The Chocolate Castle Clue by JoAnna Carl Read Free Book Online

comes around. For the obvious reason.”
    Joe nodded, but I was completely mystified. “What obvious reason?” I said. “I’ve never seen her in the Dock Street before.”
    Brownie spoke again, still aiming his remarks at Joe. “I’ve had to tell her not to come here. But sometimes she wanders in anyway.” He went back to the kitchen.
    â€œWho was that woman?” I said.
    Joe took a drink of his beer before he spoke. “Lee, you’ve lived in Warner Pier what—four years? I figured you would have run into all the local characters by now.”
    â€œI’ve seen her in the library, but I don’t know who she is. Mrs. Rice? Was that her name?”
    â€œVerna Rice. Does that ring a bell?”
    â€œNo.” I spoke firmly, but then a bell did seem to give a tiny ting, way in the back of my mind. “Wait. Did Aunt Nettie refer to the owner of the Castle Ballroom as a ‘Mr. Rice’?”
    â€œYou got it. Dan Rice was the owner of the Castle Ballroom. He was found shot to death in his office more than forty years ago. Mrs. Rice is his widow. She never got over the tragedy.”
    â€œOh. Well, I’m sorry for her, Joe, but she can’t simply badmouth people the way she did Aunt Nettie. What does she have against the Pier-O-Ettes?”
    â€œI have no answer for that question.” Joe grinned. “Mrs. Rice has made public scenes so often that her relatives tried to commit her for treatment, but the psychiatrists say she’s just cranky, not crazy. So, unlike most of us Warner Pier–ites, she’s been certified as sane.”
    That made me smile, and I began to feel less annoyed. “I’ve been told that Warner Pier is too small to have a village idiot, so we all have to take turns. Nice to know I’m not competing with Mrs. Rice for the honor.”
    Our salads came then, and for the next ten minutes we concentrated on salad greens, tomatoes, purple onions, and Italian dressing. The pizza was on the table before I brought up Mrs. Rice again, and then the reference was indirect. “Joe, ever since I came to Warner Pier as a sixteen-year-old kid, I’ve heard of the Castle Ballroom. But I’ve never really known much about it.”
    â€œIt was demolished ten or fifteen years before I was born, but I’ve heard about it all my life, too,” Joe said. “It must have been really something. It was built in the early twentieth century, and in those days it was one of the few stone buildings in Warner Pier.”
    â€œI guess that was the big lumbering era.”
    â€œIt was the tail end of it. Anyway, excursion boats from Chicago used to bring people over to go to the Castle, just the way people came over to visit the Pavilion, up at Saugatuck. Later—in the thirties and forties—the big bands played there.”
    â€œBenny Goodman?”
    â€œYes, and Glenn Miller. My grandparents went to hear him at the Castle before they were married. My grandmother never forgot it.”
    â€œI never knew it was that . . . well . . . special.”
    â€œIt was. You’ll have to go over to the library and look at the pictures. The Castle was enormous—a block long and a block wide. It had a stone tower at each corner, and a deck along the river. Electric lights were strung along the roof and along the deck and outlined the towers.”
    â€œIt must have looked beautiful reflected in the water.”
    â€œThe summer people used to come in their boats and tie up for the evening. And an evening at the Castle was elegant.”
    â€œWhat did they have for attractions after the big-band era ended?”
    â€œThat’s when the story gets a little vague. Mom tells me the sixties weren’t kind to Warner Pier in general. Apparently a druggie crowd moved in.”
    â€œThat must have been a shock. So many of the cottages around here are owned by families who’ve been coming to Warner Pier