Death By Design

by Abigail Keam

  With just a few clicks, Liam unlocked the back door. We crept inside.

  Turning on my flashlight, we cautiously made our way to the main exhibit hall, and still, I ran right into a wall. “Shhhh,” I shushed to no one in particular.

  “What are we looking for?” asked Liam.

  “A white dress with some sort of jeweled clasp or sash,” I whispered.

  “I don’t know why we’re being so quiet. No one is here,” complained Liam.

  I motioned for Liam to search one side of the hall while I searched the other side.

  About five minutes later, Liam hissed, “I think I found it.” He flashed his light to signal his position.

  I rushed over and flashed my light over the dress. It was a strapless white satin dress with a sweetheart neckline with a sparkly waist clip. “This fits the description. Can you tell me if the gems are real?” I asked.

  Liam pulled out a jeweler’s loupe and, bending over, studied the clip. Shaking his head, he said, “They’re paste. Very high quality, though. Very high.”

  Suddenly the room flooded with light.

  Liam and I ducked down.

  “What have we here?” floated Teddy’s velvety voice. “Josiah, is that you?”

  I stood up sheepishly.

  “And you have a friend with you? Mind telling me what you think you’re doing?”

  “I’ll be happy to explain if you’ll put that gun down. I could ask you the same question. What are you doing here? Watching over your investment?”

  Teddy did not lower his gun, but aimed it straight at us. “I don’t think I need to explain anything to common burglars. I hate to do this, but I think I simply must call the police.”

  “Yeah, do that Teddy,” I needled. “I’ll be happy to explain to the police how you murdered both Bunny Witt and Emma Fisher.”

  Teddy slowly smiled, but I noticed his left eyebrow twitched when I said the word murder. “There goes that incredibly vivid imagination of yours again, Josiah.”

  “Madam, please shut up,” cautioned Liam, who was standing beside me with his hands raised. “You’re gonna get us killed.”

  “Why don’t you listen to your friend? He has sense.”

  “Why aren’t you calling the police, Teddy?” I challenged.

  “Why would I have any reason to kill Bunny Witt or Emma Fisher?”

  I stood beside the dress and pointed to the waist clip. “It was over this.”

  Teddy leaned his head back and let loose his best patrician laugh. “Those gems aren’t real. That’s junk paste.”

  “That’s right. They are now, but they weren’t paste when Bunny shipped the dress here, and they weren’t paste when the dress was put on the mannequin. She told me she checked the dresses as soon as she landed from New York, and there was not a problem then. Only at the gala did Bunny realize something was amiss with this evening dress. She recognized that this clip was different. Perhaps she couldn’t articulate the difference, but Bunny knew this was not the same clip that was originally shipped with the dress. She put two and two together and realized someone had made a replica and switched it with the genuine article. I think Bunny approached you on the night of the gala and made a big stink about it. Next thing you know, Bunny turns up dead.”

  “That’s absurd,” scoffed Teddy.

  “Is it? I think when Bunny confronted you, you suggested that the two of you talk about it somewhere private.”

  “Like the carriage house? She wouldn’t have gone there with me. I could never have convinced her to traipse down a gravel path to a dusty old shed.”

  “You convinced her, all right. You convinced her the way you manipulate so many women, by being a very smooth talker. You’re good with women, and Bunny was a very naïve and vulnerable woman.”

  “Or maybe you convinced her with that pistol stuck in her back,” chimed in Liam.

  “You’ve no proof, just like you have no proof that I had anything to do with the death of Emma Fisher. I didn’t even know the woman.”

  “But you did. Tell him what you worked out, Liam.”

  “While you were having tea with Lady Elsmere, I took the key from Emma Fisher’s apartment that Madam had and compared it with the keys in your coat pocket. It matched a key from your key ring set. You were in possession of a key to Emma Fisher’s apartment, and it’s probably on your key ring right now. Very sloppy, mate,” chided Liam.

  Teddy’s face suddenly glistened with perspiration.

