Frances returned home. Immediately, she saw that Jackie was locked outside. Someone had been in the house since she left. She quietly went to the gun safe and pulled her .38. Grateful for the Second Amendment, she went through all the downstairs rooms and found nothing. She silently moved up the stairs and checked each room. Finding nothing, she went back down to the main level to let Jackie in. Passing the dining room, she saw the tiny silver pitcher on its side in the china cabinet.
Picking up her cell phone, she dialed Summer’s house. “Summer, its Frances. I need to get a hold of Oriole. Is she around or can you give me her cell number?” Her voice carried the concern she was experiencing.
“Hang on Frances. Oriole is here. Just a minute.”
“Oriole. Telephone, it’s Frances.”
“Hi, Frances. What’s going on?”
“Oriole, someone has been in my house. I got home and Jackie was locked out. I never lock her doggy door. And that little silver pitcher that Summer gave me was knocked over. I checked the house and no one is in it. But can you come over. I’m a little worried.”
“Frances, Fred is still in town. I’ll call him. He can be there in five minutes. You stay on this line, don’t hang up. I’ll call Fred on my cell phone and get him over there. Don’t hang up, okay?” Oriole was reaching for her purse to get her cell phone as she spoke.
“Fred. Frances called. Someone has been inside her house. Can you run over there and check it out?”
“Sure thing. Is she inside or out? Is the house clear?”
“Inside. And the house is clear. I’ll tell her not to shoot you.” Oriole turned back to the house phone and relayed to Frances instructions on what to do and definitely not to shoot Fred.
Fred arrived at Frances’ condo, parked his squad car in the lot, and walked rapidly up to Frances’ door. “Frances, are you okay?”
“I’m pissed. Someone has been inside my home. No, I’m not okay. Nothing appears stolen or broken. But, Jackie’s door was shut, so whoever was here didn’t want Jackie to bother him or her. And I can tell my cupboards and file cabinets have been searched. I’m betting it was that louse Phil Mason.”
“Let me run through the house and see. I know you already did it, but just to be on the safe side.”
Fred repeated Frances’ steps through the downstairs and then upstairs. He saw footprint impressions in the closet carpet larger than Frances’. He laid a ruler down and went back to the car to get the camera.
“What did you find upstairs?”
“I saw some footprints that look like a man’s. I’m going to take a bunch of photos just to have. You wait right here.” Fred traipsed back upstairs to get his photos.
He joined Frances in the dining room. She had poured three fingers of Gentleman Jack in a tumbler and sipped the contents. “Are they big feet?”
“Well, it certainly isn’t your tiny slipper I’m looking for, Cinderella. Why do you think someone was searching your house?”
“If it was Phil, it’s because I laid a trap for him. I told him I had documents from Lisa. He did everything he could to get them from me. He was so obvious. Anyway, he wanted to know what the documents were, and why she gave them to me.” Frances knocked back a good slug of Jack.
“Tell me about the papers.” Fred’s antenna went up.
“A few weeks before Lisa died she gave me two envelopes to keep. I carry them in my purse. If it was the crazy Phil looking for them, he was too stupid to even think about me keeping them safe from him. Anyway, I figured I’d give them to Marlowe since she is, I mean was, Lisa’s attorney. More than likely the papers came from Marlowe to begin with. I haven’t opened them because I’m not that type. But I gotta tell you I’m curious as hell about why Phil would risk a break in to find them.” She sipped slowly at the tumbler.
“Would you feel comfortable giving me a look see at them?”
“Well, I guess so. I can’t see why not. Didn’t you get a search warrant?”
“Yeah, but it wouldn’t cover something you have. I can give you a receipt for the papers. I’ll log them into evidence. What say we open them and take a peek.” Fred wanted desperately to see what the papers contained.
“Let me get my purse.” Frances rose from her chair and moved to the entry way where she always left her purse. “Here they are.”
“Hmmm, looks like thick papers, more than a couple sheets. Did Lisa let you know what was in there? Even any hints.”
“No. She just asked me to hold on to them. She said she didn’t want them in the safety deposit box or at the condo. So I figured they had to be something to do with Phil that she didn’t want him to know about.”
“Let’s open this bigger one.” Fred carefully slid his knife along the sealed edge, revealing legal documents of about 10 pages. “Looks like a will, power of attorney, dated back in May. Seems she didn’t want him to get anything. But I think this is the same will we got from Marlowe. Let’s look at the other envelope.” Fred laid the will and power of attorney down on the dining room table and slit the flap on the second letter.
“Whoa. This is a notarized letter ‘To Whom It May Concern’. Lisa signed it. It states that she thinks Phil has been embezzling money from her for at least a year. Maybe to the tune of $100 grand. She states that she is getting ready to divorce him and turn all the evidence over to the police. She also thought he had some help in stealing from her. Frances, I’m going to take these and make copies so we can preserve the originals. Will you be okay here by yourself? Will you promise not to cross paths with Phil ‘til I’ve had a chance to do some research on this? Maybe you should get a locksmith out here to change the locks.” Fred was more than a little concerned about the gun toting granny taking the law into her own hands.
“I won’t confront him. I’ll let you take care of that. But, if he ever tries to come in here again, I’ll shoot him where he stands.”
Fred gathered up the papers, checked the locks on all the doors for security and proceeded to his car. He pulled out his cell phone and placed a call to Oriole bringing her up to date on the break in and the subsequent find.
“I’m on my way home, well back to the ranch. I’ll log this stuff into evidence, make a copy to bring with me and we’ll take a look at it. This may be the break we’re waiting for. What’s for supper? Do we need anything from the store?” Fred’s comfort with the living arrangements shown through with his Freudian slip.
“What difference does it make what’s for supper? You’ll eat whatever is put in front of you, except catfish. And no, I stopped at the store on my way home. See you in awhile. Bye.” Oriole couldn’t help teasing Fred. He made it so easy.
Chalcey had been watching and listening to the exchanges between Fred and her Mom. “If Fred becomes a permanent member of our family, will I call him Uncle Fred or Grandpa?”
“What are you talking about, honey?” Oriole looked quizzically at her redheaded teen.
“Well, he could become permanent two ways, one would be to just move here forever, and the other would be if he and Marlowe got married. So what would I call him?” Chalcey put plates and silverware on the large dining room table as she talked.
“You’re asking a good question. One I don’t have an answer to right now. Let’s wait and see. Man that would be something. I’d have to call him Dad. I can’t quite get there just yet. Finish the table and we’ll see how Summer is doing with the new colt.”