The Puzzle by Peggy A. Edelheit

Author:Peggy A. Edelheit [Edelheit, Peggy A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: mystery
Goodreads: 11069786
Publisher: Telemachus Press, LLC
Published: 2010-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 34

Going Once! Going Twice! Going Hunting?

When I couldn’t come up with any better alternatives and was not having much luck ferreting out any substantial clues, or hanging on to evidence, I decided to go back and follow the trail of the missing laptop.

First, I figured I’d travel down to Franklin and question the auctioneer. Any speculations I had in the past were now seriously challenged. I was in a guessing game of innocence and guilt. Who was fudging the truth and who was being fairly honest with me? Maybe, an unbiased opinion was called for and that was what finally pushed me in the direction of Franklin.

In daylight, the auction house appeared bare and nondescript. There was no mystery to the building any longer, but the information I might obtain there could be interesting. It might shed some light on where the laptop came from in the first place. Who better to ask than the auctioneer? On the night of the auction, he seemed like a tough old bird and a no-nonsense type of guy. I remembered that his name was Pete.

As our initial conversation progressed, I was surprised by how easily he accepted my story that the laptop looked like my husband’s. He then answered my subsequent questions almost as though he had been expecting me to show up. Ridiculous. I was truly getting paranoid.

“That laptop?” he lamented, shaking his head. “Why I was so upset when I found out it went missing. I was hoping to make a nice profit on that thing. Too late for you, too, I guess.”

“If you don’t mind,” I asked. “Could you please tell me where you got the laptop in the first place? Did anyone in particular ask you to sell it for them?”

“Well, no, not really,” he said. “It is sort of a humorous story though. Ned, a neighbor of mine, was out hunting with his coon dog not too long ago. He likes to brag he is this great hunter, but we all know better and let on we don’t care. Well, he was out with Rex, his dog, for hours off the road that winds down the mountain from Highlands into Franklin, and all of a sudden, Rex starts barking off in the distance, going crazy like.” The auctioneer chuckled.

“Ned, he gets all excited and runs like hell, trying to catch up, thinking Rex has scored big time. Boy, was he surprised at what he found when he got there! Old Rex was scratching at a laptop behind a fallen tree, half hidden in the leaves. He wanted to smack that stupid old dog right there on the spot. He said to Rex, ‘Now, what am I supposed to do with this stupid thing? Take it home, stuff it and mount on my wall?’ ”

The auctioneer sat upright, tapping his head with his finger. “That’s when Ned remembered me and the auction. Why not make up for his losses of the day? It had some dirt on it, but maybe it might be worth something.

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