by Bob Moats
“Ah, ha,” I exclaimed. “The mystery continues.”
*
Chapter Thirteen
We were looking at the key when we heard a floor board creak above us. I quietly asked Dave if anyone was supposed to be in the house. He said no. I reached under my jacket for my Glock and realized I had left it in my desk drawer in my office. Some big shot P.I. I was, totally unarmed. I put the key in my pocket, and we went to the stairs. Just as we got there I saw a couple of baseball bats against a wall. I took one and gave one to Dave. I quietly went up the stairs, followed by Dave, and came out into the kitchen listening for any sound. Dave and I went into the living room and were heading down the hallway to the bedrooms just as someone came flying out of the first bedroom and ran into us. He had a ski mask on and was about my height.
I brought up the bat, and he rolled low, pushing into my legs, knocking me back into Dave. He sprang up just past us and ran to the kitchen. Dave was trying to get up and bumped into me trying to get up. It reminded me of a comedy routine as we followed after the intruder. He had gone out the back door and was climbing over the backyard fence as we came out. I just stood there, pissed at myself for being unarmed.
“I wonder what he thought he was looking for,” I said. “The police would have just come in to look, but this guy snuck in, middle of the day, with his face covered, so no one could I.D. him. This is getting odd.” I looked at Dave, “There’s something that Noreen left behind that someone wants. We need to find it.”
We went back in the house, and I took out the key and examined it closer. It was a Master lock key, so I said to Dave, “This is from a lock somewhere securing a door to keep people out. Do you know if Noreen had a storage unit somewhere?”
“None that I know of. We had one years ago when we first moved here from Lansing. We had it for about a year then took our stuff out of it when we moved to this house. Noreen said she was going to tell them we were done with it.”
I asked where it was, and he said it was just off Masonic Road in Fraser. I knew the place, and asked if he remembered the unit number. He said it was number 78, and as far as he knew it belonged to someone else now. I said I’d check it later. We spent the next two hours going through his house, closets, attic, anywhere there might be things hidden by Noreen. We came up with nothing. It was nearly 5 p.m. and I said I had some business to attend to, just an excuse to get away for a while. I said I would start to do some serious investigating in the morning, and I would keep him apprised of my findings. He seemed happy with that, said he was tired and would rest. I told him to keep the baseball bats handy just in case, or better yet, if he had somewhere else to stay. He said he could go stay with his sister in Warren for a couple of nights if her kids didn’t drive him nuts. I gave him my card with my cell phone number and told him to call anytime if he found or thought of anything else important. He gave me his cell number, and I put it in my Treo as he gathered some clothes to take with him.
I drove him back to my office to get his car, and he drove off. I went into the office and sat at my desk, playing with the key. I called a locksmith friend of mine I’ve known for years, although I hadn’t talked to him in a while. He was surprised to hear from me, and we talked a bit about what we had been up to over the years. I told him about my present occupation, and he was impressed. I told him I needed some professional advice. He said, shoot. I told him about the key and described it, giving him the serial number off it. He looked in his book of locks and keys and said that was from a typical Master lock you’d buy in a hardware store, nothing special, just a bit more muscle than most locks but not impossible to open. I thanked him and said we had to get together to talk old times. I knew it wouldn’t happen, but it sounded nice to say it.
I pulled out my local yellow pages and looked under storage. Found the one I wanted, Extra Space Storage, and called. A young sounding man answered and asked if he could help me. I said I needed to know if Dave or Noreen Weston still rented unit 78. He paused and asked if this had something to do with her murder, that he had read about it in the paper. I told him I was a private investigator and was looking into the case. He did some typing at his computer and said they didn’t have that unit anymore. I asked if Noreen had rented another unit. He checked and said she hadn’t. I thought of something and asked if he had a Noreen Black renting a unit. He checked and said there was one on his list, it was paid through the year and it was a small one, 5X8, unit 201. I got the tingle. I thanked him and said I would be in with her husband to see what she might have left, and hung up.
I wasn’t going to call Dave that night to tell him the news. It might just somehow get out, and I didn’t want anyone beating me to it. I was a bit run down and wanted to see Penny, so I closed up and went home. Driving there I wondered how Buck was making out with Elma and Ralph. I’d call him later to see. At least he hadn’t called me to say he was in jail for killing Ralph. I finally got to the house and parked in my spot. Penny was at the door as I came up, holding a tray of cookies and looking proud.
“My God, you did it. You actually baked,” I announced happily. She beamed and shoved a cookie in my mouth. I bit, and it was good. I’m not a sweets fan, cookies, cakes, I rarely ate all that kind of baked goods, but this was good. I tried to talk with my mouth full of cookie, she laughed and we went into the kitchen. She was telling me her baker guest on the show today explained the proper way to bake. I swallowed and said I had better not find an empty store cookie wrapper in the trash. She pointed to the mess on the counter and said she did it all by herself. We took the cookies to the couch after I got a glass of milk and sat. I only drank milk with cookies, donuts or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Otherwise, I didn’t touch milk.
