Murder and Salutations (18 page)

“
I’ve been poking and prodding like mad, but I don’t seem to get anywhere.”

“
Then it’s time we stepped things up,” Lillian said.

“
Do you have any idea how we can do that, short of an outright accusation?”

“
Give me a minute,” she said.

“
You can have all afternoon,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“
Don’t be so sure about that,” Lillian said. “I think I’ve got an idea how to flush the killer out.”

“
It sounds like it’s going to be dangerous,” I said.

“
Are you afraid?”

“
A little,” I admitted.

“
Good. If you weren’t, I’d be worried about you. We’ll make this as safe as we can. Now here’s what we’re going to do. You’ve been pussyfooting around with hinted accusations, but I want to come right out and accuse everyone.”

“
What? You can’t be serious,” I said. “We can’t do that without any justification. They’ll all laugh in our faces, and we’ll deserve it.”

“
Do you have a better idea?”

“
Doing nothing is better than making fools of ourselves. We need to approach the situation with less randomness, you know?” I went for the whiteboard. When Lillian saw what I was doing, she said, “Jennifer, this is a time for action, not deliberation.”

“
Lillian, I love you, you know that, but this time, you’re wrong.” I propped the board up and studio it. “There’s got to be a key here somewhere, if we’re just smart enough to see it.”

She frowned at the board. “Do you honestly think so?”

“
I do,” I said.

“
Then where is it?” We’d filled the board with scribbled motives, since everyone on our list had the means and the opportunity, including Reggie.

“
Why does anyone kill?” I asked.

“
We’ve been over this a dozen times, Jennifer. Let’s focus on the basics.”

I erased the board, despite my aunt’s protests. “What are you doing?”

“
Are you trying to tell me you haven’t memorized that board, too? I’m willing to wager either one of us could recreate it if we had to.”

“
Fine, do it your way.” She was testy, but I knew Lillian was frustrated with the murders and not with me.

The fresh board mocked me. “Why aren’t you writing?” Lillian asked me.

“
There’s something I’m missing, something I heard over the past few days that I’m not getting. It’s the key, I just know it.”

“
Well, think, Jennifer! What is it?”

“
That’s not helping,” I said.

“
Maybe if you take a walk, it will come to you,” Lillian said. “I don’t mind watching the card shop.”

It was true that there were two things that always got my juices flowing: either a walk or a shower. Since I didn’t have a shower handy, a walk made perfect sense. “You’re right, I need to jar loose whatever is lodged in my head. I don’t know how long I’ll be,” 1 said as I headed for the door.

“
You’re not on a schedule,” she said. “You own this place, remember?”

I was nearly outside when Lillian added, “One thing before you go. If it does come to you, don’t do anything without me, Jennifer.” “I’m not crazy,” I said.

“
That’s a discussion for another day,” Lillian said. “But you can’t deny you’re rash at times.”

“
I like to think of it as active,” I said. “Call it what you will. I just don’t want you taking any chances.”

“
Fine, I’ll behave myself,” I promised as I left the card shop. Since I had no destination in mind, I decided to start up Oakmont toward Sara Lynn’s shop. At Greg’s Pottery, I paused to look inside. He was having an earnest conversation with Stephanie, and I could swear it looked like he was proposing! Though he wasn’t down on one knee, there was something the size of a ring box in his hand, and she kept looking at it as he spoke. I knew Greg had a tendency to ask women to marry him—after all, he’d asked me twice himself—but it was all I could do not to bust through the door and tell him he wasn’t ready for such a big step. My hand was on the doorknob before I jerked it away. If Greg wanted to marry Stephanie, there was nothing I could do about it, and more important, there was nothing I should do to stop him. He had his life to live, and I had mine. If he believed Stephanie was what it would take to make him happy, then more power to him. Now if I could only convince myself of that.

