Second Bloom

by Sally Handley

“Steven. Steven, please calm down,” Elaine Hagel said in a soothing tone, patting his arm. The gesture seemed to have a calming effect on him. “Darling, your tea and biscuits are ready in the dining room. Why don’t you go in and I’ll speak to the detective?”

  Steven Hagel stroked his wife’s hand. “Okay. You’re right, as always, love.” He turned and glared at Manelli. “And you! Don’t come back here again. You can talk to my lawyer from now on.”

  “Now, Steven…” Elaine Hagel sounded more like an indulgent mother than a wife. “Go ahead to the dining room, dear, and I’ll be right there.” She gently turned her husband around and with her hand on his back, she firmly guided him out of the room. She stood watching as he walked down the hall, and then turned back to Manelli.

  “I’m so sorry, Detective. I’m Elaine Hagel.” She extended her hand and smiled as if he were a welcomed guest in her home. “You have to excuse Steven. This has been so difficult for him. He’s just not himself.”

  “I’m sorry, too, Ma’am, but I’m just doing my job and I do have some questions.”

  “Perhaps I could answer them for you. Why don’t you have a seat?”

  “Okay. Mrs. Hagel. Can you tell me where you were the day Mrs. Hagel’s body was discovered?”

  “I remember the day very well. I insisted Steven take the day off so we could go pick out a graduation present for our daughter, Dina. She graduated from Princeton cum laude. We’re very proud of her,” Elaine said flashing Manelli a smile. “Anyway, we got up, had breakfast, and then around ten o’clock Steven, Dina and I went over to Edna’s house. You see, Steven was devoted to his mother. He visited her almost every day. So that morning, he wanted to visit her first before we went shopping. We dropped by there, then went to the jeweler’s. After that we had lunch at Buco. We came home around three.”

  “And where was your son?”

  “Phillip? Phillip was at the store all day and came home around 5:30. We all had dinner at seven and watched TV until…” Elaine Hagel hesitated, lowering her head. After a moment, she lifted her chin and looked directly at Manelli, “until we got the call from the police.”

  “So you, your daughter and your husband were all home after 3:00 PM. Your daughter didn’t go out again?”

  “No.”

  “How can you be sure? This is a big house.”

  “The children always tell us when they’re leaving. I know they’re not really children, but they are my children. Just out of simple courtesy, they always let us know when they’re going out and when to expect them back. They learned from their teenage days that was much easier than having us hunt them down and embarrass them.” Elaine Hagel giggled and fluttered her eyelashes. She was charming and quite beautiful, and Manelli suspected she knew it.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Hagel. I appreciate your cooperation. I will need to speak to Dina and Phillip myself. Are they home?”

  “No, they’re at the store downtown taking care of the business. They’re such good kids, Detective. Steven’s been so distraught. They’ve really stepped up and taken on responsibility for the business since my mother-in-law’s death. Would you like me to call them and tell them you’ll be dropping by? We all certainly want to assist the police in any way we can.”

  “Thank you. Yes, please tell them I’ll be down to the store this afternoon,” Manelli said standing up.

  Elaine Hagel walked Manelli to the door. She placed her hand gently on his arm and gave him a warm smile. ”Again, Detective. My husband is just not himself right now. Please don’t hold it against him.”

  “I appreciate your help, Mrs. Hagel. Have a nice day.”

  As he walked to his car, Manelli wondered what this gracious and beautiful woman was doing with the rather boorish, homely Steven Hagel. He turned to look at the house again. I guess money does change everything.

  In the car, Manelli checked his phone, saw there was a message and recognized Holly Donnelly’s phone number. He doubted she was taking him up on his invitation to chat. Immediately, he called his voice mail. Expecting to hear Ivy’s voice, he was surprised to hear Holly’s.

  “Detective Manelli, this is Holly Donnelly. Something has happened that I think you need to know about. Could you please call me?”

  Manelli hung up and turned on the ignition. If she broke down and called me herself, something must be really wrong. He pulled away from the curb and headed straight to Holly Donnelly’s house.

