by Ellery Adams
“We’ll both have red wine,” Matt said.
Wyatt went to the bar and poured them each a glass. Molly smiled at Alison and Janell. They were sitting together on one of the leather couches. Theodore stood nearby, still dressed for work in a suit and tie, balancing a plate in his hand as he ate. He gave her a slight nod.
Standing in front of the long bank of windows, Quincy Clarke and Rene were talking quietly. They paused their conversation for a moment to acknowledge Matt and Molly’s arrival, and then turned away again. Molly thought it was interesting that no one wanted to talk to them. They were keeping their distance. Even Wyatt, who, after handing them their wineglasses, went to stand by the fireplace. Nathan and Pamela came out of the kitchen. She was carrying a glass of water, which she gave to Alison, who seemed to be doing a good job of ignoring Wyatt.
Nathan joined Quincy and Rene, and started up a conversation with them.
Pamela walked over to Molly. “I’m hoping for good news tonight.” She spoke in a near whisper, and Molly had to lean in a little to hear her. “I had a phone call this afternoon from a reporter. Somehow he got wind of Wyatt being questioned by the police, and he wants a story.”
Molly looked at her. “Why did he call you?”
“Because Wyatt’s lawyer has instructed him not to talk, but this particular reporter is well aware that I continue to have a vested interest in protecting my company’s image. He’s using that against me. If I don’t give him something, he’s going to write the story his way. I told him I would get back to him tomorrow, as long as he promised to hold off on writing the article.”
“Why don’t you have Wyatt’s attorney handle it?”
Pamela frowned. “Why should I? I’m quite capable of taking care of this on my own. Anyway, that’s why I need you to wrap this up tonight.”
“I’ll do my best,” Molly said.
Pamela walked away, and Matt said, “You know, the more we get to know her, the less I like her.”
“I haven’t really liked her since we met at the Island Grill,” Molly said. “But she’s the least of our problems. I have a killer to catch, and I want to enjoy my meal.”
“Should we mingle?”
Molly shook her head. “No one wants to talk to me, can’t you tell? I’m beginning to think they know there’s more to this dinner than the food.”
When everyone had finished eating, Nathan and Pamela carried trays laden with dessert to the dining room table. After arranging it, he came and stood in the center of the living room.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight. I hope you all enjoyed dinner.”
Wyatt said, “Bravo, Nathan! I believe I can speak for all of us when I say this was a fantastic meal.”
Alison said, “Everything was delicious.”
Heads nodded in agreement, and expressions of thanks went around the room.
Nathan smiled. “It’s been my pleasure,” he said. “Pamela and I would like to thank you for coming tonight on such short notice. We had originally planned for this to be a quiet dinner with Molly and Matt. As most of you know, I’ve recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with my daughter, and it’s been wonderful getting to know her.” He glanced at Molly, and she gave him an encouraging smile. “Tonight’s dessert is a new recipe. Raspberry sponge cake with white chocolate mousse, almond nougatine, and orange sorbet. If that isn’t to your liking, however, I’ve also made a frosted lemon cake, which is one of our most popular desserts at the Bronze Chicken. There’s regular and decaf coffee, assorted teas, or if you prefer, we have a nice selection of after-dinner liqueurs. So, please, help yourselves.”
He had barely finished speaking when they all began moving to the dining room. Molly and Matt stood in line last, and decided to try a little of both desserts. With their plates and cups of decaf coffee in hand, they returned to the living room and sat on one of the sofas. Molly noticed how everyone had stayed clustered in their little groups: Alison, Janell and Theodore; Rene and Quincy. Only Wyatt had left his perch by the fireplace, and joined his mother and Nathan.
Molly felt like a pariah. The invitation was about her and her father, but no one had said a word about their reconciling. She supposed it could stem from the fear of her changing the subject and asking them more questions about Charlotte. Perhaps they simply didn’t want their evening spoiled. She waited until everyone was finished with dessert before addressing the group. And then she took center stage in the middle of the room.
Chapter 27
Molly waited for the room to quiet down. She smiled, hoping to put everyone at ease.
