Marja McGraw - Bogey Man 01 - Bogey Nights (19 page)

I sat quietly for a moment, feeling like an unwanted intruder in these people’s lives
. That didn’t last long though. These letters were over sixty years old and whatever the problems were back then, more than likely they would have been resolved one way or another at that time.

I picked up the other letter
addressed to Dudley. It was from his mother, who lived in Northern California, and I read it, sharing a mother’s heart with her. She told him that Natalie had told her about his plans to join the Navy. She wished he had told her himself. She said that his decision saddened her, but that she understood his need to defend his country. She added that since she’d lost her younger brother to the war, she wondered if Dudley’s decision had anything to do with that. She asked him to come visit her before he had to go to boot camp. And, lastly, she told him how proud she was to have such a patriotic son.

One comment that she made toward the
end of the letter caught my attention. She said she was sorry to hear he was having problems with someone at the boarding house and she suggested he move home instead of just visiting. Actually, it was more than a suggestion and she sounded pretty insistent about it.

I folded the letter and put it back in the envelope
because I felt like crying. The woman’s letter was so loving and so caring, and I couldn’t help but picture myself and Mikey under those same circumstances.

That only left the two letters addressed to Charles Blakely
. One was from a sister named Charlotte, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was Midge’s mother. It was full of family news, including the fact that she’s just found out she was pregnant. With Midge? I didn’t think so because Midge appeared to be a bit younger. Other than that, there was nothing interesting in the letter.

I picked up the last incoming letter
. It was from a friend, Sarah Smith, who was responding to Blakely’s last
disturbing
letter
– her words, not mine. She wanted to know if he’d found out who’d been going through his things and if he’d received any more threatening notes.

Pay dirt!

Chapter
Twenty-one

I
read Sarah’s letter three times before I set it aside. I couldn’t glean anything else from what she’d said, but it was interesting to know what Charles had been going through. Why on earth did Sarah have to have a name like Smith? I’d never be able to find her, but I made a note of the return address on the envelope, just in case.

So Dudley’s mother had made a comment about him having problems with someone at the boarding house, and Charles’ friend had mentioned threatening notes and someone going through his things
. Now I felt like we were cookin’ with gas. This fit in with the letter that Charles had started that Janet found in his wallet. Were the two men having trouble with each other or was there a third party involved? I couldn’t wait for Chris to come home so I could share this information with him and get his input.

The phone rang
so I left the outgoing mail to be dealt with in a few minutes. I answered and found that it was John returning Chris’s call.

“John, how are you?” I asked.

“Good. I’m returning your husband’s call. Is he there?”

“Not at the moment, but I know what he was calling about
. Did you happen to tell anyone about giving us the pages from your aunt’s ledger, or do you know if she told anyone?”

“I didn’t mention it to anyone, but why would I?
As far as my aunt, I have no idea. Is it important?”

“It could be
. Do you know if your aunt is still in touch with any of the people from the boarding house?”

“
Pamela, what is this all about?”

I wasn’t sure whether to tell him or not
. I decided not to, at least until I talked to Chris. “We’re going to try to reach some of these people and we’d actually prefer to take them by surprise. We’d like to see what their first reaction to Blakely’s death is instead of giving them time to think about it.”

“I see
. Well, if my aunt is still in touch with anyone, she’s never mentioned it. You’ll have to ask her.”

I had a mental picture of John in my mind while we talked and something suddenly struck me
. His age. He didn’t look old enough to have been around when all of this was going on.

“John, you said you’d met a few of the boarders
. Was that during the time period that we’re interested in?”

“Oh, no
. I remember people from the late forties, and I don’t remember them well. I was a baby during the early forties.”

“Just thought I’d ask
. I didn’t think you were that old, but you could take after your aunt. Look how young she looks. Never in a million years would I have guessed she’s ninety.”

John chuckled
. “She does take care of herself. If her mental faculties were better, she’d be quite a gal. You’re lucky that you caught her on a good day.”

