Fatal Trust (22 page)

“I’ll stay away from water when it’s misty,” Lexie said.

“Be careful everywhere. The crystal isn’t one hundred
percent accurate. It showed Maxwell dying in bed, which was wrong, but he’s
still dead.” The wrinkles in Muriel’s forehead deepened. “Maybe it was also
wrong last night, and the next victim was Trey. You may be fine. Although Trey
was poisoned, not shot. And nowhere near water.”

“Maybe the water you saw was a metaphor for poison,” Lexie
suggested. “Since both are liquids.”

“Could be,” Muriel said. “Although Trey certainly wasn’t
wearing a skirt.” She nodded, her forehead smoothing slightly. “I’ll have to
consult the crystal again, but not until later. I have Bible Study at First
Baptist. After that I thought I’d stop by St. Rose of Lima and say a prayer for
Ben and a few rosaries for my brother. Have a nice day.”

Item one on Lexie’s To Do list was returning Cecilia’s
bracelet. Starting with an easily achievable task was always good
psychologically. “I think this is yours,” Lexie said, crossing the living room
to the chair where Cecilia was reading. “The police found it in Ben’s room and
assumed it was mine.”

“I’ve been looking for that,” Cecilia said, taking the
bracelet from Lexie. “Thanks. I didn’t even think about checking Ben’s room. I
was only in there for a couple of minutes to use his laptop. I wanted to see
whether my divorce is final.”

“Is it?”

She nodded. “I’m officially a free woman. Once again.”

“Have you talked to Peter about your previous marriages?”

Cecilia worried her lower lip, twisting the bracelet in her
fingers. “I’ve tried to make myself, but I can’t bring it up. I’m afraid he’ll
never want to see me again.”

“I bet he’ll understand.”

“I’m not so sure,” Cecilia said. “I heard you saw Ben.
Olivia was furious that you got in before she did. How’s he doing?”

“He’s anxious to get out of jail,” Lexie said. “Which is why
I’m here. Did you notice anyone around when Trey told you about Ben’s argument
with Max? Someone who could have overheard and decided to poison Trey to frame
Ben?”

Cecilia thought for a moment, and then shook her head. “I didn’t
see anyone, but we were at the bottom of the stairs, so anyone could have
overheard us. Sherry hour didn’t start for another fifteen minutes, which is
plenty of time to find turpentine. That’s what Trey was poisoned with, if you
didn’t hear.”

“I heard,” Lexie said. “Did your grandfather have turpentine
in the house?”

Cecilia nodded. “He kept a huge can of it along with a bunch
of old paint in the basement. On some shelves right next to the shelves where
he kept the gun.”

Where—as with the gun—anyone could have found it. “Do you
know where Igor is?”

“I saw him in the kitchen,” she said. “He was polishing
silver, which should take him a while. I can’t believe how much silver
Grandfather owned.”

Lexie walked into the kitchen. Igor was standing next to the
sink, an enormous chest of silver to the left of him. “I was just looking for
you, Igor.”

“Why?” He rinsed a fork, and then set it on a rack on his
right.

“The trustee currently owns Nevermore and will be running it
for a while. I need to talk to all current employees.”

“Am I being fired?” Igor asked.

“Actually, just questioned,” Lexie said. “Why don’t you take
a break and sit down.”

She waited until Igor was seated to continue. “I know your
real name is Jason Stephenson,” she said. “I also know you never went to USC,
so you obviously weren’t a friend of Seth’s. What are you really doing here?”

Igor’s face never wavered from his normal impassive expression.
“I’m working as a butler. Why else would I be polishing silver?”

“I mean why did you want this job? Why did you come here in
the first place? Working as a butler in the middle of nowhere isn’t the kind of
job most people would lie to get without a good reason.”

He didn’t respond, his face still revealing nothing.

“Look, you could easily have poisoned Max and even Trey. You
also could have tried to kill Max by shooting out the window of Nevermore. The
issue is whether you were doing it for some reason of your own or because you
were working for Seth.”

That finally got a reaction from him. His jaw dropped, and
his eyes narrowed. “You’re crazy. I have nothing to do with any attempts on
Max’s life. Or Trey’s.”

“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll have to tell the
police you lied to get your job here,” Lexie said. “Maybe Seth doesn’t know
anything about it, doesn’t know you used his name to get the job. You have to
agree that lying to get your job makes you look suspicious. Especially if you
have a criminal record. Do you?”

