The Chocolate Moose Motive: A Chocoholic Mystery (21 page)

I didn’t know if I was to be a chaperone or a witness on this trip.

When I walked into the police station, the first person I saw was Ace. I steeled myself for a scene. Every time I’d observed Ace and Sissy together, there had been yelling and screaming. I’d blamed Ace, but when he attacked, Sissy had certainly given as good as she got.

This time things were different. Ace was talking to Hogan, and he was talking quietly. “Here are the numbers you asked for,” he said.

“Thanks, Colonel Smith. This should be what we need to ID the pistol.”

“May I see it?”

“Yes, though I can’t let you touch it.”

“I understand.” Ace sounded unbelievably reasonable. I wondered what he was up to.

Hogan led Ace over to a table at the back of the room, and I turned to Sissy, who was still sitting in the reception area. “Ready to go?”

“Let’s wait a minute. I’m beginning to feel at home here.”

I didn’t understand why Sissy wanted to stay, but I didn’t argue. I sat down beside her. “Where’s Joe?”

“He went into one of the offices to make a phone call.”

By then it was nearly eight o’clock. Sissy looked worn out. Neither of us said anything, and we could hear Ace and Hogan clearly.

“It looks like Buzz’s pistol,” Ace said. “A Colt Model 1911 45 ACP. A standard U.S. Army pistol for nearly a hundred years. I gave Buzz and Chip each one as a twenty-first-birthday present. And each of them had initials engraved on the back strap.”

“Then Chip has one like it?”

“Yes. Identical, except for the serial number and the initials.”

“Where is that one?”

“I don’t know if he brought it along on this trip or not. He left this morning to go back, but he was going to stop in Chicago for a couple of days.”

Hogan nodded. “I’ll put a hurry-up on the ballistics check, but I can’t say for sure how long it will be.”

“Sure.”

Ace turned away from Hogan. He looked even more tired than Sissy. I wondered if either of them had had a good night’s sleep since Buzz had been killed. Exhaustion is certainly a symptom of unresolved grief.

Ace came toward us. For once I didn’t have the feeling that he was going to pick a fight with Sissy. Maybe he would simply leave quietly, and then Sissy and I could leave quietly, and we’d all have a quiet evening. If Ace would just not say anything.

So I was surprised when Sissy stood up. “Ace,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

I wouldn’t have thought Ace could look more pale and drawn than he already did, but he managed it.

“I’m sorry,” Sissy said again. “I’ve been at fault for not realizing how much Buzz’s death hurt you.”

She picked up an umbrella that had been resting against her chair, and she turned toward the door. She obviously didn’t expect an answer from Ace.

I followed her, but Ace surprised us.

“Sissy,” he said, “I owe you an apology, too. I’ve blamed you for Buzz’s death. I’m sorry.”

Then he extended his hand. Sissy eyed it warily, but in a few seconds she extended hers, and they shook. They stared into each other’s eyes, communicating in some wordless way that definitely left us bystanders out.

“Friends,” Ace said.

“Sure,” Sissy said. “Friends.”

I was dying to know what inspired this love feast, but I decided this was one time I’d keep my mouth shut. I was surprised that Sissy had one more thing to say.

“I’ll let you handle this,” she said, “but be careful. Be very careful.”

Chapter 20

Ace laughed, though the sound had no humor in it. “I’m still the tough old soldier.”

On that line he turned around and walked out. Sissy gave a final yelp.

“Ace!”

Ace didn’t react. He simply left.

I was completely mystified. “Sissy,” I said, “what was all that about?”

She didn’t seem to hear me. She was staring after Ace, a worried look on her face. I repeated my question. Again, she didn’t answer. Then she shook her head and seemed to come to herself.

“Sorry to hold you up,” she said. “I’m ready if you are.”

Joe had appeared, and the three of us headed for the door. Sissy was still brandishing the umbrella. When I asked where she had gotten it, she said that Hogan dug it out of the city’s lost and found. “He swears it’s been there a year,” she said. “If somebody stops me on the street and demands his umbrella back, I’ll give it to him.”

