The Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery

Are you Mrs. Totino?

Yes. Melba Totino, that's me.

You made a call to 911 about a missing person?

Not one person. Three!

My daughter, her husband,

my granddaughter.

They're gone.

They're all gone! Disappeared into thin air!

Meow!

It's a cat.

See, I disagree with the definition.

A "date" implies a pre-arranged meeting,

but we just grabbed food and stopped here on impulse.

But sharing of food

automatically qualifies a meeting as a date.

Hmm. Cite your source, please.

My source is the very astute Aurora Teagarden herself.

Mm.

Doesn't this feel like a date, Aurora?

Yes, Martin, it does.

But I think you could make a trip to the dentist

feel like a date.

That's 21 dates!

You're counting?

That's so sweet.

I keep count

because your mother has a rule about

when we can officially be considered a couple.

Ha! Very astute of you.

No, my mother has rules of etiquette

for everything.

Including not being late

for an appointment with her.

We have to go!

What?

Four more dates, Miss Teagarden,

and you will officially be my girlfriend.

Five more minutes and I'm gonna be

an ex-daughter, if we don't get going.

So you do this every month?

Aida takes you off, looking at houses?

Well, if there's something new on the market.

I've been wanting to find a real home

ever since I got that inheritance

from my friend, Jane Engle.

Oh, yes. You're a woman of means.

Hmm, well, means enough to buy a house,

but I haven't found

anything that feels right yet.

I have visions of us

shopping for a house together,

one of these days.

Um...

I don't think we can have that conversation

until at least 50 dates.

That's okay. I'm a patient man.

But to help move things along,

how about you have dinner with me

when I get back from this business trip?

Now, that is a date.

Did you see the new listing on Elm Street?

Yeah. It's very cute.

I showed it yesterday.

All the windows-- oh, my gosh, it's so light and airy.

That's the thing. Too many windows.

There's no such thing.

Aurora, you can't be anti-light.

No, more "pro-wall".

I need lots of walls for my bookshelves.

You know how many books I have.

Well, maybe if you got rid of the dreary ones

about murders and such,

you could have light.

This one has plenty of wall space.

Ooh! And there's a little reading nook!

That would make a perfect library.

It's not my listing.

Besides, it's completely inappropriate for a woman alone.

Why? It's charming.

It's also five miles out of town.

Not to mention old!

Do you know how much it would cost

to heat that thing?

Mother...

Show it to me. Pretty please?

It's so nice and quiet out here.

I believe the word you're looking for

is "isolated".

Ohh! And that porch!

Oh, can't you just imagine a porch swing right there?

You know, something about this house

looks familiar.

That's because you've been staring

at a photo of it for the past 20 minutes.

No, that's not it.

You've always been stubborn.

Always.

Oh, this house is wonderful!

Oh, the view from the master bedroom!

Do you know how many bookshelves I can build in here?

But it is so far from town.

You'd have to commute.

W-- Oh, town is 10 minutes away, Mother.

No, I... I think this is it.

Yeah, I think this is the house

I've been looking for.

Yeah, I think we should look at a couple more.

N-- No. No.

We've been looking for months.

No. This is it.

Yeah! I want to make an offer.

You know, even if the owner accepts your offer,

you still have three days to change your mind.

Oh, no, I'm not gonna change my mind.

This looks familiar, too.

The stove.

Oh! I got it.

Oh, it was in the newspaper.

Do you remember that family that disappeared?

Like, three or four years ago,

they went out to dinner with a friend,

and they never came back?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Yeah. The Julius family!

Yeah! It was in the newspaper,

and the grandmother,

she took a picture right here.

Huh! This is the Julius House.

No, the owner's name is Totino.

Yeah, that was the grandmother's name.

Well, if some tragedy happened here,

the listing agent should have disclosed that information,

and I should just rip up this offer.

No, Mother,

nothing happened in the house.

The theory is that

they got in the car, they ran off the road,

and disappeared down a ravine somewhere.

If the house is on the market,

I wonder if they ever found the bodies.

You've always had a morbid curiosity.

Always.

All right.

A lot of people believe

jealousy was the motive

for Hawley Crippen to kill his wife

and bury her in the cellar.

And Cora was carrying on with one of their lodgers.

But Dr. Crippen was anything but faithful.

He was, in fact,

in love with a typist named Ethel Le Neve.

The Julius House? Really?

John, you were so right about the Crippen case.

I hear that tourists in London

still go looking for that house.

Wouldn't you, if you found yourself in London?

Oh, Roe doesn't have to cross an ocean

to look for a famous murder site.

She might be moving into one.

Huh?

She's trying to buy the Julius House.

Remember the family

that disappeared four years ago,

just outside of town?

And-And they weren't murdered.

Well, no one really knows, do they?

I remember the story.

Ex-Army officer,

moved down here from Spokane, right?

Yeah! The daughter, uh...

What's her name? Uh, Charity.

She went to my high school.

A lot of people think foul play was involved.

Well, the police did close the case, though.

Still. Kinda cool to be setting up digs

in a house with an unsolved mystery, Roe.

Oh, I don't care about any of that.

Aurora Teagarden doesn't care about a mystery?

Do you have the flu?

I'm just excited about the idea

of having my own house!

You know, I want to paint walls,

and build bookshelves and--

Hi, Mother.

I suppose I should say congratulations.

I got the house?

Mrs. Totino accepted your offer on the house.

That's good work

on the schoolboard election, Sally.

Oh, thanks, Macon!

Ah, the Julius family.

Why are you looking them up?

Oh, my friend, Roe, just bought the Julius House.

I didn't know it was for sale.