No Police Like Holmes
Page 9
“We’re not-” Lynda began.
“We’re not sure what you have in mind,” I interrupted. “The college can never sell the Collection, of course. It was a gift.”
“Perhaps not,” Post conceded, fingering his mustache, “but with the right inducement - perhaps the promise of naming a small edifice on campus in his honor - Mr. Chalmers might be persuaded to withdraw his gift and sell it to the Library of Popular Culture at a handsome price.”
“And what would be in that for the college?” I asked.
“I believe I could arrange for another collection to be donated to St. Benignus, one with greater prestige and monetary value but of less interest to my institution.”
“Quite a scenario,” I said. “Machiavelli would be green with envy. You should bounce the idea off of our provost.”
Post looked at me as if he had smelled something bad and I was it. “You have no authority to negotiate?”“None.”
“Then you have wasted my time. We have nothing to discuss.” He started to walk away.
“I was hoping you could tell me - us - a little about the market for those parts of the collection that were stolen last night,” I called after him.
That stopped him cold. “Stolen? What the devil are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you read about it in the local paper this morning?” Lynda asked.
“I only read the New York Times and I find it appalling that I was unable to purchase a copy at my hotel this morning.”
While Lynda looked daggers at the blowhard, fuming silently, I told Post what had been taken.
“Virtually priceless,” Post gasped. “Of course they have a very high monetary value, hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, but that is quite beside the point. Those are one-of-a-kind items - and stolen right out from under your nose. I assure you nothing like that could ever happen at the Library of Popular Culture!”
“I bet you can’t wait to give Chalmers the same assurance,” Lynda said. “You’d probably even pay for some legal talent to help him withdraw his donation. Then he could give the collection to an institution where it would be safe - yours, for example.”
“That is... preposterous,” Post sputtered. “It would be highly unethical for us to take advantage of this unfortunate situation.”
Lynda snorted. “That’s not the worst thing you might be suspected of before this is all over.”
Post’s jaw obeyed the law of gravity. He fixed Lynda with eyes of ice. “Are you daring to imply that I might be connected in any way with this criminal activity?”
“She’s saying some people might think so,” I interpreted, trying to unruffled his feathers a bit. “It’s awfully convenient that you just happened to be in Erin the day that stuff was stolen.”
“I have a perfectly good reason for being in this insufferable little burg,” Post said.
After an awkward pause, I prodded him: “Care to tell us what it is?”
“No, I would not! It’s a highly confidential matter, as many of our acquisitions are.”
“I can appreciate that,” I said with what I hoped was a gracious nod.“But I’m sort of working with Campus Security in this matter, and I’m sure it would help them to rule you out of any possible involvement if you’d reveal why you’re in town.”
“No.”
“I’m just afraid that if Campus Security calls you in for an interview the press might get wind of it,” I said. I was playing good cop/bad cop against the hypothetical media. “You know how they are,” Lynda chimed in.
“Oh, all right, then,” Post snapped. “But only if you agree to keep this strictly confidential.” We agreed, although I could read the reluctance in Lynda’s eyes as if it were a newspaper headline. She was agreeing to go off the record without the slightest idea of what she was going to hear. “I am in Erin negotiating with a man named Jaspers to acquire the largest privately held collection of Harvey Comics, some issues going back to the beginnings of the company in 1940.”
The smug look on his face told me this was something special, but I didn’t get it. I mean, everybody knows Superman. Spider-Man and Batman I’d read as a kid. X-Men I was familiar with from the movies. But who was Harvey, other than an invisible bunny in an old movie?
“Harvey Comics is Casper the Friendly Ghost,” Post explained, “as well as Richie Rich, Baby Huey, Little Audrey - virtually a treasure house of popular culture.”
It was the mission of the Library of Popular Culture to acquire popular forms of literature for public display and for the use of scholars, Post explained. In pursuit of that mission he’d been trying for years to convince Alfred Jaspers, Sr., to sell his Harvey Comics collection, but without success. Jaspers had died last fall, however, and his son was willing to cash out. The younger Jaspers had invited Post to Erin to discuss the price on Friday. The bargaining was hard and carried over to today, when a deal was struck.
The story seemed plausible and checkable. Post did have a good reason for being in Erin other than the presence of the Chalmers Collection. He readily admitted, however, that he had visited Gene Pfannenstiel on Friday - unaware that the young man had no bargaining authority - before keeping his appointment with Jaspers.
“We have tens of thousands of comics at the Library of Popular Culture, but little Sherlockiana,” Post said. “It would be a tremendous coup to fill that gap by acquiring one of the largest and most prestigious Sherlock Holmes collections in private hands.”
“What you’re saying is, you were hungry,” Lynda pointed out. “So hungry you weren’t going to give up even after Chalmers had decided on his donation to the college. Who knew that?”
Post shrugged. “Assorted bibliophiles, I suppose. Word gets around. Why?”
“Because no ordinary thief took that stuff in hopes of fencing it,” I said, catching her reasoning right away. “It was either a Sherlockian who wanted to gloat over the books in private or somebody who knew where the market was for things like that. And it looks like you’re the market.”
