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The drive back to the motel gave me time to think. Had Kelly really been serious when she said I was a suspect in Crammer’s murder or was she simply trying to impress me? Either way, I knew I better not say much to Bonnie when I called her back. It would upset Margot that I’d been sidetracked and might have to get involved in solving another murder. I’d gone through several scenarios on how to find Crammer’s killer by the time I got back to the motel and called Bonnie. My favorite would not make either of the sisters happy. It looked like Crammer and the stiff had been in the business of grave robbing and were dealing with one or more bad people who killed them both after something went wrong. To find Captain Scott’s sword meant I’d also have to find who killed Crammer and his partner.
“Well, I’m glad you finally found time to call us.” I knew Bonnie was pretending to be mad in front of her sister, and let it pass. Margot had to be getting on her nerves by now, so I was surprised she hadn’t used a few cuss words.
“You know I would have called sooner if the cell phone signals weren’t so bad out here, Bon.” This little expedition was beginning to turn me into a pathological liar.
“So, are you somewhere you can talk, or are you going to hang up on me again?”
“Yes and no, ma’am. Yes, I’m able to talk now without all of Truman listening, and no, I won’t hang up on you again.” I answered in the best schoolboy voice I could muster, and spent the next twenty minutes—and the last of my cell phone data—giving her the short version of my meeting with Sheriff Bennett, and Deputy Kelly Brown. I left out the part of how much Kelly looked like Julie. Bonnie had bonded with Julie like a mother bonds with her daughter. I didn’t think she’d appreciate another woman in my life at the moment. I was wrong.
“So, tell me about this deputy, Jake. Is she pretty?”
I waited long enough to listen if she had the speaker on before answering. “I suppose. To tell the truth, I really didn’t notice.”
Someone in the background tried to suppress a laugh. I’d been fooled. She did have the speaker on. “Hello, Margot,” I said loudly.
Bonnie continued without missing a beat. “And Bennett didn’t have any information on who stole the sword?”
“No, he didn’t know there’d been a grave robber until they found the corpse. Neither he nor his deputy seemed to be very interested. I think they’re convinced Crammer shot the grave robber, and as far as they’re concerned, it’s a closed case. They’re more interested in finding Crammer’s killer.”
Margot said something I couldn’t quite hear, but I could imagine how she said it. It would have been in a tone both patronizing and condescending. Margot and Bonnie were both twins and widows. Though they were identical twins, an outsider would never know. Margot had married well and never gave a second thought when it came to spending money on her looks, which was one of the things that made her think she was better than her sister. Bonnie had no such luck in the marriage department and had to get by on less than a tenth of what Margot had.
Without expensive spa and salon treatments, plastic surgeons, and ophthalmologists, Bonnie had let her hair go gray, her face sag, and her eyes cloud over. She looked every day of her seventy years, while Margot could easily pass for sixty-nine.
I’d missed Bonnie’s reply because I’d been thinking about how I hated the way Margot treated her. “Sorry, Bon, did you say something about Craigslist?”
“Jon found more artifacts on Craigslist.” Jon is Margot’s son. If he was involved, I knew they had to be worth something. Margot hardly heard from him unless he needed something or he smelled money.
“How’s Jon doing, by the way? Is he managing to stay out of jail?” I said it loud enough for Margot could hear.
“Jake! That’s not nice. Margot can hear you, you know.”
“Sorry, Margot.” I wasn’t the least bit sorry, but there was no sense in biting the hand that feeds you, and I needed that hand to sign a few checks for me. It’s not that that I’m a mean person. The fact is, I would have done almost anything for Margot and her family at one time, simply because she was Bonnie’s sister. But Jon has tried to nail me to the wall too many times for me to be nice to him.
“So tell me, Bon, what did Jon find?”
“Jon says someone is selling Captain Scott’s knife.”
“How does he know they belong to his great grandfather and not Captain Crunch?”
“Because his name’s on it, smartass. Now are you going to find out who’s behind this or do I need to hire a real detective?” Margot must not have liked my joke. There was a time I would have told her to stuff it where the sun don’t shine, but not before exercising a few choice words I’d learned working on a construction crew. It’s funny how a mortgage and a dog who eats more than I do can temper those impulses.
“No, Margot. You already have the best sleuth money can buy. Just tell me which Craigslist Jon saw the ad, and I’ll check into it.”
“What do you mean which Craigslist? Even I know there’s only one.”
“I’ve got someone calling in, Margot. Just have Jon email me the ad,” I said and hung up. I lied about having another call because there was no sense explaining there were different sites for every major city, and I couldn’t stand talking to her any longer.
I doubt if Hell would have frozen over while I waited for Jon to send me the Craigslist ad, but I’m sure the fires would have burned out. I decided not to wait and headed back to Fred’s favorite restaurant so I could use the free Wi-Fi to search Craigslist myself.
***
FRED STOOD UP ON HIS seat, stuck his head out the passenger window, and began wagging his tail at the sight of the golden arches. I parked around back and proceeded to bring up a web browser on my smartphone. When Fred realized I wasn’t going inside, he laid down on the seat and stared at me with his sad seal eyes. So much for hijacking Wi-Fi from the parking lot—I had to find a compromise between disappointing Julie and torturing my best friend.
Fred was back to wagging his tail when I got out of the Jeep and looked up to the sky. “I’ll order him a plain burger. Will that be okay?” I took it as a yes when she didn’t answer and went inside.
