Strung Out to Die (23 page)

One step at a time, I stepped up onto the back porch and peeked in the door, trying to look through the eyelet curtains. The only thing I could see was sunlight shining through a cracked window.

Cracked window!

Without thinking, I dragged a porch chair under the cracked kitchen window, slid the glass up and hoisted myself through it.

Once inside, I parted the curtains and looked outside to make sure no one had seen me crawling through. Spending any time in jail for murder or breaking and entering was not in my future plans.

I thought Agnes must have had a doctor’s appointment and forgot about it. She’d probably called my house to cancel our meeting.

That might be a good thing. I wouldn’t have to sneak around to find the video monitors if she was out of the house. I slid the window closed. There was no way I was leaving the same way I’d come in.

I walked through the kitchen and fell to the ground when I saw a tiny red light shining in the corner of the wall near the ceiling. Her security camera was pointed right at me or the spot I’d been standing.

Since Agnes wasn’t home, I didn’t want anyone else to know that I was here. If I showed up on the security video, I would definitely go to jail, but the only place to roll out of sight was under the high-back antique couch.

There was no way I was rolling my whole body under there. Until I considered going to jail.

“One, two,three,” I whispered and then closed my eyes.

It took two complete rolls to make it completely into
The Under
. I crossed my arms over my chest and took three deep breaths.
Be aware of your surroundings
, I repeated over and over in my head until my eyes popped open and my adrenaline took over.

I plotted my strategy. I could roll behind the couch and crawl along the wall out of view of the camera.

I thought about the layout of Agnes’ house and I remembered exactly where her bedroom was. I guessed that the monitors were in there.

“One, two,three.” I closed my eyes again and rolled out. I ended up behind the couch.

That wasn’t so bad.
Still, I was never going to do
that
again.

Agnes’ bedroom door was slightly cracked open. I nudged it with my head while I was still in a four-point crawl stance. My knees ached and were killing me. I felt a little like Willow, hoofing it around the house.

When I got inside Agnes’ bedroom, I pushed the door closed with my foot. It was pitch black, completely dark. I ran my hand up the door casing, feeling around the wall for the light switch and flipped it on.

“Eeck!” I screamed, and then fell back to the floor when I saw someone flailing around on Agnes’ bed.

The bed moved and squeaked across the hardwood with each thrust of whoever was in the bed.

I got to my knees and slowly extended my body to look over the footboard.

“Agnes?” I jumped to my feet when I noticed poor old Agnes Pearl hog-tied to her own bed and gagged with her purple turban.

The red feather was fluttering out of her mouth like she was a cat that just ate a bird. Her eyes were as big as saucers.

“Who did this to you?” I asked, gingerly removing the turban from her mouth.

Her tongue was hanging out as she gasped for air. I quickly untied each of her limbs, and grabbed a bottle of water that I found on her nightstand.

Once she calmed down, she began to speak.

“I don’t know,” she sobbed.

In all the years I’d known her, I had never seen Agnes Pearl cry. I’ve seen her curse a man and yell, but never cry.

“My eyes aren’t too good yet, but in the middle of the night, I heard my door open.” She took the turban and wiped at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. “I turned on my bedside light and there they stood. Before I could get a word out, they had me bound, gagged, and tied like a pig. No offense to Willow.”

“None taken.” I rubbed her arms, trying to give her some comfort.

I was just glad that I’d broken in and found her.

“Did they say anything?” I tried to jog her memory, but she was too upset to talk about it.

She shook her head. “The only thing that got me through it was knowing you were coming over this morning.” She reached for the rotary phone next to her bed.

“What are you doing?” I asked, starting to hand it to her.

“I’m calling Noah Druck,” she stated.

“Wait.” I pulled the phone back to my chest, out of her reach.

This could be the final clue to complete the mounting evidence I already have against Marlene.

“Wait? Are you out of your mind, Holly Harper?” Agnes was back to her spry old self. “I’ve been lying here, scared out of my mind and waiting for you to find me, and you want me to wait longer? No, no, I’m not waiting any longer.”

