by Morgana Best
“I’m getting to that, if you’ll give me a chance to tell you,” Lewis said with a scowl. “Violet was previously married, and to a multimillionaire. When he died, she inherited everything, apart from a summer house that he gave to his aunt.”
I thought that over. “So is Violet a millionaire now?”
Lewis nodded.
“And did you know that?” I asked him.
Lewis shook his head forcefully. “No, I didn’t have a clue. I knew she was very well off, but I didn’t have any idea of her full financial status. I knew Norbert and Violet from my college days, and then we lost touch for some years. I did say we should sign a pre-nup before we were married, and she agreed. I did think at the time that she agreed a bit too readily, and she also said that she was going to insist upon one, anyway. I just assumed I had more money than she did, so I thought it all very strange.”
“That’s not all you didn’t know about her, if you don’t mind me saying so, Lewis,” Basil said.
Lewis’s face changed from a ghostly white to a ghostly red. “You mean her affair with Norbert?”
Basil nodded. “I bet Norbert’s just after her money.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I said.
Lewis looked offended. “But she’s awfully good looking, you know.”
Basil and I exchanged glances. “At least you know she wasn’t after you for your money,” I said, hoping that would cheer him up.
He did look brighter, but then Basil put his foot in it. “Perhaps she was a hoarder—you know, a money hoarder. Lewis was a millionaire, too. Laurel, just because you and I aren’t millionaires, we think having one million dollars would make someone financially happy forever, but obviously that’s not the way that Violet thought. It seems she was after every cent that she could get. Look at the awful fuss that she made when she found out that she didn’t inherit anything from Lewis.”
“But you are a millionaire now, Basil,” I pointed out.
An awkward silence fell over us, until Lewis broke it. “Anyway there’s more,” he said in a serious voice. We both looked at him expectantly. “Remember I said that Violet inherited the money from her first husband? Well, I presume he was her only husband.” He paused, and I wished he would just come out and tell us the information. “Her first husband died,” he continued.
Basil’s face was growing red, and I could understand why he was losing patience with Lewis. “Just tell us, Lewis!” Basil snapped.
I could see then that Lewis was embarrassed, and that was the reason he was reluctant to tell us. “Violet’s first husband was killed.”
“Do you mean murdered?” I asked him.
Lewis held up his hands. “Who knows? I didn’t even know that she had a husband.”
“Didn’t you hear the detectives discuss it?” Basil asked him.
“Yes, of course I did,” Lewis said. “They said her husband died in suspicious circumstances. They said it could’ve been an accident, but the fact that he was so wealthy and she had come from nothing and stood to be a millionaire after he died, made the detectives look into it. I was there when Detectives Swan and Brand called the detectives who investigated the case—it was five years ago—and then those detectives said that they could never get any evidence on her, and they really didn’t have an opinion either way as to whether she did it or not. They said there was no evidence that it was murder.”
“How did he die?” I asked him.
“Apparently he owned several large farms, and he went there one day to inspect one of them. They found him in a grain silo. He’d smothered to death due to the weight.”
I shuddered. “How ghastly!”
“The detectives who investigated the case told Swan and Brand that he only owned farms, but that he wasn’t a farmer himself, so probably didn’t know not to climb up and go looking in the top of the silo. They think he just overbalanced and fell in, or perhaps he was walking down the grain, and someone opened the chute at the bottom. As I said, they said they had absolutely no evidence.”
“I wonder how likely an accident like that would be?” Basil said.
“They said it’s a fairly common type of accident, and the thing was that Violet had accompanied him to the farm. They weren’t in sight of any of the farm workers, because they were on a different part of the property, drenching sheep.”
“So Violet might have murdered her first husband, and then murdered you?” I asked Lewis.
Lewis paled, a feat in itself considering he was a ghost, but Basil shook his head. “Why didn’t she wait until she was married to Lewis?”
“Lewis did tell her that he’d changed the will and that she was his only beneficiary,” I pointed out.
“Still, it would’ve been better to wait to kill him.”
Lewis interrupted. “Hey, don’t talk about me like I’m not here. It wasn’t Violet; I tell you. It was Norbert!”
I looked at Basil. “We need to do some investigating.”
“Norbert and Violet?”
I nodded. “I’ll call Tara and ask her to talk Duncan into getting some information on them.”
Chapter 15
It had been Basil’s idea to follow Norbert and Violet. I had agreed, simply because I wanted to have some alone time with Basil. I mean, I couldn’t see what they could possibly do to implicate themselves. After all, Lewis was already dead.
I was also concerned that the detectives still thought that Basil was the murderer, but at least they were looking into other suspects, even if it was just to discount them. Hopefully they would turn up something.
Basil and I were parked outside the hotel in which Norbert and Violet were staying.
“What are we going to do if they stay in there all day?” I asked him.
Basil pulled a face. “I actually hadn’t thought of that. Surely they have to come out at some point.”
“Well, we can’t really look through a window,” I said. “Someone might see us. What if it doesn’t work?”
“Don’t worry; it will.” Basil smiled at me.
