When we opened the door, there was a level of excitement in the lobby that was at odds with our mission. Clusters of the Sterling-Handler guests were heading to a light lunch at Ahab’s, courtesy of the Sterlings. Some were in golf clothes, others were already dressed for the wedding. The compliments and cheerful chatter that accompany the happy occasion of a wedding abounded. It was sort of impossible to imagine that right above us, Joe might be in his room, guilty of murder.
Andy crossed the lobby straight away. He pressed the button for the elevator, but I pulled his sleeve to the stairs, which we took two at a time to the second floor. We headed to Joe’s door.
Andy knocked.
“Tony, I’m OK, really,” Joe said from inside. “You’re the best, but I don’t need a drink right now. I’ll meet you down there in a few.”
“This is Andy Southerland of the Nantucket police,” said Andy. To make his point, he put his jacket back on.
“By the way,” I whispered. “I did see a UFO that summer. How often do fourteen shooting stars explode one after another? Shooting stars my foot.”
“Mr. Handler,” said Andy. “Can I speak to you?”
The door opened.
“What’s up?” said Joe. His hair was combed, his cologne was strong. I hadn’t noticed cologne on him before. He was definitely stepping up his game for the big day. He wore a white, buttoned-down shirt and Nantucket Reds pants. If I had a nickel for every pair of Nantucket Reds I’ve seen at weddings on this island, I could retire. Nantucket red is more of a dusty, faded salmon color. They were made popular by Murray’s Toggeries Shop in town, and at some point became part of the preppy uniform and much favored at Nantucket weddings.
“I need to talk to you,” said Andy, entering and closing the door as I slipped in beside him.
“Dude, I’m getting married in, like, a couple of hours,” said Joe, absently ruffling his perfect hair. “Can this wait?”
“Nah,” said Andy. “Have a seat.”
Joe sat on the edge of his bed. Andy stood. Very intimidating. For Joe, that is.
“Where were you the night that Simon Sterling was killed?”
“We’ve been through this,” said Joe. “Listen, do I need a lawyer? I told you guys, I left the card game and went to bed.”
“Can anyone support your alibi?” said Andy.
“Usually, Jess would be able to,” he said. “But she made us take separate rooms. She can be old-fashioned that way.”
“Joe’s right,” I said to Andy. “She is. It’s really charming.”
“Mr. Handler,” said Andy, ignoring my digression. “We have reason to believe that your fiancée, Jessica, is wearing a copy of her engagement ring. We are on our way to take the ring from her, to have its authenticity confirmed.”
Joe stood. Then he sat again.
“Please don’t do that,” he said, very calmly. Frighteningly calm.
I took a step backward, toward the door. I looked at Andy’s gun and handcuffs, glad that he’d put his jacket back on.
“Is there anything you’d like to tell us?” said Andy.
“There’s nothing I’d like to tell you,” said Joe. “I’d like, frankly, to be getting married in two hours without you questioning me about Jessica’s ring. But since that seems unlikely, let me answer any questions you have without you bothering Jessica. This weekend has been hard enough for her.”
“OK,” said Andy, opening his notebook. “Can you confirm that the ring that Jessica Sterling has right now is a fake?”
“Yes,” he said.
I couldn’t believe it. We were right.
On a table beside me, there was a platter with two drinking glasses and a water bucket. Lacking a gun, I picked up a water glass for protection.
“Do you have the original ring?” Andy said.
“No,” said Joe. “I wish I did.”
“Do you know who has the original ring?” Andy said.
“I’m not sure,” said Joe.
“Has someone stolen it?” Andy said.
“I’m not sure,” he said.
“Are you acquainted with Ida and Al Heller?” said Andy.
Joe exhaled. Along with Tony, Gina, and Frank, I realized he was the fourth person I had spoken to today to exhale like a person relieved to unload a secret. The Sterling-Handler wedding was just chock-full of them.
“Yes, I know them,” he said, meekly. “Listen, this whole thing has gotten out of hand.”
