Murder at the Spa (34 page)

“I would imagine so. The police made comparison casts at the scene this morning. They matched the casts of his shoes, as did the fingerprints on the hunting knife he was going to use on Charlotte. We have him cold.”

“He always seemed like such a nice boy.”

“But what was the motive?” asked Anne-Marie, who had arrived a few minutes after Charlotte and Jerry with Gary, who had flown in for merger talks with Paulina. Also present was Claire, who had been drafted to fill the vacant spot at Paulina’s side after Jack’s mysterious disappearance.

Jerry answered in one word: “Mercy.”

Anne-Marie looked puzzled.

“It was to have been a mercy killing,” he explained. “In part, anyway. He thought he would be sparing Mrs. Langenberg the pain and suffering of a long, slow death from cancer.”

“You have cancer?” asked Anne-Marie, shocked.

Paulina nodded. “Maybe. I found out a couple of days ago. I have tumors on both ovaries. I didn’t get a chance to tell you. But don’t worry,” she added, stabbing another hunk of sausage. “I’m not going to die—yet, anyway.”

Anne-Marie decided to take Paulina’s word for it, for the moment at any rate. She turned her attention back to Jerry.

“His mother died of cancer,” Jerry continued. “He told Charlotte about it. Apparently, she suffered terribly. He was afraid Mrs. Langenberg would suffer too. I suppose she was a mother figure to him. Maybe he felt guilty that he hadn’t done something to relieve his own mother’s suffering. Who knows?”

“He wanted to spare you,” said Charlotte.

“Spare me! Spare himself is more like it. If I want to be dead I can kill myself already.” She washed down the sausage with a swig of mineral water. “By the way,” she asked Claire, who sat on the sofa beside her, “did you call the young man I told you about? The one who works in the men’s store on Madison?”

Claire responded that she had.

“Was he interested?” asked Paulina. Claire replied that he was.

It was typical of Paulina that she viewed the whole affair as an inconvenience. Never mind that Jack had tried to kill her—who was going to take care of things now that he was in jail? It was also typical that she already had a replacement in mind.

“That was part of the motive anyway,” Jerry continued.

“What was the other part?” asked Anne-Marie.

Charlotte picked up the thread of the narrative: “He may have been thinking about putting Paulina out of her misery, but he probably wouldn’t have done anything about it—for the time being anyway—if Claire hadn’t gotten pregnant. Once he knew Claire was pregnant, he had to act fast.”

“What did that have to do with it?”

“When Paulina found out about the baby, she decided to change her will back. She had cut Elliot out after he sold his stock to High Rock Waters, but she’d decided to reinstate him. If Elliot were to become her heir, it would mean that he would eventually take over the company.”

“I don’t get it,” said Anne-Marie. “Why would that make a difference?”

“If Elliot were to become boss, Jack would lose his job. Jack’s the one who’s been reporting on Elliot all these years. He wasn’t Elliot’s favorite person. He always knew his days would be numbered if Elliot took over, but he never gave it much thought until Paulina cut Elliot out of her will. It was then that he began to realize he might be able to stay on.”

“But why would he want to? I mean, if he wasn’t making that much money.”

“It wasn’t the money, it was the life,” Charlotte continued. “He was hooked on it: the travel, the four-star hotels, the champagne and caviar. He was the first to admit it. In what other secretarial job would he have a Matisse hanging in his bedroom? You see,” she explained, “he was Leon’s …” She paused, trying to decide how to phrase it.

“Innamorato,”
interjected Paulina. As usual, she was way ahead of everyone else.

“Is he gay?” asked Anne-Marie.

“I don’t know,” replied Charlotte. “I don’t know that Leon is either. But it doesn’t really matter. The point is that Leon had a sort of crush on him. It’s understandable. He’s very handsome and he can be very charming. If Jack had killed Paulina, Leon would have remained her heir.”

“I see,” said Anne-Marie. “Which would mean that Jack could have kept on living in high style.”

“Exactly,” said Charlotte. She was struck by the similarities between Dana and Jack. Dana too had believed he was helping his victims. But in both cases it was really their own self-interest that was the motive.

The police had questioned Leon, Charlotte added, and concluded that he wasn’t involved. He’d gone back to New York to nurse his wounds. The arrest had probably been more of a shock to him than it was to Paulina.

