The mist had turned into a light rain that trickled down Goldie’s forehead and mixed with the tears welling in her eyes. She felt like she had been punched in the gut. “D-d-dead? I don’t understand. She was fixing me tea, Ollie, and poppy seed cakes. She had something to show me. She can’t be dead. Let me go in, I have to see her.” Once again Goldie tried to push past the burly police chief.
“It’s not a pretty sight. My boys just got here and it looks like Mimi’s been murdered. Hit over the head a couple times with a stick or something like that. Could have been robbery; the place is pretty busted up. For some reason the killer smashed all those Russian teapots. The guys are just starting to check things out now.”
Goldie persisted. “Please, let me just go in for a minute. I won’t disturb anything, I promise. Mimi said something about the samovars last night. That’s why I came to see her this morning.” Without waiting she pushed past Ollie.
Stifling a sob, she carefully stepped through the mess on the floor. Goldie recognized every bashed up samovar in her friend’s collection, the two new ones were not among them. Poor Mimi was sprawled in a pool of blood at the foot of the stairs leading up to her apartment. She wore a fuzzy pink robe over her flannel nightgown. One of her silly bunny slippers lay under a chair, the other dangled from her left toe. Goldie stared at the gruesome scene with the sudden realization that she would never see Mimi’s smiling eyes again.
Ollie tried to hustle her out but she stood her ground. “I’m not leaving until I know more. When did this happen? Who found her?”
Goldie was famous around Juneau for never giving up until she got all the facts, so Ollie shrugged. “The Doc’s on his way over, but just off hand I’d say it happened some time around midnight, two a.m. maybe. Something must have woken her up and she came downstairs to check it out. A guy from the Silverbow came by to deliver some tea cakes this morning, saw the mess and gave us a call.”
One of the officers came rushing through the fancy curtain separating the storeroom from the shop. “Hey, Ollie! You gotta see this. Got the perp back here sound asleep. Looks pretty open and shut to me. Got drunk, went berserk, busted up the place, she surprises him and he whacks her in the head. Lookit this. He don’t even know we’re here.”
The Chief rushed to the storeroom and Goldie followed. In the corner on a pile of rags, Rudy’s friend, Taku Ted, was passed out and snoring for all he was worth. His clothes were covered in blood. A bloody halibut bat rested on his chest, rising and falling with his snores.
Goldie couldn’t believe Taku would ever do anything as brutal as flying into a drunken rage and murdering someone. He seemed to be a good person who lost his way. Rudy wouldn’t befriend a murderer… Would he?
Goldie became aware that Ollie was asking her a question. “Taku was a fisherman before he got hurt, wasn’t he?”
Goldie nodded. “But he can’t have done this! Mimi was always kind to him.”
Ollie pointed to the bloody bat. “Well, this thing is used for killing halibut once they’re hauled into the boat. Maybe he took some kind of drug and thought Mimi was a big fish.” He shouted to one of his men, “Wake the bum up. He has some questions to answer.”
The storeroom reeked of alcohol and the metallic smell of blood. Goldie felt her stomach rolling but she wasn’t going to leave until they kicked her out the door.
The police officer pulled Taku to a sitting position and fired questions at him as Ollie loomed above, demanding answers. The poor confused fellow blinked in the light, rubbing his eyes and trying to figure out where he was. He let out a big burp and looked like he was ready to heave. His rheumy eyes slid over to Goldie and there was a flick of recognition. “Whaaas…whaass goin’ on? Wheeere’s Mimi? She’ll tell ya it’s okay. I ain’t tresss…tres-trespissing. She lets me sleep here.”
Just as Ollie was screaming at him that Mimi was dead and it looked like he was the murderer, Goldie’s cell phone rang. She slipped out of the storeroom to answer it.
Rudy was shouting on the other end. “Goldie, Goldie where are ya? We been robbed. It’s a gol awful mess. Everythin’ topsy turvy. Are ya on yer way down here?”
His voice kept rising until he sounded like an agitated squirrel. Goldie finally managed to break in, “Slow down Rudy. I’m just up the street at the tea shop. Something awful has happened. Mimi Mendoza is dead…murdered. And it looks like your friend Taku did it.”
NINE
Goldie said, “That was Rudy.” She took a breath, hoping her voice didn’t sound too shaky. “Someone broke into my shop. I know its small potatoes compared to Mimi’s murder, but if one of you guys could stop by later, I’ll need to make out a police report. Who knows? Maybe these two crimes are related somehow.”
