Dying for a Change (14 page)

“
He gets worse every day.” Sharon sighed. She set her coffee cup down on the table, shaking her head.

“
He’s pretty bad.” But it wasn’t Benjamin I wanted to talk about. “Sharon, about Dottie. I’m sure she didn’t mean...”

“
I know.” She rubbed her hand over her eyes, “I know. I shouldn’t get so impatient with her, but she’s so--so--. What was she doing hanging around Hank anyway?”

I shrugged. I didn’t think she expected an answer, and I wasn’t about to provide one.

“
I think Dottie had the right idea.” I set my own coffee cup down. “I’m going home.”

“
Of course.” Sharon smiled a little. “You and Dan are going to dinner at Mary’s, aren’t you?”

How did you know that? I wanted to scream. Instead I nodded, smiled a little myself, bid Vera a silent farewell, and left.

The clock struck six and the doorbell rang. Had he been waiting on the porch, counting down the seconds? It hadn’t worked. I was ready.

“
It’s a beautiful night. Look at all those stars. Let’s walk.”

‘
It’s darn near freezing. You can see the stars through the windshield.”

We drove.

As we walked up on Aunt Mary’s front porch, Dan’s expression changed. He began to get that dreamy, wistful look common to men and dogs when they smell a really good dinner. I couldn’t blame him. The aroma of roasting pork with sage was enough to make anyone salivate. If tradition held, there would be homemade applesauce, pan roasted potatoes, and dark, rich gingerbread with lemon sauce. Tradition held.

Aunt Mary met us at the door. I almost laughed at the expression on Dan’s face. Aunt Mary has never been one for home decorating. Everything she has she either inherited or picked up at the church rummage sales she runs, and she sees no need to color co-ordinate it. She wears her church sale clothes with the same disregard for fashion or figure. As children, we hadn’t noticed. As adults, the results were sometimes unsettling. Tonight she had outdone herself. She had on an ankle length caftan with every color of the rainbow splashed on it with no attempt at pattern. Under that, she had on what looked like tights of some sort, and moccasins. The aftermath of an earthquake in a paint factory came to mind.

Dan collected himself quickly, and, to his credit, didn’t laugh. Good thing. Aunt Mary’s dinners are no laughing matter.

During dinner, we kept the conversation to reminiscences, exploring the funny, and not so funny, memories of childhood, catching each other, and Aunt Mary, up on family, and telling each other a little about the events that had brought us both back to Santa Louisa. Dan spoke tenderly, but briefly, of his wife and son. Time had covered over some of the pain, but much still remained, and my heart went out to him. I told him about Susannah, the only good thing to come out of my marriage to Dr. Brian McKenzie. “My college graduation and Susannah were in a race to the finish line,” I said, laughing somewhat ruefully at the memory. “Graduation won by two days.”

“
What ever happened to that old fur hat you used to wear?” Aunt Mary asked Dan.

“
My coon skin hat.” Dan smiled at the memory. “I stalked many a bear in that hat. Didn’t even mind Ellie calling me Daniel Boone. Then.” He looked at me meaningfully.

“
You looked silly, running around with a plastic rifle and a rubber knife.” I ignored his reference to my resurrecting a childhood name.

“
No sillier than you in those tap shoes and that baggy pink leotard.”

Now there was a memory I could have done without. When I was about seven, my mother decided I was the next Shirley Temple, and off I went to dance school. She watched me take a few lessons, and mercifully, ended the agony for both of us.

It was good to bury the unappetizing taste of town feuds, controversy, and murder for a while, but the inevitable happened, and, with dessert, the conversation returned to the present.

Aunt Mary and I cleared the table. Dan refilled the coffee cups and accepted seconds on gingerbread. He drowned it with lemon sauce before he paused to pull a piece of paper out of his pocket.

“
Here.” He handed it to Aunt Mary. “This is what I wanted you to look at. Tell me about these people.”

So! I thought. That’s how he knew we were coming here tonight. He’d been talking to Aunt Mary behind my back.

“
I don’t know what you want me to tell.” Aunt Mary put on her reading glasses and peered at the paper.

