Pawsitively Murder (Silver Springs Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) Page 7

  “Can I drive you?” Maggie asks.

  “I think that would be best,” Jeff agrees, guiding Erline up from her chair.

  Winona stands. “I’m so sorry this is all happening, Erline. I can’t even imagine. You’re always welcome here, both of you. If you need a place to stay until you feel safe going home again, consider this your home. Mitch and I will bring Barney and Pluto to the dog park, but if I’m not back when you come back, let yourselves in and makes yourselves at home.”

  “Thanks,” Jeff says, answering for Erline who still can’t form words.

  As Maggie leads Erline and Jeff toward the front door, Winona heads to the back door and calls the two dogs in from outside. Winona’s bulldog, Barney, and Mitch’s corgi, Pluto, come charging in on their short legs and reach the front door before Maggie has a chance to get outside. She hears the back door open again for Mitch to come inside. Maggie has to wrestle the dogs to stay inside as she ushers Jeff and Erline to her car.

  In the car, Jeff sits in the back with Erline, never taking his hand off her arm. Maggie can see the concern he has for his wife. She can tell he wants to make everything better but he doesn’t know how. Neither does Maggie.

  As Maggie drives, she tries to take their thoughts away from the scene they’re about to witness. She requests of Jeff, “Tell me about Mitch.”

  Before Jeff can answer, Erline seems to come out of her catatonic state. “He’s been friends with Winona for years. Ever since they met at the dog park.”

  “Just friends?” Maggie asks. She didn’t hear anything about Mitch back in May but she wonders if they spend this much time together regularly. They could be more than friends.

  Erline smiles. “We’ve all been wondering that. You’ll have to ask Winona.”

  “How long have you known him?” Maggie asks Erline.

  “Oh, a few years anyway. We really only see each other when Winona is there, or at Bingo on Tuesdays. The whole town seems to go.”

  Maggie nods, remembering her own visit to Tuesday night Bingo in May. She was surprised at the wide range of ages of those present when she’d expected only seniors to participate.

  Maggie parks on the street in front of Erline and Jeff’s house. She would park in the driveway but the police cruisers have taken up the whole space.

  The three of them get out of Maggie’s car and head toward the open front door. Maggie can hear voices inside before they enter. It sounds chaotic but she knows she has to join them.

  Erline enters first, followed by Jeff, still maintaining contact with his wife, and then Maggie. She looks around and sees Detective Stevens talking to Officer Malin in the corner of the living room. She heads in their direction and is greeted by two warm smiles before she reaches them. Erline and Jeff stand in awe as their home is torn apart for the second time in three days.

  “Go and tell Jeff and Erline what’s going on. I want to talk to Maggie,” Detective Stevens tells Officer Malin, who gives Maggie a small wave as she walks by. Detective Stevens motions for Maggie to join him in the backyard away from the other detectives combing over every inch of the house. “How are they doing?” he asks Maggie when they’re outside.

  Maggie shrugs and purses her lips. “Not great. Erline seemed to go into shock. I think this is just a lot for her.”

  “It’s a lot for anyone. But at 81, I couldn’t imagine having to go through all of this.”

  Maggie agrees. “Have you found anything yet?”

  “Maybe. You said you found the intruder in the bedroom?” he asks. Maggie nods. “It looks like you might have surprised him either when you opened the bedroom door or when you entered the house. We’re dusting for fingerprints, but it looks like he wore gloves.”

  “Any half decent thief would.”

  “We don’t know yet if he stole anything. But he left some things lying around, like he made a hasty retreat after you startled him. That at least gives us a clue as to where he was when he was inside.”

  Maggie nods. “What about forensics from the hair yesterday?” She forgot to ask him earlier at his office.

  “We just got the results back. It was a match for Felicity. From some other tests, it looks like the pillow was used to smother her.”

  Detective Stevens doesn’t take his eyes off Maggie as he delivers this news. She can’t tell if he’s gauging her reaction or if he’s making sure she’s okay. But what he can’t know is that Maggie already suspected these results, thanks to Felicity’s phone call yesterday.

