Day Four - Rusty 

Rusty had not had very much luck trying to find the maid, Penelope. The address the police had for her was an old Victorian boarding house on Duffy Street, below Forsyth Park. They had not seen her there for a couple of nights.

"Ya might talk wit Rosie Grenhem," the landlady told him. She an' Penny are tight. Rosie's a teacha. Gets in about fowah. She's two-aye, top o' the stairs."

Rusty found a comfortable spot under a tree and settled in to wait.

"She told me she had hit the jackpot," Rosie Grenhem told Rusty when she finally appeared.

"Her boyfriend was gonna get all this money. They were gonna sell the big old house in town and live out at the beach house or at a place he has up in Maryland. I think she spent the night with him last night 'coz she didn't come home. It sounds so romantic."

When she stopped to take a breath, Rusty asked if she knew where the beach house was.

"Out on Tybee? Maybe? Or WhiteMarsh? One of those swanky places. Penny had to go out there last year for a month when the old lady was getting around better." She went on for another five minutes but Rusty didn't get anything new out of it. He looked at his watch. If he hurried, he could get to the Chatham County Tax Assessor's office before they closed.

Part of the private detective business was knowing every clerk and administrator in the local government offices and knowing what they liked. On his way to the assessor's office, Rusty stopped and picked up a box of chocolates.

"Oh, Hell no." Audrey White was an imposing woman and right now she was bearing down on Rusty with her hands out in front of her, shooing him back out the door. "I gotta date tonight an I gotta go home and make myself beautiful. I can't be climbin' around in no dusty basement wit you haf the night."

"Audrey, you're already beautiful and it'll only take ten minutes. What I need, you probably know it already. And I brought you these," he offered up the box of chocolates.

She eyed him suspiciously and took the box of chocolates out of his hand. "For Cadburys, you get ten minutes."

"Lydia Stanhope. I need to know where her beach house is."

Audrey was already shaking her head. "Won't be in Miss Lydia's name. Be in her husband's. But now she's dead it passes to that no-'count boy a hers. But that's too easy. That lawyer fella, Williams, already been sniffin' aroun'. Got the extract right heah."

Rusty took the thick file from her. The information he needed was right at the top of the pile but since he had 'paid' for ten minutes, he took his time, digging a little deeper into the history of the property and found a name that he knew well. A name that hit him in the gut. He was reminded of events from about ten years ago that he should have remembered.

The property may have been in her husband's name but it had come to them from Lydia's side of the family. She was a Van Hemingway. Her brother was Roland Van Hemingway, also known as Noface. Lydia and Roger Stanhope had been present at their niece Gloria's coming out party when Rusty and Johnny had first encountered Noface. Curious, he checked the file again. The property had been transferred from Lydia to Roger Stanhope just after that; no doubt to avoid notoriety.

Rusty thanked Audrey, promised his undying love, and drove back to the office.  Noface!  Their paths had crossed a couple of times and Noface had served time as a result of it. The criminal had sworn to get revenge on Johnny. 

This link to Noface could not be a coincidence. He had to let Johnny know about this.