Murder in Death's Door County (13 page)

“That!” Lizzy yelled. I looked up just
in time to see an upstairs curtain flutter.

“Oh good, that just means someone is
home. I’m sure they’ll be down any minute to let us in,” I said, my voice
rising nervously with each syllable.

The golden-orange canopy of leaves,
while beautiful, gave an eeriness to the whole situation. While there weren’t a
lot of homes on this lane, they seemed oddly quiet. I felt a shiver go down my
back.

“Do you feel creeped out?” Lizzy
squeaked.

“Look, we have a job to do,” I boldly
stated. Er, it would have sounded bold if my voice hadn’t gone up an octave by
the end of that statement. My knocking knees also betrayed me. I knocked a
little more loudly.

“Hello?” I yelled at the door. “Hello-o-o!”

“I’m just gonna go around back and see
if there’s another door,” Lizzy said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. I
nodded, intent on the task I had set myself.

A few minutes later, I had nothing to
show for my efforts but sore knuckles. Suddenly, I heard a loud crash and a
muffled, “Help! Annie! Come quick!”

I ran around the house, but didn’t see
Lizzy anywhere. Turning around in circles, I called out, “Lizzy, where are you?”

“Down here,” came her still-muffled
reply. I saw her hand pop up out of the ground. She waved.

Walking over to the edge of the hole, I
commented, “Wow, good thing you’re tall. I don’t think my hand would have
reached.”

She replied, somewhat impatiently, “Can
you help me up, please?” She made a spitting sound. A wad of dirt came flying
out of her mouth.

As I was about to bend down and offer
her my hand, we heard a truck start. Together we cried, “The Escalade!”

Our eyes locked and she shooed me away, “Go,
go, see who that is! I’ll be fine.”

Lizzy had barely gotten the words out
before I unceremoniously released my hand. I heard her tumble back down, but
knew I had to hurry. Besides, she was tall, if she could just get a foothold,
she’d be out of the pit in no time.

Racing back around the house, I got
there just in time to see the Escalade peel out (as much as an Escalade can).
Leaves and dirt flew everywhere. However, before my vision was obscured by
flying debris, I saw a blonde head over the driver’s seat. Seconds later, Lizzy
came running up, covered head to toe in dirt, twigs, and leaves. We must have
made quite a sight!

“Did you see who that was?” She asked,
still panting from her efforts.

“All I could see was a blonde.” Cough.
Cough… “head.” I coughed so hard, I thought my lungs would pop out. “I think I
swallowed some dirt?”

“Swallowed some dirt? I’m a walking mud
pie!” Lizzy’s voice steadily grew to a shriek as she spoke. She began to
gesture rather wildly, whipping dirt over everything, including me.

“I don’t even know what happened! I was
walking along, looking for any signs of life, and BAM, I fell into that pit! I
had thought it was a pile of leaves. But Noooooo! It couldn’t be a pile of
leaves only. It had to be a booby trap! Who booby traps their backyard for
goodness’ sake?”

“Hmmm… I wonder why they built a pit in
their backyard?” I wondered aloud, not expecting an answer.

“I can certainly tell you why. I think
they’re up to no good here.” Lizzy and I started at the unexpected voice behind
us. We turned around and saw an old woman, who I presumed was a neighbor.

“Who lives here?” I pointed towards the
house.

“Don’t know. But they have strange
comings and goings all day and night,” she said in a scratchy voice. Reaching just
over five feet, I rarely felt tall next to people. Next to this lady, I felt
positively gigantic. Lizzy easily stood a full foot taller than her. I don’t
think she went over four feet ten inches tall. Wearing a pink cardigan, blue
polyester pants, and tan orthopedic shoes, all she lacked was a Bingo card in
her hand.

“What do you want with them anyway?” She
squinted at us suspiciously. “You up to no good, too?”

“No, no, not at all,” Lizzy exclaimed.

“We are up to good, actually,” I said. “We
were wondering if we could ask you some questions about this house? Do you have
a few minutes? I’m Annie Malone and this is my friend, Lizzy Holloway.”