  39 NO COINCIDENCE

  When Holly heard the doorbell, she thought Ivy must have forgotten the key when she took Lucky for a walk. In the hall she stopped when she saw Detective Manelli through the glass panel. Why didn’t he just call me back? She took a deep breath and opened the door.

  “Hi. I didn’t expect you to come over,” she said.

  “I was just a few blocks away when I got your message.”

  “Come in. Let’s go in here,” Holly said, leading the way to the kitchen.

  Manelli followed her. She gestured to a chair and sat down herself. He sat and took out his pad and pen without saying a word. She exhaled deeply and began.

  “Last week I had lunch with an old friend of mine who works for Novardo Development.” She picked up the newspaper from the table and pointed to the picture of the demolished Lincoln Continental. “That’s her car. She’s in critical condition at Hackensack Hospital.”

  Manelli looked from the newspaper to Holly. “Why did you think you needed to tell me your friend had a car accident?”

  “You said you don’t believe in coincidences. Listen to this.” Holly hit the replay button on the answering machine. When the recording ended, Manelli looked at Holly, but said nothing, so she continued. “Ivy and I went out to lunch after you left yesterday, and that message was waiting for me when we got back. By the time I returned the call, she’d left work, and now she’s in the hospital.”

  “Tell me about the conversation you had with her,” Manelli said jotting something in his notepad. After Holly finished summarizing her discussion with Teresa, he looked up. “Anything else you can think of?”

  “No,” Holly answered.

  “If you do think of anything, you know what to do,” Manelli said as he got up and headed to the front door.

  Holly followed him. As he approached the door, she asked, “No lectures? No I-told-you-so’s?”

  “No. I probably can’t make you feel any worse than you already do.”

  “What will you do now?”

  “My job.” He opened the door, hesitated, then turned back around to face her. ”You did the right thing by calling me. If this wasn’t an accident, you could be in real danger. Don’t go anywhere alone. Anything else comes up, you call me.”

  Holly just nodded. Manelli turned and walked out the door, pulling it shut behind him. Holly breathed in deeply, struggling to find air in the vacuum left by his departure.

  40 DINA HAGEL

  What has she stumbled into? Manelli wondered on his drive to Hagel Printing and Paper Company. No, this could not be a coincidence. He was relieved that Holly was shaken by the car accident. Up to this point he hadn’t been sure if she was just paying him lip service when she said she was done meddling in this investigation. He hoped her tear-stained face and dispirited demeanor meant she would not discuss the case with anyone else. But now he had a nagging worry that she actually might be in danger. Did Mrs. Hagel’s murderer cause Teresa Nowicki’s accident, and if so did he or she know Teresa was talking to Holly?

  Did this murder really tie back to the Novardo development deal? From the beginning, Manelli felt this murder had a personal motive behind it. It did not feel like a murder orchestrated by a corporation. The framing of Juan Alvarez and Leonelle Gomez had to have been planned by someone who knew the day-to-day workings of the house. When he got back to the office, he would have his assistant start researching Novardo and its two partners.

  Manelli found a parking space directly in front of Hagel Printing and Paper. The four-story brick building had a stor
e at its base. He pulled open the glass door and entered the cramped storefront. To the left, an antique desk and chairs retained some of their former elegance, reminiscent of an earlier time when women actually bought personalized stationery that was printed for them. Manelli would bet that Mrs. Hagel had picked out the furniture herself. Behind the counter, a young Hispanic woman was working at a computer terminal, the one item in the storefront not purchased in the 1950’s.

  “I’m Detective Manelli here to see Dina and Phillip Hagel,” he said to the keyboarder.

  The young woman picked up her phone and punched in three digits. “Detective Manelli to see you.” She put down the phone and pointing to the antique chairs said, “Have a seat. Ms. Hagel will be right out.”

  Manelli remained standing. It was just a minute before the young woman appeared. Extending a well-manicured hand, wearing a hard-to-miss diamond ring, she said, “I’m Dina Hagel. My mother told me you’d be stopping by. Why don’t we go to my office?”

  Manelli followed her through a doorway that led to the printing shop. Machinery whirred as they passed by printers that were spitting out color brochures. Two men appeared to be examining the color quality. The printing shop seemed to be more modernized than the front retail store. Dina led Manelli to a corner office that was clean and uncluttered.