“
Do you know them?” Dan shoved away his empty plate.

I pushed my chair back and walked around to see what Dan had given her. It was the list of names Dan had shown Sharon, the list of partners that owned the Stop N Shop land. I looked at him inquiringly. Why was he showing it to Aunt Mary?

“
Of course I know them. They are all people who’ve lived in this town for years.”

“
Even the highlighted ones?”

“
Yes. Look, here’s the Bullock’s.” Aunt Mary pointed to one of the names highlighted in yellow. “I talked to Yvonne just the other day. She told me they sold their shares.”

“
Wasn’t she upset they got out, now that Stop N Shop buying the land would have made them so much more money?” Dan sounded only mildly curious, but I wondered.

“
Not a bit,” Aunt Mary replied. “Yvonne said they made a nice profit. You know, Dan, the people who bought into that partnership were all friends of Sharon’s father. After he got sick and she came home to take over the real estate office, lots of people felt, oh, not sorry for her, but sort of worried she wouldn’t succeed. When she came up with this idea, most folks figured they were somehow supporting Hal, and they’d be lucky to get their money back.” Aunt Mary sighed. “She wanted me to put money in. It wasn’t much, no one put up much, but I didn’t think I could afford it.”

“
So you didn’t buy in, but these others did.” Dan leaned forward a little. “That still doesn’t explain why the Bullocks, and all these others, aren’t upset.”

“
Yvonne said Stop N Shop isn’t a sure thing. They made a profit, one they hadn’t expected, and they’re glad to be out.”

“
I wonder if Alice Ives feels that way,” I said.

“
Alice.” Aunt Mary looked up at me, surprise on her face. “Do you remember her?”

“
She called me,” I said, a little proudly. “I’m going to list her house.”

“
So she’s finally made up her mind.” Aunt Mary nodded. “I’m so glad she called you, Ellen. I know you’ll do a wonderful job for her.”

For the first time, I wondered how Alice knew I was working in real estate, let alone that I was back in town. I took a closer look at Aunt Mary, but her expression gave away nothing.

She handed the list back to Dan. “Why did you want to know about these people?”

“
Just curious. Hank had that list in his pocket. It seemed like a funny thing to be carrying around, and I wondered.”

“
Wondered what? If Hank also knew all those people? Do you think one of those people somehow...”? I broke off. I had hit a mental dead end.

“
I was curious, Ellie. Nothing more.” Dan carefully folding the paper and putting it back in his pocket.

“
Who do you think killed Hank?”

“
Ellen!” said Aunt Mary. “You can’t ask him that.”

Why not, I thought. He asks me questions, and he expects answers. Aloud I said, “You were asking me questions about Tom Chambers. You don’t really suspect him, do you?”

“
Now, Ellie.” Dan had that old teasing look in his eyes. “You know I can’t...”

He was interrupted by Aunt Mary, “What’s all this about Tom Chambers?”

“
Dan thinks Tom might have killed Hank in a fit of rage because Hank kept hanging around Nicole.” I kept my tone innocent and my eye on Dan. “Because he bought new shoes on Sunday.”

“
What?” Aunt Mary looked first at me. I shrugged. She turned toward Dan. “What are you talking about? Tom didn’t kill Hank, he wouldn’t. And what’s all this about shoes?”

Dan glared at me, but he started to explain. “Hank was still alive when he was dragged into that closet. He was hit—more than once when he lay on that tarp. Head wounds bleed a lot. There was blood everywhere. If the murderer got blood on his shoes, and it was almost impossible not to, he would have left footprints somewhere. There weren’t any, so whoever killed him took his shoes off in that closet and left in his stocking feet.”

Aunt Mary looked a little pale. I sympathized.

“
What does that have to do with Tom?”

“
Tom bought new running shoes on Sunday,” I explained. “He came back to the office with them on.”

“
Where did he get shoes on a Sunday?”

“
At that little store those Indian brothers run,” I told her, “or maybe they’re Pakistani.”

