Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 01 - Bogey Nights (29 page)

“You really have created a relaxing atmosphere,” I said
. “I think Chris and I may have to make a special trip over here one night.”

“I can see why you’ve earned a reputation, Chris,” Freddi said
. “You don’t just resemble Humphrey Bogart; you could
be
Bogey.”

Of course, he rolled his upper lip under before smiling the Bogey smile at her.

“Could you two come back tomorrow?” Freddi asked. “I think I may have something that could help you.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I have a photo album. It’s got pictures from when
Dapper Dan’s
opened up through the late forties. Maybe you’ll find some photos of the people you’re interested in. My grandfather labeled all the pictures, so you’ll know who you’re looking at.”

I turned to Chris
. “Paydirt!”

“What?” Freddi asked.

“I’m glad we stopped in today,” I replied.

Chapter
Thirty-one

C
hris and I visited with Freddi for about half an hour before we left. She shared some stories with us and actually gave us a few tips on running a successful bar. She said she’d really like to come in for dinner after we opened, and we invited her to be our guest. We explained that the bar was secondary to the restaurant, and she explained that we’d have a much larger crowd
because
of the bar and music.

“I’m surprised you’re sharing information with us,” I said
. “I’d have thought that we’d be competition to you.”

“Nah, you’re in a different part of town
and you’ll be serving food, and besides, competition keeps me on my toes. And don’t forget, we’ve been here a long time. We have a good reputation and a lot of regulars who come in.

“And, Chris, I hope you’ll both come back
. Maybe you’d like to wear your suit and fedora? I can always use you to my advantage.” She laughed, a very throaty sound.

We were walking to the car when Chris started to
smile.

“What?” I asked.

“We’ve been inviting so many people to come as our guests that on opening night we won’t make a cent.”

I started to roll my eyes, but caught myself
. “You’re absolutely right. Guess I’d better quit being so generous. Are you going to wear your fedora when we visit here again? I mean, when they’re open for business.”

“How could I turn her down?”

We talked about
Dapper Dan’s
and Freddi all the way to Hollywood, where we met with a band who called themselves Monday Moonshine. They were currently doing one-night stands and wanted a steady job. They were actually very talented, but their music was more fifties and sixties than forties. Chris talked to the band leader about it and he said they’d work on the era we were looking for and get back to us. Chris said he had other bands to listen to, too, and he’d be more than happy to give Monday Moonshine another listen when they were ready, but there wasn’t much time left.

By the time we picked Mikey up at Constance’s house, it was a quarter to six
. We stopped for take-out Mexican food on the way home, and Mikey decided he could probably eat a taco with us. Mexican is his favorite.

Arriving home we found four messages on the machine
. One was from Sharon, who said she hoped we weren’t annoyed with her about the article she’d written, and would I please call her on Thursday.

The second message was from Big D
. He was hoping we weren’t angry at Sharon for her article, and he wondered when he could get back to work on the restaurant. I made a mental note to call Janet.

The third was from Sarah Pensella
. Charlotte’s cousin had called her and filled her in on what was happening. She wanted to do anything she could to help us, and would we please call her. She’d be up late and didn’t care when we called.

The fourth message was from Janet, who said they’d finished at the house and we could continue our work.

Chris called Big D and told him all systems were go, and Davey said his crew would be glad to hear that. Chris also assured him that we hadn’t written Sharon off yet, but we still expected her to help us out when the restaurant opened.

Then we sat down together to call Sarah
. She answered on the first ring.

“I’m glad you called back tonight,” she said
. “I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve wondered about Charles. It really breaks my heart to hear what happened to him. Now, how can I help?”

“I’ve got you on the speaker
so my wife and I can both talk to you,” Chris said.

“I can tell by the sound of your voice,” she replied
. “It always sounds different when the phone is on speaker.”

“
Would you please tell us everything you can about Charles and what was going on?” I asked.

“There’s not an awful to tell
. We’d been writing to each other since my parents and I moved away. His letters were usually short, but I was always glad to hear from him. I had kind of a kid’s crush on him for a long time. I used to tell my friends that he was my boyfriend. I was young and silly, and he was a little older and handsome. I used to tell him all the latest jokes in my letters. He got a kick out of that.”

“Did your friend, the cousin, tell you that we’d found some unopened letters that had been hidden?” Chris asked.

“No, but that doesn’t surprise me. I talked to him on the telephone once, and when I mentioned a letter I’d sent him, he said he’d never received it. After that there were a couple of letters that he never responded to.”

“I gather from one of the hidden letters
– one that you’d written to him – that he’d said something to you about problems at the boarding house. Is that correct?” Chris asked.

“It is
. He said there were two women living in the house and that one of them seemed to like him – too much. He said she’d started leaving him notes about how much she cared for him. He tried to ignore them. Then he started receiving threatening notes, but it was in a different handwriting. In those days no one called it stalking, but looking back, that’s what I’d call it. It’s just a guess, but I think all of the notes were from the same person, even if the handwriting was different. He also said that a couple of times the things in his dresser drawers seemed out of order, like someone had been going through his belongings.”

“Were there any other problems?” Chris asked.

“Actually, there were. With two women and three men in the house, things got a little uncomfortable. The men were, well, kind at each other’s throats. One of the women was nice to all of them, and the other one was always trying to make them jealous of each other. It seemed to be working, because Charles said he’d had a huge argument with one of the other men.”

