Diane Greenwood Muir - Bellingwood 05 - Life Between the Lines

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  Polly filled the dining room table with food, opened the chips and pulled out two other opened bags from her cupboard. Sodas and a bucket of ice, Doug’s cookies and a batch of brownies she’d made over the weekend and the feast was ready.

  “What did you find?” she asked. “The food is ready.”

  “Henry says he’s never seen Lord of the Rings.” Doug said. “Is it too long for tonight?”

  “I think we’re fine. Turn it on now and if we don’t make it all the way through, we’ll finish it another night.”

  Henry sidled up to her, trying to take the plate she’d filled from her hands, but Polly pulled back. “No. I don’t know who you are anymore. How can you not have seen this movie? Did you read the books at least?”

  He dropped his face to his chest. “No?”

  “You haven’t read the books or seen the movies? I feel nothing but shame for you!” she laughed, looking at Doug. “I don’t even know what to think!”

  “It’s not my favorite …” Henry began.

  Polly jammed her palm in front of his face. “Don’t even. You can redeem yourself tonight by being completely interested in this movie. Any sign that you are bored or falling asleep and I will trickle ice cold water down your face.”

  “Dude,” Doug said. “You are going to love this. I can’t believe you’ve never seen it. Billy and I watch all three of them on Saturdays sometimes.”

  “More than once or twice?” Henry seemed flabbergasted.

  “Of course!” Polly interrupted. “You’ve seen Star Wars more than once.”

  “Only because you make me.”

  “But you haven’t complained.”

  Henry sat down on the sofa. The opening sequence had begun. Polly sat beside him and Doug took a chair.

  “Shhh.” Doug said. “It’s starting. You don’t want to miss this.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The next morning, Polly was in her office. Anita hadn’t called back and she wasn’t sure what to do. But with Ben Seafold in town, Polly wanted to get her hands on that manuscript.

  “Whatever,” she said to herself and dialed the phone.

  “Polly!” Anita exclaimed when she answered, “I’m so sorry! I totally forgot to call you back. It’s been absolutely crazy down here and things got shuffled around. I’m sorry!”

  Polly breathed a sigh of relief. “Has it gotten any better? Because someone is here who should see that laptop if he could.”

  “We were here until midnight last night, but I think things have calmed down enough that I could get out for lunch today. Do you want me to come up to Bellingwood? Will you feed me if I do?”

  “Lunch would be terrific. I’m going to ask Ben to join us. Would you mind coming up to my apartment?”

  “That sounds fine. I’ll see you after a while.”

  Ben walked in the front door and Polly watched as he peered at the decorations for the Haunted Hallway. That was happening tonight and Lydia was ready. Candy was already in the large cauldron which would be placed on top of a black lit fog machine. Polly could hardly wait to see all the effects.

  “Good morning,” he boomed as he walked into the office. “This is a wonderful place you have here, Polly, and the town is very nice. I had a great breakfast at the diner and a nice brisk walk around town. When are we going to get to work?”

  “Come on in,” she said. “My friend at the Sheriff’s Office is coming for lunch. I thought we’d do that in my apartment so that we don’t have to worry about anyone listening to us.”

  Polly glanced up to see Sylvie walking in.

  “I didn’t think I’d see you until later,” Polly said to her friend.

  Sylvie looked at the tall man taking up an immense amount of space in Polly’s office and said, “I’m making lunch today. I had an early class and I‘m free for the rest of the day.”

  “Sylvie Donovan, this is Ben Seafold, an old friend of Thomas Zeller’s. Ben, this is Sylvie Donovan, our chef.”

  He reached out to take her hand, shook it and nodded his head. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss?” he looked at both of them.

  “It’s Mrs.,” Sylvie smiled, then giggled at Polly, “Well, kind of.”

  “Mrs. Donovan,” he amended. “What wondrous thing will you be cooking today?”

  “It was going to be enchiladas, but maybe I’ll do something a little more hearty.”

