“Of course not. I followed her in when she returned from lunch, right after I called you from the reception desk. Fortunately, Ophah hadn't returned and wasn't there to see me use her phone. And I had a legitimate question for Carol regarding housekeeping. But I was afraid she wasn't going to make it back from lunch before the bridge club started. I almost thought it was too late to call you.”
“It almost was. It's a good thing we synchronized our watches. We're getting good at this.”
“I have more information,” Tess said. “Dutifully following your orders, I talked to Joe.”
“What did he say?”
“Joe told me the fire alarm that was set off is the one near the reception desk,” Tess said. “You have to reset it manually to stop the alarm.”
“Good work,” I said.
“Listen, that's not all. Because of your interest in Carol, I checked with her secretary. Carol was in a meeting in her conference room all morning of the day Gerald was killed.”
“Which is near the reception desk.”
“The meeting ended about noon…”
“Which is when the bridge club started, back in the days when it included lunch. And when Ellen made a call on her cell phone the day Gerald died. And when the fire alarm went off.”
“Right. Do I get my gold star?”
“Two of them.”
But my euphoria resulting from finding out that Carol and Ellen knew each other better than I had suspected and that Carol might have some involvement in Gerald's murder was already fading, as we sat in Tess' living room after the bridge club. I had more circumstantial evidence that a crime had been committed, but as usual nothing I could take to the police.
“I don't understand why you think Carol might have a part in this,” Tess said. “Why would she want to see Gerald dead? Does it have something to do with the gift to Silver Acres in his will?”
I couldn't tell Tess that Carol might be an embezzler because of my promise to Wesley. I said, “It does, but don't worry about it for the moment. Think about the fire alarm; who gave us the all clear afterward so we could go back inside.”
“Carol did. I remember distinctly; she came out of the same door we did-the one across the hall from the recreation room.”
“That's what I remember, too.”
“Joe told me Carol's job when the fire alarm rings is the same as his-to see that everybody gets out of the building. She must have walked from her office toward the recreation room, checking to see that anybody in the rooms along the way was exiting the building. One reason that's important is because some of our inmates are deaf and might not hear the alarm.”
“Because they're not wearing their hearing aids.” This remark was aimed at Tess, who sometimes forgot hers. My brain, after a layoff, was working again. “How soon after the fire alarm went off did she tell us it was okay to reenter the building?”
“Not long. Less than five minutes.”
I got up and paced up and down. “Assuming that Carol was at or near her office when the alarm when off, would she have had time to walk to the recreation room, back to her office and then return to the recreation room again before she told us we could go inside?”
“No,” Tess said, positively. “Not if she checked all the rooms.”
“Now for he $64 question. Was she holding anything in her hands when she told us we could go in?”
“Not that I can recall.”
“Nor I.” I stopped in front of Tess. “One of our biggest problems in proving that a murder was committed is that a bowl that might have contained shellfish was never found. Remember, that when the doctor took the casserole dish to analyze, it was the only dish there? There were paper plates for veggies and cookies, but that was it.”
“Right. But are you telling me Carol might have put the shellfish in the casserole?”
“Let's assume that's a possibility. If the shellfish was put into the casserole during the fire drill, who would have had the best opportunity to do it?”
“Carol.”
“And even if one of our other suspects had snuck back into the building, Carol might have caught her at it. In which case it would have come out unless Carol was in cahoots with her.”
“You're boggling my mind, Lil.”
I laughed. “Sorry. Let's concentrate on the question of what happened to the dish that contained the shellfish.”
“Maybe the murderer just tossed it in the trash can.”
“But remember, for some reason there was no trash can in the rec room that day. All the paper plates were piled up on the serving table, along with the napkins and plastic utensils.”
“You're right; I remember there was quite a mess.”
“Come on, Tess, we have a job to do.”
“The only job I have remaining on my agenda for today is dinner.”
“We have to go back to the recreation room.”
“Oh, my poor legs! Lil, you're going to be the death of me yet.”
CHAPTER 26
“It would help if you told me what we're looking for,” Tess said, peevishly. “If there ever was a dish left in here the person leaving it would have come back and retrieved it long since.”
“Unless she couldn't.” I looked around the recreation room, trying to think like a murderer who had to hide evidence in a hurry. Maybe Tess was right. She, whoever she was, could have stashed a small dish behind one of the folding chairs stacked in the corner. It might not have been noticed in the confusion. Then she could have come back and taken it after the hubbub had died down. If so, it was long gone.
I remembered Joe doing his measurements for the replacement of heating ducts that ran under the floor. I saw several vents set in holes in the carpet, situated along the walls. I went to the one nearest the serving table and carefully knelt down in front of it, my old knees creaking in protest. The rectangular metal vent didn't seem to be attached to anything; it just sat on the carpet. I worked my fingers under it and lifted. After some tugging I pulled it right out of the hole.
I could see down the hot-air duct a few feet to where it curved and disappeared from sight. Several tattered cobwebs lined the shaft, but it was clear of anything else. I could picture a small Tupperwear container bouncing down it. Then I spotted a smudge of something near the top of the metal side of the shaft that didn't belong. I summoned Tess to come over.
She rose, protesting, from a bridge chair, and hobbled over to me. But she absolutely refused to get down on her knees. “If I do it will take a construction crane to get me up again.”
“If I'm not mistaken,” I said, “this is the remains of some kind of food. We've got to go talk to Joe.”
Tess looked at her watch. “It's almost five o'clock. He's probably about to leave for the day.”
“All the more reason to hurry.”
“But his office is near Carol's. She might see you.”
“I'll have to take that chance.”
Joe's office was smaller than Carol's and not as tidy. Rolls of blueprints leaned against one corner of the wall. His desk was piled high with papers, in no discernible pattern. A photograph stood out from the mess, depicting three children, two girls and a boy, with hair as dark as his.
His rugged good looks reminded me of my own late husband, Milt, except that Milt had been as fair as Joe was dark. If any of the residents of Silver Acres had looked like Joe I would have considered having an affair, but as it was a long generation yawned between him and me and it might as well have been the distance to the nearest star.
He wore a clean and ironed work shirt, short-sleeved, of course, that revealed his muscles. His name was sewn onto the front in cursive writing. He grinned at Tess as we walked into his office and said, “Hiya, Tess. We got the roof leaks fixed in those apartments on the west side.”
“I know,” Tess said. “Several of the residents told me what a good job your men did.”