I discovered the corporation responsible for building the condos filed all the proper papers with the county and obtained a multitude of building permits all of which looked entirely legal. The newspapers reported only the most mundane stories about the construction of the buildings and their sale to the public. The condo board, an advisory body made up of several real estate agents, a member of the management corporation responsible for the day-to-day operation of the condo property and several condo owners selected to serve by all those owning condo units held monthly meetings. A member of the community at large also served on the board. That explained Rudolf Pruitt’s board membership. It did not explain why he would choose to serve on the board. I couldn’t fathom what expertise they were searching for in him. Although he claimed some background in water resources when we talked about his taking on chair of the board, his specialty was earthquakes, not lakes.
Annie and I shared our information while we sipped frozen lattes in the shade of an old oak tree on grounds of the county office building. The only question I could come up with for further exploration had to do with Rudolf. I thought it unlikely that he would simply wander onto the board with no provocation and wondered who might have recommended it to him, or, perhaps even better, who recommended him and why. Rudolf wouldn’t divulge the information to me. But Bunny Talbot might.
Remembering Rudolf’s comment to me that she had some papers associated with the Board’s past and his assertion that they might be important when the state began its environmental probe associated with the boat launch issue, I thought I should explore with her the significance of these papers. On the other hand, Rudolf might have been blowing smoke you-know-where, and there were no papers of any importance.
Annie reminded me that my supermarket scene with Bunny made it likely she wouldn’t speak to me again. I needed a cover to get to her. The newspapers reported that the board met the fourth Friday of every month. I assumed Bunny would turn over the papers to Rudolf before that meeting, which was just a little over a week away. With any luck whatsoever, Bunny still had them. And, if they existed, I needed them.
“Annie, do you think you could imitate Nancy’s voice over the phone?” Annie and I were heading back to the lake in my car, windows open, the breeze blowing the heat from our bodies as well as if I had air conditioning.
“Not if the person at the other end of the line was someone who knew her well, but if that person was a stranger, sure. I’d just need to talk real breathy-like.” Annie obliged by demonstrating. “This is (breath) Nancy, (breath) and I’m calling (breath) for, Rudolf.” Another breath and a tee hee followed Rudolf’s name.
“Good enough, but you can leave off the ‘tee hee.’”
“What do you have in mind?” Annie asked.
I outlined my plan as I turned onto the road leading to the lake. The only difficulty in its execution was finding someone to pick up the papers from Bunny.
“Is this legal?” asked Annie.
“Of course.” I said it with more conviction than I felt. “We need someone young, someone Bunny doesn’t know and someone who looks like a college student.” I was racking my brain for a likely candidate.
“My paperboy.”
“Don’t be silly. Your paperboy is fifteen, if that. He still has acne, for heaven’s sake.”
“We can’t be real picky here. College students are looking younger and younger. Bunny will never suspect. We’ll tell him to show up on Bunny’s doorstep and say he’s there for the papers.”
I thought it over and finally agreed it was the best we could do. Considering the time constraints, we decided we had to go for it now, this very afternoon. I made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the highway and headed back into town.
We located Jimmy, Annie’s paperboy, at his house preparing to leave on his route and we offered him a bribe. We would deliver his papers that afternoon if he ran an errand for us. After some haggling—the kid drove a hard bargain—we agreed to cover his route plus give him ten dollars in cash. Annie walked away from the car to call Bunny, while I helped Jimmy load his papers into my back seat. The less he knew about the details of what we were doing, the better.
“All set.” Annie climbed into the passenger’s seat. Jimmy was already in the back.
“Here’s the list of addresses.” Jimmy handed us a sheet of paper. “Please don’t screw it up or I’ll lose my tip next week.” We assured him we could handle the job.
We drove Jimmy to within a block of the Talbot house, dropped him off to walk the rest of the way and agreed to meet him back home after we delivered his papers. Annie and I sped around the city in my car, tossing papers out of the car window, sometimes hitting the right lawn, sometimes not. At the end of the route, we had four papers left over. Either Jimmy left out someone, or I missed several houses. When we arrived back at Jimmy’s house, his mother told us we just missed him. He was off to his clarinet lesson.
Annie and Jimmy’s mother took an exercise class together, so Annie was a familiar face. Annie told her we hired Jimmy to run an errand for us, picking up some important papers in exchange for completing his paper route and ten dollars.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. He sure took you for a ride. He would have done it for five, I’m sure.” Laughing at our gullibility, his mother informed us Jimmy wouldn’t return home because he was staying the night with a friend. We couldn’t bust in on his sleepover, so we left a message for him to call Annie.
No Jimmy. We had no idea what he did with Bunny’s condo papers.
Chapter 17
The plan that looked so good to begin with was falling apart. We couldn’t be sure Bunny gave the papers to Jimmy. And, if she did, I was beginning to feel anxious about those documents in the hands of a fifteen-year-old. I looked at my watch and realized the afternoon was gone. Annie was due back at her place to meet Ron, and I had promised Guy I would help him finish the yard.
When we pulled up to Annie’s apartment, we found Jimmy sitting on the front steps, clarinet beside him.
