4 Murder at Breakfast Read online

  We continued our falderal until we pulled into the Parkway Arms parking lot. Dan and Heather were already there, talking to each other. I wished that I could have gone back home, just in case they progressed to the kissing stage, but then I had never seen a cop kiss another cop on duty. Off duty, either, which is good, because most of the cops I know are guys. I sat there watching them until some guy asked me to move my clunker out of the way. So, George had arrived. The party of five had arrived and were ready to be seated.

  It wasn’t quite 6:45, so I filled in the rest of the group on what we would be doing. I would be doing most of the doing. They were there to see that no one escaped, or worse yet, tried to do bodily harm to me or anyone else.

  We opened the door, which I was sure someone had just unlocked, and stepped inside. Martha saw who it was and used some of her recently acquired humor.

  “I’m sorry, but the policeman’s ball is being held in the next block.”

  Margaret Draper overheard the cook and went up and whispered something in her ear. More than likely, it was that one of those cops has a rich mother who might be interested in the recent vacancy. At least, once Margaret stepped away Martha changed her decorum and asked all of us to take a seat until everything was ready. George walked over and told the two officers who had been on night duty that it was okay for them to leave.

  The dining room table didn’t allow for five guests at one time, and we didn’t want Wally to have to put up an additional table, so we decided that we would have three officers eat with the residents and three eat with the staff. Since there were only five of us, I voted myself as the one most likely to eat with both groups and I would put up with whatever abuse I would get later. Our ruse was that George was there to see about a place for his mother, so he, Lou, and I ate with the residents. Rank has its privileges.

  Martha announced that we could go ahead, and since none of the residents were down yet, the three of us didn’t have to wait on the womenfolk. Naturally, Lou went last, and he had just stepped away with his fruit and cereal when Hilda Winters walked into the dining room.

  “Well, Lieutenant, back again. I didn’t think you’d show your face here again after one of the residents accused you of police brutality.”

  “I think it was the other way around. When I’m looking in someone’s window, I don’t expect them to be looking back at me. Especially, when they’re so ugly.” I whispered the last part to Miss Winters, and she laughed.

  It was a speaking of the devil moment, because the next person to appear was Elaine Jewell. She looked at me and snorted, then turned to Martha and said, “I think I’ll have my breakfast in my apartment today.”

  I spoke up.

  “I’m afraid that’s impossible. All of us will be dining together. You aren’t even allowed to sit in the kitchen.”

  My remark didn’t go over too well, but the next comments I received were quite different. Christine Hunt and Joanne Moberly entered together. Mrs. Hunt saw me and smiled.

  “Well, Lieutenant, how nice to see you. You must have gotten my note about spending the night.”

  For the second time since we arrived at the dining room table, George turned to me with a questioning look on his face. Not only would I have to explain looking in someone’s window, but another woman’s amorous advances. At least no one had mentioned that I fell while on the roof, so I could skip that minor detail.

  A couple of minutes later, Russell Cochran arrived, and our group was complete. George, Lou, and I sat together at one end of the table and didn’t interact with any of the others. George tried his best to get me to satisfy his curiosity, but I told him later. I was hoping he would forget. I figured the chances of my getting a Wii were far greater than George forgetting about my escapades.

  I was sure that Elaine Jewell set a speed record for eating breakfast. In a few minutes she got up to leave. I stood up to inform her, and the others, that I would be speaking to the group as a whole after everyone finished breakfast, and that no one was allowed to leave the room. I expected a tirade, but instead Miss Jewell seemed nervous. So did a couple of the others. As far as I knew, nine of the ten people that would eventually eat breakfast there had nothing to worry about.