Jerry continued: “If you consider the fact that Jack thought he could get away with it, you have a very strong motive. He thought Mrs. Langenberg’s death would be blamed on the bodies-in-the-bath murderer. He didn’t know the bodies-in-the-bath murderer would be caught and that he’d have an alibi.”

“He did know about the tunnels, though, thanks to me,” said Charlotte.

“What tunnels?” asked Anne-Marie.

“The spa is underlaid by a network of tunnels,” said Charlotte. She went on to describe how she’d theorized in Jack’s presence that the killer might have used the tunnels to get from one building to another. “At that point,” she said, “he realized he could kill Paulina and get away with it.”

“Except that he didn’t know how,” interjected Jerry. “He didn’t know the victims’ ankles had been jerked into the air.” He explained briefly how Adele and Art had been killed. “He thought their heads had been held underwater. Which Charlotte discovered wouldn’t work.”

“Least of all on Paulina.” She looked over at Paulina. “I seem to remember your saying something like, ‘Nobody’s going to push me into the grave.’”

Paulina chuckled like a merry elf. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Well, unless anyone has any other questions, I’ll get back to work,” said Jerry. “I haven’t accomplished much in the last three or four days.” He extended his hand to Charlotte. “I hope you’ll be back to see us.”

“I will,” she replied. She invited him and his family to visit her in New York and then bade him good-bye with a big hug. “Thanks for everything,” she said. “The New York P.D. lost a good cop when they lost you.”

Jerry grinned, all dimples.

Once he was gone, Charlotte rose to leave as well. She still had some packing to do. She would be leaving soon with Paulina, who had invited her to share a rented limo, being temporarily without her car and driver. Paulina had decided to cut her cure short. She had, she said, “business to attend to.” But Charlotte suspected that beneath her calm exterior, she may have felt nervous about continuing with the cure. And who could have blamed her?”

But once again Paulina wouldn’t let Charlotte go. “I need someone to take notes,” she insisted. “Claire’s still getting used to me. Aren’t you, dear? It will just take a few minutes.” She turned to Gary. “I don’t think this is going to take very long, do you, Mr.…”

“Brant,” supplied Charlotte. The role of Paulina’s secretary was one she’d had plenty of opportunity to bone up on.

Gary smiled. “It depends,” he said.

Paulina had a twinkle in her eye. “Claire, dear, will you please get Mrs. Stockholder a pad of paper. Thank you, dear,” she added as Claire got up. She then turned to Charlotte. “Besides, as a stockholder in Paulina Langenberg, Inc., this concerns you. Okay, let’s get down to business.”

With that, Paulina dismissed the subject of the attempt on her life, probably for good. Settling back, she removed her shoes and raised her feet onto a footstool. “Claire, dear, will you please get us some more salami and some crackers. The crackers are in the cupboard above the stove.”

The turtle buzzer was conspicuously silent. It was one thing to treat the hired help like slave labor, but another when the hired help was about to become a member of the family.

“Yes, Mrs. Langenberg,” said Claire. She handed Charlotte a pen and a legal pad and glided off toward the kitchen.

“Thank you, dear,” said Paulina. “Make sure you write on both sides,” she ordered. Then she picked up a document from the coffee table. It was the proxy statement for High Rock Waters. “It says here that in the event you leave your position as a result of a change of control, I have to pay you three years’ salary, plus stock options, et cetera.”

“That’s right,” said Gary.

“Such nerve,” said Paulina, shaking her head. “You know what I think? I think you planned on this, on my taking over your company. Am I right?”

“Let’s say I didn’t expect you to roll over and die.”

Paulina smiled. “Why not? Everybody else around here seems to. Never mind. What are you going to do if you decide to leave? Thank you, dear,” she added as Claire set the crackers and salami on the table. “Very nice—you didn’t just bring the box; you put the crackers on a plate.”

Claire rolled her eyes at Charlotte. It was clear that being Paulina’s lady-in-waiting wasn’t a job she relished.

“What am I going to do?” repeated Gary. He looked over at Anne-Marie. “Well, first we’re getting married. Then we’re going to climb some mountains. After that?” He shrugged. “I might start another business. I’m thinking about something in the home video line.”

