Final Settlement (32 page)

_____

Two hours later, Tina held Darby’s good arm and led her from the door of the Coveside Clinic to the waiting SUV. “You’re going to have to sit in the back, I’m afraid,” she said with a grimace. “Bitsy’s darn dog, Rosie, ate the front seat belt. Chewed it right up like it was a piece of licorice.”

Darby giggled, and then winced. “Ouch! Laughing jiggles my shoulder,” she said. “But boy, it is funny.”

Tina tried to frown, but then grinned. “It is kind of funny. You should have seen Bitsy’s face when I told her. She turned white as a ghost and started stammering something about insurance. I told her not to worry about it, but she’s insisting on paying for it.”

Tina helped Darby into the back of the SUV and fastened her seat belt as if she were a child. “If you’re feeling better tomorrow, I’m taking you with me up to Westerly. There’s a new spa up there with the works. We’re getting manicures, pedicures, taking a sauna, and just plain relaxing.”

“Sounds heavenly,” Darby said. Spas weren’t her thing, but the idea of decompressing in a warm place with a friend struck her as perfect.

“Good. Right now I’m taking you home and then letting Donny know what he can pick up for you at the grocery store, okay?”

“That’s awfully nice of Donny.”

“He wants to help,” Tina said. “We all do.” She didn’t tell her friend that she and Donny had just cleaned up a monumental mess at the farmhouse. She started the truck, glancing at her phone before beginning to drive. “Huh. I’ve got a missed call from Terri. Wonder what that’s all about?”

“Try her and see. I’m not exactly in any hurry.”

Tina dialed her sister, said hello, and listened. She glanced at Darby. “We’ll be there in ten minutes,” she said. She listened for a few seconds more, and then hung up.

“Terri wants to meet us at your house,” she said.

“Any idea why?”

“None whatsoever. I thought she’d taken the ferry back to Mana-tuck this morning, but I guess she stuck around.” She thought a moment. “She was definitely moody last night, but we all felt unsettled after that idiot—or should I say those idiots—tried to kill you.” She paused. “Have you talked to anyone about it? You know, like the police?”

“I was questioned this morning. They’re launching an investigation today into Detective Robichaud’s actions.”

Tina whistled softly. “Even though he killed himself?”

Darby nodded.

“Will they investigate Lorraine Delvecchio’s death?”

“Yes, and the raid that killed Chief Dupont.”

“They don’t think Detective Robichaud had anything to do with that, do they?” Tina’s face was horrified. “Why would he have wanted the Chief dead?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Chief Dupont knew something that Robichaud didn’t want getting out.”

Tina set her mouth in a grimace. “Guess there’s only one thing we do know,” she said as she pulled into Darby’s driveway. She shut off the engine and swiveled toward Darby in the back seat, her face hard. “Dave Robichaud was one dirty cop. To think he pretended to be saving you from that Japanese guy.” She shook her head and exited the SUV. A moment later she had eased Darby out of the back seat.

“Watch your footing on this ice,” she warned, as a Mercedes pulled in the driveway. “Here’s Terri. Crap! She looks like she hasn’t slept a wink.”

Darby stole a glance to see if Tina’s assessment of her sister was correct. Sure enough, dark circles hung under Terri’s eyes and her normally calm face was puckered with anxiety. “Hello, Terri,” Darby called out.

“Hey.” She walked up to them hesitantly. “How are you feeling? I know this isn’t a good time, but—”

“It’s fine,” Darby said. “I’m glad to see you. Please, come on in.”

Tina opened the door and held it for Darby.

The scent of burning wood welcomed them. The fireplace was stoked and burning, the temperature a cozy contrast to the frigid outside air.

“It’s nice and warm in here,” Darby said gratefully. She turned and smiled at Tina. “Do I have Donny to thank for that yet again?”

“I suppose so,” she said, her cheeks pink with pride. “He’s a good catch, that one.”

The women shrugged off their coats and Darby heated water for tea. Tina carried cups into the living room, looking at her sister inquisitively. Once they were all sipping their beverages, Tina could no longer contain her curiosity. “Well?” she finally asked. “What’s up, Terri?”