  Miss Jewell quietly slipped away to where Dan Davis told her she could be seated. Everyone at the table knew that something was afoot, so they kept eating as long as possible. A little before 8:00, the chairs were empty except for the one I occupied. I could tell that some of the residents had misunderstood when I continued to sit there as the staff came in. Wally came in once, then turned away when he saw that the residents were still downstairs, but we motioned for him to come on in and get some food. A couple of minutes later, the two maids arrived together, and they too had to be told it was okay to go ahead and eat. None of the last three to arrive could understand why all the residents were still downstairs, and I did nothing to enlighten them. I didn’t eat quite as much at the second breakfast, since I would be speaking to everyone as soon as the last person finished eating and we could arrange enough seats around the dining room table. Wally finished first, and I repeated what I had told the first bunch. My comments seemed to unnerve most of the people present. As the last person was about to finish, I called Wally over and asked him to get a couple more chairs. There were eight chairs at the table, and there were ten people who needed to be seated. I sent Dan with him as he went for the chairs.

  37

  “I can tell by the rousing ovation how excited all of you are to see me back today. I’m not sure how many of you will be excited, but an hour from now nine of the ten of you will be relieved to see me walk out that door, because I will be gone and I doubt if I’ll be back. However, one of you won’t be so relieved, because we’ll be taking one of you with us and that one won’t be coming back.

  “A week ago last night, Sgt. Murdock and I were summoned to Parkway Arms because a woman died. Two days later, we’d learn what we thought all along, that she’d been murdered, poisoned. Once we learned that, Sgt. Murdock and I tore into this case with all we had. You might have heard that most murderers get caught, because most murderers make a mistake. This time the murderer made two mistakes. The first mistake was leaving a tray of half-eaten food in Mrs. Higgins’ apartment, making it look like the food on that tray killed her. The second mistake was planning the murder on the day the two maids were shampooing the hall carpet. Oh, this might have worked out okay, if it wasn’t for the tray of half-eaten food and a couple of missing items that shouldn’t have been missing. See, we learned early on that Mrs. Higgins was poisoned, and was poisoned sometime between 7:00-9:00, and died sometime between 7:30-9:30. That means she didn’t die from eating her lunch. She was poisoned before breakfast, at breakfast, or shortly after breakfast. That means that whoever murdered her gave her something with poison in it before breakfast, stirred some poison into her orange juice, poisoned the end of the butter before they handed it to her, handed her a mint on the way back to her apartment, stopped by to say ‘hi’ and offer her an after breakfast treat, or left something in her room, like an piece of candy or a tube of toothpaste laced with poison. There were many ways the murderer could’ve poisoned her, but only two hours in which it could’ve been done. Unless someone had prepared the way on Thursday night. Because there were so many possible ways the woman could’ve been murdered, and so many places it could’ve happened, it took us a while before we could narrow the suspect list. That’s the reason we were around so much, and why we left the place guarded most of the time. We weren’t sure which one of you did it, and if whoever it was would try to escape. It was easy to see how she could’ve been murdered if someone did it at the dining room table. The only thing was would someone have done it in front of that many witnesses? And what if someone murdered her in her apartment? Did someone use a key to get in, or sneak in from the window? And if someone did sneak in through the window, whose apartment did this person come from, his or her own, someone else’s, or the area where the ladder i
s usually stored? Or could it be that someone knocked on the door and she admitted him or her, not knowing why that person was there? With so much to consider, I must say that it was quite a while before we could narrow the field.

  “So what was the motive? Most people don’t kill for the fun of it. There must have been a motive. But was there? Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s look at the only two motives we were able to come up with. One, it could’ve been possible that someone here wasn’t too happy that Mrs. Higgins and Mr. Cochran were seeing so much of each other. Could it be that someone else was interested in Mr. Cochran? Possibly. Or could it be that someone knew that he or she had been mentioned in Mrs. Higgins’ will and wanted the money sooner, rather than later? Or maybe she was murdered because she failed to give her niece her money when she wanted it?

  “I can’t tell you the exact amounts of the will, her attorney will have to do that at the reading of the will, but I have received permission from him to reveal the names of those mentioned in her will, and possible amounts of money each one might receive. She left money to those who took care of her. She left between $25,000-50,000 to her maid, Margie Washburn, the handyman, Wally Gentry, the cook, Martha Carpenter, and the manager of Parkway Arms, Margaret Draper. In addition to that, she left between $50,000-100,000 to her friend, Hilda Winters, and between $100,000-200,000 to another friend, Russell Cochran. The bulk of her estate she left to her niece, Cindy Bradshaw, provided that she can be found within ninety days. If found, and eligible to receive from the estate, Miss Bradshaw will inherit somewhere around $1,000,000.”

