Chapter 8. New Evidence

As Pam waits in her car in front of the museum for a second board member to arrive she thinks to herself that being involved in an investigation again is bringing back old feelings from her days as a detective in Grand Rapids. Sometimes the work is dull and plodding but finding new evidence or uncovering an unexpected suspect brings a thrill that makes the dull work worthwhile. Maybe tonight will bring some good news she thinks as she sees Peter arrive.

“Hi Peter, it’s getting cooler and the sun is going down earlier. Soon we’ll be getting here in the dark. If you and Mary didn’t have jobs we could move our meeting time earlier during the winter months.”

“Wish I was retired like you and Sam but I’ve got a long time before I can hang up my pipe wrenches, Pam. Oh, there comes Mary. Let’s go in and get ready for her report on Greg’s alibi.”

After unlocking and disarming the alarm they gather in the dining room. Mary says, “I’m ready to report on what I learned about Greg’s alibi. Do you want to hear it now or wait for Joe and Sam?”

Before Pam can answer Joe and Sam come in so Pam pauses a moment and says, “Hi guys. Come on in. Mary is ready to tell us what she learned about Greg’s story.”

Mary then says, “Okay, now that we’re all here I can tell you that Greg’s story is the truth. I am ‘convinced’, as Pam asked, Greg is telling the truth. He was with a woman at the time of the murder. I won’t tell you who she is but I trust this woman and she backs up Greg’s story.”

There is an audible release of breath in the room like they had been holding their breath waiting for Mary’s report. Joe speaks first, “Well that eliminates Greg as a suspect. Who does that leave us with, just Brother Thomas?”

Pam replies, “Yes and unless we find that collection of pioneer letters tonight Brother Thomas is surely the prime suspect. Okay, let’s begin a complete search for those letters. Mary, will you check all the bedrooms in the house, Peter, double-check in the study, Joe, you look on the second floor of the clinic and Sam and I will go through all the rooms on the main floor of the clinic. Peter, if you finish the study before Mary finishes all the bedrooms please help her finish. Everyone come to Doc’s waiting room in the clinic when you finish your searches. That okay with everyone?”

They all nod their Okays and head to their assigned areas.

As they walk toward the clinic Pam says to Sam, “I’ll bet George left those letters somewhere. He liked to use them as an example of the interesting things Doc Arra collected when he was conducting tours. He probably finished talking about them and set them down wherever he was at the time instead of putting them back where they belong.”

“You may be right, Pam. We’re always finding things misplaced that George put down during a tour. I worry that our digital catalog has errors due to not getting things back to the places where they are listed.”

“The catalog may never be perfect but I know museums often misplace things. When I was on the police force we got reports of stolen items from the city museum regularly. We took the reports but didn’t act on them for a month because we usually got a call in a week or two that the item had been found. Alright, you start at that end and I’ll start at the other end and we’ll meet in the middle, Okay?”

“Yes, Pam. That’ll give me the chance to dawdle over the file of old maps. I love old maps.”

An hour later Pam has finished half of the rooms and she sees Sam is still looking at the old maps. She smiles to herself thinking, ‘once a history professor always a history professor’. She decides to go back to the Doc’s office and look through his desk. It occurs to her that George often used the desk. Maybe he left something on the desk or in one of the desk drawers that would help with the investigation. She finds a note pad in a top drawer with what looked like a ‘to do’ list when Mary comes in the room and exclaims excitedly; “Look what I found in the upstairs bedroom. It’s the Uncle Tom’s Cabin book.”

“Wonderful, Mary, where was it?” Pam inquires.

“It was in the bookcase but there is a reason we didn’t see it before. It was in a cardboard box behind some other books and couldn’t be seen without taking out a book in front of it. I found it completely by accident. I was checking the bookcase for the letters and saw an old Bible. I wondered if it was the one that belonged to that French explorer who was one of the first to explore the Great Lakes. When I pulled the Bible out I noticed the box behind the books. I got the box out and it contained the Uncle Tom’s Cabin book we thought might have been stolen. I’ll bet Doc Arra put the book there so it wouldn’t be found easily. I heard he was a little paranoid about his treasures being stolen.”

Pam says, “I’m so glad you found it, Mary. Now we have the book and we can completely rule out the college president having stolen it. We didn’t think he was still a suspect for the murder after the sheriff found he had an alibi. Now we know he didn’t take the book he was lusting for either.”

While Pam was speaking Peter, Joe and Sam joined them and passed the old book around enjoying having such a wonder in their hands. When they finished and handed the book back to Mary Pam inquires, “Did anyone locate the missing letters?”

They all say no. “Darn,” says Pam. “I  hoped we would find them and eliminate Brother Thomas as a suspect. Well, I have just one more thing to look at and we can call it a night. We haven’t progressed on the investigation but we did find the missing book.”

Joe asks, “What do you have to look at, Pam?”

“I found a note pad with notes in George’s handwriting on it. It looks like a list of calls George intended to make.”

Mary asks, “Who was he calling? Maybe the names will give us some new clues.”

Pam looks at the paper and says, “One note is to call Peter, another to call Joe, then there’s one to call L.T. I don’t know who that is, any ideas?

Sam answers, “The calls to Joe and Peter were likely museum business so maybe the L.T. is also someone related to the collections. Maybe it’s Lou Talbot. He looks after the antiques and other old stuff at the lighthouse on the point. But if it was Talbot, why did George use initials rather than his name like he did with Joe and Peter?”

“Maybe it was someone he didn’t want us to know about if we found his notes,” suggested Mary.

“Perhaps. Can anyone think of others with the initials L.T.? asks Peter.

“Oh, what about Brother Thomas. Didn’t George call him by his first name Larry? says Sam.

“You're right, Sam. That could be it. Thomas is his last name. He didn’t think Brother Larry sounds as good as Brother Thomas. Maybe George wanted to call Brother Thomas about the letters and didn’t want us to know they were missing until he checked with Brother Thomas,” answers Pam.

“If we knew the phone numbers George called recently we might be able to confirm if he called Brother Thomas, Lou Talbot or someone else,” says Joe.

After pausing Pam says, “Good idea and I doubt the sheriff even checked George’s phone log. He probably returned the phone to George’s mother with anything else that was in George’s pockets. I will go see her tomorrow. If she has that phone we may find some important new evidence by seeing who George called recently.”

“Let me go instead, Pam. Mrs. Citron has known me since I was a little boy and is more likely to let me have George’s phone than someone she doesn’t know,” says Peter.

 “Okay Peter, you’re probably right. Call me as soon as you have the phone. I think we’ve done well tonight even if we didn’t find the letters. Let’s go home.”