Free 52 Steps to Murder by Steve Demaree Page A

not a good idea to sneak up on a cop with a gun. I can see the newspaper headline now. ‘Dog Resembles Owner. Miss Heloise Humphert and her mutt were found with bullet holes in their heads. A gangland slaying is suspected. It was ironic that the bodies were found in front of her police detective next-door neighbor’s house.’”
    “Oh, Cyrus. You say the funniest things. Are we on our way to church?”
    “I have no idea about we, but one of us is on his way to work.”
    “Oh, has someone else been murdered?”
    “I’m supposed to keep this quiet, see, but it was a nosy woman with a dog. We suspect the next-door neighbor did it. If so, we’re going to let him go free. Because you answer the description of the dead woman, my suggestion to you would be to become a part of the Witness Protection Program and relocate to Point Barrow, Alaska. You might be safer there.”
    I lowered my voice a little with each word until I was whispering at the end. With my last declaration, I turned toward my car and hastened in its direction.
    Heloise and her sister Hortense were the unbecoming daughters of the president of the bank, Horatio Humphert. Horatio tried his best to find husbands for his daughters, and let it be known that both daughters would come with a sizable dowry. No man in Hilldale ever got drunk enough to accept Horatio’s offer of either of his double-chinned daughters. Because Horatio found no takers for Heloise, he bought her a house and a bulldog.  When each dog died or ran away, Horatio bought Heloise a new one. Each time, he bought a different breed, hoping that some day he would find a suitable dog for his daughter. Because sisters are usually opposites, I imagine that Hortense joined a convent, even though the family was not Roman Catholic. I just know that she did not buy the house on the other side of mine, and for that I am thankful.
     
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    Lou was standing in the front doorway when I pulled up in front of his apartment. The Blue Moon Diner is not open on Sunday, so Dick Tracy Squared, as Rosie at the Blue Moon calls us, or Double Round, as we sometimes refer to ourselves, stopped off at the Rocking Horse Cafe for some much-needed nourishment. I wolfed down a breakfast of steak, eggs over easy, hash browns, and pancakes with maple syrup. Lou ordered bacon, scrambled eggs, and homemade biscuits with gravy. He gobbled his as fast as he could, in order to keep up with me. Both of us were eager to get to work on the case. Neither of us liked an unsolved murder in Hilldale.
     
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    As we left the restaurant I thought of Lou’s “message” from the day before. It was, “Today you will rise above.” Boy, did we rise above. I was anxious to find out what Sunday’s message was for us.
    “Lou, what’s God message for today?”
    “Strange happenings in the night.”
    “So, you’re still sleeping with that inflatable doll?”
    “I never started. You told me you couldn’t part with it.”
    I wondered what strange happenings, and pondered them as I steered the car toward Hilltop Place. Before we arrived, I filled Lou in about the conversations I had with Frank Harris and Angela Nelson. As I turned and headed the car down Hilltop Place, Lou and I noticed Jimmy Reynolds hunched over and running away from the Nelson house. By the time we pulled up in front of the dead woman’s house, Jimmy had started climbing the steps to his sheltering mother.
    As soon as I’d climbed out of the car, I heard my name being called. I looked up and saw Stanley Silverman running down his steps. I waited for him.
    “Oh, hello, Mr. Silverman. What can I do for you today?”
    “Someone’s been here.”
    “You mean someone came to see you, or someone’s been on the Nelson property?”
    “Not only has someone been on the property, but someone went into the house.”
    “Could you tell who it was, Mr. Silverman?” I asked, still not sure if I believed the man.
    “Whoever it was was wearing a long yellow raincoat,