Chapter Four
The Dead Limb Of The Family Tree
By the next morning, Jessica was convinced that Roberto Conston was their man. His alibis were lame, and he continually resisted questioning. Jessica and Christi, try as they might, couldn't get the officials to fill out a warrant. He simply had no motive, they said. Jessica knew he had one, and devoted all her time to finding out what it was.
The first thing the two P.I.'s did after their run in with Roberto was to cross-examine all the witnesses who had clarified or un-clarified Roberto's alibis. Jessica immediately noticed that all the people who testified to his alibis were the same people, and immediately had them taken into custody.
"There goes your alibis, murderer," Christi heard her mutter darkly. She agreed.
The two of them were presently going through every inch of evidence they had on the case, searching for Roberto's motives, when there was a knock at the door. Christi, knowing that her partner needed silence by the way she was fingering her pocket watch, went to answer it. It was Barbara Trempson- Carstatch, her teenage daughter Malice by her side.
"Hello," greeted Barbara. "We're here to see Jessica Helmstar."
"I'm afraid she's busy at the moment."
"Let them in," Jessica said with a sigh. A bewildered Christi stepped back and did so. Jessica got up and shook Barbara's hand. "Pleasure to see you again. Have a seat."
"You too. I have the papers you wanted." She handed Jessica a packet of papers.
Jessica nodded. "Thank you." Looking over her shoulder, Christi saw that the packet was a list of people who had left or adopted a dog at Second Chance Animal Home for the last three weeks.
Malice was looking at the pictures of the murder victims with interest. "Look! If you look at the guy like this, he looks like a L!"
"Melissa." said her mother looking disgusted.
"It's Malice. And this one looks like an B!"
Jessica looked up. "Like an B?"
Malice went on excitedly. "And grandpa's an E!"
"Oh, stop it, Melissa!" said her mother. "Respect the deceased!"
"Let me see those," said Jessica, coming around the table to look at the pictures. She looked at each one from every angle, and put a note of what letter it resembled in the corner. Some had to be tilted to be recognized as letters, and sometimes all the body parts weren't a part of the letter, but she soon arranged the nine letter-look-alike corpses in alphabetical order.
A B E I K L R S V
"This means something." Jessica muttered. Malice beamed.
"Dude, I am so going to be a bounty hunter," she announced.
"We're P.I.'s-Private Investigators-not bounty hunters," Christi told her.
"Then who's that guy?" Malice pointed to Roberto Conston's picture. "Isn't he a bounty?"
"No, he's the murderer in this case," Jessica announced. Barbara looked shocked.
"Him? He's. the murderer?"
Jessica looked at her curiously. "Yes. Why, do you know him?"
"Yes! He's been leaving his hound at the Animal Home on and off for a few weeks now. But his name isn't Roberto."
Jessica presented her the packet, which had the names of all the people who had put in or taken out a hound from the Animal Home in the last three weeks. "Which one is he?"
Barbara's eyes scanned the list. "Him. Otto R. Conerbson."
Jessica underlined his name. He was listed several times on the list, having either abandoned or adopted a black mastiff-bloodhound mix breed.
"Idiot! He used an anagram! Fool! That's how they're always caught, anagrams!" She threw her head back and laughed; in a way that you just knew someone else was about to be extremely sad.
"It's him. They'll listen to us now. We've got him!" Christi sounded excited.
Jessica's brow furrowed. "No we don't. We still don't have a motive. Or do we."
She went back to the pictures and scrambled them around, but nothing seemed to work. She stared hard at them, and scanned through the files again. She took out her pocket watch, with the initials S. H. ingraved in them. They stood for Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective. Her ancestor. As she looked, something dawned on her. She hurriedly put the pictures in a different order.
"Aha!"
The others gathered around. The letters now read "BASK RVIL E"
"'Bask R-Vil E?' What's that supposed to mean?" asked Christi.
"Baskerville!" she burst ecstatically. "The hound of the Baskervilles! Holmes worked on that case! A distant relative of the Baskervilles used a dog to kill the living Baskervilles so he could inherit the estate! That's what Roberto is up to!"
Christi was bewildered. "The hound? What? What does this have do with anything?"
"It has to do with everything! There was a legend that a huge hound lived on the moor of Dartmoor and that it hunted down the family. The murderer used a huge hound painted with phosphorous to imitate the legend, and used it to kill the Baskervilles. I did some more research and found that Barbara here is the descendant of Sir Henry Baskerville."
