by Jessica Beck
“I don’t follow,” Annie said.
“If they were born before Neil Armstrong took that first step, then I’ll date them. After that, and there’s not as much to talk about as I would like.”
It was an interesting approach, and I couldn’t blame him for it. It would be hard enough for me to go out with someone ten years younger than I was, let alone thirty. I had a friend from school who kept marrying eighteen-year-old girls. He’d started in high school, getting Miranda Huggins pregnant our junior year and eloping to Las Vegas. When that didn’t work out, he’d married Sarah Lawson eight years later, who also happened to be eighteen at the time. After Sarah left him, he started dating yet another eighteen-year-old, and I wondered if he’d ever be able to break the cycle.
“How about Serena? Did I see a twinkle in her eye when she looked at you?” Annie asked.
I had to hand it to my sister; she’d steered the conversation so elegantly that I wanted to applaud.
“Hardly. I’m more of a crazy uncle to her, as far as I can tell. The last I heard, she was dating someone long distance in Raleigh, but I try not to dig too deeply into her personal life.” He paused a moment, and then the mayor/newspaperman leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure you didn’t come by to discuss my love life. What can I do for you?”
“Have you had any luck discovering what they found at the crime scene last night?” I asked him. We had a valuable resource at our disposal, and I wasn’t about to ignore it.
“Yes. It’s most likely the murder weapon,” he answered gravely.
“What was it?” I asked him.
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but it was a heavy-duty flashlight. Apparently Cheryl was struck from behind with something around the size of it, or shaped a lot like it. It didn’t kill her, but it must have knocked her out the second it hit. The official cause of death is drowning, and the report lists foul play. She was deliberately murdered.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “They may have wanted to just knock her unconscious. You saw the slope of the path near where they found her body. She could have easily rolled into the water before her assailant could stop her progress.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s still homicide if it happened as a direct result of the assault,” the mayor said. I had a feeling he’d looked that up upon learning about the blow to the head.
I remembered that Della had told us that she’d loaned just such a flashlight to Cheryl the night she was murdered. Was that true, or was our aunt covering her tracks for a crime she committed herself? It sounded outlandish at first, but what did we really know about the woman? Had she had her own reasons to want to see her best friend dead? If so, the supposed attempts on her life might help muddy the trail. Then again, it hadn’t been my imagination last night; someone had tried to get into her house long after anyone should have been making the attempt. This was getting more confusing than it had first appeared. “Any idea who the flashlight belongs to?” I asked him.
Davis frowned upon hearing the question. “From what I’ve learned, there were no distinguishing characteristics on it, aside from the section that was a little dinged up from where it most likely hit Cheryl. Why, do you know something I don’t?”
“I’m just asking questions, hoping to uncover something that’s relevant,” I said. It was the complete and utter truth, and yet it still managed quite nicely as a lie. I needed to have another talk with Della, but until I did, the mayor was just going to have to be satisfied with my obfuscation.
It made me proud when Annie didn’t react at all to my statement, though I could tell from the look in her eye that she’d made the connection as well.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” I asked him.
“Honestly, I’ve probably said more than I should have. How do you two manage to do that?”
“Do what?” Annie asked.
“Make it so easy to tell you things I shouldn’t,” he replied. After glancing at his watch, the mayor said, “I hate to keep bailing out on you, but Serena’s right; I really can’t miss another meeting.”
As he started to stand, I said, “Just one more question.”
“Fire away, but make it quick.”
“Are you in love with our aunt?” I asked him.
It took him a few seconds to come up with an answer to a pretty straightforward question. “That’s an odd question. What gave you that idea?”
“According to her, you’ve asked her out on more than one occasion, and now you’re living in the house right beside her. It’s a fair question.”
“Della is an interesting woman; I’ll give you that,” the mayor replied. “I’ve expressed interest in dating her in the past, which she has politely declined. The fact that I bought that house has a great deal more to do with its location on the water than it does its proximity to your aunt. Now, if there’s nothing else, I’ve really got to go.”
We all walked out into the hallway together, and I was surprised to find Serena standing just beside the door. Had she been eavesdropping on our conversation the entire time?
She said quickly, “Good. I was just coming to get you. Here are the papers you need for your meeting.”
Serena handed him a sheaf of paperwork, which he gratefully took. “What would I do without you?” he asked her with a grin.
“Fail miserably at whatever you attempted, most likely,” she answered with a warm smile of her own.
After her boss disappeared, I heard Annie say, “He’s really something, isn’t he?”
“Davis is a good man, and he has the potential to be a great mayor. He just needs a little nudge every now and then.”
“And that’s where you come in, right?” Annie asked.
“I like to think I have a hand in it,” she replied.
“It would be hard not to have feelings for a man with that much charisma, especially when you work so closely with him.”
