A Clean Kill (36 page)

"Okay, well, keep calling. We'll be there soon."

April hung up and returned to Jo Ellen. She was a big woman, arrogant and seemingly without much feeling for anyone. She didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. Furthermore, she seemed to think that because her family had been tops in the domestic-employment game for so long, she was entitled to use the trust people had in her name to exploit them.

April connected the dots and suspected that the house keys Jo Ellen admitted to having were given to her by the girls she'd placed in those homes. Further, she guessed that Remy and Lynn revealed intimate details about their bosses' lives and knew when they were not at home. That made the girls accomplices to, or even guilty of, thefts that occurred and would explain why they were fearful to talk openly about what they knew. The three of them were guilty of something. But murder? Why would Jo Ellen, or any of her staff, kill her clients? Even if she was disturbed, it made no sense. Why kill the source of the income she desperately needed, and so close to her own home? More importantly, it didn't fit her profile. She was a manipulator and possibly a thief, but that didn't make her a killer. Then April had a new thought. There might be someone else in Jo Ellen's close circle they didn't know about. She started sweating.

Jo Ellen had a tight little smile on her face as if all of this were merely good material for her book.

"Miss Anderson, would you remove your hat?" April asked her quietly.

"Oh, no, I can't," she cried.

"Why not?"

Jo Ellen pointed behind her at the camera.

"Do your roots show?" April leaned forward.

"My roots?" She looked startled.

"You have red hair, right, colored from gray?"

Jo Ellen winced and her eyes squeezed shut in a' private agony. "You caught me," she said.

"Why did you kill them?" April was elated. She'd cleared the case.

Jo Ellen opened her eyes. "Kill them? I didn't kill them."

"I think you did. A piece of your raincoat was found at Maddy Wilson's house, and your hair at Alison Perkins's house. It puts you on the scene."

"No," she said wildly. "It's not possible."

"I can help you with this," April offered.

"No, I can explain it."

"Good, explain." April's pen started moving on the page.

Then Jo Ellen shook her head. "I don't believe you. You're making that up."

"Miss Anderson. Take your hat off."

"What if I say no?"

"You can't say no."

Jo Ellen let out a little sob, then reached up and took off the fedora. April sucked in her breath. Underneath the hat, her head was bald as an egg. "I have cancer," she whispered. She pointed to the office and the camera. "I didn't want them to know."

Oh, jeez:
April was shocked for a second. But it didn't stop her. "You had short red hair before it fell out?"

"Yes." Jo Ellen looked down at her hands. "It's a terrible thing to lose your hair." "And you wore hats when it was coming out? Just like now."

She nodded.

April swallowed. "Who else wears your hats?"

Jo Ellen's face was gray. "It happened a long time ago. More than a decade ago. An accident, explainable. It couldn't happen again. That's it." She closed her mouth with a snap.

"Who are you talking about?"

"My daughter, Leah, my
adopted
daughter. She wears my hats, but would not hurt anyone again. She promised me. A promise is a promise. It couldn't be her."

April felt sick. "Is she at your house?"

"Of course. She lives there."

Cops don't panic when events start spinning out of control. They just move forward. Ten thousand questions shot into April's head, but she didn't take the time to ask them. She collected Woody from the bull pen and briefed him in a sentence. They dm for the stairs, both reaching for their phones.

Fifty

A
s soon as she stepped inside the house, Eloise detected a peculiar musty odor The place had an old-house smell and something more complicated—a combination of dead-animal-in-the-walls and rotting-vegetation-in-the-greenhouse smell. It was creepy. The wallpaper was dark with age, and the Oriental runner badly worn, but there was no dust anywhere. She scanned the scene. Near the door an umbrella stand was crammed full of canes with ornate handles. Along one wall a coat and hat rack sported fashions from another era. From above came the dim glow of two Art Deco, gold-tinged glass tulips that barely illuminated the rows of sepia photos adorning the wall of the narrow staircase leading upstairs.

"That's the family," Leah said, pointing to photos of men in top hats and tails, and ladies wearing summer dresses and big hats. "They're famous."

"It smells like they died in here," Eloise remarked.

"That's the smell of old wood. I clean and clean, but I can't do anything about it." The girl stared at her as if she'd made an accusation.

Imagining Gothic horrors, Eloise quickly stepped aside so the girl could pass in front of her. "Please lead the way," she said gently. The house was unsettling, and the intense expression on the girl's face warned her that she had to go easy.

"You feel it, too, don't you? It's haunted," Leah said. "Woo, woo." She wiggled her fingers.

"No kidding," Eloise murmured uneasily.

"Just kidding. Gotcha, didn't I?"

Eloise laughed. The girl was a little weird, but not very big. She wasn't afraid of her. "What's the layout of the house?" she said.

"The living room, dining room, and powder room are on this floor. The kitchen and pantry are downstairs. Two bedrooms share a bathroom upstairs, and the maids' rooms are on the fourth floor. I live up there. The ghosts are in the basement. Do you want to see them?" she teased.

"Maybe later. Is there anyone else in the house?"

"You already asked me that. We're all alone."

"How about animals? It smells like you have animals."

"We had a cat for a while, but it's gone now." Leah opened big double doors to the living room and went in.

Eloise slowly followed her into a room crowded with furniture. Heavy sideboards of mahogany lined the walls. Small marble-topped tables and ornate chairs made an obstacle course of the room. It was hard to imagine people gathering and relaxing in such a place. She threaded her way through the maze to the window facing Fiftieth and looked out. From there she had a clear view of the Perkins house across the street. Anybody arriving or leaving there could be seen, and it would be easy to determine when AHson would be alone. She began to feel some trepidation and was glad Barry was on the way.

