GUNNED (28 page)

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have come here. I’ve upset you,” I said, feeling like a heel. What was wrong with me bothering this woman at work and bringing up all her pain again?

“No. It’s okay. Since you came to see me, I’ve been feeling, well, hopeful. I know nothing is going to bring Erika back, but something is happening. All these years I’ve been beating myself up about everything, and now, I don’t know how to explain it, but I want to know the truth. I’ve made an appointment with a counselor and I go to see her next week. After all this time, I’m starting to think I might actually see the sun again. I’ll never stop missing Erika, but I’m tired of not being happy. So in a strange way, your snooping into Mr. Spiegel’s murder was
bashert
.”

“
Bashert
?”

“It was meant to be. You started me thinking about things.”

Rhoda was essentially letting me off the hook for dredging up her pain, but if it meant that the woman might be able to emerge from the cloud she had been living under and perhaps find some happiness in the future, then maybe something good did come out of this horrible mess.

“I remembered something after you came to see me at my house. I have no idea if it has anything at all to do with any of this, but, well, about a year and a half after Erika died, I found an envelope with money in it shoved into my mailbox. There was a note. All it said was, ‘I’m sorry.’ I thought it was from Ira. I never said anything to him about it, because quite frankly, it made me mad that he thought giving me money would make me feel better. I gave away all of it to a charity that works with childhood diseases.”

I had no idea what the money meant, if anything, in terms of why Mr. Spiegel was killed, and Ira was gone so I couldn’t ask him. But I did have one more question.

“Just one more thing and I’ll let you get back to your lunch. Do you remember the name of the woman you spoke to?”

“Oh yes. Not the one who came in later, but the first one, yes. She was just so comforting.”

And then she told us.

“OMG. Is that how you say it?” Annie asked. “Alex, I am shaking. You were right. That was the last piece of the puzzle and Rhoda just confirmed your theory. What are we going to do? Should I call Gerard?”

I drove my little car back to Indian Cove, probably faster than I should have. I was shaking too. If my suspicions were right, this whole thing was premeditated along with a dose of good luck that Rhoda’s baby turned out to be a girl.

“There is no killing the suspicion that deceit has once begotten.”

“What?” Annie turned in her seat and looked at me.

“What Mr. Spiegel said. Remember what Jerome Perry told us he overhead at the office in North Carolina? It all fits. Once Mr. Spiegel knew they had the wrong baby, he knew exactly what happened. He just didn’t know who his daughter had been switched with. But he knew why. His brother said that Sheldon was an honorable man and that’s why he was relentless. That’s why he didn’t care if he was hurting his family. He was hell bent on righting a wrong.”

“Alex, if you are right, then why did Mr. Spiegel keep bothering the Jamisons. Why did he go there on Tuesday begging Shelley to convince her daughter to take a blood test?”

“Because of her looks. Christine looks so much like Jackie that as soon as he saw her the previous Friday, he was convinced he had found his real daughter, but then he stopped at Rhoda’s on the night before he was killed and then he knew for certain. But he still couldn’t get the striking resemblance Christine had with Jackie out of his head.”

“So he didn’t want to prove Christine was his daughter, he wanted to prove she wasn’t.” Annie nodded her head and smiled, exposing her straight teeth highlighted by her pale pink lip gloss.

“Exactly. He was just covering all his bases. If he could get Christine to do that, then he could go back to Rhoda and explain everything.”

“And then what? Would he not have been arrested? Would Rhoda be able to sue?”

“Oh, yes, it’s going to be a mess. I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know about statutes of limitation on things like this, but there most definitely will be a lawsuit.” I thought about this for a couple of miles. “Or maybe not. Maybe Rhoda will be happy knowing the truth and getting on with her life after all this time.”

Annie sniffled and I looked over at her. Two tears slid down her left cheek.

“Alex, this is all so heartbreaking. That little girl was going to die no matter what, but because of the switch another family’s entire life was ruined for nothing. Ira Newman literally drank himself to death over the grief. How can someone do something like that to another person?”

“Remember what I said at the very beginning? Some people kill to get justice and—”

“And some are just evil.” Annie finished my thought. “I wanted to know if we would be meeting the wronged person or the evil one.”

