"Oh, well, now that you mention it, I guess I do remember him," Nans said sheepishly. "He didn't live there long, though, so I guess I didn't recognize the name right off."

"No, he didn't live there long." Davies agreed. "Because he was murdered. And it makes me wonder why no one in the neighborhood ever reported him missing."

Nans shrugged. "He kept to himself. We didn't see him a lot, so I guess no one noticed. I guess we just thought he moved away."

"So, what about my house? Can we go back in?" Jack asked.

"Not yet. We're still collecting evidence. "Lexy wilted as Davies speared her with a steely glare. "A task that would be easier if your dog hadn't run in and contaminated the crime scene."

Lexy grimaced. "Sorry."

Images of the receipt from The Elms Pub sprang to mind-maybe Sprinkles had gotten the receipt from the mummy. Should she tell Davies? Lexy glanced at the stern detective and figured she was better off not mentioning it unless she was positive it was a clue.

"So anyway, tell me about these McDonald characters," Davies was saying.

"Surely, you don't suspect them?" Nans sounded outraged.

"Of course I do. We found a dead body in their basement."

"Well ... I'm sure it wasn't them," Nans sputtered. "I mean, they're the nicest people, right Lexy?"

"They do seem very nice," Lexy replied.

"Right. That's what a lot of people say about killers." Davies produced a notepad from her back pocket and a pen from her front. Poising the pen over the pad, she asked; "Do you know where I can find them?"

Lexy rattled off the address. "But I've already talked to them and they don't know a thing about it."

"Playing detective again?" Davies asked, then turned to Nans. "What about you, Mona?"

"I'm not playing detective," Nans bristled. "Got too much else going on."

"Well, no matter. I'll have a little chat with them myself. I'm going to get to the bottom of this and find out what, exactly, went on in that neighborhood in the summer of 1955." Davies cast a suspicious glance at Nans, pivoted on her booted heel and left.

Chapter Eleven.

"Well, how do you like them apples," Ida turned to Nans. "Mona, tell us all about this Earl guy. Who would want to kill him?"

"Obviously, the McDonalds did it," Ruth cut in.

Nans shook her head. "Not necessarily."

"Really?" Ruth screwed up her face at Nans. "The body was in their basement, so they must have done it or been a party to it."

"Not if they weren't home at the time." Nans picked her giant purse up from the floor and put it in her lap. Snapping open the clasp, she plunged her hand into the cavernous opening.

"You expect us to believe someone broke into their house and hid the body, then redid their basement while they were out to dinner?"

"Of course not," Nans retorted as she rummaged inside the purse. "No one could do that in one night. But now that we know the exact date, I seem to recall that was the summer the McDonalds went to Europe. They were gone for a whole month."

"Wouldn't they have noticed that someone redid their basement when they got home?" Helen asked.

"That's the thing. They were having the basement redone that summer. That was one of the reasons they planned the trip-it was perfect timing to get away from the construction." Nans shrugged. "Someone could have used that as a convenient way to hide the body."

"This still doesn't add up," Jack cut in. "Even if the McDonalds were in Europe, one of the neighbors would have noticed something."

That's right," Ida said. "Surely, it would smell. Did you notice anything funny over there, Mona? Any odd activity or a funny smell?"

"No, but I wouldn't have, because that summer was when the Fergusons' toddler flushed Lego's down the toilet and their septic system backed up all over the back yard." Nans wrinkled her nose. "Boy, did that create a stench. The whole neighborhood walked around holding their noses for weeks."

"Would that cover the smell of a dead body?" Lexy asked Jack.

Jack nodded. "And even if it didn't, who would be able to differentiate?"

"So, I guess this puts Tommy O'Keefe in the clear," Ruth said.

"But implicates Bobby Nesbaum," Helen added.

"Or the stranger," Nans cut in.

"Stranger?" Ida, Ruth, Helen and Jack looked at Nans.

Nans nodded. "Yeah, you remember we talked about that at the McDonalds', Lexy?"

Lexy did remember them mentioning it. "But how would a stranger know the McDonalds were away and how would they gain access to the basement?"

"Not to mention, how would they make the secret room and close it up without Bobby Nesbaum noticing," Jack added.

"Well, it seems all fingers point to Nesbaum." Ruth pulled her purse off the back of her chair and rummaged inside, pulling out an iPad, which she placed on the table in front of her.

"Either it was him or he was in cahoots with someone," Helen offered.

"Someone who knew the McDonalds were gone," Lexy said.

"And who would know that?" Ruth asked.

Ida snapped her fingers. "The other neighbors!"

"That's right. And a lot of them still live in the neighborhood. I'll talk to some of them tonight when I get home. Do you want to come with me, Nans?" Lexy turned to Nans, who stood there with her cell phone in her hand.

"What?" Nans glanced up from the cell phone display. "Sorry, I have some stuff going on tonight and right now I have to warn the McDonalds that Davies is coming!"

Ida stared after Nans who had walked to the other side of the bakery to make her phone call, then turned back to the group at the table. "Never mind her-we need to divvy up the assignments."

