“Who did she talk to?”
“Well, me and you of course and Genevieve, and anyone else in earshot.”
“What was she talking about?”
“Oh the usual nonsense,” Abner said dismissively. “You know about how much the ambassador was enjoying the festivities and having her girdle interfered with. Nobody paid much attention. When she started to get tired I brought her home about nine. We had a coffee and a slice of your delightful banoffee pie and then she said she was feeling tired so went up to bed.”
“So nothing out of the ordinary,” concluded Lottie, “and she didn’t complain about feeling ill?”
Abner shook his head. “She seemed in good health.”
They fell into a thoughtful silence, until Abner suddenly sat up straight. “Wait a minute,” he said. “There was something I thought was odd. I clean forgot about it until now. Hell’s bells I’m getting as dotty as Doris.”
Lottie put down her coffee cup and stared intently at him. “What is it?” she said eagerly. “What do you remember?”
“It was later on in the evening,” Abner said slowly. “We were all sitting outside on the patio, do you remember? There was me, you, Betsy, Doris and Olga. Olga was telling us about how you got you head stuck in the railings outside the school when the other kids told you to do it on a dare, and they had to call the fire brigade to get you out. Highly entertaining. We were all in hysterics. I don’t recall you ever telling me that story.”
Lottie made a face. “It’s something I’d rather forget,” she said sourly. “What about it?”
“It was just after Olga finished the story. I went to get some more food from the buffet as I was feeling a little peckish.”
“No surprise there then,” Lottie said dryly.
Abner pursed his lips. “Can I finish please? Thank you. Well, I’d gone back inside and Doris came along with me. She had to visit the little girls’ restroom. Anyway I’d piled on, I mean, I put a few things on my plate and was just going back to the patio when I spotted Doris standing outside the restroom. She was talking with one of the waiters.”
Lottie rubbed at her chin. “What’s so strange about that? Doris talks to everyone.”
“But that’s exactly the point,” Abner said, his eyes shining. “Doris talks to everyone and everyone listens politely until she’s finished rambling, and then they walk away and wonder where their lives have gone. But this was the other way round.
The waiter was talking to her and it wasn’t just the usual inane chatter by the looks of it. He was talking very intently as well and Doris was all agog while she listened, so he must have been saying something incredibly fascinating to keep Doris’s attention for so long. He even put his arm around her shoulder at one point.”
“Didn’t you ask her what they were discussing?” Lottie asked.
“What do you take me for? A simpleton?” Abner said irritably. “Of course I was going to ask her, but before I got the chance to, I got cornered by Gertrude Haffenstagga and had to endure half and hour of her droning on about her gallstones.
By the time I got away from Gertrude and said gallstones I’d forgotten all about it, and Doris was getting sleepy. So I took her home. With everything else that’s gone on today I’ve only just remembered.”
“Do you know who the waiter was?” Lottie asked.
Abner looked affronted. “I’m not accustomed to fraternizing with the servant class, you know. You’re the only peasant I socialise with.”
“You’re such a snob,” Lottie snapped.
Abner bowed his head in silent thanks. Lottie scowled at him in frustration. “Do you at least remember what he looked like?”
“Actually I do,” Abner replied, a playful smile spreading across his face. “He was quite a cute little fellow. Had a snazzy little beard and peroxide blond hair, a little bit Eighties for my taste, but he carried it off quite well.”
Lottie put her hand to her mouth as she started to think. “That sounds a heck of a lot like Tommy Londen,” she said.
“You know him then?”
“Only too well,” Lottie replied grimly. “He’s been pestering me for a date for the past two weeks.”
“Got sight problems, has he?” Abner replied waspishly.
“He’s got a temper,” Lottie said. “On Friday, he came by the shop when I was closing up pressuring me to go out with him. When I said no he got a little rough. I threatened to report him to the police if he didn’t leave me alone.”