There had to be footage on the security video of someone walking around, unless they had crawled to reach their destination like I had. That wouldn’t be Marlene’s style. There was no way she was going to take the chance of breaking a nail. I bet she’d already had the one replaced that I found under my futon.

“Agnes, I really do think Marlene is the one who killed Doug.” I sat at the edge of the bed with the phone tight against my chest. “I think she’s done something with Sean. I have a lot of evidence I need to get together and then take to Noah.”

Agnes Pearl propelled herself out of bed like she had a spring under her. “I want her found and arrested
now
!”

She took the turban and pulled it back over her thinning hair, over her ears, and then tucked in the unruly whispies. Not even a good hog-tying could keep her down.

She grabbed the phone from me. “I’m calling Noah.” Her arthritis-ridden index finger punched in the numbers.

“Where are your video monitors that Jim put in?” I asked, while she dialed Noah.

She shook her head, the feather slapping her face each time.  “Noah, it’s Agnes Pearl, you need to come to my house as soon as you get this message.” She slammed the receiver down, got up, and motioned for me to follow her with the old phone still tucked under her arm.

“Agnes, put the phone down.” I reminded her she still had it.

She reached behind her and grabbed the phone cord that plugged into the wall. In one swift yank, the cord unraveled to a crazy length.

“Goes with me everywhere.” She patted the old thing. “That is one thing that Doug Sloan did do that was right. Got me a long phone extension. Noah should be calling any minute.”

I wasn’t going to fight with Agnes Pearl. If she didn’t want to let go of the phone, she didn’t have to.

“Ouch.” Agnes smacked into the doorframe. She rubbed her arms and continued walking into the other room. “That damn doctor said this blurriness would go away, and I can’t wait.”

“Focus, Agnes.” There really was no time to spare. We had to see what was on that video. “Where are the…”

“Monitors–right.” Agnes turned and walked out the door and right into the family room wall. “In there.” She pointed the hand that was holding the phone toward the kitchen and rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “In the pantry.”

The pantry?
That didn’t make much sense, but most things in Agnes’ world often didn’t make sense.

“Okay.” I grabbed Agnes by the arms and helped her over to her easy chair. “Sit here. I’ll be right back.”

I wasn’t a doctor, but it seemed to me that Agnes’ eyes were worse now than they’d been before. I wasn’t about to say anything. I made sure she was safe and then headed to the kitchen.

Voila! Like a shiny new bicycle, the monitor was mounted on the pantry wall off the kitchen. It looks like she’d tried to disguise it with empty cereal boxes.

There were four split frames that showed the family room, garden, foyer and the front yard. Quickly, I dialed Donovan. This was all a confusing mess to me.

Donovan answered the phone on the first ring. “Did you get the information you need?”

“Slight change in plans, but I’m not sure how to get the video footage off Agnes’ monitors. It’s completely different than the VHS tapes.” I briefly described how someone had tied Agnes up and I told him I wanted to see if it was Marlene who had done it. If she had, I’d have more evidence against her and be able to prove my innocence, and hopefully find Sean.

“Who are you talking too?” Agnes screamed from the other room.

Ignoring her, I described the equipment, and Donovan said it was likely streaming footage to a memory card or a computer server.

Donovan asked, “Why would they tie Agnes up?”

I hadn’t thought of that. It was a great question and I didn’t have an answer for it. I ran back into the family room, feeling a little like Flora with my ePhone stuck to my ear.

“Agnes, where is Marlene’s big yellow diamond?” I looked up at the mantel where I remembered seeing it last. I didn’t see it, so I patted my hand along the top of the mantel in case it was lying up there. All I came up with was dust on my fingertips.

“Who are you talking to?” She asked, and then began to yell, “Help! Noah, help!”

“It’s not Noah.” I ran back to the pantry.

“Holly, what is going on?” Donovan sounded very confused.

“Nothing, I’m just trying to figure this monitor out.” I had to take care of one thing at a time. Getting the video footage of whoever did this to Agnes was the most important issue at that moment.

The Spinel was gone, along with Marlene. I wondered if Agnes found out the truth about the Spinel and had questioned Marlene about it. Marlene might have flown off the handle.

“What’s wrong with Agnes’ cat?” He asked.