  “Enchiladas are a favorite of mine. I look forward to eating whatever you put on a plate for me. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to take a look at those beautiful horses. I spoke with your groundskeeper this morning and he invited me to join him for a ride. Those are the first animals I’ve seen that are big enough not to cower when they see me coming!”

  He strode out of the office and left by the side door.

  “Wow,” Sylvie said. “That man is impressive.”

  “Really?” Polly asked. “You giggled. You never giggle.”

  “Now I’m a little embarrassed. I did do that.” Sylvie’s eyes snapped at Polly. “Don’t you dare tell anybody. Promise me!”

  “I won’t say a word,” Polly zipped her lips shut, thinking she was carrying an awful lot of secrets for her friends. “Not a word. But if you giggle again, I might not be able to control myself.”

  “I can’t make enchiladas. Those are way too common. What am I going to cook? I need to get into the kitchen and see what I have. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You’re kidding me, right? He said that was fine. And we have five other guests you’ve never worried over.”

  Sylvie hadn’t paid any attention to what Polly said. She was distracted as she picked her bag up and wandered out of the office. The Haunted Hallway barrier stopped her and she looked around in confusion, but finally walked to the end of it. Polly hoped she would make it to the kitchen without getting lost.

  Ben had certainly grabbed Sylvie’s attention. Polly scowled. She didn’t need another long distance relationship happening among her friends and she knew nothing about Ben’s life.

  “Why am I even thinking about this,” she muttered just as Jeff stepped into her doorway.

  “Thinking about what?” he asked.

  “Nothing. I’m being silly. What’s up?”

  “Are you all set for tonight? Do you have your costume ready?”

  Polly hadn’t told Jeff what she was wearing this evening and knew he was trying to wriggle information from her.

  “I’m good. I have everything that I need.”

  “Have you talked to Eliseo? Does he need anything?”

  “I think he’s good too. We’re all ready for this.”

  “Fine.” Jeff glared at her. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “But, Lydia doesn’t have you in the plan for the hallway.”

  “Hmmm. That’s interesting. I wonder what I will be doing then?” She laughed and said, “It’s going to be a surprise. That’s all I will tell you.”

  “You’re a rat.”

  “Yes I am and you aren’t going to talk me into telling you anything, so stop trying. I seem to remember that you get a great deal of enjoyment out of surprising me every time I turn around. You have to give me this one!”

  “Not very happily, I won’t. I like planning surprises, not receiving them.”

  “Well, this will be fun and it won’t disrupt you at all. I promise.”

  After he left, Polly shut down her computer and made sure everything was turned off so the place would be dark tonight.

  When she got upstairs, she was surprised to see Luke and Leia wrestling in the middle of the floor. “Do you two do this every morning and I just miss it?” she asked. Leia playfully batted at Luke’s head and rolled over on her back. He dove in and they were back at it, ignoring Polly completely.

  Obiwan had been curled up on the sofa and jumped off to greet her. “At least you’re glad to see me. Will you help me clean?”

  He wagged his tail and followed her into the kit
chen. “No, there’s nothing for you here. I’m just cleaning. Go lay down.” Obiwan lay down in the middle of the kitchen floor. “Not there, you dope. I’ll trip over you. Go on, get moving.” She nudged him with her foot until he stood up. He gave her a forlorn look and went back into the living room.

  Polly kept an eye on the clock. She wanted to take Obiwan outside before Ben and Anita showed up. Once the afternoon got started, there wouldn’t be much time for him.

  Obiwan wasn’t ready to come back in when Polly headed for the garage door, but she called and he obeyed. She sent him up the stairs, then headed for the kitchen. Sylvie was pulling pans out of the oven and Polly laughed out loud at her friend.

  “You are a crazy woman,” she said.

  “What?”

  “You made your famous fried chicken. I suppose there are mashed potatoes, too.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What else did you do?”

  “I’m not telling. You’ll laugh at me.”

  “You could have asked me to help. I would have been here.”

