Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 01 - Bogey Nights (25 page)

“Dead?”

“As a doornail. If this is the right Dudley, he died about two years ago.”

“Now what do we do?” I asked.

“He had relatives. We contact them.”

“Dead
. Are you sure? I mean that it’s the right Dudley Long.”

“Dead sure
. How’s that for an answer?”

Chapter
Twenty-seven

“D
o you have any of his relatives’ names?” I asked. “Could his wife have been named Natalie?”

“How did you know that?”

“Just a hunch, and that tells me he’s the right Dudley.” It also told me about a happy ending to a long ago romance.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing.”

I
kept smiling, even when I told Chris that Chance was expecting us at noon. We didn’t have much time to drive to her place, so Chris left his notes on the kitchen table and went out back to check on the dogs.

“They’re sure being quiet this afternoon,” he said.

“Finding that bone seemed to upset them yesterday. I’d be surprised if I hadn’t read articles about cadaver dogs. There seems to be a special connection between dogs and humans, and they feel grief, just like we do. But these are family dogs with lots of love to share. They’ll get over it. We’ll give them extra attention, if we ever get to stay home long enough.”

Traffic was good and we made it to Chance’s place with time to spare
. I made a quick check at the recreation room to see if Shelly and the boys were there. They weren’t, and I was disappointed. I wanted to introduce them to Chris.

We walked over to Chance’s little apartment and she opened the door before we could knock.

“I’ve been watching for you,” she said. “What was so interesting about that social room?”

“Nothing.”
I didn’t want to give Jim away and alert her that someone in the apartments knew her when she was young. “I just wanted to take a peek.”

“Well, there’s not much to look at over there.”
Chance shut the door behind us, effectively closing out the rest of the world. Her curtains were drawn and the only light was from the kitchen and two lamps in the living room.

She waved her hands at us, inviting us to sit down, and I saw that she had large, and apparently very expensive, rings on her fingers
– her thumbs were the only appendages that didn’t sparkle. Maybe she really did have money. Or at least she did at one time.

“Make yourselves comfortable
. I’m looking forward to chatting with the two of you. Pamela, you look lovely today.”

“Thank you,” I said, surprised at her compliment.

Chance wore her hair in a French braid, and I noticed she’d taken more time with her make-up. She had on a capri-length light blue pants and a loose flowered blouse with accenting shades of off-white and blue. Her feet were adorned with classic white sandals. She’d prepared for our visit this time. Looking at her, I still couldn’t believe this woman was ninety. I guess it’s in the genes or it’s not.

“Let me just bring out the canapés and we’ll settle in, dears.”
Chance removed a cloth from a plate and brought it out for us. When she set it down I noticed that her hands shook, like so many older people, and it struck me that even though she looked young, her hands gave her away. They were arthritic looking and the veins stood out. Maybe she wore the rings to distract people from noticing her hands.

Returning to her kitchen, she opened the refrigerator and
placed three cans of soda pop on a tray with three glasses. With just a small breakfast bar separating the living room from the kitchen, we could see everything she was doing. I had no idea where she could have found fancy canapés on such short notice, but she had. Of course, they could have been something frozen that she’d popped in her apartment-sized oven.

Chris hurried to the kitchen to help her carry the tray and drinks
. He took the tray from her and she gushed, telling him what a gentleman he was.

Of course, I rolled my eyes, but neither one of them saw me
. Actually, I was glad they hadn’t looked up. She was trying to be a good hostess – I had to give her that. And so far, she’d been pleasant to me, as well as Chris. She wasn’t ignoring me in order to concentrate on him. I’d enjoyed my time with Shelly, Jim and Stuart, so why couldn’t I enjoy Chance? I’d just have to try harder.

Sitting down, Chance turned first to me, and then to Chris
. “Well. Here we are again. Let’s get the business out of the way so we can enjoy ourselves. What is it that you want to ask me?”

Chris spoke first
. “Chance, I’d like you to tell me what you remember about certain tenants that lived in your boarding house. Specifically, we’re interested in Charles Blakely, Sam Shipley, Dudley Long and Alice Frye. Do you remember all of them?”

An
emotion flashed across her face so fast that I couldn’t read it. One of those names had caused a reaction in her. She recovered so quickly that I wondered if it had been my imagination.

Chance smiled
broadly for Chris. “I most certainly do. I don’t know how much I can tell you though. They were just boarders, not people I knew well.”

“But you must have learned things about them while they lived there,” I said
. “I understand that you probably didn’t socialize with them, but you would have probably heard them talking to each other, and I’m sure they told you things, too. Why don’t we start with Charles? What do you remember about him?”

Chance smiled
the sweet smile of remembrance. “Oh, Charles. Such a nice young man. Well, he might have actually been younger than me when he lived at the house, but that didn’t matter. He was a handsome man – tall and dark-haired. He was always so polite, asking if he could help with things. Since he was out of work, he spent a lot of time at the house. He’d change light bulbs for me, and if something needed fixing, he’d take care of it. He mowed the lawn for me, too, and planted flowers. I gave him a little break on his rent to make up for the things he did.”

I thought back to our first meeting with Chance
. She’d appeared shocked when we told her a body had been found, and she’d remembered Charles Blakely with fondness, but she hadn’t seemed overly upset. I was surprised because her description of him sounded like she was quite fond of him. I also realized that her comment about these people being
just boarders
wasn’t necessarily true.

