Murder at Breakfast (3 page)

“Before
we move on to the residents, tell me what you can about the woman who died, and
her schedule today, as best you can tell me.”

“Kate
Higgins lived in apartment number one. I assume you’ve already been there.” I
nodded and she went on. “She’s been with us for nine years. She was a little
demanding, but nothing unreasonable, and I could always pacify her. To the best
of my knowledge she had no family. She talked about a niece, but no one’s ever
been to see her, so I’m not sure if she had a niece or not. Supposedly, her
niece lived out west somewhere. She said she had a brother and a sister, but
both are deceased. Kate was married for a while, but her husband has been gone
for almost forty years. Kate came here to live when she claimed the house was
getting to be too much for her. She liked being able to come and go as she
pleased and liked having someone to do her cooking and cleaning.”

“So,
she never had a visitor in all the time she lived here?”

“Oh,
she had a visitor all right, but he’s one of the residents. Those two spent a
lot of time together. They were the talk of the place. Everyone said they
should go ahead and get married. Well, everyone except for Christine Hunt, who
wanted to marry Russell herself.”

“And
both of these two live here at Parkway Arms?”

“That’s
right! Russell Cochran’s up on the third floor in apartment six. Christine
lives across from him in number seven.  Some  of  us  figured  we’d  have  to
keep those two old women from coming to blows sometime. I don’t guess we’ll
have to worry about that now.”     

“Miss
Draper, let’s change directions. Tell me about Mrs. Higgins’s day today. I
guess the first you saw of her was at breakfast, or are you around the
residents at breakfast?”

“Well,
as always, Kate was the first one down for breakfast, and one of the first to
leave. You could always depend on Kate. She’d be down before 7:00, sit out in
the common area until breakfast was served, then come in and eat, and shortly
after she finished eating she’d head for the elevator to go back to her
apartment. She couldn’t wait to brush her teeth, said she couldn’t stand to
have food between her teeth.”

“So,
she didn’t talk much to anyone?”

“Kate
usually didn’t talk much at breakfast, but she wasn’t one of our gabbier
residents anyway, unless she was talking to Russell. While they didn’t usually
come down together for breakfast, he’d sit with her when he came down, if she
was still there, and they almost always sat together at lunch and dinner.”

“What
about this morning? Did they sit together?”

“Well,
today was kind of a different day in two respects. First, Russell called down
this morning, said that he wasn’t feeling well, and asked to have his breakfast
sent up in the dumbwaiter. We have that option available to all of our
residents. It’s just that they know that those who come down for meals get
served first. Martha answered the phone when Russell called down, said he
didn’t sound well. Shortly after he called, Elaine Jewell called too, asked if
she could have her food sent up. Martha complied, sent food up to both
residents.”

I
pretended that I didn’t know anything about the dumbwaiter.

“So,
where’s this dumbwaiter, both on this floor and others?”

“Actually,
we have four dumbwaiters, each below the apartments. Each one of them has two
buttons. The ones down here are marked ‘up one’ and ‘up two.’ The ones on the
second floor  are  marked  ‘up  one’  and ‘ down one.’  The ones on the third
floor are marked ‘down one’ and ‘down two.’ That way, all you have to do is
push a button and the dumbwaiter stops exactly where you want it to. For example,
one goes up to Kate’s apartment, but also goes on up to the apartment above
hers. Where it stops depends upon whether I push ‘up one’ or ‘up two.’ Kate
opted to eat lunch in her room today.”

“Oh!
Why is that?”

“Remember
when I said that some of our maids’ jobs are done daily, while others are less
often? Well, once a quarter the maids shampoo the carpets on the second and
third floors. Today was the day.”

“Now
what did that entail, for the maids and the residents?”