“Interesting,” said Abner, “but surely being rejected by you couldn’t have knocked his confidence so badly he decided to try his luck with Doris?”
“This is serious, Abner,” Lottie said sharply. “What if he’s done something to Doris to get back at me for rejecting him?”
“You think he’d be capable of that?”
Lottie shrugged. It felt like there were lead weights hanging off her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said wearily. “I don’t know anything anymore!”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Abner said, swallowing down the dregs of his coffee. “We go and ask him.”
Lottie looked at him in surprise. “What? We go now?”
“Unless you have another urgent engagement like organising your sock draw,” Abner countered. “Or we could just stay here being miserably and worrying ourselves to death over a possible double manslaughter charge and whether dotty Doris is lying dead in a ditch somewhere. It’s completely your choice.”
Lottie smiled and got to her feet, relieved to be doing something. “You’re right. It’s better than feeling helpless.”
“That’s settled,” Abner said, mobilising himself. “Oh, but we don’t know where he lives, or do you?”
Lottie shook her head. “No, but my friend Stephanie does. I’ll text her now.”
“Good,” said Abner clapping his hands together. “If we’re extra lucky we’ll get to his place just as he’s getting into the shower,” he said with a sly wink.
* * *
Tommy Londen lived in an apartment block on the other side of town, just on the edge of a small industrial estate. It was a run down neighbourhood and it was dark when they pulled up outside the drab brick building.
“Not the most salubrious of residences,” Abner said snootily. “I wouldn’t be seen dead here, and hopefully Doris won’t either.”
“Don’t make jokes like that,” warned Lottie as they both got out of the car. “If Tommy’s done something to her, I’ll kill him!”
“That’ll be your third today then,” drawled Abner.
“Shut up!”
Entering the building, they headed to the elevator. Tommy lived on the fourth floor, but when they found that the elevator was out of order they had to use the stairs which provoked a steady barrage of grumbling from Abner until Lottie told him to be quiet again.
Anxiously, she hurried up the steps to the fourth floor with Abner struggling to keep up. Lottie didn’t want to wait for him. She was too worked up about the two deaths and a missing Doris to have much patience, and when they reached Tommy’s apartment she knocked loudly on his door. There was no answer.
“He’s not there,” Lottie said in frustration.
“Perhaps his neighbours know where he is,” Abner said. They went to a couple of doors but received no answer when they knocked and then they tried the apartment at the far end of the passageway.
This time, there was a response. A dark skinned woman with wide, frightened eyes opened the door a fraction and stared at Abner and Lottie in alarm.
“No illegals here! No immigration need come search.” she said in a thick foreign accent.
“We’re not from immigration,” Lottie said gently. “We just want to know where the man who lives in 4G is, please.”
“No one here! Please leave alone! We no trouble!” the woman cried out and slammed the door shut before Lottie could say anything else. With no other signs of life on the landing they mooched back to Tommy’s door.
“Don’t be so defeatist,” Abner retorted. He fished inside the pocket of his yellow and black checked jacket and pulled out a black leather pouch. Lottie’s eyes widened as he opened the pouch to reveal a set of lock picks.
“Why on earth have you got all those?” Lottie exclaimed in shock.
Abner grinned at her. “My other half has a penchant for changing all the locks when I stay out all night clubbing, or go off to Fire Island for two weeks without telling anyone, to teach me a lesson, so I always carry these around in case of emergencies,” he explained.
He examined the lock picks in turn before choosing one he liked and slipped the pouch back into his jacket. He then proceeded to pick the lock of the apartment’s front door.
“You can’t break in!” Lottie hissed. “That’s a crime!”
“You don’t say,” Abner drawled. “We’ll just take a quick look round and see where he’s hidden all of Doris’s body parts, that’s all.”
“Have you lost what’s left of your mind?” hissed Lottie, looking up and down the landing. “You can’t just break in! What if somebody calls the cops?”