  I rambled on, “I’ve worked it all out, Teddy. You were Emma’s mystery boyfriend for over a year. It started when you read an interview with Bunny in a London paper. In the interview, Bunny talked about the fabulous jewels her great aunt received from her Indian lover and then hid where they remained undiscovered.”

  “You’re saying I killed over some hearsay, rumors handed down from a daft old aunt,” Teddy scoffed.

  I continued, “The story fired your imagination. So you befriended poor Emma Fisher, a thirty-something woman with no sexual experience. You turned on the charm and seduced her. Emma was so enthralled with the attention, she couldn’t say no. You talked her into giving you the London apartment’s security codes, the door key, and had her draw a floor plan of Bunny’s flat.”

  Liam took a tentative step.

  Teddy, who responded by turning the gun squarely on him. “Don’t even think it, chum,” hissed Teddy.

  I continued. “You couldn’t find the gems, so you began stalking Bunny. When you tore up her London flat, she fled to New York, where you followed. You began pressuring Emma to get Bunny to change her will. You needed access to Bunny’s estate and you needed to control Emma to get it.”

  Liam interrupted, “I’ve noticed you’re not denying it, mate.”

  “Tell me, Josiah. How did you make the connection between the jewels and the exhibit?”

  “That’s simple. You still couldn’t find the gems in the New York apartment, but you felt you could flush them out somehow by having this exhibit. There was never a secret benefactor. It was just you all along. You must have spent a small fortune making this happen.”

  “If Emma was so much under my thumb, why would I have to kill her?”

  “I think she became frightened after you murdered Bunny. She knew you had to be the murderer, and you were afraid she would talk. At the beginning of this sordid tale, Emma was so in love with you, she wanted to make you happy at all costs, but she never thought about the consequences of having the will changed. It meant Bunny had to die at some point, but when it finally happened, it shocked Emma. After all, Bunny had been good to her up to a point. Now Emma realized she was an accomplice to murder, and that she might be next. She stopped trusting you.”

  “This is a fantastic tale you’ve concocted. All conjecture on your part. Poppycock,” Teddy shot back.

  I plowed on, “It wasn’t until Theda Finkelstein related to me Emma told her that she was ‘being gaslighted’ that everything fell into place. I didn’t have a clue what she meant at first, but then it hit me. I realized exactly what you were up to.”

  Teddy professed, “I don’t understand.”

  “When someone is ‘being gaslighted’ they are slowly being driven into madness or manipulated by a loved one. It’s a term inspired by the 1941 movie Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. It’s about a jewel thief who marries a young woman whose aunt hid her fabulous jewels before her death. The husband tries to drive his young wife insane while he searches for the jewels. Sound somewhat familiar to you?”

  Teddy let out a haughty, condescending laugh. “Why would I kill this Emma person if she were the executrix of Bunny Witt’s estate?”

  “You had discovered the gems had been incorporated into the clip on this dress. You didn’t need Emma any more. She was a loose end that needed to be tidied up. Emma simply knew too much.”

  “Kill her and let all that money from the estate slip through my fingers? That would be foolish,” sneered Teddy, brandishing the gun a
gain.

  “But you were going to have your own fortune thanks to the gems you stole. Besides, real estate, stocks–those things don’t interest you–don’t excite you the way mysterious, long-lost jewels do.”

  Liam looked at me with genuine admiration. “Madam, very good. It’s the lust for gems that makes a man a jewel thief. It’s a lust that can be stronger than the desire for a woman.”

  “Speaking of women, let’s move this discussion to me,” I announced, slowly edging my way to the foyer.

  “What about you, Josiah?”

  “I kept wondering why someone like you would be showering me with attention, but it all became clear when we went to Lady Elsmere’s for tea. You were using me to get close to June, so you could have access to her renowned jewelry collection. By dating me, you knew sooner or later you’d be invited to her mansion. You needed a new strategy after you botched the first attempt at burglary in the middle of the night. You weren’t content with just Bunny’s jewels. You wanted June’s fabulous emerald necklace too. Somehow you drugged her on the night of her birthday party–not enough to knock her out but enough to muddle her mind.

