Chapter 2. Where's George?

The Rev. Joe Penny is sitting in his office at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church at 9:30 on a warm and sunny Monday morning. He reading commentaries on the Gospel reading appointed for the next Sunday. He likes to write his sermons on Monday so he can build on the sermon for the Sunday before. If he finishes on Monday he doesn’t have to think about sermon writing the rest of the week. A theme for this week’s sermon is starting to come into his mind when the phone rings.

“Hello,” he answers sharply, frustrated at to having his thoughts interrupted.

“Is this Rev. Penny?”

“Yes,” he says, trying to sound less angry, but thinking sarcastically ‘who did you think would answer at the church on a Monday morning?’

“This is Bob, the Office Manager at Northern Insurance. I am calling because we’re trying to find George. He didn’t come to work this morning and he didn’t answer his home phone. He has an important client coming in at 10:30 this morning. It’s not like him to miss a client meeting. I am calling to see if you will go to Doc Arra’s museum and see if George is there. I called the museum but there was no answer. Still, he might be there but somewhere he can’t hear the phone. I would go check but I know only board members have keys and the code to disarm the security.”

“Yes, I can check. I’ll have to find another board member to go with me because we require two board members to open the museum. George, as board chairman is an exception so he can go there alone. Assuming I can find another board member to go right away we’ll check. I’ll call you to let you know as soon as we know.”

“Thanks, I’ll be here all morning.”

“Hello, Pam, this is Joe. George didn’t show up at work this morning and Bob Wilson, his office manager wants us to check the museum to see if he’s there but not answering the phone. Can you meet me at the museum in 20 minutes?”

“Make it 30 minutes, Joe and I can be there.”

“Okay, see you there.”

At the museum Joe greets the dark-haired detective Pam Lafave who retired to Sturgeonville four years earlier after her husband died, “Good morning again, Pam. Thanks for meeting me. I hope I didn’t catch you in the middle of a painting.” Joe says noting Pam’s paint splotched T-shirt. “I called you because the other board members are working except Sam and I suspect this is a little early for the old professor. I know he likes to stay up late reading his beloved history books. I see George’s Jeep is here so he must be here. Let’s go in and see.”

Looking up at the tall thin Episcopal Priest, Pam answers, “You didn’t interrupt. I was sitting at my dining room table dawdling over a cup of coffee. I finished a painting last week and haven’t been inspired to start another yet. Let’s go in and see if George is here.”

After they are inside Joe comments to Pam, “The door wasn’t locked and the alarm is disarmed so George must be here somewhere. That’s funny all the lights are out but the hall door to the upstairs is open. We always keep that door closed unless we are working here.”

Pam shouts, “George! Are you here?”

They listen but there’s no answer.

“He must be in the clinic, Pam, he would have heard you if he is in the house. Let’s go check. You check the downstairs rooms and I’ll take the elevator and check the upper floor.”

A few minutes later Joe returns to the first floor and reports to Pam. “I didn’t find any sign of George upstairs. How about you?”

“No sign of George down here either. I also checked the basement. The door was locked, the lights were out and he didn’t answer my shouts. Have you noticed that bad smell?”

“Yes, it smells like someone didn’t flush the toilet. I’ll check it.” He goes to the bathroom and when he returns says, “The smell isn’t coming from the toilet. I can’t imagine what it is. Anyway, since George isn’t here he must have met someone here and left with them. Strange that he didn’t lock up. I’ll call Bob and let him know we didn’t find George here.”

“Hello, Bob, this is Joe Penny, Pam Lafave and I have checked throughout the museum and no sign of George. His Jeep is here so he must have met someone here and they left together.”

“I don’t know of anyone he was supposed to meet other than the client who is coming in later this morning, Joe. Oh, and George’s Golden Retriever Russell showed up at the office a little while ago. George usually feeds him here after they get to the office because Russell takes his time eating. If Russell was outside maybe George was too. Did you check the grounds? Sometimes he likes to work on the museum grounds.”

“No, but we can do that quickly. I suspect if George was outside Russell would have stayed with him. But maybe the dog got hungry. We’ll do a quick check and call you back.”

After checking the grounds Joe calls Bob and says, “Bob, we checked everywhere on the grounds and didn’t find any sign of George. He must have met someone here and left with them although it’s not like George to leave Russell for long or the museum unsecured.”

“Thanks for checking, Joe. I’ll make some more calls if he doesn’t show up for the meeting with the client. We’ll keep Russell in the office for George.”

Later that afternoon after going to George’s house during his lunch hour and finding it dark and locked, Bob is concerned. He has talked with George’s mother, his doctor and a couple of George’s friends with no luck in locating George. Bob decides to report George missing. He calls the county sheriff.