  “Now what?” she asks.

  “Well, we’re planning to bring Vern in. There was certainly motive, thanks to the affair you told me about this morning. He didn’t give us an alibi yesterday, so there could be opportunity. You know as well as I do that once you have means, motive and opportunity, you have a likely suspect.”

  “And he would have had the means—he knew Felicity’s schedule and when she’d be here.”

  Detective Stevens nods. “For now, though, I’m going to get back upstairs and help Officer Malin with Erline and Jeff to find out if anything is missing.”

  “One more thing,” Maggie says before he can walk by her and go back inside. “I learned more about April. She’s Felicity’s sister, April Newcomb.”

  Detective Stevens stops in his tracks next to Maggie and looks at her closely. “We might have a pretty solid second suspect on our hands.” He pauses, then asks, “Are we still on for tonight?”

  Maggie nods. “But I’m sure I’ll talk to you again before then.”

  Detective Stevens goes back inside and Maggie is left alone in the backyard. She can’t help but think back to last night’s animal intruders in this backyard. Did she miss something? Was she wrong about animals tripping the motion sensors? Could it have been a person?

  CHAPTER 13

  With everyone upstairs and occupied, Maggie heads back out front to Clem’s car. She feels badly about leaving Erline and Jeff at their house without their car, but she knows someone will give them a ride back to Winona’s house when they’re finished. Or to the police station if Detective Stevens needs more from them.

  Maggie sits down in the driver’s seat and rests her forehead on the steering wheel. Her glasses start to slip down her nose so she leans back into the seat and closes her eyes for just a moment.

  She’s exhausted but she has to think. There is so much information to process but she can’t put any of the pieces together. Something crucial is missing. Jean Spellman might be her best bet to talk to next, but she decides to give Trista another call.

  “All wrapped up?” Trista asks when she answers.

  Maggie laughs at her optimism. “I wish. I haven’t even talked to Jean yet. But I have a couple more people I need information on. Can you help?”

  “Of course. Who are they?” Trista asks eagerly.

  “April Newcomb, Felicity’s sister. She’s having an affair with the deceased’s husband. So while you’re at it, Vern Myers as well. Felicity’s husband. Maybe you already knew that from yesterday’s background check.” Maggie gives her as much information as she’s comfortable divulging. She knows Detective Stevens wouldn’t be happy to learn that she’s getting information from someone without his knowledge but Trista has never let her down.

  “Yup, I figured out who Felicity was married to. April Newcomb and Vern Myers. Got it,” Trista repeats back to Maggie. She doesn’t react to the news of Felicity’s sister having an affair with her husband. “Give me a day?”

  “On a holiday weekend? Of course. If it took you less than a day I’d tell you to take some time for yourself.”

  Trista laughs on the other end of the phone. “You should probably start listening to your own advice. I’ll give you a call as soon as I have something.”

  Maggie hangs up and pulls out her other phone from her handbag. Next, she calls Drew to find out where he is and what’s happening with Vern. Maybe she’ll be able to come up with a way to approach him before the police get to him. She knows everyone reacts dif
ferently to a non-law enforcement individual asking them seemingly innocent questions than to police interrogations.

  Maggie is disappointed when Drew doesn’t answer, but after she disconnects the call and is about to put her phone down, it rings. She checks the display and it’s Drew.

  “Sorry. I was . . . unavailable.” Maggie doesn’t hear anything in the background so she has no idea why he might have been unavailable.

  “Okay. What’s happening with Vern? Are you still following him?” Maggie asks.

  “Yeah. He’s home. No sign of April.”

  “Need some lunch?” Maggie’s stomach feel hollow.

  “That would definitely make this easier.”

  “Any requests?”

  “Something meaty,” he says.

  “On it. See you in twenty.”

  Maggie drives back to Main Street where she gets herself a grilled chicken sandwich and Drew a pastrami on rye. On a whim she also orders two iced teas, though she usually sticks only to water. The sugar in the iced tea is something she can’t seem to pass up today.

