Chapter Twenty-Six
The next day passed quickly. Phil wasn’t arrested. He must have found one very good lawyer. Tommy asked me about it, wondered who it might be and if he could be co-counsel on the case. I told him that was a terrible idea, which only made him more eager to take it on. The fact that Phil hadn’t been arrested yet seemed to slow Tommy down. He really didn’t have time to wait around for that to happen, just so he could appear on local television.
Danny continued to sort through the thorny issue that might prove Phil was being framed—the idea that someone else had a key to the lockbox and had loaded his gun with live ammunition.
I had plenty of time to think about all this as I prepared dinner for Kathy and the family. I poached salmon and prepared three sauces, made wild rice and got summer squash ready for the stove.
Mason had taken the kids swimming, so I could have the kitchen to myself. The doorbell rang at five, too early for Kathy to arrive.
I opened it to find Harper standing in front of me.
“Please can I come in? I’m desperate and I don’t know where else to go?”
I opened the door wider and Harper entered. She walked to the sofa and sat down.
“I can’t work. I can’t do anything. I need to know what the police are doing to find Ryan’s murderer.”
“You heard it wasn’t suicide,” I said.
“Yes. I need to know if they’ve arrested Phil. I need to know if he might come after me.”
“Why would you think that?”
“He knows what he said to me. He’ll deny it, of course, but I’m sure he thinks I could put him away for life. If he’s killed twice why wouldn’t he kill me to keep me quiet?’
At that moment, Mason entered the house with two very wet children.
“Oops,” he said. “I had no idea you had company.”
“It’s fine,” Harper said. Her whole demeanor changed. “What darling children! What’s your name, little one?”
“I’m Lucie and this is Jason.”
“You met at the party,” I said.
“Of course we did,” Harper said. “I just forgot their names. And they might not remember me because I was in a costume.”
Lucie and Jason scooted upstairs to change into dry clothes. Mason sat down beside me.
“Do you need any help in the kitchen?” he asked.
“I’m sorry. I must be interrupting your dinner,” Harper said.
I didn’t reply, and she made no move to go.
“I’m just not sure what to do. If you hear that Phil has been arrested will you call me? I’m afraid of what he might do to me if he’s still free?”
Mason stepped in. “What are you talking about?”
“Phil wanted to marry me, and Ryan wouldn’t consider divorce. Not that I wanted that. Ryan stood by me when no one else did. I owed him everything.”
“You believe Phil killed Ryan and might come after you?” Mason asked.
“I’m scared he might.”
Mason stood. “I assume you’ve talked to the police about this.”
“I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell anyone my suspicions about Phil.”
“You’ve just told us,” I said.
“That’s different. I’m desperate.”
“I advise you to make a complaint to the police and go someplace safe for a few days,” Mason said. “Let the police know where you’ll be, but don’t tell anyone else.”
She looked up at him and nodded. “Yes, yes. That’s what I’ll do.”
She got up and left without another word.
Mason waited until we saw her drive off.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“I have no idea. I’m wondering if it wasn’t a grand performance designed to make us believe Phil is a murderer.”
Mason nodded. “It was a decent acting job if that’s what it was.”
Lucie ran downstairs at that moment and looked around the living room.
“Is she gone?” she asked.
“Harper?”
Lucie nodded.
“She’s gone.”
“Aunt Di, Mama,” she said. “Is Dr. Harper your friend?’
“Not particularly, why?”
She came up and whispered in my ear. “She’s a phony, Mama.”
I held her back at arm’s length. “Do you even know what that means?”
Lucie nodded solemnly. “It means someone who pretends to be one thing but is another.”
“Go on.”
“She pretended she liked Jason and me just now, but at the party she told us to get lost. She said children shouldn’t be seen or heard.”
I was livid. Mason put a restraining hand on my arm. “She shouldn’t have said that, Lucie, and I’m glad you told us.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before now, Lucie?” I asked.
“I didn’t want to get anyone in trouble,” she said. “Jason was running around with his bugle, and I thought that might have made her mad.”
“You didn’t hear any of that, Mason?” I asked.
“Do you think I would have allowed her to stay in your house if I had?”
“You went to get us lemonade, Uncle Mason. We saw Dr. Harper with Dr. Phil, and she didn’t like that we were watching.” Lucie paused. “They were—you know—kissing.”
“I’m glad you told me all this,” I said. “Harper won’t be welcome in our house again. Are you all cleaned up for dinner? If so, will you check on your brother, and then you can help me in the kitchen or watch a movie with Mason—whatever you like.”
“I’ll help you, Mama Di.”
Mason looked over Lucie’s head at me and wrinkled his forehead.
“Lucie’s trying out different names for me, aren’t you Lucie?”
“I am, Mama Two.”
“I like that one,” I said. “Is it Mama ‘too’ or ‘two’?” I asked.
Lucie blushed. “You’re our second mom.”