“I don’t want any trouble with the police,” Igor said,
ignoring the criminal record question. “I’ll admit I’m working for Seth, but I
had nothing to do with Max’s death. Seth is writing a biography of Max.”

“I know.”

Igor blinked a couple of times, although Lexie didn’t know
whether it was out of surprise or more contact lens issues. “He apparently
decided to do it because Max pissed him off by refusing to help him
professionally,” Igor said. “If Seth wants to write a book to get back at him,
that’s his business. It’s not illegal.”

Lexie nodded.

“Seth apparently talked to his mother and a few other
people, claiming he was interested in family history. And he knew a lot on his
own, and his mother apparently kept a scrapbook about Max. But he also wanted
photos of Nevermore, of things Max had used in his books, and family photos.
Things Seth couldn’t get without looking suspicious in his short visits here.
And he wanted someone to snoop around and listen.”

“So he hired you to do it?”

“First he hired the guy who played Igor before me,” Igor
said. “Alton’s an actor and a good friend of Joanna’s. They staged this
elaborate thing with fake references, using actor friends who Max actually
spoke to. That way Max had no idea Alton was connected to Seth. But then Alton
started missing California and all his acting opportunities there, so he got a
job at Disneyland. He could only give two weeks’ notice, and he knew he was
putting Seth in a bind, so he convinced me to take his place. I’ve been trying
to break into acting, too, but I’ve spent most of my time waiting tables, among
other things. I decided playing a butler might be about as close to acting as
I’m going to get, so I agreed. We didn’t have time to work out the references
since Max was about to contact an agency. So Seth told his grandfather I was an
old friend from college.”

“What did you do at Nevermore?”

“Besides being a butler?” Igor asked. “Take photos of the
stuff in the basement. Snoop around. I’m the one who told Seth about the
shooting through the window. He told me he sold the story to the tabloids and
to let him know if anything like that happened again. A few weeks later I also
saw a copy of that trust amendment that requires everyone to spend two weeks
here. I told Seth about it, but I don’t know what he did with the information.
I reported on some conversations I overheard between Max and his grandkids and
sister when they asked for money. None of that was illegal.”

“Did you know that Seth wasn’t going to publish the
biography until after his grandfather died?”

“He said he wouldn’t, out of respect for his grandfather,”
Igor said.

“So now that Seth’s going to publish it, you stand to make a
lot of money.”

“No, I stand to make less,” Igor said. “I was being paid by
the hour. I don’t get any share of profits from the biography, if that’s what
you’re getting at. That was the same arrangement Alton had with Seth. And now
that Max is dead, I’m out of a job.”

“Where did Seth get the money to pay you?”

“I don’t know. All I cared about was that he paid me on
time, and he did.”

“As part of your snooping, did you look through Max’s
bedroom?” Lexie asked.

“No. I’ve never been in there. Max hasn’t left Nevermore
since I started working here, so I didn’t dare try to break in. But I know Seth
searched the room after everyone thought Max died the first time. He made me
keep watch once while he searched it, pretend like I was cleaning the second-floor
hallway so I could stop anyone from going up to the third floor.”

“Did he find anything in Max’s room?”

“Not that he told me,” Igor said.

“Did he go there any other time?”

“I don’t know,” Igor said.

“Where did he get a key to the room?”

“I have no idea. Maybe a skeleton key?”

“Did you know that Max was alive?”

“God, no. I thought Seth was kidding when he told me that’s
why all the police were there.”

“Did Seth know Max was alive?”

“If he did, he didn’t tell me.”

“Do you think Seth killed Max?”

“I have no idea,” Igor said. “It’s hard for me to imagine
anyone killing their grandfather. But neither of mine is leaving me a fortune,
so maybe that makes you feel different. And I don’t know whether Seth’s the
kind of person who could kill, because I honestly don’t know him very well.”

“Since you’ve been snooping around here, have you seen
anything suspicious since the family arrived here? Or someone here who
shouldn’t have been here the night Max died or the night Trey was poisoned?”

“Nothing when Trey was poisoned, but I did see something
unusual the night Max died. Although it’s probably nothing.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I happened to be looking out my bedroom window at just
before one and saw her on the path that leads to the lake.”

Bingo.
“Ben’s ex-wife, right?”

“Not her,” Igor said. “Cecilia.”

“
Cecilia
was on the path that night?”
Maybe Lexie hadn’t heard him right.

