This Old Murder

“In-” A waitress arrived carrying steaming plates and Josie stopped speaking. It took a few minutes-and two refusals of freshly ground pepper and one for fresh shavings from a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano-to regain their privacy.

“So where was she?” Sam repeated his question.

“She was in the canoe hanging from the ceiling of the living room.” Her food smelled wonderful. She didn’t want to answer these questions. She wished Sam would leave her alone and let her eat.

“Courtney Castle was hiding in a canoe hanging from the rafters of the house you’re remodeling? I can’t believe that!”

“It isn’t exactly like that,” Josie admitted. “You see, she was dead… is dead.”

Sam looked at her, reached for his wineglass, changed his mind, and folded both hands in his lap. “Say that again.”

“She’s dead, Sam. Someone killed her. I think,” she added.

“You know she’s dead, but you think someone killed her.”

“I know she’s dead. And someone must have killed her. She didn’t climb a ladder up to the canoe, get in, cover herself neatly with a blanket, and die. Besides, we put the ladder there. Later, we put the ladder there later.” She took a deep breath and tried again. “There was no ladder up there. Someone on my crew put it there, and climbed up, and looked inside. And there she was. Am I making any sense at all?”

“Are you hungry?”

Surprised by the change of topic, she looked down at her plate. “It looks delicious, but I did eat earlier. Why? Do you want to leave?”

“No, I’m starving and this looks wonderful. I want to eat it while you tell me the entire story-from the begi

“I…”

“And you shouldn’t leave anything out, Josie. Because it sounds to me like you might be needing my help-and I can’t do anything unless I know everything.”

Josie sighed. “Okay. You’re right. Just let me get my thoughts together.” She sipped her wine, sighed again, and began the tale.

“It started when she didn’t show up. I didn’t know what to think. Bobby acted as though it was nothing. He said Courtney went off and did things-fund-raising, stuff like that-all the time. I didn’t give it another thought, frankly. At least, not until I climbed the ladder and found her.”

“Josie-”

“Sam, just hear me out. I’ll tell you everything. That is, everything I know.”

“Fine. Why don’t you start with why you climbed that ladder?”

“Because Dottie told me Courtney was up there!” Josie continued, telling him of her crew’s discovery and how she had been forced to stay up there with the dead body while Bobby Valentine, pretending to be Courtney Castle, had interviewed her. “It was creepy.”

“I can imagine. Did you get the impression that he knew she was up there?”

“I thought about that, but I have no idea if he did or not. I know he wasn’t in a position to look in while he was talking to me. I’m sure of that.”

“But he could have done that before, right?”

“I guess.”

“And what about later?”

“Yeah, he might have come back later and looked in, but… Do you think he took her down?”

“I suppose. The canoe was on the floor when I picked you up there. Did you take it down or did you find it that way?”

“Found it that way.”

“And she wasn’t in it.”

“No, it was empty. Except for the blanket.”

“The body was gone, but the blanket was left behind?”

“Yes.”

“That’s interesting.”

“Why?”

“Whoever moved her didn’t use the blanket to do it.”

“Obviously, but so what?”

“It might not mean anything, but it might mean that whoever did it came prepared with some means of transport.”

“Or maybe they just picked her up, plunked her in one of the wheelbarrows out back, pulled a tarp off the wood back there, tossed it over her, and rolled her away.” Josie picked up her fork and stuck it in her pasta. Excellent!

“Good point. So go on with the story. What happened between the time you did the interview on the ladder and I arrived at the house?”

“We worked.”

Sam put down his fork and looked at Josie. “You mean you left the body alone?”

She heard the disapproval in his voice and hesitated. “Well, not exactly alone. We were shocked, of course, but we discussed the situation and decided to do nothing until we could spend some time alone and discuss the problem. We took away the ladder, of course, so no one could get up to the body.”

“You thought that by ignoring it, it would go away.” He saw the expression on her face and stopped speaking. “I’m sorry. Of course you didn’t. It’s just that this whole story is a bit hard to understand. Go on. When did you find the body?”

“In the morning.”

“And what exactly did you all do once you found her?”

“Well, we talked about it… about her, of course. Everyone climbed up the ladder and looked at her. That is, I think everyone did.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“No, I guess not.”

“What exactly did you all do?”

“Well, after a very uncomfortable interview with Bobby Valentine, pretending to be Courtney, we went back to work.”

“Inside the house?”

“No. It would have been difficult to work with it… her… Courtney’s body hanging over our heads. We had a lot to do in other parts of the house.”

“So you all stayed away from the canoe for the rest of the day?”

“Yes.”

“No one went in that room?”

“Well, that’s not true. We probably all went in there at one time or another. I know what you’re thinking, Sam, and you’re wrong. No one could have moved the body without someone else knowing.”

“That wasn’t what I was thinking, but why don’t you explain why not.”

“Because it was up in the canoe and getting that canoe down to the floor without dumping it”-Josie suddenly had a vision of Courtney’s body-“her out would have been impossible.”

“And would that matter? After all, she’s already dead. Or do you mean that it would make a lot of noise and attract attention?”

That wasn’t what Josie had meant, but she was willing to accept his suggestion. “Yes. Exactly.”

“But one person could have brought the canoe down from the ceiling?”

Josie thought back to the elaborate pulley system that held the canoe up. “Yes, I think so. Someone strong though. It isn’t one of the new fiberglass affairs, remember, it’s handmade from wood. I haven’t lifted it myself, but it probably weighs a couple hundred pounds. We had one when I was a kid, and it weighed at least that much.” She stopped talking and picked up her fork, hoping Sam would give her a chance to eat. For once she wasn’t hungry, but she had just had a flash from her past, a memory startling in its clearness. She and Courtney had been members of the same Girl Scout troop (at her mother’s insistence) and one entire miserable weekend they had been paired by their troop leader for the a

“Did anyone else come into the house after you discovered Courtney’s body?”

“I suppose so. The television crew is in and out all the time.”

“How many people are there with the show?”