THIRTY-ONE
JOSIE WENT STRAIGHT to Sam’s store. As she turned the corner, she spied his little MGB parked on the street and sighed with relief. She knew who had killed Courtney. But she didn’t know what to do now. She sure hoped Sam would.
Sam was in the store, but it wasn’t open for customers until nine-thirty. Josie had to hammer on the door to get his attention.
“Josie, I didn’t hear you. I was back in my office.” Sam looked at her face as he unlocked the door and let her in. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“Sam, I’m so glad to see you! I know who did it! I know who killed Courtney! I-”
“Josie, maybe you don’t want to-”
“Sam, didn’t you hear what I said? I know who killed Court… Oh, damn. What is he doing here?”
“I tried to tell you,” Sam said as Chief Rodney walked down the aisle between cases of expensive wine and English gin. He was grinning.
“Miss Pigeon. You were saying something I would be interested in hearing, I believe.”
Josie looked at Sam. “What is he doing here?” she asked again.
“Your boyfriend and I have been making plans for the Island Police Association Benefit. Now what’s all this about our emcee?”
“You mean Courtney?”
“Yes.”
Josie was silent for a few minutes. “She’s dead.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw her dead. I mean, I saw her when she was dead. Her body.”
“You saw a dead body and you didn’t bother to call the police, Miss Pigeon?”
“I… It… I mean, she disappeared before I could do that.”
“You didn’t think you should come down to the police station and tell me that you saw a dead body that somehow slipped away while you weren’t looking? You didn’t think I would understand?”
“Would you have?”
“No way, José. And no way to you, Josie!”
“You know, if Josie doesn’t cooperate with you, you have nothing except a missing television personality,” Sam said flatly.
“I-” Josie started.
“And she’s not going to say anything at all until you agree to listen to every word she says and do whatever she thinks you should,” he continued, refusing to allow Josie to finish her sentence.
“I think…”
“Well, do you agree to that?” Sam asked.
Josie looked up at Chief Rodney. From the expression on his face, she decided it would be stupid to drive even one mile over the speed limit for the rest of the summer.
“Do you agree?” Sam repeated.
“Fine. Fine. But you better have a body or some rock-hard evidence, Miss Pigeon. You better have enough for me to make an arrest and get a conviction.”
Josie grimaced. “Well, I can’t promise anything-”
“Just tell us what you know,” Sam said.
“Not much,” Josie began. “But if you think logically about what I’m saying, I think you’ll realize that I’m right and… that I’m right.”
Chief Rodney sighed long and loud. “I suppose,” he said, saying the words slowly and looking at Sam, “it’s a bit early in the day for a drink.”
“I could get you a cup of coffee and put a dollop of brandy in it,” Sam offered.
“Make it a double dollop and I won’t drag your girlfriend off to jail without hearing the entire story.”
Josie scowled and tried to figure out exactly where to begin.
“Maybe you should start with finding the body,” Sam suggested, heading for the area where liquors were displayed.
“Yes. When did you find the body?”
“It was a few days ago. But I didn’t find it.”
“Just who did find it?”
“My crew. Someone on my crew,” Josie replied.
“You telling me there’s a conspiracy of silence here?” Chief Rodney growled.
“There’s no conspiracy,” Josie answered before realizing that almost half a dozen people keeping the knowledge of a crime from the police was, most likely, exactly that.
Sam seemed to be thinking the same thing as he rushed over with a steaming and alcoholic drink in his hand.
“Start when the body was discovered,” he prompted. “I’m sure the chief will let you tell the story in your own way.”
Apparently the chief would let her do what she pleased as long as Sam kept a steady stream of alcohol and coffee coming his way. So Josie got on with it.
“I didn’t find Courtney. My crew did. She was hidden in the canoe that was hanging from the ceiling in the living room of the house we’re remodeling.”
“When?”
“A few days ago. But the body disappeared that day, too.”
“Let’s start at the beginning again. You-or someone on your crew-discovered Courtney in the canoe hanging from the ceiling. Am I correct in assuming that she was dead?”
“Yes. Of course, yes.” Josie described how Courtney had looked, being sure to mention how her hair had covered part of her forehead-which she now knew to be significant-and went on to explain her interview up near the rafters, how the women had continued to work that afternoon, all acutely aware of the body on high, and how they had decided to meet at Island Contracting’s office for dinner to make a decision about what to do.
“Who suggested leaving the body where it was and heading down to your office?” Chief Rodney asked.
“I think I probably did, but that doesn’t matter,” Josie told him. “Just listen to what I’m going to tell you and you’ll understand.”
“You damn well better be right, Mizz Pigeon.” He sprayed his sarcasm.
Josie continued her story as he wiped his spit off his shirt. “So we went to the office and tried to figure out what to do about Courtney’s body. We did think of calling the police, among other things.” She was fairly sure no one in the store would think much of their decision to freeze Courtney along with most of the island’s bait supply. “But when we returned to the house, the body was gone.”
