The Body in the Casket

by Katherine Hall Page

  Ian walked in with a full tray, which he set on the counter nearest one of the dishwashers. “You can deal with these later. We need to get the food out. I’ll start pouring wine. You’ve filled the water glasses?”

  Tempted as she was to say “Yes, master,” Faith just nodded. “I can start bringing these in now while you open the wine.”

  Ian got busy with a corkscrew and also popped more champagne. Nothing had been placed out opened, the foil covering the corks intact. She left him to it and went across to the dining room with the loaded tray, which she set out in the hall on the stand she’d set up for service.

  She’d saved the claw meat for a devilish-looking touch on top of each serving. Ian had lettered small menus for each place, so the guests would know what they were eating. If anyone had a problem with lobster, he or she didn’t say, and everyone started to eat immediately, save Alexis. Even Eve was digging in—food to soak up the alcohol? She had been drinking almost as much as Chip Frost. Faith watched James take a bite and then look over to where she was standing by the door in a corner. “These have to have come from Maine, Penobscot Bay. Best in the world.” They had, but Faith kept mum. She wanted to blend into the woodwork.

  While Ian cleared the first course, Faith slipped out to plate the next. She disliked those fussy food towers so difficult to eat and an indication that the chef was more interested in presentation than the food’s taste, but she did pipe rosettes of the Himmel und Erde potato dish and arranged green beans in neat strips. The prime rib was cooked medium rare as Max requested and smelled so good Faith was tempted to cut off a piece and pop it into her mouth. Later.

  When she returned to the dining room, the first thing she noticed was that Max had another full tumbler of what she was sure was his favorite scotch with very little ice. Also evident was that the air of joviality, so apparent on the landing, had now become somewhat strained. Max picked up on it as well.

  “How about a bit more birthday spirit? Some of you look as if it’s a wake, not a party. Speaking of which, we haven’t toasted absent friends.” He stood up, raised his glass, and put his other hand on Angela’s shoulder. “To those not with us tonight, especially Bella Martelli. She was one of my oldest friends, besides a colleague in the theater world. To Bella.”

  The guests repeated the toast and Angela said, “Thank you. I’ve been thinking of her all night. And we should also remember Jack Gold. I always called him Uncle Jack. He made me an amazing dollhouse and kept adding furniture for years. After my mother was too sick to leave the apartment, he’d come with fun presents, and he always cheered her up.”

  Max nodded. “A good guy and very talented. Tragic what happened. To Jack.”

  Again the toast was repeated and a few of the guests started to eat, but the tension in the air was more marked than before. It might have been because the lights flickered, but Faith thought not.

  Tony Ames, who had been keeping a low profile all weekend so far as Faith could tell, broke the ice. With a sledgehammer. “You wanted to know what we’d all been doing for the last twenty years, Max. Well, we’ve heard from Adrian and we know about Alexis, although the role she played in the sitcom may not have been her career goal. Your cousin has survived in some manner outside the theater. As for most of the rest of us, we couldn’t put Heaven or Hell on our résumés. It would have been the kiss of death. Even so, word got around. Travis is singing in a piano bar, Jack never got meaningful jobs again, and depression literally took his life. Phil is writing jingles, Eve doing ads for God knows what, Betty probably resting on her laurels, and as for me I get a gig now and then for some musical theater in the burbs and teach Boomers how to swing dance in adult ed. So, let’s have it Max. Why did you really pull the plug? On the musical and on us?”

  There was dead silence, and when it was apparent that Max wasn’t going to answer, James Nelson spoke. “Yes, I went off the grid. All I had ever wanted to do was direct, and, Max, you made me feel completely worthless. I hit bottom and then a friend helped me crawl my way back. Much like the friend who loaned Adrian a cottage in Cornwall, this friend gave me his cabin on an island in Maine to use for as long as I wanted, eventually leaving it to me. In between, I went back to school. Back to my second love after the theater, now my first. The natural world. Since I finished my degree work, I’ve been involved in expeditions all over the planet, charting the flights of birds and mating habits of turtles. But Tony’s question stayed with me as well. The reviews weren’t that horrible. Tepid. And there were a lot of easy fixes. You knew that when we were out of town in Boston. It was as if you wanted a deliberate failure. One straight out of The Producers, only you didn’t get a hit by accident.”

