Into the Frying Pan

by Sarah Osborne

  “What did I miss?” I asked.

  “Nothing much,” Mason said. “Lucie said Andy kissed her on the cheek. That’s an odd occurrence for a secret business deal.”

  “I could ask Kathy,” I volunteered. “It’s a place to start. I just can’t believe she was involved with the death of her own husband. And certainly not with Ryan’s murder.

  “I don’t want you to see Kathy on your own,” Mason said, “and I’m going to give this information to the investigator.”

  “I’ll be careful, Mason. If we do meet, I’ll make sure it’s in a public place. Before we call it a night, shall we see if there’s anything else we missed?”

  Together we read the rest of Lucie’s account of the evening.

  She seemed to be everywhere at once. She saw Harper make a move on at least two other men besides Phil. She saw Ryan drink at least five beers. Sally Cutter was often next to one of our male classmates. What wasn’t obvious was where Phil was for the middle chunk of the evening. He was there early. An hour and a half later he was cornered by Harper near the pond at the far end of my backyard. Then there was the fight that didn’t quite happen and then he got everyone out the door around eight thirty. But from six to seven or so there was no mention of Phil. I checked back to the notes on Sally. She was also not mentioned during that period of time.

  “Sally seemed very happy to hear Phil was getting a divorce,” I said. “I wonder if she and Phil were somewhere together during that hour lag time.”

  “Meaning what I think you mean?” Lurleen asked.

  “Yes. Did they leave the party, I wonder. Would we have noticed?”

  “I was occupied with the kids,” Mason said. “Danny should know—he was the bodyguard.”

  Lurleen took out her cell, but Danny burst into the kitchen before she could call him.

  “Ah, Ditie’s brownies—I’m starving. What a night!” He ate the last four brownies and poured himself a large glass of milk. “Not much to tell. Whoever went after Phil didn’t take anything and didn’t do much damage. It was a pretty amateur assault. Looked like someone threw a book at his head and it landed. Nothing more than that.”

  “The book was a med school yearbook,” I said.

  “Yeah. That’s odd, I’ll give you that. Maybe it was the only heavy object around.”

  “Dan, we have a question for you,” Mason said. “Did you stick with Phil all night at the party?”

  “As a matter of fact, I didn’t. He told me to take a break around six. Said he’d call me when he wanted me back on duty. I said that wasn’t a good idea, but he ignored me.”

  “Did he go somewhere?” I asked.

  “Yeah. He said he needed to get away for a bit. I offered to go with him, and he said that wasn’t necessary.”

  “Was anyone with him?”

  “I didn’t see anyone when he walked out the door, but he told me not to follow him to his car. Can someone fill me in here?”

  I described what was beginning to coalesce in my mind. Sally Cutter left school at the end of second year after the cheating scandal when Carl and Phil were reportedly seeing the same woman. Sally said it was Harper, but what if Sally were the woman as I suspected? What if she’d gone off with Phil during the party—perhaps rekindling what had started in med school? What if she’d gotten wind of Harper’s interest in Phil and was spying on them? A woman scorned.

  The others nodded.

  “How does Carl fit in?” Mason asked.

  “Do you think Sally could have been involved with both of them again?” I said. “She spoke so highly of Carl, as if he were misunderstood, and they’d stayed close over the years.”

  Mason was rubbing his bald head. “You’re describing two women—Sally and Harper—with a propensity to carry on with more than one man. Why would that make either one of them angry enough to kill Carl?”

  “It’s a good question,” I said. “I’ve always thought of Harper as someone who liked to be adored by every man she saw. She always had Ryan to fall back on. Sally didn’t seem to have anyone. Maybe she wanted to get married. She talked that way in med school, wondering if marrying a doctor wouldn’t be easier than becoming one.”

  I remembered something else.

  “There was always a rivalry between Sally and Harper, like the game some guys play in college when they rate the women they can get to sleep with them. I think Sally felt like she couldn’t quite keep up with Harper.”

  “That might explain Sally’s throwing a book at Phil in his hotel,” Mason said, “if it was Sally, but how would it explain Carl’s murder?”

  I poured myself another cup of coffee and thought out loud.

  “Kathy said she and Carl were on the verge of divorce. Perhaps there was another woman at that point, and that woman was Sally. Then, when it appears Kathy is pregnant, Carl wants to keep the marriage intact. Sally would be so close to getting what she wanted only to find it snatched away from her.”

  “You think she could have been angry enough at Carl to kill him? Lurleen asked.

  “She knew about reenactments,” I said. “She’d be smart enough to know how to set up that cannon to explode. And maybe she’d be angry enough at Kathy to show her that horrible picture.”

  Lurleen nodded. “That still doesn’t explain why Ryan was killed or the mystery encounter between Andy and Kathy.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” I said.

  We’d done all we could do for one night. Lurleen and Danny went home. Mason made noises about leaving and I asked if he wanted to stay for a while. He did. It seemed we were over the hard time of his jealousy. Maybe it helped him to realize Phil was happy to sleep with Harper and Sally, even if it didn’t make either one of them particularly happy.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Friday was normally my day off, but I’d missed a lot of work and wanted to make up the time. I called Kathy at the end of the day to see if we might meet for a drink.

