The Wolfe Widow (A Book Collector Mystery) (10 page)

“Tyler?”

“Are you trying to kill me? No cops. Thank God for small favors.”

Oh right. Tyler was out of town on training.

“Who then?”

“No one I know, but they claim to know you.”

“The names, Uncle Mick.” I bit back Vera’s comment of “and in my lifetime.” I didn’t want to turn into Vera and I do love my uncle.

“Snow.”

“Tom and Mindy?”

“The same.”

“Be right there.”

Well, that was good. I didn’t let myself dwell on my missing best friends. I concentrated on the positive. I’d been trying to figure out how to return to the Snows and now they’d found me. Maybe they’d rake me over the coals for deceiving them. But compared to being hit by a truck, that would be a piece of cake.

I felt my way down the stairs, wearing my favorite vintage loungewear that always makes me feel cozy: royal-blue velour palazzo pants, white-and-blue striped T-shirt and an oversized batwing cashmere sweater from the eighties. I was presentable but still would have preferred to be a bit more dressed for company. When I entered the kitchen, Tom and Mindy were squeezed around the table with Uncle Mick. Uncle Lucky loomed from the far wall. My new aunt, Karen, was sitting at the table with them, charming as always. Walter and Cobain watched from the floor.

I smiled sheepishly as I took my place.

“I guess I owe you an explanation and an apology,” I said. “About the alias and all that.”

They shook their heads rapidly.

Mindy said, “We feel responsible for what happened to you.”

“You do?”

“Obviously, this quest is more dangerous than any of us realized. Your uncle Kevin was kind enough to call us and give us a heads-up.”

Oh no.

“Was he now?”

Uncle Mick and Uncle Lucky exchanged glances.

“Yes. He told us all about the people who have been pursuing you and how you have to travel from safe house to safe house to keep from being killed. It’s lucky you escaped.”

No point in trying to explain that I wasn’t a sleeper agent or anything else that might have sprung from Kev’s fevered brain. Luckily he didn’t throw a unicorn into the mix.

“I’m sorry I used a false name—”

“And a wig,” Tom said. “It came off when you flew through the air.”

“Of course, you were right to be wary of whoever was trying to run you down. We’re glad you weren’t killed,” Mindy said.

“Your neatly bagged leaves seem to have saved my life.”

Mindy said, “Thank heavens Tom got them back outside. He’d dragged them into the carport when it snowed. He’d just wrestled them to the curb again when you arrived.”

Tom was still stuck at the wig. “Weirdest thing I ever saw. There you were shooting through the air like a cannonball and your hair flew right off your head.”

“It was jaw-dropping,” Mindy said. “We were so worried. It’s a big relief to find you in one piece. Literally.”

“Time for me to get a new wig anyway,” I said with a grin. “Red is so yesterday. Black and blue are the colors of the day. But I seem to have lost the cinnamon buns. I truly regret that.”

They exchanged glances and then grinned in unison. “I think we might be able to locate a supply of those,” Mindy said. “Oh and I almost forgot, we brought back your beautiful scarf.” She produced the Pucci scarf that I’d left as an excuse to return.

Of course, I wasn’t going anywhere now and I was glad to get it back.

“Before we go too far,” I felt I had to add, “you need to know that whatever happened to me has something to do with Muriel Delgado. Whoever hit me knew I was visiting you and knew I’d been asking questions about her.”

“Muriel.” They nodded together. “But we thought you were avoiding some kind of—”

“Pretty sure it had to do with Muriel somehow.”

They sat there, mentally processing that. Finally, they both nodded. “Makes sense,” Tom said.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Mindy said, “Well, Muriel was a strange and angry girl. Nothing that I would find out about her would really surprise me.” She paused and then added, “Well, I guess that’s not really true. I think I really
would
be surprised to learn she’d tried to kill you for no reason at all.”

Tom said, “You can’t make an accusation like that.”

Mindy started to protest. “I didn’t say she did it, Tom.”

I interjected, “Muriel wasn’t driving the vehicle. She has a solid alibi with plenty of people to vouch for her, but I do believe that she is involved somehow. She has a reason and it seems to be that I was asking about her family and her. I went to her other previous addresses and tried to find out about her, same as with you.”

Tom said, “Do you mind if we ask why? I assume that it’s not really a legacy, as we now know you are not who you said you were.”

“You’re right. It isn’t. Muriel seems to have a strange influence over my former employer. She arrived at my home the other evening without warning and met with the woman who was my boss. The next morning I found myself fired. I had to move out of my quarters within hours, and the other employees were told to have no contact with me.”

