The Ghost and Little Marie

by Anna J. McIntyre

  “How did Jason and Sondra react?”

  Danielle leaned back in the swing, her arms folded across her chest. “It was kind of hard to hear over all Warren’s bellowing and threats to contest the will. But it doesn’t sound like there’s much that he can do. I don’t think he has the resources to fight it in court, and I think Melony as an attorney is thorough.”

  “Was Sondra upset?”

  “A little bit. But they went outside with Chloe and waited for Warren, who was still railing at poor Adam. Why, is the focus on Sondra now?”

  “Joe and Brian had an interesting lunch conversation with Beverly Klein today.” He then went on to recount what Beverly had said.

  “You think it’s true? I don’t think Beverly would lie about it, but do you really think the woman she ran into was Sondra?”

  The chief nodded. “Brian went to the mini-mart and got a copy of the surveillance recording for that time frame. It was Sondra, and one of the cameras picked up her rental car in the background. According to the time stamp, it was 3:20 a.m. Just like Beverly said, Sondra plowed into her when she was leaving, knocked her sack out of her arms. Sondra didn’t even stop and say excuse me or help Beverly pick up her bag, she just ran straight to the restroom.”

  “Maybe she just had to go to the bathroom really bad?”

  MacDonald raised his brow at Danielle. “There was definitely something on that girl’s mind when she ran into the mini-mart. And where it’s located, if Sondra left Seaside Village a little after three in the morning, it would have taken her about twenty minutes to get there. I already timed it.”

  “Oh my,” Danielle muttered. She turned to MacDonald. “I think you should know something.”

  “What?”

  “After the reading of the will, Melony and Adam stuck around for a while and we talked. According to Adam, his brother was let go from his teaching position right before they came here. Something about budget cuts. I think he was counting on that inheritance. And I suspect Sondra was banking on it.”

  “You think he came here to collect the inheritance? Maybe get his grandmother to hurry up and die?” the chief suggested.

  “Maybe. But if Sondra did kill Marie, and Jason was in on it, that’s going to suck for both Adam and Marie,” Danielle grumbled.

  “For Marie and Adam’s sake, I’m hoping Jason wasn’t involved. I know how devastating it can be learning someone close to you would sacrifice people you care about for money.”

  Knowing MacDonald was referring to his incarcerated ex-girlfriend, Carol Ann, Danielle reached over and patted his knee. They sat in silence for a few minutes.

  Finally, Danielle said, “You know, I just thought of something. Maybe Sondra is alone in this.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I remember on Thanksgiving, Jason made a joke about how Sondra only agreed to marry him after she learned Ian—aka Jon Altar—had purchased Marie’s Beach Drive house. But maybe Sondra wasn’t impressed with who bought the house, but how much he paid for it.”

  “You think she knew how much it went for?” the chief asked.

  “Marie once mentioned she wasn’t going to tell her family what she got for the house. Obviously, she didn’t mean Adam, since he handled the transaction. But it’s not hard these days to go online and find out what real estate is going for. It’s possible when Jason mentioned his grandmother had sold beachfront property, it piqued Sondra’s interest.”

  “Which might mean Sondra decided to marry Jason after she realized how much he might eventually be inheriting,” the chief suggested. “Considering Marie’s age, that could have been any day. Of course, once there was talk of changing the will, Sondra may have panicked and decided it best to hurry Marie along.”

  “Possible. Where do we go from here?”

  “Did they mention when they were going back to Colorado?” MacDonald asked.

  “Adam said his brother and Sondra would be leaving as soon as they can book a flight. Jason is anxious to get his résumés out there. As for Sondra, I don’t think she has to get back for her job. After all, she just does temp work, and from what I understand, she’s between jobs. But I have a feeling she’s anxious to leave; and if she is responsible for Marie’s death, I understand why.”

  “Unless I arrest her, I can’t make her stay, which will make investigating this murder more difficult,” he grumbled. “The best I can do is bring her in for questioning, but I hate the fact she could just disappear once she gets back to Colorado.”

