Murder in the Winter (18 page)

“That was a movie about truck drivers, starring George
Raft. Does this have anything to do with trucks or movies?”

“I don’t know, Cy. I’m merely the humble messenger.”

“Well, come along, humble messenger. Let’s get something
to eat.”

+++

Lou and I secured the necessary paperwork, then drove
to the bank to find out how well healed Longworth was. As the two of us walked
out of the bank, we realized our mistakes and wondered  if  it  was too late to
go college and major in theater. If it turned out that Longworth wasn’t guilty,
I wanted to get on his good side in case I needed a loan. Or a gift.

“Where to now, Cy?”

“I don’t expect much, but since we’re running out of
leads we are going to canvass the neighborhood where the murders took place to
see if anyone saw someone on Wednesday afternoon or in the wee hours of Friday
morning.”

“How big of an area do you plan to cover?”

“Just a few doors in each direction. It would take
x-ray vision to see someone from a block away.”

24

Oppenheimer Arms is the second house from the corner
of Wellesley Avenue and Linden Place. Wellesley ends at Linden and doesn’t
intersect. The structure on the corner is also an apartment building.
Oppenheimer Arms is the middle of three apartment buildings. Everything else
appears to be single-family dwellings. Linden dead-ends just a few doors past
Wellesley, in the direction that goes away from Oppenheimer Arms.

We started our canvass of the neighborhood at the dead
end and worked our way around the other side of the street, then crossed over
and talked to the people adjacent to the building in question.

For the most part, it is an elderly neighborhood, and
we found most of the residents at home. We had completed our questioning at all
of the single-dwelling homes with nothing to show for our efforts. All our
hopes rested with the residents of those two apartment buildings adjacent to
Oppenheimer Arms.

Like the victims’ building, the building numbered 458
consisted of only one floor, but didn’t spread out nearly as much as the
building where the actors lived. I opened the outside door, and stepped inside.
Lou followed. We stopped at the mailboxes. Unlike the Oppenheimer building, the
structure houses only four apartments. I looked at the mailboxes. No familiar
names, and only last names were listed.  I stepped to apartment number one and
knocked. An elderly woman opened the door far enough that the security chain
did its job.  She waited until she was sure no one would reach through the slit
and poke her in the eye, then put an eyeball to the opening.

“What do you want?” she asked.

I had my credentials ready and showed them to her.

“How do I know they’re real?”

“You can call police headquarters and they’ll verify
it for you.”

“You sure don’t look like a policeman.”

“That’s why I catch more criminals than the others.”

“Who’s the other fat guy? Your twin?”

“You know, if I wanted to break in on you that flimsy
chain wouldn’t stop me.”

“So the police department has sunk to where they break
in on respectable folks nowadays?”

“Not yet. Listen, I just want to ask you a question.
Did you see anyone at the apartment building next door last Wednesday afternoon
or before daylight last Friday morning?”

“What do you think I am? Nosy?”

“No, we’re just looking for someone who sneaked into
the neighborhood to prey on elderly women, and I wanted to save your life.”

“I think I can take care of myself. Besides, if you’re
really a policeman, you’d know that there are no elderly women in that
apartment building next door. Just one old battleaxe, an old codger, and some
guys who sit around and do nothing all day.”

“So, you do spy on them?”

With that, the old woman slammed the door. Nothing
short of a rubber hose would get any information out of that old biddy. I
walked away, hoping to do better at apartment two.

I cringed as another elderly woman opened the door,
again with a chain restraint.

“May I help you gentlemen?”

I showed my credentials, and this time, a satisfied
woman opened the door and invited us in and to be seated.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, as she hastened
out of the room.

When one minute stretched to three, I wondered if she
was making her getaway through the bedroom window. She reminded me of the two
women in
Arsenic And Old Lace.
I was about to call out to her, when she
whipped around the corner carrying a plateful of cookies.

“You gentlemen have good timing. I just got them out
of the oven.”

Lou and I smiled as she sat them down on the table before
us.

“So, what would you gentlemen like to drink?”

We told her we didn’t need anything to drink and asked
her to sit. Before I could open my mouth, she started talking.

