Chapter 4
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As the trio walked into the master suite, Doreen stopped and raised her eyebrows.
“This was definitely redone.” The tufted chairs and bench seat and draperies all matched.
The really dark blood-red-colored brocade with gold thread accents was over-the-top in her opinion.
“How very oppressive,” she muttered, with a shudder. “This is not my style at all.”
Mugs growled his own displeasure. Goliath always seemed to view his world with disdain, so nothing was new here. Thaddeus was quiet, which concerned Doreen a bit. Maybe it would take a day or two for her animals to acclimate to a new location. Especially this one.
“Do you think this was Robin’s doing?” Mack asked.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t have thought Mathew would have gone for this, but you never really know.” She shrugged. “I’m just glad I don’t have to sleep or live here anymore.”
He smiled at that and nodded. “I’m glad too.”
She looked over at him and chuckled.
“Anything else in here you want to share with the class?” Nick asked, giving the room a critical eye.
She stopped and scanned the room a bit, frowning. “A safe is in this room too.”
Immediately the men stepped farther into the suite.
“Where?” Mack asked.
“Hmm.” She pondered that as she looked around. “It looks so different.”
“That’s okay,” Mack noted, taking her hand. “Just close your eyes and think about it back when you were still here. If he asked you to get something from the safe …”
She rolled her eyes at that. “Nobody would get into the safe if Mathew had his way, but he did leave it open sometimes,” she muttered, as she stared around.
“Oh, I think it’s over here.” She headed to one of the walls.
She stopped, frowned at it, and added, “I think it’s in here, but no painting is here anymore. ”
Mack started tapping the wall and, sure enough, one spot sounded very different. He chuckled, and it didn’t take him long to find the paneling that opened up under his fingers. “This safe?” he asked, pointing to it.
She looked at it and nodded. “That looks about right. Of course, for all I know, he could have put another one in here when they remodeled this room.” That was the thing about Mathew.
He was paranoid and way too into hiding stuff.
So, if she were to get into his head, she knew there would always be one safe nobody else knew about.
Nick asked, “Meaning that he didn’t always let you know about everything?”
“No, gosh no,” she declared. “So, another one is around here somewhere.” She turned slowly. “I don’t know where. As soon as I find it, I’ll show you.” In the meantime, she pondered the rest of the master bedroom.
The men searched, tapping the walls, as she entered the en suite, frowning when she saw all his personal stuff just sitting on the counter. That was so not Mathew either.
She groaned, and Mack walked in. “Problems?”
“Mathew wouldn’t have left stuff out like this. He was a clean freak in a way. This right here,” she pointed out, “this mess before us wasn’t his style at all.”
“So, do you think somebody else has been here? Or maybe that somebody else has been living here?”
“No, I think, when he came to Kelowna the last time, he was probably not planning on staying, and would be back home very quickly. Instead he never came home.” She frowned at Mack.
Mack opened his arms, and she walked into them, as he quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
Thaddeus took the opportunity to walk up to Mack’s shoulder.
“I’m not upset,” she whispered, “but it is an uncomfortable feeling.”
“Of course. This was your home.”
“And yet, in a way, it doesn’t feel like home at all.”
Mugs woofed at her side, and she leaned down to pat him. “I know, buddy. This was your home too.”
“He seems to be quite comfortable,” Mack noted.
“I’m not so sure,” she countered, looking down at Mugs. “He hasn’t left my side at all. None of the animals have left my side in all this time. They all seem to be so … subdued. Either they’re not comfortable in this house or they’re just really not relaxed enough yet.”
“And it could be either, I suppose,” he pointed out.
She smiled and nodded. “You’re right, but we’ll get there.” She scrubbed Mugs on the chin and added, “I know Mathew had another secret safe somewhere in this suite, but I don’t remember where it was.”
Mugs wandered deeper into the bathroom, taking a few drinks out of the toilet bowl. She groaned. “He used to do that all the time, and it would drive Mathew nuts.”
“But it’s clean water,” Mack noted. “So, from Mugs’s perspective, it’s good.”
“Oh my goodness.” Doreen lifted the lid off the toilet tank and smiled. “This was one of Mathew’s hiding places.”
Mack frowned and leaned forward and pulled out a small waterproof black case. “Do you know what’s in this?”
