Gone With the Win: A Bed-And-Breakfast Mystery (11 page)

“Well . . .” Judith considered the idea. “Yes. Some vital statistics are free. Why not start with the Frosches? If you come across a site that requires a fee, I’ll give you my credit card number to pay for it.”

Ruby’s blue eyes widened. “You’d trust me to do that?”

“Yes, of course.”

Ruby smiled wanly. “I’m not used to people who trust other people. Or maybe I was a gullible kid and learned the hard way.”

“The Thurlow District wasn’t an ideal locale for trustworthiness,” Judith said ruefully, thinking back to her own experiences. “We never really got into Woody’s case notes last night. I’ll take a set with me and make some other notes about your own recollections.” She picked up the tablet that Joe had used for the grocery list, but the phone rang before she could start writing.

“Tyler D, as in Detective here,” the teenager said in a hushed voice. “The telescope can take in the rental and the yard. But the bare branches of the cherry trees out back block some of the view.”

“Oh!” Judith said. “I forgot about those.” The last time she’d thought about the cherry trees, a dead body had been deposited under one of them. “Have you seen anything interesting?” she inquired.

“Not yet, but I’m on the case. Or will be until I have to play in the band at the high school football game tonight.”

“Okay, keep me posted,” Judith said. “I’m going out for a while, but Ruby’s standing by.”

“Got it,” Tyler responded. “Over and out.”

Judith relayed the information to Ruby, who seemed amused. “He’s serious,” she remarked.

“Yes,” Judith agreed, starting to write down the names of the Frosches. “His brothers took sleuthing very seriously, too.”

“Are you going to the Thurlow District by yourself?” Ruby asked.

“Well . . .” Judith glanced at the schoolhouse clock. It was a quarter after one. “Maybe Renie will go with me. She should be home soon. I’ll give her a call. Joe never mentioned trying to get hold of The Persian Cat’s owner.” She paused, tapping a finger against her cheek. “That’s my first stop.” She dialed her cousin’s number.

A breathless Renie answered on the fourth ring. “I just got home. Now what?”

“Want to go for a ride with me?”

“Hoo boy, that’s a loaded question. Where?”

Judith grimaced before replying. “My old neighborhood.”

“Ha! Either you’re kidding or you’re nuts. No thanks. Think I’ll go chew on some aluminum foil instead.”

“Hey, the Thurlow District has gone upscale. Well . . . semi-upscale.”

“That wouldn’t be hard to do. You mean they no longer have the nightly rolling of the drunks down the main street and they did away with weekend rodent patrol?”

“Coz, really—it’s not like it used to be,” Judith asserted. “Yes, I haven’t been out there since I moved back home, but you know that most of this city has been going through gentrification in the past couple of decades, including the Thurlow District. Please?”

“You need a guard, right? Should I arm myself? Bill’s Desert Eagle would probably come in handy.”

“Oh, for heaven’s . . . are you coming or not?”

“Yeah, I’ll come if only because I don’t want you going alone. I gather Ruby isn’t accompanying you?”

“No. She’s doing some research.”

“I hope it doesn’t include the really dangerous parts of the Thurlow District. You’ll have to pick me up. Bill needs the car. He’s taking Oscar to check out the new firing range across the lake. Maybe Oscar will shoot off a few rounds with the Desert Eagle.”

“Stop. I’ll collect you in ten minutes. I have to change first.”

“Into what? A prison uniform so you’ll fit right into the old hood?”

Judith hung up.

I
’m not armed,” Renie announced when she got into Judith’s Subaru. “Unless you count my nail scissors.”

“I do,” Judith said, pulling out onto the steep hill in front of the Jones residence. “I remember when you and Bill went to see some arty French movie and the jerk next to you grabbed your leg. Bill was so caught up in the film that you didn’t want to bother him, so you stabbed the guy with those scissors.”

“Bill understood that movie and I didn’t,” Renie said. “I knew he’d be upset if I distracted him, so I decided to handle the situation myself. Turned out that though Bill understood the concept, he thought the movie sucked scissors. Not
my
scissors, but in a metaphorical—”

“Skip it,” Judith said, heading for the major thoroughfare that would take them south to the Thurlow District. “I know the story. I mean the one about the jerk.”

“Right. The movie didn’t seem to have a story. It was all nuance and symbolism about the human condition. Or maybe it was about prune farming. Hey, what’s our plan and why isn’t Ruby part of it?”

