Murder in a Basket (An India Hayes Mystery) (7 page)

At the end of the day, I packed up my car with paintings and paints to head home, but at the last second, I turned left, which was the opposite direction from my duplex, when leaving campus. The hot dog vendor in the minivan behind me made an obscene gesture as I abruptly changed my mind.

I turned into a small strip mall and parked in front of the office of Lewis Clive, Esq. Lew’s office was in a storefront tucked in between a card shop and shoe store. I glanced into the shoe store’s win
dow. The snow boots were out in force. It wouldn’t be long before they’d be needed.

A mechanical beep-beep sounded when I stepped into the office suite.

It was after six, so I wasn’t surprised when the secretary’s desk was empty. What did surprise me was who greeted me in her place. Sitting in the middle of the waiting room was none other than Zacchaeus, labradoodle extraordinaire.

Zach barked.

“Stop that confounded racket, Dog!” Lew bellowed from the back office where I knew he was smoking an unfiltered cigarette. The man was bound and determined to die of lung cancer.

I held out my hand to Zach and patted his head. That quieted him.
“Lew?” I called. “It’s India.”

There was a pause. I could almost see him take a drag of his cigarette.
“Come on back.”

I wove around the receptionist’s desk and down the short hallway to Lew’s office. Zach padded behind me down the carpeted hall.

“That dog had to come with you, did he?”

I patted Zach’s head.
“He’s not so bad.” Zach leaned against my leg.

Except for the framed diplomas on his walls and picture of his family on his desk, the room had as much personality as a mo
ck-up office in an office supply warehouse. The walls were off-white. The floor was covered with industrial brown carpet, and the ceiling was dropped tile. I found the lack of color depressing.

“
Take a seat.” He motioned to the sofa situated underneath the lone window. Zach laid his head across my knees. Lew sat behind his metal desk, signing one legal-sized document after another at breakneck speed. “Just give me a minute. I promised my secretary I would get these signed before I headed home tonight.” He signed one last document. “There.”

Lew stood and patted his breast pocket. Deftly, he removed the pack of cigarettes he always kept there. He lit up, and I opened the window.
A cold burst of late October air blew into the room, but it was better than the smell of Lew’s cigarette smoke. Lew was a red-haired-going-to-gray, stocky, barrel-chested guy who kept my parents out of jail on a regular basis.

He pulled an armchair closer to the sofa and sat.
“What did your parents do this time? Do you need bond money?”

Not for the first time, I realized most children
have never heard the words “bond money” in reference to their parents. I wondered if they knew how lucky they were.

I crossed my jean-clad legs, forcing Zach to lie on the floor. He placed one of his paws firmly on my sneaker.
“This isn’t about Mom and Dad. As far as I know, they haven’t broken any laws recently.”

Lew blew out a long drag of smoke out the window.
“I imagine I will hear from them soon enough. The school board is dead set on tearing down the bell tower. Personally, I think tearing down the ugly thing is the right idea. It’s a death trap. Don’t tell your parents I said that.”

My parents’ latest crusade was having the high school’s bell tower
declared a historic landmark in order to stop the Stripling school board from demolishing it.

“
So? What’s up? Mark back in town?”

I shook my head sharply.
“Maybe I should be asking you what’s up. What’s Zach doing here?”

Lew glanced down at the dog.
“Do you know this pile of fur?”

“
We met at the festival.”

He focused on the Founder’s Festival emblem embroidered on my polo shirt.
“Oh, heck, are you involved in this mess too?”

“
I discovered Tess’s body,” I said somewhat apologetically.

“
The detective told me one of the crafters found her, but he most certainly didn’t tell me it was
you
.” Lew took a drag of his cigarette as if fortifying himself. “Heck in a handbasket.”

Considering Tess was a basket weaver, I wondered if Lew knew just how appropriate his curse was.

Lew looked bemused. “You sure have a knack for finding trouble, don’t you?” Then his face turned sad. “Don’t tell me you are going to play gumshoe again.”

