Murder in Vail (17 page)

Chapter Fifty

Sally recounted the story about how Rachel locked herself in Lance’s room, how she came up with the idea of giving Rachel her own room, and how they made the switch in the middle of the night.

“Are you sure no one else knew you and Rachel switched rooms?” the detective asked.

Sally shook her head. “No one else knew. It was after two oʼclock in the morning. The house was quiet. Everyone else was asleep.”

“You don’t think someone in the house would have had a reason to kill Rachel?”

Sally frowned and thought about the question. “I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t think it’s likely. Rachel certainly had a way of making people angry, and she definitely upset the household by locking herself in the bedroom. But it just seems like too big of a coincidence that Rachel would be killed the same night as that horrible dinner.”

The detective’s eyebrows rose with interest. “Tell me about the dinner.”

Sally let out a long sigh. It was a dinner she would love to forget. She took a deep breath and began the lengthy explanation to the detective about how upset she was before the dinner started because of the situation with Rachel and because Helga had quit.

“I really lost my temper,” Sally said, cringing at the memory. “I so rarely do that. I had made the decision this fall to donate ninety-five percent of my fortune to charity after Christmas. I planned to tell the children gently over the holidays. But the entire dinner conversation became about money, money, money, and I just got angry. I feel like the money my children received in their trust funds has done nothing but hurt them. I ended up yelling at them that none of them would ever get another cent from me, and that I was donating ninety-five percent of my money to charity right after the holidays.”

The detective’s eyes widened. “Hmmm. I guess we definitely have the motive for the crime. How much money are we talking about?”

Sally seemed to be doing the calculation in her head. “I plan to donate just over three billion dollars to the Warren Buffett/Bill Gates Foundation.”

The detective looked stunned. “Three billion, with a ‘b’?”

“Yes, billion. My husband was a very good businessman.”

“I guess so.”

The detective continued to take notes, underlining ‘billion’ three times.

“Were any of your children in particular need of additional money?”

Sally nodded. “They all were.”

The detective wanted to know details, and Sally filled her in on the financial situations of her children and their spouses.

“And if they asked you for assistance, were you adamant that you would not help any of them?”

“Absolutely. I told them that, and they knew I was serious. Each of them had received twenty-five million dollars in their trust funds. If they squandered that, it was on them. I felt they were all being irresponsible. If they needed more money, I wasn’t going to give it to them. I felt they could sell some of their assets. They all have houses, cars.”

The detective zeroed in on Sally’s children’s need for money.

“So basically, everyone in the house would have benefited from your death. Especially before you gave the money to charity, which you’re planning to do, when?”

“The day after New Year’s I’m meeting with my attorney.”

“Still?”

“Oh yes. I haven’t changed my mind.”

“And how much would each of your children have received upon your death before you made the donation?”

Again, Sally stopped to calculate. “Well, in my current will, I designated to give one billion dollars to the charities I support. The other two billion would have basically been split three ways. So what’s that? About $650 million each, I believe.”

The detective seemed shocked at the numbers. “Definitely a strong motive,” she said, writing down the figures. “What about other relatives,” the detective asked. “Extended family.”

“All I have is one brother, Ed, who’s an aeronautical engineer. He does quite well. He wouldn’t take any of my money if I forced it on him. Jack’s mother and his sister Denise are both independently wealthy and wouldn’t be expecting anything from me.”

“And the housekeeper. What about her? Would she have benefitted from your will?”

Sally nodded. “I left her the house and a one million dollar a year endowment for the rest of her life. She has been the caretaker of the house for twelve years. I wanted her to have it.”

“Did she know that?”

Sally considered the question. “I don’t believe so. I never told her.”

The detective looked at her watch. It was nearly eleven o’clock.

“Just one last question for tonight, Mrs. Braddock. I know you must be tired. Why did you confide in your daughter, Gwen? How could you be sure that she wasn’t the one who tried to kill you?”

Sally smiled. “That’s easy. First, I know my daughter would never dream of doing that to me. We have our issues, but I know she loves me. I knew for sure, though, because every Christmas morning since she was a little girl, she has snuck into my room and tickled me to wake me up to wish me Merry Christmas. She did the same thing to me today. She wouldn’t have done it if she thought I was dead.”

“That makes sense,” the detective agreed. “It’s a good thing you had someone in your corner that you knew you could trust. I hate to think what might have happened up there if your daughter hadn’t been able to reach us so quickly.”

The detective closed her notebook and stood up. “We’ll have more questions for you and your daughter tomorrow, but that will do it for tonight. The only things we still need to get from both of you before you leave are your fingerprints and a DNA test. It’s just a quick swab.”

“I understand,” Sally said. “Whatever you need.”

Chapter Fifty-one

It was nearly 4:00 a.m. when Yvette and Lance were finally escorted to their bedroom. A uniformed officer stood watch outside the room. Lance immediately began checking the state of his collections. He spent fifteen minutes making sure that nothing was missing. Grumbling that several items had been moved, he straightened and rearranged his valuables to their original position.

Yvette went directly to the bathroom sink and began scrubbing her fingertips to get all the ink off from the fingerprinting.
They ruined my manicure
, she thought with annoyance. Then she hurried into the shower and let the warm water pour over her for nearly twenty minutes. Exhausted and upset, she couldn’t wait to get out of Colorado and back to California.

Once they had settled into bed, Duchess next to her on the pillow, Yvette turned to Lance. “They kept asking me the same questions over and over and over again. ‘What rooms did you go into? What did you touch? Did you hear anything? Did you see anyone in the hall? Was anyone acting suspiciously? Who would have a motive for trying to kill your mother-in-law?’ How many times can you answer the same question? How many times can you say ‘No, I don’t know anything’?”

