Consigned to Death (17 page)

He nodded. “And the Matisse? How much would it have sold for?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. A lot.”

Wes leaned back and soft-whistled. “The things we don’t know about our neighbors.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

“Where do you figure the Grants got thirty thousand dollars cash back then?”

“Who knows? Didn’t you tell me Grant came from money?”

“Successful ranchers, yeah, that’s true,” he agreed, and stretched. “So, what do you think?” he asked, putting his square paper away in an inside pocket. He smiled and half winked. “Did I earn my exclusive?”

“If we forget the winklike thing you just did ... yes.”

“What ‘winklike thing’?” he asked, sounding hurt.

“That thing you just did with your eye.”

“That wasn’t a ‘winklike thing,’” he protested. “That was a suave move.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Forget about it. So? Did I do okay?”

“Yeah. Wes, you did more than okay,” I said, meaning it. He’d done an amazing job of discovering facts and uncovering hidden memories, and he’d done it quickly. I was impressed.

With a lopsided grin, he reached up to high-five me, and I looked to the sky, embarrassed, but high-fived him back. Jeez Louise, kids today.

“Ready?” he asked.

“You bet.”

He stood up, scooped up my mostly uneaten doughnut with a napkin, and dropped it in the Playmate while I shook sand from the blanket. We made our way through the shifting sand to the dunes. As we approached the street, the CD player still on, Frank Sinatra began singing “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”

 

 

The drive back to Portsmouth was as bad as the drive to the beach had been. Wes jumped a red light in the center of the small downtown, and as I braced myself for the inevitable quick stop that I was certain would follow, we passed a sliver of store-front called the Taffy Pull, the candy store that had come up in Mr. Grant’s telephone records.
Funny
, I thought,
that I’d never noticed it before
. I didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, maybe that was why.

I looked back as we sped by. At this hour, it was locked up tight. The entire block of tourist-oriented stores was deserted. Come July, even at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, the place would be hopping.

“What’s our next step?” I asked.

“I follow up,” he said, patting the pocket where he’d placed the paper with his notes. “How about you? What will you do?”

“I’m not sure. There’s so much to think about. You’ll call me when you learn more, right?”

He assured me that he would, and when we arrived, he pulled up near my car and added, “I believe you, you know.”

“Believe me about what?” I asked.

“I believe that you didn’t kill Mr. Grant.”

I swallowed, oddly touched by his unsolicited vote of confidence, and tried to smile. I reached over and touched his shoulder. “Thanks, Wes. That means a lot.”

 

 

My stomach grumbled and I decided to get a real breakfast. I sat at the counter, ordered bacon and eggs, and shut my eyes. I heard voices, but no conversations, rustlings as people turned newspaper pages, and the clatter of coffeepots. In the midst of life, I felt cocooned and able to focus on Wes’s revelations.

I felt restless, anxious to be up and doing, not sitting and eating. But I wasn’t sure what to do. The Grants owned a trio of paintings of nearly inestimable artistic and monetary value—where did the Cezanne and Matisse come from and where were they now?

A deepening sense of dread colored my outlook, yet my growing fear was nonspecific. It was as if I’d wandered unawares into Act II of a three-act drama, but didn’t know my lines or even the role I’d been assigned to play.

I opened my eyes and took a long drink of orange juice. I had more questions than before, and no idea about how I could get answers. Nothing made sense. In fact, it seemed that the more I learned, the less I knew.

I
didn’t get back to the warehouse until almost 9:30. Greeting Gretchen on the fly, I ran upstairs to my office to change into my uniform. I, like everyone else on staff and all temporary workers, had to adhere to a dress code on auction and tag-sale days. We wore maroon collared T-shirts with the words Prescott Antiques printed in small white letters on the pocket and black slacks and shoes.

Only Tom McLaughlin, the auctioneer in for the day from upstate, was allowed to wear whatever he wanted. The first time he’d driven down to work for me, about eighteen months earlier, I’d asked him if he wanted to wear a Prescott T-shirt. His sour look had been answer enough.

