Hope you've had a wonderful weekend.
We left the gang sharing what they'd learned, and hoping it would give them the information they need to solve all the mysteries.
Thanks for reading this storyand leaving wonderful comments.
Chapter 50. In The Final Analysis
The only thing the receipts showed that customers at the antique store had peculiar taste. There was nothing to indicate any truly odd transactions. The inventory list did not appear to be very current. Jessica couldn't find a listing for some of the items she looked at when she was keeping Iris busy at the store, but some of those purchased recently, according to the receipts, were still listed in the inventory.
Cameron went through the receipts again, looking specifically for the china figurine referred to on the slip that Rachel found. Oddly, it too had been bought by Mary Borrell rather than Pamela Bradford. In fact, there were no receipts showing purchases by Mrs. Bradford. The receipt for Mary's purchase was the last sale, dated as they knew, the day after anyone had seen Ian Sinclair. According to the inventory book, the figurine was one of three but there was no other description of it, so they couldn't verify it was worth the high price Mary paid.
House scratched his head. "Let's look at this another way. If we assume Ian is the person attacked in that bathroom, there had to be a reason someone went after him. Suppose he sold someone something that wasn't as valuable as he said it was."
Cameron shook her head. "No one would kill him over that. They'd demand their money back, but not resort to violence. And it wouldn't explain the attacks on Pamela Bradford and Sal DiMonaco, or what Pam is hiding in her bedroom, or the sudden deterioration of Phyllis' health."
"You think they're all connected?" Edna asked. "Oh, dear. Yes. They can't be coincidences."
"How about this: Mrs. Bradford and DiMonaco knew that Ian was injured or dead and so the person came after them, too." Magnani looked at them in turn to see whether they agreed with his theory.
Jessica pursed her lips. "Could Mrs. Bradford be keeping Ian in her bedroom? I mean, if he was injured, would she help him?"
"Of course she would!" Anna exclaimed. "But why wouldn't she ask for help? Or keep Rachel away?"
"What if she was the one who injured him, and doesn't want anyone to know?" Simpson asked.
No one spoke for a couple of minutes as they each thought about various scenarios. Jessica broke the silence. "I don't know Mrs. Bradford, so I don't know what she's capable of."
Jacobs nodded. "I'm stumbling over why she'd attack him in the first place."
"I understand they were seeing each other for a while," Cameron said. "Who knows what happened to that relationship. He could have done something that drove her to try to kill him. She's a very controlling woman, but since I never met Ian, I don't know."
Anna sighed. "He was younger than she is, of course."
"Hmm, you say was, as if you're certain he's dead." House raised one eyebrow.
"Well, I'd been thinking that for a long time." Anna shook her head. "But now I'm not so certain."
Jacobs pressed her lips together. "What if it's not Ian?"
"Who else could it be?" Simpson asked.
Silence reigned for another five minutes.
"Guys, whatever happened to Iris' husband?" Simpson asked.
Cameron sat up with a start. "What was his name, again?" She looked toward the two older women for the answer.
"Mason, wasn't it Edna?" Anna asked.
Edna nodded. "That's right. Kyle Mason, I think."
"When Iris came into the clinic her first day in town, she told me, Chrissy and Rachel that she left him because he wouldn't let her paint or see her friends, but we haven't seen any evidence that she intends to paint, and she certainly hasn't contacted her friends in New York."
Simpson continued his thought. "What if he followed her here, and she tried to kill him, or even succeeded?"
Cameron shook her head. "That wouldn't explain what Mrs. Bradford is hiding or where Ian is."
"Nothing we've come up with so far explains everything." Magnani sighed.
"Maybe we should sleep on it, then compile all the possibilities and see which answers more of the questions," Jessica suggested.
House worked his mouth. "What I wouldn't do for a whiteboard."
The doctors all laughed, and then Cameron explained to Jessica, Edna and Anna. "It does help to diagnose a patient, and would probably help here, as well, except instead of determining the mysterious disease that accounts for all of a patients symptoms, we're attempting to determine which scenario fits the greatest number of facts and clues."
Edna nodded. "That makes sense. I've often wondered how you doctors did that."
"Collecting clues has been like doing tests on our patients." Jacobs grinned. "It's more fun, though, because it isn't our responsibility to solve these mysteries."
"But we may be saving a life," Magnani said.
