Chasing a Blond Moon(63)

“I think we should wait until tonight, see what goes down,” Pyykkonen said. “If we approach now, somebody is liable to see us.”

“Pung rented and bought his house from the woman in Painesdale.”

“This probably doesn’t have anything to do with Pung.”

“Let’s call the landlord,” he said.

She looked at him. “Better yet, let’s go see her,” Pyykkonen said, checking her wristwatch. “We’ve got time.”

Copper was discovered on the Keeweenaw Peninsula thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Early explorers found primitive mining pits that were later dated back five thousand years. The Chippewas did not use copper, but respected it for the spirits contained in the reddish ore. The real copper boom began in the middle of the nineteenth century when ore was discovered in the rugged greenstone spine of the peninsula, stretching north and south of Houghton. The area below was known as the Copper, or south range, the area above and across the shipping canal as the Keeweenaw, or north range. The activity below Houghton had been centered in what became the village of South Range, whose houses were old, the weary remnants of Copper Range Company structures built more than a century before.

Painesdale was the village below South Range, different from its neighbor only in size.

Maggie Soper lived in an original mining house across from old Painesdale Jeffers High School. The house was distinguished from surrounding houses by its faded red barn paint. The battered yellow cowling of a snowmobile lay on its side in the yard among broken and bent brown weeds. There was no lawn.

The owner came out on the porch and showed no interest in inviting them inside. She was short and plump with a silver pixie haircut and wire-rimmed glasses. She had long, manicured fingernails, freshly done, and small soft hands.

“Mrs. Soper,” Pyykkonen said.

“It’s Miss,” the woman said. “I never had time to marry.”

“I’m Limey Pyykkonen,” the Houghton detective said. “We talked on the phone.”

“About the professor. I remember,” the woman said.

“You sold your house to him.”

“I tolt youse that,” the woman said.

“Do you own other rental properties?”

“Do I need my lawyer?”

“No ma’am, we’re just doing follow-ups. This is Detective Service of the DNR.”

Maggie Soper didn’t bother to acknowledge him.

“Do you own other properties, Miss Soper?”

“What do you mean by ‘properties’?”

“Real estate, houses, cabins, that sort of thing.” Service admired Pyykkonen’s patience.

The woman didn’t pause as she ticked off the list: “Da house in Freda, ’nudder in Redridge overlook da dam on da Salmon Trout. Two here in town, two more in South Range, one in Atlantic Mine, three in Houghton, two in Lake Linden.”

Twelve, Service counted. It seemed like a lot of real estate for an old woman whose home looked ready to collapse under the next snowpack.

“Are all of them occupied now?”

“All but da one the professor bought. How long you tink it take for da probate and da will? Somebody gonna get da house?”

Service understood. The woman’s life was money. She’d sold high and now hoped for a cheap buy-back so she could rent or sell again.

“Do you have the names of your renters?”

“All public record.”

“What about the house on the canal in Houghton?”

“What’s this about?”

“Like I said, we’re just doing routine follow-ups.”

Maggie Soper looked skeptical. “I rent dat to such a nice, polite boy. His name is Terry Tunhow.”

“Korean?”

The woman curled a lip. “Dey all look alike to me, but he’s polite. ’Course he doesn’t speak our language too good. Got da heavy accent.”

“When did he start renting?”

“July.”

“What does he pay?”

“Tousand a month.”

“Seems like a lot.”

“You’ve seen da place?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“If it’s on da wadder, dey’ll pay it and I’ll take it.”

“Cash?”

“Twentieth of the month. He’s always on time. He comes to da house, hands me cash money, and dat’s it.”

“Did he pay for August?”

“Right on time. He’ll be back twentieth of dis month.”

Pyykkonen turned to Service. “Any questions?”

“You’ve got a lot of real estate,” he said.

“Just like a man to wonder how a woman gets her money. I’m frugal and I know real estate. I buy some places and fix them up. Others I build, do all da work myself.”