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Bonnie agreed to meet me at Brendon’s office in Lakewood when I called and told her about our change of plans. She didn’t seem to be too upset that we wouldn’t be cleaning any carpets.
As usual, she was late and I was early, but not earlier than Brendon. His Charger was parked in a spot under one of the few trees in the parking lot. I pulled in next to it and waited for Bonnie. His card claimed he had an office on the main floor of a three-story office building. There were several identical buildings, collectively called Denver West—not exactly the kind of place I’d expect to see a real estate office. I decided to let Fred out while we waited for Bonnie.
Putting Fred on a leash wasn’t necessary. These were office buildings, not stores, and seeing as we were the only ones in the parking lot, I let him out of the Jeep. He went straight to Brendon’s car. I almost called him back, afraid of what he’d do next, when he started to sniff at the wheels. When he didn’t lift a leg, I let him be until he went over to the driver’s door and barked.
I quickly went over to see what he’d found. “What is it, Freddie?” He stood up on his hind legs, put his paws on the door, and looked into the car. Almost immediately, an alarm went off.
“Uh-oh, now you’ve done it.” I barely had time to say it before Fred ran back to our Jeep with his tail between his legs. I wasn’t far behind. If I’d had a tail, I’m sure I’d look a lot like Fred.
My first thought after getting into the Jeep with Fred was to get away from the wailing alarm as fast as I could. Of course, that’d make matters worse, and I’d probably be pulled over before I managed to make it back to I-70. I also knew there’d be a good chance I’d flood the carburetor and drain the battery, so I decided to sit and wait for security to arrive. “Well, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Freddie,” I said, looking at him lying in the passenger seat, his head between his paws.
He looked up at me with his big brown eyes like he didn’t have a clue as to what I was saying.
I reached over to fluff up the hair on his head. “So what’s in there that was so interesting?”
He responded by tilting his head to the side. He was telling me he wanted his ears scratched. I obliged and waited for someone to call security, or worse, the cops. My old, beat-up Wagoneer, sitting next to a sixty-thousand dollar vehicle, should have several people inside watching us, and dialing 911 to report an attempted car theft.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait around to answer questions while lying on the ground with my hands behind my back in cuffs. Bonnie showed up about the same time the alarm stopped. I was out of my Jeep and leading her into the building before she could say hello. Fred would have to explain why he’d set off the alarm without my help.
***
“YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’VE seen a ghost, Jake,” she said once we were inside and I slowed down to catch my breath. I’d expected to see a guard behind a desk in the middle of the lobby with his gun drawn, but there wasn’t one. There wasn’t even an information desk.
“Fred set off the alarm on Brendon’s car just before you got here. I expect the place will be crawling with cops before long.”
Bonnie laughed. “You’ve been watching too many movies, Jake. Nobody pays any attention to those.”
I took a quick look outside without reminding her I didn’t have a TV. She was right of course. Everything was back to normal. Even Fred had laid down to take a nap. Or maybe he was hiding, but either way, he had nothing to worry about. No one seemed to hear car alarms anymore.
“How’d he manage to set off the alarm?” She was holding a small purse in front of her with both hands. Unlike me, she seemed to be in her element. I’d never seen her dressed in such expensive clothing before, and assumed the blue pants-suit and pearl necklace were borrowed from her sister.
“He put his big paws on the door frame so he could look inside. Brendon must have one of those pressure sensitive alarms. It went off before I could see what Fred thought was so interesting.”
She reached out and took my arm. “Well, shall we go inside and see how Brendon’s going to explain what he was doing in Debbie’s house?”
Brendon Cole’s office didn’t look like any real estate office I’d ever seen. A lawyer would be more at home in it than any salesman. “Can I offer you a butterscotch?” he said, pointing to a jar of the yellow candies on his huge, mahogany desk after we’d sat down in a couple of red, leather seats. I felt a pang of envy when I thought about the kitchen table I used for writing.
He took one for himself before passing us the jar.
“Maybe for later,” Bonnie said, taking several and putting them into her purse.
I passed, waving him off. “Before we get started, Brendon, I should tell you that Fred accidently set off your car alarm.”
He laughed, simultaneously ripping open the wrapper on his butterscotch. “I really need to get that thing fixed, or at the least stop parking under that tree. The squirrels have set it off so many times that nobody pays any attention to it anymore. Someone could steal it out from under me and I’d never know.”
