“Certainly. Why don’t you and your mother take care of Celia or do whatever you need to do. I’ll let you know when I’ve finished with the correspondence.”
“Thanks. We’ll just be down the hall,” Renee said as she walked out of the room.
For the next hour and a half, Liz opened and read everything that was in the pile of correspondence that Renee had put on the desk for her. There was nothing unusual in the stack of papers. Magazine renewals, some past due bills from when Laura and Nick had been married, things that Laura had printed up from the Internet to be read later such as articles on nursing programs and the care of infants. Her death remained as much of a mystery to Liz as it had been when she’d first begun searching for the murderer. When she finished, she stood up and walked to the door of the bedroom.
“Renee. I’m finished with the correspondence. What would you like me to do now?”
Renee came down the hall and walked into the room. “If you don’t mind, I’d really appreciate it if you could go through her clothes and the things in the closet. It’s not very large, and she wasn’t a big clothes person, so there really aren’t many clothes in it. She wore a nurse’s uniform most of the time until the county hospital had to lay off a number of personnel due to budget cuts. I’d suggest you concentrate on the pockets. Tomorrow I’m having someone come and take her clothes to a battered woman’s shelter. Maybe they’ll help someone. I hope so. I’d like to think if she had to die, at least her life meant something,” Renee said as tears began to trickle down her face.
“Since she was a nurse, I’m sure she helped a lot of people. You probably just didn’t know about them. I’ll get started and call you if I need you.”
Liz decided if she was going to do this, she was going to be thorough, so she carefully took each piece of clothing out of the closet, checked the pockets, and hung it back up on a hangar in the closet. When she was about halfway through, she pulled a heavy winter coat out of the closet and noticed what looked like a photo album in the back of the closet. She took it out and opened it. It was clearly a family album with photographs of Renee and Laura, Camille, and a number of photos of Don Messinger from the time he was a young boy to the last one which was a photo of Renee, Laura and Don. From the looks of Renee, it didn’t seem more than a few years old.
I wonder if Renee knows about it. She’s never mentioned it. Funny Laura would have stashed it in the back of her closet.
Liz went through the pockets of the coat and ran her hands over the inside lining. She heard something crackle and ran her hand over the inside again, finding an interior pocket. She pulled out a large unopened letter addressed to Laura Hutchinson. In the upper left hand corner was Don Messinger’s return address. Liz’s heart began to race. She took a deep breath and carefully opened the letter. She read it and reread it. She put it down and stood for a moment, composing herself before asking Renee to come into the room.
“Renee, I found something I think you should see. Can you come in here?”
“What is it?” Renee asked as she quickly entered the room.
“I think you better sit down. I want to read you a letter your father sent to Laura, which I found in an interior pocket of this winter coat. It was unopened and like you said, she probably stuck it in her pocket so she could read it later, and then she forgot about it.”
Renee sat down on the bed and looked at Liz expectantly as she began to read the letter.
“My darling Laura, I don’t think I have much time left as I sense my life is coming to an end. I’ve made some very bad mistakes in my life, and I hope you and your sister can forgive me for what I’ve done to the two of you. I was wrong about Bob Salazar. He’s a good man, and I was very, very stupid to let him come between Renee and me, and yes, between you and me as well. I love you both so much. Please tell Renee how sorry I am and how much I regret hurting her and hurting you.
“I very much want to reconcile with both of you and try and make up for the pain I’ve caused you. Even though I said I didn’t want to see my granddaughter when she’s born, that’s not true. I definitely want to see her if Renee will allow me to. Turning to something else. I fear that Nancy is becoming insane. I’m sure you’re asking yourself why I think that about her. It’s not just one thing, but a lot of things. She’s still as devoted to me as ever, but I find her talking to herself and saying things that make no sense at all to me or anyone else for that matter. I’m sure you and Renee often wondered why I married her. It was because of her devotion to me, but in the last few years I’ve found it stifling and more like an obsession with her. She demands to know where I am every minute of the day. Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe.
