Murder by Arrangement (Edna Davies mysteries Book 5) (13 page)

The thought
suddenly struck Edna that Forrester might have left the force in order to
pursue the old investigation. “Do you know anything about his being taken off
the case the day after Haverstrum’s body was found?”

Mary frowned.
“Nope. That raised some eyebrows at the time, but nothing ever leaked about
what went on between the chief and his newest detective. Forrester was out of
town for a couple of weeks. ‘Training,’ so it was said.”

“What else do
you know about him? Is he married? Did he grow up around here?”

Mary shook her
head. “Don’t know much before he got to town. Moved here from a small town in
western Massachusetts, near the New York border, I think. He heard about a job
on the force here, applied and got it. I think a former chief of his
recommended him for the position. Somethin’ like that.”

“How long ago
was that?”

Mary squinted up
at the ceiling for a few seconds before answering. “Must be about four years
now.”

“Not that long
ago,” Edna muttered, more to herself than to Mary. “Why did he leave his last
job to come here? If he wanted to advance in law enforcement, you’d think he’d
apply to a big city department, wouldn’t you?”

Mary frowned and
hesitated a few seconds before admitting, “Don’t know.”

Edna thought
again of Forrester’s unexpected visit to her doorstep. “Do you think he’s
dangerous? Do you know if he’s ever been violent?”

“Coupla times,
he was suspected of roughing up guys who tried to resist arrest--or who he
claimed
resisted, but nobody ever pressed charges.”

It wasn’t
exactly the answer Edna wanted to hear. Dropping Forrester for the time being,
she was about to ask Mary what else she remembered about Gregory Haverstrum
when Hank stood up suddenly and poked his muzzle into Mary’s side. It must have
tickled because the redhead laughed as she gently pushed the Labrador away.

“Sorry, Edna.
This old fella is saying it’s time for his supper. Probably time for a walk,
too.”

Edna was
disappointed that Mary couldn’t stay longer and discuss the scandal. Alone and
at loose ends, she decided to phone Albert. When she was switched immediately
to his voice mail, she tried Matthew’s number with the same result. Determined,
she pressed the speed dial for her son-in-law Roger, and when he didn’t
respond, she began to wonder. Since it was unusual that she couldn’t raise at
least one of the men, she called Irene and was relieved to hear a voice that
wasn’t filled with panic.

“Sorry, Edna. I
was supposed to let you know they are spending the night at sea. Everyone
agreed they wanted a peaceful evening with no ringing phones, so all the
devices are off. First one who turns his back on has to buy the next case of
beer.”

Edna chuckled
along with her daughter-in-law over the inevitable bets and then asked about
the children.

Irene didn’t
answer immediately and enthusiastically, as she usually did. Instead, the silence
on the other end of the line dragged on for so long that Edna began to wonder
if she’d been disconnected. She was about to speak when she heard her
daughter-in-law’s low voice, as if she didn’t want anyone else to hear. “Can
you come for supper tomorrow night? The kids would love to see you, and Lettie
will be here, too.”

“Lettie?” Edna
was puzzled, more by Irene’s lowered tone than the words.

“Yes. She’s been
staying with us.”

Edna was
surprised and, although she didn’t express her doubts to Irene, wondered why
Rosie would remove her daughter from the grandmother’s care, only to put Lettie
in the hands of a relative stranger.
Most peculiar and erratic behavior
,
Edna thought.

Chapter 18

When Irene told
Edna that Lettie was going to hang out with Amanda for the entire day, Edna
decided to drive to Warwick earlier than suppertime. She wanted to arrive well
before Rosie got off work and came to the house. Edna’s excuse would be that
she wanted to give the girls a special day by taking them shopping and out for
lunch. Afterwards, they could have an afternoon of hair styling and manicures.
Irene was excited about the idea, and Edna suspected some adult company for a
stay-at-home mom was part of the appeal.

Tuesday morning,
on her way to Warwick, Edna wondered again why Rosie had removed her daughter
from Lily’s care, only to leave the child with a neighbor. Irene would be
responsible for the girl this entire week, at least while Rosie was at work.
Irene said she didn’t mind, she had to be home with Amanda anyway, but Edna
thought it presumptuous of Rosie to impose on Irene’s generous nature. Edna
hoped the two mothers had come to some sort of day-care agreement, but then
doubted Irene would take any recompense for what she’d consider “just being neighborly.”
Still
, thought Edna, and stopped there.

