GUNNED (4 page)

Shirley stood up and I gave her a quick hug and then introduced her to Annie.

“Welcome to Connecticut. I see Alex arranged a nice little murder for you.”

“Yes, it was very kind of her. My husband thanks her, too.”

“Right. Your husband is a police detective in Brussels, and I bet anything that he and John are out right now working the case together.” Shirley sat back down and pushed a strand of hair away from her face.

Her brown hair had started to gray, but it blended nicely. My grandmother had whitish gray hair, but Shirley’s was more what one would call salt and pepper. It looked good on her. She was in her early fifties, was an attractive woman in good shape, and I liked her a lot.

“They are,” I said, “and that’s why we need your help if you have the time.”

The young waitress came and took our orders. Both Annie and Shirley ordered coffee and toast while I got tea and a bear claw. I have a weakness for almond paste. When Christmas rolls around and the
International Market,
a local store carrying food products and other items from around the world, stocks their shelves with German marzipan, I’m in heaven.

Shirley gave me a grin. “For another murder? I’ll make the time. Right now I’m doing background checks on employees. I have to keep slapping my face to stay awake. You have no idea how excited I was when you called. So tell me what you have so far.”

I told Shirley how Sheldon Spiegel showed up at my office on Monday and how on Wednesday I was at the morgue looking at a hole in the poor man’s head.

“And then the wife showed up and said Mr. Spiegel got it into his head that Millie, my office manager, was his daughter, switched at birth or something.”

Our orders were placed on the table and we took a moment to take a few sips of our drinks.

“Okay,” Shirley started, “we need to find the hospital where Millie was born, and find out if any other babies were born on the same day or maybe the next.”

“We know that. I have Millie’s date of birth and she was born at New Haven Medical Center Hospital. We also know that on the same day there were four other babies born. Six altogether including Millie and Andrea.”

Shirley wiped a crumb from her chin. “Good. That will save us some time.”

“My husband was kind enough to drop that little tidbit in our laps over dinner last night, but he didn’t say whether they were girls or boys,” I said. “He didn’t give much up. He’s playing it close to the chest, but I’m letting him think we’re sightseeing, so hopefully he’ll keep tossing out bits of information. We’re in this to win.”

“And will you?” Shirley asked.

Annie and I looked at each other and smiled.

“Of course we will. And I feel like a ghoul, but what can I say. Millie is involved and this man came to my office. So, can you help?”

Shirley dabbed at some jelly on her chin. “Of course. Let me do some searches and I’ll text you later with what I find out.”

I pulled out my little flip phone. Yes, I know. I’m horribly out of date. Everyone has a phone that can launch space craft and I’m still using a flip phone.

“Okay. As long as you can show me how to read and send a text on this thing.”

Annie pulled out a state-of-the-art phone designed by some twelve-year-old in Silicon Valley. “You can send me the information,” she said to Shirley with a smile.

I gave Shirley every bit of information I had, paid the check, and then we all walked out with Shirley promising to get back to me in a few hours.

“Where to now?” Annie asked.

I looked at her over the top of my little Honda and grinned. “Now we go talk to the widow.”

The Indian Cove Inn was an upscale establishment nestled along the water.  It had been the best hotel in town for as long as I could remember, but a recent remolding made it even nicer while still keeping to its traditional nautical design. The building was painted a crisp white. There were blue awnings at the large windows all around the first floor. Inside, the lobby, restaurant, and sitting area were filled with brass nautical instruments and blue area rugs. The restaurant resembled what I image the dining room on a large yacht might look like. I wondered how long Mrs. Spiegel planned on staying here. It couldn’t be cheap and it might take some time to catch her husband’s killer.

It was a beautiful spring Saturday, and with the international food festival going on and a boat race scheduled for later in the day, the inn was at full capacity. We found Jackie Spiegel sitting outside on the deck overlooking the Inn’s lovely gardens that led down to the water. She was drinking a cup of coffee and staring off into the Sound.

“Mrs. Spiegel, do you mind if we join you?”

Jackie Spiegel turned her head and looked up at Annie and me. “Oh, hello. No, not at all. Please have a seat.” She got the attention of a waiter and then looked back at us.

