Classic Revenge (14 page)

Joe stirred sugar into his coffee. "Sam was waiting for
the police to get there. It seems he had some cash in
there and some of his important papers, but the tragedy
is that all of Susan's jewelry was in there" Joe shook
his head. "It's gone. The man is just heartbroken"

"Yes," Edna nodded. "Mac must have been working
this morning because he drove up in his patrol car soon
after we got there, and Sam told him what had happened. I got the distinct impression Mac didn't quite
believe him."

"The police are bound to be suspicious," Joe said
charitably. "Sam is facing a murder charge. They probably believe he staged his own break-in to prove how
easy it would be for someone to enter his house and kill
Susan. Again, there was no evidence of forced entryeither into his house or his safe"

"Is Sam there now?" Trish asked.

"No, he said he only came by to water his plants and get some more clothes. He left right after Mac did.
Edna and I told him we'd come by Shelley's to see him
later."

"The police are off their rockers !" Millie exclaimed
loudly. "Didn't we tell Henry about the spare key?"

"I don't believe we did," Edna said thoughtfully. "We
started to, but he interrupted us, if you remember."

"When did all this happen?" Joe asked.

"Uh ... it was part of a conversation recently," Millie stalled. "I really don't remember when"

"Joe," Edna said hurriedly, "why don't you go get
that key right now? Then, call Sam and let him know
you have it, and call Henry also."

Resigned, Joe stood up with a deep sigh. "This is not
the end of this conversation, ladies," he warned. "I want
to know what's going on"

Edna waited until the front door closed. "We're going to have to tell Joe"

Millie nodded. "We don't want you lying to your
husband, Edna, and I keep putting my foot right in my
mouth. We'll tell him today."

Trish chewed her bottom lip nervously as she looked
at her two friends. These two break-ins were related
somehow, but not for the reason the police probably assumed they were. Sam didn't have anything to do with
either of them, but Trish had to admit it did look suspicious. With Sam showing up the morning after Millie
was broken into and discovering his own house had also
been broken into, well ... it was probably too much of a
coincidence. There was also the fact that nothing had
been taken from Millie's, but Sam had lost some valuable items.

A slight shiver ran down her spine. It may very well be just a coincidence, or the act of an immature juvenile looking for some money, but Trish didn't believe
it. She had a gut feeling that they were dealing with a
very determined, very dangerous person who was out
to destroy Sam Wiley.

The question was, what would this person do if he
found out three meddling old ladies were just as determined to stop him?

Edna was curling Millie's hair with a curling iron, a
technique, according to Millie, that was sure to burn off
all her hair, when Trish looked out her window and spotted Larry Thompson, along with another officer, pull up
in front of Millie's house. Edna hurriedly brushed out
Millie's hair, spraying it lightly with hair spray this
time before they all rushed out the door and across the
street.

Larry smiled when he saw them. "I heard you had
some excitement last night."

"You can say that again." Millie looked with obvious
mistrust at what appeared to be a bulky gray tool box
the other officer was carrying. "What's that?"

Larry chuckled. "Ladies, meet Lewis Conrad. He's
with the San Antonio Police Department and does all
our fingerprint work for us. He's the best in the business." Lewis smiled a friendly smile at them, but he
seemed impatient to get down to work. Trish had the
impression he was a no-nonsense kind of guy.

"Well, come on in, then," Millie said. "Would anybody like some coffee or tea?"

"Coffee sounds great," Larry smiled gratefully.
"Lewis?"

"Nothing for me, thanks" Lewis set the case down on the floor by the back door and knelt down to open it.
"Anybody touch anything since the break-in?"

"No, we were very careful not to. In fact, this is the
first time Millie has been inside her house since Chief
Espinoza left last night, I mean early this morning. She
stayed with Trish."

"I understand that you aren't the only one who's had
an uninvited visitor recently," Larry said.

"That's right," Millie said. "And I'll bet you dollars-todoughnuts that the two incidents are somehow related."