I shrugged.

“I’m sure Detective Mains will love that. If you’re planning to crack the case, you’re lagging way behind. He stopped by to drop off the dog.”

“
Why would he give you Zach?”

“
Victor’s will, of course. I imagine that’s why you’re here.”

“
Victor who?” I blinked in surprise.

“
Victor Lepcheck, the deceased owner of that dog—that very wealthy dog, might I add.”

“
He wouldn’t be any relation to Sam Lepcheck, would he?”

“
Don’t remind me. He was his uncle and therefore he is also Tess’s uncle, too.”

I looked at Zach, who had fallen asleep at my feet.
“Tess took Zach after her uncle died.”

Lew nodded and took another drag from his cigarette.
“And the sizable trust that came with him.”

“
How much money are we talking?”

“
Two million.”

I nearly choked.
“Two million dollars? And it belongs to the dog?”

“
It’s in a trust.” He flattened his hands on his desk blotter. “Please don’t tell me your parents are also mixed up in this.”

“
Nope. They are too busy saving the bell tower right now to take on any other causes.”

His face smoothed.
“Well, then, I’ll write a personal letter of thanks to the Stripling school board for putting up a fight against them.” He sat back.

I just thought of something for the first time.
“Where’d Zach come from?”

Lew squinted at me.
“I just told you. Mains dropped him off.”

“
No, that’s not what I meant. Where was he last night? Tess was at the festival, and Jerry was at the forge. I saw him before he knew about Tess’s death, and Zach wasn’t with him.”

“
Mains told me he found the dog at Tess’s house. Jerry said he dropped him off there before going on to the forge because he knew Tess would be home from the festival soon.”

“
So you are the Lepcheck family lawyer?”

“
No, I only represented Victor and his dog by default.”

“
How long were you Victor’s lawyer?”

“
For twenty miserable years. Your parents are a walk in the park in comparison to Victor Lepcheck.”

I frowned.
“That bad?”

He gnawed on the end of his cigarette.
“Zach’s here because Victor never wrote in his will who would receive Zach and his sizable trust if Zach outlived Tess. Because Tess died before the mutt, I take possession of the dog until an agreement can be reached.”

“
Wouldn’t Zach go to Provost Lepcheck as the surviving family member?”

“
You’d be right if he were the only one. Tess also had a sister, Debra.”

“
You’re kidding.”

He shook his head.
“I wish I were. Debra Wagtail. She lives in one of those new condo complexes that are popping up all over the countryside like manicured weeds.” He shook another cigarette out of the pack. “And to make matters worse, Tess’s husband, Jerry Ross, insists Zach should go to him since he helped care for the dog. Tess’s son is also a possible heir. If they can’t all come to some kind of agreement, this is going to go on for years.”

I made a sympathetic noise.
“Who has the best claim to the trust?”

He took a drag on his cigarette.
“Both Debra and Sam have an equal claim, although they are both petitioning for sole custody of the dog and, of course, the dog’s money. As if it will help them, they’re both saying they’ll use some of the money for charities. They can’t do anything with it until Zach dies because it’s for his care, but after the dog passes away the caretaker gets everything to use as he or she wants.”

“
What charities?”

“
Sam claims Victor would have wanted him to have the money in order to support programs at Martin College. On the other hand, Debra claims Victor would have wanted her to have the money because she was Victor’s caretaker during the last few years of his life. He suffered from Parkinson’s. He was lucky though. He died before he lost the ability to speak or walk.”

I didn’t know if I would consider anyone with Parkinson’s lucky.

I held up a hand. “Back up. If Debra was the caretaker, why didn’t Victor leave the dog’s trust in her hands in the first place?”

Lew shrugged.
“He never said, and I try not to pry when my clients ask me to draw up their wills. I think the more obvious question was why he left his fortune to a dog, but I didn’t ask that one, either. I wish I had.”

I wished he had
, too.