“You’re supposed to be at your music lesson.” Annie sounded like a scolding school marm.
“I know, but I skipped it. I hate learning the clarinet. I wanted to play drums, but Mom said no. Anyway, the lady at the house you sent me to was very suspicious. She didn’t want to hand over the papers, and she made me come in while she called the college.”
Oh, oh. Rudolf or Nancy or both found us out. Bunny must have learned Jimmy was not one of Rudolf’s students and Nancy hadn’t called for the papers.
“Oh, dear. I’m sorry, Jimmy. Thanks for trying. Here’s your ten bucks.” I handed him two fives.
“No, I got them anyway.” He held out a manila envelope. “No one was at the number the lady called. She said she guessed the office was closed for the day, so she gave me the papers, said they were important and I should take them to Dr. Pruitt’s office and slide them under the door. I acted like I knew what she was saying and assured her I would.”
I took the papers from Jimmy, somewhat stunned our scheme worked after all.
“Say, your mother said you’d have done the work for five bucks.” I pinned him with my most serious adult-to-kid look.
“A deal’s a deal. Besides, I got at least ten phone calls on my cell saying there was no paper. You two really screwed up my route. I’ll be lucky if I get any bonus from my customers this week. The extra five will barely cover the shortfall.”
“Okay, Okay. Keep it.” Smart-ass kid, I thought, but conceded that we couldn’t have gotten the papers without his help.
“Do you need a ride?” asked Annie.
“Nah. I got lotsa time to get to Freddy’s house.”
I was eager to read what was in the envelope. We waved goodbye to Jimmy and sat down at Annie’s dining room table to examine what our scheme netted us.
I tore open the manila envelope and looked at the papers inside, going through them sheet by sheet.
“Well? What have we got?” Annie anxiously chewed h
er thumbnail.
I said nothing as I turned them over to her. She grabbed the papers, gave them a glance, then looked up at me.
“Blank sheets of paper?”
I laughed and rose from the table. “Bunny was one step ahead of us. She’s a lot smarter than those spit curls would lead one to believe. But now we know.”
“Know what?” Annie looked dejected.
“We know the papers exist and are important enough she doesn’t want anyone to see them. Except Rudolf. And that’s really interesting. They’re both covering up something. Much as I hate to do this, I’ll have to tell Der about our afternoon’s work. He’ll be mad, but he’ll have to concede I was on the right track with Rudolf and Bunny. Now, perhaps he’ll take my intuitions more seriously.”
Annie nodded her head in agreement although she drew her eyebrows together in a look that expressed misgivings about whether Der would share our view of Bunny and Rudolf.
“I’m late. I’ve got to get back to the lake and help Guy. And I’ll have to tell him about our scheme also. I don’t think he’ll like it any better than Der will.”
*
I gunned the engine of my feeble car down the road to the lake and into the driveway thinking I would find Guy’s motorcycle parked there, but no bike. On the table in the kitchen was a note that read, “Finished yard. Ran home to grab a shower and a change of clothing. Dress up. We’ll go someplace nice tonight.”
Oh boy, I thought. He’s planning for a special night, and I have to spoil it by confessing to more meddling in police affairs, something he warned me away from. This was not going to be a great night unless, of course, I put off telling him about the day’s events until after we had dinner and whatever might follow. The more I thought about procrastination, the more I liked it.
The phone rang just as soon as I got out of the shower. I picked up the extension in the bedroom. A muffled voice came over the line.
“You got nothing this afternoon, did you, Murphy? Better leave it that way. Or you could be sorry.”
“Bunny! Rudolf! Is that you?”
Whoever was on the other end had hung up. I was yelling into a dead line. I couldn’t tell whether it was a man or woman talking, the voice was so distorted. But I could only think of two people who would call me implying they or one of them outsmarted me on the papers.
Guy’s voice startled me. By the time I recovered my wits, he was standing next to me looking at me curiously.
“What’s the matter? You look like you just got bad news.” He took the receiver from my hand and held it up to his ear. Hearing only a dial tone, he placed it back in the cradle.
“I think I’m scared.”
Guy made me sit down on the bed, went downstairs and brought me a brandy. As I sipped the fiery liquid, I told him of Annie’s and my episode in the afternoon and then about the phone call. He listened without interrupting and then picked up the phone again.
“What are you doing?”
He rubbed my back and then spoke into the receiver. “Der, can you come out to Laura’s right away? She’s just had a threatening phone call, one you should know about.”
Guy turned to me. “Is Annie with Ron tonight?”
I nodded. Guy dialed Annie’s number and talked at some length with Ron. Guy filled him in on the phone call to me and asked Ron to spend the night with Annie.
Der came out to the lake immediately following Guy’s call, and we spent some time talking over the events of the day. As I predicted, he was furious at Annie’s and my ill-conceived and useless caper for getting papers from Bunny Talbot. Since I could not identify the voice on the phone, I couldn’t point the finger at any one individual, but it had to be Bunny or Rudolf. Der pointed out it may have felt like a real threat to me, but it was somewhat ambiguous in nature. He wanted to talk with Bunny and Rudolf anyway, just to let them know they couldn’t engage in such tactics.