“I’m also glad you could all come tonight, especially on such short notice. And Nathan, thank you so much for a wonderful meal, and Pamela, for opening your home.”
Wyatt clapped, and everyone joined in. Nathan and Pamela smiled. Molly could see the stress in Nathan’s eyes, but Pamela was a rock. She was as steely as ever, not a white hair out of place, her brilliant white teeth flashing.
Molly went on. “It was actually my idea to invite all of you. It seemed the best way to bring us all together, so we could talk about Charlotte’s death, and the progress I’ve made to solve her murder.”
Theodore said, “Is that what this is? Some kind of setup?” He turned to Nathan. “I thought this was supposed to be a nice evening out. Now it’s an inquisition?”
Nathan said, “Please, let Molly talk.”
Theodore frowned, but at least he didn’t protest again. Molly continued. “You know I’ve been looking into Charlotte’s death, and while doing so, I also learned about the death of Larry Pruett. I found it interesting, to say the least, that he died fifteen years ago, about a month before Charlotte and Rene left Vermont for Boston.”
Rene interrupted. “Excuse me. I don’t appreciate the suggestion that somehow the two things are connected.”
“Let me explain,” Molly said. “To do that we first need to go back to when Larry was killed. It was, as you know, during a home robbery. Stolen that night were twenty-five rare Civil War–era coins, which he found during a home renovation project, an emerald and diamond ring that had belonged to his late wife, and his gun, which was used to kill him. Now, at the time, Charlotte was living next door with Janell, and her mother, Gloria Wilcox. All three women knew about the coins. Most of Burlington did, because Larry had gone to the newspaper and they’d written an article about it. This meant that the detective in charge of the case, Detective Schmitt, had his hands full. He questioned Gloria Wilcox, and Janell and Charlotte, to see if anyone in the house had heard or seen anything. Janell and Charlotte told him they were home that night watching a movie. Gloria had taken a sleeping pill and gone to bed earlier. The movie ended at one o’clock in the morning, at which time, Janell and Charlotte said they went their separate ways to bed. All of the women claimed they never heard, or saw, anything that night from the house next door. Perhaps because Schmitt had so many people to question, he never followed up on any of their backgrounds, which is too bad. If he had, he would have discovered that Charlotte worked at an antiques store called Memory Lane, and in her position, she had contact with antiques dealers, including one particular collector of rare coins, Quincy Clarke.”
Quincy said, “Hey, hold on, lady. Don’t go dragging me into this dog and pony show. I had nothing to do with Pruett’s death, or the robbery, and I’m not going to stand here and listen to any more of this. I’m leaving.”
He started to walk away, and Molly wasn’t sure how to stop him. Nathan stood, and Matt started to move toward him, but they stopped when Lombardi suddenly appeared from the hall off the foyer. He was accompanied by Shelly, and two uniformed police officers. Quincy stopped dead in his tracks.
“Mr. Clarke, take a seat,” Lombardi said.
Quincy was furious. “I demand to know what’s going on here.”
“I said, sit down.”
Quincy shot him a nasty look, but he came back to the living room, and took his place next to Rene, purposefully walk
ing past two chairs to get there. He wasn’t going to let Lombardi dictate to him.
Theodore asked, “Detective Lombardi, why are you here? Is this an official interrogation, because if it is, I want to call a lawyer.”
“That is your right, but has Molly even asked you a question?”
Theodore’s mouth opened and closed. “Ah . . . no.”
The two police officers had taken a position by the front door, and Lombardi and Shelly were standing between the dining room and living room, which effectively blocked anyone from leaving. Molly thought they were very intimidating.
Quincy said, “What exactly is your role in all this? Why are you even here?”
“I’m here in my official capacity as a police officer,” he said. “We have reason to believe that the person who killed Charlotte is in this room. I’m waiting for that person to confess.”
Rene laughed. “You’re waiting for a confession? Is this a joke? No one is going to confess.”
Lombardi ignored her, and looked at Molly. “Please, continue.”
Molly cleared her throat. She felt a lot more confident with Lombardi and Shelly in the room. If they hadn’t stopped Quincy, she had no doubt he’d be in his car driving away.