“How was your day, sweetie?” she asked. She smelled like pastry, so I started nibbling at her neck which usually drives her nuts. She pushed me back and said to talk now and munch later.
I told her about Elma and how she surprised Buck and me with her outburst after seeing the evidence. Penny laughed and said it was always the quiet ones that have the rage in them. I agreed. I told her about Dave Weston and our trying to find Noreen’s hidden stash and my luck on finding the storage unit. She said it was too bad I couldn’t shoot the intruder, next time I’d better remember to bring my gun.
“Rule number one! Always have your weapon, so you don’t get killed,” she insisted. “If he had a gun, you’d be dead now with a baseball bat in your hand. I’d have buried you with it, shoved right up your fool butt.”
I was trying not to laugh with cookies and milk in my mouth but dribbled a little. She wiped my mouth with a napkin and kissed my lips. “Tasty,” she said.
I took out my cell phone and told Penny I was calling Buck to see how his day went. After about four rings, Buck came on and said howdy.
“I’m demanding a raise in pay.” He smiled through the phone.
“Take that up with Elma. She’s got the bucks. Did you confront Ralphy boy?” I put the cell on speaker phone so Penny could hear.
“Oh yeah, we had a real nice little talk. I drove her to the pool store, and we called Ralph out to the parking lot where Elma ripped him a new ass. I was afraid I’d have to protect Ralph from her. He just stood there taking it all in and fearing for his life. He would look over at me every now and then. I’m not sure if he wanted help or wondered why I was there. She told him I was her bodyguard, and she wanted him out of her house immediately if not sooner, or she’d have me break both his legs. I was trying to keep from laughing. Elma and I left, and she got real quiet again. She asked if I was going to protect her till after Ralph was gone. I said I’d be around till she felt safe. That seemed to please her.”
“Glad your day was good. I picked up a case from Dave Weston to track down his wife’s killer. I’ll tell you about it later. Right now I have some serious cookie eating to do. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” We said our so longs and hung up.
Penny said that all the cookies were gone. I said that wasn�
��t the cookie I had in mind to devour. She got wide eyed and ran to the bedroom. I yelled like Cookie Monster, “Cookie good, want cookies!” and ran after her.
*
Chapter Fourteen
I was dreaming of the Keebler elves baking me into a giant chocolate chip cookie and then I was about to be eaten by a giant when the phone rang. I stirred, reached over to the bed stand and grabbed my phone. I looked at the clock. It was 6:45 a.m. I answered grumpily.
“This better be important,” I growled.
“Jimmy, it’s Buck, I lost Elma.”
I sat upright in bed. “You what? Is she dead or missing?”
“Missing. I was sleeping on the couch and had to use the john. I got up and went down the hall and did my business, came out and saw her bedroom door was open. I peeked in to make sure she was all right, and her bed was empty. I searched the house and checked the garage. Her car is gone. Man, I didn’t expect her to fly the coop.”
“She’s a big girl. I just hope she went out for cigarettes and not to murder her husband. Just stick around and wait for her, that’s all you can do. If she returns with a good excuse, tell her you quit unless she respects your job. Maybe that will work. If she isn’t back by noon, call me.” Buck said he would and hung up. Damn, what was she up to?
I plopped my head back down on the pillow but knew I wouldn’t sleep.
Penny mumbled something about good cookies and rolled over away from me. She could sleep through a bomb blast. I was remembering when she was in the hospital recovering from her kidnapping by Waters and Morgan, and Trapper fired his gun twice to stop Alice Stone from killing me. Penny barely woke and just asked for some quiet. I would wake up when her stupid cat would jump up on the bed. I like cats, but her cat, Shadow, just seemed to be indifferent to me. I know cats are supposed to be indifferent to people but this one just plain ignored me.
My mind went back to Elma. Where was she? I should have asked Buck where Ralph was staying, and if Elma knew. She hadn’t paid me yet for my services rendered, so I hoped she didn’t get her fool head blown off. I still couldn’t slow my mind down enough to sleep, so I got up, went out to the family room and flipped on the TV. It was just after 7 a.m., and the viewing was limited to morning shows with those teeth bright hosts and infomercials. I don’t like watching the news, it’s too depressing, so I put on the cartoon network and watched Bugs Bunny for the zillionth time. Him I can relate to.
Around 7:30 Penny came staggering out and asked what I was doing watching cartoons. I told her about Buck’s call as she sat next to me.
“You think Elma is up to no good?” she asked.
“I haven’t any idea,” I replied. “I’m going to the storage place today and hopefully there will be some evidence to solve Noreen’s murder in there,” I said.
