Body in the Antique Trunk: Lady Locksmith Series, #2

Chapter 1

Cassie

Some days, nothing goes right and I wish I’d stayed in bed.

It all started over breakfast. Not that eating raisin toast and drinking coffee at my oak kitchen table had anything to do with making this a bad day, you understand. I was on my second cup of coffee and going over my schedule for the day when my cell phone rang. Hello? Cassie Jennings, here.

Hello. Are you Canton’s twenty-four-hour locksmith?

I grimaced. I ran a one-woman business out of my house. And yes, I took calls on a twenty-four-hour basis, usually people locked out of their car or home. I hated the crazy hours, but it paid the bills. When I got more established, I’d be able to close up after my office hours and turn on an answering machine like the other locksmiths in the area did. But not yet. That’s right. How can I help you?

This is Sarah at Johnson’s Realty, over in Middleton. I have a house where the renter left a few weeks ago and we just learned of it. I need the place secured. Can you do that?

Sure. Do you need it done right away?

Yes, please. They left the house a mess and it’s unlocked. Could you go over this morning, change the locks and put on the security key box?

I chewed my lip and glanced at my notebook. There was nothing on my schedule that couldn’t wait a couple of hours. Okay. I’ll stop by in about an hour.

Thanks. I’ll have the key box and instructions ready.

I hung up, put my dishes into the dishwasher and poured the rest of the coffee into a small thermos to take with me. I filled a larger thermos with ice and water.

Fluffy, my long-haired calico cat, rubbed my ankle, reminding me I hadn’t filled her food and water dishes. I quickly did that, then gave her soft gray, white and yellow fur a goodbye pat. She thanked me by waving her tail and purring and hunched down to munch her food. She was a stray who’d shown up on my back doorstep one rainy night a few months ago. I couldn’t turn her pleading eyes away and let her inside. I’d toweled her off and fed her and she’s been my faithful companion ever since. One nice thing about having a cat for a pet is that you can leave them for hours at a time. They’re happy as long as they have food, water and a clean litter box.

I glanced at the thermometer on my kitchen wall. Sixty-two degrees. A chilly morning, but you never knew about June in Minnesota. It could reach as high as ninety before I got home. My jean jacket should be enough today. I pulled it on and headed out to my work van.

I was excited to see the rose bushes outside my seventy-year-old house beginning to bud. I couldn’t wait for the colorful display of summer blooms after a long, wet spring.

Since I keep most of my tools in the van, it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice. I jumped in and drove to Middleton, about fifteen miles away. I’d done work for Johnson’s Realty before, so I knew where to find their office.

The hour I’d predicted was almost up when I got there. I hadn’t met Sarah before. She was a tall, slim woman in a business suit with red hair tied back in a bun. She looked me over suspiciously and even glanced at my name and logo printed on the door of my blue van before she relaxed and gave me a smile. I wondered what she thought of the casual jeans and jacket I wore. I dress comfortably because lock-smithing can often be dirty work.

Sarah handed me the small key box, the code for it and a sign with the realtor’s name and address on it. Here’s the address for the house, she said. Put this sign in the front window and please make sure it’s clearly visible from the front of the house. Change the lock on both the front and back doors. We don’t want anyone to be able to get in with the old key. When we’re ready to show the house, I’ll give my agents the code for the key box.

I understand, I said. I’ve done these for Johnson’s realty before.

So I hear. I’m new, myself. Oh, and there’s a separate garage out on the alley. Change the lock on that, too, please.

Do you want the garage keyed the same as the house or different?

She shrugged and decided, Different, I guess. Just put both keys in the key box.

I thanked her and drove a few blocks to the address she’d given me. White paint peeled off the one-story frame house, showing weather-beaten gray wood beneath. A torn metal screen hung loose on the old storm door. The lawn was overgrown with tall grass and weeds and strewn with broken branches, beer bottles and God knew what else. Patches of brown spoke of long time neglect.

I climbed the old wooden steps and gingerly pulled the screen door open. The unlocked knob gave under my hand.

I stepped inside and looked around, a sour smell and stale air meeting my nose. Garbage, strewn clothes and a broken couch littered the living room. Boxes and a bags of stuff sat on the floor behind the couch.

I glanced into the dining room and was surprised to see a nice, antique, rounded glass china cabinet. I recognized the fancy, criss-crossed leaded glass design of the top as one for which I’d found an unusual, round key a few months before. At that time, the lovely piece had been full of antique glassware and had stood in an elderly couple’s carpeted dining room. Now it was empty. How had that expensive cabinet arrived here in this mess? Or was this only a cabinet just like it? I looked it over carefully. A small chunk of glass was missing in one of the criss-crossed triangles on the right side. Yes, it had to be the same one I’d seen at the other home.

Had the elderly couple sold it to these slobs? This house was such a contrast to their lovely home. Why would the people who’d lived here have left behind something that valuable?

Frowning, I looked around for anything else valuable, but saw only dust bunnies and trash. I shrugged and went on through the kitchen to check the back door and almost gagged. The kitchen was the source of the sour odor. Flies buzzed around a sink full of dirty dishes. Empty take out cartons, chicken bones and milk cartons spilled from an overflowing garbage can.