“Just a water would be fine,” I said. “Annie?”

“Water is fine for me, too.”

The waiter left and I looked at Mrs. Spiegel. “How are you doing? Is there anything we can do for you? Call someone? Maybe your daughter,” I asked.

“My daughter is on her way. She would have been here last night, but I just wanted to be alone. How could he do this? Why didn’t he leave well enough alone?”

“So you think the reason your husband was killed had something to do with his search for your biological child?” I asked.

The waiter placed our waters on the table and refilled Mrs. Spiegel’s cup.

“Either that or he was the victim of some random act of violence. My husband didn’t have enemies. If he had only listened to me and stopped this crazy search.”

“It sounds like he was looking for some answers. What I don’t understand is how did your husband’s search lead him to Millie? How did he get her DNA?” I asked.

“Did I tell you Sheldon was a
putz
?” Jackie Spiegel said with a sad smile. “As far as I know he didn’t have anyone’s DNA. The man was obsessed. He had the names of the other people who had children born that same day. We used to live here, you know. I’m from the city, but Sheldon grew up in southern Connecticut. We met in college and settled in the area. On the day Andrea was born there were five other children born. All girls. Amazing. In those days you stayed in the hospital for a couple of days. I remember talking with one of the other mothers. Sheldon remembered their names somehow. I think he wrote them down as we were leaving the hospital because at the time he thought it would be nice to keep in touch and see how all the girls turned out, but you know how that goes. We moved and that was that. But I think he still had the names written down somewhere, and that’s how he started looking for our real child. That’s how he put it. Our
real
child. Like Andrea isn’t our real child? What was he thinking?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. “But what made him settle on Millie?”

Mrs. Spiegel took a sip of her coffee. “How should I know? He took off while I was away with my good friend Lorraine. She’s in Dubrovnik now. I should have gone with her, but instead I went home only to find Sheldon gone.” Mrs. Spiegel shook her head. “If I had known Sheldon took off …well, it doesn’t matter. Do you like cruises? That’s what Lorraine is doing. Begged me to go with her. I don’t really enjoy them, and I had a bad feeling about this one.” Jackie Spiegel tapped the side of her head. “And I was right. Lorraine sent me a text this morning. The day she boarded her ship in Dubrovnik there was an outbreak of food poisoning on another ship. The port was a mess. Sick people all over the place. Can you image? They wouldn’t let her ship leave the port until they found out the source of the poisoning. What a nightmare. She’s just been sitting there, but now she’s on her way and I’m here because my husband is dead.” Jackie shook her head again, dislodging another tear. “I told her no more cruises, but she never listens. No one listens. Sheldon wouldn’t listen to me and now look what happened.”

I glanced at Annie and then let out a sigh. “So your husband didn’t have any actual proof that Millie is your daughter?” I said, trying to get the subject back on course.

“Proof? What proof could the man have? He was a civil engineer not a doctor. That’s why we moved to North Carolina. For his job. What does he know about DNA? He watches a lot of TV, that’s what he knows. Nothing. He was upsetting everyone. My daughter wouldn’t even speak to him anymore. She wouldn’t come to visit.” Mrs. Spiegel dabbed at her eyes. “Before I left with Lorraine, Sheldon told me he was going to Connecticut to find our real daughter. I told him if he didn’t knock it off I was going to kill him and now he’s dead. Me and my mouth. He finally promised me he wouldn’t come up here while I was gone, but he did. He said that just to appease me so I would go off with Lorraine.”

I gave the woman a moment to calm down and dry her eyes while I took a few sips of water and gazed out at the Sound. I love my house, but it would be so nice to have an ocean view. I could get used to sitting on a porch with a cup of tea and a good book and the sound of the waves lapping at the shore in the background.

“When did all this happen?” I asked.

“Lorraine and I left a week ago this past Wednesday. Just to the coast. We stay in a nice resort for a week every year. We love it. Massages, the whole thing. Nice dinners. Long walks on the beach. Sheldon hates the beach. He hates the sand getting into everything. Sheldon must have left right after we took off.”

