Cat With a Clue (9 page)

Kristen nodded. “I know.”

I took another bite, then asked, “Say, who should I talk to about the DeKeysers?” Kristen and Rafe, being Chilson born and bred, were my sources for insider knowledge. If they didn't know the dirt on someone, there was a roughly 99.9 percent chance they'd know someone who did. And since I was convincing myself that Andrea's death was somehow linked to Talia DeKeyser's passing, getting background on the DeKeysers was a good starting place.

My friend stared at me. “Does this have to do with Andrea Vennard's murder? Don't you dare tell me you're getting mixed up in that. Remember what happened last time.”

“Yeah, I ruined my cell.” The water resistance of cell phones clearly needed to be improved. Sure, I'd accidentally immersed the thing for nearly twenty minutes, but still.

“And you were almost killed,” Kristen said accusingly.

“Like the man said, the report of my death was an exaggeration.”

“Is that Shakespeare?”

“Mark Twain,” I said, sighing and shaking my head. “See what a PhD in biochemistry got you? An unrounded education.” I finished the last bite of dessert and laid my fork across the plate. “Can I come and watch the filming?”

“Not a chance.”

“Please? I promise I won't make faces at you.”

She snorted. “Now, that's a promise that you can't possibly keep. See? You're making a face right now.”

I flattened my expression, which felt really strange. Something else I needed to work on. Next week, maybe. “So, who should I talk to about the DeKeysers?”

“No one,” she muttered.

“You might as well tell me. Otherwise I'll ask Rafe, and he'll tell me without any lectures.”

Kristen forked in another bite. She swallowed, then said, “Well, if you insist on being stupid about this—”

“I do.”

“—you should talk to Dana Coburn.”

I'd never heard the name. “Is that a female Dana or a male Dana?”

Kristen grinned, her good humor suddenly restored. “That's for me to know and you to find out.”

Since Kristen wasn't being helpful, on the way home I stopped at Rafe's house to get more information. He was in his dining room, up on a six-foot stepladder and installing crown molding.

“Looks nice,” I said, hitching myself up onto a battered wooden stool.

“You think?” He eyed the length of trim he'd just attached. “I wasn't sure about the proportions. Maybe half an inch more height would be better.”

“Nope. It's good just the way it is,” I said, exactly as if I knew what I was talking about.

“All righty, then.” Rafe came down the ladder, moved it over a few feet, and went back up with another piece of trim in his hand.

I watched his efficient movements. Out of school, he had a tendency to play up his chosen role as an Up North redneck wannabe, but with only me for an audience, he was mostly himself. With his longish black hair, slim build, white teeth, and cheerful disposition, I wasn't sure why he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife,
but, then again, maybe all the women in town knew him as well as I did.

“What's so funny?” he asked.

“Do you know a Dana Coburn?”

He laughed. “Kristen give you the name?”

“Yes.” Lying was pointless, since if I denied it he'd call and ask.

“Did she tell you anything about Dana?”

“No. Why?”

He laughed again. “Then I'm not going to tell you anything, either.”

“Not even an address? A phone number? How about where she—or he—works?”

“Works?” He snorted.

“Stop that,” I said. “You sound like a pig rooting around for truffles.”

“Yeah? How many pigs have you seen up close and personal, city girl?”

“You'd be surprised what I see out on the bookmobile, Mr. Niswander,” I said loftily. Which was true, although it hadn't yet included many pigs. But with the bookmobile you never knew.

“And what do pigs eat, Ms. Smarty Pants?”

“Anything they want,” I said promptly.

There was a short silence. “Okay, you got me,” he said. “Let me make a phone call, and we'll see if I can give you Dana's address. Hang on a second—my cell's in the kitchen.”

He clambered down the ladder and scuffed into what I called a kitchenlike area, since it lacked cabinets, dishes, and any silverware other than the ones that came with takeout. What it had was a utility sink, a battered refrigerator, and a hot plate, and I hadn't yet
figured out how Rafe had wangled an occupancy permit out of the building inspector.