Larry picked up the small chicken-shaped salt shaker
from the center of the table and lightly tapped it on the
bottom from side to side. Finally, he took a deep breath
and nodded slowly. "You may be right."

Trish's eyes widened. Finally-somebody believed
them! But in the next instant, her hopes were crushed as
Larry continued in a reluctant voice. "One guess is that
you were broken into by a stranger. Sam Wiley heard
about it and staged his own break-in to throw doubt on
his murder charge. Or," he paused significantly, "Sam
broke the glass in your door to make it appear you were
broken into and then staged the break-in at his house"

"That's ridiculous!" Edna exclaimed. Millie's eyes
narrowed but she didn't say anything. Trish wasn't surprised. After all, Millie had thought all along that this
was the conclusion the police would come to.

Slowly, Millie stood to her full height-which,
viewed from a distance, as Trish saw from over by the
kitchen cabinets, was barely taller than the table. Leaning forward with eyes narrowed, in what she probably
thought was a threatening stance, Millie placed both
hands on the table. She looked like a small, purple, fire-breathing dragon. "Look here, buster, if you think
I'm going to answer any questions or discuss this case
with you while you have that attitude, then you can
think again."

Quickly, Trish turned her back on the group at the
table and pinched her arm hard to keep from laughing
out loud. It didn't help that she'd seen the startled expression on Lewis's face as he knelt by the back door
brushing black powder on everything. She'd just bet
that within the hour Millie's name would be all over the
SAPD's offices. Oh, what she wouldn't give for a video
camera! Millie had truly missed her real calling in life.
Yessir, Dirty Harry would have been proud!

When she had herself under control, Trish turned back
around. Edna sat still, her eyes darting back and forth between Larry and Millie as though she was afraid they
were going to draw guns or something. Larry was trying
valiantly to hide his own laughter behind a cough. Millie
stood there staring daggers at him, her expression unchanged.

Larry said gently, "Millie, it's not my attitude. I'm
just telling you what some of the theories are. It's also
possible that the same intruder broke into both your and
Sam's houses, or that two entirely different people are
responsible for each break-in. As a professional, you
don't rule out any possibility, regardless of how unpleasant or unlikely the assumption may be."

Millie appeared slightly mollified. Standing straight,
she crossed her arms over her chest and peered at
Larry. "What does your gut tell you?"

Larry shook his head slowly. "I honestly don't know."
When he saw Millie start to puff up again, he quickly
added, "But I will tell you that I haven't closed my mind to anything yet, and I promise you that I will thoroughly check out every theory."

Millie regarded him silently for a minute. "All right,
that's fair enough," she said, sitting down once again.
"We have our work cut out for us, then. Trish, where's
that coffee?"

"It's coming right up" Trish grinned. Another catastrophe had been narrowly avoided. Surprisingly, for all
his youth, Larry seemed quite able to soothe Millie's
ruffled feathers. Trish wondered if he had a troublesome relative in his life that gave him the experience to
handle Millie's bizarre personality. Or, maybe it was
just the nature of his job. Regardless, she appreciated
the patience and respect he showed Millie.

"Okay, let's start with the theory that the same person
broke into both houses. What's the connection?" Millie
frowned at Edna. "Does anyone have any ideas?"

Edna chewed her bottom lip as she tried to think. "I
can't think of any reason you and Sam would both be targets. You don't live right next door to each other. You
don't even live on the same side of the street. Of course,
you're both widowed now, but there are a lot of single
people on our block"

"Trish," Millie said as she accepted her coffee and
looked up, "what do you think?"

Trish sighed. Her gut was telling her that Millie was
right, but she didn't have a clue as to why. "If someone
has guessed we're trying to prove Sam did not kill Susan," she mused, "then they might be trying to scare us.
But that still doesn't explain why Sam's house was broken into."

Larry frowned, deep in thought. "Millie, do you have
a safe anywhere in this house?"

"Do I have a safe here? No, why do you ask?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just trying to come up
with similarities. Sam's safe was broken into, you know."