“She got spooked by her earlier foray,” Judith replied. “I don’t blame her. She really had a bad time and still doesn’t remember anything more about what happened.”

“Do you suppose she was hypnotized?”

Judith paused at the arterial. “Drugged sounds more like it. She does recall being at The Persian Cat. I’d like to talk to her brother, Ozzie, but I haven’t asked her about contacting him. He wasn’t around when Mrs. Tooms was killed, but being a bit older, he might fill in some gaps. Ozzie’s stationed in San Diego.”

“He’s married to her old pal Freddy Mae, right?”

Judith nodded as she finally managed to join the parade of southbound traffic. “Freddy Mae might help, too. I tend to think that whoever killed Opal Tooms was known to her and was probably from the neighborhood. The family doesn’t sound like they left their home turf very often. Ruby seldom got as far as downtown.”

“Typical of people who live on the fringes,” Renie remarked.

“I rarely left the neighborhood,” Judith said as they approached the viaduct along the bay. “Dan let me visit Mother twice a month, but I never saw you or the rest of my family. I had to wait until Dan was asleep—or passed out—to phone you. I felt like a prisoner, working days at the library and nights at the café.”

“I never understood how you put up with that lifestyle,” Renie said. “After the first few years, Dan wouldn’t let any of us visit you.”

“It was just as well,” Judith admitted. “I didn’t want you to see the squalor we lived in.” She shook her head as they passed the football and baseball stadiums. “Dan had such a violent temper. I never knew what he might do if I rebelled.”

“I didn’t blame Aunt Gertrude for despising Dan,” Renie said, “but I never understood why she was opposed to you finally marrying Joe. That didn’t make sense, given that Joe is Mike’s father.”

“You expect Mother to be reasonable? She blamed Joe for deserting me in the first place.” Judith stopped at a traffic light to take the turnoff to the Thurlow District. “Let’s hope the bridge isn’t up over the waterway. Since they built the new one, it takes forever for it to go up and down.”

“All our bridges take forever,” Renie said. “Living on the other side of the hill, I always get stuck waiting for boat traffic in the ship canal.”

To Judith’s relief the bridge was in place. “It’s such a short drive to our old so-called home, but a world away from Heraldsgate Hill.”

“It is,” Renie said quietly. “And it wasn’t a home. It was a prison.”

But on the outskirts of the much-maligned neighborhood, the cousins saw changes. New businesses had sprung up and strip malls had been replaced with shopping centers. Supermarkets, restaurants, and home furnishing stores stood in place of the seedy hangouts and shuck-and-jive used-car lots that had lined the main thoroughfare.

“Okay,” Renie said, “it does look different around here. But we’re still a couple of miles from your old neighborhood.”

Judith didn’t respond. She was too busy keeping her eye on traffic while also taking in the young families strolling on the sidewalks. They were well dressed and looked as if they might even know where they were going. She felt as if she was entering foreign territory.

But Judith got her bearings when she saw a sign pointing to the Thurlow Public Library. Although she could only see part of the grounds off the main street, it was obvious that the library had undergone a face-lift. Instead of the half-dozen broken stone steps that led up to the entrance, colorful oversize books served as the staircase.

“Good grief,” she exclaimed, “even my old workplace has changed. I wonder who runs the library these days.”

“Are you disoriented?” Renie asked in an amused tone.

“Yes! What happened to the shabby Laundromat and the drug-dealing mom-and-pop grocery store and the bail bondsman where Home Depot is now on our left?”

“Don’t ask me,” Renie said. “Where was The Meat & Mingle?”

“In the middle of the next block on your left,” Judith replied.

Renie was silent until they approached the site. “You mean your old dump morphed into Oriana’s Spa de Beauté?”

“Good Lord!” Judith cried. “So it did!”

“Unless you want a mani and a pedi, we might as well skip that one,” Renie said.

“Right. Now, where do I find a parking place?”

“Can’t you do what you always did and just pull up onto the sidewalk?”

Judith shot Renie a dirty look. “I never did that. I might’ve run over some of our customers who were lying there.”

“There’s a parking sign in the next block on the right,” Renie said.

After waiting for a half-dozen pedestrians to cross at the corner, Judith pulled into the lot and found an empty space. “Where do I pay?”

“I don’t think you do,” Renie replied. “I glimpsed a sign that said something to the effect that this is free parking for local merchants.”

