“So, what do you propose we do now, Cy?”
“I told you, Lou. I’m not ready to propose.”
“Let me phrase it another way. What do you plan to do now?”
“Now, as in now now, I plan to call Jennifer and see if we have a ride home. Hopefully we do, and we get a good dinner and a kiss or two out of the deal, too. I want to wait on everything else until after we’ve talked to Frank in the morning. Also, I want to find out what, if anything, happened at that motel. I want to know if Kincaid’s truck and trailer are still there, and if so, how they got there. I want to know what happened to his money, although I think finding that out will be a little harder. I want to talk to someone in law enforcement down in Murray, find out anything I can about Tom Kincaid, and about his wife. I want to see if we can find a witness who saw her in Murray yesterday, so we can eliminate her as a suspect. Of course it would also be nice if we can narrow down the time of the murder, and find some people who can say for sure that so-and-so was somewhere else when the murder was committed. Someone we can believe. That means that sometime tomorrow morning, after we know a little more, I plan to start talking to witnesses. I’ll start with Johnny Delmont, provided they find him and bring him back to Hilldale. We’ll go by the jail and talk to him, see whether or not we need to hold him or if we let him go. I plan to talk to the three men who live here, Clements, Pitts, and Edmonds, and then decide whether to call or go visit Cross in West Liberty.
“But all of that can wait until tomorrow. Let’s call Jennifer and Thelma Lou and see if they’re willing to come and pick up two tired, grumpy old men.”
“I’m not grumpy. I’m not even old yet.”
“Whatever.”
+++
“Interested in a date?”
“Sorry, Cy, but I promised Lou I’d be his girl.”
“Very funny, Thelma Lou. Are the two of you still interested in putting up with a couple of old guys?”
“No, but if you and Lou are interested, I can start dinner and send Jennifer over to pick you up. Are you still at the park?”
“We are. We’ll be waiting with bells on.”
“I thought you promised Jennifer you wouldn’t wear those bells anymore. Let me get off here, and I’ll send her on over. She should be there within a couple of hours. Spaghetti and meatballs okay with the two of you?”
“Is the Pope still single?”
+++
Jennifer arrived a few minutes later and I almost had to solve the case alone. Instead, I remained calm and pulled Lou out of the car after he had scooted in next to Jennifer.
“You can drive your car if you want, but you can’t have my best girl.”
Lou and Jennifer laughed, and she unbuckled her seatbelt, and stepped out of the car. I opened the rear driver side door and she slid in. Then, I walked around, got in, and slid over next to her, and buckled my seatbelt. Then, I kissed her until Lou started complaining about being hungry. It was the first time I’d heard him utter something like that in months.
“Whether or not we kiss has no bearing on whether or not you hightail it out of here.”
He thought about that for a moment, realized that I was right, and put the car in gear.
The time we spent kissing before we left the park and after we arrived at Thelma Lou’s but before we got out of Lou’s car allowed us to time our entrance almost to the minute that Thelma Lou had dinner ready. Lou walked over and gave Thelma Lou a quick peck on the cheek, and then I complained about being hungry. They both turned to stick their tongues out at me. Jennifer and I retaliated.
We had an enjoyable meal. Jennifer and I refrained from reliving the best scene from Lady and the Tramp and both of us stuck to our own spaghetti. We didn’t actually stick to it. Thelma Lou wasn’t that bad of a cook, but we didn’t try to eat from the same strand. It wasn’t as good eating it in a mannerly way, but at least the company was good. Well, one of the company at least.
Despite the fact that Jennifer knew that Lou and I would be working on our murder investigation, she decided to stay in town an extra couple of days. I told her that we would be really busy the next day, and I had no idea how far into the night we would be working. She told me she was available as late as I was, and Lou nearly choked on a meatball.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up Monday morning. The first thing I thought of was Jennifer. I lay in bed smiling. The second thing I thought of was the murder that would keep me from seeing Jennifer. My smile turned upside down.
I popped up out of bed. Well, not like a piece of toast popping up out of a toaster, but a lot quicker than I was able to do before I started Wiiing. Kincaid’s murder would keep me away from Jennifer, and it would keep me from reading, but it wasn’t going to keep me from Wiiing or the morning time I spent with God in prayer and reading and reflecting upon the scripture I read in my devotional book.
I get up about an hour and a half earlier than I used to. Lou and I used to eat breakfast out, but I’ve started fixing my own breakfast, and eating a lot less. I walked over to the back door and looked out upon a beautiful morning. The sun had just risen. The temperature was comfortable for an early October day. The leaves had begun to turn, but had not yet begun to fall. When they do, it would be time to get to work, to call my yard boy, and hope he rakes them over in my next-door neighbor’s yard so she will have some leaves to rake, too, and her mutt will have some leaves to…never mind.
I closed the door, walked back into the living room, plopped down in my recliner, and leaned back to pray. Yes, I was praying, not taking my first nap of the day. I doubted if I would have time to work in a nap, and I was right. After I prayed, I read a passage from the Bible and then opened my devotional book to the devotional for the day. I read it and took a couple of minutes to reflect upon its message.