“I’m writing this to you rather than Renee, because I was afraid she’d throw it away, unopened, if she saw it was from me. When you’ve had a chance to read this and talk to your sister, please call me at the cell phone number I’ve written below. I bought a special one that Nancy doesn’t know about. Please, please, please forgive me for what I’ve done.
“Also Laura, included with this letter is an original Last Will and Testament signed by me and two witnesses, gardeners of mine. It’s probably rather ironic that they’re Mexican given my past actions towards my son-in-law. Anyway, if for some reason you and Renee decide you don’t want anything to do with me, at least make sure that at the time of my death, this Will is filed with the probate court. I have provided for Nancy by leaving her one million dollars. I am leaving you and Renee the rest of my estate, which is probably in the area of eleven million dollars. Pure and simple, I love you both. Again, please forgive me. Your Loving Father, Don Messinger.”
Renee stared at Liz, sobbing, and trying to speak. “What is the date of the letter?”
“It’s dated March 23rd of this year. That’s the same date that’s on the Will. Laura probably would have been wearing a coat like this at that time of year, so it’s not surprising she would have stuck the letter in there. I imagine she simply forgot about it. When did your father die?”
“He died April 3rd. We killed him. We didn’t know it, but we killed him by not calling him. Oh no, I can’t bear any more. First Laura, and now this. We killed him as surely as someone killed Laura. Maybe that’s why she was killed. Maybe it was just a random thing, a kind of a karmic justice.”
Liz walked over to Renee and put her arms around her. “You didn’t know anything about this. What’s wonderful is that your father did want to reconcile with both you.”
“But he’ll never know how much I wanted that,” Renee said as tears continued to flow down her cheeks. Liz reached out and held her for a long time while she cried bitter tears of despair.
CHAPTER 28
It took Renee the better part of an hour to finally stop crying and achieve some semblance of normalcy. Her face was a combination of red splotches from crying and white from shock. Liz and Renee each became very quiet, lost in thought about the implications of the letter and the Will. They heard Camille cooing in the other room as she took care of Celia. Winston had been quietly sitting in the room while Liz looked through the papers and then the closet. Several times he’d walked over to Renee and put his head on her knee while she mindlessly petted him, tears continuing to run down her cheeks.
Liz was a firm believer in dog therapy and privately thought that Winston might have been the reason that Renee was finally able to get herself under control. She knew Winston was astute enough to realize that Renee was in a great deal of emotional pain.
It’s pretty hard to stay wrapped in your troubles when a dog is begging for attention. She smiled at Winston thinking he had to be the most perceptive dog she’d ever been around.
“I need to tell my mother about this,” Renee said. “I think it will make her happy to know Dad wanted to reconcile with Laura and me. Do you mind if I call her in here?” Renee asked.
“Wait just a moment. There are some other things I need to tell you.” She filled Renee in on her conversations with Sean and Gerti
e as well as the message Mike Hadley had left on the lodge answerphone. “You can see from what I just told you that there are a lot of things we need to consider, and I haven’t even had time to think about the consequences of your father’s Will. I think that will be a subject for Roger and Bob to handle. I’m sure this isn’t the first time a new Will has surfaced after the estate has been settled, and I’m also sure there’s some legal precedent for it.”
“Do you have any idea what Nancy will do if that money is taken away from her? And what about the money she’s already spent?” Renee asked, color beginning to come back into her face.
“I rather doubt she’s going to be doing cartwheels for joy when she’s told. I just had a thought. Have you stayed in touch with any of your father’s neighbors? Is there someone you could call to find out what’s been going on at the house lately?”
“Yes. I still talk to Sally and Jeff Gruber regularly. They’ve lived in the house next door ever since Dad and Nancy bought it. As a matter of fact, they were even at our wedding. They’re very nice. Why?”
