by Mary Bowers
Bruno was squinting at the screen shots of Fred’s notes by then. “What’s all this?”
“Oh,” I said. “I recruited Edson Darby-Deaver, just to make sure that Fred’s soul was at rest.”
Bruno looked up, kind of slow, then he gave me a wiseguy smirk. “I see.”
“I already suspected Terri,” I said. “I knew she was dangerous, and I needed to keep her from realizing I suspected her. After all . . . my reputation. Jason was already after me, wanting me to make it all better, somehow. I knew she’d be wary of me. I explained the whole situation to Ed, and he agreed to help me set up a smokescreen. I needed to get into Fred’s condo, but in a way that didn’t make Terri suspicious, so I couldn’t ask Harold to let me in. I figured he’d have a key, but word would get around.”
“It always does,” Betty said.
“While Ed was going around documenting everything, I was with Terri, trying to convince her I was all-in with the psychic ghost-hunter thing. Ed is very thorough. When he swept the condo, he got close-ups of Fred’s notes. It became obvious Fred was convinced something funny was going on in the Resort’s office. This is all speculation, but you’ll have to do an audit of the development’s books anyway, so you’ll get it all from the forensic accountant. Why don’t we leave it at that for now?”
Bruno was eyeing me closely. “Sure. Okay. Anything in particular we should be looking for?”
“Terri was embezzling, and Jason was in on it. Fred didn’t know exactly what they were doing, and I don’t either, but I’m thinking maybe they set up a phony account? Somewhere they could dump the association’s money a little at a time. You know, a ghost company, where checks are sent every month, even though no work is being done. And the higher maintenance fees would cover the extra drain on the account. Terri and Jason were in on it together. As the head of Maintenance, he could mock up invoices and approve them, then deliver them to Darcy at the office for payment. He and Terri both had access to the ghost account, and they were pumping it up, month after month. When they had enough to make it worth their while, they’d take the money and run. In fact, they might not have even needed to run. If she simply stopped using the ‘services’ of the ghost company, took them out of the payee list on the bank account, and if no audit was done, nobody might ever have known that she’d siphoned the money off. But then Jason did something stupid.”
“He bought himself a big red truck,” Bruno said complacently.
“Right. And since he was providing the ghost company’s invoices, all he had to do was waltz into the office and present Darcy with a whopper of a bill and say something had come up and they needed to pay that bill right away. They’d only been transferring funds for a few months; there wasn’t much in that account yet. But he knew they could pump up the ghost account at any time by making a big payment, and then he could have his wonderful truck. Darcy wouldn’t figure it out. She’s a dunderhead. That’s probably why Terri hired her. So while Terri was out of the office on vacation, he had Darcy pay the bill and figured there was nothing Terri could do about it. He wasn’t afraid of her then, and she couldn’t make accusations against him without implicating herself.”
“And then she killed Fred, right in front of him,” Michael said. “She might have done it that way just to make a point to Jason.”
“I never thought of that,” I said. “She must have known ahead of time what she was going to do. She had the poison with her when she got to the party, and she had ordered Jason to be there too. She was still in a rage over his re-embezzlement of the stolen money, and the clumsy way he’d done it. She knew Fred was going to be there, and he was causing more and more trouble among the homeowners, even getting Candy stirred up, and Candy wasn’t interested in things like that. Terri also knew that after Fred got sick, she’d have a chance to get rid of any evidence against her. Fred was elderly. When an old man collapses, nobody thinks murder. And it would only be polite to help clean up after such a tragic event. Then she simply went home, before the police even got there. Whatever container she used for the poison is long gone. She could very well have done it the way she did as an object lesson for Jason.”
“She was mad at him when they came in,” Coco said. “I knew right away it was a lover’s quarrel. I can always tell.”
“Really?” I managed to say without irony. “Patty said something like that, too.”
“So what did Jason expect you to do about it?” Bruno asked.
“He didn’t know what else to do. I guess my reputation as having mystical connections seemed like a last resort to him. He couldn’t go to the police; he was committing a crime himself. And when Terri killed again, he began to wonder if even he was safe, but he was probably still hoping, way down deep inside, that it would all work out and in the end they’d get the money and live happily ever after.”
“What a sap,” Coco said. “I still don’t understand why Terri would try to kill that little girl, though.”
“Kate was too young to know what Jason and Darcy were talking about, but she’d probably overheard enough to cause trouble if she’d gone home and told her father about it. Or anybody else, especially a homeowner. If she kept on talking to people, sooner or later somebody was going to figure it out, just like I did, from the bits and pieces Coco told me.”
So far, nobody had asked me how I’d postulated the ghost company in the first place, and I was keeping my fingers crossed, hoping they wouldn’t. I saw Bruno looking at me speculatively, so I went on quickly. “He was trying to placate Terri by putting the money back. Kate said Terri tore up a check of his?” Coco nodded. “He must have gotten his hands on some money somehow. He gave Darcy a story about the money transfer being a mistake, and produced a check to replace the amount. Of course Terri would have been furious. It called unnecessary attention to the bogus account, and it would have been a huge red flag during any kind of an audit.”
