Murder At The Bed & Breakfast (11 page)

Roger had been drinking coffee during the study session and noticed others washing their coffee cups and putting them back in a cabinet. On his way to the sink in the corner he walked by the podium and remembered that he’d seen the reverend drinking from it several times during the evening. He picked it up and took it over to the sink, intending to wash it along with his cup. Roger looked in the bottom and noticed there was some clear liquid in it that didn’t look anything like coffee. He glanced around and saw that no one was looking at him, so he quickly stuck his finger into the liquid and tasted it. He had to stop himself from choking and disrupting the group. There was no doubt in Roger’s mind that Reverend Jacobs had been drinking straight vodka.

I don’t know how much credence I can put in anything the reverend said tonight about not killing when he’s been secretly drinking straight vodka from a coffee cup while standing in front of a hundred or so parishioners. He sure isn’t quite the pure man of God he’d like everyone to think he is.

People were filing out of the room and Roger happened to be one of the last to leave. The reverend and his two aides were walking just ahead of Roger and he clearly overheard the reverend take the Lord’s name in vain when he referred to one of the people who had attended tonight’s meeting.

Well, if he broke the commandment about taking the Lord’s name in vain, who’s not to say he broke the commandment about killing someone. Don’t think I’d believe anything he said, not from what I’ve seen tonight.

CHAPTER 24

That evening Liz emailed Jonah and Brittany, thanking them for attending the wedding and for all their help. She never knew what time it was in Dubai, where Jonah was based, so she asked him to email her when he had a minute to let her know he’d returned safely. Brittany had already sent Liz an email that she’d gotten back to Palm Springs safe and sound. Just as she stood up from her computer desk her cell phone rang. She looked at the monitor and saw it was Sean.

“Hi, Sean. How did you know to call me on my phone and not Roger’s?”

“When he called me a few hours ago he said he was going to the reverend’s Bible Study class, and that if I found out anything, I should call you on your cell phone.”

“Does that mean you found out something about Nancy Messinger?”

“Well, yes and no. I found out she worked for Don Messinger as his secretary for about a year before he divorced his wife and married her. I guess he and his former wife weren’t getting along, and Nancy was there for him. Happens all the time. I can only assume he married her because she worshipped him. I talked to several people who had known her husband, and that was the general consensus. She waited on him hand and foot and did everything she could for him. Guess he got to liking it, and it seems his wife wasn’t doing that for him.”

“I’ve not met Renee’s mother, but I have a sense she’s not like that. Renee certainly isn’t. What else did you find out?”

“Not much. When they met it was before Facebook or Twitter or any of the social media sites, and it’s much more difficult to find out things about people prior to the advent of social media. Bottom line is she comes from a small nearby town. Her parents are deceased, and she was an only child. She wasn’t married prior to her marriage to Don Messinger, and she has no children. Other than that, I didn’t find out much.”

“Did you check out Don Messinger?”

“Yes. He owned a ranch, sold it for a great deal of money to a developer, and then he began playing the stock market and investing in this and that. He had a small office in Red Cedar, and that’s where Nancy worked. She continued to work in the office a couple of hours a day until he died.”

“Did you find out the cause of his death?”

“Yes. Evidently he had a history of heart problems and died from a massive heart attack. He was estranged from Renee and Laura, so there wasn’t a funeral service or a celebration of life ceremony, even though he’d been the Mayor of Red Cedar many years ago. Nancy had him cremated, and that’s about it. Since I found nothing about her purchasing a place for him in a cemetery or a memorial park, I imagine she probably still has his ashes in the house, or maybe she’s got some kind of a shrine in the back yard. People do some strange things. You never know what to expect.”

“Thanks, Sean. Naturally I wish more could have been turned up on her, but given my brief meeting with her, I’m not surprised. I’m sure you would have told me if you’d found out any character flaws that she was treated for, like an addiction or mental illness.”

“Of course. That’s part of the overall search. No, she’s clean as a whistle. The only thing I kept hearing was what a cold person she was, and how she totally worshipped Don, almost to the point of obsession.”

“Have to wonder if she adored him enough to kill a stepdaughter.”