“I believe he had quite a crush on me at that time.”
Chance raised her eyebrows and looked at us as though trying to see how we’d react.

“Well, he probably did,” I said, giving her the reaction she apparently needed
. “I gather you were quite a catch in those days; beautiful and rich, as I hear it.”

“
There was a
lot
more to me than that,
Pamela
.”

She’d practically spit my name out, and I knew immediately that I’d better do some damage control
. “What I mean is, you had everything going for you. I’m sure he had a crush on you, just as you thought.”

“Yes
. He did.” She turned back to Chris, apparently miffed at me.

“What else can you tell us about him?” Chris asked.

“Not much, really. I didn’t encourage his amorous advances, although he kept trying to… Well, I just didn’t.

“And then he ran out on me, owing me money, or so I thought
. It’s distressing to hear that he actually died. And you say they found his body in my house? How could that happen?”

I had to admit
, she did look distressed.

“I was there most of the time
. I can’t imagine who could have buried him under a cement slab in my cellar. You’d think I would have known that something wasn’t right. I feel like such a dimwit. Could I have been that oblivious to my surroundings?”

Deciding it was time to switch gears, I asked, “What about Sam Shipley?
Would you tell us what you remember about him?”

“Oh, yes, Sam Shipley
. I think I mentioned him to you when you were here before. He frightened me. There was something threatening about him, and he used that to intimidate me. I didn’t like him very much, but
he
had a crush on me, too. He asked me to go out with him and I refused. That’s when he started acting pushy with me.”

Chance’s face looked like she’d just bitten into a lemon.

“What did he do that was pushy?” I asked.

She turned to me and the sour expression didn’t leave her face
. I wasn’t sure if she was still remembering Shipley or if it was directed at me.

“He was a big man and he tried to use that to his advantage
. I’m tall, but he towered over me. He’d move in too close and look down at me, with his arms crossed over his chest, like he was daring me to cross him. I had to tell him to move out.” Chance’s face had darkened and her eyes were slits. She seemed to be remembering something she didn’t like. “He moved without any trouble though.
I’m
the one no one should cross. I
owned
that house, so I had my rights. No one could live there that I didn’t want in the house.”

“Do you know what happened to him after that?” Chris asked.

“No, I never heard from him again, and good riddance to bad rubbish.”

Oh, my
. I half expected her to turn her head and spit on the floor. Chance could be nasty when she wanted to, and it appeared that Sam Shipley had been a recipient of her anger.

“How about Dudley Long?” Chris asked
. “What do you remember about him?”

Chance smiled
. “Oh, Dudley was one of the good ones. He always had a pleasant word for everyone. He’d decided to join up and go to war. If memory serves, he was going to join the Navy. He did have a flaw though.”

“And what was that?” I asked.

Chance smiled a very self-satisfied grin. “He had a girl when he moved in, and he wanted me, too. You’d think one woman would have been enough for him. But, no. He was joining the Navy, so maybe he figured he needed to sow some wild oats in case he didn’t come back. I was beautiful back then and men just seemed to flock to me. His attention wasn’t unexpected.” Her hands fluttered with delight as she spoke.

“When did Dudley move out?” Chris asked.

“Not long after Charles left – or died, as I now know. He moved back with his mother for a time before he went into the Navy. I have a feeling he got back together with that mealy-mouthed girlfriend of his, which was his loss.”

“Why was it his loss?” I asked
. I couldn’t help myself.

She looked at me as though I’d just asked the dumbest question she’d ever heard
. “Because if he’d played his cards right, he could have had
me
.”

“Ah
. I see.”

I was beginning to understand Chance’s fascination with Chris
. She seemed to believe any man who met her wanted her, even now. Listening to her, I realized she’d taken vanity and self-indulgence to a new level. It was no wonder she’d lived to the ripe old age of ninety. She never worried about anything but herself, and she seemed to feel she was mostly perfect.

I glanced in Chris’s direction, but he wouldn’t make eye contact with me
. I could see his lips quivering, like he wanted to smile, but he didn’t. Instead, he rolled his upper lip under and concentrated on Chance. “Okay, what about Alice Frye? Did she figure into any of the things that went on around the boarding house?”

“Alice?
She was my best friend for a while. Then she changed and I couldn’t abide her behavior. I had to ask her to move out, too.”

“Why was that?”

“I used to sing. Did you know that? I had what they called a sultry, steamy voice. Sexy as all get out, some used to say. I could have had a career with a big band if it hadn’t been for my circumstances.

“
Anyways, I used to sing at
Dapper Dan’s
, a cocktail lounge – by invitation, of course. Alice would come with me and listen to me, and we’d have a grand ol’ time. We were such good friends that they began to call us the Gold Dust Twins. Then we’d walk home together. It was safer to leave a cocktail lounge with two of us together.”

Chance was smiling a genuinely happy smile for once
. I could see that singing and the friendship were happy memories for her. The smile suddenly disappeared as though someone had flipped a switch, and it was replaced with that sour, bite-a-lemon look again.

“Well, one night I drove up to
Dapper Dan’s
to see what was going on. It was the first time I’d ever gone by myself, without Alice. I wasn’t scheduled to sing that night. Lo and behold, when I walked inside that honky tonk, there was Alice, big as life and singing in my place, flirting with all of the men. She betrayed me. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes, I do, Duchess,” Chris said.

Chance smiled at him before reaching over and patting his hand. “I like that. What pet name do you have for Pamela?”

Uh oh
. This was Chance’s competitive side.