“I’d like to,” said Barb. “Are you up to it, Annie?”
“It’s a beautiful day, even if it is chilly.”
“The weathah man said it’s supposed to warm up to 65 degrees this afternoon,” Verna said.
“That will feel good. Yes, I’ll play if we can go out later in the afternoon. I could use a nap; I hardly slept last night.”
“Tee off at three o’clock, okay?” asked Verna. “Can’t be much later because it gets dark a little after five.”
Annie nodded and DeeDee said, “Fine with me. Will ya pick me up, Verna? Doc will need our cart ta get home later.”
Since Barb and Annie lived near one another, they usually rode together. Barb said, “I’ll pick you up a little after two-thirty.”
Annie thanked her. “That’s great if we can use your golf cart, then Art can take ours.” She turned to her husband, “Are the fellows pouring cement this afternoon?”
Barb interrupted, “I thought you usually worked on pouring cement for the cart paths first thing in the mornings, why the change?”
“Something about the cement truck, when it could come,” Art answered. “Also the cold weather held them up. I’m not sure about this afternoon. We’ll have to wait and see.”
“I’ll be glad when the paths are finished. It will be so much nicer to drive on cement instead of those bumpy dirt paths,” Verna said.
“What I want is for them to finish the new bathroom and take that old port-a-johnny away. Anymore, I just can’t make it around nine holes without a pit stop,” Annie said.
Art explained, “Since we didn’t pour cement yesterday, some of the men worked on the new bathrooms. They might have the double one on the fifth hole finished by now, not sure though.”
“That would be lovely,” Annie said.
Von walked up to his friends. “Anything left for me to do?”
Barb jumped in, “We’re about done here, but Annie would like for us to empty that tenth drawer and straighten it up. You can help me. It really needs to be organized. And, by the way, have you noticed that there are no Christmas decorations in here?”
“There’s so many more of them; they’re stored somewhere else. I think they’re kept in tha barn,” DeeDee called as she hung a cardboard cupid shooting a red arrow. “Do ya really want ta do more work? I’ve a mind that we’ve done enough work fer taday. Let’s jest rest, then go play golf. I jest wantta get my mind off everything nasty an’ jest play! No more murders or mysteries! It’s jest too much fer a little old lady ta worry about!”
But Barb paid no attention to DeeDee’s complaint and kept right on emptying the drawer. DeeDee winked at Annie again. They shared the little joke that when Barb was set on doing something, it got done.
Barb pulled out the only plastic bag that was in that drawer. There were some Halloween things in it, but there was something else. She looked inside the bag, then quickly squeezed it shut. She looked around the hall checking to see if only their gang was there. Everyone else had left the hall except the kitchen crew, and they were all behind the closed kitchen door. She called, urgently, “Come here everybody. You’ve got to see this! Look what I found.” Reaching down in the bag, Barb pulled out a shoe. She held it up for them to see a blue denim sneaker.
“That’s it!” screamed Annie. Then lowering her voice, she said, “That’s the mate to the one DeeDee found this morning. Isn’t it, Art? DeeDee?”
“It sure looks like a match ta me. Don’t touch it, anyone. Fingerprints, ya know. This almost proves fer certain that a body was in this drawer. I’ll get tha aluminum foil. Then I’ll slip it ta Doc so he can hide it in tha freezer with tha other package.” Before heading to the kitchen, DeeDee cautioned her friends, “Don’t tell anyone. Annie jest might get hurt if anyone bad finds out ‘bout our evidence.”
“Thank you,” Annie said. “I’m counting on all of you to back me up when we tell that officer where Barb found this matching shoe. I’ve just got to make the sergeant and her deputy believe me. I know there’s a body somewhere, and it’s probably still here in BradLee Park. But, where?”
“Hopefully,” Verna added, “finding that matching shoe will give those deputies something to chew on! They certainly haven’t digested anything Annie’s fed them so far!”