“Could be Liz, could be. Stranger things have happened. I just keep getting a vision of this cold ugly woman – I did see her photograph – in her home with her husband’s ashes. Kind of gave me the creeps.”

“Me too. One more thing. Do you have any idea how much she inherited from her husband when he died?”

“Yes. She filed a Will, and it’s a matter of public record. She inherited twelve million dollars from him.”

“Wow! I wonder what she’s doing with it. There’s nothing about her or the house to indicate she has that kind of money. That’s weird. Again, Sean, thanks.”

“No problem. I’ll look into his finances in the morning. Let me know if you need anything else.”

*****

“That’s the last time I’m going to a Bible Study class at that man’s church,” Roger said, as he walked in the door.

“I gather it wasn’t your finest hour,” Liz said.

“My finest hour? Try my three non-finest hours topped off by the fact that you wouldn’t let me have a glass of wine with dinner tonight, and the good reverend was secretly drinking straight vodka from a coffee cup.”

“You’re kidding! Sit down and tell me everything,” she said.

He related his experiences of the evening to her and concluded by saying that although he didn’t have anything to base it on other than he thought the reverend was a sham, he still considered him a suspect. She told him what Sean had said when he called her. They each looked at the other one with a “where do we go from here look” on their respective faces.

“Well, it looks like both of our nights were rather unproductive. I found out a couple of things about the reverend, but nothing that ties him to Laura’s death, and you found out just what you’d suspected, that Nancy Messinger is a cold fish of a woman who idolized her husband. Wonder how much she inherited? Did Sean mention that?”

“Yes. She received twelve million dollars. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what she’s done with it. Sean said he’d look into it and call me tomorrow.”

“If anyone can find out, Sean’s the one. I’m whipped. I had a call when I was on the way home and one of my clients needs to see me tomorrow. Evidently it’s an emergency. I have a meeting with him at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. Sorry, we seem to be getting farther and farther away from our honeymoon. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“I promise I’ll let you,” Liz said with a smile on her face.

CHAPTER 25

The next morning Liz remembered she’d promised Renee she’d go over to her house that afternoon and help her sort through some papers of Laura’s. She’d told Liz it was just too hard on her mother to do it, and she thought Liz might get a better sense of who Laura was if she went through them with her. Liz sensed she simply wanted someone with her when she did it. She suspected it was just as hard for Renee as it would be for her mother.

She looked at her watch and decided she better figure out what she was going to have for dinner since she was afraid she might get tied up with Renee and make it back just in time for dinner. She remembered she had some chicken thighs in the refrigerator and started taking out the ingredients she’d need to make coq au vin. She knew it was one of Roger’s favorites and it had been a long time since she’d made it. While she was getting the ingredients together for the slow cooked dinner, her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller I.D. and saw it was Gertie.

“Good morning, Gertie. How are you?”

“Hon, if I was any better I’d be twins. Had a coupla new eaters here yesterday and thought ya’ might be interested in what they had to say.”

“You know I’m always interested in anything you have to tell me. I’m all ears.”

“Well, there were two guys in here fer’ dinner last night. Never seen ‘em before, so I introduced myself. Matter of fact one of ‘em was purty cute, but that’s another story. Anyway, I asked ‘em what they were doin’ in town, and they said they’d been doin’ a little work over at the Messinger home. Yer’ ears wiggle when ya’ heard that, Liz?”

“They sure did, Gertie. Did you find out what kind of work they were doing?”

“Well, yes and no. They told me they were doin’ some gold leafin’ at the house, but they said that’s all they could tell me ‘bout it cuz they’d been sworn to secrecy by Mrs. Messinger. Make any sense to you, Liz?”

“Absolutely none. The only thing I know about gold leaf is that it’s often used on picture frames. I think some jewelry has gold leaf applied to it but two men working in a house and can’t say what they’re doing? That’s really strange. Did they tell you anything else?”

“No, nuthin’ other than they’d been there for a day and a half and had jes’ finished the job. They was kind of celebratin’. Said somethin’ ‘bout it bein’ pure 23 karat gold leaf, and their boss was real happy cuz it was a really pricey job. Matter of fact I was curious, so I looked it up on the Internet last night. Lawdy, that stuff is going fer ‘round $1,000 bucks an ounce. I’m as curious as a cat.”

