Murder by Arrangement (Edna Davies mysteries Book 5) (6 page)

Chapter 7

After leaving
the lighthouse parking lot, Starling chose to drive along Sand Hill Cove Road
to Galilee where they stopped at the Champlin’s seafood market. Edna bought
cooked lobster meat, smoked bluefish and fresh clams while the girls and
Starling strolled along the wharf to look at the boats. The Block Island ferry
wouldn’t be leaving until later that afternoon, but there was plenty of
activity along the docks as fishermen tended to their boats and tourists took
photos of each other with the choppy sea as background.

When she
finished shopping, Edna joined the girls. “Do you want to stay for a while and
walk along the beach?”

Before her niece
could answer, Starling said, “I’m for heading home and some hot clam chowder.
I’ve had enough of this cold wind.”

“Me, too,”
Amanda agreed. She turned to Lettie who was looking at her cell phone display
and didn’t seem to have heard. Amanda rolled her eyes at Starling and Edna,
heaved a sigh and took her friend by the arm to lead her toward the car. The
youngster complied complacently without looking up from the device in her hand,
although Edna noticed a smile twitch at the sides of Lettie’s mouth.

At home, Edna
busied herself in the kitchen while Starling lit a fire in the living room
grate. The girls, after changing into lighter weight jerseys and sweaters, set
up a card table near the hearth. Deciding on Parcheesi, they sat down to play
until lunch was ready.

“Is that phone
ever out of her hand?” Starling asked, reaching around Edna to snatch a lump of
lobster meat from the salad bowl.

Edna knew it was
a rhetorical question, so didn’t answer as she toasted hot dog buns for the
seafood rolls and stirred milk into the warming chowder. Instead, she said, “By
the time you set the table and ask the girls to wash their hands, lunch should
be ready.” She didn’t mention her house rule of “no phones at the table” to her
daughter, assuming Amanda would let her friend know without having to be
reminded by Starling.

When they
entered the kitchen, however, Lettie laid her mobile next to her plate before
sitting down.

“Please put that
away,” Edna said, setting the platter of lobster rolls in the middle of the
table.

“Told you,”
Amanda admonished her friend.

Lettie looked up
at Edna with eyes wide in a near panic. “But Mommy might text me,” she almost
wailed.

“Come with me,”
Edna said with a gentle smile that she hoped would mask the impatience she
felt. Apparently, the child’s mother kept her on an electronic leash. Preceding
the girl into her office, Edna picked up a pencil and wrote her phone number on
a slip of paper. “You can either phone your mother or text her, but please give
her my number. Tell her we are sitting down to eat. If she needs to contact you
in the next half hour or so, she can phone this house.”

Lettie looked baffled,
but did as she was told, sending her mother a text message. Obeying Edna’s
instruction, she left the phone on the desk and followed Edna back to the
kitchen. Over hot chowder and toasted lobster rolls, she soon seemed to forget
her distress. The morning’s venture had certainly stimulated appetites,
including Edna’s. Everyone ate hungrily with only occasional murmurings of
appreciation breaking the silence.

After lunch, as
soon as the girls were excused from the table, Lettie ran to the office to check
her phone. Starling went upstairs to her room, and Edna decided to sit by the
fire to read. At Edna’s request, Amanda and Lettie cleaned up the lunch dishes
before returning to the living room to resume their game. They had played for
only a few minutes when Amanda spoke to her friend, apparently voicing
something that had been on her mind.

“Why do you call
your grandmother ‘Lily’?”

“She wants me
to. Mommy calls her Lily, too.”

“Why does she
call you Violet instead of Lettie?”

“She says we
were named after pretty flowers, and that’s what we should be called, not some
silly nicknames.”

Smiling to
herself and holding back a chuckle, Edna returned her attention to her book.
When she realized she’d been staring at the same paragraph for the last five
minutes, she decided to check her e-mail messages and went to her office.
Twenty minutes later, Amanda came in and threw herself down in the chair beside
the desk. Fortunately, Benjamin was asleep in his bed beside the hearth and so
wasn’t ousted by the youngster.

Edna looked over
from the monitor at the scowling face of her granddaughter. “What’s wrong,
kiddo?”

Slouched in the
chair, Amanda stared at her legs stretched out before her. “Lettie.”