“Cat?” As far as I knew, Agnes didn’t have any pets. “I don’t think she has a cat.”

“What is that noise in the background? It sounds like a sick cat.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and listened for the noise he was talking about.

“Hooooolly!” Agnes’ screamed. “Who are you talking too?”

Damn!
It was Agnes that he was hearing.

“Oh, that old cat is Agnes screaming for me.” I shut the pantry door behind me, trying to drown her out.

Donovan told me how to retrieve the footage before we hung up. I went back into the family room to try to reason with her one last time.

“Listen,” I said, and bent down next to her. “I have to go to my cottage and get the rest of the evidence I’ve been collecting, or else Sean might not live to see the end of this thing. Marlene kidnapped him, and there is a good chance he could be dead. But I’m hanging onto the small chance that he might still be alive.”

That was a thought I had to keep in my head. I’ve spent a lot of time dreaming and plotting with the Divas about Sean’s demise, but it had just been harmless daydreaming that I never thought would come true.

Agnes eased herself up and stood face to face with me. “I’ll get my purse.”

“What? What purse?” I was confused. “Do you think your purse is missing? Is anything else missing?”

I looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of order or even turned over, as you would expect in a robbery. The only things missing were Marlene and her diamond.

“There is no way you’re leaving me here.” She crossed her arms. “I’m coming with you.”

“You need to stay here and wait for Noah.” I guided her back into her chair. There was no way I was going to take her out of the house in her current outfit of rainbow bright tights, lime green long-sleeve shirt and purple turban.

“One last question before I go,” I said as I slowly turned around to face her again. “What did they take? Is anything missing?”

I found it hard to believe that Marlene would want to tie up Agnes like that. Even if she were behind the murder, she would know that she’d be a suspect. Agnes had offered Marlene room and board, along with everything she could possibly need and more. Agnes even paid Marlene to help her, but in reality, it was for companionship. All the Divas knew the truth.

“That’s what I keep asking myself,” she answered with sadness in her tired eyes. “You know she buried that damn diamond.”

“She did? Why?” I asked.

There had to be more to the story about the diamond than Mimi and Tallulah had told me. I wondered if Marlene had poisoned her ex-lover.

“The day you came by, she was in the back digging a hole, and that is where she buried it,” Agnes told me. “If the story she told me was true, I told her to go the police.”

“What do you mean,
If
her story was true?” I asked.

“She was very vague when I asked her about her lover and the diamond. She told me that he gave her the spinel and his greedy ex-wife wanted it. She really believes it’s hers. I told her it belongs to his family.” Agnes’ eyes narrowed, a dark shadow cast on her checks from her eyelashes. “She got mad at me for saying that and she stomped out the door.”

That would be enough to make Marlene take the diamond and run, but it still didn’t give her a reason to tie Agnes up. If Marlene was really a cold-blooded killer, she would’ve just killed Agnes.

“I’m going to see if the cameras caught anything.”

With Donovan’s easy step-by-step directions, I replayed the video of Marlene in her leopard print pants tiptoeing into the front door, through the foyer, grabbing the Spinel off the mantel, and disappearing into Agnes’ room. The time stamp was 2:15 a.m.

If Marlene thought Agnes was still recovering at the hospital, why would she sneak in? She was living there, and no one would even think twice at her coming in the middle of the night. And she went straight into Agnes’ bedroom like she knew Agnes was there.

I hit rewind and watched closely to see if anything was out of place or unusual.

The only thing that caught my eye was something I thought I’d never see. Marlene was wearing flats. I guess she had too. You could hear her coming a mile away in those heels.

I pulled out the memory stick as Donovan had instructed and walked out the back door.

I wanted to check the hole that I stepped in. If I recalled correctly, it was at the same spot Marlene was standing the day I visited, and I remembered how funny Marlene was acting. Maybe there was some evidence left in the dirt.

A shovel was lying next to the newly dug earth along with a pair of gardening gloves. I bent down, put my hand in the dirt, and raked my fingers through the soil to see if anything would turn up. I couldn’t feel or see anything. I wasn’t about to waste any more time here. I had to get my evidence from the cottage and take it to Noah.