Murder at Breakfast (24 page)

“Now,
I think Heather’s help afforded us the knowledge that no one could’ve gotten up
or down the dumbwaiter or the laundry chute. While someone could’ve used the
rope to come down from the storage area, that too could be a red herring.
Obviously some of these things are. She couldn’t have died in that many
different ways. Breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacking after breakfast.”

“Cy,
do you think there’s anything to the Winters woman throwing down the rope
ladder?”

“My
guess is no. But then maybe she’s smart enough that she thinks if we caught her
doing it, and if she willingly gave us the rope ladder, we’d think she’s
innocent. On the other hand, remember, she wasn’t the only one who fed us that
story about her being afraid of a fire.”

“I
tend to agree that her story about the rope ladder doesn’t mean anything.”

“So,
what else can you think of?”

“Only
that nothing I saw at the dining room table at any of the meals yesterday
allowed me to zero in on any particular person. I’m sure it has to be someone
here, but no one here looks guilty. Oh, at times they all look guilty, but I
think that has more to do with the police hovering over them than being guilty
of something.”

“Well,
you’d think that’s the case for all but one of them.”

      “Yeah,
but which one?”

Lou
was right. We hadn’t narrowed our suspect list, because we hadn’t learned
anything concrete about the murder, other than the fact that the woman was
poisoned, and was poisoned at some point between 7:00-9:00 on Friday morning. Any one of our ten suspects could have done the job at some point between 7:00-9:00.

The
time frame gave me some ideas. I told Lou to take it easy, that I needed to ask
a question of a few people. He asked me how long I would be gone. I figured he
was trying to see if he had enough time for a few Wii exercises.

I
began my questioning at the apartment next to the one we were in, Miss Jewell’s
place. I knocked on the door. The look on her face as she answered told me she
wished I would quit bothering her.

“Miss
Jewell, I have just a couple of questions for you. First, can you tell me if
you heard anyone coming back from the dining room Friday morning?”

“No.
But I was probably still eating at the time. Because I chose to eat in my room,
I was the last one served, or at least one of the last two.”

“So
you heard no one. No one on the roof, either, at that time or anytime later?”

“No,
but then I seldom hear anyone in the hall, and if Russell has ever used that
ladder to get down to the roof, I’m not aware of it. If he really did it, he was
quiet about it. And like I said, part of the time I was in the shower.”

“And
what time did you leave here to go shopping?”

“Were
you in your apartment all the time, or did you step out into the hall at any
time before you left to go out for the day?”

 “What
are you trying to say? You don’t think
I
murdered the woman?”

“I’m
not accusing you or anyone else at this point. I’m merely asking you a
question.”

“Okay,
so I was in the apartment, but I don’t have any way of proving it. No one was
here with me.”

“Does
anyone who lives here have a key to your apartment?”

“Yes,
if you must know, but don’t read anything into this. We trade keys so no one
gets locked out. Hilda Winters has one, so does Russell Cochran, plus the two
women who are away.”

“And
do you have a key to each of their apartments?”

“I
said we trade keys, so yes.”

“Miss
Jewell, is it possible that anyone could’ve been in your apartment while you
were in the shower?”

“You
asked that question before, and the answer is still ‘no.’ And I wouldn’t have seen
or heard anyone out on the roof. I had my blinds drawn. When I’m going to be
going out for the day, I don’t open them in the morning. Besides, I had my TV
on.”

“Well,
thank you for your time. I’m just out checking some things with a few people.”

“Well,
I hope you get through checking soon.”

“Me,
too.”

I
left her, hurried downstairs, looked to see if I could find Martha, the cook. I
found her leaving her apartment, on the way to the kitchen to fix supper. The
day was really getting away from me. I didn’t realize it was that late.

“What
do you want, Lieutenant? Want to see if my desserts tonight are worth staying
for?”

“Oh,
I’m sure they are, but we won’t be able to stay. I know everyone will be
heartbroken that we’ll be leaving soon.”

“I’m
sure, but none as heartbroken as Christine Hunt and me. So, what is it you want
with me? I assume I’m the one you came to see.”

“You’re
the only one worth coming to see.”

“Pardon
me a moment, Lieutenant, while I lift my feet.”

We
both laughed. The woman had changed. I sure hoped she wasn’t the one who did
it. Not that I was attracted to her. She was a good many years older than I.
Well, maybe a few years. Anyway, a man like myself didn’t want to burn too many
bridges between himself and a good cook. What if Rosie up and left? What would
I do?

“You
were saying, Lieutenant?”

“Oh,
I merely wanted to check with you to see what time each of the residents left
the dining room table on Friday morning.”

“I
thought we covered this already.”

“Well,
I was wondering if you might have an exact time for each one.”

“Well,
I didn’t look at the clock, but I have given this some thought. I think
Katherine and Hilda left the table around 7:25. Christine and Joanne were next, and they left not more than two or three minutes later.”

“So,
all four of them left the table before 7:30?”

“At
least by sometime around that time. But I can’t be sure fo the exact time.”

“Was
there anything different about the time everyone left the table and when each
one normally left the table?”

“I
think everyone left a little sooner than normal. All of them were going out,
well all of them except Katherine, so that might’ve had something to do with
it.”

“Well,
thanks for your help.”

“Oh,
Lieutenant, before you leave, we had a couple of extra pieces of German chocolate
cake left over from lunch. Would you like one?”

“I
think you could twist my arm.”

“And
what about one for the sergeant?”

“He
doesn’t… I mean sure.”

“Just
a second, and I’ll get them for you. And by the way, Lieutenant, if you like,
you can step outside the back door and eat yours and the sergeant’s piece, and
that way you won’t get crumbs all over the place.”