“If you gentlemen haven’t been to the apartment next to
mine yet, you might want to draw your guns before you knock.”

Lou and I laughed, then told her we had been next door
and had lived through the experience.

“Lucky you. Now that you’ve met the creature who lives
there, maybe you can answer a question for me. If I decided to shoot her
between the eyes some day, would it be justifiable homicide?”

“The sergeant and I might put in a good word for you,
but I’m not sure the judge would go along, since more than likely he’s never
met her.”

I complimented her on how good her cookies tasted,
then got down to business.

“We’re looking for someone who might’ve been in the
neighborhood either Wednesday afternoon or Friday morning before daylight.
Whoever it was would have gone into the building next door. Did you by any
chance see anyone either time?”

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant, but I didn’t see or hear anyone.”

We chatted until Lou and I had finished eating our
cookies. We have a standard procedure when faced with a situation like that. We
never eat just one. The person’s feelings might be hurt, because she might
think we didn’t like what she made. But we always stop with two, because the
woman will get a little antsy if we keep eating. She didn’t bake those cookies
for us. She didn’t know we were coming. She was merely nice and willing to
share some of what she baked.

Lou and I rose, thanked her for the information and
the cookies, and started for the door. As I was about to open it, our hostess
interrupted me.

“Lieutenant, normally I wouldn’t say anything about
this, but since you are policemen, I will tell you. The woman across the hall
in the front in apartment three is visiting her son for a month. She won’t be
home, but the lady directly across from me should be there.”

I thanked her and walked out. I didn’t think she was
hiding a murderer in apartment three, so we skipped that apartment and walked
on directly across the hall. Apartment four.

I looked at the elderly woman who answered the door.
Not only did she look like she was closing in on one hundred, but she looked
like she might have been the inspiration for Granny, the grande dame of Tweetie
and Sylvester cartoons. I could easily picture the old girl capable of whopping
Sylvester on the noggin with her umbrella if he got in her birdcage.

“How do you do, ma’am?”

“I can still do pretty good, Sonny. How about you?”

“I manage to do okay on my good days.”

“You got a woman, Sonny?”

“I’m a widower.”

“What’s that got to do with it? I’m a widow, but it
didn’t keep me from finding a man. How about you?” she asked as she gave up on
me and turned her efforts toward Lou.

Lou could tell I had lost control of the proceedings,
and laughed as he answered.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got a girl.”

Satisfied, she turned her efforts back to me.

“Have you tried eharmony?”

“Excuse me?”

“Eharmony.com. Have you tried it?”

“Not only haven’t I tried it, I don’t know what it
is.”

“No wonder you ain’t got a woman. You’re still living
in the dark ages. Eharmony. The website that matches you with someone who’s
perfect for you. That’s where I met my Elmer. We’re supposed to meet next week.
Probably get married before the month’s out. I’m too old to have kids, you
know, but if Elmer wants to adopt, I’d consider it. There are a lot of things I
can teach today’s kids.”

“Do you mind telling me how old you are?”

“It ain’t polite to ask a lady her age, but since you
asked, I’ll tell you. I’ll be ninety-six next month. Elmer’s only eighty-three,
but then I wanted a younger man. Men don’t live as long as women and they sure
don’t live as long if they’re single. My momma lived to be a hundred and
eleven. I figure I can outlast her by a couple of years. That’ll give me time
to spend some time with Elmer, raise one set of kids, and give Elmer a proper
burial before I go. By that time the kids will be raised, and I will have
taught them the proper way to take care of their inheritance.”

“I appreciate the lesson, Mrs….”

“Pondexter. Hazel Pondexter.”

“Mrs. Pondexter, but I’m here on police business. Do
you mind if we come in?”

Mrs. Pondexter slid the latch and opened the door for
us. As soon as we stepped through the threshold and she closed the door, she
started up again without missing a beat.

