Chapter 28 #3
He just waved her on. “I’m fine, but, if I stand here too long, I’ll pay a price. It’s just that much harder to warm up again.”
Still, she walked with him, back to his front walkway, noting which house it was, then waited until he got up the stairs safely, and, with a wave of his hand, headed inside.
She smiled, then walked around a bit and knocked on the doors of a couple other neighbors.
Most people didn’t want to talk to her, and none of them recognized her, which was probably a good thing.
But then she got to another house a little farther down, and the woman stared at her, saying she was just heading out.
“I saw you walking up and down the block,” she stated, “and I don’t know what you’re trying to sell, but I’m not interested.”
“I’m not selling anything,” Doreen said, with a smile. “Have you spoken to the police yet?”
“Oh, you’re a reporter?”
“No,” Doreen muttered, “that I am definitely not.”
The surly woman now laughed. “Okay, that’s good then. So, what brings you to the neighborhood?”
“Well, I was one of the people who found the kidnapped woman held hostage in that house.” She pointed to Mike’s house across the street.
The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, good Lord, I don’t know what woman you’re talking about, but the fact that something’s been going on in that house does not surprise me.
Far too many comings and goings have been over there for a long time.
At one point, I tried to talk to the police about it, but they weren’t too concerned at the time, so who knows what has gone on there. ”
“Can you tell me more about it?”
“They’re always moving stuff back and forth. I saw that truck of theirs over at one of the storage units nearby. Since then, I presume they were fencing stolen goods, but, according to my husband, that’s just a product of my very fertile imagination,” she shared, with an eye roll.
Doreen snickered and nodded, with a knowing smile.
“I told him, just you wait. Something is bound to happen over there sooner or later.”
Doreen smiled. “Which storage locker are you talking about?” The neighbor told her the one close to the back side of Enterprise. Doreen nodded. “I think I remember that one. And you saw your neighbor there?”
“Yeah, he had his truck there one day, and they were unloading a bunch of stuff.”
“Was it daytime?”
“No, it was after dark,” she clarified. “I’d been visiting a friend up at that corner, and then it was a little bit later when I drove home, and my headlights just flashed on them as I drove past, but you can bet I recognized that truck.”
Doreen nodded and smiled. “And what about this woman?” She held out a picture of Birdie.
“Nope, I’ve never seen her before,” she said.
“And what about this young man?” She held up a picture of Birdie’s grandson.
The other woman shook her head. “No, I don’t know anything about him either. Why? Are they important?”
Doreen looked down at the images and with as much nonchalance as she could muster, replied, “They’re both dead.”
“Oh my.” The neighbor lady’s eyes widened as she took several steps back toward her front door.
“You’re totally safe,” Doreen added. “We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it.”
“You’re not a cop though, are you? Certainly not with all these animals.”
“No, but I do what I can to help them.”
“Of course,” she muttered, but doubt was evident in her tone.
Doreen decided to end things here. She handed over her card. “If you remember anything else, here is my number.”
“My husband would not like that I talked to you in the first place,” she shared, “so there won’t be anything else because he’ll make sure of it.”
Doreen thought about that, then shrugged and thought a few more questions now were in order. “Okay. Have you seen a girl over there a lot?”
“Yes. Well, there’s been one girl, kind of steadily off and on, but that’s his girlfriend. As far as I know, they broke up a while back. Or at least it appeared like they did.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I saw a big fight there, and they weren’t exactly quiet. Finally they both stormed off, but I saw them outside the mall not all that long ago, and they seemed pretty chummy.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Doreen noted, with a laugh. “You never really know who sees what you’re up to, do you?”
“No, you really don’t.” The woman looked down at Doreen’s card, then frowned. “Why do I know this name?”
Doreen hesitated, then shrugged. “I’ve been involved in a lot of the cold cases in town,” she replied.
At that, the woman looked at her animals, then at Doreen, and it clicked. “Oh, my goodness,” she cried out. “I know who you are. Now I really can’t talk to you because my husband is not a fan.”
Doreen blinked at that and then shrugged. “To each his own, I guess. Though I can’t say anybody’s ever said that to me before.”
“I’m so sorry,” she replied, wincing. “I didn’t mean it quite that way.”
“Oh no, you’re free to speak your mind.”
“I am very much a fan,” she admitted, “but my husband thinks it’s all malarkey, that you’re just doing it for show.”
“Doing what for show?” Doreen asked, astonished. “Helping people?”
“That’s my argument with him, but he doesn’t like having anybody investigating or poking around in our business.”
“Which I’m not doing at all,” Doreen noted. “I’m poking around the business going on at that house across the street. A young woman was found tied up in there. She was the girlfriend of the young man who recently passed away under suspicious circumstances. I showed you his picture earlier.”
The woman looked down the street and frowned. “I’ve got to go.”
“Could you wait one more second while I get a picture of the woman who we rescued?”
“My husband is due home anytime now. You can always contact me later,” she suggested, “but don’t come to the house.
That’ll be bad news.” She wrote her phone number down on Doreen’s card and gave it back to her.
“You can call me, but, if I hang up on you, it’s because he’s around, and he’ll just get angry. ”
“Are you sure you want to stay with this guy?”
The woman frowned at her and then laughed. “Yes, I am sure. Outside of this one issue, … he’s perfect. But he really doesn’t like people snooping.”
“Got it,” Doreen acknowledged. Failing to get confirmation if this neighbor lady had actually seen Annabel, or someone else, around Mike’s house, Doreen walked off down the street.
As she turned around, the woman headed back inside her house and shut the door, instead of going out, as she had mentioned earlier.
Doreen checked the woman’s phone number, along with her name, Cindy.
Doreen sighed. She had gotten all the information she would get from Cindy today—or possibly any other day.
A bit later, having arrived home again, Doreen was taking off her coat when Scott called.
“Hey,” she greeted him, so happy to hear from somebody completely unrelated to the rest of what was going on in town. “How are you doing, Scott?”
“I’m doing great,” he replied in that ever-cheerful voice. “How are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m pretty good,” she said, with a chuckle, “except there’s another case that’s keeping me fairly busy.”
“Another one?” he asked in astonishment.
“Yes, I know. I’m surprised each time too. Then I think back to when I thought Kelowna was this quiet little town.”
He laughed. “I think every town is probably thought of in the same way. However, you’re unearthing things kept hidden away all these years.”
“Maybe,” she admitted.
“I just wanted to bring you up to date on the stuff that we took out of Mathew’s house,” he began, “and I wondered if you had any idea what you were doing about the other woman’s house.”
“You mean, Robin’s house?”
“Yes, I believe that’s her name. You mentioned that I might want to take a look at her house too.”
“I assume so, but I have to get down there first,” she replied. “If anything is there, then, yes, absolutely. I would love to have you take a look. I need to prepare it for sale as well.” Then she asked him, “So, do you only work in North America?”
“Not at all,” he replied automatically, and then his voice deepened. “Why?”
She groaned. “Apparently my former husband had a property in France that I wasn’t really aware of.”
He started to laugh. “Tell me more,” he invited.
“Apparently he had a small estate or whatever you want to call it in France. I don’t know anything about it yet, and I’m not yet to the point of being able to go over there and check it out. He seems to own more than one property overseas.”
“Do you have a real estate agent over there?” Scott asked her.
“I don’t think I have anything at the moment. Nick was supposed to find somebody to help us get an idea of what we’re even looking at.”