“I
think you’re right. I’m not much good at cleaning up after myself, and I
wouldn’t want to trouble the maids.”

“Yeah,
one of them told me how you troubled her before. I didn’t realize that she wore
a partial.”

I
grinned, a sheepish grin, like a boy whose mother caught him with his hand in
the cookie jar.

+++

I
scarfed down the cake and hurried to the elevator. My questions had taken a
little longer than I expected. I opened the door to the apartment. Lou was
sitting in a chair. I had no idea if he had Wiied.

“Where
have you been?”

The
tone of Lou’s question was one of curiosity, not of a parent upset with a tardy
teenager.

“Oh,
I had some questions for some of the people here.”

“Looks
like you’ve still got some of those questions on the side of your mouth, Cy.”

“Well,
I didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“So,
what did you find out?”

I
filled Lou in on what I’d asked; we sat to discuss it.

“So,
Lou, what does any of this tell you?”

“Nothing
for sure. I doubt if anyone used Elaine Jewell’s window, unless she was the one
who used it. I still don’t think that Russell Cochran scurried down that
ladder. And you?”

“I’m
inclined to agree with you.”

“One
other thing we have to remember. No one was on the floor from 7:30 until after 9:00, when the maids started cleaning.  All  the  staff were downstairs
eating. If enough TVs were on, someone could have knocked lightly on Mrs.
Higgins door and gotten in and out undetected.”

“You
have a point there. Let’s mull.”

I
sat down on the couch. No way I was going to lie down. I needed to think. We
still had the same suspects. Nothing anyone told us pointed toward any one
person or eliminated anyone. The ways the old woman could have died fluctuated,
depending upon how she might have been murdered. The marks on the window in the
storage area told us that someone had used the rope ladder at some point, but
when? Maybe whoever used it used it on some day other than the day of the
murder. But then other than to get to one of the second floor apartments, why
would someone use the rope ladder to get to the second floor. What’s wrong with
using the elevator and knocking on someone’s door? Russell Cochran was the only
one who had a reason to be secretive. Wasn’t he? I had gotten nowhere, so it
was time to move on. Later, after the residents had gone, someone could have
used Elaine Jewell’s apartment and the roof to get to the apartment next door,
but then if someone did, wouldn’t Wally have seen him or her? Unless that
someone was Wally. If someone other than Miss Jewell had used her window, but
didn’t return through her apartment, it meant that they would have had to have
left the window unlocked. If Miss Jewell used it, she could have relocked the
window on her return. Did anyone use Elaine Jewell’s apartment to get to the
one the murdered woman lived in? And if so, why? The woman was already dead.

I
had an idea. I looked at my watch. It was only a few minutes until the
residents would be going down to supper. While I didn’t want to go back to Miss
Jewell and ask her if I could see her windows, I could wait until she went down
for supper, then sneak out onto the flat roof and see if her windows were
locked. At 5:20, I opened the door into the hallway. I didn’t care about anyone
other than Miss Jewell. No one else could see  me  out  on  the  roof,  but
just in case Miss Jewell’s blinds were open, or she heard me walking on the
roof, I wanted to wait until she was gone.

I
stood in the open doorway, looking down at the carpet. I would have bent over,
but then I didn’t want Lou to know how much easier he could get up than I
could, even if I clutched the door facing. A couple of minutes later, Miss
Winters came out of her apartment and rounded the corner. Shortly after Miss
Winters rounded the corner, headed to the elevator, Miss Jewell opened her
door. Miss Winters smiled when I smiled at her. Miss Jewell did not. I gave
Miss Jewell a couple of minutes before I stepped back into the apartment and
shut the door. I walked across the floor, opened a window, and stepped out onto
the flat roof. I looked down upon the backyard. I saw no one. Slowly I walked
across the roof toward Miss Jewell’s apartment. I could barely hear my
footsteps. I hoped no one else could hear them at all. I had arrived at the
first of Miss Jewell’s windows. I stepped right next to the window and looked
down to see if it was locked. I’m not sure which happened next, but either I
saw Miss Jewell standing there, or I heard her scream. Whichever one it was, it
would have been hard to measure the time between when the woman screamed and
when the thud of my body landed upon the flat roof.

I
was thankful that the roof was flat. Had it not have been, a week or so later,
after my funeral and a decent mourning period, Lou would have been talking to
Heather, explaining to her everything he knew about the case. All of this ran
through my mind as I lay there, listening to the repeated screams of an old
biddy inside, an old biddy who would have been better off if she hadn’t
returned to her apartment before dinner.

As
far as I could tell, the throbbing ribs weren’t the same ones the linebacker
maid dissected a few days earlier. Those had started to heal. My next thought,
after the one I had about drawing my gun and silencing the woman inside, was to
realize that rising up from ones knees while holding on to a door facing is
much easier that pushing oneself up from a roof while gritting your teeth in
case  it helped the pain.  It’s  possible that I hit my head as I fell, judging
from my next move. No, I didn’t roll off the roof and land on the ground below.
Instead, I rolled across the roof, hoping if I made it to Mrs. Higgins’
apartment I could lift myself far enough that I could clutch onto the window
sill and slither back into the apartment. Once inside, as I lay on the couch,
hoping that doing so would eliminate my pain, I thought about asking God if He
would fix it so that Hazel Allnut and Elaine Jewell committed the murder
together.  If only I had done this outside of Christine Hunt’s apartment, at
least I would be lying on her floor with lipstick smears all over my face. Any
screams from her would have been screams of joy.

A
couple of days later, after my broken bones had healed enough that I could get
up off the couch with Lou’s help, my hunger pangs were so severe that I
stumbled to the door, ready to leave. I asked Lou to go first, with his gun
drawn, and told him if anyone opened the door of the next apartment, that he
should shoot first and clean up the mess afterward.