Murder at the Book Fair (25 page)

"When we get there you'll
have to ask him if we can borrow his cuffs to cuff him."

"Maybe we can check out a
couple of other people first."

"Any people in
particular?"

"Well, I would like to check
out Thelma Lou, and I thought you might be interested in Jennifer unless you're
still hung up on Heather."

"I've already checked. They
both have alibis for the time of the murder. I was thinking we might check out
one of the more likely candidates."

"I'm with you, Cy."

"I've noticed that, and I've
even sprayed."

"I'll be glad to call Thelma
Lou and ask her for a ride home."

"We already did that
once."

"No, that was Jennifer.
Thelma Lou's different."

"I've got an idea. Sometimes
we are able to use the messages God gives us to solve the case. Do you think if
you ask Him for tomorrow's clue early He might be willing to give it to you?"

"I doubt it. He might tell us
to use the clues He's already given us."

"Well, I've got a list of
them here. The only two that stump me are 'Who wrote it?' and 'Somebody's
lying.'"

"One of those stumps me more
than the other. We can narrow the lying part down to three people, provided
that the clue has to do with the people we talked to that day instead of the
day before."

"Let's stick with that day
for the time being. That day we talked to Jake Cartwright, Bob Barney, and
Millie Longacre."

"And all of them might have
lied to us, but if I'm only allowed one vote I'll cast it for Millie
Longacre."

"I would, too, but then maybe
Barney did what we think she did."

"You mean minus the marrying
part."

"She didn't get
married."

"No, but she wanted to."

"But then according to Sam,
maybe Barney wanted to get married, too."

"Enough to murder
Cyril?"

"That much I'm not sure
about."

"So you're not ready to put
either of them in the electric chair?"

"No, I'll hold off and take a
chance on the power going out again. We can always hang one or both of them if
we have to."

"Let's look at the messages
we've figured out. The first one told us that Portwood was murdered. We were
the first to know that, but Herb suspected it."

"Yeah, and he knew who might
have been murdered before we did."

"So should we pick him up for
questioning?"

"Let's wait on him,
too."

"Okay, we also know that
Portwood gave a lot of money to someone several years in a row, and I don't
think it was a charity."

"I'll agree there, too, but
where's the money."

"Somewhere we haven't been.
Either someone has it safely hidden at their home, or in a bank somewhere other
than in his or her hometown. And coffee must enter the equation somewhere,
because you had a clue about coffee. Now, it's probably the coffee that was in
the missing Thermos, but we don't know that for sure. I'm going to make a few
calls."

I called Bill Noel, who told me
that Portwood didn't have coffee at breakfast. Then I called the two women who
shared a table with him at the book fair and neither one remembered Portwood
drinking coffee at the table. Only water. I called Susie Hammond to get her
take on it, and she didn't remember seeing Portwood drinking any coffee, but
she said she couldn't say for sure that he didn't.

"Lou, I'm going to put all of
my cards into the pot that says Portwood had a Thermos. As to who put poison in
his Thermos, I have no idea, but it looks like it was either Cartwright, the
mysterious woman, Bob Barney, or Millie Longacre."

"Cy, don't forget the
mysterious person who volunteered at the book fair without going through
training."

"Thanks a lot, Partner. For
now, since I have no idea who this person was, I'll forget about him."

Lou and I grew more frustrated by
the minute, so we agreed to part ways for the night and hope the next day's
clue would help us solve the murder.

I woke the next morning and
reached for my phone to call Lou. Lou is always up before I am, so I didn't
think I would wake him.

"Did I wake you?"

"No, I was just lying here
waiting for today's clue."

"You mean God always gives
you the clue when you're in bed?"

"No, it means I'm trying to
be lazy like you are."

"Does it also mean that God
hasn't given you today's clue yet?"

"It does. I mean God and I
don't have a written contract that says I will receive a clue each day we're
working on a case."

"I wouldn't think God would
need your help on a case."

"I meant you and me, Cy.
Maybe God is put out with us because we haven't figured out some of the other
clues."

"I don't believe that's
happened before."

"Yeah, it has. Remember that
time He gave us the same clue two days in a row."

"I don't think that will
happen this time. I think we've already figured out the coffee clue. It's a
couple of those others than have us befuddled."

"Well, you go back to being
lazy. I'll take a shower and do my Bible study and then check and see if you
are ready to eat."

+++

Lou and I decided to eat in the
hotel dining room just in case he got our clue of the day and we had to rush to
my new ride and get to work. We were almost back to our rooms when Lou turned
to me looking like Gunther Toody minus the "ooo ooo". Lou smiled.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm not laughing. I'm
smiling."

"What are you so happy
about?"

"I have today's clue,
Cy."

"You mean you had it all this
time and were just messing with me?"

"No, I mean God just gave it
to me. Remember, God is never late, but He's always on time."

"You mean now, as we  were
walking down the hall God gave you today's clue."

"That's right."

"While we were walking."

"Well, God is capable of
doing that no matter where or when."

"I wasn't thinking about God
being incapable."

"Well, I'll have you know I
can walk and receive clues at the same time."