I looked over at Bonnie in time to see a huge grin on her face before she covered her mouth with her hand. “Then I guess we can get down to business. You said you could explain why you were inside Debbie’s house?”
Brendon let his eyes drop to a notepad on his desk. I had already tried to read it, but there was nothing but doodles on it. “I had hoped to find Debbie’s sister there and the temptation to let myself in was too great.”
“Lisa? She went back to Kansas City,” I said.
He stopped doodling and looked up. “Or so they say. I’ve left her more messages than I can count.”
“Why’s that?” Bonnie asked, leaning forward.
He turned toward Bonnie, looking like a kid being questioned by his teacher. “I never had much luck with Debbie or Ryan, but now that she stands to inherit the estate, I was hoping we could come to some kind of settlement.”
“But that still doesn’t explain why you let yourself in.” Bonnie held up both her index fingers in the universal sign for quotation marks as I said the word in.
I cut in before he could answer. “Whoa, hold up a minute. You know about Ryan being killed?”
“Of course, Jake. It’s all over the news. Well, except for Fox. All they want to talk about is Trump’s temper and Hillary’s emails.”
Bonnie laughed and started to say something before I cut her off. The last thing we needed now was a political discussion. “No, I don’t have a TV. I mean, I didn’t hear it on the news, but we did know about it.”
Bonnie gave me her hurt look before turning to Brendon and adding her two cents worth. “So with Debbie and Ryan out of the way, you thought you could make a deal with Lisa by breaking into her house?”
Brendon lowered his eyes and unwrapped another butterscotch.
“She’s got a point there, Brendon,” I said, watching him play with his candy. “What were you really doing in there?”
He finally popped the candy into his mouth and looked me in the eyes. “Rumor has it those letters you found could prove Lisa’s not the rightful heir.”
Bonnie’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “How’d you hear about them?” she asked.
There was a slight hesitation before he answered. “Her boyfriend, Ryan, made some remark about how she wasn’t really Debbie’s sister.”
“Her boyfriend?” Bonnie asked. “You mean Debbie’s boyfriend, don’t you?”
“He was Debbie’s boyfriend. Evidently Lisa inherited him along with everything else. When I asked why he thought Lisa wasn’t the heir, he said you had found some letters proving she was the illegitimate child of a boarder.”
Bonnie started to say something, so I gave her a slight kick with my foot. I didn’t want her telling Brendon that I had the letters. “And that would nullify her claim to the estate?” I asked. Bonnie gave me a dirty look, but luckily, Brendon had gone back to doodling and missed it.
“Maybe,” he answered. He set his pen down and reached for another butterscotch. “You scared me off before I could get started. I didn’t know it was you. I thought it might be the nosey neighbor, so I never had a chance to look for the letters.”
It looked like he had more to say, so I waited. Bonnie sat back in her chair and wouldn’t look at either of us. “So now I need you more than ever, Jake,” he said, while unwrapping his candy. “I’d be willing to pay dearly if you can find that letter for me.”
Bonnie stopped pouting at the mention of payment and spoke, but not before moving her legs out of the reach of my foot. “And how much is, dearly?”
Brendon was all smiles again. “What say another thousand?”
“Each?” she asked.
“Yes, each. And another grand apiece if you deliver.”
***
BONNIE MADE A SHOW of rubbing her leg while I put her coffee on the table. This time we’d gone to the Starbuck’s inside Barnes and Nobel only a few blocks from Brendon’s office. “Sorry about that, Bon. You gonna be okay?”
“I’ll live. I may never walk again, but I’ll live.” Her smile said more than her words. “So why didn’t you want Brendon to know you have the letters? I’m glad you stopped me, or he may not have given us another check, but what’s the big secret?”
I gave her the biggest Andy Taylor grin I could manage. “Well, Barn, or should I call you Aunt Bee? I didn’t have a chance to tell you before the meeting, but Fred found some evidence earlier that proves Brendon is a pathological liar and murderer. That jar of candy on his desk confirmed my suspicions.”
“What?” Lucky for her the coffee had been too hot to hold, or she might have dropped it.
“Fred found several of those candy wrappers at the parking area where Ryan was murdered.”
“No way, Jose. When were you there?”