We were nearly out the door when Hogan called Sissy’s name.

“Listen, Sissy,” he said. “If you think of anything you want to tell me, give me a call.” He walked over and handed her a business card. “I wrote my cell number on the back of this. I’ll have it on all night.”

“I think Ace is the one who’ll be calling,” Sissy said. She went on out the door.

And we went out into sunshine. The rain was over, the sun was out, and the lost-and-found umbrella wasn’t needed. Joe, Sissy, and I climbed into his truck, sitting three in a row.

As soon as we were in, I took a deep breath, ready to ask Sissy what the heck was going on between Ace and her, but before I could expel that breath through my vocal cords, Joe spoke.

“Okay, Sissy,” he said. “What was it you didn’t tell Hogan?”

“I told him the truth.”

“I’m sure you did. But you didn’t tell him the whole truth. And, Sissy, he knows you didn’t.”

“I answered every question, Joe. Truthfully.”

“What didn’t Hogan ask?”

This time Sissy didn’t answer. Joe spoke again. “If it’s a privileged communication, we’ll throw Lee out of the truck, and you can tell me.”

“No, Joe. You heard everything I had to say.”

I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. “What is Ace going to take care of?”

Sissy gave me an incredibly innocent look. “He’s working with Hogan to identify the pistol.”

I spoke again. “What in all this inspired you to make a peace gesture toward Ace?”

“He just looked so—so much like I feel, I guess. Besides, in the past, he seemed to blame me. Either he thought I shot
Buzz or that I did something that caused his death. And today he didn’t.”

Neither Joe nor I asked any more questions. I guess I would have, but I couldn’t think of any. Sissy declined something to eat, saying she’d like to get home before dark. Although it was after eight o’clock, it was mid-June, close to the longest day of the year. Our area of Michigan stays light until nearly ten in mid-June. Joe took the road east out of Warner Pier.

But even though I didn’t ask any questions, I thought like crazy. Obviously, Sissy and Ace had come to some sort of understanding, and it had focused on the gun found in Sissy’s Volkswagen. But Joe had been there for the whole episode, and he didn’t understand it either. I wondered if Hogan did. Hogan never missed much.

We let the subject drop for the twenty minutes it took to reach Moose Lodge. When we got there, the sun was still out, but it was dropping toward the horizon, so that rich golden light that glows when it’s almost sundown was coming through the trees. Wildflower was standing in the doorway of the house, carrying Johnny, who held out his arms and called, “Mama!” The place looked so welcoming, I almost wanted to go in myself. But I didn’t. Joe made sure that Sissy had his phone number as well as Hogan’s; then we headed west, toward Warner Pier.

But I was still thinking about Moose Lodge. Its rustic atmosphere had appealed to me from the first moment I saw it. On my next visit, I had parked in the yard next to Chip’s rental car…

And at the moment I was visualizing my memories of Moose Lodge, one of those wild coincidences that life hands us struck.

A yellow car loomed up in the other lane, heading east. It came toward us and passed.

“Joe! Pull over,” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I just have to think about something. It’s important!”

“Lee, there’s no place to pull over here.” He was right. The shoulder on that stretch of road is almost nonexistent.

“The nature preserve parking lot is right down the next road. Stop there!”

“Well, okay. But you’d better have a good explanation. I’m ready for dinner.”

After we were stopped in the parking lot, Joe turned sideways, leaning against the door, and stared at me. “You’re obviously having one of your brain waves. What’s going on in that beautiful blond head?”

“I just had a flashback to the second time I came out to Moose Lodge. Let me tell you about it, and you tell me if I’m making sense.”

“Carry on.”

“I parked the van around by the shop. And there was a silver or gray car, a midsized sedan, already parked in the next space over.”

“So?”

“So when I went into the shop, Chip was there.”

“So?”