“
Victor has the remarkable ability to be an even bigger pain in the rear in death than he was in life. That’s quite an accomplishment.”

“
I’ll do anything I can to help,” I said.

A glint sparkled in his eye, and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“Actually, I do have a way you can help me. My wife is terribly afraid of dogs. She was bitten as a child by a neighbor’s pooch.”

“Was she okay?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah, she was fine. It was just a nip, really.” He pointed at Zach. “However, if I bring him home, divorce is imminent. I don’t have time to go through a messy divorce.”

“
What are you saying?” My stomach churned.

“
Why don’t you dog-sit Zacchaeus for me while this legal battle is going on?”

“
I have no legal right to the dog.”

He waved my concern away.
“And that’s why you should have him instead of one of those yahoos. It’s only temporary. You’ll be serving in the capacity of a doggie foster care.”

“
You said this could go on for months. I can’t keep a dog for months.”

“
Fine, fine, can you just keep him for the next couple of days until I find a good kennel for him? Lord knows, he can afford the best.”

I looked down at Zach, who
was still fast asleep on my tennis shoes.

“
I . . . I don’t know. Ina might not be happy if I had a dog in my apartment.”

“
Please, you know as well as I do Ina will be thrilled.”

“
I have a cat.”

“
They’ll be best buds in no time.”

Yeah
, right, I thought. I still had scars from the last time I’d tried to introduce a new animal into Templeton’s domain.

He scribbled on a piece of computer paper.
“Here. I have written a permission slip for you with the date and my signature in case you run into any naysayers.” He signed the page with a flourish and handed it to me. Dumbly, I took it.

The note read,
“India Hayes will be caring for Zacchaeus Lepcheck, dog of the late Victor Lepcheck, while Victor Lepcheck’s estate is under dispute. Sincerely, Lewis S. Clive, Esq.”

I doubted the legality of the note, but Lew knew better than I.

Lew straightened stacks of files on his desk and rose from his chair with a tired groan. “Well, you’d better be going if you want to get Zacchaeus’s walk in before dinner.”

I left the office with Zach on leash and a large cardboard box containing his favorite dog food, toys, and a pooper scooper.

On the way home, Zach sat in the front seat of my car with his head outside the window, tongue flapping in the wind. I glanced over at him. How did I get myself into these things? I wondered. Oh, right. No backbone. The truth be told, I felt bad for Zach. Poor dog alone in the world without his master, and the only reason anyone wanted him was for his money. I hoped Templeton would understand.

I parked in my gravel driveway and let Zacchaeus out of the passenger seat. I thought the best recourse was to break Templeton in slowly. It was dark when I let Zach loose in the fenced backyard. I turned on my back porch light, got a couple of old dishes from the garage, and filled one bowl with water and another with kibble. Zach ate and drank hungrily, and then he was off barking at an unsuspecting cardinal who had perched on the fence. I glanced at Ina’s back window, expecting to see her elfin face peering through the curtains. It wasn’t there. I wondered if she was out with her crony Juliet.

I went inside my apartment through the sliding glass door. Templeton stood on the back of the couch. His eyes were narrowed, and his fangs peeked out from under his upper lip like sharp white toothpicks.

“
Sweetie,” I said tentatively. “I’m home. We are going to have a visitor for a couple of days.”

Templeton growled deep in his throat. There was going to be heck to pay. I stroked his back, but he ran away from me to the bedroom. Absently, I wondered which pair of shoes would be graced with the regurgitated hairball this time.

I popped a French bread pizza in the oven and dug out my Summit County phonebook. I flipped to the Ws. There was only one Wagtail listed, “Wagtail, D. & D.” While I still had momentum, I dialed her number. The call went directly to voicemail. I hung up without leaving a message.

The timer went off, and I was about to sit on the couch to scarf down my pizza when someone knocked at the door. Templeton, who had returned to the living room with the promise of pizza crumbs, bolted down the short hallway to my bedroom.