We got to my room. I checked to
make sure that the maid wasn't inside, then motioned for Lou to come in with me
and tell me the clue.

"Well, out with it."

"The perfect hiding
place."

"That's one thing that
bothered me when I was young. By the time I was interested in girls we were no
longer playing hide and seek. There were some good places in our neighborhood
where two people could have hidden."

"Cy, I don't think today's
clue has anything to do with playing hide and seek or hormones."

"Me, either. I think it has
to do with a missing Thermos. And you know what that means?"

"Too well. It means we have
to go back to Elmer's neighborhood."

"I think we'll be okay there
as long as we keep moving.  We need to look on the positive side of things. It
looks like we're going to have more time to listen to some music."

"Except when we were up there
last time those trees blocked out the sound."

The road that led to the road
where Portwood lived was narrow and was tree-lined most of the way. The road
Portwood lived on had trees on the first part of it, but not a lot of trees
once we had passed the first two houses. I was going back where I didn't want
to go. I hoped that no storms loomed large in that county. I had no plans to
stop and erect a memorial where Lightning had died. And I had no interest in
deja vuing with Elmer.

+++

Before we left
Frankfort
, we stopped and did a little
shopping. We bought a cooler, a Maglite, ice for the cooler, food that needed
to spend time in the cooler, water, and enough snacks that didn't need to be in
the cooler to last us a couple of days in case we had an early snowstorm. Then
Lou and I bought a couple of rain slickers in case it was too warm to snow, but
too wet to be comfortable.

I looked at my watch. If we timed
it just right we would be able to stop at that place we found in LaGrange and
have lunch. But did I want Herb to know what we were doing? I mean he was the
one who gave us this gig, but I figured we were better off on our own for the
time being, so we stopped and picked up some fast food to go with our other
food and headed on our way to the river.

I was in a good mood by the time
we got to Portwood's place. A lengthy ride listening to 60s on 6 has a way of
doing that to a person.

I pulled into the driveway and was
sure that we hadn't arrived undetected. If one of them was guilty he or she
needed to get a little nervous. I stepped down from the van and checked the
inside. Neither Lou nor I made a mess on the floor. Maybe our luck was
improving.

I walked around to the back of the
house and hunted for the key. Someone had moved it. One or both of the
neighbors knew that I was on to them. It was a good thing that someone had
given me some picks for Christmas. It took me a couple of minutes, but I was
able to open Portwood's front door.

I walked inside and looked around.
Everything pretty much looked the same way it had the last time we were there.
I darted toward the door to the garage, and Lou and I stepped out to confirm
what we already knew. There was no Thermos in either vehicle. I was pretty sure
there wasn't, but then a guilty person who lives in the area and has access to
the house is capable of rearranging things.

We left there and made a dash for
the kitchen. The second most obvious place to find a Thermos. We checked out
the countertops and looked in the cabinets. No Thermos. It was time to stop and
evaluate the situation.

"What were the exact words of
today's clue?"

"The perfect hiding
place."

"That's what I thought."

I left the room and left Lou
wondering what I was up to, or if I had gone off the deep end. He followed me
to the bathroom and watched as I put the commode seat down, took the top off
the tank, and looked down in the tank.

"I guess people only leave
money in plastic bags in these things. Any ideas, Lou?"

"Maybe we should go and ask
the neighbors where they put it."

"I knew I was working alone
again."

I went into the living room and
sat down. I was trying to figure out if the perfect hiding place was where
people are most likely to put a Thermos or somewhere where a person is least
likely to hide one. I wasn't sure. I walked from room to room, opened closets
and drawers. I found nothing out of place in any of those places. I went back
and plopped down on the couch.

"Okay, Lou. Help me here. If
you had poisoned someone by adding poison to a Thermos of coffee, what would
you do to eliminate that evidence?"

"If I were here I'd either
take the Thermos and throw it in the river, or I'd go to the kitchen sink and
wash it out and put it up."

"Well, we're not dragging the
river for a Thermos bottle, and no one washed it and put it away."

"Maybe they didn't wash
it."

"Maybe they did or didn't.
Regardless, they didn't put it away, and what I'm looking for is a Thermos, and
I'd be a lot happier if it still contained poison than if someone had washed
it."

"Have you checked the
dishwasher?"

I didn't want to admit that I
hadn't thought of that possibility. I hurried over to the dishwasher and opened
the door. It was Thermos free.

Dejected again, with no clues
leading to a solution, I turned away.

"Well, Lou, the only other
thing I can think of is that someone put it in the garbage."

I turned and saw a tall, plastic
container, which when it was serving its purpose was full of garbage. I walked
over to it and lifted the lid. There was a plastic bag inside, full of garbage.
As carefully as possible I lifted the bag from the receptacle.

"Evidently whoever took the
garbage to the dump over the weekend didn't take Portwood's garbage, because he
left on Thursday and garbage day is Friday."

"Maybe this bunch goes to the
dump on a different day."

The bulging bag was definitely
full of garbage, not trash. The smell reminded me of the garbage truck that
came by my house when I was kid, and the garbage men who put the garbage in
metal tubs, which they carried to the truck on their head.