“Joe, he was driving the car parked outside, a midsized silver sedan. But when we met him at the Willard General Store, he was driving a flashy yellow compact. Both of them had rental stickers on the bumper. Same company.”

“Why would he change?”

“Maybe the ashtrays got full, and he demanded a new vehicle. I don’t know. But I do know one thing that happened between the time I ran into him at Moose Lodge and our lunch
at the General Store. In the meantime, somebody chased me through the nature preserve.”

“You didn’t see who it was.”

“No. But I did see a midsized silver or gray sedan pull out of this very parking lot.”

Joe frowned. “You think it was Chip? Why would he chase you?”

“Because the person who chased me had destroyed the tracks a prowler made out by the Reagans’ garage, and he didn’t want me to see who it was. So the real question is, why would Chip destroy those tracks?”

“Because they were incriminating for some reason.”

“Right. Like maybe they were made by him.”

“But why would Chip prowl around either the Reagans’ place or Moose Lodge?”

“Because he’s looking for some sort of papers.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because the other day a prowler went through the desks used by both Wildflower and Sissy.” I tapped a finger on Joe’s chest for emphasis. “And the person who killed Buzz also went through the desks. Plus, he destroyed files from Buzz’s computer.”

“You think Chip might have done that? But Chip denied knowing anything about Buzz’s novel. And he was supposedly Buzz’s best friend.”

“True. So, why has Sissy been the main suspect in Buzz’s death?”

“Because she was Buzz’s wife.” Joe nodded. “I know, I know. The people closest to the victim are the most obvious suspects.”

“Yes. Now the catch is that Chip was apparently abroad—
working for that defense contractor in some exotic spot—when Buzz died.”

“That can be checked.”

“I know. But Chip already blew that story. At the Willard General Store. When I commented on how crowded the place was with its oddball stock, he said, ‘You should have seen it last February, when they were painting.’ Or something like that. If Chip was abroad, how did he know the General Store was painted in February?”

“You’re right. He did say that. And if he was somewhere abroad, he wouldn’t have known.”

“Plus, Joe—something about that pistol made both Ace and Sissy change their whole opinions of each other. You saw them at the police department! It was a regular love feast! And every other time they’ve been together, it was a dogfight. That pistol was key to the whole change in their attitudes.”

I leaned toward him. “Rosy Reagan teased Wildflower because she doesn’t want firearms on the Moose Lodge property. What do you bet that when Buzz moved in there, he took his pistol—the special one his dad had given him—to Ace’s house and left it there? He wouldn’t want to get rid of it, but he would have wanted to respect Wildflower’s wishes, too.”

I took a deep breath. “So, if he was shot with that pistol, the shooter had to have access to Ace’s house! And Sissy and Ace knew it.”

“Chip again!”

“Right. And Helen.”

“Right! Helen could have figured out that the pistol had been used.”

“She could also have figured out that the house had been used. If Ace was in Florida when Chip showed up to try to get
his important papers from Buzz, why would he go to a hotel? Ace’s house is a year-round house. Chip could simply have stayed there. Even if he tried to hide that he had slept or eaten there—there are dozens of ways Helen could have figured it out.”

“McDonald’s sacks in the trash.”

“Sure. Or used towels. For someone familiar with the household routine, it would have been a snap. She lived on the property. If someone had been staying at Ace’s house, she would have known.”

I pulled out my cell phone. “You’re not poking any holes in this, Joe.”

“That’s because I’m afraid you’re right.”

I called information.

“Who are you calling?”

“Sissy.”

“Why her? Why now?”

“Because of the yellow compact.”

“What yellow compact?”

“The car that passed us, going east, just before I yelled for you to pull in here.”

“I didn’t see it.”

“You were looking into the sun. I couldn’t see it clearly either until it was past us. Then I looked back, and I saw it. I’m afraid it was Chip.”

“But Ace said Chip left to go back to—to this exotic place where he’s working, wherever it is.”