52 Steps to Murder (2 page)

I turned and looked at the young woman, hoping she had held up better. She hadn’t.  Her eyes were red. Her cheeks were tear-stained. And her ringing hands had already shredded a handful of tissues. All of this overshadowed her beauty.

I saw the need to lighten the moment and took advantage of the opportunity. “We would’ve been here sooner, but it took the Saint Bernard a while to find us. We got lost on the north face.”

The young woman gave me a look that seemed to say that these two clowns are no better than the first one. I turned to Lou, who was doing his best to suppress a grin, then turned to face the young woman.

“I’m Lt. Dekker and this is Sgt. Murdock. And who might the two of you be?”

The young woman looked at me, and then turned to the young officer, giving him the first chance to answer. My guess was that she was curious, as was I, to see if he remembered his name.

“I’m Officer Dan Davis. This is my first day alone.”

 Officer Davis looked like he wished he could have taken back the last sentence as soon as he uttered it.

“Well, you don’t look so alone to me,” I replied. “And who is your friend?”

From the looks on their faces, “friend” did not appear to be the word either of them would have used to describe the other. Obviously, it had been a trying morning for both of them.

“I’m Angela Nelson. That’s my grandmother upstairs,” she said as she pointed to a staircase that led upward from the other side of the living room, as if Sgt. Murdock and I might have trouble discerning the meaning of “upstairs.” The thought of her dead grandmother changed Angela Nelson’s mood from indignation to sadness, and she began to cry.

“Miss Nelson, why don’t you stay here and calm down while Officer Davis shows Sgt. Murdock and me where we can find the deceased.” The word “deceased” added sobs to her tears.

I realized my bad choice of words and tried to comfort the young woman.

“I’m sorry, Miss Nelson. Would you like for Sgt. Murdock to keep you company?”

She shook her head, and then replied. “No, I’ll be fine,” she said as she removed another tissue from her purse.

“Okay, well, come on, men. We’ll be back in a few minutes, Miss Nelson.”

Lou and I let Officer Davis lead the way, and the three of us climbed the stairs. As I sneaked a peek back at Miss Nelson, it appeared that Lou and I were doing a poor job of hiding our labored breathing.

The steps creaked as we mounted them, not as if they found our weight painful, nor to scare us from continuing, but more to let us know that we were not welcome.

+++

Lou and I looked briefly at the woman who lay on the four-poster bed, her face badly bruised, her body heavily bandaged. A cast covered one arm and one leg. The obvious injuries happened many days before her death, but I wondered if they had anything to do with it. Did someone try to murder her before and return to complete a botched job? I made a mental note to find out. The sergeant and I planned to examine the body extensively after Officer Davis and Angela Nelson left.

Once again, I tried to put the young officer at ease. I asked him about his trek up Mt. Hilltop. He lied. At least, I think he lied. Either that or he had already forgotten the difficult climb. Officer Davis turned and looked at the dead woman. He still seemed ill at ease in her presence.

“Officer Davis, have you ever known anyone who died?”

“Y-yes, Lieutenant.”

“Well, have you ever been to visitation at a funeral home or to a funeral.”

“Sure.”

“Well, just think of her as those dead people you’ve seen; only the casket is missing. Don’t let the bandages fool you. This is not Lazarus. This woman will not come back to life. If she does, Sgt. Murdock and I will protect you. Okay?”

Officer Davis managed a sheepish grin.

“Now that we’ve established this much, tell us what happened here today.”

“I don’t know, Lieutenant. I wasn’t here when it happened.”

I looked at the young officer and wondered how he had passed the tests necessary to become a policeman.

“Let, me rephrase that, Officer Davis. Tell me what happened to you, beginning with the time you received the call to come to Hilltop Place. You do remember receiving the call, don’t you, Officer Davis?”

“Of course, Lieutenant.”

With a little prompting, Officer Davis related his story. Dispatch had contacted him and directed him to proceed to this address. A young woman had phoned, concerned because her grandmother did not answer her front door. He arrived and found Miss Nelson on the front porch. She seemed frantic and wanted him to break in so she could see if her grandmother was okay. Because he was afraid to call headquarters in her presence, he went back to his cruiser and called in. Headquarters granted permission for him to break into the house. 