“Probably cash,” she replied, “but I don’t know.”
He took a towel, dried off the black bag, and pulled out another small black zippered case. He opened it up just as Nick walked in.
Nick whistled. “Good God, that’s a lot of cash.”
Doreen snorted. “Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about that. Mathew kept it there, but I don’t think I was supposed to know about it.”
Mack stared at her and shook his head. “And you never mentioned it to him?”
“No, I never did. It didn’t matter to me,” she shared, with a shrug. The smile on Mack’s face made her flush. “What?”
He stared at her intently. “Even when you left, forced out by Mathew, you … didn’t try to take any of this?”
“No,” she declared, waving her hand in a careless wave. “It was his. In my mind, it was always his.”
“Guess what?” Nick asked her.
“What?” she asked, turning to Nick.
“It’s all yours now.”
She stared at him and then snorted. “I bet Mathew would not be happy to hear you say that.”
He burst out laughing at that.
She added, “Yet I really hope he’s listening in.” Then she groaned. “I shouldn’t be mean. He met an unpleasant end.”
Mack interjected, “And yet you know that Mathew chose a lifestyle that could very easily have ended his life early at any time in some unpleasant way.”
“True,” she murmured. “Still, it’s a hard thing to accept. He was a big part of my life for a long time.”
“Of course,” he noted.
She shook her head. “I was so unhappy here. I don’t know how I made it through those years. I was here over a decade.” She looked up at Mack. “I should have left him long before he kicked me out.”
Just then the doorbell rang, and Mugs lost it. She turned, startled.
Nick shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be the pizza.” He pulled out his wallet and shared, “I have enough cash on me, I think.”
Mack snorted and held out the wad of Mathew’s secret stash, still in his hand.
Nick chuckled. “Yes, we are all well aware of Mathew’s cash.
We’ll keep it intact for a proper inventory.
I’ll cover this meal. The sooner we can sort out all this, the better.
It’s best to keep any cash together as we found it.
That way we know exactly what’s been unearthed, down to the serial numbers on each bill—probably consecutive would be my guess. ”
“Exactly. Could be dirty money, attached to some bank robbery for all we know,” Mack replied. He raised the stash again and added, frowning at Doreen, “Hard to imagine people having money that just sits here, hidden in a toilet tank of all places, and nobody was the wiser.”
She nodded. “Mathew called it his running money.”
“By why?” Mack asked. “He could easily hide in this mansion of his. Plus, he had at least one gun on the premises. I just don’t understand the mentality of hiding money. He could have done so much good with that. Why hide it instead?” he asked again.
Nick replied, as he reentered the room, “Maybe because Mathew made more enemies than friends.”
“He really did,” she confirmed. “And again, that’s his problem.”
Mack smiled. “Let’s go grab some pizza while it’s still hot.”
Suddenly Mugs raced out of the en suite bathroom and stood before her, barking at her.
Startled, she looked around. “What is your problem?”
“Are you kidding?” Mack asked, as he joined them. “He heard the word pizza.”
She frowned at Mack, not so sure it was that simple. Yet Mugs started barking and barking again. Laughing, she nodded. “It does seem to be one of the magical words in a dog’s life, doesn’t it?”
As she headed downstairs, she called out for Goliath but got no answer. She frowned and muttered, “I don’t want him getting lost in this big house.”
“Not to worry,” Nick called out from downstairs. “He’s here where the pizza is.” And, sure enough, as Nick carried the pizza in his arms to the kitchen table, Goliath was trying to climb his legs.
“Good thing you wore jeans today. Sorry, Nick,” she said. “We need to get some cat food. We brought a few days’ worth for each of them, but we could always use more.”
“It’s in the truck bed, along with the other pet food,” Mack said. “We can retrieve that as soon as we’re done eating.”
They quickly ate a hearty dinner, and then Mack turned to Doreen. “I suppose you want to go get pet food now.”
“It wouldn’t hurt. Plus, we could use some fresh milk for tea and maybe a bit of fresh fruit.”
Leaving Nick in place to guard the rest of the property and to satisfy the police—just in case anybody needed something—they unpacked the rest of the truck. Then they popped down to the corner store. She was actually struggling to remember where it was.
“It’s as if I’ve never been here,” she noted in frustration. “I’ve completely forgotten everything I went through here, including where anything is.”