  “You don’t have enough to arrest her on?”

  “Not unless I can get her to confess during questioning.”

  They sat there a few moments, considering options. After a few minutes, Danielle sat up abruptly, her right foot pressing on the ground, stopping the swing. She turned to the chief. “I have an idea!”

  MacDonald studied Danielle, his eyes narrowing. “I’m not sure I will like this. I’ve seen that expression before.”

  Danielle smiled, reminding the chief of the Cheshire cat. “I think I know of a way I can get her to confess.”

  Thirty-Two

  Shoving her soiled clothes in a trash bag on the bed, Sondra paused a moment and looked at Jason. They were alone in the guest bedroom in Marie’s house. “We can’t get a flight out until Friday?”

  “Sorry. But it’s the first one in the morning.”

  “Whatever,” she muttered.

  “Adam invited us all out to Pearl Cove for dinner.”

  “What, to celebrate his big inheritance?” she snapped.

  “Sondra, he is my brother. He had no idea Grandma was leaving him everything.”

  Letting go of the plastic bag, she looked at her fiancé and arched her brows. “Seriously? He is dating the lawyer who wrote the new will. You really believe he didn’t know anything about it?”

  “All I know is Adam wants to talk to us. Mom and Dad have agreed to go. If it makes you feel any better, Melony isn’t going. Adam said he just wanted it to be family.”

  Sondra sat down on the edge of the bed. “Then I shouldn’t go. I’m not family.”

  “He didn’t mean you weren’t invited. You’re practically family. He just said that’s why Melony wasn’t going.”

  Sondra considered his words a moment and then shook her head. “No, I don’t want to go. To be honest, I’ve a bit of a headache. There are enough leftovers in the fridge from the wake to feed an army, so I won’t starve. You go. Have this family discussion without me.”

  “This might work out perfectly,” Danielle told Walt and Marie. “I just talked to Adam, and they’re all going to Pearl Cove for dinner, and Sondra is staying home.”

  “If she’s the one who killed me, I don’t believe for a minute poor Jason had any idea what she was up to. The little gold digger,” Marie grumbled.

  “Is she going to be able to get over here?” Walt asked.

  “I don’t think Jason is going to take his rental car when he can ride with his parents. After all, he drove with them when they came over here to read the will.” Danielle glanced at the time.

  “When are you going to call her?” Walt asked.

  “Adam said their reservation was at six thirty, so I’ll call her then, just to be sure she’s alone.”

  When six thirty rolled around, Danielle dialed Marie’s landline.

  After several rings, Sondra answered the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hello, Sondra, this is Danielle Boatman.”

  “If you’re looking for Adam, he’s not here.”

  “No, I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Umm…what about?” Sondra asked.

  “I need you to come over to Marlow House right now. I’m alone, and I want you to come alone. I don’t want you to tell anyone you’re coming over here.”

  “Why would I do that? What is this about?”

  “I know your secret, Sondra.”

  Silence.

  “Did you hear me?” Danielle asked.

  “I don’t know wh
at you’re talking about.”

  “I know where you really went on Tuesday morning—early Tuesday morning, very early.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sondra repeated.

  “Yes, you do. And if you don’t want me telling everyone what you were really doing around three on Tuesday morning, then you better get yourself over here, now!” Danielle demanded.

  There were several moments of silence, and Danielle began to wonder if they were wrong, and Sondra had nothing to do with Marie’s death. After all, they all knew Sondra had supposedly gone out early that morning to run on the beach. Perhaps it was all innocent and she had simply left earlier than they had thought, and her reason for running into the mini-mart was just to use the bathroom. Danielle knew from personal experience that sometimes when nature called, there wasn’t time to hang around and exchange social pleasantries with a stranger you had just bumped into.

  But then Sondra blurted, “Why are you doing this to me?” She was obviously sobbing on the other end of the line. If Danielle didn’t think the woman had killed her friend, she might be feeling guilty for making the woman cry.