I was prepared to undergo an interrogation, but suddenly that seemed to be it. Nobody had any more questions.
But when I reached for my paperwork, Bruno was faster than me, and he swept it up.
Okay, fine, I thought, he can have that. Just so he doesn’t ask me any more questions.
I should have known better.
Chapter 24
We were up before dawn again the next day, Michael and me. By the time we were relaxing on the veranda, sweaty but glad our heavy chores in the kennel were all done, the sun was well over the horizon and the river had highlights of pale gold satin over aquamarine.
My guests were still asleep. Patty had come in that night wanting to know everything (rumors had already reached the beachfront bar they were in), but I got the feeling that she’d rather have been with Benny at a bar than with us, anyway.
Michael and I sat there quietly for a while, listening as the ocean woke up and started stirring, sending out swells and ripples, almost seeming to breathe. The steam from the coffee carried a scent that mingled with the tang of the salt air.
After a while I said, “So ends the diet trip. Maybe my buddies and I can forget about all this and spend a few days just having fun before they go back. Eating whatever we like. They’re booked on a flight out of Orlando this Friday.”
“I’ll be sorry to see them go.”
I took a sip of coffee. “Me too. In spite of everything. It’s going to be nice to get back to normal, though. I like to be here for the adoptions, just to feel sure about it, but a lady who was the perfect match for Gunther came in on Wednesday while I was running around in St. Augustine. You know, the Shepherd that came in with heartworm? Carlene said this lady knew the drill, and had actually nursed a dog through heartworm before. All in all, Carlene felt really good about her, so she went ahead and arranged the adoption, since she didn’t know when I’d be back. I feel like I’ve been derelict in my duty.”
“You shouldn’t. I told you, there are a lot of people here who know what they’re doing. You should take a break every now and then.”
“With Coco and Patty? I’d need a vacation after my vacation, just to get over it. Did you know that Coco requisitioned a bathroom scale from Myrtle as soon as they got here? She stepped on it immediately and announced that she had lost two pounds. Patty didn’t lose anything, but at least she didn’t gain weight.”
“And you?”
“Never mind. It just goes to show that there is no justice in the diet wars. You know, now that it’s all over, I finally have time to feel bad about Fred. I was laying in bed awake last night, thinking about how I’d treated him that last time he talked to me. At the party. He’d been poisoned already. He was dying when he talked to us. And that glass with more poison in it was sitting there waiting for him when he walked back to it, ready to take him down for good. His life was already over, that last time I talked to him, and all I did was gawk at him and try to get away from him. He didn’t deserve to die like that. If I’d known –“
“You probably wouldn’t have done anything differently. You weren’t rude to him. You don’t have anything to beat yourself up about. You and Fred just didn’t click. He knew that. The very last thing you say to a person isn’t what matters anyway. It’s how you’ve treated them over the years that matters. ‘I love you,’ wasn’t the last thing I said to my wife. Come to think of it, I don’t even remember the last thing I said to her; she was in a coma for two days. But whatever it was, it doesn’t matter. It’s all the times I said ‘I love you’ over all the years I had with her that matter. I never realized that until I couldn’t change it, but I’m satisfied I said it enough when I had the chance.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t look at him. I’d had the same thoughts about my Mom and Dad when I thought of them. I don’t remember what I said to them the last time I talked to them. But when I had the chance, I said all the right things and meant them. They know that.
I finally looked at Michael, and he said, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
* * * * *
Coco and Patty were still not up when Bruno got there.
He came onto the veranda with a cup of coffee he’d gotten from Myrtle and said something about stopping by on his way to work. It wasn’t any more plausible that morning than it had been the last time he’d “dropped in.” And like the last time, he was without his partner, which I hoped meant this was going to be unofficial. At any rate, he didn’t take notes.
He sat down in a large wooden rocker next to me and took a deep breath, admiring the view. A roseate spoonbill was pecking around on the little island just beyond the seawall, looking awkward and not having any luck fishing. After a while it made a goofy, bubbling-chuckling noise, set itself for flight and took off.
“Want to tell me about your little friend?” he said quietly, after taking a small sip of coffee.
“Who?”
“Oh, please, Ms. Verone. You couldn’t have figured that all out on your own. ‘Ghost company?’ Doesn’t exactly jump out and bite you. You’ve got an inside man. Was it Darcy?”
I snorted. “Darcy had the whole thing going on right under her nose and never suspected a thing.” Then I caught myself. Clever Bruno; he’d trapped me. It would’ve been very satisfactory, having Darcy as my inside man, at least as far as the cops were concerned, but it was too late now. I wished I’d thought of it first, and managed to recruit Darcy somehow beforehand so our stories would match.
He was rocking, waiting, giving me that look.
“Go ahead, tell him,” Michael said without looking at us. “You may as well.”
At that, Bruno lifted his black eyebrows and watched me expectantly.
“Oh, all right! I know this guy . . . .”
I told him about my cyber-friend (without naming him), and what they were going to find when they did the audit of the Anastasia Resort’s books.
“’New Era?’” he said at last.