“Maybe you’ll find Ralph’s body in there, too.” She grinned.
“Don’t even joke about it,” I replied. “Who do you have on your show today?” I asked changing the subject.
“I think there’s a judo kung-fu kind of person on today. He’s into meditation and all that stuff,” she mumbled, still half asleep.
“I dread you coming home now. I’ll either be kung-fu’d to death or forced into a lotus position on the floor.”
“Lotus position is yoga, sweetie, not kung-fooey.” She smiled and put her head on my shoulder.
We sat watching Elmer Fudd trying to avoid getting married to Bugs Bunny in drag. I love these cartoons. Penny drifted off again, and I had to shake her to go get ready for her hosting duties. She stumbled off to the bathroom and came back out a half hour later looking fresh and awake and dressed. I wondered how she could do such a quick change. She went into the kitchen after giving me a kiss and got a couple pieces of toast and juice. I went to get myself ready for the day, and we met at the door, both heading out.
I got to my office around 8:50 and found Trapper sitting in the lobby. He grinned as I came up the hall and said he had to tell some babe in a mini-skirt where the travel agency was. I hissed and said I really had to go up and check them out.
In the office, I set up the new coffee maker I bought for my clients’ pleasure and offered Trapper a cup. He agreed, and I got the thing started. I refused to drink coffee, but it was an extra feature of my office now.
“Don’t they have enough for you to do at the precinct?” I wondered.
“I’m a lieutenant now. I assign work to everyone else and go hide.” He laughed. “So you are on Weston’s case now to find Noreen’s killer?” he asked as he took the cup.
“I’m glad there is a pipeline for my business to the world, and I don’t even twitter. Damn foolish thing anyway.” I grimaced. “I could see me trying to twitter right in the middle of a shootout. One hand on my gun, the other typing furiously with my thumb.”
“Any progress on the Weston case?” Trapper was curious.
I filled him in on everything that happened the day before, starting with Elma and on to our search of Weston’s home and finding the key. Trapper laughed when I related leaving my gun in the office when we ran into the home invader. He said I should start sleeping with it. I said Penny might object to that. I asked if he had an hour to kill. He said he might and asked what nefarious plan I had in mind. I told him about the storage unit and asked if he wanted to go with me to check it out.
“You mean I have to work?” He laughed.
“No, just observe, I’ll do the hard stuff,” I replied. “I don’t want Weston tagging along. I don’t know if I can trust him for now.”
“I’ll follow you over in my car just in case I have to go do some real work,” he said.
We went out, got in our respective vehicles, and drove to Extra Space Storage. The main gate was open so we drove in, and I cruised around the lot checking the numbers on the units until I found 201. Trapper pulled up behind me, and we got out.
“Well, this is it. Now to see if there’s anything in here incriminating.” I reached for the lock and stopped. Trapper came up beside me and saw what I saw. The lock was cut but hung to look like it was still together.
“Great, this just keeps getting annoying. I’m always a step behind someone.” I tried the key in the lock to be sure it was the correct lock, and it opened. “Well, I have the right key anyway.”
We pulled the rolling door up and went in. There were about four packing boxes and a small file cabinet, all opened and gone through. I picked up a couple of VHS tapes off the floor and read the label.
“She put the client number on the tapes but still no names. I hope the book or file she had those names in wasn’t stored here,” I said. We looked through the mess and then put everything back in boxes and the file cabinet drawers. There wasn’t much paperwork, looked like just old files she put away. Trapper said we probably should call Lincoln and let him know this stuff was here since it was his case. I said I wanted to look a few tapes over just to see what I was up against. He thought that would be acceptable, we could take the stuff to Lincoln later. I think he just wanted to watch the tapes and get his kicks. We put the boxes in my car, and I was standing by the car looking around at the units when I noticed a camera housing down the end of the row and pointed it out to Trapper. He smiled and said we should go have a look at the videos.
We went into the small office at the front gate. There was a younger man at a desk. He smiled and said hello and identified himself as the manager.
“We need to see your surveillance tapes for the last couple days,” Trapper said, flashing his badge.
“We only keep a week’s worth, but you’re more than welcome to have a look,” the manager said. He got up and pulled out a box from under a cabinet with a huge TV sitting on it, showing the various areas of the yard watched by the cameras. He brought up six tapes that were marked by date on an erasable label. I asked if we could take them and return them later in the day. He said that would be all right, and I gave him my card. He asked if I was the one who called yesterday about the Weston case, and
I said I was. He said it was funny because someone called just after me and asked the same questions. I cursed myself for not coming over right away. I asked if he had caller I.D. He said he did, went to his phone and looked up the backlog of calls, found the one from the time he remembered it came in, after mine. He wrote it down, I thanked him, and we went out.