while ago, Nathan, so I imagine this was before he started calling himself Victor Fleming.”
“That’s right. But look what I found. I was able to find the prison records and here is a list of all his visitors. It even says the day and time they visited him in prison.”
“Nathan, how did you find this? Are we supposed to know all this?”
“I didn’t do anything illegal. I’m sure anyone could probably find this in the police archives somewhere.” He gave me a stern look. “Mabel, you have a way of taking the joy out of everything. Why don’t you read what it says and then complain about how I got it afterwards?”
“Nathan,” I said, giving him a stern look in return. “You are beginning to sound more like me every day.”
I suppose he took that as a complement because his smile returned.
“See,” he said, using the cursor to point out a name.
I read it. “It says that Emma Cooper visited him that day.” I looked up at him. “I take it his wife was named Emma. I know that’s a coincidence, Nathan, but there are many women by that name.”
“That’s true but it wasn’t his wife; it was his daughter.” His smile grew wider.
“What are you saying?”
“Well, Emma Flanders would be about the right age to be Harry Cooper’s daughter. Don’t you think it’s odd that Emma Flanders, Fred and Veronica Pollock, and Harry Cooper all came from the same city? And, so did Victor Fleming.”
“Nathan, I asked Flori what Emma’s maiden name was and she said it was Henney or something like that. It definitely wasn’t Cooper.”
I never saw joy leave a person’s face so quickly.
“But, you did such a good job of searching and getting information. Maybe you can find something else in this search, Nathan. Wouldn’t it be something if you could find a link between Fred and Harry? I think that’s something you should look for.”
Nathan looked so defeated. I had to cheer him up.
“Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe I didn’t hear Flori right. Why don’t I give her another call?”
He started to put the computer away. “No, it’s okay, Mabel. You heard what you heard. Tonight I’ll do some more searching and see if I can find a connection between Fred and Harry Cooper.”
I stopped him and put the laptop back on the counter.
“Nathan,” I said. “You sit right down in that chair. I am going to phone Flori and you sit. Do not move. We have to check this out. My memory is definitely not what it used to be.”
He wasn’t moving so I took his sleeve and gently pushed him into the chair. I picked up the phone and called Flori. She answered for a change.
“Flori, do you remember the other day when I asked what Emma’s maiden name was? Well, you weren’t entirely sure so I was wondering if you maybe remembered it today.”
“Oh, yes, you did ask me. Well, I did that association thing with it.”
“Association thing? What's that?”
“That’s when you remember a name by associating it with an object. For example, when I see Bob Crackers, I think of Ritz crackers because they are my favorite ones. See how it works?”
“I do but have you ever called Bob, Ritz?”
She burst out laughing. “Oh, Mabel, you know, I did one time, and I was so embarrassed.”
“So when you tried to remember Emma’s name, what did you associate it with?”
There was a brief silence.
“What did I tell you her name was?”
“You said it was something like Henney.”
Another silence.
“Henney? It must have something to do with hens or chickens, I guess.”
“Hens or chickens? What about a chicken coop? Could you have used that as the object?”
“You’re right. Of course, I did. See how well it works. I associated her name with a chicken coop. Now I remember - her maiden name was Cooper.”
“Thank you so much, Flori. You have been a great help. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
Nathan was almost popping out of the chair. “What did she say? What did she say? Does she know what Emma’s name was?”
“Yes, she does. Emma’s maiden name was Cooper. I think we can be quite sure she was Harry’s daughter. However, we will have to check it out to make certain. I’m sure you’ll know how to do that, Nathan. For example, we can check her age with her driver’s license. Or, whatever it is that you do.”
“Don’t worry. It will be easy to check her out. Do you think she knew her father was here in Parson’s Cove? I wonder if she really believes that her husband killed him. What do you think? Do you think Junior knew Victor was really Harry Cooper, Emma’s dad? His father-in-law?”
“Are those all rhetorical questions, Nathan? I hope so because I don’t know the answer to any of them. Right now, I’d like you to find out everything you can about Fred and Veronica Pollock. Those two have to be involved in this somehow.”
“What about John Smith? He’s still a suspect too. How will we find out who he really is? Remember, Mabel, he was the only witness who saw Junior at the crime scene. He could be that Canadian tourist for all we know. If we knew his real name, we could see if he was connected to Harry Cooper too.”
“Well, I think we can forget about John Smith for the time being, Nathan. I am quite sure eventually his real identity will come out. No one can hide behind a fake name forever. Even Harry Cooper couldn’t.”
I had a feeling Mr. Smith was going to lose his aka sooner than he thought.
Chapter Twenty Three
Why did I feel Mayor Pollock was somehow connected? To me, it sounded like he and his wife both had a sleazy past. Not that people can’t change. I mean, look at Scully and Jim - two boys who could have ended up having their pictures plastered in every Post Office across America and here they were - two great law enforcers. I realize that I do have to stop judging people.