Her sister carefully placed cup and saucer on the coffee table. “I have something to tell you both.” She looked from Darby to Tina. “And I hope I can trust you to keep it a secret.”

“That depends, Terri,” Tina sniffed. “What did you do?”

Terri shook her head and took a deep breath. “It’s a long story—one I’ve never told anyone.” She rose and walked slowly toward the fire, her back to the other women, and gazed at the flames for a few minutes. Finally she sighed and turned toward them slowly. “It happened back when Tripp and I were first married.” She looked down at her hands, keeping her eyes downcast. “I got pregnant.”

Tina snorted and slapped her thigh. “Well, of course you did! That’s how I got my nephew Tommy. And then later you had Tyler, and Tiffy …”

“I mean before Tommy,” Terri said quietly. “I found out just before the wedding.”

“Oh! Did you lose the baby? You know, miscarry? That happens to lots of women.” Tina looked at Darby to back her up.

“No, I didn’t have a miscarriage.”

“You decided not to have the baby?” Darby asked gently.

Terri gave a slow nod.

“I couldn’t. I wasn’t ready to be a mother. I’d just started a new job, and …” She closed her eyes. “An infant didn’t fit into my plans. I know how bad that makes me sound! I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.”

“Was it Tripp’s baby?” Tina asked.

Terri’s eyes flashed. “Of course it was Tripp’s baby! That’s why I’ve felt so guilty all these years. He absolutely adores children, and if he ever knew what I did …”

“You were young, Terri,” said Darby quietly. “You weren’t prepared to be a parent.”

Terri nodded miserably. “I wasn’t, I know that, but still, I couldn’t bear him knowing the truth. And so I’ve hid it from him all these years.”

“Until someone found out?”

“That’s right.”

“Lorraine Delvecchio.”

Terri gave a heavy sigh. “My doctor was Theodore Hotchkiss, and Lorraine was his secretary. She saw my records and knew what the procedure was.” She rolled her eyes. “I suppose she figured out that Tripp was well-off, too. The first blackmail letter arrived a few months later.”

“What a horrible thing to do!” Tina sprang from her seat on the couch and went to her sister, giving her a tight hug. “You must have wanted to kill her!” The comment hung in the air for several moments. Tina released her grip on her sister. “Not that you would have, of course—”

Terri managed a shaky smile. “I never thought of killing Lorraine, but I was angry.” She came back to the couch and sat down. “Although, when I think about it now, the anger came gradually. At first I was just afraid. I knew my secret would devastate Tripp, and I thought that maybe he wouldn’t love me anymore. I kept thinking that once I had a child, things would be different.”

“And then you had Tommy.” Tina’s face was kind.

“Yes. He was born two years later. You remember, Tina—we were so overjoyed. I told Lorraine that I wasn’t paying her anymore, that she would have to find somebody else to torment.”

Darby gave Terri a level gaze. “And what happened?”

“She told me that the whole island would know what I’d done. That I was a baby killer, and that no one would want me—not my husband, not his family, and not little Tommy.”

Terri had started to quietly cry. “So I kept paying her. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Darby thought fleetingly of Terri’s move off the island. “Did you relocate to Westerly because of Lorraine?”

She nodded. “I thought that if we were farther away, she might leave me alone. But she wasn’t about to let me stop making those monthly payments. In fact, she demanded even more as time went on. By then I’d built up a good reputation in the community. I had friends, and responsibilities … I couldn’t let her destroy that.”

Tina reached out and patted Terri’s arm. “Honey, you could have told Tripp. You still can. That man loves you, and I know he’d understand.”

She wiped her cheek. “Maybe. But I don’t think I want to take that chance.”

Darby pictured Lorraine’s little ledger. The column for “TD” was the longest one in her book, going back more than a decade. “I’m glad for your sake that this all stopped.”

Terri sniffed. “Thank you. You have no idea how relieved I’ve been to think that she can’t blackmail me anymore. I could never have harmed Lorraine, but I wasn’t sorry that she died. I know that sounds terrible.”