  “Have a seat,” she said. Not as beautiful as her mother, she was, however, as poised and well-mannered and appeared to be as crisp and sharp as the Armani suit she wore. “Now, how can I help you, Detective?”

  “Ms. Hagel, could you tell me your whereabouts the day your grandmother’s body was discovered?”

  Dina pursed her lips as if in pain, sighed and began. “Yes, of course. My father and mother and I were going to the jewelry store. They wanted me to pick out a piece of jewelry as a present for my graduation from college. We visited my grandmother…” Here Dina broke off, reached for a tissue, and dabbed at her eyes. “I’m sorry. That was the last time I saw her.”

  “I’m very sorry for your loss, Ms. Hagel,” Manelli offered and waited for her to continue.

  Again, she sighed audibly, and said, “We were at Grandma’s for about half an hour. Then we left, went to the store, had lunch and came home. We all had dinner together, Mother, Daddy, Phillip and I. After dinner, I went upstairs and viewed my Facebook account and texted some of my friends. I was about to go to bed when the phone rang.” Dina lowered her face, bringing the tissue to her eyes again.

  “Can you think of anyone who would want to kill your grandmother?”

  “No. Absolutely not,” she snapped. “Grandma was a tough business woman, first and foremost, but a real professional. Everyone respected her.”

  “Anything unusual happen during the last few weeks? Did your grandmother confide any worries or concerns to you?”

  “No. Not really.”

  “Is your brother here, Ms. Hagel?”

  “No, Phillip had to visit one of our clients. He probably won’t be back today.”

  Manelli took out a business card and handed it to Dina. “Would you have him call me please?” He stood up. “Thank you for your time. If you think of anything that might have some bearing on the case, please call me.”

  “Of course, Detective. We all certainly want to assist the police in any way we can,” Dina said, getting up.

  “No, need to get up,” he said. “I can see myself out. Good day, Ms. Hagel.”

  Manelli turned and re-entered the print shop. The workmen looked up at him. When he made eye-contact, they quickly returned to their printing jobs. Back at the storefront Manelli walked over to the young woman who was typing at her keyboard. He took out a business card and handed it to her.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Maria Colon.”

  “Maria, what time did Phillip Hagel come to work last Thursday?”

  Maria Colon’s eyes widened. “Uh--I--I can’t say.”

  “Why not?”

  “Everyone comes in through the back door from the parking lot. I don’t really know when anyone gets here.” Maria looked over at her computer screen.

  “Okay, Maria. I gave my card to Ms. Hagel, but I want you to give the one I just gave you to Phillip. Could you be sure he gets it? And please tell him I need to talk to him to find out if he was aware of anything suspicious that might help us solve his grandmother’s murder.” The typist just nodded.

  From out on the street, Manelli looked back through the plate glass storefront windows and saw Dina Hagel walking over to the typist’s desk. That was some performance. In spite of all the sobbing, Manelli hadn’t seen any evidence of genuine tears--no smeared mascara, no streaked face make-up. Dina Hagel even used her mother’s exact words--we all certainly want to assist the police in any way we can. He couldn’t wait to speak to Phillip Hagel.

  41 GROUNDHOG DAY

  After Manelli left, Holly moped around the house the rest of the day and went to bed early. When she awoke the next morning, she discovered all of her pillows, as well as the comforter, on the floor. She looked at the clock. 5:12 AM. She got dressed and as she headed downstairs she heard Ivy.

  “I’m up. I’ll walk with you.”

  An occasional jogger and a few couples passed them as they walked. Because there were so few people in the park at this time of the morning, Holly let Lucky off the leash. They circled round the back end of the park reaching Crescent Drive. As they neared the Hagel residence, Lucky picked up her nose, sniffed the air and took off at a run. Too late, Holly spotted a brown ball of fur lumbering up the Hagel driveway.

  “Oh, no! Not again,” she shouted, running after Lucky, already in hot pursuit of the fur ball. She stopped at the foot of the Hagel driveway in front of the yellow police tape.