On the other hand, how can you find a killer if all you do is look for the good? In such a case, I believe you have to dig up as much of the ugly dirt as you can find. Let’s hope Nathan would be successful. If anyone could find anything on that computer, it would be Nathan. I just hoped he knew what he was doing and wouldn’t end up behind bars himself.
I took a few extra minutes to walk over to Charlie’s bench. He was sitting there, staring off at something in the distance.
“Hi Charlie,” I said. “How have you been?”
His lips twitched so I knew he was happy to see me.
“I was going to ask you if you ever figured out who was in that fight behind the hotel.”
There were several seconds of silence. In fact, I was about to leave when he shook his head.
It was disappointing. “So you don’t know who it was?”
He shook his head again. “I couldn’t see. I did see something.”
“You saw something? What was it, Charlie?”
“Dirt,” was all he said.
“Dirt? There was dirt there? Like you mean, where they were fighting?”
That didn’t help me because it’s easy to dig up some dirt from under the snow if you’re rolling around in it or whatever you do
when you fight.
Once again, he shook his head. "Where he walked in the snow.”
The light was dawning. “You mean you saw where one of the men walked and there was dirt on his shoes?”
There was another twitch in his lips.
“You are a good detective, Mabel,” he said. He started rocking then so I knew it was time to leave.
“No,” I said. “You are the good detective, Charlie. I just follow your lead.”
I walked home with a smile on my face and didn’t feel the cold one bit. It was dusk but I could see the moon coming up in the east. It was big, round, and silver. There is some beauty to winter after all.
After feeding my starving felines and giving each one of them a pet and a scratch behind the ear, I phoned Reg. He was at home having a lovely roast beef dinner with his wife.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Reg, but we’re going to have to talk to Jakie again. It’s very important.”
By the sounds of it, Reg wasn’t in too much of a hurry to head over to the station so I suggested I talk to him myself.
“Do you have a new lead, Mabel? Anything to prove Junior innocent?”
“No, but I do have some new information. It hasn’t been proven yet but I’d like to see his face when I tell him.”
I could tell the sheriff was still chewing on his roast beef so I said, “I’ll let you know later how it goes. Enjoy your dinner and say hello to Beth. By the way, have you heard from Captain Maxymowich?”
“Yeah, he called yesterday. He’s coming down in a couple of days. I don’t know if we can have this figured out by then, Mabel. I’m hoping something breaks in the case soon.”
“Me, too.”
There wasn’t any roast beef in the fridge but I did have some leftover spaghetti with tomato sauce. I heated that up and made a big salad. Ten minutes later, I was on my way to the police station. I took along a bag of muffins…just in case. If it didn’t get Jakie’s mouth moving, Scully would enjoy them.
Scully was on the phone so just waved me in. That is, after he motioned for me to set the bag of muffins on his desk.
I entered the cell in the same manner I had the first time. I turned the key and walked in. Jakie was in the same position. I guess there really aren’t many positions available to a person in an eight by ten foot room with one cot.
All he did was look at me with a very evil look in his eyes.
Once again, I sat down at the end of his cot. This time, I made sure to keep my wrists out of harms’ way by crossing my arms.
“Don’t look at me like that, Jakie Flanders. You have made enough of a fool of yourself. What do you think you are doing here? All you’re doing is creating a deeper hole to fall into. The longer you sit here with your mouth shut, the longer it is going to take to find the real killer. You think you are protecting your wife and mother? Well, you aren’t.”
He didn’t say anything, just continued to stare at me. I knew my moment was coming though and I wanted to catch every expression on his face.
“Maybe you really do believe you killed your father-in-law. I don't know.”
When I said father-in-law, his eyes changed from anger to shock. At that moment, I knew we were right. Or, I should say, Nathan was right. Harry Cooper was Emma’s father.
“You’re surprised that we know it was Emma’s father, Harry Cooper, who was murdered?”
Some of the wind was going out of Junior’s sails. Suddenly, instead of defiance in his eyes, there were tears.
He made a grab for my hands but I was ready, I jumped up and stood.
“No, Mabel, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m sorry I hurt you before. I had to make you listen. You don’t understand. I was afraid for you. We are dealing with a maniac here. You have to believe me. I was afraid if you got involved, you and my mother would be in danger. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You’re sure you’re not going to break my wrist if I sit down? It’s still black and blue from our last encounter.”
“No, Mabel. I promise. I will not hurt you. I was desperate. Will you let me explain to you what happened?”
I sat down. In my heart, I wanted to reach over and hold his hand but thought I would leave that sort of thing to Flori. Besides, I wasn’t sure exactly where the conversation was headed. Jakie could change his mind.
