Strawberry Shortcake Murder

Chapter Ten

Andrea shivered as Hannah parked at the end of Vera Olsens’ alley. “Are you absolutely sure we have to do this?”

“I’m sure.” Hannah shut off the engine and checked her watch. It was seven o’clock and Lucy should be in Norman’s dental chair by now. “Get a grip, Andrea. There’s no way we can stand by and let Lucy get away with extortion!”

“I guess not.” Andrea shivered again. It was a cold morning, and the wind was whipping up, but Hannah suspected that her sister was more scared than cold.

“Come on, Andrea. We don’t have much time. Norman can’t keep Lucy in his office forever.”

“You’re right. Let’s get it over with.” Andrea pulled her knit cap down over her ears, and opened the passenger door. “I’m glad Tracey spent the night with Grandma. I don’t want her to find out that her mother’s a criminal.”

“You’re not a criminal. I take full responsibility for any problems that might come up.”

“What problems?” Andrea grabbed at Hannah’s arm as they started to walk down the alley. “You didn’t say anything about any problems when you called me last night.”

Hannah winced. She should have kept her big mouth shut, but it was too late to swallow her words. “I really don’t expect any problems”

“How about problems you don’t expect? You’d better tell me, Hannah.”

“Well.” Hannah stopped speaking and sighed. She’d opened a real can of worms, and they were a long way from a fishing hole. “I guess it’s possible that we could get caught. If that happens, I’m going to tell Bill that I dragged you here and you didn’t know what I was planning to do.”

“Oh, sure. And Bill will believe you. I’m beginning to regret this, Hannah.”

“Would you rather stay in the truck and wait for me?”

“No. I said I’d help you, and I will.” Andrea walked a little faster. “Hurry up, Hannah. We don’t want anyone to spot us.”

“Nobody will spot us. And if they do, they won’t know who we are. That’s why I told you to wear Bill’s old parka and a cap.”

The entrance to Lucy’s apartment was off the alley, and Hannah knew the chance of anyone seeing them was slight. There was an outside staircase that was exposed to the elements, but a large evergreen with bushy branches would hide them from the neighbors’ view.

When they reached the base of the staircase, Andrea hesitated. “What if she canceled her appointment, Hannah? What’ll we do then?”

“We’ll knock first. If Lucy answers, I’ll say I just dropped by to give her some cookies for her birthday.” Hannah held up the bag in her hand. “We’ll stay for a while, then we’ll leave.”

“Lucy’s birthday is today?”

“I don’t know when it is, but it’s a good excuse.” Hannah led the way up the wooden stairs. “I can always claim that someone gave me the wrong date. But Lucy’s not home. Norman told me she’s never missed an appointment, and she’s always on time.”

“Then why did you bring the cookies?”

Hannah sighed, wishing her sister wasn’t so alert in the morning. “Because it never hurts to be prepared.”

When they reached the landing, Hannah knocked on the door. There was no answer, even when she knocked a second time. She turned to Andrea. “See? I told you Lucy wasn’t here. Hold this bag. I need to use my credit card.”

“Why?”

“To break in. You just slide it between the doorjamb and the lock and wiggle it around until the latch clicks back.”

“That won’t work. Lucy’s got a dead bolt. See that second key hole?”

Hannah frowned. Andrea was right. There were two locks on Lucy’s door. “I don’t know how to pick a dead bolt.”

“They’re not pickable. Bill says a properly installed dead bolt is a homeowner’s best defense against burglary.” Andrea leaned out, over the rail, to examine the window that was to the right of the door. “Of course a dead bolt doesn’t do much good if you forget to lock your combination windows.”

Andrea pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into her pocket. She unlatched the storm window panel, slid it up next to the screen, and placed her palms flat against the inside pane. She pushed up, the window rose, and she turned to give Hannah a triumphant grin. “I’ll wiggle through. I’m smaller than you are. You hold my parka, and I’ll be inside a second.”