“Well,
the maids begin by vacuuming all the common areas on the second and third
floor. Margie does the second floor, Ginny the third. They start at the far end
down where their apartments are and work their way down to the other end, where
the residents live. They do the lounge, the library, everything except each
resident’s apartment. They clean each resident’s apartment once a week. They
clean one apartment each day, Monday through Thursday. All of our residents
know that they must either spend all day in their apartment or out of their
apartment, and we let them know several days in advance when that day will be.
The maids begin by having Wally help them move the furniture from the lounge
area into the storage area beginning around 9:00, then vacuum the entire second floor, then shampoo. Most of the time, they are through shampooing by 1:00. The lease says that on the day that the maids shampoo the upstairs carpeting that no
one is to be in the second or third floor hallways from 10:15-4:00 except for the maids. That might sound like a lot of time, but it’s a large area. Anyway,
after they finish, the area needs to dry for a few hours, so no one, staff
person or resident, is allowed to walk on the carpet. Therefore, they cannot
leave or enter their apartments, since each apartment has only one entrance.
Both maids live on the second floor, but away from the residents.  Just like
those of us who live on the first floor, Margie and Ginny can go to their
apartments, but not to the lounge area, or to the residential apartment area
before the carpet is dry. All staff and residents have to stay in their
apartments, stay in the lounge on the first floor or in the yard outside, or go
somewhere for a few hours. Most of residents opt to spend the day out shopping,
or eat lunch in their apartments, as Katherine did today.”

“Who
sent her tray up?”

“That
would be Martha. Martha takes care of all of that.”

“And
from what I can gather, Martha sent the tray up, Mrs. Higgins took it out of
the dumbwaiter and sat it on her dining room table, and someone became
concerned when she didn’t send the tray back down, and didn’t come down for
dinner.”

“That’s
right. Since today was a pretty day, everyone except Kate and Russell went out.
The funny thing is that neither tray came back. Russell said he sent his tray
back down, but we never got it. Martha told me she pushed the button for Kate’s
dumbwaiter, and when it came down it was empty.”

“When
was that?”

“Shortly
before I went up to check on Kate, and then called you, which was sometime
between 6:00-6:30.”

“And
which of the residents came down for dinner tonight?”

“Everyone
except Russell. Russell had Martha send him up a tray again. Martha became
concerned when Kate didn’t send her tray down, and notified me when she didn’t
come down for dinner. I punched her number on my phone, but she didn’t answer.
I gave her a few minutes, in case she was sleeping or happened to be in the
bathroom. I figured something must be wrong and went up and knocked. When she
didn’t answer my knock, I used my key, but the chain latch was on, so I
couldn’t open the door all the way. I called out to her, but she didn’t reply.
That’s when I figured something might have happened to her and I’d better call
you. Poor Kate.”

“Did
you talk to anyone in the meantime?”

“Not
a soul. At least not about Kate. Well, no one except Martha. She was waiting
when I got back downstairs, anxious to know how Kate was. She looked just as
worried as I did.”

“And
did you or anyone else go into her apartment after the police arrived?”

“No,
I was the one who went up and showed the nice young officer which apartment it
was. He asked me to wait downstairs, and to keep this to myself.”

“So,
you weren’t there when our officer opened the door to Mrs. Higgins’s
apartment?”

“No,
the officer asked me to go to my office before he tried the key. Did he have to
break the door down to get in?”

“No,
he merely inserted the key in the lock, turned the key, and opened the door.”

“The
latch wasn’t on?”

“No.”

“But
it was on when I tried it. The key worked. I opened the door as far as it would
go, but the latch prohibited me from opening it all the way. How could that
be?”

“I
don’t know, but we’ll find out. Let’s get back to earlier in the day. Now, as
far as you know, Martha was the only person who touched the food before it
arrived in Mrs. Higgins’ apartment?”

“I
would think so. You can ask her. There wasn’t anything wrong with the food, was
there? I’m sure someone else must have eaten the same thing.”

“We
won’t know anything like that until after we do the autopsy. That’ll be a
couple of days yet. In the meantime, everyone is to stay on the premises, and
we’ll have someone here to see that they do. I’ll want to talk to each person
on the staff as well as each of the residents. I’ll talk to each person individually,
and as best I can, I’ll see to it that no one misses any more work than is
absolutely necessary. So that things will be up and ready to go in the morning,
we’ll have a crew here tonight going over the kitchen and all the food it
contains. It won’t be necessary for the cook to be with them. As a matter of
fact, I’d prefer that every staff person other than you remain in his or her
apartment. You may stay in your office or your apartment, but I’ll need to know
where to find you at all times. The same is true of the others. I don’t want
you to talk to them about anything we’ve discussed. I’ll advise them, when I
talk to each of them.”