“Are you going to tell me everything, right from the beginning?”
He nodded. “But Mabel, I’m trusting that you will know what to do. I’m afraid if the police know, he will come after Emma or anyone in my family.” He did reach over and touched my arm. I may have flinched a little, involuntarily.
“I know this is going to sound like a very strange story but every word is true.”
“All right. I believe you, Jakie. You have to trust me, okay? I will make sure that no one in your family gets hurt.” I made sure he was looking at me. “First, tell me when you found out that Victor Fleming was really Harry Cooper because when you were first arrested I could have sworn you thought the man you’d threatened was your cousin.”
“I did. I didn’t know who it was until Mayor Pollock came to visit me. And then Emma filled in some blanks. Pollock is the one you have to watch out for, Mabel. I’m sure he’s the one who killed Harry Cooper.”
“Why were you out at the fish shack anyway?”
“Victor, at least I thought it was Victor, called Emma from the shack. She knew it was her father but she didn’t want me to know. Even though she didn’t have much love for her father, she still didn’t want him to freeze to death so she asked if I’d go out and rescue him.”
“Did he tell her how he got there?”
“No, all he said was someone had locked him in a fish shack as a big joke and asked if she could find someone to help him get out. I thought it was strange he would call my house and not my parents, especially after I’d threatened him but I never stopped to think about that.”
“He knew Emma’s phone number?”
He nodded. “She didn’t tell me but he found out where she was living a few months ago. He called her and she told him to leave her alone. She was mostly afraid for the kids. My kids are like hers too, Mabel. Emma loves being a mother. The last thing she wanted was her ex-con father coming around.”
“So what happened? You went out to the shack?”
“I didn’t know what else to do. I thought my mother would be upset if I didn’t watch out for her cousin.”
“So what happened when you went there?”
“The door was locked on the outside and when I yelled no one answered, so I figured it was another one of his tricks. I thought he was just getting even with me for not giving him any money and for telling him to get out of town.”
“But what about the fight behind the hotel? Why didn’t you tell someone that it was Pollock who beat Harry Cooper up?”
“How do you know it was Pollock who did that?”
“Charlie. Charlie said he saw dirt from the man’s shoes. Pollock's street had a water main break and everyone who walked there had dirt on their shoes. Why didn’t you tell Reg that you didn’t do that?”
“Because no one knew he’d been beaten up until the autopsy. By that time, Pollock had already made his visit to me. He informed me to keep my mouth shut. He said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge me with murder and if I implicated him in any way, he would tell everyone about Emma.”
“Tell everyone about Emma? What’s there to tell about Emma?”
“She did some things she isn’t proud of, Mabel. When her father was harassing her for money, she thought she would act like she didn’t have any so she went to work in a restaurant.”
“Pollock's restaurant.”
“Right. She didn’t realize it was just a front for a lot of things; gambling, drugs, you name it, and Pollock and his wife were involved in it all. Then, Emma’s father started coming into the restaurant and he was an obvious sucker. He was into drugs, beat some guy up and almost killed him and was sent to jail. That
’s about the same time Victor Fleming was there too. Apparently, Victor had a big mouth and started telling everyone that he had big money hidden away and as soon as he was out, he would be living a life of luxury.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how people could believe such a loser. You mean he got himself killed over that?”
“Cooper owed Pollock gambling money so he told Pollock he knew who had lots of money and he would tell him where it was and who had it if he would erase his loan and leave him alone.”
“Ah, so Fred Pollock went to collect from Victor. I guess he was pretty upset when Victor wouldn’t cooperate, right?”
“I guess so. Victor was such an idiot he probably acted like a big shot and thought he’d get something from Pollock. Instead, he got his neck wrung.”
“But how did Pollock kill Victor without anyone finding out?”
“The guard had a gambling debt too and that erased it.”
“I don’t understand why Harry Cooper became Victor Fleming.”
“Everyone was following the money, Mabel. They didn’t know that all of them would end up here where Emma was living.”
“Emma moved to a small isolated town to get away from everyone and live a quiet unassuming life. Did you know she was actually a very wealthy woman?”
He nodded. “That’s the money her father was following. I didn’t know about the money at first because she was afraid I would marry her for that. Then, it became a matter of pride on my part. How would people treat us if we were living off her money? Besides, you might think we’re really poor but we are happy, Mabel. Emma never liked the life she had with her first husband.”
“You said everyone followed the money. You mean Fred and Veronica Pollock followed Emma too?”
“She couldn’t believe it when they moved to Parson’s Cove. That was when she told me the story about her father and how she had worked for them. I had a talk with Fred and he said he didn’t want anyone to know about his past either. He said he was starting a new life just like Emma. I thought he was being very nice about it all but Emma never trusted him. I thought she was over reacting.”
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