Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 03 - They Call Me Ace (9 page)

Chapter Sixteen

We decided to stop for Chinese takeout on the way home instead of cooking. While Judith and I were inside the restaurant ordering dinner, Chris and his father discussed the house. When we returned to the car with the food, I was surprised to hear that Chris Sr. wanted to buy the place.

Arriving home, Judith called Max Avery and made an offer on the house before we ate. He said he’d call her back as soon as he could reach one of Marguerite’s daughters, probably in the morning. He seemed anxious to make the sale, probably wanting to get out from under what was turning into a bad dream for him.

Judith and Chris Sr. seemed to genuinely like the house and didn’t appear to think of it as a nightmare. Renovating it could be a challenge and a lot of fun. The possibility of secrets was the frosting on the cake.

“You know,” Chris Sr. said, forking a bite of egg foo young smothered in gravy, “that house could keep me busy for a long time. It won’t need much to make it livable, but there’s a lot of cosmetic work to be done after we move in. I’m going to have to find a contractor to do some of it though.”

Looking at the forkful of egg foo young, he stuffed it into his mouth.

“I know a guy,” Chris said. “He does good work and he’s reasonable.”

“How well do you know him?” Chris’s father asked. “I don’t want someone unreliable.”

“Trust me, Chris wouldn’t recommend someone unreliable. He’s Chris’s closest friend.” I knew exactly who he was referring to. Davey Hampton, better known as Big D, had renovated our restaurant.

“You read my mind.” Chris smiled at me before reaching over to lay his hand on top of mine.

Chris Sr. watched the interaction between Chris and me. He clamped his lips together and a slow smile spread across his face. Reaching over, he patted my other hand. “I sometimes wondered if Chris would ever settle down and be as happy as I am.”

Judith listened to her husband and beamed. Chris’s parents really cared about each other, but it still makes a difference when you hear your partner say something like that aloud.

I cleared my throat. “Big D did all the work on
Bogey Nights
for us. We couldn’t be happier.”

“Say, I like what he did to that place,” Chris Sr. said. “Would he be willing to meet us at the house to take a look at it?”

Chris called Davey before Judith and Chris Sr. retired to their motor home. He said he’d meet us at the house around nine o’clock the next morning.

I insisted I could clean the dinner dishes off the table without help, although Mikey stepped in and gave me a hand. I knew everyone was tired. It had been a hectic few days.

As soon as the dishes were placed in the dishwasher, and the dogs were settled out on the service porch, Mikey, Chris and I headed for bed. I didn’t remember a thing after

my head hit the pillow.

~ * ~

Tuesday morning rolled around way too fast. I woke up feeling tired, which wasn’t a good start for the day. I knew we’d be heading back to the house, and the restaurant would be open for lunch and dinner.

I sent Mikey out to the motor home to see if my in-laws wanted to have breakfast with us, but they’d already eaten. Judith said they’d be up to the house after she “put herself together”. That meant we were good for an hour. It took time and work for Judith to create her casual look. Chris Sr. teased her about the time it took her to put on her makeup and do her hair. She told me she wished she had long hair, like me, so she could just put it up instead of dragging out the curling iron. As quirky and carefree as she could be sometimes, she worried about her appearance, which surprised me.

After feeding the dogs and checking their water, I fixed a quick hot cereal and toast breakfast. Sherlock and Watson would have to stay home today, but I’d take them to the restaurant with us later and they could stay in the small yard Big D had built outside of my office for them.

While we ate, Chris and I talked about his parents. “You know, Chris, if they’re going to be going back and forth from here to the house, they’ll need transportation. They can’t drive their ATV around town, and the motor home is too cumbersome. Maybe we should lend them the Jeep while they’re here.”

“You read my mind again, cupcake. I was thinking the same thing.”

“I wonder why they hooked the ATV to the back of the motor home instead of a car.” I was sure there were other stops on their trip when the ATV wouldn’t be convenient.

“My father said they’d planned on doing more traveling through rural areas where they could use it. They hadn’t really meant to stick around here.”

“Well, I’m glad they’re stickin’ around,” Mikey said. “I like Grandma Judy and Grandpa Chris Sr.”

“You don’t have to call him Sr., sweetie. We know who you’re talking about.”

Judith and Chris Sr. eventually put in an appearance, and they were anxious to leave to meet Big D. “We want him to give the house the once-over to see if we’re missing any major problems,” Judith said.

“We want to go into it with our eyes wide open,” my father-in-law added.

I thought it was a little late for that since they’d already made an offer on the house, but I kept my thoughts to myself.