Hannah watched as Andrea straddled the rail and grasped the windowsill. She slid forward until her upper body was inside, then braced her feet against the rail and snaked the rest of her body inside. Hannah heard something fall with a crash and a few moments later, the door opened.

“I told you I could do it.” Andrea smiled proudly. “But I sure wish Lucy hadn’t stacker her dirty dishes in the sink. We owe her a plate and a coffee cup.”

Lucy’s attic apartment, under the sloping ceiling, consisted of a kitchen, a bathroom, and one large all-purpose room. Andrea and Hannah started with the tiny kitchen and made short work of that. After they’d opened all the cupboards and checked the stove, the refrigerator shelves, and even the inside of the freezer, they headed to the bathroom to search there.

The bathroom took even less time than the kitchen. There were only four drawers in the vanity to search, and they found nothing in the medicine cabinet except Lucy’s makeup, a toothbrush, a half-used tube of toothpaste, and an outdated bottle of aspirin.

“Hold on a second.” Hannah stopped Andrea as she was about to leave the room. “We didn’t check the toilet.”

“The toilet?”

“I saw it in a movie once. If you put things in a waterproof package, you can hide them in the tank.”

Andrea watched while Hannah lifted the lid and peered inside the tank. “Did you find anything?” she asked.

“Nothing but water and the insides of the toilet,” Hannah reported. “I guess Lucy didn’t see that movie.”

The large, all-purpose room was next. It served as Lucy’s living room, office, and bedroom, and Hannah knew they had their work cut out for them.

“Where does that door lead?” Hannah asked, pointing to a door on the wall next to Lucy’s bed.

“That’s the original attic door,” Andrea told her. “Vera brought me up here once when I was in high school.”

“Why?”

“We were looking for props for the senior play. Vera had lots of things that belonged to her parents, and they were stored in this attic. Where do you want me to start, Hannah?”

“You take the closet, and I’ll search Lucy’s dresser.”

Andrea had turned to head for the closet when they heard a tapping sound. Both sisters exchanged startled glances and Andrea whispered, “What’s that?”

“Someone’s knocking at the door,” Hannah whispered back.

“What’ll we do?”

Hannah could see that her sister was frightened and she reached out to pat her arm. “We won’t answer. Relax, Andrea. If they had a key, they wouldn’t have knocked.”

The knocking went on for several more moments. Then there was silence. Both sisters held their breath, listening for footsteps going back down the stairs, but there was no sound at all. They waited, in an agony of suspense, but then the knocking began again.

“He’s really persistent,” Andrea whispered.

“I know. You’d think his knuckles would be sore by now.” Hannah motioned Andrea down on the edge of Lucy’s bed. “Lie low, Andrea. I think I can see the top of the landing from Lucy’s kitchen window. I’m going to take a peek.”

Hannah tiptoed into the kitchen and hugged the wall as she approached the window over the sink. If Lucy’s visitor spotted her, she’d have a hard time explaining what they were doing in Lucy’s apartment when Lucy wasn’t home. The kitchen curtains were made of yellow cotton, held in place by white-plastic rings on a narrow rod at the top of the window. Andrea had closed them after she’d broken in, but there was a narrow gap between the two panels.

The gap between the panels was perfect. Hannah peeked out and craned her neck to the side. She could see the landing of the outside staircase, but it was empty. There was no one standing at the top of the stairs. Lucy’s visitor was still knocking; she could hear the tap-tap-tapping, just like Poe’s raven on the chamber door.

Poe’s raven? Hannah seized that thought and started to grin. She reached out with both hands, pulled open the curtains, and met the beady gaze of a redheaded woodpecker, caught in the act of pecking away at the wooden frame around Lucy’s door. The bird froze for an instant, then startled into flight, winging it sway to the big pine tree that grew next to Lucy’s staircase.

Hannah laughed as she retraced her steps to Lucy’s large room and saw Andrea peeking out from the space behind Lucy’s bed. “You can come out, Andrea. It was only a woodpecker.”

“A woodpecker?” Andrea looked a little sheepish as she stood up and wiggled out of the tight space, dislodging a pillow in the process.