“I very much doubt the people who live here will want to bring down the attention of the police,” Abner replied dryly. “Hush now, I need to concentrate.”
Lottie folded her arms across her chest. “I want no part of this.”
“Go wait in the car and stopped distracting me,” replied Abner. “Ah, here we go,” he added as the door lock clicked. He turned the knob and the door opened. “There you go.”
Lottie unfolded her arms and pushed by him. “About time, come on let’s take a look round.”
“I thought you didn’t approve?” said Abner.
“I don’t, but we may as well take a look now you’ve broken in,” Lottie replied. “Close the door behind you.”
As Abner did so, Lottie switched on the light. They found themselves standing in a shabby living room strewn with clothes, beer cans and empty takeaway boxes.
There was a sofa and coffee table facing a television in the centre of the room and some of Tommy’s college books along with his laptop had been dumped unceremoniously on a nearby armchair.
“A most charming abode,” Abner said with obvious distaste.
Lottie scanned her surroundings but found nothing of any real interest. “Tommy,” she called out. “Tommy, are you here?”
A heavy silence hung over the apartment and Lottie began to get a bad feeling. There was something wrong here but she couldn’t figure out what.
With nothing in the living room to go on, she spotted another closed door next to the kitchenette. There was a band of light coming from beneath the door. Lottie and Abner exchanged looks.
“Tommy?” Lottie called again as they edged towards the door. “Tommy, it’s me, Lottie here. Are you in there?”
“Maybe we should go,” Abner muttered. “I’m getting seriously creeped out now. Even the chance of seeing a naked Tommy isn’t enough to make me want to open that door.”
“This was your idea, remember?” Lottie replied. “We’ve got to see it through to the end now.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.”
“Tommy?” Lottie called out again. “If you’re in there give us a sign.”
No answer came, and setting her mouth into a tight line she turned the handle and opened the door. It opened into a small bedroom as untidy as the living room and Tommy was lying motionless on the bed. He wasn’t naked, much to Lottie’s relief, but he wasn’t breathing either.
Lottie hurried over to him and stared into his open eyes. His face was twisted into a grimace of pain. Abner checked his pulse and shook his head.
“Dead,” he said.
Lottie nodded grimly. “No visible signs of trauma,” she said. “He hasn’t been stabbed or shot, as far as I can tell.”
“Not strangled either,” Abner added. “Poisoned?”
“Just like Genevieve and Mercedes,” said Lottie. “This proves there’s something more than just a bout of food poisoning going on here.”
The sound of someone moving about in the living room made them jump. Lottie and Abner rushed back into the living room just as a bulky figure in a thick black overcoat with the hood up over the intruder’s head, climbed through the window leading out to the fire escape.
Without thinking, Lottie rushed to the window. As she made to grab the figure, they elbowed her in the face and she was sent reeling back.
“Lottie!” Abner cried rushing over to her.
The figure in the overcoat slipped through the window and bolted down the fire escape. Recovering from the blow, Lottie rushed after them before Abner could stop her.
“Stop!” she called out to the escaping figure. “You can’t get away!”
The figure didn’t slow down and despite their large size moved swiftly, soon reaching the alleyway at the bottom of the stairs.
Heart pounding, Lottie reached the bottom a few moments afterwards, but the figure was nowhere to be seen. She looked up and down the alleyway and then saw something move next to a nearby dumpster.
She was about to call up to Abner when the figure rushed from the shadows holding a baseball bat in their upraised arm. Before Lottie could get out of the way, the baseball came sweeping down onto her skull and everything went black.
Chapter 6: The Riddle Of The Donuts
“You’re such a silly girl,” Olga Kasterny said for the eightieth time as she set down Lottie’s coffee and leant over to examine the ugly bruise on Lottie’s temple.
“What on earth were you thinking, going after that maniac? You always were an impulsive child.”