“What a concept,” Judith murmured. “We don’t have that on Heraldsgate Hill except at the grocery stores and the bank.”

“That’s because everybody except us is rich,” Renie said. “Gosh, none of these vehicles look as if they’ve been in a bumper-car marathon. On the other hand, I don’t feel so inferior because we won’t have to park between a Rolls and a Lamborghini like I do at Falstaff’s. If you want to drop in at The Persian Cat, I spotted it a couple of doors down.”

Judith turned off the ignition and set the hand brake. “I wonder if that would do us much good. The owner wasn’t very helpful on the phone. We might have better luck with one of his servers, though.”

The early morning clouds had lifted, though there was a slight chill in the autumn air as the cousins walked to the café. At almost two-thirty in the afternoon, only about a dozen patrons were seated at tables covered by colorful cloths depicting mullahs, horses, angels, and warriors. Persian carpets hung from the walls, and the floor was made up of colorful tiles.

A pretty redhead welcomed the cousins and led them to a corner table. Judith glanced into the kitchen, but didn’t see anyone who looked like the turbaned owner Ruby had described. Before the waitress could present menus, Renie asked if they had any small lamb shish kebabs.

“We do, as appetizers,” the waitress replied. “They’re very good. My name is Crissy. Can I get you each a serving and a beverage?”

“Yes,” Renie replied. “Tea sounds good with that.”

Judith agreed. Crissy headed for the kitchen. As soon as she was out of earshot, Renie posed a question. “While they’re grilling the lamb, when you do you start grilling Crissy?”

“As soon she brings our order. Did you expect me to leap up and nail her to the service counter?”

Renie shrugged. “Why not? It’d save time.”

“You already saved time by ordering without a menu,” Judith said. “I assume your late breakfast didn’t fill you up.”

“It sure didn’t. I had to run those errands and I only had a bowl of Cheerios. In a way, this
is
breakfast, if a bit later than usual.”

Two older women had just vacated a table, but suddenly stopped to stare at the cousins. “Judith?” the stouter of the pair said.

“Yes. Oh! Jane Bradford, one of my library patrons! How nice to see you.” Judith held out her hand before introducing Renie.

Jane, in turn, introduced her companion, who turned out to be her sister-in-law, Ida, visiting from Oregon. “It’s so lovely to see you again, Judith,” Jane said. “You were always so helpful. What brings you back to this part of the world?”

“Well . . .” Catching a warning glance from Renie, Judith paused. “A trip down memory lane. A friend who’d been in the neighborhood this week told me how much it had changed. I decided to see for myself.”

Jane laughed and poked her sister-in-law in the shoulder. “That’s what Ida told me. She hasn’t been up here in over ten years.”

“Fifteen,” Ida said, her lean face grim. “The last time Harold and I visited Jane and Jonathan, the power went out, their plumbing backed up, and the woman who lived behind them was killed. I told Jane if she and Harold wanted to see us, they could come to Tigard, where life is much quieter and there aren’t so many disruptions.”

Jane patted Ida’s arm. “I’ll admit it was unfortunate, though you’ve noticed vast improvements since then.”

Judith didn’t recall where Jane lived. “Was that when Opal—oof!—Tooms was killed?” she asked, despite Renie’s kick in the shins.

Jane looked puzzled. “Opalooftooms? Is that a person or—”

“Sorry,” Judith said. “Leg cramp. The victim was Opal Tooms.”

“Oh! Of course! Yes, Mrs. Tooms lived in back of us. We didn’t know her well. She worked—divorced mother with two teenagers. Very sad. I didn’t realize you were still living here when that happened.”

“I wasn’t,” Judith said, “but I married a police detective after Dan died and my second husband’s partner worked the Tooms case. The killer was never found.”

“That’s so,” Jane said, frowning. “We always felt it was some person on drugs who broke in. A random thing. I do recall a very nice young policeman coming to our house a few days after Mrs. Tooms was killed, but there was nothing we could tell him.”

Ida tugged at Jane’s sleeve. “Are you going to stand here and talk about homicides and drug-crazed perverts or are we going to that fabric shop you brag about? You’ve been telling me forever that it’s better than the one we have at Jantzen Beach in Portland.”

Jane’s laugh was forced. “Oh, Ida, you can’t blame me for wanting to catch up with my favorite librarian. Judith could find any book I ever wanted, no matter how obscure. She was like a library detective.”