“What about
Lettie?”

“She’s not
playing. She keeps sending messages to her mom.”

“Does she do
that all the time? I thought her mother was working. How does she find the time
to text back?”

Amanda shrugged
and turned eyes filled with frustration on Edna. “When it’s my turn, she grabs
her phone and then when it’s her turn, I have to wait for her to finish
texting.” Huffily, she crossed her arms over her chest and returned to studying
her pants legs. When Edna didn’t say anything, Amanda looked up at her. “Let’s
take her back to her grandmother’s.”

Edna sympathized
with her granddaughter’s annoyance, but nearly burst out laughing at the
child’s solution to her problem. “Have you asked Lettie to put her phone away
while you’re playing?”

Chin now lowered
to her chest, Amanda moved her head in what Edna took for a nod. “It doesn’t do
any good. She says her mom worries if she doesn’t hear from her.”

“Do you think it
might be Lettie who needs to stay connected to her mother?”

Amanda’s eyes
were on her feet as she tapped the sides of her shoes together. A few seconds
went by before she said, “I suppose.”

“Did you know
Lettie’s father died a couple of years ago?”

Still watching
her sneakers, Amanda nodded.

“Sometimes when
children lose a parent, they get frightened about losing the other parent. Do
you think that’s what might be going on, that Lettie’s afraid her mother might
go away?”

Amanda glanced
at Edna with curiosity. “Maybe.”

At that moment,
they heard a noise in the hall and the object of their discussion appeared in
the doorway. “It’s your turn,” Lettie said with a note of impatience.

Amanda sat up
straighter, pulling her legs in. “I’m going to see if Mary’s home.” As she
stood, she added, “I want to play with the kittens.”

“Me, too,”
Lettie said, her face lighting up with anticipation.

“You have to
leave your phone here, though,” Amanda said sternly.

“Mommy doesn’t
like it if I don’t answer right away. She worries.”

Edna wondered if
Amanda might be wrong about who mainly initiated the texts between mother and
daughter. Could it be that Rosie was afraid something might happen to Lettie
and had to check on her constantly? “Why don’t you text your mother and tell
her to call me if she needs to talk to you? She has my number.”

Before Lettie
had time to respond to the suggestion, Edna heard Starling hurrying down the
stairs. At the same time, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,”
Starling called out seconds before Edna heard the front door open.

At the sound of
muffled voices, Lettie disappeared into the hall with Amanda not far behind.

Curious as to
who had just arrived, Edna got up and followed the girls into the hall in time
to see Rosie hug her daughter. She was laughing, as if delighted to have played
a trick on Lettie. “Surprised to see me, sweetie?”

“Hello, Rosie,”
Edna said, approaching the group at the front door. “I thought you were working
this weekend.”
She must have been texting while driving
, Edna thought
with disapproval.

The woman shook
her head, still obviously pleased with herself. “It’s Saturday. I decided to
take the night off. I missed my little girl and thought I’d drive down ahead of
the snow to spend some time with her.” She tilted her head toward the outside.
“Looks like I just made it.” To Lettie, she said, “Why don’t you go get your
things? I want to reach Lily’s before the roads start to ice up.”

Edna wondered
about the reason Lettie was visiting Lily in the first place. Hadn’t Rosie
claimed she’d be too busy to take any time off for the next week? Shaking the
idea from her mind--after all, Rosie’s schedule was none of Edna’s
business--she introduced Starling to Lettie’s mother before asking, “Would you
like a cup of tea before you go?”

“I’d better not
take the time. Lettie won’t be long.”

The three women
chatted about the weather and road conditions for the few minutes it took the
girls to fetch Lettie’s backpack. By the time the youngster retrieved her
jacket, hat and gloves from the coat closet, Rosie was reaching for the
doorknob.

“Whew, that was
fast,” Starling said when the door had closed behind mother and daughter. She
put an arm around Amanda’s shoulders, turning her toward the living room. “I
hereby challenge you to a game of Parcheesi, Manda-Panda.”

The girl had
apparently forgotten all about visiting Mary and the kittens as she smiled up
at her aunt and walked with her down the hall.

“When is Charlie
picking you up for dinner?” Edna called to Starling.