The kid who took my order had to consult with his manager before he could ring up a McDouble without pickles, ketchup, onions, or a bun, so I finally settled for a plain burger on a bun. I knew Fred wouldn’t mind sharing the bun with the begging jays waiting outside for a handout.
I used the time it would take to fill my special order to search the web for Margot’s Craigslist ad. I didn’t think the thief would be stupid enough to advertise in the local Craigslist, so I did a global search using the keywords, “Bowie knife and Craigslist.” I had a hit in Springfield, but when I clicked on it, it had been deleted by the administrator. They must have spotted the weapon, which is a forbidden item on Craigslist. It looked like I’d have to call Jon and hope he’d answer. Maybe I should have prayed instead of hoped. I left him a message when his voice mail answered for him.
Fred was happy I returned so quickly. He ate his plain burger in one gulp. The jays took much longer to eat the bread because they had to fight over it first. I took one more look into the sky to see if Julie approved. It had been cloudy when I went inside the restaurant, but now the sky was clear. I took it as a sign that Julie approved and left before she changed her mind.
***
WE WERE ON A STRETCH of Highway 7, which was hazardous enough to test Danica Patrick’s driving skills, when my phone notified me with the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth that I had a text message.
I knew enough not answer it. I’d honed my NASCAR driving skills long ago when, as a kid, my sister and I learned to drive bumper cars at the old Elitch’s in Denver. She had T-boned my car whenever I wasn’t watching, so negotiating a narrow, winding, two-lane road would be certain death if I took my eyes off the road. I waited until we got back to our motel room before reading the text.
It was from Jon, which made me wonder if he’d been prodded by Margot, or was it divine intervention? He’d attached a screenshot of the original Craigslist message. He even had the foresight to expand the contact number. The 417 area code did indeed confirm the poster was from Springfield, so I searched an online directory and found that the number belonged to a Robert Fitzgerald, but I’d have to pay if I wanted his address.
“What do you think, Fred, will Margot reimburse us the ten dollars?” My lazy sidekick had fallen asleep moments after our return to the motel room. He raised his head to look at me with a puzzled look demanding an explanation.
“They want ten dollars before they’ll tell me where the creep lives,” I answered, even though he hadn’t really asked.
Fred rolled his eyes and went back to sleep.
“No more hamburgers for you, you lazy mutt,” I said, pulling out my wallet to find a credit card that might not be over its limit to pay for Robert’s address.
That finally got his attention. Fred got up, came over to me, and put his big head in my lap, giving me his sad puppy look. I tried to act mad and didn’t say anything, but I did reach down and scratched his ears.
***
MARGOT’S TEN DOLLARS bought us a lot more than an address. We also had enough background information on Robert Fitzgerald to realize he wasn’t someone to mess with. Robert had spent nearly half his thirty years behind bars. His first arrest was at twelve when he burned down a neighbor’s house because she wouldn’t return a basketball he’d accidentally knocked into her yard. He was currently on parole and supposedly working as a caretaker’s assistant at a cemetery in Springfield. It looked like we had our man. All I had to do now was pass the information on to Deputy Brown, and Fred and I could go home. But first, I needed to bring Margot up to date.
***
DEPUTY BROWN WASN’T in when I called, so I left her a message about Robert Fitzgerald. I finished by suggesting she should consider him her number one suspect and that Fred and I would be leaving for home early the next morning. My call to Margot changed that plan.
“I’m not paying you to find murderers, Jake. If you want to be a cop, you should have joined the police force.” Her tone of voice suggested I might have woke her from a nap, or maybe she was having a tooth pulled.
“It’s really out of my hands, Margot. I’m sure the sword is long gone by now.”
I expected her to exercise her sailor’s vocabulary but got silence instead. She was either too mad to talk, or too busy conferring with Bonnie. It didn’t take long to find out which. “Jake, this is Bonnie. Margot asked me to talk to you.”
“Hi, Bon. How’s it going? You ready to check into the psycho ward? I’m sure she’s driving you crazy, too.”
“Jake! You’re on speaker phone.”
“Sorry, Margot. Just joking.” It was too little too late. I heard her say something to Bonnie that would have made George Carlin blush.
I could tell Bonnie was on the verge of losing it when she came back on the line—Margot had that effect on people. “Jake, I need you to pick me up at the airport. Margot thinks you need some help.”
“The airport? That’s a three hundred mile round trip.”
“It’s either me or Jon.”
I felt like telling her to tell Margot to send Jon because I was finished, but I already had too much invested and knew I wouldn’t see a cent if I lost my cool. “Tell you what, Bon, how about you fly into Springfield tomorrow? I can pick you up after I run by and talk to Fitzgerald.”
There was another long pause, while she evidently discussed it with her sister. “Okay, Jake, but please wait until I get there before you talk to him.”
“Sure, Bon. Call me back with your flight number when you get it. It’s still a ninety-minute drive, so I need to know ASAP. I won’t have time to drive down there before you land if you wait until the last minute.”
Fred was sitting with his head tilted to the side, looking like the old RCA Victor dog. “Eavesdropping again, Freddie?”
He answered by lifting a paw and laying it across his snout. He made me chuckle and forget my predicament, if only for a moment. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t be happy to see Bonnie—she’d become a good friend to me and Fred—but I couldn’t take her along if I went to confront Fitzgerald. It was simply too dangerous for a seventy-year-old woman. I’d have to finish this business soon, or risk getting her hurt.