Murdered by Superstition

by Dianne Harman

  “Well, don’t that beat all. So, yer’ thinkin’ it might be that woman we saw in the photo with the voodoo doll. Would I be right?”

  “Yes, I am. I’m also a little concerned about the woman Judy and I had lunch with at your place, Maddie Sanders. The gift shop owner was adamant that she’d been in his gift shop the week before.”

  “Be more inclined to think it was the woman with the voodoo dolls. Got a name for her?”

  “Yes, it’s Candace Norgan. She was the pretty blond.”

  “I ‘member, Liz. May be gettin’ up there in years, but the brain is as young as it’s ever been. Matter of fact, saw her jes’ before lunch.”

  “You saw Candace today?” Liz asked, her heart speeding up, wondering if she could have been the one who called Jean Baptiste.

  “Sure ‘nuf. Took her order myself. Wanted to see if she had any more of them voodoo dolls, but she didn’t put any on the table this time. After I took her order she asked if I had a phone that guests could use. Said she had to make a phone call and her cell phone weren’t workin’ right. Kinda wondered when she said that, ‘cuz I woulda’ sworn she was lookin’ at it when I walked up to her table.”

  “Gertie, this is really important. Do you know if she used the public phone, and if so, about what time?”

  Gertie was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment, then she said, “Liz, why are ya’ askin’?”

  Liz told her about her conversations with Jean Baptiste and Matt. “That’s why I’m asking, Gertie.”

  “Yes, she did use the phone, although I ain’t got no idea who she was talkin’ to. One of the waitresses tol’ me there was a problem with the sink in the women’s restroom. Ya’ gotta’ know just how to jiggle it sometimes to unplug it, so I passed her in the hall when I went there. When I walked out she’d finished. As fer’ time, have to be around 11:45, ‘cuz we got two busloads of customers ‘bout then, and we were jammed until 1:30. Does that help?”

  “More than you know, Gertie, more than you know. Thanks. The pralines will be there tomorrow.”

  Liz called Matt back and told him about her conversation with Gertie. “Matt, it looks like Candace was the one who called Jean Baptiste. You know, he was very explicit that the woman had said she was trying to break up a relationship. I’m no defense attorney or law person, but that sure doesn’t shout murder to me. Do you think that’s all she’s trying to do, break up a relationship? Maybe she doesn’t know anything about Nicole’s death. Maybe it was someone else.”

  Matt was quiet for several moments and then said, “Could be a case where two and two doesn’t equal four. Maybe she’s not the murderer, although that seems hard to believe. I guess it’s possible someone wouldn’t know about the murder if they didn’t watch television, read the paper, or know someone who knew the victim. It’s a long shot, but I think it should be explored.”

  Liz racked her brain. “I honestly don’t know what to think. I think I mentioned in one of our conversations that she owns an insurance agency. Maybe she’s been on vacation or leave and doesn’t know what’s happened. I suppose that’s possible.”

  “Let me look into it. I’ll get back to you.”

  Liz put her phone on the kitchen counter and saw Gina looking sideways at her. “It’s none of my business, Liz, but are you involved in solving another murder? Does this mean I’ll be hosting some of the dinner parties in the near future?” she asked referring to several times when Liz had left her in a lurch while she’d been away catching the bad guys.

  “Yes, I am, and I have no idea what will be happening next. I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t know more,” Liz said with a frown. “I’m dealing with a bunch of voodoo stuff, and I think I may be in way over my head.”

  Gina walked over to her and put her hand on Liz’s arm. “Please Liz, whatever I can do, just let me know. I’m perfectly capable of handling the lodge dinners when you have to be gone. That is one thing you definitely don’t have to worry about.”