“You’re
acting as if you think Kate was murdered.”

“We’re
merely taking precautions in case she was murdered. We won’t know whether or
not she died of natural causes until after the autopsy is completed.”

The
woman didn't look pleased with my comments.

“Oh,
one other thing. What can you tell me about Hazel Allnut?”

“You
mean other than that she was properly named?”

I
laughed at her remark. Evidently we had similar feelings about the woman.

“Well,
she lives in the house next-door, which on the surface looks far enough away,
and actually it is, if she’d stay home. But she feels she must come over here
and do her best to run things. Her pretense for coming is that she and
Christine Hunt are friends, and they seem to be, but she’s over here far too
often to suit me. Sometimes I try to give her a gentle nudge to let her know
it’s time to go home. She’s not supposed to be here unless she’s visiting
someone, and sometimes I see her all by herself. I have to remind her that she
is not to use our facilities or make use of our amenities unless one of our
residents has invited her to do so.”

“I
know she was over here today. Could she have seen Mrs. Higgins at any time
today?”

“It’s
possible, but doubtful. See, we don’t open any of the outside doors until 9:00. Of course they stay open until we lock them at 9:00 each night. To get in at any
other time, someone must use a key or buzz one of our residents. The resident
cannot merely buzz someone in, like you can in some buildings, but must
personally come down and open the door for someone.  That  discourages  our 
residents  from  making it easy for anyone to get in. Kate went to her room
right after breakfast, which was long before the doors opened. The maids
started vacuuming just after opening the doors, so I doubt if Allnut saw Kate.”

It
was too bad that I had seen the nutcase. She gave me nightmares before I went
to sleep. I thought about putting out bear traps between Parkway Arms and her
house, but I knew that God would punish me if I did. So I did the next best
thing. I tried to forget that I had met the woman.

I
told Miss Draper that I had no further questions at that time and requested a
list of all the employees and residents. She gave me better than that. She
handed me a floor plan of Parkway Arms and marked the apartment where each
employee and resident lived. I left her intending to interview Martha the cook,
when I spotted George Michaelson talking to Officer Davis. George is the only
other lieutenant on the Hilldale Police Department, and a good friend of Lou’s
and mine. George has been with the department almost as long as I have, which
means he’s been there long enough to retire, but he likes what he does and has
no desire to retire at this time.

George
knows that Lou and I use humor from time to time to relieve the tension of a
murder investigation. I know that George likes to get the best of me whenever
he can. I should have known enough to avoid George that night, but I didn’t.

“So,
Cy, did you have time to finish your dinner before you got paged?”

“Lou
had finished. I’d just started eating my second dessert when I was paged. I
managed to finish eating before we left. From what I can tell the body didn’t
look any worse for wear because I took an extra few minutes.”

“Oh,
Cy, I had no doubt you managed to finish. So, what’ve you been up to lately?”

“Well,
right now we have a murder to solve.”

“I
meant before the murder. Anything new going on in your life?”

I
wasn’t sure where he was going, but I knew enough to know I didn’t want to go
there with him. It sounded as if he thought I had started dating a new woman,
but I hadn’t even met anyone new, at least not until I arrived at Parkway Arms.
I had met three since I arrived, but I would describe those three as ugly,
lifeless, and not my type. I tried to get away from George, but to no avail.

“Listen,
Cy, I know you’re not really up on modern technology, but do you know what this
is?”

I
looked at the small object he held in his hand.

“I’d
say it’s one of those new phones.”

“That
and more. It does a lot more than your phone will do. Let me just show you one
of its features.”

“Listen,
George, I know the department has kept you on, even though it doesn’t have
enough work for you do to, but I’ve got suspects to grill. Maybe later.”

“Oh,
this’ll take only a minute, Cy, and I think it might interest you. Watch this!”

