Designed to Kill (24 page)
“Thank you,” I said.
I ushered Jill ahead of me as we followed Greta Baucus into a small foyer. We followed her through a doorway and found ourselves in a sitting room that was permeated with the odor of incense. The furniture was Early American. I wasn’t sure if the chairs were antiques or reproductions, but they seemed sturdy as new when we sat down. Paintings of scenes that appeared to be from old
New England
towns hung on the walls.
“What can I do for you folks?” Greta asked.
She still smiled, but a closer look showed a bit of hardness about those pale blue eyes. I suspected she had a lot more mileage on her than thirty years would suggest.
“We’re considering a sizeable investment in Perseid Partners,” I said. “Before we do anything, though, we wanted to get as much information as possible about the company and its leadership.”
“I’m afraid I’m not involved in the company,” she said with a flip of her wrist. It set off a jangling sound among the half-ton of gold bracelets she wore. “My husband is out of town until tomorrow.”
“That’s all right,” Jill said. “I think meeting a man’s wife can sometimes tell a lot more about him than meeting the man himself. Don’t you agree?”
Greta shrugged and made a face. “I never thought about it that way. I guess...maybe.” Then she grinned. “You guys want something to drink? We’ve got any kind of booze you could ask for. Wines, red and white. Beer.”
“Sorry,” Jill said. “I’m afraid we’re not morning drinkers. Decaf coffee is about as strong as we can take.”
“I can do that. I hope you don’t like it with chicory, though. That stuff’s disgusting. Evan drinks it sometimes, but he’s not from around here. He just likes to pretend he’s one of the boys. Can I get you some coffee?”
I smiled. “We don’t care for chicory, either. But if it isn’t a lot of trouble, we’d go for the decaf.” I looked around at Jill. “Okay by you?”
She nodded.
“Lord help us,” Greta said, “it won’t take five minutes. Be right back.”
When she left the room, Jill looked around. “Is she for real?”
I put a finger to my lips. After all the slippery situations I’d been involved in during my career, I didn’t trust any place not out in public to be free of eavesdroppers. And I had known a few public places to be bugged or covered by something like shotgun mikes.
“We’ll discuss it later,” I said. “Let’s just follow the script.”
“Nice furniture,” she said, smiling.
I looked up at the wall. “Do you think that’s
Vermont
or
New Hampshire
?”
“I’ve seen places like that from the air all over
New England
.”
True to her word, Mrs. Baucus was back in five minutes with a silver tray bearing three
Delft
cups decorated with windmills. After handing two of them to us, she sat down, raised her cup and grinned. “Mine’s the real thing. Got to have my caffeine fix.”
Jill and I took tentative sips of our decaf, then I looked across at Greta Baucus. “We’re a little concerned by what we’ve heard about the accident on Perdido Key last Friday,” I said, trying not to sound overly anxious. “Were you there?”
She nodded. “It was a great party until that...that balcony thing. I don’t know anything about construction. All I’ve heard is that we didn’t have anything to do with what happened. It was that guy’s fault who designed the building. Come to think of it, wasn’t he from
Nashville
?”
Jill set her cup on a coaster. “Yes. It was in the newspaper at home.”
“Well, the whole thing was terrible. We’d planned to sleep in the penthouse that night, but after all that mess we had to stay in a unit on the first floor. It had been furnished as a sample.”
“The rescue people, the police and the news media must have been all over the place,” I said. “Did they keep you up late?”
“I think it was after
when the last one left. I wondered if Evan would ever get to bed. There was this really nasty sergeant from the sheriff’s office who kept nosing around asking questions. Evan finally came in and had a couple of drinks to calm him down. And wouldn’t you know, we’d hardly got to bed when the phone rang.”
“Had something else gone wrong?” Jill asked.
“No. It was just a friend who needed some help. Evan handed me the phone and said he had to go out. It was twelve-thirty by then. I don’t ever want to go through a night like that again.”
“I can certainly sympathize with you,” Jill said. “I’ve had some pretty bad nights when Greg was called out, back before he retired.”
“What did you do, Mr. McKenzie?”
“I was in the Air Force.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I guess you’ve had some scary nights, too. Well, I hope this
Sand
Castle
business doesn’t turn you off from investing in Perseid. Can you come back tomorrow and talk to Evan?”