“Yesterday, when I called you. I pulled off I-70 to get better reception and let Fred stretch his legs. They have a little picnic area there, with a table, and trash can by the bus stop. He smelled something delicious in the trash can. The wrappers were under a maggot infested burger. Those ugly bugs mean the wrappers were thrown away about the same time Ryan met his maker.”
“And Brendon is addicted to butterscotch candy.” Bonnie finished the sentence for me.
“Exactly.”
“Then why on earth did you promise to help him? Shouldn’t we be going to the police?”
“And have Cruz slap my hand again? We need more proof than the fact he likes butterscotch candy. That’s why I played him along until I can give him enough rope to hang himself with.”
She seemed to consider what I’d said. She looked like Rodin’s Thinker, with her hand supporting her chin. Except I don’t remember him holding a cup of Starbuck’s coffee in his free hand. “And how do you plan on being a hangman?”
“Well, from what I see, he’s already tied the noose.”
“Enough with the metaphors, Jake. Can you tell me without sounding like a Freshman English student?”
I pretended to pout, but my smile gave me away. “The letters, Bon. Debbie never read them. So how was she able to tell Ryan about the illegitimate child?”
Bonnie’s knuckles went white from holding her coffee cup too tight. “Then how could Brendon possibly know what’s in the letters if we’re the only ones who have read them?”
“We’ve been assuming they were left there by a border during the Second World War. That was our first mistake. What if Brendon put them there?”
Her cup finally collapsed from the pressure of her grip. Fortunately, it was empty. She ignored the cup and stared at me.
“He certainly had access when he was her realtor. You know what I think?”
“No, damn it! Tell me before I have to change my Depends.”
“I doubt if Mary Johnson even exists. I think Brendon wrote them, or had someone write them for him, to make it look like Debbie’s grandfather had fathered Mary’s child.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Probate, Bon. My research revealed that Debbie’s mother inherited the house because there was no will and she was the only child. But if it turns out the grandfather had another kid, wouldn’t he or she be entitled to an equal share?”
“I suppose, but I still don’t see what that has to do with the price of tea in China?”
“You’re showing your age, Bon. I haven’t heard that since I was a kid. It was one of my dad’s favorite expressions.”
Bonnie wrinkled her lip and came close to sticking out her tongue out at me.
“The tea I’m speaking of is the lawsuit. I doubt if it’s valid if Debbie doesn’t own the house.”
“That’s a lot of ifs, Jake. You remind me of my Greg. He used to fish with four or five poles, each pole with a different bait or lure. He wanted to be sure he’d catch whatever was biting that day.”
I had to laugh, for my theories were akin to fishing. “And you say I talk in metaphors. But if Brendon didn’t plant the letters, tell me how he knew what was in them? Remember Debbie told me to throw them in the trash. She never bothered to look at them.”
Her eyebrows went up and she sat straighter in her chair. “That’s right, mister genius. I didn’t catch that slip-up.” Then her face went blank. “But that doesn’t make sense either. Why would he plant letters to get her lawsuit dismissed when he must have known she’d be the one to find them? All she’d have to do is burn them and keep quiet.”
“Precisely why he was in the house. He wasn’t looking for letters, he was planting new ones, and now he thinks I’m dumb enough to go back inside the house and discover more letters that I missed the first time.”
“So are you?”
“You just called me a genius and now you’re asking if I’m dumb?”
“No, silly. Are you going to go back in and get the letters?”
“Of course. Do you think we can still get Jonathan’s cleaning van?”
“I’ll call Margot and see.” Bonnie giggled and began searching her purse. I knew it would take several minutes before she found her phone, so I slid mine across the table.
“Use mine, Bon. It’ll be quicker.”
She frowned and went back to digging through her huge purse. “I don’t know her number.”
I took her answer to mean she had Margot’s number programmed into her phone and let it go.
“Here it is,” she said, grinning. It was an ancient flip phone that made me wonder if it was connected to Margot with a string. I took the opportunity to refill our coffee while Bonnie talked to her sister, for I knew they would have to discuss everything but borrowing the van first.
***
BONNIE WASN’T A HAPPY camper when I returned with our coffee. “What’s the long face for, Bon,” I asked, setting her coffee down after adjusting the anti-burn wrapper they put on the cups.
“You’ll have to go without me or the van, Jake. Jonathan won’t let us use it and Margot needs me. She’s going in for a heart cath tomorrow.”