A Most Curious Murder (11 page)

“I’d say small caliber. Pretty close range.” Tony straightened and stepped back from the dead man.

Jenny drew in a breath. “Not Aaron, too.”

“We’re in the ninth circle of hell,” Zoe whispered. “Cain and Abel.”

She stepped as far away as she could, avoiding the piles of dog poop littering the floor. Something crushed under her foot. She reached down, pulled duct tape from her heel, and threw it on the floor.

“Ask me, he’s been like this a couple of days. Maybe since Adam died. Blood’s hard. Rigor’s gone.” Tony turned to point at the floor behind them, instinctively lowering his voice. “Your dog’s been in here a while, Zoe.”

She nodded and moaned as she gripped Fida harder. “No water pan. Poor Fida. No food.” She set Fida down and hurried to a sink on the back wall, found a pot, and filled it as Fida leaped around her and then noisily lapped the water.

“Who left her here?” Zoe asked, hovering over her dog, keeping her eyes away from the dead man in the chair. “Think
it could’ve been Adam? Maybe he brought her out before sneaking into my garden.”

“Could’ve been his insurance that you weren’t trying to fool him with that note,” Tony said.

“Then somebody killed him,” Jenny said. “And it wasn’t Aaron. He had to have been dead already. Fida disappeared the same night Aaron was killed.”

“Poor Fida. She must have been here when Aaron was killed. Oh, poor baby,” Zoe half-moaned and bent to pick up the little dog who sat at her feet.

“Look at the man.” She made a gesture toward the dead man almost lost in the big chair. “He was killed right there. I mean, no blood anywhere else. I don’t see any smears on the floor, as if he’d been dragged. He mustn’t have been alarmed when the killer arrived with my dog. That means he let the man in. Maybe he was even waiting for him.”

“You think Aaron was in on the murder? That he’d arranged to have Adam killed?” Jenny asked.

“Could be.” Tony gagged when he took too deep a breath. “But whoever that was, the man turned on him. Means he was shot that same morning. After Adam was killed.”

Zoe moaned. “Follow my dog. Follow my dog. The killer grabbed her before she could bark. Probably stuck her in his car and then killed Adam. Brought her back here with him to kill Aaron. Maybe he even knew about my problems with Adam. Figured bringing Fida here would make me more of a suspect.

“Oh, Lord!” she moaned again. “I’m trapped in the middle of another murder. And a small-caliber gun! As if the murder was tailored perfectly for me.”

Tony leaned down and put an arm around her back. “Let’s get out of here. I’m about to heave. And I’ve got to call Ed Warner.”

He pushed both women toward the door.

Outside they took deep breaths.

“This is way over my head.” Zoe was in tears.

“Mine, too.” Tony pulled his cell from his pocket. “Hope I get a signal this far out.”

His phone showed zero bars. He shook his head at Jenny. “Let’s go. No signal.”

Zoe shook her head at him. “We should stay here. Somebody could come. Nobody knows the body’s been found yet. I don’t feel right, leaving the poor man alone.”

“I’ll be fast. Back at that last hill, I’ll bet. Just stay out of the house. You don’t want your fingerprints all over any more than they are already.”

They promised and watched Jenny’s car disappear back up the narrow road.

The clearing around them was emptier and more forsaken than it had been before. There was no wind, so nothing moved, and there was no sign of other humans. Insects buzzed and hissed from tall weed to tall weed. A few birds sang dispiritedly. The sun, moving behind high clouds, grew mottled and then weak, as if the sky was wrapped in gauze.

Jenny felt a shiver move along her arms. Zoe held her forlorn dog close to her chest.

“What the heck’s going on?” Jenny finally asked.

Zoe wrinkled her nose. “Let’s go back in. Maybe there’s something we missed. Something the killer left.”

“You heard Tony. He’s a cop—or was a cop. Last thing we need is more trouble.”

“But somebody’s doing this, and it looks like they’re aiming straight at me.” Zoe shook her head and took a step toward the house. “Think about it. Somebody wanted both brothers dead.”

“Who else is left but Abigail?”

Zoe nodded. She walked faster toward the house. “Money, money, money. That’s the word to follow here.”

“But Abigail’s got it all.”

Zoe stopped at the door to steel herself before stepping inside. “Maybe the boys found a way to get it away from her.” Her voice was a whisper.

“So maybe they had something they could hold over her head,” Jenny whispered back.

