Diva 03 _ Diva Paints the Town, The (23 page)

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Authors: Krista Davis

Tags: #Murder, #Winston; Sophie (Fictitious Character), #Mystery & Detective, #Fiction, #Women Sleuths, #General, #Dwellings

BOOK: Diva 03 _ Diva Paints the Town, The
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Wolf had said not to call him, but somehow I didn’t think he’d anticipated a situation like this one. Nevertheless, I gave Wolf’s number to Bernie and asked him to make the call. Meanwhile, I peered down the stairwell with Posey crowding in behind me.
Kurt looked very much as he had when I saw him in the window seat. I could make out a blotch of dried blood on his head.
“I don’t think we need to check for a pulse.” Posey clutched my shoulder with a clawlike grip. “Who’d have thought Kurt would come to an end like this?”
Her hand grew heavy, and I realized that her legs couldn’t hold her. I swung around to support Posey, and together we shuffled into the family room, where I released her onto Bernie’s window seat.
The loud banging of demolition still issued from the kitchen unabated. No one else in the house knew about our discovery yet. Maybe it was better that way. I’d rather have Wolf manage crowd control.
As sick as it was, one person would be somewhat relieved to hear that Kurt was dead. I dialed Nina’s number to tell her she didn’t have to worry about Kurt’s vengeful-ness anymore. But as her phone rang, a flurry of activity erupted in the foyer. Emmaline’s claws scratched against the hardwood floor as she raced in, Hank flew to Mordecai’s enormous desk, and Nina and Humphrey trailed after them.
“You have
got
to be kidding!” cried Nina when she saw the open wall unit.
Exactly as she said that, little Emmaline sped to investigate the opening. I rushed to grab her, but only arrived in time to see her scamper down the stairs. Hank flew at me and landed a few steps lower.
I eased down so I wouldn’t scare him. No such luck. He hopped farther down the stairs, pausing briefly to inspect Kurt.
Nina scurried down the first few steps and stopped behind me. “Is that Kurt? Oh no! I did kill him.” She pressed her hands over her mouth and moaned. “Dear heaven, Sophie, I really killed him.” She collapsed onto the stairs. “My life is over. I never should have pushed him. I never should have gone out to dinner with him. This is it. I’m going to prison.”
“Nina!” I shook her shoulders. “Stop that. If you had killed him, we would have found him in the living room where he fell.”
“What if he died later? What if he had one of those head injuries that seems so innocuous but causes blood clots or hemorrhaging?”
It was a possibility, of course. But it didn’t really make sense. “So he hid in the window seat, crawled out, figured out how to open this hatch, closed it behind himself, fell down the stairs, and died? I don’t think so.”
Emmaline barked from somewhere, and Hank shrieked, “Nina! Kurt!”
Her face tear-stained, Nina scrambled to her feet, pushed past me, and approached Kurt’s body. She hesitated only a second before jumping over it, calling, “Emmaline, here Emmaline!” At the bottom of the steps, she turned left and disappeared.
So much for not disturbing the scene of the crime.
“Sophie!” Her voice wavered back to me. “I need help. Quick!”
Had she fallen? I sprang over Kurt. At the bottom of the stairs, I turned the corner and made my way, somewhat hesitantly, along a corridor set up like an art gallery. Fabulous paintings and icons lined both sides of the walls with special lighting that glowed upon them. At the end of the hallway, a door stood ajar, and the concrete floor gave way to dirt. I shivered as a blast of frigid air coursed through, and I hesitantly stepped into a crawl space under the house.
Nina appeared to be trying to keep Hank away from something. “I’m going to grab Hank. You seize Emmaline, or she’ll shoot out through that hole again.”
Nina pointed behind her at a torn screen in an air vent that led under the front porch. No wonder Emmaline had managed to disappear when she was under the porch. She must have been using the little gap to come and go, hiding under the house at night.
Bent over, I calmly treaded behind Nina, so I wouldn’t alarm Emmaline. Luckily, she was digging furiously and didn’t notice me sneak up behind her. I picked up the little dog and saw why her tail was wagging. She’d befriended the momma cat Nina had been following. Four orange and white kittens cuddled close to their mother.
It would have been a sweet scene, except for one grisly thing.
TWENTY-FIVE
From “ THE GOOD LIFE” :
Dear Sophie,
 
I feel like I live in a zoo—one husband, two kids, three dogs, four cats, a gerbil, and eighteen fish. The white rooms in magazines always call to me but I know that’s wishful thinking. Any suggestions for colors that hide fur?
 