“Sheriff Ericsson, this is Bob Wilson, the office manager at Northern Insurance here in Sturgeonville. I want to report George Citron missing. He didn’t show up at work today for an important meeting. His car was found at the museum. Two board members searched but didn’t find any sign of George in the museum or on the grounds. I checked his house and I’ve called everyone I can think of who might know where he went. No one knows of any place he might be. Oh, and his dog showed up here at the office. That’s unusual because George always has his dog with him.”

“That does sound strange; I’ve never seen George without his dog with him. You say his car is at the museum but he wasn’t there.”

“Yes, Rev. Joe Penny and Pam Lafave, told me they searched everywhere but didn’t find him.”

“I see. Well, it’s possible he had a heart attack or something and fell where they didn’t see him. I’d like to check again since his car is there.”

“You’ll need the board members to let you in. They keep the museum locked.”

“Ok, give me the Reverend’s phone number and I’ll see if he’ll let me in the museum. I’ll let you know if we find him. Give me your home phone number or your cell number so I can call you if we find him. It may take a while to do a more thorough search.”

An hour later the sheriff meets the Reverend and Pam Lafave at the museum. After thoroughly searching the house and ground floor of the clinic the sheriff asks Pam to take him upstairs. They take the elevator and search everywhere with no sign of George. As they get back near the elevator the sheriff notices something strange on the ceiling. “What’s that, Pam?”

“That’s a pull-down set of steps that lead to the observatory on the roof.”

“Did you search there?”

“No, we didn’t. George never goes there as far as we know so we didn’t bother.”

“Can you get the steps down? We’ll do a quick check there as well to be sure.”

“I don’t know how to get the steps down, but Joe does. I’ll call him and he can bring the elevator down, come up and get the steps down for us.”

After calling Joe on her cell phone and asking him to come up, Pam and the sheriff wait by the elevator. Then the sheriff asks, “Pam, do you smell something bad?”

“Yes, we smelled it this morning but we didn’t see where it was coming from.”

“Is the Rev coming up? What is taking him so long?”

“This old elevator is slow so it’ll take a while for it to go down and then for Joe to get in and come back up. I’ll take a look and see if he’s coming now.”

Pam opens the door to the elevator shaft and peers down. She yells, “Oh my God,

Sheriff, there’s a body on top of the elevator!”

The sheriff looks down and seeing the body says, “Is that George? Can Joe stop the elevator when the body reaches us?”

“I don’t know if it’s George or not. Joe will be up before I can get him on the phone again. After he comes up we’ll have him lower the elevator back down a little so we can reach the body.”

After Joe gets off he lowers the elevator enough to have the top of the elevator even with the floor then stops it so the sheriff can examine the person lying on top of the elevator.

The sheriff reaches in, touches the body’s neck and says, “He’s cold as a mackerel so I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Now we know where that bad smell is coming from. Help me bring him out so we can turn him over and see if it’s George Citron.”

As soon as the body is rolled over Pam exclaims, “Oh my God, it’s George alright! He must have fallen down the elevator shaft.”

Joe answers, “He must have been there when I was taking the elevator up and down this morning. That’s creepy.”

Standing up the sheriff says, “I’ll let Bob Wilson know of Citron’s accidental death and he can help me notify his family. I appreciate you two helping me find him. I’ll take it from here and you can go home.”

“Not yet, Sheriff,” replies Joe. “We have to set the alarm and lock up after George’s body is taken away. We can’t leave the museum open; there are some valuable things here.” While the sheriff is calling the funeral home Joe says, “Pam, you can go. I know this must be a shock for you since you and George were so close. I’ll stay and close up.”

Pam leaves quietly with tears in her eyes. While the sheriff and Joe wait for the local funeral home person to come and remove George’s body the sheriff asks, “What kind of museum is this? I’ve never been through it.”

“It’s an unusual museum for sure. Doctor Antonio Arra, the county doctor for decades built this brick house and the attached medical clinic. His parents brought him to America from Italy when he was a boy. He became fascinated with American frontier history and collected anything he could find relating to it. He filled his house with historical books and pictures and the clinic with his collections of Indian artifacts, old letters, old tools, antique household items, old toys, guns and anything else he thought was from frontier days. When he died about four years ago he didn’t have any family left so he willed everything to the community as a museum. Fortunately, he also left a little money to maintain the place. A few of us who like history formed a board of volunteers to look after the buildings and preserve his collections. We open it up for a couple of hours every Wednesday evening. We’re creating a digital catalog of his collections. We sometimes give tours to local groups and even individuals who are interested in history. George Citron was a close friend of the doctor and is; rather he was the board chairman. We better go down and meet the funeral home people when they arrive.”

After George’s body is removed the sheriff tells Joe, “Let me notify George’s office and his family. It’s best if they hear it from me.”

“Okay, Sheriff, I’ll lock up and go back to my church. I want to finish next Sunday’s sermon before I go home for dinner.”