I tried to suppress a smile and wondered if he would admit to calling in three times.

Officer Davis continued his narrative. He forced the window to gain entry to the house. Once inside, he checked the front door while Miss Nelson checked the back of the house.  A couple of minutes later, the two of them headed upstairs where Miss Nelson found her grandmother. Officer Davis needed to report Mrs. Nelson’s death. He convinced Angela Nelson to go downstairs with him. As they descended the staircase, both of them heard someone running through the living room and out the front door. By the time Officer Davis got to the front porch, the intruder had vanished.

Officer Davis ran down the front steps and looked both ways. He did not see anyone, so he ran a little ways up and down the street, but still did not locate the intruder. He called the department and reported what had happened. After he called in, he waited by the cruiser for a few minutes and then returned to the house.

Officer Davis finished his version of what had happened. I suspected that he’d left out a few details, but I hoped that Miss Nelson would fill in the cracks. I led the way as the three of us left the bedroom and rejoined Miss Nelson.

2

As we returned to the first floor, I glanced at Angela Nelson. She seemed to be somewhat composed. At least she hadn’t added to her used tissue pile. I waited for everyone to get settled, looked down at the young woman seated before me, and began my questioning. Even though this young woman had just lost her grandmother, I somehow thought that she might be more help to me than Officer Davis had been.

“Miss Nelson, I know this has been a trying morning for you, but I need to ask you a few questions.”

“Go ahead, Lieutenant. I’ll do my best.”

I subconsciously reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a Hershey Almond candy bar, still slightly cold from resting in my refrigerator overnight. I wouldn’t have noticed what I’d done if I hadn’t seen Miss Nelson’s eyes follow my actions.

“Would you like a bite?” I asked, trying to be hospitable.

She shook her head. Her mannerisms told me that this had offended her as much as if I had licked the candy before offering her a bite.

After she declined my offer, I unwrapped the paper from my candy bar, took a bite, carefully rewrapped it, and slid it back into my pocket. I never go anywhere without my Hershey Almond candy bars. Well, nowhere except church. I never know when a case will prolong lunch, and anyone knows a good detective works better when his stomach’s full. But I never eat a whole candy bar at one time. Well, almost never.

Call me meticulous, if you like, but I follow a pattern when eating my candy. Each time I remove the candy bar from my coat pocket, take one bite, rewrap the candy bar, and return it to my pocket until it’s time for another bite. People laugh at me, but each time I carefully eat only one almond at a time. I determine the size of my bite by how close one almond is to the next. If two almonds are separated by only a minute amount of chocolate, I reach into my pants pocket, remove my pocketknife, and carefully cut my next bite, so as not to overstep my bounds and bite into the next almond. Sgt. Murdock and I like to have fun at each other’s expense. More than once he has told me he plans to buy a Payday, which he plans to eat one peanut at a time.

Evidently, my actions disturbed Angela Nelson, because I noticed her looking at Sgt. Murdock, fully expecting him to have a Hershey Almond candy bar, too. Lou does carry candy, but he opts for M&Ms instead of Hershey Almonds.

Not wanting to take all day questioning Miss Nelson, I resumed my interrogation.

“Miss Nelson, what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a buyer. I travel around the country buying merchandise for McAdams Department Store. You’re familiar with McAdams, aren’t you, Lieutenant?”

“A fine establishment. Do you enjoy your job, Miss Nelson?”

“I do, but sometimes I’m away from home more than I like. Still, buying in person gives me a better feel for the merchandise than buying online.”

“And that takes you away from your grandmother. Tell me, Miss Nelson, how many grandchildren did you grandmother have?”

“I was the only one.”

“Did your grandmother have any other living relatives?” I asked as I settled into a chair across from Angela Nelson.

Sgt. Murdock continued to stand, as did Officer Davis. The sergeant rested against one wall, while the rookie leaned against a breakfront. Angela Nelson looked at both of them, offered each of them a seat, which they both declined. Then, she faced me again and answered my question about her grandmother’s family.