“Me and Davis? Hardly. He’s old enough to be my father.” She appeared suitably outraged by the notion, but I couldn’t tell if she was sincere in her protests or not.
“But he’s not related to you,” I said. “Surely you’ve thought about it.”
“No, I can honestly say that it’s never crossed my mind. Besides, I have a boyfriend.”
“A long-distance one, correct?” Annie asked.
“How did you know that?”
“Davis told us,” my sister replied.
“Well, it’s true enough.” Her phone rang on her desk, but before she answered it, she turned to us and asked, “Is there anything else?”
“Just one thing,” I said. “Did you know Cheryl Simmons very well?”
“We were aware of each other’s presence enough to say hello if we met on the street or in the grocery store, but that’s about the extent of it. Why?”
“Just curious,” I said. “See you later.”
“I have no doubt of it,” she replied. “After all, Gateway Lake is a small town.”
“That it is,” I said as Annie and I left her office space.
“What was that all about?” my sister asked me once we were well away from the mayor’s office.
“What do you mean?”
“We left before we could ask her for an alibi, and we never did get a chance to ask Davis for his, either.”
“The time frame when the murder could have occurred is so spread out that alibis aren’t going to do us a bit of good with this case,” I told her. “Anyone in town could have done it, or in the state, for that matter. I thought about asking her some more pointed questions, but I didn’t know how to phrase them without warning her that they were both suspects in the woman’s homicide.”
“Isn’t that the exact premise we’re working from, though?” Annie asked me. “Somebody killed that woman.”
“Unless she dropped the flashlight, tripped on a root in the dark, and drowned, all by accident.”
“If that’s what happened,” my sister said, “then we’re not doing ourselve
s any good snooping around town. We have to work with the idea that someone was so obsessed with Aunt Della that they killed Cheryl Simmons by mistake.”
“Did Serena seem obsessed to you? How about Davis?” I asked my sister.
“No, not particularly. Then again, their behaviors could have both been covering up their true feelings toward our aunt.”
I shook my head. “I have a hard time believing that after speaking with both of them. Isn’t it possible that Della’s imagination has gotten the better of her this time? Davis didn’t seem to be in love with her, and Serena didn’t seem all that jealous, either.”
“Are you saying that Aunt Della read both people wrong?” Annie asked me.
“I’m just saying that they both seemed perfectly rational in their reactions to her,” I answered.
“Davis never answered our question, though. Did you notice that?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked her.
“We asked him if he was in love with Aunt Della, and he never answered.”
“Are you sure about that?” I thought back to the conversation and realized that Annie was right. Davis had managed to avoid answering our question altogether by diverting the conversation from it. “You’re right. I missed that. Is it significant? After all, he could have just lied to us.”
“I think he’s too good a politician not to leave himself a way out if we find out the truth later.”
“How about his feelings for Serena?”
“I think he really does think of her as a quirky niece, but how Serena feels is a different matter altogether.”
I was surprised by my sister’s observation, since the secretary had struck me as being open and sincere. “She smiled when she heard Della’s name, and she couldn’t have been nicer to the two of us if she’d tried.”
“I don’t know. It didn’t feel right to me, for some reason,” Annie said. “I don’t completely trust her.”
“Even though we don’t have any reason not to?” I asked her.
“Aunt Della considers her a threat,” Annie answered. “That’s enough for me.”
“Even after our conversation?”
“Even then.”
There was no use discussing it further until we had more information. “Where should we go now?” I asked her.
“We could always go speak with Gary again,” she suggested.
“Until we have more information, I’d like to delay that for a little while. I have another idea, but I have a feeling that you’re not going to like it.”
“Try me,” Annie asked.
“Let’s talk to our aunt again,” I said.
“To call her a liar about what she told us before?” Annie asked me, being more than a little bit defensive.
“No, but we need to know if she has any solid proof that Davis is willing to kill her if he can’t have her all to himself and that Serena wants to see her dead so she doesn’t lose the man of her dreams. Some of Della’s stories I can buy, but some of them just don’t add up, especially after we’ve spoken with the parties involved.”
“Okay, we can certainly ask her for some clarification,” Annie conceded, “but we can’t browbeat her, Pat. She may not be your favorite person in the world, but she’s family, and she deserves better than that.”
“Annie, when I have ever browbeat anyone?” I asked her calmly.
“I just know how you feel.”
“I’m trying to warm up to her, but that doesn’t mean she gets a free pass. We need to push her just as hard as we would anyone else we didn’t happen to be related to. It might get a little tense, but we still need to do it. If you can’t go along with that, then I’ll give you a free pass. You can make your excuses and go do something else, but she and I are having that talk, whether you like it or not. I’m sorry to go against your wishes, but it’s how it has to be.”
“If your gut is telling you that, then I’ll have your back,” Annie answered quietly. “You know that.”
“Even against Della?” I asked.
