“You continued to sleep with him?” I asked.
“You have such an old-fashioned way of looking at things,” Sally said. “Yes, we slept together occasionally. We were friends with benefits, but we both moved on. We looked out for each other.”
“Did that mean helping him embezzle money from Frank and then Andy?” I asked.
“How dare you say that!”
“You worked in the financial department of both Frank’s and Andy’s businesses and knew nothing about Carl’s scheme?” I asked.
“That was all Carl. He wanted to get ahead fast and didn’t like to go through normal channels.”
“It’s hard to believe you weren’t involved,” I said.
“I don’t care what you believe! You have no proof I did anything wrong.”
“Why was Frank really here?” I asked. “Maybe with Carl’s death, he thought you should pay him the rest of the money he was owed.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“We suspect you were the one who attacked Phil when you found him in the room with Harper,” Mason said.
Sally’s demeanor changed. She shook her head in disgust.
“Attack Phil! You mean hit him with a book? If I’d meant to kill Phil, he’d be dead. I just wanted him to get the message that he couldn’t get away with murder.”
“Literally?” I asked.
“No! You keep putting words in my mouth.” She stood up, finished her beer, and dropped it in the trash. “It’s entirely possible Phil did murder Carl and then tried to make it look as if he was the actual target. I wouldn’t put anything past him, but that isn’t what I was talking about.” She sat in the chair by the desk and leaned forward. “I was talking about his relationship with Harper. Phil still thinks he can have any woman he wants with no consequences, and I wanted him to know there were consequences even if it was just a headache.”
“You chose a med school yearbook to throw at him,” Mason said.
“Nice touch, don’t you think? It was heavy and it was handy. I didn’t mind making Phil worry that his past indiscretions were catching up with him.”
“So you are still involved with Phil,” I said. “When you asked if I was interested in Phil, it was to see if the coast was clear for you.”
“I didn’t reckon on Harper, but she hasn’t changed since I first met her. She’s all about the conquest and she doesn’t care who she hurts in the process. I’m ready to settle down, and Phil will be available in a few months. Then Harper pops up causing havoc the way she always does.”
“You sound so angry,” I said.
“I’m tired of playing second fiddle,” Sally said.
“Phil dumped you twice, first in med school and again now.”
“Phil’s like Harper. He thinks about only one person, himself. They deserve each other!” This she nearly screamed at us.
“I heard Carl was ready to ask Kathy for a divorce and then when she thought she was pregnant, he changed his mind.”
Sally’s face flushed. “I guess you heard that from Kathy. Yes, that’s true—what of it?”
“I wondered if you hoped you and Carl might marry finally.”
“I told you I never loved Carl in that way. This conversation is over! Get out.”
Sally went to the door, but I stayed put.
“I don’t think the conversation is quite over. Have the police contacted you about the accounting book with your handwriting in it?”
Sally froze. She turned slowly. “I only know about that book because Kathy told me she’d found it.”
“I think you know all about it,” I said. “I think it was your book, and you ripped out the pages you wanted no one to see.”
“You’re crazy!” she said.
Mason had remained silent through most of the interview. I took that as a sign I could keep talking.
“You’ve always had such nice clothes. I started to wonder how you afforded them. Maybe the book was about payments Frank was making to you and not money he was receiving from Carl. That’s easy enough to check. In fact we already have. We talked to Frank on his way out. All he wants to do is get out of this mess.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, but it was clear she did. “What did Frank say?”
“That’s confidential,” Mason said. “The more you lie to us, the worse it is for you. This is about more than blackmail, it’s about murder.”
Sally crumbled at that point. “I never took more than I deserved or than people could afford to pay. It was always a business transaction, nothing more.”
“What about Carl? You took money from him as well?”
“Only at the end. Carl said he was going to move on with his life and told me I’d have to find my own way. I said he’d have to make it worth my while.”
“So you were the blackmailer. Were you the embezzler as well?”
“I’m not admitting to that, but it would have been child’s play to skim off some of the profit, and make it look as if Carl was doing it. Carl knew nothing about finance. I’d had my own business transactions with folks in med school for years. I told Carl I’d talk to the senior Dr. Brockton if he didn’t pay me, so, of course, he did.”
“Or perhaps, he refused to pay you, and you killed him,” Mason said.
“I’m not a murderer,” Sally said. “I’m simply good with numbers and getting what I need to live.”
“Who else were you blackmailing?” I asked.
“I wasn’t blackmailing anyone. I was a secret keeper. I kept Harper’s secret for a small monthly sum. And Phil’s about the cheating scandal. And then, when it was clear Frank didn’t want anyone to know he’d been duped, that was an easy sell.”
She looked at both of us.
“I will deny all of this to the police. You have no proof. You never read me my rights, and nothing I’ve said can be used in court.”
“I wouldn’t be quite so confident,” Mason said. “You were present for both murders and may have had reasons to wish to see both men dead. Perhaps Carl was going to turn you in, and you had only one way to stop him. “
“And Ryan? Why would I kill Ryan?”