“If it’s any consolation, I am too. I can’t think of any reason why two workmen would be in a house for a day and a half doing some job with pure gold leaf. I don’t think anyone has that many picture frames.”

“Well, I’ll leave the info in yer’ hands. If ya’ figger it out, give me a call. Jes’ thought ya’ might be interested.”

“You know I am, Gertie, but this really has me puzzled. I guess maybe a jeweler could give me information about the various uses of gold leaf. Other than that I don’t know where else I can go to find out information about it.”

“Why don’t ya’ give Rich Yates a call? He owns the Yates Jewelry Shop in town. Don’t think Roger bought that knuckle buster yer’ wearing from our local jeweler, but if ya’ give him a call, tell him Gertie referred ya.”

“I’ll call him right now. Again, Gertie, thanks.”

*****

“Yates Jewelry Shop” the male voice on the other end of the line said.

“Hello. My name is Liz Lucas, er Liz Langley. Sorry, I was recently married, and I’m not used to my new name. Anyway, I’m the owner of the Red Cedar Spa and Lodge. Gertie over at the diner suggested I call you. I have a strange request. Do you know of any reason why someone would need two men to work in a residential home with gold leaf for a day and a half?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Langley, but is this some kind of prank call? I’ve never heard of anyone needing that much gold leaf.”

“No. This is very legitimate.” She didn’t mention any names but gave Rich Yates the basics of why she was calling him.

“Quite frankly, I can’t think of any reason why someone would need that much gold leaf. It’s commonly used on small pieces of jewelry and in some art works. There are large figures of Buddha that are known to be covered in gold-leaf, but I haven’t heard of any that are recent. I would think if something was being gold-leafed and required a day and a half worth of work from two men it would be newsworthy. Something else to think about is why workmen would be using it. I could understand it more if it was a jeweler or artisan, but workmen? It makes no sense to me at all. I will tell you one thing though. If workmen were applying gold leaf in quantities that required two of them to do it for a day and a half, you’re talking about a great deal of money that would be needed to buy that much gold leaf, truly a lot of money. I know I’m not being much help, but that’s about the best I can do.”

“Thank you very much. I have no idea what this is about, but the fact it could involve a great deal of money is a start. Again, thanks for your time, and the next time I need a jeweler I’ll be in to see you.”

“I’ll look forward to it, and if you do find out what someone is doing with that much gold leaf, I’d love to know about it.”

“Consider it done,” she said, ending the call, more baffled than ever by the gold leaf mystery.

CHAPTER 26

Roger had gone downstairs to do some work in his new home office in the remodel he and Liz had done to the lodge before they were married. Two existing storerooms had been converted into an office and a “man cave” for Roger along with floor to ceiling windows being installed, allowing him to enjoy the ocean view.

While Roger was working Liz decided to prep the coq au vin and then put it in the slow cooker to finish cooking. She decided if she got tied up when she went to Renee’s, it wouldn’t matter. The longer the chicken dish cooked, the more the flavors blended.
Chicken, mushrooms, wine. Mmmm! Who wouldn’t like that?
she thought.

Once again she praised the original owner of the lodge for having the foresight to install a walk-in pantry. She was just beginning to get the ingredients out of it for the coq au vin when her cell phone rang again.

“Good morning, Sean. You’re always the bearer of information of some type I can use. Find out anything about Nancy Messinger’s finances?”

“Yes, Liz, but I don’t know what you’re going to do with this information. It’s some of the strangest I’ve ever run across.”

“You’re making me very curious.”

“Here it is. I was able to get all of Nancy Messinger’s bank deposits and disbursements for the last year. Before her husband died, there were the usual expenditures for food, clothes, utilities, you know, the normal household things. As far as deposits, I’ve already told you he was a wealthy man. He had monthly dividends from different investments that were quite substantial. When he died, his wife inherited the investments and liquidated them, resulting in about twelve million dollars being added to her account. For several months after his death, her expenditures didn’t change.”