  I paused for a moment and looked at the ten people sitting in a semicircle facing me. Eight of the ten were crying. I got the response I wanted. It wouldn’t be much longer until I learned if I would get a confession. It was time to apply some pressure.

  “Mrs. Hunt, I see that you’re one of only two people here who have failed to shed a tear. Can you tell me why?”

  “I think you know why, Lieutenant. You know I didn’t like the woman, and I seem to be one of the few people present who wasn’t mentioned in her will.”

  “Could it be that many of the others treated her better than you did?

  “Mrs. Moberly, you are the other member of our illustrious group who has remained emotionless. Care to tell me why?”

  “I think Christine spoke for me, too.”

  “Maybe you should speak for yourself sometime.

  “Miss Jewell, you weren’t mentioned, still you shed a few tears. Why, Miss Jewell?”

  “I wasn’t that close to Mrs. Higgins, still I didn’t dislike her, as some here do. I felt moved that she remembered those who cared for her, and those she cared for.”

  “Miss Adams, since you are the only other person present not mentioned in her will, I’ll move on to you next.”

  “Like the lady said, she left money to those who did for her, and to her friends. I wasn’t her maid, the handyman, the cook, or the manager, and I didn’t really know the woman, so I wasn’t expecting her to leave me anything. I just feel happy that she appreciated those who did something for her.”

  “Mrs. Washburn, you were her maid. Why are you crying?”

  “I had no idea she’d leave me anything. I didn’t do anything special for her, just what I did for everyone else. No one has ever mentioned me in their will before. I’m just overcome.”

  “Mr. Gentry, care to go next.”

  “I’m not one who usually cries, and I guess the only reason I am is because I couldn’t help it when I saw everyone else crying. I’m used to people doing me bad. I’m just the handyman here. I can’t believe that she left me money, and especially that much money. I don’t know what to say, except that I’m grateful.”

  “Miss Carpenter, what about you?”

  “I’ve been cooking for people for years, and while I’ve had a lot of compliments on my food, I’ve never had anyone remember me in their will. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”

  “Miss Draper, did you know she was leaving you some money?”

  “No, Lieutenant, I didn’t. I have been mentioned in someone’s will before, but not for such a large amount, and not a resident of some place I managed. I too don’t know what to say.”

  “Miss Winters, you were her friend. Had she ever told you that she’d mentioned you in her will?”

  “No, Lieutenant, and unlike most of these people, I really don’t need the money that much, but I’m deeply touched that the friend I cared for so much, the friend who confided in me and I in her, let me know how much she cared for me by this gracious act.”

  “Mr. Cochran, I saved you for last. What do you have to say?”

  “I don’t know what to say, except that I loved her, and I miss her so much. You don’t know how tough the last few days have been for me. Oh, due to a change in the economy, I do need the money, but I’d trade every penny to have her back. She meant more to me than any amount of money, and now all I have of her are memories. No more times together at this table. No more nighttime visits in her apartment, or mine. Just memories. I’d rather have the opportunity to make more memories than to have enough money to last me the rest of my life.”

  I let the silence prevail for thirty seconds or so. Thirty seconds that must have seemed like minutes to many of those sitting there. After everyone had fidgeted enough, I continued.

  “I asked and all ten of you answered my question. As best I can tell, nine of you answered me truthfully, but one of you lied to me. And I know which one it was. For many days, Sgt. Murdock and I have tried to make sense of this senseless act. We sifted through clues and stumbled over some obstacles the murderer put in our way. But, as I said earlier, along the way, the murderer made a couple of mistakes. If the murderer had never entered the victim’s apartment after the murder, I’m not sure we would’ve figured out who did it this soon.

  “Mrs. Higgins was either murdered at breakfast or someone entered her apartment and murdered her there. Then, the murderer returned later to stage how we would find the victim when that time finally came. Things might have worked out better for the murderer if this person decided to murder Mrs. Higgins on some day other than the day when the maids shampooed the carpet and most of the residents had left the complex.

