‘The coroner thinks she was probably dead when she rolled down the side of the gully, and there’s no sign of the money. Unless she hid the cash somewhere, she didn’t take it.’
Mary sat in a heavy brown chair with uncomfortable arm rests across from Dan in his overcrowded office. Millie lay on a big new dog bed that had been placed under the one window, close by Morgan’s side. Dan had just returned from San Luis Obispo when she walked in the station. He hadn’t waited for her to ask him questions but had volunteered answers.
‘When will she be sure?’
‘Couple of days. However …’
Mary didn’t like that ‘however.’ It usually meant she’d end up doing something she didn’t want to. ‘However … what?’
‘Gloria was an only child.’
‘There’s nothing I can do about that. Oh, no.’
‘Oh, yes. She has relatives – we’re trying to find them now – but it looks as if none of them live close by. Hopefully they’ll take care of whatever services they want to have. I’ve already alerted Les and have passed on the phone number for an aunt. In the meantime …’
‘You’re going to go through her house before the aunt or anyone else arrives. Well, that’s your job, but it’s not mine, and I’m not going with you.’
Dan smiled. ‘I haven’t asked you.’
‘Not yet.’
‘You sound reluctant.’
‘I’m more than reluctant. I’m not going to go near her house. If you need someone, get Agnes.’
Dan laughed out loud. ‘Let’s hope the aunt arrives and takes care of everything.’ Then his face changed. Laughter was gone. ‘But I do have a court order, and I do need to go through the house. That she was killed seems certain, and we have to treat it as a potential crime scene. I’ve already put the wheels in motion.’ Fleetingly, the grin was back. ‘You don’t have to do a thing.’
‘Good.’ She looked at Dan, who’d turned to watch Morgan and Millie, but she didn’t think he really saw them. He was probably thinking of something else, and she was sure it had nothing to do with dogs.
‘Dan, do you think the same person who killed Miss Emilie killed Gloria? I thought Gloria might have stolen the money and, for some reason, killed Miss Emilie, but I guess that theory no longer works.’
Dan shook his head. ‘It’s about the only thing I can rule out right now. I don’t have a shred of concrete evidence that points to anyone, but it would be a stretch to think I had two murderers running around. I was also looking hard at Gloria, and it’s still possible she may have taken Miss Emilie’s money, but I think there may be another reason Gloria died.’
‘You think she was trying to blackmail someone and that’s why she was killed?’
‘I don’t think we can rule it out. Agnes is sticking to her story that she saw her in town the night Miss Emilie was killed, so it’s possible she saw something she wasn’t supposed to. But what, or who, I don’t know. If I had to rely on fingerprints we picked up from the church hall, I’d have to arrest half the town.’
‘What about the white clock? Did you get anything from it?’
This time Dan’s grin was wide. ‘The best fingerprint we got off that clock was yours.’
‘I guess that wasn’t much help.’
‘Nope. Not much.’
‘So, now what do you do?’
‘See what the crime lab turns up at Gloria’s house and see if there’s any sign of money in her accounts that shouldn’t be there.’
Mary didn’t say anything for a minute. Morgan gave Millie’s ears a bath.
Mary turned back to Dan. ‘Do you think it’s possible Miss Emilie didn’t turn the money over to anyone but hid it somewhere herself?’
Several expressions passed across Dan’s face, none of them happy. Finally, he said, ‘Possible, yes. Probable, I just don’t know. It’s almost impossible to know what went on in Miss Emilie’s mind. Going to the bank and taking out money was part of her program, had been for years, but I don’t know if she realized just how much she was taking out. It worries me she asked you if five thousand dollars was a lot of money. Makes me think she might have started to question things. If she took it out for some reason of her own and hid it, she’s done a darn good job. I’m sure Richard and Cassandra have gone through the house and, as far as I know, they haven’t come up with anything.’
Mary was equally as sure neither Richard nor Cassandra had found the missing money. At least, Richard hadn’t. He’d probably be on his way back to Baltimore, the money hidden in his suitcase, if he had. He’d consider it his and going through legal channels, or possibly even sharing it with his sister, would never occur to him. If it did, he’d brush the thought aside quickly. But if Cassandra had found it, what would she do? Mary wasn’t sure.
‘It’s too bad Caleb’s motion detectors don’t tell us who is moving about, not just that someone is.’
Dan stiffened. ‘What?’ The thoughtful man, pondering pieces of a puzzle he couldn’t seem to solve was suddenly a bloodhound that had just picked up the scent. ‘What motion detectors?’
‘The ones in the Plym house. Cassandra had Caleb install them when she was here for Miss Eloise’s funeral. It has little white things you mount on the wall, and if someone breaks the beam it rings at the monitor. In this case, it chirps like a bird. Didn’t Ellen tell you?’
‘No. A motion detector.’ Dan let the words roll around in his mouth as if getting used to the idea. ‘Why not just lock the doors?’