“And what do you think now?”

“I think we are meeting the evil person. Gerard has been doing this job of finding killers since I married him. I should not be surprised at this, but I am.”

“Me, too,” I said. “And that’s probably a good thing. I don’t think I ever want to be in a place where evil is the norm, and the horrendous things people inflict on others is just commonplace.”

Annie and I continued the rest of the drive in silence until we reached our destination.

“We’re here. Do you want to come in or stay in the car?” I could see how much this had upset Annie.

“Oh, no. I want—no, I need—to hear what she has to say for herself. And then we will call John and Gerard and let the justice system punish her.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

I knocked on the door and waited. Nothing. I knocked again, this time harder. I put my ear to the door, but didn’t hear any sounds.

Annie crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Now what?”

I stood there a couple of seconds thinking. “Come on. I know where she is.”

The rain had stopped over an hour ago, but dark clouds still lingered out over the Sound. We walked through the restaurant and out onto an empty terrace. Jackie Spiegel sat with her back to us, facing the Sound, a bulky sweater wrapped tightly around her shoulders.

Annie and I walked over to her and stood next to her chair, the three of us looking out toward the cold, gray waters of Long Island Sound. Jackie stood up and looked into my eyes.

“So. You figured it all out. Nosy and smart. It’s cold out here, let’s go inside.”

We followed her into the restaurant and the three of us sat at a table by a large bay window looking on the terrace. Jackie signaled to a waiter.

“Three teas and some of those lovely little cakes with the raspberries and cream. Thank you. So,” Jackie said to me when the waiter walked away, “what gave me away?”

“It was my husband, actually. He has a hard time throwing anything out.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Annie and I were doing a bit of cleanup around the house this morning, and I found a bunch of newspapers that I just hadn’t found the time to look at.”

“There was a very interesting article about a cruise ship in Dubrovnik,” Annie said, taking up the narrative. “Many people became sick because of an outbreak of food poisoning. It caused much trouble.”

“Yes, I know. I believe I told you about this. My friend Lorraine was stuck in the port. Take my advice, stay away from cruises.” Jackie tapped her finger several times on the table.

The waiter brought our order and despite the seriousness of the conversation we were having, the cakes looked fabulous and I put my finger in the cream while letting Annie take the lead.

“Yes, Mrs. Spiegel, you did mention to Alex and me that your friend was having a less than satisfactory vacation. And we have taken your advice on cruises to heart. But what you did not clarify for us at the time were the exact dates of Lorraine’s unfortunate luck. Lorraine was stuck in that port when I believe the two of you were supposed to be on your retreat at the coast, no? She was not there almost a week later as you led us to believe. So if Lorraine was in Dubrovnik at the time your husband was in Connecticut trying to right a horrendously heartbreaking wrong, then where were you all that time?” Annie’s voice caught and her eyes glistened with tears.

I dabbed some cream from my mouth and turned to Jackie. “You and Lorraine probably did check in at the resort, but then after a day or two she needed to leave to get to Dubrovnik to board her ship and you, what? Flew to Connecticut? Drove? Caught a train? Horseback? How did you get here, Jackie?” My voice had gone up an octave. The thought of little Erika and the permanent sadness in the eyes of Rhoda Newman were very difficult to set aside at the moment. I was mad and I really did not know how the police could deal with this stuff all the time.

“Sheldon would not listen. The man just would not leave well enough alone. What was I supposed to do? You tell me that.” The tapping of the nail again. “How was I going to change anything? What was done was done. So I drove up here and I bought one of those throw-away phones and called him. I told him I lost my phone and bought a temporary one until we could find a new plan. I asked him to meet with me so we could talk everything out. I asked him to meet me at the beach like we used to do.”

“Did you plan to kill him all along?” I asked.

Jackie shrugged. “I had a gun. I hoped I could reason with him, make him see that there was nothing to be gained by pursuing this any further. Our whole life, everything we worked for would go down the drain. But he was a putz. Did I tell you that? He said Mrs. Newman had a right to know the truth. I drove up here and arranged to meet him on Tuesday night. I told him not to mention it to anyone because I didn’t want to get Andrea’s hopes up that we were working things out.”

