Murder in the Library (9 page)

We excused ourselves a
little after two, ready to get back to work.

“Say, Lou, since I had
my mind on the funeral this morning, I forgot to ask you today’s clue.”

“And the first shall be
second.”

“What’s that supposed to
mean?”

“Cy, some of us have
been given the gift of speaking in riddles. Others have been given the gift of
solving those riddles.”

“Well, have you by any
chance brought one of the solvers with you?”

“Apparently not.”

“Okay, let’s look at it.
First of all, I thought it was ‘the last shall be first.’”

“Maybe the second is the
last. There might be only two of them, whatever they are.”

“Maybe they’re twins,
and the second born is to rule the first born.”

“Okay, by me, Cy. You’re
older than I am, so I am now in charge.”

`“I don’t think that’s
what God meant. To me it sounds like there was a race, and there’s been an
inquiry. The horse that won has been disqualified and placed second.
Regardless, just because the first is to become the second doesn’t mean the
second is to become the first. Maybe it’s like there’s a new girl in the class
and everyone’s been moved back one spot.”

“Cy, did you forget to
take your medication again?”

We got back to my house
and shuffled our carcasses inside. It was time to go to work. I plopped down at
my customary spot at the table and Lou took his.

“And the second shall be
first. Do you think it means we need to put the second word before the first
word, or do we discard the first letters in the second word?”

We remembered that the
second word had a mishmash of letters and decided to try that first. After
looking at A, I, H, O, H, I, E, and O, we realized that we’d traded too many
consonants for too many vowels. Wasn’t there something in between? At least we
could make songs out of what we changed to.  Who doesn’t like singing “Hi, ho,
hi, ho. It’s off to work we go?” Even those who are not eager to go off to work
and those that aren’t sure if it is “heigh ho” or “hi ho” love singing that
song. And then for those who like to jazz their songs up a little, there’s
“Hi-De-Ho.” And then I thought of “Old MacDonald had a farm. A I H O H”, or was
it “O H I E O.” Maybe Old MacDonald’s farm was in Ohio, only they talk funny
and pronounce it Ohieo up there. I caught Lou’s look and realized I was off in
la-la land. I shook my head, hoping to get all my brain cells back in place,
then turned to my partner with another suggestion.

“Lou, let’s just take
the first two words. Let’s write down the books listed in each word and see
what we come up with.”

Lou was agreeable to
anything, so we set to work on our latest idea. The first word gave us Exodus,
Amos, Micah, and Colossians. I liked things better when we had to choose
between “mace” and “came.”

“See anything there,
Lou?”

“Yeah, I see three Old Testament
books and one New Testament book. One of them is a long book and the others are
relatively short.”

“Thank you, Captain
Obvious. Might you also add that two of them are named for prophets, one is
named for a group of people, and the other one is named for something a group
of people did and the book tells about how long it took them to do it and why?”

He got my point.

“Let’s try the second
word, Cy.”

Lou and I are a little
slow at times, but if you hit us over the head hard enough, we get the point.
That was true when we wrote down the names of the books in the second clue. 1
Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 1
Peter, and 1 John.

“What do you see this
time, Lou?”

“It looks like a bunch
of 'Firsts.' Like the second shall be first. Do you think maybe the Colonel wasn’t
giving us a mishmash of consonants, but letting us know that the second word is
‘first?’”

“You think? Now, let’s
see if we can make some sense out of these first two words. Give me some help
here. You’re the one who solves all these puzzles.”

“Mace first. Came first.
I’ve got it, Cy. Which came first word three or word four? What do you think?”

“I think you retired a
wee bit too late. So you don’t think words three and four are ‘chicken’ and
‘egg?’ Well, at least we’re making some progress. We know that the letters E,
A, M, and C are all in the first word in some order. We know that there are
four other letters that would’ve helped us more quickly if the Colonel hadn’t
pulled them out when he fell and pulled the Bible off the desk, and we know
that we can buy an O or two if we need one. Is there anything else we know,
Lou?”

Finally, we were making
progress on the puzzle. I didn’t want to leave it, but I did want to reward
myself for identifying one word. I jumped, hurried to the kitchen, and yanked a
Hershey bar from the fridge. I plucked a knife from a kitchen drawer just in
case surgery would be needed before I ate. Meticulously, I slipped the candy
from its outside wrapper and freed it from its white cocoon. I studied it. Did
the Hershey bars of my childhood contain more almonds, or did it just seem that
way because I was younger then. It didn’t matter. I had more bars where I found
that one, and I wasn’t about to melt the candy, add some almonds, and freeze it
again. I studied my favorite  of  all  the  food  groups,  and turned it so
that it would allow me to eat the most chocolate without overstepping my bounds
of one almond at a time. I bit into the chocolate, slid it into my mouth, and
waited for it to melt. Surely there will be Hershey Almond bars in heaven.