Barbara nodded, eyes wide with understanding. "It's true! My grandmother's maiden name was Baskerville, but her father lost most of the family fortune. She was ashamed of her father's foolishness and agreed to have her name changed in marriage."
"Your great grandfather lost it all in a bet to a man by the name Michael Donalu. Your mother was a Baskerville, but your father was a Donalu, so either you or one of your siblings is the heir to the fortune. But, if you were all to die, our little friend Roberto would inherit the fortune, having split off from the family. You see, Donalu married Georgia Conston and had a son, but divorced his wife. She later remarried and kept her maiden name. Roberto is her descendant, and therefore a possible heir through marriage. He's distant, but relative."
There was a silence as everyone pondered this information. Then Christi spoke up.
"Why didn't you present this information to the officials? We could have gotten that warrant!"
"I did show them the information. Though it proves that he has a motive for the crime, it doesn't prove that he committed the crime."
Christi nodded. "But why did he use a fake name when he went to the Animal Home but not when he signed up for his job? Wouldn't it have been easier to do it visa versa? Or to use fake names for both?"
Jessica smiled. "True. But it seems to me that he signed up for the job before he got the idea to try to take the fortune, so it was too late to come up with a fake name for that. He used a fake name in his dealings with the Animal Home because he was at a high risk of losing his murder weapon if the police knew about his connection with his hound. All he has to do is kill off the rest of the family and he can claim the fortune."
There was a shocked silence.
"Who. who will he be after next?" Malice asked nervously.
Jessica pulled some files out of the drawer of the desk. "Well. seeing as the living members of your family are all out of state. I'd say you're his next target, Barbara."
Barbara looked at her with pure terror.
Jessica put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "I need you to do me a favor, and to do it blindly. Only if you do this can we stop him. Understand?"
Barbara swallowed, tried to speak, then gave up and nodded. "Good. I need you to take a walk in the park tonight, far from all the crime scenes. Alone."
"What?! But what if-"
"Ah-ah-ah-no questions, Mrs. Trempson-Carstatch. Blind faith is what we need right now. From you."
She swallowed, and put on a face that made her look braver than she really was. "Al-alright. I-I'll do it!"
Jessica nodded. "Then good afternoon to you, Barbara. Arrive at the park at nine o'clock sharp. And bundle up. It's going to be a cold night."
By the next morning, Jessica was convinced that Roberto Conston was their man. His alibis were lame, and he continually resisted questioning. Jessica and Christi, try as they might, couldn't get the officials to fill out a warrant. He simply had no motive, they said. Jessica knew he had one, and devoted all her time to finding out what it was.
The first thing the two P.I.'s did after their run in with Roberto was to cross-examine all the witnesses who had clarified or un-clarified Roberto's alibis. Jessica immediately noticed that all the people who testified to his alibis were the same people, and immediately had them taken into custody.
"There goes your alibis, murderer," Christi heard her mutter darkly. She agreed.
The two of them were presently going through every inch of evidence they had on the case, searching for Roberto's motives, when there was a knock at the door. Christi, knowing that her partner needed silence by the way she was fingering her pocket watch, went to answer it. It was Barbara Trempson- Carstatch, her teenage daughter Malice by her side.
"Hello," greeted Barbara. "We're here to see Jessica Helmstar."
"I'm afraid she's busy at the moment."
"Let them in," Jessica said with a sigh. A bewildered Christi stepped back and did so. Jessica got up and shook Barbara's hand. "Pleasure to see you again. Have a seat."
"You too. I have the papers you wanted." She handed Jessica a packet of papers.
Jessica nodded. "Thank you." Looking over her shoulder, Christi saw that the packet was a list of people who had left or adopted a dog at Second Chance Animal Home for the last three weeks.
Malice was looking at the pictures of the murder victims with interest. "Look! If you look at the guy like this, he looks like a L!"
"Melissa." said her mother looking disgusted.
"It's Malice. And this one looks like an B!"
Jessica looked up. "Like an B?"
Malice went on excitedly. "And grandpa's an E!"
"Oh, stop it, Melissa!" said her mother. "Respect the deceased!"
"Let me see those," said Jessica, coming around the table to look at the pictures. She looked at each one from every angle, and put a note of what letter it resembled in the corner. Some had to be tilted to be recognized as letters, and sometimes all the body parts weren't a part of the letter, but she soon arranged the nine letter-look-alike corpses in alphabetical order.
A B E I K L R S V
"This means something." Jessica muttered. Malice beamed.
"Dude, I am so going to be a bounty hunter," she announced.