“Don’t you worry, Goldie.” He gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. “I know how shook up you must be. Tell you what, go on over to the Silver Spoon and I’ll check it out on my way back to the station.”
She hurried down the street, realizing that she was running for the last few yards. When she burst into the Silver Spoon, Rudy was standing at the counter holding his head in his hands. Fresh tears ran down her cheeks as she surveyed the overturned displays and broken china.
“I-I just don’t know…” Her voice trailed off as she wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dripping rain jacket and made things worse.
“Forget our mess for a minute, tell me about Taku. There’s no way that good ole boy would kill anyone. I’ve seen him get kinda scrappy when he’s drunk, but he ain’t no killer. Told me once the worst part ’bout fishin’ was that he had to kill livin’ things. Damn tarnation, if this ain’t a rotten day.”
Goldie picked up the coat rack from the floor and hung her jacket on it. She steered Rudy toward an old mohair settee. “Let’s sit down and try to make some sense of this.” They both plopped on the sofa like a couple of rag dolls.
Midnight jumped into Goldie’s lap. She gathered up the huge feline and hugged him like a security blanket. He hissed at her and wiggled away. “Sorry, Midnight, I guess I squeezed you a little too tight.”
“Don’t pay no mind to that worthless cat,” Rudy said, shaking his head, “we got other things to think about, Goldie. Like poor Taku. He would never hurt Mimi. He always talks about how kind she was, lettin’ him sleep in the storeroom when it got cold out. Called her a saint and an angel.” He slapped his hand on the mahogany table next to the settee and nearly turned it over. “No sir. Them police got it all wrong. I don’t care what it looks like, can’t make me believe Taku killed her. Goldilocks, you gotta help him.”
“Don’t worry Rudy, I’ll do what I can. We’ll get him a lawyer…we’ll figure out what happened.” She gave him a reassuring pat on the knee.
“Better get that high falutin’ sister of yours over here, pronto. Long as she’s hangin’ around for a few days, we might as well put her to work doin’ what she does best. Snoopin’.”
Goldie glanced at the old schoolhouse clock hanging on the opposite wall. 9:30. She reached for the phone and dialed her home number. After four rings she heard the phone clattering, it must have fallen on the floor, and then she heard a very sleepy sounding, “Hello, Goldie’s not here.”
“Of course I’m not there, Godiva. It’s me calling. Listen you’ve gotta wake up right away. Something terrible has happened. I need you to walk down here as soon as you can.”
“Walk? Down that steep hill? In the rain? You’ve got to be kidding. It’s enough that you have forty-seven steps up to your house, but I really don’t think I’m up to inching down Starr Hill in my high heel boots. What’s so important, anyway?”
“Darn it, Sis. Stop thinking of yourself for once. My friend Mimi’s been murdered. And Rudy’s friend, Taku Ted has been arrested. Remember, you met him at the salmon bake? On top of that, my shop was broken into last night.”
“Huh? What? Murdered? Ted… Who… Oh my god!” Godiva’s fuzzy voice reflected a tiny glimmer of understanding.
“So, Madame Pompadour, get dressed and leave your fancy shoes at home. You’ll find a slicker and some rubber boots by the front door. Now, get your pampered butt down here. I need you.”
“But, the hill…”
“Look, if you walk to the end of the street you can come down the Fourth Street stairs. I know its more steps, but it’s all downhill. I’ll send Rudy out soon to get you a cup of coffee and a pastry at Heritage. We’ll have it here by the time you arrive.”
Uncharacteristically meek, Godiva said, “Um, yeah. See if they have a lemon Danish. If not, some kind of good muffin. Make the coffee an extra large, and black.”
Goldie placed the receiver in the cradle. She figured it would be at least an hour before Godiva dressed, did her make-up and hair and dragged herself down the hill.
“All right, Rudy, let’s take a few minutes to survey the shop before the police get here,” she said.
They did a visual assessment and noted that, although a lot of things were knocked over, only a few items were broken.
“Strange,” Goldie muttered. “Offhand I’d say nothing seems to be missing. I really don’t see…” She stopped rummaging on her desk and looked up in confusion. “Rudy, where did you put yesterday’s sales slips?”
He motioned toward the cash register. “Them slips should be right on the spindle where they always are.”
She shook her head. “Nope. Yesterday’s slips are missing. Not on the spindle, not on the desk. They’re simply not here.”