“There must be bugs in the wood on Lucy’s doorframe. When he saw me, he took off.”

Andrea gave a big sigh of relief. “All I could think of was Boyd’s killer. I pictured him standing at the top of the stairs with a knife in his hand.”

“I don’t think the killer would be polite enough to knock.” Hannah gave her sister a little push toward Lucy’s closet. “Let’s get going, Andrea. You check out the closet, and I’ll handle the dresser and the bed.”

Hannah examined every drawer in Lucy’s dresser while Andrea tackled the long closet that was tucked in under the eaves on one wall. When she was through with the dresser, Hannah got down on her knees to peer under Lucy’s bed.

“She’s got a lot of new outfits in here,” Andrea called out, her voice muffled by Lucy’s clothing. “Most of them still have the tags on, and they’re all from Beau Monde Fashions.”

Hannah nodded as she stripped off Lucy’s pillowcases and shook them out. “That proves Claire is one of her victims. Lucy can’t afford Beau Monde prices. She must have made Claire give them to her for free.”

“There’s nothing in her closet, Hannah.” Andrea emerged from the long, narrow space. Her hair was tangled and she had several cobwebs on her sweater. “Lucy certainly wouldn’t win the good housekeeping award. Her closet’s a disaster. Where do you want me to look next?”

“Check under the furniture. She could have taped an envelope there. And don’t forget the couch. Pat down the pillows and the cushions and feel for anything bulky inside. I’ll take her desk.”

Lucy had an antique rolltop, and Hannah eyed it with admiration. Delores had one that was very similar, and it was one of her prized possessions. Hannah had helped her haul it home from an antique auction, and Delores had shown her the hidden compartments. Luckily, Hannah remembered where they were.

After she’d searched the contents of all of the regular drawers, Hannah removed one of them and stuck her hand into the space to release the catch. The false back opened with a well-oiled click, and she reached in to pull out gray envelope with two cardboard circles, one on the flap and the other right below it on the envelope. A length of red string joined them and acted as a seal. “I’ve got something, Andrea.”

Andrea rushed over and watched as Hannah unwound the string. “Where did you find that?”

“In a hidden compartment.”

“That envelope is really old-fashioned. I don’t think they’ve made anything like that for years.”

“You’re right.” Hannah began to frown. “It could belong to the original owner of the desk.”

Once the string was unwound, Hannah lifted the flap and her eyes widened. There was a sheaf of hundred-dollar bills inside.

“How much is there?” Andrea asked, staring down at the money.

“I don’t know. Let me count it.” Hannah counted out the money and turned to Andrea. “Two thousand dollars. And it doesn’t belong to the original owner of the desk. It’s Lucy’s, and she hid it in the secret compartment.”

“How do you know that?”

“Some of the bills have the big-picture format. It’s new money, not old money.” Hannah replaced the bills in the envelope and rewound the string to close it.

“What are we going to do with it?”

“I don’t know yet. It all depends on where it came from.” Hannah reached back into the hidden compartment and pulled out another envelope. It was white, business-sized, and it had the insignia of the Seattle Police Department above the return address.

“What’s that?”

“It’s the reason Norman’s being extorted.” Hannah folded it and stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans. “I’m going to return it to him.”

“Aren’t you going to open it first?”

“No.”

“But don’t you want to find out what Norman did?”

“Of course I do, but I’ll wait for him to tell me about it.” Hannah glanced at Andrea and noticed that her sister had a strange expression on her face. “What is it?”

“You’d open that letter in a heartbeat if it had the dirt on anyone else. You must like Norman a lot more than you say you do.”

Hannah let that one pass and reached into the compartment again. It was clear that Andrea suspected romance, and Hannah didn’t want to discuss her feelings for Norman. He was a friend, perhaps the best friend she had. That was enough for now.

“What else is in there?” Andrea asked.

“Photos and negatives. I think we found it, Andrea.”

“The stash of ammunition for her dirty little schemes?”

“That’s a mixed metaphor, but it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is, we got the goods on Lucy. Just look at these pictures she took!”

