Dying for a Change (3 page)

“
I’m afraid so,” I sighed, then sank down in the easy chair that faced the fire and them and started my story. It got quite a reaction.

Tom set his glass down on the table with a small bang. Nicole’s was motionless, half way between the table and her face.

“
Good God, Ellen. You really think the man was murdered?” Tom said.

“
I can’t think of any other reason for him to be in that closet with blood all over everything,” I replied. There was shakiness in my voice I couldn’t quite control.

“
I can’t believe we let you go on that appointment alone,” Tom said. “I’m so sorry.”

“
Don’t be silly,” I told him, my voice a little too loud, but stronger. It’s amazing how brave you can be with an audience. “It’s not the kind of thing you can predict.”

“
True,” Tom said, with a hint of a smile. “It’s a first.”

“
I hope it’s a last,” I said somewhat tartly.

“
Oh, Ellen, how awful.” Nicole’s hazel eyes were wide and round. Her glass finally made it to her mouth, she took a sip, and then asked, and “Do you know who the man was?”

“
She thinks she does,” Sharon put in.

“
I’m pretty sure it was that contractor you introduced me to yesterday, Hank Sawyer,” I said.

Nicole choked.

I started out of my chair. “Are you all right?” I asked.

“
Yesterday?” Tom turned so he was looking directly at Nicole. “I told you...”

Nicole waved me away. “Fine, I’m fine.” she said, gasping for breath a little. She turned toward Tom, ignoring Sharon and me. “Did you hear what she said? Were you listening? Hank Sawyer is dead. Murdered. Hank Sawyer. Someone killed him.”

The angry red flush that had crept up Tom’s face stared to fade. He looked from Nicole, to me, then at Sharon, finally back to Nicole. “Oh my God,” he said.

I had no idea what was going on. The two of them were sitting on my sofa, looking like I’d taken a pole ax to them.

“
I didn’t realize you and Hank Sawyer were such close friends,” I said. “I’m sorry if I shocked you.”

Nicole gave a brittle little laugh. “Shock is a good word.” She drained the wine in her glass, and then got up. “We’ve got to go. I’m sorry today was so — awful, Ellen. I really am. Come on, Tom. We’ll see you tomorrow, Sharon.”

Tom had been staring into his glass. He held it up, looked at the remaining dull red wine, shuddered, and put it down. “I’m sorry too, Ellen. Sorry you had to go through that and, well, everything. Sharon, oh, damn it all. We’ll see you both tomorrow I guess.”

He took their jackets off the pegs, handed Nicole hers, and, without looking back, walked out.

They hadn’t given me time to get out of my chair. “I’m beginning to have great sympathy for Alice down the rabbit hole,” I said, reaching for the merlot. “What just happened?”

Sharon took the bottle from me, examined the label, rejected it, and reached for the chardonnay. There were little frown wrinkles between her eyebrows. Black lashes framed light brown eyes that had lost their usual confident look. She took a deep breath before she answered me. “I’m afraid this is going to get messy.”

“
Going to!” I exclaimed. “There’s a dead man in a closet of a house you have listed, he was your client and, I thought, your friend. Isn’t that messy enough?”

“
I’d better tell you about Hank,” Sharon said slowly. “It’s hard to say without making him seem — raunchy. He wants — wanted — I really can’t believe any of this is happening — anyway, Hank is--oh dear, was — the original good ol boy. The kind who makes slightly dirty jokes, tells you how sexy you look, then lets his hands roam if you don’t stop him. Most women are embarrassed and don’t know what to say. Hank thought that meant they liked his little attentions and kept going. Occasionally he found someone who really wanted to play.”

“
Umm,” I said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t make him unique. What’s that got to do with Tom and Nicole? Unless...?”

“
Yes. He’d started in on Nicole. She’s young, wasn’t sure how to handle it. Tom wasn’t amused and, a couple of days ago, he lost his temper. He grabbed Hank by the shirtfront and told him to keep his, well, his hands off Nicole. I had to intervene. Hank was a good client. He bought all his lots through me, and sold all his houses through our office. I couldn’t afford to have some hot tempered agent lose me that kind of business.”