Barb suddenly decided she’d done enough with the decorations for now; somebody else could finish the job. She stuffed the last box into the drawer and said, “I think we’re done here. Does it look okay to you, Annie?”
“Good job,” she answered. “Thanks for pitching in everybody; I appreciate your support. The room looks very festive.”
Art said, “If we’re done here, Annie, I’d like to sit in on the rest of the workshop meeting. Join me?”
“Sure.”
“I have to wait for Brad, so I’ll come too,” Barb said.
“I may as well join y’all. Then I’ll get Doc to drive me home,” said DeeDee.
The Vigeauxs said they were heading home.
* * *
Because they lived close to Old Main, Verna and Von usually walked to Coffee Hour. After the decorations were all hung and their plans made for afternoon golf, they said good-bye to their friends. As they were leaving the clubhouse, Von said to his wife, “Let’s go out the courtyard door.”
“Why do you want to go that way?” asked Verna. “It’s out-of-the-way.”
“I was thinking about what DeeDee told us earlier, you know, about seeing something happen around the air-conditioning units. It was dark when all that happened. I wonder if she ever checked it out in the daylight? I’d like to take a look,” suggested Von.
Outside, they studied the four big A/C units which were quiet on this cold morning. Each unit had a large curved chimney made of sheet metal on top of the square base. The chimney directed hot air away from the overhang of the clubhouse roof. The air-conditioners didn’t fit snug against the wall. “There’s not much room between the wall and the A/C,” Verna observed. “Look, Von, it would be a tight squeeze to get a body back there. And it wouldn’t be hidden very well, now would it?”
“No, it wouldn’t be completely hidden, but, remember, it was dark, and if you weren’t looking for something back there, you probably wouldn’t see it—walk right by it. Besides, nobody comes here except Security after the building’s locked up, and they didn’t have any idea that they should be looking for a body out here,” Von reasoned.
“Didn’t both the Andersens and Davises drive their golf carts here early this morning?” Verna asked, then answered her own question, “I think Art parked here in the courtyard, but Doc parked closer to the kitchen patio door.”
“But, remember, Verna, like Security, they weren’t looking for anything out here when they parked.” Von began poking around the A/C units which were bolted into the cement just outside the west side wall of Old Main.
“Looks to me like one of those big funnels would be a perfect place to shove a body down into,” Verna said.
“It does, doesn’t it?” her husband answered, “but she was laid out straight in that drawer. If rigor mortis had set in, maybe you couldn’t bend the body, and her feet would hang out of the funnel.” He turned to examine the space behind the units. “I suppose you could wedge a body back here, especially if it were a small woman. Look, Verna, look here behind this A/C. If you stuffed it back there, the body would be off the ground on top of the A/C base and wedged behind its chimney.”
“That would be good,” his wife reasoned, “because it would be harder for a fox to get at it.” She started checking the other A/C units and soon called excitedly, “Von! Von! Look at this! Look at what I found!” She pointed to a tiny scrap of material which was caught on the back side of a metal chimney. Under a rough piece of sheet metal there was a scrap of light blue denim. Von pried it out with his pocketknife.
Verna fingered it carefully and said, “I think this is torn off a pair of jeans, and it matches that light blue canvas sneakah Barb just found. Somebody must hav
e hid her body here and left her overnight. Probably, when the murderah pulled her body out this morning, this tiny bit of cloth got caught on the chimney.” Verna headed for the kitchen as she said, “I’ll get some aluminum foil and give it to Doc to hide with the rest of our evidence. Von, you were so smart to think to check out these A/C units!”
“Thank you, darlin’. I’ll go with you to the kitchen. After you give that bit of cloth to Doc, we should find the Andersens.”
Verna quietly walked up to Doc where he was slicing meat. From the look on Verna’s face, he knew this was no time for a joke or smart remark. She opened her hand, and he saw the scrap of material. All she said was, “Please take good care of this.”
Realizing that it was more evidence to be locked in the freezer, Doc said, “I’ll get some foil.”