Chris turned to his father. “By the way, Pamela and I want to offer you the Jeep while you’re here. You’ll need something to drive while we’re at the restaurant.”

“Good idea, Junior. We appreciate that. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of trips back and forth to the house.”

“Besides,” Judith added, “we usually get up a lot earlier than you three. This way we won’t have to wake you up.”

Judith helped me clean the breakfast dishes and we were ready to go. We drove to the house in the green Chevy, with Chris Sr. and Judith following us in the Jeep.

Davey and Max stood in front of the house waiting for us when we pulled up. The front door was open, so apparently Max had already let Big D take a look around. They were both smiling which I took as a good sign.

“They should be smiling,” Chris said. “In these difficult times, Max will be glad he sold a house, especially one like this place, and Big D can always use an extra job.”

We met on the sidewalk in front of the Turnbal house.

Max’s smile grew as we approached, and he focused on the senior Crosses. “The sisters have accepted your offer. They’re thrilled to unload…” He cleared his throat. “They’re happy that someone came along who will enjoy the old house,

especially after what happened here the other night.” I could see that he was flustered. “I’m saying this all wrong. I’m sorry.”

Big D spoke up. “Are you kidding? These people are used to crime and murders.”

“No we’re not,” I said defensively. “We don’t go out looking for these things. And we didn’t find this one.”

“No, your mother-in-law did.” Davey grinned and turned to the Crosses. “Hi. I’m David Hampton. I’m not making light of what happened, but I wasn’t here to see it so…” He took another tack. “I’ve already taken a tour of the house and I can see a few things I can do to help you out.”

Judith approached Big D and held out her hand. Her head tilted back as she looked up into his powder blue eyes. Davey is six foot four inches and husky, and Judith is probably, at best, five feet and one inch – if she stood up really straight and stretched. They looked kinda cute standing there together. Judith’s itty bitty hand disappeared into his big paw.

“Let’s go inside.” Max began directing traffic, placing his hand on Judith’s back and gently guiding her. “I’ve got some papers for you to sign, and I’m sure you have a few questions. Once these papers are signed the title company can do their part.”

The Crosses disappeared inside, and Mikey followed them. I had a feeling he’d be knocking on the walls within moments.

A Mercedes and a Jaguar pulled up across the street. The driver-side doors opened simultaneously and one woman stepped out of each car. They glared at each other before turning away from one another and waiting for a car to go by so they could cross the street.

Chris was facing the house. I jabbed him in the ribs. “Chris, am I seeing double?”

He turned around and focused on the women. “Twins?”

They had dissimilar hairstyles, although in two different shades of blonde – one dark blonde and one a blonde that was almost platinum. Around my height, five feet and four inches, they were both a little on the slender side, although the one with darker hair looked a little sturdier than the platinum blonde. I guessed their age to be mid- to late sixties, but I wasn’t sure. One was dressed very casually in jeans and a red and black flannel shirt with work boots on her feet and her hair had a windblown appearance. The other looked like she was ready for High Tea in a lime green suit and off-white high heels, with her hair combed in a perfect French roll. Neither woman carried a purse.

I watched them cross the street with interest. Starting out about five feet apart, they gradually moved closer together. The one wearing the suit reached over and tousled the other one’s hair. The one in jeans smoothed her hair before slapping the back of the other ones head. The one in heels grabbed the back of her head and gave Miss Jeans the bird.

“Interesting,” Chris said quietly. “Any idea who they are?”

“My guess would be Marguerite Turnbal’s daughters. I’m not sure why they’re here though. Maybe you should run inside and get Max. I’ll try to slow them down.”

“Yeah, it might be best if you handled them instead of me.” Chris turned and headed for the house like the devil was chasing him before the two women stepped, in unison, up on the curb.

“Ladies,” I said, “can I help you?”

“Only if you’re Judith Cross.” The one in the jeans had a very deep, gravelly voice and I wondered if she was a smoker.

“Are you?” asked her sister in an equally deep voice. Maybe it was natural.

“I’m her daughter-in-law. Can I help you?”

“No,” they said in unison.

“Where is she?” Miss Heels asked.

“In the house. I’m Pamela Cross. Are you sure I can’t help you?”

“Absolutely not,” Miss Heels said. “I’m Carol Turnbal, and this renegade from a derelict farm is my sister, Coral.”

They stood side by side. Coral, Miss Jeans, swung her hip into her sister’s side so hard that I was afraid Carol would fall over. I reached out to grab her, but she pushed my hand away, her nose flaring.

“I can take care of myself. I’m not ready for assisted living yet, young lady.”

Coral laughed. “You couldn’t take care of a gold fish much less yourself, ya old hag.”