Post drew himself up in a dignified posture reminiscent of the ramrod-straight Woollcott Chalmers. “I am not a receiver of stolen goods, Mr. Cody!”
“Of course not,” I agreed, visions of a slander suit dancing in my head. “But please get in touch with me or with Lieutenant Decker of our Campus Security if you even suspect that someone is trying approach you with those books.” I gave him my card.
“You may be certain that I will do so,” Post said stiffly, without a glance at the card.
He carried his injured dignity away in a late model BMW, midnight blue.
“What do you think?” I asked as he drove off.
Lynda shook her honey-colored curls all over the place. “No way he’s the thief - he’d be too afraid of getting lint on his suit. And stolen goods would be no good to his library-cum-museum anyway because they couldn’t be displayed or made available to scholars. A professional thief would know that, so the idea that somebody took the stuff to sell to Post doesn’t wash, either.”
We climbed into the Mustang. It was six o’clock and we’d spent nearly half an hour going nowhere with Post.
A collector as thief still made the most sense - somebody like Hugh Matheson, Lynda’s newfound friend. But I didn’t say that. I didn’t say much at all until Lynda pulled the Mustang behind Muckerheide Center, right where my bike was parked. She left the motor running.
“You aren’t staying for the banquet?” I asked, my hand on the door. Maybe that was wishful thinking - because if she were coming to the banquet, she probably wouldn’t be sitting alone.
“I’m coming back for it,” Lynda said, adjusting the rear-view mirror. “First I’m going home to play with my hair a little, change my clothes.”
“You look fine to me.”
“Thank you, but Victorian dress is op
tional and I plan to take the option.”
“You could wear that frilly thing you had on at that Halloween party two years ago. Remember the moon and the music and-”
“Jeff,” she cut in, “the cocktail hour begins in half an hour. I’d better go.”
I sighed. “It’s been good to be around you again. Whatever happened to us, Lynda?”
“You smothered me, Jeff, that’s all. You were domineering and bossy and every other word that describes a man who wanted to run my life like it was his own. I wasn’t born to be a trained pet. And did I ever tell you that you’re also jealous and stubborn?”
“Frequently.” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked that question. “But come on, now, you like me anyway, don’t you - at least a little?” I was trying to keep the mood light because I didn’t want to leave her on down note.
“Like you? God help me, Jeff Cody, I still love you, you idiot. Now please get out of my car.”
I couldn’t begin to understand that, much less think of an exit line, so I just closed the car door and headed for Muckerheide. After just a few steps in that direction I looked back to follow Lynda with my eyes. The Mustang was getting ready to turn left out of the parking lot.
Left, I realized with a start. That wasn’t the way to Lynda’s apartment. I followed her so fast I didn’t even put on my bicycle helmet.
And that’s how I wound up in a hallway at the Winfield Hotel, with Lynda in my arms talking about murder.
Chapter Sixteen - “We’ll Know It When We See It”
I hugged her for while, then pulled away and pounded on the door. Lynda shook her head. “No use knocking. He won’t hear you.”
“Get me in there.”
She pulled a flat rectangular key card out of her purse, slid it into the opening, got the green light, and pushed open the door. I brushed past her into a luxurious Winfield room with real paintings on the walls and heavy quilt spreads on the two beds.
Hugh Matheson lay on his back on the floor a few feet from the first bed. Bright red blood had gushed out of the right side of his neck, dripping on the deep pile carpet. The lawyer’s blue eyes, fixed and unseeing, stared up at the ceiling.
It seemed impossible that a spark of life could remain in the motionless body. But if there was even the slightest chance...
I moved toward Matheson.
“The place in the neck where you check for a pulse isn’t even there anymore,” Lynda said. “He’s dead, all right. And he didn’t do it to himself. I could see right away that there’s no gun nearby.” Her voice was jagged, bordering on hysteria.
“He was shot? How could you even tell with all that blood?”
“I looked closely. I’ve seen autopsy pictures.”
She looked away from the body and hugged her shoulders as if trying to warm up in a deep freeze. She breathed in deep gasps. I was feeling sick and scared myself, but I had to keep it together for her sake. Lynda may be the toughest person I know, but right now she needed a rock to hold on to.
“It’s going to be okay,” I promised, wrapping a comforting arm around her. “I’ll get you out of this somehow. I know you didn’t do it. You didn’t have the time.”
She jerked away from me. “Didn’t have the - That’s how you know I didn’t kill him? Of course I didn’t kill him. Who the hell would think that I killed him?”
“Almost anybody but me who found you leaving a hotel room with a fresh body in it,” I said. My voice rose a bit. “And I do mean fresh. The blood is still wet.”
Lynda glanced at the gruesome thing on the floor, then looked away again. I couldn’t blame her, but I felt guilty for being so repulsed at the bloody sight. He had, after all, been a human being.
“I was leaving to get the manager so he could call the police,” Lynda said. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“I followed you from Muckerheide on my bike.”
