A Real Pickle (11 page)

“Unless I miss my guess, he’s going to be getting a pretty hefty fee for this job,” Moose explained.

“I suppose so,” Humphries said.  There was no judgment in his voice, but I could see that the thought intrigued him as much as it had Margo.  “Do you need help getting to your rooms?”

“No, I think we’ll hang around and wait on Jeffrey,” Moose said, and then he turned to me.  “Does that suit you, Victoria?”

“I’m on board,” I said.

“That was one of Mr. Trane’s favorite expressions,” Humphries said with a soft smile.  “He loved any wordplay that involved trains.”

“Why wouldn’t he?” I asked.  “You miss him too, don’t you?”

“He gave me a second chance when no one else would,” Humphries said softly.  “Why wouldn’t I?”

“A second chance?  At what?” Moose asked him.

“At everything,” Humphries said cryptically.

Before I could ask him what he meant, Jeffrey came back, wet and grinning broadly.  “She wasn’t kidding.  That thing looked like it could climb a tree.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to make my evening rounds,” Humphries said, and then he was gone before any of us even had a chance to comment.

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Jeffrey said as he wiped his hands through his hair a few times.  “Hump always
has
been an odd bird.”

“He just told us that Mr. Trane gave him a second chance at life,” I said.  “Do you know anything about what he was talking about?”

“He told you that, huh?  He must trust you, because it’s not a story that he cares to discuss much.  Hump spent a little time in prison before he joined us here.”

“Prison?” I asked.  “What did he do?”

“Take it easy, he didn’t kill anybody,” Jeffrey said.  “When his last employer died, some things went missing, and the police found them in his suitcase.  He swears to this day that he was set up, but he did some time for it.  Curtis believed him, though, and he hired him when no one else would.  The man would have taken a bullet for Curtis.  For that matter, I would have myself.  He had a tendency to inspire loyalty in those he felt deserved it.”

“What did he inspire in those that he didn’t?” Moose asked.  I loved my grandfather, but sometimes I wished that he’d let the filter between his brain and his mouth have a little more input before he spoke.

“Fear, mostly,” Jeffrey said.  “He was a good-natured man, but I pity anyone who tried to take advantage of him.”

“Like asking him to pay off their gambling debts?” I asked.

Suddenly everything got quiet.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Moose was staring openly at me, but I was watching Jeffrey with all of my attention.

“So, you know,” he said, his voice filled with quiet resignation.  “I don’t know why I’m all that surprised.  The staff here gossips more than any hen party ever did.  As far as I know, Curtis never knew about my difficulties.  It gives me a little comfort knowing that now.”

“Do you want to tell us about it?” I asked softly.

“Why not?  The truth can’t be as bad as what your imagination must be providing.  I got into a poker game one night last month when I’d had too much to drink.  I bet more than I had, and I lost.  It’s not that complicated, or sinister, either.”

“Who do you owe money to?” Moose asked.

“I’m not going to get into any more details than that.  I was in a jam, but I got myself out of it.”

“How do you manage that?” I asked, remembering the story of Humphries and his own brush with the law.

“Did I steal it from Curtis?  Is that what you’re asking?  The thought never crossed my mind.  I pawned my grandmother’s jewelry at a pawnshop in Hickory, and one of the other staffers here caught me doing it.  That’s when the rumors started flying around the manor.”

I was certain that we’d be able to verify the chauffeur’s story, but I didn’t think it would matter all that much one way or the other.  It appeared that we were just going to have to take Jeffrey’s word that he’d paid off his debts in full, at least until we had reason to believe otherwise.  I wasn’t ready to take his name off of our list of suspects quite yet, though.  Even if
everything
he’d just told us had been true, that just proved that he was in dire straits for money at one time.  If he felt as though he couldn’t ask Curtis for it, then maybe he’d arranged to get a bump in salary by becoming the estate’s executor so he could redeem his pawn ticket and get everything back.

“Man, I’m beat.  I’m going to go to bed if you two don’t need me,” he said.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”  There was another crack of lightning, and he added, “Good luck sleeping tonight.”

