Murder by Yew (An Edna Davies Mystery #1)(62)



“Who, Dee?”

He nodded. “I’m an ex-con, out on parole. If the folks in town knew, they wouldn’t let my sister near their homes.”

“But Housekeeper Helper clients are the ones who’ve been robbed,” Edna said, not certain she understood his reasoning. “If you didn’t want to hurt her business, why steal from people she cleans for?”

“Yeah, I know it don’t make no sense,” he grunted, still looking between his knees at the floor,“ but it was easy to get Bev talking about the people she works for. I could find out what places were going to be empty and for how long. I copied her keys. I got a machine does that. Then I put ‘em back before she missed them.” He groaned and held his head. “She’s gonna kill me when she finds out.”

“And this arrangement was just between Dee and you?” Edna wasn’t quite convinced of Beverly Lewis’s innocence. After all, she had been with this little group at Quincy Market.

“Yeah.” Shoes turned his head to look at her. “Dee was my sister’s first customer when Bev set herself up here. The woman who used to clean this place quit when Dee married the old guy. Guess the new Mrs. Tolkheim didn’t get along with …“ He hesitated. “I think her name was Shaffer. So Dee hired Bev. Then, when the Shaffer dame retired, people started wantin’ Housekeeper Helpers to come work for them.”

Edna remembered Tuck telling her how surprised everyone was when Muriel Shaffer moved to Florida. Now, it looked as if Dee might have had a hand in that decision, as well. “So why would she threaten you?” Parts of the story still didn’t sound right to her.

“I’m trying to tell you.” He sounded exasperated. “When I got paroled a few months ago, Bev told me she thought she could get work for me with her customers, you know, offer them a kind of extended service. She would find something needed fixin’ at a house and offer ‘em my services. I’m pretty handy, you know.” Edna heard a note of pride in his voice.

“But you’re stealing from these people, you and your sister and Dee and Zach.”

“No.” Shoes pushed himself off the stair, turned around and bent toward her, angry. “It isn’t like that. I told you, Bev doesn’t know anything about it.”

“Then why was she with you in Boston? My daughter has pictures of you and her sitting at an outside café with Zach and Dee.” Guessing Dee was the fourth person, Edna didn’t try to suppress her own anger, but she kept her voice low, not wanting to draw the attention of the two upstairs. Did Shoes take her for a fool?

“That was Dee’s idea. She knew I wouldn’t say anything, not in front of my sister, so she invited Bev to come to Boston and have lunch with us when we were supposed to be meeting with Zach. She was showing me she could tell my sister all about it anytime she wanted, and there was nothing I could do. That was after I told her I wasn’t going to move any more stolen paintings or get her any more keys.”

“How did Dee know you’d been in prison?”

Shoes scuffed the toe of one sneaker along the dirt floor. “That was my fault. I was out here on a job and got to talking with her. Guess I let something slip, and she starts asking me questions until I told her about my rap sheet for B and E.”

“B and E?” Edna asked.

“Breakin’ and enterin’.”

Edna was silent for a minute, beginning to understand a little of how Dee might think. Maybe she was afraid she had gone too far that day in Boston and thought keeping Shoes out of town for a while would cool him off. Then another thought occurred to her. “When did you get back to town?”

“Late Sunday. Why?”

“Was it you who broke into my house and scared me half to death?”

“Yeah, that was me and Dee. Only you wasn’t supposed to be home,” he said, sounding defensive and accusatory at the same time.

“Why did you break in? What were you after?”

“Nothing. Dee just wanted to know what it felt like, you know, to break into someone’s house. She told me you were away. It sounded weird to me, but … ” He shrugged. “I don’t question those that are paying me.”

Edna felt a new surge of anger, aimed solely at Dee this time. She knew Edna had come home Sunday morning. She’d had lunch with Mary and Edna, most likely scheming right then how to frighten Edna. “Who broke into my daughter’s home and studio? Who stole the pictures and negatives?”

“I don’t know.” The whine in his tone had returned. “Some guy works for Zach. Somehow Dee found out about the pictures this broad … uh, I mean, your daughter had taken and told Zach to get rid of them and any negatives.”

Just then, Edna heard a key being turned in the lock at the top of the stairs. Flicking off her light, she leaped to her feet as the door swung open.

“Well, isn’t this cozy.” Zach was outlined in the doorway. His tone turned harsh as he glowered at them. “What’re you doing just standing there? You started looking for the kid yet?”

Edna felt suddenly giddy, remembering the punch line from an old joke, something about, “We’re looking here because this is where the light is,” as she heard Shoes whimper.

“We were talking.”

“Yes,” Edna cut in quickly, not wanting him to give anything away. “We thought if Danny heard my voice, he might come out of hiding.” She didn’t know how much Zach or Shoes knew about Danny and his hearing problem but doubted it was more than she knew herself.

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