by Misty Simon
I remembered that and her closed-casket funeral. It had been so horrible to see her husband’s grief. He was inconsolable even by my mother, who was the great consoler. And what if he was the killer? I wasn’t stupid enough to just go waltzing in and bring it all back up, not even for Burton. On the other hand, what if he knew something about who had killed Eli? We needed the info, but how to get it without showing my hand?
There was one possibility, and it was a good one—if I could get the right person to help me.
I thanked my uncle and then called Gina. She was not the person I needed, but I didn’t want to leave her out. “Daphne, get the gang together in the Mystery Machine, we have a clue. Can you get away?”
“I can’t. The rush is about to start. My mom can’t handle that by herself. Do you want me to find someone to go with you?”
Jeremy crossed the bottom of the stairs below. We had no funerals this evening. He was the one I wanted to escort me to the house. He could come with me and maybe then he would see the importance of solving these things and giving closure. It couldn’t hurt, anyway. And it would make him useful instead of skulking. As an added bonus, I’d have a reason for being at the grieving man’s house.
“I’m going to take Jeremy.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” She sounded surprised. “He might be even more against it when you’re done.”
“I don’t think he could be any more against it than he currently is, so I have nothing to lose. I am not going to get my rear end handed to me again like last night.”
“Okay, call me as soon as you’re done. And keep me updated.” She paused. “So, if I’m Daphne then does that make you Fred or Velma?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll see if I’m the smart one or the eye candy after this meeting.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jeremy was resistant at first, almost to the point that he wanted to yell at me. The veins in his neck bulged. But Mom was the one who convinced him that I should have an escort, and as my older brother, it was his responsibility to keep me safe.
He fell for it, which was fine with me. We took his car, since he wasn’t a big fan of the Lexus, and apparently he had a bunch of flowers to pick up at Monty’s, the best florist in town. They were standard silk flowers that Monty rearranged for us every month or so just to keep the place filled with beautiful arrangements, or to boost the flowers at a funeral that didn’t have many sprays so it would look less bare. We took a handful of the arrangements to him every few weeks and let him put them into different vases and mix the flowers up to look new.
Jeremy had Grady Jones’s address in the files we kept of all the funerals we’d done over the years. As much as I wasn’t a huge fan of the business, it was fascinating to look at some of the funerals from decades past.
We pulled up in front of a good-sized house in a nicer neighborhood on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, it looked as if no one had mowed the lawn the entire summer. Dead leaves littered the front lawn and debris cluttered the front porch, which should have been inviting.
“You ready for this?” I asked Jeremy as we got out of the car.
“Yes, we’re just here to check up on him after his wife’s funeral last month. That is all. Whatever you ask is your own area. I’ll be here so nothing bad happens, but I’m not going to be a party to that kind of digging. Maybe if you can get your answers I can get my girlfriend’s time back.”
So stiff. As much as I’d love to have Gina as a sister-in-law, I did have another brother who wasn’t quite this unbending. Maybe I could ask her if she wanted to date Dylan. I shut the thought down before it went any further. She and Jeremy were good for each other, and it would be horribly awkward if I tried to pair her with Dylan.
“You don’t have to be a party to anything. You can stay out here, and I can ask him to talk to me on the porch where you could see it all. I am here on official business for the funeral home. If I happen to ask anything else that would not be completely out of the norm.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Tallie. Let’s go.” Jeremy headed toward the front door, leaving me at the car.
Scrambling to keep up, I met him at the porch steps and we ascended them together. A curtain twitched to the left of the front window and I got a brief glimpse of wild hair and an angry face. This ought to be fun.
I let Jeremy knock so he would be the first one the guy saw. I had said at the car that he could stay out there, but I appreciated having him here, even more than having Gina by my side. Two women against one angry man could go horribly wrong. One man and one woman could, too, but at least this way we had a legitimate reason for being here.
“What?” Grady said after yanking open the door. The fumes of whiskey radiated from him, so much so that I had to hold my reflexive gag back.
Jeremy stood in front of me, appearing to be completely unaffected. “Grady, how are you? We at Graver’s just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I already paid my bill, get off my porch.”
My brother was not deterred. “Thank you for paying in full. We appreciate that. This is the other side of our services, making sure the people we serve are checked on.”
“I don’t need you to check on me, you and your sister.” He sneered. “All perfect with your perfect lives and all your family standing around, making money off the dead. Vultures, all of you.”
Jeremy did not blink, or flinch, and I was awesomely proud of him. “My apologies for intruding on your continued grief. Just know that we are all thinking of you. I wanted you to also know that if you need anything we’re here for more than just burying your loved ones.”
“How about getting me that no-good liar who said the elevator was fine? I told him he needed to take more than two minutes to look at it, but he wouldn’t do it. I told my wife not to take the elevator down until I could find someone more reliable to go over every aspect, but she was in such a hurry one day, so she took the elevator and plunged to her death. In my building. In my elevator, on my watch. I killed her more than anyone else, but since I’m paying for it with every breath I take I want him to pay, too. Dammit.”
