'How about family? Can family visit?'
'She was very clear. Absolutely no visitors. I'm getting a supervisor.' The woman sounded impatient but continued to hold her ground.
'That won't be necessary,' Gretchen said, glad that she had blocked her call before dialing the senior care center. She'd assumed that they would have caller ID, and she didn't want her real identity known.
'I think I'll drive over and make the request in person.'
'This is a gated senior center.'
It figures, Gretchen thought. The old woman had been permanently locked away.
Gretchen inched along the sidewalk while tiny Nimrod scurried along beside her. He stopped often to sniff the ground and mark his territory.
'Hello there,' someone said.
Gretchen turned to see a woman around her age walking rapidly toward her, pushing two toddlers in a double stroller.
'You must be Caroline Birch's daughter,' she said.
'I've seen you coming and going but haven't had a chance to introduce myself. I'm Janice Schmidt, and these are my twins, Troy and Tim. They're almost two.'
Gretchen smiled at the twins and wiggled her fingers next to her face in a silly wave. 'Hi, kids. This is Nimrod. We're going for his daily walk.'
Not the most disciplined walking-on-a-leash trainee, Nimrod proceeded to wrap the leash around Gretchen's feet in a frantic burst of energy. She stepped out of the center before becoming completely ensnarled. The twins spotted the miniature puppy and leaned out of the stroller, giggling in unison.
'I hope everything is okay at your house,' Janice said.
'Did someone break in, or try to?'
'I'm sorry?' Gretchen said, confused. 'A break-in?'
'Yes, well, I saw Lilly Beth speaking to a police officer in your front yard, and I assumed…' She let the sentence fade away, a pink flush rising from her neck. 'Judging from your reaction, you don't know anything about it, do you?'
Gretchen glanced at Lilly Beth's house and thought she saw someone step back from the window. Her mother had warned her about the nosy, gossipy neighbor as soon as Gretchen moved in. 'Don't speak to her,' she'd said. Lilly Beth will turn your words against you no matter how innocently spoken. Nina had agreed that the woman was poison.
'Tell me,' she said to Janice.
'I don't know anything else. They spoke for a little while, and the officer left. I assumed he was responding to a break-in at your house or perhaps a tripped alarm.'
Lilly Beth had been nothing but trouble for the Birch family, attempting to shut down the doll repair business her mother had started and going so far as to call the police several times over vividly imagined and nonexistent infractions. What had she called the police about this time?
'When did this happen?' she asked Janice.
'Yesterday afternoon.'
What had they done wrong this time? Closed the door too loudly when they left? Allowed a scrap of blown litter to linger a moment or two in the front, where it had drastically reduced Lilly Beth's property value? A facial expression that Lilly Beth had interpreted as hostile? One more citizen complaint, and Gretchen would begin to fight back.
'Look, I've had my own share of trouble with her,' Janice said. 'But she's just a lonely, bitter woman who needs someone to extend a hand in friendship. You're thinking she called the police, planning to make trouble for you, and you're probably right. I shouldn't have said anything. It only creates more problems, and I'm sorry I was part of it.'
'It's okay.' Gretchen picked up Nimrod and let the twins feel his soft fur. 'She can't do anything to cause real harm. I'll let it go.'
Janice let out a sigh of relief. 'I can't imagine what it could have been about,' she said, her forehead creasing as she spoke. 'I did find one thing a little odd, however.'
'What's that?' Gretchen asked.
'The police officer wasn't in a squad car. I didn't see him pull up to your house, but he drove away in a truck. Isn't that a bit unusual?'
Gretchen felt prickles of fear on the skin of her exposed arms. The sun, comfortably warm a moment ago, felt unbearably chilly. 'What kind of truck?' she asked in a whisper, pretending to be engrossed in puppy play with the children.
'A pickup truck. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of vehicle used by the police department. Well, maybe he was on his way home from work, off-duty, and he responded because he was closest? That must be it. Why didn't I think of that sooner?'
Gretchen tried to speak, but her words stuck in her throat. She cleared it, emitting a croaking frog sound.
'What color was the truck?'
'Hmm…' Janice paused, and Gretchen drew Nimrod closer to her chest.
'Green,' Janice called out, like she'd remembered the winning Trivial Pursuit question. 'It was green.'
Gretchen sighed in relief, louder and longer than she'd ever sighed before. If Janice had said blue, Gretchen would have keeled over in a dead faint.
Albert Thoreau had seen Brett's killer step from a blue truck.
Green was a nice, safe color. It meant life, growth, and good health. The green grass of home, forest green. It also could mean jealousy and envy and green money, which could come from a doll full of diamonds.
She shook her head to change her train of thought. She'd been a little nervous lately, not feeling quite right. Yes, green was very, very good.
31
'Nina, pick up the phone. I know you're home.' Gretchen said under her breath, having been reduced, thanks to Nina's antics, to holding conversations with herself. Gretchen disconnected and punched in Nina's cell phone number.
'Nina, I called your house, and you wouldn't answer. Also your answering machine didn't turn on, so I assume that you shut it off. You know I'm worried about this killer, and I'm worried about you. Refusing to talk to me is making my fears worse. Where are you?'
Gretchen struggled to keep the frustration out of her voice.
'If you don't respond to this message within the next two hours, I'm calling the police.'
That ought to fire her up. Obviously, Nina wasn't taking overt threats by a maniacal killer seriously. Hadn't Gretchen just received a 'you're next' threat hidden inside a Kewpie Doodle Dog? If Nina wasn't concerned about herself, the least she could do was pretend to show a little concern for Gretchen's welfare.
Gretchen ended the message to Nina and speed-dialed her mentor in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
'Aunt Gertie, I need more advice.' She related all the happenings she thought might be associated with the three murders, leaving nothing out. 'I'm at a dead end, a brick wall,' she finished.
Gertie laughed. 'You sure do give up easily. There's lots that you can do. This Chigger-'
'Chiggy.'
'Whatever. That woman has some answers, if you can get to her.'
'It's impossible.'
'Nothing is impossible. You can infiltrate that nursing home if you put your mind to it. Find a time when all the staff are watching some popular soap opera in the nurses'
station and crawl right past. That works every time.'
Gretchen decided not to ask her aunt how she came to know this.