‘A couple of reasons. At least, I suppose so. Most people with dementia are pretty good at unlocking doors. Why, I don’t know, but they often seem to feel the need to move, walk, go someplace. You can lock them in with padlocks or bolts, but if you do, you’d better be darn sure you can get to them in a hurry in case they fall or set the house on fire. In this case, no one was going to be in the house with Miss Emilie, so no one would know if she escaped or hurt herself or tried to make breakfast and forgot to turn off the stove. But with a motion detector system, they’d know if she moved through the designated doorways. The little blinking light indicates which room the person went in or out of, just by watching the lights. Caleb said it wasn’t turned on the night Miss Emilie died. Richard’s instructions.’
Dan closed his eyes and started to shake his head back and forth, muttering something under his breath. Finally he opened them. ‘I employ two full-time detectives plus half-a-dozen patrol officers and an office manager who picks up gossip like dogs pick up fleas but can’t manage to keep the files straight. Do you know where most of my factual information comes from? You. How can that be?’ He turned to his computer, muttering while he brought up the file he wanted, scrolled down, scrolled up, scrolled down again and said a word Mary thought expressed his sentiments but didn’t bear repeating.
‘There’s no mention of a motion detector. Not one word.’ He glared at her.
‘What are you looking at?’
‘The file on the Plym murder, that’s what. I sent Pete Nugent, my new guy, over to the Plym house the day we found her. His report’s right here. Agnes typed it up. Now I’ll have to go through the paper file and see if he mentions it in his notes. If Agnes didn’t think it was important, it’s not beyond belief she simply wouldn’t have included it. However, he might not have noticed it. I don’t think he ever got out of the kitchen. So, unless one of them mentioned it … Dear God, I wish we had a bigger budget.’
‘What would you do if you had one?’
‘Hire someone who can type.’
‘Would you fire Agnes?’
Dan gave her one of the gloomiest looks she’d seen in ages. ‘Probably not.’
She couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. But this was serious business and this time she had a real question. ‘So you sent someone else out to the Plym house? You didn’t go?’
Dan shook his head. ‘I was tied up with the crime-scene people. I didn’t think we’d get much from the house but I needed a statement from each of them. An official statement. Pete brought them back, had Agnes type them up and they all came down to the station last Saturday to sign them and get their prints taken. You and Ellen gave me impressions of how they took the news, but I needed statements. It seemed pretty unreal that she could have gotten out of the house and no one knew she’d gone. If I’d known about the motion detector … you said it was off. How do you know that?’
‘Caleb said it was when Ellen and I went to the house that morning and they had just realized she was missing. He was furious with Richard, which I didn’t understand at the time, and said Richard told him to turn it off – he and Cassandra were there and they’d take care of her. But they didn’t. Dan, another thing. Cassandra told Ellen and me she took sleeping pills the night Miss Emilie disappeared. That would account for her not hearing her. I don’t know why Richard didn’t.’
Dan’s fingers started to drum lightly on the desk, a sure sign he was trying to work something out. Mary reached across and put her hand on his.
He grinned, but then he stopped. ‘It drives you nuts, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes. Did Pete get the note?’
‘What note?’
Mary couldn’t hold in her exasperation any longer. ‘The note Miss Emilie had in her purse. The one she always gave to the teller at the bank, Dab Holt. It isn’t in her purse. I assumed you had it. Or Glen kept it.’
‘I don’t. How do you know it’s not in her purse?’ There was no trace of humor on Dan’s face now. Instead, his blue eyes had taken on a steely gray hue and his mouth was clearly pinched under his salt-and-pepper mustache.
‘The purse is on her closet shelf. There’s nothing in it but her change purse, a handkerchief, a dog biscuit and a piece of paper with her name and address on it.’
‘I suppose it just happened to fall off the shelf at your feet and you noticed what was in it while you put it back.’
‘Something like that. Why didn’t your guy find it?’
‘I told you – he didn’t have a search warrant and Richard politely but firmly told him he’d have to have one before he did anything other than take their statements. I still haven’t been able to get one and I haven’t pushed it.’ He stared at her a minute, his forehead creased in a deep frown. ‘Maybe I should have. OK. What else did you find at the Plym house that’s suspicious?’
‘Miss Emilie’s bed is made.’
The expressions that ran across Dan’s face, one after another, were a wonder to behold. Surprise followed quickly by the start of laughter, followed by awareness. Slowly, he leaned forward on his desk and stared at her. ‘Are you telling me Miss Emilie got up in the middle of the night, put on her bathrobe and slippers then made her bed? That’s a little hard to picture.’
‘Probably because I don’t think that’s what happened. I think someone made it after she was dead. Sometime in the last few days. When, or why, I have no idea.’
Dan leaned back, closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. ‘You read way too many mystery novels.’ He opened them and sat up straight. ‘However, if her purse happened to have Gloria’s fingerprints on it …’ He smiled, but Mary didn’t think it was a very comforting smile.