I smiled, too. I felt I should’ve chosen my words more carefully. After all, Basil must’ve seen this as his last hope. If we didn’t uncover the murderer soon, then the detectives were likely to arrest Basil.
After what seemed like an eternity, the motel door opened. Basil grabbed my arm. “Look!”
I was already looking. In fact I had been doing nothing but staring at the door for the last hour.
Violet walked out first. She was impeccably dressed, as always. Even from the distance, I could see she had on a pair of heels, and a rather fancy dress for the country. Norbert followed her out. He, too, was nicely dressed. When they reached the car, they turned to each other and appeared to be arguing.
“I wonder what that’s all about?” I said.
Basil craned his neck. “I wish we were close enough to hear.”
“Wouldn’t it be good if we could bug them, like they do in the movies?” I said.
“And it would be good if we could put a tracking device on the car, too, like they do in the movies.”
I laughed. Even though our mission was serious, I was enjoying being in Basil’s company.
After they exchanged words, they got into the car and turned north onto the highway.
“A good thing they’re on the highway,” Basil said. “I hope they stay on it for a while, because then they won’t notice anyone following them.”
“They wouldn’t expect to be followed, anyway,” I said, “so they won’t be looking out for it.”
“Good point.” Basil accelerated. “Violet sure likes to drive fast.”
“Do you think she could’ve killed Lewis?”
Basil shot me a quick glance. “I don’t know. It was either her or Norbert, or both of them together, or Simon Smarts, or Theo Derringer, or Simon and Theo together.”
I counted them off on my fingers. “That gives us six suspects, if you count a combination as a suspect.”
Bas
il seemed amused by my reasoning. “Okay, I suppose you could see it that way.”
“What’s your gut feeling about it, Basil?”
Basil’s expression turned serious. “You know, I don’t have one. I usually get gut feelings about most things, but I think I’m too close to it this time. What about you?”
“I’m the same. I think I’m too close to it too, what with you being the main suspect.” I felt embarrassed as soon as I said it, but Basil didn’t seem to think there was anything untoward about my words.
He simply nodded. “We have Simon Smarts who, if he was the embezzler, certainly had a motive. Violet had a motive too, because she believed that everything would be left to her. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to rule out Theo or Norbert, because either of them could have had a motive that we haven’t found out yet.”
“Simon Smarts does seem the obvious one,” I said. “But if he was so obvious, you’d think the police would have nabbed him by now.”
“But we only went to the police with that information yesterday,” Basil pointed out.
I agreed. “Still, you’d think they should’ve found that out themselves.”
We were now on the outskirts of town, and Basil had to be more careful about not being seen. He stayed a few cars behind them. They turned left into a side street, but Basil went straight ahead. “They went down there,” I said. “That side street, just back there.”
“Yes I know,” Basil said. “That only leads to a parking area, and if we went in there they would see us for sure. I’m going to go around the block and park in an adjacent parking area. With any luck, we’ll be able to see them from there.”
When Basil reached the parking area, we couldn’t see them, although we could see Violet’s car. “What should we do?” I asked him.
“I’m a bit reluctant to get out of the car, in case they see us, but I don’t suppose we have any choice.”
Basil and I got out of the car, and then I spotted them at the end of an alley. “Look, over there.” I clutched Basil’s arm, and marveled at how muscled his arm was. I silently chided myself. Keep your mind on the job, Laurel.
We followed them a distance, and saw them go into the entrance of the large brick courthouse. “I wonder why they went in there?”
Basil frowned. “No idea.”
“See that big window there? What if we look through it?”
“That’s a good idea, Laurel.” We both walked over to the window and peered in. Fortunately, Norbert and Violet had their backs to us, and they were bending over a counter. There were rows of forms stacked on the counter.
“Let’s get out of here,” Basil said. “When they leave, we’ll go in and see what those forms were. They were the forms on the far right of the counter.”
Basil and I crossed the road and sat in a little coffee shop that overlooked the courthouse. Basil’s phone made a noise and he checked it, then waved it at me. “Simon Smarts again. He’s texted me few times now to ask if I want to sell Lewis’s firm.”
I was about to reply when I looked up and noticed the other occupants of the dark coffee shop. “Don’t look now, Basil,” I said in a low tone. “It’s Ian.”
“Who’s the lady with him?”
“That’s his girlfriend, Audrey. He told Mom that he’d broken up with her.”
“It sure doesn’t look like they’ve broken up,” Basil said.
I looked over at them once more, and they were holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. My stomach turned, and I felt sorry for Audrey. I’m sure she had no idea that her boyfriend was so duplicitous, but then again, I supposed I couldn’t blame him. Mom had probably put pressure on him.
Basil and I spoke for few moments and then looked up to see Ian standing at the table. “Hello. I’m just leaving,” he said, and then he hurried away. Audrey was still sitting at the table.
“What was that all about?” Basil asked me.
“I don’t think he wanted us to see him with Audrey in case we reported back to Mom,” I said. “What were we saying? Did he overhear us?”
“I think we were talking about following Violet and Norbert,” Basil said, but then he tapped my arm. “Quick, they’re leaving.”