“After what that woman did to you, all those years!” Tina ran a hand through her red curls. “Of all the deceitful, money-grabbing schemes!” She huffed out a breath and made a face at Darby. “You know, I’m starting to think that Robichaud did us all a big favor when he shoved Lorraine into the water.”

Darby flashed on his description of Lorraine as a “conniving bitch.” Certainly it seemed he had despised the woman.
But why had he killed her?

_____

“Do you think someone paid him?” Miles asked Darby an hour later. She’d called the British journalist as soon as Terri and Tina left, assured him that she was healing fine, and now they were discussing Dave Robichaud’s possible motives for murder.

“I hadn’t thought of that, Miles. I suppose that’s an option, isn’t it?” She was propped up in bed with several pillows taking any pressure off her shoulder, a legal pad and pen on the comforter next to her.

“I remember a case back in London in which a metropolitan policeman was pulling in several hundred thousand pounds a year doing ‘favors’ for business associates,” Miles said. “Perhaps someone contracted with Robichaud to get rid of Lorraine.”

“Maybe one of her blackmail victims,” Darby mused, picking up the pad.

“Right.” Miles paused. “Now let’s see, you’ve got AB—that’s Alcott Bridges, right? Not likely that he paid Robichaud, is it?”

“No. For one thing, he was completely surprised to hear of Lorraine’s death, so it’s unlikely that he arranged it.”

“Good point,” Miles conceded. “Leonard Marcus was incarcerated at the time, and although that doesn’t seem to stop people from making deals with those on the street, he’d stopped making payments to Lorraine by the time of her death, right?”

“Yes.” She jotted down more initials. “It’s not Terri Dodge—she doesn’t have the heart for murder.”

“You’re sure about that? She would only have had to arrange it, not pull the trigger herself.”

“Miles, I looked into her eyes as she told us about being blackmailed by Lorraine for the past ten years. She’s not a killer.” Darby remembered the scribbled “ab” next to Terri’s initials on Chief Dupont’s notes. How had the Chief guessed Terri’s secret?

“Okay. So that leaves Bartholomew Anderson, and ‘CR’, right?”

“Yes.” She underlined Anderson’s name and pursed her lips. “I can definitely see Bart arranging a hit on Lorraine, can’t you? After all, she had that file of compromising photos, and he was terrified that she’d go to his wife.”

“Right. When did he start making payments to Lorraine?”

Darby consulted her notepad. “Five years ago.”

“What about ‘CR’?”

“Two years ago.”

“Interesting. ‘CR’ was Lorraine’s newest victim, correct?”

“That’s right, Miles. Maybe he or she knew early on that they weren’t going to take it, and convinced Detective Robichaud to help them out with a well-placed shove.”

“That would mean that whoever ‘CR’ is, he or she would also have known that Robichaud was operating on the wrong side of the law,” Miles commented.

“Yes.” Darby groaned. Her shoulder was aching, and she suspected it was time for another pain pill.

“Are you okay, love?” Miles voice was full of concern.

“Just sore.” She tried adjusting the pillows again, but one would not go flat against the headboard. She pulled on it, and spotted something red wedged in between the mattress and the wall.

The lacquered jewelry box.

“Miles! I’ve found the red box, the one that belonged to my mother!”

“Wonderful, darling, but I didn’t know it had gone astray.”

Quickly she told him about Kenji’s search for the object and his questions to her on the ridge. “Tina told me that he’d torn this place apart looking for it,” she explained. “The only reason he tracked me down was because he couldn’t find it.” She ran a finger over the jewelry box’s smooth surface, touching the tip of Mount Fuji and the intricate blue-tile roofed temples. She undid the little brass latch and opened it up.

“Miles, if Kenji had found this box, not only would I have lost this link to my mother, but he would have located whatever missing piece of the formula he needed.” She took a shaky breath. “I need to call Ed Landis and let him know.”

“I agree. Ring him up first thing in the morning.” His tone changed. “You also need to get some rest, Darby. After all, you did just get out of hospital. You must be right knackered.”