‘What are you going to do now?’
‘Wait for Gloria’s autopsy report and see if I can get the court to let me have the purse.’
‘What about searching Gloria’s house? I thought you were going to do that.’
‘It’s already in progress. My department is too small to have a lot of the forensic equipment we need, so I asked the CSI guys from San Luis Obispo County to take a look at Gloria’s house and the ravine. They’re there now.’
Mary’s hands tightened on the armrests. ‘Are they looking for the money?’
‘Blood, mainly.’ The look on his face was solemn, his voice tight. ‘There’s almost none where they found her, and if she was alive when she fell down that hill, there should be. They’re going through the house and yard to see if …’
‘If she was killed somewhere else and thrown down the hill?’ Mary’s voice was a little shaky.
Millie lifted her head and stared at her, almost as if to ask if she was all right. She wasn’t, but she had to go on.
‘What about the money?’
Dan sighed. ‘Glen Manning’s already looked. She hadn’t made any large deposits lately, but she could very well have had an account somewhere else. We’re starting to make inquiries. Then, when the CSI team is finished, we’ll go through her house. See if she might have hidden it somewhere. I can’t let the aunt in until we’re finished but, according to Les, she didn’t sound eager to come.’
How sad. But maybe the aunt really was grieving. Maybe she just needed a little time to come to grips with what happened.
She could certainly sympathize with that – murder was always a shock. But it brought up another thought. ‘Dan, how big a bundle would fifty thousand dollars make?’
‘Good question.’ He leaned forward and picked up his pencil, which started twisting in his fingers. ‘Depends on the denomination. According to Glen, she always took it out in fifties. If the amount she’s taken out is really fifty thousand dollars, that’s one thousand bills. That’s got to be several good-sized stacks.’
Mary tried to picture that many bills but couldn’t. How would you go about hiding that much money? Where? ‘The clock. You don’t think …’
Dan shook his head. ‘That thing was barely big enough for the safe deposit key. No. Whoever has that money needs a much bigger space than that.’
‘Then why did someone steal the clock from the rummage sale and return it with the back half off?’
Dan again shook his head. ‘I’d say offhand, whoever took it wasn’t expecting what was in there. What they thought they’d find, I don’t know. Yet.’
‘So you really don’t know anything, except that I picked it up.’
‘There were a bunch of smudges but nothing that helped. Besides, everybody in the Plym house might have handled it at some time, even Gloria, plus who knows how many people helping at the sale.’
‘How about on the key?’
‘That was suspiciously clean.’
‘So that’s no help.’ Mary hadn’t expected the clock, or the key in it, to tell them a lot.
‘Not much,’ Dan agreed without enthusiasm. ‘Go home, Mary. We’re working on it and I know you’ve got a whole lot of other things, like the rummage sale, to worry about. We’re done in the church hall so if you need to get in there before Thursday, feel free. It’s still on, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. I was going to ask you … I’ll go over there directly. I’m sure your people left it in good condition, didn’t move anything around or leave any of their fingerprint powder on anything. I know you took fingerprints there. I saw them doing it.’ She raised one eyebrow at him.
Dan laughed. ‘If they didn’t, you let me know and I’ll send someone over right away.’ He looked over at Millie and Morgan, laying close together, watching them. ‘What are you going to do with Millie while you’re gone all day?’
‘I just booked her into Furry Friends for grooming. John’s going to come get her at the church hall early and they’ll keep her most of the day. I don’t like leaving her all alone. She’s a good girl, but the last time I left her – and it was only for a short time – one of my sofa pillows was in shreds. I think she got bored.’
‘Have you tried getting her some toys? If she has her own she might not tear up your things.’
‘She has toys but she’s chewed them up.’ She covered up her surprise with a broad smile. ‘I’ll get her some new ones on Thursday when I pick her up.’ Her expression changed; a little suspicion crept in. ‘Where did you learn so much about dogs? You never had one as a child.’
‘It’s amazing the information you pick up as a police chief. You and Millie go on. Either Ellen or I will stop by later to see how you’re doing.’
‘And to tell me what the CSI people found at Gloria’s?’
Dan smiled. ‘Maybe.’
Mary snapped Millie’s leash back on but the dog wasn’t eager to leave Morgan. ‘You’ll have plenty of time to visit with him later,’ she told her. ‘We need to get moving.’
When they were on the sidewalk in front of the police station, Mary paused. She took out her cell phone and checked the time. ‘I don’t know where the day has gone.’
Millie sat and looked back at the door of the police station. She didn’t seem concerned about time, but it was evident she’d rather return to Morgan than do whatever Mary had in mind.
‘We’re not going to the library.’ Mary’s tone was definite. ‘The Friends of the Library sale is still weeks off. The rummage sale is the day after tomorrow, and I think we’d better see what kind of condition the sale items are in.’ With a destination firmly in mind, she started walking briskly across the park toward St Mark’s.