“Mr. Handler,” said Andy. “I think we need to head over to the station. What you are about to say can be held against you in a court of law. If you would like to call an attorney, now would be a good time.”
“Wait,” said Joe. “I haven’t broken any laws. There’s no need for that. I’m not holding up my wedding.”
“Joe,” I said. “Andy’s no fool. You were seen speaking to the Hellers. They specialize in fake jewels. You’ve already confessed that the family heirloom Jessica’s wearing is a fake. The police think you commissioned the Hellers to make you a fake with a plan to sell the ring to Simon Sterling. With the money from the ring, you planned to buy the land for your new business.”
“You’ve got this all wrong,” he said. “That ring is worth a lot, but not enough to cover the land we’re buying to build our gym.”
“Either way, your fiancée has a fake and you can’t find the real ring. Did Simon find out?” said Andy. “Did he try to blackmail you? Is that why you killed him?”
“Why I-I-I-I killed him?” said Joe, practically shouting now. “Are you insane?”
Andy said nothing. It spoke volumes.
“I think Jessica has to be part of this after all,” said Joe.
I raised my eyebrows. I wished I had brought those tissues from Gina’s cottage. It was going to be a mess in here in a few minutes.
Before Andy could argue, I dialed Jessica.
“Hello, my favorite candle artist,” said Jessica when she answered the phone.
“Hello,” I said. “I’m here with Joe and my friend Andy from the police force. Any chance you can pop down here for a minute? Joe wants to talk to you.”
The line went dead. A moment later, there was a knock on the door. Andy opened it. Jessica was not yet in her dress, but she looked like a woman headed toward a big day. Her hair was lifted above her head in a stunning up-do. Her makeup beautifully highlighted every one of her features. And her diamond earrings were knockouts. Small drops, but as sparkly as sparkly can get.
“What’s going on?” she said and walked over to Joe.
Joe took Jessica’s hand in his, and twirled her ring around her finger.
“They’ve been asking me about your ring,” he said to Jessica.
“Ms. Sterling,” said Andy, “I regret to inform you that we have reason to believe your ring is a copy, and that your fiancé is behind the switch.”
Jessica sat beside Joe on the edge of the bed.
“I’m so sorry, Jessica,” I said.
“Don’t be,” she said. “I know the ring is a fake.”
“You do?” I said.
“I do. It was my idea,” she said.
I dropped into a side chair by the dresser.
Chapter 26
“You had it right, Officer Southerland,” said Joe.
“We needed the ring for money to invest in our business. But not how you imagined it.”
“My father used to tell me to always take a good deal when one came along,” said Jessica. “About a month ago, Uncle Simon called me out of the blue. He said he wanted to have the family ring. I almost hung up on him, but he asked me to hear him out. He offered to trade the land in Italy for the ring.”
“Is that an even trade?” I said.
“Not even close,” said Joe. “That was what was so shocking.”
“He just really wanted that ring,” said Jessica. “He wouldn’t say why. I’m not sure why he couldn’t buy one himself, but he seemed hell-bent on this one.”
“It’s a family jewel,” I said, thi
nking how Simon wanted Gina to be family.
“The thing was,” said Jessica, “I couldn’t give it to him. My mother would have freaked out. It’s meant so much to her for me to have this ring. It was hers, my grandmother’s. It’s something she holds dear because of my father.”
“You don’t think she’d understand?” said Andy.
Jessica gave a deep, long sigh.
“You don’t know my mother, Officer,” she said. “She’s been very emotional about my wedding.”
“Jessica’s being polite,” said Joe. “Bottom line, her mom doesn’t want us to get married. Yesterday, she even tracked down Maria, who’d come early and stayed in town, and then tried to convince Jessica that I was cheating with her. She takes overprotective to a new level.”
Andy made a note, which I assumed was related to getting an alibi from Maria.
“We had an idea that seemed harmless enough,” said Joe.
“We had the Hellers make a copy of the ring,” said Jessica. “The plan was that after we had the real ring cleaned in town with Mom on Friday afternoon, we’d swap it out for the fake and give the real one to Simon. Because the deal moved so quickly, the Hellers didn’t have time to finish the copy until they delivered it to us in person this weekend. We had to make the swap here.”