"Right," Helen said and they all leaned forward.

"What do you suggest, Jack?" Ida asked.

Jack shrugged. "Well, I guess I'd check out this Nesbaum character, first of all."

"If he's even still alive. I believe Mona said he had passed on," Helen mumbled around the last bite of her brownie.

"Nope. He's alive." Ruth slid the iPad into the center of the table and pointed to a blurb of text on the display. "Says right here he still lives in town."

"Well, it's good to know Mona isn't right about everything." Ida glanced uneasily across the room at Nans. "Still, I wonder if she's feeling okay. She seems a might distracted."

Ruth snickered. "It's probably that new boyfriend of hers."

"Or the fact that Davies might see her as a suspect now," Jack said.

Lexy chewed her bottom lip. "That's silly. Nans wouldn't have had anything to do with that. Why, back then, my grandpa was still alive and he was a cop!"

"Well, Davies might not see it that way. You know how she is." Ruth rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Helen and I will check out this Bobbie Nesbaum online and see if he got a big influx of money or if there're any news articles about him."

"Jack, maybe you can feel Davies out. Maybe she'll be more forthcoming with information on the case now that you aren't a suspect," Ida said.

Jack laughed. "I doubt that, but I'll try."

"And I'll ask around the neighborhood to see what some of the old neighbors know about Earl Schute," Lexy offered.

Sounds like a plan." Ida brushed the crumbs from her fingers onto her plate and then looked up at Lexy. "But you'd best be careful because one of those neighbors could be a cold-blooded killer!"

"Earl Schute was the kind of guy who brought trouble with him wherever he went," Ed Johnston said as he munched on one of Lexy's meringue cookies, his eyes narrowed at the house next to Lexy's-the house Earl Schute once lived in.

Lexy had figured the elderly Mr. Johnston would be a wealth of information. He'd lived in the neighborhood forever and surveyed the goings-on from his porch daily. Lexy had run across the street to his house as soon as she'd gotten home from the bakery, and now they sat on twin rocking chairs enjoying a light summer evening breeze as Lexy picked his memory.

"What do you mean?" Lexy asked.

"He wasn't a pleasant person ... was always stirring up trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Well, for example, he didn't keep that house very nice. Had trash all over the lawn and he put up a fence halfway into the neighbor's yard. I know your grandpa had a few words with him and Floyd Nichols on the other side almost came to blows with him one night out in the street." Ed chuckled at the memory.

"Really?" Lexy's nerves tingled. Could Floyd Nichols be the killer? But how would he have gotten the body into the McDonalds' basement and closed it up in that little room? Maybe he killed Earl and then hired Nesbaum to help him?

"Anyway, I tried to steer clear of him," Ed said.

"So, you didn't notice when he disappeared?"

"Disappeared? No. Well, I did notice the neighborhood was more pleasant, and then one day I realized it was because he wasn't here picking fights. But I couldn't pinpoint an exact day when he wasn't here anymore."

"You heard about the body at the McDonalds?"

"Yeah, creepy." Ed picked another cookie out of the white bakery box Lexy had given him. "These are good."

"Really?" Lexy's hope rose. "You don't think they need more sugar?"

Ed swallowed the cookie and pressed his lips together. "Maybe. Hard to say. Anyway, the body at the McDonalds' ... how'd it get in there?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Lexy looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "That's why I was asking about Earl."

Ed's eyes widened. "You mean it was Earl in there?"

"Yep."

"Lois and Charlie killed Earl?"

"No, no. I mean, I don't think so. The police say he died in the summer of fifty-five and Nans said the McDonalds were away that summer."

Earl squinted up at the evening sky. "They did go away one summer ... I can't remember the exact year, but I remember they traveled to Europe because they came back and Lois stunk up the whole neighborhood with some spicy cooking. Indian, I think."

Stunk up the neighborhood? That reminded Lexy of the septic system. "Nans said something about one of the neighbors' septic systems backing up that summer, too."

"I don't recall that. Could be. If it was over on your side of the street, I might not have smelled it. Who was it?

"The Fergusons."

"Oh, yeah, they were on the same street as the McDonalds, but down a few houses." Ed shrugged. "I'm glad I didn't have to smell that-it can be right awful. Lois's cooking was bad enough."

"Nans also said something about some stranger that was in the neighborhood that summer."

Ed thought for a bit, then said, "I don't remember no stranger. Course I don't spend all my time on the porch watching the neighborhood like some people think."

"Of course not," Lexy soothed. "But you did see Floyd Nichols fighting with Earl?"

"Yeah, sure as day, right out in the street-fists up and everything."

"Do you know what they were fighting about?"

Ed shrugged. "Could have been lots of things. I think I heard Floyd yelling about the fence, though."

"And did you see Earl around after that?"

"What? Hmmm ... well, I don't know. It was shortly after that, I think, I noticed the neighborhood was a lot quieter, and then I realized I hadn't seen Earl in a while."

"Didn't anyone notice that Earl just went missing?"

"No. Who would care? I think people were relieved, what with the insurance scam and all."

Lexy's eyes widened. "Insurance scam?"