I left the storefront and tried to put what I’d just seen out of my thoughts. I had something more important to deal with. As I walked, I thought about everyone involved with the murders. Eliza had plenty of enemies, but poor Bailey hadn’t had any, as far as I’d known. Addie and Luke had been off base with their belief that Sara Lynn was the murderer. I knew my sister didn’t do it, and no amount of proof would convince me otherwise. So how about the two of them? Addie inherited a business and was probably going after Eliza’s ex-husband. She was basically taking over her partner’s life before she was even in the ground. That smacked of motive. Then there was Luke. He’d professed his love for his ex-wife often enough. Would her scorn be enough to drive him to murder? Polly and Kaye had their own reasons to dislike Eliza, but again, did they hate her enough to murder her?

And there was Reggie. He was the dark horse in all of this. I didn’t even have any proof that he’d been having an affair with Eliza. And even if he had been, why would he kill her? The most he had to lose was his relationship with Gail, and it was pretty obvious it f hadn’t been that important to him—not by the way he blew her off earlier. That left me with a ragtag collection of suspects, with conflicting motives to want Eliza dead.

I was at the park bench at the square, and I decided to stop walking to see if I could sort this mess out. I knew motive was the key, but what if I had the wrong one for one of my suspects? Eliza also ran an accounting business on the side—nothing too big, but she did taxes for several of the shop owners in town. Could her murder have been committed to cover up something else—a crime that had nothing to do with jealousy or anger?

Then I remembered what had been nagging at me all along, and it all fell into place. I started toward the business where I knew the murderer was working, forgetting all about my promise to Lillian to come get her when I figured it out.

Chapter 15

Wouldn’t you know it? The business was deserted when I walked in. Why couldn’t this have happened in the full swing of tourist season, when there was no place in town that wasn’t crawling with visitors? I took a deep breath at the door, then moved toward the counter.

She looked up at me as I approached. “Jennifer. Don’t you ever stay at your shop anymore? I don’t know how you do it.”

“
My aunt’s watching the place.” I looked around. “Where is everyone?”

“
Thad’s on break,” Kaye said. “He won’t be back for a while. Was there something I could help you with?”

I took a deep breath, then said, “You could save us all a lot of trouble and confess,” I said, the words sounding insane even as I spoke them.

“
Confess to what?” She held steady, but 1 could see her face blanch slightly at my prompt.

“
You killed Eliza, and then you got rid of Bailey and tried to do the same thing to me when you thought we both knew what you’d done. You want to know the funny thing? I didn’t put it all together until just a minute ago.”

“
I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “You’re not well.”

“
You’re the one who’s sick,” I said. “You’re a murderer, Kaye.”

“
Why on earth would I kill Eliza?” she demanded. “We weren’t friends, but I had no reason to hate her.”

“
I’m guessing that you did,” I said. “Between her two businesses, Eliza had more money at her disposal than you could dream of. You never could stand the fact that Thad relied on his dad’s income to keep you two solvent, could you? Everybody in town knows that you married him for money he didn’t have. That’s not the only reason you killed Eliza, though I’m certain it was a contributing factor in the end.”

She looked more angry than flustered, but I knew I was right. “So what? Even if she did flaunt her money in my face, that didn’t mean I wanted her dead.”

There was just one thing for me to do. I had to press her harder until I got her to confess. “Like I said, it wasn’t the only reason you killed her, but I’ve got a strong idea what your original motive was. Eliza found out you were stealing from the business when she started doing the books, didn’t she?”

That hit home. She jerked her head back as if I’d smacked her. “You’re just guessing, Jennifer.”

“
Kaye, the last time I was here, you didn’t ring up a big sale as you made it. You told the customer the register was broken, but it was working fine, wasn’t it? I watched you do it, and it never occurred to me what you were up to until later.”

She shook her head back and forth vigorously. “I remember that. The register really was broken that day,” she said, but the conviction in her voice was gone.

“
It’s a good way to steal, isn’t it? But you had to know that you’d get caught as soon as your husband or father-in-law took an inventory. You decided to worry about that later, though, didn’t you? I’m guessing you were trying to make up for the money you stole outright from the business before anybody else found out what you were up to. How did you get Eliza to keep quiet? I’m just curious, though it’s really not that important. My brother will be able to figure it all out once he gets the state police and their team of forensic auditors in here.”