“Maybe a later will she’d hidden?” Zoe wondered. She walked slowly around the room. “Maybe Aaron had something Abigail wanted. That’s why she came out here, to find it. She’d been to Adam’s house already. Left that note, then killed him when she found nothing there.”

Jenny was behind Zoe, pushing a little. “If we’re going to look around, let’s do it. Tony’ll be right back.”

The heat inside the little house was even more intense and the stink was worse. Fida scrambled at Zoe’s chest, wanting no part of her recent prison. Jenny covered her mouth and nose to shield herself from the smell.

They kept their eyes away from the silent man sitting in his chair and said little to each other. The house was so small, so plain, there were few places to look for anything important—nothing but bare walls, right down to wall studs. An old woodstove in one corner stood on a pedestal of reclaimed bricks. The black pipe behind the stove snaked up the wall and then through a hole to the outside.

There was a sink filled with dirty dishes, a crusty range for cooking, and an ancient refrigerator standing on three legs against the back wall.

Jenny motioned that she would search the kitchen. Zoe went into the tiny bedroom off the kitchen, first pulling her shirt down over her hands so none of her fingerprints would be found.

Cupboards above the sink held a couple of plates, one cup, and a few cans of stew. Nothing else, Jenny found, but a lot of dust and scattered debris that looked suspiciously like an old mouse nest.

“How did he live like this?” Jenny called out as she opened a drawer filled with a jumble of silverware, cooking utensils, a box of long matches, and a stack of papers that appeared to be paid bills. When she opened another cupboard, she found blackened pots and pans stuck inside. The refrigerator was beyond examining—the few dishes of food were covered with layers of mold. A drawer, built into the handmade kitchen table, held nothing but four dollar bills, a calendar from 1999, a small ball of rubber bands, and a couple of keys.

Zoe came from the bedroom with papers in her bare hands. “Nothing in any of the drawers or in the bathroom, but I found these stuck under his mattress.” She waved the papers at Jenny.

“What are they?”

“Don’t know.”

“We can’t just take them.”

Zoe nodded. “I’ll read them fast.” She glanced down at one just as they heard a car pull into the clearing.

“Put ’em back where you got ’em,” Jenny hissed.

“Will not,” Zoe hissed back.

“Zoe, Tony told us not to come back in here! You can go to jail for tampering with evidence.”

Tony called their names a couple of times as he headed toward the house.

“Put ’em back under the mattress,” Jenny ordered.

“I’m already in the soup. My fingerprints are all over them.” Zoe shook her head and searched for a place to stick the papers. No pockets. With only a few seconds before Tony got to the
house, she lifted her dress and stuck the papers down into her pants. She dropped the dress and patted it flat.

Jenny winced. Too late.

“Hey, I told you guys to stay out of here.” Tony glared when he came through the door. “Didn’t touch anything, I hope.”

Zoe shook her head, blue, innocent eyes open wide. Jenny bit at her bottom lip but shook her head, too. They were in this mess together, she figured, and smiled sweetly at Tony.

***

Chief Warner pulled into the clearing, his siren smashing birdsong to bits. Two deputies drove in behind the chief. The deputies said nothing to the waiting group, walking straight to the house and disappearing inside.

Chief Warner, hatless, sunglasses pushed up onto his closely cropped head, sauntered over to where the trio stood.

He nodded at Zoe and Jenny, barely acknowledging Tony. “Hear you found another dead man,” he said to Jenny.

She said nothing.

He looked hard at Zoe for a while.

“See you found your dog, Ms. Zola.” The chief looked at Zoe’s feet, where Fida leaned against her. His eyes narrowed to nothing. “You find her here? That what brought you out?”

“No. I had no idea Fida was here. It was just that Aaron Cane wasn’t at his brother’s funeral—”

“What business did you have with him?”

Zoe shook her head. “None. I thought I should talk to him. You’ve been coming after me pretty hard.”

“You and that dog of yours sure get into a lot of mischief, far as I can tell. Gives me reason to take a long look at you, don’t you think? There’s nothing personal here, you understand.”

“I was with her, Chief,” Tony said, stepping forward. “Coming out here was my idea.”

The chief frowned at all of them.

“Hope we’re not going to find your fingerprints all over the place,” the chief said to Zoe.

She looked sick. “On the window. That’s how we got in. Maybe around inside. I had to get water for Fida.”