I heard a few sentences of muffled conversation, and then the refrigerator door opened and closed. Rafe returned, cracking open a water bottle, another one under his arm.

He handed me the open bottle and I took it, asking, “So? Am I in or out?”

“In, with qualifications.” He tipped his head backward and took a long drink, then went back up the ladder, noisily crimping the empty plastic bottle and tossing it halfway across the room to land in a pile of sawdust and scrap wood. “Hand me that hammer, will you?” he asked.

I slid off the stool and reached for the tool he'd dropped on top of a box as he'd gone into the kitchenlike area. “What are,” I asked, handing up the hammer, “the qualifications of which you speak?”

He turned and blinked down at me. “Oh, right. Dana. You know that house on Fourth Street, the big white one with the columns that's set back a little ways from the other houses? That's where Dana lives.”

“Okay.” I'd walked past that house dozens of times on my way back and forth to my aunt's and had often wondered who lived there. All I had to do was ask someone, but I'd never remembered to actually do so. “You still haven't told me the qualifications.”

He pulled a handful of small nails from a pouch on his tool belt and put most of them into his mouth. “Stop there anytime tomorrow morning,” he said around the nails. “All you have to do is be interesting.”

I frowned. “It's hard to hear you when there's a pound of nails in your mouth. Because I could have
sworn you said I had to be interesting, and that doesn't make any sense.”

“No?” Rafe chuckled. “That's because you haven't met Dana.”

And, try as I might to get more details, he wouldn't say anything else about the mysterious Dana Coburn.

*   *   *

The next day was Friday. I'd scheduled myself the morning off for an eye doctor's appointment. I knew she'd want to dilate my pupils for retina-examination purposes, and since my vision was nearly worthless for three hours afterward, there was no way I'd be able to work. I'd planned to go grocery shopping—I was down to condiments and wilted lettuce in my refrigerator—but I eschewed that in favor of tracking down Dana Coburn.

Soon after the appointment, I knocked on the front door of the house on Fourth Street. It was what I'm sure my father, an engineer who should have been an architect, had taught me was a Greek Revival. Columns ran from the porch floor to the bottom of the pedimented gable. There was a heavy cornice over a wide and plain frieze, and, above all, it was perfectly symmetrical. Two windows left of the front door, two windows right. Six columns across the front, with the front door centered between numbers three and four. Even the entry mat was perfectly centered.

The perfection was the teensiest bit disconcerting, and I'd had to make a conscious decision between tiptoeing my way across the front porch so I didn't ruin the symmetry with a single speck of dirt, and kicking the entry mat to an odd angle. And there was a puddle out on the sidewalk that I'd walked around. What would the house do if I tracked mud onto the porch?

The door suddenly swung open.
“Why are you smiling?” a high-pitched voice asked.

I looked ahead and up and then finally down. Standing in front of me, instead of the elderly and wizened person my imagination had assumed a Dana Coburn would be, was someone little more than a child. She—or he—was shorter than my five feet and thin, with lank hair swinging past the jawline, wearing jeans and a plain T-shirt. There were zero indications of gender.

“Hi,” I said. “My name is Minnie Hamilton. Rafe Niswander called yesterday. I'd like to talk to Dana Coburn.” The kid's gaze didn't falter. “Is, ah, Dana here?”

“You didn't answer my question,” the kid said. “Why were you smiling?”

I blinked. Social niceties were clearly not going to be part of this conversation. Which meant I could tell the complete truth.

“It's the porch,” I said, nodding at the pristine floor. “I was picturing so much mud all over it that the house would want to shake it off like a dog shaking off water.”

The kid stared at me. “Interesting. Ridiculous, but interesting.” She—he?—walked away, leaving the door open. After a short hesitation, I followed.

“You're Dana?” I asked, hurrying after. There was no reply as we trekked through a large entryway, skimmed around the edge of a massive living room, and marched across a formal dining room. I gained an impression of old money and good taste. At long last, we reached a kitchen that was so clean and white, it almost hurt my eyes.

