Chapter 15 #3
“Yeah,… you and me both,” he agreed. “That’s when you wonder about getting married at all. I was married years ago and was thinking I might jump back into that whole dating game, but now I need to rethink it.”
Simon chuckled. “I don’t think women are all quite so crazy as she is. But, if you find one who’s a spoiled shopaholic, like Bartlett’s wife,” he suggested, “you should know better and run.”
“Yeah, I wonder whether we ever really know better, or we think it’s not so bad, or that we’ll fix it, change it, whatever,” he added, with a snort.
“I don’t know,” Simon countered. “You need to find somebody whose values align with yours, someone willing to give when giving is the thing to do.”
“Yeah, I haven’t found that person yet,” the attorney shared, with a chuckle. “I hope for your sake that you have.”
And, with that, he rang off, leaving Simon smiling and staring up at the building he’d just bought, the second one today of all things. The more he thought about this warehouse, the more he realized that maybe he would do something with a social benefit here.
He just wasn’t sure how he would make any money on that.
The existing warehouse needed to come down first of all, and he would deal with coming up with a plan for the site later.
However, until the cops released this crime scene—and the city issued a formal condemnation of this warehouse—he wouldn’t demo anything just yet.
The city inspector had already shown up to condemn it, as expected, and, when Simon had told him that the police weren’t done with it yet, the inspector rolled his eyes.
“That’s great. No point in my condemning a building that I can’t keep them out of.”
“Let them at least get their forensics done,” Simon suggested. “We’ve found several murder victims in here.”
“Well, shit,” he muttered, his eyes wide. “This building has been a pain in the ass for a long time. We’ve had no end of complaints.”
“And yet it should never have been taken off the condemned list before, so why was it?”
“No clue, but I presumed that somebody was getting a little helping hand of sorts, which allowed them to be more cooperative.”
“I tried to get a hold of the previous owners,” Simon noted, “but they aren’t being cooperative at all.”
“No, they’re the ones who managed to get it off the condemned list,” he stated, “so I’m not at all surprised.”
“Still, at least some of these crimes were probably before their time.”
The inspector looked around, then added, “I think her father owned it before, and he was connected to the mob.” He laughed at that. “Or at least that was the rumor.”
Simon tried to get more information by continuing their chitchat, but, when nothing more was forthcoming, he went to the city and pulled out the archives for the building.
He already had the blueprints for the warehouse itself, but still another huge file was involved.
Having the bulk of it printed off cost him a bundle, but he wanted a printed version and an emailed version.
Then he headed home to get comfortable and to study it.
It wasn’t very long before he saw some of the connections that had kept the building in the same state that it was in now.
Swearing to himself, he contacted his stalking Realtor. “This previous owner of the building, Elsie, and the one before that, what do you know about them?”
Ariel’s voice was distracted. “Very little, why?”
“Is this a bad time?” he asked.
“No, just running through paperwork,” she said, with a scoff. “It’s been a busy few days for me.”
“A good busy?”
“Yes,” she declared, with a laugh.
“Good to know.”
“Now, what about the previous owner?” she asked.
“I have put in several phone calls to them,” he began. Ariel waited patiently for more. “You do realize that her father had mob connections?”
“Mob connections? What the hell? This is Canada.”
He laughed. “You really think the mob didn’t have their fingers in everything?”
“Maybe,” she muttered, still sounding a little distracted, and that bugged him too. “What difference does it make?”
“There’s a good chance her father built that hidden room in the basement, where the dead bodies were found.”
Silence came on the other end. “Good God,” she replied. “You do know how to ruin a day, don’t you?”
“No, not really,” he countered, with a chuckle, at least happy that Ariel was paying attention to this conversation now. “I’m still trying to get a hold of Elsie, and she’s not responding.”
“She’s not responding to me either, but, as I told you, she’s older and has some health issues. And there’s the time change. Make sure you’re not calling Germany in the middle of the night.”
“I understand,” he said, “but I still want any information we can get from her on her father to close this. And, if she has any information, now might be a really good time to clear her soul.”
“Jesus,” Ariel muttered. “Fine, I’ll try again. I’m not sure what time it is in Germany but I’ll give it another shot.” She ended the call.
Simon smiled because, even though it wasn’t her job, he’d bought several buildings from her and had made her hundreds of thousands of dollars—if not millions by now—so that tended to make Ariel more helpful.
She called him back almost immediately. “I talked to her husband, and he agreed it would be a good idea, but he doesn’t know if he can convince her to do it or not.
I did explain that, with the sale and all these dead bodies, it would be a good time to come clean, before they went to meet their maker.
He went very quiet, then said he would see and ended the call. ”
“So, it does sound as if maybe Elsie knew something.”
“I don’t know whether she knew, but maybe she suspected, or was trying to protect the family name. I don’t know. Regardless, it explains why she was eager to sell the building so quickly.”
“And I’m happy to buy it,” Simon added.