I closed my eyes and
began to think. Had I made a mistake oh those many years ago by not leaving
town and going to work for Hershey straight out of high school? Would I’ve been
able to eat more candy if I’d chosen a different vocation? I’ll never know,
unless I run into someone who’s worked for Hershey.

I continued to fantasize
until I heard the sound of snapping fingers in front of my eyes. I opened them
and realized that the sound of snapping fingers was caused by a sergeant
snapping his fingers.

“Excuse me, Prince
Chocolate. But would you like to help me with this puzzle, or do you want me to
claim all the credit?”

“Okay, Lou. One word
down and three to go. Let’s see where we are now. All the firsts were gone, and
there were no seconds and thirds to pull us through. The other words must be
harder. Okay, Lou, we know that none of those letters can be in the third or
fourth word, so let’s see what we have there.”

EAMC

FIRST

LRE

LLES

The good feeling that
overcame me was short lived. I felt we were about to solve the puzzle. I felt
wrong.

“Okay, Lou, any other
ideas?”

“No, Cy, other than it’s
obvious that words three and four are missing some letters. And they’re going
to be missing even more.”

“You mean someone’s
going to come in here and steal some letters?”

“Yeah, we are.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, look at the
letters. One ‘L’ may go in the third word, but both ‘Ls’ may go in the fourth.
The ‘R’ definitely goes in the third word. But the ‘E’ goes in one or the
other. The ‘S’ is definitely in the fourth word.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, never mind, Cy.
We’ll figure it out in time.”

I looked at my watch. I
couldn’t believe it was almost supper time. I was still getting used to
daylight-savings time. It wasn't that long ago when it was dark when Lou and I
went to supper each night.

Lou and I didn’t want to
get frustrated, so we agreed to save the rest of the puzzle for the next day.
Besides, the next morning it would be two days since I’d talked to Sam. I
imagine he’d found something we might find helpful.

Lou and I stood up,
stretched. We were tired from all of our running around two days in a row. I
slapped him on the back and we headed out the door to the Blue Moon.

+++

“Well, if it isn’t Frick
and Frack. How’s the world treating you?” Thelma asked, as we opened the door
and gazed upon her smiling face.

“The rest of the world
doesn’t treat us quite as well as you and Rosie.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,
and I’m even sorrier to give you the bad news.”

“Don’t tell me this
place is closing.”

“In a matter of
speaking, but only temporarily. A good friend of mine is very sick, and I’m
going to spend a few days with her, nurse her back to health. Rosie will still
be here in the daytime to see that you get a couple of good meals, but the
place will be closing at 4:00 each day.”

Lou and I glanced at
each other and were able to read each other’s mind.  If the place was going to
be closed for dinner for a few days, Lou and I had to make up for it by eating
a little more that night. We ordered like two offensive linemen, and ate
accordingly. We were almost finished before Lou realized that our feast meant
he would have to go home and Wii again. When we were finally able to get up
from our stools, I took Lou home, then zipped home and stumbled into my house
without my next-door neighbor being aware of my return.

I woke up tired. I
rolled over and it dawned on me that it was Friday morning. Not only was it
Friday morning, but it wasn’t a retired Cy Dekker Friday morning, but a
go-to-work Lt. Dekker Friday morning.  My friend was still dead, and we hadn’t
found the killer. It was time to tackle the puzzle, or whatever we had to do to
bring the Colonel’s murderer to justice.

+++

I did all my
preliminaries, then rushed to the phone, hoping to learn something that would
bring the case to its conclusion.

“Good morning, Sam. Now
that you’ve had a few days off, I assume I can expect more from you this
morning.”

“No and yes.”

“You mean ‘yes and no?’”

“No, I mean no, I haven’t
had a few days off, and yes, I do have more for you this morning.”

“Well, then let’s
dispense of this chitchat and fill me in.”

“Well, I let you know
what I found out about the so-called ‘in crowd’ the other day. Now, let’s talk
about those whom we know had something against your friend. First, Michael
Belding. He’s the one who said Col. Hardesty kept him from teaching at the
university. He is still in town and still bitter. One source told me that
Belding told him the other day that he, Belding, might throw a party because
the old man finally died.”

Sam’s words made me want
five minutes alone with Belding. Then I remembered the Chief’s words and the
scripture I’d read just a few minutes before. Sometimes it was tough being a
cop, and tougher being a Christian.

“Belding teaches at the
county high school. As far as I can tell, he’s never gotten in any trouble
there. Maybe he was biding his time until he got a shot at your friend, the
Colonel.