  Liz put her hand on top of Gina’s. “Thanks, I really appreciate that. I’ll try not to leave you in a lurch, but as you well know, sometimes it becomes necessary for me to leave rather quickly.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Liz had just reached the bottom of the stairs when Roger walked in the door that led to the parking lot. “Hi, beautiful, how is the voodoo queen doing? I talked to Matt a little while ago. He’d never used Sean before and asked what I thought of him,” Roger said referring to the private investigator at Roger’s firm that Liz had used several times in the past.

  “What did you tell him?” Liz asked as she put her arms around him and drew his head down, lightly kissing him.

  “I told him I thought he was the best. Matt has always used another private investigator at the firm for his cases, but that guy is on vacation right now. He said to tell you that he’d have something for you within the hour.” True to his word, just as he finished speaking, Liz’s cell phone chimed with the song Roger had entered, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

  “Liz, it’s Matt. I have some interesting information for you. I found out that Candace Norgan has been on vacation for two weeks and will be off another week. This muddies up the case, but there’s an outside chance she’s not the murderer and may not even know that Nicole has been murdered. Maybe when she called Jean Baptiste she was being honest when she said she was trying to get something to break up a relationship.”

  “Matt, quite honestly I don’t know what to think about that. It just seems too odd that there would be two people in this small town who have had access to voodoo objects and who would want to harm or kill someone. I mean, I know it’s possible, but it sure doesn’t seem plausible, if that makes any sense.”

  “It makes a lot of sense, but I think we need to figure out what to do next.”

  “I agree.” There was a beeping on the line and Liz saw there was another call coming through. “Matt, can I call you back? I see that Cody is calling me, and I probably should take his call.”

  “Sure.”

  Liz pressed the green button on her phone screen. “Hi, Cody. I was just on the phone with Matt. What’s happening?”

  “Liz, this is the strangest thing, but I just had a phone call from Candace. She told me she’d been in touch with someone from New Orleans, and he’d told her that we were meant to be together. She asked if she could stop by and talk to me. She said the person had told her that Nicole was not the right person for me, but that she was.”

  “Good grief. What did you tell her?”

  “I said that I needed to think it over. What do you think I should I do?”

  “I was talking to Matt when you called. Let me run it by him and see what he thinks. I’ll get back to you in a couple of minutes.”

  She pressed in Matt’s numbers. “Matt, this is getting stranger and stranger. I just heard from Cody. You’re not going to believe this.” She told him what Cody had said and ended by asking his opinion on what Cody should do.

  “Whew. This really is getting complicated. So much for one person carrying out some voodoo thing. It seemed pretty cut and dried until a little while ago. I was pretty sure it was Candace, now I’m not so sure. Okay, let me think about this.”

  He was quiet for a few moments and then he said, “I’d like to see Candace go over to Cody’s house. If she is the murderer, at least the bodyguard I hired for him will be there along with Winston, your dog. By the way, Roger told me some of the stories about Winston. I had no idea he was that good. I really think Cody’s well-being is covered, but I digress.

  “I’d like to know if Candace is aware that Nicole is dead. I don’t want you there, and I’d certainly have no reason to be there. I think the best thing to do would be for the guy I hired to put a wire on Cody, so I can hear, and you too, if you’d like, what Candace has to say.”

  “What about Winston?” Liz asked. “I couldn’t stand it if something happened to him.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a probl
em. I rather doubt she’s planning on murdering Cody, since she asked if she could go to his house and talk to him. He can say he’s taking care of a friend’s dog, and that should be a good enough reason for Winston to be there.”

  “What about the wire? Does the bodyguard you hired keep one in his car or what?” Liz asked.

  “As a matter of fact, he does. Strange things happen in this business, and you always need to be prepared. I’ll tell him what to do. I’m going to drive up to Red Cedar. If it’s too late for me to make it back to the city, do you have an empty cottage I could stay in?”

  “Yes, we’re almost always booked solid, but this week we’ve had a couple of cancellations. You’re welcome to spend the night.”