The kid sat on a stool at the corner of a white granite-topped island and pointed. I sat primly on the stool indicated and waited.

Dana, because I could only assume that's who it was, peered into my eyes. “Why are your pupils dilated? Are you taking recreational pharmaceuticals?”

“Eye doctor,” I said. “She likes to check for—”

“Retinal detachment.” Dana waved away the rest of my explanation. Not interesting enough, no doubt. “Mr. Niswander told my mother you'd like information about the DeKeyser family.”

I wondered where the mother figure might be, but decided to keep on topic. “Yes.” I looked at her. Him. “Do you want to know why?”

“I have two theories,” the kid said. “One would be merely a spurious interest.”

It took me a second to make sure I knew what the word “spurious” meant.
Fake. Not valid.
I frowned. “Why on earth would I fake interest in the DeKeysers?”

Dana shrugged. “Not enough information. But the possibility exists.”

This kid had read too many Sherlock Holmes stories. “Okay, but that's not why I'm here.”

“Then you're looking to connect the murder of Andrea Vennard with Talia DeKeyser's death.”

“How did—” I held up my hand, not wanting to hear the kid say “Elementary, my dear Minnie.”

“Never mind,” I said. “You're right. I want to learn more about the DeKeysers, and I was pointed in your direction.”

Dana gave me a straight, unblinking look. “Don't you want to know if I've made the connection between the murder and Talia?”

“If you had, you would already have told me,” I said confidently. Someone like Dana wouldn't be able to
keep from saying how she—he—had found the answer faster than everyone else. My brother had been like that. Spouting out the answer was practically an involuntary reaction for young folks with that much brain power.

The kid nodded slowly. “You're right. I would have. How did—” Dana's head went back and forth. “Never mind. I'll think about it later and learn from the exercise.”

Why had I never met this kid before? Surely someone like this should be in the library on a regular basis. “I would, however, like to know why you're the local expert on the DeKeysers.”

“Yes, I can see why you would be curious,” Dana said. “It was a research exercise. I am homeschooled, and my parents wanted me to get familiar with the methods involved in genealogical research. Death certificates, birth certificates, property records, newspaper articles, and similar items.” The kid eyed me. “This was before you were hired as the library's assistant director. I've been told that the new building has much more to offer than the old.”

Old building?
This meant the research had occurred at least four years ago. I desperately wanted to ask how old Dana had been at the time of the research, but let it go. “Why did you choose the DeKeysers?”

“I wanted a challenge,” came the prompt reply. “By head count, they're the largest family in town. Having so many family branches to investigate made the project more interesting.”

Interesting. That word again.

“And you're interested in Talia DeKeyser,” Dana said. “Would you also like information regarding her husband, Calvin?”

“Yes, please,” I said, and settled myself down to listen.

Dana leaned back on the stool, lifting one knee and cupping it with his—her—hands. “Calvin DeKeyser. Born 1928, died 2013. Would you like the months and days?”

“Not necessary, but thank you.”

The kid nodded. “Talia DeKeyser, born Talia Wiley in 1933. Both Calvin and Talia were born in Chilson, went through the Chilson schools, and graduated from Chilson High School. Talia attended the Michigan Normal School in Ypsilanti, which is now Eastern Michigan University, and subsequently taught school for three years before she married Calvin in 1958.”

At that point in Dana's precise factual recitation, my tiny little brain adjusted to the concept of a child with the vocabulary and sentence construction of a doctoral candidate. I stopped being amazed at the person in front of me and simply tried to absorb what was being said.

“Benton's, the general store in the downtown core of Chilson, was one of the first commercial establishments in Tonedagana County. Newspaper accounts indicate that the county seat was settled in Chilson primarily because of Benton's.”

I started to ask a question, but stopped, not wanting to interrupt the narrative flow.

“Benton was the maiden name of Calvin DeKeyser's mother,” Dana said. “Elijah DeKeyser married Dorothy Benton in 1920 and they had six children: five daughters and one son. The daughters married into other original Chilson families, and, as there were no Benton males, Calvin eventually came into ownership of the store.”