“I hope we’re that lucky the next time we see her
. Thank you for calling back, John. I’ll visit your aunt and ask if she’s spoken to anyone from the boarding house.”

He gave me her phone number
. “Call before you go over there. Besides, if you call first you’ll have an idea of her state of mind. Let me know if you need anything else.”

We hung up and I sat down to look at the rest of the letters
. The dogs began barking. Interestingly, they have different sounding barks for different things. This one told me that Chris and Mikey were home. The letters would have to wait because I didn’t want to discuss what I’d found in front of Mikey.

Our printer had the capability to copy, so I took the unread letters in
to the spare bedroom and copied them, just in case Janet showed up before tomorrow. I didn’t want to lose the information in the letters.

I could hear Chris and Mikey talking and my son sounded excited
. He loved being included in events with the
big boys
, but he’d never admit it.

Walking out to the living room, I gave each of them a hug
. “So how did my desk fit into the office? The room looked so small when it was empty. Was there room for the highboy?”

“
They fit perfectly, and you still have room to do whatever you want to,” Chris replied. “We’re going to own an exceptionally nice restaurant. Big D is going all out on this job, although I’m sure he would even if we weren’t friends.”

“I can’t wait to see the finished job.”

“It’s way cool, Mom. And I got to look at the yard without the dogs distracting me,” Mikey said.

I smiled at my
seven-year-old son. “Yes, those darned dogs can be so
distracting
.”

By that time it was late afternoon, so I threw together the spaghetti as planned
. It was a simple dinner when I added a salad and garlic bread to it. Chris fed the dogs while I cooked and Mikey did yard duty, which consisted of picking up what we called
doggie bonbons
, not his favorite job.

After dinner we spent a quiet evening
. Chris and Mikey watched a television show while I filled the bookcase with my favorite mysteries and other books. I added a couple of knick knacks and stood back to look at my work. The bookcase added a sense of comfort to the living room, making it feel homey. Of course, it could have been my love of books that made it feel like that.

Mikey finally went to bed and I sat down with Chris, letters in hand.

“You opened those?” he asked. “I thought you were saving them for Janet.”

“I didn’t want to discuss these until Mikey went to bed
. Janet called while you were gone and said to go ahead and read them. Since we’re helping her, she felt it would be okay. She’ll probably pick them up tomorrow.”

“
Oh. Did you find anything interesting?”

“You bet.”
I handed him the pad of paper with my notes. “First, if we have trouble finding Shipley or Long, we might at least be able to find someone mentioned in the letters. Secondly, both Dudley Long’s mother and a friend of Charles Blakely mentioned problems at the boarding house. Long’s mother didn’t mention anything specific, but Blakely’s friend commented on someone going through his things, and she mentioned that he’d been receiving threatening notes.”

“You learned quite a bit from those letters,” Chris said
. “What about the outgoing letters? Was there anything pertinent in those?”

“You and Mikey came home so I
haven’t had a chance to read them yet.” I handed Chris one of the letters. “Let’s read them now.”

“You know, if we hadn’t found the letters on the same morning as the break
-in, I’d be wondering if those were what the intruder wanted.” Chris tapped his finger on the envelope he was holding.

“No one except Janet knows about those yet, so that
couldn’t be the case.”

“You’re forgetting someone,” Chris said, grinning.

“Sharon,” we said in unison.

“I don’t think she’d be dumb enough to break into our house though,” I said.

“I don’t either. It was just a joke.”

I opened the envelope I was holding after looking at the addresses
. This one was from Dudley Long to Natalie Clairmont. Apparently both parties were sorry about having had words. Dudley wrote to her apologizing for losing his temper and walking out on her. He said he knew she hadn’t meant the things she said, and he commented that he shouldn’t be so thin-skinned. Neither letter ever mentioned what had actually happened, and I couldn’t help myself – I was curious.

Dudley went on to tell Natalie that he’d signed up and would be leaving soon for the
Navy. He told her that he loved her and asked her if she would marry him before he shipped out to parts unknown.