“I have to ask why again,” Tom said.

“That’s the reason why I am investigating. My employer is wealthy, although not as wealthy as she used to be. She’s not well and not physically strong at all.” I didn’t mention that Vera was usually tough as nails and mean as a snake and grouchy as a hibernating bear or any of the other clichés that describe her. I also didn’t mention she was Vera Van Alst, in case they were somehow biased against her as was most of the community—including my own relatives.

Mindy said, “That’s terrible.”

“Yup. I think Muriel has some kind of hold over her.”

They stared at me, eyes wide. I supposed that Maple Street wasn’t full of this life-and-death intrigue all the time.

I said, “I need to find out and not just for me. It’s important for my employer’s safety and even for your own.”

They blinked.

I was betting there was a lot they hadn’t told me about Carmen and Muriel. I saw no reason not to push a bit.

Tom said, “Our safety?”

“Sure. They must have seen me leave your home. Therefore you could be threatened too.”

“I don’t see why we would be in any danger,” Mindy said. “We don’t know anything.”

I shook my head. Not a good idea when you’re in my condition. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath until everything stopped swimming. “I think you do. I felt you were holding back about Carmen Delgado. There’s something about her that you both feel should be kept secret. Or at least not discussed. I need to know what that is.”

Mindy stared at her fingernails. Tom glanced around at the clock on the wall.

“It won’t go any further,” I reassured them. “Any idea what that hold might be?”

I could tell by looking at them that they didn’t.

“It’s quite serious,” I said. “Any leads would be helpful.”

“We know nothing at all about any of that,” Tom said a bit sanctimoniously.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Tom,” Mindy said. “No one really cares about those things anymore. What harm could it do?”

Tom’s eyebrow shot up.

I cared deeply about whatever it was, so I said, “You can trust me. I am struggling to understand this woman and her family. Anyway, who would I tell?”

Mindy shot Tom a rebellious glower and said, “Carmen was a bit of a—”

A warning tone crept into Tom’s voice. “Mindy.”

“I was going to say a beauty, Tom. Don’t get all high and mighty. She was a stunning woman.”

“She was a pretty girl, for sure.”

“Men fell for her, in a big way. But the relationships didn’t seem to work out, until poor Pete.”

It hadn’t worked out for poor Pete either, I thought, as he’d ended up dead in the street.

I nodded to encourage her. “The relationships didn’t work out?”

“I mean didn’t lead to marriage. Pete was her first husband and by then she wasn’t all that young.”

Tom sat there glowering at Mindy. “Well, maybe she was too good for them.”

Mindy rolled her eyes. “Yes, maybe that was it. At any rate, the point is—”

I had already figured out the point, although Tom was determined to prevent that.

If Pete was Carmen’s first husband, then Muriel had been born out of wedlock. She had her mother’s name, not her father’s. Lots of people wouldn’t blink an eye over this now, and many wouldn’t be scandalized, but back in the sixties when Muriel was born, that would have created quite a storm. And it must have been an awful stigma for a child.

I
DIDN
’
T
WANT
T
OM
to leave upset and angry. And I didn’t want to alienate Mindy either. I said, “So Carmen kept the child. That news must have spread like wildfire.”

They exchanged glances.

Mindy nodded. “She did and it did.”

“Well, more power to her. I imagine it was quite difficult. Did her family support her decision?”

They glanced at each other and shrugged. “We’ve never met anyone. I don’t remember Pete mentioning any either. They had a small wedding at City Hall. No one else attended. We went and so did Muriel. But in those days a wedding wasn’t a lavish affair.”

I said, “Well, it gives me an idea that Muriel had to build backbone to survive if she was an illegitimate child and with no relatives to make her feel wanted and support her, except her mother. My mother died when I was young and I can’t imagine growing up without all my uncles to protect my interests and build my confidence.” And give me an unusual set of skills and a great set of lock picks.

“There were lots of babies born out of wedlock even back then,” Mindy said. “Most of the girls dropped out of sight. Gone to an aunt’s, we used to call it. They didn’t keep their babies. They put them up for adoption. They wanted it kept secret.” She sighed heavily.

Tom said, “Must have been hard on them giving away those children.” He really was an old softie. I liked his sweet, sad face more by the minute.

Mindy said, “For sure, life wasn’t easy for them either. You had to sympathize. People seemed to know about the pregnancies, and there was gossip as well as the heartbreak of losing a baby. But Carmen was different.”