He agreed with my interpretation of the day’s events. The papers did appear to be important if my attempt to obtain them resulted in Bunny’s unwillingness to let them out of her house and in the phone call to me.
For my safety, Der wanted me to stay out of the case, and I wanted to promise him I would, but I knew I would break my promise as soon as I felt better. And after a good night’s sleep I knew my snoopy nature would take over once again.
I’d never been to Guy’s apartment before. It really wasn’t much to look at, but I felt safer here than back at the lake. I wanted to get away from my house, usually a haven of security to me. Now I feared a ringing phone would bring another unidentifiable and threatening voice into my cocoon of safety.
I wish I could say I had a good night’s sleep or that lack of sleep was due to something other than a lumpy mattress, but, unfortunately, sleep eluded me as I tossed and turned in Guy’s tiny twin bed with its too thin mattress. Guy slept on the couch. Originally I felt he was making a supreme sacrifice by letting me have the bed. At about three am, I knew he got the better end of that deal.
Just as I was beginning to drop off, Guy woke me to announce it was six in the morning, and coffee was ready. I decided I needed to get back to the lake early so I could put finishing touches on the house for David’s visit today and Guy, who left his bike there, wanted to run some errands before he met David this afternoon. I also looked forward to a quick nap in my own bed.
On our way back, we stopped by Annie’s to see if she got through the night well. Her face was flushed when she answered the door. “Have you heard the terrible news?”
“What news?”
Annie knew something before I did? How could that be?
“There was a fire at Bunny Talbot’s last night. The entire house went up in flames!”
“Is Bunny alright?” I wondered if this catastrophe was in any way connected to yesterday.
“She wasn’t home,” Ron said, “a lucky thing for her. It appears to have been a very hot, fast fire of suspicious origins. I just got a call from Detective Pasquis, and he’s at the scene with the fire unit. They’re not going to be able to do much until things cool down a bit. But it sure looks like arson.”
“Let’s go.” I signaled to Guy assuming he would follow and headed for my car.
He remained on Annie’s door step.
“If you need a ride,” Annie said to Guy, “I’ll drive you out to the lake to pick up your bike.”
I looked at him. He shrugged and signaled me to go ahead. I put the car in gear and roared off toward Bunny’s house. I was still a little shook over last evening’s phone call, but even more unsettled by the fire. Although I couldn’t immediately see the connection between the two events, I knew there had to be one. Der wouldn’t be happy to see me at Bunny’s house, but I couldn’t help that. I needed to talk with Bunny or at least be there when he talked to Bunny. Bunny wouldn’t welcome my appearance, but it was a chance I had to take.
When I arrived at what was left of the house, I didn’t find either of them. One of the officers at the scene told me Der was back at police headquarters with Mrs. Talbot. I jumped back into my car. Bunny was just leaving the building when I pulled up.
“Bunny, so sorry about your house. It was a lucky thing you weren’t home. You must be out of your mind over this thing.”
Bunny looked at me, with red-rimmed eyes. “Haven’t you done enough, Dr. Murphy? Now you want to show up and gloat over my house burning down. I told Detective Pasquis I suspected you had a hand in this whole mess, and I told him of your little scheme to get some very important papers away from me yesterday. Just go away and leave me alone.”
Bunny’s face registered distress and fear, both directed at me. I couldn’t believe she thought I was involved in her house fire. I watched her get into the car and drive off with one of her friends.
When I entered the building, Der was at the front desk. His dark eyes looked stormier than usual.
“You might as well come on in to my office. I assume you’ll just hang around here until you pry something out
of someone.”
“Well?” I sat and sipped a cup of his terrible coffee. “Oh, by the way, I saw Bunny on my way in. We had a few words. She thinks I’m somehow responsible for the fire.”
“Bunny’s not in good shape. She’s likely to say about anything. Good God, Laura. She’s lost a husband to a violent death and now her house burns down. Meanwhile she’s had to deal with your snooping and scheming on a regular basis. What do you want her to think?”
I thought about this and concluded he had a very good point. I was not one of Bunny’s favorite people at this moment.
Yet there was my side, too.
“Yeah, well, I’m a little shook too what with that phone call last night. Who other than Bunny or Rudolf knew about my attempt to get those papers? I’m not so crazy about her right now either.”
“I talked to Bunny about the phone call. She figured something wasn’t right when young Jimmy showed up on her doorstep for the papers, but, since she couldn’t reach Rudolf to confirm he sent someone to get the papers, she decided to err on the side of caution. She saw Rudolf later in the evening and he confirmed he never sent for the papers. She insists neither of them made the call to your house. I’m on my way to talk with Rudolf now.”
I slid forward in my chair and gripped the edge of his desk. “So she and Rudolf met later? Where?”
“At his office on campus.”
“Can I come with you when you talk with Rudolf?”
Der sighed. “Okay, but I want you to keep quiet. Remember when we’re there I’m talking with Rudolf to corroborate the time he and Bunny met, so I can get a fix on when she left the house. I need to check out the movements last night of a number of people, Bunny and Rudolf included. So this isn’t about you. It’s about the fire.”
Murder is Academic Page 14