  “On Monday we received the report and learned that Mrs. Higgins was not poisoned by the partially eaten food that sat before her when we found her, not poisoned by the piece of cheesecake we found in her refrigerator, and not poisoned by the toothpaste or toothbrush removed from the premises. While all of that is true, that was part of the murderer’s downfall. Many things about this case puzzled us. Two of them were what happened to Russell Cochran’s lunch tray, and why did he tell us he had a toothbrush in the murdered woman’s apartment, if he indeed didn’t have one there.

  “Now, I can answer those questions, and I will answer them for you. While Mrs. Higgins hurried through another breakfast meal, the murderer entered her apartment and laced her tube of toothpaste with poison. When the victim returned a few minutes later and brushed her teeth, she had no idea that she had only thirty more minutes to live. Like everyone here, the murderer knew that Mrs. Higgins always brushed her teeth as soon as she returned to her apartment after each meal, and that morning was no different. If by some strange reason she failed to brush her teeth, there was no problem. No one saw the murderer enter or leave the apartment, so it meant only that the first attempt failed, and there would be other opportunities. After lacing the toothpaste with poison, the murderer went about plans already made for the rest of the day.

  “As a matter of fact, everyone had plans. Some to work. Some to shop. We all know what everyone’s plans were for that day. Wally Gentry would be working in the flower beds. Martha Carpenter would be resting in her apartment, between cooking and cleaning up after each meal. Margaret Draper would be going about her job of managing the apartment building. And Margie Washburn and Ginny Adams would be shampooing the carpet. All of the residents would be out shopping. At least all of the residen
ts except for Russell Cochran and Katherine Higgins. Russell was sick, and Katherine would soon be dying. Actually, she was dead before any of you went about his or her business of the day. Well, any of you except for Martha, who had fixed breakfast for everyone.

  “We already know how Mrs. Higgins was murdered. Now, let me tell you more. The murderer wanted to muddle the picture, so she provided as many false clues as possible. She wanted us to think that she descended from the third floor by using a rope ladder, but the rope ladder in question had been in a storage compartment in the basement for a few days before the murder. The murderer left us a partially eaten plate of food. Why? I don’t know. The murderer even ate part of that food. That was part of her undoing. Why someone who had eaten a plate of food that had been setting around for hours might get food poison. But then the food didn’t set around for hours. Only two people could have entered the victim’s apartment while the maids were shampooing. Well, only two could have entered it without the benefit of a rope ladder. One of those two had a ladder of his own. The other one had a key. But the key didn’t work, because Mrs. Higgins had put the latch on her front door. No problem. The murderer also had a key to the apartment next door. So, as quickly as she could, she left her shampooer, dashed through Elaine Jewell’s apartment, unlocked and opened the window, and tiptoed across the roof and into the victim’s apartment, using the window she knew was always left open for the man upstairs. Margie rushed in, removed the victim’s lunch from the dumbwaiter, hurriedly ate a few bites, then located the victim, sat her in a chair, and lowered her face into that plate of food. Then, she went to the bathroom, removed a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste she brought with her, squirted some of that new tube of toothpaste into the sink, and then brushed her teeth. Then, she removed the poisoned tube of toothpaste, and two toothbrushes, including one which Russell Cochran had there, for when he was in her apartment and wanted to brush his teeth. After cracking the door a bit to make sure Ginny wasn’t close by, she dashed out the front door, and into the apartment next door, where she pushed the dumbwaiter button, and brought up the empty tray of food from where Russell had sent it back downstairs. She proceeded to hide the tray somewhere where Elaine Jewell wouldn’t look, until she, Margie, could come back on her next cleaning day to retrieve the tray, plate, and glass. Then, she hurried back to the hall and resumed shampooing the carpet, going as quickly as she could, so she could finish before Ginny. For some reason I can’t fathom, she returned after the carpet had dried, entered the victim’s apartment and secured the latch, and hid there until Margaret Draper came to find out why Mrs. Higgins didn’t come down for dinner. As soon as she knew that the manager had left, she hurried out the door, rushed down the hall to her own apartment, from which she emerged a few minutes later and headed downstairs to her own dinner.