“You gave her money, didn’t you?” Annie said. “You gave Mrs. Newman money.”

Jackie sucked in her breath and crossed her arms. “When I heard that the baby had died, yes, I didn’t know what else to do so I put some money, a lot of money,” she emphasized as if it would make a difference, “into an envelope and left it for her. I hired someone to keep tabs on her. I wanted to know how the little girl was doing.”

“You mean your daughter?” I said with anger. “And who did you hire? The same guy you had come into the hospital and create a commotion so your mother could switch the babies?” I took a sip of tea because my voice had gone hoarse. “Just tell me, Jackie, did you plan on doing this all along or was it just a spur of the moment thing?”

Jackie clasped her hands in her lap. “I knew my daughter was sick. I had an amnio at my doctor’s in New York. Only my mother knew. That’s why I wanted to have the baby here. I didn’t want anyone to know my history. I wanted to switch the baby, but the truth was I didn’t think I would have the nerve to do it. But my mother, well, she begged me. She said I would probably never have another child. It was her idea to begin with and I was always a dutiful daughter. When we met that young woman, Mrs. Newman, my mother convinced me she was young and would have lots of kids, but me…” Jackie shook her head. “I told my mother fine, if the Newmans had a daughter we would make the switch, but secretly I was hoping she had a boy.”

“And Sheldon figured it out,” I said.

But I never got to hear the rest of Jackie’s story. John and Gerard and Jim walked into the restaurant and straight to our table.

“Mrs. Spiegel, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of Sheldon Spiegel. Detective Maroni, would you please read Mrs. Spiegel her rights.” John gave me a quick glance and then took Jackie by the elbow.

The four of them left the restaurant leaving Annie and me sitting at the table holding back our tears.

Annie and I had plans to meet Shirley. There was a botanical garden show in New Haven, and as it turned out both Annie and Shirley were avid gardeners. Then we would have lunch and if time allowed a stop at Le Petit Bonbon. After more than a week, Annie and I would finally get to act like tourists on vacation. But there was one thing we had to do first. John had given us his blessing, and this time I remembered my manners and called first.

“You have news?” an anxious Rhoda Newman said as she answered the door. “Come in, please.” She ushered us into her small living room. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, we’re fine. We can’t stay long, but we wanted to tell you what happened in person.” I laid out everything for Rhoda including how John had taken Jackie Spiegel into custody yesterday afternoon and how it was Jackie who had left the money all those years ago.

Rhoda excused herself and came back a few minutes later with a box of tissue and red eyes.

“So Erika’s death had nothing to do with me and the way I lived my life when I was younger?”

Annie got up from her chair and went to sit next to Rhoda on the worn sofa.

“No. Nothing at all. Erika’s sickness was genetic.”

Rhoda gulped back her tears. “How could that woman do this to me? To Ira? She’s going to pay, isn’t she? Can they charge her with Ira’s death?”

“I don’t know, Rhoda. But she’ll be in prison for a long time for killing her husband,” I said, hoping that fact was some sort of consolation.

“And my daughter…I mean her daughter?”

“Her name is Andrea Spellman and she’s married and has a daughter and lives in Brooklyn.”

“Oh my God, how is this all possible? Do you have any idea the guilt I’ve lived with all these years for everything; my daughter, my husband, my parents? Some days it’s all I can do to get out of bed. I feel like I’ve been walking around like a zombie my entire adult life.”

Annie took Rhoda’s hand. “You have your meeting next week with the counselor. That’s the first step. You are a strong woman and you’re going to get through this.”

Rhoda nodded her head. “Do you think Andrea will ever want to meet me?”

I shrugged. “Right now she’s got a lot to deal with. She lost her father and now her mother. Give her some time. She has a lot to work through as well. She’s pretty angry from what my husband told us.” The truth was I had no idea if Andrea would ever want to meet Rhoda. When we met her she said she didn’t want to know anything about her biological parents, but I didn’t want to bring that up now, and I hoped once Andrea got over the shock of what her mother did, maybe she might want to reach out to Rhoda.