His speech made me feel hollow inside. The poor guy. To deal with that level of grief. And yet there was my opening. I took it, hoping I showed as much compassion and kindness as Jeremy had. “We are so sorry for your loss. Would that have been Eli St. James that did your inspection? We have recently heard some things and they are looking into the inspections he’s done to see if anything hasn’t been done correctly.”
That seemed to sober him right up. He stood tall, dragging a hand through his hair. “I’m part of the reason they’re looking. I asked Jeremy if I could come out with him on his visit to talk to you about what you remember so they can build the strongest case possible. Eli is dead at this point, but he and his estate could possibly pay posthumously.”
“Dead?” He squinted at me.
“Yes.”
“And you’re here because you wanted my story?”
“If you want to share it.”
“I just did. Are you sure you’re not the cops and you think I killed him? Eye for an eye? Life for a life?”
Now I could have pretended to be a cop here and taken some sort of statement or told him that we were looking at all suspects and all cases. But I felt for this guy, and I just couldn’t do it. “I’m not with the cops. I’m looking into it because I don’t believe he died of natural causes. I don’t think you did it, but I offered to talk with you to keep the cops out of your business.”
“Huh.”
And that was it. He shut the door in our faces. We could hear him clomping away out of the foyer.
“Should we stay or go?” Jeremy asked.
“Song references, brother of mine?” When he looked confused, I just rolled past it. “I’m honestly not sure. I don’t want him to come back with a gun and tell us to get off the property again, but I also don’t want to be halfway down the road if he was just going to get something an
d didn’t want to leave his door wide open.”
Before we could make a decision, Grady whipped the door back open. I wasn’t lying when I said I was afraid of a bullet. But what he shoved at me didn’t have a barrel. It did, however, give me a wicked paper cut.
“That’s everything I found out about the guy. He had some shady stuff going on. I was working on stuff myself, but I can’t anymore. It’s destroying me. You let me know what you find out about his so-called work and I’ll be there to make the case as strong as a lockbox.”
He closed the door again. Definitely for the final time. Jeremy and I walked away to the sounds of him sobbing on the other side of the door. My eyes teared up, but I held it in until I got to the car and we were halfway down the street.
Jeremy pulled over and held me across the center console as the tears flowed, unchecked. “Tallie, it’s okay. It means he’s going to be okay, and you’re doing something to make that happen. You were really good back there. I know you don’t want to hear it, and you don’t want to do it, but I think you would make an amazing funeral director. You weren’t only born into it, you also have all the personality traits that make you a natural.”
I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what the answer was. Besides, I wasn’t ready to face that my calling might not be my call.
* * *
Back home, I leafed through the papers in Grady’s file as I waited for Max to pick up on his end. It was the middle of the workday, but I needed to hear his voice and I needed his advice.
“Babe, how’s it going?”
“I miss you a lot,” I said with a smile in my voice, but there might have been tears in my eyes. Maybe.
“I miss you, too. I should be home a day or two early and was going to just have them change my flight to Harrisburg so I can rent a car and come visit. I’ll drop the car off at Dulles afterward and pick up my car from there.”
“You really are the best.” I wiped my eyes, moving Peanut away before she howled.
“Depends on who you’re asking. The company here is not overly impressed with my investigative skills, since it just landed them in hot water with some people farther up on the chain.”
“Very nicely done.”
“I won’t bore you with the details. How are things? Did they find the murderer?”
“Not yet, but they did find Eli’s car, and it looks like he might have been playing private investigator to get money out of people. Not to mention shoddy home and building inspections to do the same.”
“Yikes. That’s a lot going on. How are you narrowing things down?”
I sighed and flopped back against the couch cushions. “I’m not. That’s the problem. I have Rhoda, who it might be. I have Marianne. I have Grady, even if he said he didn’t do it. His wife was killed in an elevator Eli signed off on as being safe. He’s angry but I don’t think he did it. I do appreciate that I now have a multitude of other possibilities from the info Grady compiled. But then there are all those other files that Marianne had. So the suspect pool is currently Olympic-sized.”
“Well, I feel better that you have Burton on your side this time.”
“Yeah, he’s not being much help, but at least he’s not scowling at me every time I get near him while warning me away. He’s actually asking me to help.”
“I wouldn’t count on that lasting beyond this particular case. You know he’s going to go back to his usual self as soon as he’s back on his feet.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. In the meantime, I’d better get moving.”
“My amateur sleuth. Just remember I’d prefer you alive.”
“Me, too.”
We were about to end our call when he said, “I know you have people on your side, but I really wish you’d wait until I got back to do anything more with this. I would feel better if I was there to back you up. Jeremy’s fine and so are Burton and Gina, but I’m better.”
“Yes, you are, and hopefully this is the end of my involvement. I just have to turn this paperwork over to Hammond.”
“As soon as possible,” he cut in.
“Yes, as soon as possible. Then I’ll let them handle it. I’ll be fine. Promise.”
