The doorbell rang. I peeked through the peep hole. There stood an old guy, looking rather nervous. I opened the door a crack. He was sweating profusely and wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. I said “yes?”
"Hello. My name’s Sam Dawson. I went to school with your parents and would like to trade some fascinating information about them for a swim in your pool right now.”
I held the door mostly closed and hollered over my shoulder, “Davy! Come here a minute!”
The man said, “Aren’t you interested in how I knew your parents?”
Davy, all 6’3” of him, showed up at the door. “Yeah? What’s up?”
The old guy started to talk, but I interrupted, saying, “This, um, gentleman, rang our doorbell and said he went to school with our parents and wanted to trade information about them for a swim in our pool, now!”
Davy says, “Mister if you don’t explain yourself better than that, I’m calling the police.” And he whipped out his cell phone.
“Wait a minute, young man. Maybe I phrased that wrong, if I could come in out of the heat for just a…”
Davy says, “Sir, you didn’t have to come out in the heat in the first place.” He turned to me, “Willa, stay inside.” And he came out and closed the door.
As he did, I called our Uncle Jim, Dad’s brother, who said he’d come right over. Then I went out to join Davy.
The man was saying that he knew a member of our family who had had something to do with our parents’ deaths and he wanted to talk to us, but he was so hot, he hoped he could get cool in their pool first.
Davy and I looked at each other like the old guy was crazy. I said, “My uncle is on his way over now. You can tell him.”
“No! Oh, no! You don’t understand! He’s the one who planted the papers, he….” He turned quickly, and made his way down the front steps and hurried to his old gray pickup.
Davy took a zoom picture of him and the truck, getting part of the license number.
A few minutes later our uncle pulls up in his new Mercedes. As Davy starts down the front steps, I said, “Dave? Hold on a minute. Don’t mention the ‘papers.’ Wait and see what he says, how he acts.”
Davy looks surprised, but said, “Okay.”
I watched our uncle’s face as Davy talked to him. There was a flicker of absolute fear, and then anger, which he quickly changed to the benevolent concerned uncle facade, as he patted Davy on the shoulder, reassuringly.
I walked out to the car and said, “Uncle Jim, why don’t you come in outa the heat for something cool to drink—iced tea or a cold beer? Davy needs to pick up some medicine. He’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Okay. A cold beer sounds pretty good. See ya shortly, Dave, boy.”
Following him up the narrow walk, I texted Davy. “Ok, brother dear, whose been practicing on our safe. Uncle Jim leaves his key to his house under the frog – you remember. See if you can get into his safe! Look for incriminating papers. And if he asks, I’ll say the old guy’s name was Max Dixon or something. But, hurry. I’ll try to keep him occupied.”
I went and got Uncle Jim a cold beer and brought out some of my (if I do say so) famous cheesies – homemade wafers with toasted pecans that everybody loved. When I sat down, I said I thought the old man seemed a bit confused, acting erratically, making up this crazy story. Uncle Jim asked if I could be more specific about what he said, exactly.
“Well, he wouldn’t say much until we let him use the pool, which we didn't, because we thought that was so odd, that’s when I called you. He could be just an old nosy guy looking for people to talk to.”
Uncle Jim, frowned. “Well, Davy said he had something of interest to trade. That doesn’t sound confused, to me.”
I laughed. “If you could’ve heard how he was telling it – all secretive with these weird facial expressions—really strange, and honestly, rather deranged. Would you like another beer?”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t hurt my feelings any,” he said, “But…”
Oh. Uncle Jim. Lemme show you my latest targets from the pistol range. I’ll go get ‘em. Be right back.”
I brought back some (I thought) very impressive targets from different distances. I was very proud of them and was telling him how good my vision was after eye surgery. He was actually impressed. I said how much fun it was, and would he like to come try it next time I went?
I could see him actually square his shoulders, as he said, “I’m a pretty good shot, myself. Maybe we could have ourselves a little contest?”
“That’s a great idea. You wanta go now? Davy could meet us there. And afterwards, we’ll treat ourselves to a steak dinner. What do you say?”
Uncle Jim’s situation as an old bachelor who was always hungry for a good meal often did him in, and it did, again. He agreed, and off we went.
We signed in at the indoor range and got a spot. We took turns shooting, moving the targets back further as we did. When we brought them back up and checked the hits, I had actually done better than Uncle Jim. He was making excuses when Davy popped his head in, saw that his uncle had gotten bested and challenged him to another round. He tossed me his car keys and I excused myself.
In the well in the back of his SUV was a box. In it were the titles to our parents’ home and beach cottage, our mother’s jewelry and their stocks, AND a signed contract with one Sam Dawson. I was shaking like a leaf. My uncle and the old guy, Dawson??? Now, it looked like Dawson was trying to double deal. I went inside and told the manager I was calling the police and why, told him I had the evidence, then texted Davy to excuse himself to the men’s room.
Sam Dawson was listed in the phone book. He was in the process of packing up as much stuff as he could fit in his truck when the police arrived with Davy and the evidence, the signed contract with Sam. I had already seen our uncle safely in the hands of the police at the practice range. He was furious, but no more so than I! Our uncle had actually stolen from our parents and then hired Dawson to murder them! It was hard to believe, and absolutely sickening and despicable!
Both men were arrested.
It looked like old Dawson’s trade off wasn’t successful, but Davy’s and mine was, as far as justice was concerned.
A Twofer!