—Zookeeper in Tiger
 
Dear Zookeeper,
 
Unless all your pets have matching fur, I can’t recommend a fur-concealing color. But there are some things you can do. Buy furniture that’s easy to wipe clean, like leather. Keep inexpensive throws on your furniture that can be easily swapped out and washed. And instead of carpeting, consider hardwood floors or tile, which make it easier to clean up fur and messes.
 
—Sophie
Behind the mother cat, dirt was heaped in a long, firm mound the size of a body. Someone, presumably Mordecai, had planted a cross at one end. The whole thing looked like a grave. But could that be? If so it would be the second grisly discovery of the night.
Nina shrieked at me, and Emmaline tried to spring from my arms. “Grab a kitten! We have to get them out of here before the police arrive.”
The sound of footsteps on the stairs clued me in that it was probably too late. I clutched Emmaline in one arm, and two squirming kittens in the other as I headed for the stairs.
Nina came behind me with the mother cat and the rest of her babies. But when she caught sight of Wolf she promptly dumped them in his arms, saying “Wolf, would you bring those babies and the mom upstairs, please?” Then she caught Hank and led the way back to Kurt’s body. Wolf followed, never noticing the mound of dirt with the cross, and I brought up the rear, thinking what a lucky break it was that Wolf loved animals. I couldn’t imagine Kenner collecting kittens and carrying them to safety.
But once we were upstairs, Wolf turned the cat and kittens over to Bernie and Humphrey. “Get them all out of here.”
I handed the kittens to Posey so I could hold onto Emmaline more firmly, and we all marched straight to Nina’s house. Once inside, I asked, “Are you okay being alone now?”
Nina threw me a doubtful look. “Well, I don’t think Kurt is hiding in my home anymore.”
The rest of us left Nina to get the animals settled and returned to Mordecai’s house.
Wolf immediately asked questions about the wall unit and how we came to open it. Someone from Natasha’s camera crew finally noticed when the police arrived in full force. Natasha, Beth, Ted, and Mike crowded into the family room, only to be shooed away by the police.
Kenner tromped in, none too pleased to discover that Wolf beat him to the scene of the crime. Which made me all the more glad that I’d heeded Wolf’s advice and asked Bernie to make the call to him. Even if Kenner checked the phone records, it wouldn’t look like I had phoned Wolf.
After assessing the situation, Kenner asked me to step into the living room. Crisp white curtains hung at the windows, and huge white pieces of artwork tamed the loud turquoise walls. A white sofa and chairs had appeared, and assorted throw rugs in white with a hint of an aqua border decorated the floor. Even the lamps were silver and white. To break the overuse of white, Nolan had injected a few pillows and decorative items of orange and navy. Much to my surprise, I found it an appealing room—bright and lively.
Kenner stared at me, his eyes half open over his bony nose.
Nina had scored points by being super friendly with him, but I just didn’t have it in me to flirt with Kenner. The mere thought of it made me gag. I had to be a little friendly, though, and tried to smile. “What a mess, huh?”
“You found Kurt’s body?”
“Actually, I think Bernie saw him first.” Though I hated to be too forthcoming, now that Kurt was definitely dead, I thought Kenner should know about Mordecai’s bequest and how we came to open the wall, so I told him the story.
Kenner frowned at me. “So what was the bequest?”
“The paintings in the basement, I suppose.”
He paced the living room. “Mordecai was a weird old guy. Very paranoid. I guess it wouldn’t be too unlikely that he would hide something he thought valuable. But if someone tossed Kurt down there, it meant one other person knew Mordecai’s secret and how to get in.”
It was the first sensible thing I’d ever heard issue from Kenner’s lips. For once he wasn’t trying to pin something on me. And he was right. Clearly, someone else knew how to open the wall unit. But who?