  “You have news about Carl’s murder?” she asked.

  “More questions than news.”

  I felt like a hypocrite. Kathy thought I was working on her behalf, and at that moment I wasn’t. We agreed to meet at a coffee and wine bar midway between us.

  She was there, sipping a glass of wine when I arrived. She looked expectantly at me.

  “Do you want to get something to drink first?” she asked.

  “Good idea.”

  It would give me a few minutes to determine how to ask her what I wanted to know. I started with an easy question when I returned. “How are you?”

  “I’m not bad,” she said. “My family left yesterday, and I’m glad to have the apartment to myself. I won’t stay in it forever. It doesn’t suit me.” She smiled at me. “You said you had questions not answers, and you look a little nervous. What is it?”

  “There’s no easy way to ask this,” I said. Then I recounted what Lucie had seen.

  Kathy took a moment, perhaps stunned that someone had seen Andy and her together. “I did come back to the party,” she said. “Andy called me after I left and said he had some information for me and could I stop back by?”

  “It wasn’t a secret meeting?” I asked.

  Kathy hesitated and then laughed. “Of course not,” she said. “Lucie is what, nine?”

  “Almost,” I said.

  “I teach kids that age. They are all about secrets and mysteries—the girls are anyway. There was nothing secret about the meeting. I asked Andy to get me some information about real estate in South Carolina. I’m thinking of moving closer to home. He brought me pictures of available houses in my old neighborhood.”

  “You gave him money.”

  “I did. He’d handled some expenses for me right after Carl was killed, and I wanted to pay him back.”

  “I see.”

  Unfortunately, I didn’t like what I s
aw. Lucie wasn’t making up the fact that the meeting was supposed to be secret, and Kathy wasn’t telling me the truth.

  “Did you like what you saw?” I asked.

  “What I saw?”

  “The real estate options,” I said.

  “I did as a matter of fact. I wouldn’t mind living closer to Andy.” She paused. “We’ve both been through rough times because of Carl.”

  “Were you shocked when Andy and his wife broke up?”

  “Not shocked exactly. There were a lot of arguments even before Carl started working for Andy. You know Andy, he’s so even keeled and polite—he’d never say anything bad about his wife, but she could be pretty hard to take at times. She always wanted the best of everything when all Andy wanted was a simple life.”

  “You could be talking about the differences between you and Carl,” I said.

  “You’re right, I could be.”

  “Did you have any more thoughts about Carl’s book of accounts? You weren’t sure it was his handwriting.”

  Kathy shook her head. “No new thoughts.”

  “The only payments in the book were to Frank Peterson,” I said. “I wish we knew about the missing pages.”

  “I’ve told you, Ditie, I didn’t know who was threatening Carl or anything more about the book. You act like you don’t believe me.”

  I let that comment pass. “Do you think Sally would know who was threatening Carl?”

  Kathy shrugged. “I don’t know. They had a falling out before he died. When he mentioned her, it was to make some crack about how she was living high on the hog while he was struggling.”

  That felt like enough interrogation for one evening. We talked about other things, and when I finally said I needed to go, I swear Kathy looked relieved.

  “I’m glad you spoke to me about what Lucie thought she saw. I’d hate there to be any misunderstanding about Andy and me.”

  “Misunderstanding?” I asked.

  “That we were up to something when all we are is good friends.”

  We left together. I got home around seven to two starving children and one hungry boyfriend.

  “I took the liberty of ordering Chinese,” Mason said. “You want to walk me to the car, and I’ll pick it up.”

  When we were away from the kids he asked if I’d learned anything. I told him what Kathy had said.

  “So she wasn’t ready to tell you the truth.”

  “She said she didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about her and Andy. I wonder if the wrong idea might be the right one.”

  “That she and Andy are involved with one another romantically?” Mason said.

  “That’s what I’m wondering. It doesn’t explain the private meeting. All I know about that so far is that Lucie thought it was secret, and I bet she got that right.”

  “Me too,” Mason said. “All these encounters are starting to sound like Peyton Place.”

  I had to laugh. Mason and I loved many of the same things including old movies.

  “I agree, and a lot of it started in med school. I had no idea. I just studied and saw Phil when he was available. That was my med school experience.”

  “Good,” Mason said.

  I left him and went to find the kids waiting for me inside.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked.

  “Uncle Mason gave us a snack,” Lucie said. “Apples and peanut butter.”

  “Perfect. I’m sorry I was late.”

  “Were you solving the case?” Lucie asked.

  I just smiled at her. “Tell me about your day, you two.”

  Jason went first. “Lurleen showed us how to catch butterflies.”

  “We didn’t catch any,” Lucie said, “but she made us butterfly nets. She said it was better that we didn’t catch any.”

  “I’m with her,” I said.

  “Then she got a call from Uncle Danny, and she looked kind of upset and Uncle Mason came over and Lurleen left like a bat out of hell.”