  “Okay, I’ll call Cody and my guy and give them their marching orders. I’ll fill you in when I get there. I want to be near Cody’s house in case something gets ugly. His bodyguard is going to have to be off premises as well, because that would probably send up all kinds of red flags, whether she’s guilty or not. Let’s plan on me picking you up, and I imagine Roger will want to be in on this as well, about 7:30. I’ll tell Cody to ask her over about 8:00. That should be plenty of time for us to get situated. See you then.”

  Roger had just walked out of the bedroom, having changed into casual clothes. “What were all the phone calls about?” he asked, scratching his head. “Have I missed something?”

  “Matt will be here at 7:30 to pick us up. Let me tell you what’s happened, and then I’d like your take on this. You spent a lot of years as a defense attorney. Hope you can give me some insight here on the criminal mind.” She started out by telling him about her conversations with Cody and Matt.

  Roger sat down in the chair across from her in the small kitchen in their living quarters at the lodge. Behind her the sun was setting on the Pacific Ocean and it looked like fingers of flame were racing across the water. He knew it would only last for a minute, but every time he saw it he thought about how, after his first wife had died of cancer, he’d gotten a second chance at life. And it was a very good second chance.

  When she was finished, he said, “I agree with everything Matt is doing. As far as Candace is concerned, obviously it could be one of two things. First, she may legitimately be unaware of Nicole’s murder, even though there’s all this circumstantial voodoo stuff. Secondly, she may be the murderer and is professing not to know anything, hoping people would think she wasn’t involved. Convoluted, but the criminal mind is often not the shortest distance between two points.”

  Liz chewed her lower lip. “Roger, let’s assume for the sake of conversation that Candace was not the one who committed the murder. Do you think there’s a chance that Maddie really was the woman the man identified in New Orleans? And if so, what do we do about it?”

  “Sure, there’s a chance. She did tell Judy that she’d just come back from a vacation, but what bothers me is the lack of a motive. Like it or not, Candace would have a motive, that of a jilted woman. But you haven’t told me anything that speaks of motive with Maddie. From what I understand, Maddie didn’t even know Cody. Is that correct?”

  “As far as I know, yes. But for the sake of discussion, she very well might have known of him. Certainly, she heard Nicole speak about him, and she did mention that Nicole had a picture of him on the cabinet in her office. Who knows? Maybe she had a thing for him, although I grant you that’s not much of a motive for murder.”

  “I agree. What do you want to do about dinner tonight? Looks like we won’t be eating with the guests.”

  “Oh gosh, I need to tell Gina that she’ll be front and center tonight. Let’s eat when we get back from the stakeout or whatever it’s called when you’re listening to people and one of them is wired. There will probably be some leftovers from dinner, and anyway, I’m too nervous to eat right now.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Roger said as Liz hurried up the stairs to talk to Gina.

  *****

  “Gina, I am so sorry, and I can’t believe we were just talking about this, but you’re going to have be the recipient of the accolades for tonight’s dinner. That little matter I’m involved with needs me to be somewhere during dinner. If there are any leftovers, I think Roger and I will have those later tonight. You and I made a lot of Cajun gumbo, and I doubt the guests will eat all of it. Although as good as it is, they just might. Anyway, try and save a little for us.”

  “Liz, I can practically guarantee you that there will be some left over. As a matter of fact, I’ll dish out two bowls right now and put them in the refrigerator for you. That way, Roger won’t have to worry. I know how he loves your cooking.”

  “Correction, Gina, our cooking. And if you could squirrel away a couple of pecan praline bites, that would be great. Knowing Roger’s sweet tooth, I think those will make a pretty good impression on him. And who knows how tonight will turn out? Thanks again for covering for me.”

  “Any time, Liz, any time.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Liz and Roger had just walked outside the lodge when they saw Matt’s headlights coming up the lane that led to the lodge from the highway. He pulled up to them and Roger and Liz got in his car.

  “So, what’s the drill, Matt? Even though I’ve done a lot of criminal defense work in the past, this is a first for me,” Roger said.