Knowing it was
futile to speculate, her thoughts turned to the deaths of two men. As far as
she knew, Gregory and Clem hadn’t even known each other, but she couldn’t help
a nagging suspicion that their deaths were somehow connected. Gregory
Haverstrum had suspicious burns around his mouth, symptomatic of the type of
poison produced by the Christmas Rose. Clem Peppafitch had the same plant
clutched in his hand, but no telltale blisters. Because of that one blossom,
Edna sensed a link to both fatalities, but how? More importantly, why?

She thought back
to Lettie’s comment about her grandmother’s making “medicine” from the plant.
Was Lily responsible for her son-in-law’s death or, if Edna was correct and the
two deaths were connected, Clem’s fatality? What would Lily have gained by
killing either man?

Edna was giving
herself a headache. Was she letting her imagination get the better of her? She
needed to find out for certain how Clem died and didn’t want to believe it was
by Peppa’s Mercedes.

Her mind segued
back to images of Lily’s daughter and granddaughter. Did Rosie suspect her
mother of murder? Is that why she’d rather leave Lettie with neighbors than
with her grandmother? Were those fears the cause of the tension between the two
women?

Because of
Edna’s strong feelings that Clem’s death was related to Gregory’s, she wanted
to talk with both Lettie and Rosie. Considering the latest theory that
Haverstrum had somehow taken ranunculin, Edna felt encouraged that Rosie might
help throw some new light on her husband’s death. If so, Edna might then be
able to figure out a motivation behind the botany professor’s death. She’d
planned the day’s outing because she wanted to speak with Lettie first. She
needed to be more circumspect with a nine-year old than someone in her
thirties. Edna hadn’t yet decided how she would broach the topic with either
Lettie or Rosie when she pulled up before her son’s home.

Edna was
delighted by the reception she received from the two girls when she walked into
the house. Not only her granddaughter, but Lettie, too, ran up to greet her
with a hug and a huge smile.

“Whose car?”
Amanda asked, turning to her mother while still bouncing with excitement.

“We’ll take
mine. Why don’t you girls go get your coats and meet us in the garage,” Irene
said.

Once the girls
were out of earshot, Edna said, “What’s up with you watching Lettie?”

Irene gave her a
strained smile. “I have no idea. Rosie phoned yesterday morning in a near
panic. She had planned to take Lettie to work with her, but the child refused
to get dressed. When Rosie called, she was already late for work and thought
she might lose her job. She asked if I’d take Lettie for the day. Since Rosie
had to leave right away, I took Amanda over to their house. Rosie left while we
waited for Lettie to get ready. She was totally cooperative once her mother was
gone. Then we came back here. Last night, when Rosie came to pick up her
daughter, we had a little talk. Long and short of it is that Lettie is happier
playing with Amanda until they go back to school.”

“That’s pretty
strange behavior and a defiance I didn’t think Lettie had in her.”

“Me either,”
Irene agreed.

Figuring the
girls might be coming to check on the old slowpokes, Edna quickly told Irene of
her wish to get Lettie alone for as long as possible. “I’d like to ask her some
sensitive questions, and I think she’s more apt to talk to me if nobody else is
in the room.”

“We should be
able to manage that,” Irene said over her shoulder as she reached into the
closet for her own coat and handbag. She then hooked her arm through Edna’s and
led her through the kitchen and out to the garage.

At the Warwick
Mall, after hitting nearly every store from Macy’s to Penny’s to Target, Irene
and Edna sagged gratefully into a booth, happy to finally get off their feet.
The girls sat opposite and put their heads together over a menu, arguing
good-naturedly over whether to get pizza or a burger, and then what toppings
were best. Edna and Irene thought the half sandwich and cup of soup looked most
appealing. As yet, Edna hadn’t had a chance to speak with Lettie alone.

The opportunity
came after they returned home and settled around the kitchen table.

“Will you braid
my hair?” As Amanda pulled her purchases from a bag with the Target logo, she
looked up at her mother with pleading eyes.

Glancing swiftly
at Edna and giving a nearly imperceptible nod toward Lettie, Irene said, “Sure,
kiddo, but first let’s go up to the bathroom and I’ll give you a professional
shampoo.”

“Cool,” Amanda
said, jumping up to follow her mother out of the room.

Sitting at the
head of the rectangular table with Lettie on the side to her left, Edna began
to help arrange nail polish and manicure implements. The girls had bought some
new colors during their morning’s shopping. At the advice of the woman behind
the perfume counter, auburn-headed Amanda had chosen a metallic red and blonde
Lettie a glittery pink.

“I think your
mother will like the color you picked,” Edna said as she picked up an emery
board. She held a palm out and Lettie obligingly placed her own hand in Edna’s.

Keeping her eyes
on their hands, Lettie shrugged.