My
jaw dropped when George touched the screen a couple of times and I saw the fat
guy who inhabits my body doing the hula hoop on that object George held in his
hand.”

It
was a while before I could speak. No one would have been able to hear me anyway
because of the laughter. George’s prank had attracted other members of the
department.

“Where
did you manage to get that?”

“The
question, Cy, is not where I got it, but who I can share it with. There’s no
telling how many people will flock to YouTube to see this. Yes, I think YouTube
is the way to go. Of course there’ll be a lot of people wanting to see you
doing other exercises. Oh, and I’ve got one of you sitting on the couch with
your jaw dropped like it is now and your eyes bulging out watching a couple of
young ladies doing the hula hoop exercise. Would you like to see that, too?
It’ll just take a second. I just need to hit a couple of things.”

I
huffed a “no” and pulled Lou away from the others. I needed to recompose myself
and interrogate a possible suspect. Also, I needed to ask Lou if he knows what
YouTube is. If not, maybe the girls will know. At any rate, I needed to think
of some way to get even with George, after we solved the murder. I wondered if
Frank had seen it yet. And what about the Chief? Surely no one would show it to
him.

+++

According
to the map Mrs. Draper gave me, on the back side of the first floor there was
the dining room, opposite where I was at that moment, next Mrs. Draper’s
office, and then her apartment connected to that through a door behind her
desk. Opposite her office and apartment on the front side of the building were
the cook’s apartment and the one belonging to the building superintendent,
which was next to the sitting area where I had spent too much time with George.

I
knocked on the door that was supposed to lead to the cook’s apartment. A
white-haired woman answered my knock. She was pleasantly plump, but not as
well-rounded as I am. From the looks of her hair, my guess was that she found
time sometime during the week to go to the hairdresser. It looked like she had
just had it done.

“Are
you Martha Carpenter?”

“Uh,
yes. Are you with the police department? Margaret said she was going to call
the police.”

“I’m
Lt. Dekker and this is Sgt. Murdock. May we come in?”

“Is
Katherine okay?” she asked as she admitted us to her apartment, one that was
not quite as elegant as the one I was in upstairs.

I
noticed that one woman referred to the deceased as Kate, another as Katherine.
Would the next one on my list call her Kathy?  There’s  not  much  you can do
with Cy. Well, actually my real name is Cyrus, but only one person refers to me
by that, and I would just as soon forget about that one person.

I
dismissed my wandering thoughts and answered the cook’s question.

“No,
I’m sorry, she’s not. Did you know her well?”

“Fairly
well. After all, I cooked for her since she came here, spoke with her when I
had time. Is she dead?”

“Yes,
I’m afraid so.”

“But
she seemed so well. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. She was
fine the last time I talked to her.”

“I
understand that you’re the cook here. Do you do all the cooking?”

“All
of the cooking, most of the serving. Of course all of us on the staff serve
ourselves, so it’s not as bad as it seems. I don’t cook on Sunday, but a lot of
our residents eat out then. Depending on how many eat here on Sunday, we either
have the meals catered or send Wally out to pick up something.”

“Don’t
you have any help?”

“Don’t
need any with so few people. I manage. Been doing it for most of my life. Not
here all of that time, but somewhere. It’s become old hat.”

“So,
tell me about your typical day.”

“Well,
most mornings I get up around 5:30, shower, read the newspaper, then head to
the kitchen around 6:15. I’m expected to have the breakfast ready around 7:00. I vary it a little, but try to have the things every day that people expect. I fix
something a little special a couple of times a week. On those days I get up a
little earlier. Anyway, while the residents eat, I cook for those who work
here. Normally I eat the same time they do, sometimes at the table with them,
other times outdoors, if the weather is good. I love being outdoors,
particularly in the spring. We are also allowed to take our food to our
apartments. The two maids do that a lot, especially at lunch. Most of the staff
eats together at night. I’m rambling, I know. Anyway, after breakfast I have a
break, prepare food for lunch, have most  of  the  afternoon  off, and then fix
dinner. Of course, I’m also the one who keeps the kitchen clean, washes the
dishes. I try not to make too big of a mess, and I can put most everything in
the dishwasher in one load, so cleaning up isn’t all that bad.”