“I traded it with Simon, in his room, before dinner on Friday,” said Joe. “And then everything went wrong.”
“How?” said Andy, scribbling away.
“Simon had his altercation with the bartender and got himself killed,” said Joe. “And now I can’t find the ring. I’ve looked everywhere.”
“That’s why you’ve been MIA this weekend,” I said. “And why you were sneaking around Simon’s room last night. You’ve been looking for the ring.”
Joe’s jaw dropped to find out that I’d heard him.
“Here’s a different theory,” said Andy. “You signed the deal, then gave Simon the fake instead of the original. He figured it out, you two fought, and you killed him.”
“Why would we do that?” said Joe. He took Jessica’s hand.
“It’s a beautiful and valuable ring. That’s why,” said Andy.
“I don’t care about the ring,” said Jessica. “It’s hideous.”
“I’ll give you the papers to prove we had no motive,” said Joe. He rose and retrieved the agreement that I had seen in Jessica’s room only a day before. “We signed an agreement, the ring for the land. Except, the estate needs an authenticated ring in order to release the land to us. Without it, no land. As you can see, there’s no motive at all for us to have killed him. Quite the opposite. This has been a disaster for us.”
He handed the agreement to Andy, who looked through it.
“May I keep this?” Andy said.
“Sure,” said Joe. “Listen, I gave that ring to Simon, but it wasn’t on him when he died. It isn’t in his room either. Someone took that ring.”
“Where have you looked?” I asked.
Joe ruffled his hair. Jessica smoothed it.
“I’ve looked everywhere,” he said.
“I’ll need specifics,” said Andy.
“Simon’s room, all the rooms off the lobby. The Game Room, of course, but only when we were in there with you. I looked in Tony’s room, even my mother-in-law’s room.”
“Joe!” said Jessica.
“Sorry,” he said. “I thought one of them might have found it on him. They both touched Simon’s body in the Game Room.”
“And?” said Andy.
“Nothing,” said Joe. “It was a long shot.”
“I think you’ve given us enough information to reopen this investigation,” said Andy. “Bill might still be guilty, but so could many others. I’m going to talk to Bellamy.”
I could have hugged him.
“I thought Simon was killed over that card game. I mean, you arrested the bartender. Bellamy assured us Bill confessed he took the money from the card game. That was the motive,” said Jessica. Her shoulders sank. “Meanwhile, Joe’s been looking for a ring that a murderer took?”
Jessica clasped her fiancé’s hands. He looked at her with a brave and reassuring smile, but I gathered the reality of the situation was just dawning on him, too.
“My mother’s going to kill me,” said Jessica.
“After she guts me,” said Joe. “You still want to go through with this?”
Jessica nodded. “But maybe after the wedding, we’ll go pick out a new engagement ring. And Joe, don’t be mad, but I’d like to find a different way to raise money for the business than that land. I don’t want to start our life together this way.”
“I agree,” he said. “We can wait.”
I’m a good judge of character, but I’d been wrong about Joe. I wasn’t sure how Andy and I had even considered that these two could be murderers. The only thing they were guilty of was trying to trade that ugly ring for the opportunity to start a new life, without upsetting Mrs. Sterling. When news got out about the ring swap, Jessica and Joe would have their hands full with an angry Mrs. Sterling, but as far as I was concerned Mrs. Sterling was not thinking straight. She was lucky to have these two.
“We’ll have to do a new search of the hotel,” said Andy.
Jessica and Joe tore their eyes away from each other and looked pleadingly at Andy.
“It’ll take at least an hour by the time Bellamy hears me out and decides to get a team out there,” said Andy, reading their minds. “You’ll be at the chapel by then. And I’ll keep the wedding team abreast of the events as they unfold.”
“Emily has had her hands full with us,” said Jessica.
“Perhaps I can be your point person on the updates,” I said, agreeing with Jessica. “I know a lot about the case at this point. Let’s let Emily focus on the wedding.”
