“Patty?” I asked, mesmerized by the way his thumbs danced on the virtual keyboard.
“I guess. She didn’t say.” He finally looked up from his texting. “Well Smoky the Bear, if you’re ready to help me, I’ve really got better things to do than sit around yakking about a couple of old women.”
A year ago I would have told him where he could put the treadmill, but ever since Julie died I no longer let rude people upset me. She taught me that life really is too short to get upset over ignorant people, so I bit my tongue and counted to ten instead.
***
I waited until Jon was gone before calling Bonnie to see if she needed a ride home.
“Thanks, Jake, you’re a sweetheart, but it will be too late. I’m helping Patty inventory the store.”
That didn’t surprise me, for Bonnie would help anyone who asked. “Why’s she doing that?”
“She came into some money and wants to buy the place. It broke her heart when she sold the store in Boulder, and now she has a chance to get back to what she loves the most.”
“I’ll be up awhile splicing a tape back together that Fred found at Renfield’s. Call me when you’re ready to come home.”
“Craig Renfield’s? What were you doing there?” A voice in the background told me she was using the speaker mode.
“Anyone there besides Patty?”
“No, Jake. Now tell me why you went there.”
I wasn’t sure who was listening, and didn’t want some total stranger to think I went around scrounging through trash cans, so I blamed it on Fred. “Wilson told me that Renfield had Julie’s book, so I had to see if it was true. He wasn’t home, but when Fred took off chasing a cat into the backyard, I went chasing him. That’s when he found the tape.”
“And you think its tape from your camcorder?”
“What else could it be?”
“An old Alice Cooper tape that wore out after forty years. Craig Renfield strikes me as the type who likes decapitating chickens.” I could hear Patty giggle at the remark.
“Decapitating chickens?” I asked.
Bonnie laughed. “Before your time, sonny. Alice Cooper was a rock star who used to behead live chickens on stage.”
“Ask him, Bonnie,” Patty asked.
“Jake, did you ever retrieve Shelia’s copy of Tom Sawyer? Patty said it might be worth a fortune.”
“Yes, Bon. You can tell her it’s safe. Fred and I dug it up some time ago.” I wanted to know why Patty was so interested, but I also wanted to get to work on the camcorder tape, so I didn’t ask.
Bonnie said something to her friend I couldn’t make out before coming back online. “Patty would like to see it when you pick me up tomorrow. Do you mind?”
“Sure. I mean, I don’t mind, but I didn’t tell you the best part about our trip to Renfield’s. I saw a poster for a missing girl who could have been Shelia’s twin. And when I was going through the trash, I swear I saw a curtain move in the house. I think you’re right about the body double, and it was probably Shelia watching us. Once I get this tape back together, we should have all the proof we need to show it was Shelia who broke into your house, and planted evidence to frame you.”
There was a long pause. I checked my phone to see if I had lost the signal. “Bon? Are you there?”
“Sorry, Jake. Patty was talking in my other ear. She says she knows someone who can put the tape back together, and you shouldn’t try it yourself, or you may ruin it. She’ll gladly pay to have it done.”
Now it was my turn to pause. Obviously, they didn’t think I was capable of splicing the tape back together, and maybe they were right. “Okay, Bon. We’ll let the pros have a stab at it before I make a complete mess.”
“Thanks, Jake. And get some rest. I’ll call you in the morning to come and get us.”
***
Patience never was my best virtue. I had no intention of waiting to see what was on the tape. I had it back together in less than an hour, but didn’t have any way of viewing it without my camcorder. Then I remembered a converter I used to use so many years ago. It was a VHS cartridge that held a mini DV cassette and allowed it to be played in a VHS player. All I had to do was find the player and converter.
***
Somewhere around two in the morning I saw who had really tried to frame Bonnie, and knew why Patty wanted the tape so badly.
My first reaction was to run down to the bookstore, but I decided to call the cops first. It was late, and Lakewood said they would have an officer call me back when one was available, so I did the next best thing and called Deputy White. I knew it was out of his jurisdiction, but Appleton and the murdered kids weren’t.
White wasn’t in either, so I left a long voice mail describing Fred’s find and my deduction of who had been doing all the killing.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Bonnie was surprised to see us when Fred and I showed up at the bookstore, but Patty wasn’t. The lines in her forehead, and frown on her face painted a picture of complete despair.
“You know, don’t you, Jake?” Patty asked after letting us in.
Bonnie stood there with her mouth open.
“The tape, Bon. I thought it was odd that Patty didn’t want me to see what was on it.”
Turning to Patty, I continued. “If you had ever had children, you would know the fastest way to get them to do something is to tell them not to do it.”
I finished by speaking to Bonnie. “It was Patty who planted evidence to frame you, and guess who was waiting for her in his beat-up Toyota?”
“Craig Renfield? They were in it together?” Bonnie had found her voice. “Why, Patty? I thought I was your best friend.”
“No, not Renfield,” I said, before Patty could speak. “He doesn’t have the brains to weave such a web. I think he was hired help. The real mastermind is Paul Wilson, isn’t it, Patty?”
Patty nodded her head and started to speak, but sobbed instead. I motioned toward some comfortable reading chairs and waited for the women to take a seat. She wiped her face with a tissue she must have had in her skirt pocket.
“Have you ever wanted something so bad you’d be willing to kill for it?” Patty asked.
Before anyone could answer, she turned toward Bonnie, and continued. “I’m so sorry, Bon. You know how much the store in Boulder meant to me. I thought the money Paul promised me would let me start over. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Bonnie’s astonishment quickly turned to rage. Eyes that were larger than quarters a moment earlier were now smaller than a dime. “You set me up for Shelia’s murder?” She was nearly screaming.
Fred must have sensed how upset Bonnie was, and went over to her, and put his head on her lap. She instantly calmed down. “I’m sorry, Freddie. Did I scare you?”
He answered the best he could, with sad, forlorn eyes, while keeping his tail between his legs.
She reached out to rub his ears while turning to me. “I don’t understand, Jake. Why would Wilson bribe her to frame me for murder?”
“That’s not why he was paying her off. Is it, Patty?” I asked.
“No.” she answered without looking up.
I stood up, realizing it must have made me a look like a caricature from an old black and white murder movie, but spoke anyway. “Wilson paid her to get Shelia’s book, and when she wouldn’t sell, Patty killed her for it.”
I looked over for confirmation and took her silence for a yes. “Like she said, she was willing to kill to get back into the book business, and Shelia just happened to be in the way.”
Patty finally looked up. “I didn’t mean to. She was just so nasty to me, and kept calling me filthy names. She screamed for me to leave, and then picked up her nail file and threatened me. I grabbed her arm and tripped over something. The next thing I knew she was lying on the floor with the file in her neck.”