Murder in Death's Door County (21 page)

“No, no, don’t say anything. She’d
probably spit in it or something. But where could the hair have come from?”

“Maybe it was in the air? From another
customer?”

“Remember that dream I had? Maybe this
is part of that.”

Donovan was saved from making a reply by
Lizzy appearing suddenly.

“I thought I heard you were both here!
Did you find out anything?” Lizzy asked.

“Nope. Nothing to report,” said Donovan.
“Hey, Lizzy, when do you get off work?”

“Oddly, Kitty only scheduled me to
twelve thirty today. I’ll be done about the time you finish lunch.”

Donovan looked a bit sheepish and asked
Lizzy if she could give me a ride back to her sister’s. Apparently, he had
forgotten an appointment in Bailey’s Harbor when he agreed to stay for lunch.

I couldn’t resist teasing him a little, “So,
you forgot all about work because you were distracted by me?” Exaggeratedly, I
batted my eyes at him.

Very seriously, Donovan looked into my
eyes and said, “Yes, that is exactly what happened.”

Lizzy fanned herself and left us. And,
once again, I blushed to my hair roots.

P
ROMPTLY AT ONE, LIZZY
AND I
left the Lighthouse
for our appointment with Joyce Limburger.

“Now, you have Joyce’s address, right?”
Lizzy asked, as we got into the car.

I pulled a piece of paper out of my
pocket and waved it, “Got it right here! Although, we don’t really need it,
since she’s next door to Effie. You know, I’m really hoping this is the
breakthrough we need.”

Ever the optimist, Lizzy practically
bounced in her seat, “This is so exciting!” She started her truck, “We are off
then!”

On the way to Joyce’s, I filled Lizzy in
on my initial impressions of Joyce. Casually, I mentioned her frenemy standing
with Millicent. Lizzy laughed when I told her about Millicent’s take on her “friend’s”
observations. Still laughing, Lizzy added, “Yeah, that sounds like sour old
Millicent.”

We got to Joyce’s with ten minutes to
spare. Interesting that we hadn’t noticed it a few days ago when visited with
Effie, but Joyce actually lived in a mini-castle. We had thought the other
houses were big. They were miniature compared to Joyce’s. Her monstrosity made
the house we were investigating seem like a cottage. Seriously, how had we
missed seeing it before? I suppose Lizzy’s transformation into a Mud Monster
and seeing that mystery woman tear off in her Escalade distracted us. When
Effie had pointed out her neighbor’s property, we were in the backyard, and all
I had noticed was a rough and tumble shack.

“So, what strategy should we use?” Lizzy
asked as she parked the car. “Good cop, bad cop?”

For some reason Lizzy’s question
reminded me of what I had told Joyce. I snapped my fingers and exclaiming, “Oh,
darn it all! I forgot a camera!” I explained what I had told Joyce about the
reason for our visit.

Lizzy applauded my quick thinking, and
added, “Well, today is your lucky day, Miss Annie Malone.”

Getting out of the truck, she went
around to the back and popped open the door. Lifting up a handy-dandy floor
cover, she pulled out a professional looking camera. “Did you know I was into
photography?”

Mouth agape, I shook my head. Stunned by
the amazing coincidence, I said, “Maybe you mentioned it in passing, but I had
no idea. This is great!”

We trudged up the sidewalk. I saw Effie’s
curtain twitch a little and felt oddly comforted to know she was watching us
approach Joyce. I realized she wasn’t watching out of any sense of protecting
us, but blatant nosiness. However, it felt good just the same. The closer we
got to the door, the more my stomach started to twist.

As I rang the doorbell, I asked Lizzy, “So,
what do you think she looks like?”

“Hard to guess. Since she’s clearly
vain, probably not like Millicent.”

“I know. Poor Millicent. There must be a
good reason for her bitterness.”

“There is,” Lizzy said knowingly. “I’ll
tell you sometime. Are you sure she was expecting us at one?”