Millie's eyes flew open. "That's it!" Before anybody
could ask what "it" was, Millie jumped up from her
chair and ran into the living room. Trish hurried to follow with Larry and Edna close behind. She wondered
if the bug spray had short-circuited Millie's senses, after all.

Millie was standing in front of her antique roll-top
desk, quickly opening and shutting the drawers and
shuffling haphazardly through the papers and miscellaneous items on top. "Just what I thought," she said
smugly as she turned to face them. "My address book
is gone!"

Larry cocked an eyebrow. "Your address book is
missing? What would anybody want with your address
book?"

Millie crossed her arms over her chest and leaned
back against the desk. "The combination to Sam's safe
was in there."

Edna's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, my goodness,
that's right! Sam gave you the combination in case of
an emergency!"

Trish held up her hand. "Slow down a minute and
think. Who would know that? I only found out about it
the other day when we were .. " Trish's voice trailed
off as she remembered when she had learned of it, the
day they were snooping in Sam's house. "Millie, think
carefully," she said gravely. "Did anybody else, besides
Edna, know about that?"

Millie shook her head with a self-satisfied smile.
"Nope.

Larry frowned at Millie. "You seem almost happy
about this."

"I am. It means we're right about somebody trying to
set Sam up"

Trish's thoughts swirled in her head. "It wasn't a
ghost," she whispered, a chill racing up her spine.

"What do you mean, dear?" Edna said into the stunned
silence.

Trish took a deep breath. "Remember when we were
in Sam's house the day after he was arrested? I was too
embarrassed to say anything, but I felt a strange, eerie
sensation, as if we weren't alone" Trish knew her instincts had been right on target that day, and the reality
was chilling. "Well, we weren't alone, but it wasn't
Susan's ghost. Whoever is behind this mess, the murder, the theft, the devious plan to convict an innocent
man, was also in Sam's house that day. Millie, he ... or
she ... heard you tell me about the combination to
Sam's safe and where you kept it."

It was a sobering thought, knowing they had all been
in extreme danger that day. Trish only hoped that Larry
would consider their theory more seriously now and
work fast to discover who was behind the crimes, with
or without Chief Espinoza's permission. Regardless,
the stakes had just been raised in the mysterious circumstances involving Susan Wiley's death. Having been in
Sam's house that day, the killer knew that all three of
them were convinced that Sam did not kill his wife.

"Assuming you're right," Larry said, "can you remember exactly what you talked about that could have been
overheard?"

Trish's memory was hazy. Had they mentioned they
were going to start investigating on their own? She didn't think so, but what if she was wrong? If anything
suddenly happened to Millie or Edna, or to herself, for
that matter, would the police realize the events were
connected? Maybe, she thought, since Larry was now
aware of the incident at Sam's, but they couldn't count
on it. There was still the problem of the evidence pointing to Sam, not an outsider.

"What do you mean assuming we're right? Of course
we're right, Larry!" Millie exclaimed. "It all makes perfect sense. What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to keep investigating, that's what," he
said. "And, I hope you're reconsidering sticking your
noses into police business." Larry's tone was kind but
there was an underlying firmness behind his words.

"I'd say there's a fat chance of that," Trish muttered.
It was more important now than ever that they find out
who was involved in the murder. The killer knew where
they lived, their association with Sam, and their belief
that Sam was innocent. Like it or not, they were up to
their eyeballs in the investigation.

She listened while Larry asked Lewis to come take
fingerprints off the desk also. "It's a long shot," he said
as they walked back into the kitchen and sat down, "but
it's worth a try"

"Did you find out anything about Mark Wilson?"
Trish asked hopefully. Maybe there was something
about Sam's former employee that would lead them in
the right direction. A clue, any clue, would certainly be
welcome news.

But Larry shook his head. "There's nothing so far, not
even a parking ticket, but I'm still waiting for employment records and financial information. I promised I'd
let you know if I find anything suspicious, and I will."

"But you do agree with us that Sam didn't kill Susan,
don't you?" Millie asked. "I mean, it's obvious now
that my address book has been stolen"