Lucie ran off to find Jason and brought him back with his musket in one hand and his bugle in the other. Mason extracted them from Jason and said those were for outside. Right now, they’d do something a little more quiet like play with Legos or watch TV. Jason seemed content with that
Kathy arrived a little before seven. She brought a giant bouquet of freesias and snap dragons.
“How could you possibly know those are two of my favorite flowers?”
“A lucky guess. I like them too.”
I took them and found a vase while Mason brought out hors d’oeuvres. He called the children in. They remembered Kathy from the day she’d spent with them. Lurleen and Danny arrived a little after seven. Everyone was chatting away when I called them to the dining room. It was too hot to eat outside, and the mosquitoes would have made it more miserable.
“At least it’s a cool meal in a cool setting,” I said.
People were appropriately enthusiastic about the dinner and the dessert of homemade lemon ice cream and gingerbread.
We kept the conversation light. Thank goodness I had friends who could talk about anything. Kathy was fascinated to hear about what Lucie and Jason were up to, and they were delighted to tell her.
After dinner, I got the kids settled in bed and returned to find Kathy and Mason deep in conversation. It looked serious.
Mason made room for me beside him. “Kathy just asked me about the investigation, and I was telling her what I knew.”
“Were they able to do anything with the photograph?” Kathy said.
“No. It was taken on an iPhone and printed on a home computer. Nothing remarkable about it and no fingerprints other than yours and Ditie’s.”
Kathy nodded. “And the accounting book?”
“They’ve asked everyone to submit handwriting samples, but the book is
basically a series of numbers and initials. Nothing’s come back about that yet.” Mason hesitated. “I know this may be painful to discuss, Mrs. Thompson, but do you have an idea who might have been threatening your husband?”
“Please, I’ve just had dinner with all of you. I’m Kathy, of course.”
I nudged Mason. “Mason gets a little formal when he falls into work mode.”
“I thought you weren’t working on this case,” Kathy said.
“I’m not, but I’m friends with the people who are. They don’t mind getting help from me and I don’t mind giving it.”
Kathy nodded. “I can tell you the one person who didn’t do it.”
“Who’s that?” Mason said.
“Andy.”
“Even though Andy had every reason to hate Carl,” Mason said.
“He’d never send that photo to me,” Kathy said.
“What about Frank and Sally?” I asked. “Could you see either of them sending you that picture?”
“I don’t know Frank well.”
“Carl embezzled money from him, and it was Frank’s initials in the book,” I said. “Maybe the photo was meant to threaten you into paying him what was owed.”
“But Frank has never approached me for money,” Kathy said.
“He may be biding his time.” This came from Mason. “Perhaps he’s waiting for the investigation to blow over before he comes to you.”
That made sense.
“Do you know of anyone else who might have been blackmailing Carl?” Mason asked. Kathy shook her head. “Carl kept his finances secret from me. I only got involved when I learned what he had done to Andy. Then I made the monthly payments myself, from my trust fund, to pay Andy back.”
“What about Sally?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Sally was someone I didn’t know well in med school,” I said. “Apparently she went into investment banking or hedge funds after she dropped out of school. Do you know more about her?”
“Just that Carl always looked out for her. They came as a package in terms of work.”
“Was Sally involved in the embezzling?”
“I don’t know. Carl never said she was, but then he also claimed he’d done nothing wrong.”
“Did the three of you spend time together?” I asked.
“Rarely,” Kathy said. “I hated all the office talk—I’d grown up with it. When Carl had a dinner with drug reps or something business related, I’d go out with my teacher friends.”
“Did you get to know Sally personally, just the two of you?” Mason asked.
“Not really. We never developed a close friendship. She’s one of those people who seem almost too sweet to believe.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” I said. “She greeted me like I was her long-lost best friend.”
“Exactly,” Kathy said. “That’s how she treated me. She really seemed to be into the reenactment thing. I could never imagine why. She wasn’t from the South. Maybe she liked all the action. Phil might know more about her than I do.”
“Speaking of Phil, I heard you saw him before we met for drinks. I wonder why you didn’t tell me.”
Kathy’s eyes widened. “I guess I forgot. He called me to see how I was doing and invited me over.” She stood. “It’s late and I should be going.” She thanked me for a wonderful evening and that part seemed genuine. What seemed less sincere was her explanation about seeing Phil and her abrupt departure after I brought him up.
When she left, Mason and I headed to the kitchen.
“We’ve got it covered,” Danny said. “Whoever cooks is not allowed to clean up. Come on, Lurleen, you can help me.”
Reluctantly, Lurleen rose from the sofa. She was certain we’d be discussing the case without her.
“I need to find out more about Sally,” I said. “She drops out of med school for cheating and then keeps up with all her doctor friends. Maybe I’ll have lunch with her,” I said. “She mentioned we should get together.”
“I’m not enthusiastic about your having lunch with a possible murderer,” Mason said. “You’re a mother now. Did you hear what Lucie called you?”