Carol sniffed and turned her back on her sister. Turning her head toward me, she asked, “Did you say Judith Cross is in the house?”

“I did.”

Max came running out the front door. “Ladies, ladies. What are you doing here? I told you I’d call you as soon as the papers were signed.” He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.

“Realtors are as bad as used car salesmen,” Carol said. “I decided I’d better come and oversee things. I don’t know what
she’s
doing here.” She jabbed her finger in Coral’s direction.

“I saw you pulling out of your driveway and decided I’d see where you were going. Good thing I did, or you’d probably be trying to take
my
share of the money.”

“Oh, do you live near each other?” I asked, trying to sidetrack them.

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“Lord knows why, but we do, even though we don’t speak to each other.” Coral looked daggers at her sister.

“Let’s get this over with and go talk to the woman about the secrets.” Carol started up the walkway with her

nose in the air. Coral stuck her nose in the air, too, and imitated her sister’s walk, right on her heels. Carol must have known what her sister was doing because she reached her hand behind her and made a swatting motion.

Max shook his head and followed them, with
me
on
his
heels.

Chapter Seventeen

Judith sat at the head of the table and looked up from the papers she was reading. “What’s all the commotion?”

Max tried to step past the twins, but they weren’t having it. Carol gave him a withering look, and Coral simply stuck her arm in front of him to block his progress.

“These are Marguerite Turnbal’s daughters,” he explained, looking over Coral’s shoulder.

Judith stood up. “I’m Judith Cross. So nice to meet you both, but you didn’t have to drive all the way over here since I’m just signing papers.” She glanced from face to face, and I could see when it struck her that they were twins. If they wore the same clothes and hairstyles, they would have been identical.

“I wanted to see who’d be stupid enough to buy this old wreck of a house,” Carol said, reaching down and smoothing the line of her skirt.

“Well, that was
rude
,” Coral said, swinging her hip at her sister once again.

Carol was ready for her this time and had planted her feet so Coral couldn’t knock her off balance. “I was curious

who’d want to plunk their money down for a house that needs so much work.” She ignored her sister and never took her eyes off Judith.

Coral pulled out one of chairs and sat down, looking around the room. “We haven’t been here since shortly after our mother died. I thought it would be in worse condition than it is.”

Judith sat down and held out her hand to Coral. “And which sister are you?”

“I’m Coral, and that Diva in the silly suit is my sister Carol. She always was the nasty one.” She turned toward her sister. “She’s so full of herself.”

“Well, at least I’m not full of crap like someone I know.”

“Ohhh, now
that
one really stung.” Coral chuckled and thumbed her nose at Carol.

Carol walked over and stood next to Judith. She glanced down at the papers before staring at my mother-in-law and tapping her foot.

“Is there a problem?” Judith asked.

Coral started to laugh. “You’re sitting in Carol’s chair. She was always very possessive about her place at the table. I never could figure out why.”

Carol sneered at her sister. “It’s because from that chair I could see you no matter where you were in the room. When I couldn’t see you, I didn’t trust you.”

“Oh, nice. You’re never going to let go of that are you?”

Judith looked from sister to sister in confusion.

Coral turned to Judith. “When we were about six, I snuck up behind Carol. She turned around to look at me and I reached around her to drop a tiny little froggie in her soup. She was so busy watching my face that when she turned around to eat, she put the soup spoon with the frog on it in her mouth.”

Carol’s face paled. “It was absolutely horrible. Mother

bawled her out, but she laughed about it, too. It was disgusting to feel that little frog wiggling around in my mouth. I threw up and missed dinner that night.” She grimaced as she remembered the incident. Reaching over, she punched her sister’s arm.

Coral ignored her and turned back to Judith. “So, have you heard the stories about our mother hiding a treasure in this house?”

“Actually, yes,” Judith replied. “To be honest, I’m very interested, but we’ve always wanted a fixer upper to live in and work on anyway. The treasure story was the bait that hooked us.”

“And what about the dead girl they found here?” Carol asked, narrowing her eyes at Judith.

“Actually, I was the one who found her. That’s one experience I’ll never get over, but at least she wasn’t in the master bedroom. I don’t think I could sleep in the room where I found her.”

“Which room was that?” Coral asked.

“The center room at the top of the stairs.” Judith glanced toward the living room, in the direction of the stairs.

Coral laughed. “That was your room, Carol. Now it’ll be haunted for all eternity.”

“You nitwit, there’s no such thing as a ghost. Are you trying to scare these people out of buying the house?”

“Oh. Yeah.” She turned to Judith. “You still want it, don’t you?”

“We do. I don’t believe in ghosts either.”