I had lots to do, so I jumped up from the recliner, walked into the kitchen, and found my box of cereal of choice, Post Selects, Great Grains Whole Grain Cereal, Raisins, Dates, & Pecans. I shook out a reasonable amount, then opened a plastic bag full of raw almonds, and took out a handful and tossed them in the bowl. Then, I opened the freezer door and took out a bag of frozen blueberries. I added three-quarters of a cup, the recommended amount, returned the bag to the freezer, and then opened the other side, the refrigerator. I took out a carton of almond milk, and poured until it almost covered my cereal. Next, I poured myself a big glass of water from the cold water dispenser on the freezer door, and sat down to pray for the good breakfast God had given me, and for His help in learning to like my new food as much as I liked the fattening stuff I used to eat.
I tried to eat slower than I’d been used to eating most of my life, but I’m not a slow eating person. Still, I paused for a millisecond after each bite. After I finished eating, I went to the front porch and retrieved the newspaper, hoping to get my day off to a good start by reading the comics. It was there, in the comics, where I found the most people similar to myself. Not all of them, but maybe one or two. I wasted enough time reading the paper, and giving my food time to settle, before picking up my newfound life as an exercise aficionado. Normally on Mondays, I torture myself doing Wii Fit exercises, but I didn’t expect the rest of my day to be the least bit fun, so I slipped in a tennis game and did my best to win a couple of sets. I only threw my arm out of the socket a couple of times. At least when playing tennis on the Wii you don’t have to chase down errant shots.
After I worked out hard enough that my body had taken up an aroma that only I could live with, and even I couldn’t live with it very long, I turned off the game, and headed off to take a shower. Before I turned to a life that included exercise, I struggled to get in and out of the shower each day. I still struggle to get in and out of the shower each day, but now it’s because I’ve worked my muscles so hard before I get there. Before, stepping into the shower was my second exercise of the day, closely following my first, propelling myself out of bed, in less than three minutes. I wasn’t ready for Dancing with the
Stars, but at least I’d progressed from the guy who could have done the commercial with the line, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.”
All of the preliminaries to my day had taken long enough that I was sure that not only was Frank up, but that he had memorized every mark on and in the victim’s body. I picked up the phone to see if he had any surprises for me.
“Good morning, Frank.”
“Good morning, Cy. I’m glad you’ve finally greeted the new day. I’ve been up long enough to have completed six autopsies.”
“I’ll have you know that I’ve been up for a while too, and if you’ve completed any autopsies, it’s only one.”
“But it’s the one you want to know about, and I’m happy to report to you that I have no surprises for you. Your victim died in the manner I figured, a blow to the head by a blunt instrument, probably one of his puzzles, since there was a splinter of wood in his scalp. He died where we found him, and he died sometime between 6:00 and midnight Saturday night. Also, we had someone go over his motel room. We did find his truck and house keys in the room, as well as the key to the motel room, and we also found a maid who did a thorough job of cleaning the room. I don’t know how the keys got from the tent to the motel room, but then that’s not my job, that’s yours. Good luck with that.”
“Anyone still at the motel?”
“I think our man there said there are two or three cars, trucks, or whatever around.”
“I meant do we still have someone there?”
“We do. I figured you might want to see it, see if anything might help solve this case, so I left a man there, told him to stay until noon, or until I called. I assume you can get by there sometime this morning.”
“I’ll do my best, Frank. I’ve already narrowed my suspect list down to not more than a hundred.”
“That’s progress, Cy, considering there were a lot more people than that in the park on Saturday. Anything else you need from me?”
“I’ll try to think of something.”
“I’m sure you will, Cy. I’m sure you will.”
I hung up from talking to Frank and placed a call to the Sheriff’s office in Murray. Someone needed to inform the widow that she was a widow. That is if she didn’t already know that.
“Sheriff Offutt.”
“Sheriff, this is Lt. Dekker in Hilldale. Do you always answer your own phone?”
“It hasn’t exactly been a busy day so far, and I happened to be right here, so I made myself useful. What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”
“Sheriff, do you happen to know a man named Tom Kincaid, who lives in Murray?”
“The puzzle man. Know him well.”
“Well, then I have some bad news for you. He’s dead. Died up here. Someone murdered him.”
“Tom? Dead? Any idea who did it?”
“Not yet. That’s what I’m working on. Do you know enough about him to know if he had any enemies?”
“No, he was harmless enough. Spent most of his time in his woodshop in his backyard, working on puzzles. Believe it or not that guy sells enough of those things that he stays busy year round. Even around here, people are always buying them, especially around Christmas. Don’t guess they’ll be buying them anymore. How did it happen?”
“Someone bashed him over the head with a blunt instrument, possibly one of his puzzles, sometime Saturday night, between 6:00 and midnight. Well, that’s what the medical examiner said. Since we know of people who saw him after 7:00 we can say it was definitely after 7:00.”