“I hope so. I’d hate for this to be our last conversation. I can only imagine how that Grady guy feels.”
Wow, that struck a chord. How would I feel if Max never came back and I knew who was responsible? Horrible, that’s how I’d feel. And it made me want to hug Max close as soon as possible.
“We’ll discuss that, at length, when you get home. Hurry.”
“I’m on it.”
I was counting on that.
* * *
The next morning, I couldn’t resist at least peeking into the file before I handed it over to Hammond. What I found gave me a full list of people who could have wanted Eli dead. Most of them were homeowners who had filed complaints. I didn’t know how Grady had gotten them, but he must have dug around, or gone to demand them from other people who had been burned by Eli. Those I had already given to Burton from Uncle Sherman. I flipped past those fast enough to get to the other, more personal, things.
One stood out in particular, and that was one of his rivals: Mick O’Rourke. Apparently, they had originally been in business together, but Eli had split off, taking the business and all the money, leaving the other guy to rebuild with nothing.
Mick lived two towns over, and it was easy enough to set up an appointment with him. He had never returned my call from the other day, and with Marianne’s assault and everything else that had happened I had forgotten to follow up.
But when I wanted an appointment, he was quick to get back to me. Fortunately he did free consultations so I wouldn’t have to pay for it out of pocket. I gave him Jeremy’s address to inspect for a possible sale and then let Jeremy know I was going over there. When he asked why and I told him, he offered to come with me, just in case. Since we didn’t have any funerals this afternoon and Gina was still working I accepted his offer.
I looked around the internet and took Peanut out. Poor baby was in desperate need of a walk. We only had so much grass around the paved parking lot with the two hearses, and she kept straining against the leash. After she peed several times, I decided to take her out to the inn and walk along the creek. If I happened to find any clues we’d just call it a bonus. Mr. Fleefers had not been happy to be left at home, but he’d just have to deal. The one time I’d tried to put a leash on him, he’d played dead for about thirty seconds, then jumped up and dug his claws into my leg. That was not happening again.
I set out in the Lexus and parked it in a turnaround at the edge of the woods bordering the inn’s property. I didn’t want to bother Rhoda or Arthur. I wasn’t sure what to make of Rhoda not wanting to believe Eli was murdered.
At this point there had only been two people in the house that I knew of, Rhoda and Arthur. I couldn’t imagine that either of them had killed Eli, despite what Annie had hinted at. But I wasn’t ready to face them and have them lie to me either. I had anticipated a call to clean but hadn’t heard from her yet about cleaning after everyone left. She’d promised to use me, so I wasn’t worried. The call would come. She might have been caught up in booking visits now that the inn was reopened and there’d probably be a message for me to come by soon.
Call me a coward, but I did not want it to be either of them.
In the meantime, I had a dog to walk.
I got out of my car with my rain boots on. Even though it was a dry day in fall that did not mean it couldn’t get wet quickly. And the threat of ticks also had me in jeans and a jacket. With any luck I’d be in and out pretty quickly before anything attached itself to me.
Walking along through the woods, I took the path carved out by four-wheelers that liked to come back here. I made sure to keep an ear out for any of them coming up behind me. I heard the roar of their engines throughout the woods and kept mindful of stepping in one’s path.
Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing out
here except that I hadn’t wanted to go to the park, and I needed the quiet to work through the pieces I had currently. Not that I had many. I had files of people he’d screwed professionally, those he was trying to get money out of for both business and pleasure. And he must have been able to help at least some of the people in those files for his private-eye side business, otherwise why did anyone go to him?
Birds flew through the low-hanging branches, singing their afternoon song. Rustling sounded on the ground and I stepped back onto the path. Not everything that lived out here might be happy that I was invading their territory.
Nothing flashed at me, no signs pointing and saying “here, here’s where the murderer ran away to!” I kicked a rock and kept going. I heard a splash and figured I was close to the creek bank. I’d have to be careful. There were definitely snakes and whatnot that made their home here and I didn’t want to see them any more than they wanted to see me. Mr. Fleefers I liked, Peanut was growing on me, but my love of animals did not necessarily extend to the wild kind unless I was watching them through a window or on some internet video being cute—not within my personal space.
I kicked another rock and waited for it to hit the water. It did—and something else splashed along with it. Something bigger and heavier. Before peeking over the edge of the overhanging bank, I tied Peanut’s leash to a nearby tree. I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a man’s blank stare.
I’d found another body. And he was not looking nearly as clean as Eli had, though he looked very similar. Eli St. James’s brother was no longer going to bury paperwork in his office at the borough. We were probably going to bury him in one of our coffins.
Chapter Seventeen
I was not leaving the body. The decision wasn’t even one I had to think about. I’d been made a fool of once and I was not going to be made a fool of again. Hammond would have to do some serious fast talking to make this look like it wasn’t a murder.
I snapped a picture with the camera on my phone, though I felt gross doing it. He wasn’t bloated, which meant he was killed recently.