“What
about today? Anything different than on other days?”

“Well,
of course it’s different when someone dies, but I didn’t know that until you
told me, although I suspected something when Katherine didn’t answer her phone
or her door.”

“Let
me see if I have this right. You were the one who cooked Mrs. Higgins’
breakfast today. Her lunch, too. You sent it up in the dumbwaiter yourself, and
you were the one who noticed that she hadn’t sent her tray back down, and you
mentioned that to Miss Draper.”

“That’s
correct. Didn’t get Russell’s tray back either. That’s unusual.”

“Does
everyone here eat the same thing?”

“No,
that wouldn’t work. We give each person three or four choices for each meal.”

“And
do you remember what the gentleman ordered for lunch today?”

“Yes,
he ordered fried fish, corn on the cob, and macaroni and cheese.”

“And
Mrs. Higgins?”

“She
had veal cutlet, green beans, and mashed potatoes.”

I
made a note. The food the deceased ordered was the food setting in front of her
when Lou and I visited her room.

“Was
there anything unusual about Mrs. Higgins not sending her tray back down? Had
she been late sending her tray down before?”

“Oh,
from time to time some of our residents get involved in watching TV and forget
to send their tray and dishes back down, and I have to call them to remind
them, and occasionally they’re sick and don’t feel like doing so.  Sometimes, 
if  they’re not feeling well, I’ll send up one of the maids with a key, but I
never do that without the resident’s okay.”

“But
that wasn’t the case today?”

“No,
Russell said he sent his tray back down, so there was no reason to go to his
apartment, even though he was sick. When Katherine didn’t answer her phone, I
let Margaret know. She handled it from there.”

“Were
they the only two who ate lunch in their rooms today?”

“Yes.
Russell ate breakfast in his room and so did Elaine Jewell. I don’t know if you
know that today was carpet shampooing day. Depending on the weather, a lot of
our residents eat in their rooms on carpet shampooing day, but today was such a
pretty day that everyone else went out. I don’t know why Katherine didn’t, but
before she left the breakfast table she filled out a form and circled the
things she wanted sent to her room for lunch. Of course shampooing day comes
only once every three months, but everyone dreads that day. On that day people
have a tendency to go out for the day or stay in their rooms. They don’t like
to sit around downstairs half the morning and most of the afternoon.”

“Mrs.
Carpenter, I want you to think before you answer this question. Is it possible
that anyone other than yourself touched the food that was on Mrs. Higgins’s
tray today?”

“Didn’t
she get what she ordered? If she didn’t, I’d think she’d have called me and let
me know. But back to your question, the only time anyone could have fooled with
her food was when I took something out to the dining room table or brought
something back, or when I took Russell’s tray out. But I believe that I took
Katherine’s tray first. No, I believe I took Russell’s first, because he was
sick, but I’m not sure. Sometimes, I’ll send things depending upon who eats
more quickly. A lot of times I send the slowest eater’s food up first.
Katherine usually eats more quickly than most of the others. I probably sent
Russell’s first.”

“Mrs.
Carpenter, when was the last time you checked the dumbwaiter for Mrs. Higgins’s
tray?”

“Just
before I started serving dinner.”

“And
the dumbwaiter was empty?”

“No,
it wouldn’t come back down. That means the door to the dumbwaiter was open in
Katherine’s room.”

“And
did this concern you?”

“Of
course it did. That’s why I told Margaret what was happening.”

“Thank
you, Mrs. Carpenter. You’ve been most helpful. We’re not yet sure what caused
Mrs. Higgins’s death, so we’re asking everyone to stay on the premises until
further notice. I’ll let you know if we have any more questions.”

The
woman looked shaken by my last comments. Up until then, other than when we
first arrived, she seemed comfortable with my questions. At least she was
willing to talk. And talk. Lou and I turned to leave. One of us was hoping that
George had already found something else to do, something away from Parkway
Arms. One of us wasn't so fortunate.