“As I was saying, Detective Schmitt didn’t take the time to look into Charlotte’s past,” she said. “He also didn’t try to find out who hid those coins in the bathroom vanity. It wasn’t Larry, so who did it? I checked the sales history of the house, and discovered that Gloria Wilcox sold it to Larry Pruett.”
It was so quiet in the room, Molly could hear Janell breathing. She was frozen in place on the couch. Only her eyes began to widen.
Theodore spoke up. “What does it matter if Gloria sold him the house?”
“Let’s all imagine we’re Janell,” Molly said. “She and her mother lived in that house until she was sixteen years old, and four years after her mother sold it to Larry, he finds a treasure. How was that possible? All that money. It was sitting there. They never knew. It didn’t seem fair. And it wasn’t just any treasure. Oh, no. These coins are worth over a hundred thousand dollars, and we know this because Larry had them appraised and boasted about it. This is real money, enough to pay off the medical bills that were piling up.” Janell had gone pale and looked frightened. Molly turned and spoke directly to her. “You were a young woman at the time, still in nursing school, working part-time, making peanuts. You were exhausted, juggling it all. And there was Larry, going on and on about finding those coins, and the money he was going to get for them. It must have felt like a gut punch.”
Wyatt said, “Excuse me, but I’d like to know why Mrs. Wilcox sold her house in the first place, if she was just going to move next door?”
Molly looked at him. This was what he wanted to know? But she saw heads nodding, and realized people were interested.
Janell shifted on her seat, and said in a quiet voice, “I was a baby when my parents bought the house. My father died in a car accident when I was fourteen. There was an insurance policy, not a lot of money, but enough to buy the house next door when it came up on the market. My mother thought it was a sensible thing to do, since it was a much nicer house, and we wouldn’t need to do any work to it. It also had a beautiful garden, and she so loved to garden. Larry did too, which was one of the reasons he bought our house. He was recently widowed, and wanted to downsize, and work on a fixer-upper. It was the perfect house for him, and that’s all there is to it.”
“But it’s not,” Molly said. “Larry found the coins, and you needed money. Did you even talk to him about it? Ask him for a share?”
Janell’s whole body suddenly started to shake. Theodore ran over to her. “Janell, don’t say another word. We’re leaving.”
He tried to take her hand, but she wouldn’t let him. “No, Teddy. No. I can’t live with this anymore.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’ve been carrying this burden such a long time, and I’m sick of it. I want to tell you, to tell everyone, what I did.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Theodore said. “Think of Robbie.”
Janell sighed. “I am thinking about Robbie. I always knew someday it would all come out. I can’t keep avoiding it.”
Theodore shook his head back and forth, deep in denial. He held out his hands to her. “We can go, right now, just walk out the door.”
Janell stayed firmly planted on the couch. She turned away from him, and talked directly to Molly. “I did ask Larry if he could split the money with us. I went over to his house. My mother wouldn’t ever know. I implored him to help us. He said it was too bad we didn’t find the coins, but they were his, and he wasn’t interested in sharing. He said there was nothing we could do about it.” Her fists clenched in her lap. “He knew my mother was sick, that we were struggling. I thought he liked her, but really, he was a selfish man, and he just didn’t care.” She paused to take a breath. “After my mother went to bed that night, I told Charlotte what I’d done, and what he’d said. She was angry, and I was angry. We talked it over, what we could do with that much money, and it started off as a kind of joke, how we could steal the coins. And while we were talking, I remembered we still had keys to the house. I said we could get in through the kitchen. The only problem was, it had to be that night, because Larry was going to be selling the coins the next day. It seemed impossible, ridiculous even, and far too risky. So, we watched the movie, but when it ended, I told Charlotte that my mother had told Larry about her sleeping pills, because he was having trouble sleeping through the night. He’ll be fast asleep, I said. We could go there now. And just like that, we did it.”
Molly didn’t dare look away from Janell. Theodore was hunched over like he was going to be sick. Every set of eyes in the room was riveted on her.