Ahead of her, Leah pulled open the heavy sliding doors that separated the living room from the dining room, and Eloise was distracted from getting her phone out to call her boss with her location. In the dining room, the furniture was heavily carved, as dark as stain could make it, and too big for the space. Another bay window opened on a back garden that was a tangle of overgrown bushes, weeds, and unpruned trees. Everywhere the surfaces were loaded with stuff—commemoration cups, souvenirs from trips abroad. Beer steins, Dresden, and porcelain—people, animals, parrots. Silver boxes, tortoiseshell boxes, enamel pillboxes. Plates. Objects were stacked everywhere and completely dust free.

"Where did all this stuff come from?"

"Gifts from clients. Things they collected."

Eloise pointed at the sparkly bracelets on her wrist. "What about those?"

"Jo Ellen's favorites." She held them up for display.

Eloise thought about Alison's missing bracelet and started chewing her lipstick off. "Are they real?" she asked.

"Of course they're real. Don't worry, she lets me wear them."

"Where did she get them?"

Leah shrugged, and Eloise thought of Alison's husband.

"How well did you know Mrs. Perkins?" she asked suddenly.

"The lady across the street?" Leah fingered the bracelet.

"You know who 1 mean."

"I knew her."

"What about Lynn?" Eloise's eyes kept moving around, looking at the boxes and cups. The place was like an antiques warehouse.

"She's my best friend," she said warmly.

Eloise focused on her. "Good, then you can help me with what happened yesterday. Did you see Lynn in the morning?"

Leah put her lips together and shook her head.

"Okay," Eloise turned away and ran her finger over a surface, looked at it, then nodded. "Very good. What is your routine here?" she said casually.

Leah stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"Do you make breakfast for Miss Anderson?"

"No, not really." She stared out of disconcerting blue eyes, one hip cocked against the table.

"What happens then?" Leah shrugged. "She leaves for work."

"What time would that be?"

"Nine, ten, eleven. Depends on her treatment."

"What treatment?" Eloise lifted an eyebrow.

Leah frowned and moved a few paces away. "I'm not supposed to tell."

"Oh, come on. You can tell me," Eloise said.

Leah shook her head again. "No way. Why all the questions?"

Just curious. Did Miss Anderson have a treatment yesterday?" Eloise picked up a porcelain parrot, all green, studied it for a second, then put it back.

"No, she's finished for now." Leah copied what Eloise had done a moment before. She ran a finger across the highly polished table and showed it to the detective. "See, I'm a good cleaner. I'm the best. That's why Joey has me here at her house. I can do the job." She made a face. "I have to clean up for Lynn though. She's not the best."

Eloise glanced at her watch. Where was everybody? Surely, someone should be calling her by now. "You have to clean up for Lynn?" she said slowly.

"She's lazy. I'm not." The girl laughed.

"You clean across the street?" Eloise asked.

"Oh, sure, but I don't babysit. I'm not supposed to do that."

"Why not? You look like you'd be a very good babysitter."

"You have to go now." Leah went out of the dining room, then down the back stairs, leading the way to the front door.

Eloise hesitated even as her adrenaline kicked in and her training directed her to move. The girl was out of her sight, and she now had put together enough of the pieces to know she'd made a number of tactical errors. She'd heard of the girl from the interviews, but didn't know she lived here. No one had mentioned that, not Alison, not Lynn. And Leah had worked in the Perkins house. That meant she had access, maybe even her own key. They had assumed it was the old lady. Now her heart slammed away in her chest telling her to get the hell out of the house and call for backup. She reached for her phone and realized that it was off. Berating herself for a dozen stupidities, she started down the stairs.

Fifty-one

T
he rain started again as April and Woody came out of the building and dived into the car. Woody ground the key in the ignition before the door was closed, and the engine roared to life.

"Perkins house," she said, which was close enough.

"I know," he muttered. He pulled out, barely looking as a bus was cruising in. The driver hit the horn. Woody hit the siren and cut him off.

April shut her eyes to the offense and punched the number one on her phone. Mike's voice mail came on immediately. "It's me," she told it. "I've called for backup at the Anderson house. Sergeant Gelo is over there, and she isn't picking up."
Shit.

She didn't want to say she was ticked because her sergeant didn't like being left behind and had taken matters into her own hands. The big no-no could have widespread repercussions for both of them. She ended the call without pointing a finger and muttered angrily to herself as a yellow light slowed the traffic in front of them at Fifty-seventh Street. When the light went red, a hole opened up. "Go," she said, and he ran the light.

She punched two on her cell. Charlie picked up on the second ring. "Hagedorn," he said.

"Charlie. What happened with Gelo?"

"She stepped out. I've been trying to reach her. I have something on Anderson."

"What do you have?"

"She has a girl living with her."

"I know about that," April said impatiently.

"Did you know her name is Lucy Walters?"

"Is that supposed to mean something to me? Oh, Jesus." April braced as Woody dodged an ambulance.

"You okay?"

"I'm on Lexington with Woody."

"My condolences. Okay, Lucy Walters hit her homeroom teacher in the head with a chair when she was in sixth grade. The woman died of her injuries. That was thirteen years ago. She served eighteen months in juvenile, out of state, and she's been in and out of programs until she moved in with Anderson."