He sniffed and looked away. “Wait here,” he finally said. “I’ll be back out to talk to both of you.”

He indicated that Tony should come with him and walked back toward the house.

Zoe frowned. “‘Curiouser and curiouser,’” she mumbled.

“‘Worser and worser,’” Jenny mumbled behind her. “You’re in deep crap, Zoe. Now you’ve got those papers in your drawers.”

Zoe closed one eye and squinted up at Jenny. She sighed. “Probably all true about the deep crap.”

“Honestly!” Jenny, exasperated, turned away to wait for the police chief to come out and maybe arrest both of them for trespassing, or worse.

An hour later, a forensics van drove into the clearing. White-suited technicians hurried into the house. An ambulance sailed into the clearing followed by a private car with a pudgy man, a small black case in his hands. The dead man was now in the arms of police procedure.

Once Adam’s body was brought out to the ambulance, Ed Warner strolled back to the women.

“As I said, funny about your dog.” Ed looked off toward where the trees were thickest, then kicked at the ground with one heavy shoe. Sweat stood out on his forehead. It was the hottest part of the day, when the air was still and the sun flat. The chief heaved a large sigh. “Ralenti swears it was a big surprise to
all of you, finding the dog here. You ask me, whoever left your dog had a lot to do with the deaths of both men.”

He turned to stare directly at Zoe, whose face burned.

“Got any ideas?”

Zoe shook her head.

He nodded and cleared his throat. “Said, too, he told you not to touch anything in there while he was gone. You listen?”

She nodded, a little too fast.

“So you didn’t take anything?”

She stood still, busily looking innocent.

“Won’t find your fingerprints all over everything, will I?”

“Told you I was in that house soon as I heard Fida barking. Tony and Jenny helped me get through a window.”

Ed shook his head, as if in deep sorrow. “Sure is odd. You and your dog involved in all of this. Right from the beginning when Mrs. Weston’s library was broken up—you and your dog, there first thing.”

Zoe widened her eyes in Jenny’s direction.

The chief went on. “Now, one way to look at it, you been out here, to this place, before.”

Both Zoe and Jenny protested, but Ed continued.

“Brought the dog with you. Killed Aaron Cane and left. Maybe you made a mistake and the dog got locked inside. Couldn’t get her out. Brought this one—” He indicated Jenny. “—out to help you.”

Ed put up a hand when Jenny sputtered. “Not that I’m sayin’ you’re in it with her, Jenny. Just that she could’ve tricked you.”

“And Tony, too?” Jenny showed her disgust.

“Well . . .” Ed thought a while. “I guess you’re right there. Unlikely. But what’s going on with the brothers, then? Both dead. Both murdered.” He nodded over his shoulder toward the house. “Aaron sure wasn’t a suicide. No gun anywhere. I
might’ve said Adam did it. He would have been my first suspect, but Adam was killed first. Aaron second, far as I can tell. The medical examiner thinks the same thing.”

“Ever wonder if Abigail Cane was involved somehow?” Tony came up behind them. “She controls the money in that family. What if the boys were coming after her? You know, getting a lawyer or something like that? I don’t know why they didn’t do it before. I’ll bet anything they could’ve got something from the estate.”

Zoe cocked her head to one side, folding both hands across her stomach as if keeping fear locked in there. She took a step closer to the chief and said, in a low voice, “Abigail’s sure a better suspect than I am. First of all, I had no reason to want Aaron dead. Saw him a couple of times in town when Dora pointed him out—that’s it. Second of all, I don’t, nor ever did, own a gun. No cannons. No mortars. No machine guns. And come to think of it, no dead flamingos.”

All Jenny could do was grit her teeth and hope Zoe would stop.

Ed’s face tightened, but he went on. “Don’t forget the note,” he warned.

“Ah, the note—inside Adam’s house, even though I’ve never been in there. But I got in somehow and left him a note telling him to come over to my shed at dawn because I had an axe that would clear him of destroying Dora’s library. Fida was gone by the time he came to the shed, so I made him tell me where she was, hit him in the head, and waited two days to get over here to get her. Seem logical to you?” Zoe puffed up, spoiling for a fight.

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t want your dog left alone like that. No food. A corpse the only thing with her.”

“Or maybe I’d do just that kind of thing.” Zoe’s eyes were slits. “Maybe I’m just that kind of person.”