Janell went on, her voice steady, but blinking back tears. “It seemed so simple. We’d go in, get the coins, and get out. We never meant for anyone to get hurt. We were quiet, tiptoeing around the house, going room to room, but we couldn’t find the coins anywhere. Finally, there was only one room left, his bedroom. I told Charlotte we should leave, but she insisted we try. She found the coins in his dresser, hidden under some shirts.”
“What about the ring?” Molly asked. “Did you take it, or did she?”
“I did,” Janell said. “I thought it was pretty.” Theodore sank down onto a chair and put his head in his hands. “We were on our way out, almost to the kitchen door, when Larry suddenly appeared. He’d woken up, and he had a gun, and was pointing it at us. Of course, he recognized us. He yelled at us to give him back the coins. I tried to appeal to him again. I asked him to think about my poor mother. He told me he was going to call the cops, and then my mother. He said she didn’t deserve such a rotten daughter.” She took a deep breath, and flexed her hands, which had started shaking again. “There was a wall phone, and he started walking over to it. And I thought, this is it, the end of the road. I’ll never be a nurse, and Charlotte will never own a store. Maybe Charlotte was thinking that, too. I don’t know. But she ran at Larry, and grabbed his arm, trying to get the gun away from him.” Tears filled her eyes again. Alison, who was still seated beside her, dug a packet of tissues out of her pocket, and handed it to her. Janell plucked out a tissue, and held it to her eyes. “Charlotte was so stupid. He had a gun. I thought someone could get hurt, or even killed, and she was fighting him, and then it went off, and it was so loud.” She stopped, and sighed. “Then it was quiet, and Larry was on the floor, and he was dead.” She turned to Lombardi. “It was an accident. Charlotte never meant to kill him. She was trying to stop him from making that phone call, that’s all.”
All eyes remained fixed on Janell. No one spoke for a long moment, until finally, Lombardi said, “Tell us what happened next.”
“We ran home, and Charlotte realized she had the gun. We didn’t know what to do with it, we were so scared. I stuck it in an old candy tin, and in the morning I buried it in my mother’s garden out back.”
“With the coi
ns?”
“No.” Janell shook her head. “Charlotte took the coins to work with her the next day. She was going to talk to someone she knew about buying them. She was sure they would. And she was right. When she got home that night, she gave me my share, along with some leftover coins.” She looked at Theodore, who had lifted his gaze and was staring at her. “I didn’t have her sell all of my share of the coins. Only enough to pay off my mother’s bills.”
Molly said, “So, you’re admitting the five coins that were found in Charlotte’s desk belonged to you.”
Janell wrenched her eyes back to her. “Yes. I kept them in the tin, with the gun. Charlotte and I talked about her taking the gun to Boston with her, to get rid of it, but I told her I could keep it safe in the tin, buried in the garden. She didn’t want to handle it again, so she left it with me.”
Wyatt spoke up. “No offense, but why didn’t you get rid of it? Why hold on to it all these years?”
“We weren’t really thinking clearly at the time,” Janell said. “It was easy to bury the box. I know, for my part, I just wanted to forget what had happened. I believed Charlotte felt the same way.”
Molly said, “You kept the ring, though. It sat in your jewelry box for years.”
Janell looked surprised. “How did you know?”
“Theodore brought the ring to Coleman Jewelers to have the gemstones reset for a necklace. A gift for your anniversary.” Molly looked at Theodore, who appeared shocked that she knew about it. “Were you trying to cover for your wife? Were you trying to hide the evidence?”
Before he could answer, Janell said, “Teddy had no idea where the ring came from. He thought I’d inherited it from my mother.”
He looked at her. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“How could I?” Janell sniffed. “You shouldn’t have touched the ring.”
Janell was trying hard not to burst into tears, and Molly had to admit, she found herself admiring her. She was making a public confession, in front of her husband, people she knew, and the police. The burden of carrying around the guilt of that night must have been overwhelming. She had hoped she would break, but now that she had, she found herself feeling sorry for her. She didn’t condone what she and Charlotte had done, but on some level, she could understand why Janell, at least, had done it.