“
Shows his good sense he didn’t wait to shop at the Emporium.” She shifted in her chair so that she faced Dan directly. “How can you possibly suspect someone of something as horrible as murder because they bought new shoes?” She used her old ‘see here, young man’ voice, and Dan reacted. I loved it, at least for a minute.

“
I didn’t say I suspected him, Ellie did. But he does have some explaining to do.” He smiled at me over the top of his coffee cup

“
There’s more?” Aunt Mary’s tone plainly said she doubted it.

“
I’m afraid so.” Dan set his cup down and reverted from Dan the friend back to the policeman Dan. “We collected a lot of fingerprints all over that house. Most were worthless, but we expect that. Some we’ve identified. Yours, Ellie. Right where you said they’d be. And Harvey’s, where he grabbed the closet door.”

“
Probably to keep himself from fainting,” I said cryptically.

“
Maybe so.” There was a quick flicker of amusement in Dan’s eyes. “We also found Tom’s on the closet door. Right near the top, where you’d take hold if you were going to pull it open.”

“
So? Probably half the real estate agents in town have looked at that house. Tom could have left his prints on that door anytime.”

“
Two problems with that.” Dan held up two fingers, pushed the first one down. “First, those prints are over smudged ones, which means they got there after the workmen left, which means over the weekend. Second, Tom swore in his statement he hadn’t been near that house for at least two weeks. Makes me wonder.”

“
So that’s why Tom and Nicole have been acting so strange.” I thought back to Nicole’s headache and Tom’s nervousness. “They probably think you’re going to arrest him any minute. But you’re not, are you?”

“
Not right this minute, no.” A faint hint of that teasing look was back in his eyes.

“
You’re not going to arrest him at all,” Aunt Mary said. “He didn’t do it.”

“
Tom Chambers has a terrible temper, Mary. You know that. Everyone knows that.”

“
But he controls it better now.” She didn’t sound as convinced, or as convincing, as I would have liked “Besides, Tom doesn’t stay mad. He blows up and then it’s all over. Oh.”

“
Yes,” Dan said gently. “This wasn’t premeditated.”

I wasn’t listening to them. I was thinking back to this afternoon. Unfortunately, I did it aloud. “I wonder why Dottie said that?” came out before I could stop it.

“
Said what?”

“
Nothing, nothing at all.”

“
Ellie,” Dan said in a patient, warning voice, “don’t do that. What did Dottie say?”

Damn. This was the second time. I was going to have to learn to think quieter. “She told Tom to remember their agreement.”

“
What agreement? Why did she say that?”

“
I haven’t any idea.” I would have given a lot to take back my unfortunate statement. Too late “I thought it was strange at the time. So did Ray.”

“
Ray!” exclaimed Aunt Mary.

Dan gave me the ‘you’d better give up because I’m not giving in’ look. Aunt Mary looked distraught. I was stuck.

“
That’s really all.” I sighed. “We were at the office, and everybody was leaving for the funeral. Tom and Nicole headed out the door, but Dottie stopped them. She said to Tom, “remember what we agreed”, or something like that. He kind of paused, and said he remembered. Ray wanted to know what she meant, but she wouldn’t say.”

“
Did Tom?”

I hesitated. “No. He got red in the face, but he didn’t do anything. Just left.”

“
But what does it mean?” Aunt Mary got up; poured us all some more coffee, laced hers with cream, and stirred it vigorously.

“
I don’t know.” The look on Dan’s face was thoughtful and somehow grim. I shivered. “Probably nothing. But, tomorrow morning, Dottie and I just might have coffee and donuts at the Yum Yum.”

He looked at his watch, then at Aunt Mary’s tired face. “It’s nine thirty. Mary, let us help you with those dishes, then I think we’ll clear out of here.”

We weren’t, of course, allowed to touch a dish, and, after telling her several times how wonderful the dinner was and thanking her again, Dan and I were in the car, making the short drive to my house.

Sitting in the passenger seat beside Dan felt natural, as though I’d been doing it for years. Wait just a darn minute, Ellen McKenzie, I thought, and as much to distract myself as anything, I asked, “Do you really think Tom’s guilty?”