* * *
The workshop meeting was winding down as Von and Verna pushed open the swinging door into the Annex and found chairs at the back of the room.
Art, Annie, DeeDee, and Barb were all surprised to see them come in the meeting after telling them they were going home. They figured something important had occurred. As soon as the business meeting was over, the friends moved to a corner of the room, and the Vigeauxs told them about finding the denim material caught behind an A/C unit.
“What a wonderful piece of detective work. This is absolutely an important piece of our puzzle. Thank you, Verna. Thank you, Von,” Annie said sincerely.
“I think it’s time to call that deputy,” Art said firmly.
“Come over to our house to use the phone,” Verna suggested.
“Yes, it’ll be a lot more private at our place than using the phone here in Old Main,” Von urged.
“I don’t want ta miss anything,” DeeDee said. “I’m comin’, too.”
“We’ll be over, too,” Barb said, “as soon as Brad finishes here.”
* * *
Brad and Barb arrived at the Vigeaux’s just as Annie hung up their phone. “I convinced Sgt. Menendez to come and pick up our freezer-cold evidence,” Annie told them. “She said she’d be over in fifteen minutes. Mind if we wait here?”
“Of course, it’s fine with us,” Von offered.
“We want to do anything we can to help,” his wife added as she pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “You know that.”
While they were waiting, Annie asked Brad, “Did that Twila come to your workshop?”
He shook his head. “Paul was really disappointed. He said she’d promised to be there. Nobody knew why she didn’t show. Doesn’t look like she’s very reliable.”
Annie looked knowingly at Art; then she swallowed hard. She wondered about Twila, and where she was. The question needed an answer, but she kept the question to herself for now.
* * *
Sgt. Menendez brought Joe Juarez with her to Vigeaux’s house. After they greeted one another, the sergeant said to the seniors, “I would like to ask you some questions, and with your permission I want Joe to tape your answers so I’ll have a record of it.”
They all looked at one another and nodded in agreement.
Juarez took a five by eight inch tape recorder from a cloth carrying case. He looked at Von. “May I plug it in? It will save the batteries.
Von pointed to a wall outlet.
Joe placed the recorder with its built-in microphone on the coffee table where it could pick up any conversation in the room.
Menendez looked around at the seniors, and then asked, “You say you have evidence for us. What is it? Where is it?
DeeDee, who liked to have fun, even with the deputies, spoke up, “Yes, Ms. Sergeant, we certainly do have evidence, but it is very cold evidence.”
The officer raised her eyebrows, “What do you mean by cold evidence?”
Barb, who thought this was no time for silliness, asserted herself, “We have four items that we believe are most definitely related to ‘Our Mystery.’ They are wrapped in foil and hidden in the big freezer in the clubhouse kitchen. That’s why DeeDee calls it ‘cold evidence.’”
“And just why are they in the freezer?” Joe Juarez asked. “Will they spoil?”
“No, what we found won’t spoil,” Verna answered, “It will keep.”
“Then why put it in there?” Menendez asked again.
“Because,” DeeDee said, “My husband was afraid fer Annie ta take tha stuff home. We don’t want her ta get hurt. When y’all looked in those drawers tha other night, you tipped tha murderer off. When he saw you, then he knew fer sure that Annie had seen tha body in that drawer an’ called the law. Before that, he jest wasn’t sure.”
Brad added, “We don’t know if they might hurt Annie or not. We don’t want to take any chances on our Annie getting hurt. Look what he did to that other woman—the one we now call ‘the body.’”
Menendez looked at Annie, who admitted, “It’s true, Maria, I am a little afraid. Any little strange noise spooks me anymore. So, we, the eight of us, aren’t telling anyone except you two officers that we have found anything—about finding evidence.”
The officer drummed her fingers on her thigh, amazed to think that eight people could all keep a secret of this magnitude for two days now. Again she looked at Annie, “Suppose you tell us about your evidence,” the woman officer was firm but pleasant as she spoke.