  “Just be here within ten minutes,” Danielle ordered before hanging up the phone.

  “Well?” Marie asked.

  “Danielle, you scare me.” Walt chuckled.

  Flashing a guilty smile at Walt, she turned to Marie. “I guess we wait and see if she shows up. And also hope she doesn’t call Adam and tell him what I just said to her, because then he’ll think I’ve gone nuts.” Danielle plopped down on the parlor sofa.

  “What happens if she did kill me, and she brings a gun? Oh no, maybe she found mine!” Marie gasped.

  Danielle frowned. “You have a gun?”

  “Actually, it belonged to my husband. But yes.”

  “Fortunately, I have Walt,” Danielle chirped confidently.

  I like the sound of that, Walt thought to himself.

  Exactly eleven minutes later the front door bell rang. Danielle peeked out the side window of the parlor.

  “It’s her,” Danielle whispered.

  “Maybe this isn’t a good idea. She could be a killer,” Marie suggested.

  “Marie, even if she didn’t find your gun, I expected her to come armed. Maybe not a gun, but a knife. Or perhaps something heavy to bonk me over the head with. After all, that is sort of the point.”

  “It is?” Marie frowned.

  “Certainly. If she’s guilty and she thinks I’m her only witness, then she’ll want to get rid of me. But Walt’s here. He’ll make sure she doesn’t hurt me.”

  “Ahh, I think I understand,” Marie muttered. “Crafty.”

  Danielle opened the front door. As expected, Sondra stood on the front stoop. Without a word, Danielle opened the door wider so Sondra could enter. Looking dejected, Sondra walked down the hall and into the living room. Instead of taking a seat, she stood in the middle of the room.

  “Why am I here?” Sondra demanded, her voice trembling.

  Flashing Sondra a smile, Danielle assumed a low and confident tone as she walked around the trembling woman, seemingly not paying attention to her surroundings. It would have been a foolish posture to take with a killer you were intending to blackmail, unless of course there was a spirit nearby prepared to block any lethal threat.

  “You told the police you left the house right around sunrise to go jogging, but you left earlier than that, didn’t you?” Danielle asked.

  “So…”

  “What you don’t know, I was out that morning too.”

  “I don’t understand?” Sondra stammered. “Why were you out that morning?”

  “It doesn’t really matter why I was out. It just matters that I saw you. I took pictures.”

  “You saw me?”

  “I was really surprised to see you leaving that place. I wondered why you weren’t at Marie’s…with Jason.”

  Sondra shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Afterwards you stopped at a mini-mart. I followed you there. You were so preoccupied you didn’t even notice me. You also didn’t notice that woman you ran into when you walked into the mini-mart. Knocked her bag right out of her arms and you didn’t even stop to apologize.”

  Danielle’s back was to Sondra, and Walt was prepared to intervene as soon as the woman lunged, but to his surprise, instead of rushing to Danielle, she threw herself on the sofa and began to sob.

  Startled by the unexpected reaction, Danielle turned to Sondra and frowned.

  “I love Jason. Please don’t tell him! It only happened once and I immediately regretted it,” Sondra sobbed.

  “Huh? It only happened once?” Danielle took a step toward the sofa.

  Sondra’s tearstained face pleadingly looked up to Danielle. “Please don’t tell Jason. I love him. I promise it will never happen again!”

  Confused, Danielle stared at Sondra. “You won’t kill Marie again? I think you only need to do it once.”

  With a sniffle, Sondra looked at Danielle while wiping tears from her face with the back of her sleeve. “Kill Marie? What are you talking about?”

  “I was talking about you leaving Seaside Village at three in the morning after smothering Marie.”

  “Huh?” Sondra sat up on the sofa and shook her head. “I didn’t leave Seaside Village at three in the morning. I left the Seahorse Motel.”

  Danielle and Sondra sat together on the living room sofa, each with a glass of Merlot. Marie and Walt sat on the chairs facing them, quietly listening.