“
Nicole couldn’t have thought Tom would do something drastic like killing him, though. Could she?” I asked.

“
I don’t know what Nicole thought,” Sharon said, “but Tom has a terrible temper. I imagine he’ll get asked a lot of questions. Now, I’ve got some. Did the police...”

The doorbell rang. It was busier around here than Macy’s on sale day.

“
Hi,” he said, filling the whole doorway. “Aren’t you going to ask me in?”

“
I suppose so,” I said, and stepped back a little.

“
You don’t look pleased to see me,” Dan said, hanging his jacket on a peg the same way he used to. “How long’s it been, Ellie? Over twenty years, anyway. You’re looking good.”

“
What did you expect? Gray hair and rolls of fat?”

“
I see the years haven’t improved your disposition much. That merlot looks nice. Glasses in the kitchen?”

Dan grinned at Sharon, who wiggled fingers back at him, pushed open the swinging door into the kitchen, and returned immediately with a glass, which he proceeded to fill.

“
The place looks great, Ellie. Better than I remembered.” He lowered himself onto the sofa across from Sharon. “These weren’t here before,” he said, patting the flowered print, “neither was that table. Same bookshelves, though. You need to stir the fire.”

I poked the logs with a little more force than necessary, then retired to my easy chair. “Is this call social or business,” I asked in my nastiest tone.

“
My, you are thorny,” Dan said. “A little of each. Sharon, I’m glad you’re here. I’ve got a couple of questions for you. Save me the trouble of stopping by your place.”

Sharon looked surprised, but I didn’t give her a chance to say anything.

“
Listen, Daniel Boone Dunham.” Dan winced at the “Boone,” which didn’t bother me a bit. “Before we go any further, there are a couple of questions I want answered. Where did you come from? How did you get to be Chief of Police? And why were you so darn cold this afternoon? You were nice for about thirty seconds, and then you turned into an ice bucket. And why haven’t you been over to see me before now?”

“
Is that why you’re so mad?” he said, with a little smile.

“
Of course not,” I said, using my most dignified tone. “And I’m not mad.”

“
You could have fooled me. Anyway, I’ll catch you up on my past history later. I’ve even got a few questions for you. This afternoon, well, I’m a policeman, with a job to do. It wasn’t the time for a chat.” He paused, looked at me over the top of his glass, then looked down, hiding the expression in his eyes before he went on. “I’ve been meaning to come over, thought I’d let you settle in first. I never expected — anyway, I’m here now.” He looked up and grinned. My old playmate was back. Dan, who’d been better than a brother, who...

“
Never mind all that. Tell us what happened, Dan,” Sharon said. “Was it really Hank Sawyer? Do you know who did it?”

“
It really was Hank and no, not yet. We’re investigating.”

I gave a snort. Dan ignored me.

“
What happened?’ Sharon repeated. “Every time I ask Ellen for any details, we get interrupted.”

We weren’t going to this time. I also wanted to know what had happened.

What was he hit with?” I asked. “It must have been something pretty hard, there was an awful lot of blood.”

“
Head wounds bleed a lot,” Dan said, noncommittally.

“
Dan--” I started.

“
We think whoever it was used a brick, one of the ones by the upstairs fireplace. It looks like he was attacked in the bedroom, pulled into the closet while lying on the tarp, then hit a few more times."

I felt a little sick. Sharon’s face was blank but she’d turned pale under her makeup.

“
Who would do such a thing?” I blurted out.

“’
That’s what we mean to find out,” Dan said, then turned his attention to Sharon again. “Wasn’t Hank a client of yours?” he asked.

Sharon nodded.

“
He was in and out of your office a lot,” Dan pressed, making it more a statement than a question. Sharon nodded again.

“
I hear there’s been some problems lately,” Dan went on.

Here we go, I thought. Poor Tom.

Sharon looked up, started to say something, but changed her mind. “Hank was going to press some kind of charges against Ray Yarbourough?” Dan went on.

