I had a thought. "What about family?"
"She was orphaned in her late teens and had no other family." His voice was laced with irritation. This was one Hickenlooper I wasn't fond of. Too bad I couldn't deal with Hal or Basil instead.
"Okay, thanks." I hung up before he could respond.
"No family of any kind," I told the girls.
Betty crawled out from under the table and started going through the china hutch until I stopped her. The girl was like a bull in a china shop, and it felt disrespectful to have her smashing through the china like a fourth-grade Godzilla.
"I'll take care of the hutch. You guys check out the hall."
Betty and Lauren stood there, arms folded over their chests.
"What?"
Lauren answered, "You will share any clues you find, right?"
"Of course! How can I solve this without you?"
That was the right answer, and the girls left. I took each plate and teacup out of the hutch, placing them carefully on the table. It was an amazing collection of rare china from France, England, Ireland, and China. Each piece seemed more delicate than the last. These pieces were expensive. Did she inherit these or bring these back from her travels?
After emptying out the cabinet, I searched the inside shelving and cupboards for any further envelopes but found nothing.
"Wow!" Kelly walked up to the table and picked up a pale yellow teacup covered in violets. "This is Limoges! Real Limoges china!"
I pointed out the rest of the pieces and told her about the call to Nigel.
"And you're inheriting all of this?" She looked around and noticed the furniture for the first time. "This room alone must be worth a fortune!"
Without a beat, I offered, "You can have some of the china, if you want."
"No," she said in a way that implied she didn't mean it. "You and your mother should have this."
"Mom has plenty of china that she inherited from her ancestors. I'll end up with those someday. You should pick out a few pieces."
"If you insist." Kelly grinned. "But later. We'd better put these things back before the girls come in."
I listened for them and heard giggling in the hall. "What are they doing?"
"Just looking. I told them not to touch anything breakable."
It took a little while to put things back. You know how you unpack something and then can't figure out how to get it all back in the original box? That's what we had to deal with. Although I suspect that Kelly was saying the set of yellow teacups with violets wouldn't fit because she was planning to set them aside. She didn't need to do that. She was my best friend, and I wanted her to have them.
We worked our way through the second-floor bedrooms with no success. Compared to the first floor and the third, this level was completely normal. Why was the house two thirds quirky with one normal floor? Kelly thought maybe at the end of the day, Aunt June wanted normalcy. The girls thought she just got tired of decorating. Betty suggested she didn't want pictures of old, dead people looking down on her while she slept.
"Alright," I said after going through yet another closet. "Lunchtime."
"But we haven't done the third floor yet," Ava protested.
We needed a break before tackling the worst floor in the history of houses. "After lunch. I'm starving."
"Back to camp, then?" Kelly asked.
"I think we should go to Fancy Nancy's," I said.
My co-leader halfheartedly protested, "But we bought all that food."
"Yes, but I still need to visit Dr. Morgan. And his office is across the street from Nancy's."
"Cool! Do you think he has creepy stuff?" Inez asked.
"You're not going. I'll give Mrs. Albers my order and meet up with you."
Kelly agreed. "Well, it's a nice enough day, and it's just down the street. Why don't we walk?"
The girls grumbled the whole way about being left out. Not that I blamed them. I was hoping for some autopsy info from the doctor, stuff they would love. But there was no way I was swarming him with girls. I needed his full attention.
"Ah, Mrs. Ferguson." The doctor smiled as I walked through the door.
I stopped in my tracks. "Does everyone know I'm here?"
He nodded. "Of course. You're the first outsider we've had in a long time. Most people just drive by and never set foot in the town at all."
"Maybe if you spruced the place up a bit…" I suggested.
The doctor seemed amused. "Well, I have to admit, Behold isn't the most welcoming place in Iowa. And most folks here like it like that."
"Hence the dilapidated buildings."
"You are a smart one. Hal said so." He motioned for a seat.
"Oh?" I sat. "And what does Nigel think of me?"
Dr. Morgan's eyebrows went up. "The jury is still out on that, I think."
The inside of Morgan Seed and Feed was comfortable and cozy. But instead of the more modern comforts at the other places, the doctor's office was a bit more run-down. Clean but shabby.
"I hope I'm not intruding." I adjusted myself in the chair.
"Oh no. Of course not. I'm semiretired, really. I send most folks to Guttenberg for health care."
"Not Dubuque?" I couldn't resist. I am a bastard.
He surprised me by laughing. "I may be the oldest person in town. The only one closest to that controversy. And yet, I can't get mad at a city for something that happened centuries ago."
"So why send people to Guttenberg?" I thought of the larger small town up north. "Does it even have a hospital?"
He looked over the top of his glasses. "Well, two of the doctors there are friends of mine. That's why I recommend it. Now, why are you here when your troop is at lunch at Nancy's?"
He must've seen us coming. Like everyone else in this unusual town.
I put on my most innocent expression. "As you probably know, I've inherited Aunt June's home and remains."
He listened but said nothing.
"She also sent a letter saying she was murdered and asked me