  “That’s why Emma was so desperate to meet with me. She planned to warn me that you would be making a move on me, but lost her nerve.”

  “Madam, it was this sleeveen?” Liam put his hands down and made fists. “You’re the bloody bastard who sneaked into the baby’s room.”

  “I don’t know Gaelic, but I doubt sleeveen was meant as a compliment,” Teddy smirked. “Got the bedrooms mixed up. I would have retreated gracefully, but that bitch of a dog woke the entire house and chased me to the river. I had to give her a good swift kick to get away.”

  “You were trying to steal the Kaur emerald,” I said.

  “Yes, and why not? Don’t you know about that necklace? The stones are some of the largest emeralds ever discovered, and were confiscated by the East India Company in 1705. The largest, the Kaur emerald, was sold to Lord Elsmere’s family in 1784 by a Dutch diamond merchant, and has been in the family ever since then.

  “The stone is priceless and that old crone was wearing it to an afternoon tea in rural Kentucky with a bunch of her idiot friends. She doesn’t deserve to have it.”

  “I’m something of a jewel fancier myself, Teddy boy, but I’ve never killed for them. You murdered two women for a bunch of rocks,” spat Liam. “That’s cold, mate. Very cold.”

  “Not to mention the fact that Teddy left you on the outs with Lady Elsmere and got you thrown out of the Big House,” I added.

  “Yeah, about that,” growled Liam.

  “Shut up. As for you, Josiah, you didn’t get everything right, but close enough. Now I need you to move away from Danny Boy. Over by the door,” commanded Teddy.

  “Trying to make this look like a home invasion. It won’t work,” I insisted.

  “I think it will. ‘Officer, Josiah Reynolds and I were having an intimate moment in my quarters when I heard a noise downstairs. I investigated and she followed. When I turned on the lights, an armed intruder panicked and shot my lady friend. Naturally, I had to shoot him in self-defense.’ That wasn’t too difficult, was it? I almost convince myself. The police will have no trouble swallowing my story,” Teddy crowed with sickening self-confidence.

  Liam protested, “Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have a gun.”

  “You will by the time the police get here, and it will have your prints on it.”

  “I have a gun too, and it’s trained at your head, Teddy!” In strolled Walter Neff aiming his Walther PPK squarely at Teddy. “Please make a move you limey bastard. I’d love to end this here with a bullet between your eyes.”

  I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look of astonishment on Teddy’s face.

  Liam walked over and calmly took Teddy’s gun from his hand. “Cripes, lad, what took you so long?” Liam asked Walter.

  Walter growled, “I wanted to hear this piece of scum confess to killing Bunny.

  “He didn’t deny it,” pointed out Liam.

  Walter replied, “Not good enough in a court of law, but he did state that he was going to kill you two.”

  Teddy shot a nasty look at me. “You set me up, you bitch.”

  I shrugged. “Aw, shucks. I can’t take all the credit. Couldn’t have done it without my homeboys, Walter and Liam.”

  “You’ve got nothing on me. I’ll just say you made it up because I caught the three of you trying to steal these expensive dresses.”

  I explained, “The police might have gone for that if I hadn’t taped our entire conversation. You’re finished, Thaddeus McPherson, if that is your real name. I’m sure Interpol will identify you, but in any event, you’ll rot in an American prison for the murders of Bunny and Emma. After all, you’re in Kentucky and you’ll face Kentucky justice.” I walked over to him. “Were the gems worth all this pain and suffering? Where are they, Teddy? Where are the lost gems? Where is June’s emerald necklace?”

  “You’ll never get your grubby hands on them, Josiah. Nobody will. Only I know the location of the gems. They are mine and no one else’s.”

  “What good will they do you while you rot in a prison?” I asked, totally bewildered by this man’s obsession.

  Teddy began chortling and then laughing out loud. He didn’t stop when the police came and handcuffed him. He was still laughing when the police car drove away.