Chris Sr. had been standing off to the side while this conversation was going on. “You girls wouldn’t be
trying
to scare us off, would you?”

“Why, no,” Coral said. “We’re happy as little clams to be unloading this monstrosity.”

“Coral!” Carol admonished. “This is a
wonderful
old house, filled with happy memories.”

“Yeah, and it’s sooo wonderful that we never came back to it after taking care of Mother’s business.”

Carol sat down in the chair across from Judith. “We have a lot of good memories of growing up here. Our mother was a love, and she was so creative. Have you ever read any of her books? Oh, I’m sure you probably have. The only monstrosity in this house was my sister.”

I was slowly beginning to understand a little about the twins. Carol was uptight, and Coral liked to play on Carol’s trait. She seemed to do everything she could to annoy her sister. Typical sibling stuff even at their age, but they seemed to take it to a different level. I couldn’t help wondering if they’d ever gotten along.

“Were you two ever friends?” I asked. I rolled my eyes when I realized I’d said that aloud. I honestly hadn’t meant to.

Coral didn’t seem to take offense at my question. “We used to get along. I spent a lifetime teasing Carol, but it was all good-natured. We – ”

“Speak for yourself,” Carol said. “I haven’t had a sister in years, and I don’t care to talk about it.”

Coral turned her head and looked into my eyes. “She’s been upset ever since Mother died and we couldn’t find the treasure,” she said in a stage whisper. “I can show you where a lot of the hiding places are. I know where most of them are, but I also know Mother had a few she kept secret from us. Carol thought I found the treasure and didn’t share it with her because I came into some money. The cash actually came from some stocks and bonds, but she didn’t believe that.”

I saw Judith’s eyes light up. “You know where the hiding places are? Fantastic! My grandson and I want to see them.”

“Your grandson?” The women had been so busy fussing that they hadn’t noticed Chris and Mikey standing near the kitchen door.

“This is our son, Mikey,” Chris said, giving Mikey a

gentle shove in their direction.

“They call me Ace, and I’m the brains behind this outfit. You dames’ll have to stop in at our gin mill sometime.” Mikey’s eyes were big as saucers and I couldn’t believe he’d said that. From the look on his face, I was pretty sure he’d surprised himself, too. “Sorry, ladies, I didn’t mean to say that.” Dropping his head, he stepped back by his father and quietly slipped behind him.

Carol’s mouth dropped open and Coral began to laugh. “I like that kid’s moxy. What gin mill?”

Chris stepped forward. “We own a restaurant called
Bogey Nights
.”

Carol stepped closer to Chris and studied him. “Yes, I know who you are. I’ve read about you in the newspaper. You’re a private investigator.”

“No, I’m not,” he said hurriedly. “Nope. Not a gumshoe. Not me.”

“I’d like to hire you.” Carol’s mind was made up. It was evident in the way she crossed her arms and stood with her feet apart, head tilted slightly back.

“Hire him for what?” I asked.

Judith looked at me and nodded, apparently liking my question.

“Hey, what’s everyone doing down here?” Davey walked into the room and looked at each of our faces. “Who wants to hire who to do what?”

We’d forgotten he was in the house.

“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Chris rolled his upper lip under and rolled back on his heels, looking down his nose at Carol.

“Find out who murdered that girl,” Carol said. “This is the house Coral and I grew up in, and I don’t like the idea of something like that happening here.”

“Oh, as though you care,” Coral said in disgust.

“Listen, Coral, I think the legend of Mother’s hidden

treasure has something to do with that girl’s death. In a way, that makes her death Mother’s fault.”

“Oh. Yeah. I hadn’t thought about that.” Coral turned and studied Chris. “Can you do it?”

“Ladies, I’m not a private investigator. The police are on this, so let them do their job.”

Carol held up her hand to silence Chris. “The police aren’t going to care a whit about the treasure. They’ll be heading in the wrong direction, and I’m absolutely sure the girl was killed because of something that isn’t really here.”

“Lord knows Carol and I searched for it. She was murdered because of something that simply doesn’t exist.” I was surprised to hear Coral agreeing with her sister.

“I understand they call you the Bogey Man.” Carol threw the name out like a challenge.

All eyes were on Chris. I could see the Bogey Man weakening. He was no longer back on his heels, and his lip had uncurled. He was tugging on his earlobe, and his eyes were far away.

Judith spoke up. “She’s right, Junior. The police won’t look at it the same way you would.”

Chris Sr. stepped forward. “Son?”

Chris glanced at his mother. “Don’t call me Junior.”

I could hear resignation in his voice, and I knew it went far beyond being called Junior.