  “What was that?” Ivy asked coming up along side her.

  “A ground hog. They’re overrunning the neighborhood and with this property pretty much abandoned for over a week, they’ve probably moved right in here. The bad news is that Lucky caught one in my yard a few weeks ago and she actually killed it. I’m afraid she thinks it’s great sport now. What am I gonna do?”

  “You can’t cross the police barrier.”

  “I should never have taken her off the leash,” Holly said, looking up the driveway. “I’ve got to get her. Squirrels are one thing, but I’m always afraid those bigger animals will bite her.” She looked at her watch, then back at Ivy. “Look, it’s five thirty in the morning. I haven’t seen a patrol car in or around the park since they made cutbacks to the police department a year ago. No one will even know I was back there. You wait here.”

  “Holly, don’t do this,” Ivy pleaded.

  “I’ll only be a minute.” She looked around and as soon as she was sure no one was in sight, she moved up the drive quickly, leaving Ivy on the sidewalk.

  When she reached the back patio, Holly looked around. It occurred to her that she was trespassing, and just in case someone was staying in the house, she better let them know why she was in the yard. She knocked loudly on the back door. When no one answered, she peered in the back kitchen window. The place looked the same as the day she and Ivy had discovered Mrs. Hagel’s body. Relieved to find the house unoccupied, she turned around and scanned the backyard. She didn’t see Lucky anywhere. Not a weed or shrub moved. She stepped down from the back stoop, walked over to the shed and up the two steps to the start of the garden path.

  As she surveyed the property, she understood why the neighbors to the south and east wouldn’t have seen or heard anything the day of the murder. The arborvitae separating the Hagel’s from Louie Brunetti’s property and the dense foliage of the trees between the Hagel house and the split level to the east completely screened the Hagel property. The only house with a clear view was the house to the west, the house belonging to the neighbors who left the day of the murder. Maybe Ivy was right. Maybe their leaving was not happenstance.

  Holly started down the gravel footpath. Suddenly, in the opposite back corner of the yard sh
e spotted a bush wriggling sporadically. She didn’t want to call Lucky. Even though the neighbors couldn’t see her, they could be in their backyards and she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. Besides, if Lucky had the groundhog cornered, she was unlikely to come on command.

  Holly struggled with her footing, but managed to make her way through some tall weeds to the shimmying bush. Lucky started barking when she saw her. She had the ground hog cornered between the bush and the back fence. She lunged at it, and the groundhog reared up on its hind legs, swinging its front paws at Lucky. Holly was relieved to see the groundhog was not a fully grown adult, but she knew better than to get any closer. As she pondered what to do, the ground hog got back on all fours, and in one rapid motion, Lucky sprang, grabbed it in her teeth by the nape of the neck, and gave it one sharp shake. She released the ground hog, which landed belly up, remaining motionless.

  Holly shivered, then called Lucky to her. The dog came right over, tail wagging. She sat down in front of Holly, waiting for her treat, clearly pleased with herself. “No more off-the-leash for you?” Holly said shaking her head. She connected the leash to the dog’s collar and dug in her pocket for a treat. “I guess I should be happy that at least you don’t eat them,” Holly said grimacing. Lucky chomped the treat with relish.

  Turning to face the house, Holly realized she’d never been this far back in the yard. Relaxed now that she had Lucky on the leash, she stood admiring the property. She decided to take the path that branched off through the opposite side of the yard and see if that would lead her back to the patio.

  She and Lucky made their way past perennial beds in varying degrees of bloom. As they rounded a turn, Holly stopped and held Lucky back. The path was blocked with some serious overgrowth, most of it from the Gertrude Jekyll rose, the one with the wicked thorns.

  “C’mon, Lucky. We can’t go this way.” They turned retracing their steps leading to the back corner of the yard and climbed through weeds returning to the footpath that led back to the patio. As they passed the shed, Holly looked over at the red shrub rose bush she and Ivy admired the day Mrs. Hagel died. Just a week later, the bush needed deadheading. As she got closer, she caught a glimpse of something on the ground beneath the bush--something red, but definitely not a rose.