“Good. In that case it wouldn’t be particularly unusual for you to call them. You might even use the ploy that you didn’t know if they’d heard about Laura. I know that’s probably going to be painful for you, but I’d like to know if the Grubers have noticed anything unusual going on at Nancy’s house. I still can’t figure out why she bought all that gold leaf.”
“If you feel it’s important, I’ll call them right now. By the way, they never liked Nancy. They thought she was really weird, and something else that kind of goes along with what Dad said in his letter is that the last time I talked to them they mentioned they thought Nancy was getting stranger and stranger, if that was possible.”
When Liz took her cell phone out of her purse and handed it to Renee, she saw the gun Roger had insisted she carry. Well, with the gun in my purse and Winston in the room, I’m doing exactly what Roger wanted me to do. Being careful.
“Hi, Sally, it’s Renee Salazar. I’m calling on a sad note. I don’t know if you’ve heard that my sister Laura was murdered. The police have no idea who did it, but they’re investigating several suspects.” She listened for a moment. “Thanks, I appreciate that. I thought you might have been told, but I was calling just in case you hadn’t heard. I’m wondering if Laura’s death had any effect on Nancy. Anything going on over there?”
She listened for several moments and then said, “Thanks for telling me. I have no idea why the A-One Gold Leaf truck would have been there for a day and a half. And you said several delivery trucks have also been there lately along with an armed guard. That’s kind of unusual, isn’t it?” Again she listened to Sally and then said, “I really don’t know what’s going on with her. As you know, we’re estranged, so I know nothing about her activities. Well, I hear Celia and better go take care of her. Give my best to Jeff. Talk to you later.”
Renee ended the call and turned to Liz. “You probably got a good sense of what she was saying by my responses, but there were two things she said you might not have heard, and I think they’re odd. The first is that several times recently late at night she and Jeff would have sworn they heard hymns and spiritual music coming from her house. The second thing she said was that a truck from Zeke’s Candles in San Francisco was there a couple of days ago and she saw two men carry all sizes of white pillar candles into the house. She said it took them a couple of hours. She thought it was kind of weird, and I have to agree with her. What do you think?”
Candles, spiritual music, gold leaf. What do they all have in common? I can’t for the life of me figure it out, but one thing has become very clear to me. I need to get in that house.
“Renee, I get something called a niggle, for lack of a better word, from time to time. I’ve really become aware of it when I’ve tried to figure out who’s committed a crime or a murder. I’ve got a real niggle that’s telling me I’ve got to get into that house. An idea just occurred to me. Let me run it by you and see what you think.”
An hour later Renee and Liz agreed that the plan they were going to carry out tomorrow would stand a much better chance of working if their husbands didn’t know anything about it. Renee told Liz she’d pick her up at ten the next morning.
“Liz, I feel like I have to tell Mom and Bob about what was in the Will and the letter. I won’t mention to them what we’re planning to do, but I can’t keep that news from them, plus I think it will be a huge relief to both of them. Is that all right with you?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t be able to keep something like that from Roger either, so I completely understand. I’d like you to bring me a plastic shopping bag, and I’ll put the photo album in it. I’d rather your mother didn’t see it, plus I want to remove the photos of everyone except your father from it. I’ll give them back to you when we’re finished tomorrow.”
“I understand completely. I hope this works. This is becoming so bizarre. If Roger hears from his friend in the San Francisco Police Department about Nick, I’d like to know. Depending on the date when Nick was arrested, it will either make him a very viable suspect or take him out of the running. Although I always felt Nick wasn’t good enough for Laura, I know she loved him, and I think he loved her to the best of his ability. Unfortunately it looks like the best of his ability wasn’t enough to get him off drugs. It’s so sad. I’ll get the plastic bag and be back in a minute.”
When she opened the door she heard Renee say, “Everything okay, Mom?” and Camille answer, “Yes, I just put Celia down and was going to the kitchen to think about what we’d have for dinner.”