“But he’s not the only
one with a reason. Remember Daniel Terloff, the student who most people feel
threw the bucket of paint against the Hardesty house? He’s left the area, but
I’ve heard from two or three sources that he comes back to Hilldale on
occasion, and each time he visits he cruises by the Hardesty house, and he’s
not trying to decide if he wants to send them flowers.”

“But you haven’t been
able to find out where he spends most of his time?”

“One guy told me that
Terloff lives like a hippie in the woods. What woods, he didn’t know.”

“What else do you have?”

“Well, we can eliminate
one suspect, Carla Bauerman, the one who said Col. Hardesty kept her out of
grad school. She had trouble dealing with that, started drinking a few months
later, and one night she drove off the road and hit a tree. Not on purpose. But
that doesn’t matter. Her mother, Carol, had had cancer for a couple of years
and died from it a couple of months later. Her dad, Carl, the drama teacher at
the local high school where Carla lived, resigned at the end of the school year
and moved to New York City.”

“New York City? Did you
try to find him there?”

“I did. Bauerman became
an actor, and I located four actors who knew him. One became a good friend of
his. He said that Bauerman stayed there a couple of years, developed
wanderlust, and ended up in California a year or two later.”

“Were you able to locate
him in California?”

“Not yet. However, he
was there. Yancy Trueblood, the actor I was telling you about, has gone out to
see him a couple of times since he’s been there. One time was last year. Trueblood
said both times Bauerman lived in an apartment, but a different apartment and a
different city each time. Trueblood said he talked to one of Bauerman’s
neighbors the last time he visited Bauerman and found out that Bauerman had
just moved to that apartment a week before Trueblood arrived.”

“Anything else for me,
Sam?”

“Of course, Cy. I’ve
been busy. I found out what plumber and what pest control company serviced the
Hardesty’s house this year. Both check out in a way. A-1 Plumbing sent Robert
Collins a couple of months ago to repair a leak under the kitchen sink. Collins
made only one trip, the company received no complaints. Collins has been with
them for fourteen years and has had a good record with the company.

“I called Dunleavy Pest
Control. They had a man, Tom Johnson, out a couple of times to rid the house of
ants. Johnson worked for the company for a year, but quit a couple of weeks
ago, told them he was leaving town, but he might be back in a few months.
Johnson said something about receiving a call from his sick mother. I asked for
any information they had about Johnson. They gave me the name of a former
employer in Indiana. I called and checked. Tom Johnson worked there. I sent
them a picture of our Tom Johnson to make sure it was the same guy. It was. He
worked there for two-and-a-half years before coming here. They said he was a
good man, but that from time to time while he worked there he had to leave to
attend to his sick mother. He came back each time until he quit and came here. I
have no idea why he quit the job there to come here. The man I talked to both
places said he was a good worker, knew his stuff.”

“I hope that’s all. Sam.
I’m having trouble keeping track of all of this. Let me see if I’m right. We
have a plumber who seems to have no motive, and an exterminator who doesn’t
seem to have one, either, but has disappeared. Three people who were angry with
the Colonel, one of them dead, one of them still resides in Hilldale, and
another one of them has disappeared. Besides that we have the father of the
deceased girl who is supposedly now somewhere in California.  See what you can
find on the ones who aren’t not in Hilldale. Lou and I will tackle the ones
here.”

+++

I spent so much time on
the phone with Sam that I was a little late picking up Lou for breakfast, but
hardships such as these are sometimes part of the job.

+++

Lou opened the car door
and slid onto the seat next to me. Well, not right next to me. There was an
ample space between us. Not as ample as if Lou and I were malnourished, but
ample, just the same, and more ample than was true a couple of months ago.

“So, God’s messenger,
what words of wisdom did He share with you today?”

“I can tell you’re in
one of your moods, Cy. But first let me share that I neither gained nor lost
weight, so I need to eat a little less than yesterday. Now, to you, are you in
one of your moods?”

“No, just finally able
to hear some incriminating evidence against someone who doesn’t live in the
Colonel’s house.”

“Like what?”

I filled Lou in on what
Sam had shared with me. It still didn’t tell us who was or wasn’t guilty, but
it was something. When I finished, I realized that Lou still hadn’t told me
what today’s message was.

“The cereal that
floats.”

“The cereal that floats.
What cereal floats?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t
we go to the grocery and buy a box of each of them, and see which one floats.
With our luck, it will be like those letters that may be in the third word of
our puzzle, or may be in the fourth. Who knows? Maybe most cereals float.”

“I’ve got a better idea.
Why don’t we ask Rosie?”

A few minutes later, we
arrived at the Blue Moon and pumped Rosie. While more than one cereal floats,
both Lou and I knew which one was our clue when she mentioned Cheerios. Lou and
I had forgotten about those three Os in our puzzle. And what about that arrow
clue? And how hard would it be to come up with those four missing letters, none
of which we knew?