“My father died of a heart attack, and my mother died of cancer. My grandmother was my only living relative, as I was hers. She had two sisters and a brother, but all of them have been dead for quite a few years.”

“Miss Nelson, as best you can, tell me how you came to be here today and what happened after you arrived.”

“Well, I returned early this morning from a three-week buying trip. I hadn’t seen my grandmother in all this time and I wanted to check on her, so I decided to take a taxi here and see her before I went home. As tired as I was from the last three weeks, I knew that if I went home first I would fall into bed and not leave the house again today.”

“You didn’t call your grandmother while you were gone?”

“I never get back to the hotel until late, and by then she’s already in bed.”

After answering my question, the young woman looked away from me as Sgt. Murdock reached into his pocket and removed a package of M&Ms. He ripped open the corner with his teeth and swallowed a few from the bag. The fact that both of us chose to eat candy while I questioned Miss Nelson seemed to bother her just a little. I still was not convinced that she didn’t want any candy.

I wanted to learn what else Angela Nelson knew about what had happened earlier that day, so I continued my questioning.

“So, you took a taxi here after your plane landed. Don’t you own a car?”

“I do, but I prefer not to leave it in long-term parking at the airport, so I always leave it at home and take a taxi any time I travel.”

Angela Nelson had stopped wringing her hands and had placed them in her lap, but her sad look remained.

“What time did you arrive, Miss Nelson?”

“I’m not sure exactly. The cab company might have a record. Anyway, I got out and instructed the driver to take my luggage to my home. I didn’t want to lug it all over the place.”

“You trusted the taxi driver with your luggage?”

I could not believe someone would do that in these times. Maybe it was just the policeman in me coming out.

“Oh, sure. I’ve done it several times before, and my luggage always gets home okay. They take much better care of it than the airlines do. Of course, if I had known that you were going to be here, I would have kept it with me and let you carry it up when you arrived,” she said as her face broke into a smile for the first time.

Try as he might, Officer Davis was unable to suppress a grin, although he turned away from me to hide it.

I wasn’t about to let anyone get the best of me, so I replied, “Oh, I’m sure any good, well-meaning taxi driver would’ve carried your luggage up the steps, and Sgt. Murdock and I would have been willing to sit on your suitcases and slide down the hill when you left.”     

Angela Nelson laughed and replied, “And I would’ve let you do that as long as I could’ve watched, especially if you’d aimed for a tree.”

I’d already noticed how beautiful Angela Nelson was, but I noticed that her smile improved her looks even more.

“We have digressed, Miss Nelson. Please tell me what you did when you arrived here this morning.”

Angela Nelson’s smile disappeared.     

“I rang the bell. My grandmother didn’t answer, so I rang it again. When she didn’t answer the second time, I went to check with Miss Penrod to see if she had any news of my grandmother.”

“Miss Penrod?”

“Yes, Irene Penrod. She lives next door at 121. She checks on my grandmother occasionally and more often if I’m out of town.”

“Don’t you have a key to your grandmother’s house?” I asked as I removed the Hershey bar from my coat pocket and plunked another almond and the surrounding chocolate into my mouth.

Angela Nelson cast a glance at Sgt. Murdock to see if he pulled out his package of M&Ms, but he didn’t.

“Yes, I have a key, but the door was bolted.”

“But won’t your key unlock the bolted door?”

Angela Nelson didn’t appear to have heard the question. Once again, she watched as I removed a knife from my pocket and sliced off another bite of chocolate.

“Miss Nelson?”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant. What was that again?”

I repeated the question and licked the chocolate from my hands.

She shuddered and then answered my question.

“The door was double bolted. My key will unlock the dead-bolt lock, but not the second one. You can check it out.”

She reached into her purse, removed her keys, and flipped them to me. “It’s that one,” she said, indicating the key to the front door.

I got up from my chair, walked over to the door, and rewrapped my Hershey bar as I looked at the double bolt. I slid the key into the lock and turned the key. I looked at the other keys. None of them fit. I finished my experiment, returned Miss Nelson’s keys to her, and resumed my questioning.