  No one was eating now, all eyes were on Max. His head was bowed. When he raised it, Faith was stunned to see the anguish on his face.

  “You have a right to hate me and I know one of you does to the utmost extent.”

  No one said a word. Max drained his glass and Ian took it from him. Max waved him away.

  “I needed a placeholder.”

  “For your revival that moved in right afterward,” James said bitterly. “I’ve been digging, Max, and it’s what I came up with. Only it wasn’t quite the success you thought it would be. Revivals are funny that way. Even yours. So you took your money and ran here.”

  “Pretty much,” Max admitted. His voice was steady. “The revival was in production. You all knew that, right? Or maybe not. I should have found places for you in it, but there weren’t any that fit. The show before Heaven or Hell had had a three-year run and let’s say it was part ego—there had been a Max Dane show on Broadway since Noah—and part business. I didn’t want to invest much. You all came cheap. No, that doesn’t sound right. I’m sorry.”

  He reached out his hand and Ian put another drink in it.

  “Is this why you invited us here?” Betty asked. “To relieve you of your guilt? Let you die after a full confession?”

  “No,” Max said. “That’s not why, and only one person here knows that. Unless this is a remake of Murder on the Orient Express.”

  Chip stood up, swaying slightly. “Got to see a man about a horse. Be right back.” He left the room. Faith could smell the alcohol on him as he passed by.

  Angela was facing Max. “Is that why you sent the checks?” she said. “You felt guilty about my mother not being able to get a job?”

  Max shook his head. “Bella could have gotten a job easily and”—he looked around the table—“some of the rest of you with real talent could have or did. Bella wanted steady work to be there for you, Angela. I was the conduit for the child support money. That’s all. I wanted to add to it and did sometimes, but your mother was very proud. She wasn’t about to take handouts, even from me. Just what she thought was right from your father.”

  Angela was flushed, although Faith had noticed she hadn’t finished even one glass of champagne. The young woman looked very angry. “So who is he? Is he here at this table?” She smacked it with her hand.

  “Such drama,” Alexis said, drawing the words out. “Honestly, Max, I was mad for a while. I thought if you had given me the part I should have played, it would have led to a row of Tonys on the mantel. So, I got a row of Emmys instead—it was a more than decent sitcom role, Mr. Ames—and a shitload of money. Like Adrian, it was a lucky break for me the show closed. Probably for James, too. So please blow out your candles, eat some cake, and bring this production to an end. My flight leaves at one tomorrow and it can’t be soon enough.” She turned to Angela, “And, honey, no one cares who slept with your mother.”

  Faith thought Angela was going to deck Alexis. She leaned across Phil Baker and said, “Don’t you ever say anything about my mother again! In fact, don’t say anything to me at all!”

  As she finished the sentence, the lights went out. Eve let out a small scream before they came on almost immediately.

  “Please no one be concerned,” Ian said. “We have an ample generator that starts automatical
ly.”

  Faith had left matches on the service cart in the hall, got them, and started lighting the tapers in the candelabras on the sideboard. She doubted anyone noticed. Despite Ian’s reassurance, she wanted to be sure there was some reliable light in the room.

  “Angela asked you a question, Max,” Betty said. “Is he here? Is her father one of your guests?”

  “That’s for him to say,” Max answered.

  Betty directed her next comments across the table at her former husband. “You always had an eye for her, Phil,” she said. “Her daughter looks much like Bella. Both beautiful women, and beautiful women were always your thing, weren’t they? It’s you, isn’t it? And Jack knew. You’d see him whenever you were in town, and I never figured you for friends. Jack—unlike you—was a decent person.”