I was a little more
excited eating breakfast that day, if it is possible for me to be more excited
over one meal than another day’s meal of basically the same food.

We were headed to my
house afterward. Lou and I didn’t linger as long as usual. Maybe we were going
to learn the identity of our murderer.

+++

We plopped down at my
dining room table, opened the Bible to Obadiah. There we found three cards, two
with +2 written on them, the other with +3.

“Any ideas, Lou?”

“I’ll have to remember
to beat you to the punch next time. You always ask me when you don’t have a
clue.”

“So, you want to ask me
when neither of us have a clue. Well, Clueless, let’s see what we can come up
with. Obadiah starts with an O. Two of these cards have +2 on them. Now, it
doesn’t make any sense that the +2 means two books over, because the Colonel
could’ve just as easily put these cards in that book, so let’s look at “O” plus
two letters. That takes us to “Q.” One of the few things I can remember about
our travels through the Bible the other day is that no book starts with the
letter “Q,” so it makes sense for the Colonel to put the “Qs” in Obadiah. But
since there are no “U’s,” unless the “U’s” are among the  four  that fell out, 
and there is more than one “Q,” let’s say there are more “Q’s” to give us
“cuse,” like part of “accuse.” We might have “first accuse.”

“Why would it make sense
to first accuse anyone, Cy?”

“How would I know? Do
you know any other “cuse” words?”

“Yeah, excuse.”

“Is that your way of
telling me that you think we have not yet found the key to the buried
treasure?”

My partner’s silence
sent me back to Obadiah. And the +3 card. If I was right, there wouldn’t have
been a +3 card, because +3 takes us to “R,” and the book of Ruth starts with
“R.”

I studied Obadiah. I
don’t mean I read the book, but I flipped through it. Short book. Very short
book. But long enough to have three “O’s.” I closed my eyes to think. Why would
the letters in one book have +2 and +3 written on them, while none of the other
letters had anything written on them, except one that fell out. One of them was
the card with the arrow.

It was almost lunchtime
when it hit me.

“Lou, I think I’ve got
it.”

I could tell from my
partner’s reaction that he didn't believe me.

“No, really, Lou. Look
at this. Have you asked yourself why the Colonel put the ‘O’s’ in the book of
Obadiah? It’s the only “O” book in the Bible. But, it has only one chapter. So
what if the ‘O’s’ in the clue have to do with the second, third, or fourth
word? The Colonel had no choice but to put +2 and +3 on the card. Let’s try
this, and see what we come up with.”

I constructed our four
words again. This time with O’s included.

EAMC

FIRST

LREOO

LLESO

I  sat with my mouth
agape. I had never known such a brilliant discovery to lead nowhere. Lou was
amazed.

“I have to hand it to
you, Cy. You’ve really cleared it up. Do you want to me put out an APB on Lreoo
Lleso?”

I looked at my partner
and stuck out my tongue. His laughter caused me to laugh, too.

We needed a break from
the puzzle, but it was too early to venture to the Blue Moon. If I were to go
to the Blue Moon and see someone sitting on my stool, I’m not sure I could
handle it.

“Okay, Lou, forget the
puzzle. Let’s look at what else we have. We have our good friend, the Colonel,
dead. Sometime Monday afternoon, someone got into the library some way and shot
the Colonel with a poisoned dart. At least that’s the way it seems at this
point. Our murderer may be a long-haired hippie seen by the next-door neighbor
and a student delivering pizza. The only hippie on our list of suspects is
Daniel Terloff, one of the Colonel’s former students. We have family and
friends with no alibis for the time of the murder. We have workmen who were in
the house at some point and could’ve stolen a key. We have neighbors, one who
is fairly new to the neighborhood. And we have others with grudges against the
Colonel. So, Lou, what do you say?”

“Let’s take another look
at that puzzle. I want to try something to see if it works.”

I wasn’t ready to tackle
that puzzle again, but I abided by my friend’s wishes.

“Okay, Lou. What is it
you want to try?”

“Let’s include only the letters
we know that go in each word.”

“We did that before,
Lou.”

“Yes, but that was
before we placed the ‘O’s.’”

“You’ve got a point.
What can it hurt?”

EAMC

FIRST

ROO

SLO

“This time I think I’ve
it, Lou. It says, “Mace the first room slowly. Now who can you remember who
maced the first room? Quick, now. We might be able to make an arrest.”

This time my partner
stuck out his tongue.

“Now, Cy, let’s add a
letter or two to the third and fourth words. We know that those two words
contain an ‘L’ and a ‘E.’ If we add the ‘L’ to the third word as we now know
it, we could have “rool” or “loor. If we add the ‘E’ too, that doesn’t make it
any better.”