“Police business. If you say so, but after you get
through I’ll take you to my computer and you can be on your way to finding yourself
a woman. If I were you, I wouldn’t want you to have to spend the rest of your
life alone. Especially, since he’s already found somebody,” she said as she
hooked her thumb at Lou. “No need in him having all the fun and you being left
out. As you know, it gets kind of cold in the winter. An electric blanket is
okay, but two under an electric blanket is more fun.  Don’t you want someone to
keep your fingers and toes warm? That’s your problem. Cold feet. Otherwise,
you’d already have gone to eharmony. And I bet it’s hard to shoot someone if
your hands are cold.”

“Mrs. Pondexter, if you please. I’m interested in knowing
if you saw anyone go in or come out of Oppenheimer Arms anytime during the day
on Wednesday or before daylight on Friday morning. Anyone who doesn’t live
there.”

“So, we’ve got a burglar in the neighborhood. Well, he
won’t be coming in my place if he knows what’s good for him. I’m a crack shot,
and I keep an automatic and a shotgun in the house. Don’t worry. They’re
registered.”

“I’m glad you’re cautious, but tell me, have you seen
any strangers in the neighborhood?”

“Saw one once. Had red, white, and blue hair. Afro.
White guy. Kind of jaundiced looking. Probably didn’t have a woman.”

“Did you see him in the last few days?”

“No, it was a more’n a year ago. He didn’t try to
break in here though.”

Realizing that I wasn’t going to get any information
out of her, I thanked her for her time and walked out of the building. I hoped
the people in the building on the corner house were saner.

It didn’t start out that way. I knocked on the first
door on the right, and a man answered. Maybe this was Elmer, the man Mrs.
Pondexter planned to marry. Somehow, I didn’t think so. He looked younger than
eighty-three. As it turned out, this guy wasn’t interested in my love life. He
was interested in my future. He approached me about a part-time business that
would make me wealthy. Pills. I told him that policemen weren’t allowed to
moonlight. He laughed and told us we could do it before dark.  We made excuses
and left him for the back apartment on the right. It was back to business as
usual, only this woman was a few years younger than the others we had encountered.
She didn’t look much older than the two of us. She looked down at our hands and
saw no rings, and immediately asked us to a single’s dance. She seemed
disappointed when we told her we were there on police business. When we found
out that she had no information for us, we excused ourselves. We shook our
heads before walking back to the front to knock on the door of apartment three.
Another elderly woman answered our knock, took a look at my circumference, and
told me about a weight loss drink that would make me a new person within three
months. I told her I liked the old me, and after finding out she too was a
bust, we bid her goodbye and turned to our last hope. Lou looked at me, and we
both shook our heads.

I knocked on the door at the rear apartment, the one
that faced Oppenheimer Arms. When someone opened the door, I felt like I’d
cornered the market on elderly women. I flashed my credentials, and the woman
smiled and let us in. I figured we would soon be propositioned about something
or other, but I was wrong. We introduced ourselves. So did she. Then, I got to
the question that I could recite by heart.

“Let’s see. Nothing unusual Wednesday during the day,
but you say Thursday night or early Friday morning, too? Was that the night
after the snowfall?”

“That’s right,” I replied unenthusiastically,
expecting to hear about how she’d fallen and almost broken all the bones in her
body. But she surprised me.

“Yeah, I remember that night. I woke up around 5:15,
but had trouble going back to sleep. I thought about getting up, but I just lay
there. My bedroom is right next to their driveway. Normally, there’s not much
traffic over there at night, but that night there were two people who drove in
close to the same time. The first one was one of those SUV things. You know
what I mean.”

I didn’t want to interrupt her, so I nodded to let her
know I knew what an SUV was.

“Whoever was in it pulled in, parked it, and just sat
there. Then, a couple of minutes later, some guy drove in like he was drunk. He
was driving one of those things too, and I thought he was going to crash. He
was driving way too fast, especially with the weather being like it was.
Anyway, he parked the thing, got out, took off running for the back door. I was
afraid he’d see me, so I stepped back from the window. After I felt he was
inside, I looked out again. The first guy was still sitting inside his
whatchamacallit. He just sat there for another five minutes or so fiddling with
something, then got out and went inside. He wasn’t in there very long before he
came back out, got in his SUV thing, and left.”