“Are you going over to your apartment in this kind of weather?” I asked him as the thunder rumbled loudly.

“No, I’m staying here at the main house for the next few days.  I would
rather
go back to my little room, but I’ve been instructed otherwise.”

“I thought
you
were in charge of everything happening right now,” Moose said.

“Do you honestly think that you two were the
only
ones who got a letter?” he asked my grandfather with a grin.  “Believe me,
none
of this is my idea.”

As the chauffeur started to walk away, I asked, “Who else got letters, Jeffrey?”

“Sorry, but I can’t tell you that,” he said, and then he walked up the stairs, his candle bobbing with each footstep.

“What do you make of that?” I asked Moose once Jeffrey was gone.

“Which part?  We’ve been discovering so much tonight that my head’s spinning.  I have no idea how we’re going to proceed from here, do you?”

“I have one thought,” I said.

“Then let’s have it, because if you don’t have anything good, I’m going to bed myself.”

“Go on.  I can handle this on my own,” I said with a grin.

“I won’t even dignify that with a response,” Moose said.  “Wherever we’re going, I’m right behind you.”

“It’s upstairs,” I said as I started to mount the steps with my grandfather close behind me.

“Can you give me any more details than a general direction?” Moose asked me softly.

“We’re going to Curtis’s room to see if we can find any clues about who might have wanted to see the man dead.  Do you approve of that?”

“You bet I do.  That sounds like the best idea either one of us has had since we got here.  Is it me, or do we seem to be reacting to our suspects’ actions instead of acting on our own searching for the killer?”

“It’s not just you.  I know that we have to do a little bit of both, but I want to dig now.”

“I’m right behind you,” my grandfather said.  “There’s only one problem, though.”

“Just one?  We’re in better shape than I thought, then.  What problem are you talking about?”

“Which room belonged to Curtis?” he asked me.

Chapter 10

“That’s a good question,” I said.  “To tell you the truth, I never really thought about it.”

“Well, you’d better figure something out before we go barging in on our suspects, because the odds are good that we’re not going to be able to find it on our own without a map,” my grandfather whispered back.

“Why are you two whispering?” another voice asked out of the darkness ahead of us.

“Jeffrey, is that you?” I asked, trying my best to peer into the gloom.

“Of course it is,” he said as he lit a match and then touched it back to his candle.  “Who else were you expecting?”

I didn’t even want to think about answering that question.  “We need to snoop a little before we go to bed.  Which room belonged to Curtis?” I asked.

“I’m not so sure that I like that idea much,” Jeffrey said, the reluctance obvious in his voice.

“Do you think that it sounds like a party to us?” I asked.  “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t think that it was necessary.”

“Curtis
asked
us to do this, remember?” Moose added.  “Are you really all that comfortable going against his wishes?”

“No, not when you put it that way,” Jeffrey said.  “Come on.  I’ll show you the way.”

“Can’t you just direct us?” I asked.  “I don’t want anyone to think that you’re cooperating with us.”

“Don’t worry about me,” he said.  “No one in this house could have a lower opinion of me than they already do.  It’s over here.”

Jeffrey walked to the end of the hall, and as we followed, I was glad that he’d still been lingering outside his room.  Moose and I would have never found Curtis’s room without him, but that did beg one question: Why hadn’t he gone straight into his room instead of lurking near the top of the stairs?  Had he been waiting to see what we would do next?  I thought about asking him about it, but in the end, I decided to keep the question to myself.  I had enough to worry about without alienating our one true ally in the house.  

If Moose and I were going to solve Curtis’s murder, we were going to need all of the help that we could get.

When we caught up with the chauffeur, his hand was already on the doorknob.  

I put mine on his before he could open it, though.  “Are you
sure
you want to go in with us?”

“I need to do this, for my sake,” Jeffrey said.  His voice quivered a little as he spoke.  Moose silently reached out a hand and touched the chauffeur’s shoulder lightly, but no words were spoken.  After a few moments, my grandfather pulled his hand away, and I did the same with mine.  Jeffrey took a deep breath, then he let it out slowly before he opened the door.