She looked us up and down before
answering. I’m sure Lizzy’s appearance as a Mud Monster gave her pause.
However, I’m sure curiosity gnawed at her. When curiosity won out, she introduced
herself, “I’m Evelyn McInerny, originally of the Bailey’s Harbor McInerny’s,
but call me Effie,” and invited us across the street.

“Thanks so much, Effie. Pleased to meet
you,” I said, offering my right hand for her to shake it.

“Oh, I don’t,” she paused to cough.
After coughing so much I thought she’d cough up a hairball, she continued, “Excuse
me. I don’t shake hands. Germs, ya know.” She pulled a soiled hankie out to
wipe some spittle from her mouth.

Lizzy and I exchanged a look. I wasn’t
sure if she meant our germs or hers. Deciding it didn’t really matter, I kept
my smile firmly in place, and we told her we understood.

“Pleased to meet you both. Er, ah, I’d
invited you young ladies in, but it looks like your friend,” she indicated
Lizzy, “fell into one of their weird traps.” She pushed up her Coke-bottle
glasses, which dwarfed her face, making her resemble an owl.

“Did you say traps?” Lizzy asked.

“Yup, yup, traps. Here, why don’t we go
sit at the picnic table behind my house,” Effie offered. “These legs don’t work
quite like they used to.” She led us back across the street to her own faux log
cabin-slash-mini-mansion.

“Nice place,” Lizzy commented. I
concurred.

Effie offered us some lemonade and
cookies. Then proceeded to hack up the rest of that hairball on her way into
the house to get our refreshments.

Once she was out of earshot, Lizzy
whispered, “Let’s get out of here! My skin is starting to itch. And I do not
want to eat coughed-on cookies!”

“But this is a great opportunity!”

“How can it be a great opportunity? She
doesn’t even know who lives there!”

“But we haven’t found out if she’s ever
heard of Marcos or that mysterious blonde woman. Or Harry, really, for that
matter.”

Lizzy peeled mud of her face while she
thought. Glumly, she finally conceded. We sat in silence for a few more
minutes. Effie reappeared with a tray filled with glasses of lemonade and
cookies. Dutifully, Lizzy and I thanked her, and took one cookie apiece.

“So now, what did you want to know
again?”

I figured I might as well dive in, “Do
you know a man named Marcos Landrostassis?”

Effie took a sip of her lemonade as she
thought for a minute, “Can’t say that I have. What does he do?”

“He’s a sort of jack of all trades from what
I can gather.”

“You mean, you don’t know him either?”

“Well, kind of, but I’ve never met him
face to face.”

“Oh, I get it now. You met him on one of
those interweb hootchie sites and now you’re stalkin’ him, eh?”

“What? No, it isn’t like that at all.”
In desperate need for help, I looked at Lizzy for reinforcements.

She jumped in immediately, “Ah, what my
friend is trying to say is, she is a famous writer. And she is writing a book
on Marcos.”

“But she hasn’t met him? How can she
write a book about him?” Effie had us there.

“Yes, I realize that does seem odd. I
thought it was odd at first too.” Lizzy gave a brief shake of her head to let
me know that wasn’t true. “But in this day and age, so much can be done by
phone and internet. Anyway, Annie is writing a book on Marcos and is having
trouble reaching him.” I looked in awe at Lizzy as she just plunged right in, “She
was given the address across the street as a possible place he might be.”

“Doesn’t she have his address?”

I thought I should speak up, “No, the
terms of his contract were that everything would be done remotely, er, by
phone. But he did want me to come up to the area to capture the flavor of where
he lived. He was covering all of my expenses, so you can see where I’d want to
do a great job for him. Only now I can’t seem to find him via phone.”

“Seems like a bad business all the way
around.”

I mumbled, “You don’t even know the half
of it.”

“What was that, dear? My hearing is
getting bad.”

“Nothing, nothing. I just need to find
Marcos and was hoping that the address I got would lead me to him. What have
you noticed at the house?”