We hurried out the front, but as the coffee shop was small, we were blocked by people waiting to pay. By the time we excused ourselves and made our way through them, Violet and Norbert were nowhere to be seen.
“What should we do now?” I asked Basil.
“Let’s go inside the building and see what forms they were looking for. Remember, they were the ones on the far right.”
We both hurried into the building. I was keen to see what the form could be.
Basil got there first. He held up the form to show me and, with shock, I saw that it was an application for a marriage license.
Before I could process the information, Basil’s phone sounded.
“Simon Smarts again?” I asked him.
“He shook his head. “No, it’s from Theo Derringer this time. He wants to meet me for dinner tonight.”
“I wonder what he’s up to?”
Basil smiled. “We’ll soon find out.”
“We? Surely he didn’t invite me, too?”
Basil was busy texting away. When he finished, he looked up. “I told him that you and I would meet him tonight at seven.”
I felt a bit awkward. After all, I wasn’t officially Basil’s significant other—yet.
“He might not be up to anything as such,” Basil continued. “It’s an awkward situation with him now running Lewis’s firm, and I will own the firm once probate is through. He and I should have a lot to discuss in that regard, but we can also use this opportunity tonight to see…”
I chipped in. “To see if we think he murdered Lewis.”
Basil nodded. “Exactly.”
Chapter 16
The restaurant, the most expensive in the nearby town, was nestled at the bottom of a little green hill. The entrance was grand, and the drive was gravel flanked by rows of alternating white and blue agapanthus flowers.
As soon as I left the car’s air conditioning, I was hit by a wall of heat—not oppressive heat, but that type of warmth that holds the promise of something to come, like just before a thunderstorm on a warm summer’s night. It was now a warm summer’s night, but there was no sign of a thunderstorm. Perhaps it was a spiritual thunderstorm brewing. And perhaps Theo Derringer was the killer, and Basil and I might be putting ourselves in danger. With a shake of my head, I put my fanciful notions aside and walked with Basil into the luxury of the restaurant.
Basil put a guiding hand on my back, and my skin tingled at his touch. It would have been a lovely night under other circumstances, and I had to admit that, surrounded by such a romantic environment, I was putting my earlier nervousness aside and falling into the cozy ambience.
I took in the soft glow of the table candles, the crisp white tablecloth, the immaculate service, and the beautifully dressed patrons whispering to each other and smiling.
We were shown to our table, where Theo was already waiting. He stood up, shook Basil’s hand and kissed mine. I at once felt dirty. I wondered if I could surreptitiously pour water onto my hand and scrub it. As that was not possible, I had to settle for a shudder.
Basil and I sat next to each other, opposite Theo, and when our knees touched, it was as if a thousand volts of electricity passed through me. Basil caught my eye and smiled, and I hoped—figured—he had felt it, too.
Immediately, a champagne cart arrived tableside.
As I sipped my French champagne, Basil and Theo soon became lost in accounting talk, and I zoned out with all their talk of accelerated depreciation, acid-test ratios, accelerated cost recovery systems, abnormal earnings valuation models, and then a whole bunch of acronyms.
I didn’t mind. To the contrary, I was happy simply to sit in a beautiful restaurant with good company and fine food. Well, I wasn’t counting Theo as good company. He reminded me of Mr. Burns more so t
han ever.
I was eating the main course when something Theo said grabbed my attention. Basil repeated the figure, and that made my mouth fall open in shock.
“Is that a serious offer?” Basil asked Theo.
“Indeed it is,” Theo said. “I’ve wanted my own accounting firm for a while now, and being the second in command to Lewis, I’m familiar with his firm. Plus, after working for Lewis, I realize that I need to be in business for myself.” He paused and shot Basil a look. “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” Basil said.
Theo leaned forward, and the energy around the table changed instantly. His eyes flickered from side to side, and once more he reminded me of a snake, a particularly venomous snake.
“Has anyone else made you an offer for Lewis’s firm?” Theo had obviously injected as much of a casual tone as he could manage into his voice, a tone that feigned complete disinterest.
I looked at Basil to see if he was fooled by this ploy. Basil hesitated. I knew Basil well enough to know that when he hesitated, he was seriously thinking what to do or say. Finally he looked up, straight at Theo. “Simon Smarts has already made me an offer.”
I was watching Theo carefully, and he did not react at first. A few moments later, he plastered what looked like a completely fake expression of surprise on his face. “Oh really? Simon Smarts of It’s Accrual World?”
Basil nodded.
“Did you accept his offer?” Theo asked him, although I suspected he already knew the answer to his question.
“No,” Basil said. “Do you know Simon Smarts well?”
“Yes,” Theo said, and then looked down at his plate. After a moment or two, he pushed on. “Are you considering Simon’s offer?”
Basil once again hesitated before answering. “I’m considering all offers. I’m not in a rush, because it will take a while before probate is through.”
“Quite right, quite right,” Theo muttered. “Did Lewis mention Simon Smarts to you at all?”
“Yes, he did. I mentioned that to you only recently.”
Theo nodded. “I don’t know how to say this, but perhaps Lewis already told you. Once you own the business officially, you’ll find out anyway. I just feel bad saying anything at all.”