“Saturday, you say. Well, I guess that leaves his wife out. Saw her Saturday afternoon around 3:00 at Kroger. Asked her how she and Tom were doing. She said that Tom was out of town doing a show, that she was buying stuff for supper because her sister was coming over. She and her sister are close, and her sister’s husband was out of town, too. I can’t remember where she said he had headed off to. Probably to the MSU-EKU football game. I know I see him at all the home games. See, I know her sister and brother-in-law, too. Nice couple. Do you want me to go over and break the news to her?”
“I’d appreciate that. And let me know what response you get. Word around here is that they weren’t all that close.”
“I don’t guess they were at that, but I’ve never had any problem with either one of them. I’ve found both of them pleasant to talk to, and we’ve never had any domestic violence issues. I think it’s more that they like doing different things, and don’t have much in common. Still, they’ve been married over ten years. Come to think of it, it might be closer to twenty, but I don’t guess you need to know about that. I’ll be going out shortly and I’ll head over to their place and give her the bad news.”
“And you can’t think of anyone else down there that had anything against him?”
“No one I can think of. He pretty much kept to himself, but he always spoke when you saw him, and, like I said, people all over the place couldn’t get enough of those puzzles of his. I’ve even bought some of them myself.”
“Well, we have a few suspects up here. None of them sound all that likely to have done it, but one of them might, or there could be someone we haven’t learned about yet. At any rate, I’ve got enough to do to keep me busy at least the next couple of days, and I’ve already talked to a few of these people. Any idea when you can run by and inform the widow?”
“I’ll head over in a few minutes. Give me a couple of hours. I’ve got a couple of errands to run while I’m out, and I might stop in the local diner a few minutes and drink a cup of coffee with the locals. People around here like to know that the sheriff is out and about, and I want to get reelected. I like this job. I’ll let you know what I can.”
My next call was to Joan Arrington. Six of the people who bought items from her paid her by check. She didn’t know whether any of them bought from Kincaid too, but I took down the names, addresses, and phone numbers just in case. It could be that one of these six was the murderer, or one of them might be able to help us if they bought from Kincaid, paid him by check, and the check cleared. Of course it would probably be at least a couple more days before I learned anything there.
I didn’t want to be nosy, but I checked back with Joan Arrington to see how much money Kincaid might have had on him. She said he probably had $100-300 in change when he started, and while she had no idea how much he sold, she would guess it to be anywhere between $300-2,500. She said she knew vendors that barely sold $100 at a show and others that sold $5000 or more if a show was two or three days. I wondered if I was in the wrong business. Then, I realized that one guy making big bucks was dead and I was still strolling along.
I thanked her for her time, hung up, and dialed the jail. They had apprehended Delmont thirty minutes out of Hilldale, brought him back kicking and screaming, and were holding him at the jail until we arrived. I smiled as I hung up.
I made one more call, to God’s gift to the World of Wii to let him know I was on my way. He thanked me for the warning.
Chapter Twenty
“Mr. Atlas here. The finest chiseled body in three counties.”
“Does that include the body down at the morgue?”
“I don’t know. Has Frank quit chiseling on him?”
“I don’t think that Frank uses a chisel any more, since he got that money for new equipment. Maybe you might want to take an autopsy or two and find out.”
“Maybe I wouldn’t. So, are you saying that Frank is finished with Kincaid?”
“That’s affirmative. Are you ready to go to work, Chiseler?”
“Does that mean I have a choice?”
“No.”
“Then I guess I’m ready.”
“See you in a few. I’ll fill you in when I get there.”
“10 4, Red Ryder.”
+++
I pulled up in front of Lou’s apartment building and saw him open his front door. He didn’t look like the Lou I knew. He was glum-faced, walked slowly to the car, got in and sat down. He turned to me with a strange look on hi
s face.
“A nightmare.”
“Your hamster die?”
“I don’t have a hamster.”
“Your cat die?”
“Cy, you know I don’t have any pets?”
“Thelma Lou kick you out?”
“Cy, you know we don’t live together, and yes, we are still getting along fine.”
“But you had a nightmare?”
“Not yet.”
“So, you’re going to have a nightmare?”
“Maybe.”
“Am I going to have a nightmare, too?”
“Possibly.”
“Is my next-door neighbor in it?”
“Cy, your next-door neighbor is in a lot of your nightmares, but I don’t know about this one.”
“Anyone else have a nightmare, or going to have one?”
“I have no idea.”
“So, what is all this nightmare stuff?”
“It’s our clue for today.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?”
“I just did.”
“Well, can we just skip today and go on to tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What about if you go back inside and I go home and we’ll pick up with the case tomorrow?”
“Then ‘nightmare’ might be tomorrow’s clue.”
“So, I guess we have to press on and realize that God has warned us.”
“Something like that.”
I filled Lou in about what I’d learned, and then told him we were headed to the motel.
“Cy, I insist on getting two rooms. I’m not sleeping in the same bed with you. Do you know if they have room service?”
“You can find out when we get there, but it will be harder to get it, considering we aren’t getting any room. We’re going to Kincaid’s room, instead.”
“I’m not sleeping there unless the maid changed the sheets. No telling what he might have picked up in the park on Friday or Saturday.”
6 Murder at the Art & Craft Fair Page 11