I sat up straight. Ray? I hadn’t heard that. Ray was the only other agent at Harpers Land Sales. I didn’t like him much, but couldn’t see him bashing Hank over the head. He wouldn’t want to get blood on his white shoes.

“
Hank said something, yes,” Sharon answered carefully, not looking at Dan. “We had a meeting set for tomorrow afternoon, the three of us.”

“
What did Hank think Ray had done?”

“
I don’t know.” Sharon sighed. She looked directly at Dan for the first time. “I didn’t want to know. I told Hank to bring in his information, or proof, or whatever. I’d let Ray answer, then we’d see.”

“
Hmm,” Dan said, then started to pat his pockets. He stood up, patted some more, and headed for his jacket.

“
What are you doing?” I asked.

“
Getting this,” he answered. He handed Sharon a piece of stationary with a Harper’s Land Sales logo. “Ever seen this before?”

My curiosity was itching like crazy. I got up and went behind Sharon to try to read what was on that paper. Nothing but a list of names and addresses.

“
We found that in Hank’s pocket. Couldn’t help but wonder about it,” Dan went on. “See, some of the names have yellow highlighter, others don’t. Hank’s on that list, and his name isn’t highlighted. Neither is yours, Sharon.”

“
Where did you get this?” Sharon asked. She stared down at it, holding it in two fingers as though it might explode.

“
I told you,” Dan said mildly. “Hank’s pocket. It’s a list of — what?

“
These are the original investors in a limited partnership I put together, oh, a couple of years ago,” she said slowly. “We bought land. Just one piece of land. The highlighted names sold their shares, the others are still in.”

“
What land,” Dan asked, holding out his hand for the paper.

Sharon took a deep breath, hesitated a minute, and finally handed it to him. “The land Stop N Shop is buying to build their new store,” she said.

“
Holy--Toledo,” Dan said. “Everybody thought that land was worthless, until Stop N Shop came to town. You all must have made a killing.”

“
It’s turned out quite well,” she said. A brief satisfied smile came and went, replaced by a frown. “At least financially. There are times when I wish I’d never heard of Stop N Shop.”

“
Why?” I asked. “It’s exactly what this town’s been needing for years. We’ve always had to go to San Luis Obispo to shop, unless you wanted to brave the Emporium. Everyone must be delighted."

“
Not everyone,” Sharon said. “There are a lot of people who don’t think that store should come. They’re being led by Benjamin Lockwood and they all blame me.”

“
Benjamin Lockwood,” I mused, lost for a moment in the past. “I haven’t thought about him in years. Does he still run the Emporium?”

“
He does,” Sharon said with a grimace. “Which is part of the problem.”

“
I used to love the Emporium,” I went on, “how could...”

“
Later, Ellie, later,” Dan interrupted, sitting forward a little. “Sharon, wasn’t there some kind of ruckus recently between old Benjamin and Hank?”

“
There was. Right in front of my office,” Sharon said. Her lips pursed, and her fingers tightened a little around her glass. “Hank was leaving and Benjamin rushed up to him, hollering and waving his arms, saying Hank was a traitor, in league with me, and he should give up his seat on the Planning Commission.”

“
That’s a bit strong,” Dan commented. He nodded at Sharon to go on. “What did Hank say?”

“
You know Hank. He never took anything very seriously. He laughed, then told Benjamin that he wasn’t going to vote on the Stop N Shop plans or on conditions for the new store because he was a partner in the corporation.” Sharon paused, absently twirled the wine glass in her fingers and watched the wine swirl. “Unfortunately, he went on to say that if Benjamin was worried about Stop N Shop ruining the Emporium, he shouldn’t. Benjamin was doing a fine job of that all by himself. That’s when Benjamin grabbed a hammer out of Hank’s truck and attacked him with it.”

Dan started to smile. “I heard about that. Benjamin stormed into the station, wanting to file something, anything, against Hank. He wasn’t too happy when my officer told him the attacker couldn’t file charges. I gather he didn’t do Hank any damage.”

“
No,” Sharon shook her head. “Hank took the hammer away from him, threw it in the back of his pick up, and left Benjamin sputtering on the sidewalk.”