“That’s what I told her husband, that you weren’t looking to get out of the deal, but you did want any information you could get so family members of these dead people could get some closure, and so all these nightmares from generations gone by could be put to rest. I don’t know that I succeeded to convince him of anything though. ”
Simon laughed. “It’s pretty hard to be delicate about bodies in the closet, especially if Elsie knew. Worse yet, if she actively worked to keep the sordid secrets of the building from being discovered. So, yeah, lady, we need the information now,… before you die .”
Ariel winced. “God, that sounds terrible when you put it that way.”
“It probably is terrible,” he acknowledged, “but, if that’s what she’s done, I—”
“I know. I get it, but I don’t think she’s too concerned about facing charges for it.”
“No, of course not, and all the more reason to come clean, so everyone can get whatever closure is possible.”
“Hang on. I’ve got another call coming in.” She ended the call with Simon.
He sat and waited a little bit for her return call. When his phone rang a little bit later, an old crotchety voice came through.
The woman announced, “You’re on Speaker.”
“Okay,” Simon replied. “Who am I speaking with?”
“Elsie Monroe. That’s my warehouse you just bought,” she added.
Simon started to record the conversation. “Thank you for talking with me,” he began. “I don’t know what you’ve been told, but we’ve found several bodies in that building.”
The silence on the other end lasted for a few moments. “That would have to do with my father,” she admitted, with a heavy sigh. “He placed such a burden on me all these years. I swear that’s partly the reason I’m in the condition I am now.”
“Guilt?” he asked.
“Not for me, for him. He died of a heart attack, left me the building and a letter,” she shared. “I can send you a copy of the letter, but it’s not to be made public.”
“Maybe not,” Simon replied, “but you have to understand there’s a hell of a police investigation into this.”
“And maybe that’s fine too.” She coughed, a loud rasping cough that made him wince. Finally it stopped, and she continued, “I know that he shouldn’t have done what he did, and he shouldn’t have left me to deal with the mess afterward.”
“And what did you do with the mess?”
“Nothing,” she declared. “I was stunned by the contents of that letter and didn’t want to believe it.
He ran things as if it were his personal right to decide who would live and who would die, depending on what they could do for him,” she grumbled, sadness filling her tone.
“He was a horrible father, a horrible husband, and he terrorized the neighborhood. However, he’s also been gone thirty years, even after living well into his eighties. Times were different back then.”
“Maybe, but murder is still murder.”
“You’re right,” she agreed, “and, if you’re finding bodies in the warehouse now, they have to be old. Like old , old.”
“I would think so,” Simon noted somberly. “Basically skeletons, at least some of them, but we’re still trying to identify them, and that won’t be easy.”
“Right, but the families do need to know,” she conceded. “I think it’s in the letter. I’ll have my husband send you a copy.”
“The sooner, the better,” Simon said. “Take a picture and email it to me, until I get the original.”
“My grandson is here, so I might give him instructions on how to handle it.”
“Have him email it to me as well,” Simon repeated. “The sooner this is dealt with, the better.”
“From my point of view, I would prefer it happened after I’m done and gone,” Elsie shared. “I didn’t know what to do about it, or even where to begin, so maybe I’m just as guilty for doing nothing,” she murmured. “Yet it all happened so long ago.”
“I understand that. I do, but, for the people who just found all this and are dealing with the horror of these murders, it’s like it happened yesterday.”
“I’m sorry for that,” she muttered. “Nobody should have to deal with it.”
“And yet they did, and we still are,” he stated.
“What will you do with the building?”
“At this point, I’m pretty sure it will be condemned again, as soon as the police are done.”
“Yes.… I wanted to sell it, but I never quite could. When it was condemned, I would have to drop it, but then the bodies would show up. So, I paid money and did everything I could to keep it from being condemned, causing me more headaches. I’m grateful that it’s your headache now,” she admitted, with a sullen chuckle.
“It is not only my headache but also still a headache for the families who don’t have any answers too.”
With a sigh, she muttered, “I’ll send the letter, but not until I’m dead.” And she ended the call, leaving Simon to stare down at his phone.
Before she cut him off, Simon wanted to say something colorful, like, Thanks for nothing, and I hope you die soon, you selfish old bat .
While he would likely never say such a thing to anyone, a part of him wanted her to kick off soon, just so he wouldn’t have to worry and wait even longer for answers.
He swore. He should probably contact Kate about it.
But given the day and everything else she had on her plate, he would hold off until she came home.
It might stop her from still being pissed off at him,…
maybe. He laughed at that, checked the clock.
When she showed up, she would be hungry and tired, particularly after very little sleep last night.
He sent her a quick text. Pasta for dinner?
He got a thumbs-up and laughed. If he’d asked her how she was doing or anything else, he probably wouldn’t have gotten a response, but bring up food, and she was right there.
With that, he happily placed an order from Mama’s, for the special of the day, then sat down to wait until Kate came home, happy that, for once, the voices in his head were silent.
If he was lucky, they would stay that way.