Dirty Tricks: A Kate Lawrence Mystery (25 page)

BOOK: Dirty Tricks: A Kate Lawrence Mystery

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I could stand it
no longer. “Charlene Putnam, I love you like a sister, but I’m going to walk
over there and shake you if you don’t tell us what you are talking about right
now.”

“Don’t make me
turn Rhett Butler on you,” Margo threatened for good measure. The dog panted
happily at the mention of his name. He might lick
Strutter
to death, I knew, but that was about the extent of her peril.

With an effort,
Strutter
pulled herself together. “As soon as I parked in
front of that big, spooky house, I knew it was a mistake to go inside. There
were those crazy old ladies peeking out at me from behind the front curtains,
plain as day. Did they imagine I was there to rob them at nine o’clock on a
Friday morning? You’d think they’d never seen a black woman on their front
porch before.” She stopped shaking and took another noisy sip of water, irked
by the memory. Margo and I exchanged glances.

“They were raised
in another era,” I soothed, “and they don’t get out much these days either.
They probably aren’t used to women being business owners, never mind black
women.”

“Huh! Probably
don’t know we can vote and own property now and everything,”
Strutter
fumed. Margo
snorted,
an
unattractive habit of hers when something tickled her. “Anyway, I announced who
I was, and Miss
Ada
let me in. At least, I think it
was
Ada
.
The bigger one with the
kinky permanent wave and the sensible shoes.”
I nodded. “The wispy one,
Lavinia
, just kind of fluttered around, waving a hankie and
moaning to
herself
. We went into the front room, the
one they’d been using to check me out, and sat on the sofa, and I asked as delicately
as I could what had them in such a
swivet
. I didn’t
want to be too pushy, them still being in shock at having a sister sitting
right there on their sofa and all.”
Another snort from Margo.

“And what did
Ada
say?” I prodded in an effort to move this along. Margo
checked her watch none too discreetly.

Finally,
Strutter
kicked it into high gear. “She said they’d about
run through all the money from their papa’s trust fund, and they were
considering selling the house, but some pipes running to the old boiler needed
serious repairs, and they’d had a fellow banging around in the basement tearing
out walls and bricks, and he found something even worse than the leak, and they
needed to know how it might affect the value of the property.” She sucked in a
breath. We waited.

“It was a
skeleton! He found it right there in a closet that had been built next to where
the pipes come down next to the furnace. He had to break through the back wall,
which was apparently false, because there was another one behind it. He
completely freaked, said he didn’t want to be involved in any investigation or
questioned by the police, and he packed up his tools and ran out of there. For
some reason,
Ada
called us. Naturally, I thought she
was hallucinating or seeing shadows, so I had her get me a big
ol
’ flashlight and dragged her down there to show her it
had just been some moth-eaten clothes on a hanger or something, and, well,” she
gulped, “there was a skeleton, or sort of a skeleton. It was more like a
dried-up old mummy with scraps of cloth clinging to parts of it.” She
shuddered.

Margo looked at
me and back at
Strutter
. “But why on earth did
Ada
call us instead of the police? Did she want to know if
they should include the thing in their
askin
’ price?”
Strutter
was not amused.

“Where are
Ada
and
Lavinia
now?” I inserted
hastily.

“They’re right
where I left them in their front parlor, drinking cups of strong, hot tea with
lots of sugar. I told them I’d come back here and consult with my partners. I
didn’t know what else to do, and I surely wanted to get out of there.”

I sat on the
couch next to her and patted her arm. “Well, of course you did. The question is
,
what do we do now?”

Margo promptly
took charge. “I’m going to call John and ask him to meet you—unofficially, of
course—over at the
Henstocks
,” she said, punching
numbers into her cell phone, “and then I’m going over to Vista Views for my
first showing. I’m already late. Don’t worry,” she comforted
Strutter
, who looked stricken at the thought of returning
to the
Henstock
house. “John will take very good care
of you. He’s the head of the detective division, remember, and very reliable. I
have reason to know that he’s also the soul of discretion.” She winked broadly,
trying to get
Strutter
to smile, but she wouldn’t.