“Positive.” I tried the bell again. “She
suggested the time, actually.” I knocked on the door this time, and it popped
open. I looked at Lizzy in amazement, adding, “I did not knock on it
that
hard!”

Remember that stomachache I had
mentioned? Add to that a chill going up my spine. I couldn’t ignore that.
Turning to Lizzy, I asked, “Do you think we should go in?”

“Yes,” Lizzy said, and I thought I
caught a hint of false bravado. But that could’ve my own nerves I was sensing.

“Why do I sense something’s wrong?”

“Yeah, I do too.”

“What do you think we’ll find?”

“I don’t know. But we need to bite the
bullet.”

“Oh, why oh why did you say bullet?”

I gulped. Taking the bull by the horns,
I called out, “Joyce?” through the open door. Getting the strongest sense of
deja vu, I almost ran back to the truck. I could not shake the scene at the Lighthouse
Inn, when I found Harry. I looked over at Lizzy, who stood right behind me in
the doorway. She waved me forward, as if to say, “Get on with it.”

Clearly a curious person, Lizzy did not
seem quite as nervous as I felt. Of course, Lizzy hadn’t found a dead body in
the last week or so.

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” I said, moving
forward with the speed of a turtle on barbiturates. Lizzy gave me a little
push. I stumbled forward into the entryway.

Once we got through the doorway, Lizzy
pushed past me and fully into Joyce’s foyer. “Wow, would you just look at this
place? Heads R’ Us, or what?”

Staring down from two-story high walls,
I counted three bear heads, five bucks, and ten fish. Mounted game really
freaked me out—those glassy eyes staring at me. Shiver. I deduced Joyce must be
a kind of antique weapons expert, too. Either that or a dominatrix. Hatchets,
bows and arrows, and spears also hung on the walls. Wait! Was that a
blunderbuss? I had to give her credit—I was not expecting this decor, but I
supposed it matched the castle-gothic feeling of the house. On the far side of
the room stood a staircase that must have gone up to the bedrooms.

“Let’s go upstairs and see if can find
her,” Lizzy whispered. Her voice echoed through the entryway.

“Do you really think we should?”

Lizzy thought about it for a minute. I
watched her eyes move as she went through several scenarios. “Yes, I think we
should. What if she was taking a bath and she fell and broke her hip or
something? I really would hate to think that we could have helped her, but didn’t
because we were scared.”

“Wait? Are you scared, too? I thought
you weren’t at all. You have really held it together well.”

“Thanks, it has been an effort. Did the
sky just darken, like, a lot? Are those animals freaking you out, too?”

“I’m not sure which is worse, those or
the hatchets. Come on, you brought up a good point. Let’s head upstairs.”

At that moment, we heard a clap of
thunder overhead. Through Joyce’s skylight, we saw a bolt of lightning. Talk
about atmosphere! It looked like the lightning struck right over us.

We stood paralyzed at the base of the
staircase. Gathering up every bit of courage I had, I said, “Okay, let’s go now.”

“Yeah, we really should go now.” Yet
neither of us could move. Another strike of lightning hit overhead.

On the floor behind us, we heard
something scamper across the room. By the time we heard the second something
scamper, we were halfway up the stairs. Caught between a rock and a hard place,
we continued our upward motion to the “hard place.”

Directly opposite the staircase was a
closed door. I reached over, about to open it. Lizzy grabbed my hand and shook
her head. I don’t know if she had some sixth sense or something, but she
whispered, “don’t touch anything.”

“Right. Good point,” I whispered back. “So,
which way do we go?” Doorways lined the wall from either side of the staircase.

“Let’s go… right.”

“Right, it is.”

We continued to tiptoe down the hallway.
The storm grew outside. Boom! A clap of thunder. Wow, that sounded close. The
whole day had begun to take on a very eerie atmosphere, and the day was nowhere
near over.

“Okay, seriously, if she were hurt,”
Lizzy asked, “wouldn’t we have heard her by now?”

I shrugged, “maybe she’s unconscious. Is
that a light coming out of the doorway?” I pointed to the last doorway on the
side of the hall.