“Different?”

“Yes. Carmen didn’t care what people thought. She never did. She wanted what she wanted and that was that.” Hmm. Sounded a lot like Muriel to me.

I said, “You knew her back then?”

“Oh yes, we were all at school together. She had all the boys in the palm of her hand, but she had a reputation for being pretty fast, so most of the mothers made sure she didn’t end up with their lads.” The glance at Tom told me there was another story there.

I said, “Even though she didn’t care what people said about her, back then it must have been hard. Carmen didn’t marry until Muriel was in her teens, so how did she make ends meet?”

Tom squinted. “I think Muriel was about sixteen. I realize now that they lived in abject poverty early on. I think the two of them had a room and a shared bathroom over in a boardinghouse on Willows. Carmie’s parents disowned her. I don’t really know how she survived or how the child did. I feel terrible that I never tried to help her.”

Mindy rolled her eyes again. She must have been training for some sort of eye-rolling competition. “Your mother would have had your head on a plate if you had.”

Tom got a faraway look in his eye and said, “Then Carmie got work at the shoe factory and was able to move from Willows over to Lilac Lane. She stayed on there until something happened.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. But by the time she moved to Maple Street, she hadn’t worked there for a while.”

I thought about it. What could have happened at the factory that would have given Carmen some power over the Van Alsts? Did she uncover something illegal? A death that would have been the responsibility of the Van Alst family? Something she could use to extort some money?

Whatever, an unemployed single mother wouldn’t be buying a house on Maple Street without some ace up her sleeve.

“Thanks for this,” I said, “It does help me understand Muriel a bit. I guess she comes by her forceful personality honestly.”

“I guess,” Mindy said.

“Carmie adored her,” Tom said. “So Muriel didn’t have a hard time at home.”

But she would have in her neighborhood and at school, I thought. There would have been slurs, remarks, all kinds of digs. There would have been shoves and pushes when teachers weren’t watching. There would have been hair pulling and shunning. Muriel must have learned to stand her ground at school. I thought about her scowling and resolute presence.

Mindy spoke up. “It would have been horrible for her, Tom, even if Carmen was too clueless to realize it.”

“Well,” I said, “you two have helped me understand quite a bit. I know it wasn’t easy for you and you are not gossips, so I appreciate knowing this background.” I paused. “I guess Muriel didn’t inherit her mother’s beauty.”

Mindy snorted and looked embarrassed. Tom said, “Not a bit. Carmie was slender but—”

“Curvy,” said Mindy. “Carmen had the kind of figure that men notice.”

Tom agreed. “And poor Muriel was large and awkward. Carmie had a beautiful, sweet face and a smile that could light up a room.”

“And she knew how to wear makeup and clothes that flattered her too, although they were always too tight in a way that suited her,” Mindy said a bit snappishly. I was predicting a chilly ride home for the Snows today. “Muriel was so ungainly and so plain, it was hard to believe they were related.”

What did that mean? Was Muriel someone else’s child? Was Carmen merely pretending to be the mother?

“But they were related? For sure?” I said. I couldn’t think of too many circumstances where an unmarried woman in the early sixties would pretend that someone else’s child was hers, particularly when there was no money in it.

“Of course,” Tom said. “You could see it in their features. The only thing was on Carmie, those features looked good. But now, Muriel is what they call a handsome woman. Imposing and . . .”

Well, imposing, scary, but not plain. “Handsome” might have been pushing it.
You could carve a roast on that face
, I’d heard Kevin say.

“You’ve seen her lately?”

“Just a glimpse on Bridge Street last week. We didn’t speak. In fact, I wasn’t sure it was her in the beginning.”

I stuck in a question before we lost the thread. “So you don’t know what Carmen did at the shoe factory?”

Mindy glanced at her watch. “Look at the time!”

Tom stared at his shoes as if they’d betrayed him by not carrying him from the room. They both looked so guilty that I knew I’d hit on something big with that question.

“No,” they said.

As if.

I mean, they could have been off the hook if they’d said,
She made shoes
.

“She worked in the factory, you said earlier. Who did she work for? Maybe I can follow up with that person. This must have been when, back in the late sixties, early seventies? That person might still be alive.”

“He isn’t,” Mindy snapped.

“Mindy!”

“Well, he isn’t, Tom. So let’s leave it at that.”

Mindy closed her mouth and gave the impression she was going to keep it that way.