“As I said, a lot of odd comings and
goings, with most people wearing black for some reason.”

“You had said something about a blonde
woman, too? Have you seen a blonde woman?”

“Oh, most definitely. She comes by about
every other day.”

“Have you noticed anything unusual about
her appearance?”

“Let me see… she always shows up at
about nine o’clock in the morning and stays about an hour. When she gets here,
she has a large briefcase, but she seems to carry it lower when she leaves.
Know what I mean?”

“I’m sorry I don’t follow.”

Lizzy asked, “Do you mean that the bag
is a bit closer to the ground when she leaves? Like, maybe it’s full of
something?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I mean. For
falling into one of those traps, you are a smart cookie. Clearly, you both are.”

We beamed at this praise. She seemed
sincere.

“I will add this, one of the men who
comes by has a real scowl on his face most of the time. He has dark hair and
olive skin, and when he barks out orders to the others, they listen. I just
wish I knew what he was sayin’.” Effie shook her head in frustration.

“Oh, is he too far away for you to hear?”

“No, he shouts really loud. That’s not
the problem. It’s that he’s speaking in another language. Greek maybe? Or
Turkish? I don’t know anything but English, myself.”

At the mention of “Greek,” Lizzy poked
my leg with her foot.

“Anyway, I can’t really tell you much
more. That fella, he scowled a lot and that doesn’t invite confidences. I’m not
shy, but I’m not going where angels fear to tread.”

Lizzy looked astonished, “You think he is
as bad as that?”

Effie chuckled a little, perhaps at our
naiveté, “I don’t really know what to think, do I? I mean, it’s just a saying.
But there is a reason why he was creating traps, right?

“True. Annie, my itching is getting
worse. I think the mud is hardening.”

“So, tell me the truth, are you girls
detectives or something?” Effie asked with a twinkle in her eye. I could tell
this little visit had made her day. We had probably given her something to talk
about for a few weeks.

I gently reminded her about my
ghostwriting book, but I don’t think she believed me. Or put another way, she
chose to not believe.

Before we left, I asked her to please
call me at the Lighthouse Inn if she remembered anything else. I told her to
just ask for Annie.

At a mention of the Lighthouse Inn, she
gave me a curious look. “You know, I think I have just person you should talk
to. She’s my neighbor, but she’s also good friends with Millicent down at the Lighthouse
Inn.”

Weakly, I said, “Oh great.” Next to me,
I heard Lizzy groan.

“Her name is Joyce Limburger.”

“Like the cheese?”

“She’ll be more cooperative if you don’t
mention that. I’ll tell her to give you a call. I’d send you over to her place
now,” she pointed to the yard next door to hers, “but she’s gone out of town today.”

“Thanks so much for your help, Effie,” I
said.

Lizzy was too busy trying to not itch to
do more than wave as we made our way back to the truck.

A
FTER LIZZY DROPPED ME
OFF
, I was too keyed up to
settle down in my room. I decided to go for a drive up the scenic highway and visit
Gills Rock. I was curious about going to the tip of Door County and the weather
was pretty good for autumn in Wisconsin. On the way up there, I stopped at a
couple of souvenir stores. I reached the jetty at Gills Rock in the late
afternoon, just as dusk was starting. I left my car in the parking lot and took
a walk around the neighborhood abutting the harbor. The air felt so lovely and
free up here. I could really see settling up in Door County.

Although the sky had started to darken,
the rain held off long enough for me to enjoy a gorgeous sunset before I began
to head back. I took my time driving back to the Lighthouse Inn. I didn’t need
to be in my room immediately, and driving in the rain at night made me nervous.
As I drove down Highway 42, there were no other cars on the road. When a deer
bounded across the highway, I tried to apply my brakes. My brakes didn’t take.
I put my foot all the way down. Grabbing my steering wheel and making a sharp
turn onto the shoulder, I was able to avoid hitting the deer. My car started to
slow down a little as I hit foliage.