Sorry I'm late posting this chapter, especially after I left you on a cliffy. As I said, I was away for the weekend and didn't finish this until today.
Thanks for reading this storyand leaving wonderful comments.
Chapter 49. More Questions Than Answers
Edna gasped. "Who was killed here?" Her eyes darted around the huge bathroom.
"Well, it couldn't have been Ralph, Phyllis' husband. He died while bathing." Anna turned to Edna. "Heart attack, wasn't it?"
Her friend nodded.
"More important, what happened to the body?" Cameron brought them back to the present.
"We don't even know that all this blood means the person is dead," House pointed out. He touched a dry, brownish red spot near the sink.
Anna rubbed her eyes. "It could have been Ian, whether or not he's dead."
"Then who killed him? Or attempted to? And again, where is he?" House sighed and studied the blood splatters. "We're going around in circles. Someone bled here and not too long ago."
"And whoever it was left or was removed from the premises," Cameron added.
"And how could Iris sleep in this bedroom with that mess so near?" Edna shook her head. "She had to have looked in here at some point."
"It certainly explains why she's using the hall bathroom." Anna backed away from the scene. "We should call the police."
"And say what?" House was the last out. He closed the door and in a falsetto said, "'Oh, officer, we were just in the neighborhood and decided to explore the house. And look what we found.' No, we're just going to leave." He glanced at his watch. "The kids should be done at the shop by now. We should head over to their house and report what we found. If Iris wants to live with blood splatters all over the bathroom next to the bedroom where she sleeps, let her."
They trooped down the stairs and out to the street, closing the door behind them. The click of the latch was loud enough to confirm that it was locked again.
They drove to the house his team was renting, full of news, but no firm answers.
###
While House, Cameron and the two older women were exploring houses, the team and Jessica had their own adventure. They'd arrived at Phyllis' shop soon after Iris that morning.
"We're not open," she told them, when Simpson knocked on the door and she opened it a crack.
Jessica pouted. "How will I find an anniversary present for my parents," she whined. "I think they'd love a nice piece of china, well, Mother would. Or a silver service. Yes, that's the thing. Do you have any?"
Reluctantly, Iris let them in. "I think there may be some over this way." She maneuvered through several tables and chairs to one side of the shop with Jessica following.
Meanwhile, Jacobs and Magnani explored the other side, and Simpson sauntered toward the counter and cash register. So far, so good.
"Oh, no, that won't do." Jessica held up a silver coffee pot. It was dented and tarnished. "Don't you have any others?" She spied a Chinese tea set nearby. "What about this one?"
Jacobs giggled over a few of the items she found. Magnani said, "What about this?"
Iris' eyes darted toward them, but she was focused on Jessica, a possible paying customer. She didn't see Simpson slip behind the counter and place the top credit card receipts and the inventory journal in his backpack, then smile. In fact, she didn't notice him until he joined his sister.
"I don't think Mom would like that one." He shook his head. He scanned the nearby table. "How about these?" He held up two ugly mugs with men's faces on them.
"Those are Toby jugs." Jessica put them back. "I doubt we can afford them." Her gaze fell on a silver tray. She picked it up and turned it over, then whistled. "Well, I guess we'll have to look somewhere else. These things are great but out of our budget. Thanks for your time." She smiled at Iris.
"You're the four who were with Dr. House and Dr. Cameron at the diner, aren't you?" Iris frowned at them.
"Yes," Simpson admitted. "I'm Dr. Simpson and this is my sister." He turned and pointed to the other two. "They're my colleagues. We work for Dr. House."
Jacobs and Magnani joined them and he said, "We're new in Shelby, decided to take a walk around the center of town."
Jacobs nodded. "We work so many hours at the hospital in Snow Hill that we rarely have a chance."
"How long has this store been here? Is it yours?" Jessica asked.
"No. It belongs to my aunt, but she's been in a nursing home for a while. My brother tried to run the store, and now I'm going to give it a shot."
Magnani waved a hand to encompass the entire store. "Lots of interesting items."
"Interesting and expensive," Simpson said.
Iris ran a finger over one of the tables, then brushed the dust off her finger. "I came in today to take inventory and clean up the place."
"Oh. Do you need help?" Jessica smiled at her. "I don't work with these three, so I have time."
"What about your job with the vet?" her brother asked.
"I won't be working more than a few hours a day."
"Well, if you have the time." Iris eyes examined Jessica. "I don't think I could do it myself."
"Just tell me when you want me to start." Jessica didn't notice the admiring looks she got from her brother and his friends. "And maybe I'll have more time to look for something for our parents' anniversary."
Simpson glanced at his watch. "But right now, we have to be going."
"Wait," Iris said. "I don't even know your names."
"I'm Jessica Simpson. My brother's Bart, and these two are Heather Jacobs and Rocco Magnani."