“He’s not.”
Starling glanced back over her shoulder with a pout. “He called just before
Lettie’s mother arrived and said he has to work tonight. They’re expecting
emergency conditions and want all available personnel on duty. We’re postponing
our dinner date,” she said, adding with emphasis and a roll of her eyes, “
again
.”
She turned abruptly to face Edna and scowled. “Did you have this much trouble
trying to get a date with Dad when he was on call at the hospital?”

Edna was taken
aback for a second or two and nearly whooped with delight.
Is this a hint
that something more serious is going on between her and Charlie
? Edna
wondered, but didn’t want to push the matter at that moment. Starling would
confide in her when the time was right, or clam up, if it weren’t. Instead,
Edna said, “I’ll call Mary and see if she’d like to come for supper.”

“What are we
having?” Amanda asked, pausing in the archway, and the look passing between
mother and daughter broke.

“How about
chicken pot pie?” Edna suggested, her glance lowering to her granddaughter’s
face. “Comfort food for a cold night.”

The resounding
cheers from her daughter and granddaughter made her laugh, but as they
disappeared into the living room, she wondered if she’d have a chance to get
Mary alone long enough to ask what she knew about the Haverstrum and Beck
scandal.

Chapter 8

After a deep and
dreamless sleep, Edna awoke and rose early. The storm had ended, leaving six
inches of snow in its wake. Glancing out the window at the scene below, she saw
that the Benton brothers, neighborhood teenagers who shoveled for the Davies
and Mary without having to be phoned each time, had already cleared the drive.
Edna idly wondered if they were on break this week or had they dragged
themselves out of bed on one of the few mornings they could sleep in. She made
a mental note to add a generous tip when they came around to collect.

Going down to
the kitchen, she made coffee and took a cup to her office. She wanted to resume
her search of news about Gregory Haverstrum before Amanda and Starling came
down for breakfast, but the computer hadn’t finished booting up when the
doorbell rang. Surprised, she looked at the wall clock and realized it wasn’t
yet eight o’clock.

“Who in the
world …” she muttered, hurrying into the front hall.

Before she
reached the door, she heard muffled banging, as if gloved hands were pounding
on the wood. A faint voice called through the heavy wood, “Edna? Edna, are you
up. Please let me in.” The doorbell rang again.

Tuck
?
Recognizing the voice, Edna grew increasingly agitated by the urgency in her
friend’s tone. She fumbled with the deadbolt.

“Tuck?” Edna
finally had the door open. Frowning, she wondered what had brought her friend
to the house, and why she seemed so distressed. “Was I supposed to join you in
church this morning?” She tried to remember if she’d forgotten a previous
engagement with all that had been distracting her for the past few days.

Ignoring the
question, Tuck pushed past her into the hall, unwrapping a cashmere scarf from
her neck as she did so. “Oh, Edna, something terrible has happened.” Tuck always
wore a slightly puzzled expression as if not certain how she had gotten where she
was. This morning, her eyes, the same sky blue as her scarf, appeared both
frightened and bewildered. She stripped off her jacket, and Edna saw how upset
Tuck must’ve been when she dressed. Usually so meticulously turned out, Tuck
seemed to have pulled on an old pair of navy blue stretch pants and a light
green turtleneck. Edna’s attention was drawn away from Tuck’s clothing at her
friend’s next words. “Peppa’s been arrested,” she blurted, plopping down on a
nearby ladder-back chair.

“Arrested? For
what?” Edna couldn’t imagine Peppa doing anything unlawful.

“Vehicular
homicide.”

That one, Edna
could believe. Having been a passenger in Peppa’s vintage Mercedes when they’d
first met, Edna managed to repeat the harrowing experience only twice in the
last year and a half. True, the woman was quite reckless behind the wheel, but
miraculously had avoided having an accident in over fifty years. Tickets for
speeding, running red lights and ignoring stop signs were a different matter,
but she always paid promptly and cheerfully.

“My goodness.”
Shocked by the news, Edna needed time to absorb what she’d just heard. “I knew
it was bound to happen sooner or later, but
homicide
.” Her voice rose on
this last word, making it sound like a question.

Tuck nodded as
she removed her overcoat and pulled off her snow-caked boots.

“Come into the
kitchen. The coffee’s fresh,” Edna said, feeling numb and wanting to sit before
her knees gave way.