  “You think you’re so smart,” Phil lashed out. “You have no idea what the guy was like.”

  “But you are Angela’s father?” Tony said. “I always thought you were the likely candidate. Jack told me Bella was in love with you and thought you’d leave Betty. Then when Betty left you, she must have thought you’d do the right thing and marry her. The baby would already have been born. But that isn’t you, is it? Max found out and made you pay up?”

  “I’m sure Mrs. Fairchild can drum up Baggies for some DNA samples,” Eve said. “I’ve got plenty of Q-tips. Okay by you, Phil? We all want to know.”

  Angela was visibly shrinking away from the man next to her. Max, Faith realized, had deliberately placed them next to each other. Had he also said something to Betty, or Tony? To goad Phil? After Angela’s arrival last night had he planned for this revelation to provide closure for the girl? But it was a horrible way to find out.

  Faith wanted to go over and get Angela out of there. Leave herself. This was not what she had bargained for. All these ugly secrets exposed, each more damning than the next. But she couldn’t. There was still a possible killer at large—or so Max claimed. Had he sent the casket to himself? Was it all staged?

  “I couldn’t let you find out, Betty,” Phil pleaded. “I loved you. I’ve always loved you. It was a slip.”

  “And the slip is sitting next to you,” Betty said acidly. “I’m sorry, Angela. Your mother was a lovely person, but I’m afraid you lost big time when it came to a father.”

  For a moment, Betty seemed lost in thought and no one else said anything. She started to speak again, slowly—her words were dripping with hatred. “You pushed him, didn’t you, Phil? He didn’t fall or jump. You wanted him out of the way before coming here. You knew Bella had just died and Max was the only one left with the truth.” Her horror-stricken face was duplicated on some around the table.

  “I never even saw him!” Phil screamed. “Why would I get rid of him? Yeah, the money had been bleeding me dry for years, but she’s an adult now. It was almost all done.”

  “Such devotion,” Tony Ames murmured.

  “Look, Angela,” Max said. “I can’t tell you to forget all this, but now you know why your mother had the money come through me. She never wanted to see Phil again, but she also wanted to make sure he paid. I’d know if he didn’t. Alexis is right. Let’s call it a night? Have a little cake and all turn in?”

  It was hard to read Angela’s face—disgust, disappointment, anger. Faith saw traces of all these and something else. Relief? “I wanted to know,” she said. “It’s why I came. I’m just sorry it’s not you. This man here means nothing. He’s a stranger and I intend to keep it that way. I was his slip, that’s all.”

  Travis Trent had been quiet all evening. Faith had the impression that he was not a very talkative person. Someone who could produce the right patter when needed but otherwise an observer. He rose partly from his chair. “Phil, if I find out you had anything to do with Jack Gold’s death—and I am making it my business to find out—I’ll kill you myself.”

  He sat back down. “Now Max is right. Time to wind things up.”

  That was Faith’s cue. She and Ian quickly cleared the plates and she went out to the kitchen for the fruit and the fruit coulis. When she got back, Ian was putting candles on one of the devil’s food cakes. Max saw them and said, “No candles and let’s ditch the song, too. I’ve had about as much birthday as I can take. Pour more drinks and let Mrs. Fairchild serve dessert.”

  It was Faith’s impression that several people had left to freshen up during the main course of the meal, but Chip had still not returned. She took orders and sliced the cakes. She’d expected no one would be hungry, but after the startling revelations the Heaven or Hell guests were ravenous. The cupcakes and fruit were disappearing, too. Even Alexis took some.

  When Faith served Max, he whispered to her, “Find Chip. He’s loaded and apt to do something stupid like fall down the stairs.”

  Adrian had gotten up. He was walking toward the window to look at the storm and overhearing said, “I passed him in the hall a while ago and he was none too steady. I think he was going into your library, Max, to sober up.”

  “Not likely. But he does know where I keep the booze in there. Start in the library, Mrs. Fairchild.”