“And that’s good for your health,” Mack noted. “You can forget about it forever. Even though you’ll be here for a little while, it won’t be for long.” He grinned at her. “I’m sure there’s a song in that somewhere.”
She laughed. “And, if there isn’t, there should be.”
Back at the house, they put away the milk and the other items, and they now made their way back to Nick, who was talking with Daniel in the greenhouse.
Nick turned to them and nodded, walking over to meet them, his face serious. “They’ve got the body excavated. So, Doreen, take a look and see if you can identify him.”
She winced and muttered to Mack, “Good thing I’ve had dinner already.”
“Just keep it down,” he whispered. “Otherwise you’ll belie your smooth I can handle anything expression.”
She shot him a look as she headed over. Daniel nodded to her, a forensic tech at his side. The tech unzipped the body bag so that she could take a look. She stared at it and shook her head. “I don’t know this person at all.” She stepped back, looked over at Mack, and asked, “Do you?”
He raised both eyebrows and asked, “Why would I know him?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess it’s just a natural question on my part.”
He stepped forward, checked out the body, and shook his head. “No, I don’t know him either.” He turned to Nick. “You?”
“No, I’ve already taken a look,” he shared. “I’m not sure why he was even here—unless he was the property manager’s caretaker.”
Doreen agreed. “In which case we need to send him a photo and ask him.”
Daniel quietly watched.
Nick quickly took a photo of the dead man’s face and phoned Mathew’s probate attorney, who had handled Doreen’s husband’s estate, and asked about the caretaker.
Mack and Doreen couldn’t hear the whole conversation, which was half-a-dozen questions posed by Nick. When he finally ended the call, he told them, “He didn’t know the guy personally but will see what he can find out from the property management company.”
Within a few minutes, the probate lawyer called him back and shared, “All I have is a name, a Pete Singer. May not be his real one. These caretakers are known to bounce from property to property as needed, with no real homes to go back to. I don’t even know if the property management companies do proper background checks on these guys.
So the one we used here is checking for further details. What is going on down there?”
“Not sure,” Nick conceded. “As soon as we find out, we’ll be in touch.” Nick ended the call.
“Good God,” Daniel muttered. “I’m the point man on this murder investigation, if you three have any further information.”
“One more thing, Daniel,” Doreen added, “our neighbors, the Smithsons, have made complaints to the police about strangers on the property when the house was clearly unoccupied. I don’t know how often this happened but I would like to see those police reports.”
Daniel stared at her. “I can look, but why concern yourself with any such neighborhood reports?”
She frowned at him. “Because we had a break-in and a dead person on the premises.”
Daniel shook his head. “Stay out of my investigation, Doreen.”
“I am the legal property owner, Daniel, so I must insist that I see any reports of mischief filed with the police in relation to my new property, especially since the house was unoccupied after Mathew’s death.”
Daniel glared at her, avoiding giving her any answer either way.
Meanwhile, everybody exchanged information, and Daniel quickly turned to Doreen.
“You be careful now. We don’t know why or how this guy was knocked off but presumably because the house was unoccupied, it made for a good dumping ground. ”
“It wasn’t my choice to leave, Daniel, so remember that,” she told him defensively.
“Mathew kicked me out, moved Robin in. Since then, his murder investigation has been completed, as has Robin’s, and now a quite lengthy and complicated estate process has ensued for both.
Everything takes time to sort out. Thus an unoccupied house. ”
He nodded. “It does take time. I’ll talk to you as needed—but, please, if you’re leaving town, let me know.”
“Will do,” Mack agreed. “Regardless we’ll be here until we get to the bottom of it.”
“The bottom of what?” Daniel asked, now on the defensive.
Mack gave him a one-arm shrug. “I didn’t mean your job on the murder investigation. I just meant that we have a house here to sell, including all the furnishings.”
At that, the detective looked around the property and nodded. “Better you than me. I would just get a Dumpster and ditch it all.”
Mack nodded. “None of this is what you want to sit on.”
“That’s true, and I wasn’t allowed to sit on much of it either,” she replied, with a knowing smirk. “On the other hand, it’s all very expensive.”
“Figures,” Mack muttered, staring around the house. “So expensive that you can’t sit on it, yet so uncomfortable you don’t even want to.”
With a snort, Daniel turned and walked out.