"We're P.I.'s-Private Investigators-not bounty hunters," Christi told her.
"Then who's that guy?" Malice pointed to Roberto Conston's picture. "Isn't he a bounty?"
"No, he's the murderer in this case," Jessica announced. Barbara looked shocked.
"Him? He's. the murderer?"
Jessica looked at her curiously. "Yes. Why, do you know him?"
"Yes! He's been leaving his hound at the Animal Home on and off for a few weeks now. But his name isn't Roberto."
Jessica presented her the packet, which had the names of all the people who had put in or taken out a hound from the Animal Home in the last three weeks. "Which one is he?"
Barbara's eyes scanned the list. "Him. Otto R. Conerbson."
Jessica underlined his name. He was listed several times on the list, having either abandoned or adopted a black mastiff-bloodhound mix breed.
"Idiot! He used an anagram! Fool! That's how they're always caught, anagrams!" She threw her head back and laughed; in a way that you just knew someone else was about to be extremely sad.
"It's him. They'll listen to us now. We've got him!" Christi sounded excited.
Jessica's brow furrowed. "No we don't. We still don't have a motive. Or do we."
She went back to the pictures and scrambled them around, but nothing seemed to work. She stared hard at them, and scanned through the files again. She took out her pocket watch, with the initials S. H. ingraved in them. They stood for Sherlock Holmes. The famous detective. Her ancestor. As she looked, something dawned on her. She hurriedly put the pictures in a different order.
"Aha!"
The others gathered around. The letters now read "BASK RVIL E"
"'Bask R-Vil E?' What's that supposed to mean?" asked Christi.
"Baskerville!" she burst ecstatically. "The hound of the Baskervilles! Holmes worked on that case! A distant relative of the Baskervilles used a dog to kill the living Baskervilles so he could inherit the estate! That's what Roberto is up to!"
Christi was bewildered. "The hound? What? What does this have do with anything?"
"It has to do with everything! There was a legend that a huge hound lived on the moor of Dartmoor and that it hunted down the family. The murderer used a huge hound painted with phosphorous to imitate the legend, and used it to kill the Baskervilles. I did some more research and found that Barbara here is the descendant of Sir Henry Baskerville."
Barbara nodded, eyes wide with understanding. "It's true! My grandmother's maiden name was Baskerville, but her father lost most of the family fortune. She was ashamed of her father's foolishness and agreed to have her name changed in marriage."
"Your great grandfather lost it all in a bet to a man by the name Michael Donalu. Your mother was a Baskerville, but your father was a Donalu, so either you or one of your siblings is the heir to the fortune. But, if you were all to die, our little friend Roberto would inherit the fortune, having split off from the family. You see, Donalu married Georgia Conston and had a son, but divorced his wife. She later remarried and kept her maiden name. Roberto is her descendant, and therefore a possible heir through marriage. He's distant, but relative."
There was a silence as everyone pondered this information. Then Christi spoke up.
"Why didn't you present this information to the officials? We could have gotten that warrant!"
"I did show them the information. Though it proves that he has a motive for the crime, it doesn't prove that he committed the crime."
Christi nodded. "But why did he use a fake name when he went to the Animal Home but not when he signed up for his job? Wouldn't it have been easier to do it visa versa? Or to use fake names for both?"
Jessica smiled. "True. But it seems to me that he signed up for the job before he got the idea to try to take the fortune, so it was too late to come up with a fake name for that. He used a fake name in his dealings with the Animal Home because he was at a high risk of losing his murder weapon if the police knew about his connection with his hound. All he has to do is kill off the rest of the family and he can claim the fortune."
There was a shocked silence.
"Who. who will he be after next?" Malice asked nervously.
Jessica pulled some files out of the drawer of the desk. "Well. seeing as the living members of your family are all out of state. I'd say you're his next target, Barbara."
Barbara looked at her with pure terror.
Jessica put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye. "I need you to do me a favor, and to do it blindly. Only if you do this can we stop him. Understand?"
Barbara swallowed, tried to speak, then gave up and nodded. "Good. I need you to take a walk in the park tonight, far from all the crime scenes. Alone."
"What?! But what if-"
"Ah-ah-ah-no questions, Mrs. Trempson-Carstatch. Blind faith is what we need right now. From you."
She swallowed, and put on a face that made her look braver than she really was. "Al-alright. I-I'll do it!"
Jessica nodded. "Then good afternoon to you, Barbara. Arrive at the park at nine o'clock sharp. And bundle up. It's going to be a cold night."