Rudy sprinted back to the storeroom where he had placed Goldie’s last samovar when the ill-tempered Dumkovsky brothers charged into the shop the day before. He shouted through the curtain, “Missin’, Goldie. Yer fancy samovar is missin’.”
“I should have known something awful would happen. The moon is in Mars this week, but I never guessed it would be this bad.” She sagged into the settee again. “Rudy, please do me a favor and run over to Heritage and get Godiva some black coffee, the largest size they have. She wants a lemon Danish, but if they don’t have one get her a sweet, gooey muffin. Something for me too, and a chai tea. We’re going to need the sugar rush.”
A few minutes later, Ollie Oliver came into the shop, notepad in hand, looking frazzled from the morning’s activities. His eyes shot open when he saw the awful mess. “Well, Goldie, Taku is safely on his way to the station. My God, do you think he might have done this too? Maybe he had a fight with Rudy?”
Goldie combed her fingers through her thick silver hair. “Ollie, you’re way off base. I know it looks bad for Taku but I don’t think he did it, and neither does Rudy. He’s not a murderer or a thief, just a scruffy guy who’s down on his luck.”
Ollie threw up his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t go gettin’ all upset. You’ve got to admit when you find a suspect at the scene covered in blood, holding the murder weapon it’s pretty damned incriminating. You got a better explanation?”
“Not exactly, but I do have some idea of what happened here in my shop. On Saturday I got this shipment of antique samovars from Russia. They were so incredible that by closing time on Sunday I only had one left.”
Ollie raised an eyebrow. “Boy, they must have been something.”
“They sure were. But here’s the thing. At the end of the day, these two big Russian guys came in. They insisted those samovars belonged to them and demanded I give them the last one and the names and addresses of everyone else who got one.”
Ollie chuckled. “Knowing you, Goldie, that was the wrong thing for them to do.”
She smiled. “You bet. When they bullied me, Rudy called the police. They heard the siren and ran out of the shop threatening to come back. I think they’re the ones who did all this.” She blinked back tears.
Ollie nodded. “Sounds like you got that one figured out. But what about Mimi?”
“Oh! Don’t you see? She bought two of those samovars, and they were missing from the tea shop this morning. That shipment was cursed. I should never have sold them to her. I should have known there would be trouble, the moon and stars pointed to disaster yesterday,” she sobbed. “It’s all my fault she’s dead!”
Ollie huffed. “Don’t be so dramatic, Goldie. Okay, I’ll buy your theory about the angry Russians breaking into your shop, but nobody would kill someone just for a couple of teapots. Nope. My money’s on Taku for the killer. The evidence was right there. Bet when he sobers up he’ll confess.”
Just then Rudy came in, cardboard coffee caddy in hand and a bag of goodies in the crook of his arm. “Oh no you don’t. You ain’t railroadin’ ol’ Taku into no forced confession. Goldie’s getting him a lawyer, he ain’t talkin’ to you without a legal mouthpiece in the room.”
Ollie looked a little startled at Rudy’s outburst. “Now Rudy, it’s an open and shut case.”
“Oh no it ain’t! Someone’s set that ole boy up. You know well as I do that he’s an easy mark. I’m goin’ down to the station myself if I have to and make sure you don’t abuse his rights.” Rudy was inches from the police chief’s face and his nose and cheeks were flushed.
“Okay, okay, we’ll put Taku in a cell to sober up until his lawyer gets there. Goldie, if you’re going to help him you’d better find a really hot one.”
She nodded.
“Meanwhile, we’ll look into the break-in here at the Silver Spoon. See if we can find those Russians. But I’ll tell you right now. I don’t think those missing samovars had a thing to do with Mimi’s murder. Just a coincidence.”
Goldie was heating up with anger, but she decided not to blow up. She needed Ollie’s cooperation. Five minutes after he left, the bell on the front door tinkled and a bedraggled Godiva clomped in wearing floppy brown BF Goodrich boots, a yellow hat and rain slicker. In a weak voice she said, “Coffee. Where is my coffee? Why can’t you live on flat land?”
Rudy grabbed a china platter off the back shelf and arranged three varieties of muffins on it. He removed the lid from her coffee and poured part of it into a delicate Meissen Blue teacup. “Here you are, yer highness,” he said with a flourish as he handed her the cup, now balanced on a matching saucer. “Can’t have visitin’ royalty drinkin’ out of a paper cup, can we now?”
They sat on the mohair settee while Goldie quickly explained the morning’s shocking events. Godiva’s lethargy evaporated, bolstered by her java jolt.