Free The Skeleton Takes a Bow (A Family Skeleton Mystery) by Leigh Perry Page A

after investigation they found that the last confirmed sighting of Irwin was in Pennycross, Massachusetts, this past Thursday. He had driven to Pennycross to meet with officials at Pennycross High School about a job opportunity, but witnesses report that he dined at the River Inn in town several hours after the interview. Irwin was last seen wearing a dark gray pin-striped suit and was driving a dark blue Honda Accord with Massachusetts plates. The Pennycross Police Department has been assisting with inquiries, and anyone with information about the missing man is asked to contact either the Medford or Pennycross police.’”
    Sid rummaged around the Web a little more, but the
Transcript
article seemed to include all the available details.
    “Do you think this Robert Irwin was the man Sid heard being murdered?” Madison asked.
    “Either he was, or he’s somehow connected. What are the odds that a disappearance and a murder linked to the same location, on the same night, aren’t connected?”
    “I wish we knew what his voice sounded like,” Sid said. “Wait, maybe we can find out.” His metatarsals flew across his keyboard, and a minute later he said, “I’ve got his home phone number.”
    “He’s missing, Sid. I don’t think he’s going to answer.”
    “But he probably has an answering machine, and he might have recorded his own answering machine message.”
    “That’s brilliant,” Madison said, and I couldn’t argue with her.
    Sid used his own cell phone to call the man’s number, but put it on speakerphone so we could all hear. After only three rings we heard, “Hi, this is Robert Irwin. I’m not at home now, but if you’ll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message after the beep, I’ll get back to you.”
    Sid hung up without waiting for the beep and said, “What was he doing, reading from a script? No creativity, not even any personality.”
    “It sounds like most people’s messages,” I said, thinking of my own exceedingly bland one. “But artistic critique aside, do you think it was him?”
    He hesitated. “Let me listen again.” He repeated the process and sat thinking so hard I could almost see the wheels turning. If, of course, he’d had wheels in his skull. “One more time.” He repeated the procedure.
    Finally he said, “It was him.”
    “You’re sure?” I said.
    “One hundred percent certain.”
    “How can you be that sure?” Madison said. “I mean, you barely heard him at the school, and that message was, what, ten seconds?”
    “It was him,” Sid insisted.
    “Madison, you have to realize something about Sid. Other than unusual events like Halloween and that anime convention back in the fall, the only contact Sid has ever had with people outside this family has been from listening to them from the attic or from the armoire in the living room or from wherever he hid when somebody else came into the house. He recognizes people from their voices as accurately as I can from their faces. Maybe more so—I knew a pair of twins, and I used to get them mixed up, and Sid never did. He may not have ears, technically speaking, but he is the best eavesdropper in the world.”
    Most people wouldn’t take being called an eavesdropper as a compliment, but Sid looked inordinately pleased with himself.
    I went on. “So if he says Robert Irwin was the man he heard being murdered, then I guarantee that Robert Irwin is dead.”
    “Okay, then,” Madison said. “What next?”
    “Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but I still say it’s a job for the police. I already told them what Sid heard, and now they’ll be able to make the connection with the disappearance.”
    “Come on, Georgia,” Sid said. “Deborah told us what they thought of your call. They’ve probably already forgotten about it.”
    “He may be right, Mom.”
    “Yeah, you’ve got a point. Perhaps it’s time for another call.” So while Madison took Byron for his much-delayed walk, I took a