I started for the door, and Kaye asked, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“
I’m getting Bradford,” I said. “Don’t leave until he gets here.”

She laughed in such an odd way that it made me look closely at her. I don’t know why I was so surprised, but Kaye had a gun pointed at me.

I couldn’t believe the woman’s audacity. She really was out of her mind. “What I don’t understand is why you had to kill Bailey? Did he see something he shouldn’t have?”

Kaye shook her head. “He denied it, but I know he saw me stab that witch. I couldn’t let him turn me in, could I?”

“
I don’t understand why he didn’t just call Bradford if he knew something.”

Kaye gave me a smile, but it was devoid of warmth or pleasure. “I told him I’d kill Sara Lynn if he whispered a word about what he’d seen, and then the fool went and told you on the loading dock. I can’t believe I missed. I had you both in my sights.”

“
He never told me anything that night,” I said.

“
Why should I believe you?”

I stared at her, and said, “Why should I lie?”

“
My mistake, then,” she said as she appeared to take it in. “You know it all now, though. Sorry, but that means that you’ve got to die

“
Kaye, do you honestly think you can get away with killing me now?”

She narrowed her eyes, then said, “Jennifer, you came in here today to rob me, and I had to defend myself. Your business can’t be doing that well. I’m willing to bet I can get the state police to believe it, and after I have them on my side, your brother won’t have any choice but to go along with their conclusions,”

There was a wild look in her eyes that shook me to the core. I had to find a way through her fog so she’d know how delusional she was. “There is no way on earth that anyone is going to buy that, especially my
brother. I had to wonder if the woman truly was insane.

She appeared to consider it for a few seconds, then asked, “Okay, if that’s no good, how about this? Yon came in to chat and I was cleaning my revolver by the counter. You wanted to see it, and it accidentally went off as I handed it to you. Those things happen all the time. I’ll be able to sell that story to your brother, once I have it staged.”

And knowing her, she just might be able to pull it off. I only had one chance, and I had to take it quickly before she squeezed that trigger. I knocked over a display with my foot, and as her crazed glare shifted toward it, I picked up a large bottle of perfume off the counter and threw it at her. As Kaye ducked, I dove behind one of the aisles as a bullet shattered a vase near my head,

“
There goes your accident theory,” I shouted. “You might as well give up now. You’re not getting away with it.”

The gun barked again, and a lamp exploded into a thousand pieces, stinging my face and my right arm with shrapnel.

“
I don’t care what it looks like now” she screamed. I just want you dead.”

From the back of the store, we both heard a voice say, “Drop it, Kaye.”

It was Thad. I looked back to see Kay’s husband with a gun of his own trained on her. Instead of doing as she was told, she shifted her aim and shot at him instead. Thad staggered back, but not before he got off a shot of his own. My ears were ringing from the gunfire in the small store as I saw Kaye fall back against the counter. The smell of spent gunpowder was heavy in the air, and there was a haze that stung my eyes.

The thing that struck me the most was that Kaye had the oddest expression on her face as she was hit, as if she couldn’t believe her browbeaten husband had actually had the nerve to shoot back. He’d done a good job of it, too. I glanced at Kayo’s motionless form. There was nothing I could do for her. I dialed 911, and told Bradford’s dispatcher that there had been a shooting, and that they needed to send an ambulance to the drugstore. The daft woman on the line was still asking me questions as I throw the telephone down and raced back to Thad. He’d been hit in the shoulder, and his face was milky white.

“
How is she? Did I hit her?”

“
Don’t worry about that right now,” I said, “You’re bleeding.”

“
There’s gauze over there,” he said as he gestured to the first-aid aisle. I grabbed a roll, ripped off the wrapping, and handed it to him. As Thad pressed it to his shoulder, he said, “What do you know. Having a drugstore finally came in handy.”

He tried to get up, but I wouldn’t let him. “Jennifer, I need to make sure she’s all right.”

“
She’s not going anywhere,” I said. “And you shouldn’t move.”