As an afterthought, Dudley asked Natalie not to mention the problems at the boarding house to his mother because she’d worry needlessly
. Too late for that one.

I put my hand to my chest and reread the letter
. It was so touching, and I hoped that since neither one had received the other’s letter, that at some point they’d met in person and straightened things out. I could hear young love in the tone of their letters, even though they’d had an upset of some sort. Two brief letters and I was beginning to feel like I already knew these people.

I looked up to find Chris watching me with amusement on his face.

“What?” I asked.

“
You have a very expressive face. I was watching you read that letter. You smiled, you frowned and you looked sad. Must have been some letter.”

“These kids were in love and had a misunderstanding
. Neither one ever got the letter intended for them. I sure hope they straightened things out.”

“You’re such a romantic,
Cupcake. It’s one of the things I like about you.”

“
Like? Hmm. What about your letter?” I asked.

“I was so busy watching you that I never opened it.”

“Well, for crying out loud, open it. We need to know if there’s anything important in it,” I said. I encouraged him by handing him the letter opener.

He looked at the names and addresses on the envelope before opening it
. “This one is to Karen Shipley from Sam Shipley. Must be a relative.”

“She’s his sister.”

I waited while he read the letter, watching his face as he’d done with me. I had a feeling he knew I was watching because other than squinting, he made a point of wearing a poker face.

“I think I need to see an eye doc and get me some cheaters,” he said, finishing the letter
. “I hate to admit it, but it’s getting harder and harder to read without squinting.”

“I noticed
. You probably just need reading glasses. So what did the letter say?”

“Mostly it was about him finding a new job and hoping to get on with his life
. He told her he was glad he’d moved to California because there seemed to be more jobs in his field. I think he might have been a budding actor from some of his comments. Probably not a lot of call for Hollywood actors in Michigan.”

“Ya think?”

“He asked her how things were going with someone named Frankie Dutton and – ”

“Karen and Frankie got engaged,” I said, interrupting him.

“Swell. Now let me finish. He went on to tell her that he didn’t know what to do because his landlady acted like she was afraid of him. He didn’t know whether to move out or try to figure out what he was doing wrong.”

“Chance said that someone gave her the heebie jeebies
. Now we probably know who it was. One more question answered.”

“Yes, but there are still too many more unanswered ones.”

“I’m going to go talk to Chance again. I want to ask her if she’s still in touch with any of the boarders.”

“Do you mind if I don’t go with you?” Chris asked.

“Not at all. But, Honey, I really think we’ve been too hard on her. She’s simply an old woman who still knows how to flirt. I’d be willing to bet that flirting was how she got her way in the old days.” I smiled. “It sure seems like she manipulates people, and her attitude may be the only way she knows to get what she wants.”

“How can you tell?
We’ve met her, but we don’t know her.”

“I got th
at feeling after watching her with John. I think she manipulates him. You probably frustrated her by not reacting to her flirting.”

I glanced at the letter Sam Shipley had written
. “It is interesting that Shipley knew he frightened Chance. I wonder if it was his appearance or something about his demeanor.”

“It could be a little of each,” Chris said.

“I’ll ask Chance when I see her. I’ll call her in the morning.”

There was another letter from Shipley to a friend, but it didn’
t contain anything interesting, except that he thought he might have to move. No explanation given.

The last letter was from Charles Blakely to his sister
. Chris sat next to me and read along with me. Charles wanted to know if his sister was feeling any better since he’d last heard from her and he wondered if she’d had the flu. I had the answer to that one. She was pregnant. It was interesting how an outsider could put the facts together even though none of the letters had been read by the intended recipient.

Toward the end of the letter Charles talked about the boarding house and some problems that had arisen
. He wrote about a female boarder and how she’d made things difficult between the male boarders, even though she hadn’t meant to. As I read I gathered there were some jealousies involved. He mentioned a meeting with the landlady. She’d told him that she wouldn’t have this type of trouble in her boarding house and that if it didn’t stop, they could all move out.