In the kitchen,
instead of sitting, Tuck paced and babbled, apparently talking more to herself
than to Edna. “She’s got old Dick Feinberg to represent her. He’s not a
criminal attorney, but they’ve known each other for years. She phoned me this
morning after she called him. Officially, she’s only allowed one phone call,
but most of them at the station are her Saturday morning kids, you know.”

They and half
the town,
Edna thought and almost felt like smiling. If there was anyone in
the area who hadn’t attended Peppa’s weekend story hour, they hadn’t grown up
locally.

“You’ve got to
go talk to her.”

“To Peppa?” Edna
was confused. When Tuck merely gave a curt nod, Edna asked, “Why me?” She
realized her question sounded like she was reluctant to speak with her friend,
but before she could amend it, Tuck spoke.

“Because she’s
not speaking to me at the moment.”

Edna shook her
head, trying to decipher Tuck’s convoluted way of thinking. “I thought you said
she phoned you this morning.”

“She did, but
when she found out I knew Clem was back in town, she got angry and hung up on
me. I called back, but was told she wouldn’t come to the phone. I even went
over to the station. That’s where I was before I came here. She’s flat out
refusing to see me.

“Clem?” Edna
couldn’t imagine there was more than one man in town with the name, but it was
too coincidental. “You mean the ‘Clem’ who works for Lily Beck?”

Tuck nodded.
“Peppa’s ex.” Her tone implied Edna was already supposed to know, but in the
relatively short time she’d known Peppa, the woman hadn’t discussed her former
husband or anything about the divorce. She definitely hadn’t spoken his name.

“What has he to
do with it?”

“He’s the man
she ran over last night, the reason she’s been arrested.”

This last
pronouncement was too much for Edna. “Hold on, Tuck. I need you to take a deep
breath, then sit down and tell me what’s going on. From the beginning, please,”
she added as she herself sat at the kitchen table.

Tuck did as she
was told, taking a minute to stroke Benjamin’s golden fur. In the seat next to
hers, the cat blinked sleepily, having been awakened by the commotion. Seeming
slightly more relaxed, Tuck stared down at the coffee Edna placed before her
and began her tale.

“Peppa’s call
woke me. I didn’t realize she was calling from the police station. I wasn’t
wearing my glasses, you see, so hadn’t looked at the caller ID before picking
up.”

Edna knew Tuck
was apt to go off on a tangent and lose her train of thought, so she prompted.
“What did Peppa tell you?”

“That she found
a body at the foot of her driveway this morning.” Tuck raised her eyebrows and
lifted her shoulders as if totally baffled. “I thought she was joking, so I
laughed and waited for her to deliver the punch line. She got huffy and said
she wasn’t kidding. That’s when she mentioned she was calling from the police
station. She’d already phoned Dick and was waiting for him to show up. She
wanted me to know what had happened, in case they put her in jail. Asked if I
could go over to her place and take care of Rufus.”

An image of
Peppa’s large but gentle and loving Rottweiler popped into Edna head. “Will you
take him to your house?”

Tuck took a sip
of coffee and thought for several seconds, frowning as if the idea hadn’t
occurred to her. Then, she nodded. “I will if Peppa’s not released today. He’ll
be all right in the backyard, but I’d hate to think of him all alone, waiting
for her to come home. Don’t you think that would be sad?”

Time to get
Tuck back on track
, Edna thought, more confused than ever. “You said she
ran over her ex-husband last night and found a body in her driveway this
morning. His body?”

“Of course,”
Tuck said, as if it were plain as day. “That’s the problem. Because of how
bitter she’s always been, everyone’s going to think she ran him down on
purpose.”

Edna thought
Tuck was probably right, but didn’t say anything as her friend continued.

“Peppa said she
remembered the car bouncing over a snow mound when she turned into her driveway
last night. She’d been out to dinner with friends and got home late. You know
she always has a glass or two of wine with dinner,” Tuck added.

Before she could
go off on Peppa’s drinking habits, Edna said, “There’s usually a pile of snow
in the gutter after the plows have been by. I bet she gunned the engine and
swerved into the driveway. She does that even in good weather.” Having followed
Peppa home on several occasions, Edna pictured Peppa’s erratic driving habits.