Tucking in my shirt as I hurried down the stairs, I went directly to the auction site, where the final preview hours were about to begin. Sasha seemed to have everything under control.

“Ready?” I asked, entering through the back.

“As ready as I’m going to be,” she answered, trying for a smile. Responsibility was new to her, and she took to it awkwardly, but with a quiet determination to succeed.

“You’ll do fine,” I said, responding to her underlying message, not her words.

“Thanks,” she said with a quick smile.

“Anything I need to know about?”

“I don’t think so. We’re ready to open up on schedule. Katrina’s outside signing in the early birds.”

I nodded. “Good.” Katrina, a part-time worker with a year’s experience, would be with Sasha all day helping her register bidders, pass out catalogues, record winning bids, and run errands.

“Tom is here,” she said, pointing toward the front.

I spotted him near the podium, scowling at the catalogue. Today, as always, he wore a rumpled brown suit and a glum demeanor. I didn’t care that he was routinely surly before and after the auction. With a gavel in his hand, he was transformed. He worked the crowd with seemingly effortless ease, exuding goodwill and confidence, and creating eager bidders. With a nod to Sasha, I headed toward the stage, calling to him as I approached. He turned and frowned at me.

“Do you have everything you need?” I asked.

He snorted. “Not unless you have a check for a million dollars in your pocket.”

I smiled politely. “I wish. You have the catalogue, I see.”

“Did you do the research?”

“No. Sasha did it. And wrote the descriptions.”

“It’s good.” Words of high praise from a man who knew.

I smiled my thanks. “She and Katrina will be here all day if you need anything.”

He nodded and waved me away. I told Sasha I’d be back in a while, and left. I stuck my head into the office, and called, “Gretchen? I’m going to dash over to the tag sale to be sure we’re ready to open. Anything for me first?”

“Yes,” she said, standing up and turning to face me. She wore her Prescott T-shirt with flair, looking as stylish as always. “Mrs. Cabot is here to see you.”

Mrs. Cabot, Mr. Grant’s daughter? In a dazzling flash of hope, I imagined that she’d selected me to handle her father’s estate. I caught myself beginning to hyperventilate at the thought and quelled my impulse to hoot and holler and kick my heels in the air.
Stop, Josie,
I admonished myself.
Stop, breathe, and think
. Forcing myself to slow down and think, I took a deep breath. And another. Okay. I was ready.

I stepped inside. Mrs. Cabot sat in an upholstered guest chair near the front, her feet firmly on the ground, gripping her handbag tightly.

“Mrs. Cabot,” I said, smiling as I walked forward. “I didn’t see you.”

As I got closer I could see that her eyes were moist and reddened. I knew the look; she’d been crying.

“Hello,” she said quietly, pushing herself upright. “I’m sorry to disturb you.”

“You’re not disturbing me. Not at all. You met Gretchen?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mrs. Cabot said with a nod and half smile.

“Absolutely,” Gretchen responded. Turning to Mrs. Cabot, she asked, “Would you reconsider about coffee?”

“No, thank you, though.”

“Are you sure?” I asked Mrs. Cabot.

“I’m fine. Thank you.”

“What can I do for you?”

She cleared her throat. “I was hoping ... do you have a few minutes to talk?”

“Sure.” Her look of relief piqued my curiosity.

As I was about to invite her to sit down again, her eyes flitted toward Gretchen, and I read the unspoken request. “Come up to my office. We’ll be more comfortable up there. It’s private.”

“Thank you.”

I gestured that Mrs. Cabot should walk ahead. “Gretchen,” I said, “will you go find Eric at the tag sale and make certain he’s okay?”

“You bet,” she answered.

My priorities had shifted in an instant. At that moment, nothing was more important to me than talking to Mrs. Cabot.

 

 

Mrs. Cabot, wearing a royal blue suit, sat on a bright yellow love seat. I took a chair across from her and waited for her to speak.

“It’s hard for me to be here,” she said softly.

“I can see that you’re upset,” I said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like some tea? Or some water? Something?”

