Walt and Danielle entered Marlow House minutes before it started to rain. It had been chilly outside, and Danielle appreciated the indoor warmth. She had just removed her jacket and placed it on the coat rack with her purse when her cellphone rang. She stayed in the entry hall to answer the call while Walt searched for Max.
“What the hell is going on?” came Heather’s voice when Danielle answered the phone.
“I take it you heard about our little bomb scare?” Danielle asked.
“Brian called me. I can’t believe someone put a bomb on Olivia’s car! What the hell is happening?”
“I have no clue, but Walt is looking for Max to find out if he knows anything.” Danielle then told Heather about Max’s involvement in the situation.
“Brian and Joe about freaked when they found the bomb under the car,” Heather said.
“Why? Didn’t they believe Walt when he told them what she said was under her car?”
“Not exactly. They figured it was a case of some emotional woman who happened to look under her car and imagined something was there. Us women are often hysterical; we imagine things and are clueless about cars. Crap like that.”
“He said that?”
Heather scoffed. “Not in so many words. But it’s kind of what he was saying. He’s lucky he didn’t tell me in person.”
“Why?”
“Because I probably would have kicked him. And you know how I’m trying to control my violent impulses. But those idiots could have gotten themselves blown up by underestimating a woman. I still might give him a smack.”
“You are talking about your boyfriend,” Danielle teased.
“Doesn’t mean he can’t be an idiot. And I certainly don’t want the idiot to blow himself up. I kind of like him. Not sure why, but he’s grown on me. So what did Olivia say? Brian said they left her with Walt.”
“She has no idea who could have put the bomb on her car and seems sincerely perplexed—and freaked—about all this. By the way, we told her you saw the airport videos and no longer believe she was the woman you saw with Betty. We figured she was so upset about everything that has happened since she arrived in town that she needed some good news. I hope that’s okay.”
Heather let out a sigh. “I suppose. But honestly, whoever it was, she looked just like Olivia. And perhaps that jacket wasn’t the same one, but it sure looked like it to me.”
“While it might not have been Olivia, she must be involved someway. After all, someone tried to blow her up.”
“True.”
“What does Brian say about the bomb? Do they have any leads?”
“No. I guess Brian and Joe were on their way to the library to talk to Josephine Barker. They’re trying to find out who was working for the library on the day the letter opener disappeared. One of the janitors, Kenny, don’t remember his last name, was there that day, according to Becca. But they haven’t been able to track him down. And they also want to find out who checked out books or returned them that day. They assume there would be records on that. But then Walt called about the bomb, and they went to investigate that instead. So not sure when they’re going to talk to Josephine.”
Walt found Max in the attic office, napping on the desk chair. He walked over to the cat, picked him up and sat back down on the chair, setting the cat on his lap. Max refused to open his eyes immediately and stretched out and made no attempt to jump off Walt’s lap.
Walt moved his palm over Max’s back, repeatedly stroking the feline while whispering, “Wake up, Max. We need to talk.”
Police Chief MacDonald sat at his desk, staring blankly at the computer screen. This case made no sense to him. He had just finished looking at the security camera footage available along the alleyway behind Beach Drive. It was the only house along that stretch with a camera aimed at the alley.
A familiar female voice at the open doorway interrupted his concentration. “Hey, Chief.”
MacDonald looked up and found Walt and Danielle standing in his doorway. He waved them in, asking them to close the door behind them. After they did, he asked, “Please tell me you’ve spoken to Betty’s ghost?”
“Sorry, Chief, we haven’t seen her,” Danielle said, taking a seat in one of the chairs facing his desk.
“We haven’t seen Betty, but Max told me some things that might be helpful,” Walt said as he sat down in a chair next to Danielle.
The chief shrugged. “Hey, I’ll take help where I can—from a ghost or a cat. I don’t care. What did he have to say?”
“He saw our bomber,” Walt began.
The chief abruptly sat up straighter in his chair. “Who was it?”
“Unfortunately, he had never seen him—or her—before,” Walt explained.
The chief slumped back in his chair. “He can’t tell if it was a man or woman?”
“No. But after a great deal of back-and-forth—you need to remember a cat doesn’t describe things the way you might, and it’s not like we actually talk words—but he did tell me a few things.”
The chief let out a sigh. “Anything that might help us catch this person?”
“Unless I misunderstood Max, the way he described this person, our bomber wore dark pants, a dark hoody, with the hood pulled up over his head, concealing not just his hair. Or her hair. But also much of the bomber’s face. And the person wore a dark backpack. I’m fairly certain it was the same color as the jacket and pants. The backpack is where he carried the bomb.”