I went back to my van for my tools, pinning kit box and the lock. As I closed the van’s side door, an older blue Chevrolet sedan drove slowly by. A person wearing dark sunglasses and a John Deere cap pulled down over his forehead gave me a long look, obviously checking out me and my van. Long hair hung around his or her neck. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman.

Oh, oh. Was this going to be one of those deals where the former tenants weren’t through moving out? Had they come back for the lovely cabinet? They certainly didn’t want the couch or dirty dishes. I hate those jobs. I do what I’m told by the legal owner, but there’ve been times when I’ve changed locks while an officer stands guard. Should I call Sarah? Or the cops? The sedan moved on and with a sigh of relief, I decided to wait until I was sure I needed help before making the call.

***

Buddy

Buddy slowly drove by the dilapidated house. A blue Pontiac van sat in front of it. Damn, he was too late. He should have come back last night after he’d seen that the renters had moved out. But he’d been tired and hungry and put it off. His own fault for being lazy. Now they were changing the locks. He recognized that van. It was the lady locksmith he’d seen changing the locks for another house. Damned interfering bitch! She’d pay for this. He remembered where she lived in Canton.

He’d run into this situation before. The realty company always had a locksmith put one of those key boxes with numbers on it, and gave their agents the code to show the house.

Buddy drove on, not wanting anyone else to notice him there.

***

Cassie

I changed the locks on both the front and back doors, put the new key in the key box and locked it onto the doorknob. With the house secured, I picked up my bag of tools and walked across the messy yard full of tall grass and windblown trash to the garage.

Both the garage doors and the small door on the side were closed and locked. A foul smell told me it was in no better shape than the house.

I picked open the small door and looked inside, then gagged from the overpowering, horrible stench. Phew! After the mess in the house, I’d expected the same out here. But it was empty except for a huge stack of black bags and boxes all along the front wall of the garage.

I backed out of the garage quickly. Those bags and boxes must be full of trash, too. Maybe they couldn’t afford the pickup fees.

Then I realized this over-powering smell wasn’t from moldy food or rotting garbage. I’d encountered that odor once before. There was a dead body in here!

Swallowing bile, I turned and ran to my van. Back inside it, I grabbed my cell phone to call 9-1-1.

This is the sheriff’s office. What’s your emergency?

I recognized Deputy Tom’s voice and cringed. Tom’s not my favorite person, nor I his. Tom, it’s Cassie Jennings. I’m at a house in Middleton. I took a deep breath of fresh air, trying to clear the stench of the garage out of my lungs, and gave him the address. I’m changing the locks on the house and garage here for Johnson Realty. There’s a dead body in the garage.

How do you know that? Did you see it?

No, but I smelled it.

Tom snorted derisively, You know what a dead body smells like?

Yeah, I do, Tom. It’s not something you ever forget, once you’ve encountered it. I shuddered.

He hesitated, then apparently, he decided to believe me. I’ll have a team right out there.

You’ll call Chance? Detective Chance Martin was a former Minneapolis homicide detective who now worked for our sheriff’s department who I’ve been dating. He’d burned out on city violence and left the big city for a peaceful life in our rural county of farms and small towns. Trouble was, it wasn’t always so peaceful out here, either.

Since he was the only person with any homicide experience on our county sheriff’s department’s staff, I knew he’d be the one Sheriff Ben would put in charge of this incident. He was not going to be pleased to find me here.

Yeah, I’ll call him, Tom said.

I sighed and waited for the officers to show up. While I waited, I called the realtor and told Sarah what I’d found. After her excited reaction, she calmed down a bit and I continued, I changed the locks on the house, but I can’t do the garage until the cops are done.

Oh. I guess we have to let them do their thing.

We don’t have a choice. It’s a crime scene.

How do you know that? Maybe it’s just a person who happened to die out there.

Yeah, right. And hid himself in a box or trash bag, Cassie said derisively.

Silence. Then Sarah sighed. I see. Okay. Let me know what’s happening.

As I hung up, two police cars drove up and parked. Chance strode from the first one. My heartbeat sped up as it always did when I saw him. He’s a hunk, delightfully tall, ruggedly built, with curly brown hair. And he’s usually very nice and friendly to me.

But now he was in his cop mode. His piercing blue eyes glared from below his heavy eyebrows as he paused in front of me. Cassie. What are you doing here?

Working, Chance.

Do you always have to be involved when there’s trouble in our county?

My temper flared and I glared back. I’m not ‘involved’ as you call it. I just got here and whoever is stinking up the garage has been dead for quite a while.

He frowned at me, his expression surprised. Yeah? You’ve smelled a dead body before?

I swallowed and nodded. Chance stared at me and his expression plainly said we’d talk about this later. He and the sheriff exchanged looks. This was one more thing about my past that I hadn’t told him. Where is it?

Back there in the garage. You might want a gas mask. I shuddered and stayed in my van. No way was I going