“Jeans, running shoes, mineral water. Very profitable. Now this home video. Very clever, this home video—watching movies at home. You have a good nose for trends. What home video stocks do you recommend?”

Gary reeled off a short list.

“Get this down,” she ordered. “And make a note to call my broker.” She turned back to Gary. “What about going to work for a bigger company?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied. “Once you get chief executive in your blood, it’s hard to go back to working for someone else.” It was clear that Gary had no intention of staying on, whatever enticements Paulina might offer. He was going to pull the rip cord of his golden parachute.

“So,” said Paulina, eyeing him appraisingly, “you like being the boss.” She offered him some crackers. “Eat,” she ordered. “If you’re going to be climbing mountains, you’ll need your strength. Good,” she added as Gary helped himself. “What if you went to work for a bigger company as the boss?”

“What are you driving at?”

Paulina smiled beneficently. “I’m an old lady. I’m not going to be around forever. For a while—fifteen, maybe twenty years—but not forever. I’ve devoted my life to building this company. I built it product by product, promotion by promotion, country by country. You know what that’s like.”

Gary nodded.

“Do you know what happened to The Eye Shadow Man’s company? It was sold to a
soap conglomerate
. They didn’t know how to run a beauty company. Two years later it’s pfft—nothing. I don’t want that to happen to my company. I don’t want the company I’ve worked and slaved for all my life to be sold off to strangers. I want it to be around for my grandson. A beauty company needs a heart and soul. The decisions have to be made by one person: a creative person, but a person who’s shrewd with money. A person who’s capable of commanding respect, a person with authority. A person with nerve.”

Gary’s heavy black eyebrows were knitted in concentration.

Paulina continued: “I’m old. I’m tired. Now they tell me I might have cancer. I’m ready to retire. But who am I going to turn my company over to? Not my nephew. He has no imagination. He’s good with numbers, but he’s not creative. My son?” She gazed lovingly at the photo of Elliot that had been restored to a position of prominence on the end table. “My son, he’s very creative. But he doesn’t have the business sense to run a big company.” She extended her arms. “But you’re creative,
and
you’re a good businessman.”

It was the perfect solution to Paulina’s succession problem. Gary would be, in effect, prince regent, guardian and preserver of Paulina’s empire, intermediary in a dynasty of Langenbergs.

Her speech over, Paulina folded her arms across her bosom and awaited Gary’s response. As an afterthought, she added: “Besides, if I have to pay you, I might as well get my money’s worth.”

Charlotte could see the wheels spinning in Gary’s head.

Before he could reply, Paulina went on: “You want trends? We’ve got trends. Our spa line, it’s a miracle. I’ll tell you why: it’s scientific. Today’s young women don’t have the time to fool around with a lot of makeup. But they want to take care of their skin and they want to do it simply, quickly, and effectively—one, two, three. That’s the theme of the spa line: twice a day—one, two, three. That’s what we say in our ads.”

Gary interrupted Paulina’s spiel: “I’m very interested. In fact, I have a couple of ideas of my own about areas for expansion.”

“Yes?” said Paulina, all ears.

“Frozen foods, for one. A line of low-calorie, all natural frozen dinners called Spa Cuisine. I think it would do very well. The young, upscale, health-minded professional who doesn’t have time to cook doesn’t want a frozen dinner that’s loaded with salt and additives.”

“I like it, I like it,” said Paulina. Her eyes were shining.

“Also video tapes. A line of exercise instruction tapes based on the classes at High Rock: aerobics, yoga, body work.”

“Anne-Marie could do them.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Gary, looking over at Anne-Marie, who glowed with happiness. “About the job. We’d have to talk terms.”

“Of course. Your lawyer, my lawyer. They’ll talk. You rooked me once, you’re not going to rook me again. I have terms too. One is that you make my nephew financial vice president; I promised him the job. The other is that you find a place for my son. Creative vice-president or something. Maybe I’m getting wiser in my old age. I can see now that I’ve used my son badly. I’ve tried to force him to be a businessman when he’s not. But he’s very creative. He could be useful to the company: packaging, design, advertising. He has artistic talent. That painting there”—she pointed proudly to the abstract that hung next to the Picasso drawing—“is one of his.”

Gary turned politely to look at the painting. “Very nice,” he said. “What about your son?” he asked. “Is he going to resent my position?”