“What! I can’t believe it. No, wait. You’re Jeff Cody. I believe it.” Was that irony or sarcasm, Lynda? I still get the two confused. “What a sneaky thing to do.”
“I was sneaky? You’re the one who lied about where you were going. But I can see why you didn’t want to tell me you were coming here to meet Matheson in his room.”
“So that’s what you think! I should have known. Damned jealous... You’ve got the wrong idea totally. Matheson came on to me-”
“Then I don’t have the wrong idea,” I interrupted.
“Shut up. Sitting next to me at the colloquium he kept on and on about his collection of Sherlockiana and made snide comments about Chalmers’s. He didn’t even try to hide his delight that somebody had made off with the best parts. I figured it was probably Matheson who’d done it, or somebody paid by him, and that he would brag about the whole thing if I got him loosened up enough.”
“Hence the key, I suppose - part of the loosening up process.”
Lynda nodded. “When he invited me to have a few drinks with him, I suggested we go someplace where we could talk quietly. I’m sure he didn’t think I really meant talk, but I did. Anyway, Matheson said he was going to try to have a word with somebody for a few minutes right after Kate’s talk. He slipped me a key to this room and told me to wait for him if he didn’t show up right away. I was hoping to beat him here and look around for the stolen books, but talking to Post ran a little long and I was too late for that.”
“Matheson didn’t say who he was meeting?”
“No.”
“Of course not. That would be too easy. All right, try this on for size: Suppose the meeting turned nasty and they parted with words. The other person could have come here later with a gun and plugged Matheson.”
Lynda grimaced. “We’d better let the police deal with that.”
“The police?” If I sounded incredulous, it’s only because I was. “Don’t you know what Oscar would do if his people were to find you with that?” I pointed to the late Hugh Matheson, his life’s blood seeping into the expensive carpet of the Winfield Hotel.
“Muck up the evidence?” Lynda said.
“Hang you out to dry, that’s what. He’s been looking for an excuse for months. A murder charge is beyond his wildest dreams.”
Oscar Hummel is Erin’s chief of police, a retired desk sergeant from Dayton who never tires of telling Mac how unrealistic his Damon Devlin plots are. (I’ll give him points for that.) He’d had a feud going with Lynda over unfavorable coverage of his department in her paper. Last winter one of his overeager officers had arrested an out-of-town drug dealer who turned out to be under surveillance by the Sussex County Sheriff’s Department. The evidence was thrown out of court for lack of a search warrant and the dealer walked. Then earlier in the spring, Oscar himself - in hot pursuit of a stolen truck - had driven his cruiser through a cornfield. The Erin Observer & News Ledger’s editorial asserted that the chief’s operation had gone “from Keystone Kops to bull in a china shop.” As news editor, Lynda didn’t write the editorials, but that distinction was lost on Oscar.
“That’s absurd,” Lynda said. “What possible reason would I have-”
“Lovers’ quarrel.”
She said a rude word, followed by, “I barely knew the man. And what would you be doing here - cheering me on?”
Apparently the question was hypothetical, because she didn’t wait for an answer before she reached into the outside pocket of her purse and pulled out her Android.
“No you don’t,” I said firmly, grabbing the phone. “If you don’t believe that scenario will appeal to Oscar, how do you think he’d like the ever-popular ‘Love Triangle with Jealous Ex-Boyfriend’? Consider what we have here: you, me, and a formerly handsome corpse. Oscar may not be as dumb as he likes to pretend sometimes, but he is totally lacking in imagination. He always goes for the most obvious explanation. Remember the Parsons case?”
“But Oscar’s your buddy,” Lynda objected.
“I’d say we’re friendly in a casual way. He calls me once in a while when he gets free tickets to a Reds or Bengals game, and I’ve gone fishing with him a few times when I had questions about police procedure for a mystery I was working on. But I don’t think our personal relationship would hold him back for twelve seconds from doing his job if he thought I’d killed a man, not even if we were best pals.”
“So that’s what you’re really afraid of!”
“Partly,” I conceded, hoping to disarm her with my candor. Actually, it was a tossup between Oscar’s jail and Ralph’s wrath as to which I was more afraid of. Ralph would not like for me to have found a body. “But I’m worried about you, too.”
Spearing me with a skeptical look, Lynda yanked her phone back, but returned it to her purse.
“Well, we can’t just leave the body here to rot.”
“We’ll call the police from the pay phone.”
There was still one left in Erin, about two blocks from the Winfield.
“All right, all right,” Lynda said. “Whatever you say. Let’s just get the hell out of here.”
I shook my head. “We can’t just leave. We have to search the room first.”
“For what?”
“For any clues that Oscar and his crew might not understand,” I said. “Something Sherlockian maybe.”
“If you have some crazy idea of solving the murder, forget it. That’s police business.”
“Tell that to Mrs. Parsons.”
“Let’s leave, Jeff. Please.”
“You can go.”
“I don’t want to be alone.” She pulled a stick of gum out of her purse.