  “We dated for six years,” Sondra explained. She took a sip of her wine and then continued. “When he broke up with me, I was devastated. That’s why I moved to Colorado. I needed to get away from Portland and all the memories. And then I met Jason.”

  “So why did you agree to see him?” Danielle asked.

  Leaning back in the sofa, Sondra let out a sigh and propped her bare feet up on the coffee table. She had removed her shoes after Danielle had handed her the glass of wine. “He saw on Facebook that I was coming to Frederickport. We hadn’t really talked since we broke up and I moved away. I suppose I should have unfriended him when we broke up, but I thought that would seem juvenile. After all, we were together six years, couldn’t we remain civil and friends?”

  “So what happened?”

  “He called me when I got here, told me he needed to see me. I guess he had read on Facebook that Jason and I had gotten engaged. He insisted we needed to talk before I got married. So we agreed to meet at two in the morning at the motel. I figured it would be impossible to see him during the day.”

  “How in the world did you get away that early without Jason wondering what you were doing?

  Sondra chuckled. “I like to jog early in the morning and Jason doesn’t.”

  “Yeah, but two in the morning early?”

  “You don’t know Jason. When he falls asleep at night, you can’t get him up. I could seriously have a party in the house and he would sleep through it.”

  “He was like that as a boy,” Marie interjected.

  “I left him a letter telling him I had gone out, in case he woke up. That way he would just assume I’d gotten restless and decided to take a drive before taking my morning run.”

  Danielle reached for the wine bottle on the table and refilled their glasses.

  “Why did you think I killed Marie?” Sondra asked.

  “Someone I know saw you at the mini-mart. And the police think Marie was killed right before that.”

  “You thought I was just going to confess?”

  Danielle shrugged. “Something like that.”

  “Weren’t you worried I might do something crazy, like get ahold of a gun and shoot you? After all, you did think I smothered Jason’s poor grandma.”

  “I was willing to take my chances for Marie.”

  “It was a reckless idea.” Sondra took a gulp of wine. “I suppose the police will need to talk to my old boyfriend since he’s my alibi. I was hoping Jaso
n wouldn’t have to find out.”

  “I won’t tell him.”

  Sondra looked at Danielle. “You won’t?”

  “Nah, that’s between you and Jason. None of my business. But I’m afraid you will need to tell the chief and let him check out your story.”

  The two women sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their wine while the spirits across the room watched.

  Finally, Sondra said, “I don’t really know Adam well. I know he’s your friend and everything, but do you think he could have killed his grandmother?”

  “Absolutely not!” Marie snapped.

  Danielle shook her head. “No. Never.”

  “Are you really being objective? I know I have an alibi, and I don’t see how Jason could have gotten over to the home without getting into his parents’ bedroom while they were sleeping and taking their car keys. And I’m pretty sure Adam’s folks were in the house during that time. But Adam inherited a lot of money with his grandmother’s death.”

  “You’re right, you don’t know Adam well,” Danielle said with a calm voice. “Adam and I have had our issues. But I’ve come to consider him my annoying little brother—who happens to be older than me.”

  Sondra chuckled.

  “And one thing I know, he loved his grandmother.”

  Thirty-Three

  Chief MacDonald sat alone at a booth in Lucy’s Diner, sipping coffee while waiting for Danielle to join him for breakfast. The previous night she had called him after Sondra had left Marlow House, insisting Sondra wasn’t the killer. Danielle was meeting him this morning to give him a detailed report of what had transpired the night before.

  “Chief,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. MacDonald looked up to find Stu Holt standing next to the booth.

  “Morning, Stu,” the chief greeted him.

  “I just heard about Marie Nichols,” Stu said as he took the empty seat across from the chief, without asking if it was okay if he sat down. “Murdered? Was she really murdered?”

  MacDonald set his coffee cup back on the table. “I’m afraid so.”

  Stu shook his head at the thought. “I just can’t believe it. Who would want to hurt Marie? She and I have been neighbors for years. Are there any leads?”