He must have seen something in my eyes, because he started to cry. “I love her. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that she wanted me for anything besides money. I never should have tricked her into thinking I had any, but I wanted to marry her more than anything else in the world. I didn’t have any choice, Jennifer. I had to shoot her. She was going to kill you.”

“
You did the right thing,” I said as I stroked his hand. By the time Bradford got there, we were both crying. I wasn’t sure why I was so openly weeping. Probably an aftereffect of being shot at.

Bradford asked softly, “Jennifer, are you hurt?”

“
No, I’m fine,” I said.

“
You’ve got blood on your arm,” he said.

I looked down and saw that one of the pieces of lamp must have cut me. “It’s nothing. Is the ambulance on its way?”

“
It’s right behind me,” he said. “What happened?”

“
Let’s get him taken care of, then I’ll tell you.”

“
I wish I could do it that way, I honestly do,” my brother said. “But I need to know right no

Thad said, “It’s all right. I’ll tell him. My wife killed Eliza and Bailey. She was trying to kill Jennifer, too, so I had to shoot her.” Then he started sobbing again.

“
Is that the truth?” Bradford asked.

“
Every bit of it,” I said. “He saved my life.”

My brother squeezed Thad’s hand. “Thank you.”

All Thad could manage was a nod, his eyes still staring ahead. It was almost as if he could see his wife’s body, though she wasn’t visible from where we were. The paramedics came, and soon had him on his way, strapped onto the same gurney I’d ridden on before.

One of them looked at me, and asked, “Are you all right?”

“
It’s just a scratch,” I said.

“
Don’t worry,” Bradford said, “I’ll take her to the hospital myself.”

“
It’s not that bad.” I said, though I doubted anyone heard me.

There was a scream as they took Thad past Kaye’s body, and then there was nothing but silence.

Finally, Bradford said, “Let’s get you to the hospital. On the way, you can tell me why this all happened.”

“
What about Kaye?”

Bradford shook his head. “I don’t doubt the shot killed her instantly. Jody and Hank are out front. Nobody’s going to disturb the scene while I’m gone.”

I grabbed another roll of gauze and dabbed at my arm. “It’s barely a scratch. You need to be here. I can take myself to the hospital.”

“
I don’t think so,” he said, obviously reluctant to leave the crime scene. Bradford called out to Jody and Hank. “I need one of you to take my sister to the hospital.”

I was surprised when Hank said, “I’ll do it.”

“
I want Jody,” I said in a whisper.

“
Tough, I need him here. Don’t worry; Hank’s a good guy once you get to know him.”

“
Fine,” I said. My arm was starting to sting a little, and I wondered if the shock was just starting to wear off, or if it was finally setting in.

“
I’ll be there soon,” Bradford said. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“
Where would I go?”

I averted my eyes as I walked past Kaye’s body. It was only partly because I felt squeamish, but mostly it was because I didn’t ever again want to look at the: woman who had widowed my sister. She was a killer twice over, and as far as I was concerned, she’d gotten exactly what she’d deserved.

I needed four stitches for the cut on my arm. At least my wrist was feeling better. Bradford walked into the exam room just as they were finishing up with me. To my surprise, Lillian was right behind him.

She hugged me, then said, “What did I tell you about going off on your own?”

“
I forgot all about it,” I admitted. “Sorry.”

Bradford said, “I hate to break this up, but I need to interview my witness.”

“
Go right ahead,” I said. “I’m ready to talk about it now.”

Bradford turned and looked at Lillian, but before my brother could say a word, she said, “If you think I’m leaving, you’re insane.”

‘
This is official police business,” Bradford said.

I interrupted him. “Could she stay here if she promises to keep quiet? I don’t want to have to tell this more than once.”

‘
Then wait for me,” Sara Lynn said as she walked in. “I need to hear this, too.”

Bradford clouded up for a second, but he finally said, “I give up. You two can listen, but not a word out of either one of you, I expect your promises.”

After they both pledged their solemn oaths, Bradford looked at me, and said, “Go ahead.”

“
Do you want to hear what happened, or how I figured it out?” I asked,

“
Why don’t you start with your reasoning, and I’ll interrupt if I have to. And Jennifer, make it as succinct as you can,”