“I’ll go with her,” Lurleen said. She must have been eavesdropping from the dining room. “I’ve been taking self-defense courses with Wendy, my personal trainer, along with kick boxing. No one messes with me. I keep urging Ditie to come with me, but she’s always too busy.”
“I have other priorities, Lurleen, and no matter how many push-ups you make me do I will never have your body.”
“We only need one Lurleen,” Danny said.
“Ce que je veux dire,” Lurleen continued, “is that I can keep Ditie safe. I will be her bodyguard, and I think lunch with the elusive Sally Cutter is a wonderful idea.”
Mason knew when he was defeated. “It must happen in a very public place, and I’d prefer you not accuse her of anything, Ditie.”
“I promise not to do that, Mason.”
Three primary suspects in addition to Phil remained on our list as potential murderers—Frank, Sally and Harper. Frank could have sent the photograph to scare Kathy about what could happen to her if she didn’t pay back what was owed. Sally or Harper might have done it to make Kathy suffer—but why?
Lurleen, Danny, and Mason left. I turned off all the lights, checked on the kids, and walked slowly upstairs.
We were making the assumption that whoever sent Kathy the photograph was also the murderer of two people. Maybe we had that wrong. Maybe the person who sent the photograph was simply doing it out of spite. Or perhaps it was Ryan—first a murderer and then a victim.
I’d left Andy off the list of suspects entirely, but perhaps I had a blind spot where Andy was concerned. Andy had probably suffered most at the hands of Carl, financially and personally, but what could he have against Ryan? Unless Ryan had figured out what he’d done. Before I fell asleep, I realized I hadn’t included Kathy as a suspect. She was not at either reenactment, but she’d lied to me twice. Perhaps she wasn’t as innocent as I wanted her to be.
I lay in the dark trying to sort through what did and didn’t make sense.
Although I didn’t like to consider the possibility, perhaps Kathy and Andy were in this together. Two seemingly nice people committing two heinous acts of murder. That was too much for me. It would mean I couldn’t trust my own instincts about people. Then I thought of Phil—how little I had understood about the man he was—but I was twenty-one at the time, not thirty-five. Surely I’d learned a thing or two about people in those years.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I called Sally the next day. She was surprised to hear from me, she said, and delighted. She was sorry she hadn’t been the one to make the first move.
We agreed to lunch at the Bistro Niko, Lurleen’s favorite French restaurant in Atlanta. I explained that Lurleen wanted some financial advice and suggested the three of us should meet socially. Sally bought it.
“I don’t mean to be crass about this,” Sally said on the phone, “but Lurleen does understand that I don’t give away free advice.”
“She’s well aware of that, and she has plenty of money,” I said.
We met at the restaurant on Thursday for a late lunch. Lurleen insisted on picking me up at the clinic, so she could drive me in her Citroën. “If you are going to a French restaurant, chérie, you must arrive in a French car.” Obviously she knew rules of etiquette of which I was unaware.
Sally joined us ten minutes late.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was checking on Phil and lost track of time.”
“Is Phil still considering joining his father’s practice?” I asked.
She looked surprised. “I assumed you two talked all the time. He’s not considering that at the moment, or to be more accurate his father is not considering it. Not until t
hese murders are resolved. You’ve seen the papers? The senior Dr. Brockton hates a scandal, and Phil has been named a person of interest.”
“What do you think, Sally?”
“About what?”
“About what happened Sunday,” I said.
Our waiter came over and brought our menus and water. When he left, she responded.
“You know Phil,” she said to me. “Can you see him killing anyone?”
“In med school, I would have said that was ridiculous. Now, I don’t know for sure.”
Sally took a sip of water. Her pixie face looked less childlike and more intense. “I guess I don’t know for sure either. I’m choosing to believe that someone set him up.”
“How did someone get him to fire a bullet at Ryan,” I asked, “if it was his gun?”
“What do you mean if it was his gun? Of course, it was his gun.”
“The police can’t say who fired the live shot,” I said.
“What are you implying, Ditie?”
“Nothing. I’m simply stating a fact.”
“It wasn’t my gun, I can tell you that. It was Phil’s, and he either knew he had live ammunition or someone planted it in his gun.”
I heard Mason’s admonition in my head—don’t accuse her of anything—and I remained silent.
Sally put a hand over her red cupid lips. “I guess I haven’t helped Phil’s case much, have I?”
“Phil and Ryan acted as if they hated each other. We saw that at Ditie’s party,” Lurleen said.
“Oh yeah,” Sally said. “Ryan got jealous all the time, and Harper is, well, Harper is just Harper.”
“You don’t think there’s anything going on between Phil and Harper?” I said.
For a moment Sally’s dark eyes flashed. “Do you?”
I shrugged and Lurleen took over. “Much as I enjoy this talk of murder and intrigue, I’m really here for some financial advice. I’ve had such bad luck with financial planners,” she began.
“You’ll be happy to know I’m not a regular financial planner. I’m sure Ditie told you I was on Wall Street for a few years and left when I’d soaked up all the information I could,” Sally said.
Into the Frying Pan Page 20