Renee returned a moment later. “Here you are. I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll tell Mom you thought I needed to get out for a little while and were taking me to Gertie’s Diner, so I’ll drive over and pick you up. See you at ten and Liz, thanks again for all your help.”
CHAPTER 29
The next morning when Renee’s car rolled to a stop in the lodge’s parking lot, Liz said, “Bye, Roger. Renee’s here. I’ll be back in a little while. Since we’re just going to Gertie’s Diner, I think I’ll leave Winston with you.”
“Sure, that will be fine. Don’t think you can get in much trouble at Gertie’s, but then again, I never know about you,” he said laughing and waving to Renee.
“What did you tell Roger?” Renee asked after Liz had gotten in her car.
“Last night I told him what I found in the closet. I didn’t tell him about your conversation with Sally Gruber. I was afraid he might get concerned that you and I were planning on trying to see what’s going on at Nancy’s house. I know he wouldn’t approve of that, plus he’d want me to take Winston with me, and I don’t think Nancy would be too thrilled about seeing him again. Having him with us would probably insure we couldn’t get in the house. I told him you wanted to talk to me about what you should do about your mother and Celia. I said you didn’t want to talk where she could overhear the conversation, and so we decided to go to Gertie’s for breakfast. And you, what did you tell Bob?”
“Pretty much the same. He wants to talk with Roger to see what can be done about Dad’s Will. He was so relieved to hear that Dad wanted to reconcile with us and approved of Bob. I think it had bothered him a lot, much more than he let on.”
“Renee, you’re the psychologist, not me, but I’m a little concerned that Bob seems to be reluctant to tell you things. I know what you’re going to say about it being hard for a man who’s fifty and has never been married to suddenly tell a spouse things when he’s never had to before. I completely understand, but having been married for a long time, I think it’s kind of critical for spouses to share things with one another.” She laughed and said, “By that I mean important things. If you don’t want to tell him how much you paid for some expensive eye cream you bought, I think that falls into a different category.”
“As a psychologist I’m always counseling couples to do exactly what you just described. I’ve made a decision that when this whole thing gets resolved
I’m going to suggest to Bob that we make some promises to one another not to hold things back that could be important. I honestly think he does it to shield me from certain things he feels might be unpleasant. I’ve never felt that he’s deliberately doing it to hurt me.”
“I couldn’t agree more, and I know it’s none of my business, but it might have helped if you’d known a little more about his relationship with Candy and the anonymous phone call that caused him to pull out of the election.”
“Believe me, I’ve thought the same thing these last few days. I still think they could be tied to Laura’s death, but I don’t want to bring up Candy and the anonymous telephone call and have Bob feel any guiltier than he’s already feeling right now.”
Well, it doesn’t have to be some name-calling thing,” Liz said. “You could simply say that based on some things that have recently happened you’d feel a lot better if you and he confided a bit more in each other. Bob’s a smart man. I’m sure he’s wished he never withheld those things from you. Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox. We’re almost there. Let’s go over our plan one more time.” She laid out the plan they had decided on the day before as Renee parked her car in the Messinger driveway.
Liz and Renee walked up the steps to the front door, Renee holding the photo album. Liz rang the doorbell. A few moments later Nancy opened the door and coldly said, “What do you want, Renee? You know you’re not welcome here.”
“Nancy, I found a photo album that I’ve never seen before. It was Laura’s. I know we’ve been estranged, but I’d like to reach out to you. You and I were close at one time, and I would hope maybe, for my father’s sake, we could have that relationship again. Anyway, this is a photo album with lots of great pictures of my father. I thought you might want to look at it. I remember some of these were taken when I was a child. I’d like to talk you through the album. I believe you’ve met my friend, Liz Lucas. She and I were on our way to a late breakfast or an early lunch, and I talked her into letting me stop here. May we come in?”
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