  “Several things. First of all, I’m going to wire Cody. Sid, the bodyguard I hired, will be right outside the back door. He’ll be listening to everything through a receiver he’ll have on him, and we’ll be doing the same thing as close as we can get to the house without being spotted. Probably about half a block away. That’s the beginning.”

  “Won’t that be a problem when Candace drives up? Isn’t there a chance she’ll spot us?” Liz asked.

  “No, as soon as we see headlights, you two can scoot way down in your seats, and I’ll be looking at my phone, like I’m lost. To my knowledge, she’s never set eyes on any of us.”

  “I think that’s true. There’s no way she would connect people in a car with Cody.”

  “My thinking, exactly, Liz. I would like you to work with Winston a bit. Roger told me some of the incredible things he can do. I’d like you to instruct him, however you do it, that if Cody is in danger Winston should act to prevent whatever is happening. Can you do that?”

  “Of course. He’s been exceptionally well-trained. What worries me is how is Cody going to respond to Candace wanting to get back together with him?”

  “He and I talked that over while I was driving up here. We finally decided the best thing to do is just let Cody play it by ear. Kind of string her along and then tell her he wants to think things over. We thought that would prevent her wanting to spend the night or something. If there’s any chance that she’s the murderer, obviously that would not be a good thing.”

  “What about me, Matt. Need me to do anything special?” Roger asked.

  “No. I just want you to be another set of ears. In case we ever have to use this conversation in court or anything like that, I might need you to corroborate what is said. But I need to talk to both of you about something else.”

  “Sure, Matt. What’s that?”

  “Roger, I took your advice about your private investigator. Since mine is on vacation, and time is getting away from us with this murder, I called Sean and gave him the information I had on both Maddie Sanders and Candace Norgan. He’s pretty amazing. Think I’m going to have to start using him.”

  “What was so amazing?” Liz asked.

  “Within an hour he not only confirmed everything we knew about Candace Norgan, he even found out she hasn’t left this area during the time she’s been on vacation. He also found out that Maddie was on a flight to New Orleans and stayed there one day. He even gave me the name of the hotel where she stayed and also found out that when she returned to San Francisco, she picked up her car from the parking lot and returned to Red Cedar a week before Nicole was murdered.”

  “How did he come up with that information that fa
st?” Liz asked as Matt turned onto Cody’s street.

  “Credit card information, but I’ve saved the best for last.”

  “You’re killing us, Matt. What’s the best?” Roger asked.

  “Maddie ordered a number of things from a web site in New Orleans called Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo.”

  He was interrupted by Liz, “Oh, my gosh. I was there. It’s on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. After Judy and I went to the Voodoo Museum, we decided to see what it had to offer. It’s got voodoo dolls, gris-gris pouches, all kinds of voodoo things. Do you know what she got there?”

  “Yes. She bought several voodoo dolls, two gris-gris pouches, and several books. Doesn’t say she murdered Nicole, but she sure never mentioned any of that when you had lunch with her at Gertie’s Diner. Makes a person wonder. Okay, let’s get this over with,” Matt said as he got out of the car and Liz and Roger did the same.

  CHAPTER 23

  Cody was waiting for them and as soon as he opened the door, Winston ran over to Liz, clearly glad to see her. She knelt down and kissed him on the forehead. “What a good boy, you are,” she said, as Winston furiously wagged his short stubby tail acknowledging the praise.

  “Liz, if you’re ever in the market to sell that dog, I sure would like the right of first refusal. He’s something else. My dog is sweet, but Winston seems to know what I’m thinking before I do. I’m sorry all of this has happened, but I’m not sorry I’ve had an opportunity to spend some quality time with him,” Cody said.

  Liz whispered in Winston’s ear. “Don’t worry, big guy. I would never sell you.”

  A large man walked over to Matt and shook his hand. Matt turned to Roger and Liz and said, “I’d like you both to meet a friend of mine, Sid Moretti. He’s the one who’s staying here with Cody.” The three of them shook hands.