“Yes. As in a new era in their lives, after they took the money and ran.”
He sighed heavily and drank coffee. “They always have their dreams. And it’s never that they’ll work hard, save their money and retire quietly, like the rest of us.”
I gave him a hard look. “If you try to get me on a witness stand and say anything about my cyber-friend, I’ll deny it until I’m blue in the face.”
He was making placatory, pushing motions with the palms of his hands. “I was just curious. I don’t think we really need him. We saw Mr. Rambo’s notes, too, when we went in after his death, but at the time it just looked like his usual axe-grinding. Generally speaking, nobody gets themselves killed because they’re obnoxious at meetings, and a quick look at the maintenance fee account didn’t show anything obvious, other than a few people being in arrears. Anyway, I’m glad you decided to snoop around. Those notes are gone now.”
“Terri went back in and cleaned up, after our little ghost hunt.”
“Must have. The dining room table is completely bare now. But even with that, I wondered how you figured it all out. I thought you had a friend helping you, and not that silly kid in the office.”
“Speaking of kids, how is Kate?”
“Fine. Better than ever. Loving the spotlight. The tale of her near-drowning and heroic rescue gets longer, louder and more involved every time she tells it. The Zacharys are Jason Adderley’s greatest living fans just now. Jerry Zachary even pulled me aside and offered to replace any money Jason ‘may or may not have stolen’ from the Resort’s accounts. He’s feeling worshipful. He may get over it. He may not. But I’m afraid his hero is going down regardless. It helps to replace the money you stole, but you’re still a thief. And then there’s murder.”
“I’m sure Jason had nothing to do with the murders,” I said. “He was terrified of Terri when he talked to me. But while I was trying to figure everything out, I had a hard time eliminating Candy Cutter from the suspect list.”
Bruno looked surprised. Astonished, in fact. “The lady with the big red hair? Why her?”
“Oh, something that floated across my mind when I learned the name of the ghost payee: New Era Haulers. Betty Everson had told me that Candy bragged about being an heiress, and that her family had made their money in junk. I don’t know how many steps you have to take to get from junkmen to haulers, but I’m guessing not many. The ghost company didn’t need to be an invention of Terri’s and Jason’s, although I couldn’t see how Candy could bill them for services that weren’t actually being done unless Terri, at least, was in on it. Candy hasn’t lived at the Resort for long. She’s altogether bogus, somehow.”
“She is. She seems to be drifting around, trying to find a place for herself in life, and the easiest way would be to find a husband. She doesn’t have any family left. They owned a junk yard. After her folks died, she sold it and used the money to open an antique shop, and that little venture pretty much disposed of her inheritance. She went bankrupt. Since then she’s been just getting by. She got a mortgage on the condo back when banks were giving them to anybody who batted their eyelashes and said pretty please. I think she’ll be putting it up for sale soon.”
“Maybe she’ll manage to hook a sugar daddy before that happens, after all,” I said.
“You really think so?” Bruno asked.
“No, not really. But you’ve got to have a little sympathy for somebody who’s trying as hard as she is.”
“I don’t,” Michael said. “But then I’ve heard more stories about her than you have. Don’t forget, I know somebody who dated her.”
We let it go at that.
“I’m more worried about Jason, actually. He’s not really a bad guy.” I immediately realized I was getting no sympathy from the two men on either side of me. “Lots of people steal from their employers, and they don’t think of it as stealing. They’re not paying me what I’m worth. I’m putting in overtime and not getting paid for it. As soon as I can, I’ll put the money back. Something as small as taking office supplies, because they’ll never miss them.”
“’Rationalize’ is t
he word,” Michael said, rather stiffly.
Michael is a retired lawyer, remember. His ideals may have been a bit loftier than the man-of-the-streets sitting on the other side of me. Bruno just nodded and looked tired. Even more tired.
“Anyway, I don’t believe he’s a killer,” I said.
“And you like his cousin Carlene,” Michael said. “You know this is going to upset her. Did you know she was the one that gave him the money so he could rush over to the real estate office and try to replace what he stole?”
I turned to him bodily. “No! Carlene isn’t rich. How much did she give him?”
“Eight thousand dollars. He came here to get it. I watched the whole transaction from the master bedroom window. When I realized she was giving him a check, I headed downstairs to see what was going on, but he was out of here like a shot as soon as he had what he wanted. So I went straight to Carlene and she was still a little off-balance. It was probably setting in by then that she’d probably never see that money again, and when I asked about it, she just told me straight out, defending him and looking doubtful all at the same time.”
“Damn the man!” I said, doing a quick turnaround. “How could he sponge off somebody who has to watch every penny, just so he can cover his own thieving ass?”
The men were laughing.
“Keep that in mind,” Bruno said. “Jason may be personable and good-looking, but he’s not one of the good guys.”
“He saved a kid,” I grumbled.
Bruno shrugged, conceding the point.
After a moment of welcome silence, Michael leaned forward to look at Bruno and said, “By the way, thanks for keeping an eye on my nosy little Sherlock, here.”
“I beg your pardon?” I said.
“Somebody has to,” Bruno told him with a grin.