  He wouldn’t tell the police where the gems were, not because he wouldn’t, but because he couldn’t. You see–Teddy had literally lost his mind. I’m not sure even he knows where they are anymore due to his deranged mind. He was so smugly sure of himself that Teddy couldn’t cope when everything came unraveled.

  No one knows where he hid Bunny’s gems, and I don’t think they ever will.

  50

  Goetz opened the door to his apartment and appeared genuinely surprised to see me. Pleasantly surprised? Time will tell. “What are you doing here?”

  “I come bearing gifts,” I replied, holding up a six-pack of beer. I pushed past him into the apartment.

  “What do you want?”

  “We’re too damned old to fight and hold grudges. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you, so I’ve come to patch things up. I heard you have finally retired and thought you might want to celebrate.”

  Goetz grabbed a beer and pulled the tab. “You call this celebrating?”

  “I’ve also ordered a pizza. Should be here in fifteen minutes, but you get to pay for it.”

  “Naturally. So we’ve got pizza and beer. Now what?”

  “Gaslight is playing on TV tonight. Thought we should watch it, since it solved your murder cases for you–or I solved the murder cases for which you got credit. You’re going out on top with your last two murder cases closed . . . thanks to whom?”

  “Geez, Josiah, I’ve already thanked you. Enough’s enough.”

  “Now you’re retiring. All loose ends are sewn up. You’re a free man, Goetz. The world is your oyster.”

  “I can’t shake this case free. What makes a man so besotted with a diamond or a ruby that he’ll kill two people over them and is willing to kill two more? It’s baffling, and now I’m going to watch a movie about the same sickness. Tell me something. Do you think McPherson is insane or is he petending? And was it kismet that his path crossed those of Bunny and Emma?”

  A quote from Shakespeare suddenly entered my mind. “Well, former Detective Goetz, a wise man once wrote, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.’”

  And with that I clicked on the TV.

  51

  Walter Neff hid in the bushes until the newly employed night watchman at Hilltop Manor made his last rounds and headed for his car in the parking lot, where he could listen to a West Coast baseball game and eat his baloney sandwich in peace.

  Walter’s legs were stiff from crouching in hiding for long hours, waiting until all the other employees left. He was also sweating profusely, and felt clammy which Walter attri
buted to his long wait. He had come in with the last tour of the day and veered off, hoping they would not notice his absence. It had worked.

  Now Walter had Hilltop Manor to himself. He hurried to the back rose garden, where a rope hung over the brick wall. Tugging on it, Walter pulled over a backpack filled with equipment he would need.

  From the backpack, Walter took out a metal detector, a short folding shovel, night goggles, a garden trowel, and another little bag. He had been practicing all week with his new metal detector, and felt confident he knew how to use it correctly.

  Walter had been putting the pieces together since Teddy’s incarceration. He believed with his whole heart that Teddy’s current bout of insanity was a façade, and if he ever won a reprieve from the courts, Teddy would make a beeline for Hilltop Manor.

  The gems had to be somewhere on the property. Where else could Teddy have hidden them? The very fact that he was staying at Hilltop Manor instead of a nice, cushy hotel, proved to Walter that Teddy was guarding the clip and the emerald necklace somewhere in the vicinity. He was pretty sure Teddy had neither the time nor the opportunity to dismantle the gold clip and stash the gems elsewhere. It had to be intact. His guess was that Teddy had buried it somewhere on the property.

  Walter put on his night goggles and pulled out a map of the property he had snatched the night Bunny went missing. Unfolding it, he studied it carefully, as he had every night since Teddy had been taken into custody. He would start with the old tobacco barn in the north pasture. Walter figured since Teddy was a city person, he must have hidden the gems in a building. City people tended to use buildings as a frame of reference rather than fences or trees as they were unfamiliar with hiding things there, which a country resident would be more likely to do.

  Walter spent over an hour in the old barn, finding nothing but rusty nails and tabs of soda cans. Wiping his sweaty brow with a faded hankie, Walter leaned against a post, trying to think like Teddy. Since Teddy had been staying in a back bedroom, it would have made sense to pick a hiding place he could see from his window.