“Yep.” Lizzy quickened her step and got
there before me. By the time I got there, her face was ashen. She looked like
she was about to lose her breakfast. Uh oh. I peeked in the door.

On a big oak, four-poster bed, a very
blue Joyce Limburger was laid out, almost in a funeral pose. She was wearing
her pajamas and almost looked peaceful. Ugh. Super creepy. I ran into the room
and felt her neck in vain to check her pulse. Nothing. I looked back towards
the doorway for Lizzy. Also nothing. Then I heard the front door slam. I hoped
she had made it outside in time. Figuring I should go check on Lizzy (you know,
since she was probably in shock and there was nothing I could do for Joyce
anyway), I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I ran down the stairs and out
the door.

The rain came down in sheets. Although
the storm had lessened, it didn’t seem like the rain would let up anytime soon.
Immediately, I spotted Lizzy in the front yard, doubled over. Relieved that I
hadn’t fainted this time, I dialed 911 on my cell phone, expecting to be
connected to an emergency operator.

KABOOM!!!!!

Darkness.

W
AS SOMEONE
WATERBOARDING ME?
Why was water
pelting me, but I wasn’t moving? Could I move? I moved my arms. They seemed
okay. I moved my legs. They seemed okay. Tentatively, I opened my eyes, which
stung a little. I could see okay and I realized rain was falling on me. I heard
the sirens before I saw the emergency vehicles. Frantically, I looked around
for Lizzy. I saw her laying in an odd position a few feet away from me. From
what I had always learned about accidents, the number one rule is to not move
an injured person unless necessary. So, I didn’t move her, but I did satisfy
myself that she had a pulse. The real shock was when I turned back around
towards the house. Er, what was left of the house. What was left of the house
was a smoldering heap with small fires here and there. Fires? What on earth had
happened? The last thing I remembered was finding Joyce, racing out of the
house, and calling 911. Er, trying to call 911. Wait? I don’t remember speaking
to an operator. So, if I didn’t call 911, who did?

And, seriously, what happened to the
house? Oh my gosh, most of the house was gone, with bits and pieces of it
strewn all over the yard. How did that happen? And when did it happen? I tried
to piece the events together, but I had no idea how long I’d been laying on the
lawn.

By the time the fire trucks pulled up,
the rain had almost put out the fires. The air was filled with acrid smoke and
as thick as a fog. Why were my ears ringing? By now, the ambulances had
arrived. The EMTs went immediately to Lizzy. I raced over to them, but I couldn’t
hear what they were saying. Every sound felt gauzy. Her eyes were closed as
they worked on her.

“Is she okay?” I asked them.

Unfortunately, my ability to read lips
is almost nonexistent, so I don’t know what the EMT’s answer was. I do know this;
at my inability to hear him, I became panicked. I started yelling for my
friend. One of the female EMTs guided me to an ambulance where they gave me
oxygen and checked my ears.

Putting two and two together, I realized
something must have happened to cause temporary (I hoped) hearing loss. After
sitting on a stretcher near the ambulance for about 20 or so minutes, the rain
began to taper off. Looking out at the lawn, I saw Effie moving towards me. I
beckoned her over, patting a seat next to me.

I think I might have yelled this, but I
said, “Hi Effie, do you know what happened?”

“Yes, don’t you?” is what I think she
said. My hearing was starting to return. I shook my head.

“Please tell me. I remember leaving the
house, but nothing after that.”

“Well, let’s see. I saw you and that
tall girl… What’s her name again?” I could barely make out what she was saying,
but I heard most of it.

“Lizzy. Can you please talk a little
louder?”

She practically yelled, but I could
definitely hear her, “Oh, that’s right. I keep remembering her caked in dirt
and mud. I almost didn’t recognize her. I didn’t realize she was a blonde. But
then I saw you and I recognized you immediately,” she stopped to hack up a
hairball. “Sorry about that.”

“Ah, maybe you should get that checked
out,” I tried to suggest as delicately as I could. I thought she was about to
cough up a lung.