  On the drive to Vern’s house, Maggie happens upon a black convertible with the top down and red hair flying behind the driver. She slows down and follows April.

  Not to her surprise, April drives toward Vern’s house, but passes the road he lives on. Maggie stays behind her and watches April pull into the next residential street. Maggie estimates that she parks opposite Vern’s house on the adjacent street and Maggie continues past, circling back to Vern’s street and parking a few blocks from Drew.

  Maggie grabs the bag with their lunches and drinks and walks quickly to his SUV. She peers into front windows of the few houses she passes but doesn’t see anyone looking back at her.

  “Anything new?” she asks when she gets into the passenger seat.

  “Besides my increasing need for a shower and to brush my teeth? Nope.”

  “I could use those too. The police are probably going to be here this afternoon so that should give us a chance to get cleaned up. We can call off our stakeout then, too, since Erline wanted to know what Vern was up to. And what we found certainly gives him a motive to off his wife. Here. I got you pastrami.” Maggie hands him a wrapped sandwich and one of the iced teas.

  “Thanks. You talked to Detective Stevens about Vern, then?”

  Maggie nods, her mouth full of her chicken sandwich. “He’s with Erline and Jeff now at their house, checking for any missing items since the robbery this morning. Oh, and on my way over here,” she pauses to swallow, “I saw April. You won’t guess where she parked.” Drew shrugs, unable to say anything since his cheeks are bulging with food. Maggie chuckles. “One street over, right about where Vern’s house would be.”

  He nods. Movement in Vern’s house catches both their eyes and Drew’s chewing stops. Maggie fumbles for her binoculars in her bag but Drew is faster. He has his binoculars to his eyes seconds after they both looked toward Vern’s house.

  “April?” Maggie asks, still bent forward and rifling through her handbag.

  “Yup. That explains why we never saw her leave last night. She must be sneaking through someone’s yard and coming in his back door.”

  Maggie finally lifts her binoculars to her eyes and asks, “Where does she live? Could she be his neighbor and she’s just sneaking through her own backyard?”

  Drew shrugs and takes another bite with one free hand, never taking his eyes off Vern’s house. “I don’t think so. I’d know her then. I don’t think she lives in Silver Springs.”

  Maggie watches the house as the front blinds close and Vern and April are obscured from view. They both lower their binoculars and watch three police cars drive past. Maggie hopes someone had the foresight to bring Erline and Jeff back to Winona’s house on their way here.

  Maggie and Drew eat and watch in silence as Detective Stevens, Officer Malin and a slew of other cops park their cars along the street in front of Vern’s house. They approached without sirens so Vern and April have no idea what is waiting for them just outside.

  Detective Stevens knocks on the front door while the other officers wait either in their cars or leaning against them, waiting for instructions from their superior.

  Vern opens the door and Maggie wishes she could hear what their exchange includes. A moment later, though, it wouldn’t even matter if she could hear them because Detective Stevens goes inside.

  “Any movement at Jean’s house today?” Maggie asks after half of her sandwich is gone. “I really want to talk to her. I told Detective Stevens about her but she wasn’t on their radar yet. He gave me the go-ahead to look into her while his officers look into Vern and April.”

  Drew shakes his head. “Nothing. But I wasn’t here all day. I followed Vern this morning after you ditched me so she could have left then.”

  “What do you know about her? Where might we find her?”

  “She never misses Bingo.”

  “Not helpful,” Maggie says. “Today’s Sunday, not close enough to Tuesday to matter.”

  “What I was getting at is that she likes her gambling.” Drew’s voice is flat, but there’s laughter in his eyes.

  “Where is there a casino around here?”

  “It’s about five miles outside of town, a few of them. They’re technically in Silver Springs, but the voters passed a measure before they were allowed to be built that there had to be a significant buffer between town, homes and the casinos.”

  Maggie nods. “That’s why I’ve never seen them. I think I know the next place I’ll be going.”

  “You don’t even know what Jean looks like,” Drew reminds her.

