Steve Demaree - Dekker 09 - Murder on a Blind Date (9 page)

I looked
over the list of the victims. John Ed Caudill, who was the reason Heather
contacted me, lived in Morehead. The other man, Chris Carlisle, lived in
Lexington
. If those two lived in the same
neighborhood it was a large neighborhood, a well over sixty mile long neighborhood.
The two women were Linda Halliday, also from
Lexington
, and Becky Flatt, from
Frankfort
. Again a large neighborhood. Then there was the guy found
dumped with Lou, who had been identified as Roger Wilson. He lived in
Winchester
. All of the victims had been
injected with the same fast-acting poison, so it had to be the same murderer,
or a couple of people working together. But who was injecting people? Could the
murderer be a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a chemist, or just some psycho who
merely knew where to pick up a large amount of poison? And I still couldn't
figure out who lived in the same neighborhood. But I vaguely remember someone
telling me that so-and-so and so-and-so lived close to each other. I was sure
the cold temperatures had frozen my brain. It was time to move on.

Next I
checked to see what color of card each of the murdered people sent back, to see
if they all sent the same. They did. Green. I was glad I sent back yellow.
Would I be brave enough to send back green next time? And if I did, who would
kill me first, the murderer or Jennifer? After that it was time to see who each
person had dated. Since there were both male and female victims, I doubted if
anyone had dated the same person. Maybe we had a brother and sister victim? I
almost swallowed my tongue when I saw who had dated Roger Wilson. Bambi
Fontaine. She told me she had been to The Cheesecake Factory only one time
before. Could that bad date have been with Roger Wilson? But then Roger sent
back a green card. I looked to see what color of card Bambi had sent back. It
was red. I couldn't picture Bambi turning down anyone. Or could it be that
Roger was more enamored with her than she was with him? Or maybe Bambi only
talked about the men she didn't murder? And then I saw that Roger had dated
another woman, too.

Surprise
number two wasn't far behind the first one. This time I found out that two of
the victims had dated each other, and both of them had sent back a green card.
Did someone happen upon the two of them on their date and murder both of them
there? If so, why didn't the murderer repeat his or her double murder? So,
Chris Carlisle and Linda Halliday had dated and then been murdered.

I was
about to move on to see when each of the people was murdered when the phone
rang again.

"Did
you figure it out yet, Cy?"

"I
have, but I didn't want to brag. I knew it would take you longer."

"So,
I guess you saw the common denominator between the murders?"

"You
mean the fact that each victim was injected in the same way?"

"I've
moved beyond that. I mean the dates."

"I
know all of them dated someone that contacted the agency."

"I
don't mean that kind of date. I mean that all of them were murdered on either
Thursday or Friday." 

"I
was just coming to that, Lou."

"And
when you come to it will you tell me why they were murdered on one of those
days?"

"Someone
didn't want to spoil his or her weekend."

"Some
people think Friday is part of the weekend."

"What
about your buddy, the one you rented the chalet with down in the Smokies?"

"When
you read it, you will find out that they can only guess as to the day he was
murdered. They didn't find him soon enough to know for sure."

"I
would think they could narrow it down. After all, you said he hadn't started
deteriorating before you left."

"I
think they call it decomposing."

"That
reminds me, Lou. Did you realize that none of Beethoven's music is around
today?"

"Really,
then how come I've heard some of it?"

"Someone
else did that. But as for Beethoven, after he composed all that music, he
decomposed."

"That
was bad, even for you, Cy."

"Now
back to the matter at hand. Your dead buddy. The murderer could have had him in
cold storage. Of course we know when the young woman was murdered."

"Yeah,
sometime between when I went to sleep after drinking that stuff and when I woke
up in
Tennessee
."

"Do
you think they'll go easier on you because you don't remember doing it?"

"I'll
remember the next one. You'd better sleep with one eye open tonight."

"Okay.
Back to the murders we know about. Couldn't the murderer have kept some of the
others in cold storage?"

"They
could have on a day like today. Just throw the bodies out the window. But the
answer is no, Cy.  When you read further you will see that each of the others
was seen on the day before the murder, had gone about his or her normal
routine, and had acted normal prior to the murder."

"So,
do you think the murderer is someone who had been given three red cards and was
out of dating possibilities?"