“Mrs. Spiegel, I have a daughter, too,” Annie began. “She’s my only child and it would be awful to find out something like this, but I love her and nothing would ever change that. I’m sure your husband would have come around. Maybe he just needed to get it out of his body.”

Jackie gave Annie a strange look.

“I think Annie meant out of his system. Once he did that, he would have settled down, don’t you think?” I asked.

Jackie Spiegel shook her head quickly. “No. You don’t understand. This is just what Sheldon was looking for. An excuse.”

“An excuse? An excuse for what?” I asked.

“Sheldon loved Andrea. He did. He was a good father. A great father, the
putz
, but when she was born he got it into his head that Andrea wasn’t his daughter, and even though I swore to him he was wrong, I think deep inside he never believed me.”

“He always knew something happened and she may have been switched at birth?” I asked. “Then why did he wait so long to check it out? Why didn’t he say something at the hospital before you brought your daughter home?” Maybe the guy really was a
putz
.

“No, no. He didn’t suspect she was switched at birth, he just didn’t think he was her actual father. Why did he wait so long? Who knows. Probably because deep down he didn’t want to know. You see, Sheldon always thought that Jerry was Andrea’s father.”

“Jerry? His brother Jerry?” I said.

Jackie Spiegel nodded, and so help me she kind of looked like Millie for an instant.

“Yes, his brother. Sheldon was always certain that Jerry was Andrea’s father.”

“Are you saying there’s a chance that your brother-in-law is your daughter’s father?” I asked. I ran my hands through my hair. This was great news. That’s why the DNA didn’t match, which meant that Millie had nothing to worry about. Andrea was Jerry’s daughter. It was all a mistake. And then Mrs. Spiegel started talking, and my bubble deflated.

“Of course Jerry’s not her father. Sheldon and Jerry always had a sort of rivalry going on since they were kids. They fought over everything, including me. I dated Jerry before Sheldon and I started going out. So, yes, there was always some tension. And before you ask, I did have a fling with Jerry for about a week while Sheldon was overseas for a business trip, but the truth is, I was about seven weeks pregnant at that time. It was just one of those things.”

“And you’re sure your daughter isn’t his?”

Mrs. Spiegel took another sip of her coffee then gazed off into the Sound before looking back at me. “I’m positive. I was already pregnant, and besides, Jerry couldn’t have children. That’s why we broke up, well, among other things. Jerry’s a very odd man. But anyway, I always wanted kids and he couldn’t have them and didn’t really want them, either, so I dated a couple of other guys and then started to see Sheldon. We eventually married. I got pregnant. Sheldon was doing a lot of travel for work at the time, so I stayed with my mother in New York a lot. Jerry and I ran into each other at some point, and, well, what can I say. We were together once, maybe twice before I came to my senses.” Mrs. Spiegel turned in her chair and tapped a red lacquered finger nail on the table. “I told Sheldon there was no way Jerry was Andrea’s father, but then the test came back and he figured I had an affair with someone else. What a schmuck! I said, ‘you listen here, Sheldon Spiegel, she’s not biologically related to either one of us!’” Jackie Spiegel leaned back in her chair and smoothed a piece of hair down. “And that’s when he finally stopped harboring this grudge against his brother. That’s when he figured she must have been switched in the hospital, and I guess he’s right, but who cares? And you want to know the irony of it all?”

I assumed the question was rhetorical, but she seemed to be waiting for my answer.

“Of course,” I said.

“Andrea getting switched was all Sheldon’s fault.”

“Your husband switched his child for another? Why would someone do this? He really was a, what is it you say,
putz
,” Annie said.

“No he wasn’t! Only I can call him a
putz
. He didn’t change our daughter. I was planning on having the baby in New York. That’s where my doctor was. But it didn’t work out that way because I had to be back to our house in Connecticut and I wouldn’t have been there if Sheldon didn’t go and make some appointment I had to keep. So if he had just gone on his business trip and worried about home repairs after the baby, I would have been in New York and Andrea, I mean the real Andrea, would never have been taken. So you see, Sheldon was responsible.” Another tear ran down her face.