As Edna began to
file the girl’s ragged fingernails into shape, she knew she didn’t have much
time to get a nine-year-old talking. She hoped a gentle but aggressive approach
would work. “Why didn’t you want to go to work with her? Planning weddings must
be lots of fun.”

Again, the girl
merely shrugged and kept her eyes lowered.

“Do you know
what sort of things she does?” Edna was getting desperate. Would the girl ever
speak?

This time, only
one arm went up and Lettie’s head tipped sideways so shoulder and ear nearly
touched. “I dunno. She doesn’t let me help. It’s boring just watching.”

Edna raised her
eyes in surprise and looked at the girl. “I think you’d be a good helper.”

“Me, too.”

“What do you do,
if she won’t let you help?” Edna returned her gaze to the girl’s fingers as she
finished with the right and accepted the left one.

Lettie shook her
head slightly, but this time, she looked up at Edna. “I read.”

Edna was at a
loss and worked silently for nearly a minute. She didn’t want to get off on a
discussion of preferred stories. She was about to see if she could get Lettie
to talk about her grandmother when the girl surprised her by saying, “Mama’s
different.”

Careful
,
Edna thought before asking nonchalantly. “What do you mean?”

“She used to be
happy before Daddy died. At least, some of the time.”

Edna was anxious
to say the right thing so the girl would keep talking.

“Do you miss
your daddy?”

Lettie nodded
and dropped her gaze to the nails Edna was gently filing. The fingers of the
girl’s right hand were smoothing the dish towel with which Irene had covered
the wood surface.

“You were pretty
young when he died. Do you remember him?”

Lettie nodded.
“I have his picture on my dresser.”

“That’s nice. I
bet that helps to keep him in your dreams at night.”

Lettie looked up
in surprise, as if Edna were clairvoyant. “It does.” She seemed to study Edna
for several seconds while Edna herself pretended to assess the girl’s hands
with approval. Her heart beat rapidly, hoping Lettie would keep talking.

“What did your
daddy look like?”

“He could have
been a movie star.”

Edna almost
smiled, but the awe in the child’s voice kept her from doing so. She didn’t want
Lettie to think she was being laughed at.

“He got sick.”

Lettie sounded
so forlorn, Edna had to clear a lump in her throat before speaking again. “Yes,
I know he did. Do you know what made him sick?”

Lettie shook her
head, while her eyes examined the bottles of polish. “Lily’s medicine didn’t
make him better.”

At that moment,
Amanda burst into the kitchen with Irene close behind. “Have you painted yet?
Did you wait for me?” Her hair was soft and shiny from the recent wash and blow
drying.

Edna wanted to
beat her head on the table in frustration. She needed more time alone with the
girl. Thinking back to the morning Starling had driven them to Point Judith and
Lettie’s mention of “Lily’s medicine,” Edna wondered if Lettie had just
referred to the same concoction she’d spoken of when the girls had been looking
at Edna’s sketch of the Christmas Rose.

Any more chance
of getting Lettie alone disappeared with the arrival of Irene’s three older
children. The noise level in the kitchen increased as grandchildren greeted
Edna. Allison sat across the table from Lettie to examine the polish while
David and Joseph raided the refrigerator.

“What’s for
supper?” David asked as he put a carton of milk on the countertop and reached
into a cupboard for a glass.

“Spaghetti,”
Irene said, “so don’t spoil your appetites.”

“As if,” Allison
murmured and rolled her eyes. In a lower tone, she said, “Can I make the
sauce?”

“You bet,” Irene
agreed with a grin as she finished off Amanda’s braid with a rubber band.
Dropping into organizer mode, she said, “The girls need to finish painting
their nails. As soon as the polish is dry, I want Amanda and Lettie to set the
table. Since Allison is helping cook, you boys are in charge of cleanup
tonight.” She had to raise her voice on those last words as she spoke to the
backs of David and Joseph who, with a box of cookies and the carton of milk,
were heading for the family room in the basement.

In a lower tone,
talking to those who remained in the room, she said, “I’ll make garlic bread
and I bet we can talk Gramma into whipping up a peach cobbler.”

“Yeah,” Amanda
nearly shouted. “Will you, Gramma?”

Edna smiled.
“How can I refuse?”

The meal
proceeded with much chatter and laughter, followed by two simultaneous groans
when Irene reminded the boys that they were on kitchen patrol.

Rosie had not
appeared by the time Edna was ready to head home at eight o’clock that night.
Once alone in the quiet of her car, her thoughts returned to Lettie’s words,
“Lily’s medicine didn’t make him better.”

Had the
child, then seven years old, given her father what she thought was medicine her
grandmother had prepared? Had the youngster seen Lily administer it to Gregory?
What exactly had Lettie meant by that seemingly simple statement?