Simpson narrowed his eyes. "How do you figure that?"
"Whoever attacked the person in the bathtub as well as Mrs. Bradford and fired at Mr. DiMonaco could still go after someone else."
"If it's the same person who did all of those things," Jessica pointed out.
"Do you doubt it?" House asked. "Do any of you?" He scanned their faces, satisfied that they all agreed with him.
"Hold on a minute." Jacobs raised her hand, then left the room. When she returned, she had a small, old-fashioned blackboard in a frame. "We can use this."
"Where'd you get that?" Simpson took it from her and looked at both sides.
"It was in the closet in the room I'm using." She shrugged. "I guess a child must have slept in that room once upon a time, and that's one of the things that was left behind."
"Got chalk to go with it?" House appropriated the board and held out a hand, palm up.
Jacobs smiled. "Of course." She handed it to him.
He propped the board up against the toaster. Over the next hour, he listed what they knew in no particular order, as they took turns shouting out whatever they remembered. He drew lines between items that were connected in some way, like the receipt Rachel found and the corresponding one in the stack Simpson took from the shop. When he was through, there were lines going every which way.
"That looks like the paintings Iris used to do when she was a teenager," Edna said.
"Are you saying she's the one who orchestrated everything that's happened?" Cameron asked.
"Oh, no. Only that it's more an abstract work of art than an orderly analysis."
House grinned. "Yes. I don't know how many DDx I've done that looked kinda like this." He drew a few more lines. "Anyone have a sheet of paper? We need columns of everything related to the shop and those related to the attacks on Pamela Bradford and DiMonaco."
"I'll do it," Jessica volunteered. She rummaged through her purse and came up with a pen and pad. She called out each item she added to the two columns, and House crossed them off on the board. When she'd finished, there were very few items remaining on the blackboard that weren't crossed out.
Cameron stood and walked toward House. She pointed at one of those items. "The blood in the bathroom. We can't know where to put that until we know whose it was."
"The bathroom is in Phyllis' house." Anna crossed her arms. "Surely it belongs with the shop."
"But if the attacker was the same as in the other cases, it belongs in that column," Jacobs pointed out.
Cameron frowned. "What about the lack of any artist supplies among Iris' belongings?"
"That should go with the shop." Simpson was adamant.
Magnani shook his head. "It's only distantly related."
"And Iris' declining health?" Edna asked.
House held up a hand. "Jessica, list these things down the middle with a broken line in either direction."
Simpson threw up his hands. "This isn't getting us anywhere."
"Yes, it is Bart," his sister said. "The majority of clues and facts are listed under the shop. That's the key to everything. Once I spend some time there working with Iris, I'm sure I'll learn more. She may confide in me, or I might find something among all the pieces and junk that have accumulated there over the years."
Simpson studied her, then glanced at his boss. "House, do you agree with Jessica?"
"She has a valid point. Clearly there are still too many unknowns." He had his own thoughts on how he could proceed, alone or with Cameron, but anything else that the team, Jessica, Edna or Anna could find out would be useful. They'd proven to be better partners in crime than he expected. "Anyone else have a suggestion?"
"I think I'll have a word with Pamela," Anna replied. "If I approach her alone, she might tell me something she wouldn't even tell her granddaughter."
"So we have a plan?" House looked for confirmation. "We can meet here again on Monday night."
He, Cameron and Edna took Anna home, and then drove to Edna's house.
"This has been one of the most interesting days I've had in a long time," their landlady said.
"You've been a big help." Cameron smiled at her.
Edna smiled back. "Anna's going to tackle Pamela, but I don't know what else I can do to help."
"You could visit Iris again and ask her about the shop," House suggested.
"Alright. I'll do that tomorrow. I doubt, though, whether I'll get any coherent answers from her."
"It's worth a try." Cameron put a hand on the older woman's shoulder. "Perhaps she'll be more lucid. Well, goodnight. And thanks."
Down in their apartment, Cameron asked, "So what do you have planned for us to do?"
"What makes you think I have a plan?" He plopped down on the couch.
She chuckled. "Out with it."
"We are going to pay a visit to the other victim." He was already formulating questions for DiMonaco.
"And try to get him to divulge what he knows?"
"If he was shot at because he knows something, maybe if we do too, it would point to the motive for everything that's happened."
"That's a big if," she said. "And it might make us targets for the perp."
"I'm counting on it."