  “It wasn’t a big deal. I had everything I needed. Here, is it okay if you do family style upstairs rather than me putting it on individual plates? It’s nearly ready to go.” Sylvie pointed at a small rubber tub filled with foil covered dishes.

  “That’s perfect. I’ll bring it back down later. Anything else?”

  “Just a minute, okay? I have rolls coming out of the oven.”

  “Homemade rolls, too? Are you asking this man to marry you already?”

  Sylvie blushed, “Leave me alone. It’s good country food.” She took the rolls out of the oven and placed several in a waiting basket. “Now go. Bring things down tomorrow. Rachel will be working in the kitchen. And by the way, I want to talk to you about her sometime. No hurry, though.”

  “Good talk or bad talk?” Polly asked.

  “Oh, good talk. I like her.”

  “Thank you for this,” Polly nodded at the tub as she picked it up. “I’ll be sure to tell him you made it especially for him.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Bet me!”

  Polly hurried to her apartment door before Sylvie could say anything else. As she pulled the door shut behind her, balancing the tub on a step with one hand, she heard her friend growl.

  Once upstairs, she took the dishes out and set the table. Sylvie had made a squash and zucchini casserole, green beans with toasted almonds, mashed potatoes, and a tossed salad. Polly put a piece of lettuce in her mouth. Yep, she’d already put her homemade dressing on it.

  The first knock at her door was Anita. “I really am sorry I didn’t call you back. I’m sure you thought we were avoiding you. I have something interesting to show you, but I promise we weren’t hiding it. In fact, I need your help to figure out how to get to it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There was another partition on that flash drive. It’s encrypted and I’m hoping you can help me figure out what the code is. We’ve had no luck breaking it. I knew you probably had a better idea about it than me so I didn’t try very hard.”

  “Well, if I don’t, Ben Seafold might. He has known Thomas his entire life and his father published the original Eddie Powers mysteries.”

  “Is that the man I saw coming up from the barn?”

  “Probably. He and Eliseo went out for a ride this morning.”

  Anita set her bag down and looked around the room. “This is really nice. I love all the woodwork in here. It’s so soft and warm. And all of these books. Look at this.”

  She pulled a book down and sat in the chair beside the bookshelves. Obiwan sat at her feet and looked up at her, and then nudged her ankle. She reached down with one hand while flipping through the book with the other, absentmindedly rubbing his head and he scooted closer to give her better access.

  Polly watched and smiled. “Anita?” she asked.

  The girl looked up from the book. “Oh! I’m sorry! It just sort of drew me in. How rude of me!”

  “That’s fine. Do you have a dog at home?”

  Anita looked down at Obiwan. “At my parents’ house. We have two Labs that have the run of the place. Bo and Luke. Why?”

  “No reason.” Polly chuckled.

  There was another knock at the door and Anita hastily put the book back in the shelf. Polly opened the door to Ben Seafold and backed up as he filled the entryway. She wasn’t sure whether it was truly his size or his presence. If she paid close attention, he wasn’t all that big. He was tall, a few inches over six foot and he was solid, but he seemed to emanate a large character. When Ben was in the room, he was the center of attention.

  “Come on in, Ben.”

  He followed her and stopped to take in the room. “This is lovely.” He ran his hand over the wood on the bookshelf that encompassed the television set. “Someone does really nice work.” Then he knelt down and ran his finger across the floor. “The floors on this level are wonderful, too. Radiant heat?”

  “Yes. It made more sense for these big rooms.”

  “It does. You’ve created a beautiful place here, Polly. You should feel very proud of yourself.”

  “I didn’t do the work. A good friend of mine is the contractor … and the woodworker.”

  Ben caught sight of Anita in the corner. “Hello,” he said.

  “Ben Seafold, this is Anita Banks from the Sheriff’s Office. She and I have been working together on the flash drive Thomas gave to me. Anita, this is Ben Seafold.”

  The two met in the middle of the living room and shook hands.