This was the eleventh time Olga had made this assessment over the past two days, and for the eleventh time Lottie shrugged helplessly. “I’m a dummy,” she said. “It’s official, but if I’d caught Tommy’s killer all of this business would be resolved by now.”
“If you’d caught that beautiful boy’s killer there could have been two more victims on the scoreboard, and I’m too young and beautiful to die,” Abner said, tucking into his third chocolate éclair of the morning.
The three of them were in the well-appointed sitting room of the Joseph Bonaparte Hotel. The room was furnished in the genteel style of the late Victorians and served as a visual representation of Doris’s character, faded and out of step with the rest of the world.
As Lottie reflected on this, the emotional pain hurt more than the physical. The old lady still had not been found and Lottie was beside herself with worry. It didn’t help that she’d been forced to stay home doing nothing.
After the hospital had determined that she had not incurred any serious injury from the blow, she was allowed to go home and had been prescribed lots of rest.
With the Sleep Fox closed for the duration, there was no work for Lottie to do, and Betsy was still ill from the food poisoning. As a consequence, Olga Kasterny had taken it upon herself to serve as nursemaid and had more or less moved into the Bonaparte to take care of Lottie.
“What about me, Abner?” Lottie said wryly. “Aren’t I too young and beautiful to die?”
Abner shrugged his shoulders. “Meh, the world could bear your loss.”
Lottie laughed. “Thanks very much.” Her mind drifted to Mercedes and she sighed heavily. “Mercedes was too young and beautiful to die,” she reflected.
“Even though she was horrible to me at the reception she didn’t deserve what happened to her. Her family must be absolutely devastated. I don’t remember seeing her parents though. Her father didn’t give her away.”
“That’s because she doesn’t have a father,” Abner replied, reaching over to the plate on the coffee table and scooping up his fourth éclair.
“She didn’t have a mother either, according to what Yelma told me. You know a few glasses of champagne and that woman can talk the legs off a hind donkey, Yelma I mean.
Apparently
Mercedes is, or was, an orphan as were her two drunken cohorts Terri and Sonia. That’s what brought them together as friends in the first place. That, and their stunning looks and superiority complex, of course, they apparently formed a gang at this swanky private girls’ school they attended in Switzerland.
According to Yelma, from the way Terri was bragging they ran the place and all of the kids either worshipped them or lived in abject fear of them and most of the teachers as well. They got away with murder and never got pulled up on their poor time-keeping and lousy grades.
They were a law unto themselves. No wonder they acted like ignorant louts at the reception. Oh, there was a fourth one as well, Regan, that girl they kept shouting about, but she died last year in a car accident.”
“That’s interesting,” Lottie said. “Also, Genevieve said that Mercedes was incredibly talented academically and did very well when she went to Oxford which doesn’t gel with the bad girl vibe.”
“Ah, Yelma had heard a few things about that as well,” replied Abner, enjoying the chance to indulge in a good gossip. “Though the three of them never spoke about it, Genevieve had heard a whisper that they had eventually been expelled from this girls’ school in Switzerland. This is what Genevieve had told Yelma anyway.
“When Orlando became engaged to Mercedes, Genevieve did a little digging to find out more about her and came across this information. They had been involved in some kind of scandal, which the school was quick to cover up. The four of them were expelled and went their separate ways. Mercedes got a place at Oxford and settled down, becoming a model pupil.”
“They must have all been a bad influence on each other,” Olga said. She had settled into one of the comfy armchairs by the fireplace, and was sipping at her coffee.
“I saw it all the time when I was a teacher. Separating children from their unruly friends works wonders. Fortunately when I was a private governess I never had much of a problem with that.”
“What’s curious is that I remember Doris prattling on about some beautiful girl in Switzerland that was always getting into trouble, though she never speaks to Yelma so I don’t know how she would know about Mercedes being expelled. Doris has never forgiven Yelma for what her cat did to the ambassador’s begonias.”
Donuts And Dead (Sleepy Fox Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 2) Page 6