Once again, the chief sat up straight. His hand moved to his computer mouse. “Come look at this. It’s footage I received from one of your neighbors on Beach Drive. It’s about a half mile from Marlow House.”
Walt and Danielle stood up and walked behind the desk and looked over the chief’s shoulder at the computer monitor. The chief played a video clip caught that morning from a security camera. They watched. In the video, several cars drove by, and then someone dressed in black, wearing a hoody and backpack, jogged down the street.
Danielle pointed to the monitor. “There they are!”
“That same person—or at least someone the same size and wearing similar clothing—showed up in a video captured by the same camera on the morning they found the letter opener in Davis’s trash,” the chief explained.
“Whoever planted that letter opener is our bomber?” Danielle asked.
“I suspected it when I first saw this last video. Yet I also figured it could very well just be a jogger, not connected to our case, someone who regularly runs this route. Like Heather does. But now that Max has confirmed that’s our bomber, my guess is it is the same person who planted the murder weapon.”
“Do Brian and Joe have leads on who might have taken the letter opener?” Danielle asked.
The chief shook his head. “No. They wanted to interview Josephine again, but on their way to the library, Brian got Walt’s call.”
“Yeah, Heather told me that,” Danielle said.
“They finally made it to the library, but Josephine is out of town with a friend of hers, and she won’t be back until Thursday,” the chief explained. “Brian tried calling her, but the call keeps going to voicemail.”
“Surprised she left town right now. I’d think the library would be a little shorthanded with Betty’s death, and Olivia hasn’t started work yet.”
The chief shrugged. “Right now, Brian and Joe are trying to track down Kenny, who used to be the library’s janitor. It seems he has disappeared.”
Danielle nodded. “Heather mentioned something about that.”
“According to what Becca told Brian, Kenny, the library’s janitor, and Betty had a disagreement after the letter opener disappeared. He quit a few days later. Right after leaving Becca, Brian called Josephine to find out what she knew about all this, but she wasn’t there during the argument, and wasn’t sure why he quit. We’ve been trying to track down this Kenny, but he moved, and his landlord doesn’t know where.”
“Doesn’t he have a cellphone? Everyone has cellphones these days,” Danielle asked.
“Yes, Josephine gave Brian the number. But like Josephine’s number, it keeps going to voicemail.”
Walt and Danielle stopped at Old Salts Bakery after leaving the police station. They both needed their cinnamon roll fix. After making their purchase, they hurried back to Danielle’s car, using their rain jackets instead of an umbrella to protect them from the downpour.
Once back in the car and out of the rain, Walt tossed the sack with the purchase in the back seat while Danielle blurted, “I know how we can find Kenny!”
While fastening his seatbelt, Walt frowned at Danielle. “How can we do that?”
“I just figured out who he is! When we stopped at Adam’s office on Saturday, we met his new handyman, Kenny. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. It just dawned on me. I remembered where I’ve seen him before. He used to work at the library. I bet he’s the janitor the chief was talking about.”
“He looked rather familiar to me, too. You want to call the chief and tell him?”
Danielle considered the question for a moment and shook her head. “Let’s just stop by Adam’s office and find out if I’m right. His office is just down the street. Adam will be able to tell us if Kenny is the same Kenny who worked for the library. And if he is, we’ll get his current contact information to the chief. I don’t want to send the chief on a wild-goose chase if I’m wrong. He’s got enough going on right now.”
By the time they pulled up in front of Adam’s office, the rain had stopped.
“Please wait for me to open the door for you,” Walt told Danielle as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
“Umm, I appreciate how you are a gentleman, but I can open the door myself.”
Walt narrowed his eyes at Danielle. “I understand you are fully capable of opening a car door, but the sidewalk is slippery, and I don’t want you to fall. Just wait for me.”
Danielle resisted the temptation to roll her eyes and instead unbuckled her seatbelt and patiently waited for Walt to open her car door for her. A few minutes later, they walked arm in arm to Adam’s office while Danielle silently wondered what would happen if Walt slipped and fell and then pulled her down with him. Wouldn’t it be better if he simply let her walk by herself, and then if she fell, he could use his telekinetic powers to keep her from falling?
She asked herself that question as she and Walt entered the front office of Frederickport Vacation Properties, and she might have whispered the question to Walt, but something distracted her the next moment. She spied a person sitting at Leslie’s desk. It was Adam’s handyman, Kenny.