  “Well, it seems I always have a chaperone, and I hear you know her.”

  Maggie’s phone rings and Erline’s name appears on the screen, ending their conversation about Jean and where she might spend her Sunday afternoons. Maggie is anxious to talk to Jean, but she’ll have to wait at least until after this conversation with Erline.

  “How’d it all go?” Maggie asks, skipping the greeting, anxious to know about the robbery. “Are you back at Winona’s?”

  “Hi Maggie,” Erline’s voice says, much quieter and unsure of herself than Maggie has ever heard. “Yes, we’re back at Winona’s but she’s still out at the dog park. We let ourselves in.”

  “Was anything missing at your house?” Maggie wishes she would tell her the most important details first without her having to pry them out of her.

  Erline hesitates, like she doesn’t want to tell Maggie the truth. “Yes.”

  Maggie waits for more information but when none comes she asks, “Valuable?”

  “Irreplaceable.”

  “Do you want me to come over there? I’m outside Vern’s house but the police are here.” As Maggie watches, Detective Stevens brings Vern out in handcuffs. She almost tells Erline that detail but decides she’d rather tell her in person. Maggie sighs in relief instead, hoping this whole nightmare is over and Erline and Jeff will be able to start putting the pieces of their lives back together.

  “Please.”

  The tone of Erline’s voice lets Maggie know that her hope is premature.

  CHAPTER 14

  Suzie has been waiting all day for this moment. She can’t help herself; her whole body wriggles in excitement when she goes to the dog park. The smells are borderline overwhelming, but they’re what she lives for.

  She followed the well worn trail from her house to the dog park as soon as she finished her normal morning rounds and hasn’t left since. Barney finally arrives with his person and she can come out of hiding in the woods. She’s been desperate to talk to him but has no way of getting in touch other than at the dog park.

  Suzie paces back and forth along the outer fence, waiting for him to see her or smell her presence. There’s a corgi following him, and they keep going back to his person and the man she’s with.

  Suzie doesn’t like the looks of the new person, the owner of the corgi. His eyes look untrustworthy. She lifts her
nose and tries to catch the man’s scent so she’ll recognize him in the future more easily, but with all the dogs and humans around, she can’t pick out his unique smell.

  “What took you so long?” Suzie almost growls when Barney finally comes to the fence alone. Suzie is stuck on the outside since she doesn’t come with a human.

  “I don’t have the same freedom you do,” he snaps back. It’s one of the only points of contention in their relationship. Suzie is dependent on Barney for information about the keys, while he needs her to keep tabs on the trinket she found in the spring. But Barney can only leave the house under his person’s supervision. His fenced in backyard is a stark contrast to Suzie’s unlimited freedom.

  Today Suzie has news she can’t wait to share. She digs furiously for a moment to relieve her frustration and excitement. “I got it. I got the item the cats were holding.”

  Barney looks up quickly, surprise in his eyes. “How?”

  Suzie gloats, “I had the opportunity, so I took it. Your person’s friends spent the night in the room with the object, and when they got up in the morning I charged in. It was just sitting on the table next to the bed. These cats are not serious.” Suzie is proud of herself.

  “Where is it now?” Barney growls, ignoring Suzie’s pride.

  Suzie backs off, both from the fence and from bragging. “It’s safe.”

  “Where is it?” he repeats, more threatening. For a bulldog, he’s intimidating even through a fence.

  “I buried it in the backyard.”

  “You what? How could you be so stupid? In plain view of the cats? Anyone could get their paws on it. And we want to be specific about which person ends up with everything. My person can be trusted. But the man she’s with . . . I don’t know. We have to be more careful.” Barney starts pacing.

  “Don’t worry. I know right where it is. And Oscar can sense it without seeing it. He says he can feel it. I put him on guard duty.” Suzie’s voice grows sarcastic when she says Oscar can feel the object they’re after and she has to remind herself that he’s on their side and his sense is an asset. She’s also pleased with her idea to have him stay home and make sure the object stays safely buried. She doesn’t like having him tag along with her.