I had no intention of leaving it. I had two choices. One, head to the library and comb through the local archives for information on the Van Alst Shoe Factory. Or two, push for an answer here so I didn’t have to collapse in front of Lance’s blue-haired groupies. As my uncles have taught me, when in doubt, bluff. I had a hunch and I hoped it would pay off. I thought I knew what they were trying to keep from me.

“So, Carmen Delgado went to work for Mr. Leonard Van Alst. Am I right? No point in hedging. I can always find out.”

They didn’t have to tell me that I’d gotten it. The answer was written on their faces.

I decided to push it one step further. I knew plenty about Leonard Van Alst, the third generation of the Van Alsts to run the shoe company and the man generally believed to have run it into the ground, bringing economic disaster to Harrison Falls and the surrounding communities. He was reputed to be a vain, impulsive and silly man. Just Carmen’s type.

He was also Vera’s father.

Now there was a juicy tidbit.

I gave it one more push. “And then one thing led to another. A beautiful, voluptuous woman with a child to support snagged a wealthy factory owner and started to move up in the world. Did Leonard Van Alst buy her the house on Maple Street?”

Tom said, “Everyone’s tongue was wagging and poor Carmen was shunned by the community. I don’t want to gossip.”

Mindy said, “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Of course, he bought that house for her. Everyone knew it.”

Tom glowered. “She was trying to do the best for her child and make a decent life.”

Mindy muttered, “Maybe ‘decent’ isn’t the right word. He was a married man and a father.”

My turn. “And then the factory closed down.”

Mindy said, “So many people lost their jobs and homes. And yet Carmen kept on living in her pretty little house. He saw to that. It didn’t endear her to people who’d lost everything, including some of our neighbors who had to sell their homes when their jobs disappeared.”

Tom scowled. “It was terrible. Carmen was harassed on the street. She stopped leaving the house. Muriel had to take care of everything, get groceries and run errands. People were cruel to her too. And she had nothing to do with any of it. She was only a kid. It makes you despair of your fellow man.”

“She was always odd, though,” Mindy said.

“Doesn’t excuse it. People should have been ashamed of themselves. Bullying, plain and simple. We tried to be nice to her.”

“But she was definitely peculiar, different, as I said before.” Mindy wasn’t letting go of that.

I said, “If I remember the family history, Herman founded the factory. By the time the grandson, Leonard, took over, things went downhill fast. Money was squandered on art and trips and extravagances even though the factory was in trouble. So if he bought a house for Carmen, of course, that must have upset people.”

“Oh, it did. And it didn’t help Carmen’s reputation in the community any that he made sure she got her house in his will.”

“He did?”

“Yes. He took care of her.” There was still an edge to Mindy’s voice, and I couldn’t help but notice that Tom had turned away from her slightly. Gone was the cozy affection that they’d brought with them.

I hoped that Tom and Mindy made up soon. But even more, I was hoping they’d leave soon. As much as I liked them, my head was swimming with this new development. Any more and my brain wiring would start to smoke. Muriel’s mother had been Vera’s father’s mistress. Even though the family fortune was sinking, Leonard Van Alst had left a house to Carmen Delgado. Everyone in town knew that, apparently. Did Vera know it? If so, why would it make her defer to Muriel? I would have expected anger or even contempt. Disinterest at the least. What was I missing here? I needed to sort it out. And in order to do that, I needed a bit of privacy.

When I started to sway, Uncle Mick declared the session over, and the Snows were on their way, a lot cooler than when they arrived.

I was hustled back upstairs and told to settle down. I couldn’t even resist.

But I also couldn’t sleep. I had finally realized the hold that Muriel had over Vera. If Muriel’s mother had been Vera’s father’s mistress for many years, that would leave a cauldron of motives. More than that, I pondered Tom’s comments about the length of the relationship. I was no math wizard, but it seemed to me that Carmen had worked at the shoe factory after Muriel was born. Leonard hadn’t inherited the family factory at that point, and he had his own family to support. How could he manage to buy a house for his mistress at that point? All this information cleared up some of the strangeness but still left a lot of questions.

My brain ached, but I tried to remember when Leonard Van Alst had taken over from his late father. Vera was in her early teens. I knew that much from what I’d read. Vera was never keen to discuss that period. From then on, it had been a fairly steep decline for the Van Alst family, the factory and the town. From what I’d heard, more of that could be attributed to Van Alst than to the changing economy.

A strange and horrible thought occurred to me. How long had the affair gone on? When had it begun? Could anything from so long ago be worth killing for?