Lance lay his head back on the pillow and turned toward her, his eyes heavy with weariness. “I know. I felt the same way. They kept asking about the dinner the night before, how much we would inherit, what our financial situation is, what our wills say. They asked the same question ten different ways like they were trying to catch me in a lie.”

“Do you think they’re starting to figure it out, Lancie? Do you think they have a suspect?”

“I don’t know. They’re pretty tight-lipped about everything.”

“Lance, what if the police can’t figure it out? What if they never figure it out? That happens all the time on TV.”

Lance frowned. “That’s an uncomfortable scenario. We could be having family dinners for years with a murderer among us.”

“Then we’re never coming near any of them ever again. Your mother can come visit us in L.A.”

Lance was having trouble keeping his eyes open. “Let’s not worry about that now. We’ll just have to wait and see what the police come up with. I’m exhausted, honey. Let’s get some sleep.” He reached over to take her hand, but got a handful of Duchess’s fur instead.

Down the hall, the police were escorting Stephen to the study, and Glen to his and Gwen’s bedroom. They both stared at the crime scene tape that crossed the doors of both the master suite and Stephen’s bedroom where Sally had been attacked.

“Long night.” Stephen sighed. “I just hope they learned something from all of this.”

“I know,” Glen said, turning into his room. “I don’t know what their plans are for us next. We’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.”

Helga also was escorted to her room on the first floor.

“You stand outside and protect me?” she asked the young officer.

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll be here all night.”

“They take my knife, so I need be sure you keep me safe. I don’t trust anybody in house.”

“Don’t worry, ma’am. You’re safe. There will be an officer at your door at all times.”

Helga shut the door and got ready for bed. After she turned out the light, she couldn’t sleep and lay awake thinking about the big news she had learned a couple of hours ago. She couldn’t believe Sally was going to leave her all that money. And the house! She knew Sally would leave her something, but that was so much.
Sally must really love me
, Helga thought. How could she have done what she did to her?

Chapter Fifty-two

The police allowed the houseguests in the mountaintop home to sleep until 11:00 a.m. the day after Christmas, since they had been up so late the night before. Then, intense questioning began again and lasted until late into the evening. A team of officers left the house to investigate the death of the poacher, fanning out across the land behind the house to see if they could find the rest of his body.

Late the next morning, after everyone had gathered once again in the living room of the house, Detective Jackson entered the room and said he had an announcement to make. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“We have finished our preliminary investigation and gotten back much of our fingerprint analysis and some of the DNA reports. The coroner has determined that Rachel Braddock was indeed smothered. There were no traces of drugs in her system.”

“I knew it,” Stephen said, glaring suspiciously at everyone standing around him. “I told you she wasn’t on drugs.”

“Based on our findings, we are ready to make an arrest.” Jackson signaled two officers to approach the group. Yvette gasped and fearful expressions appeared on the faces of almost everyone.

“Glen Sherman, you are under arrest for the murder of Rachel Braddock and the attempted murder of Sally Braddock,” Jackson announced. “Officers, please take Mr. Sherman into custody and read him his Miranda rights.”

As the two policemen took Glen by the shoulders and turned him around to handcuff him, he began to protest. “No, no! You have the wrong person! I didn’t do this.”

“Mr. Sherman, you have the right to remain silent,” one of the officers began.

Glen pleaded with the officers and the others in the room as his arms were being pulled behind him. “There’s been a mistake. I’m innocent.”

Stephen’s face flushed. He balled his hand into a fist.  “You killed my wife!” He was ready to take a swing at Glen when another police officer grabbed his arm.

“You don’t want to do that, sir.”

Lance grabbed Stephen around the chest and pulled him back. “Stephen, I know you’re upset, but this won’t help anyone. Let the police do their jobs. The justice system will take it from here.”

“That’s good advice,” the detective said to Stephen. “Listen to your brother.”

Stephen pulled away from Lance and turned his back on the others. He bent over, covered his eyes with his hands, and his shoulders began to heave.

“Stephen!” Glen cried as he was being handcuffed. “I didn’t do this. I promise you. I didn’t kill Rachel.”

Helga stepped forward and screamed in Glen’s face. “You try kill Sally! I hope you rot in prison.”

A policewoman grabbed Helga by the shoulders and walked her away from Glen. “No need for that. Everybody just calm down.”

Glen was led out of the room to the sound of the remainder of the Miranda rights being read to him.

“Ouch! These handcuffs are too tight,” Glen complained to the police as he was being taken to the helicopter. “And be careful with my watch. That’s an expensive watch.”

Once he was boarded onto the helicopter and strapped in, it took off for the ride down the mountain to the police station in Vail.

Back in the house, the detective addressed the others.

“The rest of you have been cleared and are free to go. The roads aren’t passable yet, and it will probably be another couple of days before you’ll be able to get your vehicles out. If any of you would like for us to give you a ride down to Vail in the helicopter, we will be glad to take you. It will be back up here in about an hour.”

“I want ride,” Helga said immediately. “I want to get out of this house now.”

“I want to leave too, Lancie,” Yvette said, grasping her husband’s hand.

Lance and Stephen looked at each other. “I think it would be a good idea if we all got out of here now,” Lance said. “We can come back up later. How about if we stay at a hotel in town for a few days?”

“We have your mother and your sister staying at the Marriott. Would you like for us to try to arrange for you to stay there too?” the detective asked.

Stephen nodded, and Yvette looked relieved.

“What about the dogs?” Stephen asked. “We can’t leave them here.”

“We can make arrangements for them too,” the detective said. “There’s a good kennel not far from the station.”

Stephen nodded.

“Let’s go up and pack a few things,” Lance said.