“Did he say anything else?” I asked.

“No. I wrote and asked him for more details, but I never heard from him again.”

“Did he give you any names?” Chris asked.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Did he tell you which woman was which?
I mean, did he tell you if the trouble-maker was his landlord or the other woman?”

“No
. Charles only told me the circumstances. I wish I could be more help, but that’s about all I know. I was worried about him, but there was nothing I could do. I called his cousin, Jeanne, and she alerted his sister, but from what Jeanne told me later, Charlotte had already figured out he was missing.”

“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” I asked.

“Not really. I only hope you can find out who killed Charles. He knew I had a crush on him, but he wrote to me anyway. Like I said, I was younger than he was. He was a kind and gentle man, and he didn’t deserve to die like that.”

“We’ll ask Charlotte to let you know what we find out,” I said
. “And thank you so much for your help. You’ve actually cleared up a few things for us. At least now we have some idea of what was going on in that house.”

“I told Charles he should move out of there,” Sarah said.

***

On Thursday morning we sent Mikey off to school with a promise that his bags would be packed for his trip to his grandparents’ house when he got home
. My son was one of those kids who never missed a day of school, so when Grandma Linda called late on Wednesday night, I agreed to take him out of school on Friday so they could have a longer weekend together. They would pick him up after he came home from school and leave for a weekend of camping.

I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes when I realized that I hadn’t seen the papers Chris had left on the table on Tuesday
– his notes about Dudley Long.

“Chris,” I said, “did you pick up the papers you left here on Tuesday?
The research papers you were doing about Dudley Long?”

“No
. I thought you’d moved them out of the way when you were cleaning.” He set down the newspaper and began looking through stacks of other papers, the ones having to do with the new restaurant.

I joined him and started going through everything I could find
. Nothing. “You don’t think someone could have been in the house again, do you?”

“I don’t think so
. It seems like everything is the way we left it. Wait a minute. Let me go take a look at the stuff around the computer.” He left the room, looking puzzled and uncomfortable.

When he returned, the look on his face made
me
feel uncomfortable.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

“Yeah, something’s definitely wrong. Everything I researched is gone. And the side window is broken. Someone broke in and took what I had. I can find it again, but this adds another degree of difficulty. Call Janet and let her know. I’m going outside to look around the house.”

I called Janet and told her the house had been broken into again
. I told her what had been taken.

“I don’t get it,” she said
. “The few people who are left are too old to be breaking and entering. I shouldn’t say that. You’d be surprised what a senior citizen can do when they put their mind to it. Do you have any idea when the house was broken into?”

“It had to have been Tuesday
. Thinking back, I don’t remember seeing the papers that were in the kitchen when we sat down to eat that night.”

“And you were with Chance on Tuesday.”

“I was. You know, I forgot to ask her if she’d told anyone else about our investigation. I’m going to call her right now. I’ll get back to you, Janet.”

“Okay, but I’m going to send someone over to check for fingerprints
. The chances of finding anything useable are slim, but it’s worth a try.”

Chris hadn’t returned yet, so I picked up the phone and dialed Chance’s apartment
. She answered right away, but her voice sounded like I might have awoken her.

“Hello?
Who is it?” she asked.

“Chance, this is Pamela
. I need to ask you a question, and it’s really important.”

“
Hello to you, too. Okay, ask.”

“Have you told anyone about our investigation?
Are you still in touch with any of the old boarders?”

She was quiet for a moment
. “Wasn’t I supposed to tell anyone?”

“We never told you not to, but if you did, I need to know who you talked to.”

“Well, I was in the recreation room for dinner one night and I mentioned it to that group that plays poker. That stupid Shelly said she thought I was making it up, that there probably never was a murder. Stuart and Jim seemed interested though. But Shelly made me mad and I left without eating.”

“Anyone else?” I asked.

“I told Alice,” she said.

“You know where
Alice
is? We understood she disappeared.” This was a major revelation to me.

“Of course, I know where Alice is
. I don’t like her, but she’s changed in her old age and she’s tolerable now. We don’t talk often, but since your little investigation has to do with the boarding house, I thought she might be interested.”

“The police told us she’d vanished, pretty much without a trace
. Can you explain that?”

“Well, Alice got married after she moved out of the boarding house
. She and her husband moved to France for several years, and when he died, Miss La De Da moved back here. Her name isn’t Alice Frye anymore.”

“What’s her name now?”

“I don’t remember. I’d have to look in my address book.”

Was she playing her bad memory game with me, or had she really forgotten?

“What about her telephone number? Can you give that to me?”

“Like I said, I’ll have to look at my address book
. Quit being so pushy. Why don’t you come over tomorrow and I’ll give you her name, her address and her phone number.” Chance’s voice was beginning to sound irritated.

“Okay, I’ll be over tomorrow.”

We hung up and Chris finally came inside.

“What took you so long?” I asked.

“I visited our next door neighbors and asked if they heard anything. They did. Denise said she heard the dogs barking. You know our dogs hardly ever bark. Anyway, by the time she walked from the back of the house to our side, the dogs had quieted down. She didn’t see anything unusual, except a
broken window
! She figured Ace and I had been playing ball or something, and broken it. She said she’d noticed it the other day, which I figure would have been the day of the other break-in. She didn’t know about the other break-in because she never saw the police show up here. She’d gone to visit her mother and stayed the night. I’ll board up that window until we can get it replaced.”