I recognized the knock. It was a relentless rata-tat-tat. It could be the knock of only one person.

I put my pizza down after taking a quick bite, chewing and swallowing as I made my way to the door.

Ina pushed her way in, heading straight for my rocking chair, her favorite seat in my apartment. I closed the door and followed her back to the living room with as much excitement as a pacifist heading off to war.

“
Is that a dog in my backyard?” Ina asked in her baby-bird voice.

“
I’m dog-sitting for a few days,” I said, hoping it really was only a few days. “If you don’t like it, I can take him back.”

Ina grinned.
“Don’t even think about it. I love dogs. I would have one if I didn’t have to pick up its poop. I don’t do that. I hope you know that will be your job.”

I nodded. Oh
, joy. I returned to my place on the couch.

Ina rocked.
“Oh, you’re eating dinner. Kind of late, isn’t it? I read in a magazine you should never eat after seven at night. It slows down your metabolism. You might be thin now, but thirty is just around the corner and you’d better start watching your figure.”

I picked up my pizza and took a bite
.

Ina shook her head sadly.
“Juliet and I staked out the square today,” she remarked as if she spoke of a garden party, although it was difficult to imagine Ina at a garden party.

I almost choked on my pizza. I put the plate on the coffee table.
“Did you say ‘staked out’?”

“
I was on the lookout for more jaywalkers. I told Juliet what a rampant problem it was becoming and that the police weren’t doing anything about it. So this morning, we decided to go over there and take a count. We counted ten jaywalkers in eight hours.”

“
You were on the square for eight hours?”

“
There is no reason we shouldn’t be. It’s a public park, and we pay our taxes.”

As if that
were my only concern.

“
I think the jaywalking upturn can easily be blamed on the public school system in this town.”

Here we go.

“Children are no longer being taught jaywalking is a crime. And not only that, but they could put themselves or someone else in danger. They could be hit by a car, and what shame that would be.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe I should talk to your parents about this problem. They are good at mobilizing people.”

“
Don’t even think about it.”

Ina shot me a reproachful look.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s a good idea to bother them right now. They’re so busy with the bell tower campaign. They wouldn’t be able to fully commit themselves to your cause.”

Ina shrugged and rocked back in her seat. Her moccasin-covered feet dangled several inches above the scarred hardwood floor.
“I’ll talk to Juliet about it to see if she thinks it’s a good idea.”

Of course, Ina’s yes-woman would be all for the recruitment of my parents.

Ina reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Take a look at this. I made these fliers up this morning. Juliet and I made copies at the public library. We made fifty, and we already need more.”

I looked down at the white piece of copy paper. The original message had been
handwritten in block letters. No doubt, it was Ina’s handiwork; she had yet to enter the wonderful world of word processing, let alone the Internet. The message read, “Jaywalking is a crime. Keep this up, and you’re going to the slammer.” As a final touch, Ina had drawn a stick figure locked behind bars. Persuasive.

“
What do you think?” Ina asked.

“
Are you sure you’re allowed to pass these out?”

“
Allowed to pass these out? What do you think free speech is for?” She snatched the flier from my hand.

I picked up my pizza.
“They might be perceived as threatening.”

Ina harrumphed.

I backpedaled for the sake of keeping the peace. “Don’t worry. My parents have handed out more-damning leaflets in their day.”

Ina seemed pacified but remained in her seat. From years of experience I knew she had another bee in her bonnet, so to speak.
“Was there anything else, Ina?”

She tilted her head, reminding me
of Zach. “Juliet told me a terrible rumor today.”

“
She did?” I shook my head, fearing I knew what the rumor was about.

“
She told me you were the one who found Tess Ross’s body at the festival.”

Leave it to Ina to lead the conversation with jaywalking, and then finally get around to murder. I put my plate back on the table.
“I did.”

“
And you didn’t tell me.”

“
I didn’t want to worry you.”