Igor nodded. “I’d gotten up to take a leak at ten to one and
spotted her. I checked the clock because I thought it was kind of late for her
to be out. But I never saw her come back.”

“Did you mention this to the cops?”

“They only asked whether I saw Ben, and I didn’t. I didn’t
volunteer anything else. I’ve learned the hard way that’s the best thing to do
when you’re dealing with cops.” His tone held touches of belligerence and
bitterness that made her suspect she’d been right about him having a record. “I
also didn’t want them looking too closely at me since I was here under false
pretenses.”

“You didn’t think it was unusual for Cecilia to be out that
time of night?”

He shrugged. “I assumed she wasn’t going to be out there
alone. I figured she’d sneaked out to meet some guy at the boathouse, which is
her own business. She’s been married three times, after all.”

Lexie was having trouble believing this. “You didn’t mention
seeing her even though Max was murdered at one o’clock by the lake?”

Igor’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know that’s when he was
killed. When the coroner got here, it was after ten. He just said Max had been
dead a few hours, so I figured the murder happened a lot later than one.”

Lexie thought for a moment. The police had withheld the text
of the note, saying simply that Ben and Max had planned to meet, which is all
the press had reported. She only knew it specified a one o’clock meeting time
because Ben had told her. “Was Cecilia carrying anything?”

“A flashlight,” Igor said. “I didn’t see a gun, if that’s
what you mean. Although I suppose it’s possible she had it in her other hand.
Do you think I should tell the cops about this after all?”

“Let me check it out first,” Lexie said. “I don’t want to
cause her any problems if she had an innocent reason for being out.”

“I’m sure she did,” Igor said. “She seems like too nice a
lady to kill anyone.”

It was hard for Lexie to imagine, too. But it was also hard
to come up with an innocent reason for Cecilia to have been heading to where
Max had arranged to meet Ben, at the exact time of their meeting.

The policeman on duty at the jail that evening had
apparently gotten the word to cooperate. He escorted Lexie to the back room,
brought Ben in, and then left them alone, all without her even breathing the
word “lawsuit.”

The room seemed more claustrophobic every time Lexie came
into it, as if the cops were moving the walls in a few inches every day. She
couldn’t even imagine how it seemed to Ben. She didn’t bother asking how he was
doing—his features were strained, and his pallor wasn’t solely attributable to
the room’s dim fluorescent lighting. “You’re not going to be in here much
longer,” she said with more confidence than she felt. She had a theory, but she
didn’t have proof.

Her tone was apparently convincing because Ben leaned over
the table, color spiking his cheeks. “You found something?”

Lexie looked around the room. She couldn’t see a camera, but
she didn’t want the cops messing this up. “Do they tape everything we say in
here?”

“They’re not that high-tech,” Ben said. “What did you find
out?”

“You’re not going to like it. Actually, you’re going to hate
it.”

“If it gets me out of here for good, I’ll love it. What?”

“I learned that Olivia lied about being in New York the
night Max was killed. She was really in Lakeview and might have visited
Nevermore. That means she could have known Max was alive and even killed him. I
also learned that Seth has been writing a biography of Max that he submitted to
publishers right after he thought your grandfather had been killed. He’s been
snooping around for more material and was in Max’s room at least once, so he
could have discovered Max was alive. And Seth would have realized that if Max
learned about the biography, there was a very good chance he’d be
disinherited.”

“I’m sorry that my ex or Seth killed Grandfather, but it’s a
lot better than me being convicted of it,” Ben said. “Why would I hate it?”

“Because I don’t think either of them killed Max,” Lexie
said. “I think the person who killed Max and framed you is Cecilia.”

His jaw dropped, and he stared at her openmouthed for a
moment. “You’re crazy.”

“Igor saw Cecilia on the path heading toward the lake just
before one the night your grandfather was killed,” Lexie said. “He didn’t see
her come back. He didn’t mention it to the police because the cops never
publicized that Max was murdered at one. He figured she was meeting a
boyfriend, and it was none of his business.”

“Did you ask Cecilia about it?” Ben asked.