  “What? Where’d you get that from?” I asked.

  “Lucie said a bad word,” Jason said.

  Lucie blushed. “It’s what Lurleen said—‘I don’t mean to leave like a bat out of hell, but Danny needs me.’”

  “Do you know if anything was wrong, Lucie?”

  Lucie shook her head. “Uncle Mason said everything was fine.”

  “I’ll give her a call,” I said.

  I left the kids in the family room, Lucie with her book and Jason on the tiled floor playing with his Legos.

  Lurleen answered on the third ring. “Ditie, I was about to call you. I’m with Danny, but he hasn’t seen Phil all afternoon. They were supposed to meet for lunch but Phil never showed up. He hasn’t been in touch with you, has he?”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Why would Phil disappear and not tell anyone?” I asked. “I assume you’re in his hotel room?”

  “We are.”

  “This sounds like what he did at the party—just take off and then reappear when he felt like it,” I said. “Have you called anyone else to see where he is?”

  “Danny thought that might come better from you.”

  “I doubt that I have all their numbers. I do have Andy’s card and Sally’s as well. Maybe they’ll know how I can reach everyone else.”

  I went back to check on the kids and they were sitting side by side in the family room as Lucie helped Jason read a book. I sat in the living room to make my calls. I started with Andy. He stammered into the phone.

  “What is it, Ditie? Is everything all right?”

  I told him I was trying to find Phil.

  “It’s about Phil!” He sounded relieved. “I haven’t seen him since Sunday.”

  He gave me numbers for Harper and Frank.

  “I just saw Kathy,” I said before I hung up.

  “I know. She called me. She told me what Lucie thought she saw.”

  “I have to be honest with you, Andy. If Lucie thought it looked like a secret meeting, I don’t think she made that up. What’s going on?”

  Andy was quiet for a second. “It’s not for me to say.”

  “What?”

  “Ditie, I can’t talk about it unless Kathy says it’s okay. It’s got nothing to do with Carl’s death, that much I can tell you.”

  I hadn’t really asked that. I had a friend who was a psychiatrist, and she loved to talk about “spontaneous denial.” That’s when someone denies something you never asked about. When they did that they were often lying.

  “Is that all, Ditie? I need to get back to my kids. It’s my night with them.”

  “So you and Jenna are divorced? You didn’t tell me.”

  “It seemed kind of personal for a party. I’m not keeping it a secret or anything.”

  “Did Carl make a play for Jenna?”

  “A lot more than a play. Jenna was my office manager. She and Carl were involved for most of the time he was there. Look, I gotta go.”

  I called Harper, but she didn’t answer.

  Frank picked up on the second ring.

  “Are you still in town?” I asked.

  “The police won’t let us go anywhere for another few days. It’s outrageous. They say they’re waiting on some forensic evidence. What the hell does that mean? I only get paid when I work, and now I haven’t been working for two weeks.”

  “Have you seen Phil today?” I asked.

  “Nope, and I hope I don’t see him again for a good long time.”

  “I heard about what Carl did to you. He was paying you back?”

  “Who told you that? Carl made a few payments of about $10,000 each. Then he stopped. When I said I’d bring him up on charges, he said I would be the one to suffer—he’d ruin my reputation—make me look like a fool.”

  “You must hav
e been furious when he turned up for the reenactment,” I said.

  “When I heard he was working for Phil’s father, I thought finally that creep could pay me back. I told him I expected regular payments—that was the only way I’d keep my mouth shut about his previous indiscretions.”

  “And he agreed?”

  “More or less. Look, Ditie, I don’t feel like spilling my guts to you or anyone else. I just want to get the hell out of here.”

  “It sounds as if the only person you might have been happy to see was Phil.”

  “Phil put me straight about Harper, and I owed him for that. When he came up with this reenactment idea I actually thought it might be worth the trip. Boy, was I wrong. Same old intrigue.”

  “Same old intrigue? What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “You know how every medical school class has its own personality? Well, yours was known for all the complicated liaisons.”

  “I never knew that,” I said.

  “Then you were the only one who didn’t. And it was your boyfriend who was in the middle of it.”

  “What are you talking about? “

  “Phil collected his followers and reaped the rewards. Carl couldn’t stand it when he wasn’t invited into Phil’s inner circle. That started the rivalry. Then Carl did everything he could to bring Phil down.”

  “Like implicating him in the cheating scandal?”

  “Yeah. Then of course there was Sally. Phil strung her along just to get back at Carl, that’s what he told me.”

  “So Phil and Carl were both dating Sally?” I asked.

  “You got it! Carl really hated Phil. He thought he was going to marry Sally, although I don’t think Sally thought that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sally was screwing the poor guy who got the tests for her.”

  It really was Peyton Place. I kept that thought to myself.

  “Anyway, Carl made it his life’s work to destroy Phil. You can imagine how Phil felt when he learned Carl was working for his father.”

  “I can.”

  “I got to go, Ditie.”

  “Do you know where Phil is? That’s really why I called.”

  “Maybe he’s hiding somewhere from the police.”