She shook her head and cleared her throat. “I’m here to ask you to help me. I have no reason to think you will, and I’ll certainly understand if you say no. But I thought ... it occurred to me ...” She glanced down and twirled her gold wedding band. A widow who still wore her wedding ring. A sign, I assumed, of a happy marriage.

“Please ...” she continued, “I hope that you ... I mean I am asking that you ... I’m here because I don’t know whom else to ask.” She finished in a rush, as if she wanted to get the words out before she changed her mind.

“Help you do what?” I asked, wary.

“First, I must tell you that I’m not going to offer you the sale of my father’s estate. I’ve decided to bring in a New York firm, Dobson’s.”

I felt a stab of such great disappointment that I had to look away. I took a deep breath, my father’s warning against letting people see my emotional reactions to business frustrations resonating in my mind, stiffening my spine, and enabling me, after a moment, to look back and smile.

“I understand. There’s a lot of research to be done. Dobson’s is top drawer.”

She nodded. “Your role will be key. And your fee will be more than fair.”

I stared at her for a moment. “My fee for what?”

“For helping me.”

“Helping you do what?” I repeated, uncertain of my ground. On the face of it, it sounded as if Mrs. Cabot was trying to bribe me. And I figured that the longer she took to get to the point, the more troubling her proposal would be.

“It’s important that you understand why I chose you. I understand you moved from New York not long ago. I checked you out. You have an excellent reputation.”

“Thank you,” I said. Definitely a bribe, I thought. I couldn’t imagine what she wanted me to do, nor could I think of anything I possessed that she might want to buy.

“I’m paying not just for your knowledge but for your integrity. What you did to help the police during that price-fixing trial, you know, coming forward and testifying, well, I was impressed.”

Maybe what she said was true, and she wasn’t offering a bribe after all. If she was speaking the truth, and not setting me up somehow, it would be a huge relief. I found myself wanting to believe her and to smile. I was surprised at how pleased I felt that she knew about my past. It occurred to me that perhaps I’d discovered a reasonable litmus test of trust—be aware of my involvernent in the Frisco price-fixing scandal and think well of me because of it. Still, I didn’t know how to respond, so I stayed quiet.

After a long pause, she continued, “Chief Alverez has told me that he expects the technicians to be done by tomorrow.”

“Which technicians?”

“The ones investigating my father’s cause of death. And the scientists who’ve been working at the crime scene.”

“So they can release the body?”

“Yes.”

“And you can hold the funeral.”

“That’s right. It will be on Monday.”

I shook my head a little, the way people do to show empathy.

“Chief Alverez said the scientists have finished investigating the murder scene.”

“So that you can enter the house?”

“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Everyone is very impatient.”

I paused for a moment, thinking what to say. “Are you referring to your daughter?”

She nodded, a small movement, then half smiled. “I hate being hurried. Sometimes my daughter thinks I’m indecisive, but it’s not that.”

I nodded, understanding, I thought, what she was trying to express. “You just like to think things through before you act.”

“How nice of you to put it that way,” she said with more of a smile. “It’s true, though. I’m methodical, not impulsive. I never have been.”

I wondered about her sudden departure forty years ago.
Wasn’t that an impulsive act
? Maybe not. Maybe she’d planned to leave all along, and the shattering scene Wes had described was coincidental. I wanted to ask her about it, but the timing was wrong.

“Well, no matter,” she said, refocusing her attention. “I need to tell you about my mother’s lists.”

I waited for her to continue.

“I don’t know if my father showed you her ledgers? The inventories ?”

“No, he didn’t.”

She nodded. “He showed them to Mr. Troudeaux.”

I shrugged.

“That isn’t a compliment to him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“No, how could you.” She sighed and shifted her position slightly. “I knew the ledgers existed. All my life, I knew. I’d see my mother update them every evening.” She shook her head. “She tracked everything. It was a kind of obsession with her.” She opened her purse and extracted a sheaf of papers, stapled and folded in thirds. “These pages were copied from the ledger that detailed household goods. As you’ll see, most of what’s listed are antiques.”