“That’s what she
said. Not about her racing the car, but about thinking the snow had been left
by the street plows. I was supposed to pick her up for church this morning, so
she thought she’d get out early and clear it away before I got there.” Tuck
paused and set her cup back on the table. “She’s so thoughtful.”

Edna ignored
Tuck’s last remark, so horrific was the image that popped into her head. “And
instead of a pile of snow, she found the body of her ex-husband?”

Tears filled
Tuck’s eyes and she fumbled for a pocket before realizing there were none in
her stretch pants. Edna, having already noticed what Tuck was doing, pushed up
from the table and retrieved a box of tissue from beside the sink. Resuming her
seat, she laid the box where Tuck could reach it.

Tuck nodded in
appreciation and, having had a minute to compose herself, pulled out a tissue
and dabbed away tears before speaking again. “Peppa said she didn’t realize who
it was. Just that she saw the body of a man, so she ran back into the house to
call nine-one-one. After talking to the dispatcher, she went back out to see if
he might be alive, but the police had told her not to touch him. He was lying
face down, so she didn’t see his face until after the police arrived. The fire
and rescue truck pulled up right behind them. They were the ones who turned him
over. She was already in shock over what she had done, but then the police
asked her if she could identify the guy. She had no idea until they asked her
to look at the body that it was Clem.” As if exhausted by the telling, Tuck sat
back in her chair and reached over to stroke Benjamin’s back.

Edna thought
about what she’d just heard as she sipped her coffee, now almost cold. She
grimaced at the mug and put it aside before looking over at her friend. “You
said you knew Clem was in town, but Peppa didn’t?”

Slumped in her
chair, Tuck looked utterly miserable. “When she told me it was Clem, she
sounded really and truly stunned. Five years ago, when Peppa kicked him out, he
moved to Springfield to live with his father and brother. She’d told him that
she wouldn’t have anything to do with him until he stopped drinking and
straightened himself up.”

“Is that why
they divorced? He had a drinking problem?” Edna thought back to the man she’d
met at Lily’s. Yes, she could see that he might have been a recovering
alcoholic from his thin frame and deeply lined skin, but he’d also looked fit
and healthy.

“That’s right.”
Tuck looked up at Edna. “She told me she hasn’t heard from him in all that
time, that she didn’t want to know anything about him unless he was sober. I
told her he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since the night of that near-fatal
accident five years ago last Christmas. She asked me how I knew, and I had to
confess that I’d run into him at Lily Beck’s last November. He’s been living
above her garage for the last six months.”

Edna thought of
how gentle and friendly Clem had seemed, but didn’t interrupt Tuck to say she’d
met him at Lily’s, too.

“Peppa asked me
why I hadn’t told her, and I said because he asked me not to. He wasn’t ready
to face her. I don’t know what he was waiting for, but I respected his wishes.
Peppa thinks I should have been loyal to her, not to Clem, so she hung up on
me. You know how stubborn she can be. Now she’s not speaking to me and I don’t
know what to do. Will you go see her and make her understand my side?”

“Before I do
that, I need to know why you didn’t tell Peppa. I thought you two were the best
of friends. Why so loyal to Clem?”

“Because he was
as much a friend as Peppa, at least at one time.” Tuck gave a deep sigh. “Clem
was a botany professor at the university. Nip hired him when we built our herb
garden off the kitchen patio,” Tuck said, speaking of her deceased husband.
“The two men hit it off so well, that’s when we started seeing Clem and Peppa
socially. So, you see, I really knew Clem before I met Peppa. She’s one of my
best and dearest of friends, but I also feel a great deal of loyalty to Clem,
particularly since he was trying so hard to reform.”

Edna was
wondering what she ought to do when she heard the shower go on upstairs. “My
girls are getting up. Will you join us for breakfast. I need some time to
absorb what you’ve told me. Perhaps later we can discuss what I should do.”

Tuck shook her
head and rose to her feet. “Thanks, Edna, but I can’t stay. I need to go see
about Rufus.” She paused, looking more baffled than usual. “Do you think the
police will let me near the house?”

Edna followed
her friend to the hall, promising to talk to Peppa, if she could, but after
Tuck had gone, it was Lily who came to Edna’s mind.

Has anyone
told her that her handyman is dead?