“There’s Claire and Mayor Bascomb going into the Blue Moon Motel.” Andrea sounded slightly shocked as she glanced down at the first photo. “No wonder Claire gave her all those outfits!”

“Lucy probably put the bite on the mayor, too. He’s married, and he wouldn’t want his wife to see that picture.” Hannah put down the photo and turned to another one. “Here’s one that Lucy took at the Lake Eden Inn.”

“You’re right. That’s the front desk in the lobby. Who are those two men?”

“One if Mr. Rutlege, the judge who had to be excused. And the other one is a contestant’s husband. I can’t remember his name, but he’s holding the gray envelope we found.”

“The one with the money?”

“It looks exactly the same.”

“Did he bribe Mr. Rutlege so his wife would win the contest?”

“He attempted to bribe him. Mr. Rutlege must have turned it down, since Lucy ended up with the money.”

Andrea thought about it for a moment, then she said, “That makes some kind of sense. Lucy must have seen what happened and confronted the contestant’s husband. She probably threatened to make it public unless he gave her the envelope with the money.”

“That sounds about right.” Hannah pointed to another photo. “Look at this one. Lucy took it through Danielle’s kitchen window.”

Andrea winced as she stared at the photo. “That’s Boyd, and he’s hitting Danielle. She looked really scared. And Boyd looks so mean.”

“He was mean.” Hannah’s voice was hard. “I can’t work up much sympathy for him, Andrea. I know he didn’t deserve to die the way he did, but I’m glad Danielle doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”

“Amen to that. It’s a good thing you found this, Hannah. Now we know why Lucy called Boyd. She must have been trying to get hush money from him.”

Hannah stared down at the photo for a long moment, her brow wrinkled in thought. “This picture’s got to have something to do with Boyd’s murder, but I’m not quite sure what.”

“I don’t know either, unless…” Andrea’s voice trailed off, and her face turned pale. “Do you think that Lucy… I mean, if Boyd wouldn’t pay her and she got mad at him, she… she wouldn’t kill him, would she?”

“Not a chance,” Hannah reassured her. “Lucy’s short and Boyd was tall.”

“So?”

“The blow that killed Boyd came from above. Lucy would have had to stand on a stepstool to hit him over the head with that much force.”

“Okay. I can see that. But what if Boyd was kneeling and begging for mercy?”

“From Lucy? Boyd outweighed her by a hundred pounds, and we already know he wasn’t squeamish about hitting women. If he’d thought that he was in danger, he would have grabbed Lucy, hammer and all, and thrown her up against the wall.”

“True. But maybe Lucy tricked him into kneeling. If she dropped something, and it rolled under the car, Boyd could have been trying to get it back for her.”

“That doesn’t play either,” Hannah informed her. “There were oil spots on the garage floor and Boyd was wearing light gray pants. If he’d been down on the floor, he would have had oil stains on the knees of his pants.”

Andrea breathed a big sigh of relief. “I’m glad you told me that, Hannah. For a second there, I thought we might be searching the apartment of a murd…”

“Shh!” Hannah grabbed her arm to hush her. “I hear something!”

“Another woodpecker?”

“Not this time.”

Both sisters held their breath, listening intently. They heard the sound of faint footsteps and Hannah turned to her sister. “It’s Vera. She’s coming up the inside staircase.”

“She must have heard us walking around up here.” Andrea looked panic-stricken. “We’re going to get caught, Hannah!”

“No, we’re not. Go hide in the closet. I’ll be with you in a second.” Hannah gave Andrea a little shove. “Hurry!”

Hannah gathered up the evidence they’d found, shoved it back in the hidden compartment, and replaced the drawer. Then she grabbed their coats, their caps, and the bag of cookies she’d brought and ran for the closet as fast as he could. If Vero Olsen caught them up here, she’d call Bill and Mike to report it. Andrea would get off with a slap on the wrist. Both Bill and Mike would believe that Hannah had been the instigator. But when Mike found out that Hannah had ignored his warning and was actively meddling in his case, he’d lock her up and melt down the key.