"You
mean someone was mad at the agency and wanted to put them out of business
because he or she thought the agency had provided them with bad dates?"

"Could
be."

"It
does make sense, so I guess we can rule that out."

Lou and I
continued to talk about what we knew, but both of us were concerned about what
we didn't know.

I hung up
from talking to Lou and called Sam.

"Sammy
boy, I'm trying to keep some of these other people alive. Do you know of anyone
who has used the agency and is still alive?  Maybe someone who sent back a
green card?"

"I
have two. Both in
Lexington
. A man, Phil Pendleton. A woman,
Patty Moran."

"Did
they go out with each other?"

"No,
they both went out with someone who sent back a green card. Someone who was
murdered."

"Really,
Sam. That's something that's worth looking into. As for you, keep checking.
This is getting too complicated for me."

+++

Sometimes
when I come upon a brick wall I keep hitting my head against it. Dentists and
plastic surgeons highly recommend it. But other times I do this when my brain
is still working, so I put aside what I'm doing and hope that time away will
help me look at everything with a fresh eye when I come back to it. This time I
hoped reading a good mystery would help me solve this new case. I found the
latest S.S. Van Dine Philo Vance mystery, then called Lou to see if he was okay
with reading it next.

Before I
could start reading, my stomach growled to let me know what time it was. I went
to the freezer, pulled out a TV dinner, dumped the ingredients in the garbage,
and started eating the plastic and cardboard. Well, I didn't actually do that,
but I had heard that eating the container is almost as nutritious as eating the
food inside it. After looking over my sparse possibilities, I shut the
refrigerator door and headed for the peanut butter. I spread a liberal amount
of peanut butter on a couple pieces of bread, then sliced a banana and added it
to my sandwich. Then I got out two Hershey Almond candy bars and laid them on
the bread, and put on a little more peanut butter so the chocolate would stick
to it. I looked at my creation and realized that I had included all the
essential food groups except bacon and cheese.

I ate my
sandwich then walked to my recliner, ready to digest my book. Van Dine was one
of the best at devising a whodunit. Too bad that he died so young and wrote
only a dozen of them, instead of the many dozens that Erle Stanley Gardner and
Agatha Christie wrote.

It didn't
take long for me to bury myself in the book. I read until I could tell that God
was calling me to a nap. An hour later, I woke up from my nap refreshed, but I
didn't get up feeling that I knew who had murdered all of those people.

I got up
from my bed and realized where I was, which was quite an accomplishment for me.
I walked over to the front window, looked out, and saw no crimes being
committed on my street. The sun, which had stayed away most of the winter, was
doing its best to melt the snow. The sun still had a lot of work to do. It
didn't matter that much to me. I was sure all the streets had been plowed, so I
would be able to go out at least by the next day.

The next
day was Wednesday and all went well until Dan and Heather showed up with some
mail for me.

"Cy,
I know this is what you've been waiting for all morning."

I'd
forgotten that my newest creation lived at their house. Al Monson, who for the
most part was Cy Dekker with a new name, had received the information about his
date. I thanked Dan and Heather for dropping it off, and told them I was hard
at work trying to solve John Ed Caudill's murder. Heather gave me a lingering
hug, then she and Dan left.

I tore
open the envelope and blew into it, sure that all the changes I had made would
get me a more suitable date than Bambi Fontaine. While the information I
received told me only that my date's name was Sarah Jane, and that we were to
meet Sunday night at
6:30
at The Cheesecake Factory, I
looked over the list and found out that she was Sarah Jane Fulkerson. I breathed
a sigh of relief when I saw that Sarah Jane hadn't dated any of the men who Sam
had told me were  missing. Was that what I wanted? Or did I want contact with a
woman who seemed more likely to have murdered someone? I continued to peruse
the information until someone knocked at my door. I couldn't figure out whom it
could be. Two visitors in one day? I hurried to the door and encountered
another friend from my days with the department, Patrick Hannigan.

"Cy,
this came to my house this morning. It's for you. Remember you asked me if you
could have something delivered to my house that you didn't want delivered here?
I hope I didn't make a mistake by bringing it to you."

"No.
No. It's just that I had forgotten about it. Thanks for dropping it by."

"Glad
to. Well I have to get back to work."