“We’re on our way out of town right now,” I said. “But I’ll get back in touch with him.”
Jill held up a restraining hand. “Before we go, could we see your flowers? Mr. Quinn at the bank said you had some really terrific plants out back.”
“Hey, that’s my pride and joy,” she said, eyes widening.
Jill shook her head in frustration. “I’ve never had much luck growing flowers myself. I love to look at them, though.”
“Then by all means, let’s go have a look.”
We followed Greta through the rear of the house out to the lawn, which stretched back some
“It’s lovely,” Jill said. “Are you the gardener?”
Greta smiled. “I do a lot of it, but we have a man who comes out now and then.”
At the end of the driveway in back stood a two-car garage with a long, narrow building beside it. I pointed at the smaller structure. “Is that a boat house?”
She chuckled with a mischievous grin. “Yeah. It’s Evan’s secret boat house.”
“What could be secret about a boat house?” Jill asked, shaking her head.
“He’d kill me if I told you.” Greta Baucus laughed.
“We don’t want to be responsible for any mayhem,” I said. “Thanks a lot for showing us around. We appreciate your hospitality.”
“Sorry you couldn’t stay till tomorrow,” she said. “I know Evan would have loved to talk to you.”
Somehow I doubted that.
30
We arrived back at Gulf Sands around
. True to my word, I immediately put in a call for Sergeant Payne. He got back to me while we were eating lunch.
“Did you turn up anything interesting in
Biloxi
?” he asked.
I tried to put a smile in my voice. “Jill hit it big on the Wheel of Fortune machine.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I learned a few things of interest. I haven’t had time to put them in context, though. To draw any meaningful conclusions.”
“I checked with Lieutenant Cassel before I called,” Payne said. “He wants you to come in at
. You know where our precinct office is?”
“Right. The little house on
Gulf Beach Highway
.”
When I told Jill, she frowned. “Do you want me to go along?”
I shook my head. “I’m the culprit the lieutenant is after. You don’t need the Sheriff of Nottingham on your case as well.”
“
Nottingham
? You fancy yourself as Robin Hood now?”
“Would you believe Friar Tuck?”
She grinned. “Sounds a little more appropriate.” Then she turned serious again. “I just might pursue a small project while you’re gone.”
“Oh?” I wasn’t sure I liked the look on her face. It was a look that sometimes meant trouble.
“I’ve been thinking about Sherry Hoffman. She lost her cool before you could find out much from her.”
“That’s true. I’d like to know a lot more about her relationship with both Tim and Bosley Farnsworth. But I’m afraid she’s turned off on us.”
Jill’s eyes twinkled. “She’s turned off on you, my dear. I never said more than hello during that visit.”
“And you’re thinking you could get her to open up?”
“I could surely try.”
I had to admit the idea made at least a bit of sense. I knew that little tête-à-tête at the funeral home with
Tara
was no accident. Jill had always been someone people readily confided in. She was a good listener, sympathetic, not easily ruffled, non-judgmental.
“So what are you proposing?” I asked.
“I thought I would call and see if she might meet me somewhere in the area before you’re due at the lieutenant’s office. You could drop me off.”
“Go ahead and give it a try,” I said. “But don’t get your hopes up.”
I listened as she got Sherry on the line. “This is Jill McKenzie. I met you over at your house Tuesday afternoon. I feel terrible that we upset you so. My husband isn’t the ogre that he may have seemed to you. It’s just that his job always required him to dig really hard for the facts, then work to figure out their significance. Sometimes he isn’t too diplomatic, but he means well.”
She grinned at my grimace.
After listening a moment, she said, “I knew Tim fairly well. He was a delightful young man to be around. I know you must have felt his loss the same as we did. Frankly, I was impressed with your sincerity. I’d like the opportunity to make up for whatever grief we caused you the other day.”
There was another brief pause. Then Jill said, “I had hoped we might be able to meet somewhere for a few minutes. I don’t want to take up a lot of your valuable time, but Greg has to be somewhere at two and he could drop me by.”
She broke into a big smile. “That would be great, Sherry—I hope you don’t mind my calling you Sherry.”
When she hung up, I said, “Sounds like you got a date.”
“You are to drop me by her office at
. She’s taking me to a new coffee shop not far away. She said she’d bring me back to the condo.”