“Perhaps that was a way to frame Phil,” I said. “Phil seemed to get everything he wanted and he didn’t want you—not in med school. Not now.”
Sally looked at me. “How could Phil have chosen you over me in med school? And how could he choose Harper now? I should have killed her.”
Mason and I looked at each other. Had Sally just confessed to murder?
He took out his phone and called Inspector Barden. Sally sat on the bed staring straight ahead. We both stayed until Barden arrived twenty minutes later with two Atlanta policemen.
When Mason told him about our conversation after the police had taken Sally downtown, he just kept shaking his head. “You know how difficult you’ve made my job,” he said. “What were you thinking, Mason? None of this is admissible as evidence. The book may belong to Sally, but the handwriting experts aren’t certain of that. And she didn’t actually confess to anything. We’ll see if we can shake anything out of her, but her lawyer will be all over us.”
Mason didn’t say much. When Barden was done, Mason said simply, “I don’t think Sally would have admitted to anything if she’d had time to think about it. At least now, we know she was blackmailing people and that the book belongs to her. That’s a place to start. I’ll bet Frank Peterson will talk to you if it means he can get out of Atlanta and back to his work. Or maybe you’ll discover he’s more involved than we know. We didn’t find out why he was visiting Sally tonight.”
Barden let us go.
“I’m sorry, Mason. I really botched this.”
“I meant what I said. If Sally hadn’t been caught off guard she never would have said anything. I don’t know if she murdered two people or if the pol
ice will be able to prove she did, but all the secrets of Phil’s little group are starting to unravel. Who knows where it will end?
Mason left me to my thoughts as we rode down the elevator.
Sally loved reenactments, probably because she’d loved Phil and saw this as a way to win him back. She knew about cannons. Perhaps when it was clear Phil was more interested in Harper than in her, she decided to take revenge. She might have planned to murder Phil and then Carl stepped in the way. Her next best bet might have been to frame Phil.
When we got in the car, Mason turned to me.
“Okay, what have you figured out?” he asked.
I told him what I was thinking.
“You’re saying she might have killed Ryan to frame Phil?” Mason said.
“A woman rejected—not once but twice.”
“She’s a hard read, I’ll give you that.”
“A chameleon. Isn’t that what Phil said?”
“Hmm,” was all Mason said.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“You want me to be frank?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay, when I found out about my wife’s affair, she wasn’t the one I wanted to kill. It was the boyfriend.”
“Wow,” I said. Imagining Mason angry enough to kill anyone took my breath away.
“Did I shock you?” Mason asked. “It took me all of five seconds to remember I had two young boys to worry about, but I was that angry.”
“Got it,” I said. “You mean why isn’t Harper the one lying in a morgue if Sally is our killer. Just like she said—‘I should have killed her.’”
“Exactly.”
Mason dropped me at the house. He kissed me good night and promised to call the county sheriffs in the morning to see what progress was being made and what was happening with Sally.
I checked on the kids and fell into bed exhausted. Then I spent the night wrestling with imaginary murderers, all of them with familiar faces.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
My cell woke me up a little before seven.
“Hi, Mabel. It’s Harper. I hope I didn’t wake you. I assumed you were an early riser.”
“I am. You beat my alarm by five minutes.”
“I wanted to check on your schedule and see if I might come over to visit sometime soon. You remember, I wanted to talk to you about adoption.”
Was Harper actually thinking of adopting or did she have some other motive for talking to me? Maybe I could find out about her relationship with Phil. She wouldn’t be the only one gathering information.
“I’m available this afternoon,” I said. “Where shall we meet?”
“I’d love to meet at your house. Get the feel for a home with children and see how you manage as a single parent,” she said. “Do you think your darling friend, what’s her name, Lillian, could take the little ones out of the house? That way we could talk more freely.”
“It’s Lurleen. We need to meet in a coffee house, so the kids can do whatever they want at home, and we’ll need to keep it short.”
I’d promised Mason I wouldn’t meet with her alone, and I certainly didn’t want her in my house with the kids.
“Whatever you say. It won’t take long, I promise.”
We settled on Java Monkey at three. I left a message for Mason about the time and place I’d be meeting with her. I knew he’d want to be there.
I spent the morning with the kids and tried to put the investigation out of my mind. We took a long walk with Hermione, who appeared to be as delighted as we were to wander through our Virginia Highland neighborhood. When we got home, Lurleen was there, and we had an hour before I needed to leave to meet Harper at the coffee house.
“Lillian? She called me Lillian?” Lurleen was in a state. “I’ve never liked that woman.”
“I know. I don’t either. She has some idea she wants to adopt children, and if she’s for real, I need to talk her out of it.”
I thought Lucie and Jason were in the backyard playing with Hermione when Lucie poked her head into the living room.
“I got too hot, so I came inside,” she said.
“You heard what we were talking about?” I asked.