Chief Rodney grunted, and from the expression on his face, Josie got the impression that keeping his promise not to interrupt was causing him some pain. She continued the tale.
“We knew the body was gone right away. The canoe was on the floor, but the blanket that had been covering her was still there. We… um… we didn’t know what to do.”
Chief Rodney made a sound that could have been a gulp or an expletive.
“So we didn’t do anything. And Bobby Valentine said that Courtney was always going off and doing things and suddenly no one seemed to care that she wasn’t around. So… well… Look, the truth is that I knew you would suspect my crew members if you knew Courtney had been murdered. None of them had any reason to kill her, but some of them are especially vulnerable, so I thought if I figured out who killed her myself, I would tell you about it and… and that would be that.” She glanced at Sam, who was staring intently at the police chief.
“You thought I would arrest Dorothy Evans,” Chief Rodney said flatly.
“I thought it was a good possibility. And so did she. You see, Dottie-”
“Josie, he knows about Dottie’s record,” Sam said. “It’s one of the terms of her release and her parole.”
“Oh. Dottie’s a wonderful person,” Josie assured him.
“I realize that, Miss Pigeon. I realize that.”
“The chief was telling me earlier that he introduced Dottie to one of his officers, a relative, and he asked her out on a date,” Sam explained.
Josie was momentarily diverted. “And she refused, right?”
“Yes. But the Rodney men do not take no for an answer. At least not until it’s been said at least a half-dozen times,” Chief Rodney added with a surprising amount of self-deprecating humor.
“Go on with your story, Josie,” Sam prompted. “What happened next?”
“I guess the next thing that actually happened was that I got a call from Bobby Valentine. But that�
��s not… I’m leaving out things.”
“Well, we sure don’t want you to do that,” Chief Rodney said as the beeper on his belt began to squawk. “Goddamn. Someone better have a real good reason for bothering me now.” He read the message. “Mind if I use your phone, Sam?”
“Feel free.”
Josie moved over to Sam as the police chief headed to the phone on the checkout counter. “How am I doing?” she asked.
“Frankly, not well. I know more of the whole story than the chief and I have no idea what the hell you’re getting at-or who you think killed Courtney.”
“Sam, I thought you’d figured it out. Howard and Cheryl- well, I suppose only one of them actually killed her, but certainly they were both involved in the coverup and in moving her from place to place… Where’s he going?” she added as the police officer bounded for the front door.
“Got to go. That call was from one of your workers, Miss Pigeon. Seems Bobby Valentine and some man from the neighborhood are trying to kill each other on the lawn in front of the house you’re working on.”
“I still don’t get it,” Sam said, getting into the driver’s seat of his car while Josie plunked herself into the passenger seat.
“What don’t you get?”
“Why Howard and Cheryl? And, more important, how did you figure it out?”
“Think, Sam, from the very beginning of this project, some unknown neighbor was involved. It was someone from the island, a neighbor, who told Courtney about the house-and about Island Contracting.”
“And Howard and Cheryl are those neighbors?”
“Yup, and I’ll bet if we look into it, we’ll find that Howard and Cheryl are the owners of that damn house. I was stupid. I should have insisted on speaking with the owners. I guess the job just fell into our laps and I was so thrilled to be asked to be on television… Funny, I thought I was immune to that sort of thing,” she mused, interrupting herself.
“What sort of thing?”
“Oh, believing that being a celebrity-even if only for a day-was important. You know, believing that the parents at Tyler’s school would think more of me if I’d been on television.”
“Well, as long as the show you’re on isn’t America’s Most Wanted or Cops, you were probably right. We are living in a culture that values celebrity.”
“I know. That’s probably what motivated poor Howard and Cheryl-that, and greed, of course.”
Sam yanked on the steering wheel and directed the car into a space at the curb. “Why don’t you tell me about this before we get to the house?” he suggested.
“Sure. It won’t take very long. You see, Cheryl and Howard wanted to be famous. So they got in touch with Courtney Castle and told her about the house they owned on the island. They were smart enough to realize that they needed to provide an added inducement for Courtney to choose their project. This isn’t the Bahamas; there’s no reason to come here to do a show because of the weather. So they hired Island Contracting. We’re unique enough to interest viewers.”
“Good point.” Sam nodded.
But Josie was still putting together the pieces. “Come to think of it, I’ll bet anything that, once we look into it, we’ll find out that the convenient schedule change of our other early-summer job had something to do with Cheryl and Howard.”
“Sounds likely.”
“Okay, so as I was saying, Cheryl and Howard told Courtney about this interesting house and the company that was going to remodel it. And then to clinch the deal they offered Courtney a customized trailer-the trailer of her dreams-if she would use their project for her television series.”
“So the trailer was a bribe.”
“Yes. And since they had bought the house under a corporate name rather than their own, Public Broadcasting wouldn’t make the connection. Because it must have been unethical for them to give her the trailer in exchange for getting their house on the air.”