I nearly dropped my candle once the door was open all of the way.

Someone else was already there, a fact made obvious by the burning candle sitting alone on top of the desk near the bed.

Chapter 11

I couldn’t believe it when I saw who was kneeling at the foot of the desk in Curtis’s room, but I wasn’t the first one to speak.  

“Charlotte, what are you doing in here?” Jeffrey asked her.

“I was looking for a book I loaned Curtis a few days ago,” she said as she stood.

“On the
floor
?” I asked.

“I thought it might have slipped down behind the desk,” she said.  “I can’t find it anywhere.”

“It’s an odd time to be reading given the fact that we don’t have any electricity, wouldn’t you say?” Moose asked her.

“I can’t sleep,” she said simply, “and candlelight works just fine.  Need I remind you that I lost my brother today?”

“What’s the title of your book?  We’ll help you look,” I answered.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said.  “I’m certain that I would find it hopeless trying to concentrate.  May I ask you three what
you
are doing here?”

She could ask, but I’m afraid that we didn’t have a very good answer for her.  Then Jeffrey spoke up and saved the day.  “I need his checkbook ledger so I can work at settling his accounts, and Moose and Victoria volunteered to help me search,” he said.  “I was told that he kept it in the drawer of his desk.  You haven’t seen it, have you?”

“Of course not.  As I said, I was looking for a book.  Am I to understand that it’s going to take all three of you to find it?”

Moose shrugged.  “You’re more than welcome to join us if you’d like.”

“Thank you, but no, I don’t believe so.  I’ll leave you to it, then.  Good night.”

“Good night,” I said, and Moose nodded his own farewell.

Before Charlotte could leave though, Jeffrey asked, “I hate to ask this, but if you would, I’d appreciate if you’d come to me before you go into Curtis’s room again.  I have to inventory everything before we’re ready to finalize anything.”

“Of course,” she said, and then Charlotte left in a huff.

After the door closed behind her, I asked him, “What that really necessary?”

“What, that last little jab at her?  She’s made it perfectly clear what she thinks of Curtis’s choice of executors.  Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, but do you honestly think she’s going to give me a letter of recommendation when I leave here?  I’ll tell you one thing; there is no book.  She was up here snooping, plain and simple.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” Moose asked him with a grin.

“Of course we are,” Jeffrey said, “but at least we have some official standing here.”

“You do, at any rate,” I said.

“Then consider yourself deputized,” Jeffrey said.  “I want to find who killed Curtis more than you do.  He might have asked you both to do it, but I consider it my personal duty to see this through, no matter what the consequences might be.”

“What kind of consequences are you worried about?” I asked.

“I won’t know that until I learn exactly what they turn out to be,” he said.  “Now, where should we start looking?”

“This isn’t going to be easy to do by candlelight,” Moose said.  “I keep worrying that I’m going to set the place on fire.”

“Then be extra careful,” I told him.  “We don’t have a lot of time, so I suggest that we get busy hunting for clues.”

“I think his checkbook might be a good place to start at that,” Jeffrey said.  “I’ll take the desk, Moose gets the closet, and Victoria gets the dresser.  Hang on a second.”  He walked to the closet and pulled out a medium-sized box that would have held two standard loaves of bread.  “Anything that looks interesting can go in here, and we can sort it out later.”

I wasn’t sure that I was all that crazy about his plan.  If we did as Jeffrey suggested, we’d be putting all of our clues into his hands.  If he was telling the truth when he said that he wanted to find Curtis’s killer, we wouldn’t have a problem, but if he wanted everything so he could destroy anything that might make him look culpable, we would be playing into his hands.

“Tell you what,” I said, “I’ll agree to that, as long as Moose and I get custody of the box.”

I saw Jeffrey face me, and in the flickering glow of his candlelight, he looked a little ominous to me.  “What’s the matter, Victoria?  Don’t you trust me?”

“Do you want the truth?  I don’t trust
anybody
in this house tonight,” I said.

“Hey, I resent that,” Moose said.

“Would it be better if I said anyone in close contact with Curtis?”