Andy looked at me dubiously, but he nodded in agreement.
“I appreciate your help,” said Joe. “But I’ve looked everywhere for this ring. I hope you have better luck.”
“I hope we do, too, Mr. Handler,” said Andy, closing his notebook to indicate the end of our meeting. He opened the hotel room’s door. “And if you think of anything, call me. You have my card.”
Jessica and Joe nodded. I followed Andy into the hallway and to the elevator.
“What can I do while you pitch this new information to Bellamy?” I asked as we stepped inside the elevator.
“Nothing,” he said, and folded his arms. “You’ve done more than any person would do to keep this case alive and moving forward while all the players are on the island. If we’re right about the ring, you’re a hero, Stella. But Hound shmound. This is real stuff, and you aren’t trained to pursue a murderer. I don’t really need to explain that, right?”
“Seriously?” I said.
Andy put his hands on my shoulders. “Get a lift from Emily to the church. I promise I will give you texts on our progress. It will be just like you’re here with us.”
We locked eyes. It was like a game of chicken to see who would blink first, but I realized he wasn’t going to back down.
“Fine,” I said, but I couldn’t believe he couldn’t think of one more thing for me to do to keep things moving forward.
Thankfully, the elevator door opened. Andy adjusted his jacket and walked toward the door. At the exit, he looked back at me. I pulled out my phone and stared at the empty screen as if there was something important on it. When I looked back up, he still had his eyes on me. I gave him an innocent look and motioned for him to go.
The minute the door closed behind him, I approached Tony, who was sitting around a table by the lobby’s fire with his buddies. They were all in Nantucket Reds and navy blazers. The groomsmen were evidently ready for the big day and having a couple of pregame drinks.
“Can I see the photos you took of the crime scene?” I asked.
Tony got up and ushered me across the room.
“I sent them to the police,” he said, looking terrified of what I might say or do in fr
ont of his friends.
He opened his phone to his photos and handed it to me. I scrolled through and reviewed the images. One was of Mrs. Sterling, seated beside the body, her hand on Simon’s arm, almost tenderly. She did not look like she could reach for a ring from her position without anyone else noticing. There were some of Jessica, seated beside her mother. She did not touch the body in any of them. There was a photo of Bill, his arms crossed and looking furious. It was followed by a couple of snaps of Bill and Maude hugging each other. Although I hated to admit it, I wondered if Joe had thought to search the Duffys’ house. I swallowed hard as I realized that Maude had the keys to all of the rooms. If she had somehow learned that Simon had the ring, she might have broken into his room during the card game to steal it. The idea made me sick inside, but I had to consider it.
I continued to review the photos. Frank was in one, looking shocked and confused. In the background, I could see the old couple. They truly looked curious and dazed as they gaped into the room. If they were crooks, they were also good actors. There was one of me sitting at the card table, looking nauseous from the scene of death and the cigar smell. I really hadn’t covered my emotions at all. When I finished looking at the photos, I had not found anything incriminating about anyone. I handed the phone back to Tony. He returned to his friends and took a big swig of his drink.
I, meanwhile, texted Emily to confirm that I needed a ride to the chapel. I also asked her if she needed any help. She responded that she was fine, and that I should meet her in the lobby in an hour.
I hated to do what I knew I needed to do. I left the inn and headed to Maude and Bill’s cottage. I knew Maude was on duty this afternoon.
I would have the place to myself.
Chapter 27
As I walked down the dirt road toward the Duffys’ cottage, I tried to imagine where Maude would hide a ring. I wondered if she would hide it in her jewelry box, or under the mattress, or in the sugar bowl. I decided to look in all of those places and more, including the garden for any freshly turned earth.
The Duffys’ car was in the driveway, but I knew Maude walked to work. I wished I had an excuse to turn around, but I couldn’t think of one. The cottage was quiet, and empty. Worse, a window was open on the first floor for me to climb through. It was as if I were being invited to enter. I crept softly toward the window.
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