Lucie gave me a devastated look. “You…you don’t want to adopt us?”
I knelt down beside her. “I want to adopt you and Jason more than anything in the world. What you heard was half a conversation, and sometimes that can lead to a lot of misunderstanding, Lucie. Harper thinks she might want to adopt, and I don’t think she’ll make a very good mother. She’s the one I want to talk out of adoption.”
“Oh,” Lucie said, letting out the breath she’d been holding. “Aunt Di, do you think Harper might be the one—you know the one…
“The one who killed two people?”
“Yes. Does she have an alibi?”
“What do you know about alibis?”
“I know that’s when a person says they were someplace else when a crime happens.”
“That’s exactly right, only Harper doesn’t just say she was someplace else, she has witnesses to prove it.”
“Maybe she’s like a magician,” Lucie said. “Like Uncle Tommy. He makes you look somewhere else so you don’t see the trick he’s playing.”
I didn’t say anything for a minute and let that sink in. Lurleen seemed to be doing the same thing.
Then the doorbell rang. It was Harper.
Hermione was still out back with Jason, so she didn’t do her usual robust barking.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Harper. “We agreed on the coffee house at three.”
“I know, but I was in your neighborhood and thought it would be so much more convenient to meet here.” She looked around. “I’m relieved your dog isn’t here,” she said. “You said she’s a sweetheart, but she wasn’t a sweetheart with me at your party.”
Then she saw Lucie and Lurleen.
“I thought the kids would be swimming, it’s such a beautiful day, and I know that Lill—I mean Lurleen—takes them there all the time.”
“How would you know that?” I asked.
“We talked about it at the party—about how lucky you are to have Lurleen available to entertain your kids.”
“It’s you, Hunter, oops I mean Harper,” Lurleen said. She smiled sweetly. “I’m going to go check on Jason.”
“We’re not meeting here,” I said. “If you still want to talk we’ll do it at Java Monkey at three.”
“Oh, dear,” Harper said. “I’ve gotten off on the wrong foot with all of you. I only meant to be helpful. Java Monkey at three no longer works for me. I’ll call to reschedule.”
She left before I could say a word. Lucie just stared after her.
“Where’d she go?” Lurleen asked when she reappeared with Jason.
“She disappeared like magic,” I said. “Why don’t you three go on to the pool. I’ll catch up on a few things here and join you later.”
The kids grabbed their swimsuits and Lurleen gave me a peck on the cheek before she got the kids into my car. She looked at me. “You’ll drive my Citroen?”
“I may walk, but don’t worry about me if I don’t make it.”
They left and I sat for a moment with Hermione before she wandered upstairs to take a nap. Harper was a strange one, so eager to see me and then suddenly not. I thought about Lucie’s comments. Now you see it, now you don’t. How could she have managed to orchestrate two murders?
I gave Mason a call to say the meeting with Harper was cancelled and walked into the kitchen to look for a cornbread recipe to go with chili for dinner. I’d have time to think about how Harper might have pulled it all off without being close to either man when he died.
I’d just grabbed my cast-iron skillet when I heard the front door open and close.
“What did you forget?” I asked as I headed for the front door, skillet in hand.
There stood Harper.
“What do you think you’re doing barging into my house?”
“I wasn’t sure you’d hear the doorbell. I see you’re cooking. That’s fine. We can talk while you cook.” She walked past me into the kitchen, and I caught a whiff of what smelled like alcohol on her breath.
“This won’t take long, but it really can’t wait,” she said and settled herself onto a stool at my island. “The social worker wants to come to my house as soon as possible, so I really need your help now, Ditie.”
Ditie? Since when did Harper call me Ditie?
“Now is not a good time,” I said. “I’m asking you to leave.”
“What’s wrong with you, Ditie?” she asked. “You act as if you don’t want me in your house. Are you expecting someone your detective friend doesn’t know about? I promise I won’t be long.”
This she said with a smirk, and then she looked around.
“You are alone, aren’t you?”
Harper was making my skin crawl. “Mason will be here any minute.”
“Then we’d better hurry,” Harper said. She stared at me for a moment. “You aren’t a very good liar, Mabel. I don’t believe anyone is coming. What I don’t know is why you seem frightened of me? I just want help with this adoption business. Nothing more.”
What could I do but play along. “You have the paperwork? You can ask me questions while I cook.”
“Everything I need is in here.” She showed me her large Hermes crocodile handbag. I recognized it as a bag similar to Lurleen’s, only Harper’s was undoubtedly the real deal.
She settled herself on a stool at the island, her bag beside her. “Do you have anything to drink?”
“Coffee,” I said, “or lemonade.”
She shook her head. “Any bourbon or scotch?”
I pulled a bottle of Chardonnay from the refrigerator and poured her a glass. “This is the best I can do.”
Then I returned to the stove and began talking, the way I always did when I was nervous. “I’m working on a cornbread recipe for dinner. Mason enjoys it when I do real Southern cooking.”
Into the Frying Pan Page 26