“Someone,” said Kenner, “whom Mordecai trusted enough to dispense the keys to his heirs. Someone who knew how to get the paintings out in case his heirs weren’t smart enough to figure it out for themselves.”
My moment of generosity toward Kenner fizzled. I had a bad feeling he didn’t mean Mordecai’s lawyer. “I had no prior knowledge about any of this. How could I know anything was behind the wall unit? I was as clueless as everyone else.”
A young police officer appeared in the doorway and coughed to get Kenner’s attention. “Sir? There’s something else down there.”
Kenner’s eyebrows twitched, and he looked at me in astonishment.
I nodded, probably not the best thing to do, but that mound in the basement had looked a lot like a grave to me.
Kenner wasted no time bounding through the crowd of cops. I followed, unsure if I would be thrown out, but no one paid me any attention. Outside the window, I could see a crowd gathering on the sidewalk, and it looked to me like Natasha and Iris were spatting.
I couldn’t make it back down the stairs into the basement, though. The narrow entrance teemed like a beehive with police. Since there wasn’t anything I could do, and no one had told me to stick around, I sidled toward the front door and stepped out. Yellow police tape already draped across the porch. I ducked under it, and before I reached the sidewalk, Natasha latched onto me.
“They’re saying Kurt’s been killed. Is that true? Did you see him?”
“I’m sorry, Natasha. I’m afraid the rumors are correct this time. It looked like someone tossed his body down hidden stairs.”
“Hallelujah.” said Iris. “There’s one man who got what he had coming. At least I won’t have to be afraid to come to work here anymore.”
I was about to ask why she’d been afraid when Natasha turned on Iris. “The man is dead. Show a little compassion. Have you no feelings?”
Iris’s left eye narrowed. “Now we’ll never finish the house on time for the tour. We were working against the clock as it was. It’s your fault, Natasha. You’re the one who hired Kurt without asking me. You’re the one who brought him into that house. Believe me, I’m going to make sure that Camille is painfully aware of that fact. You can kiss the Guild Award good-bye.”
Iris ambled off in a huff, and Natasha buried her face in her hands. She dabbed at tears with a dainty robin’s egg blue handkerchief. “Am I smudged, Sophie?”
“Not too badly.” It was a lie, but who cared?
“That vile woman. She’s going to ruin the Guild Award for me. How barbarically rude to be so pleased about someone’s death! She should lose the Guild Award for that reason alone. I don’t know why Camille stuck me with her.”
Beth wandered up. “Excuse me, Natasha. Will you need me the rest of the day?”
Natasha looked at her as though she were confused. “Given the circumstances, I suppose you can take the rest of the day off.”
Beth thanked her. “I’m a little shaken. Besides, I have a dinner party to go to tonight, and I wanted to do some shopping.” She smiled at me and left in a hurry, but not before I noticed her hands trembling.
I was glad to hear that she was getting out. Then it dawned on me that she meant
my
dinner party—and I hadn’t done a thing to prepare for it. Unless I hustled, there would only be a few of us present. “Care to come to dinner tonight, Natasha?”
Her mouth twisted. “I suppose you need help?” In a bored tone she asked, “What’s the theme?”
Theme? Who needed a theme for a dinner party? “It’s just friends getting together.”
“That’s not a theme.” She covered her eyes with her hands for a moment. “How can you think about a party when Kurt is dead?”
Good question. If I hadn’t promised to get Beth and Humphrey together, I wouldn’t be thinking about it at all. “It will be very small.”
“As long as Iris isn’t on the guest list.”
I assured her that wasn’t the case and headed for home to call a few friends. When Nina didn’t answer her phone, I peered from my kitchen window and saw her marching toward Mordecai’s house.
I flew out the door after her, but she was way ahead of me. She marched up the stairs and ducked under the police tape. I arrived in time to hear her say to Detective Kenner, “I can’t live with this on my conscience anymore. I killed Kurt Finkel.”

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