“Not yet. But why else would she have gone there in the
middle of the night? And that isn’t all I’ve got.” Lexie looked down at the
list she’d made after talking to Igor. “The cops found Cecilia’s bracelet in
your room, although they assumed it was mine. I remember she had it at
breakfast the morning before Max was killed, which means she was in your room
sometime between then and when the cops searched your room the next morning.
Maybe she saw Max’s note, freaked out when she realized he was alive, and went
to meet him. Or maybe the note wasn’t written to you at all. You said the note
didn’t have anyone’s name on it, so maybe Max wrote it to Cecilia after
learning she’d made the previous attempts on his life. She killed Max, and then
left the gun in your truck and the note in your room. And in the process lost
her bracelet.”

“I’m sure she had a logical reason for being in my room.”

“She said she used your laptop to check whether her divorce
was final. But according to the court records, her divorce was final ten days
before she came to Nevermore.”

“Why the hell would Cecilia kill Grandfather?”

“For the money,” Lexie said. “Trey said she showed up a
couple of days before Easter and seemed agitated. She had a long conversation
with Max in his office, and afterward she was even more agitated. Apparently
Max was especially upset about her current divorce. Maybe he didn’t just turn
down her request for money but also told her he was fed up enough to disinherit
her.”

“Even if she murdered Grandfather, why kill Trey?” Ben was
barking questions like an attorney on cross-examination.

Lexie forced herself to answer calmly, to not be offended by
his pummeling. This was hard for her to accept, and she’d only known Cecilia a
week. “Maybe she was afraid Trey had overheard your grandfather threaten to
disinherit her. Or maybe when Trey told her about your argument with Max, she
realized poisoning him would make it appear even more likely that you killed
Max. She might not have given Trey a fatal dose.”

At that Ben shook his head, then looked away, staring at the
photo of the current U.S. president that was the windowless room’s only
decoration. “I can’t believe Cecilia would do that to me.” His defeated tone
showed he was starting to take Lexie’s theory seriously.

“I’ve got more,” Lexie said. “Several days ago Cecilia said
she couldn’t imagine any family member shooting out Max’s window or giving him
arsenic. I didn’t focus on it then because I didn’t consider Cecilia a suspect.
But weren’t you keeping the specific poison secret? Unless the cops released
that—”

“I don’t think the cops cared enough to ask. The only people
who know it was arsenic are you, me, and Dr. Watson.”

“And Max’s murderer,” Lexie said, although the point gave
her no satisfaction. “Also, when Cecilia saw your grandfather’s body, she was
the only one crying. She claimed the reality of seeing his body upset her, but
maybe she wanted everyone to think she was too grief-stricken to possibly be a
suspect.”

“You’re way off base,” Ben said. “Cecilia’s more like a
sister to me than a cousin. She would never kill Grandfather, but if she did,
she certainly wouldn’t frame me for it.”

“Which is why she framed you, because she knew then no one
would suspect her.” Lexie rested her palms on the table. “Look, I hate this,
too. I considered Cecilia a friend, although maybe she stayed close to me even
after she found out I was Max’s lawyer to keep up on the status of the
investigation.”

Ben was silent for several minutes as he looked everywhere
but at Lexie. Trying to figure out a way to refute what she’d said, no doubt.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them. “This really sucks.”

“I agree.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I obviously need to talk to Cecilia, but I want to search
her room first and see if I can find more evidence. The more I have, the more
likely I’ll get the truth out of her.”

“Is it legal for you to search her room without her
permission?” Ben asked.

“The trustee currently controls Nevermore, so I’ve got
authority to look wherever I want.” That could be true, and Lexie wasn’t about
to check Minnesota law and risk discovering she was wrong. Barringtons didn’t
knowingly disobey the law. Of course, Barringtons didn’t snoop, either, but
this was important. “I’ll do it tomorrow morning. I’ve still got your key to
Nevermore, so I can park in back and sneak in again. I assume the master key in
the pantry works on her room.”

Ben nodded. “I can ask Cecilia to bring me some things
tomorrow morning so you’ll be sure she’s gone.”

“Have her come by at ten. That’s late enough that everyone
but Dylan should be up and hopefully have left Nevermore. Or at least left the
second floor.”

“I’ll give you a call after she leaves me so you’ll know to
get out of her room,” Ben said. “You’re going to talk to her afterward?”

“As soon as she gets back to Nevermore.”

“Make sure someone else is around,” Ben said. “I can’t
believe she’s guilty, but you can’t be too careful.”

Lexie met his eyes. Their vivid blueness seemed to have
faded since he’d been jailed. “I promise I’ll be careful.”

He took her hand, squeezed it. “When I swore off smart women
I was an idiot. Can you imagine if I had to depend on Amber to get me out of
here?”