Annie told them what their gang had found: a tissue with a lipstick blot on it; a light blue sneaker under the stage; a matching one in a plastic bag in Drawer Number Ten; and a torn scrap of light-blue denim material caught on an A/C unit.
After the officer noted the four pieces of evidence, she said, “Now, I’d like you to review for me exactly when and where you think the body was moved. Be exact. I want details.”
Joe pushed the recorder closer to Annie, and she began: “Move number 1 was Tuesday, that was yesterday—from wherever she was killed which was probably on the stage of Old Main or near it. We think it was between two and two-thirty that afternoon. Then she was stuffed into that big drawer under the stage. Whoever did it saw me open that drawer. He—I’m guessing it was a man—didn’t know if I’d seen the body or not, but he couldn’t take a chance.
“Move number 2: So, when the electricity went off, he pulled the body out. One of her shoes fell off and stayed in that plastic bag in the drawer which Barb retrieved. We believe that he opened another drawer, an empty one and shoved the body through the open end. As he closed the drawer, it pushed the body further under the stage. That’s why you officers didn’t see it when you were searching last night.
“Move number 3: It was too warm inside Old Main to leave the body overnight. He had to get it outside where the temperature was just above freezing. After the Bingo clean-up crew left, he pulled the body out from behind that second drawer and somehow she lost her other shoe, which DeeDee spotted this morning, under the stage. As he carried the body out of Old Main last night, a tissue with her lipstick blot on it fell out of her pocket. Art found it early this morning near the door to the bathrooms. When I saw the lipstick blot on it, I was sure that a woman had used it. Because the floor was swept clean, we knew it had to have been dropped after the Bingo clean-up crew left. When the bad guy got outside, he pushed the body behind an air-conditioning unit in the courtyard. That’s where it spent the night.
“Move number 4: Early this morning, Wednesday, maybe a little after five o’clock, DeeDee saw a man pickup something heavy, probably the body, from behind one of the A/C units. He slung it over his shoulder and headed for the Shuffle Building. He wouldn’t stop or even turn around when DeeDee called to him. The Davises and Art and I looked all around that building, inside and out, and found nothing. We don’t know where the body is now. Maybe she is still in a golf cart or a car. Von had the wisdom to go out to the courtyard in the daylight this morning to examine the four units. That’s when Verna found a scrap of light-blue denim material caught on the sheet metal on the back side of one of the A/C units.”
“That is a very complex story you hav
e told,” Juarez praised. “What do you think, Sarg?”
“I am impressed with their reasoning. Time and a lot more investigating will tell if they are correct,” Maria answered.
Then Art asked the question Annie had proposed earlier, “Do you suppose the bad guy wants to bury her? If you never find her body, it will be hard to prove there’s been a crime, won’t it?”
“Correct. I’ve had several discussions with my superior in the Sheriff’s Department, trying to convince him that a crime has possibly been committed. I need permission to keep the case open. This evidence you have so carefully collected doesn’t prove there’s actually a crime, but it does make your story more credible,” Menendez said. She continued, “I notice that you have carefully not mentioned who you think committed this supposed murder, or why.”
The friends looked around at one another. Barb spoke for them, “We hesitate to put a name to the ‘bad guy’ because we don’t have any proof.”
“Sergeant,” Brad interrupted, “I’m Barb’s husband, and I’m on the BradLee Board. I told Barb some inside information which may have guided the ladies—he gestured to the women in the living room—as they analyzed the crime.”
“And, that was … ?”
Brad continued, “The Board has come to believe that Karl Kreeger, the Director of our park’s Bingo Games, has been skimming money. We recently appointed a woman who is a new resident here to be Karl’s assistant. She has excellent business credentials. We aren’t interested in prosecuting Karl; we just want to put an end to his sticky fingers. We had hoped to quietly have a book-keeping system with checks and balances put in place, so all monies are accounted for. He has run them well for over five years and does an outstanding job of promoting our Bingo games throughout the community.”
“And how did he adjust to having a woman assistant thrust on him?” Menendez asked.
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