Chapter Ten
Monday late afternoon
“Wowser.” This comes from Anna the same time I say, “Jeez-looweez.”
Anna already had her phone in her hand. I tapped her arm to stop her from dialing.
“I think we should wait to call the police. There might be something else to find.”
“Good idea.”
We leave the evidence on the table and go back to work. Finding nothing else in the kitchen, we next tackle the dining and living rooms. They’re in the same condition as the kitchen. Nothing of interest turns up here either so we head up the curved staircase with the dowels made from some uber-dark wood. I bet they were once very pretty.
“I would so love to buy this place and fix it up,” Anna announces.
I’d been thinking something similar. Well, not buying it but working to fix it up. What a showplace it could be.
Upstairs are four bedrooms and two baths. We separate and are soon joined by Whitney who remarks on the letter on the table. “Did you call the cops?”
“Not yet. We decided to wait and see if we found anything else.”
“Besides, you didn’t want to see them right now.”
“You got that right. All those big, heavy boots plodding around the place would destroy the peace and quiet.”
Whitney and Anna separate into adjoining bedrooms. I enter the bathroom off the largest bedroom. It appears to be the one Nona used regularly. Towels in every hue are heaped on the floor. A blue striped one is draped over the shower rod. The usual hair products are on a shelf in the shower. I open the medicine cabinet. It’s pretty much empty. Just a bottle of aspirin.
Her bedroom is at the front of the house. It takes in the turret room I saw from outside. Big windows look out over the neighborhood. Farther off, the Green and both main streets are visible. A window seat encircles the turret space. It’s covered in an old, flowered cushion. I resist the urge to sit and look out.
The bed is a huge four-poster, unmade of course, but the comforter, with the giant cranberry color hibiscus flowers, looks expensive. It’s obvious she sleeps on the side nearest to me. I open the drawer in the bedside table. It’s stuffed with crumpled tissues. I’m just about to shut away the disgusting mess when I decide it would be good to investigate further. I fingertip-grab the tissues and toss them onto the floor. Beneath them is a package of emery boards, three remote controls (since there is not even a television in this room, I assume they’re moot) a half-empty box of condoms and a tube of K-Y Jelly. For whatever the information is worth, there is also a bible. Looks unused.
I finish the search of the other bedroom. Anna and Whitney have come up empty so we head downstairs. Anna removes her phone from her purse. “Chief Wagner, please.” He answers. There is a lot of noise in the background.
“Everything okay there, Chief?” Anna asks.
“Yes, I’m just leaving the hospital. What’s up?”
She explains where we are and what’s happening.”
A vociferous sigh issues from him. It hisses through the speaker air leaving a popped balloon. “I’ll be right there.”
She ends the call. “I think we’re gonna catch it for being here.”
“We knew that when he got here,” I say.
“Nobody told me to stay away,” Whitney offers with a giggle.
“Me either,” I agree.
We look at Anna who shrugs and lifts her brows. She smiles and shoves a hand through her floppy bangs.
Just then, Eddie’s car swoops into the driveway. He slides to a stop behind Anna’s blue Mini. He comes in through the kitchen door, already frowning. Air whooshes through Anna’s faded-lipstick mouth. For now, he doesn’t ask any questions, or provide any negative commentary. Trust me, it will come.
Whitney gestures at the letter. He glares at her. “Nobody touched it.”
He steps over and unfolds it using the tip of his pen. His scowly face puckers even more. “Where did you find this?” Why are his eyes on me?
Before I can say anything, Anna adds gasoline to his fiery mood. “Not gonna ask why your men didn’t find this during their two previous searches.”
His wide shoulders slump but the anger still shoots off him in tidal waves.
I gesture to the hutch, then thump the top of the silverware box. “Behind this.”
Wordless, he bags the evidence.
“Did you get the results of the autopsy yet?” I ask, hoping to dispel the hurricane that seems to be forming off the coast of Chief Eddie Wagner.
“Yes, it was as expected, electrocution. The guitar had been rewired so the moment she strummed a note...”
“Is there evidence the wire cutters Diablo found are involved?”
“Nothing definitive, but since Nona’s prints weren’t found on them…” He leaves a second statement hanging.
“So, there were no prints on the wire cutters at all?”
“Just a partial. I think someone wiped them off.”
“And missed a spot?” Anna asks.
“I guess. So far, no match in the system yet.” He waits for one of us to volunteer more information regarding our presence here. When we say nothing, he starts toward the door.
We leave too. We’re about to get into Anna’s car when Eddie speaks again. “Joy, I want to see you in the station first thing in the morning.”
“O-kay,” I say, glancing at the girls and wondering why I’ve been issued this invitation and not them. I flash back to a couple of months ago when, to protect me he locked me in a cell. Maybe that’s the plan again tomorrow. If I come to the station willingly, he won’t need handcuffs. We’ll see about that.
“I have a question,” Anna says.
So do I but I suspect it’s not the same one she’s about to voice.
“How many siblings does Hank Summers have?”
Ooh, good question.
Eddie’s dark brow sprouts a trio of wrinkles. “One. A brother Kenneth, why?”
This makes the three of us glance at each other, processing his answer.
He’d had his hand on the door handle, but now he moves toward us. “Ladies, I’m waiting for an explanation.”
“Would you believe,” Anna offers, “I was just curious?”
“Do I need to respond to that?”
“It’d be nice,” she mutters.
Gosh, one of these days she’s going to get us into big trouble.
“We have learned,” Whitney says, “his brother is an electrician, and he was in town a few days ago.”
When Eddie’s face uncrumples I want to shout, “Surprise!” but that would put me in the can’t-keep-my-mouth-shut category with Anna.
He spins on a booted foot, wrenches open the car door, climbs in, and spins the tires on the dirt driveway.
We leave also, my friends chuckling at his multi-mooded personality.
“His ego has taken a direct hit,” Anna says.
“Not our fault,” Whitney says. “He and/or his men should’ve done a more thorough investigation.
We ride back to town in silence. Anna parks in front of Whitney’s car.
“Anyone feel like a movie later on?” Whitney asks.
Anna jumps in on the idea, but I pass. I want to get back to the houseboat for some alone-time. Something is bothering me and I need to figure out what it is.
“Okay,” she says, hesitant because she knows what’s going on in my head, “call if you— Sorry, forgot you don’t have a phone. Want a ride back to the marina?”
“No thanks.” I hug them and head off, stopping first to pick up a pizza. All during the ride from Nona’s my mouth watered over hamburger, onion, green pepper, and jalapeno. Stop wondering. Yes, it is waiting when I arrive. I stay to eat one slice because my stomach is doing hungry-flips.
A half-hour later, as I meander toward the marina, my feet beat time with new lyrics. Shades of grey wherever I go. The more I find out, the less that I know. Ain’t no rainbows shining on me. Shades of grey are the colors I see.
Definitely the truth. The more I find out, the less I seem to know.