Iris didn't react as most people did to the Simpsons' names. "Jessica, Bart, Heather and Rocco." she pointed to each of them in turn. "And I'm Iris Sinclair."
They left the store and waited until they reached the car to break into peals of laughter. Then they sped down the road, full of things to tell House and Cameron.
###
Both groups arrived at about the same time, each eager to tell what they found. They took seats on the mismatched couches and chairs in the large family room. Their voices competed with each other until Anna put two fingers in her mouth and whistled. The loud and shrill sound, so incongruous coming from such a small woman, shut them all up.
"Okay, let's just take turns, shall we?" she suggested. "Dr. House, I'll let you go first, but you have exactly five minutes and then we'll hear from..." Her eyes scanned the younger folks. "...Dr. Jacobs."
House skipped over the visit to the site, since it wasn't relevant, and went right to the main event. "So we finally pushed open the door to the master bath. Either Phyllis liked to decorate with dried blood or someone was attacked in the room, probably killed. No body, of course."
"Could that be leftover from when Mr. Brewster died?" Magnani asked.
Edna shook her head. "He had a heart attack in the tub."
"You'd have to see all the blood to realize this was a violent attack. I don't think there's a way to know what the weapon was," Cameron said.
"But even though the blood is dry, it should be useful to ID the victim," House added.
Jessica narrowed her eyes. "Have you notified the police?"
"Anna called them on our way here." House glared at her. He still thought it was a bad idea. "Of course, she had to come up with a story about why we were there."
"Which was?"
"Phyllis wanted us to bring her a nightgown, of course." Anna smirked.
"That's plausible. Of course, why it would take four of you." Jacobs shrugged.
Anna smiled. "He didn't ask who was with me, or even how we got in. So, what's your story?"
"I got the receipts." Simpson took them out of his backpack, along with the inventory. "And the list."
"And I'm going to be helping Iris clean up the shop." Jessica had an impish smile on her face.
Everyone else smiled as well.
"While she had Iris' attention, Rocco and I looked through some of the items in the shop. There are some valuable pieces, but the prices seemed rather high."
Jessica nodded. "I thought the same."
Rocco returned to their earlier discussion. "But everything we found can't top what you did."
Edna nodded. "We can speculate all we want to, but until we learn what the police discover, we won't know what happened there."
"Will they tell us?" Jacobs asked. "I mean, yes, you alerted them to the blood in the bathroom, but they're not obligated to tell us anything."
"Maybe not all of us," Anna said. "But I reminded Todd Anderson that his mother and I are old friends. He'll call me when he has news."
"And meanwhile?"
House took the receipts in one hand and the inventory list in the other. "We go through these."
Simpson groaned. "If I knew we'd have to do that, I wouldn't have gotten them."
"That's okay, Bart." Jacobs patted his hand. "I'll do your share since you had to work SO hard to steal them." She couldn't keep the smile off her face.
Jessica nodded. "We better do it fast so I can return them to the store with Iris none the wiser."
"When does she expect you to come in and help her?" Cameron asked.
"Monday."
"So we have all day tomorrow." Jacobs snatched about a third of the receipts.
House got up and headed for the kitchen. "Right now, I'm hungry."
"When aren't you?" Cameron followed him.
Soon they'd all invaded the country kitchen. Simpson opened the French door refrigerator. "Rocco, do we have any of your stuffed shells left? Enough to feed our starving boss and everyone else?"
"If we add some of the salad and breadsticks, I think it'll do." Magnani reached around him and started taking food out. He popped the container of leftover pasta in the microwave while Jacobs dressed the salad and Simpson took out plates and forks for everyone.
They ate informal style, everyone too hungry to waste time. Anna stopped eating long enough to say, "Dr. Magnani, if your lasagne is as good as this, you'll definitely win the contest."
Simpson elbowed him. "What did I tell you?" He turned to the older women. "Rocco was getting cold feet about entering.
Their meal was topped off with cookies Jessica had baked the day before, along with coffee and tea.
Once everyone was stuffed, Cameron brought up their next steps. "We should go through the receipts and inventory."
House thought about complaining that he wanted to go home, but he was too curious.
Jessica nodded. "Then I'll be able return everything tomorrow when I go to help Iris."
They cleared all the food and dishes off the kitchen table and divided up the stack of receipts. It was quiet for a while aside from the rustle of paper.
House started chuckling. "I can't believe that people would pay good money, and I do mean good as in LOTS, for a bunch of glass grapes."
"I don't remember ever seeing anything like that at the shop when Phyllis was running it," Edna said. "Who bought it?"
"Mary Borrell. Isn't she that friend of Pamela Bradford's? The mousy one?"
Cameron nodded. "She's also running for the town council."
"She's a perennial candidate," Anna said. "But no one will vote for her, or even endorse her."
"So, what would she want with those grapes?" House asked again.
Anna and Edna shrugged and went on looking through the receipts."