“Even against Kathleen,” she replied. It was the only answer I would accept from her. It had been the two of us against the world since our births, and I hoped that it would end that way in the end, but not until we were both old and gray, a pair of ancient, cranky geezers.
“Thank you. Now, let’s go see if Della can clear things up for us any.”
CHAPTER 10: ANNIE
I wasn’t all that thrilled with the prospect of asking our aunt such hard questions about the things she’d recently told us, but I knew in my heart that Pat was right. We couldn’t let Aunt Della off the hook just because we were family. What we had to ask her might alienate her from us again, but it was a risk that we had to take. I was steeling myself for the confrontation when I was surprised to see someone leaving Della’s house as we arrived.
I was getting ready to introduce myself when the older, rail-thin woman turned and found us approaching. She frowned for a second, and then sunlight appeared on her face. “Annie! Patrick! I’m so glad to finally get to meet you!”
She was certainly enthusiastic. “It’s good to meet you, too,” I said. “And you are?”
She blushed a little. “I’m Henrietta Long. Your aunt and I have been great friends forever.”
“You ran the Winter Wonderland together,” Pat said. “She’s told us about you, too.”
“Only good things, I hope,” she said with a giggle, though she was clearly older than Della. It sounded odd coming from her.
“What brings you by the house?” I asked her.
“We were going to settle up all of the accounts from the fundraiser, but silly me, I left the ledger books at home. None of those fancy computers for me! Given your visit, we’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to go over the final numbers. Are you staying long? She’d really love it if you could. I know it’s probably a huge imposition, but it would mean so much to her.”
Wow, this woman was good. We’d only just met her, and here she was making us feel guilty for planning such a short stay with our aunt. I had to laugh. “We’ll stay as long as we can, but we have a business to run.”
“She’s told me all about the Iron. It sounds delightful. I’d love to see it someday.”
I didn’t see how that was possible, given the fact that our aunt had never stepped foot in the place, but I was willing to go along with the ruse just to get this woman gone. “We like it,” I said. “Sorry to cut this short, but we really need to talk to our aunt now.”
“Of course. I was just on my way. Have a wonderful day.”
“You, too,” Pat said, shaking his head a little as he did. After Henrietta was gone, he looked at me and rolled his eyes, something that never ceased to make me laugh. I knew my brother’s opinion of the woman without him having to say a word.
Della was surprised to find us back so soon. “That was fast.”
“We need to ask you a few things,” Pat said gravely.
“That sounds serious. What have you heard?”
He didn’t answer her question, and neither did I as I asked her a question of my own. “Della, do you honestly believe that Davis is in love with you?”
“It’s clear by the way he looks at me, and the man’s certainly asked me out enough times! Why, did he deny that?”
“No, he made it perfectly clear that he asked you, but he said that when you weren’t interested, he dropped it.”
It was clearly a blow to her ego to believe that any man couldn’t fall helplessly in love with her, and then just cast her aside. “You said yourself that he might have done that just to be near me.”
“And you explained that it was more to get a house by the lake than to be close by,” I reminded her. This line of questioning had been my brother’s idea, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to embrace it.
“Is that what he told you? Well, he had more on his mind than just a view. The more I think about it, the more I realize that you are right. He did it to get closer to me.”
Della frowned for a moment before she replied. “Of course she’d present that front to you, but I know the truth.”
It was pretty clear that we weren’t going to be able to shake our aunt’s beliefs.
Pat must have thought so, too, because his next question took us in a completely different direction. “Cheryl was most likely killed because of a flashlight that matches the description of the one you said you gave her the night she was murdered.”
“What? Are you sure? I thought they found her in the water. What did my flashlight have to do with that?” The new information seemed to rock her back onto her heels.
“It’s true that she drowned, but the flashlight blow to the back of the head is what sent her into the water, unconscious,” Pat said.
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked, the fright in her voice obvious as her gaze darted from my brother to me. “Do you honestly think that I killed my best friend? Why would I do that?”
“We don’t know,” Pat said, “but hard questions have to be asked.”
“By you? But we’re family!” She was near a breakdown. I could see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice.
“We are. That’s why we’re asking you point blank,” I said calmly. “I’m going to ask you this one time, and then we’ll drop it forever. Aunt Della, did you have anything to do with what happened to Cheryl Simmons?”
“I did not. I swear it on your mother’s grave.”
I could have done without that particular pledge, but I believed her. She might have been deluding herself about the mayor’s intentions and his secretary’s jealousy, but she hadn’t killed her friend. I glanced at Pat, who nodded in agreement when we made eye contact. Della might be a bit of a drama queen, but neither one of us thought that she was a cold-blooded killer.
“Fine. We believe you,” I said. “Let’s just assume for the moment that Davis and Serena are in the clear. Where does that leave us?”
“With just one person, as far as I’m concerned,” Della said.