Gertie answered on the third ring.
'Good job,' Gertie said when she heard about the closet. 'Keep this up, and there's a job waiting for you here in the beautiful Upper Peninsula. I could use a smart investigator like you.'
Snow nine months of the year, summer bugs the size of radishes, and wild bears in the backyard. No thanks. That was one job Gretchen didn't intend on applying for.
'You should come and visit me sometime,' Gretchen said, remembering her manners.
'Not in this lifetime, Honey. Too hot and too many weird critters. Scorpions, black widows.' Aunt Gertie clicked her tongue. 'Don't think so.'
'Back to my problem,' Gretchen said, encouraged to refocus when she looked out the grimy bedroom window and saw the friendly neighbor walk past, not two feet from the side of Ronny's trailer.
'Yes, well, you're looking at his filing system. That's where stuff goes when he's through working on it. Find his current files.'
'But where? This place is a dump.'
'You just have no experience with men, especially eccentric, single men.'
'You got that right. But what does that have to do with finding files?'
'His current files are in one of three places. Either under the bed…'
Gretchen grimaced. Anything and everything could be under Ronny's bed.
'… on top of the refrigerator, or in the bathroom.'
'I already checked the bathroom.'
'Most men like something to read while they're going about their morning business. The bathroom would have been my best guess. Since you started there, you and I must be nuts right off the same tree.'
Aunt Gertie probably had that nut thing right. Gretchen thanked her and hung up as the community manager walked back again the way he'd come, his eyes riveted on Ronny's trailer.
She quickly crouched beside the bed.
That's where she found his working papers, just as Aunt Gertie predicted.
And the top manila folder had Percy O'Connor's name scribbled across it in large, red letters.
24
'I can't believe you went on a spy mission without me,'
Nina whined from a stool at her kitchen counter while popping liver treats to the dogs. 'Someone must have put you up to it.' Her eyes narrowed in dawning comprehension.
'Gertie! You've been asking that Gertie Johnson for advice. She's nothing but trouble, and you know it.'
'She's also my aunt, and she has her own investigation business. Why wouldn't I consult her?'
'I know all about Gertie's so-called 'business.' Your mother talked me into going with her to Michigan once. Gertie has a ratty old pickup truck with Trouble Busters handwritten on the side of it, and she lives in a town with a total of twelve residents.'
'That's an exaggeration.' Gretchen said. She helped herself to a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant. She bit into the pastry. Pure heaven. 'Besides, if I remember correctly, you liked the idea a few days ago.'
'That was when I thought I was included in the mission.' Nina's jealousy settled into a pout.
'I didn't want you along with me this morning. What if I had been caught? I'd need someone on the outside to bail me out of jail.'
'I hadn't thought of that.'
Tutu, Nimrod, and Sophie skidded by in a whirl of flying playfulness. Toenails clicked across the tiled floor. Nina jumped up and let them out into the gated backyard. When she came back, she eyed the folder on the counter.
'Have you looked inside yet?' she asked.
'Nope. I was waiting for you.' Gretchen licked chocolate from her fingers. 'Let's get started.' She opened the folder and found scraps of paper with scribbled notes tossed in haphazardly. She picked up the top sheet.
'It looks like an early draft for one of his stupid articles,'
Nina observed. 'You can't trust anything that goof wrote.'
'Shhh, I'm reading.' Gretchen skimmed over numerous misspellings and red-lined markings. The article was in the early stages of development and didn't flow in a coherent manner. Not that much about Ronny had been coherent anyway.
She handed the paper to Nina and scanned another.
'Tell me, tell me,' Nina said, not bothering to look at it.
'Read it yourself.' Gretchen slid the second sheet toward her.
'The pages are all marked up, and parts are crossed out. Just tell me.'
'Okay, according to Ronny's notes-and we'll reserve judgment based on the source-Percy O'Connor's father, William, was a profiteer during World War Two.'
Nina frowned. 'A profiteer, like Rhett Butler?'
'You're thinking of the Civil War, Nina. But I suppose the fictional Rhett Butler
'Right.' Nina nodded studiously. 'My mother, your grandmother, lived through it.'
'According to Ronny, William O'Connor dealt in food-steaks and other meats that were impossible to buy in America at the time. He made a fortune in the 1940s, but he had to hide the money from the tax collectors, so he converted the cash to diamonds.'
Nina slapped her hands together. 'I told you we were onto something big like smuggling, didn't I?'
'You did.'
'Imagine making a fortune selling steaks.' Nina sipped her coffee with a dreamy look on her face.
'Anyway, local gossip-that's Boston gossip, because that's where this is supposed to have taken place-
believed he had hidden the diamonds in dolls. Kewpie dolls, to be specific.'
Nina's eyes grew wider. 'Eric said a Blunderboo Kewpie was found smashed on the floor when the body was discovered. Percy O'Connor was killed for his diamonds!'
'And it accounts for his family's rapid rise into a high social economic class.'
'But you can't trust anything penned by Ronny Beam.'
'Nina, I can't believe I'm saying this,' Gretchen said.
'But I think Ronny's allegations might be correct. It explains why Percy was murdered. It even goes a long way in establishing a motive for killing Ronny. He was planning to expose Percy's family history, and someone didn't want that to happen.'
'But what about Brett? How would his death tie in to the diamond theory?'
Gretchen thought about the auction and the mixed-up boxes. Again she saw Brett selecting dolls and boxes and handing them to Howie Howard, his longtime business associate and best friend.
'Either the killer didn't find the diamonds in Percy's home, or too many people knew about it.' She spoke slowly, thoughts churning in her head. 'Somehow, someway, Brett crossed the wrong person's path or got himself mixed up in the diamond theft, and for whatever reason, was eliminated.'
'Lots of whatevers and somehows in our theory,' Nina said. 'Maybe the killer didn't want to share the loot and offed Brett.'
'You're starting to sound like a gangsta,' Gretchen said.
'It's all coming together in a circle.' For dramatic effect, Nina drew a large circle in the air with her arms.
'What did Ronny Beam, Brett Wesley, and Percy O'Connor all have in common?' Nina didn't wait for an answer.
'Dolls, that's what. Maybe Ronny didn't collect dolls-'
'I can vouch for that,' Gretchen said, remembering his trailer's collectibles were of the kind most people