  “I’m a privileged man today. I’ve certainly met my share of lovely women and I get to dine with two of them.”

  “Dinner is served,” Polly said.

  Ben regaled them with tales of authors he met as a child. Some were great characters, and his father always had them over to the family home for a meal before signing the final contract. There was the woman who wrote amazing children’s books, but lived with 35 cats and two raccoons. He told of a man from Scotland named Jamie McFarlane, who played the flute and got drunk whenever he could, but if there was a parade within one hundred miles, he found his way into it, drunk as a skunk, playing his flute as he danced back and forth across the street. As a boy, Ben had fallen madly in love with a beautiful young woman, who he later found out wrote the most detailed murder mysteries he’d ever read. He couldn’t imagine that pretty face was hiding such a sinister mind, but she sold many books for their firm.

  The conversation soon turned to Thomas Zeller. Polly said, “I’m dying to know about this other partition. How do we access it?”

  “We need a password,” Anita responded. “I tried Annabel Lee, but that wasn’t it. I tried a couple of other Edgar Allen Poe references, but nothing worked.”

  “Did you try Polly’s name?” Ben asked. “He gave her the drive, telling her that it was for her and no one else. Thomas would have wanted her to be able to open it.”

  “I didn’t think of that.” Anita typed Polly’s name into the password prompt. Nothing happened.

  “What else did the two of you talk about?” Ben asked Polly. “Was there something he focused on when you were together?”

  “I don’t think so. We talked about everything under the sun. He loved my animals. We talked about the fact that we had probably met when he was in the Boston Public Library doing research for one of his books, and then we talked about some of our favorite places out there. But nothing would have been important enough to either of us to create a password. Let me think.” She shut her eyes and set her forehead in the palms of her hands, with her elbows on the table in front of her. As she attempted to process, she was aware that they were staring at her.

  “I’ve got nothing. Did you try any of the names that Nelly and her son used? Maybe the last iteration? Just a second.” Polly opened her note program. “Lenore or Guy Brothers?”

  Anita nodded. “I did go through all of those names, just in case. They didn’t work.”

&n
bsp; “Try ‘Eddie Powers,’” Ben said.

  She typed the letters into the prompt and the drive opened. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” Anita sighed. “I feel like an idiot.” She pulled the folder to her hard drive and opened it.

  “He found them,” Polly breathed. “He knew who they were.”

  “What do you mean?” Ben asked.

  “Look at this picture.” Polly pointed to one and Anita double-clicked to open it. The picture was of Kevin Campbell and his mother coming out of their home in Jewell. There were more pictures of Kevin’s family in and around the community. “He knew they were here.” The pictures were all dated the week before Thomas was killed. “That’s why he hadn’t talked to them yet. There wasn’t time.”

  Another image was a scan of a newspaper clipping about the Drama night at the high school, announcing Kevin Campbell’s annual recitation of The Raven. The time was circled.

  “He was planning to attend this,” Anita said. “It’s so romantic.”

  “And so tragic,” Ben echoed. “He waited his entire life to find Nelly and now that he was within days of speaking to her, he was killed. Who would do this to him?”

  “I have an idea,” Polly said. “But I don’t know if it’s because I don’t like her or because I really think she is up to something.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There is just something really off about Natalie Dormand.”

  Anita had continued to click through the jpegs on the drive until Polly pointed to the screen. “Stop. Look at that. It’s a scan. She sent him a photograph from Jewell. She wanted him to find them.” The photograph was of a younger Genie and Kevin Campbell. The girls were toddlers. “It’s Little Wall Lake. That’s where Dad taught me how to swim.” Polly laughed to herself. “That’s why he was asking questions about rivers and lakes.”

  “Here’s a scan of an envelope from last year,” Anita said. “She must have waited a long time to send it to him. The postmark is from Des Moines.”

  Then Anita opened a Microsoft Word document. “Here’s the manuscript: The Long Road to You. An Eddie Powers Mystery. You were right Polly. He was writing another one.”