Ina made a fake sniffling sound and buried her head in her sleeve for a moment. I rolled my eyes. When she looked up her eyes were clear.
“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Ina swung her legs back and forth, using her momentum to rock the heavy wooden chair.

“
What do you mean?”

“
Aren’t you going to find the killer?”

“
That’s Mains’s job, not mine.”

“
Oh, yes, and he did so well last time. If it weren’t for you, he’d still have no idea who offed the Blocken girl.”

I winced.
“He would’ve figured it out eventually.”

Ina snorted.
“So you’re going to go about your day like nothing happened?”

Templeton walked back into the room, jumped onto the couch, and curled up in my lap. I stroked his silky black
fur and felt calmer. He always knew when I needed his feline support, even with a dog in the backyard.

Ina narrowed her eyes.
“It’s Victor Lepcheck’s dog, isn’t it?”

“
How do you know that?”

“
Please, everybody knows about Zacchaeus after the settlement of Victor’s will. There was a three-page article about it in the
Stripling Dispatch
when the story was released. The question is, why do
you
have the dog?”

I opened my mouth to answer.

“I’ll tell you why. Zacchaeus and his trust were willed to Tess and now that Tess is dead no one knows who should get the dog and his money.” She rocked back in her chair with a smug expression on her face.

I never said Ina wasn’t sharp.

“He prefers Zach.”

“
Who gave you the dog?”

“
Lew. His wife’s not a dog person.”

Ina smiled.
“This is just grand, a key witness right here in our midst. That’s going to make it easier for us to solve the case.”

I let the
us
slide. “It’s just a favor for Lew. You know how many times he’s gotten my parents out of a jam.”

“
I guess if you really are just dog-sitting, you wouldn’t be interested in talking to a key suspect.”

I couldn’t help myself.
“Who?”

“
Debra Wagtail.”

“
Tess’s sister. I was just trying to call her.”

“
Ah-ha!” Ina raised her fist in triumph.

“
Okay, okay, you got me. Do you know Debra?”

“
I most certainly do. We both volunteer for the city’s garden club.”

Secretly, I hoped Debra’s work for the garden club was more productive than Ina’s,
which mainly focused on placing as many leprechauns as possible on the city’s public lands. Once she even placed a leprechaun-inspired topiary in front of the public library. The library’s director let it sit out there for all of five minutes after Ina left.

“
Weren’t you kicked out of the garden club?” I asked.

“
Those monkeys have no concept of yard art. Maybe I should talk to your parents about building a case around that issue, too,” she added thoughtfully.

I shivered at the very idea.

“Anyway, Debra was one of the few goofballs in the club who was nice to me. She said my leprechauns were cute.”

I picked up my pizza again took a big bite. I figured if my mouth was full, I wouldn’t say anything to get her going. The pizza was cold. I swallowed.
“I need to talk to Debra as soon as possible.”

Ina snapped her fingers.
“Who do you think did it? Who are your suspects? Who have you talked to? Why are you doing it?” She jumped off the rocking chair and hopped up and down with each question.

The pizza was gone.

“Calm down. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack, and I’m not in the mood to give you CPR.” Ina didn’t sit, but she stopped hopping.

“
Derek Welch, Tess’s son, works at the library. He asked me to look into the murder for him, and I said I would as a favor.”

Ina plopped down on the rocking chair, sending it careening back and forth. She regained her balance.
“You did?”

“
Yes.” I said, not feeling the need to elaborate. “And I need your help. Do you think you can call Debra and set up a meeting for me?”

“
No problemo.” Ina’s eyes sparkled, then narrowed. “I’m coming along.”

“
Uhhh.”

“
She doesn’t know you. She won’t open up to you like she will to me. If you want me to call her, I’m going.”

“
Well . . .”

“
And if you say no, I will call her and tell her not to talk to you,” she said with triumph, folding her arms across her green sweater–setted chest.

What choice did I have?
“Ina, do you want to come along with me to interview Debra?”

“
Why, yes, India, I do. Thank you for asking.”