  Faith had seen enough dead bodies to recognize one immediately, and Charles Frost was dead. He had taken off his jacket and was slumped over Max’s large desk in his shirtsleeves, one arm hanging down from the chair, the other tucked below the desk. All the lights were on, and as she went over to check his pulse, she noticed something odd on the desktop: a snake hook. She knew what it was because Ben’s friend Josh went through a pet snake phase and Ben agreed to feed the corn snake when Josh’s family was on vacation. Faith didn’t want Ben doing it alone, although the snake was harmless, and went with him. The experience fortunately did not have to be repeated, as Josh’s mother convinced him a dog would be more fun. “No more mice,” she’d told Faith. “I couldn’t take it anymore. Cleaning up after a puppy is a joy.”

  Did Max have a heptarium? She looked on the other side of the desk. There was a small crate, the top open and a screen unhinged. She’d have to go get Max and call the police.

  The door opened and James Nelson stepped into the room, closing it behind him. “With everything happening tonight, I thought I should follow you and see if I could help with Chip. Dear God! What’s happened? Is he . . .”

  “Yes.” The word stuck in Faith’s throat and she couldn’t get another out. Something had happened here. Something unnatural.

  “That’s a snake hook,” James said, moving toward the body, “which means there must be a snake.” He walked behind Chip. “His hand is in the drawer.” He pulled out a handkerchief and opened the drawer wide. There was a small slender snake curled up in the far corner.

  “Well, what do you know! A coral snake. There’s an old rhyme: Red and black, friend of Jack. Red and yellow can kill a fellow.”

  The snake had bright red and yellow bands.

  James pushed the drawer back to the original position. “The problem with these creatures is that the head and tail look the same. It can be fatal if you get the wrong end. If he had been given an antivenom immediately he might be alive. The bite causes rapid paralysis and respiratory failure.”

  Faith had been listening to the natural history lesson, frozen in place. She unfroze. “There’s a landline in the kitchen to call the police. I’ll go tell Max.”

  As they left she used her apron to remove the key from inside the door and lock the room from outside.

  So it had been cousin Chip in the end. He would have known how to deliver the coffin, casting suspicion on any number of people. He hadn’t expected to be a guest, but he’d have been able to slip into the house and library almost anytime tonight. If he hadn’t made his fatal mistake, the snake would be waiting for Max. Since Ian was leaving on vacation, Faith remembered, no one would come to Max’s aid in time. Faith knew from Ben that poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes could be purchased easily online. He’d wanted a pet when Josh got his and showed her the sites. She’d been appalled.

  Nels
on headed for the kitchen and Faith back to the dining room. It was over, but she felt wretched.

  She watched to see that James found the kitchen and then the lights went out.

  And stayed out.

  The candles shone brightly and unlike the last time Faith entered the room, the atmosphere had cleared and it merely seemed that people were tired. Ian was pouring more wine for some of them. She went up to Max. “Could you come into the kitchen and show me where the flashlights are so the guests can find their way upstairs?” She assumed that all their cell phones were in their rooms, so they couldn’t use those.

  In the kitchen she told him about Chip and that James had come in after her.

  “My cousin was last on my list, except Angela. I invited him in the end because I wanted someone who I thought had some family feeling for me. Well, he did,” he said bitterly. “His mother and he quickly went through the Frost money. I’d offered to buy the house a number of times. Just before she died, my aunt agreed but with the stipulation that when I died the house would go back to Chip—‘a real Frost’ I think she said. Over the years he hit up some distant cousins for money, took a job or two, and finally started to borrow from me against his expectations. I guess at this point he wanted the lump sum—what was left—from the sale of the property. Even subtracting what he owed me, it would have been a considerable amount. I want to hope his motivation was desperation. And not pure animosity.”

  James Nelson came in the back door, drenched. “I went to see why the generator wasn’t going on. The landline is dead, and I’m not getting any cell signal even out in the open field. We need to get the police as soon as possible, although they might have a problem getting up the drive.”