“Definitely. And it must have cost them a fortune,” Sam said, thinking of the laws that governed the giving of gifts.
“They were going to sell their house for an inflated price and be on television as well. I guess it was really important to them.”
“Being on television?”
“Yes, the first time I met them, Howard talked about Cheryl getting ready for her television appearance-picking out the right clothes and everything. I didn’t think it was significant at the time. I figured she would just wander over and expect to be on television. And I didn’t think that would happen.” She grimaced. “The truth is that I was busy worrying about what I was going to look like on television and not thinking much about anyone else.”
“So what went wrong?”
“I suspect Courtney had never seen them before. Cheryl and Howard are one of the tackiest couples you would ever want to meet. I’ll never forget the shocked expression on Courtney’s face when she met them for the first time. I think Courtney either refused to give them airtime or else suggested they change their style. It all fits together, Sam. Cheryl and Howard were going to be segment three of the show, the segment about the neighborhood. But Courtney met them and decided no way.”
“And wrote the note that said ‘Kill Courtney Castle’s Castles segment three,’ ” he added.
“Exactly. The murder must have happened when she told them she was canceling their appearance. They were furious.”
“Of course.”
“And one of them picked up something heavy, slugged her with it, and killed her. Probably a piece of that damn sculpture.” She pulled on a lock of unruly hair. “I doubt if they actually meant to kill her.”
“And then they hid the body in the canoe?”
“Yes. Probably hoping we would find her and get blamed. They had already bragged to me about their connections on the island. If they know the island, they know the Rodneys aren’t awfully likely to arrest the correct person for any crime other than speeding.”
“But why did they move the body from the canoe? They were the ones who moved it, am I right?”
“Yes, their plan wasn’t working out. They left the note in the trailer, and when Bobby Valentine called the police-as I’m sure they thought he would-no one was arrested. They probably realized they had a problem when that happened. We knew the body was there. But we weren’t talking. I guess that spooked them and they waited until the house was deserted in the evening, took down the canoe, and removed Courtney. I imagine they would have dumped her in the bay, but that wasn’t a safe option once the island started buzzing with talk of a possible dredging.”
“So there they were, stuck with a body that was going to start to decompose,” Sam said, nodding.
“Yes, there aren’t a lot of refrigerators or freezers on the island where you can stash something that large and not expect it to be found right away.”
“Sounds as though you’ve done a bit of thinking about this yourself,” Sam said.
“Uh, yes. But that’s not important. What’s important is that I overheard Bobby Valentine arguing with someone when I was on the phone with you the other day. He must have been arguing with Howard. And that’s probably when Cheryl and Howard decided to pin the murder on him.”
“So they put the body in the trailer where he would find it.”
“Yes. But they panicked again and moved it. They probably thought he would tell someone about it, and when the body vanished, he would be arrested. That’s why they returned with the wig and left it there.”
“Josie, you may be right about all this. It makes a certain amount of sense. But I don’t see what happened that caused you to suspect them.”
“Annette and Chad.”
“Excuse me?”
“I never would have thought of Howard and Cheryl if they had just shut up. But they kept complaining about Annette and Chad being on their property and I suddenly realized why. Annette and Chad weren’t doing anything wrong. Howard and Cheryl were concerned about being seen moving the body, so they were upset when Annette and Chad sli
pped over their property line looking for a place to be alone. It must have seemed to Cheryl and Howard that whenever they planned on moving a body, there was a young couple necking in the bushes close by. Close enough to see what was going on. If they had cared to look.”
“Which they didn’t,” Sam guessed.
“When you were young and in love, would you have?”
“Even at this advanced age, I’m likely to be so involved in the person I love that I don’t notice a whole lot going on around me,” Sam said, pulling Josie over to his side of the car.
“Sam, don’t you think we ought to get going? We don’t even know if Howard or Bobby won the fight.”
“Remember, I’ve had some personal experience there. And, frankly, I’d place my money on Bobby Valentine any day.”
THIRTY-TWO
SAM AND JOSIE were enjoying a rare day at the beach. Labor Day was just around the corner and they both felt the need to relax and catch up on their reading. He had brought a pile of New York magazines and some New Yorkers. They lay by his side as he dozed in the sun. Josie had a trashy novel in her lap, but she was reading a letter.
Sam opened one eye and peeked out. “What’s that?”
“A note from Dr. Naomi Van Ripper.”
“A doctor… Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. She’s not a medical doctor. She’s the librarian from my hometown. Remember?”
“Of course, she was Courtney Castle’s friend. Why is she writing you?”
“To lecture me.”
“About what?”
“My personal relationships.”
“She has a lot of nerve. Her close, personal relationship with Courtney turned out to be a lie. Courtney was using her to get to the money her sister’s foundation was giving out, if I remember correctly.”
“Yes. But Dr. Van Ripper got something out of the relationship, too. She got to schmooze with a celebrity. And we learned just how far people would go for that at the beginning of summer.” Josie sat up and stared off at the hazy horizon.
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