I waited
until I was sure he was gone before I opened the mail he had brought me, all
the time wondering why I received two letters from the dating agency on the
same day. As soon as I pulled out the paper and opened it I realized what it
was. It was another date, this one with a woman named Lucy for Monday night.
She was the replacement for Bambi, because I had sent back a yellow card. I
went to my e-mail from Sam to see what I could find about a Lucy. There was nothing,
so I hurried to the phone to call Sam.

"Hey
Sam you are, I have a question. I received something about a date from that
agency, but the first name didn't match anyone on that list you sent me."

"Cy,
that list didn't include everyone. Just the ones I had found so far. I received
some more names this morning. What's her first name?"

"No,
What's the name of the guy on second base."

"Thank
you, Abbott. Now let's try this again. What's
her
first name?"

"Lucy."

"Oh,
yeah. Here it is. Lucy Throckmorton. Wrestles alligators. Sometimes she leaves
her tooth mark in her kill. She suffers from crooked teeth and halitosis."

"Not
that funny, Sam. Do you want to go out with her?"

"Sorry.
I don't have time. I'm trying to juggle my full-time job, while at the same
time help out my unappreciative retired friend by doing his work for him,
without receiving any compensation for my time."

"Nor
am I receiving any compensation for my time. So, you're saying you don't have a
Lucy on your list?"

"Not
yet, but it probably means you're her first date. You're on your own this
time."

"The
date's not until Monday night. Let me know if you come up with anything before
then." 

I hung up
and realized what a predicament I was in. Dates on Sunday and Monday. And a few
people knew about them, or at least knew that I had received something from the
dating service. That means something might get back to you know who, so I
called you know who to see if she was free on Saturday night. She asked me if
she should wear a white rose. I told her to wear whatever she wanted to wear.

+++

Some of
the snow had melted. Most of what was left was covering everyone's yards and
not the streets, so I promised myself I wouldn't drive on anyone's yard. I
managed to get out to replenish my diminished food supply, and had eaten lunch
out, so that my new supply didn't run out before spring. Or at least until we
had another snowstorm that deposited a foot of snow between me and wherever I
needed to be.

Things
went reasonably well until Thursday afternoon late. That was when I received
another called from Sam.

"Cy,
I have more bad news."

"You're
going to start charging me double for any information you feed me?"

"Let's
see, double nothing is nothing. No, this is a lot worse. Today's Thursday. You
know what that means?"

"In
the olden days, like last month, it meant it was my poker night. Or it would
have been if I had taken up playing poker. But since you said you had bad news,
my guess is someone else has been murdered."

"Try
two somebodies. And this time it was two people in the same house."

"Were
two people murdered after returning home from a date?"

"No.
And they wouldn't have returned to any home together unless it was at least
their second date. And someone seems inclined to see that there are no second
dates."    

"So,
was one of them someone who had used the dating service?"

"That's
right. And both people had been injected with poison and found just inside the
front door. The police in
Lexington
think that whoever did it assumed the person who answered the front door was
alone, and the second person came into the house or the room as the first
victim was being murdered. That meant that the murderer had to kill a second
person, so there would be no witnesses."

"What
was the connection between the two victims?"

"Mother
and daughter. The mother didn't live there. From what I gathered from checking
this out the mother came by to take her daughter to lunch."

"So
they were murdered in broad daylight. I assume there were no other witnesses.
None of the neighbors saw anyone."

"The
immediate neighbors were at work. The victims were discovered a little after
2:00
by the daughter of one victim and sister of the other,
who was to meet the two of them for lunch. She drove over when neither of the
victims showed up at the restaurant or answered their phones."

"I
assume the victim had recently had a date and sent back a green card."

"I'm
still working on that, plus whom she dated, and what card he sent back. I'll
let you know when I find out more about this."

I thanked
Sam and hung up. I was tired of some maniac running around killing innocent
people. And I was pretty sure that if we had a lineup with the maniac standing
beside some of the people who had used the service and were still alive, that
the maniac wouldn't look any different than any of the others. Was the maniac
the woman I had dated, or one of the two I would soon be dating? And what
reason did someone have for killing people who had never done anything to harm
him or her?

+++

I called
Lou and let him know what I had learned from Sam. He agreed to study what
information we had and to come over on Friday to see if two heads together are
better than one. Evidently they aren't. By the time darkness set in on Friday
night we hadn't arrested anyone.